Friday, August 5:
Fidi in his corral; R. says it is all a dream—one cannot believe in such happiness! Then he adds, “I wonder how Frl. v. Meysenbug must have felt recently, seeing you come in, when she saw me ten years ago in Paris with my wife!”
Lunch brings us heaviness of heart; a report in the Bund says that the mitrailleuse strikes and wreaks havoc at 1,600 meters; and the horrible French report about the Saarbrücken affair praises these terrible things! Mitrailleuses for our men and finery for our women—that is what the French bring us, says R.
However, after lunch Jost, the Am Rhyns’ manservant, brings news that the Austrians have beaten the French; in great excitement we drive into town and it is true—they have been beaten, but Prussia and Bavaria beat them, took the fort at Weissenburg, and put the enemy to flight. General Douay is dead. The report states simply, “Brilliant but bloody victory”; whereas the French bulletin speaks boastfully of Saarbrücken, at the same time of the “miracle of the mitrailleuses,” “the verve of the troops.” Napoleon III (and last) writes to Eugenie about Louis, who had his baptism of fire, and his fearlessness made the soldiers weep! And the government bonds rose, too. Oh, the miserable, evil creatures!
We feel the need for stillness, so that in stillness and contemplation the good spirits may stand by our cause! Weeping, R. and I regard each other and felt no wish to speak. The situation is too big, too frightful; God bless Germany, the German army, as it is now called!
Empress Eugenie goes every day to pray before the picture of Notre Dame des Victoires (Notre Dame des Mitrailleuses, says R.), and the Pope appeals to this lady to insure that the French do not abandon him. We hardly dare think of the significance of our cause.