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 NAPOLEON III AND HIS COURT
 
 NAPOLEON III.
 
 NAPOLEON III 
 
 AND HIS COURT 
 
 BY 
 
 IMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND 
 
 TRANSLATED BY 
 
 ELIZABETH GILBERT MARTIN 
 
 WITH PORTRAITS 
 
 LONDON 
 HUTCHINSON & CO. 
 
 34, Paternoster Row 
 
 [All rights reserved]
 
 Norfoonti $«sb : 
 Berwick & Smith, Norwood, Mass., U.S.A
 
 SANTA BAKBARA 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PA QE 
 
 I. The Emperor in 1853 1 
 
 II. The Empress 16 
 
 III. The Tuileries 26 
 
 IV. The Palais-Royal 31 
 
 V. The Princesse Mathilde 41 
 
 \ VI. Paris in 1853 48 
 
 VII. The Republican Party 54 
 
 VIII. The Legitimist Party 60 
 
 IX. The Orleanist Party 66 
 
 X. The E3iperor Nicholas 73 
 
 ■jXl. The Czar and the French Empire 81 
 
 . XII. The Question of the Holy Places ... 90 
 
 ^XIII. The Mission of Prince Menchikoff 96 
 
 , X IV. Saint-Cloud, Dieppe, and Compiegne 104 
 
 XV. The Eastern Question 113 
 
 ^XVL January, 1854 123 
 
 v
 
 VI CONTENTS 
 
 CHATTER PAGE 
 
 '" XVII. The Declaration of War 133 
 
 XVIII. The War of the Orient 145 
 
 XIX. Biarritz 157 
 
 XX. Boulogne 165 
 
 XXI. The Crimea 174 
 
 XXII. The Battle of the Alma 185 
 
 XXIII. The Last Days of Saint-Arnaud 194 
 
 XXIV. Sebastopol 201 
 
 XXV. Balaclava 211 
 
 XXVI. Inkerman 217 
 
 XXVII. The Close of 1854 228 
 
 XXVIII. The Death of the Emperor Nicholas 241 
 
 XXIX. Napoleon III. and the Crimea 250 
 
 XXX. Windsor 259 
 
 XXXI. London 268 
 
 XXXII. The Attempt of Pianori 275 
 
 XXXIII. M. Drouyn de Lhuys 282 
 
 XXXIV. The Universal Exposition 292 
 
 XXXV. General Canrobert 298 
 
 XXXVI. General Pelissier 309 
 
 XXXVII. The Arrival of Queen Victoria 322
 
 CONTENTS vn 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 XXXVIII. The Queen at Saint-Cloud and Paris 327 
 
 XXXIX. The Queen's Departure 335 
 
 ^"XL. The Taking of Sebastopol 343 
 
 XLI. The Public Rejoicings 356 
 
 U-* XLII. The Close op 1866 362 
 
 XLIII. The Commencement of 1856 375 
 
 XLIV. The Birth of the Prince Imperial 383 
 
 XLV. Conclusion 393 
 
 PORTRAITS 
 
 Napoleon III Frontispiece 
 
 Nicholas I Face page 96 
 
 The Empress Eugenie " " 160 
 
 Marshal Pelissier " " 320
 
 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 THE EMPEROR IN 1853 
 
 X A ROCHEFOUCAULD, author of the Maxims, 
 -^ says that it " requires greater virtues to endure 
 good than evil fortune.'' In our previous volume 
 we have described the exiles, misfortunes, illusions, 
 and chagrins of Louis Napoleon. In this one we 
 shall describe his joys and successes. 
 
 At the time of his marriage the second Emperor 
 was happy. Everything smiled on him. He 
 seemed to have made a pact with fortune. His 
 only remaining regret was that his mother, Queen 
 Hortense, who even in blaming his absurd Stras- 
 bourg expedition had never failed to console and 
 encourage Avhile every one else disowned and 
 insulted him, was no longer there to behold his 
 triumph. 
 
 In private, Napoleon III. had not the melancholy 
 aspect attributed to him by Flandrin in a celebrated 
 portrait. He loved life and was fond of power. 
 Everything interested, nothing surfeited him. As 
 much in love at fort}--four as a young man of 
 
 l
 
 2 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 twent}', he had a real passion for his wife. Look- 
 ing at her, he would have been ready to repeat with 
 La Bruyere : " A beautiful face is the most beautiful 
 sight of all, and the sweetest harmony is the voice 
 of the woman we love." 
 
 The second Emperor, who had always been ambi- 
 tious, found his new situation all the more enjoy- 
 able because he owed it to no one but himself and 
 had been its sole prophet at a time when all others 
 regarded his projects as the idle dreams of a vision- 
 ary. The flouted conscript, become a sovereign, 
 had a prestige at the beginning of his reign which 
 is not taken into account now that his figure is 
 more than overclouded by the final catastrophes. 
 The Napoleon of 1853 bears no resemblance to the 
 Napoleon of 1870. 
 
 One of the greatest geniuses of modern times, 
 M. de Lamartine, has thus expressed himself con- 
 cerning the second Emperor (Memoires, t. IV., livre 
 xxii., p. 56): "After a first conversation followed 
 by many others in grave circumstances, I recog- 
 nized, in spite of my prejudices against his name, 
 the strongest and most serious statesman whom I 
 had met in all my long life. I said as much to all 
 of my colleagues, who, knowing my relations with 
 him, asked my opinion. 'My opinion,' I replied, 
 'is that Providence, who is wiser than we, has kept 
 a man in store for us who is superior to his idle. 
 Don't imagine that you can trifle with a man like 
 that. By chance or inspiration the crowd has laid
 
 THE EMPEROR IN 1853 
 
 its hand upon a great name for history. ' Some of 
 them believed me. I did not overrate him. His 
 silence except when speech was necessary left ordi- 
 nary men in doubt. For my own part, I did not 
 long hesitate to rank him as much superior to his 
 uncle, who was the foremost soldier but one of the 
 most insignificant statesmen of his time." 
 
 If Napoleon III. was appreciated in this way by 
 the founder of the second Republic, it is easy to 
 divine what flatteries were heaped upon him by his 
 courtiers and attendants. It was surely praise- 
 worthy in him not to become intoxicated by their 
 incense, but to maintain in prosperity the absolute 
 calm from which he had never departed in adversity. 
 He did not abuse his victory, and tried to speak and 
 act, not as the chief of the imperialists, but of all 
 Frenchmen. Napoleon I. had said: "To govern 
 with a party is to become dependent on it soon or 
 late. Nobody will catch me in that snare. I am 
 national. I will make use of all who have the 
 ability and inclination to follow me." Napo- 
 leon III. said: "I wish to inaugurate an era of 
 peace and conciliation, and I summon all without 
 distinction who will act with me for the public 
 welfare." He would have preferred to gain the 
 republicans, for his personal tendencies were pro- 
 gressive rather than conservative, his seat was on 
 the left benches rather than the right. 
 
 The founder of an absolute empire, in 1853 he 
 gave men room to hope for a liberal one. In the
 
 4 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 speech he delivered from the throne on February 14 
 occurs this curious passage: "To those who may 
 regret that greater liberty has not been accorded, I 
 will reply that liberty has never helped to found a 
 durable political edifice; it crowns it after it has 
 been consolidated by time." He closed his dis- 
 course as follows: "Let us thank Providence for 
 the visible protection it has granted to our efforts. 
 We shall persevere in this path of firmness and 
 moderation, which reassures without irritating, 
 which leads to prosperity without violence, and 
 thus prevents reaction." Napoleon III. was not a 
 party man. He sincerely desired prosperity, prog- 
 ress, and peace. The confiscation of a portion of 
 the property of the Orleans family was probably his 
 sole derogation from that policy of pacification 
 which became the foundation of his system after the 
 violent measures of the Coup d'Etat and the unjust 
 deportations which followed it. 
 
 Studying the second Emperor at the beginning 
 of his reign, we shall propound the following 
 questions: Was Napoleon III. good? Was he gen- 
 erous? Did he love the people? Was he indus- 
 trious? Was he religious? Was he inclined to 
 peace ? 
 
 Was Napoleon III. kind and good? Even his 
 adversaries have recognized his kindness. It Avas 
 his leading characteristic, that which dominated 
 all the others. M. Emile Zola sums up as follows 
 the portrait he has drawn of him: "At bottom a
 
 THE EMPEROR IN 1853 5 
 
 kind man haunted by generous dreams, incapable 
 of a bad action, most sincere in the unshakable 
 conviction which carried him through the events of 
 Iiis life, and which was that of a man predestined 
 to a part." M. Emile Ollivier lays stress in these 
 words on the influence exerted over himself by the 
 affectionate nature of the sovereign: "He was ca- 
 pable of friendship. No one has ever heard him 
 speak well of himself and ill of others. . . . His 
 eye, dull or severe to indifferent persons, to his 
 friends was keen, charming, lighted up by an affec- 
 tionate gleam which captivated. . . . Kindness 
 was the chief trait of his moral character, a con- 
 stant, untiring, inexhaustible kindness which made 
 no difference between great and small, between 
 friends and enemies, an affecting kindness which, 
 alas! was perhaps irreconcilable with the inflexi- 
 bility essential to the leaders of men. Spiritually 
 he was akin to Marcus Aurelius and Saint Vincent 
 de Paul. Walking out once in his youth, a beggar 
 extended his hand for alms; having no money, he 
 gave him his gloves, his handkerchief, and his 
 watch-chain." His affability was perfect and his 
 equanimity unalterable. As polite to the least of 
 his servants as to a great lord or a sovereign, he 
 wished to see all around him happ} r . Those who 
 lived with him throughout his entire reign cannot 
 remember to have seen him exhibit a sign of anger 
 or impatience. 
 
 M. Ernest Pinard says: "The Emperor was
 
 6 NAPOLEON III. AND UIS COURT 
 
 grateful. He never forgot a service rendered; he 
 sought to repay it a hundred-fold. It surprised him 
 that the Bourbons should have done so little for 
 Brittany, the heroic Vendee, and the descendants 
 of the victims of Quiberon. He was an absolutely 
 faithful friend by nature far more than by calcula- 
 tion. Hence he overwhelmed with favors those 
 who had surrounded him in his days of peril and 
 misfortune." He abundantly rewarded his accom- 
 plices of Strasbourg and Boulogne, but he also 
 rewarded those who had done their duty by aiding 
 to arrest him. As M. Fernand Giraudeau has 
 reminded us in his remarkable work, Napoleon III 
 intime : " To M. Chopin d' Arnouville, prefect of the 
 Lower Rhine at the time of the Strasbourg affair, 
 he intrusted several missions, and made his son an 
 advocate-general at Paris. The son of the sub- 
 prefect whose energy brought his second attempt 
 to such a speedy close, became in 1852 one of his 
 strongest prefects. He made the mayor of Bou- 
 logne, who had actively assisted in his arrest, an 
 officer, and the gendarme who first laid a hand upon 
 him a chevalier of the Legion of Honor." To sum 
 up, the Emperor was humane, compassionate, for- 
 getful of injuries received. He had meditated on 
 that beautiful saying of Bossuet: "When God 
 formed the heart and the entrails of man, He placed 
 goodness there as the peculiar character of the 
 divine nature, and to be as it were the sign manual 
 of that beneficent hand from which we come forth.
 
 THE EM PE IcOIi IN 1S5S 
 
 Goodness, then, should be the very foundation of 
 our heart, and at the same time the chief attraction 
 we possess for gaining the good will of other 
 men." 
 
 Was Napoleon III. generous ? One may say that 
 he was so even to prodigality. The day of the 
 Coup d'Etat he distributed fifty thousand francs, 
 all that was left of his private fortune, among the 
 troops. The idea of hoarding up never occurred to 
 him when he became Emperor. He gave to friends 
 and enemies, to those who were indifferent to him, 
 to eveiybody. He considered himself as the usu- 
 fructuary of the imperial palaces and bound to make 
 France the chief gainer by them. He dwelt in 
 them like a traveller who, installed in a furnished 
 house for an indefinite time, spends as much money 
 there as possible. For him the only charm that 
 money possessed was that of giving it away. He 
 took especial pleasure in putting his opponents 
 under pecuniary obligations, and as he did not 
 count on the gratitude of those whom he benefited, 
 he sought no other reward for almsgiving than the 
 gift itself. Every month he spent his civil list to 
 the last sou, and it was twenty-five millions a year. 
 He had asked that it should be but twelve. But 
 without his knowledge, and through a stratagem of 
 M. de Persigny, who induced the Senate to believe, 
 untruly, that the sovereign desired a civil list of 
 twenty-five millions, a decree of that body fixed it 
 at that sum. The only use the Emperor made of it
 
 8 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 was to favor trade, encourage literature, science, 
 and the arts, and to succor the unfortunate. 
 
 Did Napoleon III. love the common people? 
 "Above all," writes M. de La Gorce, in his mas- 
 terly Histoire du Second .Empire, "he loved the 
 people, not especially his own (for he was more 
 humanitarian than patriotic), but all peoples, that 
 is to say, the poor, the feeble, those without place 
 or position." The great aim of his home policy 
 was to increase as much as possible the moral and 
 material well-being of the majority. He made 
 inquiries on all sides in order to find out what 
 could be done in favor of the unfortunate classes. 
 Any one who came to propose a social reform 
 which seemed practicable was received, listened to, 
 and encouraged. The publication of the accounts 
 of his civil list shows that it was literally that of 
 the poor. At the end of every quarter, he secured 
 at his own cost, by the intermediation of the pre- 
 fect of police, a shelter for small tenants who had 
 been evicted, or prevented their eviction by paying 
 the arrears of their rent. We read in M. Ernest 
 Pinard's Journal: "The Emperor often summoned 
 to the council, or after the council, the prefect of 
 the Seine and the prefect of police, in order that, 
 in company with his ministers, they might study 
 a series of measures in favor of the classes in 
 straitened circumstances. There was question of 
 taking goods out of pawn at certain dates, of 
 diminishing the tolls on articles of prime necessity,
 
 TEE EMPEROll IX 1S53 9 
 
 of lowering the tax on personal property for small 
 tenants." 
 
 Finally, let us cite these lines from M. A. 
 Granier de Cassao-nac: — 
 
 " The first and chief preoccupation of Napoleon III. 
 was the question of poverty. He did not hope to 
 abolish, but he persistently longed to ameliorate it. 
 'Every man whom I make comfortable,' he said to 
 me, 'is a recruit whom I abduct from the theories 
 of socialism. ' But he saw only three fertile sources 
 whence comfort could proceed: labor, family life, 
 and desires ruled and limited by religion. . . . He 
 wanted at any cost to give an impulse to agricul- 
 tural labor. . . . With equal passion he desired 
 to better the condition of the working population 
 of cities. . . . All Europe knows now that the 
 Emperor died poor; but the cause of his poverty is 
 not sufficiently well known. Now the cause is 
 this : The Emperor had despoiled himself through 
 generosity. In the seventeen and a half years of 
 his reign he had given away ninety millions." 
 
 To sum up, Napoleon loved the people and was 
 always very indulgent toward their errors. Twice 
 in 1849 he asked amnesty from the ministerial 
 council for the insurgents of June, 1848, who had 
 been transported en bloc and without trial, in 
 accordance with a law passed by the National 
 Assembly. His then ministers twice refused this 
 amnesty, which was nevertheless so just. As to 
 love for the people, many republicans, alas! might
 
 10 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 have taken lessons from the second Emperor. He 
 was the friend of the working classes, of the 
 peasants, and of the poor. His greatest honor in 
 history will be to have devoted himself to the cause 
 of the proletariat. 
 
 Was Napoleon III. industrious ? Excepting meal- 
 times and a short excursion on horseback or in a 
 carriage, he worked all day and frequently all the 
 evening. He read all letters and petitions addressed 
 to him. He never failed to preside at the minis- 
 terial council, which met either at the Tuileries or 
 Saint-Cloud on Tuesday and Saturday of every week 
 at nine o'clock in the morning. Following all 
 affairs, whether home or foreign, with the utmost 
 attention, he read a great many journals and a daily 
 analysis of the diplomatic despatches sent to the 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs. His messages and 
 speeches from the throne were written with a rare 
 elegance of thought and diction, and he always 
 revised them himself. He was in personal relations 
 with many journalists, whom he inspired and in 
 reality collaborated with. Whatever may have been 
 said to the contrary, pleasure took only a secondary 
 place in his life. At the Tuileries and Saint-Cloud 
 he worked as diligently as he had done at what he 
 called the university of Ham, the prison where he 
 finished his political education. A writer of dis- 
 tinction, he was deeply interested in literature, 
 especially in historical works. Versed in the sci- 
 ences, he followed their progress and discoveries
 
 THE EMPEROR IN 1853 11 
 
 with the utmost attention. During his reign 
 authors received 2,200,000 francs, and scientists 
 and inventors 2,500,000 francs from him. Few 
 men have possessed such varied attainments or set 
 in motion so considerable a mass of ideas. In fine, 
 the Emperor was very laborious, very active, and 
 not many sovereigns have fulfilled their tasks with 
 so much zeal and conscientiousness. 
 
 Was Napoleon III. religious? M. Ernest Pinard 
 writes in his interesting journal: "I have often 
 heard it asked whether he were a religious man or 
 a fatalist, and I think I may reply that he was both. 
 Such is the opinion of those who knew him best. 
 The two verdicts are not contradictory, and this 
 dual tendency has existed in many superior men." 
 In 1852 a leader of the Catholic party addressed a 
 report to him on liberty of instruction, to which he 
 replied: "My mother brought me up a Catholic, 
 and I shall remain loyal to my faith." 
 
 The imperial government, even while favoring 
 the clergy and the monastic orders, was never 
 accused of clericalism. The popular origin of the 
 dynasty saved it from such recriminations as were 
 aimed at the theoretical alliance between the throne 
 and the altar during the reign of Charles X. The 
 candidate elected by plebiscites could do what a 
 monarch by divine right would have found very 
 difficult. As M. Fernand Giraudeau has judi- 
 ciously remarked: "Had one of the princes said, 
 'Religion is the basis of every government which
 
 12 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 comprehends its mission'; had he affirmed 'the 
 great principles of Christianity, which teach us 
 virtue in order to insure a good life, and immor- 
 tality that we may die well ' ; had he restored the 
 Pantheon to Catholic worship, introduced cardinals 
 into the Senate, facilitated the development of 
 religious congregations, restored the almoners of the 
 army and navy and created almoners of the last 
 prayers, caused Mass to be said in camps, recom- 
 mended abstention from work on Sundays by a 
 ministerial circular, had Lent preached at the 
 Tuileries by foreign monks like Ventura and 
 Jesuits like de Ravignan ; had permitted prelates to 
 communicate freely with the Holy See and between 
 themselves, to restore the long-suppressed provincial 
 councils, to forbid teaching the doctrine of 1682 and 
 to adopt the Roman liturgy; had he never visited a 
 city without paying his first visit to its cathedral 
 and addressing his first word to God, — would not 
 the censorious public speedily have denounced his 
 'clerical tendencies,' and sought to produce a reac- 
 tion? Coming from a Bonaparte, such words and 
 acts provoked neither grimaces nor raillery; on the 
 contrary, thej r obtained general approbation." 
 
 Later on, the Roman question somewhat disturbed 
 the concord between the Emperor and the clergy. 
 But in 1853 there was complete mutual understand- 
 ing. At that period Monseigneur Salinis, Bishop 
 of Amiens, declared that the Emperor had given the 
 Church "the greatest freedom it had enjoyed since
 
 THE EMPEROR IN 1853 13 
 
 Saint Louis." When laying the first stone of the 
 cathedral of Marseilles, the chief of the State said: 
 "My government is the only one that has supported 
 religion for its own sake. It supports it not as a 
 political instrument and to please a party, but solely 
 through conviction, through love for the good that 
 it inspires and the truths which it teaches." Let us 
 add that in 1853 the Emperor, far from giving scan- 
 dal in the fashion of Louis XIV. and Louis XV., 
 led an irreproachable private life and was the most 
 affectionate and faithful of husbands. 
 
 Was Napoleon III. inclined to peace ? Alas ! not 
 enough so. But in 1853, the happiest and most 
 prosperous year of his reign, he seemed to be sin- 
 cerely so. On opening the session, Februar}'- 14, 
 the Emperor said in the speech from the throne: 
 ' The government means before all things to ad- 
 minister France wisely and to reassure Europe. . . . 
 When France expresses the formal intention of 
 remaining at peace, she must be believed, for she 
 is strong enough to fear nothing, and consequently 
 to deceive nobody." As a pledge of his intentions, 
 he simultaneously announced a new reduction of 
 twenty thousand men from the effective force of 
 the army, which had already been reduced by thirty 
 thousand men in 1852. 
 
 And yet, by 1853, perspicacious observers might 
 have foreseen that the sovereign would not always 
 remain pacific. On September 20, after a review 
 at Satory, he addressed this significant language to
 
 14 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 the troops: "In difficult times what has upheld 
 empires if not these assemblages of armed men 
 drawn from the people, fashioned by discipline, 
 animated by the sentiment of duty, and, in the midst 
 of peace, when egotism and self-interest usually end 
 by enervating all, retaining that devotion to the 
 fatherland which is founded on self-abnegation, and 
 that love of glory which is based on contempt for 
 riches ? " To regain its natural frontiers for France, 
 to give nations the right to dispose of their own 
 destinies, to divide the powers that had united 
 against Napoleon I., — such were the dreams that 
 already haunted the mind of the second Emperor, 
 but which he still had sufficient prudence to con- 
 ceal. Accustomed under the reign of Louis Phil- 
 ippe to hear the opposition declaim against what 
 it called "peace at any price," and rise in revolt 
 against the Holy Alliance, which, after all, had 
 harmed France less since the close of the first 
 Empire than has been pretended, he was, alas! 
 fated to aggravate the treaties of 1815 by dint of 
 seeking to destroy them. Let us add that the pres- 
 ent condition of minds in France bears no resem- 
 blance to what it was at the beginning of the second 
 Empire. At present, bitter experience has taught 
 us the cost of a disastrous war. In 1853, France, 
 cradled in the imperial legend, thought herself 
 invincible. The officers, eager for advancement, 
 dreamed of nothing but dangers and glory. Napo- 
 leon III. was about to allow himself to be carried
 
 THE EMPEROR IN 1853 15 
 
 away b}^ a military current which he should have 
 had the .sagacity and strength to stem. We persist 
 in believing that the Bordeaux speech would have 
 been the best and most fertile of programmes, and 
 not for France alone but for all Europe. The first 
 Emperor had been the Napoleon of war. The second 
 should have been the Napoleon of peace.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THE EMPRESS 
 
 /^VUR work entitled, Louis Napoleon and Made- 
 ^^^ moiselle de Montijo, terminates on January 30, 
 1853, at the moment when the Emperor and Em- 
 press, returning from Notre-Dame, re-enter the 
 palace of the Tuileries. Napoleon III., appearing by 
 turns on the two grand balconies of the hall of the 
 Marshals, one of which gave on the court and the 
 other on the garden, presented to the people and 
 the army the new sovereign, whose greeting, full of 
 elegance and affability, of majest}^ and supreme 
 grace, drew from the crowd a long murmur of 
 admiration. A few minutes later the married pair 
 set off for the chateau of Saint-Cloud, where they 
 had chosen to spend their honeymoon, in a coupe 
 drawn by four horses, preceded by two outriders 
 and followed by a travelling-carriage for the ser- 
 vice and two baggage wagons. The hats of the pos- 
 tilions were adorned with ribbons. 
 
 The Empress was happy. Yet the radiant sky of 
 her happiness was flecked by some faint clouds of 
 sadness and melancholy. Just as she was finishing 
 her toilette before going to the ceremony at Notre- 
 
 1(3
 
 THE EMPRESS 17 
 
 Dame, an old Spanish servant had said to her : " I 
 entreat you, madame, do not wear that necklace of 
 pearls ; I am afraid of it. Remember what they say 
 in our country : ' The more pearls one wears on the 
 day of her marriage, the more tears she sheds the 
 rest of her life.'" Nevertheless the Empress had 
 worn the necklace. But the remark of the servant 
 had left a painful impression, and, thinking of the 
 sufferings endured by the Women of the Tuileries, 
 she reflected that perhaps her eyes would soon be 
 reddened and scorched by tears like theirs. 
 
 On February 1, a fine winter day, the Emperor, 
 driving his own phaeton, took the Empress from 
 Saint-Cloud to the palace of Versailles. She was 
 very simply dressed and had neither an escort nor 
 a lady to accompany her. M. Eudore Soulie, the 
 regretted curator of the museum of Versailles 
 (father-in-law of M. Victorien Sardou), has told us 
 that on alighting from her carriage the Empress 
 asked him to show her all the portraits of Marie 
 Antoinette. She meditated long before those five 
 portraits, two of which were painted by the Swedish 
 artist Roslin, and two by Madame Vigee-Lebrun. 
 The Empress, who had always had a cult for the 
 memory of the martyr-queen, also wished to make a 
 sort of pilgrimage to the Little Trianon. 
 
 Some days later, — the 10th of February, — she 
 went with the Emperor to visit the museum of 
 sovereigns at the Louvre, the creation of which had 
 been determined on by Napoleon III., and which was
 
 18 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 soon to be thrown open to the public. This interest- 
 ing museum, whose dispersion has been a misfortune 
 from the point of view of respect for history, occu- 
 pied five large halls adjoining the Louvre colon- 
 nade. The most precious relics of both the royal 
 and imperial monarchies had been collected there. 
 The Emperor had said to Comte de Nieuwerkerke, 
 superintendent of the Beaux- Arts : " Remember that 
 I wish to bring together in the museum of sovereigns 
 all that can revive the memory of the kings or 
 emperors of France, all that bears the impress of 
 their individuality. Cover the walls of the hall of 
 the Valois or the Bourbons with lilies, just as you 
 will sprinkle with bees the great purple mantle of 
 the hall of the Emperor." The aspect of this last 
 hall, filled with souvenirs of the victor of Austerlitz, 
 and dimly lighted, produced a striking impression. 
 One might say with the Moniteur, that Napoleon 
 had thenceforward two great funeral monuments on 
 the banks of the Seine, one at the Invalides, where 
 his body lay, the other at the Louvre, where his 
 spirit hovered. 
 
 What affected the Empress Eugenie most at the 
 museum of sovereigns was the collection of souve- 
 nirs of Marie Antoinette. A spectator of this visit, 
 Comte Horace de Viel-Castel, shall describe it : 
 
 " The Empress," he says, " wished to have the 
 beautiful testamentary letter of Marie Antoinette to 
 Madame Elisabeth read to her ; the Emperor seemed 
 profoundly thoughtful and affected. The souvenirs
 
 THE EMPRESS 19 
 
 of Louis XVI. and Marie Antoinette always moved 
 him deeply. There was something sad and striking 
 in being present at this reading, made before a 
 young and beautiful empress at the beginning of her 
 reign and still in the first bewilderments of an un- 
 hoped-for happiness. There was in it a lesson from 
 misfortune, a sob from bygone times. . . . The 
 Empress listened in silence and with tearful eyes to 
 those last words of a mother ready to ascend the 
 scaffold, of a mother who at that terrible moment 
 could not even embrace the children whom she left 
 in the hands of her executioners." 
 
 February 14, at the Tuileries, in the hall of the 
 Marshals, the Empress was present at the opening 
 of the legislative session. She sat in a tribune 
 facing the Emperor's throne, with the Princesse 
 Mathilde on her right and the Comtesse de Monti jo 
 on her left. At the close of the ceremony, the 
 great bodies of the State saluted her in the name 
 of France, and her face showed keen emotion. 
 "People admired her," M. A. Granier de Cas- 
 sagnac has said, "because they saw that she was 
 beautiful ; they honored her because they knew 
 that she was good ; and if the six hundred thou- 
 sand francs' worth of diamonds offered by the 
 cit}^ of Paris, and reserved by her wish for the 
 bringing up of poor girls, did not glitter on her 
 person, the splendor of the absent necklace was 
 far surpassed by the halo of affectionate respect 
 which rose from the hearts of grateful mothers.
 
 20 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 . . . She had entered Notre-Dame chosen by the 
 Emperor; she left it adopted by France."' 
 
 March 12, the Empress went with the Emperor 
 to visit the educational institute of the Legion of 
 Honor at Saint-Denis. According to custom, a 
 velvet dais had been prepared to receive Their 
 Majesties. They would not accept it, but went 
 directly to the chapel occupied by the pupils. The 
 Emperor thanked the chaplain who had just in- 
 voked the blessing of Heaven upon him. "I am 
 happier," said he, " than on my previous visit, since 
 I am this time accompanied by the Empress, who 
 is henceforward the protectress of this house and 
 who knows so well how to acquit herself of the 
 task." On leaving the chapel, they went to the 
 refectory and the playground. The sick pupils in 
 the infirmary could not be forgotten. The Em- 
 peror and Empress went to them with encouraging 
 and kindly words. Then, after visiting the basilica 
 of Saint-Denis, they walked to the further end of 
 the town. 
 
 Less than two months after the marriage of her 
 daughter, Madame de Montijo went back to Spain. 
 M. Prosper Merimee escorted her as far as Poitiers. 
 On returning to Paris, he wrote a letter, not to 
 compliment but to console her. " It is a terrible 
 thing," said he, "to have daughters and to marry 
 them off. But what would you have ? The Script- 
 ures say that the woman must quit her parents to 
 follow her husband. Now that your duties as a
 
 THE EMPRESS 21 
 
 mother are accomplished (and, in truth, nobodj 
 can deny that you have married your daughters 
 very well), you must think of living for yourself." 
 
 In the fine work which he has devoted to the 
 author of the Chronique du regne de Charles IX, 
 M. Auguste Filon writes : " While Merimee as- 
 sisted at the beginnings of the young Empress, it 
 was like a fairy scene in a theatre whose splendors 
 are about to be renewed. . . . More than once, 
 during the early months of 1853, he must have 
 wondered if he were dreaming, or if he were still 
 playing comedy at Carabanchel. This little girl, 
 whom he had taken about, scolded, amused, whose 
 slim fingers, nervous and timid, had clung fast to 
 his in passing through Parisian crowds, people now 
 addressed — and he like the others — as 'Your Maj- 
 esty.' On that brow, where he had watched the 
 birth of the first languors and the first reveries, 
 sparkled the famous jewels which told the story 
 of four centuries of monarchy and empire, — the 
 history of France in diamonds. He had aided in 
 teaching her the language of this people over whom 
 she was going to reign ; the words which he had 
 been the first to implant in her memory she was 
 about to lavish as so many favors, and they would 
 overwhelm their recipients." 
 
 Merimee was made a senator June 23, 1853, and 
 the Empress embraced her husband heartily when 
 he told the good news. To these details M. Au- 
 guste Filon adds : " What charmed Merimee, now
 
 22 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 that he saw things at short range, — what he was 
 truly delighted to repeat to Madame de Montijo, 
 — was the way in which the Empress played her 
 part, or, as he expressed it, worked at her trade. 
 She was not merely the central figure in an ad- 
 mirable living picture, but a veritable sovereign. 
 She knew how to speak and how to keep silence, 
 she saw clearly and correctly, because she sought 
 what was good and studied the duties of her state 
 in order to devote herself to them. He was struck 
 with her good sense when it was proposed, with 
 a view to please her, to introduce bull fights in 
 France. She comprehended that a bull fight in 
 Paris would be a scandal or a fiasco, perhaps both, 
 and the project fell through." 
 
 It may be said in all sincerity that the Empress, 
 at the beginning of the Empire, had gained all 
 suffrages. What was particularly pleasing in her 
 was, as has been said by the Comtesse Stephanie 
 de Tascher, " a kind of timidity and doubt of her- 
 self combined with triumphant beaut}? - and her 
 new and lofty situation." At this time, she and 
 the Emperor set the example of a most united 
 and affectionate family. Napoleon III. said : " No 
 woman could suit me better ; she is devoted, cheer- 
 ful, good, intelligent." In every circumstance he 
 displayed a thoughtful affection for this beloved 
 companion with whom he was sincerely in love ; 
 he always thee'd and thou'd her and called her by 
 her pet name ; when he looked at or spoke to her, 
 he seemed a lover rather than a husband.
 
 THE EMPRESS 23 
 
 The Empress Eugenie had neither male nor fe- 
 male favorites ; nor was she surrounded by any 
 of those coteries for which Marie Antoinette was 
 so cruelly blamed. In 1853, the women of the 
 court of Versailles, whatever any one may say, 
 behaved excellently, and it was the Empress Eu- 
 genie who set them the good example. 
 
 At this period, no one would have dreamed of 
 reproaching the Empress on account of the splen- 
 dor of her jewels or the richness of her toilettes. 
 On the contrary, people would have taken it ill 
 if she had not been the most elegant woman in 
 the Empire. They thought well of her for en- 
 couraging the industries of luxury and promoting 
 Parisian trade. France, which loves pomp, desired 
 that no court in the world should surpass that of 
 Napoleon III. in magnificence. It was the Empress 
 who had the most beautiful toilettes in Europe. It 
 was the Emperor who had the handsomest horses 
 and the finest carriages. Republican simplicity was 
 abandoned. People delighted in uniforms, court 
 dresses, ornaments, trained gowns, full-dress per- 
 formances, grand balls. " The distinctive trait of 
 the Empress Eugenie," writes M. A. Granier de 
 Cassagnac, "was elegance in all things, — in mind, 
 in tastes, in her manner of receiving, in her per- 
 son. It was through this quality, which seems 
 essentially French, and of which Paris is the su- 
 preme judge, that, during seventeen years, she 
 exerted an unexampled prestige around her, — not
 
 24 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 simply in the sphere of the throne, but in all the 
 social circles which she entered on her journeys. 
 She was beautiful and gracious everywhere and to 
 all, — among patricians and among peasants, at 
 Paris as at Biarritz. . . . Although many women 
 especially favored by nature and by fortune have 
 attracted admiration and received homage at the 
 court, never has any one heard it said that a sin- 
 gle one of them had equalled, much less effaced, 
 the brilliancy of the Empress." 
 
 People were grateful to the new sovereign for 
 reviving the most brilliant traditions of the ancient 
 monarchy. She was sympathetic even to the adver- 
 saries of the Napoleonic dynasty. Before her mar- 
 riage she had frequented legitimist and Orleanist 
 salons, where she had left behind her the pleasant- 
 est memories. None of those who saw her in 1853, 
 either at the Bois de Boulogne in a carriage d la 
 daumont, preceded by an outrider and escorted by a 
 mounted equerry, or at the palace of the Tuileries, 
 where at grand balls she wore the crown diamonds 
 with so much majesty, can ever forget her dazzling 
 image. People were happy to be able to salute 
 her on the promenade, or to watch her at the 
 theatre, where her entry into the imperial box was 
 always greeted by applause. 
 
 In 1853 the Empress Eugenie did not occupy 
 herself with politics. She had no need to exert a 
 special influence, because there existed an absolute 
 conformity between her sentiments and those of
 
 THE EMPRESS 25 
 
 the Emperor. The policy of Napoleon III. was at 
 that time essentially conservative and religious. 
 Foreboding that he might soon have to war against 
 Russia, he would have taken good care not to 
 offend Austria, of whom he had need. 
 
 Protector of the Papacy, he appeared like a mod- 
 ern Charlemagne, and in no manner announced the 
 intention of relinquishing a part which gained him 
 the ardent sympathies of the clergy and those of 
 the Catholics of France and of the entire world. 
 Hence the Empress had the great joy of being in 
 perfect community of ideas with her husband. 
 
 Intelligent, active, well educated, the Empress led 
 a very busy life. Good works occupied a portion 
 of her days. The rest she employed in fitting her- 
 self for her role as sovereign, in giving audiences, 
 in serious reading, in making acquaintance with 
 new books, and keeping up with the movement in 
 literature and the arts. 
 
 To sum up, everything smiled on the Empress 
 Eugenie at the beginning of her reign. She was 
 really popular, because she had three qualities the 
 blending of which formed the most harmonious 
 whole : beauty, goodness, and charity. Since the 
 calamities which have overwhelmed her, the august 
 widow of Napoleon III. loves to recall this epoch 
 in which she shone with such a vivid splendor. 
 She does not say, like Dante, that there is no 
 greater pang than a reminiscence of happiness in 
 days of misfortune.
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE TUILERIES 
 
 r | ^HE aspect of palaces depends very greatly on 
 their occupants. At the periods when it was 
 profaned by the crowd, the chateau of the Tuile- 
 ries wore a morose and sinister appearance. On 
 becoming the abode of a powerful emperor and of 
 a dazzlingly beautiful empress, and the centre of 
 a young and powerful government, it resumed its 
 former prestige. The lugubrious souvenirs attached 
 to its history seemed to be effaced. The hour was 
 at hand when, completed by the finishing of the 
 Louvre, with which it would form one and the 
 same palace, it would constitute the most grandiose 
 and majestic residence of the world. Never had 
 Rome, even in the times of the Caesars, a similar 
 edifice. 
 
 During the first months that followed the Em- 
 peror's marriage, the chateau of the Tuileries was 
 as brilliant as it was animated. No one dreamed 
 as yet of such a contingency as a speedy war, and 
 worldly pleasures were undisturbed by any dis- 
 quietude or preoccupation. During the carnival 
 several balls were given at the Tuileries, and dur- 
 
 26
 
 THE TUILERIES 27 
 
 ing Lent concerts by the best male and female 
 singers. Every Thursday evening Their Majesties 
 received the high functionaries and their wives. 
 
 The Due de Bassano, the Emperor's grand cham- 
 berlain, and the duchess, lady of honor to the Em- 
 press, General Comte de Tascher de la Pagerie, 
 grand master of the household of the Empress, his 
 son and his daughter-in-law the Comte and Com- 
 tesse Charles, his daughter the Comtesse Stephanie, 
 canoness, lodged in the Tuileries in the apartments 
 situated behind the pavilion of Marsan, and giving 
 on the Rue de Rivoli. The weekly Friday even- 
 ings of the Due de Bassano and the Wednesdays 
 of the Comte Tascher de la Pagerie were very ele- 
 gant. " People really amused themselves at that 
 epoch," writes the Comtesse Stephanie. "I recol- 
 lect that one evening my brother conceived the 
 notion of giving a ball where all the guests should 
 be dressed as mummers. The festivity was at its 
 height when a band of dominos suddenly invaded 
 the salons. My brother received them with the 
 utmost courtesy, and everybody respected their 
 incognito ; but this did not hinder us from sus- 
 pecting our illustrious neighbors of having invaded 
 our frontier, followed by several of their intimate 
 friends. The fact is that these amiable dominos 
 seemed greatly amused by our gaiety, and to take 
 part in it." 
 
 This fete gave the idea of fanc}'-dress balls. The 
 grand master of the Empress's household offered one
 
 28 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 to the sovereign, and his daughter the Comtesse 
 Stephanie has given the details of it in the pretty 
 book entitled Mon SSjour aux Tuileries : " Our 
 apartment," she says, "had become a fairy garden, 
 a parterre of flowers over which passed and repassed 
 marchionesses and shepherdesses, fools, devils, peas- 
 ants, Turks, Greeks, people of all times and of 
 every country. And amidst this gaiety and anima- 
 tion, where we amused ourselves with uncovered 
 faces, dominos went up and down like shadows, in- 
 triguing and contriving every means to avoid being 
 recognized. This mystery gave piquancy to the 
 fete, and all the more because we knew that the two 
 highest personages of France were hidden beneath 
 the domino." 
 
 Towards eleven o'clock a first quadrille, led by 
 Comtesse Charles Tascher de la Pagerie, and com- 
 posed of male and female dancers, all of whom were 
 powdered, entered the salons. The quadrille was 
 continued by a minuet and followed by a slow and 
 cadenced waltz. A second quadrille came next, led 
 by Comtesse Stephanie de la Pagerie. Disguised as 
 Neapolitan peasants, the dancers carried distaffs of 
 flowers with which they formed an arbor. The 
 ballet terminated by a tarantella which was loudly 
 encored. 
 
 Then, slowly and with measured advance, came 
 gigantic bottles of champagne. Their corks sud- 
 denly popped out, and splitting from top to bottom 
 they gave egress to sailors who began to dance. The
 
 THE TUILERIES 29 
 
 fete ended with a supper to which the guests sat 
 down. The young Empress took great pleasure in 
 these balls, so picturesque and animated, and } r et 
 carefully restrained within the limits of propriety. 
 To sum up, the court of the second Emperor, not- 
 withstanding its magnificence, its luxury, and its 
 brilliancy, gave little offence to the innate sentiment 
 of equality in France, because this court, splendid 
 though it was, had no privileges, either from the 
 political or the social point of view. No entailed 
 estates, no birthrights, no hereditary seats in the 
 Senate, no tabourets for duchesses, no prerogatives 
 for titled personages. A plebeian, a self-made man, 
 a writer, a scientist, was on the same footing at the 
 Tuileries as a man belonging to the most ancient 
 nobility. The Emperor selected his orderly officers 
 on their record ; he concerned himself about their 
 merit and in nowise with their origin. In spite of 
 its etiquette and its high functions the court of 
 Napoleon was not in any way a court of the old 
 regime. The aristocracy which figured in it was 
 merely a superficial one which was not at all incom- 
 patible with modern society and the principles of 
 1789. This is why the majority of Parisians, ordi- 
 narily of so carping a temper, beheld without offence 
 the splendors of a court which afforded them a 
 brilliant spectacle without attacking their rights or 
 constituting a scornful coterie to their detriment. 
 At bottom, the second Empire was merely a sort of 
 compromise between opposed regimes, a transition
 
 30 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 between royalty and the Republic. One wonders 
 why Napoleon III. did not imitate the example given 
 by Napoleon I. in the first years of his reign, and put 
 the name of the Emperor on the coins beside the 
 name of the French Republic. He might thus, have 
 reminded himself that France had just saluted in 
 him the glorious parvenu, the crowned democracy. 
 
 In his prison at Ham he had written to George 
 Sand, January 24, 1845 : "If before the public eye 
 I keep to my title of prince, it is because this title 
 has always been disputed by men and governments 
 who regard the French Revolution as an accident 
 and all that the people have established from 1789 
 to 1812 as illegitimate. So long as France shall 
 have princes I will not tear up my certificate of 
 baptism ; but as soon as she recognizes none but 
 citizens, I will cheerfully pass the sponge over my 
 past." This did not prevent Louis Napoleon from 
 transforming himself into Napoleon III. 
 
 But it was not without long hesitation that he 
 resolved to put an end to the Republic. In his 
 character, his ideas, his policy, and even in the or- 
 ganization of his court at the Tuileries, he retained 
 certain aspects of republicanism.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 TUB PALAIS-ROYAL 
 
 r I ^HE Palais-Royal was assigned as residence to 
 the last of the brothers of Napoleon I., Prince 
 Jerome Bonaparte, and his son, Prince Napoleon. 
 On the right, in the court of the Horloge, is the 
 entrance of the grand stairway, one of the finest 
 that exist in Europe. This admirably proportioned 
 staircase, with its marvellously carved baluster, 
 leads to the apartments of the first story of the right 
 wing of the palace, — the Valois wing, — which were 
 those of the Dues de Valois, and in which King 
 Jerome installed himself in 1853. His bedroom 
 was that of King Louis Philippe and Queen Marie 
 Ame'lie. It is the room situated between what is 
 now the cabinet of the director of the Beaux-Arts 
 and that of the director of Civil Buildings; it is 
 used at present as a waiting-room. Next to it is a 
 small room where Marie Amelie wrote her letters, 
 and which she called the ecrivanie, in Italian, 
 scrivania. Part of the Valois wing is now occupied 
 by the Finance section of the Council of State. 
 The hall of the Tribunal of Conflicts is the former 
 dining-room of the Dues d' Orleans, King Jerome, 
 
 31
 
 32 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 and Prince Napoleon. It was there that the Regent 
 gave his famous suppers. 
 
 Prince Napoleon installed himself in the Nemours 
 wing, on the right side of the palace and looking 
 out on the Horloge court. The Palais-Royal had 
 just been very well restored, and the luxuriously 
 furnished apartments were magnificent. 
 
 Until Napoleon III. should have a son the 
 imperial heredity had been established in favor of 
 King Jerome and his descendants. The Emperor 
 had announced this decision by the organic statute 
 of December 26, 1853, prefacing it, however, by 
 this sentence: "We hope that it may be granted 
 to us under the divine protection to contract an 
 alliance which will permit us to leave direct 
 heirs." 
 
 In 1853 harmony existed between the Tuileries 
 and the Palais-Royal. It was not easy, at this 
 period, to make any sort of opposition to the 
 Emperor, the absolute master of France, who dis- 
 pensed all favors according to his own good pleasure. 
 King Jerome and Prince Napoleon knew very well 
 that if he had chosen he might, without arousing 
 the slightest ill feeling, have preferred to them the 
 descendants of Lucien Bonaparte, if not in accord- 
 ance with the imperial constitution of the first 
 Empire, at least according to the rights of primo- 
 geniture. By a senatorial decree of November 6, 
 1852, Napoleon III. had been left at liberty to 
 regulate the descent of the crown as he pleased, and
 
 THE PALAIS-ROYAL 33 
 
 it was to the sovereign's good-will that Jerome and 
 his son owed the favors heaped upon them. 
 
 Born November 15, 1784, the former King of 
 Westphalia had just passed his sixty-eighth birth- 
 day when the second Empire was proclaimed. He 
 knew very well that this restoration was due solely 
 to the initiative and the audacity of his nephew, 
 whom he had sharply blamed for his participation 
 in the insurrection of the Romagna and the ill- 
 concerted enterprises of Strasbourg and Boulogne. 
 Authorized to return to France toward the close 
 of Louis Philippe's reign, he had maintained excel- 
 lent relations with the King. At the moment when 
 the Revolution of February broke out he was on the 
 point of obtaining not simply the official cessation 
 of his exile, but a seat in the Chamber of Peers and 
 an annual endowment of one hundred thousand 
 francs. One may say that at this epoch he was an 
 Orleanist, like the majority of his former com- 
 panions in arms. 
 
 Under the second Republic King Jerome refused 
 to be nominated for deputy; nor, in spite of the 
 advice said to have been given him by his friend, 
 M. Thiers, would he be a candidate for the presi- 
 dency of the Republic, but effaced himself com- 
 pletely in presence of his nephew, whose candidacy 
 he supported. Louis Napoleon was grateful to him 
 for it. Resuming possession of the rank of general 
 of division, to which he had been appointed forty- 
 two years before, Jerome became, December 27,
 
 34 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 1848, governor-general of the Invalicles and guardian 
 of his brother's tomb. Not long after, he received 
 the baton of a marshal of France. December 2, 
 1851, at the very moment when his son was express- 
 ing himself violently against the Coup d'Etat, he 
 went on horseback and in uniform to the Elyse'e 
 and formed a part of the escort of Louis Napoleon. 
 When the Senate was constituted, he became its 
 president, but retained the post but a short time. 
 Since the re-establishment of the Empire he had 
 enjo}-ed all the honors and prerogatives of the first 
 prince of the blood. 
 
 Having contracted a morganatic marriage with a 
 noble Florentine, the Marchioness Bartholini, with 
 whom he installed himself at the Palais-Royal, he 
 found himself to have had three wives, two of whom 
 were still living. The first one was an American, 
 Miss Elizabeth Patterson of Baltimore, whom he 
 married December 27, 1803, when an officer of the 
 navy. But the First Consul, whose consent had 
 not been asked, based upon his brother's minority 
 the right to declare the nullity of this marriage in 
 spite of the latter's entreaties. Separated from his 
 young wife, Jerome continued to feel great affection 
 for her. She took refuge in England, where her 
 son was born, July 7, 1805. This son established 
 himself in the United States, where he married an 
 American, and lived under the name of Patterson- 
 Bonaparte, surrounded by general esteem. Shortly 
 after the restoration of the Empire Jerome received
 
 THE PALAIS-ROYAL 35 
 
 his son and grandson, MM. Patterson-Bonaparte, at 
 Paris, and displayed real affection for them. His 
 grandson, a handsome and brilliant young man, was 
 authorized to take service in the French army. He 
 distinguished himself and merited the cross of the 
 Legion of Honor in the Crimea. 
 
 Since November 29, 1835, the former King of 
 Westphalia had been the widower of the noble and 
 virtuous Catherine of Wurtemberg, whom he had 
 married August 23, 1837, and who had shown him 
 such devotion in both good and evil fortune. The 
 Marchioness Bartholini, with whom he contracted a 
 morganatic union, had been lady of honor to this 
 princess. 
 
 King Jerome led a more than princely existence 
 at the Palais-Royal. Officially he had only the 
 title of Imperial Highness, but he was always 
 addressed as Sire and Majesty. His manners were 
 those of a man of the old regime. His resemblance 
 to the great Emperor, the part he had played in the 
 Napoleonic epic, his valiant conduct in times of 
 victory as well as on the day of Waterloo, his long- 
 experience and his exquisite courtesy, gave him a 
 real prestige. One could not look at this veteran 
 of the imperial legend without emotion. Napo- 
 leon III. displayed towards him an affection blended 
 with deference, and the former King of Westphalia 
 had equal reason to be pleased with the Empress. 
 
 In Prince Napoleon the republican quickly ceded 
 his place to the prince of the blood. His opposi-
 
 36 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 tion to the Coup d'Etat was not of long duration. 
 Honors, luxury, endowment, a princely household, 
 — nothing was lacking to him. Prince, Imperial 
 Highness, senator, he was appointed general of divi- 
 sion and grand cross of the Legion of Honor without 
 opposition. Splendidly lodged at the Palais-Royal, 
 everybody addressed him as Monseigneur. In 1853 
 he had two aides-de-camp, Captains Ferri-Pisani 
 and Roux; an orderly officer, Jerome David; and a 
 private secretary, M. Emmanuel Matthieu. Fond 
 of letters, the arts, and pleasure, he possessed, 
 thanks to his novel situation, all the means to 
 gratify his tastes, and after having undergone so 
 many trials he led at last a life as agreeable as it 
 was brilliant. In the Montpensier wing of the 
 Palais-Royal, very close to his apartments, was a 
 door which communicated directly with the The&tre- 
 Fran^ais, on a level with the first tier of boxes. It 
 was the Prince's favorite theatre. He professed a 
 special admiration for several of its great actresses. 
 For a long time he had led a very simple existence. 
 At the time of the Coup d'Etat he occupied a modest 
 lodging in the Rue d'Alger, and his then manner of 
 living was in singular contrast with the splendors 
 of the Palais-Royal. The comfort of his new life 
 did not divert him from his taste for study. Well 
 educated, very learned, greatly interested in the arts 
 and sciences, diplomacy and politics, he managed to 
 combine work and pleasure. ArsSne Houssaye has 
 said of him: "Like Napoleon I., he talked of ever3 r -
 
 THE PALAIS-ROYAL 
 
 thing in picturesque language and with a knowing 
 and unpremeditated ease. ... At the Theatre- 
 Frangais, where he often came, we met each other 
 at all extraordinary representations, especially on 
 Rachel's great days. When he came to the final 
 rehearsal of a new piece, he never made any mistake 
 as to its success or failure, even when every one else 
 did so. . . . It was always Prince Napoleon who 
 suggested the topic of conversation; I never heard 
 him say a word which was an offence to morals or 
 the French language, although he used that freedom 
 of speech for which he was well known. And with 
 what eloquence, at once natural and princely, he 
 said everything. ... He loved ancient and modern 
 art with equal passion. Not a painter, not a sculptor 
 among those who go to the Villa Medici, knows as 
 he did the marvels of the Greeks and Romans." 
 
 Of all the Prince's gifts eloquence was the chief. 
 Few words were so vibrant and full of color as his. 
 He talked on all subjects with remarkable freedom 
 and vigor. M. Ernest Pinard has written in his 
 journal: "I said one day to Prince Napoleon: 'Mon- 
 seigneur, what an admirable lawyer you would have 
 made if you were not a Highness.' Both a talker 
 and an orator, he commenced calmly, then his voice 
 would rise; his language was measured and meta- 
 phorical. He would rise, stride about, as if physical 
 movement aided the gestation of the idea. He 
 would take a chair to lean upon it as a deputy does 
 with the tribune. Again he would stride up and
 
 38 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 down the room, and, after a lively sally, look at his 
 interlocutor with a triumphant smile. He was a 
 dilettante of controversy." He was not merely not 
 afraid of discussion, but he sought for it, he loved 
 it. Rather than be uncontradicted, he would con- 
 tradict himself. 
 
 This prince, whose faults were incontestable, but 
 who has often been judged too severely, had real 
 qualities, among others a probity equal to every 
 proof. He was averse to speculations of every 
 kind, even those that were correct and irreproach- 
 able. He never dreamed of making use of his lofty 
 situation in order to increase his fortune. He 
 managed it economically without seeking to enlarge 
 it. Money-dealers inspired him with invincible 
 repugnance. The humble style of living which he 
 was obliged to adopt after the fall of the second 
 Empire does honor to his memory. 
 
 Prince Napoleon has been styled a Caesar in the 
 wrong place. This description is not exact. He 
 had not the manners of a Caesar either during his 
 cousin's reign nor at the epoch, after the death of 
 the Prince Imperial, when he became the head of 
 the Napoleonic dynasty. Unlike the Caesars, he 
 did not pay court to the masses. He solicited 
 neither the support of the press nor the favors of 
 the populace. He despised and sometimes even 
 braved public opinion. 
 
 On more than one occasion the differences of 
 opinion between Napoleon III. and his cousin were
 
 THE PALAIS-ROYAL 39 
 
 more apparent than real. At bottom they had a 
 real affection for each other. Born April 20, 1808, 
 Napoleon III. was fourteen years older than the 
 Prince, who was born September 9, 1822. The 
 Emperor's sentiment toward his cousin was not 
 unlike that of an elder brother for a younger one. 
 They had known the trials of exile and adversity 
 together. Louis Napoleon had occupied himself 
 with his cousin's education, and in Switzerland had 
 given him lessons in mathematics. Having been 
 elected a deputy in 1848, before the future Emperor, 
 Prince Napoleon opened the way for him and aided 
 in inducing the Assembly to validate his election. 
 If he sometimes opposed him when Louis Napoleon 
 had become Napoleon III., it was an opposition 
 which never ceased to be dynastic, as they used to 
 say under the parliamentary regime, for he never 
 entertained for a moment the notion of establishing 
 a competition between the reigning and the younger 
 branch of the Bonapartes. The few republicans 
 whom he admitted to the Palais-Royal were not of 
 the sort that was dangerous to the Empire. In 
 foreign politics they both held very advanced ideas. 
 Both were partisans of Italian independence and the 
 principle of nationalities. They were at one in 
 uniting their cult for Napoleon I. to respect for 
 democracy. Even at the very times when they were 
 supposed to be least in harmony, they were often 
 pursuing the same end. One may say that there 
 was a right side and a left at the court of Napo-
 
 40 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 leon III. The right was represented by the Empress 
 and the left by Prince Napoleon. The Emperor, one 
 of whose principal political rules was the maxim: 
 Divide to reign, did not complain of this state of 
 things. Possibly it did not displease him to remain 
 the supreme arbiter between divisions which it de- 
 pended on a single word from him to continue in 
 existence or to cause to disappear. In fine, the 
 Prince Napoleon, a character as complex as his 
 destiny, wavering and diverse as the vicissitudes 
 of his troublous and harassed existence, was a man 
 full of contrasts, autocratic and liberal, half great 
 noble, half democrat, clinging by his origin to the 
 past and to the future by his ideas, appearing by 
 turns on the extreme left of the Palais-Bourbon in 
 the character of a tribune, and at the Palais-Royal 
 under the Napoleonic aspect of a prince surrounded 
 by all the honors and prerogatives of his rank.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE PRINCESSE MATHILDE 
 
 |~N 1853 the foremost woman in France, next to 
 the Empress, was the Princesse Mathilde. All 
 historians and chroniclers who may study the court 
 of Napoleon III. will give a place in their narra- 
 tives to this beautiful and witty princess, who has 
 retained all her feminine prestige even after the 
 fall of the second Empire, and who will alwa}^ be 
 remembered as a superior woman and a generous 
 and intelligent protectress of letters and the arts. 
 
 Mathilde-Lastitia-Wilhelmine, daughter of Jerome 
 Bonaparte, former King of Westphalia, was born in 
 exile, at Trieste, May 27, 1820. Her mother, 
 Catherine, born February 21, 1783, married August 
 23, 1807, died November 28, 1835, was the daughter 
 of the first King of Wurtemberg. She it was who 
 showed such virtue and such courage in adversity 
 that Napoleon, on the rock of Saint-Helena, ren- 
 dered solemn homage to her by saying that she had 
 written her name in history with her own hands. 
 
 Louis Napoleon was in love with his young and 
 charming cousin and had ardently desired to marry 
 her. On this subject we read in the memoirs of 
 
 41
 
 42 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Corate Horace de Viel-Castel : "I have just heard 
 from Ferdinand Barrot, an eye-witness, an anecdote 
 which is not known and perhaps never will be. 
 When Prince Louis Napoleon learned at Ham, 
 where he was a prisoner, the marriage of his cousin 
 with Anatole Demidoff, all the affection, or better, 
 the love, which he had for this princess awoke in 
 him; he began to weep bitterly and said to Barrot: 
 'This is the last and heaviest blow that fortune had 
 in store for me.' " 
 
 November 1, 1840, the Princesse Mathilde mar- 
 ried in Florence a Russian, Comte Anatole Demi- 
 doff, Prince of San Donate This marriage was not 
 happy. When the Princess separated from her 
 husband, the Emperor Nicholas justified her in 
 doing so. On this occasion he showed a benevolent 
 interest in her for which she was always grateful. 
 She came to France in the last years of the reign 
 of Louis Philippe, who gave her an excellent recep- 
 tion. In his Souvenirs, Prince de Joinville cites in 
 the front rank of those who frequented Queen Marie 
 Amelie's evenings "the Princesse Mathilde in all 
 the splendor of her beauty." 
 
 The Princess lived in Paris during the entire 
 period of Louis Napoleon's presidency, and her 
 salon was the first in which the Prince-President 
 met Mademoiselle de Montijo. 
 
 At the beginning of the second Empire the Prin- 
 cesse Mathilde was thirty-two years old. She was 
 dazzling. This is the portrait which Arsene Hous-
 
 THE PRINCESSE MATHILDE 13 
 
 saye has drawn of her in his Confessions: "She 
 looked the princess to perfection, with her heraldic 
 and Olympian head which carried the crown so 
 well. Style, intelligence, and goodness shone on 
 that countenance worthy of marble. Hence she has 
 inspired more than one beautiful bust like that of 
 Carpeau. Hers was the sovereign beauty of force 
 and sweetness, line and expression, style and charm, 
 kindness for everybody and raillery for fools. . . . 
 She has received the homage of all foreign courts, 
 as well as of that of Napoleon III. But she was not 
 fond of applause. A simple compliment from a 
 contemporary master for one of the charming pastels 
 she draws so cleverly touches her far more nearly." 
 
 The Emperor, who had a lively affection for his 
 cousin, did not treat her as Madame Demidoff, but 
 as the daughter of the former King of Westphalia 
 and the grandchild of the King of Wurtemberg. 
 He conferred on her the title of Imperial Highness, 
 and she was always spoken of as the Princesse 
 Mathilde. In 1853 she had three ladies to accom- 
 pany her: the Baronne de Serlay, born Rovigo, the 
 Comtesse de Gouy d'Arcy, Madame Ratomska, and 
 a private secretary, M. Ratomski. Her retinue was 
 absolutely princely. Although she cared little for 
 display, she was present at all official ceremonies 
 and the fetes given at the Tuileries, Saint-Cloud, 
 Compiegne, and Fontainebleau. 
 
 The house occupied by the Princesse Mathilde 
 exists no longer. It was situated on the corner of the
 
 44 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Rue de Courcelles and the Boulevard Haussinann. 
 Madame Octave Feuillet, widow of the celebrated 
 dramatic author, writes in the pleasant volume 
 entitled Quelques amiees de ma vie : " The salon of 
 the Princesse Mathilde was that of an artist princess 
 and a very great lady. All intelligent Paris was to 
 be seen there, renowned authors and painters, princes 
 and ambassadors from every country. The recep- 
 tion rooms, and even the winter garden, were filled 
 with exquisitely grouped objects of art. Pictures 
 by great masters, statues of bronze and marble, 
 Chinese vases out of which rose gigantic palms, old 
 tapestries of great magnificence, adorned the palace 
 of the Rue de Courcelles. . . . When I went up 
 the beautiful staircase, over which Chinese draperies 
 fell in silken cascades, where peacocks ranged at 
 intervals along the balusters trained their iridescent 
 fans like half-opened jewel boxes, it seemed as if I 
 were ascending the stairs of one of the sultanas 
 whose stories have been told us by Scheherazade." 
 
 Again Madame Octave Feuillet shows us the 
 Princess entering the banqueting hall, with her 
 statuesque arms, her long train, the triple row of 
 pearls on her magnificent neck. "I see her/' she 
 adds, "seating herself as on a throne in front of the 
 gilded eagle which spread its wings above the fruits 
 and flowers of the table. And especially I remem- 
 ber her diffusing her charming smiles and glancing 
 at each guest to see if all were at their ease." 
 
 M. Ernest Pinard, former Minister of the Interior,
 
 THE PBINCESSE MATHILDE 45 
 
 has also described, and not without admiration, this 
 justly famous salon: "The Princesse Mathilde," 
 says he, "received every Tuesday and Sunday. She 
 was in the incomparable splendor of her Roman 
 beauty, and in her the artist enhanced the woman. 
 All foreigners of distinction who passed through 
 Paris had themselves presented by their ambassadors 
 at these reunions of the Rue de Courcelles ; they did 
 not forget the way there, and now they come with- 
 out the ambassador. It was a sort of neutral ground 
 on which assembled academicians, painters, com- 
 posers, novelists, magistrates, diplomats, financiers, 
 politicians, and men of the world." 
 
 Comparing the salon of to-day with that of the 
 second Empire, M. Pinard adds: "At the present 
 time, the receptions of the Rue de Berry recall those 
 of the Rue de Courcelles. Death has made many 
 gaps in the salon, the dark heads have become 
 white; but the tact and intelligence of a superior 
 woman still win devotion. It is not merely faith- 
 ful imperialists, but those who are loyal to art, to 
 letters, and to science, who go there ; even the old 
 who have disappeared have found successors." 
 
 The salon of the Princesse Mathilde has remained 
 what it was of old, a salon whose habitues occupy 
 themselves mainly with art and literature. Under 
 the Empire the cousin of the Emperor took no part 
 in politics. She confined herself to using her tact 
 and amiability in such a manner as to contribute to 
 the maintenance of harmonious relations between
 
 46 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 the Tuileries and the Palais-Royal. Nevertheless, 
 we shall observe that, although accustomed not to 
 intervene in diplomatic questions, she did not dis- 
 guise her sympathies for Russia and the Czar, to 
 whom she was nearly related, her own mother and 
 the mother of the Emperor Nicholas having been 
 princesses of the house of Wurtemberg. There 
 were two women, the Princesse Mathilde in Paris, 
 and in Saint Petersburg the Grand Duchess Marie, 
 daughter of the Czar, married to a son of Prince 
 Eugene de Beauharnais, who ardently desired an 
 agreement between Napoleon III. and the Emperor 
 Nicholas. If these women had been authorized to 
 counsel the two sovereigns, many woes might have 
 been spared both France and Russia. The two 
 princesses judged things more correctly than the 
 most skilful statesmen and the most consummate 
 diplomatists. 
 
 Up to the birth of the son of Napoleon III. only 
 three persons bore the title of Imperial Highness 
 at the Emperor's court: Prince Jerome, Prince 
 Napoleon, and the Princesse Mathilde. The other 
 princes and princesses belonged to what was called 
 the Emperor's civil family, and merely bore the 
 title of Highness. Their position was thus regu- 
 lated by the imperial almanac of 1856 : " The sons 
 of the brothers and sisters of the Emperor Napoleon 
 I., who do not form part of the imperial family, bear 
 the title of Prince and Highness with their family 
 name. In the second generation only the eldest
 
 THE PRINCESSE MATHILDE 47 
 
 sons will bear the title of Prince and Highness ; 
 the others will have only the title of Prince. The 
 daughters of the princes who are related to the 
 Emperor will have the title of Princess until their 
 marriage ; but when they are married they will have 
 merely the name and titles of their husbands unless 
 by virtue of a special decision to the contrary. 
 Princesses of the Emperor's family married to pri- 
 vate individuals, French or foreign, will have no 
 other rank at court than that of their husbands." 
 
 The imperial almanac of 1856 mentioned as hav- 
 ing rank at court, among the princes and princesses 
 of the Emperor's family, Their Highnesses Prince 
 Louis Lucien Bonaparte, Prince Lucien Murat, 
 Prince Joseph Bonaparte, Prince Joachim Murat, 
 Princesses Bacciochi, Princess Lucien Murat, Prin- 
 cess Joachim Murat. The imperial almanac of 
 1853 had mentioned as princes of the civil family 
 of the Emperor only His Highness Prince Louis 
 Lucien Bonaparte and His Highness Prince Louis 
 Lucien Murat. 
 
 We have just examined the court in 1853. Now 
 let us give a rapid glance at the city.
 
 CHAPTER Vr 
 
 PARIS IN 1853 
 
 TDARIS, on the morrow of the Emperor's mar- 
 riage, had an animation, ardor, and gaiety that 
 were extraordinary. No one took any further in- 
 terest in politics. To amuse themselves and make 
 money was the double aim of its population. With 
 the exception of a few superior men little thought 
 was given to lost liberties. The press by its excesses 
 and the tribune by its violence had so wearied the 
 public that it did not seem to regret that the one 
 was muzzled and the other destroyed. A regime far 
 more rigorous than that of the ordinances which had 
 caused the downfall of Charles X. seemed a perfectly 
 natural thing. 
 
 People had been so satiated with parliamentary 
 discussions and emotions that no one wore mourn- 
 ing for defunct parliamentarism. The Corps legis- 
 latif, elected by universal suffrage for six years and 
 composed of about two hundred and sixty members, 
 possessed only very restricted powers. It contented 
 itself with discussing and passing the laws prepared 
 by the Council of State. The deputies could not be 
 ministers, and the ministers never made their appear- 
 
 48
 
 PARIS IN 1853 49 
 
 ance at the Corps Legislatif. The sessions were pub- 
 lic, but there was no tribune, and the reports of the 
 daily press consisted merely of the publication of the 
 minutes drawn up by the President. No discussion 
 of the address, no interpellations, no possibility of 
 causing the fall of ministries. The Senate whs 
 composed of five hundred and fifty members ap- 
 pointed for life by the sovereign. Its sessions were 
 not reported. It did not participate directly in any 
 legislative or judicial powers. Laws were submitted 
 to it, but solely that they might be examined as to 
 their conformity with the Constitution and be op- 
 posed by it should they prove to be contrary. The 
 cardinals, marshals, and admirals of France were 
 senators by virtue of their office. 
 
 At the beginning of 1853 the Senate and the Corps 
 Legislatif occupied attention, not by their parliamen- 
 tary labors, but by two magnificent fetes which they 
 offered to the Emperor and Empress, one at the 
 Luxembourg palace, and the other at the Palais- 
 Bourbon. Comte de Montalembert, then a member 
 of the Corps Legislatif, refused his subscription to the 
 ball, but sent the amount to the mayor of Besancon, 
 begging him to apply it to some work of charit} r . 
 The mayor refused the somewhat factious offering. 
 In Paris the friends of parliamentarism said, " To 
 overthrow the tribune may pass for a while ; but to 
 replace it by a ball io really too much." 
 
 Never had the whirl of fashion been more animated 
 than in 1853. At that period bulls and great enter-
 
 50 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 tainments were not given in spring, as they are at 
 present, but in winter. All the salons were open 
 by the beginning of January. In the fashionable 
 quarters, Faubourg Saint-Germain, Champs-Elysees, 
 Chaussee d'Antin, there was scarcely a street where 
 one could not see windows sparkling with lights and 
 hear the echo of joyous orchestras. The official 
 circles set the example of the greatest luxury. Fetes 
 of rare magnificence were given at the Tuileries, at 
 the ministries, the embassies, and at the houses of 
 the great officers of the crown. People amused 
 themselves greatly, likewise, in the Faubourg Saint- 
 Germain and in financial circles. The fashionables 
 of all parties went on Mondays, Wednesdays, and 
 Fridays to the Opera, and on Thursdays and Satur- 
 days to the Theatre Italien before going to the ball. 
 People stayed up later than they do at present. The 
 balls kept up until morning. The great restaurants, 
 such as the Cafe Anglais and the Maison d'Or, re- 
 mained open all night. On the boulevard the ani- 
 mation never ceased at all. The balls ended with 
 the carnival. Bat during Lent, up to Holy Week, 
 there were concerts at the Tuileries by the principal 
 singers of the Opera, the Theatre Italien, and the 
 Opera-Comique ; brilliant receptions in the minis- 
 tries and the embassies ; in legitimist society con- 
 tinuous aristocratic routs. 
 
