and the empress wanted it, it only remained to
make France want it too; for war it was to be.

Only one obstacle existed: there was nothing to fight about! But that
was overcome. In 1870 the heart of the people of France was fired by
the news that the French Ambassador had been publicly insulted by the
kindly old King William. There had been some diplomatic friction over
the proposed occupancy of a vacant throne in Spain by a member of the
Hohenzollern (Prussian) family.

Whether true or false, the rumor served the desired purpose. France
was in a blaze of indignation, and war was declared.

Not a shadow of doubt existed as to the result as the French army moved
away bearing with it the boy prince imperial, that he might witness the
triumph. Not only would the French soldiers carry everything before
them, but the southern German States would welcome them as deliverers,
and the new confederation would fall in pieces in their hands. The
birthday of Napoleon I., August 15th, must be celebrated in Berlin!

This was the way it looked in France. How was it in Germany? There
was no North and no South German. Men and states sprang together as a
unit, under the command of Moltke and the Crown Prince Frederick
William.

The French troops never got beyond their own frontier. In less than
three weeks they were fighting for their existence on their own soil.
In less than a month the French emperor was a prisoner, and in seven
weeks his empire had ceased to exist.

The surrender of Metz, August 4th, and of Sedan, September 2d, were
monumental disasters. With the news of the latter, and of the capture
of the emperor, the Assembly immediately declared the empire at an end,
and proclaimed a third republic in France.

Two hundred and fifty thousand German troops were marching on Paris.
Fortifications were rapidly thrown about the city, and the siege, which
was to last four months, had commenced.

The capitulation, which was inevitable from the first, took place in
January, 1871. The terms of peace offered by the Germans were
accepted, including the loss of Alsace and Lorraine, and an enormous
war indemnity.

The Germans were in Paris, and King William, the Crown Prince (_Unser
Fritz_), Bismarck, and Von Moltke were quartered at Versailles; and in
that place, saturated with historic memories, there was enacted a
strange and unprecedented scene. On January 18, 1871, in the Hall of
Mirrors, King William of Prussia w