er
unable or unwilling to respond. She was accompanied by "Ike," Mrs.
Partington's son, impersonated by a clever youth of ten years, son of
John M. Sandidge of Louisiana. Mr. John Von Sonntag Haviland, formerly
of the U.S. Army, wrote a metrical description of this ball, and in
referring to Mrs. Clay, thus expresses himself:--

Mark how the grace that gilds an honored name,
Gives a strange zest to that loquacious dame
Whose ready tongue and easy blundering wit
Provoke fresh uproar at each happy hit!
Note how her humour into strange grimace
Tempts the smooth meekness of yon Quaker's face.

* * * * *

But--denser grows the crowd round Partington;
'Twere vain to try to name them one by one.

Mr. Haviland added this to the above:--"Mrs. Senator Clay, with knitting
in hand, snuff-box in pocket, and 'Ike, the Inevitable,' by her side,
acted out her difficult character so as to win the unanimous verdict
that her personation of the loquacious _mal-aprops_ dame was the leading
feature of the evening's entertainment. Go where she would through the
spacious halls, a crowd of eager listeners followed her footsteps,
drinking in her instant repartees, which were really superior in wit and
appositeness, and, indeed, in the vein of the famous dame's _cacoethes_,
even to the original contribution of Shillaber to the nonsensical
literature of the day."

One of the guests at this ball was the wife of the late Major General
William H. Emery, U.S.A., whose maiden name was Matilda Bache. She was
arrayed for the evening in the garb of a Quakeress, and it is to her
that Mr. Haviland alludes in his reference to the "smooth meekness of
yon Quaker's face."

At the commencement of the Civil War, Senator Gwin was arrested on a
charge of disloyalty and imprisoned until 1863. He then went to Paris,
where he became interested in a scheme for the colonization by
Southerners of the State of Sonora in Mexico, in consequence of which he
was sometimes facetiously called the "Duke of Sonora." While thus
engaged, he was invited to meet the Emperor, Napoleon III., in private
audience, and succeeded in enlisting his sympathies. It is said that,
upon the request of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, he formulated a
plan for the colony which, after receiving the Emperor's approval, was
submitted to Maximilian. The latter was then in Paris and requested Mr.
Gwin's attendance at the Tuilerie