IN November, 1862, my wife and I received an invitation tospend a week at Compiegne with their Majesties the Emperorand Empress of the French. This was due to the circumstancethat my wife's father, Lord Wilton, as Commodore of the RoyalYacht Squadron, had entertained the Emperor during his visitto Cowes.

　　We found an express train with the imperial carriagesawaiting the arrival of the English guests at the station duNord. The only other English besides ourselves were Lord andLady Winchilsea with Lady Florence Paget, and Lord and LadyCastlerosse, now Lord and Lady Kenmare. These, however, hadpreceded us, so that with the exception of M. Drouyn deLhuys, we had the saloon carriage to ourselves.

　　The party was a very large one, including the Walewskis, thePersignys, the Metternichs - he, the Austrian Ambassador -Prince Henri VII. of Reuss, Prussian Ambassador, the Princede la Moskowa, son of Marshal Ney, and the Labedoyeres,amongst the historical names. Amongst those of art andliterature, of whom there were many, the only one whom I madethe acquaintance of was Octave Feuillet. I happened to havebrought his 'Comedies et Proverbes' and another of his bookswith me, never expecting to meet him; this so pleased himthat we became allies. I was surprised to find that he couldnot even read English, which I begged him to learn for thesake of Shakespeare alone.

　　We did not see their Majesties till dinner-time. When theguests were assembled, the women and the men were arrangedseparately on opposite sides of the room. The Emperor andEmpress then entered, each respectively welcoming those oftheir own sex, shaking hands and saying some conventionalword in passing. Me, he asked whether I had brought my guns,and hoped we should have a good week's sport. To each one aword. Every night during the week we sat down over a hundredto dinner. The Army was largely represented. For the firsttime I tasted here the national frog, which is neither fishnor flesh. The wine was, of course, supreme; but after everydish a different wine was handed round. The eveningentertainments were varied. There was the theatre in thePalace, and some of the best of the Paris artistes wererequisitioned for the occasion. With them came Dejazet, thennearly seventy, who had played before Buonaparte.

　　Almost every night there was dancing. Sometimes the Emperorwould walk through a quadrille, but as a rule he would retirewith one of his ministers, though only to a smaller boudoirat the end of the suite, where a couple of whist-tables wereready for the more sedate of the party. Here one evening Ifound Prince Metternich showing his Majesty a chess problem,of which he was the proud inventor. The Emperor askedwhether I was fond of chess. I was very fond of chess, wasone of the regular HABITUES of St. George's Chess Club, andhad made a study of the game for years. The Princechallenged me to solve his problem in four moves. It was nota very profound one. I had the hardihood to discover thatthree, rather obvious moves, were sufficient. But as I wasnot Gil Blas, and the Prince was not the Archbishop ofGrenada, it did not much matter. Like the famous prelate,his Excellency proffered his felicitations, and doubtlessalso wished me 'un peu plus de gout' with the addition of 'unpeu moins de perspicacite.'

　　One of the evening performances was an exhibition of POSES-PLASTIQUES, the subjects being chosen from celebratedpictures in the Louvre. Theatrical costumiers, under thecommand of a noted painter, were brought from Paris. Theladies of the court were carefully rehearsed, and the wholething was very perfectly and very beautifully done. All theEnglish ladies were assigned parts. But, as nearly all thesedepended less upon the beauties of drapery than upon those ofnature, the English ladies were more than a little staggeredby the demands of the painter and of the - UNdressers. Tothe young and handsome Lady Castlerosse, then just married,was allotted the figure of Diana. But when informed that, inaccordance with the original, the drapery of one leg wouldhave to be looped up above the knee, her ladyship used veryfirm language; and, though of course perfectly ladylike,would, rendered into masculine terms, have signified that shewould 'see the painter d-d first.' The celebrated 'Cruchecassee' of Greuze, was represented by the reigning beauty,the Marquise de Gallifet, with complete fidelity and success.

