[225] _Souvenirs_, V. 25. [226] Hanotaux, _op. cit._, I. 105, does not hesitate to condemn Favre’s conduct of these negotiations. [227] From Bordeaux, on December 26, 1870. He repeats this judgment on February 16, 1871. See _Life of Lord Lyons_, by Lord Newton. [228] Labouchère, _The Besieged Resident in Paris_. [229] _Histoire Contemporaine_, I. 87. [230] _Op. cit._, I. 89. [231] _Souvenirs_, III. 44. [232] Hanotaux, _op. cit._, 60. [233] _Souvenirs_, III. 365. [234] The general, who, during the siege of Paris, had commanded the army of Central France. [235] _Souvenirs_, V. 44. [236] _Souvenirs_, IV. 47. [237] _Ibid._, 55. [238] Hanotaux, _op. cit._, I. 130. [239] _Souvenirs_, V. 120. [240] _Ibid._, 83. [241] _Ibid._, 92, 105. [242] _Souvenirs_, V. 124. [243] _Souvenirs_, IV. 149. [244] _Ibid._, VII. 282. [245] _Ibid._, V. 222. [246] _Ibid._, VII. 355. [247] That for the Commune’s excesses the Government held “the Internationale” partly responsible is proved by the introduction into the National Assembly of a Bill condemning as a criminal offence membership of this society. Favre, _op. cit._, III. 479. [248] _Souvenirs_, V. 80. [249] _Ibid._, 76; Hanotaux, _op. cit._, I. 188. [250] _Ibid._, 81. [251] _Souvenirs_, V. 158. [252] _Ibid._, 9. [253] _Ibid._, 213. CHAPTER XIII GAMBETTA’S EGERIA 1871-1878 “_Adam et moi, nous n’avons pas d’autre espoir, pas d’autre culte que Gambetta. Il est pour nous la personnification même de la France, l’expression vivante et agissante de notre relèvement, de nos certitudes républicaines et nationales._”—Juliette Adam. Mme. Adam’s attitude towards Gambetta passed through three phases. During the war she regarded him as the incarnation of national defence, after the defeat of 1871 as _l’Homme de la Revanche_; finally, when _la Revanche_ was delayed she grew first impatient and then disappointed with her former hero. It is with the two first of these phases that we shall deal in this chapter. As we have seen, Gambetta had already been admitted to Mme. Adam’s salon before the war. But from the opening of the siege until a year after the peace they met but seldom if at all. After Gambetta’s courageous balloon ascent from Paris, and his safe, if hazardous, landing in a wood near Montdidier, all through those darkest days of _l’Année Terrible_, Juliette Adam derived almost her only consolation and hope from Gambetta’s dispatches. The energy he was deploying in his country’s service made her pulse throb with confidence and courage. The news brought by carrier pigeon into the besieged capital of the armies he was creating—Faidherbe’s in the north, Chanzy’s on the Loire, Bourbaki’s in the east—seemed almost to compensate for the indecision and inaction of the defenders of Paris.