 Even the adversaries of the government rejoiced 
 at seeing the red spectre vanish, and thoughtlessly 
 gave themselves to pleasure. In the Revue des
 
 PARIS IN 1853 51 
 
 Deuz-Mondes (Chronicle of the Fortnight, February 
 28, 1853), M. de Mazade wrote : " We are no longer 
 in those gloomy periods of late years when we could 
 not meet each other in the mornings without asking 
 about the catastrophes of the previous da}*, the tri- 
 umphant revolutions, the thrones that had been up- 
 set, the crowns dragged through the mire of riots. 
 It is like a torrent that has returned to its bed.*' 
 At this moment no one was disturbed about foreign 
 affairs. The Eastern Question scarcely interested 
 anybody but the diplomatists. The public at large 
 perceived no dark spot on the horizon. No one be- 
 lieved that Napoleon would so quickly abandon the 
 programme of his speech at Bordeaux : " The Em- 
 pire is peace." Business men, merchants, manu- 
 facturers, had never been in such good humor, 
 because they had never made so much money. The 
 speculators of the Bourse were in high feather. 
 The middle class rejoiced at being freed from patrol 
 duty and removing barricades, and from hearing the 
 drums beat the call to arms or the general. The 
 service of the National Guard, so dangerous and 
 tiresome a few months before, had now been trans- 
 formed into a diversion. The citizen soldiery, 
 formerly so turbulent and active, had become both 
 well disciplined and quiet. 
 
 Paris was about to be transfigured, and to become 
 the capital of capitals. The Emperor had decided 
 already on the completion of the Louvre, the pro- 
 longation of the Rue de Rivoli, the construction of 
 
 i'
 
 52 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 the Palais de Plndustrie, the creation of vast means 
 of communication between the railway stations and 
 the central quarters of the city, the opening of large 
 empty spaces and squares which would make light, 
 air, and verdure accessible to all, the transformation 
 of the Bois de Boulogne into an immense pleasure 
 park destined to become the finest promenade in the 
 whole world. July 1, 1853, Baron Haussmann in- 
 stalled himself at the Hotel de Ville as prefect of 
 the Seine, where his administration was to last six- 
 teen years, and to work great prodigies. He was 
 about to appropriate to himself what Louis XIV. 
 said to Mansard : " Build, keep on building ; we will 
 advance the money, and foreigners will pay it back." 
 M. de la Gorce has said in his remarkable Histoire 
 du second Empire : " Such was the condition of the 
 country in 1853 : in the spring, fetes so innumera- 
 ble that they became as fatiguing as labor itself ; 
 important transformations on the point of being 
 accomplished ; a notable increase of public wealth ; 
 a future so assured as to permit of long designs ; a 
 society which was frivolous but not devoid of be- 
 nevolent aspirations, lacking liberty but not feeling 
 the want of it ; many men of great intelligence left 
 in the shade or voluntarily withdrawing thither, but 
 no one as yet estimating the void created by so 
 many unemployed forces ; . . . many germs of cor- 
 ruption and error, but thus far so deeply buried that 
 no one foreboded the evolution which would cause 
 them to bud forth."
 
 PARIS IN 1858 53 
 
 Much has been said of imperial corruption. Was 
 the second Empire more immoral than the third 
 Republic ? We do not believe it. The men of 1897 
 are not so gay as those of 1853, but they are not 
 more moral. The lessons of misfortune have not 
 changed the French character. There is the same 
 thirst for pleasure, the same need of luxury, the 
 same inclination for comfort and material enjoy- 
 ments. And yet on one point there is an improve- 
 ment : obligatory military service for all has inured 
 the young men to fatigue and disciplined them bet- 
 ter than of old. By suppressing the right to buy a 
 release from it, the new laws have not merely 
 strengthened the principle of equality which is the 
 foundation of our political and social system, but 
 they have given, not as formerly to some, but to all, 
 those martial aptitudes of which France has a right 
 to be proud. Apart from this progress, which is 
 real, we do not believe in any perceptible difference 
 between the morals of the Paris of 1853 and those of 
 the Paris of to-day. The republicans are not more 
 austere than the imperialists. Virtue is not more 
 highly honored now than then. Human passions do 
 not alter much. Simply there are epochs when 
 vices are more elegant than at others, and when 
 pleasure, like luxury, is more in evidence. The sur- 
 face of things changes, the bottom does not. The 
 setting is more or less brilliant, but the play is 
 always prett}- much the same. Neither under the 
 Empire nor the Republic will France ever be Sparta.
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 
 
 ■VTOW let us give a rapid glance at parties in 
 -^ 1853. The one which seemed the feeblest of 
 all was that which had the greatest force and 
 future : the republican party. To judge from ap- 
 pearances one would have said that it was annihi- 
 lated forever. Universal suffrage seemed absolutely 
 opposed to it. It would have been useless to search 
 for a partisan of the Republic in the Corps Legislatif. 
 At Brussels where they gave lectures, like AIM. 
 Bancel, Challemel-Lacour, Deschanel, and occupied 
 themselves with literature, like Colonel Charras and 
 Edgard Quinet, the fugitive republicans exerted no 
 sort of influence. In London they were more mili- 
 tant, but they were aware that they never assembled 
 without the presence of traitors and spies in the pay 
 of the French police. 
 
 A sort of fatality weighed on the republicans in 
 1853. The most honest among them were bitterly 
 calumniated, represented as the enemies of God and 
 social order, and held responsible for the anarchic 
 passions and excesses of the demagogues. On the 
 other hand, the June days had dug an abyss between 
 
 54
 
 THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 55 
 
 the moderate and the advanced republicans. The 
 latter bore a deeper grudge against General Cavai- 
 gnac than against Napoleon III. In fact, it was, the 
 general who had given the signal for excessive re- 
 pression and the wholesale deportations. In his fine 
 work, 1739 et 1889, M. Emile Ollivier has written: 
 "The most revolting thing about the Coup d'Etat, 
 the transportations without trial, having been inau- 
 gurated by the Republic after the June days, people 
 did not experience the same indignation against this 
 abominable proceeding as they would have done had 
 they not been accustomed to it already." The radi- 
 cals and socialists were possibly more hostile to Gen- 
 eral Changarnier than to Napoleon's heir, and a 
 royalist restoration would have been more hateful 
 to them than the re-establishment of the Empire. 
 Workingmen made doleful reflections on the iniquity 
 of human judgments. Four months ago they had 
 been treated as heroes, now as scoundrels. And 
 3^et, from the legal point of view there was no differ- 
 ence between the revolution of Februar}^ and the in- 
 surrection of June. In presence of a strong govern- 
 ment and a well-disciplined army, no one dreamed of 
 making barricades. The Emperor, driving his own 
 phaeton, went unescorted through the populous quar- 
 ters where riots had formerly been organized. 
 
 Still, there were at this epoch several attempts 
 against the life of Napoleon III. Members of secret 
 societies had resolved to fire upon him as soon as 
 a suitable occasion should present itself. Having
 
 56 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 learned that he intended to go to the Hippodrome 
 from the chateau of Saint-Cloud on June 6, 1853, the 
 conspirators grouped themselves along his route. 
 But the police received timely warning and arrested 
 them. On the third of the following July another 
 plot was arranged by some Frenchmen and a Belgian 
 named Meren. On that day the sovereign was to 
 go to the Opera-Comique. The conspirators had de- 
 cided that when his carriage was passing they would 
 come up shouting " Long live the Emperor ! " that 
 Meren would then give the signal by firing two pistol 
 shots, when the conspirators, flinging themselves 
 upon the carriage, should poniard Napoleon III. 
 They were arrested at the very moment when they 
 were about to carry out this scheme, and on his exit 
 from the theatre the sovereign was greeted by the 
 acclamations of the crowd. 
 
 At the same time, there was nothing in common 
 between the attempts of certain fanatics and the 
 sentiments of the majority of the republicans. Na- 
 poleon III. had no personal aversion to this party. 
 It would have gratified his most ardent desire to be 
 able to rally them to the support of his government. 
 These republicans, whose sincere convictions and 
 indomitable convictions he knew, were the adver- 
 saries whom he respected and feared. His first 
 thought, on taking possession of the presidency of 
 the Republic in December, 1848, had been to offer 
 the presidency of the Council of Ministers to M. de 
 Lamartine. All notable republicans who should have
 
 THE UEPUBLICAN PARTY 57 
 
 come to the Elysee, or later to the Tuileries, would 
 have met there a courteous and hearty welcome. In 
 1849 the Prince had thought of Victor Hugo for the 
 portfolio of Public Instruction and the embassy to 
 Madrid. As Emperor he bore no ill will to the poet 
 for having written the CJidtiments. Concerning this 
 we cite a passage from M. A. Granier de Cassagnac 
 (Souvenirs du second Empire) : " I was one day in 
 the cabinet of the Emperor at Saint-Cloud. As he 
 was rummaging among some papers, chance put 
 under his hand a fine and memorable circular ad- 
 dressed by Victor Hugo to the electors of Paris in 
 1858, and in which, divining the schemes of the 
 demagogues, he predicted that one day they would 
 tear down the Vendome column to convert it into 
 copper sous. 
 
 " Still holding the paper, the Emperor remained 
 thoughtful for a moment, and with a sad smile: 
 ' Do you know that ? ' said he to me, holding out 
 the paper. ' Is it not fine and haughty ? Well ! I 
 have to accuse myself of and to regret a very great 
 fault. Victor Hugo showed me personal affection 
 and rallied to my cause. One day I was too exact- 
 ing, and I wounded him. A man of his worth 
 would have been a power in my government and 
 shed lustre on my reign.' " 
 
 One may say that if Napoleon III. had not been 
 emperor, he would not have been a monarchist but a 
 republican. By his youthful antecedents and his 
 personal tendencies he belonged far more to the party
 
 58 NAPOLEON III AND HIS COURT 
 
 of the left than to that of the right. In Italy he had 
 shared the opinions of the most advanced liberals 
 and fought in the ranks of the carbonari. In Switz- 
 erland and the United States he had made his appear- 
 ance as a true democrat. In France he had attained 
 to power only by means of the Republic and republi- 
 cans. In his captivity at Ham he had neglected no 
 means of winning the sympathies of such persons 
 as Louis Blanc, Ledru-Rollin, and George Sand. 
 After the revolution of February, it was men of the 
 extreme left, such as Cremieux, Louis Blanc, Jules 
 Favre, who had flung open to him the doors of the 
 country and restored his rights as a citizen. As a 
 deputy he had sat on the left benches. As President 
 of the Republic he would perhaps have remained 
 faithful to his oath if he could have been re-elected 
 by legal means. After the Coup d'Etat which gave 
 him absolute power, he had hesitated for a whole 
 year before re-establishing the imperial regime. 
 Even after liberty of the press had vanished he al- 
 lowed Le Steele if not to preach the Republic, at 
 least to use language which charmed the republicans. 
 Remaining alone after the disappearance of its con- 
 temporaries, this journal enriched itself by an enor- 
 mous circulation and became a power which was not 
 displeasing to the sovereign, He said that Le Steele 
 was the ministry of the opposition. 
 
 Possibly Napoleon III. had a presentiment that 
 his reign would be the transition between ro} r alty 
 and the Republic. Recognizing the exigencies of
 
 THE REPUBLICAN PARTY 59 
 
 modern society, he felt that it is the chief duty of a 
 government to better the condition of the majority, 
 that the time of the pays ISgal 1 was over, that the 
 middle class oligarchy was no longer able to rule 
 France, that the revolution of 1848 had inaugurated 
 a new era, and that universal suffrage, like the aboli- 
 tion of slavery, was a conquest that nothing could 
 wrest from the democracy. Preferring the work- 
 ingmen, the peasants, the proletarians, to the middle 
 classes, he labored at the formation of what one 
 might call the Fourth Estate. In his foreign policy 
 he was not a conservative but a revolutionist. In 
 the depths of his conscience he could not avoid 
 recognizing that he had wronged the Republic to 
 which he owed so much, and perhaps he regretted it 
 more than once, for he was not ignorant of the pres- 
 tige exerted over the democracy by the mere word 
 Republic. But, in 1853, the country if not the 
 sovereign seemed to forget all that, and the repub- 
 lican party appeared to cause no anxiety to the 
 Empire. 
 
 1 The body of citizens enjoying restricted franchise.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 THE LEGITIMIST PARTY 
 
 rr^HE legitimist party bore still less umbrage to 
 the Empire than the republican party. After 
 the revolution of 1848 the partisans of the Comte 
 de Chambord had played a not unimportant politi- 
 cal and parliamentary role. In the Constituent 
 Assembly, and afterwards in the Legislative As- 
 sembly, they formed a homogeneous group of which 
 M. Berryer was the eloquent leader, and which had 
 sometimes a decisive influence in the ballotings. A 
 fervent legitimist, the Comte de Falloux, Minister 
 of Public Instruction under the presidency of Louis 
 Napoleon, had powerfully contributed to the success 
 of the law on liberty of instruction which was so 
 dear to Catholics. The legitimist party had then 
 rendered signal services to the heir of the Empire. 
 Its principal leaders, headed by M. Berryer, had 
 voted for him at the time of the presidential election 
 and supported him energetically in his struggle with 
 the elements of disorder. Several prominent per- 
 sonages of the society of the Faubourg Saint-Ger- 
 main had shown themselves in the salons of the 
 Elyse'e and received the warmest welcome. Very 
 
 60
 
 THE LEGITIMIST PARTY fil 
 
 few legitimists were pursued at the time of the 
 Coup d'Etat, and those who were arrested were im- 
 mediately released. 
 
 The affair of December 2, which excited such 
 wrath among republicans and Orleanists, left the 
 adherents of the elder branch of the Bourbons 
 rather indifferent. " I think that at this date," 
 writes M. de Falloux in his MSmoires cTun royaliste, 
 " a grave error crept into the mind of the Comte de 
 Chambord, and that it had a fatal influence over the 
 rest of his career. The facile success of the Coup 
 d'Etat, the applause which followed it, the public 
 suffrage by which it was sanctioned, persuaded the 
 Prince that, apart from the violence of the proceed- 
 ings and the choice of men, there was in it a useful 
 lesson, possibly a good example. He failed to con- 
 sider that France would concede to the descendants 
 of Bonaparte, the organizers of modern society, what 
 it would refuse to the house of Bourbon, inevitably 
 linked to the souvenirs of the old regime. To 
 expect from the masses of the people the same at- 
 traction and confidence towards the head of the 
 traditional royalty as for a scion of the race which, 
 by the civil code, had implanted equality in public 
 methods, would be the most deceptive of illusions. 
 Yet by what other motive can one explain the sud- 
 den change which took place in the mind, or at 
 all events in the attitude, of M. le Comte de 
 Chambord?" 
 
 One would have said that the head of the house
 
 62 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 of Bourbon, sharing the sentiment of France, was 
 tired and disgusted with parliamentary agitation. 
 " I do not think," says M. de Falloux again, " that 
 the Prince was a very advanced liberal before the 
 2d of December, but in his relations with his own 
 party he had availed himself sufficiently of parlia- 
 mentary methods to give reason for thinking that 
 he would practise them on the throne without great 
 repugnance. After the 2d of December, he also 
 seemed to unmask a certain concealed absolutism, 
 and thenceforward aimed at consulting no one, 
 which is worse than to ask advice at times from 
 evil counsellors." 
 
 Under the government of Louis Philippe, the 
 legitimists had been authorized by the Comte de 
 Chambord to swear allegiance to the King of the 
 French and to sit in the Chamber of Deputies. In 
 1852, the Prince changed his mind and prescribed 
 to his adherents a complete abstention from all 
 elective functions involving an oath to support the 
 new Constitution. Hence the legitimists found 
 themselves at once thrust out from all political 
 life ; through obedience to the Prince, innumerable 
 resignations were handed in from every side, and 
 the legitimist party passed from active life to the 
 immobility of death. M. de Falloux was not slow 
 to comprehend the blow thus given to royalty by 
 the Comte de Chambord. " France," he wrote at 
 the time, "has escaped from the pays legal 1 of M. 
 
 1 The body of citizens possessing the franchise under restricted 
 suffrage.
 
 THE LEGITIMIST PARTY 63 
 
 Guizot ; it will escape more completely still from 
 every pays artificiel, still narrower and more special, 
 which shall refuse to associate itself fully with its 
 destinies, conflicts, and dangers. ... A great social 
 battle has begun. Whoever systematically fails 
 France nowadays, in virtue of a command, will be 
 a deserter in the eyes of the country. Its affections 
 and rewards will be gained by worthier combatants."' 
 When the Empire was proclaimed, the Comte de 
 Chambord thought it his duty to make a public 
 protest. But this document, written in a masterly 
 style, was academic rather than practical, and the 
 Emperor's government dreaded its effect so little 
 that it was reprinted on the first page of the Moni- 
 teur. Notwithstanding this protest, made as a trib- 
 ute to conscience, the head of the house of Bourbon 
 offered only a platonic opposition to the Empire. 
 We have frequently had occasion to chat with the 
 men who, for several months in every year, had 
 the honor of sitting at the Prince's table and of 
 living near him. They have told us that until the 
 war of Italy, which he had severely condemned, 
 he had approved the conduct of Napoleon III. If 
 he had attained to power, a Constitution analogous 
 to that of 1852 would not have displeased him, and 
 he would not have destroyed universal suffrage. 
 He was pleased with the Emperor for repressing 
 the excesses of the press, and thus succeeding in 
 accomplishing what the ordinances of Charles X. 
 had vainly attempted. Doubtless it was not agree-
 
 64 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 able for the heir of Saint Louis to see a Bonaparte 
 renewing to his own profit the alliance between the 
 throne and the altar ; and the mystic dithyrambs 
 of the bishops in honor of Napoleon III. could not 
 fail to shock the susceptibilities of the man of 
 divine right. But the Comte de Chambord none 
 the less approved the Emperor for keeping guard 
 at the Vatican and maintaining the temporal power 
 of the Pope by force of arms. He must have been 
 as favorable to the French policy of 1853 as he 
 was inimical to that of 1859. 
 
 Moreover, the Prince endured his position as a 
 sovereign in exile with a resignation full of noble- 
 ness and serenity. None of those who surrounded 
 him forgot that he was the head of the most an- 
 cient and illustrious family in the world. Louis 
 XIV. had not been treated more respectfully at 
 Versailles than was his descendant at Frohsdorf. 
 All who went there to pay him homage were 
 charmed by the elevation of his sentiments, the 
 affability of his greeting, the grace of his amiable 
 and cheerful disposition. Born September 29, 1820, 
 he was thirty-two years old when Napoleon III. 
 ascended the throne. Married since November 16, 
 1846, to the daughter of the Duke of Modena, — 
 the most reactionary sovereign of Europe, — he had 
 no children, but did not despair of having some. 
 Robust and enjoying perfect health, there was a 
 fund of joviality in his character which made him 
 almost happy. If he became ambitious, it was
 
 THE LEGITIMIST PARTY 65 
 
 through a sense of duty. His mother, the Duehesse 
 de Berry, had no influence over him. Never would 
 he have undertaken so audacious a venture as the 
 resort to arms in 1832, nor did any idea of renew- 
 ing or essaying any attempt similar to the fiascos 
 of Strasbourg and Boulogne ever occur to him. 
 Having imposed on his adherents what some of 
 them have rather spitefully called the "policy of 
 folded arms," he awaited the decrees of Providence 
 with a sort of mysticism. His greatness riveted 
 him to the shore, and from afar he contemplated 
 the course of events with imperturbable dignity. 
 Napoleon III. esteemed such an adversary, but he 
 did not dread him.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE 0RLEAN1ST PARTY 
 
 ^TAPOLEON III. feared the Orleanists far more 
 than the legitimists. The partisans of the 
 July monarchy were more active and militant than 
 those of the Comte de Chambord. The Orleans 
 princes who had fought so brilliantly and left so 
 many sympathizers in the army could not accustom 
 themselves to repose. Their partisans were more 
 attached to liberty of the press and parliamentary 
 government than the legitimists and could not 
 reconcile themselves to the disappearance of insti- 
 tutions which had been the programme and the 
 apology for the reign of Louis Philippe. At Clare- 
 *mont and Twickenham there were angry recrimina- 
 tions which did not exist at Frohsdorf . 
 
 In the Legislative Assembly the Orleanist depu- 
 ties had made a bitterer fight against Louis 
 Napoleon than had the legitimists. On the 2d 
 of December the first had been imprisoned and 
 exiled, while the second had only been under 
 arrest for a few hours. Still, in spite of the 
 Coup d'Etat, a number of the friends of the Orleans 
 princes thought of rallying to the new government, 
 
 66
 
 THE 0BLEAN18T PARTY G7 
 
 but the decrees of January 22, 1852, by which a part 
 of the fortune of the princes was unjustly confis- 
 cated, made a breach between them and the victor 
 of December 2. 
 
 A brother-in-law of Queen Isabella, and estab- 
 lished in Spain, the Due de Montpensier chiefly 
 occupied himself with the affairs of that country. 
 The Due de Nemours, who was more of a legitimist 
 than an Orleanist, and who would greatly have 
 desired a fusion between the two branches of the 
 house of Bourbon, endured his exile with truly 
 Christian resignation. But the Due d'Aumale 
 and the Prince de Joinville, the one so popular in 
 the army and the other in the navy, could not 
 habituate themselves to living so far away from 
 their companions in arms. 
 
 "Of all the princes," M. de La Gorce has written, 
 "the one most in evidence was already the Due 
 d'Aumale, at once soldier, scholar, and artist. To 
 alleviate his exile he took pleasure in ornamenting 
 his residence at Twickenham, and he chiefly adorned 
 it with souvenirs of his country and his military life. 
 Beside his hearth, stricken since by so many deaths, 
 were then growing up two sons, to whom he had 
 o-iven the beautiful names of Guise and Conde\ 
 That great name of Conde* dazzled him, and as he 
 could have no share in history, he already dreamed 
 of writing it. All this natural activity made exile 
 still more insupportable, unsuited as it was to his 
 age, his temper, and his generous eagerness ; and
 
 68 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 his face, like those of his brothers, never lighted 
 up except on days when some beloved guest arriv- 
 ing from France restored for a moment the illusion 
 of his lost fatherland." 
 
 As to the Duchesse d' Orleans, who lived some- 
 times in Germany and sometimes in England, where 
 she gave her two sons, the Comte de Paris and the 
 Due de Chartres, a thoroughly French education, 
 she was obliged to give up the struggle but not her 
 hopes, and she declined the fusion because, as guar- 
 dian and mother, she felt unauthorized to dispose 
 of the sole political possession of her children : the 
 independence of their future. 
 
 In Paris the Orleanist party was reduced to 
 powerlessness, but the Orleanist spirit survived. 
 It was personified in the partisans of freedom of the 
 press and parliamentary institutions. It had repre- 
 sentatives among the most illustrious members of 
 the French Academy and the best writers on the 
 Journal des Debats and the Revue des Deux-Mondes. 
 The politicians described as doctrinaires had denied 
 none of their principles or ideas. M. Guizot and 
 his friends could say: Impavidum ferient ruince. 
 In spite of the restrictions imposed upon it, the 
 press could make an opposition which, however 
 veiled, however measured, still had its importance, 
 and the readers of journalists so able as Cuvillier- 
 Fleury, John Lemoine, Jules Janin, and Laboulaye, 
 read between the lines things which could not be 
 openly expressed. To perspicacious observers it
 
 THE ORLEANIST PARTY 69 
 
 was evident that the apparently dead Orleanist 
 party would come to life on the day when France 
 should return to its fondness for parliamentarism. 
 
 If Napoleon III. had listened only to himself, 
 perhaps he would have been less hostile to the 
 Orleans family. But such men as M. de Persigny, 
 who was vexed at seeing him choose his ministers 
 among former Orleanists, succeeded in making him 
 afraid of the princes and in suggesting measures 
 little in harmony with his character and his policy 
 of pacification. Yet the Emperor should not have 
 forgotten what he owed to the July government. 
 If a Bourbon had made two such attempts as those 
 of Strasbourg and Boulogne against Napoleon I., he 
 would probably not have met with such patience as 
 Louis Philippe had shown to the imperial pretender. 
 Louis Napoleon had been amnestied after the Stras- 
 bourg conspiracy without even asking pardon. After 
 that of Boulogne he had been imprisoned, but he 
 had been well treated in the fortress of Ham. He 
 had been authorized to retain there, as companions 
 in captivity, General de Montholon and Doctor 
 Conneau. He had received numerous visits, he 
 had collaborated with several journals, and the 
 proof that his detention was not too rigorous is 
 that he escaped. 
 
 Nor should Napoleon III. have forgotten all that 
 the July monarchy had done for the glory of his 
 uncle. After restoring the tricolor, Louis Philippe 
 had covered the marshals of Napoleon with favors.
 
 70 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 He had replaced the great man's statue on the sum- 
 mit of the Venddme column. He had sent one of 
 his sons, the Prince de Joinville, to Saint-Helena 
 for the remains of the Emperor, and brought them 
 into Paris amidst a triumph and an apotheosis unex- 
 ampled in history. It is curious to observe that the 
 fame of the victor of Austerlitz was far more cele- 
 brated under the reign of Louis Philippe than under 
 that of Napoleon III. 
 
 Would not the second Emperor have acted wisely 
 if, instead of yielding to idle fears and pusillani- 
 mous counsels, he had said to the Orleanists: "You 
 have done a great deal for the memory of my uncle. 
 For my part, I will do a great deal for you. I will 
 reopen to your princes the doors of the country. I 
 will restore their commissions. I am not afraid of 
 their presence under the flags. I have known the 
 bitterness of exile. I do not wish to have any exiles 
 under my reign." 
 
 It may be maintained that laws of exile are inju- 
 rious to those who pass them, and that pretenders 
 are less dangerous at home than abroad. At home 
 they are more easily watched, and the fear of being 
 banished dictates prudence on their part. Abroad, 
 the saying of Tacitus may be applied to them: Major 
 e longinquo reverentia. Distance increases respect. 
 If Louis XVIII. had remained in Paris throughout 
 the period of the Empire, in a house of the Fau- 
 bourg Saint-Germain, under the name of the Comte 
 de Lille, the Restoration would probably have been
 
 TUB ORLEANIST PARTY 
 
 impossible. If Louis Napoleon had lived in France, 
 under the reign of Louis Philippe, such an existence 
 as he could have led, without fortune and with many 
 debts, might perhaps have destroyed his prestige. 
 Has the presence on French soil of the Comte de 
 Paris, pretending to the royal crown, and of Prince 
 Napoleon, pretending to the imperial one, compro- 
 mised the safety of the third Republic? 
 
 Supposing that Napoleon III. had abrogated the 
 law of exile Avhich weighed upon the members of 
 both branches of the Bourbon family, what would 
 have happened ? The Comte de Chambord would not 
 have accepted the grace offered him, but his exile, 
 by becoming voluntary, would have been less inter- 
 esting. As to the Orleans princes, they would have 
 returned to France, and we are convinced that if 
 they had been restored to their rank and to active 
 service in the army and navy, the}' would loyally 
 have performed their military duties. General 
 Trochu has related in his Memoires that when he 
 took possession of the government of Paris, the 
 Empress asked him if it did not seem that the time 
 had come to call for the patriotic assistance of the 
 Orleans princes. The general thought the ques- 
 tion ironical, a snare. We incline to think he was 
 mistaken. The Empress was doubtless sincere. 
 She thought that if the sons of King Louis Phi- 
 lippe had been summoned to the army, — as, for that 
 matter, the} T had asked to be, — they would not have 
 betrayed the Emperor.
 
 72 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Unfortunately for them, all the dynasties have 
 exiled each other. The first Empire proscribed the 
 Bourbons. The Restoration proscribed the Bona- 
 partes. The July monarchy proscribed both the 
 Bonapartes and the Bourbons of the elder branch. 
 The second Empire proscribed the Bourbons of both 
 branches. Each dynasty has paid the penalty of 
 retaliation. To each of them might have been said : 
 "Suffer the law thou hast enacted." Patere legem 
 quam tulisti. In his programme as a candidate for 
 the presidency of the Republic, Louis Napoleon had 
 inserted this wise sentence: "I who have known 
 exile and captivity long ardently for the day when 
 the country may without danger put an end to all 
 proscriptions and efface the last traces of civil 
 discords." Why did not Napoleon III., who had 
 nobody to fear at the beginning of his reign, recall 
 the words of Louis Bonaparte?
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 THE EMPEROB NICHOLAS 
 
 A T the moment when France thought it had 
 inaugurated a period of absolute prosperity, 
 a storm was gathering at the other extremity of 
 Europe. Agreement between two men would have 
 been enough to maintain the peace of the world. 
 Their amity would have advanced the cause of 
 civilization by giant strides. The misunderstand- 
 ing which divided them was to drag after it incal- 
 culable disasters. We are persuaded that a few 
 minutes' talk between them would have spared 
 humanity the slaughters which stained the middle 
 of the nineteenth century with blood. 
 
 Born July 6, 1796, the Emperor Nicholas was 
 fifty-six years old when Napoleon III. ascended the 
 throne. The sovereign of Russia was then at the 
 height of his prestige and his power. His gigantic 
 height, his fiery eyes, his martial and imposing air, 
 pointed him out as the subduer of peoples. He con- 
 sidered himself the delegate of God upon earth, the 
 champion of legitimacy, the supporter of thrones, the 
 vanquisher of the revolution, the Agamemnon of 
 sovereigns. Brought up with severity in his child- 
 
 73
 
 74 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 hood by General Lambodorff, he was harsh to others 
 but rigorous to himself. He had given Saint Peters- 
 burg the aspect of a camp. Cadets of but seven 
 years old wore uniforms and helmets there, and 
 gravely saluted officers passing in the streets. 
 
 The Emperor Nicholas had displayed extraordi- 
 nary energy from the time of his advent to the 
 throne. December 26, 1825, he came out alone 
 from the Winter Palace, and in order to reach his 
 horse, which it had been impossible to bring to him, 
 he passed through the crowd of insurgents as far as 
 the spot where the Alexander column now stands. 
 "During this passage," he said afterwards, "I 
 scarcely foresaw the issue of this wretched day ; but 
 no sooner did I find myself on horseback, and that 
 I had mastered the crowd, than I no longer doubted 
 of success." In fact, the Czar went straight up to 
 the insurgent soldiers, and, addressing the regiment 
 which was uttering seditious cries, he said: "This 
 is not your place ; this is where my faithful soldiers 
 belong ; go over yonder, among the rebels, and take 
 your arms with you." And he subdued the military 
 sedition by this act of decision and courage. 
 
 Nor did the intrepid sovereign display less firm- 
 ness when the cholera broke out in Saint Petersburg 
 in 1832. The people had risen and massacred in 
 the hay-market several physicians, thinking that 
 they were poisoning the sick by order of the gov- 
 ernment. The Czar went instanter into the midst 
 of this furious crowd, accompanied by Count Orloff :
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS 75 
 
 "Off with your hats and kneel down," shouted he, 
 "and begin by making the sign of the cross with 
 me, and praying God to abate the scourge, instead 
 of drawing down His wrath upon us by your crimes." 
 Then, when the people had obeyed him, he made 
 them understand their injustice and their mistake, 
 and recalled them to reason. 
 
 During the European crisis of 1848 and 1849, the 
 Emperor Nicholas had posed as the defender of social 
 order, as the governor and the Providence of sov- 
 ereigns. After suppressing the insurrection of 
 Hungary against the Emperor Francis Joseph by 
 the armed intervention of Russia, he asked of Aus- 
 tria a sum so moderate that it did not even cover 
 the cost of the campaign, intending thus to show 
 that money had no value in his eyes, and that 
 Russia was rich enough to fight solely for the glory 
 of its arms and the triumph of its principles. The 
 young Emperor Francis Joseph said to him at War- 
 saw, in front of the statue of Sobieski: "There is 
 the first saviour of Austria. You are the second." 
 And the two sovereigns fell into each other's arms. 
 When the Czar appeared in Germany, it was less as 
 a traveller than as a suzerain. In the Germanic 
 Confederation he had formed for himself a submis- 
 sive and respectful clientele. 
 
 At Saint Petersburg the Emperor appeared to the 
 people, of whom he was the idol, at times under a 
 familiar aspect, and again in majestic pomp. On 
 the same day, one might see him walking alone in
 
 76 NAPOLEON III. AND HI* COURT 
 
 the streets and returning to the Winter Palace in 
 the first passing droschky; then presiding over a 
 grand ceremony regulated by him according to the 
 most exact and pompous etiquette. An autocrat 
 even in the smallest things, he occasionally per- 
 formed police duty on his promenades. One day he 
 brought back to his barracks a soldier who had left 
 it in the night without permission. Another time, 
 meeting a foreigner who was tranquilly smoking in 
 the street before him, he said to him politely: "Sir, 
 you seem not to know the law of this country. Per- 
 mit me to tell you that if a police officer should find 
 you smoking in the street in this way, you would 
 get into trouble with him. That is why I recom- 
 mend you to throw away your cigar immediately." 
 It is added that the foreigner was much astonished 
 on afterwards finding out that the obliging person 
 who had given him this warning was no other than 
 the Emperor. 
 
 There was in the life of the Czar a mixture of 
 Asiatic ostentation and thoroughly military sim- 
 plicity. His reception rooms in the Winter Palace 
 were as magnificent as his bedchamber, which we 
 have visited, was modest. He slept on a narrow 
 iron bedstead, at the side of which was a soldier's 
 musket and a pair of old slippers which the Empress 
 had embroidered for him soon after their marriage. 
 He was not only the handsomest man in his Empire, 
 but the most robust. It was said in 1853 that he 
 had never been ill but once in his life, and that dur-
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS 77 
 
 ing this sickness, which lasted a fortnight, he had 
 insisted on lying on a sofa, wrapped in a military 
 cloak. Unacquainted with fatigue himself, he could 
 not comprehend it in others ; he kept his court con- 
 stantly on the alert. Kindly and affable as a rule, 
 but inexorable and terrible when he had to punish 
 a functionary guilty of peculation or prevarication ; 
 capable of generosity, but disposed to extreme 
 severity when he thought duty required him to be 
 implacable; considering himself as a great judge 
 appointed by Providence, he drew from religion 
 itself the conviction that his mission as a defender 
 of divine right and the orthodox faith had a sacred 
 character. 
 
 Was there an impassable gulf between the Czar 
 and Napoleon III. ? We do not believe it. Russia 
 and France had sympathies in common, and the two 
 sovereigns might have come to an understanding. 
 Napoleon III. was not intentionally the ally of the 
 Turks. In his youth he had longed to fight against 
 them under the standard of the Emperor Nicholas. 
 Hence a policy tending toward the emancipation of 
 the Christians of the Orient would not have been 
 contrary to his antecedents. Nor could he forget 
 that the Emperor Alexander, the brother and prede- 
 cessor of Nicholas, had been in 1814 the friend and 
 protector of the Empress Josephine, Queen Hortense, 
 and Prince Eugene de Beauharnais ; nor that in 
 1839 the Emperor Nicholas had given his cherished 
 daughter, the Grand Duchess Marie, in marriage
 
 78 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 to the son of Prince Eugene, Due Maximilien de 
 Leuchtenberg, and that this princess was using all 
 her influence at her father's court to maintain 
 friendly relations between Russia and France. 
 
 As President of the Republic Louis Napoleon had 
 had every reason to be satisfied with the Emperor 
 Nicholas. He was represented at Saint Petersburg 
 by a minister plenipotentiary, General de Castelbajac, 
 a distinguished soldier and member of an old Gascon 
 family, who received there a much more cordial 
 reception than had been given to the representatives 
 of Louis Philippe. 
 
 The Coup d'Etat had produced a good impression 
 at Saint Petersburg. General de Castelbajac wrote 
 to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marquis Turgot, 
 December 15, 1851: "The Emperor and the Chan- 
 cellor of the Empire have received the news of 
 December 2 very favorably ; they both consider the 
 expectation of what might happen in 1852 as detri- 
 mental to the tranquillity of Europe. The proclama- 
 tions of the President of the Republic have confirmed 
 the Emperor Nicholas in the high idea he enter- 
 tained of the loyalty and courage of the Prince." 
 And on January 1, 1852: "The Emperor does not 
 conceal the fact that he is heartily in favor of Prince 
 Louis Napoleon, who seems to him to have rendered 
 a vast service to France and Europe, which on an 
 appointed day were menaced by the united attempts 
 of the party of disorder. His Majesty has praised 
 the conduct of our army in the highest terms."
 
 THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS 79 
 
 January 29 General de Castelbajac sent to Marquis 
 Turgot the following account of an audience granted 
 him by the Czar the day before: "The Emperor 
 expressed the most sympathetic sentiments toward 
 Prince Napoleon, and the political satisfaction he 
 had experienced from the latest governmental meas- 
 ures, the promulgation of the Constitution, and 
 more particularly his preamble. He manifested his 
 admiration (this is his own word) several times for 
 the frankness, the precision, the virile eloquence of 
 this important document. 'By all that he has just 
 done,' said the Emperor to me, ' the President of the 
 Republic merits the gratitude of France and of all 
 Europe. He has recognized the position better than 
 all the statesmen of the last two reigns, better than 
 any of us, and if he follows his political programme 
 exactly, without allowing himself to be influenced 
 by vulgar ambitions, he will have established him- 
 self in politics and history at one stroke above us 
 all.'" 
 
 Naturally, Louis Napoleon had been affected by 
 such flattering words. We believe that at this 
 period nothing would have pleased him better than 
 a Franco-Russian alliance. He had said before the 
 Chamber of Peers, September 28, 1840: "I represent 
 a principle, a cause, and a defeat. The principle is 
 the sovereignty of the people ; the cause is that of 
 the Empire; the defeat is Waterloo." He knew 
 very well that he could never avenge this defeat 
 unless he were in accord with Russia. Hence we
 
 80 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 incline to think that he would have preferred the 
 Russian to the English alliance. But we shall see 
 hereafter that he had no room for choice. In 1852 
 he neglected no means of gaining the good will of 
 the Emperor Nicholas. He sent to Saint Petersburg 
 on an exclusively personal mission a Frenchman who 
 had belonged to the horse-guards in Russia, and of 
 whom the Emperor Nicholas had retained a favor- 
 able impression. This was the Baron de Heeckeren, 
 who said to the Czar: "Sire, the Emperor Alex- 
 ander, your brother, frequently wrote to Queen 
 Hortense. If Prince Louis Napoleon supposed that 
 it would be agreeable to you to have these letters, 
 I am convinced that he would send them to you 
 with pleasure." "Certainly," replied the Emperor, 
 "I would like to have Alexander's letters, and I 
 would thank the Prince for his courteous action. I 
 know the Prince already; I held him on my knees 
 at Malmaison when I went there with my brother 
 Alexander to pay my court to the Empress Josephine 
 and Queen Hortense. Make him understand that I 
 shall never be one of his adversaries." The letters 
 of Queen Hortense were sent, and from that time 
 a very courteous correspondence was established 
 between Louis Napoleon and the Emperor Nicholas.
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 THE CZAR AND THE FRENCH EMPIRE 
 
 A LTHOUGH the Czar showed his sympathy 
 with the President of the French Republic, 
 he did not desire that Louis Napoleon should be- 
 come Napoleon III. September 3, 1852, General 
 de Castelbajac wrote to M. Drouyn de Lhuys, 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs : " I know that the 
 Emperor always employs the most amiable expres- 
 sions in speaking of the Prince ; but he invariably 
 follows them by others which, in spite of himself, 
 display anxiety. ' The Prince must not spoil his 
 position,' he will say; 'he must continue to govern 
 with prudence,' and other phrases the real meaning 
 of which is that, in his opinion, the Prince ought 
 not to change the form of government." In the 
 same letter the general adds : " The Northern courts 
 have little sympathy for us. What they feel about 
 us is a mixture of fear and distrust." 
 
 It is curious to observe that the Emperor Nicho- 
 las was unfavorable to both the Comte de Chambord 
 and the Orleans princes. What he would have 
 desired for France was the maintenance of the 
 Republic. General de Castelbajac wrote in No- 
 
 81
 
 82 NAPOLEON III. AND IIIS COURT 
 
 vember, 1852 : " If the Emperor does not disavow 
 his legitimist principles, he none the less holds the 
 Comte de Chambord and the Orleans princes very 
 cheap. He considers the latter as the revolution 
 incarnate ; and as to the former, though he likes 
 and pities him, he tells me that he regards him not 
 simply as impossible, but as dangerous, and that if 
 it depended on him to replace him on the throne, 
 he would take good care not to do it in the existing 
 state of Europe." 
 
 At the same period the general thus expressed 
 himself to M. Thouvenel, then political director in 
 the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs : " The 
 Emperor admires Prince Louis Napoleon ; he con- 
 siders him as the saviour of France. But absolute 
 sovereign though he be, he believes that with us 
 the Republic is, and will long continue to be, the 
 strongest obstacle in the way of an outburst of 
 mobocracy. It will seem strange to men who do 
 not know him, and even to those who do, that he 
 advises the continuation of our Republic. But 
 when he says : Keep the Republic strong and con- 
 servative, and beware of the Empire, it is the loyal 
 counsel of a friend who points out the danger and 
 wishes to keep us away from it." 
 
 At bottom, what chiefly displeased the Czar in 
 the restoration of the French Empire was that he 
 saw in it a violation of the treaties of 1815, which 
 had stricken the family of Napoleon with perpetual 
 deposition ; he also thought it an attack on the
 
 THE CZAR AND THE FRENCH EMPIRE 83 
 
 traditions of the Holy Alliance, of which he con- 
 sidered himself the champion. A monarchy based 
 upon election and popular sovereignty appeared to 
 him a negation of divine right, which he regarded 
 as a dogma of faith. He had besides a presentiment 
 that if Louis Napoleon became emperor, he would 
 dispute with him the role of arbiter of Europe, and 
 that the second French Empire would not resist 
 the temptation to follow the warlike paths of the 
 first. 
 
 Badly informed by his minister plenipotentiary 
 at Paris, M. de Kisseleff, and by several Russian 
 ladies, the Princesse de Lieven, Madame de Kalerghi, 
 Madame de Seebach, and the Princesse Menchikoff, 
 who were then in France, the Emperor Nicholas 
 had supposed that Napoleon III. could have only 
 an ephemeral authority, and that to contract a 
 serious alliance with him was impossible. The Czar 
 had formed his opinion of imperial France from 
 what was said about in the salons of the opposition. 
 He had been led astray by both his secret and his 
 official diplomatists. 
 
 Still, when he found all governments recognizing 
 the new empire, the Russian sovereign concluded 
 to recognize it also, but with a reservation of detail 
 which wounded Napoleon III. Instead of styling 
 the Emperor of the French "my good brother" he 
 addressed him as " my good friend" 
 
 Napoleon III. was offended. But, always master 
 of himself, he took the thing wittily. On this sub-
 
 84 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 ject we read, in M. Rothan's work, L Europe et 
 le Second Empire : " January 5, 1853, the Emperor 
 received the Russian envoy with great ceremony. 
 He took the Czar's letter from his hands, but 
 instead of passing it unopened to his Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, as is customary, — for he knew its 
 contents from the copy in cipher, — he broke the seal. 
 He leisurely unfolded it, and, after reading it atten- 
 tively, he begged M. de Kisseleff, in his most caress- 
 ing tones, to thank the Emperor Nicholas warmly 
 for his kindness, and especially for the expression, 
 my good friend, which he had employed ; for, said 
 he, ' if one puts up with his brothers, he chooses his 
 friends.' ' M. Rothan goes on to say : " An attache 
 of the imperial legation, M. de Meyendorff, who 
 was present at the audience, told me one day that 
 M. de Kisseleff stopped short as he was going down 
 the staircase of the Tuileries, and ffivinsr him a 
 troubled look, like a man who regrets having been 
 made the instrument of a mistake, said, ' Decidedly, 
 he is somebody.' " 
 
 Now let us see by a despatch addressed to M. 
 Drouyn de Lhuys by General de Castelbajac, Janu- 
 ary 16, 1853, how he was received by the Emperor 
 Nicholas when he presented the letters accrediting 
 him to the Russian court as the minister plenipoten- 
 tiary of the Emperor of the French. 
 
 As soon as the general was introduced into the 
 Czar's cabinet, His Majesty came to meet and em- 
 brace him, saying : " I am glad that our affairs are
 
 THE CZAR AND TUE FRENCH EMPIRE 85 
 
 at last terminated ; I thank the Emperor Napoleon 
 for it, and also for having confirmed you in your 
 position near me, my dear general. It pleases me to 
 see in this a proof of his friendship." 
 
 The Czar received his credentials, and then, hav- 
 ing dismissed the master of ceremonies and his 
 assistant, who had introduced General de Castel- 
 bajac, and, as is customary, having made him sit 
 down opposite him at his writing-table, a conversa- 
 tion which lasted nearly an hour spontaneously took 
 place between them. 
 
 General de Castelbajac : " Sire, I rejoice with 
 Your Imperial Majesty on the moderation and ex- 
 treme good sense of the Emperor Napoleon, since 
 they prevent the repose of Europe from being en- 
 dangered, and I am especially grateful for his con- 
 tinuing my confidential functions near you. I wish 
 I could respond to this confidence by assisting to re- 
 new the natural and useful alliance which ought to 
 exist between our two nations, and which the late 
 negotiations must have chilled." 
 
 TJie Emperor Nicholas. "The Emperor has too 
 much elevation of mind, heart, and character not to 
 make a sane estimate of my position as well as his 
 own, and I hope that our frankness and mutual 
 esteem, I may add my affection for him personally, 
 will perpetuate our agreement. I have always told 
 ) t ou, and I repeat, my dear general, that no one ap- 
 proved more than I, or did more toward inducing 
 the sovereigns my allies to approve the bold and
 
 86 NAPOLEON Iff. AND HIS COURT 
 
 skilful deed of December 2, and all the patriotic 
 conduct of Prince Louis Napoleon. If he has the 
 confidence in me which I deserve, no one is more 
 disposed to support his governmental measures, 
 which I admit to be useful to all Europe, and all 
 that may be to his personal advantage. But with 
 all the political changes which I have seen in France 
 since coming to the throne, how can I as a sovereign 
 prudently bind myself to a future which will not be 
 his, or depend directly upon him, with any chance of 
 its continuance? Be assured, my dear general, that, 
 as I have told you before, there is no question in my 
 mind of the Comte de Chambord, whom I regard as 
 impossible and even as dangerous in France ; but I 
 am loyal, and I will promise only what I can per- 
 form, and God only can guarantee the future." 
 
 Gr. de C. " True, Sire, God only can guarantee 
 the future, but sovereigns can settle or unsettle it 
 by acts which inspire either confidence or distrust. 
 Fortunately the Emperor Napoleon is strong enough 
 to be moderate ; he is wise in thinking that a good 
 friend is better than a doubtful brother, and I am 
 sure he may rely on the well-known loyalty of 
 Your Majesty as well as upon your concurrence in 
 all that may be useful to both countries, and the 
 general interests of Europe." 
 
 The Emperor. " The Emperor Napoleon has long 
 been assured of my confidence, and I hope he will 
 treat me as a real friend by giving me his, because 
 with me words are not mere sounds, but have a real
 
 THE CZAR AND THE FRENCH EMPIRE 87 
 
 meaning. I am expecting his reply to my letter, 
 and you may assure him of my wish that we should 
 be on intimate terms, since between men capable of 
 mutual esteem they may often be more useful than 
 purely official relations. If he Avill address me in 
 writing, or confidentially through } r ou, I will reply 
 with equal frankness ; we may not always hold the 
 same opinions, but candid and direct communica- 
 tions may result in mutual understanding and 
 agreement." 
 
 General de Castelbajac concludes as follows the 
 despatch in which he describes this interview with 
 the Czar : " I must not forget to remark that the 
 first words of the Emperor Nicholas were addressed 
 to me in the presence of the master of ceremonies 
 and his aid ; consequently were meant to be heard 
 and repeated, and I have no doubt they will bring 
 me a throng of visits from the well-drilled Russian 
 courtiers." 
 
 We have just proved that at the beginning of 
 1853 the terms in which the Russian and the French 
 emperors spoke of each other were by no means 
 those of irreconcilable adversaries. At this period 
 there were no signs either in the official world, the 
 press, or the salons which could indicate that war 
 between the two empires was imminent. If the 
 Russian sovereign had sent an envoy to the Tuile- 
 ries whose sentiments towards France resembled 
 those entertained by General de Castelbajac towards 
 Russia, we think that an understanding would have
 
 88 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 been established between two great nations which, 
 instead of suspecting and trying to thwart each 
 other, might amicably have divided the supremacy 
 of Europe, France in the West and Russia in the 
 East. With a few mutual concessions the two good 
 friends might have ended as two good brothe?'s. 
 
 Unfortunately it was otherwise, and the Emperor 
 Nicholas instead of confiding in France turned to 
 England, a fact which he must afterwards have 
 regretted bitterly. At a soiree given at the palace 
 of the Grande Duchesse Hel£ne on the 9th of Janu- 
 ary, 1853, he said to the ambassador of Queen Vic- 
 toria, Sir Hamilton Seymour : " It is essential that 
 our two governments should be on better terms. 
 When we are on good terms I have no anxiety about 
 the West of Europe ; what others think is really of 
 small importance. . . . You see, we have a sick 
 man on our hands, a very sick man ; it would be a 
 great misfortune if he should slip out of them some 
 day before all necessary arrangements are made." 
 
 January 14, the Czar went so far as to formulate a 
 scheme of division with the ambassador : " The 
 Danubian principalities," said he, "are in fact an 
 independent State under my protection ; that solu- 
 tion may continue. Servia may receive a similar 
 form of government, and Bulgaria likewise ; there is 
 no reason that I know of why we should not make 
 an independent State of that country. As to Egypt, 
 I perfectly comprehend its importance to England. 
 All I can say is that in case of a partition after the
 
 THE CZAR AND THE FRENCH EMPIRE 89 
 
 downfall of the Ottoman Empire, if you take posses- 
 sion of Egypt, 1 skill have no objections to make. 
 I will say the same of Candia ; that island may suit 
 you, and I do not know why it should not belong to 
 England." 
 
 The English government not merely repulsed the 
 offers of the tempter, but, notwithstanding their con- 
 lidential character, it made them public by including 
 the account in the official documents communicated 
 to Parliament. The intention of the Emperor 
 Nicholas had been to entice England into a partition 
 of Turkey to the exclusion of France, and he had 
 failed. 
 
 It must be ' owned that in spite of the liking 
 showed by the Czar to General de Castelbajac, he 
 never at any time made overtures to him resembling 
 those he made to Sir Hamilton Seymour. At bot- 
 tom he had never been pleased that Louis Napoleon 
 should have transformed himself into Napoleon III., 
 and notwithstanding his advances he never made 
 any attempt to establish serious relations with him. 
 It may be affirmed that France would have accepted 
 the Russian alliance which England contemned. If 
 Nicholas had said to General de Castelbajac what he 
 said to the British ambassador, there would have 
 been no Crimean War, the days of Tilsit would have 
 been repeated, and the face of the world would 
 have been changed.
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE QUESTION OF THE HOLY PLACES 
 
 A T the beginning of 1853 the long and laborious 
 negotiations going on at Constantinople on 
 the subject of the Holy Places interested but a very 
 few persons, and the public, knowing little about 
 a question relegated to the cautious precincts of 
 chancellors' offices or the silence of cloisters, did 
 not imagine that a litigation whose character seemed 
 more theological than political could ever disturb 
 the peace of Europe. Any one who would like to 
 know the details of this question, which was the 
 primary cause of the Crimean War, may find them 
 in M. Louis Thouvenel's remarkable work: Nicolas 
 I er et NapoUon III. In the papers of his illustrious 
 father, the author has found papers which are a 
 complete summary of the affair of the Holy Places. 
 
 The capitulations concluded between France and 
 Turkey at various times since Francis I., and nota- 
 bly in 1740, provided that the Latin monks should 
 retain in Jerusalem the sanctuaries which they had 
 possessed from time immemorial. However, in con- 
 sequence of the encroachments of the Greeks and 
 Armenians, supported by Russia, they had lost their 
 
 90
 
 THE QUESTION OF THE HOLY PLACES 91 
 
 hold of several sanctuaries. When, in 1850, Prince 
 Louis Napoleon ordered General Aupick, French 
 minister at Constantinople, to remind Sultan Abdul 
 Medjid of the imprescriptibility of the ancient privi- 
 leges of the Latins in Jerusalem, he suspected 
 neither the consequences which such a claim was 
 likely to entail, nor the inveteracy with which the 
 Emperor Nicholas would defend the Greeks against 
 the Latins. It was forgotten that public opinion 
 counts for nothing in politics in Russia but that it 
 is all-powerful in religious matters; that the Czar, 
 considering himself as a sort of hieratic personage, 
 a crowned pontiff, regarded all the orthodox of the 
 Ottoman empire as his prote'ge's, his "faithful"; and 
 that to maintain his prestige in their eyes was the 
 chief object of his ambition. Hence the question of 
 the Holy Places had extraordinary importance for 
 him. He saw in it the touchstone of his influence 
 in the Orient. The monks were but supernumeraries 
 in this religious drama. The principal actor was 
 the Czar himself. 
 
 February 8, 1852, the Sultan had issued a firman 
 which was a sort of compromise between the claims 
 of France and those of Russia. It stated that as the 
 great cupola of the church of the Holy Sepulchre 
 belonged to the entire temple, the exclusive claims 
 of the Latins both for this and the smaller cupola, 
 as well as for the place of the descent of the Cross 
 from Golgotha, the arcades of the Virgin, the great 
 church of Bethlehem, and the grotto where Christ
 
 92 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 was born, were not just, and that things must re- 
 main in their existing condition. But the Sultan 
 had granted three privileges to the Latins which 
 French diplomacy endeavored to represent as impor- 
 tant successes. Firstly, he had consented to restore 
 to the Latin patriarch of Jerusalem, the delegate of 
 the Holy See, the key of the great door of the church 
 of Bethlehem; secondly, he had given orders that a 
 star with a Latin inscription which had disappeared 
 in 1847 should be replaced in the grotto of the 
 Nativity; thirdly, he had granted to the Catholic 
 commission the right to celebrate its own worship 
 concurrently with the other rites in the church called 
 the Virgin's Tomb. 
 
 In reality these concessions amounted to very 
 little. Yet the Emperor Nicholas would not con- 
 sent to them, and when it became a question of 
 carrying them into execution, France encountered 
 in Jerusalem a crowd of difficulties. At the end of 
 February, 1853, Napoleon III. said to M. Thouvenel: 
 " I do not know the details of the affair of the Holy 
 Places ; I regret the fuss that has been made about 
 them, and still more the exaggerated importance the 
 matter has assumed, but we cannot }deld the little 
 we have obtained." 
 
 Meanwhile the question of the Holy Places had 
 not diminished the friendliness of the Czar toward 
 the representative of the Emperor of the French. 
 General de Castelbajac wrote to M. Thouvenel, 
 February 15, 1853 : " I have given a great fete, ball,
 
 THE QUESTION OF THE HOLY PLACES 03 
 
 and supper on the occasion of our Emperor's mar- 
 riage. Chancellor cle Nesselrode, all the ministers, 
 the entire court, and all the diplomatic corps came 
 to it with alacrity, and also the hereditary Grand 
 Duke and his three brothers in the most friendlj r 
 way. The effect of this has been all the better 
 because these princes had never set foot in the 
 French legation, neither under King Louis Philippe 
 nor the Republic. Nor had they been for a long 
 time at any reception at the foreign legations, which 
 in general are held very cheap in Russia. As to 
 the Emperor and the Empress, since their family 
 troubles and the loss of their youth, they go nowhere, 
 and I was unwilling to expose myself to a refusal 
 which they give to everybody, but which under 
 existing circumstances might be misinterpreted by 
 the public. I beg you to let me know precisely to 
 what extent I may intervene in the question of the 
 Holy Places, which must be terminated." 
 
 A fortnight later General de Castelbajac sent a 
 despatch to M. Drouyn de Lhuys, in which he said: 
 " I have received the congratulations of the Emperor 
 Nicholas on the marriage of the Emperor Napoleon. 
 He told me that he had three portraits of the Empress 
 Euge'nie, one in Andalusian costume, and that he 
 had just received a bust of Her Majesty by M. de 
 Nieuwerkerke, which he thought very good. As to 
 portraits, I regret having no better ones to offer to 
 the Russian court, where they are so greatly interested 
 in our Empress."
 
 94 NAPOLEON III. AND II IS COURT 
 
 Finally, we cite this curious passage from a letter 
 of M. Thouvenel to General de Castelbajac (March 1, 
 1853): "I will tell you that the Russians are per- 
 fectly well treated at our court, and that the salon 
 of the Princesse de LieVen is again frequented by 
 our statesmen. People are beginning to talk, too 
 soon perhaps, of the advantages of an alliance with 
 Russia. If in the contingent future at Saint Peters- 
 burg such an alliance is actually possible, it would 
 be a bad time to choose for quarrelling with us about 
 a key! The presence of the grand dukes at your 
 ball has produced the best effect here, and every- 
 body credits you with the change for the better in 
 our relations." 
 
 At Paris as well as at Saint Petersburg the main- 
 tenance of the peace so necessary to both emperors 
 and to their peoples was sincerely desired. It 
 seemed incredible that for matters like a key, a 
 lamp, a passage, a dormer window, two nations such 
 as Russia and France, with so many common inter- 
 ests and mutual sympathies, could come to blows 
 and shed torrents of blood. To sensible men such 
 an hypothesis seemed a criminal absurdity. The 
 two capitals abandoned themselves gayly to the 
 pleasures of the season. The definite settlement of 
 the question of the Holy Places seemed close at 
 hand, and in Paris it was believed that the matters 
 of detail which delayed this solution would be easil} r 
 overcome. Things suddenly changed their aspect. 
 Unexpected tidings came like thunder out of a clear
 
 THE QUESTION OF THE HOLY PLACES 95 
 
 sky. Prince Menchikoff had just arrived at Con- 
 stantinople as extraordinary ambassador from the 
 Czar, and his mission had a character which boded 
 ill for the peace of Europe.
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 THE MISSION OF PRINCE MENCHIKOFF 
 
 /CONSTANTINOPLE is in an uproar on Feb- 
 ^-^ ruary 28, 1853. Prince Menchikoff is landing. 
 Never had such a scene been prepared for the entry 
 of an ambassador. One would think it the triumphal 
 return of a victorious general. The Christians are 
 thronging to salute the avenger of the orthodox 
 faith. Greeks and Armenians vie with each other 
 in enthusiasm. As soon as the vessel bearing the 
 envoy of the Emperor Nicholas appears in the Bos- 
 phorus, the air resounds with frenzied acclamations. 
 The Prince is surrounded by a whole staff of gen- 
 erals, officers, and Russian functionaries: Prince 
 Galitzin, Vice-Admiral Khorniloff, aide-de-camp to 
 the Czar, General Nikapotchinski, Count Dimitri 
 Nesselrode, son of the chancellor. He is himself 
 one of the greatest personages of the Empire. 
 Admiral, Minister of the Navy, Governor of Fin- 
 land, he has been loaded with honors by his sover- 
 eign, whose trusted agent, confidant, and friend he 
 is. Before coming to Constantinople he has just 
 been reviewing, near Odessa, the troops which are 
 going to swell the army already collected in Bes- 
 
 96
 
 NICHOLAS I.
 
 THE MISSION OF PRINCE MENCHIKOFF 07 
 
 sarabia, and has visited the Black Sea fleet in the 
 roadstead of Sebastopol. Hardly has he arrived in 
 the Turkish capital when he openly sends to Athens 
 one of the heroes of Navarino, Vice-Adrairal Khor- 
 niloff, to confer with Otho I., King of Greece; and 
 the wife of this prince, Queen Amelie, believing 
 herself destined to become Empress of the East, tells 
 her courtiers that she will install herself on the 
 shores of the Bosphorus in the palace of Bechik- 
 Tasch as soon as Constantinople becomes the seat of 
 the new Greek Empire. 
 
 The Porte is anxiously awaiting what the redoubt- 
 able and mysterious ambassador may have to say. 
 March 10, he is received by Sultan Abdul Medjid. 
 To the general stupefaction he presents himself 
 before the Commander of the Faithful in citizen's 
 dress, in a frock coat, instead of in uniform, as is 
 the custom. Everybody is wondering whether this 
 arrogant diplomat carries peace or war in the creases 
 of this garment. The offence seems to haA r e been 
 carried as far as possible, and yet it is only just 
 begun. After the audience with the Sultan, the 
 Czar's ambassador is obliged by etiquette to call at 
 once at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The min- 
 ister, Fuad Effendi, is waiting for him at the door 
 of a salon brilliantly decorated for the occasion. 
 The Prince passes this salon, and, instead of enter- 
 ing, goes disdainfully on his way. The next day 
 he makes the Grand Vizier understand that in re- 
 fusing to enter the house of the Minister of Foreign
 
 98 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Affairs he had not intended to insult the Turkish 
 government, but had thought it impossible to treat 
 with a deceitful minister. Never have the rules of 
 etiquette and the diplomatic proprieties received so 
 rude a shock. Fuad sends in his resignation. The 
 alarmed Abdul Medjid accepts it, and in the place 
 of Fuad appoints Refaat Pasha, recommended to His 
 Highness by the Emperor Nicholas. 
 
 Is the Czar about to urge matters to a crisis, and 
 will the mission of Prince Menchikoff result in war? 
 General de Castelbajac does not think so. He writes 
 from Saint Petersburg to M. Drouyn de Lhuys, 
 March 14, 1853: "I think the chief object of the 
 Emperor Nicholas is to resume ascendancy in 
 Turkey, so as to gratify his religious and political 
 tendencies, and more particularly the religious 
 fanaticism of his people, with which he is obliged 
 to reckon. It is a purely moral influence which 
 Prince Menchikoff is to exercise. The armaments 
 are formed simply to aid this moral action, and also 
 to respond to those of Austria, and not leave to her 
 in the eyes of the orthodox Greeks the sole honor of 
 an energetic act of protection." Not long before, 
 Count de Leiningen, ambassador extraordinary of 
 Austria, had obtained from the Sultan by means of 
 a menacing ultimatum the recall of the troops who 
 were blocking Montenegro. 
 
 In spite of his optimism General de Castelbajac 
 was very sensible that the peace of Europe was by 
 no means certain. "However," he adds, in the
 
 THE MISSION OF PRINCE MENCIUKOFF 99 
 
 same despatch, " the Emperor Nicholas is ready for 
 war, and we must avoid pushing him into it in spite 
 of himself, which would be only too easy on account 
 of his fear of the fragility of the Turkish Empire, 
 the ambition of his young officers with his son 
 Constantine at their head, and the patriotic and 
 religious fanaticism of his people and his army." 
 
 The general concluded by these wise and noble 
 words: "I am far from adhering to the system of 
 peace at any price; but I prefer a peace that may 
 honorably and usefully be maintained to a war 
 which, under existing political and social condi- 
 tions in Europe, would in any case be a frightful 
 moral and material disturbance, even if it did not 
 lead to the triumph of the modern barbarians. My 
 fears I express to my country in an undertone, and 
 my opinion concerning the danger of a war to all 
 Europe in a very loud one at Saint Petersburg. As 
 to peace at any price, the national dignity, the firm- 
 ness of character, the energetic and prompt decision 
 which the Emperor Napoleon displays in every 
 important emergency, are so well known to France 
 and Europe that pacific measures would not win 
 him the blame, but the general gratitude and appro- 
 bation both of France and foreign nations." 
 
 Meanwhile the vague and indeterminate character 
 of Prince MenchikofTs mission was beginning to 
 cause the diplomatists some apprehension. March 
 16, he had sent to the Porte his first official com- 
 munication. In it he recalled the fact, apropos of
 
 100 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 the affair of the Holy Places, that for a year Turkey 
 had done nothing to satisfy the claims of Russia 
 against the firman of February 8, 1852, and the 
 advantages it conferred on the Latins. By a second 
 communication of March 22, he claimed not a mere 
 rectification of the firman, but a diplomatic arrange- 
 ment in virtue of which Russia should be treated at 
 Jerusalem on the same footing as France. He 
 demanded that the key of the church of Bethlehem 
 should be taken from the Latins, that they should 
 be excluded from the Tomb of the Virgin, that the 
 Greeks should be authorized to undertake alone and 
 at their own cost the reconstruction of the great 
 cupola of the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and 
 finally that Turkey should bind herself to make no 
 changes at Jerusalem without a previous under- 
 standing with Russia. 
 
 In Paris the tranquillity of the people concerning 
 the Eastern question was already somewhat dis- 
 turbed. The journals were expressing certain fears. 
 In the Revue des Deux-Mondes (Chronicle of the 
 Fortnight, March 31, 1853) M. de Mazade wrote: 
 " It is in every way essential that at certain moments 
 public attention should be concentrated on a single 
 point and absorbed in the expectation of one of those 
 events which take precedence of all others and sum- 
 marize a situation. When this is not one of those 
 revolutionary convulsions which imperil the general 
 order of societies, it is one of the incidents which 
 serve to measure the fragility of peace and the
 
 THE MISSION OF PRINCE MENCHIKOFF 101 
 
 balance of power in the West. A courier who 
 arrives with an unexpected message causes a fluctua- 
 tion on the Bourse, that thermometer of the emo- 
 tions, hopes, perplexities, and often the superstitions 
 of public opinion. What is the unique preoccupa- 
 tion under which everybody has been living for 
 several days in Europe ? One perceives at once that 
 it is the Eastern question, and the new aspect it 
 has suddenly put on in consequence of Prince 
 Menchikoff's mission to Constantinople. This dark 
 spot which has been rising lately on the horizon 
 has unexpectedly been transformed into an almost 
 threatening cloud. News is anxiously awaited 
 every morning. What was the secret of this ex- 
 traordinary mission? Under one form or another 
 does not Prince Menchikoff carry with him the 
 sentence of the downfall of the Ottoman Empire ? " 
 
 The situation was still further aggravated by the 
 return of the English ambassador, Lord Stratford de 
 Redcliffe, to Constantinople, April 4, 1853. Accus- 
 tomed for a dozen years to rule on the shores of the 
 Bosphorus, where he appointed and deposed grand 
 viziers and ministers at his pleasure, this haughty 
 and vindictive diplomat, who assumed the manners 
 of the proconsuls of old Rome, had never forgiven 
 the Emperor Nicholas for having refused to accept 
 him, in 1833, as minister of England at Saint Peters- 
 burg. This old grudge helped to excite him against 
 Russia, and made him one of the principal authors 
 of the war in the East.
 
 102 NAPOLEON in. AND HIS COURT 
 
 The dispositions of France were still most con- 
 ciliatory. Instead of sending back to Constantinople 
 the Marquis de La Valette, who had obtained the 
 firman of February 8, 1852, the cause of such wrath 
 and recrimination, a new ambassador, M. de Lacour, 
 was appointed. He had had no hand in the previ- 
 ous negotiations, and on April 5, 1853, he arrived 
 in Constantinople as the bearer of the most moderate 
 and sincerely pacific instructions. 
 
 The question of the Holy Places presently took a 
 secondary rank. The Porte having consented to the 
 restoration of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in 
 its present form, and to the erection of a Russian 
 church and hospital in Jerusalem, Prince Men- 
 chikoff offered no further objection to the other 
 privileges which France had obtained for the Latins 
 by the firman of February 8, 1852. But the Prince 
 put forward another claim of widely different im- 
 portance. He demanded the conclusion of a treaty 
 by which the rights and immunities of the Church 
 and of the Greek rites should be placed under the 
 protection of Russia. What the Czar really wanted 
 was the official jjrotection of Russia over all its co- 
 religionists in the Ottoman Empire, carrying with it 
 civil and administrative jurisdiction, which, accord- 
 ing to the Russian interpretation of former conces- 
 sions by the Sultans, formed the appanage of the 
 power exerted by the Greek patriarchs over the 
 faithful of their communion. May 17, the former 
 grand viziers, pashas, and ulemas, assembled in full
 
 THE MISSION OF PRINCE MENCIIIKOFF 103 
 
 conclave at Constantinople, unanimously repelled 
 this claim. 
 
 Since May 4 Prince Menchikoff had left Pera 
 and withdrawn to the Russian frigate Bessarabia, 
 anchored opposite Budjukde're', in the upper Bos- 
 phorus, near the Black Sea. The following day he 
 had presented himself without asking permission at 
 the palace of the Sultan, who had just lost his 
 mother, and said to him: "I entreat Your Majesty 
 to weigh thoroughly the possible consequences of 
 prolonged resistance to the wishes of the Emperor 
 Nicholas." Finding that he could obtain nothing, 
 in spite of his energy, the impetuous ambassador 
 left Budjukde're' on the frigate Foudroya?it, in the 
 night of May 21-22, 1853, and re-entered the Black 
 Sea, his heart filled with rancor. His attitude had 
 been menacing, but no one as yet believed that war 
 would be the result, and Napoleon III. had by no 
 means abandoned the hope of preserving peace in 
 the East when he went to establish himself at the 
 palace of Saint-Cloud on the 25th of May.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 SAINT-CLOUD, DIEPPE, AND COMP1EGNE 
 
 r I THE Emperor and Empress left the Tuileries, 
 May 25, 1853, for the palace of Saint-Cloud, 
 where they intended to spend the summer. What 
 pleased the Empress Eugenie best at Saint-Cloud 
 was not the splendor of the chateau, but the leafy 
 twilight of the park. She loved to stroll beneath 
 its trees, that had stood for centuries, and across its 
 verdant sward, to climb its picturesque hillocks, to 
 look at the great fountain, the arcades framed by 
 symmetrical architecture, the two cascades whose 
 waters fall from one height to another and from 
 which flashes a white foam sparkling with a thou- 
 sand reflections under the sunlight, or at night be- 
 neath the lustre of colored lamps. She liked to go 
 up into the observatory of Demosthenes, that little 
 Greek monument situated on a platform whence the 
 Seine can be seen flowing at the foot of the park, 
 and on the horizon the principal public buildings of 
 Paris : the Arch of Triumph, the dome of the In- 
 valides, the Tuileries, the Louvre, the towers of 
 Saint Sulpice, the Pantheon. In 1853 the second 
 Emperor and Empress Eugenie tranquilly enjoyed 
 
 104
 
 SAINT-CLOUD, DIEPPE, AND COMPIEGNE 105 
 
 the pleasure of reigning at the chateau of Saint- 
 Cloud. They found it a delightful place. 
 
