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surviving Louis Napoleon, and succeeding to the Crown, he will endeavor to hand it over to Prince Napoleon. But he will not without a struggle let it be worn by a Bourbon, or broken by a republic. He will fight, and fight desperately, for the rights of the Bonapartes-the enemies of that family ought to pray that he may die before his nephew."

[Sebastopol fell in Sept., 1855, and peace was proclaimed on March 31st, 1856.-M. C. M. S.]

May 16, 1856.-I called on Madame R. "I believe," she said, "that war is more favorable to Celui-ci than peace."

May 5, 1858.-I called on Madame R., and found with her an Italian, a man about thirty-five.

"Unless Louis Napoleon's character," said Madame R., " is much changed since 1852, when I ceased to see him, it is little understood. He is supposed to be calm, unimpressionable, decided, and obstinate. He has none of these qualities, except the last, and even his obstinacy sometimes deserts him.

"I have known him build castles in the air, dwell on them for years, and at last gradually forget them. When he was young he had two fixed ideas, that he was to be Emperor of France, and that he was to be the liberator of Italy, and I do not believe that, even now, he has abandoned the latter."

"If," said the Italian, "he would frankly 'declare himself favorable to Italian liberty, these plots, as respects the Italians, would cease. We care nothing for his treachery to France, or for his usurpation, or for his despotism. These are the affairs of the French, in which we do not presume to interfere. The Italians try to kill him as the supporter of the Pope, the supporter of Austria, and the enemy of Italian unity. I do not believe that they would meddle with him if he were merely neutral."

"Has not his treatment of Orsini," I said, "done him good with the liberal Italians? Never was a man's head cut off more politely. Short of pardon, which was impossible, Orsini had everything that he could wish."

"It has done him good," answered the Italian, "for a time. He has shown

sympathy for our cause, he has shown hostility against our enemy. He has raised our hopes. He has obtained perhaps a respite. But if he disappoints those hopes, if, in order to court the French clergy, he continues to support the Papal tyranny and to allow the Germans and the Bourbons to oppress four-fifths of Italy, I fear that it will not be more than a respite."

The Italian left us, and Madame R. told me his history.

"He is," she said, "a Milanese named C. He took a prominent part in the Milanese revolution, on its failure emigrated to Rome, and was a member of the Roman Parliament, and was one of the leaders in the defence of Rome against the French. When we entered, Oudinot had him tried, I know not on what pretence, by a court-martial. He was acquitted unanimously. The Pope, or the people about the Pope, prevailed on Oudinot to appeal a thing of most unusual occurrence, when the acquittal has been unanimous. He was tried again, and again unanimously acquitted. The Pope then, admitting that the French could not punish C., required him to be delivered for trial and punishment to the Roman Tribunals, and, I am sorry to say, that he was supported by M. de Rayneval. My intimacy with Louis Napoleon then continued. I saw him and told C.'s story. He behaved well, as he usually does in individual cases, particularly when an Italian is concerned, and ordered C. to be released and sent to France. The Roman authorities, however, were so bent on seizing him that they managed to detain him twenty days at Civita Vecchia, while they were intriguing to get the order for his discharge reversed. They failed-he came to Paris, and was employed on the Crédit Mobilier. He has so much influence among his countrymen, that Orsini, though unacquainted with him, named him as his executor. The tribunals refuse to acknowledge the validity of Orsini's will, but have allowed C. to act as in the case of an intestacy."

"You say," I said to Madame R., "that Louis Napoleon is neither calm, unimpressionable, nor decided."

"I do," she answered. "He has a calm crust, but furious Italian passions boil beneath it. As a child, he was sub

ject to fits of anger, such as I never saw in anyone else. While they lasted he did not know what he said or did.

"He is procrastinating, undecided, and irresolute. Courage he certainly has, and of every kind, physical and moral."

[Mr. Senior's next visit to Paris took place six weeks before the battle of Magenta.-M. C. M. S.]

April 28, 1859.-I called on Madame R. "Louis Napoleon," she said, "is delighted with the war. A war to drive Austria out of Italy, in which he should command, has been his dream from boyhood. He said to me once, at Ham, 'I trust that some day I shall command a great army. I know that I should distinguish myself, I feel that I have every military quality.'

"Is not experience,' I answered, 'necessary ?'

