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The History of a Crime, a novel by Victor Hugo |
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Conclusion - The Fall - Chapter 7 |
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_ CHAPTER VII There was no alternative between death and opprobrium; either soul or sword must be surrendered. Louis Bonaparte surrendered his sword. He wrote to William: "SIRE, MY BROTHER, "Not having been able to die in the midst of my troops, it only remains for me to place my sword in your Majesty's hands. "I am, your Majesty, "Your good Brother, "NAPOLEON. "Sedan, 1st September, 1870." William answered, "Sire, my Brother, I accept your sword." And on the 2d of September, at six o'clock in the morning, this plain, streaming with blood, and covered with dead, saw pass by a gilded open carriage and four, the horses harnessed after Daumont fashion, and in this carriage a man, cigarette in mouth. It was the Emperor of the French going to surrender his sword to the King of Prussia. The King kept the Emperor waiting. It was too early. He sent M. de Bismarck to Louis Bonaparte to say that he "would not" receive him yet awhile. Louis Bonaparte entered into a hovel by the side of the road. A table and two chairs were there. Bismarck and he leant their arms on the table and conversed. A mournful conversation. At the hour which suited the King, towards noon, the Emperor got back into his carriage, and went to the castle of Bellevue, half way to the castle of Vandresse. There he waited until the King came. At one o'clock William arrived from Vandresse, and consented to receive Bonaparte. He received him badly. Attila has not a light hand. The King, a blunt, straightforward man, showed the Emperor a pity involuntarily cruel. There are pities which overwhelm. The conqueror upbraided the conquered with the victory. Bluntness handles an open wound badly. "Whatever was your reason for declaring this war?" The conquered excused himself, accusing France. The distant hurrahs of the victorious German army cut short this dialogue. The King caused the Emperor to be reconducted by a detachment of the Royal Guard. This excess of ignominy is called "an escort of honor." After the sword the Army. On the 3d of September, Louis Bonaparte handed over to Germany 88,000 French soldiers. "In addition" (says the Prussian report):-- "One eagle and two flags. "419 field-guns and mitrailleuses. "139 heavy pieces. "1079 vehicles of all kinds. "60,000 muskets. "6000 horses, still good for service." These German figures are not wholly to be depended upon. According to what seems useful at the moment, the Aulic chancellors swell or reduce the disaster. There were about 13,000 wounded amongst the prisoners. The numbers vary in the official documents. A Prussian report, reckoning up the French soldiers killed and wounded in the battle of Sedan, publishes this total: _Sixteen thousand four hundred_ men. This number causes a shudder. For it is that very number, _Sixteen thousand four hundred_ men, which Saint Arnaud had set to work on the Boulevard Montmartre upon the 4th of December, 1851. Half a league to the north-west of Sedan, near Iges, the bend of the Meuse almost forms an island. A canal crosses the isthmus, so that the peninsula becomes an island. It was there that there were penned, under the stick of the Prussian corporals, 83,000 French soldiers. A few sentinels watched over this army. They placed but few, insolently. These conquered men remained there ten days, the wounded almost without care, the able-bodied almost without nourishment. The German army sneered around them. The heavens took part against them. The weather was fearful. Neither huts nor tents. Not a fire, not a truss of straw. For ten days and ten nights these 83,000 prisoners bivouacked with their heads beneath the rain, their feet in the mud. Many died of fever, regretting the hail of bullets. At length ox-wagons came and took them away. The King placed the Emperor in some place or other. Wilhelmshoehe. What a thing of rags and tatters, an Emperor "drawn" like a fowl! _ |
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