The battle was one of artillery.  The German guns commanded every part of the crowded valley.  Indeed, the fight was simply a massacre.  There was no hope for the French, though they fought bravely.  Their best troops, the Garde Imperiale, were with Bazaine at Metz.  Marshal MacMahon was wounded very early in the day.  The command passed first to General Ducrot, who was also disabled, and afterwards to Wimpfen, a brave African general who had hurried from Algeria just in time to take part in this disastrous day.  He told the emperor that the only hope was for the troops to cut their way out of the valley; but the army was too closely crowded, too disorganized, to make this practicable.  One Zouave regiment accomplished this feat, and reached Belgium.

That night—­the night of September 1—­an aide-de-camp of the Emperor Napoleon carried this note to the camp of the king of Prussia:—­

MONSIEUR MON FRERE,—­Not having been able to die in midst of my troops, it only remains for me to place my sword in the hands of your Majesty.

  I am your Majesty’s good brother,

    NAPOLEON.

The king of Prussia replied,—­

MONSIEUR MON FRERE,—­Regretting the circumstances under which we meet, I accept the sword of your Majesty, and I invite you to designate one of your officers, provided with full powers, to treat for the capitulation of the army which has so bravely fought under your command.  On my side I have named General von Moltke for that purpose.

  I am your Majesty’s good brother,

    WILLIAM.

Before Sedan, Sept. 1, 1870.

“The next morning early, a carriage containing four French officers drove out from Sedan, and came into the German lines.  The carriage had an escort of only three horsemen.  When it had reached the Germans, one of its occupants put out his head and asked, in German, for Count von Bismarck?  The Germans replied that he was at Donchery.  Thither the carriage dashed away.  It contained the French emperor.”

With Napoleon III. fell not only his own reputation as a ruler, but the glory of his uncle and the prestige of his name.

The fallen emperor and Bismarck met in a little house upon the banks of the Meuse.  Chairs were brought out, and they talked in the open air.  It was a glorious autumn morning.  The emperor looked care-worn, as well he might.  He wished to see the king of Prussia before the articles of capitulation were drawn up:  but King William declined the interview.  When the capitulation was signed, however, he drove over to visit the captive emperor at a chateau where the latter had taken refuge.

Their interview was private; only the two sovereigns were present.  The French emperor afterwards expressed to the Crown Prince of Prussia his deep sense of the courtesy shown him.  He was desirous of passing as unnoticed as possible through French territory, where, indeed, exasperation against him, as the first cause of the misfortunes of France, was so great that his life would have been in peril.  The next day he proceeded to the beautiful palace at Cassel called Wilhelmshoehe, or William’s Rest.  It had been built at ruinous expense by Jerome Bonaparte while king of Westphalia, and was then called Napoleon’s Rest.