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Presently we find him at Versailles, figuring among the conductors of the Moniteur Prussien, Bismarck's organ during the German occupation of that city, in which journal he published a series of articles under the title of Jean Bonhomme.
Suddenly there was a shout of "un Prussien;" every one rushed towards the Place de l'Opéra, and from the Boulevard Haussmann came a crowd with a soldier, dressed as an artilleryman, on a horse. He was preceded and followed by about one hundred Mobiles. By his side rode a woman. No one touched them.
Then he began to croak that it was a shame not to give a pourboire, and, seeing that did not help matters, as I simply walked up the hotel steps, he shouted in his ill-temper, first "Vous n'etes pas Francais!" and then "Vous etes Prussien!"
The affair was reported to Chanzy, who thereupon wrote an indignant letter to the German general commanding at Vendome. It was carried thither by a certain M. de Vezian, a civil engineer attached to Chanzy's staff, who brought back the following reply: "Recu une lettre du General Chanzy. Un general prussien ne sachant pas ecrire une lettre de tel genre, ne saurait y faire une reponse par ecrit.
Imagine, therefore, what any scene or scandal would entail upon him!" "I cannot see that the marriage scheme need, be affected by scenes or scandals." "Mais le Baron est si irascible un caractere prussien, vous savez! Enfin il fera une querelle d'Allemand." "But is it quite settled that Mlle. is to marry the General? What are they waiting for?
A coachman who was driving me yesterday told me in the strictest confidence that he was a man who never meddled in politics, and, consequently, it was a matter of absolute indifference to him whether Napoleon or a "General Prussien" lived in the Tuileries; and this, I suspect, is the view that many here take, if they only dared say it.
The Frenchman declared immediately that he was le Prussien le plus charmant he had ever seen. The Sister took him to her motherly heart, and the doctor was constantly at his bedside. He was able to give him a great deal of attention without neglecting his duty, as there were few very severe cases under his care, and no new ones came in Paris had surrendered and a truce was declared.
My first duty is to you. As I am placed, it would be cowardly to be afraid to face public opinion in doing that duty, and to keep you waiting six months or a year longer than necessary, when I have promised to provide means for us to marry within a year. That would deserve to be called cowardice! 'Sale Prussien! 'cré nom d'une pipe! yelled Coco in a tone of disgust.
"She came of a handsome family: Blowitz's famous description,'de loin on dirait un Prussien, de pres un imbecile, was made of a near relation of the Duchesse d'Aosta." With the fall of the Government my diary of that year ceases to have the smallest interest.
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