"Great things,' he replied, 'have been done by men who had very little of it. By Condé, for instance. Perhaps it would be better for me to die in the belief that I am fitted to be a great general, than to risk the experiment. But I will try it, if I can, and I believe that I shall try it.'

"Then the war relieves him from an anxiety which pressed on him from January 14, 1858, until the 1st of January, 1859-the fear of the Carbonari. He has breathed freely only since he could give notice to them that he had accepted their terms."

"You do not believe, then," I said, " in the sincerity of his negociations ?"

"They were sincere," she answered, "so far that if Austria would have submitted without war, to a sacrifice which would have satisfied the Carbonari, he would have accepted it. The least favorable conditions on which he would have remained at peace with her would have been the erection of Lombardy and Venetia into a separate kingdom, under a Prince of the House of Hapsburg, probably the Archduke Maximilian, with an Italian army and ministry, perfectly independent of Austria. What he would have liked better would have been to have put those provinces under the Duke of Leuchtenberg, Eugène's grandson. This would have suited Russia, and perhaps may be the ultimate solution. But I know I can affirm with perfect certainty

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May 7, 1859.-I called on Mdme. R., and gave her an outline of my interview with Prince Napoleon.

"When the Prince thinks that the great object of the war is to terminate the preponderance of Austria in the south of Italy, he gives his cousin too much credit for statesmanship; that may be one of his objects, but it is a subordinate one."

"Subordinate," I said, "to his fears of assassination, or to his hopes of military fame?"

"Those also," she answered, “ are subordinate motives. My own conviction is, that if he had not made this war he would have been assassinated; but I doubt whether he is as convinced of this as I am. He feels, indeed, his danger, and is disturbed by it; but he has recovered from the shock of the attentat, and has resumed, to a certain extent, his fatalism.

"His real motive, which towers high above all the others, is his hatred of Austria -a hatred bred in his very bones, a hatred which began in his early infancy, which was fostered during all his early childhood and youth, which made him a conspirator and a Carbonaro when most boys are thinking only of their games or of their les

sons.

"On the 24th of December, 1848, a fortnight after he had been elected President, I called on him at the request of the Italians in Paris, to ask him what he intended to do for Italy.

"Tell them,' he said, 'that my name is Buonaparte, and that I feel the responsibilities which that name implies. Italy is dear to me; as dear, almost, as France; but my duties to France, passent avant tout. I must watch for an opportunity. For the present I am controlled by the Assembly, which will not give me money and men for a war of sentiment, in which France has no direct immediate interest. But tell

them my feelings are now what they were in ; and repeat to them that my name is Buonaparte.'

"Can he wish," I said, "to give free institutions to Italy ?"

"I believe," she answered, "that he does. I believe that he has a sympathy for freedom; though, where he himself is concerned, it is overruled by his desire of power. He likes to be absolute himself, but he wishes all who are not his subjects to be free.

"Then he desires most eagerly everything that he thinks will give him posthumous fame. Imagination is his predominant faculty. I have often said that nature meant him to be a poet. He would have been a great one. Like most men of imagination, he lives in the future. As a child, his desire was to become an historical character. He has no moral sense; he does not care about le bien ou le mal, ça lui est égal, ou plutôt il n'en conçoit pas la différence; nor does he care much about present reputation, except as an instrument. He begins now to expect to fill as many pages in history as his uncle has done, and he hopes that they will be brighter; at least that they will be darkened by fewer shadows. And if he believes, as I have reason to think he does, that the man who founds free institutions in Italy will be praised a thousand years hence, he will do it. He will do it if he hopes that history will accept it as a sort of compensation for his having destroyed such institutions in France."

Sunday, May 13, 1860.-I called on Mdme. R.

"The Emperor's great ambition now," she said, "is reputation as a historian and archæologist. He is writing a life of Julius Cæsar, and spends in collecting materials for it every minute that he can spare." "The materials," I said, "lie in a comparatively small compass."

"Ay," she answered, "but it is to contain an essay on the military organization of the Romans, and a general review of its progress, from the tomb of the kings to that of the emperors. He sent, a few days ago, for M. Maury, of the Institut, took him into his closet, showed him the materials which he had got together, made him read what he had written of an introduction, and asked for candid criticism. Maury says hat it was well done, though incomplete,

and frankly pointed out the parts requiring further attention."

