THE LATE PRINCE IMPERIAL.

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume VI, Issue 824, 2 July 1879, Page 2

THE LATE PRINCE IMPERIAL.

The following brief sketch of the early life of the Prince Imperial, taken from the" Home Journal," will be of interest

to our readers : — ,

"The Prince Imperial was bom a very delicate child, and had to be nursed wiih the utmost cave till he was ten years old. His nurse was an English woman, and he had a 'German-Swiss valet ; both were enjoined to speak to him always in there respective tongues, while his mother addressed him in Spanish, so that the boy grew up to be a good linguist without any effort. He could read in four languages when he was seven, and spent many of the long hours, when he had to remain indoors by doctors' orders, perusing books which treated of his great uncle a battles. He preferred this literature to any other, and became of a rather bellicose mood in consequence, strutting about with a toy sword by his side, and fighting sham battles with young Conneau in the broad corridors of the Tuileries. His father, who loved him with doting love, would have spoiled him ; but his mother wiser in her affection, insisted upon his blind obedience. When he was two years old he was appointed corporal in the Imperial Guard, and when five was promoted to his sergeantship. For having disobeyed the Empress while he held this grade, Her Majesty caused his stripes to be talced away from him, and he was reduced to the ranks for a whole year. The disgrace very deeply affected him, for he was very fond of showing off his uniform before the children who were invited to the palace to play with him. Once, by-the-by, a child of the actor Fechter was among his guests, and the Prince, having quarrelled with the boy, gave him a slap on the face. Fechter was huffed when he heard of the affair, and declined to let his boy go to the Tuileries again — rather a foolish piece of dignity,

The Prince imperial had to put up with more than one affront in his boyhoud, for the Emperor had so many enemies that chances of snubbing the heir arose frequently. In 1868 the Prince went to preside at the annual distribution of prizes held in the Sorbonne, after the Concours General of all the public schools. A son of General Ca\ aignac happened to be among the prize-winners, and his name was called to come and receive the books from the Prince's baud ; but at this moment a tall lady dressed in black rose among the reserved seats, and with an imperious gesture, ordered young Cavaignac not to move. This was Madame Cavaignac, who hereby sought to pay off the son of the man who sent her husband into exile. The affair made an immense noise, but the P.rince remarked raiher pithily : "It seemes then that young Cavaignac wished to act a comedy, for he must have known I was coming here. On another occasion the Prince Imperial, going to the Bois de Boulogue in a carriage, saw a boy tumble off the box seat of a cab. He ordered his carriage to stop and alighted to see if the- urchin was hurt. There was nothing-the matter, so the Prince Imperial kissed the boy, adding: "You may tell your father that the Emperor's son kissed you. " " Oh, no, I won't tell him thati" answered the boy, readily " for papa is always saying that Napoleon is a canaille." When the disasters of 1870 overtook the imperial dynasty Prince Louis Napoleon was old enough to feel them acutely. It cost him the greatest anguish to part with his father just before the battle of Sedan ; and having been spirited across the Belgian frontier to Mons, he actually escaped from the Hotel de la Couronue in that town at night, and tried to prevail upon a jobmaster to let him have trap of some sort in which he could return to France and join his father's armies. Of course he was politely reconducted to his hotel, and the next day conveyed under the custody of the two equerries to England The Prince's grief during the whole of the campaign which followed made his mother seriously fear for his health. There was no keeping newspapers from him, and what angered him most was to read thejaccusations of cowardice and imbecility launched against his father, One day he was observed writing some names on a piece of paper, and the Empress asked him what he was doing, "lam ftaking down the names of the men who are insulting us, for I mean to reckon with them some day," said he. But by and by he threw the list into the fire. '"I know the names by heart," he remarked; "and I shall never forget them. "