The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1879-07-03

to my father and mother, and that tnf
Emperor has degraded me. That is very
wrong, and all the more wicked because
it is not true. love my parents above
all. Whatever they have ordered me tt
do have never disobeyed them. l try
to do all that is agreeable to them; anc
I assure you that I am greatly grieveo
that the papers have spoken so unJustly
of one who has never done harm to any.
body. You will tell your comrades, vii
you not, that the account in the newspa
pers is the greatest falsehood"
The time was at hand when the Impe
rial youth, who had not "shunned de-
lights" albeit he had certainly "lived
laborious days." was to be hurried away
from his pleasant, happy boy life in Paris
and st. Cloud, and to witness-indeed tt
some extent to take part in-that out
march of Ia grande armee which was te
end so disastrously. When the fatefu
war broke out, and when all Paris was
screaming farewells to the troops whose
route was direct to the Kaiserstadt, the
Emperor, compelled by the rude temper
of the times to place himself at the head
of his armies, took the little Prince with
him. Before many days Monsignor had
mis- 6apteme du .feu, or, as we say, he
"smelt powder" 1t was on the famous
Exercir-Platz at st. Johann that the first
bullets of the war whistled, the first shells
hurtled through the air, and the grim
murderous rattle of the mitrailleuse was
was first heard by the astonished Prus.
sian soldiers on the heights opposite the
Exercir-Platz. The boy who behaved Sc
coolly at Saarbruck above all others, re-
tained vivid recollection of those sad
days which began at Forbach and ended
at Sedan. 1t was, happily, not given to
him to witness the appalling results OF
the 1st of September. He had parted
company with the Emperor at the latter's
desire, and had been taken to Mezieres,
from thence to Avesnes and so to Maui
beuge, where he heard for the first time
of the overthrow and rout of the flower
of the French army, the capture by the
victorious enemy Of $4,000 men and the
surrender of the Emperor to King Will
helm. 81 am the King of Prussia's pris-
oner; send the Prince to England.--Na-
poleon." This was the curt telegram
which reached the Prince Imperial at
Maubeuge. A few hours after its receipt
the boy, who bore up marvellously well
under the heavy blow which had come
upon him, was ON his way to Belgium.
At this time, too, the Emperor, prison
er, was at Verviers en- route to Wilhelm
shoe, little thinking that only few
miles separated him from his son.
From Paris to Chiselhurstl The most
daring astrologer who ever pretended to
read the Book of Destiny would never
have ventured to predict so quick and
complete collapse of the imperial power
as that which followed Sedan. In sense
the exiled family were happy enough in
their, beautiful Kentish home, in the
adornment of which nature has been so
lavish, and perhaps the life of the Tuil-
cries, st. Cloud and Versailles was hardly
missed by Prince Louis Napoleon. How
stoutly and successfully he worked at
Woolwich everybody knows; his life
since he passed out Of the great military
school is not so well understood. 1t will
not be amiss to sketch, although in the
briefest outline, the short career of the
Prince since 1870. No sooner had he
arrived at Chiselhurst with his mother
than he settled down to work with the
ardor which has, at all events of late
years, been one of his characteristics.
His tutor was M. Filon, who had received
his appointment some two or three years
before, when General Frossard was su-
perintending his studies. The best pro-
fessors of mathematics and German which
London could afford were called in to as
sist the youth, who was entering upon
the second stage of his eventful life
These home studies were, however, soon
to be stopped. The Emperor came to
Chiselhurst from his captivity at Will
helmshire, and displayed those democrat
ic theories which never left him by send
ing his son to the classes at Kings Col
lege, in order, as the fallen monarch
himself said, that the boy might be
drought up as one of the people, among
the people" The Emperor's influence
over his son was almost absolute. Obe-
dent and respectful to his mother the
Prince has always been, but it is perhaps
not too much to say that her influence
upon his character has been practically
NIL. Intellectually, Prince Louis Napo-
leon was better endowed than most young
men of his age. He had a profound
contempt for superficial knowledge, and
while among his elders he was quiet, re-
served and thoughtful, seldom speaking
except to ask for explanations or infor-
nation, there was no end to his gayety
and love of fun when he was surrounded
by those of his own age. Like his ia
ther, the Prince was firm believer in
the Napoleonic star, and he would as
soon think of denying his own existence
as of entertaining the slightest doubt of
the ultimate restoration of the Imperial
dynasty.
Such up to the time of his leaving
England was the career of the young
Prince, who has just met so unexpected
and tragic an end in Africa. Since the
death of the Emperor and while the il
lustyious family were occupants of Cam
den House, in England, if they were
vain they might point with natural pride
to the attention always given them, and
the fact that while they resided at CHS
elhurst their goings and comings, their
sayings and doings, were as sedulously
looked after by the press of England as
the movements of their own royal family
They retained there the semblance of q
court, but although on some and certain
occasions the Empress received, and
Camden House was filled with enthusi.
astic Bonapartists, there was little to
recall the magniicence of the Imperial
Court, and still less to suggest the pres
ence of an Empress and the heir to the
throne of France. On the 9th of Feb.
ruary of the present year he sailed from
Southampton for Africa. He was re.
commended to Lord Chelmsford as an
extra aide-de-camp, and was gazetted
with the local rank of captain. On the
25th of February, of the present year, he
wrote to NJ. Rouher explaining the mo-
tives that had led him to resolve on going
to the Zulu war, and was as follows: