r prince of the blood,' meaning Walewski, for,
according to him, the real and legitimate Bonapartes counted for
nothing. Walewski was telegraphed for, as I told you, early in the
morning. When he came he found the council engaged in discussing the
means of raising a loan. The Empress begged him to dissuade De Morny
from his purpose, telling him all I have told you. Walewski refused to
be the first to speak to De Morny. I think that both Walewski and De
Morny have heaped injury and insult upon me more than upon any man; I
would have obeyed the Empress for the Emperor's sake, but 'the two
princes of the blood' only consulted their own dignity. I need not tell
you what effect the elevation of De Morny to the throne of Mexico would
have produced in Europe, let alone in France. Rather than risk such a
thing, the money was found; Bazaine was sent, and that poor fellow,
Maximilian, went to his death, because M. Bacciochi had sown dissension
between the brother and the cousin of the Emperor about an opera-box.
Such is history, my friend."

I repeat, De Persigny was a better man at heart than De Morny, or
perhaps than Walewski, though the latter had only fads, and never
stooped to the questionable practices of his fellow "prince of the
blood" in the race for wealth. The erstwhile sergeant-quartermaster
refrained from doing so out of sheer contempt for money-hunters, and
from an inborn feeling of honesty. The son of Napoleon I., though
illegitimate, felt what was due to the author of his being, and
absolutely refused to be mixed up with any commercial transactions. He
was never quietly insolent to any one, like the natural son of Hortense;
he rarely said either a foolish or a wise thing, but frequently did
ill-considered ones, as, for instance, when he wrote a play. "What
induced you to do this, monsieur le comte?" said Thiers, on the first
night. "It is so difficult to write a play in five acts, and it is so
easy not to write a play in five acts." Among his fads was the objection
to ladies in the stalls of a theatre. In 1861 he issued an order
forbidding their admission to that part of the house, and could only be
persuaded with difficulty, and at the eleventh hour, to rescind it. In
many respects he was like Philip II. of Spain; he worried about trifles.
One day he prevailed upon M. de Boitelle, the Prefect of police, a
thoroughly sensible man, to put a stop to the flying of kites, because
their tails might get entangled in the