life, appealed to my youthful imagination, and are still vivid in my
memory.

Notwithstanding her father's connections with the Orleanists, Hortense
de St. Albin and her brother were closely connected with the new order
of things. She had entertained personal relations with the Empress
before her elevation to the imperial throne, and the brother, Comte
Louis-Philippe de St. Albin, was librarian to her Majesty. These close
affiliations with the court did not prevent M. Jubinal, in his political
capacity, from gradually sliding into the ranks of the opposition. Later
he occasionally was one of the few who voted against the measures of the
government in the legislative struggles brought about by the
intervention of France in Mexican affairs. Whether this attitude was
wholly due to his superior common sense, or whether behind his political
convictions there lingered a tinge of chagrin at a disappointed hope of
senatorial honors once held out to his ambition by the French emperor,
it is difficult to tell. It is probable that the latter motive formed,
unknown to him, a foundation upon which his wisdom and political
principles rested, and which lent them added solidity.

Before I left France I was, at his house, the interested though silent
listener to many a violent discussion upon the stirring theme. The
critics of the Napoleonic policy loudly denounced the fraudulent
transactions connected with the issue of the Jecker bonds. They more
than intimated that the great of the land were mixed up in the
disgraceful agiotage that had led to these serious difficulties, and
that all this brilliant dust of a civilizing expedition to a distant El
Dorado was raised about the Emperor by his entourage to conceal from him
what was going on nearer home.