Blood and Iron Part 37

-- And yet, that night, he had been reading in his room after the dreadful Sedan carnage--what do you think? Human inconsistency! "Daily Refreshment for Believing Christians," by the Moravian brotherhood.

-- Unwashed, breakfastless, Bismarck immediately set out, his revolver in his belt; down the road Napoleon's carriage, "evidently a hired one," said Bismarck afterwards, recounting the scene, "came into view; the Emperor was escorted by a handful of officers; Napoleon had on his military uniform, wore white kid gloves, and was smoking a cigarette!"

-- Bowing and asking His Majesty's pleasure, Napoleon asks Bismarck, "I wish to meet the King of Prussia." Bismarck replies, "Unfortunately impossible; the King is quartered some fifteen miles away." However, it is only a trick to gain time. Bismarck has certain powerful reasons why he does not desire, just then, that Napoleon and William should meet. We shall see, presently.

-- Napoleon drives slowly onward, but nearing Donchery hesitates on account of the crowd; and spying a solitary cottage near by, asks if he could not remain there.

-- It is the hut of a weaver of Donchery--a mean, dirty place--and stands about fifteen paces from the high-road, which is lined with poplars; the house is one-story, yellow, with four windows, and has a slate roof.

-- Bismarck and Napoleon ascend a rickety, narrow staircase giving entrance to a gloomy chamber, in which are a deal table and two rush-bottomed chairs. Here the two men sit alone for an hour. What a moment in history!

-- Only a few years before, that is to say, in October, 1865, Bismarck had sought out Napoleon III, or "Napoleon the Little," and had held a famous political interview; the meeting at Biarritz found Napoleon filled with ambitions to emulate the ill.u.s.trious career of his uncle, Napoleon Bonaparte; but the secret although well kept did not escape the vision of Bismarck.

-- The Iron Chancellor came as a friend, on a pleasant exchange of diplomatic courtesies, but in secret he was sounding Napoleon's possible att.i.tude in the oncoming Prussian war, against Austria. The Emperor was completely tricked. Bismarck talked frankly of the necessity of "reform" in the German Confederation, and Napoleon, whose hobby was that peoples speaking the same language should be under one rule, fell in quite naturally with the plan to "reform" Prussia. The Emperor thought that Bismarck had in mind only certain const.i.tutional changes in Prussia, not dynastic changes, destroying the European balance of power and preparing the way for German Unity.

-- Bismarck made clear to the Emperor that, in return for keeping out of any impending Austrian clash, France would be rewarded by enlarged boundaries. As an enlightened egotist, Bismarck felt that it was "only fair" to acknowledge French help with the left bank of the Rhine. It was all a bluff. But Napoleon, with his hunger to enlarge French territory, and to appear before France as a sort of second Napoleon the Great, fell in with the conspiracy. Herein, the Bismarckian skill at stacking the cards reaches its height.

-- And now to think that the next meeting of the French lamb and the Prussian wolf should take place in a weaver's hut, Napoleon stripped of glory and power by the man who was to "give" great lands to France.

-- The Emperor had been caught in his own trap; his armies had been crushed; his government destroyed by Bismarck's genius for political intrigue. The rise to power of Prussia over Austria, against which Napoleon had been tricked not to protest, was a turning point in the history of modern Europe. Hence we say that these two contrasted interviews, the one of glory, the other of the downfall, Biarritz and the Weaver's Hut, show our Otto von Bismarck as the supreme politico-military genius of his time.

-- A curious sidelight on the famous interview at Biarritz is supplied by Bismarck's writings. "Napoleon said things could not go on as they had been doing, in Prussia," wrote Bismarck, "otherwise there would soon be an uprising in Berlin and a revolution in the whole country. I told him that the people of our country were not barricade-builders, and that in Prussia revolutions were made only by the kings. If the King could stand the strain on him for three or four years he would certainly win the game. Unless he got tired and left me, I would not fail him. The Emperor at that time said of me, 'Ce n'est pas un homme serieux,' (Bismarck is not a serious man), a mot of which I did not think myself at liberty to remind him, in the weaver's hut, at Donchery."

-- Bismarck exercised all his mighty ingenuity to keep Napoleon from urging too far that the King of Prussia be brought forward. Bismarck knew that King William was tender-hearted, and, tempted by the disaster that had come to Napoleon, would in consequence be inclined to deal leniently with the Emperor.

-- Bismarck, setting his iron jaws hard, determined then and there to keep the Prussian King out of it till the terms of peace had been arranged.

-- Come, come, are we not justified in our character study of Bismarck?

Who now is master, who now servant? Who now is shown to be the real power behind the throne? And if Bismarck did not actually bring on this awful war, then he well knew the art of making other nations declare war. Oh, he has learned a thing or two in his long and eventful life; and he is now about to create his diplomatic masterpiece--in the Belgian weaver's hut.

-- Sedan surrendered 40 generals, 2,825 various other officers, 83,000 prisoners of war, 184 pieces of artillery, 350 field guns, 70 Mitrailleuses, 12,000 horses, and enormous quant.i.ties of military stores.