"Can he read Latin ?" I asked. "Fluently," said Mdme. R.; "and Greek not ill. He is far above par as a scholar." "I supposed him," I said, "to be idle. That is the character given to him by all his ministers and secretaries whom I have known, and I have known several."

"He is idle," said Mdme. R., "in matters of administration. He hates detail, and he hates discussion. But he is fond of study, and very fond of writing. His ministers complain that, since he has taken to biography and antiquities, they cannot get audience or even signatures from him.”

Monday, May 21, 1860.-I called on Mdme. R.

I told her that I heard that Naples was intended for Prince Napoleon, "I know nothing of it," she answered. "What would England say?"

"We cannot wish," I replied, "to see Buonaparte viceroys substituted for legitimate sovereigns. Do you think that Louis Napoleon would make many sacrifices, or run any great risks for such a purpose?"

"I do not believe," she answered, "that at present he is willing to make sacrifices or to run risks for any purpose whatever. Things in Italy are going too fast for him. His policy is dilatory and expectative. He has often said to me: Il ne faut rien brusquer. A qui attend tout arrive à point, à qui va trop vite tout manque.""

"The malicious world," I said, "would call that a sign of his Dutch blood."

"The world," she said, "would talk nonsense. He has not a drop of Dutch blood. In the beginning of July, 1807, Napoleon effected a reconciliation between Hortense and Louis. They met at Montpelier, and spent three or four days, as was usually the case, in quarrelling. She went off in a pet to Bordeaux, where the Emperor was on his way to begin the seizure of Spain. She passed a few days with him, and then returned at the end of July to her husband at Montpelier. He has many little bodily tricks resembling those of Louis. Louis never looked you in the face; when he bowed it was not like anybody else, it was an inclination of the body on one side. He kept his hands close to his sides. Louis Napoleon has all these peculiarities. In the April of the following year Hortense was frightened and taken ill suddenly, and Louis Napo

leon was born on the 20th of April, twelve days before he was expected. On this pretext, Louis, in 1815, tried to get a divorce, but of course failed. He was jealous of Hortense, bribed all her servants to watch her, and often said of Louis Napoleon: Ce n'est pas mon enfant;' but he was half mad, and, I believe, said so only to tease his wife. At one time he took possession of Louis Napoleon, and became exceedingly fond of him, which would scarcely have been the case if he had really doubted his legitimacy.

"Louis Napoleon, indeed, was an attractive child. He was gentle and intelligent, but more like a girl than a boy. He is a year older than I am. He was shy, and has continued to be so. He hates new faces: in old times he could not bear to part with a servant, and I know that he has kept ministers whom he disliked and disapproved only because he did not like the embarras of sending them away. His great pleasures are riding, walking, and, above all, fine scenery. I remember walking with him and Prince Napoleon one fine evening on Lansdowne Hill, near Bath. The view was enchanting. He sat down to admire it. Look,' said he, at Napoleon, he does not care a farthing for all this. I could sit here for hours.'

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"He employed me, some days ago, to make inquiries for him in Germany in connection with his book. Moquard wrote me a letter of thanks. Louis Napoleon wrote in his own hand these words, Ceci me rappelle les bontés qu'avait Mdme. R. pour le prisonnier de Ham. Les extrêmes se touchent, car les Tuileries c'est encore une prison.'

"While the Duc de Reichstadt, and his own brother lived, he used to rejoice that there were two lives between him and power. What he would have liked better than empire would have been to be a rich country gentleman, with nothing to do but to enjoy himself.”

"You tell me," I said, "that as a child, he was gentle (doux). Is he so now ?"

"In appearance," she answered, "for he has great self-command; but au fond he is irritable. He is also very pertinacious, at least in his opinions. Hence he hates discussion, it annoys him and never convinces him. He cannot bear to see people 'triste' or discontented.

me the evening before his escape. He tells me that he has sent to me all his remaining manuscripts on artillery, and all the proof sheets of the printed portion, and begs me to keep them. I was then in Paris.

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"The instant I read it, I said to my husband, He is going to make his escape, he is making me his literary executrix.'

"My husband laughed at me. Next morning at breakfast, the papers came in. I read aloud,

"Yesterday Louis Napoleon Buonaparte made his escape from Ham.'

"Bah!' said my husband, 'you are going back to the nonsense which you talked yesterday."

"I repeated, "Yesterday Louis Napoleon Buonaparte made his escape from Ham.'

