The Prince Imperial (The Poet Laureate’s Sonnet)
Felix Opportunitate Mortis.
Exile or Cæsar? Death hath solved thy doubt,
And made thee certain of thy changeless fate;
And thou no more hast wearily to wait,
Straining to catch the people’s tarrying shout
That from unrestful rest would drag thee out,
And push thee to those pinnacles of State
Round which throng courtly loves, uncourted hate,
Servility’s applause, and envy’s flout.
Twice happy boy! though cut off in thy flower,
The timeliest doom of all thy race is thine:
Saved from the sad alternative, to pine
For heights unreached, or icily to tower,
Like Alpine crests that only specious shine,
And glitter on the lonely peak of Power.
Alfred Austin.
June, 1879.
Footnotes
1 This has been confirmed by M. Émile Ollivier in the “Revue des Deux Mondes” (1911).
2 “Quarterly Review,” April, 1910.
3 “Les Élégances du Second Empire.” Par Henri Bouchot. Paris: À la Librairie Illustrée. 1896.
4 “La Cour des Tuileries” (Conférence prononcée à la Société des Conférences le 17 janvier, 1910). Paris: “La Revue Hebdomadaire” (Plon), 1910. “Mes Souvenirs et Impressions.” Par le Marquis de Massa. Paris: Calmann-Lévy.
5 General Palat, author of “La Guerre de 1870-1871,” completed in October, 1910. In seventeen volumes. Paris and Nancy: Levrault et Cie.
6 Péladan, the “Figaro,” March 19, 1910.
7 Author of an article on French Children in “Blackwood’s Magazine,” December, 1871.
8 “Reminiscences of Carl Schurz.” London: John Murray. 1909.
9 “Etions-nous prêts?” Par Émile Ollivier. Tome XV. Paris: Garnier. 1911.
10 Paris: E. Dentu. 1868.
11 Paris: Victor Havard. 1894. London and New York: Harper and Brothers.
12 “L’Impératrice Eugénie.” Paris: Sociétés des Publications Littéraires Illustrées. 1909.
13 “Amours Tragiques de Napoléon III.” Paris: Albin Michel. 1910.
14 “The Empress Eugénie: 1870-1910.” London: Harper and Brothers. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1910.
15 Vide “The Empress Eugénie: 1870-1910.” London: Harper and Brothers. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1910.
16 “Contemporary France,” by Gabriel Hanotaux. London: Constable. 1907.
17 This lady was at Chislehurst when, in 1873, the Emperor passed away.
18 The Exhibition building was erected at the western end of the park, midway between Rotten Row and the Ladies’ Mile.
19 “She is a very beautiful woman, who will be well able to maintain her position, inasmuch as they say she is ‘made for the part.’”
20 Paris: Félix Juven.
21 The King himself is asserted to have declared that “not a drop of Bonaparte blood flowed in the boy’s veins.”
22 M. de La Guéronnière.
23 At the Bibliothèque Nationale there is an interpretation of the “Prédiction Miraculeuse du Grand Albert sur Louis Napoléon Bonaparte,” published two years before December 2, 1851 (the date of the coup d’état).
24 “Idées Napoléoniennes.”
25 The site of the Royal Societies Club, which (1911) numbers among its members a Bonaparte (Prince Roland).
26 The Prince is also said to have had lodgings at one time at Waterloo Place.
27 “Mémoires inédits sur Napoléon III.” Par le Baron d’Ambès; Recueillis et Annotés par Charles Simond et M. C. Poinsot. Paris: Société des Publications Littéraires Illustrées.
28 The nominal author of a remarkable pamphlet written at Wilhelmshöhe by Napoleon III.
29 This promise Conneau kept. He shared the Prince’s captivity at Ham, and heard the last words Spoken by Napoleon III. on January 9, 1873: “Etiez-vous à Sedan?”
30 The mother was Alexandrine Vergeot, a maker of sabots, who helped the prison-porter’s wife to keep the canteen tidy. She married Louis Napoleon’s foster-brother, and died poor at Paris in 1886.
31 King of Holland, 1806-1810.
32 This lady died in 1910.
33 “L’Impératrice Eugénie.” Paris: Société des Publications Littéraires Illustrées. 1909.
34 King of Westphalia, grandfather of Prince Victor and General Prince Louis Napoleon.
35 “Souvenirs de la Duchesse de Dino” (Chronique, tome iv.). Paris: Plon.
