176 Ludovic Halevy [1895 



behind the scenes have long known to be the true one, and which His- 

 tory will adopt — namely, that Napoleon III was not by blood really 

 a Bonaparte, and as little by character, a phlegmatic, good-natured 

 man, fond of ease and fond of women, with a certain superstitious be- 

 lief in his star, and ambitious less by natural taste than by position. 

 Morny, his half brother, was at the beginning his guiding spirit, but 

 was ousted from favour by the Empress several years before his death 

 in 1865. The Empress Eugenie was without doubt the cause of Napo- 

 leon Ill's latest misfortunes. A beautiful woman and of good family 

 in Spain, she was all the same an adventuress, and had had more than 

 one lover besides the Duke of Sesto, whom she loved before she came 

 to Paris. The Emperor only married her because she was clever enough 

 to refuse him on other terms. She led him an unquiet life, making 

 him constant domestic scenes, from which he fled to Marguerite 

 Bellanger, at whose apartment he was free from worries. (Marguerite 

 Bellanger was, if I remember rightly, the daughter of Bellanger, who 

 kept Voisin's restaurant, and, when I was at Paris, a professional lady 

 of pleasure.) 



" Halevy recounted an incident of which he was witness when 

 Morny, coming back from the Conseil des Ministres, threw down his 

 portfolio in a rage, and swore he would never go again while the Em- 

 press was allowed to talk nonsense there. ' L'Empereur fera la guerre,' 

 he exclaimed, ' un de ces jours pour lui eviter une scene de famille,' 

 and this was precisely the thing that happened. At the time of the 

 quarrel with Prussia in 1870, she had come suddenly to the Council 

 Chamber and dismissed the Ministers in her husband's absence, say- 

 ing: ' Messieurs, il y a conge aujourd'hui. Nous sommes en fete. La 

 guerre est declaree.' Halevy is a capital talker — I should imagine of 

 Hebrew origin, judging by his profile and other signs — a neighbour 

 of the Prince's here at Gros Bois, and intimate, too, with the Alphonse 

 Rothschilds. His son, a most interesting young man of the serious 

 student kind one reads of in French novels but so seldom meets, was 

 here on Friday — an abler man, I should say, even than his father. 

 Poor Mme. Alphonse was also here — it being Berthe's wedding-day 

 — a sad woman, mourning her lost beauty and trying to be gay. There 

 was, of course, much talk of the attempts made against Alphonse by 

 the anarchists. He goes about guarded everywhere by detectives. All 

 complained of the lack of government in France, and all blamed the 

 Parliamentary regime. 



" 12th Sept. — Antonin. I passed through Paris on Sunday after- 

 noon (the 8th) on my way to the Potockis here in Poland, and spent 

 a couple of hours at the Embassy, or rather in the Embassy garden, to 

 which Lord Dufferin invited me. I had an hour alone in it, sitting at 

 the farther end, near the grille — in some sort a sacred spot for me. 



