“M. Sarrans will allow M. Louis Napoleon Bonaparte to speak.”
He made a few insignificant remarks and descended from the tribune amid
a general laugh of stupefaction.
November 1848.
On November 19 I dined at Odilon Barrot’s at Bougival.
There were present MM. de Rémusat, de Tocqueville, Girardin, Leon
Faucher, a member of the English Parliament and his wife, who is ugly
but witty and has beautiful teeth, Mme. Odilon Barrot and her mother.
Towards the middle of the dinner Louis Bonaparte arrived with his
cousin, the son of Jerome, and M. Abbatucci, Representative.
Louis Bonaparte is distinguished, cold, gentle, intelligent, with
a certain measure of deference and dignity, a German air and black
moustache; he bears no resemblance whatever to the Emperor.
He ate little, spoke little, and laughed little, although the party was
a merry one.
Mme. Odilon Barrot seated him on her left. The Englishman was on her
right.
M. de Rémusat, who was seated between the prince and myself, remarked to
me loud enough for Louis Bonaparte to hear:
“I give my best wishes to Louis Bonaparte and my vote to Cavaignac.”
Louis Bonaparte at the time was feeding Mme. Odilon Barrot’s greyhound
with fried gudgeons.