Camps, Quarters, and Casual Places by Archibald Forbes

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But Bismarck, although he carried a blithe front, was far from
comfortable. He would fain have had peace--always on his own terms; but
the question with him was with whom could he negotiate, capable, in the
existing confusion, of furnishing adequate guarantees for the fulfilment
of conditions? That requisite he could not discern in the self-constituted
body which styled itself the Government of National Defence, but of which
he spoke as "the gentlemen of the pavement." He had all the monarchical
dislike and distrust of a republic, and before the German army had
invested Paris he already had begun to ponder as to the possibility of
reinstating the dethroned dynasty. Possibly indeed, he had already felt
the pulse of Marshal Bazaine on this subject.

It was on the 23rd of September when the Royal headquarters was at
Ferrières, Baron Rothschild's château on the east of Paris, that there
either presented himself to Bismarck an intriguant, or that the Chancellor
evoked for himself an instrument for whom the way was made open to
penetrate the beleaguerment of Metz and submit to Bazaine certain
considerations. In connection with this mission we heard a good deal at
the time of a mysterious "Mons. M." and an equally mysterious "Mons. N."
Both were myths: "M." and "N." were alike pseudonyms of the real
go-between, a certain Edmond Regnier who died in Paris on the 23rd of
January 1894, after a strange and varied career of which the episode to be
detailed in this article is the most remarkable. In a now very rare
pamphlet published by Regnier in November 1870, he describes himself as a
French landed proprietor with financial interests in England yielding him
an income of £800 per annum, and as having come to England with his family
in the end of August of that year in consequence of the proximity of
German troops to his French residence. The painstaking compilers of the
indictment against Bazaine give rather a different account of the
character and antecedents of M. Regnier. Their information is that he
received an imperfect education, sufficiently proven by his extraordinary
style and vicious orthography. He studied, with little progress, law and
medicine; later he took up magnetism. He was curiously mixed up in the
events of the revolution of 1848. He had some employment in Algeria as an
assistant surgeon. Returning to France he developed a quarry of
paving-stone, and afterwards married in England a wife who brought him a
certain competence. "Regnier," continues the Report, "is a sharp,
audacious fellow; his manners are vulgar--vain to excess he considers
himself a profound politician. Was he induced to throw himself into the
midst of events by one of the monomanias which are engendered by periods
of storm and revolution? Was he simply an intriguer, plying his trade? It
is difficult to tell. But however that may be, the established fact is
that we find him in England in September 1870 besieging with his projects
the _entourage_ of the Empress."

Regnier's siege of the forlorn colony at Hastings took the form of a
bombardment of letters, his principal victim being Madame Le Breton, the
lady-in-waiting of the Empress and the sister of the unfortunate General
Bourbaki, then in command of the Imperial Guard at Metz. He was about to
have his passport viséd by the German Ambassador in London, rather an
equivocal proceeding for a French subject; and on the 12th of September he
wrote thus to Madame Le Breton, desiring that the letter should be
communicated to Her Majesty:--

The Ambassador in London of the North German Confederation may possibly
say, "I think the King of Prussia would prefer treating for peace with the
Imperial Government rather than with the Republic." If so, I shall start
to-morrow for Wilhelmshöhe, after having paid a visit to the Empress. The
following are the propositions I intend to submit to the Emperor: (1) That
the Empress-Regent ought not to quit French territory; (2) That the
Imperial fleet _is_ French territory; (3) That the fleet which greeted Her
Majesty so enthusiastically on its departure for the Baltic, or at least a
portion of it, however small, be taken by the Regent for her seat of
government, thus enabling her to go from one to another of the French
ports where she can count upon the largest number of adherents, and so
prove that her government exists both _de facto_ and _de jure_. Further,
that the Empress-Regent issue from the fleet four proclamations--viz. to
foreign governments, to the fleet, to the army, and to the French people.

It will suffice to quote two of those suggested proclamations:--

To foreign governments! To firmly insist upon the fact that the Imperial
Government is the _actual_ government, as it is the government by right.
To the fleet! That just as the Emperor remained to the last in the midst
of his army, sharing the chances of war, so also does the Regent, the only
executive power legally existing, come with gladness to trust her
political fortune to the Imperial fleet.

