The memories which the Empress went to recall at Saint-Cloud
and at Versailles were the same as those which she compelled us to call
from the past: memories glorious for her but unforgettably sad for us,
memories which, in reminding her of victory, were meant to remind us of a
defeat to which our conquerors have added cruelty.
I watch with fervour the expression of our patriotism. A race which
forgets the brutal insults of superior force deserves slavery. Italy
would never have reconquered Milan and Venice had she resigned herself to
see them pass under the yoke of the stranger. Forty years and more had
passed since the 2nd of May, [5] when Prince Napoleon thought fit to send
Prince Jerome as Ambassador to Madrid. He was forced to leave it.
Princess Murat was in no way responsible for what the French Generals had
done. She came in the suite of the Empress Eugenie, but Spain found a
way to make her displeasure manifest without any lack of courtesy. To
the Empress Frederick, France has shown a melancholy kind of astonishment
rather than dislike, and has displayed an infinite courtesy. Not a
single demonstration, not a gesture, not a word from the population of
Paris has done anything to detract from the city's world-wide reputation
for hospitality.
The Emperor William I and Bismarck, who pretended to make war only
against the Empire, would have shown themselves to be great and
far-seeing political minds had they left Republican France in possession
of the whole of her territory.
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