themselves. Then, enumerating the millions who had welcomed the new form
of government--the President paused a second or two, as if with
suppressed emotion--and every one present held his breath, till, in a
deeper voice, through which there ran a quiver that thrilled through the
hall, he concluded with--'France is with you; France places the cause of
liberty under the protection of your dynasty and the great bodies of the
State.' Is France with him? I know not; but if the malcontents of
France had been in the hall at that moment, I believe they would have
felt the power of that wonderful sympathy which compels all the hearts in
great audiences to beat in accord, and would have answered, 'It is true.'

"All eyes now fixed on the Emperor, and I noticed few eyes which were not
moist with tears. You know that calm unrevealing face of his--a face
which sometimes disappoints expectation. But there is that in it which I
have seen in no other, but which I can imagine to have been common to the
Romans of old, the dignity that arises from self-control--an expression
which seems removed from the elation of joy, the depression of sorrow--
not unbecoming to one who has known great vicissitudes of Fortune, and is
prepared alike for her frowns or her smiles.

"I had looked at that face while M. Schneider was reading the address--
it moved not a muscle, it might have been a face of marble. Even when at
moments the words were drowned in applause and the Empress, striving at
equal composure, still allowed us to see a movement of her eye lids, a
tremble on her lips. The boy at his right, heir to his dynasty, had his
looks fixed on the President, as if eagerly swallowing each word in the
address, save once or twice, when he looked around the hall curiously,
and with a smile as a mere child might look. He struck me as a mere
child. Next to the Prince was one of those countenances which once seen
are never to be forgotten--the true Napoleonic type, brooding,