low. A powerful
contrast with our last meeting in the Tuileries in 1867. Our
conversation was a difficult thing, if I wanted to avoid
touching on topics which could not but affect painfully the
man whom God's mighty hand had cast down. I had sent Carl to
fetch officers from the town and to beg Moltke to come. We
then sent one of the former to reconnoitre, and discovered
two and one-half miles off, in Fresnois, a small chateau
situated an a park. Thither I accompanied him with an escort
of the cuirassier regiment of life-guards, which had meantime
been brought up; and there we concluded with the French
general-in-chief, Wimpffen, the capitulation by virtue of
which forty to sixty thousand Frenchmen,--I do not know it
accurately at present,--with all they possess, became our
prisoners. Yesterday and the day before cost France one
hundred thousand men and an Emperor. This morning the latter,
with all his suite and horses and carriages, started for
Wilhelmshoehe, near Cassel.

_THE SURRENDER AT SEDAN_.

Photogravure from a Painting by Anton Von Werner.

The surrender, at Sedan, in 1870, of the French army of 84,000 under
Napoleon III., MacMahon and Wimpffen, to the Germans, 250,000 strong,
under William I., was the signal for the downfall of the French empire
and the establishment of the republic. In the accompanying picture,
the figure seated at the extreme left is GENERAL FAURE; the middle
figure of the group of three, standing, is GENERAL CASTELNAU. GENERAL
WIMPFFEN, who succeeded MacMahon as commander Sept. 1 and signed the
capitulation Sept. 2, stands in a stooping posture, leaning upon his
chair and the table. Across the table, his right hand resting upon it,
and standing erect, is GENERAL MOLTKE, The seated figure in the
foreground is BISMARCK; behind whom, writing, stands COUNT NOSTIZ.

[Illustration]

It is an event of great weight in the world's history, a
victory for which we will humbly thank the Almighty, and
which decides the war, even if we have to carry it on against
France shorn of her Emperor.

I must conclude. With heartfelt joy I learnt from your and
Maria's letters that Herbert has arrived among you. Bill I
spoke to yesterday, as already telegraphed, and embraced him
from horseback in his Majesty's presence, while he stood
motionl