Industrial Chemistry 



any case, lest you should be tempted to run 

 away, we will go to the Tuileries together, in 

 my carriage.' 



Things happened as he wished. The next 

 day, in the minister's company, I was ushered 

 into a little drawing-room at the Tuileries by 

 chamberlains in knee-breeches and silver- 

 buckled shoes. They were queer people to 

 look at. Their uniforms and their stiff gait 

 gave them the appearance, in my eyes, of 

 Beetles who, by way of wing-cases, wore a 

 great, gold-laced dress-coat, with a key in the 

 small of the back. There were already a score 

 of persons from all parts waiting in the room. 

 These included geographical explorers, botan- 

 ists, geologists, antiquaries, archaeologists, col- 

 lectors of prehistoric flints, in short, the 

 usual representatives of provincial scientific 

 life. 



The emperor entered, very simply dressed, 

 with no parade about him beyond a wide, red, 

 watered-silk ribbon across his chest. No sign 

 of majesty, an ordinary man, round and 

 plump, with a large moustache and a pair of 

 half-closed, drowsy eyelids. He moved from 

 one to the other, talking to each of us for a 

 moment as the minister mentioned our names 

 and the nature of our occupations. He 



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