The Ouachita telegraph. [volume] (Monroe, La.) 1865-1889, 1877-09-14
LOUIS NAPOLEON's FRIEND.
DR.. Conneau's Devotion to the Emperor
The Escape from the
Castle Of Ham.
lPall Mall Ga.ette.l

occult influence as he did, or used 1t q
with greater discretion. DR.. COnneau o
was born at Milan In 1908, and when a q
very Young man became Secretary TO tI
Louis Bonaparte, the deposed King OF q
Holland. Afterward he graduated In q
medicine, and was appointed physician 81
to the household of Queen Hortense. d
He WAS thus. from the outset of his 3
career, closely identified with the FAM d
ily of the future Emperor and being Y
the latter's senior by five years, he was r
in a positlOn to assume toward him q
somewhat the position Of u tutor. The {
vounx prince from the first took kindly {
to him as u companion. AS long as {
Prince Louis elder brother was alive, =
Queen Hortense's iavorite son dreamed 8
hopefully indeed, but rather lazily, OF |
the prospects that might he in store for ,
his family. No sooner, however, dtd1
he find himself heir to the Bonapartistl
dynasty than his energies were aroused
with electric suddenness, and the raid
upon Strasburg in 1885 testified to the
new spirit that had been kindled in
him. 1t is well known now what great
alarm the Strasburg affair cast into the
family of Louis Philippe, and how very
near it was to succeeding. However, IT
failed, and DIR. Conneau cOunselled
Louis to try again. The result was that |
| four years later u new expedition was
attempted upon Boulogne, but this
time the failure was more complete |
aud disastrous than the first time, and
prince Louis, tried by the Chamber of
Peers, was sentenced to imprisonment
for lite. DIR. Conneau had not been
actually implicated in the sedition, but
he begged to share his friends prison,
land was admitted to the Castle of Ham
on the understanding that he must sub
nit to confinement and prison rules
exactly as though he were himself un-
der sentence.
It was a magnanimous act ON Louis
: Philippe's part to allow DR.. Conneau
to continue the prisoners companion /;
8 but it was equally touching and gener-
!. GUS in the Doctor to submit to cap
tivity which must at times have been
: wofully tedious. Certainly, when ne
was first shut up in the fortress, Dr.
Conneau must have reckoned thai, with
the money and influences which were
set at work, it would be easy to effect
: the prisoners escape; but he was not
long in discovering his mistake, and
IF the Joint captivity of the Prince and
er himself lasted six weary years.
10 When Napoleon III. subsequently
alluded to this period-which he die
more often than might be supposed
Y. he often said that he should have de
T
g. neau's constant cheerfulness. The DOC
tor spurred him ON to study histor:
Il aud political economy, s:just rs thougl
,E. he were to walk straight from tn
prison to the throne" He acted as hi
a.. Secretary. writing from dictation tn
Id numerous articles which the Primo
was suffered to contribute to tn
. Journal csu Pas de Cnlcsis, and day ate
day, hour after hour, his master foun
mt in him those most precious of consol'
It'll tions, an imperturbably even temp>
m, IN, and q hopefulness which nothing coul
+ dash. 1t has often been rumored th'
. when the Prince at length escaped, tt
authorities had connived at the fac
but M. Guizot to the last denied thl
;er- and said that the government had l
Of tended keeping the Prince in confiu
ment until Louis Philippe was de-
Y and the crown had passed to his hei
- so that the Princes Sight caused t
Court much uneasiness. It was I
Couneau who acted as chief instrume
tne in the escape, procuring for the Prin
the clothes of the workman Badingu
y. who was effecting some repairs in t
. castle, and afterward making up
dummy of sleeping figure in t
the Princes bed, SO that when the Cover
SUI sur came on his nightly rounds, he
lice lieved, as the doctor affirmed, that
'ank prisoner had gone to bed early, Del
II Oh unwell. For this gallant act of de-
al ton, the Doctor was put upon his tr
- and sentenced to two years. impris
,sos. ment-a part of which sentence W
however, RENTED.
La., Napoleon Ill, having assembled
'orth throne, could not fail to prove
nHcs, naHTv, gratitude toward one whose friends
It. had stood the most severe tests /; an
Off DIR. Conneau was not loaded with h
. ors, it was because he wisely decli
to be made a too signal object of fa'
fully He was offered the title of Count an
conne seat in the Senate but he preferred
rteen sit as an official Deputy in the @
'nt OF Legislatif; and it was not until a
'.orT p fifteen years of loyal legislative ser
!. near during which he never once ma
speech nor voted against Minis
o:ly that he accepted his promotion to
more august House, without cons
ing, however, to be ennobled. In
mean time he had married, and
,son. Louis Conneau who is OF about
,-.< IF tho prince, Immortal l.