however, nothing to boast of in this.

The truth is that M. Merimee was in no way a confidant. Louis Bonaparte
made no useless confidences.

Let us add that it is little probable, notwithstanding some slight
evidence to the contrary, that M. Merimee, at the date of the 2d
December, had any direct relations with Louis Bonaparte. This ensued
later on. At first Merimee only knew Morny.

Morny and Merimee were both intimate at the Elysee, but on a different
footing. Morny can be believed, but not Merimee. Morny was in the great
secrets, Merimee in the small ones. Commissions of gallantry formed his
vocation.

The familiars of the Elysee were of two kinds, the trustworthy
confederates and the courtiers.

The first of the trustworthy confederates was Morny; the first--or the
last--of the courtiers was Merimee.

This is what made the fortune of M. Merimee.

Crimes are only glorious during the first moment; they fade quickly. This
kind of success lacks permanency; it is necessary promptly to supplement
it with something else.

At the Elysee a literary ornament was wanted. A little savor of the
Academy is not out of place in a brigand's cavern. M. Merimee was
available. It was his destiny to sign himself "the Empress's Jester."
Madame de Montijo presented him to Louis Bonaparte, who accepted him,
and who completed his Court with this insipid but plausible writer.

This Court was a heterogeneous collection; a dinner-wagon of basenesses,
a menagerie of reptiles, a herbal of poisons.

Besides the trustworthy confederates who were for use, and the courtiers
who were for ornament, there were the auxiliaries.

Certain circumstances called for reinforcements; sometimes these were
women, _the Flying Squadron_.

Sometimes men: Saint-Arnaud, Espinasse, Saint-George, Maupas.

Sometimes neither men nor women: the Marquis de C.

The whole troop was noteworthy.

Let us say a few words of it.

There was Vieillard the preceptor, an atheist with a tinge of
Catholicism, a good billiard player.

Vieillard was an anecdotist. He recounted smilingly the following:--
Towards the close of 1807 Queen Hortense, who of her own accord lived
in Paris, wrote to the King Louis that she could not exist any longer
without seeing him, that she could not do without him, and that she was
about to come to the Hague. The King said, "She is with child." He sent
for his minister Van Maanen, showed him the Queen's letter, and added,
"She is comin