n, that the commanders were simply committing
blunder after blunder, the movements of Bazaine were represented by the
_agency_ as the result of a masterly and profound calculation. Even such
a pessimist as General Beaufort d'Hautpoul was taken in by those
representations. He considered the "masterly inactivity" of Bazaine as
an inspiration of genius. "He is keeping two hundred thousand German
troops round Metz," he said several times. "These two hundred thousand
men are rendered absolutely useless while we are recruiting our armies
and reorganizing our forces." He seemed altogether oblivious of the fact
that these two hundred thousand Germans were virtually the gaolers of
France's best army.

I am unable to say whether General d'Hautpoul was in direct or indirect
communication with the _agency_, or whether some ingenious scribe
belonging to it had overheard his expressions of admiration and wilfully
adopted them; certain it is that the _agency_ was the first to inspire
the reporters of those papers who took their cue from it with the
flattering epithet of "glorious Bazaine."

It was the same with regard to Palikao. His sententious commonplaces
were reported as so many oracular revelations dragged reluctantly from
him. Had they been more familiar with Shakespeare than they were, or
are, the scribes would have made Palikao exclaim with Macbeth, "The
greatest is behind." And all the while the troops were marching and
countermarching at haphazard, without a preconceived plan, jeering at
their leaders, and openly insulting the "phantom" Emperor, as they did
at Chalons, for he was already no more than that. The fall of the Empire
does not date from Sedan, but from Woerth and Spicheren; and those most
pertinently aware of it were not the men who dealt it the final blow
less than a month later, but the immediate entourage of the Empress at
the Tuileries.

For from that moment (the 6th or 7th of August) the entourage of the
Empress began to think of saving the Empire by sacrificing, if needs be,
the Emperor. "There is only one thing that can avert the ruin of the
dynasty," said a lady-in-waiting on the Empress, to a near relative of
mine; "and that is the death of the Emperor at the head of his troops.
That death would be considered an heroic one, and would benefit the
Prince Imperial."

I do not pretend to determine how far the Empress shared that opinion,
but here are some facts not generally known, even to this day, and f