As a matter of fact, public opinion in England at the outbreak of the war was in the main inclined to favour Germany; the publication of the Draft Secret Treaty submitted to Bismarck by Louis Napoleon in 1867, providing in certain contingencies for the occupation of Belgium by France, and now communicated by Bismarck to _The Times_ went a long way to sterilize sympathy with France; and it was not until after Sedan that compassion for France overwhelmed and obliterated the old distrust of the Emperor's intriguing ambitions. When the cry, "nous sommes trahis" was raised, _Punch_ blamed the French nation more than the Emperor, whom he had portrayed in a famous cartoon with the ghost of Napoleon appearing to him as he set out for the front. As the wheels of war drove more heavily on French soil and Paris was threatened with famine, one notices the growing desire that Germany should grant generous terms, mingled with a sense of impotence. This mood is well shown in the verses, "Between the Hosts," printed in the number of December 17:-- Like him of old, when the plague's arrows sped, And life sank blighted by that scathing rain, We stand between the living and the dead, Lifting our hands and prayers to Heaven in vain. While those that faint upbraid us from dim eyes, And those that fight arraign us as they fall, And French and German curses 'gainst us rise, And, hating none, we rest unloved of all. And so we stand with a divided soul, Our sympathies for both at war within, Now eager for the strong, to reach his goal, More often wishing that the weak could win. Only one feeling will not leave our minds, Hate of this hate, and anguish of this woe; And still war's scythe-set car rolls on and grinds Guilty and guiltless, blent in overthrow. And first we interpose a useless hand, And then we lift an unavailing voice, While still Death holds his way with sword and brand, Still the Valkyrier make their fatal choice. Still stormed on by ill-will from either side, Be we content to do the best we can-- Give all that wealth, peace, goodwill can provide, For war's poor victims who their helpers ban. We have no right to wait for men's good word, No right to pause before men's unearned hate: No right to turn the ear, when threats are heard Of what will, some day, be the neutral's fate. "Do right and fear not" must be England's stay, As it has been, let wrath say what it will. So with love's unthanked labour let us pray, And do our best to ease war's weight of ill! [Illustration: "VAE VICTIS!" Paris, March 1st, 1871.] [Sidenote: _1871--and its Sequel_]