" Thus the _Moniteur Universel_ described to its readers the
reception offered by the Emperor of France to Queen Victoria, the
Prince Consort and the future King of England. A few years later
Emperor Napoleon III commanded another fete amid the grandeurs of
Versailles, this time in honor of the King of Spain.
But the days and nights of royal spectacles at last came to an end--and
for all time. In the month of September, 1870, the chateau offered
refuge to German soldiers wounded in the short but bitter war with
France. In the _Oeil-de-Boeuf_, the Council Hall, the little
apartments of Louis XV and those of Marie Antoinete were placed four
hundred invalid cots. By October, Bismarck arrived in the town of
Versailles. During the next five months he resided on the Rue de
Provence, in the villa of Madame Jesse, widow of a prosperous cloth
manufacturer. His quarters were the center of diplomatic action during
the period that preceded the signing of the shameful peace terms.
January 18, 1871, the anniversary of the day on which the first king of
Prussia had crowned himself at Konigsberg (1701), was fixed for the
proclamation of William II as German Emperor, in the Hall of Mirrors.
In the phrase of a chronicler of that time, "It was impossible for the
boldest imagination to picture a more thorough revenge on the
traditional foes of Germany than the proclamation of the German Empire
in the storied palace of the Kings of France.
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