My Paris Diary of 1870 405 



much better health than she expected to find him, that he seemed deeply 

 mortified by the abuse of the French Press, but maintained that he was 

 still the favourite of the French people, and seemed to count on returning 

 to the Tuileries. The Empress wrote him a most insulting and heartless 

 letter calling him a ' lacJic,' the receipt of which was the occasion of that 

 fainting fit which gave rise to the rumour of his attempted suicide. He 

 told Lady Cowley that he was literally without a sixpence. Grammont, 

 who has been staying with Lord Malmesbury, declares this to be perfectly 

 true, and that the utmost the Emperor's few remaining friends hope to be 

 able to make up for him is £1,200 a year. The Empress, I believe, has 

 some fortune of her own, but they are on the worst possible terms. I hope 

 I shall soon be able to invite myself to Worth as Lady Cowley invited her- 

 self to Wilhelmshohe. 



" Did you see that the French papers, learning from the English Press 

 that the Prussians were supplied with the best information from their gen- 

 eral staff, exclaimed in chorus : ' Nous savons maintenant qui est cet espion 

 qui a fourni aux Prussiens tant de precieux renseignements ; c'est M. le 

 General Staff, homme d'une astuce remarquable.' " 



END OF MY PARIS DIARY OF 187C 



