The Express.
London, England, 1867-05-20 00:00:00

EXPRESS FROM PARIS.

(now ant OWN CORRZIWONDINT.I
PARIS, SUNDAY EVILNINO.

Rumours of preparations for war continue to
circulate ; M. de Cassagnac's Paya will not have
it that the ratification of the treaty of London by
the King of Prussia a fortnight before the time
stipulated is in any way a reassuring symptom.
Cassagnac preaches distrust of M. de Bismarck, and
affirms that all the diplomatic acts of Prussia are
but masks to conceal her secret designs (arriires
permies). He insists upon the armaments of Prussia
as a reason why France must go on arming. At
the same time letters from the Chalons camp say
that showy grand manceuvres and mock fights are
to give place this year to serious training, hard
marches, and evolutions of a simple and practical
character such as would be required in actual
warfare. It is, moreover, said that most of the
army of Algeria is to be brought home and re-
placed by local militia. The severe jobation lately
given by an inspecting general to the Algerian
militia for their want of instruction, lends some
probability to this story.
I know not what credit may be due to a para-
graph going the rounds of the French papers, sug-
gesting that a question of etiquette may very pos-
sibly prevent the expected visit of the King of
Prussia and the Emperor of Russia together. The
King, it is said, was very anxious to accompany
the Czar in order to avoid fete d tete diplomatic
interviews which might be embarrassing. But
the Czar, it is said, would rather not come with
the King of Prussia for the following reasons
William I. is the senior sovereign of Europe—he
is, moreover, the maternal uncle of Alexander 11.
On this double ground it is apprehended that he
would claim to take precedence of his nephew;
and then people would say that the conqueror of
Sadowa was the first sovereign in Europe. Is this
delicate question a journalistic phantom or not ?
Si non i vero i ben trovato.

A ball at the Tuileries last night—called a private
ball, because " only " a thousand invitations were
issued—closed the series of fates given to the Prince
of Wales and the Duke of Edinburgh. Their royal
highnesses have, I believe, left Paris to-day. At
Lady Cowley's ball the Duke of Edinburgh did not
wear the Grand Cordon of the Legion of Honour
because it had not then been conferred upon him ;
but the Emperor gave it him the next day, and he
appeared with it yesterday.
I hear it said that Kossuth is at this moment in
Paris.

Some idea of the magnitude of the preparations
made for the late ball at the British Embassy at Paris
may be gathered from the fact that among the 1,300 people
assembled there were 60 detectives. Four or five of them,
whose boast it is that they know nearly every conspirator
in Europe, were constantly in the ballroom, where they
appeared covered with decorations. The Emperor and
Empress, as also the King and Queen of the Belgians, un.
like all the other guests, CMG in at the back, through the
garden, and the havoc which has consequently been
wrsmght in the flower beds by the wheels of the carriages
and the feet of the horses is pitiable. "No one seeing the
place to-day," writes a Paris correspondent, "could
imagine that yesterday it was, after that of the Elysee, the
prettiest garden in Paris."
A mysterious occurrence is at this moment
causing a considerable sensation at Fontainebleau. Some
excursionists in the forest three days back discovered near
Franchart, in the underwood, at a short distance from the
road, the body of an elegantly-dressed lady, the face of
which had been devoured by some carnivorous animal,
probably a wolf. The corpse bore no other signs of external
violence than the mutilation just mentioned. A judicial
inquiry has brought to light the fact that two ladies bad
about a week before alighted at one of the hotels in the
town, and, after breakfasting, had taken a carriage for a
drive in the forest, but had paid and sent back the driver
on arriving at Fmnchart. In the evening one of the
strangers returned to the hotel in apparent distress, saying
that her companion had quitted her in the forest, and
asking whether the latter had since called there for her.
On receiving a reply in the negative, she at once started
for Paris. There is little doubt that the body found is
that of the miming visitor.
TH6 EMPEROR MAXIMILIAN.—The New York
correspondent of the Tines writes on the 4th :—" The im-
perialist forces have been vanquished, General Miramon is
dead, Dias has routed General Marques, and when the
liberal armies entered Queretaro Maximilian was ' nowhere
to be found.' Some rime about the middle of April Diaz
entered the city of Mexico, and the remnant of the imoe-
rialista at Queretaro were dying of hunger. So complete
and hopeless a disaster has seldom been recorded in
modern annals, The few details of which we are in
possession make it evident that the adherents of Maxi-
milian struggled hard to avert the ruin which menaced
them. The imperialists were besieged in Queretaro,
and the liberals held them at a disadvantage in
being able to make forced levies upon the surround-
ing country. The Emperor appears to have exerted him-
self to obtain an amnesty for his Mexican fol-
lowers, but the liberals under Juarez massacred all
upon whom they could lay bands. There were
not more than about 7,000 imperialists to defend
Queretaro, and they could do nothing but pro-
tract a hopelees siege. It was thought that the
Emperor had fled to the city of Mexico, but the
=cons of Dias does not support that belief. Juarez
had no design, if the accounts may be credited, to take
Maximilian', life, hut it was not probable that he could
keep under restraint the bloorithirs•iness of his followers.
At the date of the last advioes it wee very doubtful
whether the Austrian prince was alive."