 During the invasion of 1815 Bliicher, who had in- 
 stalled himself and his pack in the chamber of 
 Henrietta of England, and made a veritable kennel 
 of it, admired none the less the splendors of the 
 castle and the park. Dining with Metternich, he 
 said to him : " A man must have been a fool to run 
 off to Moscow when he had all these fine things at 
 home ! " It was, in fact, from Saint-Cloud that on 
 May 9, 1812, Napoleon I., surrounded by a splendid 
 court, made his ceremonious departure for that Rus- 
 sian campaign which was to be so fatal to him. 
 Alas ! it was also from Saint-Cloud that Napo- 
 leon III., destined never to return, departed for a 
 still more lamentable expedition. But in 1853 no 
 thought was given to either past or future woes. 
 The new Empire, full of youth, enthusiasm, and self- 
 confidence, fancied that the thunderbolt would never 
 strike it. 
 
 The Emperor and Empress left Saint-Cloud for 
 Dieppe, August 20, 1853. The journey occupied 
 four hours and a half. All along the road houses 
 were draped, and the imperial train was greeted by 
 the people with hearty acclamations. At Dieppe 
 the approaches to the railway station had been 
 taken possession of by an immense concourse of 
 spectators who, with incessant shouting, accompanied 
 the Emperor and Empress to the Hotel de Ville, 
 which had been made ready for their reception. In
 
 106 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 the evening the whole town was illuminated. The 
 sovereign and his charming companion went on foot 
 and unattended to the terrace of the bathing estab- 
 lishment. The next morning they went to hear 
 Mass in the church of Saint Jacques, which contains 
 specimens of every variety of the pointed arch. The 
 transepts date from the twelfth century, the nave 
 from the thirteenth, the porch and the bell-tower 
 from the fourteenth, the chapels from the fifteenth, 
 the choir, the porch tower, the treasury, and the 
 Virgin's chapel from the sixteenth and the Renais- 
 sance. 
 
 The quarters of Their Majesties at the City Hall 
 were very simple. They had been furnished in Per- 
 sian linen and carpeted with matting. This simpli- 
 city contrasted agreeably with the splendors of the 
 Tuileries, Saint-Cloud, Fontainebleau, and Com- 
 piegne. August 27, 1853, the Emperor and Em- 
 press visited the lace establishment founded in 1826 
 at her own cost by the Duchesse de Berry, where a 
 large number of young girls simultaneously find the 
 means of livelihood and the benefits of a Christian 
 life. In the evening they went to a play in the 
 theatre which the same princess had opened Au- 
 gust 8, 1826, and which had been built in six 
 months. August 29, Their Majesties received the 
 visit of King Jerome and Prince Napoleon, who 
 came from Havre on the imperial yacht, La Reine 
 Hortense, and in the evening were present at a con- 
 cert given in the City Hall. The beach had never
 
 SAINT-CLOUD, DIEPPE, AND COUPTEGXE 107 
 
 been more elegant. From morning to night the 
 long street which borders it was thronged with 
 superb equipages, some of which were drawn by 
 four horses. At the casino the animation was ex- 
 treme. The days of the Restoration seemed to have 
 returned. The Emperor, more than ever in love 
 with the Empress, was transported with the few 
 days of seaside life which he snatched from politics. 
 At that time, hoping that the clouds gathering in 
 the East would soon be dispelled, he peacefully 
 enjoyed the happiness granted him by Providence. 
 September 10 Their Majesties left Dieppe and re- 
 turned to Saint-Cloud. 
 
 Napoleon III., after studying for himself the vari- 
 ous schemes which for nearly a century had been 
 elaborated in vain, had just determined on the exe- 
 cution of a series of works which were to afford the 
 port of Dieppe every possible improvement. The 
 beach was a sorry-looking place. Immense earth- 
 works cut off the sea view without availing for the 
 defence of the town. Old and mutilated towers 
 were in the way of embellishments. All these ob- 
 stacles were to disappear at the will of the Emperor. 
 Covered with grass plats and flowers, the beach was 
 to be transformed into a superb promenade more 
 than twelve hundred metres in length, beginning at 
 the cliff of the chateau and covering the whole space 
 between the town and the sea. 
 
 Napoleon III. and the Empress went from palace 
 to palace, from ovation to ovation : after the chateau
 
 108 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 of the Tuileries that of Saint-Cloud ; after the ac- 
 clamations of the people of Dieppe those of the de- 
 partments of the North. Starting from Saint-Cloud, 
 they reached Arras the same day, where they found 
 deputations from nine hundred communes of the 
 Pas-de-Calais. Each commune had its banner, each 
 banner its device. The Sisters of Charity had 
 placed the little orphans in front of the asylum, as 
 if to put them under the patronage of the Em- 
 press. From the top of a triumphal arch represent- 
 ing the ancient gateway of Arras, young girls rained 
 flowers on the imperial carriage. 
 
 September 23, after having visited Valenciennes, 
 Avhere companies of miners in their working dress, 
 carrying their implements and with their mining 
 lamps in their caps, defiled before them, the Em- 
 peror and Empress made a ceremonious entry into 
 Lille. The mayor offered to Napoleon III. the keys 
 of the city, the same which had been offered to 
 Louis XIV. and Napoleon I. The Emperor went 
 out on foot the next day to visit the hospitals. In 
 the evening he and the Empress attended a superb 
 ball in the Hotel de Ville. 
 
 September 25, Their Majesties visited the camp of 
 Saint Omer, the 26th Dunkirk, the 27th Calais and 
 Boulogne. Everywhere the same huzzas and the 
 same ovations met them. At Boulogne, the city 
 where Napoleon I. had equipped a fleet and formed a 
 camp for the invasion of England, the English resi- 
 dents sent to Napoleon III. an address expressed in
 
 SAINT-CLOUD, DIEPPE, AND COMPIEGNE 109 
 
 enthusiastic terms : ,w We pray God to spare Your 
 Majesty to France in order to cement its friendship 
 with Great Britain and make the two countries the 
 guardians of European liberty. ... If the world 
 has admired the prowess displayed by Napoleon I. 
 on battle-fields, it admires no less the magnanimity 
 of his successor whose Empire is peace. . . . We 
 pray Heaven to shed its sweetest blessings on Her 
 Majesty the Empress, whose merits and virtues adorn 
 the throne and whose happiness is the constant care 
 of the most chivalrous affection." 
 
 After the official reception, the Emperor admitted 
 a deputation from the fishermen from Boulogne, 
 who offered the Empress a silver fish enclosed in 
 a net of the same metal, and addressed to Their 
 Majesties a compliment in verse recited by one of 
 those women who, as she remembered, had formerly 
 had the honor of complimenting Napoleon I. 
 
 Their Majesties then entered an open calash to 
 go and see the column dedicated by the Grand 
 Army to the glory of the founder of their dynasty. 
 The tent of Napoleon had been set up a few paces 
 in front of this column when for the first time he 
 distributed to his companions in arms the cross of 
 the Legion of Honor. His successor stopped there 
 for a few minutes and described to the Empress 
 this national ceremony. He might have reminded 
 her that it was in front of the same column he 
 had himself made such a wretched failure, August 
 6, 1840, in his attempt against Louis Philippe ;
 
 110 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 that here had been assembled the garrison, the 
 National Guard, and the populace, shouting " Long 
 live the King ! "' while he, throwing himself into 
 the sea, in hopes of swimming to the packet boat 
 by which he had come, had been arrested in the 
 midst of the waves by boatmen and gendarmes. 
 And now he beheld a triumphal arch erected above 
 the harbor in his honor. The vessels were draped 
 with flags. Marines, soldiers, the people, made the 
 air ring with enthusiastic huzzas. What a differ- 
 ence between those two days : August 6, 1840, 
 September 27, 1853! 
 
 On the 28th Their Majesties arrived at Amiens. 
 Here the reception was remarkable on account of 
 the discourse delivered in the cathedral by the 
 bishop of the diocese, Monseigneur de Salinis. 
 Never, probably, had Napoleon III. and the Em- 
 press Eugenie been made the subject of such wildly 
 enthusiastic praises. Never had the alliance be- 
 tween the Church and the Emperor been cele- 
 brated in such lyric strains. 
 
 The Emperor and the Empress left Saint-Cloud, 
 October 12, 1853, to go to the palace of Compiegne, 
 where they remained until the 27th. Compiegne 
 might be called the imperial country seat. There 
 Napoleon III. led for several days the life of a 
 great English nobleman. He had made a formal 
 entry there in December, 1852. This time he re- 
 turned more simply. The Empress found herself 
 with pleasure once more in this chateau, where*
 
 SAINT-CLOUD, DIEPPE, AND COMPIEGNE 111 
 
 the year before, she had not been a sovereign, and 
 where the Emperor had experienced so true and 
 deep a passion for her. As in the preceding year, 
 the}- breakfasted and dined in the gallery of fetes. 
 After dinner they assembled in the salon of the 
 maps, so called because, under the guise of hang- 
 ings, it contained three immense maps of the forest 
 of Compiegne. Here the guests chatted and danced 
 without an orchestra, but to the music of a mechan- 
 ical piano which possessed only three airs : a waltz, 
 a quadrille, and a polka. 
 
 October 26, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the 
 guests took leave of the Emperor and Empress to 
 return to Paris. A few minutes later Their Maj- 
 esties and the Grande Duchesse Stephanie of Baden 
 repaired to the station, where a special train was in 
 readiness to take them to Chauny, in the depart- 
 ment of the Aisne. From there they went in a 
 carriage to the fortress of Ham, where they arrived 
 at half -past three. In the time of his splendors, 
 Napoleon III. loved to recall his unhappy days. 
 When he was a prisoner at Ham, he had conceived 
 an affection for the Abbe Tirmache, cure of the 
 town. On becoming Emperor, he had appointed 
 him chaplain of the Tuilerics with the title of 
 Bishop of Andras. October 26, 1853, the former 
 cure was once more in the fortress of Ham to re- 
 ceive the quondam prisoner. Napoleon III. spent 
 an hour in showing the Empress and the Grande 
 Duchesse Stephanie the fortress of Ham and the
 
 112 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 sorry lodgings in which he had been incarcerated 
 during six years. He made them take a collation 
 under the linden-tree where he had so often 
 offered lunches to the school children. Their Maj- 
 esties, leaving marks of their munificence behind 
 them, returned from Ham to Chauny just at night- 
 fall. The town and the manufactories outside of 
 it were illuminated, and the people shouting ener- 
 getically. In the evening the Emperor and the 
 Empress were back at Compiegne, whence they 
 departed for Saint-Cloud the following day, Octo- 
 ber 27.
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION 
 
 A FFAIRS in the East had become singularly 
 complicated during the sojourns of Napoleon 
 III. at Saint-Cloud, Dieppe, and Compiegne. We 
 left them May 21, 1853, — the day when Prince 
 Menchikoff, exasperated by the ill success of his 
 mission, took his departure from Constantinople. 
 It was not England in the first place that thought 
 of defending the integrity of the Ottoman Empire ; 
 it was France. On this subject one should read 
 the chapter entitled, Origine de la guerre de Crimee, 
 in the memoirs of the Due de Persigny. It is the 
 history of the council of ministers which was held 
 at Saint-Cloud at the close of Prince Menchikoff's 
 mission. The question was raised whether it would 
 not be opportune to send the French fleet to some 
 point in the neighborhood of Turkey, — to Salamis, 
 for instance, — to be within reach in case anything 
 should happen. The Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
 M. Drouyn de Lhuys, was in favor of temporizing. 
 M. de Persigny, Minister of the Interior, was ener- 
 getically opposed to this. 
 
 The Emperor ended by saying : " Decidedly, Per- 
 
 113
 
 114 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 signy is right. If we send our fleet to Salamis, 
 England will do the same ; and the union of the 
 two fleets will bring about the union of the two 
 peoples against Russia." Then, to the consterna- 
 tion of the council, he turned to the Minister of 
 the Navy and said : " M. Ducos, draw up at once 
 a telegram ordering the fleet of Toulon to sail for 
 Salamis." 
 
 At this time the alliance of England with France 
 was far from being decided on. The Tory min- 
 istry, with Lord Aberdeen at its head, did not 
 appear favorable to it. In the first place the re- 
 establishment of the Empire had raised the most 
 lively apprehensions in all classes of English so- 
 ciety, and everybody in England imagined that 
 the hidden purpose of Napoleon III. must be to 
 revenge Waterloo. Queen Victoria did not at first 
 desire a war against Russia any more than did 
 Napoleon III. England, like France, was to be 
 drawn on by a fatality stronger than the will of 
 sovereigns or their peoples. 
 
 M. de Persigny's prediction was realized imme- 
 diately. Public opinion in England forced the min- 
 istry to follow the example of France. June 14, 
 1853, the English fleet of Malta, commanded by 
 Vice-Admiral Dundas, rejoined the French squad- 
 ron in the roadstead of Besika, between Teneclos 
 and the coast of Asia, at the entry of the Dar- 
 danelles. 
 
 And yet the Czar and Napoleon III. sincerely
 
 THE EASTER X QUESTION 115 
 
 desired peace. Neither would recoil from his posi- 
 tion ; but both would have been glad had any un- 
 foreseen circumstance prevented them from going 
 further. Alas ! it was not so. Events marched 
 on with deplorable rapidity. June 17, M. Bala- 
 bine quitted Constantinople with the entire Rus- 
 sian legation. This -was the first open rupture. 
 On the 26th, in a solemn manifesto addressed to 
 his people, the Emperor Nicholas declared that, 
 " relying on the glorious treaty of Kainardji," he 
 demanded from the Supreme Porte a promise to 
 maintain faithfully the privileges of the Orthodox 
 Church ; and that " if obstinacy or blindness wil- 
 fully prevented this, he would call God to his 
 assistance and march to the defence of the faith." 
 
 July 3, the Russian troops stationed in Bessa- 
 rabia crossed the Pruth and invaded the Danubian 
 principalities. 
 
 September 25, a grand council convoked at Con- 
 stantinople by the Sultan declared for war by a vote 
 of one hundred and sixty against three. 
 
 October 8, the Turkish generalissimo, Omar Pasha, 
 summoned Prince Gortchakoff, commander-in-chief 
 of the Russian army, to evacuate the Danubian 
 principalities within a fortnight. 
 
 October 18, on the refusal of Prince Gortchakoff, 
 war was declared between Russia and Turkey. 
 
 The English and French fleets crossed the Dar- 
 danelles and occupied the roadstead of Beicos in 
 the Bosphorus. But this was only a simple demon-
 
 116 NAPOLEON HI. AND HIS COURT 
 
 stration, and peace between Russia and the two 
 great Western powers was to remain intact for 
 several months to come. The man who was at the 
 time the most convinced and eloquent defender of 
 this attitude was a military diplomatist, the min- 
 ister of France at Saint Petersburg, General de 
 Castelbajac. His despatches to the Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, and his 
 private letters to the director of political affairs, 
 M. Thouvenel, are documents which represent him as 
 the adversary of the prejudices of his time, and as 
 the precursor of the existing Franco-Russian under- 
 standing. We cite some extracts from this curious 
 and prophetic correspondence : — 
 
 General de Castelbajac to M. Thouvenel. — Octo- 
 ber 19, 1853. "It is useless for me to recon- 
 sider the situation on all sides. I cannot see the 
 necessity, and still less the advantage, of a war for 
 France, while on the other hand the most serious 
 inconveniences and most fatal consequences may 
 result to her from it. England is protected from 
 these consequences, at any rate from revolutionary 
 consequences, which are beyond all doubt the most 
 important to avoid. Besides, she has two interests 
 that we have not : the destruction of the fleets of 
 all nations, and the prevention of Russia's march 
 towards India. It seems to me, therefore, that 
 everything should induce us not to follow England 
 too far, for her commercial interests will always be 
 different from those of the continental powers."
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION 117 
 
 General de Castelbajac to M. Drouyn de Lhuys. 
 — October 18, 1853. " So long as the revolu- 
 tionary principle is not completely extinct in the 
 Western states, Russia is to be considered, and 
 union between governments, as I think, is the first 
 thing to make sure of ; and peace is the only means 
 by which can be obtained that indispensable con- 
 dition to the stability of social order. War would 
 rekindle all the suspicions between governments, 
 all the revolutionary hopes of the rabble, and very 
 soon bring about the enfeebling of the principle of 
 authority so skilfulty and energetically restored 
 with the Empire by the worth}'- successor of the 
 great man who founded it upon the ruins of revo- 
 lutionary France." 
 
 General de Castelbajae to M. Thouvenel. — No- 
 vember 16, 1853. " However it may be, whether 
 peace or war, it is not my business to settle the 
 question, but it is my business to watch things care- 
 fully and in an unpretending manner. If force alone 
 is to decide, that is the most convenient. There is 
 nothing to do but take sword in hand and march 
 forward. That is my old trade, and I shall not 
 be the last to remember it if it is necessary to the 
 honor or the interests of my country. Meanwhile, 
 however, I am living with my enemies as if they 
 might once more become my friends, and this sys- 
 tem makes our relations less painful and investi- 
 gations easier. I must even render this justice 
 to Russian society, that it avoids saying in my
 
 118 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 hearing anything which could wound me, even 
 indirectly." 
 
 In reality, there was not the least personal ani- 
 mosity between the two sovereigns, while between 
 the two nations there was not merely no hatred, 
 but an invincible sympathy. The relations be- 
 tween the two courts remained correct and even 
 courteous. In August the Czar personally thanked 
 General de Castelbajac for the reception the Rus- 
 sian general Ogareff had met from Napoleon III. 
 and Marshal de Saint-Arnaud, and for all the 
 facilities afforded him for visiting the French mil- 
 itary establishments. At the same time General 
 de Castelbajac was present at the manoeuvres of 
 Krasno-Selo, where the Czar treated him with kind- 
 ness, and expressed in the most gracious manner 
 his regret at not seeing French officers in the camp. 
 
 The Russian sovereign displayed his affability 
 not simply towards the representative of Napoleon 
 III., but towards Frenchmen of the humblest con- « 
 dition. September 16, the general wrote to M. 
 Thouvenel : " The Emperor Nicholas came alone 
 to the Jardin Mabille of the country, situated about 
 half a league from Saint Petersburg, and during 
 an hour and a half strolled through salons filled 
 with women who were more than light, with cigar 
 smokers whom he detests, and in gardens made 
 brilliant by a grand illumination and fireworks set 
 off earlier than usual in his honor. He came in 
 a drosky, with nobody but his coachman, as, for
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION 119 
 
 that matter, is his daily habit. He chatted with 
 one and another, particularly with the milliners 
 and petty French shopkeepers, whose free and easy 
 ways and gossip amuse him." 
 
 A few days afterwards the Czar went to the Em- 
 peror Francis Joseph in Moravia, to witness the 
 military manoeuvres of Olmutz. There he met a 
 French military mission, under the direction of Gen- 
 eral Comte de Goyon, aide-de-camp to Napoleon III. 
 The Czar gave the French officers a particularly 
 amiable reception, and publicly invited them to 
 follow him to Warsaw. But they were not au- 
 thorized by their government to accept this unex- 
 pected invitation. 
 
 October 15 General de Castelbajac wrote to M. 
 Drouyn de Lhuys : " The chancellor tells me that 
 in inviting General de Goyon the Emperor Nich- 
 olas had no intention but that of testifying his 
 sympathies for the Emperor Napoleon and the 
 officers of the French army ; that before giving 
 him this invitation he had asked him whether his 
 time and his actions were free. The chancellor 
 adds that his sovereign had directed Comte de 
 Stackelberg to accompany General de Goyon and 
 the other officers, whom he had invited, as far as 
 Warsaw, where he had had lodgings made ready 
 for them at the palace ; that the news of their de- 
 parture for Paris, which was telegraphed to War- 
 saw, had evidently displeased His Majesty, and 
 that he had written about it to M. de Kisselefiy
 
 120 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 forbidding him to make any recriminations on the 
 subject." 
 
 On the other hand, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, in 
 a despatch to General de Castelbajac, used these 
 words concerning the incident: "The Emperor has 
 keenly appreciated the kindly attentions on the part 
 of the Emperor Nicholas of which the officers of 
 his army present at the camp of Olmutz were the 
 objects ; but the orders given to General de Goyon 
 assigned a purpose and a term to his journey. It 
 was neither conformable to rule nor worthy of the 
 two sovereigns that the aide-de-camp of one of them 
 should find himself accidentally, and as if by chance, 
 beside the other. At any time when the Emperor 
 Nicholas may wish to send Russian officers to wit- 
 ness the manoeuvres of the French army, they will 
 be received among us with distinction which they 
 merit, and on his side the Emperor Napoleon does 
 not doubt that the same welcome would await 
 French officers in Russia. But, in order to main- 
 tain their character, these demonstrations should be 
 announced beforehand and accomplished with the 
 usual forms." 
 
 General de Castelbajac had still such a hope of 
 continued peace that he sent for his wife to come 
 from Paris to Saint Petersburg. M. Thouvenel 
 wrote to the general, October 14, 1853 : " Ma- 
 dame la Marquise de Castelbajac has done me the 
 honor to call on me. She came for news, and I told 
 her all that I knew. Nevertheless she is going to
 
 THE EASTERN QUESTION 121 
 
 rejoin you. I ardently desire that the Latin prov- 
 erb, Audaces fortuna jiivat, may be applicable to 
 her, and that things may turn in such a way that 
 you may remain at your post and M. de Kisseleff 
 at his. We certainly shall not take the initiative 
 of a rupture of diplomatic relations." 
 
 The Marquise de Castelbajac, born La Roche- 
 foucauld, bravely undertook her journey in spite 
 of the alarming news. Her husband wrote to M. 
 Thouvenel November 11 : " The courier has arrived 
 with my wife, whom some one had frightened at 
 Berlin. Still she was unwilling to beat a compro- 
 mising retreat, and, like a true diplomat, she disap- 
 peared from Berlin to await an answer from me at 
 the house of the Duchesse de Sagan, as if her 
 intention had always been to stop there. Her re- 
 turn to Saint Petersburg produces a very good 
 effect." 
 
 Still, the horizon was becoming darker. The 
 diplomatic attempts essayed at Vienna by the 
 representatives of the great powers to obtain an 
 agreement between Russia and Turkey had failed. 
 Hostilities continued in western Wallachia between 
 the Czar's troops and those of the Sultan. The 
 Emperor Nicholas heard with a mixture of surprise 
 and anger of the success of the Turkish army, under 
 the command of a Croatian renegade, Michael Lattas, 
 who had become a pervert under the name of Omar 
 Pasha. November 30, the Russian fleet of the Black 
 Sea, commanded by Admiral Nakhimoff, sailed from
 
 122 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Sebustopol and surprised in the open roadstead of 
 Sinope a Turkish squadron which was taking rein- 
 forcements to Batoum. This it destroyed com- 
 pletely, ruining at the same time a part of the 
 city. " The blow struck at Sinope," wrote M. 
 Drouyn de Lhuys at the time, "has not affected 
 Turkey alone." It was evident that the English 
 and French fleets were about to enter the Black Sea. 
 Chancellor de Nesselrode no longer expected peace. 
 " My dear general," said he, in a nielanchoty tone 
 to the minister of France, " it is sad to end my 
 career at such a point, when I have always been 
 the apostle of peace ! This is what Lord Stratford 
 de Redcliffe's pride will result in. Probably a gen- 
 eral European conflagration, in which none of us 
 can avoid losing, and by which only the revolution- 
 aries can profit." After having begun in so brill- 
 iant and joyous a manner, the first year of the 
 reign of Napoleon III. was ending amid the most 
 serious complications. In spite of the promises of 
 the Bordeaux speech, one could already say that 
 the Empire would not be Peace.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 JAN U Ail Y, 1854 
 
 OOKING at Paris in the beginning of 1854, 
 "^ no one could have suspected an approaching 
 storm. It is the height of the fashionable season. 
 Dancing is going on in the official world, in the 
 salons of the Faubourg Saint-Germain, and in bank- 
 ing circles. The theatres are filled. Never have 
 there been greater luxury and animation. No one 
 dreams of depriving himself of a diversion or a 
 pleasure. The Turks and Russians are fighting in 
 the valley of the Danube, it is true, but that is a 
 long way off. Wealthy Parisians still fancy that 
 France will be wise enough not to meddle in their 
 quarrels except diplomatically. 
 
 Such is also the impression of General de Castel- 
 bajac. January 2, 1854, he writes from Saint 
 Petersburg to M. Drouyn de Lhuys : "Notwith- 
 standing the irritation which the news that our 
 fleets are in the Black Sea has occasioned in the 
 Emperor Nicholas, I have reason to believe that his 
 conciliatory disposition remains unaltered, that he 
 still desires to avoid at any cost a conflict with our 
 ships, and that his own will not budge from Con- 
 
 123
 
 124 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 stantinople unless those of the Sultan attack or 
 insult them under the protection of ours, for hence- 
 forward it is the national Russian pride and the 
 wounded self-respect of the sovereign which are 
 the chief elements in the question, and not his ambi- 
 tion or the material interests of his empire." 
 
 January 9, the general writes to M. Thouvenel : 
 " I do not think we shall receive our passports. 
 If Muscovite pride revolts, it will be with reflec- 
 tion. Therefore I think we shall have time to 
 breathe and take precautions for our retreat from 
 Russia. Whatever may happen, I am ready to exe- 
 cute resolutely and conscientiously the orders of 
 the minister. I shall find this easier than to differ 
 in opinion with the whole West concerning the 
 facts relating to Russia. But in that I must always 
 act according to my conscience, before, at the time, 
 and afterwards, not having, God be thanked, the 
 silly pretension to direct in any manner the policy 
 of the Emperor Napoleon, although I am a fervent 
 disciple of his work." 
 
 In Saint Petersburg, as in Paris, people continue 
 to give parties and frequent theatres. Russian 
 society is irritated against England, but not against 
 the French. General de Castelbajac adds : " Day 
 before yesterday, during a dinner given at Chan- 
 cellor Nesselrode's, his niece, Madame Kalergis, 
 sided warmly with the French, but especially with 
 the Emperor Napoleon and the Empress Eugenie. 
 Addressing M. Seniavine, Muscovite and ortho-
 
 JANUARY, 1S54 12.". 
 
 dox to the full, she said : ' You do not seem to 
 be of my opinion?' — 'Not altogether, I admit.' 
 — ' Well, then, yon are wrong,' retorted Madame 
 Kalergis, 'for all I have just said of the Emperor 
 Napoleon and the Empress Eugenie as man and 
 woman and as sovereigns is the most exact truth, 
 and I have nothing to retract on the subject.' — 
 Monsieur de Nesselrode put an end to the discussion 
 by bantering his niece on her animation against 
 Seniavine, but without the least ill-humor and with 
 approval of all the good things she had said of the 
 Emperor and Empress." 
 
 At the same time the great Russian ladies who 
 are in Paris are always most cordially received. 
 January 13, Colonel Fleury, first equerry to the 
 Emperor, and commander of the regiment of Guides, 
 gives an entertainment which is all the more elegant 
 because the invitations to it are so few. The next 
 day, General Bosquet, one of the heroes of the 
 coming war, writes to his friend, M. Rivet: "Life 
 in Paris is what you know and can imagine, except- 
 ing some amusing incidents like the little ball given 
 yesterday to thirty or forty persons at the house of 
 the colonel of Guides, which assembled the pretty 
 women of Paris in a charming little company. I 
 amused myself there until the lights were put out, 
 about three o'clock in the morning. There were 
 a good many Russians, and among others the niece 
 of Prince MenchikofF. It was very easy and 
 charming."
 
 126 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 General Bosquet does not yet regard war as prob- 
 able. In this same letter he adds : — 
 
 "M. Pietri, prefect of police, beside whom I 
 sat at dinner yesterday, thinks that some news 
 indicating that Nicholas has listened to propositions 
 of peace has arrived, which has caused a rise of two 
 francs on the Bourse. Take into consideration that 
 no preparations have yet been made in France ; the 
 cavalry has neither men nor horses ; neither has the 
 artillery ; no order has yet repaired the lack of ac- 
 coutrements for both arms, or provided for the neces- 
 sary increase of new material. To judge from the 
 faces of people in our society, one surmises that they 
 dread a war, even while desiring its possible advan- 
 tages for a new dynasty and the clearer and more 
 precise renewal of public opinion. But as there are 
 chances that the game would turn out badly should 
 the Emperor absent himself, since there is more than 
 one risk depending on the life of a single man, and 
 finally because a great deal of money would have 
 to be spent without hope of gaining much except 
 glory, they begin to think that it would be better 
 to wait, and they parley with all the precaution of 
 men who would like to obtain a result without 
 fighting." 
 
 Meanwhile the political horizon was growing 
 darker. The next day after General Bosquet wrote 
 the letter we have been quoting, General de Castel- 
 bajac, usually so optimistic, thus expressed himself 
 in a despatch addressed to M. Drouyn de Lhuys :
 
 JANUARY, 1854 127 
 
 " I had been informed in the most positive manner 
 that the Emperor Nicholas was determined not to 
 take the initiative of a rupture. This morning he 
 changed his mind in consequence of the arrival of a 
 courier from Prince Menehikoff. The news of the 
 entry of an English frigate at Sebastopol, to give 
 the notification of (lie maritime powers, has driven 
 the Emperor Nicholas beside himself with rage. He 
 exclaimed : ' This is too much. I will not endure 
 this English arrogance ; the honor of Russia is com- 
 promised ; England forces us into war. Let the 
 responsibility of it rest on her before Europe and 
 before God, who knows that I desire peace ! ' — I 
 think I ought to inform you that, for some time 
 past especially, the Emperor Nicholas blames no- 
 body but England ; still, he cannot be thinking of 
 declaring war against England alone." 
 
 With the exception of military men, dazzled by 
 hopes of advancement and glory, the French were 
 almost unanimous in their desire to maintain peace. 
 Even the Emperor Nicholas would not allow any one 
 to mention the word war in his presence. January 
 14 General de Castelbajac wrote to M. Drouyn de 
 Lhuys : " Some days ago the Empress of Russia 
 asked the Emperor how a declaration of war was 
 made. ' Why do you ask me that question ? ' he re- 
 plied in a severe tone. ' You ought to know that I 
 wish for peace, and that I have never declared war 
 on anybody.' — It is reported from all quarters, 
 even from the Empress and the Grande Duchesse
 
 128 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COUBT 
 
 Marie, who is very well disposed towards France 
 and the Emperor Napoleon, that in his family the 
 Emperor Nicholas has always expressed the wish to 
 end the war with Turkey as quickly as possible, to 
 avoid any conflict with France and England, and 
 to be allied with France, for whose sovereign he 
 openly declares his esteem and personal liking. 
 But he is irritated against England, and perhaps 
 still more perplexed how to retrace his steps with- 
 out humbling his own pride and the honor of his 
 nation, whose patriotism and religious fanaticism 
 have reached their highest point." 
 
 The Czar had just sent his most intimate confi- 
 dant, Count Orloff, to the Austrian capital, and it 
 was hoped that his mission was pacific. Such was 
 the ardent desire of General de Castelbajac, who 
 wrote to M. Thouvenel, January 24 : "I hope that 
 there will at last be a solution in one way or another, 
 and seeing that the scene is nearer, that you will 
 know it directly and even sooner than we. I be- 
 lieve that Count Orloff has full powers, and that he 
 is in a position and has the energy to use them, un- 
 less new incidents should arise on the part of Austria 
 and from the conference. God grant that all may end 
 well, and above all by peace ! In short, may it end 
 in one way or another ! It would be rather humili- 
 ating to human nature, to the moral character of 
 man made in the image of God, if all the sovereigns, 
 the statesmen, the great and petty diplomatists, 
 should be fatally led into the wrong road, into a
 
 JANUARY, 1854 129 
 
 path contrary to their wishes as well as to the in- 
 terests of nations and of entire humanity. For once 
 one would have to turn Turk and say like them, 
 with resignation and patience : ' God wills it ! ' But 
 I am a Christian and not a fatalist, and until the 
 last minute I will labor and advise : 'Do what you 
 ought, come what may.' " 
 
 There was a grand ball at the Tuileries, attended 
 by the Russian minister and all the members of his 
 legation, on the very day on which the general was 
 writing this pacific letter to Paris from Saint Peters- 
 burg. The fete was apparently not disturbed by 
 any gloomy thoughts. Under the light of chande- 
 liers, and to the sound of orchestras, the chateau 
 presented a joyous and magnificent aspect. The 
 Emperor wore the uniform of a general of division, 
 with white knee-breeches, silk stockings, and buckled 
 shoes. The Empress, wearing the principal crown 
 diamonds with supreme grace, was resplendent in 
 beauty. All the military men, all the functionaries, 
 even the magistrates, were in uniform, with knee- 
 breeches and silk stockings. All other guests wore 
 court dress and swords. All faces were unclouded. 
 The Emperor danced the opening quadrille with the 
 Princesse Mathilde, and the Empress with the Eng- 
 lish ambassador, Lord Cowley. No alarming con- 
 versation was carried on. No one believed that war 
 was imminent, if only because all the generals agreed 
 in saying that no preparations for it were being 
 made.
 
 130 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 January 29, Napoleon III. wrote in person to the 
 Czar in the most friendly and conciliatory terms. 
 He said to him : " Let us declare that an armistice 
 will be signed ; the Russian troops will abandon 
 the Principalities, our squadrons the Black Sea. If 
 Your Majesty would prefer to treat directly with 
 Turkey, you might appoint an ambassador who 
 would negotiate with a plenipotentiary of the Sultan, 
 and the agreement resulting from these deliberations 
 would be submitted to a conference of the four pow- 
 ers (England, Austria, France, and Prussia)." Napo- 
 leon III. concluded by disavowing all sentiment of 
 animosity, and of all the assurances contained in his 
 long letter, this was certainly the sincerest and most 
 true. 
 
 While awaiting the reply, which would be either 
 peace or war, Paris continued to enjoy itself. Jan- 
 uary 28, there was a ball at the Hotel de Ville, where 
 five thousand guests found plenty of room for danc- 
 ing in the splendid salons, newly frescoed by Leh- 
 mann and Eugene Delacroix. The next day King 
 Jerome gave a little ball in honor of the Empress. 
 The former sovereign thought that war was immi- 
 nent. Drawing General Bosquet aside, he said to 
 him: " You will have splendid things to do in this war 
 in the East. I am confident that you will do better 
 than your elders, because you know more than they. 
 I wish you the best kind of luck." But in spite of 
 King Jerome, General Bosquet still believed in the 
 maintenance of peace. On the 30th he wrote to
 
 JANUARY, 1854 131 
 
 M. Rivet : " Dear friend, this is what I really think: 
 the Emperor dreads war too much not to keep ii 
 tight hold on the reins, and make every possible 
 effort to preserve peace ; all Germany is as anxious 
 for it as we are ; it is only England who wants war, 
 so as to destroy the Russian fleet and defend the 
 passage to India, which would soon belong to Russia 
 if she were allowed to gain peaceable access to Con- 
 stantinople." 
 
 To the general the proof that peace is desired is 
 the absence of all preparations for war. In the same 
 letter he adds: " In France there are no preparations 
 for war, or almost none. The artillery could supply 
 only fourteen fully-equipped batteries, keeping only 
 one battery of instruction in the depots for each 
 regiment. The cavalry has from forty to fift} r horses 
 per squadron, and no more men than horses. You 
 see that the economy practised has put the army 
 in a very backward condition, even on the serious 
 peace footing which precedes that of war. The in- 
 fantry companies contain each thirty or forty men, 
 and the magazines are empty. Nothing, or almost 
 nothing, is being done to supply the deficiency, and 
 spring is coming on. You see, they will draw back 
 and there will be no war as yet. There are plenty 
 of reasons for that, drawn from the condition of 
 minds in Europe, and too little to gain from war. 
 Then, too, there is Orloff's mission, which everybody 
 interprets as peaceful." 
 
 How did the month of January terminate at Paris?
 
 132 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 By an article in the Moniteur of the 31st, which was 
 an invitation to luxury and increased expense. " In 
 fetes like those of the Hotel de Ville and the Tuile- 
 ries," it said, "something more than a vast display of 
 magnificence must be noted. Their real object is to 
 favor the laboring classes. Following the example 
 of the Emperor and the Empress, the municipal 
 council of Paris has thought that the cost of a 
 grand ball would fall back in a shower of gold on 
 all the industries of the city. The most efficacious 
 charity is that which, while giving work, manages 
 to sell the products of it. If it is good to succor 
 indigence, it is still better to prevent it. In socie- 
 ties like ours, even the industries of luxury form a 
 considerable part of the public wealth." 
 
 This call for luxurious expenditures received ready 
 response. A period opened in which war and pleas- 
 ure marched abreast. Never were combats more 
 bloody, and never fetes more brilliant.
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 THE DECLARATION OF WAR 
 
 r I ^HE month of February begins. It is that in 
 which the rupture will be consummated. The 
 official world of Paris now entertains very slight 
 hopes of peace. On the first of the month the Minis- 
 ter of Foreign Affairs, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, sends 
 a courier to Saint Petersburg, reflecting as he does so 
 that he will doubtless be the last. Having been 
 officially notified that the commanders of the English 
 and French fleets in the Black Sea have been ordered 
 to protect the territory and the flag of Turkey from 
 the attacks of the Russian fleet, the Russian minister 
 at Paris, M. de Kisseleff, has just made known that 
 he is about to ask for his passports. 
 
 M. Thouvenel, director of political affairs, writes 
 to General de Castelbajac, February 1 : " From the 
 day when we begin to act, we have decided to move 
 quickly and with firmness. France and England 
 united ought to strike none but terrible blows. I 
 deplore with you the extremity to which the obsti- 
 nacy of the Emperor Nicholas reduces us, but we 
 can do ourselves the justice of saying that we have 
 done all in our power to dissipate it. . . . I pre- 
 
 133
 
 134 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 sume we shall not have to write to you much longer 
 at Saint Petersburg, and it is possibly our swan-song 
 that we are sending you to-day. It is less rude 
 than that which Sir Hamilton Seymour is ordered to 
 sing in the ears of Count Nesselrode. I doubt if he 
 will be allowed to finish it. It will be no disadvan- 
 tage for the future that the difference between the 
 two characters should be maintained to the very 
 end. So good-by, general, doubtless only for the 
 moment." 
 
 But at this time the intended recipient of this 
 letter was still unwilling to despair of peace. Here 
 are two extracts from his despatches to M. Drouyn 
 de Lhuys : "February 2, 1854. All thoroughly con- 
 sidered, I am for peace, if we can have it with honor 
 and security, and we can, I think, without really ced- 
 ing what we wish to assure, namely, the integrity 
 and independence of Turkey. As to its duration as 
 a Mussulman empire, the future will settle that, I 
 hope, under circumstances more favorable, politi- 
 cally and morally, than now exist in Europe, and 
 without increasing the power of Russia, which is 
 important." "February 10. I begin to hope that 
 though there may be a diplomatic rupture, there will 
 be no war. To me this result appears certain if 
 Austria and Prussia hold firm. The Emperor 
 Nicholas is waiting for news from Count Orloff and 
 the latest despatches from M. de Kisseleff and M. de 
 Brunow before replying to the Emperor Napoleon. 
 There is something extraordinary about the delay of
 
 THE DECLARATION OF WAR 135 
 
 all these couriers, which, in the general desire for 
 peace, is favorably interpreted." 
 
 Diplomatic relations have been broken off, but 
 there is still no declaration of war. M. de Bruno w 
 and M. de Kisseleff departed, February 6, the one 
 from London, and the other from Paris, leaving 
 consuls behind them to attend to current commercial 
 affairs. They have withdrawn, but they remain near 
 the frontiers. 
 
 To the great surprise of the diplomatists accredited 
 to Saint Petersburg, this is the moment chosen by 
 the Emperor Nicholas for conferring the broad rib- 
 bon of the order of Saint Alexander Newski on the 
 minister of France. General de Castelbajac accepts 
 this decoration, providing that he receives his sover- 
 eign's authorization to do so. "I have thought," 
 he writes to M. Drouyn de Lhuys, " that it might be 
 useful to my country's interests to preserve my good 
 relations with M. de Nesselrode, and above all the 
 kindly sentiments of the Emperor of Russia. I have 
 also thought that a favor accorded to the minister of 
 the Emperor Napoleon, while none had ever been 
 granted to a minister of King Louis Philippe, might 
 have a political signification of some importance. 
 And lastly, where I am personally concerned, I have 
 thought that a proof of esteem and affection from 
 a political adversary could not be other than honor- 
 able, especially from a great sovereign and a man of 
 such worth and character as the Emperor Nicholas." 
 
 Chancellor Nesselrode had joined in the sentiments
 
 136 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 of the Czar. He wrote to the minister of France : 
 " His Majesty the Emperor, desiring to give you a 
 proof of his personal esteem and the sentiments you 
 have inspired in him by your invariably frank and 
 loyal language, has charged me to transmit to you 
 the insignia of his order of Saint Alexander Newski. 
 Happy to be on this occasion the interpreter of the 
 kindly intentions of my august master, permit me to 
 offer you my most sincere congratulations, as well as 
 the assurance of those feelings of attachment and 
 high esteem which I have invariably cherished 
 towards you." 
 
 Not only had the English minister, Sir Hamilton 
 Seymour, received no decoration, but the ill will of 
 the Emperor Nicholas towards him was as manifest 
 as his friendliness towards the French minister. 
 General de Castelbajac really entertained a sincere 
 attachment to the Czar. He wrote to M. Thouvenel, 
 February 11 : " In his painful indecision, his re- 
 ligious scruples on one side and his humanitarian 
 scruples on the other, in his wounded pride, con- 
 fronted by the national sentiment and the dangers 
 incurred by his empire, in his violent struggle be- 
 tween all these different sentiments, the Emperor 
 Nicholas has grown ten years older. He is really 
 unwell, morally and physically. The change in him 
 distresses me, and I cannot avoid deploring the moral 
 contest of this noble intelligence against the rooted 
 habit of domination and what he considers religious 
 duties and political necessities.
 
 TIIE DECLARATION OF WAR 137 
 
 "The sovereign, born with the finest qualities, has 
 been spoiled by the adulation, the successes, and the 
 religious prejudices of the Muscovite nation, which 
 are just now being carried to the extreme. To get 
 an exact notion of this, you would have to go back in 
 thought for several centuries. Take an example : 
 it is rumored here among the people and in society 
 that a supernatural being, wearing a monastic habit, 
 suddenly appeared to the P^mperor Nicholas as he sat 
 at his writing table in his cabinet, and said to him : 
 ' Nicholas, son of Paul, is it a motive of human am- 
 bition or a religious motive which is deciding you 
 to attack Turkey ? ' — 'A purely religious motive,' 
 replied the Emperor. — ' Then you can go on, and 
 God will crown your holy arms with the most brill- 
 iant success.' 
 
 "It is of no use for the Emperor to say that 
 nothing of the kind has happened. Everybody be- 
 lieves in his vision. This is surely the fanaticism 
 of the ancient crusaders." 
 
 All is over. The last hopes of the military di- 
 plomatist have vanished. He is about to leave this 
 capital, where up to the last moment he has received 
 from the sovereign and Russian society expressions 
 of such real sympathy. "My dear colleague," he 
 writes to M. Thouvenel, February 15, " Oriental 
 fatalism carries the day against reason and even 
 against self-interest. You were quite right in sup- 
 posing that your last letter was the 'swan-song.' 
 My answer is still more sad, and may well be a
 
 138 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 death-song for a great many people. ... I leave 
 on good terms with everybody, hoping that some 
 unforeseen circumstance, some good inspiration of 
 the Emperor Nicholas, or an ingenious formula of 
 some diplomatic sphinx, may suddenly arrive to 
 pacify hearts and arrest arms that are ready to 
 strike." 
 
 On the same day the general thus expresses him- 
 self in his official correspondence with M. Drouyn 
 de Lhuys : " When your despatch of February G 
 reached me last evening, the English minister had 
 received his passports twenty-four hours earlier, and 
 consecpiently I had asked for mine the morning- 
 after. Before departing, I will take leave of the 
 Emperor Nicholas in a private audience, which, for 
 that matter, His Majesty has already had the kind- 
 ness to request himself. To the very end he has 
 shown by his acts and words to the representatives 
 of the two countries his sympathy for France and 
 his irritation against England ; and this difference, 
 although less marked, has nevertheless been very 
 evident in the attitude of Saint Petersburg society. 
 On the part of the sovereign it has been at once the 
 expression of political calculation' and the enthusi- 
 asm of a self-willed and passionate character ; on 
 that of Russian society it is flattery in the first 
 place, but it is also real patriotism and preference 
 for France, whose language and social habits it 
 adopted a century ago." 
 
 In addition to this, the despatch of February 15
 
 THE DECLARATION OF WAR 139 
 
 describes General de Castelbajac's final appeal in 
 behalf of peace : " In my last interview with the 
 Emperor Nicholas," he writes, " I once more repre- 
 sented to him the dangers of his position, the re- 
 sponsibility already weighing on him for having 
 invaded the Danubian Principalities in time of 
 peace, and the still greater one he was about to 
 assume by a war which he himself feared would 
 become general and revolutionary. On this head 
 I reminded him that he was acting in fatal contra- 
 diction with the moral and political ideas of his 
 whole life, and against his opinions and the services 
 he had rendered to the conservative cause. At last, 
 after circumventing him on all sides, I added : 
 ' But, Sire, it is impossible that some formula can- 
 not be found (for, as a matter of fact, nothing but 
 a felicitous formula is needed) which shall spare 
 Europe an alarming future, and secure a peace 
 which will be in the interest of all sovereigns and 
 all humane and reasonable men.' 
 
 " The Emperor said to me, ' Orion has made 
 known my replies to the propositions of the con- 
 ference, and I will tell Nesselrode to send them to 
 you." Then, pressing my hand affectionately : 'We 
 shall see each other soon, I hope. I do not wish 
 to give you your passports ; but if you absolutely 
 will leave me, do not go without bidding me 
 good-by, or my very friendship will forbid me to 
 forgive you.' " 
 
 It is curious, but at the very moment when war
 
 140 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 was about to be declared between Russia and 
 France, there was given at the Opera-Comique of 
 Paris the first representation of a piece which is a 
 sort of apotheosis of Peter the Great. It was UEtoile 
 du Nbrd, the music by Meyerbeer and the words by 
 Scribe. It had been intended to delay the produc- 
 tion of this opera on account of the political situa- 
 tion, but Napoleon III. had just given orders to 
 bring it out without delay. With the Empress he 
 was present at the first representation, which took 
 place with extraordinary brilliancy, February 16. 
 Had the hall been ten times larger, it could not 
 have contained the crowd that for two months had 
 been trying to secure seats. All the illustrious 
 persons that Paris contained, whether in govern- 
 ment, science, literature, and art, met at the Opera- 
 Comique. The ladies, all in ball dress, vied with 
 each other in beauty, luxury, and elegance. Many 
 distinguished foreigners came for this express occa- 
 sion to Paris. England, Belgium, Germany, had 
 sent their most competent critics. The piece and its 
 interpreters, Mademoiselle Caroline Duprez, daugh- 
 ter of the famous tenor, Mademoiselle Lefebvre, 
 Bataille, Hermann-Leon, Mocker, had a great suc- 
 cess. The close of the second scene is well adapted 
 to enrapture Holy Russia. Peter the Great goes 
 into the midst of the revolted soldiery, and, uncov- 
 ering his breast, says : " Here I am. It is I, 
 strike ! ' ; At these words all prostrate themselves. 
 The Czar pardons, and the conspirators rise up to
 
 THE DECLARATION OF 1VAR 111 
 
 march against the Swedes. Does not this scene 
 recall the military insurrection so magnificently re- 
 pressed by the Emperor Nicholas on the day he 
 came to the throne? At bottom, there is not the 
 least hatred, not the slightest antipathy, between 
 the French and the Russians who are about to slay 
 each other. The Parisians applaud the triumph of 
 Peter the Great as much as if they were subjects 
 of the Emperor Nicholas. 
 
 Three days later the Moniteur published this note : 
 " Paris, February 18. The reply expected from 
 Saint Petersburg arrived this evening. The Em- 
 peror Nicholas announces that he will not accept the 
 conciliatory propositions made to him." 
 
 In this response to Napoleon's friendly letter of 
 January 29, the Czar wrote : " Whatever Your 
 Majest} r may decide, no one will ever see me recoil 
 before a threat. My confidence is in God and my 
 right, and I can vouch that Russia will be able to 
 show in 1854 what she was in 1812." 
 
 February 20, General de Castelbajac addressed his 
 last despatch to M. Drouyn de Lhuys : " Yesterday 
 I saw the Emperor Nicholas, M. de Nesselrode, and 
 Count Orloff. My conclusion from their long con- 
 versation is that there is no change in the political 
 situation as it appears in the letter of the Emperor 
 Nicholas to His Majesty. On the contrary, it seems 
 to be aggravated by the daily increasing enthusiasm 
 of the Russian people for war. The final prepara- 
 tions, momentarily suspended, have been resumed
 
 142 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 with new ardor since the latest declarations of 
 France and England on the mode of occupying the 
 Black Sea. The English and French legations leave 
 to-morrow evening and day after to-morrow morn- 
 ing, with an interval of a few hours, so as not to lack 
 horses. If the Avretched state of the roads does not 
 prevent, I shall be in Paris March 2." 
 
 General de Castelbajac fulfilled his task nobly to 
 the end. History will do justice to this man of 
 honor who, wiser and more far-sighted than his con- 
 temporaries, had the penetration to think, and the 
 courage to say, that a struggle between such nations 
 as France and Russia was a calamity not merely for 
 them but for the entire human race. 
 
 February 21, the Czar addressed a proclamation 
 to his people in which he said : " Are we not still 
 the same Russian people whose valor is attested by 
 the memorable annals of 1812 ? May the Most High 
 enable us to prove it ! In this hope, fighting for 
 our oppressed brethren who confess the faith of 
 Christ, Russia will have but one heart and one voice 
 wherewith to cry : God ! Our Saviour ! what have 
 we to fear ? Let Christ arise and let His enemies be 
 scattered ! " 
 
 March 2, 1854, at the opening of the session, 
 Napoleon III. thus expressed himself in his speech 
 from the throne : " The business depression is 
 hardly over when war begins. Last year I prom- 
 ised to do all in my power to maintain peace and 
 reassure Europe. I have kept my word. I have
 
 THE DECLARATION OF WAR 143 
 
 gone as far as honor permitted in order to avert a 
 struggle. Europe knows now, beyond all perad- 
 venture, that if France draws the sword, it is be- 
 cause she has been compelled to. It knows that 
 France has no idea of aggrandizement ; that she 
 merely wishes to resist dangerous encroachments. 
 Besides, and I love to proclaim it loudly, the time of 
 conquests is past, never to return ; for it is not by 
 extending the boundaries of its territory that a nation 
 can henceforward be honored and powerful, but by 
 placing itself at the head of generous ideas, by spread- 
 ing everywhere the empire of right and justice." 
 
 After examining the causes of the dispute, the 
 sovereign added : " Let no one ask us hereafter : 
 What are you going to do at Constantinople ? We 
 are going there with England to defend the cause of 
 the Sultan, and nevertheless to protect the rights of 
 Christians ; we are going there to defend the liberty 
 of the seas and our rightful influence in the Medi- 
 terranean. We are going there with Germany to 
 help her maintain the rank from which it seems to 
 be the intention to make her descend, to safeguard 
 her frontiers against a too powerful neighbor. We 
 are going there, in fine, with all those who desire the 
 triumph of right, justice, and civilization.'" 
 
 Like Nicholas, Napoleon III. invoked the Most 
 High, ending his speech with the following words : 
 " Confiding especially in the protection of God, I 
 hope soon to arrive at a peace which no one shall 
 hereafter be able to disturb with impunity."
 
 144 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 March 27, the Secretary of State went to the Sen- 
 ate and the Legislative Assembly to read there the 
 following declaration : " The Emperor's government 
 and that of Her Britannic Majesty had declared to 
 the Cabinet of Saint Petersburg that if the quarrel 
 with the Sublime Porte were not replaced within 
 purely diplomatic limits, and also that if the evacua- 
 tion of the Principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia 
 were not commenced immediately and concluded by 
 a fixed date, they would find themselves obliged to 
 consider a negative reply or silence as a declaration 
 of war. The Cabinet of Saint Petersburg having 
 decided that it would not reply to the preceding 
 communication, the Emperor charges me to make you 
 acquainted with this resolution which places Russia 
 and ourselves in a state of war, the responsibility for 
 which rests solely upon that power." 
 
 Alas ! nothing is more contagious than war. 
 After a long and fruitful peace Europe enters upon 
 a fatal period. The wars of the East and of Italy, 
 of 1866 and 1870, will flow from each other, and 
 after all these struggles will come in conclusion an 
 armed peace as dolorous as war itself and possibly 
 more burdensome. Torrents of blood are going to 
 be shed, and what for?
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 THE WAR OF THE ORIENT 
 
 r I ^HE war, until the landing of the English and 
 -*- French troops in the Crimea, was called the 
 war of the Orient. We do not pretend to write its 
 history. That has been done in the masterly works 
 of M. Camille Rousset and General Fay. We shall 
 merely recall the impression produced in. Paris by 
 the different phases of the struggle, and bring to 
 light from the correspondence of the heroes them- 
 selves and the testimony of eye-witnesses the French 
 and Christian sentiments of the men who covered 
 themselves with glory during this period so filled 
 with dangers and sufferings. 
 
 The army, though taken unawares, and not even 
 knowing what was to be the scene of its operations, 
 showed itself full of ardor and confidence. Its 
 commander-in-chief was Marshal de Saint-Arnaud, 
 who, although already stricken by a mortal disease, 
 wished his memory to be made illustrious by some- 
 thing different from the Coup d'Etat. At first but 
 three divisions were sent to the Orient, one of which 
 was confided to General Canrobert, another to Gen- 
 eral Bosquet, and the third to Prince Napoleon. 
 
 145
 
 146 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 By the 25th of February the Prince had written to 
 the Emperor: "Sire, at the moment when war is 
 about to break out, I come to beg Your Majesty to 
 allow me to join the expedition in preparation. I 
 do not ask for an important command or a distin- 
 guished title; the post which would seem to me 
 most honorable would be that which would bring me 
 nearest the enemy. The uniform I am so proud to 
 wear imposes duties which I shall be happy to fulfil, 
 and I wish to deserve the high rank given me by 
 your affection and my position." 
 
 General Bosquet, who, from the political point of 
 view, had not been in favor of the Avar, nevertheless 
 trembled with joy at the thought that he was about 
 to take arms. "My heart is joyful," he writes, 
 March 7, 1854; "my twelve thousand men are 
 nearly all old soldiers of Africa, and the majority 
 of the officers friends and brothers in arms. I have 
 sixteen hundred Arabs in my division — native 
 sharpshooters; twenty-two hundred zouaves of the 
 3d regiment, — those with whom I have fought so 
 often in Kabylia, — it is a family; Canrobert is a 
 brother to me. Verily, this is not a rude war, but 
 a real pleasure party." 
 
 General Bosquet was only forty-three years old. 
 He was born November 8, 1810. He was the fin- 
 ished model of a soldier. March 12, he wrote from 
 Paris to his mother, whom he fairly worshipped: 
 "My good mother, I start this evening for Mar- 
 seilles with Canrobert; we should be there by the
 
 THE WAR OF THE ORIENT 147 
 
 morning of the 15th and go on board the ChrUtophe 
 Colornb as soon as we have ascertained that our little 
 flotilla is thoroughly ready. ... It is a great 
 honor for me to be one of the two generals of divi- 
 sion who go in the van to carry the flag of France in 
 the Orient. Last evening the Emperor bade us 
 adieu after dinner, wishing us good luck as he 
 embraced us and shook our hands. A few minutes 
 before, the Empress had given us a medal of the 
 Virgin and a very good likeness of herself in bronze. 
 My friends in Paris would not let me go without 
 amulets either, and the good Madame Thayer, whom 
 you so rightly call an angel, has sent me a cross, the 
 copy of that which Charlemagne wore, and which is 
 still seen at Aix-la-Chapelle. With that and the 
 good prayera from Pau, I start with a very easy and 
 confident heart, disposed to bear haughtily against 
 Russia the sword of France, which is that of justice 
 and civilization." 
 
 Marshal de Saint-Arnaud, who had grown very 
 religious as he grew old, departed in similar senti- 
 ments. "Marshal de Saint-Arnaud has been un- 
 known," writes M. A. Granier de Cassagnac in his 
 Souvenirs du Second Empire, "for that lofty and 
 noble nature did not expand completely until within 
 the last six months of his existence, under the sky 
 of the Orient, in the atmosphere of glory, and 
 already beneath the hand of death. The wake of 
 his vessel is tinted with a reflection from the 
 crusades; and he has a lofty fashion of combating
 
 148 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 and of wrapping himself in the shroud of his victory, 
 which reminds one of Saint Louis and of Bayard." 
 
 Before embarking at Marseilles the future victor 
 of the Alma stopped at Lyons. Marshal de Castel- 
 lane, who was in command at that city, wrote in 
 his journal, April 17: "Marshal de Saint-Arnaud, 
 commander of the army of the Orient, arrived at 
 Lyons the 16th, at six in the evening, in a mail 
 coach, with the Mare'chale de Saint-Arnaud; he had 
 notified me that he would come to my house on his 
 arrival ; I wished to spare him this trouble and went 
 to see him; he said he was very well; he said that 
 leaving the ministry had benefited him. The fact 
 is that he is out of bed, but he is very thin, his eyes 
 are glassy, he is bent ; I imagine that he will find it 
 difficult to endure the fatigues of the campaign." 
 
 From Marseilles the marshal wrote to his brother, 
 M. Leroy de Saint-Arnaud, Counsellor of State, this 
 noble and affecting letter: "With courageous men, 
 with good men, God always ends by speaking, be- 
 cause His voice is the only truth, the only conso- 
 lation. Once this holy voice is heard, one does not 
 lend the ear to other things. I have been quite 
 naturally led to God by the ordinary road taken hy 
 human frailty: sorrow, meditation, prayer. God 
 has not repulsed me, and you may be sure that I 
 shall never take another backward step. To the 
 vehemence, the irritation which ruled me, have suc- 
 ceeded calmness and a possibly too serious gravity, 
 but it is connected with my malady. I have suf-
 
 THE WAR OF THE ORIENT 149 
 
 fered so much! I hope I shall soon recover a gentle 
 gaiety, but I cannot conceal from myself that all nvy 
 ideas are grave and serious. I read the Imitation of 
 Jesus Christ a great deal, and this admirable book, 
 which penetrates me with admiration, also inspires 
 me with a painful distrust of my strength." 
 
 April 26, the marshal wrote to his sister, Madame 
 de Forcade: "We embark to-morrow, and the next 
 time we write you it will be from Constantinople. 
 Constantinople ! How our projects take wings, how 
 fate makes sport of man, how the will of God is 
 sovereign over ours ! . . . I saw the good cure" of 
 Hyeres, and we had a long talk." 
 
 March 31, Generals Bosquet, Canrobert, and de 
 Martinprey arrived with the vanguard at Gallipoli, 
 a town situated at the northern extremity of the 
 Strait of Dardanelles, almost at the entrance of the 
 Sea of Marmora. It was there that headquarters 
 were established. 
 
 May 9, after merely touching at Gallipoli, Marshal 
 de Saint-Arnaud arrived at Constantinople. During 
 four months he lived alternately in the Turkish 
 capital, Gallipoli, and Varna. All the uncertain- 
 ties, all the agonies, of the situation reappear in his 
 correspondence of this period. He states how badly 
 calculated the enterprise has been, what sacrifices 
 will be necessary, what slaughter awaits the army. 
 He had started so joyfully, and already he is so sad ! 
 May 27, in a letter addressed to the Emperor from 
 Gallipoli, he complains that his troops lack the most
 
 150 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 necessary things, and adds: "One does not make 
 war without bread, without shoes, without soup pots 
 and canteens." His health constantly became worse. 
 He suffered inexpressible tortures with admirable 
 patience. Listen to Dr. Cabrol, his physician, 
 confidant, and friend: "In the middle of his cruel 
 nights, after long hours of violent sufferings, the 
 Marshal would say: 'Yes, I offer my pains to God, 
 He alone can allay them. If He sends them to me 
 in expiation of my faults, my faults should be all 
 atoned for, for these pains are so great and poignant 
 that they might expiate even the greatest crimes.' 
 After this kind of prayer he would take his wife's 
 picture and cover it with kisses, saying: 'Yes, thou 
 alone canst console me.' His life had become a 
 struggle, a perpetual conflict between soul and 
 body." 
 
 There are the most curious alternations of feverish 
 exaltation and overwhelming sadness in the corre- 
 spondence of this intrepid soldier. May 30, he wrote 
 from Gallipoli to his brother: "Since I came here 
 everything has changed its face, everything goes. 
 I have held reviews, talked with the leaders and the 
 soldiers; every one is confident and holds up his 
 head. I wept with joy and pride in passing through 
 the ranks of thirty-eight thousand Frenchmen. I 
 admired the soldiers whom I am charged to lead to 
 victory. How many victims we shall deplore! 
 That devouring activity which you know in me, 
 brother, animates and prevents me from being ill.
 
 THE WAR OF THE ORIENT 151 
 
 They say that I was never better. The crises are 
 leaving me; I am regaining my strength and my 
 youthful appearance. God will have pity on this 
 fine army in having pity on its leader." 
 
 " Yeni Kale\ June 20, 1854. — On the 17th the 
 Sultan reviewed the 3d division. His Highness 
 did two things which will make an epoch in Turkey. 
 He galloped twice, and came to salute the Mare'chale, 
 who watched the review from a carriage. He said 
 very gracious things to the Mare'chale and offered 
 her his kiosque at Therapia. . . . The Sultan talk- 
 ing in public to a Christian woman is a revolution ! '' 
 
 We find the same martial ardor, the same French 
 and Christian pride, in General Bosquet. June 12, 
 he wrote the following letter to his mother, from 
 Adrianople: "Last Sunday I went to the Catholic 
 chapel, followed by all my officers on horseback and 
 in full uniform. We were preceded by a fine picket 
 of infantry and a brilliant escort of cavalry. The 
 few Catholics of the country almost hide themselves 
 so that it may be possible for them to practise their 
 worship. Well ! we went to chapel with our heads 
 up, through a population who saluted us and who 
 said to each other: 'There is the French chief going 
 to say his prayers ' ; they will no longer dare not 
 to respect the Christians. . . . Thy son, who is 
 always the same honest fellow, trying to do right 
 before God and men, is preparing as well as he can 
 the march of a portion of this army which, I sin- 
 cerely hope, will inscribe one more beautiful page
 
 152 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 in the military annals of France, and another in the 
 history of the deeds and exploits of our country in 
 honor of the civilization of the world." 
 
 It is the old national adage, the G-esta Dei per 
 Francos, the Acts of God by the French. Curious 
 contrast, — these warriors who are going to the help 
 of Mussulmans talk and act like knights of the Mid- 
 dle Ages, like crusaders. The moment has come for 
 them to display all their heroism, for the hour of 
 great sufferings, of terrible trials, is about to strike. 
 Marshal de Saint-Arnaud writes from Constanti- 
 nople, June 24: "In a few hours I embark, leaving 
 the Marechale in good health, but very sad. This is 
 the real separation, this is the beginning of the 
 
 war." 
 
 On arriving at Varna, June 25, the Marshal learns 
 the most surprising news. During the night of 
 June 22-23 the Russians had raised the siege of 
 Silistria. The army had expected to come up with 
 them on the banks of the Danube, and, behold, they 
 had recrossed the stream, they had evacuated the 
 Danubian Principalities, fearing to see Austria 
 enter the lists. Made a few months earlier, this 
 evacuation would have prevented war. But now it 
 is too late. Carnage is inevitable. 
 
 Totally disconcerted, Marshal de Saint-Arnaud 
 wondered what he was to do. The most cruel per- 
 plexities tortured his soul, the most atrocious suffer- 
 ings his body. Read his heart-rending letters to his 
 wife: "Varna, June 28. I need complete repose,
 
 THE WAR OF THE ORIENT 153 
 
 moral and physical, and all repose of mind and body 
 is interdicted to me. May God have pity on me, I 
 pray to Him a great deal, but without success. I 
 am daily more disgusted with grandeurs and high 
 positions. I no longer dream of anything but rest- 
 ing very tranquilly with thee at Montalais. Unfort- 
 unately, I cannot ; I ought not to retire at present. 
 I belong to my country and the Emperor. I will 
 stay until the end, but I am making a great sacri- 
 fice. . . . Everything tires me, — talking, writing, 
 marching, mounting a horse, — everything causes 
 me pain. My God, what a life! And yet I have 
 suffered enough." 
 
 To his daughter: "Varna, July 7. I have a large 
 magnifying glass through which I look at thy por- 
 trait, and which, by doubling its size, gives it a 
 striking expression which is certainly thine* I 
 spend my time in looking at thee, in opening my 
 heart and telling thee my griefs and my hopes ; but 
 who knows what God has in store for us." 
 
 The cholera broke out, and made terrible ravages 
 in the army. The Marshal hoped that movement 
 and change of air might overcome the epidemic, and 
 he ordered an expedition into the Dobrudja, where 
 there was no encounter with the enemy, who had 
 withdrawn. But the scourge increased in the most 
 frightful manner, and the decimated troops beat a 
 retreat. The expedition, lasting only a few daj T s, 
 had been nothing but a lamentable and dismal 
 promenade. Even this was not enough. At seven
 
 154 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COUBT 
 
 o'clock in the evening of August 10, just as the 
 Marshal was getting off his horse after visiting the 
 cholera patients, a violent fire broke out at Varna. 
 Five hours were spent in struggling against an 
 almost certain loss. The fire whirled around three 
 powder magazines, — the English, French, and Turk- 
 ish. Ten times the marshal despaired and was on 
 the point of giving the signal of retreat. At three 
 o'clock in the morning the danger was somewhat 
 less. Two hours later the fire had been mastered. 
 
 The Marshal wrote to Madame Forcade : " Varna, 
 August 18, 1851. My dear sister, while you are 
 sweetly reposing in the shades of Mali-ame", I am 
 struggling painfully against all the calamities imag- 
 inable. They have all struck at me, yet without 
 beating me down, — cholera, conflagration, plague, 
 fire, and water. While my heart has been torn by 
 anguish, I have always shown a calm and smiling 
 face. I have seen my friends, my companions in 
 arms, my soldiers, who are my children, mowed 
 down by cannon, and I remain standing above this 
 charnel-house. One might think that in my body, 
 broken by sufferings, worn by labor and thought, 
 strength is increased by the decrease of it in those 
 by whom I am surrounded. What an experience at 
 the end of my life! I shall come out of it, my 
 sister, because I have faith and a heart which noth- 
 ing weakens. If I succumb, I shall fall with honor; 
 that is the only sentiment of pride that I permit 
 myself."
 
 THE WAR OF THE ORIENT 155 
 
 In the same letter the Marshal adds: "What a 
 century! What a year! The world is tossed like 
 an angry sea under a darkened sky. Here at the 
 end of the year we shall see many things. For me, 
 I would like a grand stroke, a splendid victoiy, and 
 then a complete, an absolute repose." The splendid 
 victory the Marshal will have. But the absolute 
 repose, alas! will be that of death. Then, in think- 
 ing of Montalais, his country-seat at Meudon, and 
 of Malrame, he exclaims at the end of his letter: 
 "Ah! Montalais! ah! MalrameM when shall I wrap 
 myself completely in your gentle quietude, far from 
 affairs, from anxieties, and from men. But not from 
 women, dear sister; I am too gallant to think of 
 that. If ever again I find myself in the midst of 
 my reunited family, he would be veiy mad who 
 should try to separate me from them." 
 
 After so mairy perplexities and cruel uncertainties 
 a ray of light was to illuminate the Marshal's mind. 
 His dream was to find himself at last confronting a 
 clear and definite goal, to see the enemy face to 
 face, and this dream was to be realized. The 
 announcement of a near and energetic campaign 
 raised the soldiers' spirits. The epidemic had 
 ceased. Nothing was now thought of but victory. 
 General Bosquet had written in an order of the day, 
 June 19 : " Every one must remember that for French 
 troops the difficulty is not to fight the enemy when 
 they are within reach, but rather in the fatigues of 
 the long marches which precede the combat. The
 
 156 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 model of the soldier is he who knows how to accom- 
 modate himself to and gayly endure privation while 
 awaiting the festival, the long-desired day of bat- 
 tle." This day is approaching. The war of the 
 Orient is about to he called the Crimean War.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 BIARRITZ 
 
 ET us see what Napoleon III. and the Empress 
 -^ Eugenie were doing between the outbreak of 
 the war of the Orient and the landing of the allies 
 in the Crimea. Thus far no one dreamed in France 
 of the frightful proportions the war was to assume. 
 Counting on the support of England, people were 
 expecting a speedy and glorious peace. The situa- 
 tion appeared so favorable that the Emperor thought 
 he might absent himself from the capital without 
 inconvenience, and quietly spend a few weeks of 
 country life at the extremity of his empire, in the 
 department of the Lower Pyrenees. 
 
 The health of the Empress required sea baths. 
 For this purpose she selected a bathing station 
 which was particularly agreeable to her on account 
 of its proximity to Spain, and which she was to 
 make a fashionable resort, as the Duchesse de Berry 
 had done for Dieppe. This was Biarritz. Napo- 
 leon III. resolved to go there with the Empress, for 
 whom his passion was still as lively as at the time 
 of their marriage. But first he went for several 
 days to Boulogne, in order to review the expedition- 
 
 157 .
 
