The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1863-04-30
Thursday Morning, April 30, 1863.
From Kinglake's Invasion of the Crimea. -
Louis Napoleon at Strasburg.

burg in 1896 was graver business than is
commonly supposed. The Prince at that
time was twenty-eight years old. He had
gained over Naudrey, the officer command
ing regiment OF artillery which formed part
of the garrison. Early in the morning of Sun
day, the 30th of October, the movement be-
gan. BY declaring that revolution had bro
ken out in Paris and that the King had been
deposed, Vaudrey persuaded his guners TO
recognize the Prince as Napoleon III. Vaud-
rey then caused detachmenis to march to the
1 houses ofthe Prefect and OF General voiroi the
General commanding the garrison, and made
them both prisoners, placing sentries at their
doors. All this he achieved without alarm
ing any of the other regiments.
Supposng that there really existed among
the troops deep attachment to the name aud
family OF Bonaparte, little more seemed need
ed Tor winning over the whole garrison than
that the heir OF the great Emperor should have
the qualities requisite for the success of the
enterprise. Prince Louis was brought into
the presence of the captive general, and tried
to gain him over, but was repulsed. After
wards the Prince surrounded with men per-
sonating an imperial staff, was conducted to
the barracks OF the Forty-sixth regiment, and
the men, taken entirely by surprise. were told
that the person now introduced to them was
their emperor. What they saw was young
man with the bearing OF weaver-a weaver
oppressed by monotonous indoor work, which
makes the body stoop and keeps the eyes down.
cast but all the whie,--an yet j, was broad day
light-this young man, from hat to boot,
standing dressed up in the historic costume of
the man Of Austerlitz and Marengo. 1t seems
that this painful exhibition began to undo the
success which Vaudrey had achieved; but
strange things had happened in Paris before,
and the soldiery could not, with certainty,
know that the young man might not be what
they were told he was-Napoleon H., the new
made emperor Of the French. Their perplex-
ity gave the Prince an opportunity of trying
whether the sentiment for the Bonapartes
were really existing or not, and if it were,
whether he was the man to kindle it.
But by and by Talandier, the colonel of the
regiment, having been at length apprised of
what was going on, came into the yard. He
instantly ordered the gates TO be closed, and
then - fierce, angry, and scornful - went
straight up TO the spot where the proposed
emperor and his Imperial stafr' were stand
ing. OF course this apparition-the appari-
tion OF the indignant colonel whose barracks
had been invaded-was exactly what was to
be expected, exactly what was to be combated;
but yet, as though il were something mon
strous and undreamt of, it came upon the
prince with crushing power. To him,
literary man, standing in the barrack-y yard in
the dress of the great conqueror, an angry
was something real, and therefore, it seems,
dreadful. In moment Prince Louis sue
cumbed to him. Some thought that after what
had been done that morning the prince owed
it to the unfortunate Vaudrey (whom he had
seduced into the plotl TO take care not to let
the enterprise collapse without testing his for
tune to the utmost, by desperate resis-
tance; but this view did not prevail. One of
the ornaments which the prince wore was
sword, yet without striking blow he suffered
himself to be publicly stripped of his grand
Gordon of the Legion of Honor and all his
other decorations. According TO one account
the angry colonel inflicted this dshonor with
his own hands, and not only pulled the grand
Gordon from the princes bosom, but tore off
his epaulettes and trampled both epauettes
aud grand Gordon under foot. When he had
been thus stripped the prince was locked up.
The decorated followers, who had been imper-
sonating the imperial staff, underwent the
same fate as their chief. Before judging the
prince for his conduct during these moments
1t would be fair to assume that, the colonel
having once been suffered to enter the yard
and TO exert the ascendency of his superior
firmness, the danger of attempting resistance
to him would have been great, would have
been greater than any which the herd of men
are at all inclined to encounter. Besides, the
mere fact that the prince had willfully brought
himself into such predicament, shows that
though it might fail him in trying moments, he
had extraordinary daring of particular kind.
1t would be unjust to say, fatty, that man
so willing as he was to make approaches To
danger was timid 1t would be fairer to say
that his characteristic was faitering boldness
He could not alter his nature, and his nature
was 10 be venturesome beforehand, but to be
so violently awakened and shocked by the ac-
tual contact OF danger as to be left without
the spirit, and seemingly without the wish or
the motives, for going on any farther with the
part OF q desperado. The truth is that the
sources 6 his boldness were his vanity anc
his theatric bent; and these passions, though
they mad power TO bring him TO the verge o
danger, were not robust enough to hold goot
against mans natural shrinking from the risi
OF being killed-being killed within the mex
minute. Conscious that in point Of hat. ant
coat, and boots, he was the same as the EN-
peror Napoleon, he imagined that the grea
revoir of 1915. between the men and the mar
of hundred fights, could be acted over agail
between modern French troops and himself
but 1t Is plain that this belief had resulte,
from the undue mastery which he had allowe,
for time, TO his ruling propensity, and no
from any actual overthrow of the reason; 70
when checked, he did not, like a madman or
daredevil, try to carry his venture through
nor did he even, indeed, hold on long enoug
TO try, and try fairly, whether the Bonapartis
sentiment to which he wished to appeal wef
really existent not; on the contrary, til
moment he encountered the shock of the re;
world, he stopped dead; and becoming sue
denly quiet, harmless, and obedient surrei
IA. .lF foet al. l. i