The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-02-27


The King narrowly missed capture. Madame
d d'Abrantes says her cousin, an ardent you 40
officer. eager for distinction, srw him .nS
inst missed catching him, the Kim o.;n,
his escape to his horse. When . a. H. "s ,Ias
won, Napoleon, who always concentrated
every man in his very hanS a hsfore a f,obt
scattered them like vast net over the co1n,
try, making many capt ares among the broken,
disorganized forces,
lie passed tnro. Ugh Weimar, where the wife
of the Grand Juke, who had bsen, after her
lady like manner, a violent partisan of the
war, ca'de to him begging for consideration
to her subjects. He only answered,
Madame, you know now what war is. He
was more civil to Goethe; made him talk
with him while be dined; was greatly pleased
with the courtly poet, and said afterwards,
''He is q man, that Mr.. Goet." The remark
does not shine by originality, but is usually
taken in a complimentary sense, even by men.
On his victorious journey to Berlin he ar
rived at Potsdam on the evening of
the 25th of October. He rarely ex-
hibited in any merely sentimental matter
such interest as was awakened in him
by the souvenirs of Sans Souci. He seemed
to reach back over the gulf of years hand
half of defiance and half fellowship to the
great philosopher-king who here held his
court of choice spirits, sacred from the inva-
sion of statecraft or war. The seclusion of
a troubadour king, who knows nothing but
music is contemplate. We can easily con-
ceive what fine Gaulish epithets the great
Emperor would have applied to his present
Majesty of Bavaria But for the dilettant-
ism of him who was first in war and first in
the cabinet, he had q genuine and natural
admiration. He showed it by stealing his
sword and belt and the Gordon of the Black
Eagle. ''It will look we'll in the Inva-
lides, he thought, ''and serve as plaster for
Rosbaeh."
Davoust went first into Berlin. With his
soldierly sense of justice in things military,
Napoleon had so planned the march of the
army that Davoust should receive the keys of
the capital-a noble guerdon nobly earned in
the sweat and blood of that strenuous day by
the bridge at Naum burg. But when the grim
soldier was offered them by the municipal
authorities, he gave them back, saying they
belonged to a greater than himself-to his
Emperor He left single regiment in the
city, and passed on to establish himself Just
outside at Friedrichsfeld, his right on the
Spree and his left on the forest. Leave was
given to the troops to visit the conquered
capital, portion at time. Davoust stipu-
lated for the strictest observance of discipline,
and promised on his part to respect person
and property sacredly, on condition of good
behavior from the citizens and supply of
provisions for the limited time the troops
should remain.
The soldiers and the people appear to
have gotten on together well enough.
The shops were all opened the day
after the French entered; the trau-
gull Berliners thronged the streets, looking
at the staggering and jabbering strangers
with philosophic and thoughtful interest, try
ing doubtless to deduce, from the cat of their
surtouts and the curve of their moustaches,
| the logical explanation of the events of the
! Consulate and the Empire. Besides, in Ber-
lin then, as in Paris to-day, the Government
was unpopular for having made the war, and
! it was thus easy to shift the onus of personal
resentment; like the gentleman who was kicked
by mistake for one Grimsby, and said, Il
can't quarrel for that-Grimsby can't expect
! it,"
Napoleon evidently keenly appreciated the
! glory of this short and most marvellous cam
paign. When he had taken Vienna, he made
no parade about it-scarcely visited the city,
He spent the whole period of his stay at the
lovely palace of Schoenbrunn, where, by the
way, a Tyrolese jaeger INDUCED in the luxury
of a shot at him, and died for it. But whether
| 1t was Jena, or the provoking memories of
! Potsdam, or a sudden and acute attack of
human nature, he resolved upon somewhat
! public and formal entry into Berlin on the
2Sth of October, 1906.
There would be nothing easier than for the
people Of a conquered town to prevent any
such shows, or at least to give them a ghastly
and funereal favor. When Joseph Bonaparte
entered Madrid as King of Spain, the people
simply stayed at home and shut their doors,
and the gloom of the silent streets struck to
the heart Of the carpet-bag King. But the
Spaniards are an apathetic folk, with no
thirst for knowledge. You could not get a
New York crowd to stay at home when even
Lincoln passed through, and no considera-
tions of patriotism would have induced the
geist-reich Berlinese to smoke their pipes in
doors when there was such an opportunity of
making psyche physiological observations on a
new branch of the human race. So the wide
streets were crowded with them, men and
maidens, each in their holiday clothes, to see
the conquering Welshers. First came the
veteran Grenadiers and Chasseurs-a- pied, in
their brightest uniforms and accoutrements.
and so skillful is the Frenchman in caring for
his clothes that at the end of long cam
paign, he shall look as if only ten minutes
from his caserne; inthe rear came the ca valry
and dragons, and in the centre of the
cortege, preceded and followed by group of
magnificent officers, in the midst of whom the
heroic faces of Berthier, of Duroc, and of Da-
VouHt were conspicuous, on powerful horse
that bore his burden with something like
conscious dignity and decorum, rods the
hero of the day-the bestknown figure and
! face of all that have ever confronted the eyes
of men. He had resisted the temptation of
splendid dress, if it ever assailed him. He
wore the simple costume that palace and bat
tle-feld knew equally well. Through the wide
fair street of Inter den Linden the gorgeous
pageant passed to the Royal Palace,
and there Napoleon alighted, took for
NAL possession of the city, and gave
audience to all the public authorities. His
language was friendly and reassuring in regard