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12 August 1899 — Plombières | |
Saturday. 12th August [1899]. I had a message from a lady staying in this hotel to say she was Mme Mercier de l’Ostende & had been my colleague at Madrid. I had seen a lady whose face I seemed to know—but she is stout with bright red hair & I never suspected she was the Bss Mercier who when last I saw her was tall, slight & with brown hair. I arranged to meet her in my room & we had an affectionate meeting. She told me her son Brosé who was 9 when I knew him was high up in the French navy & his wife is staying here– Her lovely daughter Madeleine who married Ct Lascaris died last year having 6 daughters. Baron Mercier was a great friend of Henry’s & a charming man. He was French Ambr when we first went to Madrid. Being there without his family at the time the Franco-Prussian war broke out he used to dine often with us. He used to say he could not sleep at night for the newspaper boys shouting under his windows “Total defeat of the French.” Sometimes we rode together Henry, he & I in the Casa de Campo. I remember that after Prim’s speech in the Chambers referring darkly to the Hohenzollern candidate to the Spanish throne they talked it over & Henry said he had written it all to his Govt. Mercier remarked that if Henry wrote all such details home to his Govt he wd have nothing else to do—& he had not thought it necessary to do so. He must subsequently have regretted not having done so—as when his Govt was asked in the Chambers whether Mercier had told them of it, they had to say he had not & had to recall him. Whereas when asked in the House of Commons our Govt could say Henry had done so. M. & Mme Mercier lived unhappily & were seldom together. I remember that Mme M. had a baby about this time—& her husband used to say openly he knew nothing about it—tho’ when the child was born he said no more—that child is here now a young man about 28– | |
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