The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1881-01-24
Napoleon III. q.
Personal Peculiarities-Some of His Good
Qua1ities-His Escape from Ham.

E. G. Grenville Murray contributes to the
Swiss Times some personal "reminiscences of
Napoleon Ill. from which we make the fol.
lowing extracts: "Apropos or the Emperor's
private life, one cannot help alluding to the
most ennobling feature of it, that he never
forgot kindness. 1 have heard an English
gentleman say that Prince Louis Napoleon,
while in England, was once so hard pressed as
to wish to borrow e500. And I often re-
gretted', quoth the Great Briton, in the days
of the Empire, that I refused to lend it to
him. Another Great Briton had the good
fortune to oblige the Emperor in the days of
his Majesty's greatness. IF 4 can be of any
service to you said Napoleon, you have only
to ask me- Your Majesty stammered the
Englishman, 1-I-I-should like the-thez-.
Legion of Honor. Oh said the Emperor,
with smile, Il should not have offered it to
you, as imagined your Government did not
allow Englishmen to wear it except under ex-
traordinary circumstances, but if you can get
over that difficulty, by all means Here Ma
poleon went to a cupboard, unlocked drawer
and took out a small cross of brilliants. This
he continued, once belonged to Prince Murat;
pray accept 1t as token of my gratitude for
Bull departed almost beside himself with ad-
miration for the Napoleonic idea
Another instance of the mans generosity.
He was in prison at Ham. Nine. Conrad paid
him visit. Have yoa any money! she asked
in a sSterly way. The Prince confessed he
had not n.ucli-in fact (after two or three turns
of the screw just three louis The concierge
had died the day before yesterday; the family
were in great distress; he only knew of it that
morning; had sent them 10 louis
Here the into ta1 Co.
the concerges child had come to thank the
Prince in her mothers name. Napoleon patted
her on the head and slipped his three remain
ing coins into her hand. One is bound to add
by way of moral pendant-that Madame G.
had to lend her foster-brother something be-
fore she left the prison walls.
In those days he was the adored of the
French nation-the Legitimists and the doc
trinaire Liberals alone excepted But 1t was
naturally in the army that he found his most
devoted partisans. He escaped, as everyone
knows, from Ham disguised as working ma
son. What is not SO generally known is that
sentinel recognized him as he passed out of
the gates with hod of bricks on his shoul-
der. Bnt the soldier only smiled faintly-all
to himself. He was not going to betray the
heir OF the Little Corporal, not he When Ma
poleon came into his kingdom he royalty re-
warded all who had aided in his escape, not
excluding the sentinel.
The worst OF these ups and downs in the ear
ly life OF a monarch is that he can never quite
command from his servants the respect which
would be accorded without question to a SOW
ereign regularly succeeding his father. He
could not, even on the throne, get himself
treated quite like Frederic III. or even a
George Ill. 'uous aUez grandi,' he Sc id to the
Duke of r., an English nobleman whom he
had known as q young man and MARQUIS of G.
~ vous ausSi, Sire,' replied the Duke, not al
together in the best taste.
He must occasionally have been in dreadful
straits. One day, after Cabinet Council, the
President OF the Republic laughingly drew
from his pocket two 5-franc pieces jingled
them one against the other, and said: This is
all have to pay the expenses of my progress.
He vas about to visit some of the departments
Ferdinand Barrot, his Secretary Geaeral over
heard these words and saw thEt his chief was
testing with forced smile That evening the
frlnce. (who was TO start next morning) found
IUUOO francs in gold on his dressing table. Its
you, Barrot,' he said to his faithful servant,
VINO Eas in attendance. Barrot afterward OBJ
tan all that an Emperor could give, port
fol D. Senatorship, Grand Gross, etc.
Napoleon was sorely puzzled as to the right
way OF dealing with the Opposition, and the
fact is much to his credit The Persignys and
the DE Mornys were not at all puzzled. Three
rolls of the drum and volley was their infalli-
Bile panacea for all discomfort. But Napoleon,
half Italian himself, shared the italian Ca
yours dislike of such methods. Mr. King
lake, in an ill-natured and absurdly misin-
formed book, has told the world that the
Prince-President turned pale on the night of
December 1-2, 1851. This solitary fact in Mr..
kinglake's book may possibly be true; but it
was not the pallor of fear that blanched the
cheeks OF the arch conspirator. He honestly
disliked the bloodshed that he fcresaw, albeit
too ambitious to recoil from that supreme at
tempt. There is no doubt that Morny at one
moment doubted whether his master would be
willing to do all and (moraly) dare all. As to
personal courage, only the widest malice of
personal spite could ever deny it to Louis Ma
poleon Bonaparte. Bismarck bore unwilling
testimony to the Emperors courage, when, as
the Prusslan shells were raining upon Sedan,
he said Tin answer to a question as to whether
Napoleon was there), No, don't think him
very wise, but l do think him wise enough not
to expose himself to that'-pointing to a she'll
which went whizzing away in the direction of
the French lines. All the while Napoleon was
quietly sitting on horseback in the thick OF il,
with she'll after shell crashing around him. 1t
was no empty phrase that he penned in his let
ter to King William when he wrote, Not hav-
ing been permitted TO die at the head of my
troops etc. Indeed, it stands to reason that
no fate could have been more welcome to any
man OF ordinary courage at such a moment.
His refusal to accept Gen. Vinoy's offer to
cut him passage through the hostile lines was
not evidence OF faint-heartedness flor be would
himself have been comparatively safe in the
midst OF his troops), but that of dependency
and despair OF success which occasionally
comes over the bravest. Aud Napoleon was
then suffering from the most cruel and depress-
ing OF maladies. His days were already num-
need and he died before thirty months were