e mentioned. At the same time I had to bear in
mind that I was not present on an official occasion, but that I was
the Emperor's guest, and that it would not be right to continue a
discussion in the presence of others. These thoughts passed rapidly
through my mind, and I determined to be guided by a night's reflection
in taking any further step in this matter. What that reflection might
have produced I cannot say, but circumstances led to more immediate
explanations.

As the Emperor moved on, the circle in which we were standing was
not strictly kept, and after a few minutes I found myself standing a
little in front, in the open space round which the circle was formed.
The Emperor again accosted me, and was beginning in the same strain,
when I ventured to interrupt His Majesty and to tell him that I
considered myself justified in calling his attention to the unusual
course he had adopted, in indulging, in presence of the Russian
Ambassador, in his animadversions on the conduct of England. That His
Majesty, if he had, or thought he had, any cause for remonstrance or
blame with regard to England, should address himself to me, was not
only natural, but would be a course which I should always beg him to
take, because free discussion was the best remedy for pent-up feeling.
I should answer as best I could, and endeavour to convince His Majesty
when I thought him wrong. Or if His Majesty considered it right to
complain of the conduct of England to the Russian Ambassador, I had no
desire to interfere, provided it was not done in my presence; but what
I could not approve, or consider compatible with my own dignity,
or that of the Government which I represented, was that complaints
respecting England should be addressed to me in the hearing of the
Russian Ambassador, and to the Russian Ambassador in my hearing.

Leaving then this official tone, I added that, considering the long
and intimate relations which His Majesty had been graciously pleased
to permit should exist between himself and me, and knowing, as he did,
the personal attachment which I bore him, and the anxiety which I had
ever manifested to smooth difficulties and prevent misunderstandings
between the two Governments, in doing which I had perhaps exposed
myself to the suspicion of being more French than I ought to be, I had
not expected to have been addressed, as I had been, in the presence
of the Russian Ambassador, or to have heard words addressed to that
Ambass