There followed a voluminous screed of irrelevant dissertation.

Regnier confessedly made no way with the Empress. He saw, indeed, Madame
Le Breton on the 14th, but only to be told, in language worthy of a
patriot sovereign, that "Her Majesty's feeling was that the interests of
France should take precedence of those of the dynasty; that she would
rather do nothing than incur the suspicion of having acted from an undue
regard for dynastic interests, and that she has the greatest horror of any
step likely to bring about a civil war." Those high-souled expressions
ought to have given definite pause to Regnier's importunity; but that
busybody was indefatigable. A second letter to Madame Le Breton for the
Empress simply elicited from the gentlemen of her suite the information
that Her Majesty, having read his communications, had expressed the
greatest horror of anything approaching a civil war. A final letter from
him, containing the following significant passage:--

I myself, or some other person, ought already to have been secretly and
confidentially in communication with M. de Bismarck; our conditions for
peace must be more acceptable than those to which the _soi-disant_
Republican Government may have agreed; every action of theirs ought to be
turned to our advantage--we ourselves must _act_,

evoked the ultimatum that "the Empress would not stir in the matter."
Regnier then said that as he found no encouragement at Hastings he would
probably go to Wilhelmshöhe, where he would perhaps be better understood;
and he produced a photographic view of Hastings on which he begged that
the Prince Imperial would write a line to his father. On the following
morning the Prince's equerry returned him the photographic view at the
foot of which were the simple and affectionate words: "Mon cher Papa, je
vous envoie ces vues d'Hastings; j'espère qu'elles vous plairont.
Louis-Napoléon." I am personally familiar with the late Prince Imperial's
handwriting and readily recognise it in this brief sentence. Regnier
averred that it was with Her Majesty's consent that this paper was given
him; but admitted that he was told she added: "Tell M. Regnier that there
must be great danger in carrying out his project, and that I beg him not
to attempt its execution." In other words, the Empress was willing that he
should visit the Emperor at Cassel, authenticating him thus far by the
Prince Imperial's little note; but she put her veto on his undertaking
intrigues detrimental to the interests of France.

Regnier by no means took the road for Wilhelmshöhe. At 7 P.M. of Sunday
the 18th he read in the special _Observer_ that Jules Favre was next day
to have an interview with Bismarck at Meaux. Eager to anticipate the
Republican Foreign Minister he promptly took the night train for Paris. No
trains were running beyond Amiens and he did not reach Meaux until
midnight of the 19th, to learn that Bismarck and the headquarters had that
day gone to Ferrières. At 10 A.M. of the 20th he reached that château and
appealed to Count Hatzfeld, now German Ambassador in London, for an
immediate interview with Bismarck, stating that he had come direct from
Hastings. He was informed that the Chancellor had an appointment with
Jules Favre at eleven and that it was improbable he could be received in
advance. But Bismarck having been apprised of his arrival the fortunate
Regnier was immediately ushered into his presence. Regnier congratulates
himself on having anticipated the French Minister, ignorant of the
circumstance that on the previous day the latter had two interviews with
Bismarck and that their then impending interview was simply for the
purpose of communicating to Favre the German King's final answer to the
French proposals.

Regnier says that he drew from his portfolio the photograph of Hastings
with the Prince Imperial's little note to his father at its foot and
handed the paper in silence to Bismarck; and that after the latter had
looked at it for some moments, Regnier said, "I come, Count, to ask you to
grant me a pass which will permit me to go to Wilhelmshöhe and give this
autograph into the Emperor's hands." Why he should have applied to
Bismarck for this is not apparent, since he might have gone direct from
Hastings to Wilhelmshöhe without any necessity for invoking the
Chancellor's offices. It seems extremely probable that the request for a
pass was a mere pretext to gain an interview, and the more so since
Bismarck made no allusion to the subject, but after a few moments,
according to Regnier, addressed that person as follows:--

Sir, our position is before you; what can you offer us? with whom can we
treat? Our determination is fixed so to profit by our present position as
to render impossible for the future any war against us on the part of
France. To effect this object, an alteration of the French frontier is
indispensable. In the presence of two governments--the one _de facto_, the
other _de jure_--it is difficult, if not impossible, to treat with either.
The Empress-Regent has quitted French territory, and since then has given
no sign. The Provisional Government in Paris refuses to accept this
condition of diminution of territory, but proposes an armistice in order
to consult the French nation on the subject. We can afford to wait. When
we find ourselves face to face with a government _de facto_ and _de jure_,
able to treat on the basis we require, then we will treat.