36 The ever-recurring infidelities of her consort prompted the long-suffering Empress to absent herself from France for a while, and to confide her troubles to Queen Victoria.
37 Mme. de Ferronays.
38 A prominent Minister of the period.
39 The Emperor’s description in the local records.
40 M. Pinard was a prominent Minister, who died in 1910.
41 Mme. De Arcos and her sister, Mrs. Vaughan, reside in London (1911). The first-named lady represented the Empress Eugénie at the funeral of Queen Victoria.
42 His son, the present Baron, one of the doughtiest of Bonapartists, after the war married the celebrated actress, Mme. Reichenberg, who assisted at a charitable fête in 1911.
43 A well-known artiste.
44 General Roguet, who was sitting outside, had been badly injured in the neck, and bled profusely.
45 Derived from “Amours tragiques de Napoléon III.,” by Gaston Stiegler. Dedicated to M. Adrien Hébrard, rédacteur-en-chief of Le Temps.
46 For what is known as “the Orsini attempt” to murder the Emperor and Empress on January 14, 1858, Orsini and Pierri were executed. Gomez and Count Rudio were sent to the galleys for life, the latter having been reprieved at the last moment. Rudio escaped from his prison, and died in California in 1910, aged seventy-seven.
47 Then Prime Minister.
48 Palikao (Montauban) was War Minister, under the Empress’s Regency, at the downfall of the Empire.
49 The idea of Napoleon III. appears to have been to secure what he called “the American equilibrium” by founding in Mexico “a regenerating Empire.”
50 Prosper Mérimée.
51 “Amours Tragiques de Napoléon III.” Par Gaston Stiegler. Paris: Albin Michel.
52 Dr. Conneau was with the Emperor at Sedan, at Wilhelmshöhe, and at Chislehurst until the end came in January, 1873.
53 The Duchess of Sutherland.
54 There had been serious misunderstandings between the Emperor and Empress, and the latter came to London for a few days, staying at Claridge’s, en route to Scotland.
55 Napoleon III. made a somewhat similar present to the Prince of Wales (King Edward VII.).
56 “Reminiscences,” 3 vols., 1910. London: Unwin.
57 “Salathiel,” a romance, by George Croly, on the subject of the Wandering Jew.
58 Until the autumn of 1910 the Flora Pavilion remained undisturbed. Then some changes were made for Government purposes in the rez-de-chaussée and the two floors, the kitchens being left intact, just as they were prior to 1870.
59 Nothing remains of the cellars but the walls. All the furniture, fittings, and utensils of the Tuileries kitchens have been preserved intact, and this sous-sol of the Flora Pavilion is now one of the curiosities of the Louvre.
60 The late Lord Glenesk, in a conversation with Lady Dorothy Nevill shortly before his death.
61 Uncle of Mrs. Borthwick (Lady Glenesk).
62 “Partant pour la Syrie,” composed by Queen Hortense, became the French National Hymn under Napoleon III. It was founded upon the imaginary exploits of a soldier, Dunois, in Palestine, and, translated, was a very popular song in England in the fifties and sixties.
63 Bismarck had been recalled from St. Petersburg to replace Comte Albert de Pourtalès at Paris.
64 James de Chambrier.
65 The Comtesse Edmond de Pourtalès (who happily survives in 1911) had, it is true, courageously uttered no vague warnings; but they fell on heedless ears.
66 “Souvenirs et Impressions.” Paris: Calmann-Lévy.
67 Of the five ladies mentioned, two survive in 1911—Princesse de Metternich and Mme. E. de Pourtalès. Mme. Bartholoni died this year.
68 “L’Impératrice Eugénie.” Par Pierre de Lano. Paris: Victor-Havard.
69 M. Pierre de Lano.
70 The “star” of the Alcazar—the Yvette Guilbert of the Second Empire period.
71 The Empress.
72 She still (1911) resides at Vienna, and is one of the rapidly-vanishing participants in the splendours of the Second Empire.
73 This was a pardonable exaggeration. We know from the Princess’s own lips that her fan was too valuable to be destroyed in a moment of anger.
74 M. Chauchart died in 1910, leaving an enormous fortune and a marvellous collection of works of art.
[75] “Entre l’Apogée et le Déclin,” par James de Chambrier. Paris: Fontremoing.