　　There was one stage of the performance which neither I norLord Castlerosse, both of us newly married, at allappreciated. This was the privileges of the Green-room, orrather of the dressing-rooms. The exhibition was given inthe ball-room. On one side of this, until the night of theperformances, an enclosure was boarded off. Within it, werecompartments in which the ladies dressed and - undressed. Atthis operation, as we young husbands discovered, certainyoung gentlemen of the court were permitted to assist - Ithink I am not mistaken in saying that his Majesty was of thenumber. What kind of assistance was offered or accepted,Castlerosse and I, being on the wrong side of the boarding,were not in a position to know.

　　There was a door in the boarding, over which one expected tosee, 'No admittance except on business,' or perhaps, 'onpleasure.' At this door I rapped, and rapped againimpatiently. It was opened, only as wide as her face, by theempress.

　　'What do you want, sir?' was the angry demand.

　　'To see my wife, madame,' was the submissive reply.

　　'You can't see her; she is rehearsing.'

　　'But, madame, other gentlemen - '

　　'Ah! Mais, c'est un enfantillage! Allez-vous-en.'

　　And the door was slammed in my face.

　　'Well,' thought I, 'the right woman is in the right placethere, at all events.'

　　Another little incident at the performance itself alsorecalled the days and manners of the court of Louis XV.

　　Between each tableau, which was lighted solely from theraised stage, the lights were put out, and the whole roomleft in complete darkness. Whenever this happened, thesounds of immoderate kissing broke out in all directions,accompanied by little cries of resistance and protestation.

　　Until then, I had always been under the impression thathumour of this kind was confined to the servants' hall. Onecould not help thinking of another court, where things weremanaged differently.

　　But the truth is, these trivial episodes were symptomatic ofa pervading tone. A no inconsiderable portion of the ladiesseemed to an outsider to have been invited for the sake oftheir personal charms. After what has just been related, onecould not help fancying that there were some amongst them whohad availed themselves of the privilege which, according toTacitus, was claimed by Vistilia before the AEdiles. So far,however, from any of these noble ladies being banished to theIsle of Seriphos, they seemed as much attached to the courtas the court to them; and whatever the Roman Emperor mighthave done, the Emperor of the French was all that was mostindulgent.

　　There were two days' shooting, one day's stag hunting, anexpedition to Pierrefonds, and a couple of days spent inriding and skating. The shooting was very much after thefashion of that already described at Prince Esterhazy's,though of a much more Imperial character. As in Hungary, thegame had been driven into coverts cut down to the height ofthe waist, with paths thirty to forty yards apart, for theguns.

　　The weather was cold, with snow on the ground, but it was abeautifully sunny day. This was the party: the twoambassadors, the Prince de la Moskowa, Persigny, Walewski -Bonaparte's natural son, and the image of his father - theMarquis de Toulongeon, Master of the Horse, and we threeEnglishmen. We met punctually at eleven in the grand saloon.

　　Here the Emperor joined us, with his cigarette in his mouth,shook hands with each, and bade us take our places in thechar-a-bancs. Four splendid Normandy greys, with postilionsin the picturesque old costume, glazed hats and huge jack-boots, took us through the forest at full gallop, and in halfan hour we were at the covert side. The Emperor was verycheery all the way. He cautioned me not to shoot back forthe beaters' sakes, and asked me how many guns I had brought.

　　'Two only? that's not enough, I will lend you some of mine.'

　　Arrived at our beat - 'Tire de Royallieu,' we found asquadron of dismounted cavalry drawn up in line, ready tocommence operations. They were in stable dress, with canvastrousers and spurs to their boots. Several officers weregalloping about giving orders, the whole being under thecommand of a mounted chief in green uniform and cocked hat!

　　The place of each shooter had been settled by M. deToulongeon. I, being the only Nobody of the lot, was put onthe extreme outside. The Emperor was in the middle; andalthough, as I noticed, h............