dresses walking about in the stables, where the astonished horses were
blinking in the gas-light.

In one of the quadrilles the ladies and gentlemen were dressed as
children, in short socks and frocks with enormous sashes.

Princess Metternich was costumed as a milkmaid; she had real silver pails
hung over her shoulders. Duchesse de Persigny was a _chiffonniere_ with a
_hotte_ on her back and a gray dress very much looped up, showing far
above her wooden shoes.


PARIS, _1863._

DEAR M.,--The ice in the Bois continues very good; I am skating every day.
I have commenced to teach the little Prince Imperial. He is very sweet,
and talks very intelligently for his age. The other day, when I was
skating with the Empress, a gentleman (I think he was an American),
skating backward, knocked against us with such force that the Empress and
I both fell. I tried with all my might to keep her from falling, but it
was impossible. Her first words, when we were helped on our feet again,
were, "Don't tell the Emperor; I think he did not see us."

That same evening there was a ball at the Tuileries, and when the Empress
came to speak to me she said: "How are you? I can hardly stand up." I
answered, "I am worse off, your Majesty; I can stand up, but I cannot sit
down."

Yesterday, when I came home from my singing lesson with Delle Sedie, I
found the family quite excited. The Empress's chamberlain had just been