ish passport they crossed France, and
visited the Chateau of Fontainebleau, where the mother pointed out
to her son the scenes of his childhood.

The death of the Duc de Reichstadt in July, 1832, caused Louis
Napoleon to consider himself the head of the Napoleonic family.
According to M. Claude, the French Minister of Police, he came on
this occasion into Paris, and remained there long enough to dabble
in conspiracy.

After spending a few months in England, mother and son went back
to Arenenberg, where they kept up a close correspondence with all
malcontents in France. The Legitimists preferred them the house of
Orleans, and the republicans of that period--judging from their
writings as well as their acts--evidently believed that Louis Napoleon,
now head of the house of Bonaparte, represented republican principles
based on universal suffrage, as well as the glories of France.

One fine morning in October, 1836, Louis took leave of his mother
at Arenenberg, telling her that he was going to visit his cousins
at Baden. Stephanie de Beauharnais in the days of the Empire had
been married to the Grand Duke of that little country. Queen Hortense
knew her son's real destination, no doubt, for she took leave of him
with great emotion, and hung around his neck a relic which Napoleon
had taken from the corpse of the Emperor Charlemagne when his tomb
was opened at Aix-la-Chapelle. It was a tiny fragment of wood,
said to be from the True Cross, set beneath a brilliant emerald. It
seems possible that this may have been the little ornament found
on the neck of the Prince Imperial after his corpse was stripped
by savages in Zululand.

With this talisman against evil, and with the wedding-ring with
which Napoleon had married Josephine, upon his finger, Prince Louis
Napoleon set out upon an expedition so rash that we can hardly bring
ourselves to associate it with the character popularly ascribed
to the Third Emperor Napoleon.

His plan was to overturn the government of Louis Philippe, and
then appeal to the people by a _plebiscite_,--_i. e._, a question
to be answered yes or no by universal suffrage. This same plan
he carried out successfully several times during his reign.

He went from Arenenberg to Baden-Baden,[1] where he made his final
arrangements. Strasburg was to be the scene of his first attempt,
and at Baden-Baden he had an interview with Colonel Vambery, who
commanded the Fourth Regiment of Artillery, part of the Stra