"Don't talk stuff,' said my husband. "Read it yourself,' I answered. "The next day I got this letter from him in London.

"I need not,' he writes, 'tell you the details of my escape, as you have them in the papers. My measures were so well taken that in eight hours I was in Belgium, and twelve hours after in London. It seems a dream. Take care of my manuscripts and proofs. The first volume is finished, and may be printed from the proofs.'

"Here is another worth hearing. It was written from London in 1847, in consequence of a common friend having accused him of personal ambition.

"In all my adventures,' he says, 'I have been governed by one principle. I believe that from time to time men are created whom I will call providential, in whose hands the destinies of their countries are placed. I believe myself to be one of these men. If I am mistaken I may perish uselessly. If I am right Providence will enable me to fulfil my mission. But, right or wrong, I will persevere, whatever be the difficulties or the dangers. Living or dying, I will serve France.'"

Here M. T. C. came in: she closed the book, but the conversation on Louis Napoleon continued.

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My first introduction to him," said T. C., "was in 1848, when I was prefect. He was then deputy and remarkably shy. The first time that he demanded la parole, he mounted slowly the steps of the Tri"Here is the letter which he wrote to bune, looked round. him for a minute or

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two, and then descended without having uttered a word. Some time after he made a second attempt, and actually spoke, but very badly. I gave a reception to the whole assembly. He negociated with me about his coming to it. He did not wish to be announced, as his name would draw all eyes upon him. It was agreed that he should come early, and that I should meet him in the passage, and lead him in without his name being mentioned-but he never came."

"It has been thought," said Mdme. R., "that he was playing a part; that he was pretending to be stupid, as a candidate for the Papacy pretends to be dying.

"I was with him," she continued, "when the Bill of the 31st of May, 1850, for the restriction of the suffrage was in discussion. I hear,' I said,' but I do not believe it, that you support this Bill.'

"I do,' he answered. "What,' I said, 'you the child of universal suffrage, do you support a limited suffrage?'

"You understand nothing about it,' he replied, Je perds l'assemblée.'

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But, I said, you will perish with the Assembly.'

"Not in the least,' he answered. 'When the Assembly goes over the precipice, je coupe la corde.'

"In fact," said T. C., "the relations between him and the Assembly were such, that one or the other must have perished." "It seems to me," I said, "that if Cavaignac had been President the Republic might have been saved."

"So I thought at the time," answered T. C., " and so I think now. Much depended on Thiers. In 1849 I was Minister of Finance. Blanqui-not the conspirator, but the political economist-came to ask me to call on Thiers, and see whether we could come to an arrangement under which Thiers would support Cavaignac. I said that Thiers was, in many respects, a much greater man than I, but still, as he was a mere private person, and I was a minister, he ought to call on me. Thiers is proud and punctilious; he would not visit me, but it was agreed that he should come to me on the ministerial bench, and that we should go out and discuss the matter in the corridors. We had a long conversation, but it ended in nothing."

"What caused the failure ?" I asked.

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I called on Mdme. R., and found there M. Maury, of the Academy of Inscriptions. He is assisting Louis Napoleon in his work on Julius Cæsar. I asked after its progress.

"Much," he answered, " is finished, and the materials for the rest are collected. He is still on his introduction, and is now at the times of the Gracchi. But some subsequent portions are completed, particularly he story of Catiline."

"Catiline," said Mdme. R., "was always one of his favorites. He maintained that Cicero and Sallust were unjust to him. At one time he almost thought him a patriot incompris, until he found that he had pillaged Africa as governor, and escaped condemnation only by being defended by Cicero."

"He says, with truth," said Maury, "that if Catiline had been, as Cicero makes him out, a mere robber who wished to burn and pillage Rome, he would have raised the slaves. The Emperor treats him as the leader of a political party, an extreme one, a mischievous one, but not a band of robbers and assassins."

"Is the Emperor," I asked, "still absorbed in his literary work?"

"As much as ever," answered Maury. "To-day when I entered he was dictating a portion of it. He thinks much more about it than about Italy. He does not like the theatre, excepting sometimes farces that amuse him; he cares little for society. His delight is to get to his study, put on his dressing-gown and slippers, and work at his history.'

"What sort of a scholar is he ?" I asked. "In Latin," answered Maury, "far above the average of educated Frenchmen, perhaps on a par with educated Englishmen: he reads without difficulty."

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