M. Leon
Faucher and said: "Make So-and-So a prefect." M. Leon Faucher made
a grimace, which is an easy thing for him to do, and said: "Monsieur
Thiers, there are objections." "That's funny!" retorted Thiers, "it is
precisely the answer the President of the Republic gave to me the day I
said: 'Make M. Faucher a Minister!'"

At this ball it was remarked that Louis Bonaparte sought Berryer's
company, attached himself to him and led him into quiet corners. The
Prince looked as though he were following Berryer, and Berryer as though
he were trying to avoid the Prince.

At 11 o'clock the President said to Berryer: "Come with me to the
Opera."

Berryer excused himself. "Prince," said he, "it would give rise to
gossip. People would believe I am engaged in a love affair!"

"Pish!" replied Louis Bonaparte laughingly, "Representatives are
inviolable!"

The Prince went away alone, and the following quatrain was circulated:

_En vain l'empire met du fard,
On baisse ses yeux et sa robe.
Et Berryer-Joseph so derobe
A Napoleon-Putiphar_.

February, 1849.

Although he is animated with the best intentions in the world and has
a very visible quantity of intelligence and aptitude, I fear that Louis
Bonaparte will find his task too much for him. To him, France, the
century, the new spirit, the instincts peculiar to the soil and the
period are so many closed books. He looks without understanding them at
minds that are working, Paris, events, men, things and ideas. He belongs
to that class of ignorant persons who are called princes and to that
category of foreigners who are called _emigres_. To those who examine
him closely he has the air of a patient rather than of a governing man.

There is nothing of the Bonapartes about him, either in his face or
manner. He probably is not a Bonaparte. The free and easy ways of Queen
Hortense are remembered. "He is a memento of Holland!" said Alexis de
Saint Priest to me yesterday. Louis Bonaparte certainly possesses the
cold manner of the Dutch.

Louis Bonaparte knows so little about Paris that the first time I saw
him he said to me:

"I have been hunting for you. I went to your former residence. What is
this Place des Vosges?"

"It is the Place Royale," I said.

"Ah!" he continued, "is it an old place?"

He wanted to see Beranger. He went to Passy twice without being able to
find him at home. His cousin Napoleon t