Regnier suggested that Bazaine in Metz and Uhrich in Strasburg, if they
should capitulate, might do so in the name of the Imperial Government.
Bismarck replied that Jules Favre was assured that the garrisons of those
fortresses were staunchly Republican; but that his own belief was that
Bazaine's army of the Rhine was probably Imperialist. Then Regnier offered
to go at once to Metz. "If you had come a week earlier," said Bismarck,
"it was yet time; now, I fear, it is too late." Upon this the Chancellor
went away to meet Jules Favre with the parting words to Regnier, "Be so
good as to present my respectful homage to his Imperial Majesty when you
reach Wilhelmshöhe." At a subsequent meeting the same evening Regnier
repeated his anxiety to go at once to Metz and Strasburg and make an
agreement that these places should be surrendered only in the Emperor's
name. Bismarck was clearly not sanguine, but he said, "Do what you can to
bring us some one with power to treat with us, and you will have rendered
great service to your country. I will give orders for a 'general
safe-conduct' to be given you. A telegram shall precede you to Metz, which
will facilitate your entrance there. You should have come sooner." So
these two parted; Régnier received his "safe-conduct" and started from
Ferrières early on the morning of the 21st. But this indefatigable
letter-writer could not depart without a farewell letter:--

I shall leave (he wrote to Bismarck) your advanced posts near Metz, giving
orders for the carriage to await my return. I shall wrap myself in a
shawl, which will hide a portion of my face. In the event of Marshal
Bazaine acceding to my conditions, either Marshal Canrobert or General
Bourbaki, acquainted with all that will be requisite for the success of my
plans, may go out with my papers, dressed in my clothes, wrapped in my
shawl, and depart for Hastings, after giving me his word of honour that
for every one, except the Empress, he was to be simply Mons. Regnier. If
everything succeeded according to my anticipation, he might then establish
his identity, and place himself at the head of the army, with orders to
defend the Chamber assembled, if possible, at a seaport town, where a
loyal portion of the fleet should also be present. If the project should
miscarry, the Marshal or the General would return and resume his post.

Bismarck must have smiled grimly as he read this strange farrago; yet,
whatever may have been his motives, he furthered the errand on which
Regnier was going to Metz.

That person reached the headquarters of Prince Frederick Charles at Corny,
outside of Metz, on the afternoon of 23rd September and was promptly
presented to the Prince, who said that Count Bismarck had informed him of
his wish to enter Metz and had left it to him to decide as to the
expediency of complying with it. This, said the Prince, he was prepared to
do and he gave Regnier the requisite pass. The same evening that active
individual presented himself at the French forepost line, and having
stated that he had a mission to Marshal Bazaine and desired to see him
immediately, he was driven to Ban-Saint-Martin where the Marshal was
residing. Bazaine at once received him in his study. At the outset a
discrepancy manifests itself in the subsequent testimony of the
interlocutors. The Marshal states that Regnier said he came on the part of
the Empress with the consent of Bismarck; while Regnier declares that he
did not state to the Marshal that he had any mission from the Empress. On
other points, with one important exception, the versions given of the
interview by the two participants fairly agree, and Bazaine's account of
it may be summarised. After Regnier had stated that his commission was
purely verbal he went on to observe that it was to be regretted that a
treaty of peace had not put an end to the war after Sedan; that the
maintenance of the German armies on French territory was ruinous to the
country; and that it would be doing France a great service to obtain an
armistice preparatory to the conclusion of peace. That as regarded this,
the French army under the walls of Metz--the only army remaining
organised--would be in a position to give guarantees to the Germans if it
were allowed its liberty of action; but that without doubt they would
exact as a pledge the surrender of the fortress of Metz.

I replied (says Bazaine) that certainly if we--the "Army of the Rhine"--
could extricate ourselves from the _impasse_ in which we now were, with
the honours of war--that is to say, with arms and baggage--in a word
completely constituted as an army, we would be in a position to maintain
order in the interior, and would cause the provisions of the convention to
be respected; but a difficulty would occur as to the fortress of Metz, the
governor of which, appointed by the Emperor, could not be relieved except
by His Majesty himself.

