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This mishap, the lack of provisions, and the fatigue and demoralisation of his troops, caused MacMahon on the 31st to fall back on Sedan, a little town in the valley of the Meuse. It is surrounded by ramparts planned by the great Vauban, but, being commanded by wooded heights, it no longer has the importance that it possessed before the age of long-range guns of precision.
That patriotic intervention, which did infinite credit to MacMahon, procured for Chanzy an appointment at the head of the 16th Army Corps, and later the chief command of the Second Loire Army. When I first saw him in the latter days of 1870, he was in his fifty-eighth year, well built, and taller than the majority of French officers.
Maurice's thoughts reverted to the aimless, blundering movements of the last two days, to Marshal MacMahon hurrying on their retreat and insisting on getting them across the Meuse at every cost, after wasting so many precious hours in incomprehensible delays. It was too late.
There was a strong feeling among the Liberals that they were being coerced, that arbitrary measures, perhaps a coup d'etat, would be sprung upon them, and they were quite determined to resist. I don't think there was ever any danger of a coup d'etat, at least as long as Marshal MacMahon was the chief of state.
During the funeral procession of Marshal MacMahon in Paris an enormous crowd was assembled to see the cortege pass, and in this crowd was a woman almost at the time of delivery; the jostling which she received in her endeavors to obtain a place of vantage was sufficient to excite contraction, and, in an upright position, she gave birth to a fetus, which fell at her feet.
His intimate companions, after the trial of Queen Caroline, were Lords Cunningham and Fife, Sir Benjamin Bloomfield, Sir William Macmahon, Admiral Nagle, Sir A. Barnard, Lords Glenlyon, Hertford, and Lowther. These gentlemen generally dined with him; the dinner being the artistic product of that famous gastronomic savant, Wattiers.
Delaherche quickly learned that it was of Marshal MacMahon, who had been wounded while paying a visit of inspection to his advanced posts. The marshal wounded! it was "just our luck," as the lieutenant of marines had put it.
Now Helen learned he had distinguished himself in the holding of Chatillon against the insurgents, had been complimented by MacMahon upon his endurance and resource, had been offered, and had accepted, a commission in the regular army. Promotion was rapid during the later months of the war, and probability pointed to the young man having started on a serious military career.
Abel Douay, the French general, who fell bravely fighting at Wissembourg, the first sacrifice on the battle-field, was surprised; so was MacMahon, not only at the beginning, but at the end. He thought that the King and Crown Prince were marching on Paris.
MacMahon's place and I didn't forget. I'll pay a week in advance if you'll take me in." Whether Mrs. MacMahon believed these out-pourings was an open question, but her face softened slightly at sound of the brogue. "Irish, are you!" she said. "Yes, County Cork, and not over since very long," returned the girl. "I'm from County Cork, me and me dead husband both," volunteered the woman.
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