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A Diplomat's Memoir of 1870: being the account of a balloon escape from the siege of Paris and a political mission to London and Vienna — John Shaqi

A Diplomat's Memoir of 1870: being the account of a balloon escape from the siege of Paris and a political mission to London and ViennaReitlinger, Frederic

History

A Diplomat's Memoir of 1870: being the account of a balloon escape from the siege of Paris and a political mission to London and Vienna

Name: A Diplomat's Memoir of 1870: being the account of a balloon escape from the siege of Paris and a political mission to London and Vienna
Author: Reitlinger, Frederic

Reitlinger, Frederic

Franco-Prussian War, 1870-1871 -- Diplomatic history

CHAP.                                               PAGE
        TRANSLATOR’S NOTE                                v
     I. PARIS BESIEGED: THE POLITICAL SITUATION          1
    II. THE DEPARTURE                                   21
   III. WONDERS AND EVENTS OF AN AERIAL VOYAGE          29
    IV. A CHANGE                                        37
     V. THE STORM                                       42
    VI. THE FALL                                        48
   VII. AN ENCOUNTER                                    56
  VIII. EN ROUTE FOR THE FRONTIER                       66
    IX. A SPY AT DIEPPE                                 70
     X. ACROSS GERMANY                                  77
    XI. IN AUSTRIA                                      88
   XII. LONDON                                         103
  XIII. AT THE FOREIGN OFFICE                          108
   XIV. HAWARDEN CASTLE                                151




CHAPTER I

PARIS BESIEGED

THE POLITICAL SITUATION


It was the last week in the month of October, 1870. M. Jules Favre,
at that time Vice-President and Minister for Foreign Affairs in the
National Defence Government, summoned me to his office in the Quai
d’Orsay and said:

“You will find it very strange, but since yesterday I have changed my
mind. I now wish to entrust you with another mission. I want you to
go to Vienna and London. The last news which has reached us makes me
hope for a change of public opinion in Europe. There is beginning to be
anxiety for our fate; public sympathy seems to be turning in our favour
and coming back to us. Europe admires the resistance we are making and
is perhaps not far from wishing us successful.”

In his grave and wonderfully modulated voice he described the
situation as it appeared to him. Paris was splendid in its courage
and enthusiasm; the whole of France was up and decided for resistance;
South Germany was discontented with the iron hand weighing upon her,
and anxious to finish a war into which she had been dragged against her
will, and which was devouring her strength and ruining her country.
Finally, Europe returned from her apathy, was deeply impressed by
France’s efforts, and looked forward to the end of what threatened to
degenerate into a war of destruction which would seriously shatter the
equilibrium and general interests of Europe.

I am well aware that this picture was not true at all points; I know
that there was much illusion in the hope which animated the Minister’s
patriotic heart, of seeing Europe cast aside her inertia and raise her
voice on behalf of conquered France against the conqueror ... in favour
of a great and generous people which had fought so much for others,
and which was now defending its own hearths and the integrity of its
national soil against a formidable invasion.

Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.

A Diplomat's Memoir of 1870: being the account of a balloon escape from the siege of Paris and a political mission to London and Vienna

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