acked Moltke. He confided Strasburg to
Uhrich; he gave Metz to Bazaine to guard. He had 120,000 men at Chalons;
he had it in his power to cover Paris. He felt that his crime rose up
there, threatening and erect; he fled, not daring to face Paris. He
himself led--purposely, and yet despite himself; willing and yet
unwilling, knowingly and yet unknowingly, a miserable mind, a prey to
the abyss--he led his army into a place of annihilation; he made that
terrible choice, a battle-field without an outlet; he was no longer
conscious of anything, no more of his blunder of to-day than of his
crime of former days; he must finish, but he could only finish as a
fugitive; this condemned one was not worthy to look his end in the face;
he lowered his head, he turned his back. God executed him in degrading
him. Napoleon III. as an Emperor had a right to thunder, but for this
man the thunder was ignominious--he was thunderstruck in the back.

[40] "L'Annee Terrible."

CHAPTER X.

Let us forget this man, and let us look at Humanity.

The invasion of France by Germany, in 1870, was a night effect. The
world was astonished that so much gloom could come forth from a people.
Five black months--such was the siege of Paris. To create night may
prove Power, but Glory consists in the creation of daylight. France
creates daylight. Thence her immense human popularity. To her
Civilization owes the dawn. The human mind in order to see clearly turns
in the direction of France. Five months of darkness, that is what, in
1870, Germany succeeded in giving to the Nations; France has given to
them four centuries of light.

To-day the civilized world more than ever feels the need which it has of
France. France has proved this by her danger. The ungrateful apathy of
Governments only increased the anxiety of nations. At the sight of Paris
threatened, there arose among the peoples dread that their own heads
were in danger. Would they allow Germany to go on? But France saved
herself quite alone. She had only to rise. _Patuit dea_.

To-day she is greater than ever. What would have killed another nation
has hardly wounded her. The darkening of her horizon has rendered her
light more visible. What she has lost in territory she has gained in
radiancy. Moreover, she is fraternal without an effort. Above her
misfortune there is her smile. It is not on her that the Gothic Empire
weighs. She is a nation of citizens and not a flock of subjects.
Frontie