One of Regnier's stated objects, continues the Marshal, was to bring it
about that either Marshal Canrobert or General Bourbaki should go to
England, inform the Empress of the situation at Metz, and place himself at
her disposition. The departure of whichever of the two high officers
should undertake this duty was to be surreptitious; and for this Regnier
had provided with Prussian assistance. Seven Luxembourg surgeons who had
been in Metz ever since the battle of Gravelotte had written to Marshal
Bazaine for leave to go home through the Prussian lines. This letter, sent
to the Prussian headquarters, was replied to in a letter carried into Metz
by Regnier and by him given to Bazaine, to the effect that the _nine_
surgeons were free to depart. As there were but seven surgeons, the
implication is obvious that the safe-conduct was expanded to cover the
incognito exit, along with the surgeons, of Regnier and the French officer
bound for Hastings.

Regnier gave me (writes Bazaine) so many details of his _soi-disant_
relations with the Empress and her _entourage_ that, notwithstanding the
strangeness of the apparition, I put faith in his mission, and believed
that I ought not, in the general interest, to neglect the opportunity
opened to me of putting myself in communication with the outside world. I
consequently told him that he would be duly brought into relations with
Marshal Canrobert and General Bourbaki, whom I would inform in regard to
his proposals, and whom I would place at liberty to act as each might
choose in the matter.

Finally Regnier produced the photograph of Hastings with the Prince
Imperial's signature at the foot, and begged the Marshal to add his, which
he did "as a souvenir of the interview" explained Regnier, according to
the Marshal; according to Regnier, that he could exhibit the signature to
Bismarck in proof that he had the Marshal's assent to his proposals.
Diplomacy conducted by chance signatures on casual photographs has a
certain innocent simplicity, but is not in accordance with modern methods.
Perhaps, however, the strangest thing in connection with this strange
interview is Bazaine's final comment:--

All this which I have narrated was only a simple conversation to which I
attached a merely secondary importance, since M. Regnier had no written
authority from the Empress nor from M. de Bismarck.... This personage,
therefore, appeared to act without the knowledge of the German military
authorities, and it was not until considerably later that I became
convinced of their cognisance, and of their mutual understanding as
regards M. Regnier's visit to Metz.

And this in the face of General Stiehle's letter to him in his hand,
brought in by Regnier, sanctioning the exit of the _nine_ surgeons; and
the Marshal's promise to Régnier that he and the officer who should accept
the mission to Hastings should quit the camp incognito along with the
Luxembourg surgeons.

Reference has been made to a discordance between the testimony of Marshal
Bazaine and of Regnier on a very important point in regard to this
interview. In his notes taken at the time the latter writes:--

The Marshal tells me of his excellent position, of the long period for
which he can hold out; that he considers himself as the Palladium of the
Empire. He speaks of the very healthy condition of the troops; and, if I
may judge by his own rosy face, he is quite right. He tells of all the
successful sallies he had made, and of the facility with which he can
break through the besieging lines whenever he chooses to do so.

Later, he contradicts all this, explaining that finding himself in the
Prussian lines and his papers liable to be read, he had written just the
reverse of what he was told by the Marshal. He says that what Bazaine
actually informed him was that the bread ration had been already
diminished and would be necessarily further reduced in a few days; that
the horses lacked forage and had to be used for food; and that in such
conditions and taking into account the necessity of carrying four or five
days' rations for the army and keeping a certain number of horses in
condition to drag the guns and supplies, there would be great difficulty
in holding out until the 18th of October. Bazaine, for his part,
vehemently denied having given Regnier any such information, and it seems
utterly improbable that he should have done so. It is nevertheless the
fact that the 18th of October was the last day on which rations were
issued to the army outside Metz. Regnier must have been a wizard; or
Bazaine must have leaked atrociously; or there must have been lying on the
Marshal's table during the interview with Regnier, the most recent state
furnished by the French intendance, that of the 21st of September which
specified the 18th of October as the precise date of the final exhaustion
of the army's supplies.

