^ Lb
<Turchased with funds jj-orn Hie-1
CHARLES DE ERIN G
McCORMTCK
ENDOWMENT
THE GIFT OF HIS WIFE
CNorthweftern University Jfibraru^
1 9 9 5 _
THE GRAIL
1 ERSKINE PL"
EDINBURGH, a
NOT MUCH OF A STORY
AFTER ALL.
LONDON.
1871.
PREFACE.
I have written ray story after telling it many
hundred times. I regret that I did not do so
at first, for I am sure now that being tired of
it I have written it stupidly, and I have said
nothing of shootings, or other horrors, for there
has been enough of such things already.
MARK KERR.
I left England on the 4th of May to visit the
theatre of the Franco-German War of 1870, and
■with the intention of returning by way of Paris
towards the end of the month, by which time I
thought Marshal MacMahon's army would be suffi¬
ciently encouraged to take possession of Paris, and
end the mischievous absurdities of the Commune.
The knowledge I acquired by seeing, hearing, and
reading, while it impressed me strongly with the
strategy of Count von Moltke, gave me a bad
opinion of the tactical ability of the German gene¬
rals, and left me in amazement at the blundering
incapacity, hesitation, and weak carelessness of the
French ones. There was no battle in which the
French army was not either shamefully surprised,
wantonly neglected in the supply of ammunition
and food, or ignorantly placed to receive the attack
which they never ventured to give, and there was
none in which the Germans ever attempted by
6
manoeuvring,. or anything but the bringing up in
succession of vastly superior numbers and prodigal
expenditure of life to secure success.
I arrived in Paris from Strasbourg on Saturday
the 20th. On the 21st, under the able guidance of
Lieut.-col. the Hon. John Stanley, whom I happily
discovered, I saw much that interested me. On
Monday the 22nd, I was awoke early by the
sounds of battle. Firing had been going on for
some hours from the direction of the Champ de
Mars, when, at half-past nine o'clock, after vain
attempts to reach various places, I thought my
only chance of seeing the progress of the fight
would be from the windows of the Ambassade d'An¬
gleterre, which overlook the Champs Elysées.
My hotel was in the Rue Boissy Danglas, and in
that part of it which runs at right angles from
the Faubourg S. Honoré to where the Rue Rivoli
opens into the Place de la Concorde, and at which
point was placed a strong barricade about twenty
feet high, and mounted with guns. The Com¬
munists had made and were making a barricade
of paving-stones, about three feet high, across the
Faubourg between my hotel and the Embassy. I
walked to it therefore. The soldiers, among whom
were some armed ladies, were looking in the opposite
direction, and did not see me until I was close
to the barricade. When they did so 1 was addressed
7
in strong language, and desired to stop. And here,
considering how I know the way in which the
forms of politeness impress Frenchmen, I confess
to having made a stupid mistake. I was fool
enough to say to the National Guards and Séden¬
taires who were calling on me to stop,—Oh, çe
n'est rien—je 'puis le sauter. I smiled, thinking
I had said a good thing, but they did not appreciate
my joke ; and, much to my surprise, there was a
general rush towards me, headed by a very small
and dirty National Guard, and I was seized, and,
amid shouts of A la mairie, ignominiously hurried
off to the one in the Hue d'Anjou, near to where
we were. Inside the mairie there was but one
representative of it, and he turned rudely from me
when I appealed to him. The office rooms were
occupied by an ambulance hospital, but the doctors
would have nothing to say to me ; and one man,
in some kind of uniform with a Freemason's badge
on his coat, who seemed to belong both to the
guard stationed inside the mairie and to the am¬
bulance, said it was impossible I could be English,
as no Englishman could speak French as I did,
and that I was an espion de Versailles, and there¬
fore to be locked up. I retired to the black hole
with this compliment to my French pronunciation
to soothe me while alone there for five hours. About
three p.m. another prisoner, a small and fat French-
8
man, whom I had heard from another cell clamour¬
ing all the day sometimes for a verre d'eau and
sometimes for a light for his pipe, was introduced
to my society and locked up with me. He in
turn threw himself on his back and screamed,
shouted for water, or asked me for a light, which,
after giving to him twice, I sternly refused. Men
of the guard so often came to order him to keep
quiet that, perhaps to save themselves trouble, we
were at about five o'clock allowed to come out into
the court-yard of the mairie ; when, to my great
relief, one of the guard offered to take a letter from
me to the English Embassy to get proof from there
that I was an Englishman and no spy. There was
no military officer inside the mairie, nor could I
induce any one to look at my passport. They
declared that English passports were worth nothing,
but they gave me paper, and I despatched my
letter. Presently, however, the poor man who took
it was brought in shot through the thigh to the
ambulance, with my letter in his pocket.
