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Cavaignac and Changarnier and the socialists Proudhon and
Barb s, surround them; and as a connecting link between the new r gime and that which is
to follow we have represented Baudin, who fell, the 2d of December, 1851, on the
barricades of the expiring Republic.
As a background for the Second Empire, we have chosen the terrace of
the Tuileries which overlooks the Corps L gislatif, to-day the Chamber of Deputies. The
chief authors of the 2d of December are there, Morny, Persigny, St. Arnaud, and Maupas.
Above them is displayed the imperial court: Napoleon III, in the uniform of a general of
division; and the Empress, wearing the bee-strewn court mantle and a crown of diamonds on
her head. To the right and left are Marshals P lissier, Canrobert, Magnan, and Leboeuf;
and the principal members of the Cabinet, Rouher and Walewski, with staff-officers and
cent-gardes in the rear.
As an offset to this political and military group, we have painted
below it the salon where, then as now, Princess Mathilde welcomes her literary and artist
guests. Her brother, Prince Napoleon, is by her side.
Here may be seen Th ophile Gautier, Sainte Beuve, Flaubert,
Viollet-le- Duc, Theodore Rousseau, Corot, Troyon, Daubigny, Mr. de Nieuwerkerke, and
Gounod, all chatting and amusing themselves, unmindful of Marshal Niel, then Minister of
War, who, lower down in the picture, prepares his vehement prophetic apostrophe to the
legislative body:
“In refusing to help me constitute a strong army, do you then wish
to convert France into a cemetery?”
Alas, yes, a cemetery! Now comes the Franco-German war, and now the
siege of Paris. Under the arcades of the resuscitated Tuileries Palace, while already the
sky is studded with bomb-shells and the H tel de Ville exhibits |
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its ruins in the background, General Trochu is discovered
with those members of the Government of National Defense who have not left Paris: Favre,
Picard, and Arago. They are conferring about the best means to carry on an unequal
contest. At the same time, by a privilege of ubiquity allowable to all artists, you find
yourself suddenly transported to a great distance from Paris in one of those siege
balloons which dot the air with the carrier-pigeons — our postmen of the Ann e
Terrible. Gambetta, with impassioned brow and upraised arm, inspirits with patriotic ardor
the generals around him, Bourbaki, Chanzy, and Faidherbe, and even the aged deputy
Cr mieux and Mr. de Freycinet, his colleagues.
Peace is now concluded and Mr. Thiers placed at the head of the
national government. He has crushed the Commune, whose last champions, Delescluze,
Flourens, and Jourde, we have delineated, together with its last victims, Darboy,
Deguerry, and Bonjean. Mr. Thiers is surrounded by Generals de Cissey, Vinoy, and de
Gallifet, whom he addresses while issuing his instructions to Mr. Pouyer Quertier and Mr.
R musat, his Cabinet ministers.
A change of scene follows. Marshal MacMahon is President, and the
coalition of the 16th of May is on foot. Its instigators, the Duc de Broglie and Mr.
Buffet, endeavor to
bring about a capitulation of the Republican journalists, Girardin, Ranc, About, and
H brard, massed in a group below. To the left, at the top of a monumental stairway,
Marshal MacMahon presides over the Exhibition of 1878. Ladies in fashionable toilets of
the time line the stone steps. It is the last important event of the septennate. Mr.
Gr vy then comes to the front as third President of the Republic, with a number of
parliamentary notabilities, Mr. Lockroy |
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