imed his visit more happily and
found Beranger by his fireside. He asked him:

"What do you advise my cousin to do?"

"To observe the Constitution."

"And what ought he to avoid?"

"Violating the Constitution."

Beranger could not be induced to say anything else.

Yesterday, December 5, 1850, I was at the Francais. Rachel played
"Adrienne Lecouvreur." Jerome Bonaparte occupied a box next to mine.
During an entr'acte I paid him a visit. We chatted. He said to me:

"Louis is mad. He is suspicious of his friends and delivers himself
into the hands of his enemies. He is suspicious of his family and allows
himself to be bound hand and foot by the old Royalist parties. On
my return to France I was better received by Louis Philippe at the
Tuileries than I am at the Elysee by my nephew. I said to him the other
day before one of his ministers (Fould): 'Just remember a little! When
you were a candidate for the presidency, Monsieur here (I pointed to
Fould) called upon me in the Rue d'Alger, where I lived, and begged me
in the name of MM. Thiers, Mole, Duvergier de Hauranne, Berryer, and
Bugeaud to enter the lists for the presidency. He told me that never
would you get the "Constitutionnel;" that in Mole's opinion you were
an idiot, and that Thiers looked upon you as a blockhead; that I alone
could rally everybody to me and win against Cavaignac. I refused. I told
them that you represented youth and the future, that you had a quarter
of a century before you, whereas I could hardly count upon eight or ten
years; that I was an invalid and wanted to be let alone. That is what
these people were doing and that is what I did. And you forget all this!
And you make these gentlemen the masters! And you show the door to your
cousin, my son, who defended you in the Assembly and devoted himself to
furthering your candidacy! And you are strangling universal suffrage,
which made you what you are! I' faith I shall say like Mole that you are
an idiot, and like Thiers that you are a blockhead!'"

The King of Westphalia paused for a moment, then continued:

"And do you know, Monsieur Victor Hugo, what he replied to me? 'You will
see!' No one knows what is at the bottom of that man!"

THE SIEGE OF PARIS. EXTRACTS FROM NOTE-BOOKS

BRUSSELS, September 1.--Charles* leaves this morning with MM. Claretie,
Proust, and Frederix for Virton. Fighting is going on near there, at
Carignan. They will see what they can of the battle. The