I had eaten nothing since Sunday, and I was
sitting on a bench in the court smoking a cigar.
Although there had been from hour to horn* an
increase in the street-firing, and in the balls striking
the chimneys and roofs above us, we seemed so
secure that the guard, assisted by my noisy fellow-
prisoner, was busily watching the boiling of some
9
potatoes for their supper, of which they had pro¬
mised me one, when, suddenly, a small puff of smoke,
followed by a threatening crack, and succeeded
immediately by many other puffs and cracks, came
from behind the window-blinds of the wall above us.
The guard abandoned their potatoes, and did not
fly to arms, but, taking to their legs, bolted in all
directions, shouting out, ' This is an ambulance—
nothing but an ambulance ! ' I retired also behind
an open door close to me. After doctors, and
attendants, and patients, and soldiers, had shrieked
'Ambulance!' from behind every possible cover for
some time, the firing ceased ; and the 5th of the
Linej who had been cautiously breaking their way
from house to house up the Faubourg, jumped on
to the scene. In a moment a crowd of them came
in my direction. So I stepped to the front, and
said, ' You are bien venus!—You are my deliverers!
I am a prisoner of the Communists.'
The soldiers started back, their eyes wide open,
and handling their rifles as if they thought me
dangerous, and to have some following behind me.
They did not fire however, and neither did they
believe my story, but laid violent hands on me,
saying that I must prove the truth of what I said
to their officers. The officers were incredulous, and
ordered me first to one place then to another,
when each time, after being questioned, the soldiers
10
attempted to rifle my pockets, and got possession
of my eampaigning-knife and all its implements—
one set seizing the knife and another the waist-
belt whence it hung. The direction I was pushed
along was that by which the 5 th Regiment had
come ; and after crossing two streets and passing
up another—the Rue d'Aguesseau being one of
them—and having told my country, profession,
and rank to the officers who questioned me, I
was landed in a court-yard, where were several
officers, and also some ladies looking down from
windows.
My route from the mairie was very amusing,
for the streets we had to cross, as we groped our
way from house to house and room to room, were
under fire from many wildly firing and excited
Frenchmen. At the first aperture leading into a
street which we reached, I was directed by my
-.escort to rush across as fast as I could : ' Now
you must run—there is firing down this street—
courez vite!' 'No,' said I; 'we Anglais, par¬
ticularly the generals, do not run before fire, but
always take it quietly.' What between fear of
losing me and fear of being shot, they pulled and
pushed and pinched me, until they landed me at
last in the court-yard of this house in the presence
of some senior officers.
I experienced the same rude and insolent treat-
11
ment now as at my previous questionings. I told
them again, ' I was taken prisoner by the Com¬
munists this morning for trying to pass to the
English Embassy ; I am an English general and
a lord, and one of the greatest of lords,—voilà my
passport.' One officer, pointing his finger at me,
exclaimed, ' English generals are canaille ! '—another
said, 'English generals are peekpocket!'—another,
'All English generals are cochons!' One officer,
whom I touched on the arm to attract his notice,
shook himself from me as if with disgust, and
looked as if he would have spat on me. In fact,
I suppose they were sure I had been in the
service of the Commune, general or no general.
Here everything left in my pockets was roughly
snatched from them (my coat and waistcoat had
been previously torn open), and excepting the
money and watch in my waistcoat-pocket, every¬
thing—passport, letter of credit, sketch-books, cigar-
case—was taken from me, and with a crowd of
poor frightened-looking wretches, I was locked up
in an out-house. After some time the door opened,
and a voice called for the ' Général Anglais.' I stept
out, and was brought before the same officers, who,
strange to say, returned me my cigar-case, and gave
a packet containing my other things to two cavalry
soldiers, with orders for them to take me to a certain
Quartier Générale in the Boulevard Malesherbes.