 158 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 ary troops about to sail for the Baltic under the 
 command of General Baraguey d'Hilliers. He 
 arrived there on Jul}* 11. The next day he re- 
 viewed the troops and addressed them in the fol- 
 lowing proclamation: "Soldiers! Russia having 
 constrained us to war, France has armed five hun- 
 dred thousand of her children. England has set 
 considerable forces on foot. To-day, our fleets and 
 armies, united by the same cause, are going to take 
 the lead in the Baltic as well as in the Black Sea. 
 English vessels are going to transport you thither, 
 a fact unique in history, which proves the close alli- 
 ance of two great peoples, and the firm resolution of 
 the two governments not to recoil before any obstacle 
 in order to protect the right of the weakest, the 
 liberty of Europe, and the national honor." 
 
 The imperial proclamation ended by words full 
 of confidence and enthusiasm: "Go, my children! 
 Attentive Europe offers openly and secretly its 
 prayers for your triumph. The country, proud of a 
 conflict in which she threatens only the aggressor, 
 accompanies you with her ardent desires, and I, 
 whom imperial duties retain far from the scene of 
 action, will have my eyes on you, and presently, in 
 seeing you return, I shall be able to say: They were 
 the worthy sons of the victors of Austerlitz, Egypt, 
 Friedland, and the Moskowa. Go! God protect 
 you!" 
 
 A copy of this proclamation was distributed to 
 each of the soldiers of the army of the Baltic imme- 
 diately after the review.
 
 BIA RRITZ 159 
 
 July 13, Napoleon arrived at Calais. The English 
 squadron, composed of a large number of men-of- 
 war, frigates, and steam corvettes, was lying in the 
 roadstead ready to take the troops of the French 
 expedition aboard. The officers of the licet and a 
 great number of sailors were mingled with the popu- 
 lation of the city, as well as a crowd of English 
 people who had come there for the occasion and 
 loudly applauded the Emperor. The 14th he re- 
 viewed the troops camped on the glacis of Calais. 
 Then he went aboard the frigate La Heine Ilortense, 
 and visited the English fleet, which saluted him 
 with all its cannon. The vessels were hung with 
 flags and the sailors in the yards. Napoleon III. 
 boarded the flagship, where Commodore Grey re- 
 ceived him at the head of all his officers. Thence 
 the Emperor returned to Calais, which he immedi- 
 ately left for Saint-Cloud. 
 
 The Moniteur of July 19 contained the following : 
 — "Their Majesties departed to-day for Biarritz. 
 The Emperor accompanies the Empress to the sea 
 baths which have been prescribed for Her Majesty. 
 The Emperor will return in August to take com- 
 mand of the camp of Boulogne. 
 
 "Biarritz, July 21. Their Majesties have just 
 arrived in good health. The people thronged about 
 them on their journey, and saluted them with the 
 liveliest enthusiasm. 
 
 " July 22. Last evening the Emperor and Empress 
 took a walk in the midst of an animated crowd, who
 
 160 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 manifested by hearty cheers their pleasure in behold- 
 ing Their Majesties. 
 
 "Paris, August 12. The Emperor, desiring to 
 visit the department of the Lower Pyrenees, will 
 not return to Paris until the end of the month. 
 The Empress, however, on account of the state of 
 her health, is obliged to prolong her stay at 
 Biarritz." 
 
 August 14, Napoleon received at Biarritz the con- 
 gratulations of the Empress on his feast day. At a 
 grand banquet given in Paris at the H6tel de Ville, 
 the same evening, the prefect, M. Haussmann, ex- 
 pressed himself as follows : " Gentlemen, in the name 
 of the city of Paris I have the honor to propose the 
 health of His Majesty the Emperor Napoleon III. 
 
 " Under the segis of His Majesty the city of Paris, 
 in the midst of events which keep the whole world 
 in suspense, quietly and perseveringly pursues the 
 accomplishment of works of public utility which 
 must also contribute to the e*clat of the imperial 
 throne. She is proud and happy to prove by this 
 notable example the profound and unshakable confi- 
 dence of the country in the wisdom not less than 
 the firmness of the sovereign who has restored her 
 legitimate and decisive influence in the councils of 
 Europe, and who causes the noble sword of France, 
 the foe of all iniquitous violence, the protectress of 
 rightful causes, the avenger of the sacred law of 
 nations, to glitter once more in the Orient, that 
 classic land of the great battles of humanity."
 
 THE EMPRESS EUGENIE
 
 BIARRITZ 161 
 
 M. Haussmann then proposed this toast: "To 
 Her Majesty the Empress Eugenie! May God bless 
 the Emperor in his dearest affections! May his 
 august companion, who knows how to feel for the 
 poor and suffering children of our cities all the 
 solicitudes of maternity, know also all its joys ! " 
 
 The next day Their Majesties went to Bayonne, 
 that important stronghold situated at the confluence 
 of the Adour and the Nive, six kilometres from the 
 Gulf of Gascony and eight from Biarritz. A Mass 
 followed by a Te Deum was said in their presence in 
 the cathedral, whose foundations were laid in 1140, 
 but which, in consequence of a conflagration, began 
 to be reconstructed in 1213. 
 
 If one desires to have an idea of the flatteries of 
 which Napoleon III. was at this time the object, it 
 may be obtained from a letter written from Bayonne 
 to the Moniteur of August 15, 1854. It begins as 
 follows: "The presence of the Emperor, which is 
 daily manifested in the capital by so many benefits 
 and improvements, is always fruitful in useful 
 results in the cities which have the happiness to 
 possess it. Great works will perpetuate the memory 
 of the sojourn of Their Majesties in Dieppe in 1853. 
 The year 1854 will not be less fortunate for Bayonne 
 and Biarritz. The inhabitants of this region will 
 never forget the touching kindness of the Empress, 
 her affability so full of grace and charm, her inex- 
 haustible charity for all the unfortunate." 
 
 Taking an enthusiastic tone, the official sheet
 
 162 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 adds : " Those who have the happiness to perceive 
 the Emperor in his promenades, who witness the 
 seemingly quiet life which His Majesty leads at 
 Biarritz, cannot resist a profound sentiment of 
 admiration and respect when thinking that it is to 
 this imperial abode, remarkable only for its elegant 
 simplicity, that the great affairs of France and 
 Europe have just converged, quietly and without 
 outward disturbance, and that from there go forth 
 those resolutions which daily make France greater 
 in the eyes of both her friends and her enemies." 
 
 The letter terminates with this vindication of the 
 second Empire: "Eighteen months have elapsed 
 since the re-establishment of the Empire; and 
 already in France, so long disturbed, quiet is so 
 thoroughly established, authority is restored to such 
 a point, that the Emperor, at two hundred leagues 
 from his capital, can direct all the affairs of the 
 country by his superior and powerful will without 
 retarding them in the least, without permitting any 
 interest to suffer, without delaying any explana- 
 tion. 
 
 " And at what moment do we see this realization 
 of a strong and national power? At the time when 
 in the North and in the South, at Rome, at Athens, 
 on the Black Sea and on the Baltic Sea, the French 
 flag is waving, and our diplomacy is speaking so 
 nobly and playing so glorious a part! The will 
 which directs these fleets, these armies, these nego- 
 tiations, the power which sets all these springs in
 
 BIARRITZ 163 
 
 motion, is at one of the extremities of France! 
 And under the impulsion of this will, under the 
 action of this puissant force, everything moves, 
 everything- marches towards the end so gloriously 
 pursued. What finer eulogy could be made of him 
 who in so short a time has created so strong an 
 organization, and whose firm hand regulates all its 
 movements ? " 
 
 The Russians having evacuated the Danubian 
 Principalities, had been replaced there by the Turks. 
 The Ottoman vanguard had entered Bucharest, 
 August 5. August 19, a telegram from Dantzic 
 brought favorable news. The French expeditionary 
 corps had taken possession of the archipelago of 
 Aland in the Baltic Sea. The fortress of Bomar- 
 sund had been taken. August 20, the Emperor 
 addressed this proclamation from Biarritz to his 
 troops in the Orient: "Soldiers and sailors of the 
 army of the Orient ! you have not fought as yet, and 
 already you have obtained a brilliant success. Your 
 presence and that of the English troops have sufficed 
 to constrain the Russians to recross the Danube. 
 . . . The First Consul said in 1799: 'The first 
 quality of the soldier is constancy in enduring- 
 fatigues and privations; valor is only the second.' 
 The first you have shown to-day; who will dispute 
 the second with you? Hence your enemies, who 
 are scattered from Finland to the Caucasus, are 
 anxiously seeking the point at which France and 
 England will aim their blows, foreseeing that they
 
 164 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 will be decisive; for right, justice, and warlike 
 inspiration are on our side. 
 
 "Already Bomarsund and twelve hundred pris- 
 oners have fallen into our power. Soldiers, you 
 will follow the example of the army of Egypt; like 
 you, the victors of the Pyramids and Mount Tabor 
 had to contend against sickness and soldiers inured 
 to war, but in spite of the plague and the efforts 
 of three armies, they returned in honor to their 
 country. 
 
 " Soldiers, have confidence in your commander-in- 
 chief and in me. I watch over everything, and I 
 hope, with the help of God, soon to see your suffer- 
 ings diminish and your glory increase." August 
 27, after visiting Pau, the Emperor left the Empress 
 at Biarritz and returned to Paris.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 BOULOGNE 
 
 T EAVING Paris August 31, 1854, Napoleon III. 
 "^ arrived at Boulogne-sur-Mer at eight o'clock 
 in the evening and installed himself in the Brighton 
 hotel. The houses were hung with French and 
 English flags. The sailors' wives and daughters 
 wore their traditional costume. 
 
 September 2, Leopold I., King of the Belgians, and 
 ids eldest son, the Due de Brabant, came from Os- 
 tend to Calais, whither the Emperor went to receive 
 them. The packet boats were incessantly bringing 
 crowds of tourists from England who wished to see 
 the meeting between the two sovereigns. After a 
 few moments of repose, Napoleon III., King Leopold, 
 and the Due de Brabant went aboard the imperial 
 yacht, La Heine Hortense. The Emperor wished to 
 do the honors of this vessel in person to his guests. 
 After carrying the general-in-chief of the expedi- 
 tionary army to the Baltic Sea, it had just returned, 
 bearing the report of the taking of Bomarsund. 
 The sailors were on the yards, and the flags of 
 France and Belgium floated from the top of the 
 masts. 
 
 L66
 
 166 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COUBT 
 
 In the morning of September 3 the two monarchs 
 went from Calais to Boulogne in an open carriage 
 drawn by four horses. The sovereigns, both in the 
 uniform of generals, and wearing, one the broad 
 ribbon of the Legion of Honor, and the other that of 
 the order of Leopold, were in the back of the car- 
 riage ; the Due de Brabant, wearing the uniform of 
 a colonel of grenadiers, was in front. The Emperor 
 spent the whole day with his guests, who departed 
 at six in the evening, escorted by him to the Belgian 
 vessel on which they embarked. The interview had 
 been most cordial. 
 
 September 4, Napoleon III. received the visit of 
 two young and gifted princes, one of whom, already 
 King of Portugal, was to die prematurely in 1861 
 and be succeeded by the other on the throne. These 
 were King Pedro V. and his brother Louis, Duke of 
 Oporto. Very well received by the Emperor, they 
 visited the camp of Honvault with him and went 
 away the same evening. 
 
 The next day, September 5, Prince Albert, hus- 
 band of Queen Victoria, arrived at Boulogne. The 
 most precise and circumstantial details of this visit 
 may be found in the English work published by Sir 
 Theodore Martin under the title : The Life of His 
 Royal Highness the Prince Consort. Nothing more 
 modern, nothing more in conformity with the new 
 tendency of history to linger over the intimate and 
 familiar details of contemporary events, can be found 
 than this book, the principal documents of which
 
 BOULOGNE 167 
 
 were communicated to the author by Her Britannic 
 Majesty in person. In former times they would not 
 have been given to the public. Besides extracts 
 from the Queen's journal, they include the letters 
 addressed to her by Prince Albert, in which he de- 
 scribed with as much candor as unreserve his current 
 impressions of men and things. The notes he sent 
 to the Queen during the four days he spent in com- 
 pany with Napoleon III. all find place in the narra- 
 tive. They are followed by an account drawn up 
 by the Prince himself and entitled : Memorandum 
 of my Visit to Boulogne. 
 
 The weather was magnificent on the 5th of Sep- 
 tember, 1854, the sky empty of a cloud. From early 
 morning the whole population had deserted the city 
 for the jetty. A crowd of sightseers had opera- 
 glasses or telescopes bent on the sea. At half -past 
 ten the Queen's yacht, the Victoria and Albert, with 
 the French tricolor at her stern and the royal British 
 standard at her stern, doubled the cape of Capecure. 
 Conveying the Prince Consort and the Duke of 
 Newcastle, Minister of War, this vessel was followed 
 by two steamships, the Black Eagle and the Vivid, 
 both carrying the same flags as the royal yacht. 
 The excitement of the immense crowd assembled 
 on the shore reached its height when it saw the 
 Emperor, preceded and followed by a detachment 
 of a hundred guards, arrive on the quay to receive 
 the Prince there. This mark of cordiality impressed 
 the crowd, because it was exceptional, the Prince not
 
 168 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 being a sovereign. The grenadiers of the imperial 
 guard and the troops of the line formed a double 
 row from the Hotel Brighton to the shore. 
 
 At eleven o'clock the yacht Victoria and Albert, 
 saluted by twenty-one guns, arrived in port. When 
 it approached the custom-house, where Napoleon III. 
 was standing a little in advance of his staff, the 
 sovereign and the Prince recognized and saluted 
 each other by removing their hats. Meanwhile the 
 military bands were playing the two national Eng- 
 lish airs, God save the Queen and Mule Britannia. 
 The yacht landed her passengers at once. A gang- 
 way covered with carpet having been stretched 
 across, the Prince ran ashore to meet the Emperor. 
 Both uncovered and gave each other a cordial shake 
 of the hand. The Prince bowed several times in 
 acknowledgment of the friendly remarks addressed 
 to him by the sovereign, and seemed much affected 
 by the hearty greeting that he received. Both then 
 turned towards the open carriage which had brought 
 the sovereign. His Majesty begged his guest to 
 enter it first ; as the Prince hesitated, the Emperor 
 insisted, and the Prince finally entered it first, 
 though he was unwilling to sit on the right side ; 
 again the Emperor insisted and placed the Prince on 
 his right. Then they drove to the Hotel Brighton 
 between the double line formed by the imperial 
 guard and the chasseurs of Vincennes. All along 
 their route the windows were filled with women in 
 full dress who waved their handkerchiefs.
 
 BOULOGNE 169 
 
 The Emperor and his guest, after dining with the 
 English ambassador, Lord Cowley, M. Drouyn de 
 Lhuys, Minister of Foreign Affairs, and the brother- 
 in-law of the Empress, the Duke of Alba, avIio had 
 arrived that morning, mounted horses and went to 
 visit the camps of Wimereux, Ambleteuse, and Hon- 
 vault. 
 
 Did the inhabitants who gave the husband of the 
 Queen of England so warm a reception think of 
 what had happened in this same city of Boulogne 
 fifty years before ? In 1804 Napoleon I. had con- 
 centrated on the plateau which overlooks the city on 
 the north an army composed of one hundred and 
 seventy-two thousand infantry and nine thousand 
 cavalry, under command of Marshals Soult, Xey, 
 Davout, and Victor. At the same time he had as- 
 sembled in the roadstead a flotilla of two thousand 
 four hundred and thirteen vessels manned by six- 
 teen thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight men. 
 These immense preparations were intended for a 
 descent upon England, the motive being the viola- 
 tion of the treaty of Amiens. The plan was to be 
 carried into execution as soon as the fleets of Ant- 
 werp, Brest, and Cadiz should be united so as to pro- 
 tect the flotilla of debarkation. The naval defeat of 
 Trafalgar, October 20, 1805, prevented the accom- 
 plishment of this scheme, and the third coalition 
 forced the Emperor to raise the camp of Boulogne 
 and set off for the campaign whose final result was 
 the victory of Austerlitz. A monument, the column
 
 170 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 of the grand army, surmounted by a bronze statue 
 of Napoleon I. has been erected on the left side of 
 the Calais road, at about two and a half kilometres 
 from the upper town. Doubtless Napoleon III. had 
 no idea of pointing it out to the husband of Queen 
 Victoria. In visiting the camps of Wimereux, Ani- 
 bleteuse, and Honvault that evening with his guest, 
 he could see from the beach the shores of England 
 which his uncle had vainly intended to invade. At 
 night the city was magnificently illuminated, and 
 fireworks set off on the hills which dominate it. 
 The next day, September 6, the Emperor and the 
 Prince reviewed the army corps cantoned on the 
 plateau of Helfaut. The four regiments of cuirassiers, 
 their helmets and cuirasses shining in the sun, were 
 what chiefly excited the admiration of the Prince. 
 
 The influx of foreigners to Boulogne continued. 
 Among them was noticeable an Indian prince in his 
 national costume, covered with gold and precious 
 stones, who had come from London to see the Em- 
 peror and be present at the military fetes. 
 
 On the 7th the Emperor and his guest went to 
 visit the royal yacht, the Victoria and Albert, which 
 was moored at the custom-house dock. The sailors, 
 ranged in the forepart of the vessel, gave three 
 cheers. The Prince wished to do the honors of the 
 yacht in person to the Emperor. He afterwards ac- 
 companied him to the plain of Marquise, where an 
 inspection of the bivouacs of the army took place. 
 On the 8th, a splendid day, a mock battle was
 
 BOULOGNE 171 
 
 fought on this plain by two army corps, one com- 
 manded by the Emperor and the other by General 
 Schramm. Noticeable in the staff of Napoleon III. 
 were General Wedel, sent by the King of Prussia, 
 and several officers of that nation. Prince Albert 
 watched the manoeuvres of the corps with the 
 keenest interest. An immense crowd was on the 
 ground. The Prince's departure occurred the next 
 day, September 9. He had spent four and a half 
 days in the closest intimacy with the Emperor, and 
 they had conversed incessantly on various subjects -. 
 diplomacy, military matters, contemporary history, 
 political economy. The Prince summed up as fol- 
 lows, in his letters to the Queen and his memoran- 
 dum of his visit, the impression made upon him bj 
 the sovereign : " The Emperor has been friendly and 
 cordial. . . . He looks younger than his portraits 
 and not so pale. . . . He seems to be tranquil, natu- 
 rally indolent, not easily excited, but cheerful and 
 good-humored when he is at his ease. He pro- 
 nounces German better than he does English. I 
 noticed a certain turn of mind in him which aston- 
 ished me less when he told me that he had been edu- 
 cated at the college of Augsburg. He recited to me 
 a poem by Schiller, on the respective advantages of 
 peace and war, which seems to have had some influ- 
 ence over his destiny. . . . He told me that the 
 young King of Portugal had quite gained his heart, 
 and that he is A r ery glad to have made the acquaint- 
 ance of King Leopold. He added that the Duke
 
 172 NAPOLEON III. AND MS COURT 
 
 of Brabant had surprised him by the precocity of 
 his judgment and the acuteness of his reflections." 
 
 Prince Albert expressed to Napoleon III. the 
 pleasure it would give the Queen to see him in 
 England, and to make the acquaintance of the Em- 
 press. The Emperor thanked him, adding that he 
 would be most happy to receive the Queen in Paris 
 the following year, when the Louvre should be 
 finished for the exposition. He also told the Prince 
 that one of the things which had made the pleasant- 
 est impression on him was to see Queen Victoria, 
 then eighteen years old, open Parliament for the 
 first time. This was in 1837. Banished to Rio de 
 Janeiro, and then to the United States after the 
 Strasbourg affair, he had returned to Europe on 
 account of his mother's serious illness, and was in 
 London at the time of the death of King William IV. 
 
 The conversations of the Emperor and Prince 
 Albert were confidential, friendly, and unreserved. 
 They parted, September 9, very well pleased with 
 each other, the Emperor, followed by a brilliant 
 cortege, accompanying his guest to the royal yacht. 
 The next day the following appeared in the Moni- 
 teur : " The final adieux were exchanged on board 
 the British vessel. Boulogne and France will retain 
 the memory of this notable interview, in which the 
 close alliance of two great nations seems to be 
 personified." 
 
 As soon as he reached England, the Prince wrote 
 to the Emperor : " The souvenir of the days I have
 
 BOULOGNE 173 
 
 passed with you, and of the confiding cordiality with 
 which you have honored me, will never be effaced 
 from my memory. I found the Queen and her chil- 
 dren in good health. She desires me to say a thou- 
 sand pleasant things to you." 
 
 On the whole, everything had gone off very well. 
 This was the honeymoon of the English alliance. 
 Waterloo was forgotten. 
 
 Napoleon III. remained in Boulogne until Sep- 
 tember 16, and then returned to Paris, which he 
 quitted the next day but one in order to go to 
 Bordeaux to meet the Empress on her return from 
 Biarritz. Reaching Bordeaux some hours before 
 she did, he went to the cathedral, where he was 
 received by the cardinal-archbishop at the head of 
 all his clergy. Then he went to the railway station 
 to meet the Empress. They departed together and 
 arrived at the palace of the Tuileries at nine o'clock 
 in the evening of September 20. On that day the 
 French and English troops had won the battle of 
 the Alma. 
 
 Now let us return to the Crimea.
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 THE CRIMEA 
 
 r I THE fixed idea of Marshal de Saint- Arnaud for 
 some months past had been to conquer the 
 Crimea. April 27, he had written from Marseilles : 
 "The Crimea — 'tis a jewel ! I dream about it, and 
 I hope that prudence will not prevent my stealing 
 it from the Russians." On reaching the Orient, 
 he had not found the thing quite so easy. " The 
 Crimea is my favorite idea," he wrote June 9, " but 
 I have seen the embarkations and the debarkations, 
 and I reflect that to make a descent on the Crimea, 
 long preparations, a whole campaign, perhaps one 
 hundred thousand men, will be needed." But, ad- 
 venturous though it might be, the project had be- 
 come the dominant ambition of England. At the 
 thought of destroying Sebastopol and the Russian 
 ships in the Black Sea, the London merchants and 
 the stockholders of the East Indian Company could 
 not contain themselves for joy. The Times of June 
 15 said : " The taking of Sebastopol and the occu- 
 pation of the Crimea would defray all the costs of 
 the present war " ; and on June 29 Prince Albert 
 wrote to the Duke of Newcastle, the Secretary of 
 
 174
 
 THE CRIMEA 175 
 
 War : " England's policy should not be to send 
 troops onto the marshy soil of the Danube and the 
 exhausted fields of Wallaehia ; but its aim should 
 be the destruction of Sebastopol, — the point which 
 really dominates the Black Sea." 
 
 The rumor of a descent upon the Crimea had 
 been current in the army of the Orient since 
 August. It was a scheme which was far from 
 gaining the approbation of all the generals. Con- 
 cerning this, we cite two extracts from letters of 
 General Bosquet, dated from Ye"ni Kale : — 
 
 " August 18, 1851. It seems they are thinking 
 of seizing the Crimea. That would be doing a 
 good thing for England, but not for ourselves. 
 We are real Don Quixotes, — paying with our blood 
 and money for results useful to others but not 
 to us." 
 
 "August 21. We are about to embark for the 
 Crimea — a very serious operation, which would 
 have been less serious and more sure at the end 
 of June. Now it is attempted as if in despair, and 
 as a thing more personal to England than to us. 
 It seems to me that it is throwing down the gaunt- 
 let to Russia once for all. If it succeeds, it will be 
 an astonishing feat of arms ; if not, it will be a 
 great shame. Who will have any ideas ? Who 
 will say, at this serious moment, what is to be 
 done ? Curious epoch, singular army : English, 
 Turks, and French without a general commander. 
 It is all haphazard."
 
 176 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Many other officers shared the apprehensions of 
 this valiant soldier. They considered a descent 
 upon a territory unknown except from stories as 
 a more than foolhardy enterprise. They dreaded 
 the dangers of the debarkation, the equinoctial 
 storms on the dangerous waters of the Black Sea, 
 and thought of the fate of the Armada of Philip II. 
 August 25, an order from headquarters officially 
 announced the near departure for the Crimea. There 
 was no more room for criticism. All that any one 
 thought of was how to conduct himself like a hero. 
 
 The same day the Marshal wrote to his wife : 
 " I promise thee to conduct things so vigorously 
 in the Crimea that we shall soon finish. We shall 
 have plenty of trouble to extricate ourselves for 
 the first few days, but we shall come out all right. 
 ... It is thy fete to-day, my Louise, and I not 
 near to congratulate thee. That makes me suffer 
 keenly. Yesterday I sent thee a little souvenir by 
 the Mouette, which will reach thee to-day. Per- 
 haps thou hast thought I had forgotten thy fete : 
 it would have been almost pardonable in the midst 
 of so many affairs ; but no, thou wilt receive a 
 bouquet of flowers of all sorts, — odoriferous, and 
 not mingled with anxieties; them I keep." 
 
 The heroic soul of the Marshal exulted in the 
 approach of danger. He wrote to his brother, 
 August 28 : " When you are reading this letter, 
 I shall be on the sea. The most redoubtable fleet 
 that has been seen for a long time — if ever one
 
 TIIE CRIMEA 177 
 
 saw the like — will be sailing towards the Crimea, 
 there to vomit in the face of the Russians sixty 
 thousand men and one hundred and twenty pieces 
 of cannon. We surpass Agamemnon, and our siege 
 will not last so long as that of Troy. . . . All we 
 ask is a hospitable sea for a fortnight. . . . Ah ! 
 brother, how I will rest myself after that ! I have 
 spent my night in laying siege to Sebastopol and 
 making proclamations to my soldiers." 
 
 In another letter, of August 31 : " We have not 
 come from so far, we have not undergone so many 
 trials, only to be wrecked in the harbor. If I suc- 
 ceed, I will not stay long to enjoy success. I shall 
 have done more than my task, and I will leave the 
 rest to be done by others. My part in this world 
 will be ended. We shall live for ourselves in 
 retreat and repose." 
 
 Unhappily, the Marshal's state of health grew 
 still worse. His life had become a torture. What 
 sadness, but what heroism, breathes through his 
 last letters from Varna to his wife who was still 
 at Constantinople ! 
 
 "August 28. I suffer, but thou knowest that I 
 know how to suffer. Oh ! the weather ! It is the 
 sixth day of the moon, and it is fine. All the 
 month will be fine, according to the calculation of 
 my venerable master, the Due d'Isly ; and I be- 
 lieve it, as in everything else that comes from him. 
 I hope that from the heights of heaven he will 
 inspire me when I face the enemy.
 
 178 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 " Prince Napoleon has told me that he wished 
 to take thee aboard the Roland. Thou wouldst 
 have come, and I should have been very happy, 
 but for some of these brief joys one pays too dear. 
 It is better not to see thee. I should have been 
 very much affected, and that would have done 
 me harm." 
 
 "August 30. The acute stage is becoming per- 
 manent. I hope that the long-repeated echoes of 
 the cannonading will act on my nerves and my 
 breast. It is to that chance that I cling, like a 
 drowning man to a branch of willow. The branch 
 may break. All that is in the hands of God." 
 
 "September 2. Dear Louise, I rise in the sad- 
 dest possible condition : an atrocious night, weak- 
 ness, suffering, a stiff gale in the roadstead, — in 
 line, all imaginable contrarieties, physical and moral. 
 In spite of everything, I am going to embark at 
 two o'clock. . . . Have I drunk deep enough 
 of the chalice of bitterness? There are moments 
 when my whole soul revolts and grows indignant. 
 Prayer has no more effect on me than on a tem- 
 pest. I love thee with all the strength of my 
 soul, and for that I find plenty." 
 
 The troops are at last about to embark. The 
 French, to the number of thirty thousand, have 
 four divisions, commanded by Generals Canrobert, 
 Bosquet, Forey, and Prince Napoleon. On account 
 of the paucity of transports, the cavalry division has 
 had to be left behind, — a grave mishap which will
 
 Til E CRIMEA 179 
 
 have disagreeable consequences. The only cavalry- 
 men embarked are a squadron of chasseurs d'Afrique 
 and some spahis intended as an escort for the Mar- 
 shal. An Ottoman division of seven thousand men 
 is placed under his orders. The commander-in- 
 chief of the English army, Lord Raglan, takes with 
 him five divisions of infantry, one of cavalry, nine 
 field batteries, in all twenty-one thousand men. 
 They were to have sailed September 2, but on 
 account of a delay on the part of the English, they 
 did not do so until the 7th. 
 
 Marshal de Saint- Arnaud is on board the flag- 
 ship, the Ville-de-Paris, commanded by Vice-Admi- 
 ral Hamelin. On the 6th a malignant fever had 
 come to aggravate his malady of the aorta and his 
 angina pectoris. During the passage he wrote to 
 his brother : " On board the Ville-de-Paris Septem- 
 ber 11, 1854. Since the 6th I have not left the bed, 
 and a bed of anguish. I had brought from Varna 
 the germs of a malignant fever of the worst kind. 
 I have gone through the three critical attacks ; the 
 fourth failed to appear; well for me, I could not 
 have endured it. But what an assault ! what a 
 struggle ! what weakness it has left behind it ! 
 What disorder in the principle of life ! Add to 
 all this my preoccupations, my cares, the thought 
 of leaving an army on the eve of debarkation with- 
 out direction and without a leader, and dying myself 
 of a fever in front of the enemy ! By divine grace 
 I have subdued all that ; let us thank God, brother."
 
 180 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 The voyage continues in stately fashion. The 
 assembled fleets and convoys occupy a space of 
 more than seven leagues. There are two hundred 
 and eighty sail. The Marshal admires this impos- 
 ing spectacle. But he knows very well that he 
 will not command much longer. September 12, he 
 dictates the following letter to the Minister of War, 
 Marshal Vaillant : " I have had the pain of recog- 
 nizing lately, and especially during this voyage in 
 which I have found myself on the point of succumb- 
 ing, that the moment approaches when I shall not 
 have sufficient courage to bear any longer the heavy 
 burden of a command which requires a vigor that 
 I have lost and scarcely hope to regain. I will 
 hope that Providence will permit me to fulfil to 
 the end the task I have undertaken, and that I 
 may be able to lead to Sebastopol the army with 
 which I shall descend upon the coast of the Crimea ; 
 but that, I feel, will be a final effort, and I beg 
 you to ask the Emperor to appoint my successor." 
 Two days later, September 14, at two o'clock in the 
 morning, the weather being magnificent, the sky 
 clear and filled with stars, the signal is given for 
 getting under sail. They are reaching this Crimean 
 ground where so much blood will be spilled. The 
 place of landing is four leagues south of Eupatoria 
 and ten leagues north of Sebastopol. It is a place 
 designated on the maps by the name of Old Fort, 
 recognizable by traces of some old ramparts. Be- 
 gun on the 14th, the landing of the French is
 
 THE CRIMEA 181 
 
 completed the 16th, that of the English the 
 18th. 
 
 On -touching the soil of the Crimea, longed for 
 as a promised land, the Marshal has regained sur- 
 prising strength. The 14th he remained six hours 
 on horseback, visiting the bivouacs. From Old 
 Fort he wrote on the 16th : " Dear brother, Septem- 
 ber 14, 1812, the grand army entered Moscow. 
 September 14, 1854, the French army landed in the 
 Crimea and trod the soil of Russia. The Russians 
 have not come to oppose our landing, which was 
 effected with admirable order and rapidity." 
 
 His letters to his wife are full of enthusiasm : 
 " Old Fort, Crimea, September 16. In the memory 
 of man no finer sight has been seen than this de- 
 barkation to cries of Long Live the Emperor ! . . . 
 I have been all through the line on horseback. . . . 
 The troops are superb, full of ardor. We shall beat 
 the Russians. I send thee with a kiss a little flower 
 gathered under my tent." 
 
 " Old Fort, September 17. The faster time goes, 
 dearly beloved, the sooner it brings me to thee. It 
 is that which redoubles my courage. I think of 
 nothing but the moment when we shall be very 
 tranquil at home. In the spring we will go travel- 
 ling in Italy, and come back by way of Switzerland 
 and Germany. We will travel with only two 
 domestics, like respectable citizens. Do not build 
 too many castles in Spain, that brings bad luck." 
 
 At this moment the Marshal banishes every
 
 182 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 gloomy presentiment. He writes to his brother : 
 " Old Fort, September 17. A week from to-day I 
 surely hope that some one will say, to the roll of 
 cannon, a solemn Mass of thanksgiving under the 
 walls of Sebastopol. This morning low Mass was 
 said under my grand tent." 
 
 The army is full of ardor and confidence. In his 
 fine military work, Souvenirs de la guerre de CrimSe, 
 General Fay, former aide-de-camp of Marshal Bos- 
 quet, says : " The absence of the enemy at the time 
 of landing assured our success in the first battle, 
 and after the evening of the 14th no one doubted 
 it. On the voyage we had learned by a proclama- 
 tion of the Emperor the news of the taking of 
 Bomarsund by General Baraguey-d'Hilliers, along 
 with two thousand prisoners, and this first victory 
 had seemed to us a good omen." 
 
 Marshal de Saint- Arnaud is right when he writes 
 to the Minister of War : " Our situation is good. 
 The voyage and the debarkation were two of the 
 most formidable contingencies presented by an en- 
 terprise almost without precedent, regard being had 
 to distances, to judgment, and to the numberless 
 uncertainties which surround it. I consider that 
 the enemy who allows such a storm to pile up at 
 several leagues' distance from him without doing 
 anything to dispel it at its source, places himself in 
 a very unfavorable position." 
 
 Up to the last moment the Russians could not 
 bring themselves to believe in so foolhardy an enter-
 
 THE CRIMEA 183 
 
 prise as a descent on the Crimea in the middle of 
 September. It seemed to them that the season was 
 too far advanced for the allies to dream of making 
 such an attempt, or of entering a country where the 
 rigors of the climate and the lack of resources 
 would render their existence so difficult. Prince 
 Menchikoff, commander-in-chief of the Russian army, 
 thinking that he would arrive too late to oppose a 
 debarkation the locality of which he does not know, 
 has decided not to prevent the invaders from land- 
 ing, but to await them in front of Sebastopol and bar 
 their way. He is expecting them on the heights 
 dominating the river Alma, with forty thousand men 
 and ninety-six pieces of cannon. 
 
 At seven o'clock in the morning of September 19 
 the allies set off gayly on their first march in the 
 direction of Sebastopol, going southward along the 
 coast in splendid weather. The vessels of the two 
 nations, advancing on the same line and almost 
 touching the shore, afford the extraordinary spec- 
 tacle of two armies and two fleets going to battle 
 abreast. At three in the afternoon they arrive near 
 the Boulgarak, a stream flowing through a ravine 
 running east and west, and falling, like the Alma, 
 into the sea. They are about to camp on the road, 
 in the vicinity of the wells, when the skirmishers 
 signal the presence of the Russian army on the 
 heights overlooking the Alma and some movements 
 of troops on the right bank of that stream. There- 
 upon the allies establish themselves in two lines,
 
 184 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 facing the enemy at two leagues' distance. Several 
 discharges of cannon are exchanged by the outposts. 
 But it is too late to open the attack. It is the next 
 day, September 20, that the battle of the Alma will 
 be fought.
 
 CHAPTER XXII 
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE ALMA 
 
 ^PHE plan of the battle is this : to outflank the 
 two wings of the Russian army, and after- 
 wards crush it by an attack in front. It is deter- 
 mined that : — 
 
 1. At the extreme right, the second division, 
 commanded by General Bosquet, will march the 
 first, cross the Alma near its mouth, go up the 
 slopes, and then fall upon the Russian left, to 
 surround and force it back upon the centre. 
 
 2. After the movement of the Bosquet division, 
 the first and third divisions, the one commanded 
 by General Canrobert and the other by Prince 
 Napoleon, will cross the Alma, supported by a part 
 of the English army, climb the heights between 
 Almatainak and Bourliouk, and deliver the prin- 
 cipal attack. 
 
 3. At the left of the French line, the rest of the 
 army will seek to outflank the Russian right. 
 
 4. The fourth division, under command of Gen- 
 eral Forey, will remain in reserve. 
 
 On the eve of the battle, Marshal de Saint- 
 Arnaud has assembled the generals to give them 
 
 185
 
 186 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 his final instructions. " I rely on you, Bosquet,"' 
 he has said to the commander of the 2d division. 
 " Yes, Marshal," the latter has replied ; " I expect 
 to draw down a part of the enemy's centre on me ; 
 but do not forget that I cannot be crushed longer 
 than two hours." 
 
 September 20. Six o'clock in the morning. The 
 Bosquet division sets out. It is composed of two 
 brigades, — one under the orders of General d'Aute- 
 marre, the other under General Bonat. Starting 
 from the shores of the Boulgarak, it is not more 
 than two kilometres from the Alma, when an aide- 
 de-camp of the Marshal brings it to a halt, the 
 English army being not yet ready. 
 
 Half-past eleven. The Bosquet division resumes 
 its march. Tambours, clarions, bands, make them- 
 selves heard all along the line. The battle will 
 soon begin. The Russians on the heights have 
 forty-three thousand two hundred men to oppose 
 to fifty-six thousand of the allied troops. The 
 course of the river Alma, which the latter are 
 going to cross, is deep and sinuous, and the fords 
 are difficult and infrequent. Into the bottom of 
 the valley, covered with trees, gardens, houses, and 
 into the village of Bourliouk, the Russians have 
 sent a body of very well-sheltered sharpshooters, 
 armed with excellent rifles, who will greet the 
 heads of the advancing column with a sharp and 
 very disagreeable fire. 
 
 Half-past twelve. The Bosquet division reaches
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE ALMA 187 
 
 the Alma. The Bonat brigade is somewhat de- 
 layed by the difficulty of crossing the ford of the 
 Barre. The D'Autemarre brigade, on arriving near 
 Almatamak, being hidden from the enemy by the 
 escarpments of the adjacent shore, find it easier to 
 cross the river. Soon followed by the rest of the 
 brigade and by General Bosquet, the first battalion 
 of the 3d Zouaves crosses the ford, climbs the 
 perpendicular ascents which dominate the shore, 
 and attains the heights with prodigious agility. 
 Achieving what the Russians had thought impos- 
 sible, they succeed in hauling several pieces of 
 artillery up the cliffs. 
 
 The Bonat brigade has rejoined the brigade 
 D'Autemarre. During more than an hour and a 
 half the dozen pieces of artillery, directed by Com- 
 mandant Barral, reply to the forty cannon opposed 
 to them. But the ammunition is giving out. It 
 is time that the Bosquet division should be sup- 
 ported by the other divisions. 
 
 One o'clock. The attack in front begins. The first 
 division, under General Canrobert, and the third, 
 under Prince Napoleon, turn towards the Alma, 
 which the one crosses near Almatamak, the other 
 near Bourliouk. The interest of the struggle will 
 be concentrated around the telegraph station, situ- 
 ated between these two villages. Here the Rus- 
 sians are massing their resistance. 
 
 General Bosquet, whose position on the crest of 
 the hill is growing critical, listens joyfully to the
 
 188 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 trumpets of the Zouaves of the Canrobert division. 
 With an ardor copied from that of its intrepid 
 leader, it is climbing the heights by the most pre- 
 cipitous acclivities. Struck in the breast by the 
 bursting of a shell, Canrobert nevertheless remains 
 on his horse until the close of the action. 
 
 Prince Napoleon's division, after seizing the vil- 
 lage of Alma, under lire from the Russian bat- 
 teries, takes a brilliant part in the fighting on the 
 plateaux. 
 
 The regiments of Minsk and Moscow begin a 
 heroic contest against the divisions of Bosquet and 
 Canrobert. Listen to General Fay, who, in his 
 admirable account, does justice so loyally to the 
 Russians : " One of our batteries opened fire with 
 grape-shot so violently and at such short range 
 that the ranks of the enemy's column were soon 
 in disorder, in spite of the vigor of its officers. 
 One of these remained in the thick of the danger, 
 calling back his men and shoving them into place 
 with his hand. ' The brave officer ! ' cried General 
 Bosquet. ' If I were there, I would embrace him.' " 
 
 The 1st light infantry, the 1st Zouaves, and the 
 39th of the line rush forward at the same time. 
 The flag of the latter regiment is floating above 
 the telegraph station. Ensign Poidevin, who had 
 the honor of carrying it, receives his death wound 
 gloriously. 
 
 Meanwhile, the English are fighting an almost 
 distinct, but perhaps a still more bloody, battle.
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE ALMA 189 
 
 After crossing the Alma, in front of the village of 
 Bourliouk, they moved towards the positions fortified 
 by the Russians, where considerable bodies of troops 
 were massed. Their object was to occupy the heights 
 above and up the river from Bourliouk, which com- 
 mand the road from Eupatoria to Sebastopol. By 
 dint of energy, they accomplish this difficult task. 
 
 Half-past four. Supported by the reserves, Gen- 
 eral Forey's division, the three divisions com- 
 manded by General Bosquet, General Canrobert, 
 and Prince Napoleon are victorious at all points. 
 The battle is definitively gained. 
 
 Five o'clock. The English rejoin the French, 
 and mingle their shouts with those of the victors 
 who are occupying the conquered positions. The 
 defeat of the Russians would be changed into a 
 rout, if only the allies had cavalry regiments to pur- 
 sue the vanquished. Unfortunately, the French have 
 no cavalry, but a squadron of chasseurs d'Afrique 
 and a platoon of mounted Turks. The English 
 have a cavalry division, but it arrived too late. 
 The next day General Bosquet will write : " We 
 have no prisoners but several fugitives and the 
 mass of wounded men w r ho cover the battle-field. 
 It was a fine battle, but incomplete, — lacking 
 trophies and prisoners by reason of its lack of 
 cavalry." And Marshal de Saint- Arnaud will say 
 in his report to the Emperor : " I shall regret all 
 my life not having at least my two regiments of 
 chasseurs d'Afrique."
 
 190 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 All day long the Marshal has bravely exposed his 
 person, going from one to another of the most peril- 
 ous positions, and sparing neither his staff nor him- 
 self. To-morrow he will write to his wife: "I am 
 satisfied with my staff. Gramont received a splinter 
 from a shell in his cloak. Maurice (M. de Puyse- 
 gur) showed great bravery. Eynard (M. de Cler- 
 mont-Tonnerre) conducted himself well. I made 
 them all listen to the sound of bullets and balls. 
 Raoul (M. de Lostanges) is very brave. My fanion 
 was shot through by a ball and Raoul's horse 
 touched." 
 
 In a picture which is affecting but inexact, the 
 painter Bellange has represented the Marshal on 
 horseback during the battle, supported by two horse- 
 men, on whom he leans, one on the right and the 
 other on the left. Doctor Cabrol has written : 
 " This poetic action is due to the imagination of the 
 excellent artist. . . . Without any one knowing it, 
 we were putting on the Marshal a strong magnet 
 enveloped in a little flannel bag. For this operation 
 he had halted for a moment, and bent over the pom- 
 mel of his saddle. He applied the naked magnet 
 over the cardiac and epigastric regions. That re- 
 lieved him momentarily. He maintained himself 
 perfectly on his horse throughout the battle." The 
 victor of the Alma will be able to write to his wife: 
 " I remained twelve hours in the saddle, always on 
 Nibor, who was magnificent, galloping in the midst of 
 the bullets in the evening as he did in the morning."
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE ALMA 19} 
 
 It has been a bloody day. According to General 
 Fay the Russians lost eight thousand men and the 
 allies three thousand three hundred and five. The 
 English have three hundred and forty-three dead 
 and sixteen hundred and twenty-two wounded; the 
 French one hundred and forty dead and twelve 
 hundred wounded. 
 
 The allies remain master of the battle-field. The 
 Marshal bivouacs on the very spot occupied by 
 the commander-in-chief of the Russian army, Prince 
 Menchikoff. He has seized the carriage and the 
 correspondence of the Prince, but the latter and his 
 whole army have retired in good order to regain 
 Sabastopol. Harassed with fatigue, and for the 
 most part not having eaten since morning, both 
 French and English need repose. Many of them 
 have gone down again to the banks of the Alma for 
 their knapsacks, which they had left there to be 
 more at their ease in climbing the heights. Night 
 approaches. The tents are set up. Officers and 
 soldiers lie down and sleep. The Marshal watches. 
 He is dictating his general order of the day : " Bat- 
 tle-field of the Alma, September 20, 1854. Soldiers, 
 France and the Emperor will be satisfied with you. 
 At Alma you have proved to the Russians that }-ou 
 are the worthy sons of the victors of Eylau and the 
 Moskowa. You have vied in courage with your 
 English allies, and your bayonets have seized the 
 most formidable and well-defended positions. Sol- 
 diers, you will meet the Russians again on your
 
 192 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 route, you will conquer them again as you have to- 
 day to the cry of ' Long Live the Emperor!' and you 
 will not halt except before Sebastopol ; there you will 
 enjoy a repose that you have well deserved." 
 
 Afterwards the Marshal addresses to Napoleon III. 
 the first victorious bulletin of the second Empire : 
 " Sire, Your Majesty's cannons have spoken ! . . . 
 We have gained a complete victory. . . . Your 
 Majesty may be proud of your soldiers. They have 
 not degenerated ; they are the soldiers of Austerlitz 
 and of Jena. Never have I seen such enthusiasm. 
 The shout of 'Long Live the Emperor! ' resounded 
 all day long ; the wounded raised themselves to 
 repeat it. Lord Raglan's bravery is antique. The 
 calmness which never forsakes him is unaltered 
 amidst balls and bullets. Prince Napoleon, at the 
 head of his division, seized the large village of Alma 
 under fire from the Russian batteries. The Prince 
 has shown himself worthy of the name he bears. . . . 
 General Canrobert, to whom belongs in part the 
 honor of the day, has been slightly wounded. He 
 is doing very well. The Zouaves have gained the 
 admiration of both armies. They are the finest 
 soldiers in the world." 
 
 At the same time General Bosquet is writing to 
 his mother : " A battle, and a fine battle, successful 
 and glorious for the 2d division ! I commanded 
 the right, and my orders were to be the first to attack 
 the Russian positions. You ought to have seen my 
 brave soldiers proudly climbing the steep banks of
 
 THE BATTLE OF THE ALMA 193 
 
 the Alma, followed by the artillery and the rest of 
 their brigade. In the distance the centre of the 
 army and the English were watching and applaud- 
 ing us. 
 
 " In an instant I had to support the effort of more 
 than half the Russian army : forty pieces of artillery 
 concentrating their fire on my 1st brigade. I felt 
 proud of having such brave soldiers to present to 
 the enemy. We were one to five or six, and twelve 
 cannon against forty, and we held the positions re- 
 linquished by the Russians. 'Twas fine ! But that 
 always lasts a little too long ; the centre of the army 
 came up with Canrobert, the Prince and the Marshal. 
 The English did not debouch until very late. As 
 soon as the enemy's attention had been divided, I 
 took the charge with my two brigades and eight 
 Turkish battalions which had been given me, and we 
 forced the Russians to retreat. . . . The Marshal 
 sent an officer to congratulate me and to thank my 
 division. 
 
 " I write you my impressions at once. Yes, my 
 heart is at ease, because it has been my fortune to be 
 the first to attack the Russian army and to force it 
 to quintuple its forces in front of me ; I have had 
 the pleasure of seeing the enemy fleeing, and of fol- 
 lowing him with volleys of cannon ; my heart is at 
 ease, because friendly hands and those of persons 
 whom I greatly esteem have come to press mine and 
 to make much of the 2d division." 
 
 Glory to heroes who speak and act like this !
 
 CHAPTER XXIII 
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF SAINT-ARNAUD 
 
 "A/TARSHAL DE SAINT-ARNAUD has just 
 - LYJ - written to the Emperor: "I shall regret all 
 my life not having had at least my two regiments 
 of chasseurs d'Afrique." All his life! Alas! he 
 will be dead in a week. September 21, the day 
 after the battle, he is still full of confidence, ardor, 
 and enthusiasm. He writes to his wife : " Victory, 
 victory ! my beloved Louise. Yesterday I beat the 
 Russians completely; I carried their formidable 
 positions, defended by more than forty thousand 
 men, who have been soundly whipped; but nothing- 
 can resist French vehemence and English order and 
 solidity. . . . The moral effect is immense. All 
 the army love me and have great confidence in me. 
 My health keeps up. . . All the disposable forces 
 in the Crimea were before me yesterday. That will 
 not prevent me from taking Sebastopol. Adieu, my 
 Louise. God protects us. Be calm and tranquil. 
 This is a fine page to record in my register of 
 service." 
 
 September 22. The Marshal is still on the ground 
 where the battle was fought. Again he writes to 
 
 194
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF SAINT-ARNAUD 195 
 
 his wife: "My health is not worse; it remains still 
 the same. No appetite, no sleep. . . . What a 
 glorious victory, my Louise! Everybody is proud 
 and happy, and burning to meet the Russians again. 
 At present, I could lead the army to the ends of the 
 earth. But my career is accomplished, I will think 
 of nothing more except getting well. How happy 
 all the family will be in Paris. How many things 
 are running in my poor head, which is hardly able 
 to endure them. . . . Heaven is with us, but the 
 English are always delaying me. Adieu, dear love, 
 I will write from Sebastopol." 
 
 Again the same day : " The English are not ready 
 yet, and I am kept back as I was at Baltchick and 
 Old Fort. True, they have more wounded men 
 than I, and are farther from the sea." And he adds 
 in his journal: "What sluggishness in our move- 
 ments! War can't be made in this way. The 
 weather is admirable, and I do not profit by it! 
 This is maddening." 
 
 September 23. Marching is resumed. At four 
 o'clock in the afternoon the outposts catch their 
 first glimpse of Sebastopol and the lighthouse of the 
 Chersonese. 
 
 September 24. The epidemic reappears. Several 
 cholera patients are put aboard the fleet, which 
 advances on a line with the army during the day, 
 and anchors opposite the camp during the night. 
 
 From the bivouac of Belbek the Marshal writes to 
 his brother: "To-morrow I move towards Balaclava.
 
 196 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 I shall sleep on the Tchernaya, and on the 26th I 
 shall be to the south of Sebastopol, master of Bala- 
 clava, having outflanked all the strong batteries and 
 redoubts of the enemy on the north. It is a splen- 
 did manoeuvre. Sebastopol is in sight, and from 
 the city they can see the bivouac fires, which are 
 spread over nearly three leagues." 
 
 On that very day he feels that, notwithstanding 
 all his energy, his physical strength is deserting 
 him. To Colonel Trochu, urging him to resign his 
 command-, he replies: "I thank you for a candor 
 which does you credit; I needed to hear this; I 
 know my condition ; my strength is gone ; my con- 
 science bids me give up my command, since I do 
 not wish to endanger our success." He resigns 
 himself to the will of God like a good Christian, 
 but he cannot help exclaiming: "Why am I not 
 spared just long enough to enter Sebastopol ? If I 
 could only go there, I would be content! " 
 
 On that day, too, — September 24, — at the bivouac 
 of Belbek, the Marshal, already harassed by so many 
 painful maladies, feels the first attacks of cholera. 
 
 September 25. The sickness increases. 
 
 September 26. There is no more hope. The 
 victor is obliged to resign the command to General 
 Canrobert. With a hand already cold he signs this 
 order of the day, an adieu to the army : — 
 
 "Headquarters of the bivouac of Monkendie", 
 September 26, 1854. Soldiers, Providence denies 
 your commander the satisfaction of continuing to
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF SAINT-ARNAUD 197 
 
 lead you in the glorious path opening before you. 
 Vanquished by the cruel malady against which he 
 has struggled in vain, he faces with profound sad- 
 ness, yet knows how to perform, the imperious duty 
 imposed on him by circumstances : that of resigning 
 a command whose weight his utterly ruined health 
 no longer enables him to bear. 
 
 "Soldiers, you will pity me, for the misfortune 
 by which I am stricken is immense, irreparable, and 
 perhaps unexampled. I resign the command to 
 General Canrobert, whom the Emperor, in his far- 
 sighted solicitude for this army and the great inter- 
 ests it represents, has invested with the necessary 
 powers in a secret letter now lying before me. It 
 is an alleviation of my grief that I can resign into 
 hands so worthy the flag confided to me by France. 
 You will surround with respect and confidence this 
 general officer, whose brilliant military career and 
 the splendor of the services he has performed have 
 merited the most honorable celebrity in the country 
 and the army. He will continue the victory of the 
 Alma, and have the happiness of leading you to 
 Sebastopol, which I had dreamed of for myself, and 
 which I envy him." 
 
 Alas ! in spite of their heroism, neither Canrobert 
 nor Saint- Arnaud will enter Sebastopol. 
 
 The troops have established their bivouac on the 
 banks of the Tchernaya. The touching farewell of 
 their chief affects them, and their emotion increases 
 when they see him turning towards Balaclava in the
 
 198 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 carriage of Prince Menchikoff, taken at the battle of 
 the Alma. He halts for a moment, and seeing his 
 former companions in Africa, the Zouaves, who 
 respectfully draw near, he gives them a kind but 
 melancholy smile. On reaching Balaclava his only 
 thought is to embark on the Berthollet as soon as 
 possible, in the hope of again seeing his wife, who 
 is still in Constantinople. But the vessel will not 
 be ready until the 29th. 
 
 September 28. The progress of the cholera is 
 momentarily checked. The Marshal has some one 
 write from Balaclava that he is out of danger, and 
 that within a fortnight the flag of France will cer- 
 tainly wave above Sebastopol. 
 
 September 29. Eight o'clock in the morning. 
 The Berthollet is about to weigh anchor. This is 
 the ship on which the Marshal arrived in the Orient 
 from France. Here comes the victor of the Alma 
 on a litter carried by sailors, a tricolored flag at his 
 feet, and two companies of Zouaves lining his pas- 
 sage on either side. The English and French salute 
 him as he passes. He is put aboard the Berthollet. 
 The vessel sets sail. 
 
 During the voyage, on that very day, September 
 29, at four o'clock in the afternoon, without the 
 final blessing of a priest, the Marshal renders his 
 soul to God. 
 
 M. Benedetti, charge d'affaires of France at 
 Constantinople, writes to M. Drouyn de Lhuys: 
 "Therapia, October 4, 1854. The mortal remain.; of
 
 THE LAST DAYS OF SAINT-ARNAUD li)9 
 
 Marshal de Saint-Arnaud Lave been provisionally 
 
 deposited in the chapel of the embassy, and I have 
 had a funeral service celebrated, to which, in con- 
 formity with the wishes of Madame la Mare'chale de 
 Saint-Arnaud, I invited nobody but the officers 
 attached to the Marshal's person and the principal 
 functionaries. The English ambassador, accom- 
 panied by his secretaries and attache's, wished to 
 join us in doing homage to the illustrious com- 
 mander of our army, and to be present at this cere- 
 mony. The flags of the two embassies were at 
 half-mast and will remain so until after the de- 
 parture of the Berthollet, which sails to-day from the 
 Bay of Therapia to convey the body of the Marshal 
 to Marseilles. 
 
 "Wishing to accompany the mortal remains of 
 her husband, Madame la Marechale takes passage on 
 board this vessel. I learn that the Ottoman govern- 
 ment, desiring to express publicly its share in our 
 regrets, has ordered the Seraskier and the Admiral 
 to follow the convoy in two steamships as far as the 
 Sea of Marmora, and has also given orders that all 
 the batteries of the Bosphorus shall salute the 
 Berthollet, as it passes, with nineteen volleys of 
 cannon." 
 
 The Moniteur of October 11 reproduces an article 
 by M. Louis Veuillot from the Univers, in which 
 he says: "A profound affliction blends with the joy 
 caused by the glorious news from the Crimea. God 
 has taken a great victim. The hero of this pro-
 
 200 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 digious campaign is dead. The ships which brought 
 us his bulletins, so full of courage and martial 
 ardor, are followed by that which bears his inani- 
 mate body. Three nations lower their grateful flags 
 above his tomb. ... In withdrawing him for a 
 few hours from the anxieties of his command and 
 the din of arms, Providence gave him what he had 
 no doubt entreated of it, — time to humiliate his 
 heart. This great general was a humble and fer- 
 vent Christian." 
 
 France loves heroism. The imperialists will not 
 be alone in celebrating Marshal de Saint-Arnaud. 
 Legitimists, Orleanists, republicans, will forget the 
 minister of the Coup d'Etat of December to remem- 
 ber only the commander-in-chief of the army of the 
 Orient, the victor of the Alma, the man whose 
 shroud was a triumphant flag.
 
 CHAPTER XXIV 
 
 SEBASTOPOL 
 
 OEBASTOPOL! It is the name which for more 
 ^ than a year will resound throughout the world. 
 Sebastopol! It is the city whose siege will be as 
 renowned in modern times as the siege of Troy in 
 those of old. Never at any period of history have 
 such bloody battles been fought before ramparts; 
 never have adversaries displayed such bitter per- 
 severance. Sebastopol! For Russians it is the 
 Holy City, the cradle of their orthodox faith. It is 
 there, in the old city of the Chersonese, reduced by 
 his arms, that the Grand Duke Vladimir professed 
 the Christian faith in the year 988. Sebastopol! 
 It is a religious and a military city. In its streets 
 one sees only soldiers and sailors for fighting, and 
 priests and monks to bless them. Of its forty-two 
 thousand inhabitants, thirty-five thousand belong to 
 the army and the navy. The surplus is composed 
 of artisans and merchants, kept there by their occu- 
 pation. The five thousand women are all accus- 
 tomed to the rough life of maritime populations. 
 They are heroic. 
 
 As M. Camille Roussot has said so well: "No 
 
 201 ■
 
 202 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 idle crowds, no vagabond classes, the usual elements 
 of disorder; no political divisions nor social an- 
 tagonism ; no internal enemy demanding precautions 
 on the part of the defenders. The discipline of 
 minds is easy, because it has two principles : patriot- 
 ism and religious faith. The military leaders can 
 invoke God and the patron saints of the city with- 
 out being taxed with weakness or turned into 
 ridicule. People respect them because they are 
 great models of patriotic devotion and moral con- 
 duct." 
 
 The sound of church bells will alternate with the 
 roar of cannon, the orders of the chiefs with hymns, 
 the standards with the Cross. From the top of the 
 ramparts the allies were first seen on September 27. 
 Long files of priests, preceded by banners and 
 carrying holy water, went in procession all along 
 the unfinished wall. Two intrepid sailors, Vice- 
 Admirals Nakhimoff and Korniloff, the one com- 
 manding the active squadron and the other the 
 general staff of the fleet, inspire the inhabitants 
 with unbounded confidence. To them has just been 
 joined an officer of engineers from the army of the 
 Danube, Lieutenant-Colonel Todleben, who will 
 construct those formidable earthworks in front of 
 which such cruel slaughter will take place. " Chil- 
 dren," cries Admiral Korniloff, "we must fight to 
 the very last. Kill any one who dares talk of 
 retreating. Kill me, if I order you to do so." 
 Soldiers, sailors, citizens, even women, set to work
 
 SEBASTOPOL 203 
 
 at the improvised fortifications which are to render 
 Sebastopol so long impregnable. 
 
 Since September 27 the allies have been estab- 
 lished on the plateau of the Chersonese, opposite 
 the city. This plateau, about to become so famous, 
 is thirteen kilometres long by fifteen wide. On the 
 north it is bounded by the great roadstead of Sebas- 
 topol, on the east by a line of acclivities known as 
 Mount Sapoune, on the south and west by the sea 
 and sundry promontories, of which the foremost is 
 called Cape Chersonese. The landscape is severe 
 and gloomy, the vegetation precarious and sickly; 
 the stony ground, sometimes burnt by fierce sun- 
 light and again drenched by torrents of rain, is 
 furrowed by numerous ravines, one of which runs 
 to the sea, the others towards the roadstead. No 
 streams, only wells and cisterns; no villages, merely 
 several farms. Trees are few, and nearly all are bent 
 by the sea wind. The general impression is pro- 
 foundly sad. 
 
 The victors of the Alma would like to take the 
 town by storm. But that is already impossible. 
 Earthworks have accumulated with prodigious rapid- 
 ity. September 20, Prince Menchikoff had ordered 
 Admiral Korniloff to destrov five vessels and two 
 frigates, in order to defend the entrance of the road 
 with their submerged wreckage. In despair at such 
 an order, the admiral deferred the execution of it 
 for more than two daj^s. He thought it a sort of 
 suicide. But he had to resign himself to it.
 
 204 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Thenceforward Sebastopol was in no danger of a 
 sudden attack either from land or sea. 
 
 Writing before Sebastopol, October 4, 1854, Gen- 
 eral Bosquet says : " My good mother, we are before 
 Sebastopol, which the Russians have allowed us to 
 invest. . . . The operations of the siege are to 
 begin to-morrow, for to-day we are completing the 
 landing of our artillery and engineering stores. It 
 is devilish hard work for an army without horses 
 and carts. With nothing at all, we shall, I hope, 
 make a tour de force, and the soldiers of the old 
 Empire may salute us without regret. 
 
 " Marshal de Saint-Arnaud left us in a dying con- 
 dition. Letters from the Emperor, kept secret until 
 then, gave the command to my old friend Canrobert, 
 who is the most capable and the most worthy of it. 
 My joy on that head you can understand. His 
 wound is improving; still he suffers and is very 
 tired." 
 
 The French troops are to be divided into two 
 corps: 1. The army set apart for the operations of 
 the siege, under General Forey, composed of the 
 3d and 4th divisions ; 2. the army intended to con- 
 front the relieving troops under Prince Menchikoff. 
 This, which comprises the 1st and 2d divisions, 
 some reserves of mounted artillery, and the cavalry 
 who are landing, is commanded by General Bosquet. 
 The English troops are similar^ divided. 
 
 In the same letter the general adds: "This is a 
 very great enterprise, and it is not easy to foresee
 
 SEBASTOPOL 205 
 
 whether the resistance of Sebastopol will be long 
 and serious, or whether the place will surrender 
 after a week of cannonading and assault." 
 
 The opening of the trenches is decided on for the 
 night of October 9. At nine o'clock in the evening, 
 eight hundred foot soldiers advance in two files, 
 their muskets thrust through their belts, a shovel 
 and a pickaxe on their shoulder, as far as the wall 
 of the Maison Brulee. At the final signal: Arms 
 up ! eight hundred pickaxes rise and fall back upon 
 the earth. A violent northeast wind favors the 
 work by preventing the sound of the pickaxes from 
 reaching the fortified town, but fills the eyes of the 
 men with an annoying dust. At midnight twelve 
 hundred fresh workmen come to replace their com- 
 rades, who, after taking a short rest, renew their 
 task at four o'clock in the morning. 
 
 The English, on their part, have constructed 
 during the night a long trench at twelve metres' 
 distance from the Russian bastion called the Grand 
 Redan, their work having likewise been concealed 
 from the vigilance of their enemy. 
 
 At dawn of October 10 the Russians perceive all 
 these operations of the siege. They are surprised, 
 but not disturbed. They had feared a sudden 
 attack. The sight of the trenches reassures them. 
 Every da}' gained has permitted them to increase 
 their means of defence. Between September 30 and 
 October 17, Prince Menchikoff has augmented the 
 garrison of Sebastopol by thirty battalions. The
 
 206 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 English army contains twenty-two thousand men, 
 the French forty-two thousand, and the Turkish 
 division five thousand. 
 
 By October 17, the daj r fixed for the bom- 
 bardment, the allies have greatly advanced their 
 trenches. The firing begins at half-past six in the 
 morning. Three bombs, thrown by the 3d French 
 battery, give the signal by exploding in the Russian 
 bastion of the Flagstaff. One hundred and twenty- 
 six howitzers, of which fifty-three are French, simul- 
 taneously eject a multitude of projectiles. All the 
 allied troops, out and under arms, await the result 
 of this terrible bombardment. The Russians, who 
 expect the appearance of assaulting columns, re- 
 spond with extreme energy to the fire of the allies 
 by that of two hundred and fifty cannon. Towards 
 ten o'clock two French powder magazines explode 
 and throw the French batteries into such confusion 
 that, unable to reply any longer to the deluge of 
 projectiles showered upon them, they discontinue 
 firing. But the English keep on with success. 
 
 It had been decided that the allied fleets should 
 combine their action with that of the land forces, 
 and bring their broadsides to bear on the forts of the 
 town to bombard it. But a contrary wind forced 
 them to delay their movement until half-past twelve. 
 At that hour the line of broadside begins to form 
 in an arc of more than three kilometres. At about 
 fourteen hundred metres from the Quarantine Fort 
 and Fort Alexander, fourteen French vessels form
 
 SEVASTOPOL 207 
 
 in two ranks, next come two Turkish vessels; then, 
 in front of Fort Constant ine and the coast batteries 
 of the cliffs, eleven English ships. The French 
 flagship, the Ville de Paris, opens fire. It is one 
 o'clock. Everything is enveloped in a thick cloud 
 of smoke. The fire of the allied vessels produces 
 little effect on the Russian batteries, which, pro- 
 tected by masonry, inflict more harm than they 
 endure. The Ville de Paris is struck by fifty balls, 
 and part of its poop is carried away by a shell. 
 
 On land, if the fire of the French batteries is 
 stopped, that of the English continues in the most 
 brilliant fashion and crushes the Russian bastion of 
 the Grand Redan into a mass of ruins, upon which 
 the Russians expect to see the English rush, plant 
 their flag, and precipitate themselves into the suburb 
 of Karabelnaia. But this will not happen. Pru- 
 dence will take the upper hand of audacity. An 
 assault is not dreamed of. As the day advances, 
 the firing slackens. By six in the evening the 
 cannons roar but seldom, and the last vessels of the 
 allied fleets quit the line of battle. They had 
 launched more than thirty thousand projectiles. 
 During the bombardment the English have lost 
 forty-four killed and two hundred and sixty 
 wounded; the French, eighty wounded and thirty 
 killed. The Russians have had one hundred and 
 sixty-eight men killed or wounded. Their princi- 
 pal victim is the heroic Admiral Korniloff, whose 
 last words were : " Tell them all that it is sweet to
 
 208 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 die when the conscience is pure. My God! bless 
 the Russians and the Emperor! Save Sebastopol 
 and the fleet! v 
 
 The bombardment is renewed on the 18th and 
 19th, but no more successfully than on the 17th. 
 General Bosquet writes on the 20th: "We are 
 knocking at the doors of Sebastopol, but the Rus- 
 sians defend themselves vigorously, and there will 
 be glory in getting in. We are not going quite so 
 fast as those terrible warriors in dressing-gowns 
 who so finely misled the Emperor by announcing 
 the taking of the city. Really, we have gained a 
 very serious battle ; but Sebastopol has nearly three 
 hundred pieces of ordnance in battery and twenty 
 thousand Finnish sailors to man them. That is 
 something to think about, and we are making a 
 regular siege. I am writing you, dear mother, from 
 my headquarters, to the noise of a furious can- 
 nonading." 
 
 Again, on November 2: "My good mother, we 
 are firing harder than ever on the Russian batteries, 
 and the hundreds of pieces of naval artillery with 
 which they have surrounded their city; we go on 
 sapping, compelled to dig a great many of our 
 trenches and spring our mines in the rock, which is 
 enormously difficult. Nearly ten thousand Russian 
 sailors from Finland are allowing themselves to be 
 crushed by inches in order to defend by land their 
 fine fleet, which they cannot bring themselves to 
 abandon ; they are fine soldiers, very resolute. This
 
 SEliASTOPOL 200 
 
 is the business of General Forey, who commands 
 the besieging troops. 
 
 "For my part, with the corps of observation of 
 from sixteen thousand to seventeen thousand men, 
 thirty pieces of artillery, and from twelve hundred 
 to fifteen hundred horses, I hold in awe, thanks to 
 good lines, an army of forty thousand Russians, who 
 lie in wait for me day and night. It is beginning 
 to grow very cold, and it is unpleasant to spend a part 
 of the night out of doors. It is very rough, but we 
 are nearing the end of it, I hope. 
 
 "It is a very great affair, very difficult; one of 
 these days it will seem an almost impossible feat. 
 I cannot understand how the notion came to be so 
 easily invented in France that it was a very simple 
 thing to tear away from a warlike nation the strong- 
 hold of its power in the south, a vast harbor, an 
 arsenal of cannon. It is enormous, and you may 
 believe that the most hardened of us will be worn 
 out by the end of the campaign. May God give us 
 strength! " 
 
 General Bizot, who commanded the engineer 
 corps of the French army, had written to Marshal 
 Vaillant, Minister of War: "General Canrobert is 
 very anxious to precipitate an attack by main force ; 
 so is Lord Raglan. . . . For my part, I fall back 
 as far as I can, thinking that our chances of suc- 
 cess will be all the greater the nearer we bring 
 together our point of departure, our base of opera- 
 tions, and of retreat for our columns." Every night
 
 210 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 at least two thousand, sometimes three thousand, 
 laborers extend the network of the siege. By Octo- 
 ber 23, the first parallel, some two-fifths of a mile 
 in length, is finished, and the second carries the 
 French attacks to within three hundred and sixty- 
 yards of the bastion of the Flagstaff. The first par- 
 allel of the English goes to within twelve hundred 
 yards of the Grand Redan ; the second is about nine 
 hundred yards from the spur of this bastion. The 
 hour is approaching when the English army, in- 
 stead of attacking, will have to defend itself.
 
 CHAPTER XXV 
 
 BALACLAVA 
 
 TN addition to Sebastopol, the Russians continue 
 to occupy a considerable part of the Crimea. 
 Their army of succor, posted in the windings of 
 the Belbek and the woods of the northern plateau, 
 is constantly receiving reinforcements, and they 
 hope to surround the besiegers and beat them back 
 to the sea. 
 
