The Sun.
London, England, 1866-12-01 00:00:00

fusion more confounded" in regard to the reported
flight and abdication of the Emperor Maximilian.
One account says that he left Vera Cruz on the Ist,
but to return to Mexico. Another despatch asserts
that he had embarked for Havannah. These and
other contradictory statements prove that I was
well informed when I told you that the French Go-
vernment had not received any official intimation or
report to warrant the assertion that the Emperor
Maximilian had abandoned his position. It seems
that there is no truth whatever in the report that
Marshal Bazaine had assumed the direction of affairs
in Mexico. This report was founded upon the idea
that the Emperor had left. M. Loysel, formerly
chief of the Military Cabinet of Maximilian, has
arrived in Paris.

A number of students have followed to the grave
with great respect the remains of an old lady, who
was well known for her eccentric habits, in the
quarter of the Schools. There is a little romance
about her history. She was very tall and thin,
almost like a skeleton, but is said to have been very
handsome in her youth. The students gave her the
name of La Mere Bapteine. Both in summer and
winter she carried in one hand au old worn out muff,
and in the other an umbrella of the Mrs. Gamp
school, with this difference, that she always had it
open, whatever was the weather. A pail was always
suspended to one arm. This appliance fur water
obtained for her the name of La Mere Baptenze,
as she was always ready to assist at a baptismal
ceremony. Previous to 1848 she was a governess. A
rich young man fell in love with her and married
her, but be lost his fortune at the Revolution.
He lost his senses and disappeared. In the
pail which she used to carry about she found a letter
couched in these terms :—" My dear Friend,—l am
about to take a journey to the moon. 1 cannot fix
the period of my return. I embrace you.—Thy
husband, J. de S." Madame de S. instituted in-
quiries as to the whereabouts of her husband, but
without success. One morning, by a strange fatality,
while passing by the Ile St. Louis, the idea came
into her head that she would go into the Morgue.
The first corpse she looked at was that of her hus.
band. From that moment her reason was gone.
She ran out, and, placing her back against a wall,
she burst into delirious paroxysms of laughter, and
then went home by turns dancing and running.
Since then she has paraded about the Quartier Latin
with head erect and slow and steady pace, curtsey-
ing whenever she saw a passer-by, whose counte-
nance pleased her, and offering out her hand for a
sou. If it were refused the poor old lady would use
some brief but eloquent words of appeal, but gene-
rally the sou was cheerfully given.

The exterior of the Exhibition Palace may now
be considered as terminated. All that now remains
to be done is the ornamental work and the comple-
tion of the internal arrangements. Belgium, being
dissatisfied with the amount of the space allotted
to her, has been allowed to construct a small private
palace, in which will be exhibited the products of
Belgium for which room may not be found in the
Palace itself.

A treaty has been signed between the French
and Prussian Governments, the object of which is
to suppress the charge of sf. made for passports
upon travellers between the two countries.
There has been another odd vagary of the tele-
graph people. The Paris papers astonished their
readers with some news, beaded " Health of the
celebrated Ungnade." Everybody was asking
" Who is Ungnade ?" The mystery is unravelled.
Some days ago the report was current in Paris as
well as in London of the serious illness and disgrace
of Ungnade. A telegram from Berlin gave an offi-
cial contradiction to the report. The intention was
to deny that Bismark was either in disgrace or
seriously ill. Ungnade is the German word for
disgrace, and the facetious translator of the de-
spatches in Paris mistook the word for the name
of a man. Hence arose the consternation about the
great unknown, described to the Parisians as
Ungnade.

Early this morning the hills and fields around
Paris presented a beautiful spectacle. The fields
were covered with white frost, and when the sun
rose the frost with which the trees were shrouded
glittered like diamonds. The eky all day has been
what is called an Italian sky, blue and splendid as
iu summer. The sun was not obscured for a mo-
ment. The weather was very cold. Yet it was
" frosty but kindly," as Shakspere has defined it.