CHAPTER XX

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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

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