a
ete tres sensible.

Je prie votre Majeste de recevoir l'expression de mes sentiments
respectueux et de me croire, de votre Majeste, le bon Frere,

NAPOLEON.

[Footnote 50: The French Emperor had established a camp
between Boulogne and St Omer, and early in the summer
had invited Prince Albert to visit him. It was reasonably
conjectured at the time that one of the chief purposes of
the invitation was by personal intercourse to overcome the
prejudice which the Emperor believed prevailed against him.
The visit lasted from the 4th till the 8th of September, and
the Prince's impressions were recorded in a memorandum, "the
value of which," writes Sir Theodore Martin, by way of preface
to his publication of it, "cannot be overstated; nor is it
less valuable for the light which it throws upon the Prince's
character, by the remarkable contrasts between himself and the
Emperor of the French, which were elicited in the unreserved
discussions which each seems equally to have courted."]

[Pageheading: PRINCE ALBERT AND THE EMPEROR]

_The Earl of Clarendon to Queen Victoria._

FOREIGN OFFICE, _22nd September 1854._

Lord Clarendon presents his humble duty to your Majesty....

Count Walewski told Lord Clarendon to-day that the Emperor had spoken
with enthusiasm of the Prince, saying that in all his experience
he had never met with a person possessing such various and profound
knowledge, or who communicated it with the same frankness. His Majesty
added that he had never learned so much in a short time, and was
grateful. He began his conversation with reproaching Count Walewski
for not having written to him much oftener respecting the Prince, and
endeavoured to ascertain the opinions of His Royal Highness upon all
important subjects.

With respect to the invitation, the Emperor's account of it to
Count Walewski was that he had apologised to the Prince for the bad
reception he had given His Royal Highness, and expressed a hope that
he might have an opportunity of _doing better_ at Paris, if your
Majesty and the Prince would honour him with a visit; and that His
Royal Highness had then said, "the Queen hopes to see your Majesty at
Windsor, and will be happy to make acquaintance with the Empress."
The Emperor, however, had only taken this as a courteous return to his
invitation, and not as intended for a positive invitation.

Lord Clarendon told Count Walewski