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"In quarters where the fait accompli is an object of solicitude," said Yeovil. "Look here," said Cicely in her most disarming manner, "it's just as well to be perfectly frank about the whole matter. If one wants to live in the London of the present day one must make up one's mind to accept the fait accompli with as good a grace as possible.
And to this end France proceeds not openly but in the old-fashioned channels of secret intrigue. The favourite device is the arranging of a coup and then the presentation of the fait accompli, accompanied by a manipulation of the press. It is almost unnecessary to say in English that this sort of procedure has greatly damaged international understanding and good-will.
I would awaken or keep alive in their memory the things that we have been, the grand, brave things that some of our race have done, and I would stir up a longing, a determination for the future that we must win back. I would be a counter- agent to the agents of the fait accompli.
The secrecy had been strictly maintained; there were rumours indeed, but no one knew of all the secret interviews; men might suspect, but they could not prove that it was an intrigue of Bismarck. If the election had once been made the solemn act of the whole nation, Napoleon would have been confronted with a fait accompli.
We are now a danger to Europe. We shall take what we please. The Serbs will go to Vienna. We shall go to Serajevo. We have the whole of the Russian army with us. If you do not believe it you will see. We shall begin in Bosnia!" This was in May 1913. Yougourieff, by the way, was delighted at the capture of Scutari, and told me that the fait accompli could not be upset.
Monsieur Riel had been all this while pacing up and down his room. A tap came upon his door. "Entrez. Ah, it is you, mon adjudant!" "Oui, mon president." "What tidings?" "C'est accompli. The court-martial has found the prisoner guilty; and he is condemned to be shot at one o'clock this day." "Monsieur is expeditious! Monsieur is zealous. C'est bon; c'est bon; merci, Monsieur."
His simple lunch consisted frequently of a "brioche," which, as often as not, to shared with some child of the third division. "A present c'est un fait accompli," said he, re-adjusting his paletot; and we had no more words on the subject. "We are friends now," thought I, "till the next time we quarrel."
Yeovil found himself discoursing eagerly with his chance guest on the European distribution and local variation of such and such a species, recounting peculiarities in its habits and incidents of its pursuit and capture. If the cold observant eyes of Lady Shalem could have rested on the scene she would have hailed it as another root- fibre thrown out by the fait accompli.
He rose and walked across to the window, opening it a little wider. He listened till the last notes had died away. "What is that tune they have just played?" he asked. "You'll hear it often enough," said the doctor. "A Frenchman writing in the Matin the other day called it the 'National Anthem of the fait accompli."
A maiden Queen in her first youth, wearing the crown and wielding the sceptre, had become un fait accompli and the news spread over the length and breadth of the land. We have seen how it touched the oldest statesmen, to whom State ceremonials had become hackneyed who were perhaps a little sceptical of virtue in high places.
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