d to consular work, who spoke French, and who had been secretary
to two commodores. It was for a small French town. It was supported by
Forney and George H. Boker; but it was _refused_ because I was "in
Forney's set," and the consulate was given to a Western man who did not
know French.

If John Forney, instead of using all his immense influence for Grant, had
opposed him tooth and nail, he could not have been treated with more
scornful neglect. The pretence for this was that Forney had defaulted
$40,000! I know every detail of the story, and it is this:--While Forney
was in Europe, an agent to whom he had confided his affairs did take
money to that amount. As soon as Forney learned this, he promptly raised
$40,000 by mortgage on his property, and repaid the deficit. Even his
enemy Simon Cameron declared he did not believe the story, and the engine
of _his_ revenge was always run by "one hundred Injun power."

I had "met" Grant several times, when one day in London I was introduced
to him again. He said that he was very happy to make my acquaintance. I
replied, "General Grant, I have had the pleasure of being introduced to
you _six times_ already, and I hope for many happy renewals of it." A
week or two after, this appeared in _Punch_, adapted to a professor and a
duchess.

When the Sanitary Fair was held in Philadelphia in 1863, a lady in New
York wrote to Garibaldi, begging him for some personal souvenir to be
given to the charity. Garibaldi replied by actually sending the dagger
which he had carried in every engagement, expressing in a letter a hope
that it might pass to General Grant. But a warm partisan of McClellan so
arranged it that there should be an election for the dagger between the
partisans of Grant and McClellan, every one voting to pay a dollar to the
Fair. For a long time the McClellanites were in a majority, but at the
last hour Miss Anna M. Lea, now Mrs. Lea Merritt, very cleverly brought
down a party of friends, who voted for Grant, secured the dagger for him,
and so carried out the wish of Garibaldi. Long after an amusing incident
occurred relative to this. In conversation in London with Mrs. Grant, I
asked her if the dagger had been received. She replied, "Oh, yes," and
then added naively, "but wasn't it really _alt a humbug_?"

The death of my father and brother within a year, the sudden change in my
fortunes, the Presidential campaign, and, above all, the working hard
seven days