d the Emperor
that the Parisians spoke of "the Spanish woman," as they spoke
seventy-five and eighty years ago of the Austrian woman.'"

"'The Spanish woman! the Spanish woman!' she jerked out three or four
times--and I could see that her hands were clenched;--'I have become
French, but I will show my enemies that I can be Spanish when occasion
demands it.'

"With this she left as suddenly as she had come, taking no notice of the
Emperor's uplifted hand to detain her. When the door closed upon her, I
said to the Emperor, 'I am more than grieved, sire, that I spoke.'

"'You did your duty,' he said, grasping my hand."

As a matter of course, the threat to show her enemies that she could be
Spanish when occasion required was, in this instance, an empty one,
because "the enemies" happened to be legion. A scapegoat was found,
however, in the honest functionary who had, in the exercise of his duty,
frankly warned the Emperor of the ugly things that were said about her.
Next morning, M. Hyrvoix was appointed Receiver-General for one of the
departments--that is, exiled to the provinces.

This system of ostracism was indiscriminately applied to all who
happened to offend her. Unfortunately, the slightest divergence of
opinion on the most trifling matter was construed into an offence; hence
in a few years the so-called counsellors around the Emperor were simply
so many automata, moving at her will, and at her will only. Men who
ventured to think for themselves were removed, or else voluntarily
retired from the precincts of the court sooner than submit to a tyranny,
not based like that of Catherine II. or Elizabeth upon great
intellectual gifts, but upon the wayward impulses of a woman in no way
distinguished mentally from the meanest of her sex, except by an
overweening ambition and an equally overweening conceit.

And as nothing is so apt to breed injustice as injustice, men, who might
have proved the salvation of the Second Empire in its hour of direst
need, were absolutely driven into opposition, and so blinded by
resentment as to be unable to distinguish any longer between France and
those who impelled her to her ruin.

Lest I should be taxed with exaggeration, a few instances among the many
will suffice. One evening, in the course of those charades of which I
have already spoken, some of the performers, both men and women, had
thrown all decorum to the winds in their improvised dialogue. A young
colonel, by no means