I used to hear the Emperor alluded
to as "Badinguet" by the hall-porter of our hotel, who was a
Royalist, and consequently detested the Bonapartes.
My father had been on very friendly terms with Napoleon III., then
Prince Louis Napoleon, during the period of his exile in London in
1838, when he lived in King Street, St. James'. Prince Louis
Napoleon acted as my father's "Esquire" at the famous Eglinton
Tournament in August, 1839. The tournament, over which such a vast
amount of trouble and expense had been lavished, was ruined by an
incessant downpour of rain, which lasted four days. My father gave
me as a boy the "Challenge Shield" with coat of arms, which hung
outside his tent at the tournament, and that shield has always
accompanied me in my wanderings. It hangs within a few feet of me
as I write, as it hung forty-three years ago in my room in Berlin,
and later in Petrograd, Lisbon, and Buenos Ayres.
One of the great sights of Paris in the "sixties," whilst it was
still gas-lighted, was the "cordon de lumiere de la Rue de
Rivoli." As every one knows, the Rue de Rivoli is nearly two miles
long, and runs perfectly straight, being arcaded throughout its
length.
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