MISS FOX'S DIAEY PAEIS 29 



Baron Louis mentioned that a favourite of the 

 King's, whose name I have forgotten, said, on 

 leaving him, that he would be forgotten in 

 eight days, but he had miscalculated, for he was 

 not remembered beyond two, and supplanted 

 by another favourite. Baron Louis spoke of 

 Napoleon's memory, which was prodigious in the 

 very minutest detail. He worked all along for 

 himself, not for the country. Papa said he 

 thought if Moreau had lived he would have been 

 a most dangerous rival to Napoleon. Later in 

 the evening, M. Benjamin Constant (who is, 

 they say, one of the cleverest men living) came 

 in. The affairs of Eussia talked of. M. Constant 

 compared Russia to a well-packed quiet mule, 

 and Constantine and Nicholas to two men, each 

 ceremoniously declining to mount. M. Constant 

 looks very clever, but is not, I should think, an 

 amiable person. Speaking in the Chamber of 

 Deputies was then mentioned. M. Giamboni (a 

 Genoese established in Paris), who was present, 

 said that M. Constant, while others were speaking, 

 composed his speeches on little bits of paper, 

 with astonishing rapidity. M. Constant said 

 such a thing would not appear extraordinary to 



