[146] The great George, apparently like Juliette herself, was a believer in palmistry. See _Souvenirs_, II. 97. [147] _Souvenirs_, III. 161, 239. [148] _Ibid._ [149] See George Sand’s letter to Flaubert, _Correspondance_, V. 220. [150] It was at this restaurant that Sainte-Beuve gave that Good Friday dinner which clerical circles regarded as a shocking blasphemy. [151] _Souvenirs_, III. 165-8. [152] See _ante_, 55. [153] Dumas was thinking of George Sand’s famous marionette theatre at Nohant. See _post_, 129. [154] _Souvenirs_, III. 172. [155] _Souvenirs_, III. 170. [156] George Sand, _Correspondance_, V. 243. [157] _Ibid._, 245. [158] _Souvenirs_, III. 205. [159] _Ibid._, 259, and George Sand’s _Correspondance_, V. 258-9. [160] _Souvenirs_, III. 268. [161] George Sand, _Correspondance_, V. 317. [162] _Ibid._, 250. CHAPTER X THE WAR AND PREPARATION FOR THE SIEGE OF PARIS 1870 “_Nous serons vaincus. Il n’y a qu’à voir le désordre, l’impossibilité des armements._”—George Sand to Mme. Adam, August 18, 1870. For years a few clear-sighted Frenchmen had seen the German Peril approaching. Now it was at the gates of France. George Sand and Edmond Adam had been more afraid of the “Anglo-Saxon Contagion.” They had been inclined to scoff at Nefftzer’s jeremiads;[163] but now, alas! they proved to be only too well founded. The Adams in the anguish of their souls recalled their memorable drive,[164] in the spring of 1869, along the Corniche Road, in the company of Nino Bixio, the Garibaldian hero, who was then Commander-in-Chief of the Italian army. Bixio had just returned from Germany, whither he had gone at Victor Emmanuel’s command in order to ascertain the precise condition of the Prussian army. Bixio had come back firmly convinced that Bismarck was preparing war against France. “And you are not ready,” he had said to the Adams; “you will be thoroughly beaten.”[165] Then Adam, ghastly pale and half rising from his seat, had cried: “Silence, Nino, or I will throw you into the sea. France, beaten by the Prussians! Never, do you hear? Never.” “And do you think it would give me pleasure?” the Italian had retorted. “But understand, if you don’t wish to be beaten ... then make an end of your opposition’s foolish, wicked, criminal campaign against militarism. It is militarism which, entering into the very marrow of Prussian bones, has for half a century been preparing her to take her revenge for Jena. Ah! my poor Adam! How blind is France.... Your Napoléon III is a provoker of invasion, and you republicans, you will be ready to eat your hearts out for having been party men before Frenchmen. When you refuse him soldiers, you are idiotic.” Then Bixio had spoken of the negotiations for a triple alliance between France, Italy and Austria against Germany. According to the Italian General, it was Napoléon’s support of the papacy, in which he was encouraged by his ultramontane Empress, that had rendered these negotiations fruitless.