Chapter 14

Society during the Second Empire -- The Court at Compiègne -- The English element -- Their opinion of Louis-Napoléon -- The difference between the court of Louis-Philippe and that of Napoléon III. -- The luggage of M. Villemain -- The hunts in Louis-Philippe's time -- Louis-Napoléon's advent -- Would have made a better poet than an Emperor -- Looks for a La Vallière or Montespan, and finds Mdlle. Eugénie de Montijo -- The latter determined not to be a La Vallière or even a Pompadour -- Has her great destiny foretold in her youth -- Makes up her mind that it shall be realized by a right-handed and not a left-handed marriage -- Queen Victoria stands her sponsor among the sovereigns of Europe -- Mdlle. de Montijo's mother -- The Comtesse de Montijo and Halévy's "Madame Cardinal" -- The first invitations to Compiègne -- Mdlle. de Montijo's backers for the Imperial stakes -- No other entries -- Louis-Napoléon utters the word "marriage" -- What led up to it -- The Emperor officially announces his betrothal -- The effect it produced -- The Faubourg St.-Germain -- Dupin the elder gives his views -- The engaged couple feel very uncomfortable -- Negotiations to organize the Empress's future household -- Rebuffs -- Louis Napoléon's retorts -- Mdlle. de Montijo's attempt at wit and sprightliness -- Her iron will -- Her beauty -- Her marriage -- She takes Marie-Antoinette for her model -- She fondly imagines that she was born to rule -- She presumes to teach Princess Clotilde the etiquette of courts -- The story of two detectives -- The hunts at Compiègne -- Some of the mise en scène and _dramatis personæ_ -- The shooting-parties -- Mrs. Grundy not banished, but specially invited and drugged -- The programme of the gatherings -- Compiègne in the season -- A story of an Englishman accommodated for the night in one of the Imperial luggage-vans 288