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"I am commissioned by General Gallifet, Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Division, to request on his behalf the honour of an audience. He awaits you with General Cosensz in the hotel," replied the Frenchman, gazing in undisguised admiration at the wonderful craft which he now for the first time saw at close quarters. "With pleasure.
These terms, after considerable opposition from General le Gallifet and General Cosensz, the Italian Commander-in-Chief, were adopted and ratified at noon that day, almost at the very moment that Alexis Mazanoff was presenting the reply of the King of England to the President of the Federation in New York.
Your forces are surrounded, your aerostats are captured or destroyed. It is no use mincing matters at a moment like this. It is life or death with you. If you do not believe me, General le Gallifet, come with me and take a flight round London in my air-ship yonder, and your own eyes shall see how hopeless all further struggle is.
Prince Metternich asked, "What shall we do indoors this awful day?" I proposed tableaux; but he objected to tableaux. Then I suggested that one might have a fancy-dress tea-party. At last, after many wild propositions, he said, "Why not charades?" Of course he had intended charades all the time. He asked the Marquis de Gallifet if he would help us.
On the programme for to-day there stood chasse a courre; but of course cela tombait dans l'eau, as would have been its natural end anyway in this weather. None of the ladies donned their green costumes, as even one was so sure that the day would be passed indoors. At dejeuner I was fortunate enough to sit between Prince Metternich and the Marquis de Gallifet.
The great church of the metropolis had been left untouched chiefly because it had been arranged that, on the fall of London, the Tsar was to be proclaimed Emperor of Asia under its dome, and at the same time General le Gallifet was to assume the Dictatorship of France and abolish the Republic, which for more than ten years had been the plaything of unprincipled financiers, and the laughing-stock of Europe.
At the same hour a council of war was being held by Generals le Gallifet and Cosensz at the Crystal Palace Hotel, Sydenham, where the two commanders had taken up their quarters. Since daybreak matters had assumed a very serious, if not desperate aspect for the troops of the League to the south of London.
She is not as beautiful as Madame de Gallifet, nor as elegante as Countess Pourtales, nor as clever as Princess Metternich. These shares turned into gold in her hands. The royal gentleman gnashes his false teeth in vain, and has scene after scene with the royal son, who, green with rage, reproaches him for having parted with these treasures.
The gentleman who rose, amidst the cheers and jingling of glasses, to say a few words to this toast, was a man of some importance in the colony as a member of its Assembly, though he otherwise held no higher rank than that of attorney to the estate of Monsieur Gallifet, a rich absentee.
There those picked out of our ranks by General de Gallifet over eighty in number were all shot before our eyes; yet so great was our thirst that many, while the shooting was going on, were struggling for water, of which there was only a scant supply. I was not fortunate enough to get any. "The execution being over, we proceeded, now knowing that our destination was Versailles.
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