Wednesday, August 10:
Loulou in bed, no news; dismal weather, Fidi unwell, I spend the day preparing lint. In the evening I go to meet R.; the news from Paris is confused, there is talk of the Emperor’s abdication, the Empress’s flight, and about the state of the navy, which would require 120 ships but has only 23; but then again news that the French army is regrouping, the Empress forming a government (Palikao), that Gen. Changarnier is being given the supreme command. Nobody can make sense of it all.
After supper we read C. Frantz’s excellent chapter on Napoleon’s propaganda. R. full of confidence in the German victory. The battle at Wörth takes on an ever-increasing significance.