With all of its marvels, the Exhibition offered a spectacle that could hardly have been equalled. She attracted people. But above all it attracted princes and kings.
They all came there. The first to be seen were the King and Queen of the Belgians, the Queen of Portugal, the Grand Duchess Marie of Russia, Prince Oscar of Sweden; then landed the Prince of Wales, and also a young Japanese prince, son of the Taïcoun.
First of all, the rejoicings did not fail to be a little troubled. The belligerent sounds were still heard, although by increasingly weakened vibrations. Soon the next voyage of the Emperor Alexander and King William was announced. At this news, security was complete. How could we not have counted on peace! The only ones who could trouble her would become our guests.
The Tsar arrived on June 1. No official pomp was lacking at the reception. Yet the welcome was decent rather than warm. Poland and its misfortunes were remembered. The same sumptuous apparatus as far as the Élysée Palace, which would serve as his residence. When evening came, the prince hastened to strip off his uniform and went to the Théâtre des Variétés.
There a play was being played, La Grande-Duchesse
de Gérolstein, which was talked about all the way to the banks of the Neva.
From then on it was a succession of celebrations . June 2, visit of the Exhibition; on the 3rd, races at Longchamp; on the 4th, banquet at the Tuileries and gala performance at the Opera. However, joy was mingled with anguish. This year was indeed one of contrasts. The very day that Alexandre had entered Paris, it had been known, without a doubt, that Queretaro had succumbed, that Maximilian, an unconditional prisoner, had nothing more to hope for than clemency from his enemies.
Another importunate image haunted the Tsar, that of the people he had once so harshly chastised. As he was going to the Hotel de Cluny, he had been able to perceive, through the rumors of the crowd, quite distinct protests in favor of Poland. The incident happened again at the courthouse. From the middle of a group of lawyers a very resounding cry went out:
Long live Poland!
Door! shouted other voices addressing the demonstrators.
Unfortunately, the prince and those around him took the second exclamation for themselves as well as the first. It happened therefore that what should have repaired the injury aggravated it; and the Tsar returned to the Élysée very irritated.
King William was missing from the meeting of sovereigns. On June 4, he left Berlin. The next day, at four o'clock, he reached Paris. At the wharf awaited him the nephew of the man he had helped to kill, the man whom, three years later, he himself was to dethrone. Despite old memories and recent disputes, the approach was unconstrained on both sides.
M. de Bismarck had long hesitated to accompany his master. However, the rumor had returned to him that his perplexities were attributed to fear. Jealous of denying the imputation, he immediately decided to leave and announced his resolution to M. Benedetti. In the procession, he occupied the second car, behind the royal carriage.
For King William, no spectacle was worth a review. We had prepared one, and such that it would remain memorable.
It had been set for June 6.
At noon, the entire army, under the command of Marshal Canrobert, had taken up their positions. Unofficial newspapers of the time estimated this force at 60,000 men although it is difficult to estimate the troops in mass, it seems probable that the real effective hardly exceeded 35,000 men.
All these military celebrations are alike. This one escapes the ordinary banality, because it showed for one of the last times the old French army with all the superfluities of its finery, with all its expensive and charming coquetry. The infantry regiments filed past in the order of the past, with the sappers with thick beards, long white aprons, and large furry caps; with the drum major all gilded, all plumed; with cantinières with scarlet skirts; with the elite companies, grenadiers with red epaulettes, voltigeurs with yellow epaulettes, who, forward. and back, opened and closed each battalion.