12
This was about half-past ten p.m. But my escort
would consider every street not filled with their
own troops unsafe, and after being marched about
and well stared at, with many exclamations of
wonder as to who this solitary prisoner could be,
I was lodged for the night in some house where my
escort's battalion was billeted, and in a small room
of which, after door and window had been carefully
closed (one of my guard on the bed and the other
on a mattrass), I slept very well on the floor, with
a cigar for my supper about midnight. At five a.m.
on Tuesday, we started for the Quartier Générale,
66 Boulevard Haussman. The officer in command
there was, happily for me, a gentleman, and his
lieutenant a good kind man, as was also the next
in authority, the Maréchal de Logis. I found
hundreds of prisoners here, and hundreds more
were brought in from time to time, one of them
being the representative of the mairie who snubbed
me yesterday morning, and they were marched off
from time to time, their names being first taken
down by the Maréchal de Logis, by road to Versailles,
—many of them to be shot, I was told. My captain
told me he had only my story, but that he would
detain me until my Ambassador would vouch for
my identity. I asked for some food, and was sent
out under escort to look for a restaurant, with
orders to be back in half-an-hour. We found no
13
restaurant, only a wine-shop, where I got a glass
of wine and some bread. Meantime, my captain
had become, I suppose, nervous at my absence, and
had sent the lieutenant in search of me, so that I
was in prison again before my half-hour was up.
I was not locked up nor penned up under sentry,
like those other prisoners for whom there was no
room under lock and key. My drawing-books,
passport, &c., were restored to me, and I was per¬
mitted to walk about the court and to beguile the
time by sketching my fellow-captives, poor woe¬
begone looking wretches, male and female, and of
all ages between fifteen and seventy-five. A doctor
in the uniform of the army, also a prisoner, was
treated in the same way as myself, but he was most
restless and nervous as to his fate, and his frequent
complaints annoyed the captain, who held up my
resignation as an example to him. ' Look at this
Milor Anglais ; see how he is content and amuses
himself,—take example by him!' And, indeed, I
passed a very tolerable day in my prison, for I was
in momentary expectation of release, and the weather
was charming, and the numerous batches of fresh
prisoners that were brought in from hour to hour
were very interesting to observe. So I moved about
with my sketch-book. In the evening I was allowed
to send out a soldier in search of some food (I must
14
mention that the good Maréchal de Logis had given
me a cup of coffee at his breakfast-time), and towards
eight o'clock he returned, accompanied by a garçon
bringing two plates,—one containing a veal cutlet
of good dimensions, and the other a salmi of lapin,
—some bread and cheese and a bottle of wine. And
I asked my soldier to dinner, making him a present
of the lapin, and we sat in a corner and dined
luxuriously, although the garçon had forgotten
knife, fork, and glass. His restaurant was a long
way off, but he would return there at once for these
things. ' On no account,' said I, for I had scarcely
eaten for forty-eight hours, and did not wish to
wait.
The captain pointed out to the doctor and
myself a place under a staircase where we might
lie down to sleep. It had been used during the
day by the Maréchal de Logis as his office, and
there was a long bench in it covered with something
like velvet. I insisted on the doctor taking the
bench, while I took a large mat which I saw
outside the door, and having rolled up one end
of it for a pillow, I slept as well as I had done
the night before. I was awakened at 3 p.m. on
the 24th by sounds, and opening my eyes I saw
my doctor sitting sadly on the stone floor, the
Maréchal de Logis being in possession of the bench,
15
with his staff engaged in writing. I feel ashamed
now that I cannot say I insisted on my doctor
taking my rug, for I really felt sorry for him, as
from his excited and nervous manner I believed
him to be implicated somehow with the Com¬
munists, and therefore in danger. I had told the
garçon who brought my dinner last night to bring
me some café at nine o'clock, and when he appeared
I said to him, ' If you will take this card to the
Ambassade d'Angleterre, and bring me an answer,
I will give you so many francs and he took my
card — the soldiers had told me " that firing had
ceased in the direction he would have to go—on
which I had written, ' Taken prisoner by the Com¬
munists on Monday, I am now a prisoner of the
Versailles troops as a Communist. Pray send and
have me released.' Mr. Malet, Secretary of Embassy,
immediately came with the garçon to ask for my
release ; but the sentries refused admission to
Mr. Malet, who, therefore, returned to the Embassy,
and despatched Mr. Saumarez, fortified by letters
and papers covered with crowns and stamps, to
General Douay's head-quarters in the Place Ven¬
dôme. General Douay at once sent an officer on
horseback with an order for my release, and I
parted with Captain Morel, Lieutenant Verlaguet
(both of the gendarmerie) and my friend the Ma-
16
réchal de Logis, with mutual expressions of good
will—to meet again, we all hoped, under happier
auspices.
And I walked out a free man, and was rejoiced,
on turning the corner of the Faubourg into the Rue
Boissy Danglas, to see my hotel still standing, and
to find my portmanteau safe.
Jtme 9, 1871.
LONDON :
Printed by Strangewa ys & Walden, Castle St. Leicester Sq.
; '.'Wim$*.
, i -f\ J ; '/ .' '- '■ •■ .•• " ••• • .- :
■