 The port of Balaclava, at the southern extremity 
 of the Crimea, is the English base of operations. 
 The port is garrisoned by only a thousand marines. 
 But in front of the place extends an intrenched 
 camp, capable of containing an army three times 
 as large as that of the English. The outposts have 
 been confided to a thousand Turkish soldiers. Four 
 kilometres to the north of the town, on a succession 
 of rounded hillocks, and at wide intervals, are five 
 redoubts, which, from the foot of Mount Sapoune to 
 the village of Kamara, divide on the north the plain 
 of Balaclava from the valley of the Tchernaya. 
 
 Prince Menchikoff has observed that the English 
 have not men enough to defend their positions. He 
 brings together a body of twenty-one thousand seven 
 
 211
 
 212 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 hundred soldiers, who fall upon the English lines in 
 the morning of October 25, 1854. The Turks, hav- 
 ing been forced to abandon the five redoubts, the 
 assailants debouch into the plain of Balaclava, and 
 send a brigade of hussars and Cossacks toward 
 Kadikoi. The 9th Highlanders are awaiting them. 
 "Then," writes M. Camille Rousset, "was seen 
 what a solid infantry can do by the mere firmness 
 of its attitude. Drawn up in line of battle, arms 
 down, the Scotch seemed indifferent to the noisy 
 avalanche rolling towards them, until at thirty 
 paces' distance the officers ordered them to make 
 ready arms. At the mere sight of this coolly exe- 
 cuted manoeuvre, the mere aspect of the raised 
 muskets, not yet lowered, the horsemen changed 
 their bearing on the instant. The horses, suddenlv 
 drawn in, began to rear, the ranks fell into con- 
 fusion." At this moment the English cavalry of 
 the line, the Scarlett brigade, composed of Scotch 
 Greys and dragoons, moved forward to assist the 
 Highlanders. Led to the charge by three intrepid 
 officers, they plunged like a wedge into the midst 
 of the Russian cavalry. These whirled around for 
 an instant, and then, turning their horses, galloped 
 to the rear of the centre redoubt, to re-form under 
 cover of their artillery and infantry. This retreat 
 of the Russian cavalry was a real success for the 
 English. Unfortunately, their brigade of light cav- 
 alry, the Cardigan, placed in echelons too far in 
 the rear, could not arrive in time to complete this
 
 BALACLAVA 213 
 
 success ; otherwise, it might perhaps have averted 
 the disaster awaiting it. 
 
 The Russians seemed less disposed to resume the 
 offensive since reinforcements had been sent their 
 adversaries, and the battle was apparently ended. 
 
 From the summit of a plateau overlooking the 
 plain of Balaclava, Lord Raglan, the English com- 
 mander-in-chief, had been watching all the vicissi- 
 tudes of the combat. Towards noon he noted 
 through his spy-glass that the Russians were taking 
 away some guns seized from the Turkish redoubts. 
 Thereupon he summoned an aide-de-camp, Captain 
 Nolan, and commissioned him to carry to Lord 
 Lucan, commander of the English cavalry, this 
 order, which was to be fatal : — 
 
 " Lord Raglan desires the cavalry to move rapidly 
 to the front and try to prevent the enemy from car- 
 rying off the cannon. A troop of mounted artillery 
 may accompany them. The French cavalry is on 
 your left. At once." Lord Raglan supposed that the 
 Russians were still retreating, and that all that was 
 necessary was to pursue the fugitives. He was com- 
 pletely deceived. At the moment when Captain 
 Nolan was delivering this unlucky order of the Eng- 
 lish commander-in-chief, the Russians had ceased 
 retreating, and installed themselves in excellent 
 positions. Their infantry and divisional artillery 
 occupied the hillocks and southerly slopes of the 
 Fedioukhine hills. The reserves were at the back 
 of a sort of funnel. In the middle the cavalry and
 
 214 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 mounted artillery had resumed their position. How 
 could a mere brigade of light cavalry be hurled 
 against such masses of men in such positions? It 
 seems madness, and yet it must be done. Stupefied, 
 Lord Lucan read and re-read the order without being 
 able to comprehend it. Could he in conscience send 
 men to certain death without the least chance of suc- 
 cess ? But the order was formal, and Captain Nolan 
 insisted violently on its immediate execution. Lord 
 Lucan sent for Lord Cardigan, the commander of the 
 brigade of light infantry, and ordered him to charge. 
 Though bravery itself, Lord Cardigan hesitated a 
 moment, not for himself, but for his soldiers. He 
 thought it his duty to make the objections indicated 
 by good sense. But the order was formal. The 
 trumpets sounded. The heroic leader rode at the 
 head of his brigade ! " Forward ! " he cried ; " for- 
 ward the last of the Cardigans ! '' The bearer of 
 the order, Captain Nolan, galloped on his right. 
 
 Posted on the heights, thousands of Frenchmen 
 perceived in the distance this foolhardy raid, this 
 incomprehensible manoeuvre : " Halt ! it is mad- 
 ness ! " they shouted, as if their cries could reach 
 the ears of Lord Cardigan's riders. These con- 
 tinued intrepidly their terrible and bloody steeple 
 chase, flinging themselves under the cross-fires of 
 the enemy as into a gulf. But human energy has 
 its limits. What can a brigade do against an army ? 
 It clashes against the Russian infantry, cavalry, and 
 artillery. Captain Nolan is one of the first men
 
 BALACLAVA 215 
 
 killed. To advance further becomes an impossi- 
 bility. They can only turn and beat a retreat. 
 At this moment two squadrons of African chas- 
 seurs, under General d'Allonville, came to the as- 
 sistance of Lord Cardigan's cavalry. Forcing the 
 line of sharpshooters, they passed behind the Rus- 
 sian battery established on the Fedioukhine hills, 
 and drew upon themselves the fire of the battalions 
 formed in a hollow square. The Scarlett brigade, 
 English cavalry of the line, who had made such a 
 brilliant fight in the morning, and who were held 
 in reserve when the charge of the Cardigan brigade 
 began, now got into motion so as to allow the latter 
 to rally its few remaining men. Of seven hundred 
 horsemen who had begun the charge, five hundred 
 lay dead on the field of battle. By a miracle Lord 
 Cardigan survived. 
 
 The charge of Balaclava will remain legendary. 
 It is one of the most useless yet most chivalrous 
 exploits in military history. It will always be in- 
 comprehensible, and the heroism with which it was 
 conducted will not excuse it from the military 
 point of view. But in it the English displayed so 
 much audacity and courage that this slaughter will 
 alwa} r s hold a splendid place in the glories of the 
 Crimean War. In London it was the subject of the 
 most animated discussions in the clubs, the news- 
 papers, and in Parliament. Lord Raglan's order 
 and the haste with which it was executed by Lord 
 Lucan evoked the most contradictory criticisms.
 
 216 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 But, after all, England was justly proud of the 
 heroism of her sons. 
 
 The partial engagements we have just described 
 have been called the battle of Balaclava. Lord 
 Cardigan's charge, at once glorious and fatal, has 
 remained its most famous episode. On the whole, 
 the battle of October 25 had not been bad for the 
 Russians. Their taking the offensive had produced 
 a good moral effect on their troops, who, on estab- 
 lishing themselves in the valley of the Tchernaya 
 and the plain of Balaclava, made ready for a new 
 attack on the besiegers, fancying that the defeat 
 of the Alma would be speedily avenged.
 
 CHAPTER XXVI 
 
 INKERMAN 
 
 TNKERMAN has been for the second Empire 
 what Eylau was for the first : a sinister victory 
 in foggy and glacial weather under a sombre sky ; 
 a battle in which the sufferings and calamities of 
 war were displayed in all their horror. " Every- 
 thing combined," says M. Camille Rousset, " to give 
 the battle-field of Inkerman a lamentable aspect : 
 man and nature. Clouds of fog hung low above it, 
 while the smoke of cannon rolled heavily over the 
 damp ground. On the plain of Eylau the fog was 
 equally low, but snow reflected back what little 
 light there was, and the white earth illumined the 
 black sk}\ On the plateau of Inkerman all was 
 gray, dull, livid, dirty. . . . The men tramped 
 through bloody mire. The drums, slackened by the 
 rain, emitted only a broken, raucous, muffled sound ; 
 beaten like this, the charge was no longer inspiring ; 
 it became dismal." 
 
 On the 5th of November, the day of the battle, 
 the allied army in the Crimea amounted to sixty- 
 five thousand men, — forty thousand French, twenty 
 thousand English, and five thousand Turks : the 
 
 217
 
 218 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Russians had one hundred thousand. Relying on 
 their superior numbers and the resources of Sebas- 
 topol, the latter had conceived the scheme of falling 
 upon the besiegers and hustling them back to the 
 sea. They knew that the English lines to the right 
 of Sebastopol, from the Voronzoff road to the lower 
 course of the Tchernaya, were not defended by suf- 
 ficient forces, and that could they make an unex- 
 pected attack on the plateau of Inkerman, cut up 
 by ravines, hollowed out by sinuosities, bristling 
 with thickets and lending itself to surprises, they 
 would have great chances of success. 
 
 Encouraged by the partial success of Balaclava, 
 the defenders of Sebastopol were filled with hope. 
 On October 30 Prince Menchikoff had written to 
 Prince Paskievitchf : " The future will preserve the 
 memory of the exemplary chastisement inflicted on 
 the presumption of the allies. Holy Russia is visibly 
 protected by Heaven." Coming from Saint Peters- 
 burg, two sons of the Czar, the Grand Dukes Nich- 
 olas and Michael, made their entry into Sebastopol, 
 November 3, surrounded by an enthusiastic crowd. 
 An attack on the English lines had been decided for 
 the 5th, but this was not even suspected by the 
 allies. 
 
 The 4th of November had been dull and rainy, 
 and the rain continued to fall in torrents through 
 the night. At midnight all the church bells of 
 Sebastopol rang the signal for beginning the prayers 
 for the combatants of the next day. The air re-
 
 INKERMAN 219 
 
 sounded with the shouts of the soldiers in response 
 to excited harangues and the benedictions of priests. 
 In their trenches outside the town the allies at three 
 o'clock in the morning heard distant rumors, cries, 
 chants, the grinding of wheels. But they felt no 
 alarm. Were not the Russians in the habit of pray- 
 ing night and day ? Did not their steeples and 
 their hymns resound as often as their cannons? 
 Were not the wagons those of the market gardeners 
 who supplied the town ? 
 
 The English by no means anticipated a surprise. 
 The night was thick with clouds. The earth was 
 soaked with icy dampness. The pools of water will 
 soon be pools of blood. So soon to be the theatre 
 of such horrible slaughter, the plateau of Inkerman 
 is as yet silent. All are sleeping except a few sen- 
 tinels who are painfully struggling against sleep. 
 
 Night has just ended, but without giving place to 
 day, so heavy is the fog. Leaving Sebastopol by 
 the suburb of Karabelnaya, the Russians approach 
 the plateau of Inkerman. At first the English can 
 distinguish nothing but the fire and smoke of cannon 
 and musketry. But it soon becomes evident that 
 under cover of a host of sharpshooters the enemy 
 have carried cannons of large calibre to the high 
 grounds on the left, just opposite the 2d English 
 division, while heavy columns of infantry are attack- 
 ing the brigade commanded by the Duke of Cam- 
 bridge. The Russians have placed ninety cannon 
 in position. Sheltered by a terrible firing, the Rus-
 
 220 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 sian columns are advancing in great force ; it needs 
 great heroism to enable the English troops to con- 
 tinue their resistance. 
 
 At the extremity of their lines the English had 
 constructed a work which they called the Battery of 
 the Earth-sacks. Here the fight was chiefly concen- 
 trated. Never has there been a bloodier melee. In 
 the evening General Bosquet, halting at this spot 
 and beholding such a pile of corpses, will exclaim : 
 " What an abattoir ! v And the Battery of the 
 Earth-sacks will retain the name : Battery of the 
 Abattoir. 
 
 General Bosquet is the hero of Inkerman. At 
 daybreak, at the first sound of the firing, without 
 even giving his troops time to take any food, he 
 set in motion the French corps of observation who 
 were encamped on the southern plateau of Mount 
 Sapoune. He went himself as far as Moulin, where, 
 meeting the two English generals Brown and Cath- 
 cart, he offered them the assistance of his troops. 
 They replied : " Our reserves are sufficient to pro- 
 vide against contingencies ; merely be kind enough 
 to cover our right at the back of the English in- 
 trenchment." Still, General Bosquet remained con- 
 vinced that the English were presuming too much 
 on their strength and would soon be forced to call 
 on the French for help. Hence without delay he 
 united the 6th battalion of the line and the 7th of 
 the light troops under the command of General 
 Bourbaki, and put them in position to the right of
 
 INKE11M.W 221 
 
 Moulin, near a little village known as Canrobert's 
 redoubt, ordering them to be in readiness to march 
 at the first signal. 
 
 At this moment a new cannonade is added to 
 that of Inkerman ; that of General Gortchakoff, 
 who, with troops debouching from Tchergoun, is 
 making a diversion in the valley of Balaclava. Gen- 
 eral Bosquet, who has returned to his encampment 
 of the Telegraph, feels that this diversion will be 
 unimportant. " Go to Inkerman," says he to an 
 aide-de-camp of Lord Raglan; "everything will 
 happen there." 
 
 With rare comprehension, that admirable soldier, 
 General Bosquet, had divined coming emergencies. 
 The time is at hand for the French troops to take 
 part in the battle. The English are exhausted ; 
 they have been heroic, but they are worn out. 
 General Strangways has just been killed at Lord 
 Raglan's side. General Canrobert, who had gone to 
 Inkerman after leaving orders at the siege, has been 
 wounded in the arm by a bursting shell. As at the 
 battle of the Alma, he has had his wound dressed on 
 the spot and rejoined Lord Raglan. The latter writes 
 afterwards in his report of the battle : " I am glad 
 to have occasion to say publicly how highly I appre- 
 ciate the precious assistance I have received from 
 the commander-in-chief, General Canrobert, who was 
 personally on the ground and in constant communi- 
 cation with me ; I cannot give too much praise to 
 his cordial co-operation in all circumstances."
 
 222 NAPOLEON III. ANT) IIIS COURT 
 
 It is almost nine o'clock. Colonel Steel, an aide- 
 de-camp of Lord Raglan, comes at full gallop to the 
 Telegraph, where he finds General Bosquet. "The 
 English are overwhelmed," he cries; "there is not 
 a minute to lose if the day is to be regained." — 
 " Go tell my allies," replies the General, " that the 
 French are coming at breakneck speed." 
 
 A few minutes later the English hear the bugles 
 of the French infantry. Here come the 6th of the 
 line and the 7th light with four companies of light 
 infantry and two mounted batteries. General Bos- 
 quet rejoins his troops just as they are about to 
 form in line. As soon as the English see the red 
 trousers beginning to stand out on the gray horizon, 
 they applaud, they shout " Hurrah for the French ! " 
 There are but one thousand six hundred and fifty of 
 the latter, hardly as many as the effective of an 
 English brigade. But their heroic charge produces 
 the greatest impression ; presently reinforcements 
 reach them, two battalions of the 3d Zouaves, two 
 of the 50th of the line, one of Algerian sharp- 
 shooters, and a mounted battery. The Zouaves, 
 as General Bosquet will say in his report, "ma- 
 noeuvre with that intelligence, that tried bravery, 
 which remains unconcerned even when the enemy 
 surrounds you a moment." The Algerian sharp- 
 shooters, led by Colonel de Wimpffen, who has a 
 horse killed under him, "bound into the thickets 
 like panthers." The 6th of the line avenges the 
 heroic death of Colonel de Camers. The Battery
 
 INKERMAN 223 
 
 of the Earth-sucks is retaken after ferocious assaults. 
 A great number of Russian soldiers, driven to the 
 extremity of the counterfort which ends perpendic- 
 ularly over the Tchernaya, are Hung from the top 
 of this natural wall, and fall dead or mortally 
 wounded near the aqueduct and the river. " After 
 the peace," writes General Fay, " we went through 
 all these points, which we had known either not at 
 all or badly, and on descending to the foot of these 
 heights our hearts were constricted by the sight of the 
 bones piled up in the crevices of the rocks. Doubt- 
 less, all who had not been assisted, and who were 
 unable to gain the other shore, had dragged them- 
 selves thither. On the day of the battle the Rus- 
 sians had four days' provisions ; it is not difficult to 
 imagine the terrible scenes which must have been 
 enacted in these assemblies of the wounded, where, 
 as in shipwrecks, the strongest were obliged to pro- 
 long their existence with the provisions of the dead, 
 and perhaps by violence, at the expense of those 
 Avho, though still breathing, were no longer able to 
 defend themselves." 
 
 Let us return to the battle. It is eleven o'clock. 
 The allies have evidently gained the day, even 
 though there is still a furious cannonading going on. 
 General Bosquet's horse is shot under him near the 
 Battery of the Earth-sacks. The diversion effected 
 by General Timofeief, who made a sortie from 
 Sebastopol, and fell upon the French troops, has 
 failed. The general has been recalled to the city.
 
 224 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Unfortunately the French had allowed themselves 
 to be drawn on too far, and in their compulsory re- 
 treat have lost one of their bravest leaders, General 
 de Lourmel. 
 
 At last the terrible day nears its close. " Just as 
 the Russian fire was dying down," General Bosquet 
 will say in his report, " I sent a divisional batteiy 
 to the high ground, whence they could cover with 
 shells and balls the Inkerman bridges by which were 
 escaping the Russian troops which we had had the 
 pleasure of seeing fly before us in utter rout. How- 
 ever, their flight was protected by the marshes which, 
 unfortunately, we have been unable to cross ; other- 
 wise we should have had a fine close to a victorious 
 battle. I thank Generals d'Autemarre and Bour- 
 baki, who led their troops so courageously, and Col- 
 onel de Cissey for the cordial way in which he 
 seconded me. I wish I could mention all the heroes 
 who have fought so well at Inkerman, but that would 
 be to name everybody." 
 
 Evening comes. General Bosquet's soldiers are 
 going to sit down amidst the dead and dying to the 
 first meal they have taken that da}' - , around the Bat- 
 tery of the Abattoir, since this is henceforward the 
 name of the Battery of the Earth-sacks. General 
 Fay, then General Bosquet's aide-de-camp, thus 
 describes the scene : — 
 
 "From the top of the breastwork of the battery 
 on which we were sitting, we looked sadly at those 
 masculine faces surprised by death in the moment
 
 TNKERMAN 225 
 
 of action ; some of them still biting off the cartridge, 
 others hanging from the embrasures, nearly all with- 
 out a trace of anger on their countenances, and with 
 features as composed as if in slumber. They at 
 least were dead, but the wounded, what sufferings 
 they endured after the battle ! " 
 
 There was no armistice, and as the enemy's sharp- 
 shooters fired on those who attempted the work of 
 burial, it was impossible to look for the dead and 
 dying at the further extremity of the positions. 
 " Wounded men were brought in even after eight 
 days," adds General Fay, " and what days they 
 must have been for the poor fellows ! . . . They 
 were crowded under tents, to languish sometimes 
 for a week or ten days before they could be attended 
 to. Those who survived these long hours of suffer- 
 ing were finally taken to the ambulance camp of 
 the second French division, that tent in which the 
 operations were performed, and the very thought of 
 which makes one shudder. . . . And yet, amidst 
 these melancholy scenes, one often found among 
 these brave soldiers the good humor and gaiety 
 which saves our French soldiers from homesickness. 
 'Ah! then, Major, so we must wait our turn here 
 as at the Porte Saint Martin,' said a Zouave quietly 
 to a doctor. He was smoking a pipe while awaiting 
 his, and it was a matter of cutting off his leg. One 
 laughed and cried at once, listening to the simple 
 and heroic words of this child of Paris." 
 
 Considering the number of the troops engaged,
 
 226 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 few battles have been as bloody as that of Inker- 
 man, justly described as a whirlwind of combats. 
 Out of the eighty-two hundred French who had 
 fought on the plateau, seven hundred and ninety- 
 three were killed or wounded. The English, all of 
 whose disposable forces had been engaged, with the 
 exception of one brigade left at the siege, and another 
 at Balaclava, had twenty-eight hundred and sixteen 
 men disabled. As to the Russians, out of the 
 thirty-four thousand men who had taken part in 
 the fight, twenty-nine hundred and eighty-eight 
 were killed and sixty-one hundred and fifty-one 
 wounded. Their funeral statistics added to this 
 list eighteen hundred and ninety men missing. 
 These were neither deserters nor prisoners, but the 
 wretched soldiers flung over the cliffs above the 
 valley of the Tchernaya, whose skeletons, bleached 
 by sun and washed by rain, were recovered after 
 the peace. 
 
 We shall terminate this account by two letters 
 from General Bosquet: "November 7, 1854. My 
 health is perfect, good mother ; fatigue does not 
 affect it. That is because I have had a little 
 happiness now and then. Day before yesterday, 
 November 5, in .a battle near Inkerman, I beat 
 the Russians and drove them across the bridges 
 of the Tchernaya. The next day, the Duke of 
 Cambridge came to my tent to thank me for hav- 
 ing saved the remnant of the English guards, who 
 lost heavily that day. Lord Raglan — who has
 
 1NEERMAN 227 
 
 only one arm — said to me to-day, holding out his 
 only hand, that he wished he had several with 
 which to shake mine. We are engaged in one of 
 the most foolhardy enterprises that has been at- 
 tempted since the Crusades. But it is the right 
 cause ; you can all pray for us, and I fully believe 
 that God will assist us." 
 
 " December, 1854. My good mother, here is my 
 New Year's gift ; this year the Russians and the 
 Emperor have assisted me to prepare it for you ; 
 it is the grand officer's cross of the Legion of 
 Honor, which I have just received, and which with 
 Anna's help I am pinning on your big shawl, — as 
 we did one day, if you remember, with my com- 
 mander's badge. . . . What fine soldiers these 
 brave fellows of the 5th are whom I have led 
 against the Russians ! What courage ! what intel- 
 ligence ! what address ! A sign was enough to 
 make them comprehend and strike."
 
 CHAPTER XXVII 
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1854 
 
 '1STT0VEMBER 21, 1854, the Emperor wrote from 
 the palace of Saint-Cloud to General Can- 
 robert : " General, I have been profoundly affected 
 by your report on the victory of Inkerman. Tell 
 the army for me how entirely satisfied I am with 
 the courage it has displayed, the energy with which 
 it has endured fatigues and privations, and its ardent 
 cordiality towards its allies. Thank the generals, 
 officers, and soldiers for their valiant behavior. Say 
 that I sympathize keenly with their sufferings and 
 their cruel losses, and that it will be my most con- 
 stant care to alleviate their bitterness." 
 
 The letter of Napoleon III. ended in this way: 
 " If Europe has not been alarmed at the sight of 
 our long-banished eagles spreading their wings with 
 so much splendor, it is because it knows well that 
 we are fighting only for its independence. If 
 France has resumed the rank which is her due, 
 and if victory has once more made our flags illus- 
 trious, I declare proudly that it is to the patriotism 
 and the indomitable bravery of the army that I 
 owe it." 
 
 228
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1854 229 
 
 November 22, cannon were fired at the Invalides 
 to announce the victory of Inkerman. 
 
 At this time, only the splendid aspects of the 
 war were regarded in Paris ; its horrors were 
 passed over in silence, its torrents of blood for- 
 gotten. Of the terrible sufferings endured by the 
 troops, only vague notions were formed. In writ- 
 ing to their families, officers and soldiers alike 
 made light of these in order not to enhance their 
 grief. The tendency of people's minds was to 
 optimism. The arm}- was glad of a chance of 
 advancement. The diplomatists were elated with 
 the part played by France. The army contractors 
 made great fortunes. Commerce and industry prof- 
 ited by the war. In the conscription of 1854, all 
 young men of means who drew a bad number and 
 felt no inclination for war, procured substitutes ; 
 and no one dreamed of blaming them for it. The 
 democratic sentiment was not then so fully de- 
 veloped that this privilege of wealth to exempt 
 itself from the blood tax could arouse objections. 
 As the Crimean War made only a minority suffer, 
 and was carried on in a distant region, selfishness 
 was not immediately affected. The splendid set- 
 ting of the second Empire was in no wise disturbed 
 by it. It may even be said that it gave it added 
 brilliancy. 
 
 Nowadays the human conscience revolts against 
 war. In 1854 people were ready to believe it a 
 necessity for nations. To-day they comprehend
 
 230 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 the saying of that pre-eminent scientist, Pasteur, 
 who has described himself as "a man who has an 
 invincible belief that Science and Peace will conquer 
 Ignorance and War ; that the peoples will agree not 
 to destroy, but to enlighten each other." In 1854 
 such ideas appeared fantastic. 
 
 Nowadays France would be content with the 
 second place in Europe if Russia occupied the first. 
 But in 1854 her views were far more ambitious. 
 She did not admit the supremacy of any power. 
 Hence the Crimean War seemed legitimate, because 
 its object was to take away the Czar's predominance 
 in Europe and give the leading part to France. 
 Had its delays and cruel vicissitudes occurred 
 towards the close of the second Empire, the news- 
 papers and the opposition would have used them 
 skilfully against the government and would doubt- 
 less have succeeded in weakening and discouraging 
 public opinion. But in 1854 Napoleon III. had 
 crushed all opposition, and his foreign policy had 
 no adverse critics ; even the hostile parties ap- 
 proved the Crimean War. 
 
 From his prison on Belle-Isle, the famous revo- 
 lutionist, Barbes, had written to a friend, Septem- 
 ber 18, 1854 : " If you are touched with chauvinism 
 because you put up no prayers for the Russians, 
 I am still more fanatical than you, for I long for 
 victories for our Frenchmen. Yes ! yes ! may they 
 thrash the Russians well over yonder ; it will be 
 all the more gained for the cause of civilization
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1854 231 
 
 and the world. . . . Since Waterloo we are the con- 
 quered people of Europe, and to do any good, even 
 at home, I think it is useful to show foreigners 
 that we know how to eat powder." 
 
 Becoming acquainted with this letter, Napoleon 
 III. had it published in the Moniteur, which simul- 
 taneously published another letter addressed by the 
 sovereign to the Minister of the Interior, October 3, 
 1854, in which he said : " A prisoner who retains 
 such patriotic sentiments in spite of long sufferings 
 cannot remain in prison under my reign. There- 
 fore have him set immediately at liberty, and with- 
 out conditions." 
 
 Barbes had almost to be forced to accept his free- 
 dom. When free he would not remain in France, 
 but went to Holland. From The Hague he wrote 
 to George Sand, October 22, 1854 : " I was a patriot 
 in my cradle. As a child it made me ill to learn the 
 defeat of Waterloo, and so long as it is not demon- 
 strated to me that there is a country more advanced 
 than France, a country with a better heart and 
 greater devotion, in spite of all the faults of which 
 she may be accused, I shall desire that her flag may 
 triumph, no matter what hand carries it." 
 
 In 1854 Russia was not in vogue either with the 
 partisans or the adversaries of Napoleon III. Re- 
 publican and Orleanist sympathies were entirely on 
 the side of Poland, and possibly it did not displease 
 the Orleans princes to see the autocrat who had 
 been ill disposed toward their father in difficulties.
 
 232 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 They followed with eager interest all the phases of a 
 war in which their former brethren in arms were 
 distinguishing themselves, and whose dangers and 
 glories they bitterly regretted that they could not 
 share. The Duchesse d' Orleans, as French at heart 
 as her brothers-in-law, was then at Eisenach with 
 her two sons. Each of them made lint for the 
 wounded around her tea-table. It was touching to 
 hear the exiles say : " Our army ; our brave troops." 
 The young Comte de Paris knew the towers and 
 forts of Sebastopol as if he had seen them with his 
 own eyes. 
 
 As to the legitimists, although an alliance with 
 Russia would have been popular among them, their 
 attitude was irreproachable and they were grateful 
 to the government for having defended the rights of 
 Catholics in the Holy Places. In fine, it may be 
 said that the Bourbons of both branches manifested 
 sentiments inspired by the purest patriotism. The 
 exiles remembered but one thing : their character as 
 Frenchmen. 
 
 Seeing that even his adversaries did not blame 
 him for a war which existing public opinion con- 
 sidered essential to the equilibrium of Europe, 
 Napoleon III. was convinced that his troops were 
 contending for the cause of law, justice, and civiliza- 
 tion. He was incessantly told so. He believed it 
 with the utmost sincerity. He delighted in the 
 martial ardor which was displayed in France. 
 "The Emperor Napoleon III.," writes General du
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1854 233 
 
 Barail, "had the soldier's passion, and neglected no 
 occasion of being amongst the troops. ... Of all 
 the institutions of the first Empire the most tempt- 
 ing to him was naturally the imperial guard, that 
 beautiful legendary guard the appearance of which 
 on the field of battle was enough to secure victory." 
 He revived it at the close of 1854, at first in very 
 modest proportions from the numerical point of 
 view : a regiment of guides, a regiment of cuiras- 
 siers, four batteries of artillery, a platoon and two 
 battalions of gendarmery, two regiments of grena- 
 diers, two of light cavalry, a battalion of foot-sol- 
 diers, and a company of engineers. 
 
 November 27, 1854, the Emperor held the first 
 review of the newly reconstructed imperial guard. 
 The infantry was drawn up on either side of the 
 grand alley of the Tuileries garden, from the palace 
 as far as the Place de la Concorde. The cavalry 
 occupied the grand avenue of the Champs Elysees. 
 The troops were under the orders of general of 
 division Regnault de Saint-Jean d'Angely, com- 
 manding the guard, and Generals Mellinet and 
 Urich. The weather was superb. People admired 
 the Guides with their plumes, the grenadiers with 
 their French coats, white breast-plates, cross-belts, 
 and tall hair caps, the light cavalry with their 
 tasselled shakos, which reminded one of the young 
 guard of Napoleon I., the cuirassiers with long 
 heavy boots, white leather breeches, and helmets 
 with two manes. After walking his horse along the
 
 234 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 front of the lines, the Emperor placed himself in 
 front of the Horloge pavilion to see the march. 
 The Empress was on the balcony. Lord and Lady 
 Palmerston, Lord and Lady Cowley, and several 
 ladies invited by the Empress were present at this 
 review. The troops cheered heartily in passing in 
 front of Their Majesties. "It would be difficult," 
 said the Mbniteur, " to describe the effect produced 
 by these fine regiments whose martial bearing not 
 less than their uniform recalled the imperial guard 
 of glorious memory." 
 
 While Paris was taking pleasure in the sight of 
 new, brilliant, magnificent uniforms, there were 
 some on the plateau of the Chersonese which victory 
 indeed had worn threadbare, but which had also 
 suffered from rain, snow, and mishaps of every kind. 
 The Crimean nights were long and cold. The days 
 seemed as dismal as the nights. Every sort of 
 calamity fell at the same time upon the army. On 
 November 14 there was a frightful cyclone. Never 
 in the memory of man had this region, subject as it 
 was to violent winds, known such a tempest. Never 
 had the elements been unchained with such fury. 
 All the tents were blown down, all the soldiers' huts 
 broken like glass. The wind panted with rage. 
 The thunder never ceased to rumble. Some of the 
 ambulances, partially sheltered in the ravines, could 
 be saved from destruction ; but there were others 
 whose huts were carried off by the wind, leaving the 
 sick and wounded exposed to torrents of rain and all
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1864 235 
 
 the shocks of the tempest. These unfortunates 
 uttered horrible cries. But for the devotion of their 
 comrades, who carried them to the few buildings 
 saved, all would have perished. The water gushed 
 into the trenches as from a spring. At sea the 
 devastation was still greater than on land. Never 
 had the Euxine better deserved its evil repute. 
 Through the roaring of the waves and the whistling 
 of the wind the alarm guns could be heard, and the 
 repeated cries from a multitude of vessels in dis- 
 tress. The French merchant marine lost several 
 ships. Two war-vessels, the Henri IV. and the 
 Pluton, went ashore near Eupatoria. Several Eng- 
 lish vessels lost both crew and cargo. The cyclone 
 was followed by frost, snow, and thaw. No provi- 
 sion had been made for such a winter campaign, 
 and the sufferings of the troops outstripped all 
 imagination. 
 
 The echo of the cry of anguish did not reach so 
 far as Paris. The commander-in-chief continued to 
 represent matters under the most favorable aspect. 
 The Moniteur of December 12 published a report 
 addressed by him to Marshal Vaillant, Minister of 
 War. In it he said : " Our situation is improving 
 in every respect. We are receiving reinforcements, 
 and our regiments of Zouaves, like all those born in 
 Africa, especially present a most satisfactory en- 
 semble. Our victualling has assumed grand pro- 
 portions, and from to-day I shall be able to distribute 
 a daily ration of wine or brandy to the soldiers.
 
 236 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 This is a very important point, which will avert 
 many maladies and enable us to safeguard our effec- 
 tive forces. On the other hand, our winter clothing 
 is arriving, and already the hooded cloaks and 
 sheepskin overcoats are in the majority in our 
 camps. The soldier will nobly and courageously 
 endure the trial of bad weather, seeing that he is the 
 object of cares hitherto unknown to him, and which 
 show so much solicitude for his situation on the part 
 of the Emperor and his ministry." 
 
 General Canrobert concluded his report in this 
 way : " I can assure you, M. le Marechal, that the 
 army is acquiring a rare solidity, and you could not 
 imagine to what degree our young fellows, suddenly 
 matured by the greatness of the struggle, quickly 
 become old soldiers. You could not have beheld 
 without keen satisfaction the deployed lines remain- 
 ing calm and motionless under a cannonading which 
 Lord Raglan has told me was superior to that which 
 he heard at Waterloo." 
 
 Such reports inflamed the national imagination. 
 The military and the diplomatic situation were 
 viewed with satisfaction. The treaty signed De- 
 cember 2, at Vienna, between Austria, France, and 
 Great Britain was considered the first step towards 
 a speedy peace. By its first article the three powers 
 bound themselves not to enter into any treaty with 
 Russia without previously deliberating together. 
 By the second the Austrian Emperor promised to 
 defend the frontier of the Danubian Principalities
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1864 237 
 
 against any return of the Russian forces. The third 
 stipulated that if hostilities should break out between 
 Austria and Russia, the Emperor Francis Joseph and 
 the Emperor Napoleon III. and Queen Victoria 
 promised their mutual offensive and defensive al- 
 liance. 
 
 What dominated in Paris was a sentiment of 
 optimism. Not a diversion, not a pleasure, had been 
 abandoned. All the salons were open. The fash- 
 ionable season promised to be very brilliant. At 
 the Opera the reigning diva, Mademoiselle Sophie 
 Cruvelli, was triumphant. December 21, to celebrate 
 the birthday of Racine, Mademoiselle Rachel played 
 Phedre. The next night, Verdi's Trovatore was 
 produced for the first time, at the Italian Theatre. 
 It had a tremendous success, and the touching and 
 poetic Mademoiselle Frezzolini was greatly ap- 
 plauded. 
 
 December 26, Napoleon III. opened the legislative 
 session at the Tuileries, in the hall of the Marshals, 
 and his speech produced a great impression. He 
 said : " A great empire, renewing its youth by the 
 chivalrous sentiments of its sovereign, has detached 
 itself from the power which has threatened the inde- 
 pendence of Europe for perhaps the last forty years. 
 The Emperor has to-day concluded a defensive 
 treaty, soon perhaps to become offensive, which 
 unites his cause with those of France and England." 
 After celebrating the English alliance Napoleon III. 
 added : " Unite with me on this solemn occasion in
 
 238 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 thanking Parliament, in the name of France, for its 
 warm and cordial demonstration, and the English 
 army and its worthy commander for their valiant 
 co-operation. Next year, if peace is not sooner pro- 
 claimed, I hope to offer the same thanks to Austria 
 and to that Germany whose union and prosperity 
 we so much desire." Alas ! the union of Germany, 
 in what conditions was it one day to be realized! 
 
 The troops in the Crimea next received this well- 
 deserved eulogy: "Up to this day the army of the 
 Orient has suffered and overcome all things : epi- 
 demics, conflagrations, tempests, privations, a forti- 
 fied town incessantly revictualled, defended by land 
 and sea by formidable artillery, two hostile armies 
 superior in numbers ; yet nothing has diminished its 
 courage or lessened its enthusiasm. Each has nobly 
 done his duty, from the marshal who seemed to force 
 death to wait until he had conquered, to the soldier 
 and sailor whose dying cry was a prayer for France 
 and an acclamation of the elected of the people. 
 Let us then affirm together that the army and the 
 fleet have deserved well of the Fatherland." 
 
 Napoleon III. thus ended his speech : " The 
 struggle which is going on, circumscribed by 
 moderation and justice, alarms private interests so 
 little that we shall soon bring together here from 
 the different parts of the world all the products of 
 peace. Foreigners cannot fail to be struck with the 
 impressive spectacle of a country which, relying upon 
 divine protection, energetically maintains a war six
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1854 239 
 
 hundred leagues from its frontiers, and which with 
 equal energy develops its internal wealth ; a country 
 where war does not prevent agriculture and industry 
 from prospering, the arts from flourishing, and 
 where the genius of the nation reveals itself in all 
 that can conduce to the glory of France." 
 
 December 30, the Emperor reviewed in the court 
 of the Tuileries all the troops comprising the army 
 of Paris under command of Marshal Magnan. The 
 Empress saw the review from the balcony of the 
 hall of the Marshals. The next day, December 31, 
 there was a grand review in the Crimea. The 1st 
 and 2d corps and the corps of. observation of the 
 army received on this occasion the recompenses so 
 nobly deserved by courage, labor, and discipline. 
 General de Montebello, aide-de-camp to the Emperor, 
 had brought a decree to the commander-in-chief which 
 authorized him to fill vacancies up to the rank of 
 chief of battalion or squadron, to make nominations 
 and promotions in the Legion of Honor, and to con- 
 fer the military medal. More than once the music of 
 the bands was drowned by the roar of Russian can- 
 non. " This review held in presence of the enemjV 
 writes General Fay, an eye-witness, " these rewards 
 distributed to heroes on the ground where, alas ! so 
 many of them were to die, these acclamations of our 
 troops mingling with the heavy rumbling of the can- 
 non in the city, all gave to this distribution of rec- 
 ompenses a character of grandeur which deeply 
 impressed our allies and caused a very noble emotion
 
 240 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 in those of them who participated in it." Generals 
 Forey and Bosquet distributed the crosses each to 
 his own army corps, in the name of the commander-in- 
 chief. General Bosquet himself attached the cross 
 to the breast of the Abbe Stalter, military chaplain. 
 So the year 1854 ended with reviews and the blare 
 of trumpets in Paris and before Sebastopol.
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII 
 
 THE DEATH OF THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS 
 
 TT^VERY patriotic and religious anguish of Russia 
 "^ was concentrated in its Emperor's soul. Like 
 the entire Russian people, he considered the war 
 against the Turks and their allies as a sacred duty, 
 as the conflict of the Cross against the Crescent. 
 The sufferings undergone by Holy Russia struck 
 him to the heart. In him the man, the sovereign, 
 the Christian, suffered equally. A reign of thirty 
 years, which had been an unbroken succession of 
 splendid triumphs, was ending in catastrophes. 
 
 All the previsions of the Emperor Nicholas, 
 whether diplomatic or military, had just been baffled 
 by events. The Czar regarded Europe with aston- 
 ishment and did not recognize it. He had believed 
 that the reign of Napoleon III. would be only 
 an ephemeral dictatorship, received coldly by the 
 powers, and Napoleon III. was directing the Euro- 
 pean concert against Russia. He had been con- 
 vinced that an alliance between the victors and the 
 vanquished of Waterloo was impossible, and he 
 beheld a cordial understanding established between 
 England and France. He had believed that the 
 
 241
 
 •242 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Emperor of Austria, whom he had saved in 1849, 
 would be always loyal to him, and the Emperor of 
 Austria, the diplomatic ally of the two western 
 powers, had forced him to evacuate the Danubian 
 Principalities, once placed under his protection. 
 He had counted on the absolute devotion of his 
 brother-in-law, the King of Prussia, and the little 
 German powers whom he regarded as his vassals, 
 and their neutrality was more favorable to France 
 and England than to Russia. He had believed that 
 the Turkish troops would not hold out against his 
 own, and the Turkish troops had everywhere opposed 
 to them the most energetic resistance. He had been 
 convinced that a landing in the Crimea in the 
 second fortnight of September was an impossibility, 
 and the landing had been accomplished without 
 resistance. 
 
 Surprise following surprise and disappointment, 
 the Czar became profoundly sad, but there was 
 neither weakness, discouragement, nor remorse in 
 his sadness. Everybody felt that even if Sebastopol 
 fell, the sovereign would not give way. Impavidum 
 ferient ruince. Fortune was adverse to him. He 
 stiffened himself against its blows with indomitable 
 tenacity. Convinced in mind and conscience that 
 he was defending Christian civilization against 
 Turkish barbarism, he repented of nothing, he 
 accused himself of nothing. Believing that Aus- 
 tria, in amazing the world by its ingratitude, was 
 committing a fault and a crime, he was more in-
 
 DEATH OF THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS 243 
 
 censed with Francis Joseph than with Napoleon III. 
 The neutrality of the petty German states, formerly 
 his dependants, seemed to him a sort of rebellion. 
 In his eyes the sovereigns had become revolution- 
 ists, renegades, and he was profoundly convinced 
 that his anger was righteous indignation. 
 
 While Paris, more animated, more brilliant than 
 ever, interrupted none of its usual diversions and 
 was dreaming of the coming splendors of its Uni- 
 versal Exposition, the city of Saint Petersburg, 
 gloomy and sombre, was plunged in manly sorrow. 
 The Czar would have been ashamed to give enter- 
 tainments while his people were suffering so bit- 
 terly. Day and night Sebastopol was the one 
 thought of the inflexible sovereign. He had sent 
 two of his sons there, the Grand Dukes Nicholas 
 and Michael, and they were behaving like heroes. 
 In spite of the severity of the winter, he sent thither 
 all the reinforcements at his disposal. " I see with 
 pleasure," he writes to Prince Menchikoff, Novem- 
 ber 23, 1854, "that you have not lost hope of saving 
 Sebastopol, and that the heroism and audacity which 
 animate our soldiers only increase with the intensity 
 of the danger. It would be criminal to doubt it, 
 and yet on reading these accounts my heart beats 
 very hard. How I long to fly to you and share your 
 fate, rather than torment myself here by incessant 
 fears ! I could not keep back my tears while read- 
 ing what my children have written me and what 
 Sturler tells me of the sailors. They are heroes."
 
 244 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Again, on November 27: "I thank you, my dear 
 Menchikoff, for the haste you have made to tran- 
 quillize me: the lack of powder gave me great 
 anxiety. According to what you tell me, our fire 
 can keep up with that of the enemy, even if it is 
 resumed with the same vigor, which is what I am 
 expecting." 
 
 Stronger than men, winter, almost forcing the 
 weapons from their hands, had somewhat allayed 
 hostilities. But they were soon to be renewed more 
 terribly than before. The Emperor Nicholas be- 
 lieved less than ever in a speedy end to the war. 
 "I do not expect peace," he wrote to Prince Men- 
 chikoff, February 7, 1855. "It is indispensable to 
 unite all our efforts to dismay the enemy in the 
 Crimea. Every reinforcement that can be sent you 
 is already on the way. When they are all united, 
 ypu will have troops enough to make head against 
 the enemy. I am sure of the bravery of the men 
 and their commanders. Everything in the past wit- 
 nesses that my expectation is not vain. May God 
 do the rest! " 
 
 It is evident that the Emperor Nicholas was 
 neither cast down nor discouraged. To fortify 
 himself he incessantly thought of his brother, the 
 Emperor Alexander of glorious memory, and of the 
 army of 1812. But he followed the different vicis- 
 situdes of the war with emotions whose poignancy 
 ruined his health. There was no telegraphic com- 
 munication between Sebastopol and Saint Peters-
 
 DEATH OF THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS 245 
 
 burg. News arrived but slowly, often confused, 
 often contradictory, and gainsaid by information 
 coming from different capitals. The Czar suffered 
 alternations of hope and fear, enthusiasm and doubt, 
 which would have broken a heart less well-tempered 
 than his own. In spite of his extreme energy and 
 robust constitution, he could not defend himself, in 
 what concerned him personally, from gloomy fore- 
 bodings. Although not yet sixty (he was born 
 July 6, 1796), he thought his death was imminent. 
 "I have reached and gone beyond," said he, "the 
 number of years which God accords to those of my 
 race." And yet, in spite of the chagrins which 
 sapped his strength, he fulfilled all his duties as 
 sovereign with superfluous solicitude and zeal. 
 
 He had announced that on February 21, 1855, he 
 would review the troops about to start for the 
 Crimea. On that day he was attacked by a feverish 
 cold, and the weather was worse and the cold more 
 severe than usual. The doctor entreated the Czar 
 not to leave the palace, if he did not wish his con- 
 dition to become desperate. "Doctor," replied the 
 sovereign with a kindly smile, but in an absolutely 
 imperative tone, "you have done your duty, allow 
 me to do mine." He went out, mounted a horse, 
 and held the review as calmly and with as much 
 majesty as ever. On re-entering the Winter Palace 
 he had an attack of chills, the malady having 
 increased in a frightful manner. 
 
 It has been said that the Emperor Nicholas,
 
 246 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 despairing of the state of things in the Crimea, 
 voluntarily sought death in order to be done with a 
 life that had become a torture to him. We do not 
 believe it. If he persisted in reviewing the troops 
 in spite of his sufferings, it was because, having 
 often been severe both to himself and others, he 
 wished to give the example. He knew all that his 
 soldiers had to endure. He was not ignorant of the 
 long marches from north to south, wherein so many 
 badly fed victims, exhausted by fatigue and frozen 
 by cold, would die on the road. He knew the for- 
 midable vicissitudes of the contest at Sebastopol. 
 It distressed him sorely that the government of his 
 immense empire obliged him to remain in his 
 capital. But if he could not share the sufferings 
 and dangers of his troops in the Crimea, at least he 
 would not spare himself in Saint Petersburg; he 
 would prove to his subjects that the idea of taking 
 care of his health, impaired as it was, did not even 
 occur to him. 
 
 The Czar's illness became still more alarming 
 when he learned that the imprudent ardor of General 
 Khronlef had provoked another defeat before the 
 ramparts improvised by the allies at Eupatoria. 
 This new repulse caused the Emperor a chagrin 
 from which he could not rally. February 28, the 
 danger became imminent. March 1, paralysis of 
 the lungs set in, and all hope was lost. In the 
 fulfilment of his duty, the physician informed his 
 master that he had nothing further to expect on
 
 DEATH OF THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS 247 
 
 earth. For an instant tho autocrat attempted to 
 resist destiny and govern death. But after this 
 final effort, the once powerful sovereign was nothing 
 but a tranquil and resigned Christian. Unwilling 
 to deceive either his people or himself, he sent to 
 Moscow, Kiev, and Warsaw a despatch containing 
 only the words: "The Emperor is dying." He 
 summoned his principal counsellors, Count Orloff, 
 Prince Dolgorouki, Count Adelsberg, and recom- 
 mended them to his dearly loved son the Czarevitch, 
 who was to become Alexander II. To him he said : 
 " I wished to leave you an empire in good order and 
 at peace. Providence has otherwise determined. I 
 can do nothing more but pray for Russia." Then 
 he requested that his generals, his guard, his army, 
 all the defenders of Sebastopol, should be thanked. 
 After receiving the last sacraments, he begged the 
 Empress to recite the Lord's Prayer with him. 
 When she repeated the words : "' Thy will be done 
 on earth as it is in heaven," he exclaimed: 
 " Always ! " Always ! . . . And now I hope that 
 God will open His arms to me." He ordered the 
 members of his household and the servants to be 
 brought in, that he might bid them farewell. They 
 were all dissolved in tears. It was Friday, March 2, 
 1855. In the morning the Emperor of all the 
 Russias rendered his soul to the Supreme Judge. 
 In Paris no one had suspected that the Czar 
 was ill when, on opening the Moniteur of March 3, 
 the} r read the following telegrams : " Konigsberg,
 
 248 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 March 2. The Emperor Nicholas is very ill, he has 
 received the sacraments and bidden farewell to 
 the royal family." 
 
 "The Hague, March 2. The Emperor Nicholas 
 died this morning of paralysis of the lungs. The 
 news was received by the Queen at one o'clock. A 
 telegraphic despatch from Berlin confirms the news 
 of the death of the Emperor Nicholas." 
 
 On this unexpected news French stocks had a rise 
 of five francs on the Paris Bourse. The rise was 
 not an insult, but a homage to the memory of the 
 Czar. It showed how much he had been feared. 
 After his death peace became possible if not certain. 
 People knew that while he lived Russia would 
 never have given way, and that had she even been 
 invaded by all the powers of Europe, she would have 
 remembered 1812 and stood her ground. 
 
 The news of the Czar's death reached General 
 Canrobert and Lord Raglan the evening of March 6. 
 The defenders of Sebastopol were still unaware 
 of it. The next day a messenger with a flag of 
 truce conveyed it to the commander of the Russian 
 army, who kept it secret until the tidings had been 
 confirmed from Russia. Then he put in the order 
 of the day the following rescript from the new Czar, 
 Alexander II. : " In the profound and general grief 
 caused by the death of our benefactor, may the truly 
 Russian courage with which the troops under your 
 command have confronted the enemy and withstood 
 his undertakings be our consolation ! Thank in my
 
 DEATH OF THE EMPEROR NICHOLAS 249 
 
 name all the heroic defenders of Sebastopol for the 
 glorious exploits with which they have illustrated 
 our military annals. Passed into the everlasting 
 life, the supreme chieftain of the orthodox warriors 
 blesses from on high their unequalled firmness and 
 intrepidity." 
 
 France, which knows how to render justice to its 
 adversaries, had none but respectful words for the 
 sovereign whom Europe for so many years had 
 regarded as its arbitrator, and who, the worthy heir 
 of Peter the Great, had been the continuer of his 
 ideas and his work in spite of his recent reverses.
 
 CHAPTER XXIX 
 
 NAPOLEON III. AND THE CRIMEA 
 
 IKE the Emperor Nicholas in the closing months 
 -^ of his life, Napoleon III. had a fixed idea: the 
 Crimea. His disappointments had not been so bitter 
 as the Czar's, but they had been equally great. 
 Marshal de Saint-Arnaud's letters show what were 
 the contemporary illusions. The victor of the Alma 
 thought that Sebastopol would fall within a few 
 days. Like everybody else, Napoleon III. had 
 erroneous notions about the character and duration 
 of the Crimean War. No one could have believed 
 that the siege of Sebastopol would last a whole year, 
 and that the allies would never be able to seize the 
 entire city. Public opinion in France, mistaken 
 from the start, was nervous and impatient. People 
 did not consider the enormous difficulties presented 
 by such an enterprise. The generals were criticised 
 with a levity but too characteristic of the French 
 disposition. The drawing-room soldiers, as General 
 Bosquet called them, read their newspapers and 
 amused themselves with devising preposterous plans 
 of siege and battle. 
 
 The Emperor followed the military operations 
 
 250 

 
 NAPOLEON III. AND THE CRIMEA 251 
 
 with the keenest interest and most anxious atten- 
 tion. His military studies had been made in 
 Switzerland under General Dufour, and he had a 
 special knowledge of artillery and engineering. 
 Weary of the vain effort to judge matters from a 
 distance, and impressed by the wide differences 
 existing in the estimates of his generals, he con- 
 ceived the scheme of going to the Crimea in person 
 and putting into practice what he knew of the art 
 of laying sieges. The idea of wearing the uniform 
 of a French general without ever having fought 
 under the banners of France offended his chivalrous 
 sentiments. He did not forget that the Orleans 
 princes had distinguished themselves at Antwerp 
 and in Algeria, and he was unwilling to seem less 
 valiant than they. Courageous, fond of adventures, 
 accustomed to astonish the French as well as other 
 peoples, he dreamed of making his appearance in 
 the ancient Chersonese like a Deus ex machina and 
 cutting with his imperial sword the Gordian knot 
 which his generals could not untie. Marshal de 
 Saint-Arnaud having taken his wife with him to the 
 Orient, he would take the Empress, who would 
 remain at Constantinople while he should be fighting 
 in the Crimea and examining the trenches at Sebas- 
 topol, as the Due d'Orle'ans and the Due de Nemours 
 had inspected that of Antwerp. He was not averse 
 to the notion of leaving the regency to the brother 
 of Napoleon I., being convinced that the former 
 King of Westphalia would perform its duties well.
 
 252 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Hence he resolved to sail for the Crimea with the 
 Empress, and seemed determined to pay no atten- 
 tion to the objections of his advisers. 
 
 The Minister of Foreign Affairs, M. Drouyn de 
 Lhuys, wrote to M. Benedetti, chargti d'affaires at 
 Constantinople, February 20, 1855: "The rumor is 
 current, and will doubtless reach Constantinople, 
 that the Emperor will soon start for the Crimea. It 
 is true that His Majesty, whose magnanimous heart 
 identifies itself with all that constitutes our national 
 life, and is incessantly preoccupied with all that 
 affects its interests, whether abroad or at home, 
 cannot contemplate the severe fatigues of our army 
 in the Orient without conceiving the idea of going 
 in person to share the glorious deeds and sufferings 
 of his soldiers. At the same time, this thought is 
 not a definitive resolution. Therefore you must 
 neither deny nor confirm the news of the Emperor's 
 project, His Majesty intending to reserve entire 
 liberty of action in the matter." 
 
 By the 23d of February the rumor of the approach- 
 ing departure of the Emperor began to be widely 
 credited. On that day Marshal de Castellane wrote 
 in his journal, always so curious: "Things will 
 drag along diplomatically until May, at which 
 period, if peace is not made, the war may become 
 general. The expedition to the Crimea, where we 
 have our best troops, is considered to weaken our 
 position on the Continent. The departure of the 
 Emperor causes great anxiety. England makes the
 
 NAPOLEON III. AND THE CUIMEA 253 
 
 strongest possible objections to it. Lord John 
 Russell should have said to him: 'Sire, if you go 
 to the Crimea, it means war to the knife, and it is 
 useless for me to go to Vienna. ' 
 
 "The Emperor is growing more and more unap- 
 proachable. When he takes a resolution, nothing 
 can turn him from it. Thej'- say that the Empress, 
 who is to accompany him, will remain at Con- 
 stantinople. 
 
 "General Canrobert is very unjustly attacked, 
 firstly, because he has inherited the conduct of an 
 expedition to which he was opposed; he has been 
 able to maintain an excellent spirit in his army and 
 to keep up its courage." 
 
 Marshal de Castellane, a man essentially loyal 
 and devoted to duty, was one of the few who, in 
 1855, had the courage to tell Napoleon III. the 
 truth. February 24, he had a conversation with 
 him at the Tuileries, which is thus related in his 
 journal : — 
 
 " The Marshal. Your Majesty's departure is dis- 
 quieting. The Crimean expedition was begun too 
 late or too early. It is lucky that General Canro- 
 bert has been able to keep up the courage and spirits 
 of his army as he has done. 
 
 " The Emperor. Between ourselves, I expect a 
 response from Prussia. I will not go to the Crimea 
 unless she gives way; I have organized three army 
 corps, the North, Paris, and Lyons, so that in case 
 of necessity you can march with the others. I think
 
 2.34 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 of going to the Crimea because certain information 
 makes it credible that the Russian ami}' can be 
 annihilated. With the fifteen thousand Pied- 
 montese, the English, and the Turks, there will be 
 more than one hundred and fifty thousand men in 
 the Crimea. The Russian army once crushed, I 
 shall re-embark with the army, leaving the Turks to 
 guard the Crimea. 
 
 " The Marshal. Sire, when the Emperor Napo- 
 leon I. was in Egypt he was not a sovereign. If 
 we were going to the Crimea, we should have gone 
 sooner. The Russians were not ready. There are 
 chances of defeat also in the Crimea, and consider 
 what that would be if it happened to the sovereign." 
 
 Discerning men like the Marshal well knew that 
 a new dynasty needs to be successful, and that, firm 
 and solid as he seemed, the Emperor would find it 
 very hard to withstand such a catastrophe as a 
 personal defeat before Sebastopol. The old parties 
 bowed their heads in presence of a victorious 
 empire. They would rise up again before a con- 
 quered one. After the disasters of 1870 Napo- 
 leon III. sorrowfully said, at Wilhelmshohe : "It 
 does not do to be unfortunate in France." Nothing 
 is sadder or more true than this remark. 
 
 February 27, Marshal de Castellane had another 
 conversation with the Emperor at the Tuileries, 
 which he thus relates : " After dinner the Emperor 
 went with me into the adjoining salon to talk. I 
 said: —
 
 NAPOLEON III. AND THE CRIMEA 255 
 
 "Sire, your voyage to the Crimea is causing great 
 anxiety. I think it will be an unfortunate tiling 
 both abroad and at home. We should have gone 
 into the Crimea on arriving in the Orient, not at 
 the beginning of winter, or else we should have 
 waited until spring. And then we should have 
 marched the day after the battle of the Alma. 
 
 " The Emperor. Saint- Arnaud wanted to, but 
 Raglan was unwilling; it is always difficult to act 
 with allies, which is another reason why I think it 
 would be well for me to be in the Crimea. ... I 
 ought to beat the Russians, if only by the number 
 of battalions. You say yourself that the Crimea is 
 a blind alley. We must get out of it with honor. 
 
 " The Marshal. But, Sire, a defeat is always pos- 
 sible. People are justly alarmed by Your Majesty's 
 departure. One good thing about the rumor is that 
 it proves they feel their need of the Emperor. 
 
 " The Emperor. When I am gone all they will 
 think about is my return." 
 
 The Empress, who was not alarmed by bold and 
 adventurous resolutions, found a certain pleasure in 
 the prospect of a journey to that Orient which was 
 attracting the attention of all the world. She did 
 not urge her husband to go, but she did not advise 
 him to remain. In any case she was determined to 
 follow him, if not to the Crimea, at least as far as 
 Constantinople. 
 
 Colonel de Bdville had just arrived in the Turkish 
 capital in the capacity of imperial quartermaster.
 
 256 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 M. Benedetti replied as follows to the despatch of 
 M. Drouyn de Lhuys which we have already cited: — 
 
 "Pera, March 5, 1855. I have received Your 
 Excellency's despatch of February 20. A rumor of 
 the speedy arrival of the Emperor has, in fact, 
 reached Constantinople, and I have frequently been 
 asked about its origin and authenticity. I had 
 abstained from replying before receiving your direc- 
 tions, and I have complied with them strictly. 
 Without contradicting the rumor, I have avoided 
 confirming it. Still I cannot leave Your Excellency 
 in ignorance that all the correspondents, not except- 
 ing those of the Ottoman ambassador (Vely-Pasha), 
 agree in representing His Majesty's departure as 
 imminent. The Sultan and his government regard 
 the appearance of the Emperor in the midst of his 
 army as a pledge of our success, and a precious 
 guaranty for the interests of Turkey. Hence the 
 news has been received by the Sublime Porte and at 
 the Palace with lively marks of satisfaction. At 
 all events preparations are being made as fast as 
 possible for such a contingency." 
 
 In an article published in the Revue de Paris, 
 June 15, 1896, M. Louis Thouvenel gave some 
 curious details drawn from letters addressed to 
 his father by M. Benedetti, concerning the impres- 
 sion produced at Constantinople by the project of 
 the Emperor's journey. The Sultan expressed to 
 Colonel de BeVille the greatest desire to receive 
 Napoleon III. in his own palace, to share his apart-
 
 NAPOLEON III. AND THE CRIMEA 257 
 
 ments with him, and treat him like a brother. For 
 the accommodation of the Empress, should she 
 arrive, Colonel de Beville gave the preference to the 
 Balta-Liman palace, the summer residence of the 
 Princess Fatme", daughter of the Sultan and wife of 
 Ali Ghalib Pasha, son of the Grand Vizier Rechid 
 Pasha. Abdul Medjid himself gave orders for the 
 building of stables for the horses of the hundred 
 guards, had boards provided for two neighboring 
 kiosks for the suite of Their Majesties, and assigned 
 his farmhouse of Ayaz Pasha as lodgings for the 
 guard intended for the interior service of the palace. 
 Moreover, he announced to Colonel de BeVille his 
 intention of going in person to meet the Emperor 
 and Empress in the Sea of Marmora, where he would 
 go aboard of the imperial vessel to conduct them 
 himself to the Balta-Liman palace. He added that 
 Their Majesties would be greeted with salvoes of 
 artillery and volleys of musketry from the Turkish 
 army drawn up on the shores of the Bosphorus, and 
 that in the evening daylight would be replaced by 
 the splendor of a general illumination. The bed- 
 room of the Empress Eugenie was covered with 
 tapestry ornamented by a multitude of real pearls. 
 The largest diamonds were brought forth from the 
 treasury. The finest specimens of Turkish art, 
 going back to the time of the Sultan Murad, were 
 brought together. M. Benedetti wrote to M. Thou- 
 venel: "We shall have a veritable page from the 
 Thousand and One Nights.''' A thing unprecedented
 
 258 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 was that the Commander of the Faithful had decided 
 to give his arm to a woman, the Empress, to lead 
 her to his palace and to a state dinner he intended 
 offering to the Emperor. But the fairy scene imag- 
 ined by Abdul Medjid was not to be realized, at 
 least in 1855. Before long there was no further 
 question of the departure of Their Majesties for the 
 Orient. Napoleon III. was to be deterred from his 
 design by the exhortations of his ministers, the 
 advice of Queen Victoria and the English govern- 
 ment during his stay in England, and finally by the 
 assault to which he nearly fell a victim after his 
 return to Paris.
 
 CHAPTER XXX 
 
 WINDSOR 
 
 TTTE have said that on September 7, 1854, at 
 Boulogne, Prince Albert had expressed to 
 Napoleon III. the desire of Queen Victoria to re- 
 ceive the Emperor in England and to make the 
 acquaintance of the Empress Eugenie. This plan 
 was realized in April, 1855. On the 15th of that 
 month, at half-past eleven in the morning, the Corps 
 legislatif, with its president, Comte de Moray, went 
 to the Tuileries to present the recently enacted laws 
 to the sovereign. He said to them : " I wished to 
 thank you before departing. I think I shall cor- 
 rectly interpret your wishes in assuring the govern- 
 ment of Her Majesty the Queen of Great Britain 
 that you share in my appreciation of the advantages 
 of the alliance with England. We all desire peace, 
 but only on condition that it shall be an honorable 
 one ; if we must go on with the war, I count upon 
 your loyal support." 
 
 The Emperor and Empress left Paris for Calais, 
 with their suite, at half-past one that afternoon, 
 reaching their destination towards nine in the even- 
 ing. They took boat for Dover, Monday morning, 
 
 259
 
 260 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 April 16, landing there at half-past eleven, and be- 
 ing met by Prince Albert, who accompanied them 
 to Windsor Palace. At five in the evening they 
 made a ceremonious entry into London, through 
 which they passed to the Paddington station. More 
 than a million persons thronged the streets through 
 which they drove, most of them wearing the French 
 colors and shouting lustily. Never was a foreign 
 sovereign given a more cordial or splendid reception 
 in London. Two hours later Their Majesties ar- 
 rived at Windsor Castle, where the Queen was await- 
 ing them. Windsor had erected triumphal arches in 
 its streets, and the crenelles of the castle were illu- 
 minated. The militar} r bands played Queen Hor- 
 tense's hymn, Partant pour la Syrie, the drums 
 beat a salute. Napoleon III. and the Empress 
 Eugenie alighted from the carriage. The Queen 
 shall describe what followed : " I cannot express," 
 she writes in her journal, "the emotions which I 
 felt. I went forward. The Emperor kissed my 
 hand. Then I kissed him twice, on each cheek. 
 Then I embraced the sweet and graceful Empress." 
 The presentations took place in the throne room. 
 Then the Queen and Prince Albert led their guests 
 to the apartments prepared for them. These were 
 a suite of magnificent looms among which were the 
 Rubens salon, decorated with twelve paintings by 
 that master, and the Van Dyck room, which contains 
 the portraits of Charles I. and his family. The 
 chamber intended for Napoleon III. was the one
 
 WINDSOR 261 
 
 which had been occupied by the Emperor Nicholas 
 and by Louis Philippe. 
 
 The Queen describes in her journal the conversa- 
 tion she held after dinner with the Emperor. She 
 says she was charmed by his exquisite manners and 
 perfect tact. " He is really calm," she adds ; " he 
 speaks in a low tone and gently ; he makes no set 
 speeches." Napoleon III. spoke of the great anxiety 
 caused him by the siege of Sebastopol. " I confess," 
 said he, "that I fear a great disaster, and that is 
 why I wish to go there. Our generals are afraid 
 of assuming any responsibility." The Queen in- 
 sisted upon the dangers and the distance. " Yes," 
 replied the Emperor, " I know the distance is great. 
 As to the dangers, they are everywhere." 
 
 Tuesday, April 17. After breakfast a walk in 
 the park of Windsor. Again the war is spoken of. 
 The Emperor still insists on his desire to go to the 
 Crimea. The Empress is even more eager than 
 her husband to see this wish realized. "There 
 would be no more danger in the Crimea," said she, 
 •• than there is anywhere else. I am seldom uneasy 
 about him in Paris, except when he goes out all 
 alone in the mornings." The Queen, whom the 
 Empress was pleasing more and more, wrote in 
 her journal : " She is full of courage and spirit, and 
 yet so gentle, with such innocence and playfulness, 
 that the ensemble is charming. With her great 
 liveliness, she has the prettiest and most modest 
 manners."
 
 262 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 During breakfast Napoleon asked where Queen 
 Marie Amelie was. Queen Victoria replied that 
 she was in England. She might have added that 
 the widow of King Louis Philippe had paid her 
 a call at Windsor, four days before, in a carriage 
 whose simplicity contrasted strangely with her 
 former splendors. The Emperor said that when 
 Queen Marie Amelie was in Spain the previous 
 year, he had proposed to her, through King Leo- 
 pold, to pass through France on her return to Eng- 
 land. "If," he added, "Your Majesty will have 
 the kindness to repeat this to Queen Marie Amelie, 
 I shall be much pleased." 
 
 Four o'clock in the afternoon. Grand review in 
 the park of Windsor. The Queen and the Empress 
 sit in the same carriage. The Emperor, Prince 
 Albert, and the Duke of Cambridge are on horse- 
 back. An immense crowd of sightseers is present. 
 They admire the Life Guards, the carbineers, the 
 artillery. Lord Cardigan, riding the same horse on 
 which he made the famous charge of Balaclava, 
 attracts general attention. The Queen thinks that 
 the Emperor is an excellent rider and looks very 
 grand on horseback. 
 
 In the evening there is a ball in the Waterloo 
 salon, decorated by Lawrence with portraits of the 
 notable personages of 1814-15, — Wellington, Bliicher, 
 Castlereagh, Mettemich, Alexander I., Canning, 
 Humboldt. The Queen opens the ball with the 
 Emperor, "who," says she, "dances with dignity
 
 WINDSOR 263 
 
 and animation." And she adds: " How strange it 
 is to think that I, the granddaughter of George 
 III., should be dancing in the Waterloo salon with 
 the nephew of the great enemy of England, with 
 the Emperor Napoleon, who is now my closest ally, 
 and who was living in this country six years ago, 
 poor, unknown, and in exile ! " 
 
 Wednesday, April 18. The Emperor receives a 
 telegram, announcing the sad news of the death of 
 one of his best advisers, M. Ducos, Minister of the 
 Navy. At eleven o'clock he is present at a council 
 held in his own apartments, in which Prince Albert, 
 Lords Palmerston, Panmure, Hardinge, Cowley, Sir 
 Charles Wood, Sir John Burgoyne, Count Wa- 
 lewski, and Marshal Vaillant take part. Although 
 all of them are opposed to the Emperor's departure 
 for the Crimea, they do not succeed in convincing 
 him. At three o'clock a chapter of the Order of 
 the Garter is convoked in that beautiful chapel of 
 Saint George which was rebuilt during the reigns 
 of Edward IV. and Henry VIII. The stalls of the 
 knights of the order are in the splendidly decorated 
 choir, in the middle of which are the tombs of 
 Henry VIII. and his third wife, Jane Seymour, and 
 that of Charles I. A subterranean gallery leads 
 from the altar to the royal vault, where lie the 
 bodies of George III., George IV., and Will- 
 iam IV. The banners and escutcheons of the 
 knights of the order hang on the wall above their 
 stalls. On this occasion the knights wear their
 
 264 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 purple velvet mantles with ornaments of crimson 
 velvet. The majority of them, lord lieutenants of 
 counties, have rich uniforms under their mantles. 
 Preceded by Prince Albert, the Duke of Cambridge, 
 the king-at-arms of the Garter, bearing the insignia 
 of the order on a cushion of crimson velvet, and 
 an usher with a black mace, the Emperor, on his 
 entry into the chapter hall, is received by Queen 
 Victoria and the knights standing. At the close 
 of the ceremony, the Queen, wearing the mantle 
 of the order and a bracelet with the famous inscrip- 
 tion, "Honi soit qui mal y pense" "Evil to him who 
 evil thinks," takes Napoleon's arm and conducts him 
 to his apartments. "I thank Your Majesty very 
 much," says the Emperor. "It is an additional 
 tie. I have taken an oath to Your Majesty, and 
 I will scrupulously observe it. To me, this is a 
 great event, and I hope to prove my gratitude to 
 Your Majesty and to your country." 
 
