YALE AND EUROPE-1850-1857 35 



Georges, who had begun her career under the first Napo- 

 leon, was ending it under Napoleon III. 



My favorite subject of study was the French Revolu- 

 tion, and, in the intervals of reading and lectures, I sought 

 out not only the spots noted in its history, but the men 

 who had taken part in it. At the Hotel des Invalides I 

 talked with old soldiers, veterans of the Republic and of 

 the Napoleonic period, discussing with them the events 

 through which they had passed; and, at various other 

 places and times, with civilians who had heard orations 

 at the Jacobin and Cordelier clubs, and had seen the guil- 

 lotine at work. The most interesting of my old soldiers 

 at the Invalides wore upon his breast the cross of the 

 Legion of Honor, which he had received from Napoleon 

 at Austerlitz. Still another had made the frightful 

 marches through the Spanish Peninsula under Soult, and 

 evidently felt very humble in the presence of those who 

 had taken part in the more famous campaigns under Napo- 

 leon himself. The history of another of my old soldiers 

 was pathetic. He was led daily into the cabaret, where my 

 guests were wont to fight their battles o 'er again, his eyes 

 absolutely sightless, and his hair as white as snow. Get- 

 ting into conversation with him I learned that he had gone 

 to Egypt with Bonaparte, had fought at the Battle of the 

 Pyramids, had been blinded by the glaring sun on the 

 sand of the desert, and had been an inmate at the Invalides 

 ever since ; more than half a century. At a later period 

 I heard from another of my acquaintances how, as a 

 schoolboy, he saw Napoleon beside his camp-fire at 

 Cannes, just after his landing from Elba. 



There still remained at Paris, in those days, one main 

 connecting link between the second empire and the first, 

 and this was the most contemptible of all the Bona- 

 partes, the younger brother of the great Napoleon, 

 Jerome, ex-king of Westphalia. I saw him, from time to 

 time, and was much struck by his resemblance to the first 

 emperor. Though taller, he still had something of that 



