This letter was written in 1866, when the Emperor was traveling in
Algeria.
After the fall of the Empire and the death of the Emperor, Prince
Napoleon kept up a sort of armed neutrality with the Empress Eugénie
and his young cousin, the Prince Imperial (then Napoleon the Fourth),
after whom, he was the head of the Bonapartist party. When the Prince
Imperial fell in Zululand in 1879, Prince Napoleon became the head of
the family. But the Prince Imperial had made a foolish, boyish will
in which he named his cousin, Prince Victor, the eldest son of Prince
Napoleon, his heir and successor. The Empress Eugénie was only too glad
to annoy her hated foe by pretending to accept this absurd arrangement,
and unfortunately Prince Victor Napoleon fell into the hands of foolish
advisers, quarreled with his father and set up a party of his own.
For several years father and son have not spoken, each claiming to
represent the Imperialist party in France. But it is now stated with
authority that Prince Victor Napoleon was reconciled to his father on
his death-bed, and this will do much towards wiping out the memory of
his unfilial conduct. But he was strongly tempted. The Empress Eugénie
urged him, all the old adherents of his great family urged him, to set
up the Napoleonic standard, while his father seemed apathetic and
indifferent. Then, of course, he commanded a divided allegiance. Now he
stands at the head of a united party. Thousands of men who would not
join Prince Napoleon on account of his anti-clerical opinions and who
refused to support Prince Victor Napoleon against his father, are now
rallying to the Imperial standard.
Scoffers said the Napoleonic legend was dead when the first Napoleon
died. Scoffers say so now. Yet Napoleon III. proved that it was very
much alive in the fifties, and it is well on the cards that Napoleon
VI. may do so in the nineties. The new Emperor _de jure_, is clever,
eloquent and possesses tact, above all the _sine qua non_ of one in
his position. He has few enemies and many friends and will inherit the
Empress Eugénie's large fortune upon her death.
And so the greatest service Prince Napoleon has ever done for his
family and cause is by dying, for his death unites, while his life
divided, his party.
History will judge him fairly. Brilliant, clever, witty, statesmanlike,
eloquent and masterful, his life has been ruined by want of tact. His
last words are significant: (I quote from the London _Times_.)
"He declared that he died an Emperor, adhering to the principles of
the _Concordat_, and fully imbued with the religious sentiments of the
Bonapartes."
Such was the Emperor Napoleon the Fifth, a man misjudged by many and
loved by few, but a man whose talents will one day be recognized by
France.
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