The Irish standard. [volume] (Minneapolis, Minn. ;) 1886-1920, 1912-09-21

ment, and that when a great French
exposition came, Louis Napoleon
could boast, like the great emperor,
that his actors played before pitful
of emperors and kings. Never did any
ruler seem so predestined by nature
a country seem to reach q higher
plane of prosperity, happiness and
tranquility than under his rule. re-
member still the awe with which
heard journalist of distinction de-
clare that he had once met Louis
Napoleon. and how he spoke of the
man, of men who had proved his di-
vine natural right to reign.
Never mind that at the same time,
or rather toward the end of the reign,
authors and journalists began to thun-
der against Louis Napoleon, that
Victor Hugo remained on his rocky
home at Guernsey rather than bow
the knee to the tyrant; that republic
can politicians still spoke with a shud-
d, der of the pool Of blood in which the
empire had taken It's rise at the coup
d'etat of December in 1851; these
were voices whose tiny protests were
drowned in the universal chorus Of
applause from the united voice of
Europe. Louis Napoleon was the
great and romantic, the daring and
the successful adventurer who had
proved the power of his strong arm
to capture and then to hold and to
govern a country. The end came in
1870 as everybody knows, but as few
people realize, it was like the sudden
fall of some mighty pillar that had
lifted its daring head to the stars and
seemed everlasting and indestructible.
OF all the great illusions of my time,
H. ,tUspn was shattered amid so
aItar and such universal amazement
;sns' rael.sfssss
= ..s''.4 tAsa, was my inner feeling
,..ts reHas& 20 Louis Napoleon when
-peYtt t:o#r to Chiselhurst to see the
Ts4ts dead. who had so haunted my
&a4 ittt ioa1 and the imagination OF
ttg cs1tefsnotaries when living. Like
sFhe 81, o. ~ crowd, wa. not given
"a ',Nat ne u'agaze on the historic fig
IRE #aulda and about the house ]
sau i srk ana somewhat stern faces:
Sc 10 '=ssos The bold and buecanear-
,1g sRrita sfpAt had aided Louis Ma
ea@si-s' T. caotnre by assault and then
-a se's'n i,.st crown.
IMPRESSIONS at the Bier.
i,sa y curious impression as of
.noht..& 81 some bold crew of pirates
F"2 hao boarded a great ship; con-
quered and killed when necessary. its
crew, and then took possession of the
ship and all the wealth it contained
1t was reality seen through the
mighty glasses of my recollections of
the pirate stories that beguile youth
full imaginations. And then I formed
one of the endless procession that
passed through the chamber in which
the body lay. The whole thing was
arranged with that combination of
beauty and simplicity which is char
acteristic Of all French art, literary,
artistic and spectacular. Tall candles
stood burning beside the bier, nuns
IN their black and white habits knelt
beside, tall guardsmen stood, and in
the midst of it all. dressed in uni
form. lay the dead emperor, astonish-
ly like what I expected with great
beaked nose, the light eyebrows, the
waxed moustache and narrow tuft of
hair below on the chin, which came
to be known as the imperial, In nv
youth, and which so many people af-
fected. The expression of the face
with the closed eyes was one of un-
speakable tranquility and what struck
me most was a tiny. beautiful white
handkerchief In the crossed hands.
You will see what a great store of
memories the Count de Bylandt
raised In my mind, at once tumultu-
Gus with these thoughts, when he told
me that he also had seen the emperor
on the same day and In the same cir
cumstances