{82} _La Femme_ was a “Miss” or “Mrs.” Howard. She followed Louis Napoleon to France in 1848, and lived openly with him as his mistress. In the once famous “Letters of an Englishman” we are told how shortly after the December massacre the _élite_ of English visitors in Paris were not ashamed to dine at her house in the President’s company: and in 1860, Mrs. Simpson, in France with her father, Nassau Senior, found her, decorated with the title of Madame de Beauregard, inhabiting La Celle, near Versailles, once the abode of Madame de Pompadour, “with the national flag flying over it, to the great scandal of the neighbourhood.” {87} Bachaumont’s criticism of Latour. Lady Dilke’s “French Painters,” p. 165. {96} Here is one of the stanzas: “L’Autriche—dit-on—et la Russie Se brouillent pour la Turquie. Dès aujourd’hui il n’en est plus question. En invitant une femme charmante, Le Turc—et je l’en complimente— Est devenu pour nous un trait d’union.” {111} “Blackwood’s Magazine,” December, 1895, p. 802. {130} I inserted this quotation before reading the “Etchingham Letters.” Sir Richard would wish me to erase it as hackneyed; but it applies to Kinglake’s talk as accurately as to Virgil’s writing, and I refuse to be defrauded of it. {133} This delightful phrase is Lady Gregory’s. One would wish, like Lord Houghton, though suppressing his presumptuous rider, to have been its author. {140} Of course Kinglake was not alone in this opinion. It was voiced in a delightful _jeu d’esprit_, now forgotten, which it is worth while to reproduce: “THE BERLIN CONGRESS. “The following Latin poem, from the pen of the well-known German poet, Gustave Schwetschke, was distributed by Prince Bismarck’s special request amongst the Plenipotentiaries immediately after the last sitting on Saturday: “‘GAUDEAMUS CONGRESSIBILE. “‘Gaudeamus igitur Socii congressus, Post dolores bellicosos, Post labores gloriosos, Nobis fit decessus. “‘Ubi sunt, qui ante nos Quondam consedere, Viennenses, Parisienses Tot per annos, tot per menses? Frustra decidere. “‘Mundus heu! vult decipi, Sed non decipiatur, Non plus ultra inter gentes Litigantes et frementes Manus conferatur. ‘Vivat Pax! et comitent Dii nunc congressum, Ceu Deus ex machinâ Ipsa venit Cypria Roborans successum. “‘Pereat discordia! Vincat semper litem Proxenetae probitas, {141} Fides, spes, et charitas, Gaudeamus item! “G. S.” * * * * * “THE OTHER VERSION. (From the “Pall Mall Gazette.”)