hese subjects belong rather to historical
reminiscences of England, Italy, or Germany; but the emperor had
anxieties besides in France, and often found it hard to regulate
with discretion even the ways of his own household.

The empress, who after she had governed France as regent in 1859,
during her husband's absence in the Italian war, had been admitted
to councils of state, by no means approved either her husband's
domestic or foreign policy. We have seen that her influence was
strongly exerted to bring about the unfortunate attempt to give
an emperor and empress to Mexico; but on two other points that
she had at heart she failed. She could not persuade her husband
to undertake the reconstruction of the kingdom of Poland, nor to
assist Queen Isabella of Spain when her subjects, exasperated at
last by her excesses, drove her over the French frontier. The empress
disliked many of the coterie who enjoyed her husband's intimacy,
especially his cousin, Prince Napoleon. She resented the prince's
opposition to her marriage; she disliked his manners, his political
opinions, his aggressive opposition to all the offices of religion;
and she succeeded in detaching him from the emperor's confidence,
and in hindering his taking part in public affairs. To his wife--the
Princess Clotilde--she was deeply attached; but that did not serve to
reconcile her to the prince, her husband. Both ladies were opposed
to any diminution of the pope's temporal power in Italy; but the
private circle of the friends of the empress was too gay for the
chastened nature of the Princess Clotilde, and by degrees her intimacy
with the empress became less close and affectionate than it had
been in the early days of her unhappy marriage.

An episode in the private life of the palace, in 1859, created
considerable friction in Paris, and provoked remonstrances from
the emperor's ministers.[1] This was the admission to the circle
of intimates who surrounded the empress of the mesmerist and medium
Home. This man gave himself out to be an American; but many persons
suspected that his native land was Germany, and some said he was a
secret agent of that court, which had emissaries all over France,
in search of useful information. The empress, having heard of Home's
strange feats of table-turning and spirit-rapping in fashionable
_salons_ of the capital, was eager to witness his performances. The
women in the high society of Paris were greatly excited about them.