Word: gambetta
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...capture of Napoleon III at Sedan on Sept. 2,1870, ended the Second Empire, but not the Franco-Prussian War. Invested by the German Armies, cut off from the rest of France, without defenders at the front, Paris organized its own resistance under fiery, one-eyed Interior Minister Leon Gambetta. The city held out for four desperate months. Then Bismarck laid down his harsh peace terms to the provisional Government of Adolphe Thiers at Versailles. Radical Parisians, still armed for the siege and fearing a restoration of the monarchy, set up a revolutionary Commune on March 18, 1871. The city...
Nevertheless, Paris remained. The futility of its resistance simply emphasizes the heroism of the defenders. For four months the city underwent a continual bombardment. Thiers and Gambetta, balloon ascensions across the Prussian lines, the relief army from the South, the National Guard, and the final triumphal entry of the besiegers, followed by the proclamation in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles of the German Empire--the whole is a fantasy worthy of the Arabian Nights, with a note of tragedy added...
Came the Franco-Prussian War, Sedan, the fall of the Empire. The Prussians encircled Paris. Fiery Leon Gambetta escaped in a balloon to direct the war from Tours. The beleaguered Parisians were left to eat rats and sawdust bread, shout the "Marseillaise" from the ramparts. Banker Dreyfus had an opportunity to purchase Critic Timbal's collection at a very attractive price. During the next 20 years, when defeated France was re-establishing herself, he had many similar opportunities...
Whenever a great Frenchman dies, the first thing that seems to be done is to cut out his brain, weigh it and forever after discuss it. They did it to Gambetta. They have done it to Anatole France, the distinguished novelist who died last year (TIME, Oct. 20, BOOKS). The weight of his brain was 1,017 grams, whereas the average weight of the human brain is 1,390 grams. Some scientist declared that it is now established that the profundity of intellectual power is not dependent on physical size. Others contended that, in M. France's case...
...French, the most sacred relics of their great are the hearts of those great. For 42 years, the little house of Les Jardies has drawn a steady stream of pilgrims to view the heart of the patriot Gambetta. It bears the coat of arms of every town of Alsace-Lorraine. Now Montigny-le-Rio, in the Haute-Marne, birthplace of Flammarion, is by his will to have his heart to put in an urn in the City Hall, and 10,000 francs and the astronomer's bust and portrait as well...