A FRENCHMAN'S REMINISCENCES.

Colonist, Volume LI, Issue 12398, 13 November 1908, Page 4

A FRENCHMAN'S REMINISCENCES.

INTERESTING FACTS.

Valuable and interesting are the descriptions Avhiclv Monsieur Claude,, chief of police under the Second Empire, has left of the Prench "under world" in the days of Louis Philippe and Napoleon 111. One incident shows ~ how Napoleon 111 . consorted in his youth with the lowest outlaws and even pursued amours with their womankind. Many curious revelations - came to. Claude in the course of his work. ..; One day, while Louis Napoleon was paying court to the fair-Eugenic de Mdntijo, Madame de Mqntijo, the. mother, came. to inform him- that ilie; Prince ; do C., nephew of the Princess de 8., had shot. him-' self. She wanted Claude to rescue from the ' Princess certain , letters, compromising to her daughter, which the Prince had left in the room where he had committed suicide. Claude .refused to interfere with papers which ought to come into the. custody of the police, 'and -of the -Prince's heir-at-law, the Princess de. B. Madame de Montijo, however, "got round" Claude's secretary, and the latter contrived'to seize the incriminating before . the seals were fixed after -the domiciliary police investigation; These he handed over to Madame, de Montijo. It appears that the Prince lia'd killed himself because Eugiuie was deaf to his protestations of' love, . and, by way of revenge, he left 'the letters to= fall -into the hands

of the police. They disclosed Euge-

nie's early love for; the Duke of Alba, 'who married his sister, and, if seen .by ; Louis ■■ Napoleon— a moist suspicious and jealous, of lovers— would have put an end to the projected Imperial marriage. Again, Claude learnt,

through Madame X.,~0f the Orsini -bomb conspiracy, and, though his report was disbelieved by the authori- •■■" ties, the ghastly ; tragedy in front of the Opera House on the evening of January. 14, 1858, proved its truth. As-a reward for his prescience, Claude iras made, chief of the criminal and deiectiy'e police, a post which lie did not resign until. five, years after the ; fall of the Empire. . . .