ey had forgotten, if ever they knew them--for their
ignorance was as startling as their conceit--the magnificent lines of
the founder of the dynasty which they had systematically undermined for
years by their dissipation, frivolity, and corruption: "The general is
the head, the all in all of the army. It was not the Roman army that
conquered Gaul, but Caesar; it was not the Carthaginian army that made
the republican army tremble at the very gates of Rome, but Hannibal; it
was not the Macedonian army that penetrated to the Indus, but Alexander;
it was not the French army which carried the war as far as the Weser and
the Inn, but Turenne; it was not the Prussian army which defended,
during seven years, Prussia against the three greatest powers in Europe,
but Frederick the Great."

And she who aspired to play the role of a Maria-Theresa, when she was
not even a Marie-Antoinette, and far more harmful than even a
Marie-Louise, applauded the vapourings of those misguided men. "Le
courage fait tout," had been the motto for nearly a score of years at
the Tuileries. It did a good deal in the comedies a la Marivaux, in the
Boccacian charades that had been enacted there during that time; she had
yet to learn that it would avail little or nothing in the Homeric
struggle which was impending.

CHAPTER XX.

The war -- Reaction before the Emperor's departure -- The moral
effects of the publication of the draft treaty -- "Bismarck has
done the Emperor" -- The Parisians did not like the Empress --
The latter always anxious to assume the regency -- A retrospect
-- Crimean war -- The Empress and Queen Victoria -- Solferino --
The regency of '65 -- Bismarck's millinery bills -- Lord Lyons --
Bismarck and the Duc de Gramont -- Lord Lyons does not foresee
war -- The republicans and the war -- The Empress -- Two
ministerial councils and their consequences -- Mr.
Prescott-Hewett sent for -- Joseph Ferrari, the Italian
philosopher -- The Empress -- The ferment in Paris -- "Too much
prologue to 'The Taming of the German Shrew'" -- The first
engagement -- The "Marseillaise" -- An infant performer -- The
"Marseillaise" at the Comedie-Francaise -- The "Marseillaise" by
command of the Emperor -- A patriotic ballet -- The courtesy of
the French at Fontenoy -- The Cafe de la Paix -- General Beaufort
d'Hautpoul and Moltke -- Newspaper correspondents -- Edmond A