al Cousin-Montauban, comte de Palikao. The Emperor withdrew from
military leadership and Marshal Bazaine received supreme command.
Bazaine was a brave soldier, but a poor general-in-chief, and withal a
self-seeking man, incompetent to deal with the difficulties in which
France found itself. He was perhaps not a conscious traitor in the great
disaster which soon came to pass, but he thought more of himself than of
his country. At the time we are concerned with he was considered the
coming man. Meanwhile Mac-Mahon, cut off from Bazaine's main army, fell
back, between August 6 and August 17, to Chalons. Bazaine was apparently
without intelligent strategic plans. He professed to be desirous of
concentrating at Verdun, but was afraid to get out of reach of Metz. He
won first an indecisive battle at Borny (August 14), which was
unproductive of any concrete advantage. On August 16, he let himself be
turned back, by an enemy only half as numerous, at Rezonville
(Vionville, Mars-la-Tour). On the 18th, he encountered, on the
contrary, a much larger force at Saint-Privat (Gravelotte) and let
himself be cooped up in Metz. Critics of Bazaine say that he could have
turned both Rezonville and Gravelotte to the advantage of the French.

The familiar military uncertainties now began to show themselves in the
movements of Mac-Mahon and his troops. The armies of Steinmetz and of
Frederick Charles were united under command of the latter to beleaguer
Metz, and a smaller force under Prince Albert of Saxony was thrown off
to cooperate with the army of the Crown Prince in its advance on Paris.
Mac-Mahon had collected about one hundred and twenty thousand men, and
Napoleon, without real authority except as a meddler, was with him. The
plan was originally to fall back for the protection of Paris, but the
Empress-Regent was afraid to have a defeated Emperor return to the
capital lest revolution ensue, and Palikao urged a swift advance to
rescue Metz, crushing Prince Albert of Saxony on the way, taking
Frederick Charles between the two fires of rescuers and besieged, with
the Crown Prince still too far away to be dangerous. Meanwhile
Mac-Mahon moved to Reims, which was neither on the direct road to Paris
nor to Metz, and at last started to the rescue of Bazaine by the
roundabout route of Montmedy, continually hesitating and retracing his
steps. On receiving news of his progress, the armies of the Crown Prince
and of Prince Albert converged northwar