ibe
his gait and carriage. Louis-Napoleon's legs seemed to have been an
afterthought of his Creator--they were too short for his body, and his
head appeared constantly bent down, to supervise their motion;
consequently, their owner was always at a disadvantage when compelled to
make use of them. But when standing still, or on horseback, there was an
indescribable something about the man which at once commanded attention.
I am not overlooking the fact that, on the occasion of our first
meeting, my curiosity had been aroused; but I doubt whether any one,
endowed with the smallest power of observation, though utterly ignorant
with regard to his previous history, and equally sceptical with regard
to his future destiny, could have been in his company for any length of
time without being struck with his appearance.

When I entered the apartment on the evening in question, Louis-Napoleon
was leaning in his favourite attitude against the mantelpiece, smoking
the scarcely ever absent cigarette, and pulling at the heavy brown
moustache, the ends of which in those days were not waxed into points as
they were later on. There was not the remotest likeness to any portrait
of the Bonaparte family I had ever seen. He wore his thin, lank hair
much longer than he did afterwards. The most startling features were
decidedly the aquiline nose and the eyes; the latter, of a
greyish-blue, were comparatively small and somewhat almond-shaped, but,
except at rare intervals, there was an impenetrable look, which made it
exceedingly difficult, if not impossible, to read their owner's thoughts
by them. If they were "the windows of his soul," their blinds were
constantly down. The "I am pleased to see you, sir," with which he
welcomed me, holding out his hand at the same time, was the English of
an educated German who had taken great pains to get the right accent and
pronunciation, without, however, completely succeeding; and when I heard
him speak French, I detected at once his constant struggle with the same
difficulties. The struggle lasted till the very end of his life, though,
by dint of speaking very slowly, he overcame them to a marvellous
extent. But the moment he became in any way excited, the _f_'s and the
_t_'s and the _p_'s were always trying to oust the _v_'s, the _d_'s and
the _b_'s from their newly-acquired positions, and often gained a
momentary victory. There is an amusing story to that effect, in
connection with Napoleon's first int