 Napoleon III. was radiant. Saint George's chapel 
 had left a dazzling impression on him. But could 
 he have forgotten that Louis Philippe had received 
 the Order of the Garter in the same chapel, October 
 11, 1844, and that his career had nevertheless closed 
 in the bitterness of exile ? . . . How sad the Em- 
 peror would have been could he have foreseen that, 
 like Louis Philippe, he also was destined to return, 
 exiled and conquered, to this England, where he 
 was then a conqueror ! At this moment he ardently 
 desired a son. It was his dearest wish, and Provi-
 
 WINDSOR 265 
 
 dence was soon to realize it. Alas ! could one have 
 suspected that this longed-for son was to die at 
 twenty-three in a distant land, wearing an English 
 uniform, and that in this very chapel of Saint George, 
 where Napoleon III. had just been received as a 
 knight of the Order of the Garter, Queen Victoria 
 would erect a monument to the victim of Zululand, 
 the heroic and unfortunate Prince Imperial ! 
 
 During the dinner the conversation happened to 
 turn on the French refugees in London. The 
 Queen wrote in her journal : " The Emperor said 
 that when men openly commend assassination, they 
 ought not to enjoy the benefits of hospitality. . . . 
 We were speaking of the attempts made against me, 
 although attempts against a woman are still more 
 atrocious. For his part, he agreed with his uncle 
 in thinking that there is no danger from a conspir- 
 acy which is known in advance, but that no pre- 
 cautions can be taken against a fanatic who is 
 willing to risk his life in attacking you. We after- 
 wards spoke of the lack of freedom from which 
 people in our position suffer. The Emperor said 
 that the Empress was greatly affected by this, and 
 that she called the Tuileries a beautiful prison. 
 He shared the same impression. He added : ' I 
 wept hot tears when I quitted England.' ' 
 
 After dinner the Queen talked with Marshal 
 Vaillant, who was always much opposed to the 
 Emperor's going to the Crimea. The Queen said : 
 "I have dared to make some remarks.'' "Dared !
 
 266 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Dared ! Madame," replied the Marshal. " You are 
 in the same boat. You must talk plainly." 
 
 It is plain, therefore, that England and the 
 French ministry agreed in attempting to prevent 
 the Emperor's departure for the Crimea. The lat- 
 ter thought that the Empire was not sufficiently 
 consolidated to permit the sovereign to expose him- 
 self to such a remote adventure. Meanwhile, Eng- 
 land was reflecting that if the Emperor appeared in 
 person before the troops, his rank would give him 
 an indisputable supremacy, — a prospect not at all 
 flattering to British self-esteem. 
 
 Thursday, April 19. Their Imperial Majesties 
 had but a few hours more to remain at Windsor. 
 Two days before the lord mayor and the aldermen 
 had come to present them with the address of the 
 city of London, and to invite them to a banquet 
 offered by the city for the 19th. On the morning of 
 this day the Emperor said to the Queen : " If Your 
 Majesty will permit, I am going to read you my 
 reply to the address from the city, so that I may 
 know if you have any remarks to make. I must 
 deliver it in English, and I beg Your Majesty to 
 point out to me any mistakes in pronunciation." 
 The Queen found the speech admirable and the pro- 
 nunciation excellent. 
 
 At eleven in the morning Their Imperial Majes- 
 ties quitted Windsor with the Queen and Prince 
 Albert. This departure left the Queen somewhat 
 sad. The guards in full uniform were standing on
 
 WINDSOR 2G7 
 
 the steps of the stairway. The military band played 
 Partant pour la Syrie. "I was melancholy," the 
 Queen has said, "and I wondered what the future 
 would be. I knew that the Empress also was sad 
 on leaving Windsor." And not being jealous like 
 other women, the Queen added : " I was delighted to 
 see how much Albert admired her."
 
 CHAPTER XXXI 
 
 LONDON 
 
 r I ^HE reception offered him by the city of London 
 caused the Emperor great joy. He had a real 
 predilection for England and its capital city. On 
 his way from New York to Switzerland to visit his 
 dying mother in 1837, he spent several days in 
 London. When exiled from Switzerland, he re- 
 turned to England, where he resided from October 
 26, 1838, to August 4, 1840, the day on which he 
 embarked for his disastrous expedition to Boulogne. 
 And lastly, after escaping from the fortress of Ham, 
 he arrived in London May 25, 1846, remaining there 
 until September 23, 1848, on which day he set off 
 for Paris, where he was to take his seat as a deputy 
 at the Palais Bourbon before installing himself at 
 the Ely see as President of the Republic. Thus he 
 had been the guest of the English during four years. 
 He had familiarized himself with their manners and 
 their language, which he spoke almost without an 
 accent. At that time he was not received at court, 
 and had never spoken with either the Queen or 
 Prince Albert. But he had established pleasant 
 relations with many notable personages of English 
 
 268
 
 LONDON 269 
 
 society. He was grateful to the English for an 
 asylum which had permitted him to attain to su- 
 preme power, and his fondness for the country is 
 witnessed by the fact that he preferred it to all 
 others as a permanent residence after losing his 
 crown. 
 
 The 19th of April, 1855, was certainly one of the 
 most brilliant days of the Emperor's life. When he 
 arrived at noon in London with the Empress, the 
 Queen and Prince Albert, lie was greeted by trans- 
 ports of enthusiasm and frenzied applause. An in- 
 numerable crowd thronged about the procession as 
 it moved towards Buckingham Palace. Here the 
 Emperor and Empress remained but a short time, 
 afterwards going alone to the city. The lord mayor, 
 the aldermen, and the highest notabilities of England 
 were awaiting them at Guild Hall. 
 
 Guild Hall, at the end of King street in the city, 
 is the Hotel de Ville, the City Hall of London, the 
 meeting-place of the guilds and corporations. The 
 fine facade on King street was built in 1789. Above 
 the entrance are the arms of the city and the 
 motto : " Domine, dirige wos," " Lord, direct us." In 
 its great hall is given yearly on November 9 the 
 banquet offered by the new lord mayor to the 
 authorities to celebrate his entrance on his official 
 functions, and to which about one thousand guests 
 are always invited. It is also in this hall that the 
 ministers deliver important addresses. 
 
 Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who had
 
 270 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 remained at Buckingham Palace, were somewhat 
 anxious about the safety of their guests while on 
 the way to Guild Hall. What occurred in Paris 
 nine days later, shows that this anxiety was not 
 groundless. But nothing unpleasant happened in 
 London. The political refugees were closely 
 watched and made no hostile manifestation. Their 
 leaders had left the city, either for prudential reasons 
 or because they were unwilling to look on at a spec- 
 tacle which displeased them. As soon as it was un- 
 derstood that France was fighting merely for ideas, 
 and did not dream of enlarging her territory, her 
 successes did not revive hereditary jealousies. All 
 fears concerning a revenge for Waterloo were dis- 
 pelled. The spectre of a Franco-Russian alliance, 
 which had so greatly alarmed England under the 
 reign of Napoleon I., at the time of the interview at 
 Tilsit, and under the Restoration at the end of the 
 reign of Charles X., was now laid. In applauding 
 and dining Napoleon III., the English abandoned 
 themselves to unalloyed pleasure. 
 
 On arriving at Guild Hall the Emperor and Em- 
 press were conducted to the great hall where the 
 banquet was to take place. The lord mayor having 
 delivered a little speech of welcome, the Emperor, in 
 the midst of solemn silence, replied as follows in 
 English : " My lord, after the cordial welcome which 
 I have received from the Queen, nothing could affect 
 me more than the sentiments you have just expressed 
 to the Empress and me in the name of the city of
 
 LONDON 271 
 
 London ; for the city of London represents all 
 possible resources, whether for civilization or for 
 war in a commerce which embraces the universe. 
 However flattering your praises, I accept them 
 because they are intended for France much more 
 than for myself. As for me, I have preserved on 
 the throne the sentiments of esteem and sympathy for 
 the English people which I professed in exile, when 
 I enjoyed here the hospitality of the Queen, and if I 
 have conformed my conduct to my conviction, it is 
 because this was made a duty by the interests of the 
 nation which elected me, as well as by those of 
 general civilization. . . . Our two nations are still 
 stronger by virtue of the ideas they represent than 
 by the battalions and ships they have at their dis- 
 posal." 
 
 The Emperor closed his speech, which was loudly 
 applauded, as follows : "I am very grateful to the 
 Queen for having provided me with this formal 
 occasion of expressing to you my sentiments and 
 those of France, of which I am the interpreter. 
 I thank you in my own name and that of the 
 Empress for the frank and hearty cordiality with 
 which you have welcomed us. We shall take back 
 with us to France the profound impression left 
 upon souls capable of comprehending it by the im- 
 posing spectacle afforded by England, where virtue 
 on the throne directs the destinies of the country, 
 under the empire of a liberty which does not en- 
 danger its greatness."
 
 272 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 The Emperor wore the uniform of a general, 
 with the grand cross of the Legion of Honor and 
 the ribbon and star of the Order of the Garter. 
 His speech was delivered in a clear and strong 
 voice, and was received with immense enthusiasm. 
 The beauty of the Empress, who was in green 
 satin trimmed with white lace, and a white crepe 
 bonnet with marabout feathers, excited lively ad- 
 miration. Their Majesties visited Guild Hall, one 
 room of which had been hung with portraits of 
 the Bonaparte family. On recognizing that of his 
 mother, Napoleon III. exclaimed : " What a pleas- 
 ing attention ! " 
 
 From Guild Hall Their Imperial Majesties went 
 to the French embassy, where the diplomatic corps 
 was presented to them, and returned to Bucking- 
 ham Palace at half-past six o'clock. The day had 
 been a series of ovations. In the evening a full- 
 dress representation of Fidelio was given at the 
 Covent Garden theatre in honor of the Emperor 
 and Empress. The next day, April 20, was the 
 Emperor's forty -seventh birthday. The Queen con- 
 gratulated him and presented him with a little gold 
 pencil-case. Afterwards they visited the Crystal 
 Palace at Sydenham, which was all the more in- 
 teresting to the Emperor because he was making 
 ready for an international exposition at Paris. Sat- 
 urday, April 21, was the day set for the departure 
 of Their Imperial Majesties. The Emperor wrote 
 in the Queen's album : " I feel for Your Majesty
 
 LONDON 273 
 
 the sentiments one experiences for a queen and a 
 sister, — respectful devotion and tender affection. " 
 Then, after having inscribed this sentence : " I have 
 tried," said he, u to write what I feel." 
 
 The farewells were most cordial. After express- 
 ing very warmly his gratitude for the reception 
 given him, the Emperor said to the Queen : " You 
 will come to Paris if you can, will you not?" The 
 Queen replied : " Certainly, unless my public duties 
 prevent me." To which the Emperor returned : "I 
 thank you again for the little pencil-case you gave me 
 for my birthday. To have spent that near you will 
 bring me good luck." They parted with tears in their 
 eyes. It was half-past ten o'clock in the morning. 
 And again the band played Partant pour la Syrie. 
 
 Accompanied by Prince Albert and the Duke of 
 Cambridge as far as Dover, Their Imperial Maj- 
 esties were saluted by all the cannon of the Eng- 
 lish fleet, and embarked in splendid weather. They 
 arrived at Boulogne at half-past three, and at Paris 
 at six in the evening. The next day, April 23, the 
 Moniteur announced their return and published this 
 despatch from General Canrobert : " Before Sebas- 
 topol. We continue to maintain the superiorit} r of 
 our fire without wasting our ammunition. Up to 
 now the attack has been made chiefly by the artil- 
 lery; but the engineers are combining their efforts, 
 and opening roads which bring us nearer to the 
 town. These works make regular progress, in spite 
 of the difficulties of the ground."
 
 274 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 So it was during the whole of the Crimean War 
 that music and dancing alternated at Paris and 
 London with the frightful noises of the siege of 
 Sebastopol. The aspect of things was at once lu- 
 gubrious and joyful. The medley of slaughters 
 and festivals afforded a truly Shakespearian con- 
 trast. At the very moment when the Emperor was 
 returning in great happiness from his journey to 
 England, a fanatic was planning to assassinate him 
 in the midst of his triumph.
 
 CHAPTER XXXII 
 
 THE ATTEMPT OF PIANORI 
 
 /^VNE fine spring day, Saturday, April 28, 1855, 
 ^■^ the Emperor mounted his horse to go from 
 the Tuileries to the Bois de Boulogne by way of 
 the Champs Elysees. With his aide-de-camp, Colo- 
 nel Edgard Ney, on his right, and Colonel de 
 Valabregue, chief equerry, on his left, he had al- 
 ready passed the meeting of the roads and was 
 on a level with the Chateau des Fleurs, when a 
 well-dressed person ran suddenly from the pave- 
 ment on the right and advanced along the cause- 
 way towards the sovereign, who supposed that he 
 was about to be presented with a petition. But 
 it was not a petition which this man had in his 
 hand, but a pistol, with which he intended to kill 
 the Emperor. The presence of Colonel Edgard 
 Ney forced him to move almost directly opposite 
 the sovereign, in which position he fired his first 
 shot, but with no result. The rapid advance upon 
 him of Colonel Ney changed the direction of his 
 second shot, which was a failure like the first. 
 The assassin was immediately arrested by the po- 
 lice. It was half -past five in the afternoon. 
 
 276
 
 276 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 With his usual impassibility, the Emperor be- 
 trayed no emotion. With the greatest calmness, 
 he reassured the crowd pressing around him ; and, 
 without changing his horse's pace, quietly resumed 
 his ride as far as the Bois de Boulogne, where he 
 rejoined the Empress, who had started in a car- 
 riage a quarter of an hour before him. A great 
 throng of society men and women who were riding 
 in the Bois spontaneously escorted the Emperor 
 back to the Tuileries. I was in the Champs Ely- 
 sees at the time, and I remember having seen him 
 pass by in the midst of acclamations. The Em- 
 press followed him in a carriage; she was pale 
 and deeply affected, frequently carrying her hand- 
 kerchief to her eyes. 
 
 On reaching the Tuileries, Their Majesties found 
 King Jerome, Prince Napoleon, the other members 
 of the family ; and the great officers, the chief 
 officials of their households of both sexes, who had 
 been notified of the attempt, had also hastened to 
 congratulate the Emperor. " You see clearly," said 
 he, smiling, " that it is not so easy to kill me." In 
 the evening he went to the theatre with the Em- 
 press. 
 
 An eye-witness, Count Horace de Vieil-Castel, 
 has written in his memoirs : " At nine o'clock in 
 the evening I saw the imperial carriages arrive 
 at the Opera-Comique, and I must say that if 1 
 had read what I saw I would not believe it ; I 
 would accuse the journals of flattery. The cries
 
 THE ATTEMPT OF PIANORI 277 
 
 of ' Long live the Emperor ! ' thundered like con- 
 tinuous discharges of artillery in the distance ; the 
 emotion was general. I saw people weeping at the 
 Opera-Corn ique. The Empress was pale and pre- 
 occupied, in spite of her efforts to appear calm. 
 On their return Their Majesties were welcomed 
 with the same ovations, and houses were splendidly 
 illuminated all along their route." 
 
 The next day, Sunday, April 29, the Emperor 
 received the Nuncio and the diplomatic corps at the 
 Tuileries, coming in the name of their sovereigns to 
 express the indignation caused them by this attempt 
 on his life, and to felicitate him upon his providen- 
 tial preservation. The senators were afterwards 
 received. The president of the Senate said : " Sire, 
 we bless the admirable logic which presides over the 
 decrees of Providence. It has willed that your 
 throne should rise like a rampart between France 
 and revolutions. Consequently, it wills that factions 
 shall not prevent you from fulfilling the great mis- 
 sion on which depend the destinies of Europe and 
 the future of civilization. We unite our sentiments 
 to those of the Empress. There is no French heart 
 that does not palpitate like hers." 
 
 Napoleon III. replied : " I thank the Senate for 
 the sentiments it has just expressed. I do not fear 
 the attempts of assassins. There are existences 
 which are the instruments of the decrees of Provi- 
 dence. So long as I have not accomplished my mis- 
 sion, I incur no danger"
 
 278 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Their Majesties then went to the chapel of the 
 chateau, where they heard Mass, at which King 
 Jerome was also present. A Te Deum was chanted 
 after Vespers in every parish church in Paris. 
 Thoroughly convinced of the feelings entertained 
 for him personally by the French people, the Em- 
 peror expressed the desire that no addresses should be 
 presented by the municipal bodies or the authorities. 
 He thought that the general indignation rendered all 
 official manifestations useless. Every church in 
 France was crowded by people, coming to thank God 
 for having saved the Emperor. In foreign countries 
 there was also much emotion, especially in London 
 where he had been so magnificently received a few 
 days before. Count Walewski, French ambassador 
 at London, wrote to M. Drouyn de Lhuys, April 30: 
 " Words fail me to give a faithful description of the 
 impression produced here by the abominable attempt 
 against His Majesty's precious life. Day before 
 yesterday the Queen and H. R. H. Prince Albert 
 made haste to telegraph Lord Cowley, to express to 
 the Emperor what they feel so deeply. As soon as 
 he received the news, Lord Clarendon wrote me that 
 he could not help shuddering at the thought of the 
 dangers to which all Europe had just been exposed. 
 The entire diplomatic corps came to inscribe their 
 names at the embassy yesterday. Journals of every 
 shade are striving to outdo each other in adapting 
 themselves to the pitch of public feeling. Cardinal 
 Wiseman has asked me to forward the enclosed letter
 
 THE ATTEMPT OF PIANORI 279 
 
 to His Majesty, and while telling me how greatly 
 he had been horrified by the attempted assassination, 
 he announced that an official Te Deum, at which he 
 would himself officiate, would be celebrated at the 
 French chapel. On this occasion the Domine salvum 
 fac Imperatorem would be sung. I call Your Ex- 
 cellency's attention to the fact that this will be the 
 first time that the Domine salvum will have been 
 sung in the chapel since it ceased to belong to the 
 embassy, that is, since 1830." 
 
 The true name of the assassin was not ascertained 
 at first. A false passport induced the belief that he 
 was called Antonio Laverani. But it was soon 
 known that he was Giovanni Pianori, a native of the 
 Roman States, twenty-eight years of age, and by 
 trade a shoemaker. • A second pistol and a poniard 
 were found in his clothes. Questioned as to the 
 motive of his crime, he replied : " I acted that way 
 because the Emperor made the Roman campaign and 
 ruined my country." Pianori was a member of one 
 of those sects who did not forgive Napoleon III. 
 for the expedition of 18-49, though perhaps it was 
 rather the work of his ministry and the National 
 Assembly than his own. The murderer claimed to 
 have had no instigators but himself. It was never- 
 theless ascertained, that he came from England, and 
 the gunsmith who sold him his pistols was discovered 
 in London. London was, in fact, the centre of all 
 the conspiracies against the Emperor. The capital 
 of England was at that time the headquarters for the
 
 280 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Italian refugees, whose chief was Mazzini, and whose 
 programme the assassination of the French sovereign. 
 To overthrow the Emperor in order to overthrow 
 the Papacy was an idea which incessantly haunted 
 the brains of these fanatics, all of whom then con- 
 sidered the Napoleonic dynasty as the natural 
 guardian of the pontifical sovereignty. Concern- 
 ing this, M. A. Granier de Cassagnac has said : 
 "The event certainly proves that this theory of 
 the solidarity of the Pope and the Emperor was 
 not absolutely groundless, for the fall of the one 
 delivered the other to the machinations of his 
 enemies." 
 
 The culprit having been taken in the very act, 
 and having nothing to deny, the trial could take 
 place May 7, eight days after the crime. Arraigned 
 before the court of assizes, Pianori was condemned 
 to death and executed. His crime was the signal 
 for other attempts, several of which, discovered 
 in time, did not even begin to be put into execu- 
 tion, while others came within an ace of de- 
 stroying the Emperor. Every one of them was 
 organized in England, and had Mazzini for its insti- 
 gator. This man believed that conspirators should 
 be few in number in order to have any chance of 
 success. Hence he did not usually send more than 
 one, two, or at most four assassins to France at a 
 time. The French police, always on the alert, dis- 
 played great vigilance. Without the Emperor's 
 suspecting it, he was himself watched day and night
 
 THE ATTEMPT OF PIANORI 281 
 
 by faithful agents who were charged to follow him 
 .step by step, so as to turn aside the blows which 
 threatened him. 
 
 A fatalist and inaccessible to fear, Napoleon III., 
 with the imperturbable calm from which he was 
 never seen to depart, never gave a thought to the 
 attempts, and braved them with the carelessness of 
 an intrepid soldier on the battle-field. But the Em- 
 press felt anxieties for her husband's life which 
 overshadowed her happiest days.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIII 
 
 M. DROUYN DE LHUYS 
 
 TTTHILE Napoleon III. was making his tri- 
 * * umphant journey in England, and when he 
 escaped in a providential manner from the attempt 
 of the Italian sectary after his return, his Minister 
 of Foreign Affairs, M. Drouyn de Lhuys, was at 
 Vienna, where, in a conference which brought to- 
 gether the representatives of Austria, England, 
 France, Russia, and Turkey, he made praiseworthy 
 efforts for the restoration of peace. 
 
 Born in 1805, this statesman was then in his fiftieth 
 year, and enjoyed a great reputation as a diplomatist. 
 Attached to the French embassy to Madrid in 1830, 
 he had passed through all grades of the service 
 before attaining its highest rank. He had simulta- 
 neously distinguished himself in the parliamentary 
 and the diplomatic career. Appointed director of 
 commercial affairs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs 
 in 1840, he had been elected deputy from Melun in 
 1842. Three years later he was deprived of office 
 by M. Guizot for having voted against the ministry. 
 Being now a simple deputy, he took an active part 
 on the side of the opposition, and signed a request 
 
 282
 
 M. DROUYN DE LHUYS 283 
 
 for the impeachment of M. Guizot and the members 
 of the Cabinet several days before the revolution of 
 February 24. On becoming President of the Re- 
 public, Louis Napoleon entrusted to him the direction 
 of French diplomacy. 
 
 M. Drouyn de Lhuys was Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs four times : 1. From December 19, 1848, 
 to June 2, 1849 ; 2. from January 9 to January 
 24, 1851 ; 3. from July 28, 1852, to May 8, 1855 ; 
 4. from October 15, 1862, to September 1, 1866. One 
 of his most brilliant subordinates, Count Bernard 
 d'Harcourt, former ambassador, has said of him : 
 " During thirty years his house was the rendezvous 
 of all persons who, directly or indirectly, have 
 touched on foreign questions. He was surrounded 
 and consulted with the same deference by men of 
 every shade of opinion. The portfolio of Foreign 
 Affairs, placed in his hands four times, seemed never 
 to be withdrawn for more than a moment. When 
 the agents of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were 
 no longer obliged to go to him for orders, they came 
 to ask his advice or his impressions." 
 
 I had the honor of serving under the orders of 
 M. Drouyn de Lhuys, as clerk in the political depart- 
 ment, throughout the terra of his fourth and last 
 ministry. At that time I saw him constantly. He 
 encouraged my modest productions and my diplo- 
 matic beginnings with extreme kindness, and I am 
 happy to have the occasion to pay homage to his 
 memory.
 
 284 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 M. Drouyn de Llmys was a man of talent and a 
 good man. His ideas were lofty and liberal, his 
 private life irreproachable, his character and man- 
 ners most dignified, his mind broad and independent. 
 Very learned and very literary, he wrote remark- 
 ably well, expressed himself with as much clearness 
 as elegance, gave his instructions with rare lucidity, 
 and preserved absolute calmness in the most difficult 
 situations. He imposed respect on all who ap- 
 proached him. He was a typical minister, and held 
 in as much consideration abroad as at home. 
 
 Such was the man who bore to Vienna a message 
 of pacification. Baron de Bourqueney, Minister of 
 France in Austria, wrote to M. Thouvenel, in charge 
 of the home department of the Ministry of Foreign 
 Affairs : " Vienna, April 7, 1855. M. Drouyn de 
 Lhuys arrived last evening. This morning he called 
 on Count Buol, who has informed him that the Em- 
 peror will give him a private audience to-morrow. 
 Count Buol said to him : ' We know that you are 
 bringing us directly and confidentially the secret 
 mind of the Emperor Napoleon, and we cannot suffi- 
 ciently congratulate ourselves on being thus placed 
 in contact with him by you. We have already 
 managed affairs very well from a distance. Permit 
 me to hope that we shall conduct them still better at 
 shorter range.' " 
 
 After having been received by the Emperor 
 Francis Joseph, M. Drouyn de Lhuys wrote to 
 Napoleon III. : " The young sovereign is tall, slen-
 
 M. DROUYN DE LIIUYS 285 
 
 der, well made ; his countenance, ordinarily serious 
 and even a trifle severe, becomes benevolent when 
 he smiles. Evidently the premature responsibilities 
 of empire have hindered the development of the 
 graces of adolescence on this face, and in looking at 
 the Emperor one recalls involuntarily the touching 
 expression which escaped him when he received the 
 crown : ' Adieu, my youth ! ' If the whole counte- 
 nance is studied attentively, one finds beneath a 
 thin veil of timidity a will capable of obstinacy. 
 His Majesty received me with affectionate kind- 
 
 ness." 
 
 A convinced partisan of the Austrian alliance, 
 M. Drouyn de Lhuys said to the Emperor Francis 
 Joseph : " The great problem is to master the revo- 
 lution without the help of Russia, and to curb Rus- 
 sia without the help of the revolution. For the last 
 thirty years this problem has been insoluble, and 
 that is why Russia and the revolution have been 
 simultaneously triumphant during that time. Now 
 the solution is found in the alliance of France with 
 Austria. What has brought me to Vienna is far 
 less the desire to make peace with Russia than to 
 consolidate and make fruitful the alliance with 
 Austria." 
 
 A conference, containing representatives of Aus- 
 tria, England, France, Russia, and Turkey, had been 
 in session at Vienna since March 15. They were 
 discussing what were called the four points, or the 
 four guarantees. These four points on which Aus-
 
 286 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 tria was of one mind with the cabinets of Paris and 
 London in signing the treaty of December 2, 1854, 
 were the following : 1. It is important that the 
 Russian protectorate over the Danubian provinces 
 should be replaced by a collective protectorate of 
 the powers. 2. The navigation of the Danube 
 ought to be entirely freed from restrictions. 3. The 
 independence of the Ottoman Empire ought to be 
 assured. 4. Russia should renounce all exclusive 
 patronage over the Christian subjects of the Porte. 
 
 Dreading to see Austria declare war upon her, 
 Russia had accepted the four points in principle ; 
 but when it became a question of putting them in 
 practice, the disputes had begun. The Russian 
 ambassador at Vienna, Prince Gortchakoff, was a 
 consummate diplomatist, who at first used every 
 artifice to delay the assembling of the conference, 
 and afterwards to paralyze its labors. There was 
 an agreement on the first two points, but the third 
 raised inextricable difficulties. Austria, France, 
 England, and Turkey maintained that the inde- 
 pendence of the Ottoman Empire demanded the 
 suppression of the Russian naval forces in the 
 Black Sea. Russia, on the contrary, refused any 
 limitation of her forces. They turned in a vicious 
 circle. 
 
 Things were at this point when M. Drouyn de 
 Lhuys arrived at Vienna. There he met one of 
 the principal statesmen of England, Lord John 
 Russell, Colonial Minister, who had come to take
 
 M. DROVrX DE LHUTS 287 
 
 part in the work of the conference, and there he 
 was rejoined by Ali Pasha, Turkish Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs. The conference, which assumed 
 the character of a congress from the presence of 
 these notable personages, assembled April T, 1855. 
 After several sessions and long deliberations, M. 
 Drouyn de Lhuys and Lord John Russell elabo- 
 rated, subject to the approbation of their govern- 
 ments, a scheme of compromise which Austria 
 sanctioned, and which contained the following 
 articles : 
 
 1. European guaranty of the independence and 
 territorial integrity of the Ottoman Empire. 2. Ab- 
 solute closing of the straits for the Russians, saving 
 exceptions for the allies. 3. Each of the allies may 
 have two frigates in the Black Sea. 4. If Russia 
 increases her existing naval forces in the Euxine, 
 each ally may send thither a number of vessels 
 equal to half the Russian vessels. 5. In case of 
 danger, the whole of the allied naval forces enter. 
 6. France, England, and Austria will sign at once 
 a treaty, naming as a cause of war the augmentation 
 of the Russian fleet above the effective force of 
 1853. 
 
 Baron de Bourqueney wrote to M. Thouvenel, 
 April 23 : " The conference has adjourned without 
 date. Austria reserves to herself its reunion when 
 she shall learn the decision of the French and Eng- 
 lish governments on the plan elaborated during the 
 last days. I can only join with M. Drouyn de
 
 288 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Lhuys in hoping that the government of the Em- 
 peror may adhere to it. This project not merely 
 confirms the alliance of December 2, but renders it 
 indissoluble, whether the existing crisis finds its 
 solution in peace or war. Lord John Russell, who 
 is imperatively recalled by his ministerial duties, 
 leaves for England this evening filled with the idea 
 I have just expressed. Having come to Vienna 
 much prejudiced against the alliance, he has been 
 convinced of the honesty of Austria, and reproaches 
 only her prudence. From that day his choice was 
 made. He has preferred a less brilliant peace to the 
 continuation of the war without Austria : this is 
 what he will maintain among his colleagues, and, if 
 necessary, against them before Parliament." 
 
 M. Drouyn de Lhuys had believed his views to 
 be in conformity with those of his sovereign. Napo- 
 leon III. had, in fact, telegraphed him as follows, 
 April 15 : "I have received your courier ; all you 
 have said and done is so good that I have no new 
 instructions to give you ; I am starting for London." 
 
 In England the Emperor had changed his mind. 
 He was persuaded by the English ministers, who 
 wanted the war to go on at any cost, that the pro- 
 jected treaty was insufficient and inefficacious. On 
 the other hand, he believed that the taking of Sebas- 
 topol was necessary to the prestige of the French 
 army. On returning to Paris he sent M. Drouyn 
 de Lhuys a telegram, April 23, containing these 
 words : " I returned yesterday from my visit to
 
 M. DROUYN DE LHUYS 289 
 
 a_ 
 
 England, which was admirable in even* way. . . . 
 Nothing in the world would induce me to accept 
 anything which should maintain the condition before 
 the war." 
 
 Feeling that he was disavowed, the French Min- 
 ister of Foreign Affairs had nothing further to do 
 in Vienna. The day before he left, April 24, he 
 wrote to Napoleon III. : " I have just come from 
 the farewell audience granted me by the Emperor 
 Francis Joseph. Here is a summary of his remarks : 
 ' I regret sincerely that it may be impossible for me 
 to go further than the plan you have had to send 
 to Paris. But when the Emperor knows it as it 
 was finally formulated, I hope that he will agree 
 with me in thinking that a perpetual alliance be- 
 tween us to defend the Ottoman Empire against 
 Russia by land and sea is better than a higher or 
 lower figure. This ultimatum means war, but a 
 war in which I shall have on my side the approval 
 of my conscience, the assent of my people, and the 
 support of Germany.' " The Austrian government, 
 having resolved to propose the plan of treaty to 
 Russia under the form of an ultimatum, still hoped 
 that M. Drouyn de Lhuys and Lord John Russell 
 could succeed in getting their views adopted by the 
 Cabinets of Paris and London. After the return of 
 the former to Paris, the following telegrams were 
 exchanged between him and Baron de Bourqueney, 
 Minister of France at Vienna : 
 
 " Vienna, May 3, 2 p.m. Here is the identical
 
 290 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 *■ 
 
 declaration of Count Buol : The non-acceptance of 
 Austria's ultimatum constitutes the casus belli and 
 entails the immediate signature of the military con- 
 vention, which fixes the measure of co-operation of 
 each of the powers and the date of entry on the 
 campaign." 
 
 " Vienna, May 3. The Emperor has ratified com- 
 pletely the declaration of his minister. Let us urge 
 on the solution. Do not compromise an excellent 
 situation for the sake of secondary details. Count 
 Buol requests you, in the Emperor's name, to send 
 instructions without delay to your military plenipo- 
 tentiaries to proceed to the signature of the mili- 
 tary convention the very moment when the Russian 
 plenipotentiaries shall declare themselves unable to 
 accept without reserve the ultimatum of England." 
 
 M. Drouyn de Lliuys to Baron de Bourqueney. — 
 May 5, 1855. " The Emperor and the British Cabi- 
 net reject the proposition of Vienna. I have given 
 in my resignation this morning. Keep these pieces 
 of information secret." 
 
 Count Bernard d'Harcourt has written in his 
 remarkable work : Les quatre ministeres des Affaires 
 etrangeres de M. Drouyn de Lliuys : " Although the 
 retirement of M. Drouyn de Lhuys in May, 1855, 
 did not seem to modify very sensibly the general 
 aspect of affairs, the acceptance of his resignation 
 was an indication of a profound change in the 
 foreign policy of the Empire. M. Drouyn de Lhuys 
 thought that the Austrian alliance would be at once
 
 M. DliOUYN BE LriUYS 291 
 
 a lever and a curb for Napoleon III. When the 
 minister who.se views this alliance seconded with- 
 drew from power, other ideas prevailed, and the 
 doctrines which acted so powerfully on the court of 
 the Tuileries, later on, made their first appearance." 
 When Count Walewski took possession of the 
 portfolio of Foreign Affairs, May 8, 1855, the watch- 
 word was to say that no change had been made in 
 the great lines of imperial policy. The public, know- 
 ing little of diplomacy, paid small attention to an 
 incident whose importance it was incapable of appre- 
 ciating. Parisians talk of a good many things, but 
 they seldom talk of two things at once. At this 
 moment they thought of nothing but the great cere- 
 mony they were about to witness : the opening of 
 the Universal Exposition. This diversion made them 
 forget, for several days, all the preoccupations of 
 home or foreign politics.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIV 
 
 THE UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION 
 
 A T the very moment when the last hopes of 
 peace had vanished and new slaughters were 
 preparing in the Crimea, Paris, by a strange contrast, 
 beheld a ceremony which seemed like the symbol and 
 glorification of peace. The opening of the Universal 
 Exposition took place at the Champs Elysees, in the 
 Palais de 1' Industrie, Tuesday, May 15, 1855. The 
 external facade was decorated with trophies, escutch- 
 eons of the imperial arms, flags of all nations. Fol- 
 lowed by a numerous procession, which included the 
 entire diplomatic corps, the Emperor and Empress 
 made their entry as an orchestra of one hundred and 
 fifty musicians struck up the air of La Heine Hor- 
 tense. A platform had been raised in the middle of 
 the nave, opposite the principal doorway, and upon 
 this, under a canopy of crimson velvet surmounted 
 by the imperial crown, was a throne on which the 
 sovereign took his seat, with the Empress at his side. 
 Prince Napoleon, who had exchanged the command 
 of a division in the Crimea for the duties of presi- 
 dent of the Commission appointed to organize the 
 Exposition, made a speech beginning thus : " Sire, a 
 
 202
 
 THE UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION 293 
 
 Universal Exposition would have been a considerable 
 event at any time, but this one becomes unique in 
 history through the circumstances under which it 
 takes place. For more than a year France has been 
 engaged in a serious war, eight hundred leagues 
 away from her frontiers, and is struggling gloriously 
 against her enemies. It was reserved for the reign 
 of Your Majesty to show that France is wortlrv of 
 her past in war, and greater than she has ever been 
 in the arts of peace. The French people are making- 
 it plain to the world that whenever their genius is 
 understood, and they are well guided, they will 
 always be the great nation." Prince Napoleon 
 announced that there were twenty thousand exhib- 
 iters, nine thousand five hundred of whom were 
 French and ten thousand five hundred foreigners. 
 Even Russia had been invited, but had not re- 
 sponded to an appeal which circumstances rendered 
 peculiar. On this head the Prince remarked : 
 " Even the power with which we are fighting has 
 not been excluded. If Russian manufacturers had 
 presented themselves under the rules established by 
 all the nations, we would have admitted them, in 
 order to firmly establish the demarkation between 
 the Slav peoples, who are not our enemies, and this 
 government, whose preponderance civilized nations 
 must contest." 
 
 The Emperor replied in a few words to Prince 
 Napoleon's long discourse. He said : " My dear 
 con sin, in placing you at the head of a commission
 
 294 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 called on to overcome so many difficulties, I wished 
 to give you a special proof of my confidence. I am 
 glad to see that you have justified it so well. I beg 
 you to thank the Commission in my name for the 
 intelligent care and indefatigable zeal which they 
 have manifested. I open with joy this temple of 
 peace, which invites all peoples to concord." 
 
 Thus, in the midst of one of the most ruthless and 
 sanguinary wars known to history, was inaugurated 
 the edifice called a temple of peace by the chief of 
 one of the belligerent powers. The opening cere- 
 mony was splendid. The success of the Exposition 
 was immense. The Palais de Flndustrie, expressly 
 built for its purposes on Marigny square, between the 
 Champs Elysees and the Seine, appeared magnificent 
 at the time. Its principal hall, with its immense 
 proportions and Marechal's gigantic glass windows, 
 had a suggestion of Babylon. The Exposition was 
 like a Tower of Babel, with order in place of confu- 
 sion. All nations of the earth seemed to have made 
 it their trysting place. One heard all languages 
 spoken. Paris began to assume that cosmopolitan 
 character, so much developed since, which has made 
 it a city apart, the capital of capitals. The Exposi- 
 tion was more than an immense bazaar intended to 
 delight the eyes. It was like the synthesis of the 
 industrial and economic transformation going on in 
 the world. It was not merely an incomparable en- 
 tertainment for the crowd, but an element of salu- 
 tary reflections for the thinker and the workingman.
 
 THE UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION 295 
 
 Never had human activity better displayed its energy 
 and power. In passing through its numberless gal- 
 leries, one observed Boileau's precept, and went 
 
 " From grave to gay, from lively to severe." 
 
 The most futile things figured beside the most 
 serious : precious stones, ball dresses, children's toys, 
 beside agricultural implements and all the machines 
 which have modified industry from top to bottom. 
 The gallery of Domestic Economy attracted the spe- 
 cial attention of those who are chiefly concerned with 
 improved conditions for the greater number. Beside 
 the industries of luxury, of the decorative and the 
 industrial arts, appeared those which might be called 
 the humanitarian arts. One was struck by the pro- 
 digious progress of science, and by those as yet timid 
 and unknown discoveries destined to take a rapid 
 flight so soon. Thus one admired the beginnings of 
 photography, that future great rival of the pencil 
 and the brush, and noted the first applications of 
 electricity, — of electricity, which must change the 
 face of the globe. 
 
 As an antithesis to the marvels of peace, there was 
 a gallery which evoked all the horrors and sufferings 
 of war. Here had been placed ambulance wagons, 
 surgical instruments, instruments for the wounded. 
 Many a face grew dark in presence of such a specta- 
 cle. Thought flew towards the Crimean ambulances, 
 towards the dying. There were mothers who wept 
 there. Bella matribus detestata. But the dismal
 
 296 NAPOLEON III. AND IIIS COURT 
 
 impression lasted but a moment. The joyous or- 
 chestras went on playing. Crowds are so indiffer- 
 ent. Paris forgets so quickly. 
 
 The number of exhibiters was so much greater than 
 had been anticipated that, in addition to the Palais 
 de lTndustrie, a long supplementary gallery had to 
 be constructed. At the end of this gallery, on the 
 Avenue Montaigne, was the vast building intended 
 to receive the statues, paintings, and drawings sent 
 by the nations to this general competition opened by 
 France. No such liberal provision had been made 
 for art at any time or under any reign. " This is 
 the first time," wrote Theophile Gautier, "that the 
 fine arts of all peoples meet on the pacific battle-field 
 of the Universal Exposition. Grand idea, which 
 only our century could realize with its prodigious 
 means of communication in presence of which neither 
 seas nor mountains, neither distances nor obstacles, 
 exist ! There are no more Pyrenees is a saying which 
 is now applicable to all frontiers, and across the 
 fictitious blue, green, and red lines on the geographic 
 maps the countries chat familiarly with each other 
 from one end of the world to the other." 
 
 To resume : arts and sciences, commerce and in- 
 dustry, expanded magnificently in the pacific assizes 
 where their most brilliant manifestations had been 
 assembled. There resulted from this grand spectacle 
 a lesson of progress, of pacification, of international 
 solidarity, which peoples and sovereigns have not 
 sufficiently conned. The whirl of fashion, the con-
 
 THE UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION 297 
 
 tinual series of amusements and pleasures, forced into 
 oblivion the philosophic side of this Exposition in 
 which thinkers were alone in beholding an eloquent 
 protest against the frightful struggle which was 
 reddening the plateau of Chersonese. People should 
 have reflected that every war between Christian 
 nations is a fratricidal war. The marvels of com- 
 merce and industry should have made them compre- 
 hend what the nations might do if, instead of ex- 
 hausting themselves in such sterile expenses as those 
 entailed by armaments, they made only the fruit- 
 ful and productive expenses of peace. It is in the 
 Gospel, the book of true progress, the book of the 
 future, that should have been sought the moral of 
 the Universal Exposition. What this great pacific 
 fete should have recalled is the saying of Christ : 
 " They that take the sword shall perish by the 
 sword." Because it has forgotten this saying the last 
 half of the nineteenth centur} r will see again the heca- 
 tombs of its early years, and groan under the weight 
 of calamities, which will obstruct the march of civili- 
 zation, and compromise the future of the human race. 
 Napoleon III. had opened the Exposition, May 15, 
 1855. The next day, May 16, he received a tele- 
 gram b}- which General Canrobert gave his resig- 
 nation as commander-in-chief of the army of the 
 Orient. Let us see what had taken place in the 
 Crimea since the beginning of the year, and what 
 inextricable difficulties had induced the valiant gen- 
 eral to abdicate his command.
 
 CHAPTER XXXV 
 
 GENERAL CANROBERT 
 
 r I ^HE winter had been as dismal and doleful in the 
 Crimea as it had been brilliant and joj^ous at 
 Paris. To the torrents of rain which had signalized 
 the last days of 1854 had succeeded, since the begin- 
 ning of January, 1855, snow, hail, the icy blasts, 
 the hurricanes of the north. Men who had spent 
 twenty-four hours in the deep and frozen mud of 
 the trenches, found not even a poor fire by which to 
 warm themselves on returning to the tents. Hence 
 frozen limbs requiring operations almost always fatal. 
 The plateau of the Chersonese was like a circle of 
 Dante's Inferno. 
 
 General Canrobert wrote : " The army will long 
 remember the 16th of January. During twenty- 
 four hours night did not cease to reign over our 
 bivouacs. Heavy clouds, inundating the atmos- 
 phere with a powder of snow chased by an icy wind 
 from the northeast, hung down to the ground. No 
 more intolerable situation could be imagined, yet 
 neither discouragement nor disorder was anywhere 
 produced." The commander-in-chief possessed in 
 the highest degree the talent of maintaining the 
 
 208
 
 GENERAL CANBOBEBT 299 
 
 morale of the troops amidst the most deplorable 
 sufferings. No one could apply to this essentially 
 good and humane soldier that saying of Bossuet : 
 "Away with heroes who lack humanity ! They 
 may force respect and ravish admiration, as extraor- 
 dinary objects do, but they will not gain hearts." 
 Canrobert won hearts, because he loved his soldiers 
 as a good father loves his children. His speech, 
 somewhat emphatic, but alwa} r s vibrant, plausible, 
 generous, produced a great impression upon the 
 troops. A model of abnegation, disinterestedness, 
 and bravery, prodigal of his own blood and miserly 
 with that of others, he encouraged, consoled, strength- 
 ened, his soldiers by his example. I knew him very 
 well. He said to me one day, in telling the story of 
 his first campaigns : " I loved war as a lover does 
 his sweetheart." Yet while loving it passionately, 
 he deplored its miseries more than any one. In the 
 soul of this modern Bayard there was an incom- 
 parable depth of kindness and pity. 
 
 M. Charles Bocher, aide-de-camp of the com- 
 mander-in-chief, wrote, April 21, 1855 : " The brav- 
 ery of our soldiers is brought into prominence by 
 the small combats that take place nightly. The 
 Russians are always laying ambuscades within range 
 of our works, both to stop them and to cover the 
 approaches to their city. It is necessary to get rid 
 of them, a delicate and dangerous operation which 
 can only be performed at night. We lose a good 
 many men there ; General Canrobert's heart bleeds
 
 300 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 whenever he has to sign an order for this sort of 
 fighting. To give an idea of his humane sentiments, 
 he lately reviewed a detachment got together in the 
 evening for one of these night affairs. Foreseeing 
 that it would be bloody, he spoke to the troops in 
 language calculated to inflame their courage, and 
 ended by saying that if any of these brave fellows 
 felt himself weakening before the thought of danger, 
 he might go quietly back to his tent and nothing 
 would be done about it. The general would have 
 kept his word, but he could not have used language 
 more capable of touching his audience and inspiring 
 them with the loftiest sentiments." 
 
 Canrobert went to the trenches every day, and 
 showed himself in the most exposed places. He 
 was heard to exclaim after a dangerous tour of in- 
 spection, and one that had been profuse in tragic 
 incidents : " See how thickly strewn the road of 
 glory is Avith anguish and ruins ! " He ended his 
 day among the ambulances. "It is the reverse of 
 the medal," said he. He consoled the wounded by 
 kind words, promised them rewards, and distributed 
 his pay among them, being unwilling to keep any of 
 it for himself. His headquarters, so well described 
 in the Avork of M. Charles Bocher. Lettres et reciU 
 ?nilitaires, was like the cell of an anchorite. Situ- 
 ated on bare ground, where in bad weather one sank 
 either into mud or snow, it was composed of some 
 old tents ruined by the rains. As severe to himself 
 as he Avas gentle to others, he slept and worked under
 
 GENERAL CAN ROBERT ^Ol 
 
 a simple soldier's tent. His table was as frugal as 
 that of a monk. After the evening meal he made 
 his guests forget the bad cooking by telling them 
 some good military story. 
 
 Born in 1809, General Canrobert was at this time 
 forty-five years old. From childhood he had had 
 the qualities of a true soldier. He told one day how, 
 at the age of ten, having to be sent to the institution 
 of Senlis, where the sons of poor chevaliers of Saint 
 Louis were educated, his father had taken him be- 
 hind him on a farm-horse and carried him in that 
 way as far as Brives-la-Gaillarde. There the child 
 was confided to the driver of the mail-coach to be 
 taken to Paris, to the house of his uncle, General 
 Marbot, the celebrated military historian, who con- 
 ducted him to Senlis. When young Canrobert left 
 the military school of Saint-Cyr, his mother, whom 
 it inconvenienced a good deal, sent him fifteen louis 
 in gold, which seemed to him a fortune. This was 
 the only money he received from his parents through- 
 out his career. In Africa he was one of the most 
 popular officers in the army. He distinguished him- 
 self in the storming of Constantine, where he was 
 wounded at the side of Colonel Combes, who, before 
 expiring, recommended him to Marshal Valee in 
 these words: "There is a future in that officer." 
 He was one of the first to begin the assault on 
 Zaatcha, and was appointed commander of the Legion 
 of Honor. A brigadier general at the time of the 
 Coup d'Etat, he was unwilling to receive the three
 
 302 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COUllT 
 
 stars for a feat of civil war, and did not become 
 general of division until January 14, 1853. 
 
 A model of military virtues, Canrobert spoke like 
 a Christian of war and glory. On the very day 
 before the young General de Lavarande was killed, 
 he said to him : " I have never forgotten the inscrip- 
 tion on the door of the cemetery of Senlis : ' Sic 
 arguantur vanitatis jwceterita,' ' Here all the vanities 
 of this world will have to render their accounts.'' 
 The religious sentiment is always found in the heroes 
 of the Crimea, in Saint- Arnaud and Canrobert as in 
 Bosquet. In March, 1855, after a terrible fight, 
 which took place in darkness, the latter wrote : 
 "What a night! There was the place for a man to 
 learn how to turn his eyes to heaven and his soul to 
 God, keeping and using his heart and his sword for 
 his country. God is on our side, for we are winning 
 great and very risky games ; and every one of us 
 sees in it the effect of our mothers' prayers and those 
 of all the good souls of France." 
 
 Indeed, divine force was not too much to sustain 
 souls amid such trials. Never had war worn a more 
 horrible aspect. One might have thought he was 
 fighting in hell. Listen to General Fay: " The day- 
 light fighting seemed nothing but sport in compari- 
 son with the work in the bowels of the earth and 
 its accompanying dangers ; there, the miner, hearing 
 all around him the blows of his enemy's picks, sought 
 how to surprise him when he was not surprised him- 
 self. He was incessantly exposed to a loss of air, to
 
 GENERAL (ANROBERT 303 
 
 asphyxia from the gas of the enemy's mines. . . . 
 Men often seized smoking shells and bombs in the 
 trenches and threw them over the parapet at the risk 
 of their own lives, thus saving many of their com- 
 rades by their presence of mind and courage." 
 
 On Sunday, April 8, 1855, the bells rang a full 
 peal in all the churches of Sebastopol. The Rus- 
 sians were giving each other the kiss of peace. It 
 was Easter Sunday. Alas ! the next day the hor- 
 rors of war went on with increasing fury. The 
 allies began an infernal bombardment against the 
 city. On that day a terrific tempest succeeded 
 the twenty days of fine weather which had just 
 preceded it. Rain and wind never ceased. A thick 
 fog made firing difficult, and prevented the works of 
 the enemy from being seen. The trenches were 
 deluged. The bombardment went on for ten suc- 
 cessive days without other result than disabling six 
 thousand one hundred and twenty- one Russians, one 
 thousand five hundred and eighty-seven French, and 
 two hundred and sixty-three English. Among the 
 victims was General Bizot, who commanded the en- 
 gineers so admirably. He was mortalty wounded, 
 April 11. Omar Pasha and his Mussulman officers 
 were seen sprinkling holy water on the corpse of a 
 Christian. General Canrobert made some remarks, 
 which brought tears to the eyes of all who heard 
 them. He wrote to General Bosquet : " The death 
 of General Bizot is one of the bitterest griefs I ever 
 experienced," and to Marshal Vaillant : " This death
 
 304 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COUBT 
 
 is a real public misfortune ; it is a grief to the whole 
 army. General Bizot had a most worthily acquired 
 popularity among the men. . . . Our soldiers all 
 knew him, they admired his ardor, his bravery, like 
 that of an ensign, and every day were astonished 
 at seeing him come back alive from the trenches, 
 after perils braved with a carelessness and gaiety 
 that gave a peculiar quality to his courage." 
 
 Cruel anxieties and perplexities were at this time 
 disturbing the mind of General Canrobert. Torn 
 by contradictory influences, and unable to satisf} r 
 both the Emperor and the allies, he recoiled above 
 all from the final slaughter without which the taking 
 of Sebastopol would be impossible. On April 17 
 General Niel, who replaced General Bizot at the head 
 of the engineers, wrote to Napoleon III. : " The 
 assault is so difficult, so perilous for the army, that, 
 when the moment comes, one recoils before it. The 
 truth is that in this pretended siege we are pursuing 
 an end which we dare not attain when we approach 
 it, and which has no solution but the investment of 
 the city." Such was also the sentiment of the com- 
 mander-in-chief, but the English would not hear of 
 anything but the continuation of the siege, and re- 
 fused participation in any other military operation. 
 A generalissimo was needed to import unity into the 
 command, and there was none. Napoleon III. in his 
 cabinet in the Tuileries, whence he continually sent, 
 if not orders, at least counsels to the army, insisted 
 in vain upon a campaign at long distance, in the
 
 GENERAL CANROBERT 305 
 
 interior of the Crimea, for the purpose of arriving at 
 the investment of Sebastopol. Lord Raglan obsti- 
 nately opposed the execution of this plan. 
 
 Despairing of his ability to remedy so disturbed 
 a situation, General Canrobert addressed the follow- 
 ing telegram in cipher to the Emperor : "Crimea, 
 May 16, 10 a.m. My health and my mind, fatigued 
 by constant tension, no longer permit me to bear the 
 burden of an immense responsibility. My duty tow- 
 ards my sovereign and my country obliges me to 
 ask you to allow me to remit to General Pelissier, an 
 able leader and one of large experience, the letter of 
 commandment which I have for him. The army 
 which I shall leave to him is intact, inured to ser- 
 vice, ardent and confident. I entreat the Emperor 
 to leave me the place of a combatant at the head 
 of a simple division." 
 
 Great was the surprise of the army when it 
 learned, May 19, that General Canrobert had re- 
 signed the chief command to General Pelissier and 
 was henceforth merely in charge of his former divi- 
 sion (1st of the 2d corps). The chagrin was uni- 
 versal. If the man who had given with so much 
 simplicity such an example of self-abnegation had 
 been killed, he would not have been more regretted. 
 
 Once more a simple general of division, the former 
 commander-in-chief was a model of devotion and dis- 
 cipline. He exposed himself more than ever. His 
 aide-de-camp wrote, July 14 : " It is seldom that 
 on the day after being on guard I do not attend the
 
 306 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 burial of some officer of my acquaintance. Life slips 
 on here in the midst of deaths ; at the entrance of 
 the trenches there are large graves all ready for the 
 dead. New ones are dug every day ; close by, on 
 the way to the trenches, the ambulances are estab- 
 lished. It is scarcely a promenade calculated to 
 enliven one, and yet it affects nobody ; one grows 
 accustomed to everything. Moreover, Providence 
 gives to souls a moral force equal to the greatest 
 extremities to which it destines them. This must 
 be so, because none of us seem to weaken." 
 
 General Canrobert was scrupulously careful to 
 assist his soldiers in bearing their miseries patiently. 
 Seeing him so resigned and firm, no one else vent- 
 ured to complain. Nevertheless his health gave 
 way. Marshal Vaillant wrote to General Niel: 
 "Tell General Canrobert that he must absolutely 
 return here, even if it is only for a time. The 
 Emperor desires it. He has heard from several 
 quarters that Canrobert is suffering, that his eyes 
 trouble him, that his pains are so great that he can 
 hardly remain in the saddle. The Emperor wishes 
 this worthy general to rest ; he will return to his 
 division later on. Insist strongly on his coming 
 home." Pelissier advised his friend to take a short 
 furlough in conformity with the sovereign's wish. 
 Canrobert replied : " In accepting my return to 
 France, on account of my health, I should be giving 
 the army a bad example, and I pique myself on 
 never having given and never intending to give any
 
 GENERAL VAN ROBERT 307 
 
 but good ones." Possibly it was thought that the 
 former commander-in-chief retained a moral author- 
 ity and prestige which ought to belong only to his 
 successor. However that may be, it was necessary 
 for the Emperor to give a formal command. He 
 ordered Canrobert, who was his aide-de-camp, to 
 resume his duties near him, and the general was 
 obliged to obey. He had behaved like one of Plu- 
 tarch's heroes. The two and a half months he had 
 just spent in the Crimea as a simple general of divi- 
 sion, did more for his popularity and his fame than 
 all his other exploits. Nothing gives a better idea 
 of the sentiments which Canrobert inspired in his 
 military comrades than the following letter from 
 General Bosquet, whose chief and whose subordinate 
 he had been by turns : 
 
 "August 11, 1855. When you receive this letter, 
 my good mother, you will know already that my 
 brother-in-arms, Canrobert, has left the Crimea in 
 compliance with a formal command of the Emperor, 
 who wishes to have him near him. We did not sepa- 
 rate without emotion ; he knows that you pray for 
 him as you do for me, and that in your holy prayers 
 we are doubly brothers. He will probably be obliged 
 to try the waters of Bareges for a knee which fatigue 
 and cold have rendered somewhat stiff. To con- 
 sole me, he said he would certainly make a short 
 visit at Pau. Seated beside you, your hands in his, 
 he will tell you all you would like to know, answer- 
 ing all questions and being able to answer them,
 
 308 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 because for eighteen months we have been living not 
 far from each other and meeting nearly every day. 
 You will be happy to have him near you for a 
 moment ; his countenance is so gentle, and expresses 
 so well the benevolence and generosity that are in 
 his heart. Here it is seven days since we parted ; I 
 count them almost as separated lovers do ; but no 
 jealousy mingles with this sentiment, for I am sure 
 that he thinks of me as I think of him." Happy 
 the brave soldiers who render such justice to each 
 other ! The paladins of the Middle Ages, the heroes 
 of the crusades, had not been more chivalrous.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVI 
 
 GENERAL PE USSIER 
 
 30RN November 6, 1794, General Pelissier was 
 ~^ fifteen years older than General Canrobert. 
 His age, his character, and his services gave him 
 great prestige. He had entered the Royal Guard as 
 an ensign, March 18, 1815, two days before Napoleon 
 returned to the Tuileries. He had distinguished 
 himself in the war with Spain in 1823, and in the 
 expedition of Morea in 1828. He commanded the 
 left wing at the battle of Isly in 1844. He took a 
 brilliant part in the campaign of Kabylia in 1852, 
 and contributed much to the taking of Laghouat. 
 At the commencement of the Crimean War he was at 
 the head of the division of Oran. He was heard at 
 that time to make this prophetic remark : " There is 
 but one man who can take possession of Sebastopol ; 
 and I am that man." His military reputation caused 
 him to be summoned to the war in the Orient. 
 Arriving in the Crimea February 11, 1855, he took 
 command of the 1st corps the same day. On the 
 16th of the following May he replaced General Can- 
 robert as commander-in-chief. 
 
 General Pelissier's dominant quality was his 
 strength of will. Tenacious, absolute, inflexible, 
 
 309
 
 310 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 hard to others as he was to himself, he went straight 
 as a cannon ball to his object. He was a man of 
 iron, inexorable as destiny. He thought that noth- 
 ing was more natural in war than bloodshed, and 
 that nothing ought to move one less. Those who 
 knew him best say that he was kind, but endeavored 
 to hide this kindness. The soldiers, who feared, 
 respected, and admired him far more than they loved 
 him, nicknamed him " Tete de fer blanc" Tin 
 Head, as much to characterize his obstinate and 
 immovable will as in allusion to his white hair, 
 standing up like a brush, and contrasting oddly 
 with his brown face. 
 
 Captain Charles Bocher wrote from before Sebas- 
 topol June 1, 1855 : " The new commander-in-chief 
 is not the same man as he whom he replaces ; he is 
 an altogether different character, but he is a charac- 
 ter. . . . Fierce, energetic, decided, he is capa- 
 ble of sacrificing everything to success, — his own 
 life as well as those of his soldiers. A man of 
 great probity, he makes no compromises either with 
 his opinions or his conscience ; he always goes 
 straight to the mark without concerning himself 
 about others. . . . Despising by instinct those 
 whom he does not esteem, he likes to surround him- 
 self with distinguished men, as do all choice spirits. 
 He has a great deal of wit, and of the most biting 
 sort ; he has sometimes abused it towards his infe- 
 riors and his equals, but never through spite. He is 
 something of a churl, but a beneficent churl."
 
 GENERAL PtfLISSIER 311 
 
 If General Pelissier's table was very much more 
 carefully served than that of his predecessor, the 
 conversation around it was not so easy and familiar ; 
 his guests felt themselves under the eye of a chief 
 who forgave nothing. M. de La Gorce has said : 
 " Such a one who might freely have advised the kind 
 and loyal Canrobert could not enter the new com- 
 mander's tent without fear. Orderly officers, aides- 
 de-camp, messengers coming from Paris, advisers of 
 all sorts, not one escaped this salutary apprehension, 
 and most of them, when in presence of so severe a 
 commander, hardly dared to stammer out what they 
 had meant to say. That this silence betokened fear 
 rather than sympathy was a thing which did not 
 trouble the commander-in-chief ; it was enough for 
 him that tongues were bridled, discipline preserved, 
 and his plans not thwarted." Such was the man 
 who, by dint of energy, was to bring to an end the 
 most difficult, most perilous of enterprises, and to 
 impose his own will not merely on his subordinates, 
 but even on his sovereign. 
 
 Like his representative, General Niel, the Emperor 
 wished that in addition to the siege there should be 
 a development of operations at a distance, leading 
 up to the investment of Sebastopol. Pelissier's plan, 
 on the contrary, was summed up in a single phrase, 
 — the siege and nothing but the siege. This plan 
 permitted neither profound combinations nor great 
 strategic efforts. It required nothing but persever- 
 ance and obstinacy, but it required a good deal of
 
 312 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COUBT 
 
 these. The general knew what enormous sacrifices, 
 what slaughter his system would entail ; but the 
 bloodshed which had brought Canrobert to a halt, 
 did not intimidate or disturb his successor in the 
 least. 
 
 June 7, Pelissier opened with a brilliant success. 
 The Green Mamelon and the White Works were 
 taken. The Russians were thus deprived of their 
 exterior positions, and the defence had no longer an 
 aggressive character. This victory, which cost the 
 French fifty-four hundred and forty-three men killed 
 or wounded, and the English between six hundred and 
 seven hundred, emboldened the allies to the point of 
 attempting an assault which was a great imprudence, 
 seeing that the French trenches were still more than 
 four hundred metres distant from the Malakoff, and 
 the English two hundred and fifty metres from the 
 Grand Iiedan. General Pelissier fixed on June 18 
 for the assault, hoping that a victory on that date 
 would palliate the dolorous memory of Waterloo. 
 But alas ! after a lapse of forty years, the 18th of 
 June was still a fatal day. In spite of their heroism 
 the allies failed under the terrible cross-firing of the 
 Malakoff and the Grand Redan. For an instant the 
 light infantry of the 5th battalion got a foothold in 
 the first of these works, but, overwhelmed by the 
 Russian artillery, they were driven out again. The 
 French had uselessly lost thirty-three hundred and 
 twenty-one killed or wounded, the English between 
 fifteen hundred and sixteen hundred.
 
 GENERAL PKLISSIER 313 
 
 General Pelissier did not attempt to conceal the 
 extent of this disaster. He sent the Minister of 
 War the following despatch, published in the Moni- 
 teur of June 22: "The attack of June 18 did not 
 succeed, although our troops, who displayed great 
 enthusiasm, forced a partial entrance into the Mala- 
 koff. I was obliged to order a retreat into the par- 
 allel. This was effected in an orderly manner. It 
 is impossible for me to state our losses exactly." 
 This laconic bulletin made the deepest and most 
 painful impression in France. Almost at the same 
 time it was learned that cholera, which had ceased 
 during the winter in the Crimea, had reappeared in 
 a frightful manner. The fifteen thousand Piedmon- 
 tese Avho had just been sent to reinforce the allies by 
 the government of King Victor Emmanuel, suffered 
 particularly from this plague. One of the victims 
 was the English commander-in-chief, who died June 
 28, of the same disease as Marshal de Saint-Arnaud. 
 His coffin, covered with the English flag, was placed 
 on a cannon drawn by eight artillery horses and taken 
 on aboard the Canada, which carried him to Eng- 
 land. Men honored this military nobleman, so pol- 
 ished, so correct and brave, who had lost an arm at 
 Waterloo, and made himself famous by numerous 
 feats of arms. 
 
 Such a multitude of deaths and calamities, such 
 painful uncertainty as to the issue of the fight, sad- 
 dened even the loftiest souls. The brave Colonel 
 Cler wrote : k * We are beginning to get tired of this
 
 314 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 stupid war they are making us fight, and every one 
 of us, generals, officers, and soldiers, would like our 
 health and our blood, which we always sacrifice will- 
 ingly, to be of some use to our country. . . . God 
 alone knows how this war will end." It could never 
 end, according to a remark of General Bosquet 
 (letter of June 1, 1855), save "in a dag of general 
 rage, when men would break the very walls, using 
 their heads as battering rams." 
 
 Even among the heroes of this truly epic struggle 
 there was a presentiment that the results could never 
 in any case be proportionate to the sacrifices. In a 
 letter of July 10 General Bosquet regrets that the 
 success of June 7 had not been utilized by making 
 overtures of peace. " I think," he writes, " that 
 after this success and the resultant dangers for the 
 besieged, Russia would have made acceptable propo- 
 sitions. ... It was a good situation. . . . As- 
 suredly there was a chance for concluding this war, 
 from which France will gain nothing but a little 
 glory, and in which she may lose her best soldiers, 
 and with them her chance to resist some day a 
 Russo-German invasion, when she will be left alone, 
 deserted by England whose interests are already 
 different from ours, in spite of the alliance. Poor 
 France ! always sword in hand, fighting for God 
 and the right, and always alone at the end of the 
 struggles, paying for the progress of the civilized 
 world with the purest of her blood and the last 
 penny of her savings."
 
 GENERAL PELISSIER 315 
 
 The torrents of blood spilled disturbed Napoleon 
 III. The fatal results of June 18 seemed to him to 
 justify his own ideas and condemn those of General 
 Pelissier. July 3, lie resolved to supersede the latter 
 by General Niel. But the despatch removing him 
 was sent by post, and not by telegraph. Marshal 
 Vaillant and General Fleury succeeded in inducing 
 the Emperor to change his resolution. The de- 
 spatch was stopped at Marseilles, and General Pelis- 
 sier retained his command without suspecting how 
 near he had come to losing it. 
 
 The die was cast. Abandoning himself to fatality, 
 the Emperor renounced giving either orders or ad- 
 vice to General Pelissier, and allowed him to play 
 as he pleased one of the most terrible and hazardous 
 games known to military annals. What rendered 
 this formidable contest still more bitterly painful 
 was that there did not exist the slightest trace of 
 antipathy between the combatants, especially the 
 French and Russians. War is explicable when hate 
 puts arms into the hands of the belligerents, or 
 when they are moved either by passions or positive 
 interests. If they are fighting to keep or to gain 
 their independence, or if their object is merely to 
 gratify national greed or enlarge their territory, 
 hostilities are comprehensible. But there was noth- 
 ing of the sort in the strife between the Russians 
 and the allies. The latter knew veiy well that even 
 if they were the victors, they would not keep either 
 the Malakoff tower or the other works they were
 
 316 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 trying so desperately to seize, and that they would 
 take Sebastopol only to restore it to the Russians. 
 At bottom nothing was at stake, if not for the 
 Turks at least for the French, the English and the 
 Sardinians, but diplomatic combinations, questions 
 of European influence and equilibrium, whose very 
 existence was not suspected by the majority of the 
 combatants. 
 
 Curiously enough, the French felt much more 
 sympathy with their Russian enemies than with 
 their English allies. General Fay shall describe for 
 us an armistice concluded for the purpose of bury- 
 ing the dead : " The Russian and the French officers 
 went to meet each other midway between the works 
 while the soldiers were picking up the dead and 
 wounded. During this dismal operation the officers 
 of the two nations were chatting amicably ; one of 
 ours, a gay and friendly cavalryman, appointed by 
 his own wish adjutant of the trench, complimented 
 a Russian prince on the freshness of his gloves, and 
 asked with a laugh if the shop girls of Sebastopol 
 were pretty. Others talked of Paris and the pleas- 
 ure they would have in meeting again when peace 
 was made, and meanwhile in exchanging cigars. The 
 burials finished, they shook hands before becoming 
 enemies once more. The signal given, each hastily 
 regained his own lines. . . . Hardly had the flags 
 of truce disappeared when the men were in their 
 ambuscades, gun in hand, and watching for the first 
 head to show itself above the parapet ; they take 

 
 GENERAL PELI88IEE 317 
 
 aim at the possible risk of killing him whose hand 
 they have just taken, and whom they quitted with 
 the smile of adieu upon their lips." 
 
 Another combatant, M. Charles Bocher, in a letter 
 dated June 18, 1855, gives equally significant de- 
 tails concerning the mutual sympathies between the 
 French and Russians, even in the midst of such 
 frightful carnage: "I happened," he says, "to be 
 present while the bodies were being removed on the 
 second day after the affair of the Green Mamelon. 
 The Russian officers were full attention and cour- 
 tesy. Among them I noticed an aide-de-camp of 
 General Luders, one of Galiffet's acquaintances, who 
 told us that he wished to see the war ended so as 
 not to be obliged to treat us any longer as enemies. 
 We made appointments with each other for the 
 winter in Paris. While this was going on some 
 English officers came up out of curiosity, for they 
 had no business there. The Russian officers stopped 
 talking. One Englishman spoke of the speedy tak- 
 ing of the Malakoff. A Russian officer, turning 
 round, said : ' The French may possibly make them- 
 selves masters of it, but you never will ! ' It is to 
 be remarked that there is not the least animosity 
 between us and the Russians, and that we have more 
 sympathy with our enemies than with our allies. 
 That arises from many causes, but it always happens 
 when a common enterprise is not successful : one 
 takes a grudge against his best friends." M. Bocher 
 adds that the Russian officers taken prisoners after
 
 318 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 the affair of the Green Mamelon were invited to the 
 tables of different French officers, and to see the 
 cordiality prevailing at these reunions, and the desire 
 to be agreeable to these foreigners, no one would 
 have suspected that they were at war with each 
 other. He ends with this prophetic reflection : 
 " Nothing proves better the sentiments of sympathy 
 which reign between the two peoples. To-day they 
 are learning mutual esteem in order to agree and 
 come to an understanding on the matters which the 
 future is reserving for us." 
 
 In the Crimea, near Balaclava, on the seashore, is 
 the venerated monastery of Saint George. As soon 
 as they arrived on the plateau of the Chersonese, the 
 French sent a squadron of spahis to protect this 
 sanctuary. Later on, from the day when the pro- 
 visions of the monks were exhausted, they sent them 
 regular rations of food. One day General Canrobert 
 and Omar Pasha went there unexpectedly to break- 
 fast. Before the repast they were present in the 
 chapel at the prayers chanted by the archimandrite 
 and the monks for the glory of the Czar and the 
 success of his armies, the cannons of the allies mean- 
 while thundering against Sebastopol. This was on 
 a Sunday. In the morning the French had been 
 present at the Mass said in the camps. Alas ! why 
 did not the Lord of Hosts, invoked by either side, 
 put an end to this fratricidal war between Christian 
 nations, which ought always to be united by respect 
 for the Cross ?
 
