fancy: but
the child preferred those he received from his uncle; and when his father
said to him, "But, see here, Napoleon, those are ugly things; mine are
prettier."--"No," said the young prince, "they are very nice; my uncle
gave them to me."
One morning when he visited his Majesty, he crossed a saloon where amid
many great personages was Prince Murat, at that time, I think, Grand Duke
of Berg. The child passed through without saluting any one, when the
prince stopped him and said, "Will you not tell me goodmorning?"--"No,"
replied Napoleon, disengaging himself from the arms of the Grand Duke;
"not before my uncle the Emperor."
At the end of a review which had taken place in the court of the
Tuileries, and on the Place du Carrousel, the Emperor went up to his
apartments, and threw his hat on one sofa, his sword on another. Little
Napoleon entered, took his uncle's sword, passed the belt round his neck,
put the hat on his head, and then kept step gravely, humming a march
behind the Emperor and Empress. Her Majesty, turning round, saw him, and
caught him in her arms, exclaiming, "What a pretty picture!" Ingenious
in seizing every occasion to please her husband, the Empress summoned M.
Gerard, and ordered a portrait of the young prince in this costume; and
the picture was brought to the palace of Saint-Cloud the very day on
which the Empress heard of the death of this beloved child.
He was hardly three years old when, seeing his shoemaker's bill paid with
five-franc pieces, he screamed loudly, not wishing that they should give
away the picture of his Uncle Bibiche. The name of Bibiche thus given by
the young prince to his Majesty originated in this manner. The Empress
had several gazelles placed in the park of Saint-Cloud, which were very
much afraid of all the inhabitants of the palace except the Emperor, who
allowed them to eat tobacco out of his snuff-box, and thus induced them
to follow him, and took much pleasure in giving them the tobacco by the
hands of the little Napoleon, whom he also put on the back of one of
them. The latter designated these pretty animals by no other name than
that of Bibiche, and amused himself by giving the same name to his uncle.
This charming child, who was adored by both father and mother, used his
almost magical influence over each in order to reconcile them to each
other. He took his father by the hand, who allowed himself to be thus
conducted by this angel of peace to Queen Ho
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