INTRODUCTION. 



^' Mais comment done, Monsieur, vous voudriez 

 quitter V Europe dans un moment tellement critique, 

 ah, c'est incroyahle I " lliese icords were addressed 

 to me in the sedan de lectui^e of the elegant hotel 

 *' Beau Rivage,'' at Oucliy. hy a Sjxmish lady of 

 French extraction, icho had, on the previous evening, 

 succeeded in opening my jmrse-strings for the benefit 

 of the ivounded during the Franco-German ivar, 

 ivhich icas then at its height. I had hut just 

 returned from Strasshurg, having ivitnessed the last 

 days of the siege and the entry of the Prussian troops 

 into that fine old fortress, built nearly 200 years ago, 

 and recently so gallantly defended by the French. 

 After this great event few had any doubt as to the 

 jjrobahle issue of the war, still it was but natural that 

 natives of France, of ivhom a great many belonging 

 to die upper ten thousand had taken refuge in 

 .Switzerland, and not a few of them at the very hotel 