 GENERAL PELISS1ER 319 
 
 Paris, intoxicated by festivities and pleasures, 
 thought little of the Crimea and the poor fellows 
 who were fighting and dying with such heroism and 
 resignation. Amidst the bitterest trials the latter 
 retained their enthusiasm and even their gaiety. 
 The soldiers of the 2d Zouaves had constructed 
 a little theatre in their camp, where they played 
 comic pieces, in which the beardless or the least 
 bearded took the female parts in dresses borrowed 
 from the canteen women. General Fay shall de- 
 scribe the spectacle: "There was to be a re- 
 hearsal on Sunday, June 10. The programmes had 
 been lithographed on the 6th, and were to have 
 been distributed among the different corps, when 
 the great plans for the next day became known in 
 the camps. Of course there could be no rehearsal, 
 and the actors had to change their costumes and 
 their parts. The soubrettes of the theatre of 
 Moulin had to take off their borrowed petticoats to 
 seize the musket, and the firing spared neither the 
 artists nor their admirers. Two days afterwards, 
 the programme, which there had been no time to 
 begin over again, was going the round of the camps; 
 I have it before me, and I own that I never look at 
 it unmoved, for behind these comedies there is al- 
 ways a drama. This programme, erased in several 
 places because some of the pieces had to be changed, 
 begins thus: '•Monday, June 11, 1855. — For the 
 benefit of the wounded of June 8. — Extraordinary 
 representation.'' Then follow these simple and very
 
 320 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 touching lines : ' Two amateurs having been killed 
 and several wounded, it has been necessary to 
 change the play intended to be given.' " 
 
 The disaster of June 18 and the ravages of the 
 cholera threw a cloud for some days over the allied 
 camps. But it soon passed over. The almost com- 
 plete disappearance of the disease, the beautiful 
 weather, and the continual arrival of reinforcements 
 restored the spirits of the troops. August 16, the 
 Russians attempted a diversion which did not suc- 
 ceed. They came down into the valley of the 
 Tchernaya, where they were repulsed by the Camou, 
 Faucheux, and Herbillon divisions, losing eight 
 thousand men in the fray, which took the name of 
 the battle of Traktir. In it the Sardinians received 
 nobly the baptism of tire beside the French. They 
 had been fighting for the future Italy. 
 
 It was felt on both sides that a frightful carnage 
 was near at hand. Prince Michael Gortchakoff, who 
 had replaced Prince Menchikoff since March, was 
 making ready to defend Sebastopol with supreme 
 energy. The parallels of the allies were so close to 
 the city that the besiegers and the besieged almost 
 touched. They might have questioned each other. 
 The noise of their picks and shovels blended. Even 
 the most intrepid of the French were wondering 
 whether, notwithstanding prodigies of heroism, they 
 could succeed in the formidable assault so soon to 
 begin. In spite of their admirable tenacity, the 
 English were asking themselves the same question.
 
 MARSHAL PELISSIER
 
 •
 
 GENERAL PELIS8JER :) - i 
 
 It was rumored in the camps that the Russians had 
 mined all the works, and that if they were obliged 
 to evacuate them they would blow them up with the 
 enemy's troops inside, so that they should possess 
 them only for a moment. Victory might become as 
 lugubrious as a defeat. Such were the reflections 
 the combatants in the Crimea were making at the 
 very moment when the Queen of England arrived in 
 Paris and was received with magnificent festivities.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVII 
 
 THE ARRIVAL OF QUEEN VICTORIA 
 
 /~\N Friday, August 17, 1855, Napoleon III. left 
 ^^^ Paris for Boulogne-sur-Mer to receive Queen 
 Victoria, who was expected on the following day. 
 The Emperor slept there the 17th. Early the next 
 morning he went to the camp occupied by the troops 
 under the command of the victor of Bomarsund, 
 Marshal Baraguey d'Hilliers. An eye-witness, author 
 of a book entitled, An Englishman in Paris, has 
 made the following reflections : " On that morning 
 the sovereign's face was more than usually impassive 
 and gloomy. And yet, even to such a fatalist as he, 
 must not that day have seemed prodigious ? The 
 blind goddess of fortune, the lucky star in which he 
 had such faith, had she ever favored a mortal as she 
 was then favoring him ? How the contrasts in his 
 destiny must have forced themselves upon his mind 
 that autumn morning at Boulogne, while his legions 
 were taking position from Wimereux on the right 
 as far as Portel on the left, to pay homage to the 
 queen of a country which had been the most irrecon- 
 cilable enemy of his family, on these heights at the 
 foot of which, fifteen years before, August 6, 1840, 
 
 322
 
 THE All RIVAL OF QUEEN VICTORIA 328 
 
 he had been powerless to rouse the enthusiasm of 
 France, at the very spot where he had made himself 
 the laughing-stock of the world by the comedy of 
 the tame eagle ! And yet not a glimmer of joy or 
 pride illuminated his sphinx-like mask. He remained 
 impassive amidst the most signal honors that the 
 world could bestow." 
 
 From the landing-place to the station (at that 
 period the trains did not go to meet the vessels) two 
 regiments of lancers and dragoons formed a double 
 row all along the route, while on the bridge crossing 
 the Liane three hundred bearded sappers with white 
 leather aprons, and hatchets across their shoulders, 
 were massed in three lines. On reaching the land- 
 ing the Emperor, who had spent the morning on 
 horseback, alighted and remained standing while 
 awaiting the Queen. 
 
 At a quarter past two the royal yacht, Victoria 
 and Albert, entered the roadstead of Boulogne. The 
 Emperor crossed the footbridge, which was draped 
 with purple velvet and carpeted. The Queen em- 
 braced him twice and took his arm to go ashore. 
 Her Britannic Majesty, born May 24, 1819, still 
 retained the brightness of youth. She was accom- 
 panied by two of her children, the Prince of Wales, 
 born November 9, 1841, and the Princess Victoria, 
 born November 21, 1840, at present the widow of 
 Frederic III., Emperor of Germany. 
 
 We will leave the task of description to an eye- 
 witness whom we have already cited, the anonymous
 
 324 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 author of An Englishman in Paris. " A spacious 
 and magnificent carriage, lined with white satin and 
 capable of containing six persons, awaited the royal 
 family ; it was drawn by two horses only ; but what 
 admirable beasts ! Napoleon III. knew how to select 
 them, and in that respect had not wasted the time 
 he spent in England. He remounted his own horse 
 and rode on the right side of the carriage, while 
 Marshal Baraguey d'Hilliers rode on the left. The 
 procession moved on amidst the frenzied acclama- 
 tions of the crowd. But for all that a trooper said : 
 ' It is droll that we should have fought each other 
 like dogs to come to this. If the old man should 
 come back he would be very mad.' And I may say 
 that in spite of the sympathetic attitude of the popu- 
 lation, this was at bottom the prevailing sentiment. A 
 Parisian said: 'Waterloo is arranged, not avenged.'" 
 The Queen, however, could hear the enthusiastic 
 shouts of an army of forty thousand men massed on 
 the cliffs. They drove directly to the station and 
 immediately took the train to Paris. 
 
 The great capital had been in commotion since 
 morning. Myriads of foreigners, mingling with the 
 Parisians, invaded the boulevards and installed them- 
 selves in the best places, which they had taken care 
 to secure several days beforehand. The liveliest ani- 
 mation prevailed especially at the approaches to the 
 new Boulevard Strasbourg, and the station of the 
 Eastern Railway, by which the Queen was to arrive. 
 At seven in the evening the station was illuminated.
 
 THE ARRIVAL OF QUEEN VICTORIA 325 
 
 Gilded chandeliers and lamps were lighted. At 
 twenty minutes past seven twenty-one volleys of 
 cannon were discharged. The royal and imperial 
 train was arriving. General de Lowestein offered 
 the Queen a magnificent bouquet in the name of the 
 9th battalion of the National Guard, on duty at the 
 station. The military bands played God save the 
 Queen. The Queen took her seat in an uncovered 
 carriage drawn by four horses ; the Princess Victoria 
 was beside her, and on the front seat were the Em- 
 peror, in the uniform of a general of division, and 
 Prince Albert as a field-marshal. A second carriage 
 was occupied by the Prince of Wales and Prince 
 Napoleon ; in the remaining carriages were the 
 Marchioness of Ely and Lady Churchill, ladies of 
 honor, Lord Clarendon, Minister of Foreign Affairs, 
 Lord Breadalbane, Grand Chamberlain, and Lord 
 Cowley, the English Ambassador. At the exit of 
 the station was a deputation of pupils from the 
 Polytechnic School, who, having lost relatives under 
 the walls of Sebastopol, wore crape on their arms. 
 The Emperor drew the Queen's attention to them, 
 and she regarded them with interest. All along the 
 route resounded shouts of " Long live the Queen of 
 England ! " " Long live the Emperor ! " " Long live 
 Prince Albert ! " It was the Queen's first visit to 
 Paris, and she was in constant admiration of the 
 magic spectacle afforded by the incomparable capi- 
 tal. Just at twilight the lamps of the carriages 
 were lighted. A sudden illumination radiated the
 
 326 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 whole length of the road and preceded the cortege 
 as if by a line of flames. The boulevards, the Rue 
 Royale, the Place de la Concorde, the Avenue des 
 Champs-Elysees, and the Arc de Triomphe de 
 l'Etoile, were resplendent. They entered the Bois 
 de Boulogne. Illuminated by thousands of lights, 
 it was like the gardens of Armida. Never was there 
 a more radiant evening. At a quarter of nine they 
 reached the chateau of Saint-Cloud. The drums 
 beat the general ; the trumpets blew, shouts blended 
 with salvos of artillery. The Empress, the Princesse 
 Mathilcle, the officers and ladies on duty, were await- 
 ing the august travellers at the foot of the grand 
 staircase with columns of marble. The cortege 
 entered the palace. They went up the steps on 
 which stood the hundred guards like caryatides, 
 their superb aspect reminding the Queen of her own 
 favorite regiment, the Life Guards. On reaching 
 the grand apartments, the Emperor presented to 
 Her Britannic Majesty the ministers, the grand offi- 
 cers, and the functionaries of his household. After 
 dinner, served with marvellous luxury in the salon 
 of Diana, they returned to the state apartments, 
 where Their Majesties remained until eleven o'clock. 
 Marshal Magnan told the Queen that the Parisian 
 population had never displayed similar enthusiasm, 
 even at the time of the triumphs of Napoleon I. 
 From the windows could be seen a magnificent 
 spectacle. Saint-Cloud and Boulogne were illumi- 
 nated, Paris appeared on the horizon like a giant 
 stretched out in the light.
 
 CHAPTER XXXVIII 
 
 THE QUEEN AT SAINT-CLOUD AND PARIS 
 
 Sunday, August 19, 1855. The weather is radi- 
 ant ; not a cloud, magnificent sunshine. On awak- 
 ing the Queen is amazed by the beauty of the chateau 
 of Saint-Cloud, by the double perspective presented, 
 — one on the side of the court of honor, the other 
 on that of the park, — by the avenues, the ponds, 
 the fountains, the great trees, the clumps of flowers. 
 As soon as she had risen she walked, in the park 
 with the Emperor. After breakfast a Protestant 
 service took place in one of the rooms of the cha- 
 teau. The Queen and Prince went afterwards for 
 a drive in the Bois de Boulogne. Her Majesty ex- 
 pressed a desire to see the remains of the chateau of 
 Neuilly, delivered to the flames at the time of the 
 revolution of February 24. She sadly contemplated 
 the two small pavilions, strewn with ruins, without 
 dreaming that the palaces of Saint- Cloud and the 
 Tuileries would have the same fate as the favorite 
 residence of King Louis Philippe. In the evening 
 they dined in the salon of Diana. General Can- 
 robert, who had arrived in Paris August 1-4, was one 
 of the guests. He had received from the Emperor 
 
 327
 
 328 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 the welcome deserved by his qualities and his services. 
 "Fifteen days ago," said he, " I was in the trenches." 
 The Queen conversed with him for a long time, 
 speaking of Crimean affairs as well as a soldier could 
 have done. Recollecting that the London fishmon- 
 gers had made him an honorary member of their 
 corporation, he said : " I am almost one of Your Maj- 
 esty's subjects." He eulogized Lord Raglan highly, 
 saying : " He was a noble gentleman, whom we 
 greatly regretted," and he added, alluding to the 
 repulse of June 18 : " That killed the poor milord." 
 After his conversation with the Queen he said to 
 Lord Clarendon : u I do not know anybody who is 
 more conversant with the Crimean War than your 
 sovereign." 
 
 Monday, August 20. The Emperor and Prince Al- 
 bert went to visit the Fine Arts section at the Expo- 
 sition. Among other pictures the Prince especially 
 remarked La Rixe by Meissonier, which the Em- 
 peror afterwards bought for twenty-five thousand 
 francs and offered to him. Thence they went to the 
 Elysee, where, after lunch, took place the reception of 
 the diplomatic corps. Afterwards the Emperor and 
 his guests went in an open carriage to the Sainte 
 Chapelle and the Palais de Justice. While crossing 
 the Pont au Change Napoleon III. pointed to the 
 Conciergerie, saying : " That is where I was im- 
 prisoned." Next they visited Notre-Dame, whence 
 they returned to Saint-Cloud by the boulevards, 
 the Champs-Elysees, and the Bois de Boulogne.
 
 QUEEN AT SAIM'-CLOUD AND PARIS 329 
 
 The decorations of Saturday were still intact. The 
 crowds were as great as ever and the applause unan- 
 imous. In the evening at Saint-Cloud, the Em- 
 peror's comedians in ordinary, as the actors of the 
 Comedie Francaise were called, played Dumas' De- 
 moiselles de Saint-Cyr, the principal roles being very 
 well taken by Augustine Brohan and Kegnier. The 
 Queen seemed enchanted. 
 
 Tuesday, August 21. The party started in post- 
 chaises for Versailles with an escort of carbineers. 
 A triumphal arch had been erected at the entry of 
 the avenue Saint-Cloud, hung with the united flags 
 of France and England. On the front, facing the 
 avenue Picardy, had been inscribed the names : Vic- 
 toria and Prince Albert ; on the city side, Napoleon 
 and Eugenie. The Emperor and Empress did the 
 honors of the chateau of Louis XIV. to their guests. 
 Afterwards they went to the Grand Trianon, where 
 the Queen asked to see the little chapel, built dur- 
 ing the July Monarchy, in which was celebrated in 
 1838 the marriage of "poor Marie," as the Queen 
 designated the daughter of Louis Philippe. Next 
 they visited the Little Trianon and the gardens so 
 full of souvenirs of Marie Antoinette. Here they 
 walked among the trees and entered the cottages of 
 the martyr-queen's hamlet, the band of the regiment 
 of Guides playing excellent music meanwhile. 
 
 Wednesday was occupied by a visit to the indus- 
 trial section of the Exposition., where the Emperor 
 presented Prince Albert with a fine Sevres vase, rep-
 
 830 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 resenting the Exposition of 1851, organized in Lon- 
 don by the Prince ; and another to the Tuileries, 
 where the Queen was much interested in examining 
 the imperial apartments. She and her family after- 
 wards drove through Paris incognito, in a hired 
 carriage. Thursday, August 23, by a visit to the 
 Louvre, and in the evening a ball at the Hotel de 
 Ville, where Baron Haussman, prefect of the Seine, 
 had achieved marvels of decoration. 
 
 On Friday there was a grand review on the 
 Champ-de-Mars in honor of the Queen. Leaving 
 the Tuileries at half-past four in the afternoon, the 
 royal and imperial party crossed the Place de la 
 Concorde, the quay, the Pont de Jena in the car- 
 riages, arriving at the Champ-de-Mars, where forty 
 thousand soldiers were assembled under command of 
 Marshal Magnan. Their Majesties watched the re- 
 view from the balcony of the Military School. 
 When it ended, at seven o'clock, the Queen said to 
 her host : "I am enchanted to see your magnificent 
 soldiers, comrades of the brave troops who are fight- 
 ing with mine in the Crimea." The Emperor re- 
 plied : " I hope that this alliance will continue, and 
 that you may always consider my troops as yours." 
 
 After the review Their Majesties went directly to 
 the Invalides. General d'Arnano, its governor, had 
 not been apprised of this visit until the last moment, 
 but, nevertheless, all the old soldiers were under arms. 
 Nothing was more imposing than this visit Avhich, 
 according to the Queen, was possibly the most impor-
 
 QUEEN AT SAINT-CLOUD AND PARIS 331 
 
 tant act of her journey, for it was symbolic, in a 
 way, of the reconciliation between the two peoples 
 who were hereditary enemies. The old soldiers had 
 lighted torches. At the very moment a thunder 
 storm came on. The Queen of England stood up 
 before the tomb of Napoleon. It is amazing that no 
 great painter has chosen this scene for a picture. 
 The Queen herself shall describe it : " I," says she, 
 " the granddaughter of the king who hated Napo- 
 leon so much, and made such ruthless war against 
 him, I am there before the tomb of the Emperor at 
 the side of his nephew, who has become my closest 
 and dearest ally. The church organ plays God save 
 the Queen. Torches are lighted, and at the same 
 time there is a storm. Strange and wonderful 
 sight ! It seems as if this tribute of respect ren- 
 dered to a dead enemy banished all enmities, all 
 rivalries, and that the celestial seal is placed upon 
 the happy alliance formed between two great and 
 powerful nations. May Heaven bless and pros- 
 per it ! " 
 
 Saturday morning the Emperor conducted his 
 guests to Saint-Germain to show them the chateau 
 offered as a residence by Louis XIV. to James II. of 
 England after his dethronement. After walking in 
 the forest they rested for a moment at the Chateau 
 de la Muette, where they saw the imperial kennels 
 with the huntsmen and whippers-in. On their 
 return they stopped at Malmaison and the fortress 
 of Mont-Valerieu. In the evening there was a
 
 332 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 grand ball at the palace of Versailles, which Their 
 Majesties opened at half-past ten in the Gallery of 
 Mirrors. The Queen danced two quadrilles, — one 
 with the Emperor, the other with Prince Napoleon. 
 She waltzed also with the Emperor. Several for- 
 eigners of distinction were present, among others 
 Count Bismarck, Prussian Minister at Frankfort. 
 Supper was served in the theatre of the chateau, on 
 small tables seating ten persons, each presided over 
 by a lady. The imperial and royal table, in the mid- 
 dle of the hall, was somewhat higher than the 
 others. Nine guests sat down at it : the Queen, the 
 Emperor, the Empress, Prince Albert, the Prince of 
 Wales, Princess Victoria, Prince Napoleon, Princesse 
 Mathilde, Prince Adalbert of Bavaria. 
 
 After supper they returned to the Gallery of 
 Mirrors. The Emperor waltzed again with Princess 
 Victoria. Could he have dreamed that this charm- 
 ing young girl of fourteen whom he was so pleased 
 to dance with, would one day be the wife of the 
 chief author of the catastrophe of Sedan? Would 
 it not be a curious subject for a genre picture : 
 Napoleon III. waltzing with the young Princess 
 Victoria in the Gallery of Mirrors before Bismarck, 
 mingling with the throng of courtiers ? Ah, how 
 fortunate it is that mortals cannot divine the future ! 
 What a .shudder would have chilled the Emperor's 
 veins could he have foreseen that this grandiose gal- 
 lery would be a hospital for the wounded and dying 
 during the fatal year, and that in the succeeding
 
 QUEEN AT SAINT-CLOUD AND PARIS 333 
 
 year the conquerors of France would select it for the 
 formal proclamation of the Empire of Germany ! 
 
 But there is no room for gloomy presentiments in 
 the midst of a superb entertainment. Napoleon 
 III., delighted with his destiny, was animated by all 
 the joy of receiving the Queen of England. At the 
 close of the ball he said to her : " It is terrible that 
 this should be the last evening but one. But you 
 will come back, will you not? As we know each 
 other now, can't we exchange visits between Wind- 
 sor and Fontainebleau without much ceremony ? " 
 
 Sunday, August 26. The great fetes are over. 
 The last day at Saint-Cloud will be spent in family 
 privacy. It is Prince Albert's thirty-sixth birthday. 
 The Queen, who has a sort of adoration for her hus- 
 band, congratulates him most affectionately. In the 
 morning, during a drive in a phaeton with the 
 Emperor, she said to him : " There is one thing I 
 have at heart and which I wish you thoroughly to 
 understand, and that is the friendship I still retain 
 for the Orleans princes." Napoleon III. replied : 
 " I understand very well that you could not forsake 
 them in misfortune. I have no animosity against 
 them myself. I have not turned any of their parti- 
 sans out of place. I hope you have told Queen 
 Marie Amelie that I should be glad to have her pass 
 through France on her way to Spain." Queen Vic- 
 toria went on to praise the widow of Louis Philippe 
 and his sons. She commended their tact and discre- 
 tion. " Yes," returned the Emperor, " but it is
 
 834 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 regrettable that their agents should be in constant 
 relations with my worst enemies." "What could 
 you expect ? " asked the Queen ; " is it not natural 
 that exiles should be tempted to conspire? Did you 
 not conspire yourself ? " The Emperor put an end 
 to the conversation by proposing to take her during 
 the day to the chapel of Saint Ferdinand. This is 
 the sanctuary erected at Neuilly, on the right of the 
 Re volte road, on the site of the grocer's shop where 
 the Due d' Orleans, eldest son of Louis Philippe, 
 breathed his last in consequence of an accident to 
 his carriage, July 13, 1842. The Queen gratefully 
 accepted the offer. 
 
 After breakfast the Emperor and the Empress 
 made their birthday presents to Prince Albert. The 
 Empress gave him a beautifully mounted ivory cup, 
 and the Emperor Meissonnier's La Rixe, which the 
 Prince had admired at the Exposition. Then they 
 repaired to the chapel of Saint Ferdinand. Napoleon 
 bought there a medal commemorative of the Due 
 d'Orleans, which he gave to the Queen, saying : 
 " Keep it as a souvenir." In the evening the family 
 dinner was followed by a concert of the classic music 
 of which Prince Albert was so fond.
 
 CHAPTER XXXIX 
 
 THE QUEEN'S DEPARTURE 
 
 Monday, August 27, 1855. This was the day of 
 departure. In the morning Queen Victoria wrote : 
 " To-day in my beautifully decorated room in this 
 fine palace of Saint-Cloud, to the sound of the fresh 
 fountains which reaches my ears, I wish to write a 
 few words of farewell. I am profoundly grateful 
 for the eight happy days I have spent here. May 
 God bless England and France ! May He especially 
 protect the precious life of the Emperor ! " The 
 weather was warm, but radiant. The Empress 
 offered the Queen a handsome fan, with a rose and a 
 heliotrope from the garden, and the Princess Vic- 
 toria a bracelet adorned with rubies and diamonds, 
 surrounding a small medallion containing some of 
 the giver's hair. At half-past ten the Queen and 
 her family left the chateau with regret. The Em- 
 peror and Empress accompanied them. On the road 
 they saw several wounded soldiers from the Crimea, 
 among them some Zouaves, "my favorites, the Zou- 
 aves," as the Queen called them. On arriving at 
 the Tuileries, the Empress bade farewell to the royal 
 family, who went on to the Eastern Station with the 
 
 335
 
 336 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Emperor and Prince Napoleon, who were to escort 
 them as far as Boulogne-sur-Mer, where they arrived 
 at five o'clock in the evening. 
 
 Almost immediately after their arrival, Their 
 Majesties reviewed the troops of the camp assem- 
 bled on the beach. The Queen chatted for a few 
 moments with a canteen woman, whose uniform and 
 whose good figure attracted her attention. " I wish 
 there were some like her in my army," said she. 
 They dined afterwards at the Imperial Pavilion. 
 The illuminations of the city and the harbor vied 
 with the moon and stars of a radiant night. The 
 Emperor attended his guests to the jetty where the 
 royal yacht awaited them. The Emperor and the 
 Queen, both of them deeply affected, exchanged 
 the following words at the moment of departure, 
 after embracing each other twice : " You will return, 
 will you not? " " Once more, adieu, Sire." "Adieu, 
 Madame, until we meet again." " I surely hope so." 
 It was eleven o'clock. The yacht weighed anchor 
 to the sound of volleys of musketry and the acclama- 
 tions of the crowd covering the quays on the jetty. 
 It reached Osborne at eight o'clock the next morn- 
 ing. 
 
 The Queen's visit and her relations with her hosts 
 had impressed her with a sentiment of real gratitude. 
 She had been dazzled, charmed, fascinated by all that 
 she had seen and heard. An exchange of friendly 
 letters between the Emperor and his guests took 
 place immediately after their return to England.
 
 THE QUEEN'S DEPARTURE 337 
 
 Prince Albert to the Emperor of the French. — 
 "Osborne, August 29, 1855. Sire and dear brother, 
 I cannot allow another day to pass without renewing 
 to you in writing the expression of gratitude for the 
 many marks of kindness and friendship which Your 
 Imperial Majesty has bestowed on me. . . . These 
 are of that sort of impressions which are never 
 effaced, and which serve to compensate us in the 
 many moments of difficulty and vexations which life 
 brings with it. Our children have been much af- 
 fected by their reception in France, and cannot tell 
 their brothers and sisters enough about it. The 
 hope you have held out of seeing us again from time 
 to time is very sweet. May God protect you, Sire, 
 as well as the Empress, and bring to her the happy 
 accomplishment of her desires! " 
 
 The Queen to the Emperor. — " Osborne, August 
 29, 1855. Sire and my dear brother, one of my first 
 occupations on arriving here is to write to Your 
 Majesty and express from the bottom of my heart 
 how deeply we are penetrated and affected by the re- 
 ception given us in France by Your Majesty and the 
 Empress, as well as by all the nation. The souvenir 
 will never be effaced from our memory, and I love 
 to see in it a precious pledge for the future of the 
 cordiality which unites our two governments as well 
 as our two peoples. May this happy union, which 
 we owe chiefly to the personal qualities of Your 
 Majesty, be consolidated still more firmly for the 
 welfare of our two nations as well as of all Europe.
 
 338 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 " My heart was very full when I took leave of 
 you, Sire, after the beautiful and happy clays we 
 spent with you, and which you knew how to render 
 so agreeable. Alas ! like all things here below, 
 they are past, and these ten holidays seem like a 
 lovely dream. . . . 
 
 " I cannot sufficiently express, Sire, how much I 
 am touched by all your kindness and your friend- 
 ship for the Prince, and also the affection and good 
 nature you have shown to our children. Their visit 
 in France has been the happiest time of their life, 
 and they are never done talking about it. We 
 found all the other children in good health, and 
 little Arthur (the Duke of Connaught, born May 1, 
 1850) trots about with his policeman's cap, which is 
 all his joy, and from which he will not be separated. 
 
 " May God watch over Your Majesty and the dear 
 Empress, for whom I form so many wishes. You 
 said to me once more on the boat : ' Au revoirj and 
 I repeat it with all my heart. 
 
 " Permit me to express here all the sentiments of 
 tender friendship and affection with which I call 
 myself, Sire and dear brother, your very dear and 
 affectionate sister and friend. 
 
 "Victoeia, R." 
 
 The Emperor to Prince Albert. — " Saint-Cloud, 
 September 1, 1855. Sir, my brother, need I tell 
 you that the more I know you the more esteem I 
 experience for your character and friendship for
 
 THE QUEhW '8 DEPARTURE 839 
 
 your person ? You must be convinced of it, for we 
 divine those who love us. I greatly regretted the 
 brevity of your stay, because when people have an 
 equal love of what is good, the more they see of 
 each other the greater is their mutual comprehen- 
 sion. I thank Your Royal Highness for your ami- 
 able letter, and have been much affected by this 
 appreciation of your sojourn in France, since you 
 consider it as a compensation for the vexations in- 
 separably connected with exalted functions. I take 
 the same view of it, and your visit will always re- 
 main a very sweet memory to me and to the Empress. 
 
 " I beg of you to remember me to the Prince of 
 Wales and the Princess Royal, as well as to the 
 other princes and princesses ; I never separate them 
 from the friendship I bear towards you. The Em- 
 press is very grateful for your good wishes, and 
 desires me to assure you of her affectionate senti- 
 ments." 
 
 The Emperor to the Queen. — " Saint-Cloud, Sep- 
 tember 1, 1855. Madame and my dear sister, after 
 my happiness in offering Your Majesty a cordial and 
 eager welcome, I have experienced another not less 
 great in knowing that you have been satisfied with 
 your journey in France. Certainly I appreciate, like 
 Your Majesty, the capital importance for our two 
 countries of a sincere union between the two gov- 
 ernments ; but I appreciate above all these intimate 
 relations now established between us and founded 
 upon true and sincere friendship, for the satisfaction
 
 340 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 of the heart will always rank in my view far above 
 the satisfactions of ambition ; and, although I expe- 
 rienced a just sentiment of pride in being for a mo- 
 ment the host of the Queen of so powerful an empire, 
 I am still better pleased with the memory of the 
 amiable and gracious woman, the distinguished man, 
 the charming children, with whom I have spent days 
 of a sweet intimacy, the souvenir of which will never 
 be effaced from my memory. Hence I need not say 
 how greatly I desire that it may be speedily re- 
 newed. I thank Your Majesty for the good wishes 
 you form for the Empress ; you touch me profoundly 
 by the interest you take in what is dearest to me. 
 
 " I have received good news from the Crimea. 
 Pelissier says that all is going well and that he has 
 good hopes. . . . 
 
 " I beg Your Majesty to allow me to express the 
 real attachment and sincere affection with which I 
 am, Madame and dear sister, Your Majesty's most 
 devoted brother and friend. 
 
 "Napoleon." 
 
 How many changes had taken place since the 
 Coup d'Etat ! At that time the Duke of Welling- 
 ton daily predicted an imminent catastrophe to his 
 country if it did not take up arms. The English 
 militia was called upon as if the naval fleet of Bou- 
 logne had already made its appearance in the Chan- 
 nel. Mr. Cobden was the only one willing to wager 
 against his compatriots. And now not only were
 
 THE QEEEX'S DEI'AUTURE 341 
 
 all fears dispelled, but a cordial alliance united two 
 nations accustomed to hate each other. This recon- 
 ciliation was the personal achievement of Napoleon 
 III. and Queen Victoria. Seven centuries of rival- 
 ries and wars seemed to be forgotten. 
 
 The evidences of friendship lavished by the Queen 
 of England on the Emperor of the French were not 
 merely perfunctory and official protestations. They 
 came from her heart. One should read in the 
 Queen's journal the portrait she drew of Napoleon 
 III. at the close of her visit. " One cannot imagine," 
 she writes, " how attached one becomes to the Em- 
 peror on seeing him in private life as we have just 
 done, spending ten or twelve hours with him daily, 
 and on the last day, fourteen. He is so calm, so 
 simple, often even naive, delighting to learn what he 
 does not know! And so gracious, so full of tact and 
 dignity, of modesty and respect, so attentive to us ! 
 I know few persons with whom I have been so con- 
 fidential. There is nothing I could not tell him. 
 His society is particularly agreeable. There is 
 something fascinating, melancholy, attractive about 
 him which wins one in spite of every prejudice. 
 The children liked him very much. His kindness 
 towards them was very great, but at the same time 
 very judicious. I consider the time I spent with 
 him as one of the most agreeable and most interest- 
 ing periods of my life. The Empress has a great 
 charm also. We were all enraptured with her." 
 
 And now let us return to the Crimea. While the
 
 342 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Queen was at Saint-Cloud, the Moniteur had pub- 
 lished a letter from the Emperor to General Pelissier, 
 dated August 20, in which he felicitated the troops 
 on the victory of Traklir. In it he said : " The 
 glory acquired in the Orient has moved your com- 
 panions in arms in France ; they are all burning 
 to share your dangers. Desiring not only to respond 
 to their wishes, but to procure repose for those who 
 have already done so much, I have given orders to 
 the Minister of War that all the regiments remain- 
 ing in France shall go as soon as possible to replace 
 those now in the Orient. You know, general, how 
 I have groaned at being detained so far from that 
 army which is adding new glory to our eagles ; but 
 now my regrets are diminishing, since you show me 
 the near and decisive success which must crown such 
 heroic efforts." 
 
 The denouement was approaching. 
 

 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 THE TAKING OF SEBASTOPOL 
 
 r I ^HE approaches of the French had arrived to 
 within forty metres of the Central bastion, 
 within thirty of the bastion of the Flagstaff, twenty- 
 five of the enceinte surrounding the Malakoff tower, 
 and those of the English to within two hundred 
 metres of the Grand Redan. Generals Pelissier and 
 Simpson decided that the time had come for making 
 the assault. It was to take place on Saturday, Sep- 
 tember 8, 1855, at noon. 
 
 On the right the troops of the 2d French army 
 corps, commanded by General Bosquet, were to attack 
 the Malakoff, the Curtain, and the Little Redan 
 (also called the redan of the Carenage). In the 
 centre the English were to attack the Grand Redan. 
 On the left the attack on the Central bastion and 
 the bastion of the Flagstaff was reserved to the 1st 
 French army corps, commanded by General de Tolk-s 
 and to a Sardinian division. The most important 
 point to seize was the Malakoff. Successful there, 
 it is all up with Sebastopol, even though failure is 
 the result everywhere else. 
 
 The front of the Malakoff was some three hundred 
 
 343
 
 344 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 and fifty yards long by one hundred and fifty 
 in width. Its parapets projected more than six 
 yards above the ground, and in front of them was a 
 ditch more than six yards deep and seven wide. 
 This immense citadel of earth called Malakoff was 
 armed with sixty-two cannon of varying calibre. In 
 the front of it, enclosed by the parapet, was the 
 Malakoff tower, of which the Russians have pre- 
 served only the ground story, which is crenellated. 
 The work is united by the Curtain to the Little 
 Redan. 
 
 The Malakoff is the key of Sebastopol. Should it 
 be taken, the Russians could no longer defend the 
 suburb of Karabelnaya, communication between the 
 city and the northern part of the roadstead would 
 be cut off, and resistance would become impossible. 
 The honor of attacking it is reserved to the 1st 
 division of the 2d army corps, led by General 
 MacMahon, lately arrived in the Crimea, where he 
 had taken General Canrobert's place at the head of 
 this division. It is to be supported by the Zouaves 
 of the Imperial Guard. The Dulac division and the 
 La Motterouge division, both of them belonging to 
 the 2d corps, are to attack the Little Redan and 
 the Curtain, respectively. They are to be supported 
 by the light infantry and the grenadiers of the 
 guard. 
 
 On Friday, September 7, in a little hut built 
 on a tumulus adjoining the headquarters of the 2d 
 corps, General Bosquet assembled all the generals
 
 THE TAKING OF 8EBAST0P0L 345 
 
 placed under his command, as well as those of the 
 artillery and engineers, and explained to them with 
 great clearness the plans for the next day. " As first 
 reserves," said he to General MacMahon, "I shall 
 give you the vigorous Wimpffen brigade, composed 
 of soldiers seasoned in the trenches; then to parry 
 at the last hour the offensive returns of the enemy, 
 I have selected for you the Zouaves of the Guard, 
 those veterans of the army of Africa who would let 
 themselves be killed to the last man rather than 
 abandon to the enemy this conquest of the 1st divi- 
 sion." (The next day the Zouaves of the Guard had 
 three hundred and eleven killed and wounded men 
 out of six hundred and twenty-seven.) Bosquet's 
 words are warmly applauded. From all sides comes 
 the cry : " Count on us, general." 
 
 Saturday, September 8, 1855. The weather is 
 bad, the sea rough. A violent northwest wind pre- 
 vents the English and French vessels from leaving 
 their anchorages and taking part in the operations. 
 
 At eight o'clock the engineers throw into the 
 Malakoff, where they explode, two barrels of powder 
 of one hundred kilogrammes each (about two hun- 
 dred and twenty pounds) ; moreover, they explode 
 three charges of five hundred kilogrammes, in order 
 to destroy the galleries of the Russian miners and to 
 reassure the French soldiers who knew the soil was 
 mined. 
 
 The 2d corps gets under arms at the same hour. 
 General Bosquet's order of the day, announcing
 
 346 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 the assault, concluded as follows : " It is a gen- 
 eral assault, army against army ; it is a question of 
 crowning the young eagles of France with an im- 
 mense and memorable victory. Forward then, chil- 
 dren ! Malakoff and Sebastopol to us ! and long- 
 live the Emperor ! " 
 
 This is General MacMahon's order of the day : 
 " Soldiers of the 1st division and Zouaves of the 
 Guard, at last you are to quit your parallels and 
 attack the enemy corps to corps. In this decisive 
 battle the most important point has been confided to 
 you by the commander-in-chief : the seizing of the 
 Redan of Malakoff, key of Sebastopol. Soldiers, the 
 entire army has its eyes upon you, and your flags, 
 planted on the ramparts of that citadel, must re- 
 spond to the signal given for the general assault ; 
 twenty thousand English and twenty thousand 
 French will support you on the left by precipitating 
 themselves on that side of the fortress. Zouaves, 
 foot soldiers, men of the 7th, 20th, and 27th of 
 the line, your bravery answers for the success which 
 must immortalize the members of those regiments. 
 Within a few hours the Emperor will know in 
 France what the soldiers of the Alma and of 
 Inkerman can do. I give you Long live the 
 Emperor! as our signal. Our countersign will be 
 Honor and Country ! " 
 
 All the watches have been regulated. The assault 
 is to begin at noon precisely. In a glass case, con- 
 taining what might be called the military relics of
 
 THE TAKING OF SEVASTOPOL 347 
 
 General MacMahon, his widow has placed a repeater, 
 on the inside of which is the inscription : " I sounded 
 the assault on Sebastopol." 
 
 General Bosquet is in his tent in the centre of the 
 6th parallel, his fanion lowered. It is noon. The 
 eight hundred cannon which have been firing on 
 Sebastopol are silent. Drums beat, trumpets blare. 
 " Forward! " cries General Bosquet, and his fanion is 
 at once raised by Quartermaster Rigodit. The three 
 divisions, MacMahon, Dulac, and La Motterouge, 
 come out of the trenches to cries of " Long live the 
 Emperor ! " General Pelissier has said : " The mo- 
 ment is solemn." 
 
 This is the 1st brigade of the MacMahon division 
 which rushes on the Malakoff, the 1st Zouaves at its 
 head, followed by the Tth of the line, with the 4th 
 battalion of light infantry on its left. The breadth 
 and depth of the ditch, the height and steepness of 
 the talus, render the ascent extremely difficult. Yet, 
 without waiting for ladders, the intrepid Frenchmen 
 climb the sides ; some jump over the parapet, others 
 pass underneath the rope doorways, under the em- 
 brasures. Then begins a terrible hand-to-hand fight. 
 In default of guns, the surprised Russians had armed 
 themselves with picks, stones, artillery sponges, any- 
 thing on which they could lay their hands. After a 
 ruthless struggle the 1st Zouaves, Colonel Collineau, 
 and the 7th of the line, Colonel Decaen, surround 
 the tower and penetrate as far as the first trenches 
 of the work. The 1st Zouaves plants its eagle on
 
 348 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 the rampart. At this moment occurs a providential 
 event for the French. A hundred Russians, shel- 
 tered in the casemates of the Malakoff tower, have 
 opened a murderous fire. On their refusal to sur- 
 render, some fascines are set afire to smoke them out 
 and thus oblige them to lay down their arms ; but 
 some one remembers just then that the spies had 
 said that all the bastions were mined. The barely 
 kindled fascines are extinguished, trenches being 
 hastily dug beside the tower and earth thrown upon 
 the flames. It is while doing this that the electric 
 wires are discovered which the Russians had pre- 
 pared in order to blow up the work should the 
 French get inside of it. This discovery saves Gen- 
 eral MacMahon and his troops. 
 
 The General is in the Malakoff. But what efforts 
 he must make to remain there ! The 2d brigade of 
 his division comes to his aid. It is composed of the 
 20th and 27th of the line, under General Vinoy. 
 
 At the moment when MacMahon's troops rush 
 upon the Malakoff, the Dulac division attacks the 
 Curtain, and the La Motterouge the Little Redan. 
 But their success is only temporary, in spite of their 
 heroic bravery. 
 
 Meanwhile General Pelissier is established with 
 his staff on the Green Mamelon, called also by the 
 French the Brancion redoubt, because General de 
 Brancion had been killed there, June 7. Seeing 
 that the eagle of the 1st Zouaves is planted on the 
 rampart of the Malakoff, he has the Queen's flag
 
 THE TAKING OF SEVASTOPOL .°,19 
 
 hoisted beside the French colors on the Green 
 Mamelon. This is the signal agreed upon between 
 him and General Simpson for beginning the Eng- 
 lish attack upon the Grand Redan. To reach it, the 
 English have to cross a space of more than two hun- 
 dred yards under a rain of grape-shot. This space 
 is speedily strewn with dead men. The attacking 
 column goes down into the ditch, almost five yards 
 deep. It climbs the overhanging rampart and takes 
 the salient of the Grand Redan. After sustaining 
 an unequal combat for two hours, it decides to evacu- 
 ate it, but does so with such a firm bearing that the 
 enemy is afraid to pursue it. 
 
 The attack on the Grand Redan was still in prog- 
 ress when, a little before two o'clock, a bouquet of 
 fireworks set off from the French observatory sig- 
 nalled the commander of the 1st corps of the French 
 army to assail the Central bastion. Notwithstand- 
 ing the extreme energy of the troops, this attack suc- 
 ceeded no better than that on the Grand Redan. 
 
 Half-past two. The attack will miscarry at all 
 points except the Malakoff, where the MacMahon 
 division is only sustaining itself by prodigies of 
 energy and at the cost of the most blood} r sacrifices. 
 
 At this moment a great misfortune befalls the 
 army, — General Bosquet, who, in front of the Mala- 
 koff, is surveying all the operations of the 2d corps, 
 is grievously wounded by the explosion of a shell. 
 One of Yvon's pictures in the gallery of Versailles 
 represents Bosquet at the moment he was struck.
 
 350 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Of all the officers who figure in this picture, — Gen- 
 eral Mellinet, commanding the division of the im- 
 perial guard, General de Cissey, Commandant de 
 Rumford, Captain de Dampierre, etc., — but one sur- 
 vives, namely, Captain Fay, General Bosquet's aide- 
 de-camp, since become a general of division and the 
 head of an army corps. I have the honor to be a 
 friend of this brave soldier, a military author of the 
 first rank. His writings and conversations have sup- 
 plied me with most valuable observations. 
 
 And now let us give place to another of our 
 friends, whom Yvon has not represented in his pict- 
 ure, and yet who had every right to be there : 
 Captain Bocher, orderly officer of the illustrious 
 wounded man. " General Bosquet," he says, " is 
 struck on the right side and totters. Being close 
 beside him, I receive him in my arms. By the 
 suffering expressed on his countenance, his pallor, 
 his heart-rending groans, I think all is over with 
 him. What a painful impression around us ! The 
 loss of such a leader at such a moment might 
 endanger success. The courageous wounded man 
 was still strong enough to be aware of everything 
 and to send word to General Pe'lissier, who was at 
 the Green Mamelon, to fill his place. It was not 
 until later, when his strength was completely gone, 
 that he consented to be carried from the field of 
 carnage. What a time it took us to get out of the 
 trenches ! They were encumbered with defenders, 
 with the dead and wounded. We had to take a
 
 THE TAKING OF SEBASTOPOL 351 
 
 thousand precautions, and halt at every step, in 
 obedience to the general, who was suffering cruelly. 
 After quitting the trenches we often picked our way 
 under a rain of fire. It was night when we reached 
 our headquarters and deposited our chief in his 
 wooden hut. There only could he find a little relief 
 from his excessive sufferings." 
 
 Before his banishment from the action that had 
 been so well prepared, Bosquet had had the joy of 
 following the progress of MacMahon's troops, who, 
 being reinforced by the Wimpffen brigade and the 
 Zouaves of the Guard, victoriously maintained them- 
 selves in the Malakoff, in spite of the Russian 
 attempts to drive them out. 
 
 ■ The French troops triumphed in the Malakoff, but 
 the Russians were succeeding in the Curtain and 
 at the Little Redan. In the Curtain the explosion 
 of a covered powder magazine made great ravages. 
 The standard of the 91st, buried under the debris, 
 was not found until the next morning, in the 
 scorched hands of the officer who had kept it even 
 in death. General de La Motterouge had been 
 wounded by a bursting shell. At the Little Redan 
 General de Marolles and General de Saint-Pol had 
 been killed, Generals Bourbaki, Bisson, Ivlellinet de 
 Ponteves wounded, the latter mortally. The Dulac 
 division, which had carried the work in the first 
 place, had in the end been obliged to evacuate it. 
 
 In the attack on the Central bastion, which had 
 likewise failed, Generals Rivet and Breton had been
 
 352 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 killed and General Trochu wounded. The ever 
 ardent troops of the 1st corps were making ready- 
 to renew the attack when the commander-in-chief 
 sent an order to General de Salles not to keep it up 
 airy longer. 
 
 Thereupon the siege batteries, silent since noon, 
 again opened fire. The bombardment was renewed 
 before the city, as well as in front of the Great and 
 Little Redans. 
 
 All efforts are now concentrated on the Malakoff, 
 which is to be retained at any cost. Important 
 reinforcements reach it : 3d Zouaves, 50th of the 
 line, light infantry of the guard, Algerian sharp- 
 shooters. The Russians are about to make a final, 
 desperate attempt. Formed in three deep columns, 
 they thrice attack the entrance of the bastion. Three 
 times they are obliged to fall back before the solidity 
 of the French troops. After this last struggle, which 
 is not over until near five o'clock, they seem decided 
 on abandoning the game. 
 
 General Pelissier, who has just seen his aide-de- 
 camp, Colonel Cassaigne, fall mortally wounded at 
 his side, is still posted on the Green Mamelon. 
 From there, towards the close of the day, he ob- 
 serves a great movement on the bridge of boats 
 uniting the northern and southern shores of the 
 roadstead of Sebastopol. Groups of men, files of 
 vehicles, constantly succeed each other, constantly 
 moving towards the north. Are they convoys of 
 wounded ? Are they wagons going after munitions ?
 
 THE TAKING OF 8EBA8T0P0L 353 
 
 No, it is the mass of Russians who arc evacuating 
 the city to take shelter on the north side of the road- 
 stead. 
 
 Night has come. The allies do not yet know 
 whether the fight will be resumed next day. At 
 midnight many explosions in Sebastopol are heard. 
 All the batteries of the Point, the Maison-en-Croix, 
 the Little Redan, the Grand Redan, the bastion of 
 the Flagstaff, the Central bastion, every bastion, in 
 fact, except the Malakoff, where the French had 
 providentially discovered the electric wire and cut 
 it in time, explode one after another. The check sus- 
 tained at the Little Redan, the Curtain, the Grand 
 Redan, and the Central bastion was all that pre- 
 vented the troops from falling victims to the explo- 
 sion. The Russians have decided to leave nothing 
 but ruins to the victors. The powder magazines, 
 the forts, all explode with terrific noise. It is a 
 gigantic conflagration, like that of Moscow in 1812. 
 The sun, rising on September 9, lights up this work 
 of destruction. The bridge of boats has bent back 
 upon itself. The Russians have sunk what remained 
 of their Black Sea fleet, not even sparing the Im- 
 peratrit'e-3farie, that beautiful vessel which carried 
 Admiral Nakhimoff to the battle of Sinope. They 
 have kept only the steamers which take away the 
 last fugitives and some fanatics still trying to spread 
 the conflagration in the city. But soon these few 
 men, as well as the steamers, are obliged to with- 
 draw and seek shelter in the creeks and coves of
 
 354 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 the north shore of the roadstead. Sebastopol was 
 taken, all but this shore, which still belonged to the 
 Russians. 
 
 " September 10," writes General Fay, " General 
 Bazaine was given the chief command of the for- 
 tress, with a brigade of infantry, and it was agreed 
 that the French should occupy the city and the 
 English the suburb ; a pontoon bridge was to unite 
 these two parts of Sebastopol. But this occupation 
 soon became difficult on account of the numerous 
 batteries immediately established all along the north 
 shore of the roadstead ; in order to answer these and 
 to destroy them, we were ourselves obliged to set up 
 batteries all along the south shore and provide ways 
 of reaching them under cover ; so the second winter 
 passed in a continual exchange of bombs and bullets 
 which fortunately did not effect much." 
 
 And now we leave the tale to the commander-in- 
 chief. In his report of September 14, 1855, he says : 
 " Thus has been terminated this memorable siege, 
 during which the relieving army has twice fought 
 in pitched battle, and in which the means of defence 
 and attack have attained colossal proportions. The 
 besieging army had in battery, in the different 
 attacks, about 800 pieces of ordnance, discharged 
 more than 1,600,000 times, and our parallels, dug 
 during 336 days of covered trench work in rocky 
 ground, and nearly five miles long, were executed 
 under constant fire from the fortifications and in- 
 cessant combats by day and night. The battle of
 
 THE TAKING OF SEBASTOPOL 355 
 
 September 8, in which the allies got the better 
 of an army of almost equal size, not invested, in- 
 trenched behind formidable defences provided with 
 1100 pieces of ordnance, protected by the cannon of 
 the fleet and the batteries on the north of the road- 
 stead, disposing altogether of immense resources, 
 will remain an example of what may be expected 
 from a brave, disciplined, and well-seasoned army." 
 
 The Russian losses on the 8th had amounted to 
 12,913 men, 2972 of whom were dead. The French 
 army counted 145 officers killed, 254 wounded ; 1489 
 inferior officers and soldiers killed, 4259 wounded, 
 1400 missing ; total, 7567 men disabled. The Eng- 
 lish army, 385 killed, 1886' wounded, 176 missing; 
 the Sardinian brigade, 4 killed and 36 wounded. 
 
 Now that France and Russia are closely allied, 
 and the latter have resumed their former position 
 at Sebastopol and in the Black Sea, may not one 
 inquire what end was served by such heroic efforts, 
 such sublime sacrifices, such cruel slaughter ? Alas ! 
 how heavy a price is paid for glory, and often to 
 what good ?
 
 CHAPTER XLI 
 
 THE PUBLIC REJOICINGS 
 
 EDARIS at first understood but imperfectly what 
 had just taken place in the Crimea. The Moni- 
 teur of September 10, 1855, published the following 
 despatch dated from Varna, and received by the 
 Minister of War at eleven o'clock the previous even- 
 ing : "September 9, 3.35 A.M. The Malakoff was 
 assaulted at noon. Its redoubts and the redan of 
 the Carenage (the Little Redan) were taken by our 
 brave soldiers with admirable spirit to cries of ' Long 
 live the Emperor ! ' We immediately proceeded to 
 establish ourselves in them, one after another, and at 
 Malakoff we have succeeded. It was impossible to 
 keep possession of the Carenage under the heavy 
 artillery fire that poured in upon the first occupants 
 of this work, which our solid installation at Malakoff 
 will soon reduce, as well as the Grand Redan, whose 
 salient our brave allies carried with their usual vigor. 
 But, as it was at the Carenage, they were obliged to 
 recoil before the enemy's artillery and powerful re- 
 serves. On seeing our eagles floating above the 
 Malakoff, General de Salles made two attacks on 
 the Central bastion. They were unsuccessful ; our 
 
 356
 
 THE PUBLIC REJOICINGS .'i'<7 
 
 troops returned to the trenches. Our losses are 
 serious, and I cannot specify them. They are amply 
 compensated, for the taking of the Malakoff is a 
 success which will have immense consequences." 
 Notwithstanding this last sentence, public satisfac- 
 tion was very moderate. People had been so often 
 the sport of false news and vain joys that they had 
 become incredulous ; moreover, the despatch did not 
 say that Sebastopol was taken. 
 
 The next day, September 11, the Moniteur pub- 
 lished two despatches which were more explicit. 
 One from General Pelissier, dated from the Brandon 
 redoubt at three in the morning of September 9, 
 announced that the faubourg of Karabelnaya and 
 the southern portion of Sebastopol no longer existed, 
 and that the Russians had decided to evacuate the 
 town after having blown up nearly all the defences. 
 The other telegram, addressed by Admiral Bruat to 
 the Minister of the Navy, September 9, 10.15 a.m., 
 announced that the Russian vessels had slipped away, 
 and that the French soldiers were scattered about in 
 isolated groups on the ramparts of Sebastopol, which 
 seemed to be entirely deserted. 
 
 September 12, the news of the taking of Sebasto- 
 pol being completely confirmed, Napoleon III. signed 
 at the chateau of Saint-Cloud the decree which 
 raised General Pelissier to the rank of Marshal of 
 France. It was decided that on the next day, Sep- 
 tember 13, a Te Devm should be chanted at Notre- 
 Dame, and that all the Parisian theatres should give
 
 358 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 free entertainments. The Emperor was present at 
 the Te Deum of Notre-Dame, which was celebrated 
 with great pomp. He said to the Archbishop of 
 Paris : " I come here, Monseigneur, to thank Heaven 
 for the triumph it has granted to our arms, for I 
 rejoice to recognize that in spite of the ability of the 
 generals and the courage of the soldiers, nothing can 
 succeed without the protection of Providence." On 
 Sunday, September 16, a Te Deum was chanted in 
 every church in France, and there were public 
 rejoicings everywhere. 
 
 September 21, the Emperor wrote to Bosquet : 
 " My dear general, the taking of Sebastopol is 
 largely due to you ; Marshal Pelissier proclaims this 
 and it does not surprise me. This final and decisive 
 co-operation on your part is in keeping with previous 
 feats of arms since the opening of the campaign. 
 There you were skilful and intrepid as you have 
 been on all occasions. I love to recognize it openly 
 and to congratulate you upon it. I am assured that 
 your wound will not have serious consequences ; I 
 hope so and am sincerely glad of it." 
 
 The Russians, as well as the French, rendered hom- 
 age to General Bosquet. This is what he wrote to 
 his mother, September 25 : "A score of Russian offi- 
 cers, prisoners, brought to my headquarters on the 
 8th, just as I reached it on an ambulance litter, made 
 inquiries about my wound with great interest, saying 
 that without me we should not have succeeded, and 
 that if the assault had been conducted by Pelissier, it
 
 THE PUBLIC REJOICINGS 359 
 
 would have failed like that on the 18th of June. 
 And as one of my officers said to them : ' Since the 
 battles where General Bosquet made the charge 
 against you have all been fatal to the Russians, how 
 is it that you speak of him so kindly ? ' They replied : 
 4 We have been conquered, but we cannot withhold 
 our esteem from your general, and if he is sent to 
 Russia when peace is proclaimed, he will be received 
 in triumph. We know that he has appreciated our 
 troops and our officers.' " 
 
 During the Crimean war all hearts in France beat 
 in unison. Imperialists, legitimists, Orleanists, re- 
 publicans, were all animated by the purest patriot- 
 ism. Party rancors had vanished before the national 
 sentiment. Witness the beautiful letter which a 
 personal adversary of Napoleon III., General de 
 Lamoriciere, wrote to General Bosquet from Brus- 
 sels, September 20, 1855 : " My dear general, so 
 long as it was only a question of applauding your 
 successes, I abstained, as you could not doubt my 
 sentiments, from sending you any commonplace felici- 
 tations which might have the inconvenient result 
 of interfering with your career. Among the neces- 
 sities imposed on us by the ostracism to which we 
 are subjected, one of the hardest is that which very 
 often obliges us to refrain from expressing the sym- 
 pathies which we must retain within our hearts. 
 But now you are wounded, even severely, it is said, 
 I cannot resist the impulse to send you these few 
 lines, the writing of which you will recognize. May
 
 360 NAPOLEON III. AND UIS COURT 
 
 the cordial souvenir and the old friendship of him 
 who traces them assuage for a moment your glorious 
 sufferings ! " 
 
 Bosquet had a profound gratitude and admiration 
 for Lamoriciere. He replied : " My general, my 
 very dear general, a common friend will hand 
 you this letter and tell you, better perhaps than it 
 can do, all the warmth of my affection and gratitude 
 towards you, my general, who put my foot in the 
 stirrup and the reins in my hand. You will easily 
 believe, and your kind heart will comprehend, that 
 the thought of you has never left me during this 
 severe campaign ; in solemn moments I have always 
 invoked it, and it seems to me that the good inspira- 
 tion came to me from you. Since fate kept you 
 away from us, your mind at least was present with 
 all its resources of devotion and firmness. We have 
 made war as we learned it under your command, and 
 our soldiers, whom you would have recognized, were 
 inspired by that sentiment of duty which you taught 
 them in Africa. We have beaten the Russians with 
 the soldiers and the methods which you created, and 
 for my part, if fortune has favored me in several 
 rencounters, you will believe, my general, that it was 
 to you, as my master, that I gave the credit of it at 
 the close of the battle. Why can I not, while hold- 
 ing your two hands, describe to you these combats 
 where you would praise your pupils, your children ! 
 The few lines you sent me to the Crimea have been 
 like balm to my wounds, and have brought sweet
 
 THE PUBLIC REJOICINGS 361 
 
 tears to my eyes. For me it was the completest o 
 rewards." 
 
 The attitude of the Orleans princes was both 
 noble and generous throughout the war. Following 
 the military operations with the most ardent, im- 
 passioned, and patriotic interest, they felt profound 
 grief at being unable to share the dangers of their 
 former brethren in arms. The Due d'Aumale, that 
 great soldier, great citizen, that "admirable and 
 symbolic representative of old France," as Francois 
 Coppee has called him, the Due d'Aumale, to whom 
 all parties have rendered homage, and whose recent 
 death has grieved the whole country, wrote from 
 Twickenham, August 2, 1855, to Captain Bocher 
 these lines truly worthy of his great heart : " I am 
 very sad, and my old fund of natural gaiety is 
 beginning to be exhausted. I cannot reconcile my- 
 self to the idea that my comrades are fighting and 
 dying and I not in the midst of them. A war with- 
 out us is what I have always dreaded most since the 
 revolution of February ; I was almost accustomed 
 to the rest, but I cannot become so to that." Alas ! 
 why were men such as the Due d'Aumale, Generals 
 Changarnier, Bedeau, Lamoriciere, condemned to an 
 inaction so painful to them? Why was not the 
 Crimea a ground of general reconciliation for all 
 Frenchmen ?
 
 CHAPTER XLII 
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1855 
 
 A S yet no one could say whether the war was 
 at last to end. At the close of October the 
 assembled contingents of the allies in the Crimea 
 amounted to almost two hundred thousand men, and 
 there was no talk of reducing them. But on both 
 sides there was a general weariness of slaughter, and 
 the situation somewhat resembled a truce. Septem- 
 ber 20, at the village of Koughil, near Eupatoria, 
 General d'Allonville conducted a brilliant cavalry 
 combat, and on October 17 a Franco-English expe- 
 ditionary corps, embarked at Kamiesch and Bala- 
 clava, seized the Russian fortress of Kimburn, at the 
 extremity of the gulf of the Dnieper ; but the end 
 of the year was not signalized by any other military 
 incident. The troops went into winter quarters 
 and enjoyed a relative calm, without knowing 
 whether the war would begin in the spring with 
 renewed fury or not. 
 
 The denouement depended chiefly upon the Em- 
 peror Alexander II. In November, while the ruins 
 of Sebastopol were still smoking, he went to the 
 Crimea to thank its brave defenders ; he addressed 
 
 3G2
 
 TEE CLOSE OF 18S6 363 
 
 a rescript to the cominander-in-chief, Prince Michael 
 Gortchakoff, in which he said: "The excellent 
 condition of the army placed under your command 
 evinces the solicitude and the persevering efforts, 
 thanks to which you have been able to attain this 
 end. This does you the more honor because all 
 your intelligence and activity were simultaneously 
 concentrated on the task of combating a redoubt- 
 able and courageous enemy who shrank from no 
 sacrifices." This courteous phrase of the Czar, 
 concerning his enemies, could be construed as a 
 symptom of conciliation. 
 
 Xapoleon III. hesitated somewhat, but he was not 
 long in discovering that while England would be 
 pleased to have hostilities continue, public opinion 
 in France was unanimously in favor of peace. 
 Thenceforward the aspect of French policy ceased 
 to be bellicose. His particularly cordial welcome of 
 the Duke of Brabant (now King of the Belgians 
 under the name of Leopold IF), and to his wife 
 (Marie Henriette, Archduchess of Austria), proved 
 that the Emperor did not dream of annexing any 
 territory. The Duke and Duchess of Brabant were 
 his guests at Saint-Cloud from October 12 till Octo- 
 ber 27, 1855. He overwhelmed them with atten- 
 tions. On the 26th a review of forty squadrons of 
 cavalry was held in their honor at Versailles. 
 \fter their departure the Moniteur of October 29 
 said : " The reception given by the Emperor and 
 the Empress to the Duke and the Duchess of Bra-
 
 861 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 bant, the evidences of sympathy exchanged between 
 Their Imperial and Their Royal Highnesses during 
 their stay in France, have faithfully reflected the sen- 
 timents which animate the two countries. France 
 and Belgium are sisters by origin, language, man- 
 ners, and interests. The two nations comprehend 
 this at present as their sovereigns do. But nothing 
 could contribute more to strengthen the union be- 
 tween the two peoples and facilitate their relations 
 than these cordial relations between the reigning 
 families." 
 
 November 15, 1855, a grandiose ceremony, wholly 
 pacific in its character, took place in Paris at the 
 Palais de lTndustrie. Napoleon III. presided at 
 the distribution of the awards of the Universal 
 Exposition. More than forty thousand persons were 
 assembled in the nave. An immense orchestra, di- 
 rected by Berlioz, executed compositions of Beetho- 
 ven, Gluck, Mozart, Rossini, and Meyerbeer. A 
 colossal amphitheatre, constructed against the three 
 sides of the transept, rose to the height of the gal- 
 leries and faced a platform supporting the throne. 
 On the innumerable benches of this amphitheatre 
 was unrolled, as some one has said, a map of the 
 living and breathing world. In the galleries, hung 
 with red velvet trimmed with gold bullion, was a 
 crowd of women in the most elegant toilettes. A 
 frieze of crimson cloth embroidered in gold and sur- 
 mounted with the coats of arms and the flags of all 
 nations which had taken part in the Exposition
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1866 365 
 
 extended all along the galleries. The throne was 
 surmounted by a dais sown with golden bees. 
 
 The Emperor and Empress, followed by a very 
 numerous cortege, made a splendid entry to the 
 noise of fanfares and acclamations. Napoleon III., 
 who had a very powerful voice, made a speech which 
 was heard by all the audience, in spite of the im- 
 mensity of the hall. The following passage pro- 
 duced a great effect : " The first impression produced 
 by the sight of so many marvels spread before our 
 eyes is a desire for peace. Peace alone can still 
 further develop these remarkable products of human 
 intelligence. You ought all to join with me, then, 
 in wishing that this peace may come promptly and 
 be durable." 
 
 The Emperor thus ended his remarks : " In our 
 present epoch of civilization, it is public opinion, 
 after all, which always gains the final victory. Let 
 all of you then, on returning to your countries, tell 
 your fellow-citizens that France has no hatred 
 against any people, that she sympathizes with all 
 who desire, as she does, the triumph of justice. 
 Tell them that if they desire peace, they should at 
 least pray for or against us, for in the midst of a 
 grave European conflict indifference is a bad mis- 
 take and silence an error. As for us, peoples allied 
 for the triumph of a great cause, let us forge 
 weapons without slackening work in our manufac- 
 tories, without interfering with our trades ; let us 
 be as great in the arts of peace, as in those of war ;
 
 366 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 let us be strong in unity ; let us place our confi- 
 dence in God that He may cause us to triumph over 
 the difficulties of the present and the chances of the 
 future." 
 
 The conclusion of this speech was greeted by 
 several rounds of applause. Then followed the dis- 
 tribution of the awards. As each class arrived in 
 front of the sovereign, an usher carrying a banner 
 indicating the number of this class, halted at the 
 foot of the throne. Prince Napoleon presented the 
 medals and crosses to the Emperor who gave them 
 to the exhibitors with his own hand. The master- 
 pieces of painting and sculpture, as well as the dis- 
 coveries and marvels of industry which had merited 
 the highest awards, were grouped in an ensemble, 
 forming the most superb of pacific trophies. 
 
 On the whole the Universal Exposition had suc- 
 ceeded beyond all expectations. Visitors had come 
 there from all parts of the world. The number of 
 entrances had risen to 5,162,530 a figure which 
 seems insignificant enough to-day, but which ap- 
 peared enormous in 1855. The success of this Ex- 
 position, coincident with one of the most bloody 
 wars remembered by Europe, formed an exceedingly 
 strange contrast. 
 
 Not many days after the formal conferring of the 
 awards, Napoleon III. received a royal visit which 
 seemed wholly pacific, but in which certain shrewd 
 observers caught a fleeting glimpse of future war. 
 Even before the arrival at the Tuileries of the King
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1855 367 
 
 of Sardinia, Victor Emmanuel, the Moniteur of No- 
 vember 23 published this significant article : " The 
 King of Sardinia will receive the most enthusiastic 
 and hearty welcome from the population of Paris. 
 This august sovereign is not merely the descendant 
 of one of the most glorious reigning families of 
 Europe, the head of a nation whose destinies have 
 been linked with those of the French nation from 
 time immemorial ; his eminent personal qualities, 
 his tried loyalty and courage, the alacrity with 
 which he sent his brave troops to fight beside ours 
 for the same cause, have entitled King Victor Em- 
 manuel in a special way to the sympathies of 
 France." 
 
 The King landed at Marseilles, November 22, 1855, 
 at nine o'clock in the morning. The troops were 
 drawn up in battle array on the wharf. The Bishop 
 of the city accompanied the sovereign as far as the 
 prefecture. Leaving at eleven o'clock, he was greeted 
 at Avignon by the Archbishop, and arrived at Lyons 
 at six in the evening. Marshal de Castellane said 
 to him : " Sire, the Emperor my master is happy 
 to receive you in his dominions. The army of 
 Lyons is proud to be seen by a military sovereign 
 whose valor on the battle-field is proverbial. The 
 Piedmontese soldiers in the Crimea have rivalled 
 their king ; the French soldiers were delighted to 
 fight beside them." Victor Emmanuel rested for 
 some hours at the Hotel de l'Europe, where he 
 seated Cardinal Bonald, Archbishop of Lyons, at his
 
 368 NAl'OLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 right hand at the dinner table. At four in the 
 morning he left for Paris, where he arrived at one 
 in the afternoon, November 23. He was accom- 
 panied by Count Cavour, Massimo d'Azeglio, and 
 Chevalier Nigra. 
 
 The station was splendidly decorated with the 
 flags of the four allied powers and the armorial bear- 
 ings of the King. Salvoes of artillery greeted him 
 as he entered in the uniform of a colonel of hussars. 
 The band of the Guides played the fanfare of the 
 House of Savoy and the national air of Piedmont. 
 On leaving the car Victor Emmanuel was received 
 by Prince Napoleon, and went to the Tuileries in a 
 carriage escorted by a squadron of guides, the hun- 
 dred guards, and a squadron of cuirassiers of the 
 imperial guard. After passing the arch of the Car- 
 rousel, he reached the chateau, where the Emperor, 
 with the great officers of the crown and the officials 
 of his household, was awaiting him at the foot of 
 the grand staircase. Napoleon III. embraced his 
 ally with much effusion, and after conducting him 
 to the Empress, who had remained with her ladies 
 at the head of the stairs, he took him to the apart- 
 ments reserved for him in the Marsan pavilion. 
 
 November 24, Victor Emmanuel paid a visit to 
 King Jerome and the Princesse Mathilde. The min- 
 isters, the presidents of the Senate, the Legislative 
 Body, and the Council of State were presented to 
 him by the Due de Cambaceres, grand master of 
 ceremonies. In the evening the Emperor and the
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1855 369 
 
 King went to the Gymnase. The next day they 
 heard Mass together in the chapel of the Tuileries. 
 The 26th, they were shooting in the forest of Saint- 
 Germain, and in the evening witnessed the ballet of 
 Jovita at the Opera. The 27th, they reviewed the 
 troops of the 1st military division at the Champ 
 de Mars. The 28th, they attended a grand ball at 
 the Hotel de Ville, the Emperor dancing with the 
 Duchess of Hamilton in the quadrille of honor, the 
 King with the Princesse Mathilde, and Prince Napo- 
 leon with the Marchioness of Villamarina, wife of 
 the Sardinian minister. The next day the King 
 started for London. On his way back to his domin- 
 ions he passed through France and met the Emperor 
 again at Compiegne, December 6. Napoleon III. 
 and his guest returned to Paris, December 8, and 
 on the 9th the King left for Turin, taking a most 
 affectionate leave of the Emperor. Possibly the 
 days which the two sovereigns had just spent to- 
 gether already presaged those of Magenta and Sol- 
 ferino. But in 1855 the friend of the Italian cause 
 absolutely needed the assistance of Austria in order 
 to manage Crimean affairs, and at this time he took 
 care not to betraj" his ulterior dispositions. 
 
 December 10, an imposing ceremony took place at 
 the Invalides : the funeral solemnities of Admiral 
 Bruat, who had died in the Crimea of cholera, like 
 Marshal de Saint- Arnaud and Lord Raglan. The 
 brave sailor had been made an admiral of Franco 
 less than three months previous, September 15, in
 
 370 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 acknowledgment of his eminent services as com- 
 mander of the French fleet in the Black Sea. Rear- 
 admiral Jurien de la Graviere made an eloquent 
 speech above his tomb. 
 
 On Saturday, December 29, Paris celebrated the 
 triumphant return of a division of infantry of the 
 line and some regiments of the imperial guard on 
 their return from the Crimea. The capital looked 
 splendid. All the population turned out to see the 
 victorious troops. The streets were hung with the 
 national colors blended with the flags of England, 
 Turkey, and Sardinia. Triumphal arches had been 
 erected all along the boulevards. Another gigantic 
 one rose over the Place de la Bastille, at the entrance 
 of the Boulevard Beaumarchais. It was surmounted 
 by two colossal eagles, with outspread wings, and a 
 laurel crown, bearing this inscription in gilt letters : 
 " To the glory of the army of the Orient : Sebas- 
 topol, Alma, Inkerman, Traktir, Malakoff, Silistria, 
 Eupatoria." A double row of soldiers lined the 
 entire route from the Tuileries to the Bastille, the 
 National Guard on the right, and on the left the in- 
 fantry, the guard of Paris, and the firemen. 
 