At midnight of the 23rd Regnier went to the outposts and next morning to
Corny, where he found a telegram from Bismarck authorising the departure
for Hastings of a general from the army of Metz. He was back again at
Ban-Saint-Martin on the afternoon of the 24th, when Marshal Canrobert and
General Bourbaki were summoned to headquarters to meet him and the
Luxembourg surgeons were assembled. Canrobert declined the proposed
mission on the plea of ill-health. Bourbaki had to be searched for and was
ultimately found at St. Julien with Marshal Lebceuf. As he dismounted at
the headquarters he asked Colonel Boyer--they had both been of the
intimate circle of the Empire--whether he knew the person walking in the
garden with the Marshal?

"No," replied Boyer.

"What?" rejoined Bourbaki; "have you never seen him at the Tuileries?"

"No," said Boyer. "I forget names, but not faces--I never saw this fellow.
He is neither a familiar of the Tuileries nor an employé." Whereupon the
two aristocrats despised the bourgeois Regnier. But Bourbaki,
nevertheless, had to endure the presentation to him of the "fellow," who
promptly entered on a political discourse to the effect that the German
Government was reluctant to treat with the Paris Government, which it did
not consider so lawful as that of the Empress, and that if it treated with
her the conditions would be less burdensome; that the intervention of the
army of Metz was indispensable; that it was all-important that one of its
chiefs should repair to the side of the Empress to represent the army with
her; and that he, Bourbaki, was the fittest person to occupy that position
on the declinature of Marshal Canrobert. Bourbaki turned from the man of
verbiage to Bazaine and asked, "Marshal, what do you wish me to do?" The
Marshal answered that he desired him to repair to the Empress.

"I am ready," answered Bourbaki, "but on certain conditions: you will have
the goodness to give me a written order; to announce my departure in army
orders; not to place a substitute in my command; and to promise that,
pending my return, you will not engage the Guard." His terms were accepted;
he was told that he was to leave immediately and he went to his quarters
to make his preparations.

It was understood that the general's departure was to be by way of being
incognito, so that it should not get wind. He had no civilian clothes and
Bazaine fitted him out in his; Regnier had obtained from one of the
Luxembourger surgeons a cap with the Geneva Cross which completed the
costume. At the Prussian headquarters General Stiehle, Prince Frederick
Charles's chief of staff, desired to pay his respects to a man whose
brilliant courage he admired. Bourbaki's bitter answer to Regnier who
communicated to him Stiehle's wish, was that he would see "none of them,
nor even eat a morsel of their bread," which, he said, would choke him. He
presently started with the surgeons, travelling in Regnier's name and on
Regnier's passport, on an enterprise which was to lead to the wreck of a
fine career. At the same time Regnier quitted Corny on his return to
Ferrières to report to Bismarck, having promised Bazaine that he would
return to Metz within six days. His bolt was about shot. But he had not
realised this fact. He maintains in his curious pamphlet that, to quote
his own words, "the Minister had given me to understand that if I were
backed by Bazaine and his army he would treat with me as if I were the
representative of the Emperor or the Regent. I had obtained from the
Marshal a capitulation with the honours of war, which the Minister--for
the furtherance of our political ends--had consented to accord to him." He
hurried expectant to Ferrières; there to be summarily disillusioned.
Bismarck gave him an interview on the 28th, and crushed him in a few
trenchant sentences:--

I am surprised and sorry (said the Chancellor) that you, who appeared to
be a practical man, after having been permitted to enter Metz with the
certainty of being able to leave it, a favour never before accorded,
should have left it without some more formal recognition of your right to
treat than merely a photograph with the Marshal's signature on it. But I,
Sir, am a diplomatist of many years' standing, and this is not enough for
me. I regret it; but I find myself compelled to relinquish all further
communication with you till your powers are better defined.

Regnier expressed his regret at having been so cruelly deceived but
thanked Bismarck for his kindness, whereupon the latter offered to give
him a last chance. "I would certainly," he said, "have treated with you as
to peace conditions, had you been able to treat in the name of a Marshal
at the head of 80,000 men; as it is, I will send this telegram to the
Marshal: 'Does Marshal Bazaine authorise M. Regnier to treat for the
surrender of the army before Metz in accordance with the conditions agreed
upon with the last-named?'" On the 29th came Bazaine's somewhat diffuse
reply:--

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