on, and as such he became little short of an idol.
The Prince-President himself was not far from sharing in that worship.
Not once, but a hundred times, his familiars have heard him say, "Avec
Palmerston on peut faire des grandes choses." Nevertheless, Palmerston
appealed more to De Persigny's imagination than to Louis-Napoleon's.
After all, he was perhaps much more of a Richelieu than a constitutional
minister in a constitutional country has a right to be nowadays, and
that was what Persigny admired above all things. His long stay in
England had by no means removed his inherent dislike to parliamentary
government, and, rightly or wrongly, he credited Palmerston with a
similar sentiment.

De Persigny was amiable and obliging enough, provided one knew how to
manage him, and with those whom he liked, but exceedingly thin-skinned
and often violent with those whom he disliked. He was, moreover, very
jealous with regard to Louis-Napoleon's affection for him. I doubt
whether he really minded the influence wielded by the Empress, De Morny,
and Walewski over the Emperor, but he grudged them their place in the
Emperor's heart. This was essentially the case with regard to the
former. He would have been glad to see his old friend and Imperial
master contract a loveless marriage with some insignificant German or
Russian princess, who would have borne her husband few or many children,
in order to secure the safety of the dynasty, but the passion that
prompted the union with Eugenie de Montijo he considered virtually as an
injury to himself. I give his opinion on that subject in English,
because, though expressed in French, it had certainly been inspired by
his sojourn in England. "When love invades a man's heart, there is
scarcely any room left for friendship. You cannot drive love for a woman
and friendship for a man in double harness, you are obliged to drive
them tandem; and what is worse in a case like that of the Emperor,
friendship becomes the leader and love the wheeler. Of course, to the
outsider, friendship has the place of honour; in reality, love, the
wheeler, is in closest contact with the driver and the vehicle, and can,
moreover, have a sly kick at friendship, the leader. Personally, I am an
exception--I may say a phenomenal exception--because my affection for
the Emperor is as strong as my love for my wife."

Those who knew both the Emperor and Madame de Persigny might have fitly
argued that this equal division of af