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BONAPARTE (NAPOLEON III.) interview to Napoleon's representative. The next day (July 14) Benedetti was recalled by the emperor, and Baron Werther from Paris by the Prussian king. Preparations for war were immediately made on both sides. The Germans manifested the wildest enthusiasm in resenting what they called the arrogance of France, and, contrary to Napoleon's expecta- tions, the South German states promptly de- clared their readiness to join the North German confederation. The mediation of England, offered by Lord Loftus, the British ambassador, was declined in Berlin until Napoleon should first accept it; and a subsequent mediatorial effort of Pius IX. likewise fell to the ground. Napoleon took the initiative by formally de- claring war on July 19 through his chag6 d'af- faires Le Sourd, basing his declaration, first, upon the insult offered at Ems to Count Bene- detti, the French minister, and its approval by the Prussian government; secondly, upon the refusal of the king of Prussia to compel the withdrawal of Prince Leopold's name as a candidate for the Spanish throne ; and thirdly, upon the king's persistence in giving the prince liberty to accept the throne. The extraordi- nary military appropriations demanded by the emperor were unanimously accorded by the senate, and with but a few dissenting votes by the legislative assembly ; *but as considerable time was lost in the preparations, the Germans were left at liberty to concentrate overwhelm- ing forces on the French frontier, King Wil- liam leaving Berlin on July 31, three days after Napoleon's departure for Metz. The first movement of importance began on Aug. 2, when Gen. Frossard, with about 30,000 men, advanced from St. Avoid against Saarbruck. On the advance of the French, the small Prus- sian garrison of that city retired to the adjoining heights, and was compelled to withdraw to the right bank of the Saar. On taking possession of the heights, but not of the town of Saar- bruck, the emperor sent to Eug6nie, whom he had left hi Paris as regent, a sensational de- spatch containing a grandiloquent passage on the prince imperial's baptism of fire. But gro- tesque as this announcement was, it was the only one sent by him that did not savor of de- feat. The successive German victories creating great commotion in Paris, he was soon obliged (Aug. 8) to relinquish the command of the armies, and after a few days spent with Bazaine he joined MacMahon at Chalons. The corrup- tion which had infected the public service of the empire had impaired the efficiency of the military organization, and the generals, mainly trained in the warfare against Arabs in Algeria, could not cope with the superior organization of the Germans. Napoleon was overwhelmed by defeat after defeat, and on Aug. 31 he issued at Sedan his last proclamation to the army, ex- hibiting, though striving to conceal, his despera- tion. He had already a few days before pro- vided for the safety of the prince imperial by sending him to Belgium ; and in the afternoon of Sept. 1, when the French were everywhere beaten, Wimpffen proposed to the empero'r, who was said to have deliberately exposed him- self to death in the thickest of the fight, to save himself from capture by breaking through the German lines at Carignan. Napoleon would not risk the lives of the soldiers in what he regarded as a hopeless attempt, and also de- clined to accept Wimpffen's resignation. Soon after 5 P. M. he sent a colonel with a white flag to the headquarters of the enemy. Suddenly the firing ceased. The Germans shouted, " Vic- tory! the emperor is there." The king of Prussia sent Lieut. Col. Bronsart to Sedan to de- mand an unconditional surrender, upon which the emperor despatched his aide-de-camp, Gen. Keille, to the royal headquarters with the fol- lowing letter: "My brother: Since it has not been vouchsafed to me to meet death at the head of my troops, I surrender my sword to your majesty." In order to obtain if possible more lenient conditions of capitulation than the Germans were disposed to accord, the empe- ror left Sedan at 5 A. M. on Sept. 2, Bismarck hastening to meet him on the road between Sedan and Donch6ry, in a small house near the latter place. The king, however, consented to see the emperor only after the ratification of the capitulation between Moltke and Wimpffen. Preceded by an honorary escort of Prussian cuirassiers, and accompanied by Bismarck, the emperor had the same night an interview of about 15 minutes with the king of Prussia at the castle of Bellevue, near Frenois, and the victor assigned to his captive the castle of Wilhelms- hohe, near Cassel, as a residence. He left Belle- vue on the morning of Sept. 8 for the Belgian frontier with a Prussian escort, the Belgian gen- eral Chazal escorting him to the German border ; and in the evening of Sept. 5 he arrived at Wil- helmshohe. During his residence there the empress of Germany showed him many delicate attentions. On the news of the emperor's capitu- lation Jules Favre at once proposed his deposi- tion in the legislative body, and in the confu- sion which ensued during the proclamation of the republic (Sept. 4) the empress regent fled to England. Napoleon protested (March G, 1871) against the decree of the national assembly at Bordeaux of March 1, which confirmed his ex- pujsion and that of his dynasty from the throne, and made him responsible for all the calamities of the war and for the dismemberment of France. He was released by the emperor William on March 19, and joined Eugenie and the prince imperial at Camden house, Chiselhurst, where he was temporarily buried. On May 12, 1872, he wrote to Gen. Wimpffen assuming the sole responsibility for the surrender at Sedan ; and a pamphlet entitled Des causes qui ont amene la, capitulation de Sedan, par un officier at- tache a Vetat major general (Brussels, 1870), has been ascribed to him. Queen Victoria, and especially the prince of Wales, and the English generally, with whom he had always been popular personally, soothed his exile