76 Ludovic de Grammont (sometimes spelt with one “m”), Duc de Caderousse, died in 1865.
77 The Irish Emma Crouch, whose father composed “Kathleen Mavourneen.”
78 Brother of Prince Anatole Demidoff, who married Princesse Mathilde, aunt of the Princes Victor and Louis Napoleon.
79 “Sornette.”
80 It was this old soldier whose support was so anxiously sought by Napoleon III. after Sedan.
81 Mme. (Edmond) de Pourtalès is (1911) the sole survivor of these four charmeuses.
82 The wealthy gentleman who adopted the Baron de Forest as his son.
83 One of the heroes of the historical cavalry charge at Sedan.
84 Daughter of Baron Lionel, sister of Lord Rothschild, and widow of Baron Alphonse. She died on January 6, 1911.
85 Needless to say, Sunday is the great race-day in Paris: the reason why “the Prince”—the King—of happy memory never witnessed the contest for the Grand Prix.
86 In other words, the question of protecting the Pope.
87 The Prince Imperial’s so-called “baptism of fire.”
88 Count Vimercati, one of the Emperor of Austria’s representatives.
89 M. Franceschini Pietri, the Emperor’s Secretary.
90 The day of her flight from the Tuileries.
91 Subsequently the late Baron de Hirsch purchased this hôtel, No. 1, Rue de l’Elysée, at the corner of the Avenue Gabriel.
92 After Sedan General Chazal conducted Napoleon III. from Belgium to Verviers (Prussia).
93 This officer is now an Admiral. He visited the Empress Eugénie at Cap Martin in February, 1911.
94 All these valuables were delivered to the Empress soon after her arrival in this country (September 8, 1870).
95 I am greatly indebted to MM. Plon-Nourrit, the eminent Paris publishers, for most kindly permitting me to print the Sovereigns’ war despatches and the summary of events in August, 1870. They are from the valuable work, “Le Maréchal Canrobert,” by the well-known writer, M. Germain Bapst, an admitted authority on the subject. Five volumes of this brilliant historical work have already appeared through MM. Plon-Nourrit et Cie., and M. Bapst is engaged upon the sixth volume, to be issued in 1912.
96 August, 1870.
97 H. Sutherland Edwards, Edward Legge, and Victor Silberer.
98 The narrative of General V. Pajol, aide-de-camp of Napoleon III. To the best of my belief it has not appeared in any French, and certainly not in any English, volume.
99 “La Débâcle.”
100 Revue des Deux Mondes.
101 This historical episode had an echo in 1888. The Colonel, then a member of the Reichstag, was unexpectedly sent for by Bismarck, who said: “The Press has been stating that I treated Napoleon with undue roughness upon the occasion of our meeting at Donchéry. You were the only eye-witness of the scene, so do you tell them the truth.”
102 This remarkable document appears textually only in “The Empress Eugénie: 1870-1910.” London: Harper & Brothers. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1910.
103 From the late Duc de Conegliano’s volume (1897), “La Maison de l’Empereur,” preface by Frédéric Masson. Paris: Calmann Lévy.
104 Statement by M. Pietri to “Le Matin” in 1910.
105 This pavilion was not destroyed by the Communards in 1871. It contains the kitchens of the Tuileries (vide p. 108).
106 Mother of Napoleon I.
107 Of these four ladies, two survive in 1911—the Duchesse de Mouchy and the Comtesse E. de Pourtalès.
108 The letters are reproduced by arrangement with Herrn Paul Lindenberg.
109 The Emperor’s former Secretary, and later a Deputy.
110 “Les Forces Militaires de la France en 1870.”
111 Charles Thelin had been the Emperor’s valet at Ham, and was employed in a confidential capacity during the reign.
112 “Mémoires inédits sur Napoléon III.,” par le Baron d’Ambès. Recueillis et Annotés par Charles Simond et M. C. Poinsot. Paris: Société des Publications Littéraires Illustrées.
113 “Memoirs of General von Gerlach.” Published, in German only, in 1891.
114 “Men and Things of My Time,” by the Marquis de Castellane. London: Chatto and Windus. 1911.
115 Probably a reference to a public religious service in connection with the Crimean War.
116 “The Story of my Struggles,” by Arminius Vambéry.
117 In Roman history the period of the reigns of Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius was generally characterized by domestic tranquillity.
