St. Landry democrat. (Opelousas, La.) 1878-1894, 1884-11-22
a,4 EmpERoR's cLEMENcY.
How Louis Napoleon Rewarded His Cap

AK EmrEROR'S CL6MENCY.
How Louis Napoleon Rewarded His Cap
tors.
Here is pleasing incident in the ca
reer of Napoleon Ill. which took place
while he was with the camp at Bou-
logne, in 1854:
On arriving at Boulogne the Emperor
commissioned M. Ducos, the Minister
of the Marine, to find out if there still
existed in that town any of the men
who had been concerned in his arrest
on the occasion of his Inflated expedi-
ton in 1910. Ducos discovered a sailor
who had thrown himself into the sea to
seize the Prince, who was trying to
swim back to the vessel in which he
had come, the aforesaid sailor having
clutched the pretender by his hair; then
Ducos also discovered the gendarme,
then a custom-house officer, who, on
the beach, had received the vanquished
Prince from the hands of the sailor and
had taken him by the collar. These
two men were brought to Ducos, who
asked them if they were really the per-
sons that had been designated to him.
The two poor devils replied, with much
hesitation, that it was they who had
arrested the Prince, and Ducos ordered
them to return the next morning at
$50. After an anxious night they pre-
scented themselves before the Minister
exactly at the appointed hour. Ducos
conducted them to the Emperor, and
the sailor was the first one admitted to
the imperial presence. The Emperor,
twisting his long mustache, walked
quickly up to him and said: $50 it was
you that in 1910 sprang into the sea
and captured me by Selling me by the
hair?''
= The Sailor Your Majesty
The Emperor Look here was it you?
Yes or noP
The sailor recovering his self-pos-
SESSION. We'll, yes, your Majesty; all
the others were firing at you, and you
might have been wounded and got
drowned, so jumped into the sea to
save your life-it was | who saved your
life.
The Emperor and the Minister had
hard work to keep their faces straight
while listening to the embellished his
tory of an arrest changed to a rescue.
s'Well done, my good fellow re-
piled the Emperor; here is the cross
that you won in doing your duty, and
here is five hundred francs as a souve-
mir from me.
Next came the gendarme- custom
house officer, but his Imagination was
less inventive than that Of the sailor,
and suggested to him no such marvel
ious transactions. He stammered and
Ihesitated some time, then, braVely max
ing up his mind, he replied:
Yes, sire, it was /. You were break
ing the laws. I was on duty, and ar
rested you. y
The Emperor And that cross that
you wear-who gave it to you?n
The Gendarme g Sire, it was King
Louis Philippe"
The Emperor :. For having arrested
mepn
The Gendarme- am an old soldier
II had done good service-I but tell
the truth, sire, it was on the occasion
of your arrest / received it,
The Emperor am sorry for it,
because shall not have the pleasure of
giving it to you myself, since you have
already got it, but here is the military
medal (taking off the one that he wore
himself and fastening it to the breast of
the gendarme's uniformly You are a
brave soldier
And the gendarme received, as the
sailor had already done, a gift of five
hundred francs. -PGYiS Cor, P1,SEadgI-S
a,l5ia Bulletin.