The Sun.
London, England, 1860-11-22 00:00:00

A SHOWIER OF DELUSIONS.

Since the day when the Empress Eugenie suddenly
startled all London by her unexpected and quiet arrival, the
citizens, indeed, have asked each other, " What next ?" but
the world of attendants upon travellers—guards, points•
men, porters, cabbies, policemen, and penny-a-liners—have
lost their nerve. They feel that they have failed in a great
public duty. They, who can distinguish an M.P., certify
to a nobleman, and swear to a " rile 'highness" have let a
real Imperial Majesty slip by them unrecognised and co'
noticed as if she were a plain Mrs. Grundy. "This must
never happen again," has been the deep resolve of the
entire population engaged in the reception and the car-
riage of travellers.

We all know how, in waiting for •ur passports at CaWO,
we have to undergo the sharp scrutiny of Mr. Yates two
eyes. We have met it often and calmly, but behind him
there is posted a one-eyed gendarme, whom no adventurous
traveller was ever known to chaff. That gendarme never
sleeps, and at one and the same moment his glance seems
to pierce the particular secrets of every individual in the
room. Keeley, it is said, once called him " gimlet-eyed,"
and Robson alluded to him as " cockeye ;" but these pro'
fane observations were made over an infinitesimal chicken
at the far end of the refreshment-room, and none heard them
without a shudder.

But the search of Vattel and the one-eyed gendarme ill
as nothing compared to the investigation now bestowed on
the traveller landing in England. The inspector inspects', ,
the guard is vigilant, the porter scrutinises—the very stoker,
as he lolls over the engine-rail, looks and looks and guesses*
A dark young man might be Bombalino, or a fair-bearded
person Garibaldi. Hat-boxes are watched to see if anY
be shaped like a triple tiara or a turban, and coins received
are spelt over to see whose image or superscription thel
bear. Photographs of all crowned heads are in great de*.
mend, and every particular feature of royalty is deeply
scanned and committed to memory.

This fever of expectancy had yesterday come to a crisis.
Anxiety would be no longer baulked. It was felt that Ma-
jesties by dozens were running about, and a stupendous ,
effort was made to pitch on one of them. Currents of agis4
tation set in from the south-east and south-west. " Th4f
Emperor Napoleon had landed 1" Crowds rushed to Lon
don-bridge, and crowds to the South-Western. This was
the least probable point of arrival, and therefore the most
favoured ; for was not Napoleon a man most to be expected
from some unlikely quarter? Besides, would it not suit
him to pass Portsmouth in his trip and take a sketch of the
new fortifications?

Rumour soon magnified itself into positive assertion, and
Scotland. yard was applied to. Straightway a large force
of police was sent down to the station to keep the
surging crowd from too near an approach to Majesty. Still
matters were only at the state of assertion, when suddenly
the telegraph was set to work at Winchester, and the great
news was converted into a certainty. A guerd tele-
graphed to the Board that he had got him—Napoleon him'
self—in the first compartment of a first-class carriage in
the 2.30 from Portsmouth. On this—endless excitement.
The train was watched for, prayed for. At last it dull
rumbled into the station. Directors were there, and
big and little officials, and long-nosed police, and quick"
eyed reporters ; and last, not least, it is averred—sure sign
of the imperial approach—a posse of French secret police
sprang from the ground, having arrived, by some tunnel
only known to the French, from Leicester-square. The
hubbub was great ; dozens of hands were laid on the doore
of all first carriages of first-class compartments. who
should first meet hint ? The astonished passengers could
hardly get out. Where was he ? Why, sure enough, in
a first-class compartment there was found a quiet-looking
meats.
the Hemvpeer Caesar
with the prominent nose and the moustache
rlaT' shouted
and imperial of the victor of Solferino. As such he washailed. "A
I i ' cri ed theth e Board,
crowd.
and
The
"Hoorayhe police
for
pushed them back. The reporters duly noted the
" ovation," and room was made for the imperial move'
innt
High beat the hop es of the Hansoms. Earnest'
though humble, were the four-wheelers, when suddenly
the group about the carriage parted asunder. The
astonished gentleman explained to the unwilling auditors
who he was, and a magistrate with spectacles, two railway
interpreters, and four travelled Britons, affirmed that he
was not the Emperor. This being confirmed by the
general verdict of the crowd, including the " French deter'
tives," he was permitted to escape from his strange and
novel situation. The British public were undoubtedly
" Sold," to use the phrase current among the masses in the
Waterloo-road. Nevertheless, many held that Napoleon
ought to have come, and they remained near the station till
a late period of the afternoon. The police stayed three
hours at the station, till, finding there was no possible
reason for their presence, they marched home to Scotland'
yard. Meanwhile, the news had spread through London,
and for a few hours the hoax enjoyed a very lively
istence.—Post.

TIIE 111,41L5.