118 “The Development of Nations,” by J. H. Rose. London: Constable. 1905.
119 Napoleon III., January 3, 1870.
120 Editor of “Le Figaro.”
121 His Majesty’s own detailed statement of the causes which, in his opinion, led to the defeat of his army at Sedan appears textually in the volume, “The Empress Eugénie: 1870—1910” (and, I think, in no other work). London: Harper and Brothers; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1910.
122 “La Captivité de Napoléon III. en Allemagne,” par le Général Comte C. de Monts, Gouverneur de Cassel. “Souvenirs traduits de l’Allemand,” par Paul Bruck Gilbert et Paul Lévy. Préface de Jules Claretie, de l’Académie Française. Paris, Pierre Lafitte et Cie. 1910.
This positive statement of General von Monts is confirmed by M. Émile Ollivier (“Le Figaro,” October 22, 1910). The Marquis de Gricourt was a Chamberlain of Napoleon III. and also a Senator.
123 Through the Liberal Empire.
124 One of the cardinal points of the Emperor’s policy, foreshadowed by him when he was in London in 1839-40.
125 M. Ollivier’s critics condemn him for disregarding Marshal Niel’s earnest appeals to increase the military forces of the Empire, and so put the country in a proper state of defence. The annual contingent was, in fact, as the Emperor notes, reduced by 10,000 men!
126 His Majesty ignores the fact that for at least two years there had been throughout the country a growing feeling of discontent, aroused, to a large extent, by M. Henri Rochefort’s denunciations (in the “Lanterne”) of the Emperor, the Empress, and the Court.
127 These extracts were doubtless translated by the Emperor himself, for not one of those who were with him at Wilhelmshöhe could speak a word or read a line of German! Napoleon III. had an almost better acquaintance with German than with French, and he spoke French as many Germans speak it, the result of his early education in Germany and Switzerland.
128 A Bonapartist intransigeant who greatly influenced the Empress.
129 Strictly speaking, it was exactly five weeks later.
130 July, 1870.
131 “Les Causes et les Responsabilités de la Guerre de 1870.” Par H. Welschinger. Paris: Plon. 1910.
132 To similar assertions the Empress Eugénie, in her Reply to her Accusers, gives an emphatic denial.
133 Part of the chorus of one of Nadaud’s popular songs.
134 Revue des Deux Mondes (January 1, 1911). “La Guerre de 1870: Notre Première Défaite.”
135 Ibid.
136 The Baron de Mackau (previously referred to in this chapter).
137 Known at the Foreign Offices, but unknown to the outside world, the Press included.
138 From the hitherto unpublished correspondence of Count Beust, Chancellor of Austria-Hungary, July, 1870.—“Deutsche Rundschau,” 1910.
139 London: Harper and Brothers. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1910.
140 “Peasants, you are being deceived.”
141 Communicated by the Vicomte de La Chapelle (1911). The Comte de La Chapelle’s dramatic description of the painful scene at Camden Place, Chislehurst, on the day of the Emperor’s death is given in the volume, “The Empress Eugénie: 1870-1910.” London: Harper and Brothers. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1910.
142 He had been convicted of treason in December, 1870, but the death-sentence was commuted to twenty years’ imprisonment. He escaped on August 9, 1874.
143 The Vicomte thus confirms the assertions on this point published in “The Empress Eugénie: 1870-1910.” London: Harper and Brothers. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1910.
144 Communicated by the Vicomte de La Chapelle (1911).
145 The loans for paying the war indemnity of five milliards (£200,000,000).
146 The Emperor.
147 The Emperor died on January 9.
148 The Comte de La Chapelle had supported Zola in the Press respecting one of the historical passages in “La Débâcle.”
149 See the facsimile on the previous page.
[150] Colonel Stoffel’s Reports were published in 1871 under the title, “Rapports Militaires Ecrits de Berlin: 1866-1870.” Paris: Garnier.
151 The Colonel died in 1907, aged eighty-eight.
152 M. Émile Ollivier, writing in the “Revue des Deux Mondes” (December 1, 1910), proves that Lebœuf was absolutely accurate when, in July, 1870, he said emphatically, “Nous sommes prêts, archi-prêts” (We are ready—more than ready).
