teresting to those who are
always prating about the friendship between England and France to know
that I heard not a single cry of "Vive l'Angleterre!" On the other hand,
I heard a great many of "Vive la Reine!" Even the unthinking crowd,
though yielding to the excitement of the moment, seemed to distinguish
between the country and her ruler. I am not commenting upon this: I am
merely stating a fact. Probably it is not England's fault that she has
not been able to inspire the French nation as a whole with anything like
a friendly feeling, but it is as well to point it out. During the whole
of the Crimean War, nine out of every ten educated Frenchmen openly
asserted that France had been made a cat's-paw by England, that the
alliance was one forced upon the nation by Napoleon from dynastic and
personal, rather than from patriotic and national, motives; there were
some who, at the moment of the Queen's visit, had the candour to say
that this, and this only, would be France's reward for the blood and
money spent in the struggle. At the same time, it is but fair to state
that these very men spoke both with admiration and respect of England's
sovereign.

At three o'clock there was a brilliant reception at the Elysee, when the
members of the corps diplomatique accredited to the Tuileries were
presented to the Queen. Shortly after five her Majesty returned to
Saint-Cloud, where, in the evening, the actors of the Comedie-Francaise
gave, at the Queen's special request, a performance of "Les Demoiselles
de Saint-Cyr." She had seen the piece in London, and been so pleased
with it that she wished to see it again. Though I was on very intimate
terms with Dumas, we had not met for several weeks, which was not
wonderful, seeing that I was frequently appealed to by the son himself
for news of his father. "What has become of him? He might be at the
antipodes for all I see of him," said Alexandre II. about a dozen times
a year. However, two or three days after the performance at Saint-Cloud,
I ran against him in the Chaussee d'Antin. "Well, you ought to be
pleased," I said; "it appears that not only has the Queen asked to see
your piece, which she had already seen in London, but that she enjoyed
it even much better the second than the first time."

"C'est comme son auteur," he replied: "plus on le connait, plus on
l'aime. Je sais pourtant bien ce qui l'aurait amusee meme d'avantage que
de voir ma piece, c'eut ete de me voir moi-meme, et