Chapter XIV

Society during the Second Empire -- The Court at Compiegne -- The
English element -- Their opinion of Louis-Napoleon -- The
difference between the court of Louis-Philippe and that of
Napoleon III. -- The luggage of M. Villemain -- The hunts in
Louis-Philippe's time -- Louis-Napoleon's advent -- Would have
made a better poet than an Emperor -- Looks for a La Valliere or
Montespan, and finds Mdlle. Eugenie de Montijo -- The latter
determined not to be a La Valliere or even a Pompadour -- Has her
great destiny foretold in her youth -- Makes up her mind that it
shall be realized by a right-handed and not a left-handed
marriage -- Queen Victoria stands her sponsor among the
sovereigns of Europe -- Mdlle. de Montijo's mother -- The
Comtesse de Montijo and Halevy's "Madame Cardinal" -- The first
invitations to Compiegne -- Mdlle. de Montijo's backers for the
Imperial stakes -- No other entries -- Louis-Napoleon utters the
word "marriage" -- What led up to it -- The Emperor officially
announces his betrothal -- The effect it produced -- The Faubourg
St.-Germain -- Dupin the elder gives his views -- The engaged
couple feel very uncomfortable -- Negotiations to organize the
Empress's future household -- Rebuffs -- Louis Napoleon's retorts
-- Mdlle. de Montijo's attempt at wit and sprightliness -- Her
iron will -- Her beauty -- Her marriage -- She takes
Marie-Antoinette for her model -- She fondly imagines that she
was born to rule -- She presumes to teach Princess Clotilde the
etiquette of courts -- The story of two detectives -- The hunts
at Compiegne -- Some of the mise en scene and _dramatis personae_
-- The shooting-parties -- Mrs. Grundy not banished, but
specially invited and drugged -- The programme of the gatherings
-- Compiegne in the season -- A story of an Englishman accommodated
for the night in one of the Imperial luggage-vans 288