153 M. Pietri’s deeply-interesting and historically-important letters appeared in the influential and deservedly popular magazine, the “Revue de Paris,” on June 15 and July 1, 1911. I am greatly indebted to the Editor of the “Revue de Paris” for very kindly allowing me to print some extracts from these valuable documents, which are “revelations” in the best sense of the word.
154 General Trochu, the valiant soldier who deserted the Empress in her great extremity (September, 1870).
155 Prince Napoleon, father of the Bonapartist Pretender of to-day.
156 The needle-gun (Zundnadelgewehr), first used by the Prussians in warfare that year (1866) in the Austrian campaign.
157 Wife of the Minister of Marine in 1851, and again from March, 1859, until January, 1867.
158 Daughters of General Cousin-Montauban, Comte de Palikao.
159 Daughters of Admiral Bruat (who died at sea on returning from the Crimea to France).
160 The Imperial Hunt.
161 A devoted ally of the Empress Eugénie. He survives in 1911.
162 M. Pietri hints that the Prussian postal officials were “très indiscrets.”
163 “Who goes slowly, goes well. Who goes well, goes far.”
164 Literally, “drinkers of blood”; figuratively, “bloodthirsty.”
165 It may be safely assumed that these amounts came from the Emperor’s purse.
166 The Emperor.
167 The Bismarcks.
168 Bismarck.
169 The chassepot.
170 Divisional-General Frossard, aide-de-camp of the Emperor, member of the Committee of Fortifications. Governor and chief of the Military Household of the Prince Imperial from 1868.
171 The Belgian National Anthem.
172 It was pointed out to the Prince that “la République a bien du monde à caser; elle a fait beaucoup d’enfants qui veulent être nourris et pensionnés.”
173 By inadvertence the Princess was described in the “banns” as the “eldest,” instead of the “youngest,” daughter of the late King and Queen!
174 Napoleon I. always objected to the use of the surname “Bonaparte”; consequently, the three stones (now to be seen at the Invalides) on his tomb at St. Helena bore, and bear, no inscription.
175 The Royal Basilica, near Turin.
176 This lady, one of Princesse Napoleon’s dames d’honneur, is a daughter of that Duc de Bassano who was the Grand Chamberlain of Napoleon III. He was at Chislehurst with the Imperial Family, and, later, was often to be seen at the Empress Eugénie’s residence, Farnborough Hill. The author has occasion to remember him with gratitude.
177 This was presented to Princesse Napoléon on April 6, 1911, by the Duchesse d’Albuféra, who was begged by the imperial couple to convey their grateful thanks to the dames Françaises for their superb gift.
178 This was nonsensical. Etiquette precludes the King’s guests from visiting the Pope.
179 The day following the Empress Eugénie’s flight from the Tuileries, and the same day on which Her Imperial Majesty actually left Paris for the coast.
180 It would be idle to suppress a fact which everybody knew, and knows, that the Prince had been a Freethinker all his life.
181 Princesse Clotilde died at Moncalieri on June 25, 1911.
182 In a letter to Théophile Gautier.
183 M. Gérard Harry, the celebrated Belgian publicist, author of a very pungent, detailed, and erudite criticism, in “La Grande Revue” (Paris), of the volume “The Empress Eugénie: 1870-1910.” London: Harper and Brothers; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1910.
184 M. Harry Gérard.
185 “The Empress Eugénie: 1870-1910.” London: Harper and Brothers; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. This volume contains the only “intimate” account of the Empress’s English home ever published.
186 Constructed and erected in 1910, a few months before the visit of Prince Napoléon and Princesse Clémentine to the Empress at Farnborough Hill.
187 “The Empress Eugénie: 1870-1910.” London: Harper and Brothers. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1910.
188 Paris: Ollendorff. 1911.
189 His official title was “Commissaire Spécial, attaché aux Souverains étrangers en France,” a post which he resigned nearly two years ago.
190 When this monstrous tale of an alleged liaison was widely published eight years later—in January, 1887—I denied it in the Pall Mall Gazette, on the authority of Monsignor Goddard. In 1911 it was again revived.
191 June 7 and 8, 1911.
192 “The Empress Eugénie, 1870-1910.” London: Harper and Brothers; New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons. 1910.
193 November 2, 1910: St. Michael’s, Farnborough.
194 “In Memory of the Prince Imperial.” Sermon at St. Mary’s, Chislehurst, on Sunday, July 13, 1879, by Henry Edward, Cardinal Archbishop.