uctions with regard to them -- Alfred de
Musset's "Rhin Allemand" -- Prevost-Paradol and the news of his
suicide -- The probable cause of it -- A chat with a superior
officer -- The Emperor's Sunday receptions at the Tuileries --
Promotions in the army, upon what basis -- Good and bad officers
-- The officers' mess does not exist -- Another general officer
gives his opinion -- Marshal Niel and Leboeuf -- The plan of
campaign suddenly altered -- The reason -- The Emperor leaves St.
Cloud -- His confidence shaken before then -- Some telegrams from
the commanders of divisions -- Thiers is appealed to, to stem the
tide of retrenchment; afterwards to take the portfolio of war --
The Emperor's opinion persistently disregarded at the Tuileries
-- Trochu -- The dancing colonels at the Tuileries 367

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 About
tells a story about one of his colleagues -- News supplied by the
Government -- What it amounted to -- The information it gave to
the enemy -- Bazaine, "the glorious" one -- Palikao -- The fall
of the Empire does not date from Sedan, but from Woerth and
Speicheren -- Those who dealt it the heaviest blow -- The
Empress, the Empress, and no one but the Empress 385

CHAPTER XXI.