-- The broken-hearted Emperor was sent away to the castle at Wilhelmshoehe, near Ca.s.sel.

And the King of Prussia opened the champagne at his royal headquarters at Vendresse, and toasted von Roon, Moltke and Bismarck: "You, General von Roon, whetted our sword; you General von Moltke, wielded it; and you, Count Bismarck, have brought Prussia to its present prominence by the way in which you have directed its policy for several years."

60

In which Bismarck reaches the zenith of his stupendous career; diplomatist, ministerial Caesar, unifier of his country.

-- The Iron Chancellor held firmly to his plan to strip France of her last franc.

The siege of Paris continued, with Bismarck and the King of Prussia installed at Versailles, within the shadow of the stately palace of the Kings of France.

-- It is a long, vivid story leading to the 5,000,000,000 francs indemnity, and the cessation of Alsace-Lorraine.

M. Thiers treated in vain to get softer terms; but Bismarck kept the King out of it and stuck to his hard bargaining.

-- "This is not war, it is confiscation!" Thiers exclaimed one day in terrible anger, and eloquently he parleyed to have the amount reduced.

-- Bismarck thereupon began to talk in German!

-- "I have not enough French to answer such a charge as you have just made!" he thundered. "Henceforth, we carry on our affairs in German."

-- M. Thiers threatened to appeal to Europe to intervene, but at this Bismarck broke into a hoa.r.s.e laugh.

He knew that he had in his pocket a secret quit-claim from Russia and Italy, Denmark and Belgium were tied in another way, Spain was hostile to the French, and as for England--he snapped his fingers!

-- "Defy me, and I tell you what I will do! We have in Germany about 100,000 excellent French troops, captured at Metz, who are still wholly devoted to the old Imperial cause. I will release them and bring back the Bonapartists! I care not who is in power so long as the proper sovereign government of France signs our peace demands for indemnity. Napoleon cannot do it, as his throne is in ruins; and even if he did, the next party in power would probably set it aside. So part of my duty is not only to demand for my King the just rewards of our victory, but to start France again with some new form of government."

-- Going behind this stern diplomatic language, what Bismarck really meant was this: "The longer the French a.s.sembly hesitates to call an election the more we will starve the city into submission. Live on horseflesh, stale bread, cats and dogs!--die of fever and pestilence!--the sooner it is over! Our siege guns will continue to bark night and day, Paris will be reduced to ashes, crumble to ruins, but the demands of the Prussian King must be obeyed. No power on this earth can turn me from my project. I am resolved to wage a war of extermination--and I have spoken!"

-- "Very well, then!" exclaimed M. Thiers, "M. le Comte, as you will!

Rob us of our homes!--provinces!--burn down our homes!--strangle our peaceful inhabitants!--in a word, complete your work! We shall fight you as long as our breath remains. Perhaps we shall die--but we shall never be dishonored."

-- Bismarck seemed touched, but said all he had to do was to obey the orders of the King.

Meantime he went out and was closeted again with Moltke and His Majesty.

-- "I do not believe," said M. Favre, "that any criminal ever waited for the judgment with more feverish anxiety. Motionless, we followed with bewildered gaze the hands of the clock.

-- "The door opened; Bismarck stood on the threshold, announcing that he would not insist on the German troops entering Paris--provided we gave up Belfort!

-- "There was a moment of inexpressible agony, but an exchange of glances sufficed. 'We should be wanting in patriotism if we accepted!' exclaimed M. Thiers. The door closed and Bismarck disappeared again.

-- "At eight o'clock, M. Thiers had reaped the reward of his heroic endeavors. He had saved Belfort, but in all other respects he had absolutely failed to move the man of blood and iron. For five fearful days they had wrestled with the problem of the 5,000,000,000--and had lost! Bismarck had his own banker, the Jew Bleichroder, to show that after all the indemnity would be adding 'only about one-fourth' to France's national debt."

-- On Sunday, February 26, the preliminaries of peace were signed. As Thiers signed, Bismarck took him by the hand, saying, "You are the last who ought to have been burdened by France with this sorrow--for of all Frenchmen you have the least deserved it!"

-- Bismarck, radiant with joy, signed the papers with a new golden pen sent him for this express purpose by the ladies of the German town of Pforsheim.

-- Said M. Favre: "The countenance of M. de Bismarck was most happy.

With theatrical pomp, he sent for a golden pen.... M. Thiers approached the little table on which lay the doc.u.ments; he wrote his name without betraying the feelings that tortured him. I tried to imitate him, and we withdrew. The sacrifice was accomplished.

-- "As a special understanding, it was agreed that the siege should be lifted that morning at four o'clock and that France should fire the last shot.

-- "What sentiment in this, for Paris! Along then, in the deep night that precedes the dawn, with the sky illuminated by occasional flashes of the siege guns, at last the fire lessened, slackened gradually, and then solemn silence fell. Suddenly, through the night, a loud report was heard from the Paris ramparts, followed by a path of fire through the sky; this immediately died away, and deep silence, now unbroken, continued.