 At half-past eleven in the morning the troops 
 returning from the Crimea were drawn up in line 
 of battle in the Place de la Bastille. At the same 
 hour the Emperor, in the uniform of a general of 
 division, attended by a brilliant escort, set out from 
 the Tuileries on horseback to rejoin them. On 
 reaching the Place, where stands the column of
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1S55 371 
 
 July, he passed slowly through the ranks, and. then, 
 still on horseback, he stopped in the middle of the 
 troops, drawn up in a semicircle, and harangued 
 them as follows : " Soldiers, 1 come to meet you as 
 of old the Roman Senate went to the gates of Rome 
 to meet its victorious legions. I come to tell you 
 that you have merited well of the country. I am 
 greatly moved, because the happiness of meeting 
 you is blended with painful regrets for those who 
 are no more, and with a profound chagrin at having 
 been unable to lead you to combat in person. Sol- 
 diers of the guard as well as soldiers of the line, 
 you are welcome. . . . The country, attentive to 
 all that is being done in the Orient, welcomes you 
 all the more proudly because it measures your efforts 
 b} T the stubborn resistance of the enemy. 
 
 "I have recalled 3 r ou, although the war is not 
 over, because it is just to send substitutes for the 
 regiments which have suffered most. Each can in 
 this way go to take his part in glory, and the coun- 
 try, which maintains six hundred thousand soldiers, 
 is interested in having a sufficiently numerous and 
 well-trained army in France at present, ready to go 
 wherever necessity requires. 
 
 " Be careful, then, to preserve the habits of war, 
 strengthen yourselves in the experience you have 
 acquired, hold yourselves ready to respond, if need 
 be, to my appeal ; but, on this day, forget the trials 
 of a soldier's life, thank God for having spared you, 
 and march proudly amidst your brethren in arms
 
 372 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 and your fellow-citizens whose applause awaits you." 
 The troops, who had not lost a word of this dis- 
 course, delivered in a very powerful and sonorous 
 voice, shouted three times : " Long live the Em- 
 peror ! " 
 
 Followed by his cortege, the sovereign then re- 
 turned by way of the boulevards and the Rue de la 
 Paix, and, still on his horse, took his place with his 
 staff opposite the Vendome column, in front of the 
 Ministry of Justice. I was there, and I still seem to 
 see that magnificent winter day. The Empress, 
 King Jerome, the Princesse Mathilde, the Murat fam- 
 ily, the great dignitaries, the English ambassador and 
 Lady Cowley, the Turkish ambassador, the Minister 
 of Sardinia and the Marchioness of Villamarina, 
 were at the windows of the ministry. What anima- 
 tion in the crowd ! What joy and pride on the 
 faces ! What frank, what sincere enthusiasm ! At 
 the foot of the column were assembled some of the 
 remaining soldiers of the first Napoleon. How 
 imposing was the meeting between the veterans of 
 the first Empire and the soldiers of the second ! 
 
 The troops posted in the Place de la Bastille 
 begin to move. After passing through the boule- 
 vards and the Rue de la Paix, amidst acclamations 
 and under a reign of flowers and crowns, they reach 
 the Place Vendome. Who is it comes first, at the 
 head of the division of the line, and is greeted with 
 frenzied acclamations? It is the former commander- 
 in-chief of the army of the Orient, the hero of the
 
 THE CLOSE OF 1855 373 
 
 Crimea, Canrobert. He went to the Place of thi 
 Bastille in the suite of the Emperor, whose aide-de- 
 camp he is. It was the sovereign who had ordered 
 him to march at the head of the troops. The valiant 
 general has the gift of affecting, of electrifying, the 
 crowd. They know him to be so brave, so humane, 
 so devoted to the soldiers ! His abnegation, his 
 modesty, his disinterestedness, have won for him so 
 pure a popularity ! The pupils of the Polytechnic 
 School and the battalion of the Saint-Cyr, led by 
 General de Monet, wounded in the Orient, have pre- 
 ceded the troops and come to range themselves to 
 right and left of the Emperor in the Place Ven- 
 dome. The march by begins. Here in the first 
 place, with Generals Canrobert, Forey, and Blanch- 
 ard, come the three regiments of infantry of the 
 line, the 20th, the 50th, and the 97th. What a 
 success for these foot soldiers ! What a grand 
 effect they produce with their bronzed faces, their 
 martial bearing, their fighting uniform, their gray 
 cloaks, worn threadbare by victory ! And now the 
 imperial guard, with Generals Regnaud de Saint- 
 Jean-d'Angely, Mellinet, and Maneque, who march in 
 the following order : the battalion of foot soldiers, 
 the regiment of Zouaves, the two regiments of light 
 infantry, of artillery and engineers, the two regi- 
 ments of grenadiers, the regiments of gendarmerie. 
 Each regiment is preceded by its band and a troop 
 of unarmed soldiers covered with glorious wounds. 
 The wounded men shout, " Long live the Emperor ! ,-
 
 374 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 with even greater energy than the able-bodied sol- 
 diers. A sentiment of gratitude appears on the 
 countenance of Napoleon III. His face, ordinarily 
 impassive, lights up. It is long since the people of 
 Paris have witnessed so beautiful and so touching a 
 solemnity.
 
 CHAPTER XLIII 
 
 THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1856 
 
 /^vN January 1, 1856, no one could say as yet 
 ^^^ whether the year was to be warlike or peaceful. 
 On the 15th there was a great military ceremony at 
 Paris : the distribution by the Duke of Cambridge 
 of the so-called Crimean medal, just instituted by 
 Queen Victoria. On this occasion Napoleon III. 
 reviewed in the Place du Carrousel and in the court 
 of the Tuileries the troops coming from the Crimea. 
 They formed two fine divisions : one of the guard, 
 under General Mellinet ; the other of the line, under 
 General Forey. General Regnaud de Saint-Jean- 
 d'Angely commanded the entire body. 
 
 On either side of the Emperor were the Duke of 
 Cambridge and Prince Napoleon. A large number 
 of English generals and several French heroes from 
 the Crimea were noticeable in his staff : Generals 
 Canrobert, Bosquet, Niel, Espinasse. The Emperor 
 was in the balcony of the hall of the Marshals. 
 After passing in front of the troops, the staff halted 
 under this balcony. The Duke of Cambridge moved 
 forward several paces to meet the officers and sol- 
 diers designated to receive the medal, and delivered 
 in French the following speech : " Her Majesty the 
 
 375
 
 376 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Queen of England has deigned to charge me with 
 the presentation to the generals, officers, and soldiers 
 of the French army, our brave and worthy comrades, 
 of these medals, as emblems of the esteem and friend- 
 ship existing between the two nations, and of the 
 admiration experienced by Her Majesty and the Eng- 
 lish nation in beholding the glorious military feats of 
 the army of the Orient. In the grand combats of the 
 Alma, Inkerman, and Sebastopol the alliance has been 
 consecrated by the two armies. God grant that this 
 great alliance may ever continue to the advantage 
 and the glory of both nations ! For my own part, I 
 esteem the honor accorded me all the more highly 
 because I have served with you and have seen with 
 my own eyes your bravery and the loyalty with 
 which you have supported such dangers and fatigues. 
 I am sincerely grateful to the Emperor for his kind- 
 ness in conferring on me the honor of distributing 
 these medals in his presence." 
 
 The discourse of Queen Victoria's relative was 
 greeted by unanimous cries of : " Long live the 
 Queen ! " " Long live the Duke of Cambridge ! '' 
 Descending from his horse, and surrounded by his 
 aides-de-camp, the Duke distributed with his own 
 hands to each of the generals, officers, and wounded 
 soldiers of the army of the Orient the silver medals 
 bearing on one side an effigy of the Queen, and on 
 the other the figure of the god of war crowned by 
 Victoria with the word " Crimea." 
 
 Constantly reinforced by new troops, the French
 
 THE COMMENCEMENT OF 185G 377 
 
 army in the Crimea numbered at this time one 
 hundred and forty-three thousand men and thirty- 
 seven thousand horses, sixty-five hundred of which 
 were cavalry horses. Peace was being negotiated, 
 but preparations for continuing the war were going 
 on none the less actively. Public joy at Paris was 
 very great when this brief paragraph made its 
 appearance in the Jloniteur, January 18: "Paris, 
 January 17. The Minister of Foreign Affairs re- 
 ceived this morning from the Minister of France 
 at Vienna the following despatch : ' Vienna, Janu- 
 ary 16. Count Esterhazy wrote to-day from Saint 
 Petersburg that M. de Nesselrode had just notified 
 him of the acceptance, pure and simple, of the prop- 
 ositions contained in the ultimatum, these propo- 
 sitions to serve as preliminaries of peace.' ' 
 
 Napoleon III., whose sentiments at this time were 
 very pacific, was deeply moved by this good news. 
 Comte Horace de Viel-Castel has written in his 
 Memoirs : " On receiving the despatch containing 
 Russia's acceptance of the propositions, the Emperor 
 was unable to control his emotion. Dr. Reyer was 
 present ; he saw the Emperor turn pale ; then His 
 Majesty said to him : ' I must sit down, doctor ; 
 read that and you will not be surprised.' In the 
 evening (January 17) I saw the Emperor and the 
 Empress at a ball at the house of the Princesse 
 Mathilde. Yesterday (18) there was a small party 
 given by the Empress; we wore dress coats, knee- 
 breeches or tights."
 
 378 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 The Jloniteur of February 2 gave some details 
 concerning the paths of peace just entered upon. 
 Russia might still have resisted had she only France, 
 England, Turkey, and Sardinia to contend against. 
 But from the moment that the government of the 
 Emperor Francis Joseph sent its ultimatum, it was 
 understood at Saint Petersburg that a struggle 
 against five powers would be too unequal. To what 
 are called the Four Points, that is to say : 1. Sub- 
 stitution of a collective protectorate of the powers 
 for the Russian protectorate over the Danubian 
 Principalities ; 2. free navigation of the Danube ; 
 3. guaranty of the independence of the Ottoman 
 Empire ; 4. renunciation by Russia of any exclusive 
 rights over the Christian subjects of the Sultan, 
 Austria had added a fifth point, the neutralization of 
 the Black Sea, and she had notified the cabinet of 
 Saint Petersburg that if it did not accept these five 
 propositions as preliminaries of peace, she would dis- 
 continue diplomatic relations with Russia. It must 
 be admitted that it was this ultimatum which put an 
 end to hostilities. A protocol signed at Vienna, 
 February 1, established the agreement of the parties 
 and stipulated that the plenipotentiaries should meet 
 within three weeks at furthest to proceed to the 
 signature of the preliminaries, the conclusion of an. 
 armistice, and the opening of general negotiations. 
 
 Napoleon III., as a pledge of his moderation, had 
 proposed Brussels as the place of reunion. The 
 Russian Emperor had proposed Frankfort, then the
 
 THE COMMENCEMENT OF 1856 379 
 
 seat of the German Diet. At the last moment Paris 
 was chosen unanimously. It was pleasant for the 
 plenipotentiaries to repair to so brilliant and fashion- 
 able a capital. 
 
 The first session of the Congress took place on 
 Monday, February 25, 1856. The chief plenipoten- 
 tiaries of France were Count Walewski, Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, and Baron de Bourqueney, Minister 
 of France at Vienna. The other plenipotentiaries 
 were for England, Lord Clarendon and Lord Cow- 
 le} r ; for Austria, Count de Buol and Baron von 
 Hubner ; for Russia, Count Orloff and Baron du 
 Brunnow ; for Turkey, Ali Pasha and Djemil Bey ; 
 for Sardinia, Count Cavour and the Marquis of 
 Villamarina. Prussia was not yet represented at 
 the Congress. Count Walewski was unanimously 
 appointed president. The duties of secretary were 
 confided to M. Benedetti. The first act of the Con- 
 gress was the conclusion of an armistice which was 
 to last until the end of March. 
 
 The Minister of Foreign Affairs in France en- 
 joyed at this time a veritable prestige, and diplo- 
 macy benefited by the success of the army. The 
 ministry, or better, the palace on the quai d'Orsay, 
 had been opened but a few months. The first time 
 that the Emperor visited it, he exclaimed : " My 
 dear minister, you are better housed than I am." 
 It was a magnificent frame for the reunion of a con- 
 gress. There was a concert in the evening at the 
 ministry, at which all the plenipotentiaries were
 
 380 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 present. I had been appointed attache to the politi- 
 cal division of the ministry, September 1, 1855, and 
 I recollect how happy I was, in my neophyte's ardor, 
 to be invited to such a fete. With their new fur- 
 niture and their splendid gildings, the salons were 
 radiant. The beautiful and gracious Countess Wa- 
 lewski did the honors admirably. Mario, the tenor, 
 who was also a noble, and the inspired diva Madame 
 Frezzolini were greatly applauded. Mario breathed 
 forth delightfully, in Italian, the romance from La 
 Favorita, "Angel so pure," Spirito gentile. The duet 
 from the Elisir cT Amove, sung by him and Frezzolini, 
 was marvellously effective. "We hope," said the 
 dilettanti, "that the European concert will be as 
 harmonious as this concert." People did not pay 
 much attention to the secondary plenipotentiaries, 
 because they knew them already, but Count Orloff, 
 Lord Clarendon, Count de Buol, AH Pasha, and 
 Count Cavour, all first plenipotentiaries, excited 
 general attention. He who produced the greatest 
 effect was undeniably Count (since Prince) Orloff. 
 His fine bearing, his tall figure, his grand air, drew 
 all eyes. A septuagenarian, one would have thought 
 him scarcely fifty. This superb old man, with man- 
 ners so noble and dignified, was a finished type of 
 the soldier, the diplomat, and the courtier. His per- 
 sonal success was so great that, thanks to him, one 
 might have fancied Russia the victorious power. 
 Already French sympathies were inclining towards 
 Russia and foreboded a future agreement. Even in
 
 THE COMMENi EMENT OF 1856 381 
 
 Paris people were asking whether the Crimean war 
 had really been necessary, whether it was not, after 
 all, a heroic but fatal misunderstanding. The par- 
 tisans as well as the unfavorable critics of tins 
 bloody struggle were all delighted to see its end 
 approaching. All were glad to learn that the armis- 
 tice had been decided on. France had become the 
 most peaceful of nations. 
 
 March 3, the opening of the session took place 
 at the Tuileries in the hall of the Marshals. The 
 speech from the throne was pacific, even while ad- 
 mitting the possibility of a continuation of the war. 
 It concluded as follows : " To-day the plenipoten- 
 tiaries of the belligerent powers are assembled in 
 Paris to settle the conditions of peace. The spirit 
 of moderation, which animates them all, should make 
 us hope for a favorable result ; nevertheless, let us 
 await with dignity the end of the conferences, and 
 be equally prepared to draw the sword again should 
 that be necessary, or to extend a hand to those with 
 whom we have fought so loyally. Whatever may 
 happen, let us employ eveiy means calculated to 
 augment the strength and riches of France. Let 
 us draw still closer, if possible, the alliance formed 
 by a community of glory and of sacrifices, the mutual 
 advantages of which will be made still more evident 
 by peace. Let us, in fine, at this solemn moment 
 place our confidence in God, that He may direct our 
 efforts in the way most conformable to the interests 
 of humanity and civilization."
 
 382 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Everything pointed to the conclusion that con- 
 ciliatory ideas would in the end prevail, and that 
 the labors of the Congress would terminate favor- 
 ably. Napoleon III. displayed especial courtesy 
 towards the representatives of the Czar. It was 
 plain that Russia bore a grudge, not against France, 
 but England, and above all against Austria. In 
 speaking of the plenipotentiaries of the latter power, 
 Count Orloff said : " They talk as if they had con- 
 quered Sebastopol." The sessions took place every 
 other day, and alternated with brilliant entertain- 
 ments. March 16, public attention was diverted 
 from the Congress by an event which seemed to 
 fill up the measure of the favors bestowed by Provi- 
 dence on the former prisoner of Ham. The Em- 
 press presented him with a son.
 
 CHAPTER XLIV 
 
 THE BIRTH OF THE PRINCE IMPERIAL 
 
 "Ayr ARCH 12, 1856, the Archbishop of Paris had 
 ■^ issued a charge to the clergy and the faithful 
 of his diocese which commenced as follows : " Dearly 
 beloved brethren, everything announces that the 
 time is not distant when the vows and pra} r ers we 
 have been offering to Heaven for several months, 
 according to the pious intentions of the Emperor, 
 are to receive their fulfilment. The august com- 
 panion whom he has seated beside him on the throne, 
 after recei\ing her from the hands of God and the 
 Church, is about to present him with the first-fruit 
 of their union and the celestial benedictions. God, 
 who is the author of all paternity, is preparing to 
 crown with His most precious gifts this house 
 founded by Himself in the midst of tempests, and 
 whose crest is now illuminated by the sunlight of 
 the most dazzling prosperity." 
 
 The charge concluded with these sentences : " The 
 house of the Prince is also ours ; he is the father of 
 the nation ; nothing which goes on there can be 
 foreign to us. . . . When in him the father 
 and the sovereign are equally moved, we should 
 
 383
 
 334 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 share in this emotion ; and when our eyes turn to 
 Heaven, we should beg for him the graces by which 
 we shall be the first to profit. 
 
 " When the cannon announce the happy delivery 
 of the Empress, the great bell of Notre-Dame will 
 ring for an hour, as likewise the bells of all the 
 churches. On the Sunday following the birth, there 
 will be chanted after the High Mass in the metro- 
 politan church and in all other churches of our 
 diocese the Te Deum with the prayer Pro gratiarum 
 actione and the Post mulieris partum" 
 
 On Saturday, March 15, towards five o'clock in 
 the morning, the grand mistress of the Empress's 
 household sent word to the princes and princesses of 
 the imperial family, the members of the Emperor's 
 family holding rank at court, the great officers of 
 the crown, the ministers and the president of the 
 Council of State, the marshals, admirals, the grand 
 chancellor of the Legion of Honor, the governor of 
 the Invalides, the superior commandant of the na- 
 tional guards of the Seine, the adjutant general of 
 the palace, the officers and ladies of the household:] 
 of Their Majesties. All these personages repaired 
 to the chateau of the Tuileries in great haste, there 
 to remain until after the delivery of the Empress. 
 The Senate, the Legislature, and the Municipal 
 Council of Paris met in permanent session to await 
 a communication from the Emperor. 
 
 All day long and throughout the evening numerous 
 groups collected in the Tuileries garden and on the
 
 THE BIRTH OF THE PRINCE IMPERIAL 385 
 
 Place du Carrousel. I mingled with these groups 
 and I recollect their sympathetic attitude. 
 
 Surrounding the Empress were her husband, her 
 mother, the Princesse d'Essling, grand mistress of 
 her household, the wife of Admiral Bruat, governess 
 of the children of France, and the Duchesse de 
 Bassano, lady of honor. As her hour approached, 
 Prince Napoleon, Prince Lucien Murat, the Minister 
 of State, and the Keeper of the Seals were brought 
 into the room as witnesses. On Palm Sunday, 
 March 16, at 3.15 A.M., the Empress brought the 
 Prince Imperial into the world. The governess of 
 the children of France presented the newly born to 
 the Emperor and the four witnesses. An official 
 report of his birth was then entered upon the civil 
 register of the imperial family by the Minister of 
 State, assisted by the Keeper of the Seals. The 
 child, who had the Pope for godfather and the 
 Queen of Sweden, granddaughter of Prince Eu- 
 gene, for godmother, received the names of Napo- 
 leon-Eugene-Louis-Jean-Joseph. 
 
 At six in the morning the cannon of the Invalides 
 announced by a salvo of a hundred and one guns the 
 birth of the Prince Imperial, and the bells of all the 
 churches rang a full peal. 
 
 The private baptism of the Prince was adminis- 
 tered after Mass in the chapel of the Tuileries. 
 Close to the steps of the altar had been placed, on 
 a carpet of white velvet, a table covered with the 
 same stuff ; on this had been set a silver-gilt vase,
 
 386 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 intended to be used as a baptismal font. In the 
 middle of the choir were an armchair and a prie-dieu 
 for the Emperor. On the left were chairs for the 
 cardinals, and on the right benches for the arch- 
 bishops and bishops. The Abbe de Place, who had 
 been preaching the Lenten sermons, invoked the 
 blessings of Heaven on the newly born : " My God," 
 he exclaimed, "watch over this cradle, the deposi- 
 tory of so many hopes. Form Thyself, for the wel- 
 fare of a great people, the son of the Emperor. 
 Give him the magnanimity of his father, the kind- 
 ness and inexhaustible beneficence of his mother. 
 To sum up all in one word, give him, my God, a 
 heart worthy of his destiny and his name." After 
 the Mass said by the Bishop of Adras, the governess 
 of the children of France was introduced, bearing in 
 her arms the Prince Imperial, to whom private bap- 
 tism was given by Monseigneur Menjaud, Bishop 
 of Nancy, first almoner of the Emperor. Palms 
 were distributed to all who were present at the 
 Tuileries. 
 
 In the evening Paris was illuminated. The Com- 
 tesse de Damremont wrote to M. Thouvenel, then 
 Ambassador of France at Constantinople : " In all 
 quarters of the city, in spite of wind and rain, lamps 
 and paper lanterns attested an overwhelming major- 
 ity of favorable wishes. Besides, it is chiefly in the 
 popular quarters that this demonstration has been 
 most widespread, a favorable circumstance, because 
 it proves that the revolutionary spirit has been well
 
 THE BIRTH OF THE PRINCE IMPERIAL o87 
 
 and duly mastered on its own ground. The Fau- 
 bourg Saint-Germain has been less expansive." 
 
 The Emperor was overjoyed. He resolved that 
 he would be the godfather and the Empress the god- 
 mother of all legitimate children born on March 16, 
 1856. He ordered that a sum of one hundred thou- 
 sand francs should be deducted from his civil list 
 and distributed between the relief offices of the prin- 
 cipal cities and communes where the estates of the 
 crown were situated. He also deducted from his 
 civil list sixty thousand francs to be divided between 
 the benefit funds of the society of dramatic authors 
 and composers, that of men of letters, dramatic 
 artists, musicians, painters, engravers, designers, 
 inventors, and industrial artists. 
 
 Pardons were joined to these actp of munificence. 
 After the events of June, 1848, eleven thousand 
 persons had been condemned, under the Republic, to 
 transportation to Algeria ; but thanks to the clem- 
 ency of the Prince-President, not more than thirty- 
 six of these now remained in Africa. In December, 
 1851, eleven thousand two hundred and one persons 
 had been transported or expelled ; the pardons 
 already granted by the Emperor had reduced the 
 number to ten hundred and fifty-eight. On the 
 birth of the Prince Imperial he determined that 
 there should be no more proscripts, and that all who 
 would declare that they submitted loyally to the 
 established government should be authorized to 
 return to France.
 
 388 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 March 18, Napoleon III. received official homage 
 and congratulations at the Tuileries. The plenipo- 
 tentiaries of the Congress of Paris were the first 
 to make their appearance. Count Walewski was 
 their appointed spokesman. " The plenipotentiaries 
 of the Congress," said he, "have desired me to be 
 their mouthpiece to Your Majesty. I am proud and 
 happy, Sire, at finding myself called upon to express 
 to Your Majesty, in the name of Europe, the uni- 
 versal joy experienced on account of the happy 
 event with which Providence has deigned to crown 
 you, and which, by assuring and consolidating the 
 Napoleonic dynasty, is a new pledge of security and 
 confidence for the whole world." 
 
 The Emperor replied : "I thank the Congress for 
 the good wishes and felicitations it addresses to me 
 through you. I am happy that Providence should 
 have sent me a son at the moment when an era of 
 general reconciliation approaches for Europe. I 
 shall bring him up to feel that peoples should not be 
 selfish, and that the repose of Europe depends on the 
 prosperity of each nation." 
 
 Then came the diplomatic corps, for whom the 
 nuncio was the spokesman, and next the great bodies 
 of the State. " Already," said the president of the 
 Senate, " France feels that she lives more freely by 
 the life of this child. When he comes to rule over 
 this empire which Grotius called the most beautiful 
 of all, next to the kingdom of heaven, the nineteenth 
 century, arrived at its close, will reap the fruits
 
 THE BIRTH OF TIIE PRINCE IMPERIAL 389 
 
 whose fertile germs our generation is depositing in 
 the bosom of the present. Africa, brought to the 
 front by your powerful hand, will be one of the 
 most beautiful ornaments of his crown. The Orient 
 and the Occident, which have been seeking each 
 other since the crusades, and are beginning to meet, 
 will have married their seas and shores for the be- 
 neficent flood of the ideas and wealth of civilization. 
 Then may this sovereign of our children follow in the 
 footsteps of his august father ; may he recall a reign 
 in which the helm of government is guided by 
 moderation, justice, and equity ; and in that march 
 of humanity France will still be, as now, a regulator 
 for Europe, a lever for progress, a torch for intelli- 
 gence." 
 
 The Emperor replied to the president of the 
 Senate : " You have saluted as an auspicious event 
 the coming into the world of a child of France. 
 This, gentlemen, is because he is born an heir des- 
 tined to perpetuate a national system ; this child is 
 not merely the scion of a family, but veritably the 
 son of the entire country, and the name indicates his 
 duties. If this were true under the old monarchy, 
 which represented more exclusively the privileged 
 classes, how much truer is it now that the sovereign 
 is the elected of the nation, the first citizen of the 
 country, and the representative of all." 
 
 The Emperor triumphed, but with modesty. In 
 his response to the Comte de Morny, president 
 of the Corps Legislatif, there was evident a name-
 
 390 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 less anxiety and melancholy. One would have 
 said that the sovereign, arriving after so many 
 trials at the summit of his power, was seeking to 
 reassure himself against the caprices of fate, and to 
 banish gloomy presentiments. He thought of the 
 King of Rome, of the Due de Bordeaux, of the Comte 
 de Paris, and wondered if his own son would be more 
 favored. " The unanimous acclamations which sur- 
 round his cradle," said he, " do not prevent me from 
 reflecting on the destiny of those who were born in 
 the same place and in similar circumstances. If I 
 hope that his fate will be happier, it is because, con- 
 fiding in Providence in the first place, I cannot 
 doubt of its protection when I see it raising up by a 
 concurrence of extraordinary circumstances all that 
 for forty years it had been battering down, as if it 
 had designed to mature by martyrdom and misfortune 
 a new dynasty arising from the ranks of the people. 
 History, then, has instructions which I shall not for- 
 get. It tells me on the one hand that we must 
 never abuse the favors of fortune, on the other that 
 a dynasty has no chance of success but in remaining 
 faithful to its origin, and occupying itself solely with 
 those popular interests for which it has been created. 
 This child, consecrated in his cradle by approaching 
 peace and the benediction of the Holy Father, 
 brought by electricity an hour after his birth, and 
 finally by the acclamations of this French people 
 whom the Emperor loved so much, this child, I say, will, 
 I hope, be worthy of the destiny which awaits him."
 
 THE BIRTH OF THE PBINCE IMPERIAL 391 
 
 And now see how Napoleon III. spent the even- 
 ing of March 18. One of the heroes of the Crimea, 
 Bosquet, shall inform us. He wrote on the 19th : 
 " My good mother, there was a family fete last even- 
 ing at the Tuileries, and you were missing. The 
 Emperor sent me at half-past five an order to dine 
 with him that very night. ... I found Canrobert 
 there and nobody else except the officers on duty. 
 The Emperor came into the waiting-room as simply 
 as possible, and led us in to dinner. Canrobert was 
 on the right and I on the left of His Majesty. Dur- 
 ing dinner the Emperor talked a good deal about 
 acoustics and the phenomena pertaining to that 
 branch of physics. And then he said : ' Gentlemen, 
 have your glasses filled with champagne, I am going 
 to propose a toast to two good friends of mine whom 
 I have near me : to Marshal Canrobert ; to Marshal 
 Bosquet.' And there we were, almost speechless, 
 seeking the hand of His Majesty, who held it out to 
 us with the most gracious simplicity of manner. On 
 leaving the table the Emperor went into the apart- 
 ments of the Empress, and we went down into the 
 cabinet of the aides-de-camp on duty, where I sent 
 you two words by telegraph. I would have liked to 
 follow the wire as well as the fluid ; I would have 
 liked to press you in my arms, my good mother, and 
 wished you a good sleep and the sweetest dreams. 
 
 " Every one here talks to me about you, every one 
 salutes the mother of a marshal of France, and knows 
 very well that the credit of it belongs to her. God
 
 392 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 be blessed, since He permits the son to honor his 
 mother and to render her the object of the felicita- 
 tions of all the mothers in France ! To you, good 
 mother, one of those moments when we do not speak, 
 but when your head is on my shoulder." Napoleon 
 III. could not more worthily celebrate the birth of 
 his son than by giving the Marshal's baton to the 
 two brave warriors who had so eminently deserved it.
 
 CHAPTER XLV 
 
 CONCLUSION 
 
 [~N 1856 Napoleon III. seemed a monarch strong 
 enough to be clement, powerful enough to be mod- 
 erate. Fortune, so severe towards him at first, now 
 crowned and overwhelmed him with favors. The 
 private man was not less happy than the sovereign. 
 He had every success and every joy. People were 
 forever telling him that his throne was immovable, 
 his dynasty consolidated once for all. In the midst 
 of his triumph this arbiter of Europe, as his cour- 
 tiers then called him, remained always calm and 
 modest. Lord Clarendon said of him during the 
 Congress : " The more I know him, the better I like 
 him." The second Empire will have its age of iron. 
 1856 was its age of gold. 
 
 In recurring to the dazzling period of which I was 
 a witness, I cannot resist a sentiment of melancholy, 
 of sadness. Men and things alike suggest painful 
 reflections. I wonder what end was served by such 
 efforts, agitations, sacrifices ? What is left of the 
 personages and events of which I have been speak- 
 ing? The eight Ministers of Foreign Affairs who 
 were my chiefs under the Empire, the fourteen pleni- 
 
 393
 
 394 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 potentiaries of the Congress of Paris, all these 
 men, whose faces and voices I seem still to see 
 and hear, are dead. What sudden transforma- 
 tions on the stage of the world ! What changes 
 in aspect ! It is like the whistle of an invisible 
 scene-shifter. I recall a saying from the Imitation 
 of Jesus Christ : " Oh, how quickly passes the glory 
 of the world ! " 
 
 Where, now, are the results of that stubborn, that 
 heroic, Crimean war? The Malakoff, the Little 
 Redan, the Green Mamelon, the Central bastion, the 
 Grand Redan, the bastion of the Flagstaff, — all those 
 works attacked and defended with such bitterness, — 
 what has become of them? Not a trace remains. 
 Of the theatre of such hecatombs nothing exists but 
 the cemeteries where the combatants sleep in death. 
 In meditating on these gigantic struggles, one asks 
 nowadays whether peoples have the right to kill each 
 other when no hatred is lurking in their hearts, and 
 mere questions of equilibrium or diplomacy are all 
 that puts arms in their hands. A few years are all 
 that is needed to change all the pieces on the Euro- 
 pean chessboard. All is uncertainty, contradiction, 
 and instability in the alliances. Men desire what 
 they dread, dread what they desire. France made 
 war to destroy Russia's situation in the Black Sea. 
 At present Russia has regained this situation, and, 
 instead of grieving over it, France rejoices. Men 
 think themselves the masters of events when in real- 
 ity they are their slaves. The history of France in
 
 CONCLUSION 395 
 
 the nineteenth century is nothing but a perpetual 
 disillusion. 
 
 At the moment of the Prince Imperial's birth Na- 
 poleon III. had good reason to recur philosophically 
 to the past. Forty years before almost to a day. 
 March 20, 1811, a child was born, whose coming 
 into the world had excited still greater transports of 
 enthusiasm. The president of the Senate said at 
 that time to the great Emperor : " Your peoples 
 salute with unanimous acclamations this new star 
 which has just arisen on the horizon of France, and 
 whose first beams dispel the last vestiges of the dark- 
 ness of the future." The future ! it was that this so 
 lauded child would be another Astyanax ; that, de- 
 prived not merely of his titles of King of Rome and 
 Prince Imperial, but of his baptismal name Napoleon 
 and his family name Bonaparte, he would be called 
 nothing but Francis, Duke of Reichstadt, and would 
 die young, in exile, having never worn any uniform 
 but the Austrian. 
 
 Nine years and a half after the birth of the King 
 of Rome — September 20, feast of Saint Michael the 
 Archangel, one of the protectors of France, — was 
 born another child whom the Papal Nuncio, in con- 
 gratulating Louis XVIII., called the child of Europe. 
 What did the child of Europe, the child of miracle, 
 become ? A proscript. Eighteen years after the birth 
 of the Due de Bordeaux, August 24, 1838, the 
 Comte de Paris was also born in the chateau of the 
 Tuileries. Less than ten years later the Comte de
 
 396 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 Paris went into exile ; he and the Due de Bordeaux 
 were in their tenth year when their proscription 
 began. 
 
 Napoleon III. remembered all the lessons of his- 
 tory, when on the day after his son's birth he reflected 
 in the palace of the Tuileries " on the destiny of 
 those who were born in the same place and in simi- 
 lar circumstances." Like the King of Rome, the 
 Due de Bordeaux, the Comte de Paris, the Prince 
 Imperial had been sung by the poets, Theophile 
 Gautier and Camille Doucet, who predicted for him 
 the most marvellous destiny. These poets were not 
 prophets. But on the other hand a strain had been 
 addressed by Victor Hugo to Napoleon III., which 
 might have been dedicated to Napoleon IV. This 
 one contained strophes truly prophetic, an exact 
 prediction of September 4, of the siege of Paris, of 
 the disasters of the great capital : 
 
 " Oh ! to-morrow is the great thing. 
 Of what will to-morrow be made ? 
 Man sows the cause to-day; 
 To-morrow God ripens the effect. 
 To-morrow 'tis the lightning on the sail, 
 'Tis the cloud above the star, 
 'Tis a traitor who unveils, 
 'Tis the ram which batters towers, 
 'Tis the star which changes zone, 
 'Tis Paris following Babylon, 
 To-morrow 'tis the wood of the throne. 
 To-day it is the velvet."
 
 CONCLUSION 397 
 
 Napoleon II. died under the Austrian uniform. 
 Napoleon IV. will die under that of England. Provi- 
 dence reserved the same fate, proscription, for all the 
 four princes born in the palace of calamities. Exiled 
 even in death, the King of Rome is buried in the 
 vault of the church of the Capuchins in Vienna ; the 
 Due de Bordeaux at Goritz, in that of the church of 
 the Franciscans ; the Prince Imperial and the Comte 
 de Paris in England, one in the chapel of Farnbor- 
 ough, and the other in that of Weybridge. 
 
 In France it is not enough that dynasties succumb. 
 There fatality must pursue things as well as persons. 
 In other countries monuments at least are respected. 
 Among us an iconoclastic rage urges their destruc- 
 tion. One could make a long list of palaces which 
 have been razed to the ground. One might think 
 that our people take pleasure in realizing that saying 
 of Chateaubriand : " The destructions of men are 
 more violent than those of ages. The latter mine ; 
 the former overthrow : Tempus edax, homo edacior." 
 
 It was not enough for the second Empire to dis- 
 appear. Its winter palace and its summer palace, 
 the Tuileries and Saint-Cloud, have also been anni- 
 hilated. What has become of that superb palace 
 which held its own so well in that grandiose quadri- 
 lateral : the Arch of Triumph, the Madeleine, the 
 Corps Legislatif, the Tuileries, glory, religion, law, 
 authority? It would have been as easy to repair 
 the legendary palace as to restore the Vendome 
 column. People were unwilling. They were con-
 
 398 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 tent with restoring the pavilions of Marsan and 
 Flora, which at least remain as souvenirs of the 
 demolished palace. At Saint-Cloud they were still 
 more pitiless for the ruins. They were so embit- 
 tered against their last vestiges, they have been so 
 completely destroyed, that the stranger who strolls 
 in the park is obliged to ask where the palace stood. 
 Et campos ubi Trojafuit. "Tear down" seems to be 
 in our days the motto of architects. 
 
 While I am writing these lines the Palais de lTn- 
 dustrie is falling in the Champs-Elysees under the 
 hammers of the demolishers. Every morning I see 
 the work of destruction advancing with terrifying 
 rapidity, and I evoke the spectacles of glory and 
 prosperity of which this palace, so quickly con- 
 demned, was the theatre. I recall the triumphant 
 days of November 15, 1855, June 17, 1867, when 
 Napoleon formally distributed the awards to the 
 pacific victors of the two Universal Expositions. 
 The ceremony of 1867 was especially magnificent. 
 The Emperor left the Tuileries at two o'clock, in 
 a splendid carriage, drawn by eight horses, to go to 
 the Palais de lTndustrie. At the same hour Sultan 
 Abdul Aziz started in the same manner from the 
 Elysee for the same destination. At the Palace the 
 conqueror of Magenta and Solferino was seated on a 
 platform with the Sultan on his right, and around 
 him the Prince of Wales, the Prince of Orange, the 
 Prince of Saxony, the Grand Duchess Marie of Rus- 
 sia, the Prince of Prussia (the future Emperor Fred-
 
 CONCLUSION 399 
 
 erick III.), Prince Humbert (future King of Italy), 
 and the Duke of Aosta. He celebrated in a fine 
 discourse "the new era of harmony and progress." 
 The Empress was there in all the splendor of her 
 beauty, and when the Prince Imperial handed to his 
 father the prize awarded by the international jury 
 to the all-powerful sovereign for farm models and 
 the habitations of workingmen, a triple salvo of 
 applause resounded. 
 
 Since that day, how many ceremonies, how many 
 exhibitions of every kind, how many horse shows, 
 have taken place under the roof of that palace which 
 is falling, after having rendered so many services to 
 Paris ! Alas ! the final one will have been to give 
 asylum to the corpses of the victims of the Charity 
 Bazaar. By the light of torches unfortunate parents 
 sought, often in vain, to distinguish in the pell-mell 
 of the dead, the pulverized, carbonized bodies, — 
 
 " Which even the eye of their own father would not recognize ! " 
 
 What a dismal end for this palace, razed from the 
 earth after forty-two years of existence ! Forty-two 
 years ! for a monument, that is to die very young ! 
 Could one have believed that this temple of industry 
 and the arts, where civilization and progress had 
 held their assizes with such eclat, could disappear so 
 soon? 
 
 An anniversary recurs to my mind in closing this 
 book. To-day it is the 14th of June, forty-one years 
 since the baptism of the Prince Imperial was solem-
 
 400 NAPOLEON III. AND HIS COURT 
 
 nized at Notre-Dame. On that day I donned for the 
 first time my uniform as a diplomatist. Since then, 
 at how many metamorphoses, how many cataclysms, 
 have I not been present? What mourning, what 
 ruins ! In our profoundly troubled epoch we need 
 a Bossuet to make the funeral oration, not of such 
 or such a personage, but of whole dynasties, a 
 Massillon to exclaim, not before the coffin of a 
 single monarch, but before the remains of royalties 
 and empires: " God alone is great, my brethren." 
 In thinking of so many vanished hopes, so many 
 fruitless agitations, so many bitter disillusions, I am 
 reminded of the verses of Persius : 
 
 " Oh, the cares of men ! oh, what great inanity in things ! " 
 curas hominum, o quantum est in rebus inane.
 
 INDEX 
 
 Abdul Medjed, Sultan of Turkey, 
 ( .il ; offended by Prince Menchikoit, 
 97 ; his wish to see Napoleon, 356. 
 
 Albert, Prince, his visit to Napoleon, 
 IQHetseq. ,- his Memorandum of my 
 Visit to Boulogne quoted, 107 ; bia 
 letter to Napoleon expressing pleas- , 
 ure at his visit, 173; on the de- \ 
 strnction of Sebastopol, 175. 
 
 Alexander II. of Russia, visit to the | 
 Crimea, 363. 
 
 Allonville, General d', comes to the 
 assistance of the English cavalry 
 at Balaclava, 215. 
 
 Alma, battle of the, 185-200. 
 
 Almanac, The Imperial, of 1850, 47. 
 
 Amiens visited by the Emperor and j 
 Empress, 110. 
 
 Aumale, Due d\ his occupation dur- 
 ing his exile, 67 ; his attitude dur- 
 ing the Crimean war, 361 . 
 
 Balaclava, the battle of, 211-216. 
 
 Barbes, his famous letter, 230, 231. 
 
 Bartholini, Marchioness, morganatic 
 wife of Jerome Bonaparte, 34. 
 
 Bayonne visited by Napoleon and j 
 the Empress, 101. 
 
 Bazaine, General, at Sebastopol, 354. j 
 
 Berryer, M., leader of Legitimist \ 
 Party, 60. 
 
 Biarritz made a fashionable resort 
 by the visit of Eugenie, 157. 
 
 Bizot, General at Sebastopol, 209 ; j 
 death of, 303. 
 
 Bocher, Captain Charles, on the 
 character of Marshal Pelissier, I 
 310 ; on French and Russian sym- I 
 pathy, 317. 
 
 Bonaparte, Jerome, his apartments 
 in the Palais-Royal, 31 ; heir to 
 the throne in default of Napoleon 
 having a son, 31 ; his attitude to- ' 
 ward the Emperor, 33 ; made a 
 marshal of Prance, 34 ; his mar- 
 riage to Miss Patterson, 34 ; to 
 
 Catherine of Wurtemberg, 35 ; 
 morganatic union with the Mar- 
 chioness Bartholini, 35 ; his life 
 at the Palais-Royal, 35 ; gives a 
 ball in honor of the Empress, 130. 
 
 Bosquet, General, letter of, regarding 
 Russian ladies in Paris society, 
 125; thought war improbable, 136 ; 
 believes in the maintenance of 
 peace, 130,131 ; commands a divis- 
 ion in the Crimea, 145 ; his joy at 
 the prospect of war, 146, 147 ; his 
 religious fervor, 151 ; his letter de- 
 lining the model soldier, 155, 156 ; 
 concerning the rumor of a descent 
 upon the Crimea, 175 et seq.; in 
 the battle of the Alma, 1 86, 187 ; his 
 description of the fight, 192, 193 
 at Sebastopol, 204, 208, 343 et seq. 
 the hero of Inkermann, 220, 221 
 honored by the Russians as well 
 as by the French, 35S; his report 
 of the battle, 222, 227 ; made a 
 marshal of France, 391. 
 
 Boulogne-sur-Mer, reception at, to 
 Prince Albert, 100 et seq. 
 
 Brabant, Due de, visits Napoleon, 
 105. 
 
 Bucharest entered by the Ottoman 
 vanguard, 103. 
 
 Cabrol, Doctor, quoted, 190. 
 
 Calais, English fleet at, 159. 
 
 Canrobert, General, commander of 
 a division in the Crimea, 1 4o ; 
 struck by a shell, 188 ; wounded in 
 battle of the Alma, 192 ; at In- 
 kermann, 221 ; resigns his com- 
 mand in the Crimea, 297 ; his ca- 
 reer and qualifications as a sol- 
 dier, 298-308 ; made a marshal of 
 France, 391, 
 
 Cardigan, Lord, his heroic charge at 
 Balaclava, 2l4. 
 
 Cassagnac, A. Granier de, regarding 
 Napoleon III.'s interest in the 
 
 401
 
 402 
 
 INDEX 
 
 working classes, 9 ; on Eugenie's 
 beauty, 19 ; regarding her prestige, 
 23, 24; his Souvenirs du second 
 Umpire quoted regarding the Em- 
 peror and Victor Hugo, 57 ; regard- 
 ing Marshal Saint Arnaud, 147. 
 
 Castelbajac, General de, French Am- 
 bassador to Saint Petersburg, let- 
 ter of, quoted regarding the coup 
 d'Etat, 78 ; his account of the audi- 
 ence granted him by the Czar, 79 ; 
 on the Czar's attitude toward the 
 Empire, 82 ; conversation with the 
 Czar, 85 et seq.; gives a fete cele- 
 brating Napoleon's marriage, 92 ; 
 receives the congratulations of 
 the Czar, 93 ; his letter regarding 
 the Czar's intentions in Turkey, 
 dSetseq.; his sympathetic attitude 
 toward Russia, 116 et seq.; hopeful 
 view of the situation, 123 ; letter 
 regarding Russian approval of the 
 Emperor, 124 ; letter anticipating 
 serious trouble, 126 ; still hopes for 
 peace, 133 et seq.; offered the order 
 of Saint Alexander Newski by the 
 Czar, 135 ; his attachment for the 
 Czar, 130 ; leaves Saint Peters- 
 burg, 137 et seq.; his final appeal 
 in behalf of peace, 139 ; admirable 
 performance of his duty, 142. 
 
 Castelbajac, Marquise de, her jour- 
 ney to Saint Petersburg, 121. 
 
 Castellane, Marshal de, his Journal 
 quoted regarding Marshal Saint 
 Amaud, 148 ; on Napoleon's inten- 
 tion to go to the Crimea, 252 et seq. 
 
 Cavaignac, General, his responsibil- 
 ity for repression and deportations, 
 55. 
 
 Cliambord, Comte de, his attitude 
 toward the government of Louis 
 Philippe, 62 ; his protest against 
 the Second Empire, 03 et seq. ; 
 character, 04, 65. 
 
 Cholera, in Saint Petersburg, 74; 
 ravages the French army in the 
 Crimea, 153; reappears in the 
 Crimea, 195, 315. 
 
 Compiegne, the Imperial country 
 seat, 110; visited by the Emperor 
 and Empress, 111. 
 
 Constantinople, excitement in, upon 
 arrival of Prince Menchikoff, 90 et 
 seq. ; departure of the Russian 
 legation from, 115. 
 
 Corps Legislatif, restricted powers 
 of, 48, ,49. 
 
 Coup diktat. Napoleon's gifts to the 
 troops on the da}' of the, 7 ; opposed 
 by Prince Napoleon, 34 ; Ollivier 
 on the, 55 ; impression produced at 
 Saint Petersburg, 78. 
 
 Cowley, Lord, 129. 
 
 Crimea, war in the, founded on relig- 
 ious controversy, 90 et seq.; declar- 
 ation of war in, 133-143 ; called the 
 war in the Orient until the landing 
 of the English and French troops, 
 145 ; development of the war, 174- 
 184; the battle of the Alma, 185- 
 200 ; the seige of Sebastopol, 201- 
 210 ; taking of, 343-353 ; battle of 
 Balaclava, 211-216; Napoleon and, 
 250-258 ; sufferings of the soldiers 
 in, 234-235 ; close of the war, 377 et 
 seq. 
 
 Crimean Medal, the distribution of 
 the, 375 et seq. 
 
 Cruvelli, Mademoiselle Sophie, 237. 
 
 Czar, see Nicholas. 
 
 Demidoff, Comte Anatole, 42. 
 
 Dieppe, celebration at, in honor of 
 the visit of the Emperor and Em- 
 press, 105 et seq. ; lace works at, 
 founded by the Duchesse de Berry, 
 107. 
 
 Earth sacks, battery of the, slaugh- 
 ter at, 220; retaken, 223. 
 
 Eastern Question, the, 113-122. 
 
 England, regarding her alliance with 
 France, 1 14. 
 
 Etoile du Nord, L\ opera by Meyer- 
 beer and Scribe, 140. 
 
 Eugenie, Empress, her attractive per- 
 sonality, 16 ; her interest in the 
 career of Marie Antoinette, 17-19 ; 
 visits the Museum of Sovereigns, 17 
 et seq. ; her popularity, 19 et seq. ; 
 at the opening of the legislative ses- 
 sion, 19 ; visits the Institute of the 
 Legion of Honor, 20 ; Merime'e and, 
 21; Napoleon's affection for, 22; 
 good example to her court, 23 ; 
 her elegance, 23 ; indifference to 
 political influence, 24 ; her kind- 
 ness, 21; interest in literature and 
 art, 25 ; her busy life, 25 ; secret of 
 her popularity, 25 ; fond of society, 
 29 ; her liking for Saint-Cloud, 

 
 INDEX 
 
 403 
 
 104 ; visits Dieppe, 105; health of, 
 
 157 ; birth of the Prince Imperial, 
 
 385 et .?<•/. 
 Exile, laws of, injurious to those 
 
 who pan them. 70 i / »< a. 
 Exposition, the Universal, 293-297 ; 
 
 its great success, 386. 
 
 Fallonx, Comtede, Minister of Pub- 
 lic Instruction, 60; his dfemoirea 
 il'ini royaliste quoted, 61, 82, 63. 
 
 Fay, General, his Souvenirs de la 
 Guerre Crimie quoted, 182, 188, 
 316, 354. 
 
 Feuillet, Madame Octave, describes 
 the salon of Princess Mathilde in 
 her Quelques anne'es de Marie, 
 44. 
 
 Filon, Auguste, quoted regarding 
 Merimeeand Eugenie, 21, 22. 
 
 Forcade, Madame de, 1 19. 
 
 Forey, General, 185; his account of 
 th^ battle of Alma quoted, 188 ; 
 at Sebastopol, 204. 
 
 France, her changed attitude toward 
 Russia, 230 ; sympathy between 
 French and Russian troops in the 
 Crimea, 316, 317 ; united by the 
 war in the Crimea, 359 ; a per- 
 petual disillusion, 395 et seq. 
 
 Fuad Effendi, Turkish Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, 97 ; his resigna- 
 tion, 98. 
 
 Gallipoli, headquarters of the French 
 army in the Crimea, 149. 
 
 Giraudeau, Fernand, his Napoleon 
 TIT. intime quoted, 6; on Na- 
 poleon's religion, 11. 
 
 Gortchakoff, General, commander- 
 in-chief of the Russian army, 115 ; 
 at Inkermann, 221. 
 
 Ham, the fortress of, Napoleon's 
 visit to, ill. 
 
 Hamelin, Vice-admiral, 179. 
 
 Ifarcourt, Count Bernard de, his 
 Les quatre Ministered des Affaire* 
 t //■"!,</ ,-< j ,!■ \r. Drouyn deLhuys 
 quoted, 290. 
 
 Haussmann, Baron, installed Prefect 
 of the Seine, 52 ; his toast to the 
 Emperor on the public improve- 
 ments, 160. 
 
 Heeckeren, Baron de, sent by Na- 
 
 poleon on a special mission to the 
 
 Czar, 80. 
 Hi line, Grand-duchess, soiree given 
 
 at her palace, 88. 
 Holy Places, the question of the, 
 
 90-95. 
 Houssaye, Arsene, his comment on 
 
 Prince Napoleon, 37; his portrait 
 
 of Princess Hathilde, 43. 
 Hugo, Victor, the Emperor's atti- 
 tude toward, 57. 
 
 Industrie, Palais dc la, celebration 
 
 at, 304 <t seq. 
 Inkermann, battle of, 217-227. 
 
 Joinville, Prince de, his Souvi 
 quoted regarding Princess Ma- 
 tbilde, 42; in exile, 07. 
 
 .J.isrph, Francis. Emperor, visited 
 by the Czar, 119. 
 
 Kisseleff, M. de, Russian Minister 
 to Paris, 83 ; his reception by Na- 
 poleon, s L 
 
 Korniloff, Admiral, 202 ; his destruc- 
 tion of vessels as a means of de- 
 fence, 203; killed at Sebastopol, 
 207. 
 
 La Gorce, de, his Histoire <t" second 
 Empire quoted on Napoleon's love 
 for the people, 8 ; on the condition 
 of the country in 1853, 52. 
 
 Lamartine, his Memoires quoted, 2 ; 
 offered the presidency of the 
 Council of Ministers, 56. 
 
 La Pagerie, Comtesse Ste'phanie de, 
 her Mon Sejour aux Titilerien 
 quoted on the festivities at the 
 Tuileries, 28 ; on Eugenie's pleas- 
 ing personality, 22. 
 
 La Pagerie, General Comte de 
 Fascher, grandmaster of the house- 
 hold of the Empress, 27. 
 
 La Iteine Hortense, Imperial yacht, 
 10(). 
 
 Legitimist Party, the, 60-65. 
 
 Leopold I . , King of the Belgians, 
 visits Napoleon, 165. 
 
 Lhuys, Drouyn de, French Minister 
 of Foreign Affairs, 133 ; extracts 
 from his letters on the possibility 
 of war, 134 ; experience and char- 
 acter of, 282-284 ; his mission to 
 Vienna, 284 et seq.
 
 404 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Light Brigade, the charge of the, at 
 Balaclava, 214, 215. 
 
 London entertains Napoleon, 268- 
 274. 
 
 Louis Philippe, his respect for Napo- 
 leon I., 69, 70. 
 
 Lucan, Lord, at Balaclava, 213, 214. 
 
 MacMahon, General, at Sebastopol, 
 344, 346 et seq. 
 
 Malakoff the key of Sebastopol, 344 ; 
 attack upon, 346 et seq. 
 
 Marie Antoinette, souvenirs of, in 
 the Museum of Sovereigns, 18. 
 
 Marie, Grand-duchess, her wish for 
 an agreement between her father, 
 the Czar, and Napoleon III. , 46. 
 
 Martin, Sir Theodore, bis Life of 
 His Royal Highness, the Prince 
 Consort, on the visit of the Prince 
 to Napoleon, 166. 
 
 Mathilde, Princess, daughter of 
 Jerome Bonaparte, 41 ; loved by 
 Louis Napoleon, 42 ; her marriage, 
 42 ; pen-portrait of, by Arsine 
 HousBaye, 43 ; princely retinue of, 
 43 ; her salon, 43 et seq. ; her sym- 
 pathies for Russia, 46. 
 
 Mazade, de, quoted, 51. 
 
 Menchikoff, Prince, the mission of, 
 1)6-103 ; his distinguished charac- 
 ter, 96 ; offends the Porte, 97 ; his 
 claims regarding the Holy Places, 
 100 ; his unceremonious visit to the 
 Sultan, 103 ; awaits the invaders 
 in front of Sebastopol, 183 ; bis 
 carriage and correspondence seized 
 at the battle of the Alma, 191 ; 
 augments the garrison at Sebasto- 
 pol, 205 ; at Balaclava, 211 ; pre- 
 dicts success for the Russian arms, 
 218. 
 
 Merimee, Prosper, his letter to Ma- 
 dame de Montijo quoted regarding 
 Eugenie, 20, 21 ; made Senator, 21. 
 
 Michael, Grand-duke, the, at Se- 
 bastopol, 218. 
 
 Jfoniteur, the, quoted, 132, 141, 161 
 et seq., 172, 179, 234-235, 247, 356, 
 357, 378. 
 
 Montalembert, Comte de, 49. 
 
 Montijo, Madame de, mother of 
 Eugenie, 20. 
 
 Montpensier, Due de, his Spanish 
 interests, 67. 
 
 Morals under the Second Empire, 53. 
 
 Morny, Comte de, 259. 
 Museum of Sovereigns at the Louvre 
 created by Napoleon III., 17. 
 
 Nakhimoff, Admiral, destroys a 
 Turkish squadron, 122. 
 
 Napoleon I. as to government by 
 party, 3 ; on the first quality of a 
 soldier, 163-164. 
 
 Napoleon III., at the time of his 
 marriage, 1 ; owed his success to 
 his own ability, 2 ; his character 
 analyzed, 2 et seq. ; policy of, to- 
 ward the Empire, 3, 4 ; his kind- 
 ness, 4 et seq. ; his generosity, 7 ; 
 his love of the common people, 8, 
 9 ; his industry, 10 ; his interest 
 in religion, 11 et seq. ; as a pre- 
 server of peace, IS et seq. ; his 
 devotion to his wife, 22 ; elegance 
 of his court, 23 et seq. ; his care 
 for the Church, 25 ; democratic 
 character of his court, 29, 30; his 
 affection for Prince Jerome, 32; 
 his attitude toward his cousin 
 Prince Napoleon, 39 ; one of his 
 chief political maxims, 40 ; his love 
 for Princess Mathilde, 41, 42 ; the 
 princes and princesses of his fam- 
 ily, 47 ; plans for the improvement 
 of Paris, 51 ; attempts upon his 
 life, 55 et seq. ; would have been a 
 republican had he not been an Em- 
 peror, 57 et seq. ; his ideas regard- 
 ing the duty of government, 59; 
 fears the Orleanists, 66 ; badly ad- 
 vised in his treatment of them, 69 
 et seq. ; would have profited by 
 abrogating the law of exile, 71 ; 
 desires a Franco-Russian alliance, 
 79 ; had reason to be satisfied with 
 the Czar, 78 ; made every effort to 
 obtain the good-will of the Czar, 
 80 ; offers to return Alexander's 
 letters to Queen Hortense to the 
 Czar, 80 ; his witty reception of 
 the Czar's letter recognizing the 
 Empire, 84 ; his attitude regarding 
 the Holy Places, 92 ; his journey 
 from Saint-Cloud to Compiegne, 
 104-112; desires peace, 115; ap- 
 preciates the Czar's kind attentions 
 to officers of his army, 120 ; omi- 
 nous ending of the first year of his 
 reign, 122 ; attends the ball at the 
 Tuileries, 129 ; his friendly letter
 
 INDEX 
 
 405 
 
 to the Czar, 130 ; motives fur en- 
 gaging in a war with Russia, 142 
 et seq. ; reviews the troops at Bou- 
 logne, 157, 158; his address to the 
 soldiers, 158 ; reviews troops at Ca- 
 lais, 159 ; receives the congratula- 
 tions of the Empress, 100 ; the ob- 
 ject of much flattery, 1G1 ct seq. ; 
 receives Leopold King of the Bel- 
 gians, 105; receives the King of 
 Portugal and his brother, 100 ; en- 
 tertains Prince Albert, 100-173; 
 returns to Paris, 1 7:5 ; felt that his 
 troops were contending for justice 
 and the advancement of civilization, 
 222 ; on the victory of Inkermann, 
 J; reviews the Imperial Guard, 
 233 ; opens the legislative session 
 at the Tuileries, 237 ; eulogizes the 
 troops in the Crimea, 238 ; reviews 
 the Army of Paris, 239 ; his great 
 interest in the Crimea, 250-258, 
 201 ; fond of adventure, 251 ; vis- 
 its Queen Victoria at Windsor, 
 259-207 ; his reception in London, 
 208-274 ; the banquet at Guild- 
 hall, 270 ; thanks the Queen for 
 the cordial welcome granted him, 
 271 ; at Covent Garden, 272 ; the 
 return home, 273 ; attempt on his 
 life by Pianori, 275-2S1 ; at the 
 opening of the Universal Exposi- 
 tion, 292 ; his reply to Prince Na- 
 poleon's address, 293 ; receives the 
 resignation of General Canrobert, 
 297 ; visited by Queen Victoria, 
 322-320 ; visits the Exposition 
 with Prince Albeit, 328 ; waltzes 
 with Princess Victoria, 332 ; his 
 letter to Prince Albert, 338 ; letter 
 to Victoria, 339 ; makes General 
 Pelissier a Marshal of France, 357 ; 
 his letter to General Bosquet, 358 ; 
 entertains the Duke and Duchess 
 of Brabant, 303 : distributes the 
 awards at the Universal Exposi- 
 tion, 304 et seq. ; reviews the troops 
 returned from the Crimea, 370 et 
 s< y. , 375 ; his courtesy toward the 
 representatives of the Czar, 382 ; 
 hopeful prospects of his Empire, 
 392. 
 Napoleon, Prince, son of Jerome 
 Bonaparte, against the coup 
 <V fitat, 34 ; his fondness for liter- 
 ature and the arts, 30 ; his apart- 
 
 ments in the Palais-Royal, 30; 
 his eloquence, 37; indifferent to 
 public opinion, 38 ; commands a 
 division in the Crimea, 145; his 
 letter to the Emperor at the open- 
 ing of the war, 140; in the battle 
 of the Alma, 187, 188 ; president of 
 the Exposition Commission, 293. 
 
 Navv, the combined, at the siege of 
 Sevastopol, 200, 207. 
 
 Nemours, Due de, in exile, 07. 
 
 Nesselrode, Chancellor de, predicts 
 a general European conflagra- 
 tion, 122. 
 
 Nicholas, Emperor of Russia, char- 
 acter of, 73 et seq, ; his bravery 
 during the cholera outbreak in 
 Saint Petersburg, 74 ; the idol of 
 liis people, 75; his military sim- 
 plicity, 70 ; his magnificent phy- 
 sique, 17 ; attitude toward Napo- 
 leon III. , 77 et seq. ; opposed to 
 Napoleon as Emperor, 81 ; the 
 cause of his objection, 82 ; badly 
 informed regarding the French 
 Empire, 83 ; receives Napoleon's 
 minister, 84 et seq. ; friendly over- 
 tures to England, 88 et seq. ; ob- 
 jects to the French occupation of 
 the Holy Places, 92 ; manifesto 
 to his people, 115; his affabil- 
 ity toward the French, 118 et 
 seq. ; his sympathy for Napoleon, 
 119; hears of Turkey's success, 
 121 ; resents English arrogance, 
 127; his wish for peace, 127; 
 wishes to end the war with Tur- 
 key, 128 : offers General de Cas- 
 telbajac the order of Saint Alex- 
 ander Newski, 135 ; shows his ill- 
 will toward the English minister, 
 130 ; his cordial leave-taking of 
 the French minister, 139 ; his re- 
 ply to Napoleon's friendly letter, 
 141 ; his proclamation to his peo- 
 ple, 142 ; his appeal to the Deity, 
 142 ; his feelings regarding the 
 war in the East, 241 ct seq. ; fort- 
 une adverse to him, 242 ; his let- 
 ter to Prince Menchikoff on the 
 defence of Sebastopol, 243 ; deeply 
 stirred by the war, 244 ; his illness 
 and death, 245 ct seq. 
 
 Nicholas, Grand-duke, the, at Sebas- 
 topol, 218. 
 
 Niel, General, 304.
 
 406 
 
 INDEX 
 
 Nieuworkerke, Comte de, Superin- 
 tendent of the Beaux Arts, 18. 
 Nolan, Captain, at Balaclava, 214. 
 
 Ollivier, Emile, his characterization 
 of Napoleon III., 5 ; on the coup 
 cC Mat, 55. 
 
 Opera-Comique, performance of 
 Meyerbeer and Scribe VEtoile du 
 Xord, at, 140. 
 
 Oporto, Louis, Duke of, 166 
 
 Orient, the war of the, 145-150. 
 
 Orleanist Party, 66-72 ; their atti- 
 tude during the Crimean war, 361. 
 
 Orleans, Duchesse d', and her chil- 
 dren, 68. 
 
 Orloff, Count, 128. 
 
 Palais-Royal, the residence of Prince 
 Jerome Bonaparte and his son 
 Prince Napoleon, 31. 
 
 Paris, at the time of the Emperor's 
 marriage, 48 ; fashionable life of, 
 in 1853, 49 et seq. ; plans for the 
 improvement of, 51 ; anxiety in, 
 regarding the Eastern Question, 
 100 ; gayety of life in, just preced- 
 ing the outbreak of hostilities, 123 
 et seq. ; social favors granted Rus- 
 sian ladies, 125 ; its indifference 
 to suffering of the troops in the 
 Crimea, 219, 319; celebrates the 
 victory in the Crimea, 356 et seq. ; 
 celebrates return of the troops, 370 
 et seq. ; celebrates the birth of the 
 Prince Imperial, 386. 
 
 Patterson-Bonaparte, grandson of 
 Prince Jerome Bonaparte, distin- 
 guished himself in the Crimea, 
 35. 
 
 Patterson, Miss Elizabeth, her mar- 
 riage to Jerome Bonaparte, 34. 
 
 Pedro V., King of Portugal, 166. 
 
 Pelissier, General, succeeds Canro- 
 bert in the Crimea, 309 et seq. ; at 
 Sebastopol, 348 ; made a marshal 
 of France, 357. 
 
 Pianori, his attempt to assassinate 
 Napoleon, 275-281. 
 
 Pinard, Ernesta, on Napoleon as a 
 friend, 5, 6 ; on Napoleon's care 
 for the people, 8 ; on Napoleon's 
 religion, 11; regarding Prince Na- 
 poleon, 37 ; describes Princess Ma- 
 thilde's salon, 45. 
 
 Political parties in 1853, 54 et seq. 
 
 Press the, restrictions imposed upon, 
 
 68. 
 Prince Imperial, the birth of the, 383- 
 
 392 ; death of, 395. 
 
 Raglan, Lord, commander-in-chief 
 of the English army, his bravery 
 at the Alma, 192; his fatal order 
 at Balaclava, 213 ; dies of cholera, 
 313. 
 
 Redan, Grand, the, 205, 207. 
 
 Redan, Little, the, 444. 
 
 Redcliffe, Lord Stratford de, his an- 
 tagonism toward Russia, 101. 
 
 Republicans' Party, 54-59. 
 
 Revue des Deux Mondes quoted, 51 ; 
 on the growing importance of the 
 Eastern Question, 100. 
 
 Revue de Paris quoted, 256. 
 
 Rothan, his L' 'Europe et le Second 
 Empire quoted, 84. 
 
 Rousset, Camille, his account of the 
 splendid stand of the Scotch in- 
 fantry at Balaclava, 212; on the 
 battle of Inkermann, 217. 
 
 Saint- Arnaud, Leroy de, 148. 
 
 Saint Arnaud, Marshal de, command- 
 er-in-chief of the French in the 
 Crimea, 145, 147 ; his letter to his 
 brother regarding the war, 148 el 
 seq. ; his correspondence regard- 
 ing the difficulties of his position, 
 149 et seq. ; leaves his wife for the 
 war, 152 ; his perplexities, 153 ; let- 
 ter to his sister, 154 ; describes the 
 Crimea, 174; his ill-health, 177 et 
 seq. ; enthusiasm for the war, 181 ; 
 on the eveof the battle of theAlma, 
 185 ; in the battle, 190 et seq. ; his 
 letter to Napoleon on the victory, 
 192 ; last days of, 194-200. 
 
 Saint-Cloud, fondness of the Em- 
 press for, 104; Napoleon I. de- 
 parted from, upon his Russian 
 campaign, 105; Blucher's comment 
 upon, 105. 
 
 Saint Petersburg, irritation of the 
 people against England, 124 ; 
 gloom cast upon, by the war in the 
 Crimea, 243. 
 
 Scotch Greys, the, at Balaclava, 212. 
 
 Sebastopol, siege of, 201-210 ; taking 
 of, 343-355. 
 
 Senate, the, 49. 
 
 Seymour, Sir Hamilton, English Am-
 
 INDEX 
 
 ±o: 
 
 baasad o r to Russia, overturi b made 
 to him bj the Czar, 88; ill-will 
 of the Czar manifested toward 
 him, 120. 
 
 Siicle, /.<■, the power of, 58. 
 
 Simpson, General, at Sebastopol, 
 349. 
 
 Si .rial life at the beginning of the 
 Second Ehnpire, 40 at teq. 
 
 Souli", Eudore, Curator of the Mu- 
 seum of Versailles, IT. 
 
 Steele, Colonel, aide-de-camp to Lord 
 Raglan, 222. 
 
 Theatre-Prancais, fondnc Bsoi Prince 
 
 Napoleon for, 30, 37. 
 
 Thouvenel, Louis, his Nicolas ■■'. r ■ 
 Xnpoleon III. cited, 80 ; his letter 
 regarding the treatment of Rus- 
 sians at the French court, 01 ; bis 
 letter on the beginning of the war, 
 133. 
 
 Times, the London, on the occupa- 
 tion of the Crimea, 174. 
 
 Timofeief, General, 223. 
 
 Todleben at SebastopoL 202. 
 
 Trochu, General, his Memoirs quot- 
 ed, 71. 
 
 TVovatore, II, hist performance of 
 the opera, 2:; 7. 
 
 Tuileries, re-entrance of the Emperor 
 and Empress, 10 ; magnificence of, 
 26, festivities at, 27 ei seq. ; con- 
 certs at, 50 ; grand ball at, 120. 
 
 Turkey, capitulations with France 
 and Russia regarding the Holy 
 
 Places, '.h» ei teq, 
 war with Ru 
 
 ; declaration 
 115. 
 
 of 
 
 Vaillant, Marshal, quoted, 806. 
 Valenciennes entertains the Emper- 
 or and Empress, luy. 
 Varna, lire at, 1">1. 
 
 Verdi, the line performance of his 
 
 U Frovatoie, 287. 
 Victor Emmanuel, his visit t.i Nape 
 
 Icon HI., 307 ei teq. 
 Victoria and Albert, the English 
 
 Royal yacht, 107, 168. 
 Victoria, Queen, visits Naj 
 
 III., 322-334; her friendship lor 
 
 the Emperor, 330-341. 
 Yi< 1-Castcl, Count Horace de, his 
 
 Afemoires quoted, 42, 270, 377. 
 Vigce-L< brun, Madame, her portrait 
 
 of Marie Antoinette, 17. 
 Ville, Bote! de, great ball at, 130. 
 Fille-de-raris, flagship, 179; at Se- 
 
 baetopol, 207. 
 
 Walewski, Count, 278, 291. 
 
 War, the declaration of, !:!.;, 1 '. \. 
 Whimpffen, Colonel de, 2:^2. 
 Windsor, the Visit of Napoleon to, 
 
 250, 200. 
 Women of the court, behavior of, 
 
 23. 
 Wurtemberg, Catherine of, second 
 
 wife of Jerome Bonaparte, 35. 
 
 Zola, Emile, his portrait of Napoleon 
 III., 4, 5.
 
 
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