The Escape of an Empress up a thin aquascute spenser and went down the stairs of the palace to escape. The ascending crowd compelled her to turn back all her people, all her household, men and women deserted her except Madame Le Breton. With Mad. Le B. she turned and went through the whole length of the Louvre, and came out at a little door opposite the Church Auxerrois or some such name—you remember the place well. She walked bravely with Mad. L. through the crowd, and drove for the Avenue Hausmann. There she alighted and when the fiacre was out of sight, the two women drove in another fiacre to the house of Dr. Evans. There was not in all Paris a French house, to which the empress could confide herself. Evans at this time was at the Tuileries looking out for the empress to take care of her and aid her flight. On returning home he found the two ladies in his private office, smuggled them upstairs into his wife's bed-room, (his wife being at Deauville and his servants being hoodwinked). There he gave them refreshment; went out upon the Boulevards to hear cries for the "République"; studied the avenue of escape from the city; returned to make beds for his illustrious guests (he would trust no servant) and his wife being a prudent woman who kept her wardrobe locked in her absence, could give them neither a change of linen nor a nightgown. The next morning Evans with a trusty American who was his assistant as dentist, and his two fugitives left Paris in his own carriage, and with his own horses and coachman. This carriage had on it the letter E. The empress said: "My carriage was always marked as mine; hitherto with the crown: now with my name, E for Eugénie." His horses being very good ones, he conducted the party without change sixty or seventy miles, as far as Lisieux. There with much diplomacy, he transferred the party to a hired carriage, and turning Lisieux, got into a village beyond it, where they halted for the night in a sorry public house, which at first could offer them but one room. Another was obtained at last; and the night went by. The next day the party reached Deauville; and Evans stopping at a distance from the hotel, took the empress on his arm, and without meeting a person, led her up stairs to his wife's apartments in the hotel. Mad. L. followed with his assistant and openly. Till then the empress had no outside garment of her own, except the little waterproof, and kept herself comfortable by the coat of Evans. She had had no change of clothes, and but one pockethandkerchief, which she herself washed in a glass of water thrice on her journey, laying it on her knees to dry. Brave as she showed herself tears came often, and by exposure to rain she caught cold. In the night at 12 the party stole over the sand to Sir John Burgoyne's yacht; and at five the next morning put to sea in a yacht of 30 tons burden. The wind changed: it blew a gale; the little boat tossed about like a cockle shell, but did not go down. So after 20 hours of terrible suffering she landed at Rye. Evans did not desert his party till he established Eugénie in a hired country house, and started her in the ways of English life: her housekeeping being arranged on an intended expenditure of 100,000 francs, that is $20,000 per annum. This rough outline Evans adorned with many details; principally of the good spirits of the empress, which by the way were in part hysterical; of her charming manner under circumstances of exposure, want of rest, want of fit food, etc. The most remarkable incident was, that of the imperialists not one single man stood by her, and only one woman. ... Fighting Louis Quatorze George Bancroft on the reconstruction of Germany WHE (To Mrs. Hamilton Fish) BERLIN, II December, 1870 HEN Thiers passed through Vienna on his way from Petersburg to Tours, he met Ranke the historian, and demanded of him "Why is the war continued? We have discarded the emperor: with whom are you fighting now?" "With Louis Quatorze," answered Ranke, and there is a great deal of truth and significance in the words. Louis XIV, for all his despotism, his inhuman bigotry, his passion for wars, has even till now remained in the eyes of the French as the great king : because he, more than any one else, used the concentered power which he held, to make conquests all along the eastern frontier. France reveres his memory, because his arms carried the French boundary to the Rhine. The hour has come for the monarchy of Louis XIV to expire: it dies hard, but die it must. . . . ... You can hardly call the Germans a slow people. On our Thanksgiving day the diet of North Germany assembled to unite all Germany, and turn the Union into an Empire, the President into an Emperor. The work has been consummated in seventeen days. The assent of the Southern chambers of the several states will be obtained before New Year, and an era of glory and peace will dawn upon Germany with the first day of January. When King William succeeded his brother, he was already advanced in years, and wrote to the instructor of his son, that "he did but break the path" for him; and see the old king has greatly enlarged the dominions of Prussia, has united all Germany, has reestablished the empire, and before this letter can reach you will be proclaimed emperor. So much for having a minister like Bismarck, and a warrior like Moltke; and being a man of energy and exemplary industry himself. . . Edwin Lawrence Godkin on Imperialism and Kipling (To Miss Dawson) Dec. 23, 1899. I Do not like to talk about the Boer war, it is too painful. To think of England, which I love and admire so much, and which is so full of beauty, being filled with mourning at this season! When I do speak of the war my language becomes unfit for publication, and I therefore will not write of it to you. Talking of the Philippine war has the same effect upon me, and I have therefore ceased to write about McKinley. Every one who believes in the divine government of the world must believe that God will eventually take up the case of fellows who set unnecessary wars on foot, and I hope he won't forgive them. us. Barring this dreadful news, life goes on as usual with I used to think, that when I got tired of the war and bragging here I could go over to England and live in peace, but that is no longer possible, and we are making up our minds to stay over here through next summer Dublin, N. H., or some place of that sort. I fear you with your perversity will seize that occasion to go over. You committed the second greatest mistake of your life last summer; you are now ripe for the third. In the fall we shall go for a year or more, I do not well know where. Kipling has long been to me a most pernicious, vulgar person. I only admire one thing of his, "The Recessional." He may have written other things as good, but I don't read him. I think most of the current jingoism on both sides of the water is due to him. He is the poet of the barrack-room cads. Of course I don't venture to set my judgment of him up against many good people.... XI "I WILL NAME YOU THE DEGREES" "The Retort Courteous " (Jared Sparks to Henry W. Longfellow) EAR SIR, DE I return the article you were so good as to send me. In many respects it has a good deal of merit, but on the whole I do not think it suited to the [North American] "Review." Many of the thoughts and reflections are good, but they want maturity and betray a young writer. The style, too, is a little ambitious, although not without occasional elegance. With more practice the author cannot fail to become a good writer; and perhaps my judgment in regard to this article would not agree with that of others whose opinion is to be respected; but, after all, you know, we editors have no other criterion than our own judgment. "The Quip Modest" LEXINGTON, VIRGINIA, September 26, 1866 MR. E. A. POLLARD, 104 WEST BALTIMORE ST., DEAR BALTIMORE, MD. EAR SIR: I return you my thanks for the compliment paid me by your proposition to write a history of my life. It is a hazardous undertaking to publish the life of any one while living, and there are but few who |