My Days of Adventure

My Days of Adventure

Project Gutenberg's My Days of Adventure, by Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
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Title: My Days of Adventure The Fall of France, 1870-71
Author: Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
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one year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on October 28,
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MY DAYS OF ADVENTURE
THE FALL OF FRANCE, 1870-71
By Ernest Alfred Vizetelly
Le Petit Homme Rouge
Author of "The Court of the Tuileries 1852-70" etc.
With A Frontispiece
London, 1914

THE PEOPLE'S WAR
O husbandmen of hill and dale, O dressers of the vines, O sea-tossed
fighters of the gale, O hewers of the mines, O wealthy ones who need
not strive, O sons of learning, art, O craftsmen of the city's hive, O
traders of the man, Hark to the cannon's thunder-call Appealing to the
brave! Your France is wounded, and may fall Beneath the foreign grave!

Then gird your loins! Let none delay Her glory to maintain; Drive out
the foe, throw off his sway, Win back your land again!
1870. E.A.V.

PREFACE
While this volume is largely of an autobiographical character, it will be
found to contain also a variety of general information concerning the
Franco-German War of 1870-71, more particularly with respect to the
second part of that great struggle--the so-called "People's War" which
followed the crash of Sedan and the downfall of the Second French
Empire. If I have incorporated this historical matter in my book, it is
because I have repeatedly noticed in these later years that, whilst
English people are conversant with the main facts of the Sedan disaster
and such subsequent outstanding events as the siege of Paris and the
capitulation of Metz, they usually know very little about the manner in
which the war generally was carried on by the French under the virtual
dictatorship of Gambetta. Should England ever be invaded by a large
hostile force, we, with our very limited regular army, should probably
be obliged to rely largely on elements similar to those which were
called to the field by the French National Defence Government of 1870
after the regular armies of the Empire had been either crushed at Sedan
or closely invested at Metz. For that reason I have always taken a keen
interest in our Territorial Force, well realizing what heavy
responsibilities would fall upon it if a powerful enemy should obtain a
footing in this country. Some indication of those responsibilities will be
found in the present book.
Generally speaking, however, I have given only a sketch of the latter
part of the Franco-German War. To have entered into details on an
infinity of matters would have necessitated the writing of a very much
longer work. However, I have supplied, I think, a good deal of precise
information respecting the events which I actually witnessed, and in
this connexion, perhaps, I may have thrown some useful sidelights on
the war generally; for many things akin to those which I saw, occurred

under more or less similar circumstances in other parts of France.
People who are aware that I am acquainted with the shortcomings of
the French in those already distant days, and that I have watched, as
closely as most foreigners can watch, the evolution of the French army
in these later times, have often asked me what, to my thinking, would
be the outcome of another Franco-German War. For many years I fully
anticipated another struggle between the two Powers, and held myself
in readiness to do duty as a war-correspondent. I long thought, also,
that the signal for that struggle would be given by France. But