His book-plate is distinctly in the Louis XVI. style, but this is not so incongruous as it appears at first sight, for M. Berryer was born in 1790, and was first elected a deputy in 1830 when France was still under the Bourbons. On page 148 is a reproduction of the plate of the Duc de Mouchy, another supporter of the Third Empire, bearing the Cross of the Legion of Honour. He and the duchess for some time resided in Paris in a house which belonged to the empress, but after the downfall of the Empire, this house was bought by the late Baron Hirsch, who also bought Beauregard, near St. Cloud, which had formerly belonged to Mrs. Howard, a mistress of Napoleon. [Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF GENERAL DE LANCEY.] What a curious comic opera court it was, this of the Second Empire, with the emperor’s life-long friend Persigny at the head of it, and he the son of a pastrycook. Persigny married the daughter of Marshal Ney, a rich, vulgar, violent woman. When Persigny was appointed Ambassador to the Court of St. James, he unfortunately brought his wife with him. At a _bal masqué_, attended by the Queen and Prince Albert, the wife of Persigny suddenly slapped a lady in the face because she had copied her costume; consequently “urgent private affairs” required the immediate return to Paris of Mons. de Persigny. The emperor, to console him, shortly afterwards created him a duke. Then there were De Maupas, the Count Walewski (an illegitimate son of the first Napoleon), the Baron Haussmann, Préfet de la Seine, who rebuilt Paris, and enriched all his friends, De Lesseps, and crowds of political adventurers, feather-bed soldiers, and financial schemers, who thrived in this hot-bed of corruption, and amassed fabulous fortunes at the expense of France. The festivities came to an end none too soon for the nation, but the bill was a terrible one to pay. [Illustration] CHAPTER IX. THE FRONTIER PROVINCES. In June, 1881, M. Auguste Stoeber wrote some articles on Alsatian book-plates which were published in the “Express de Mulhouse.” In response to the persuasion of his friends he re-published these notes in a pamphlet entitled “Petite Revue d’Ex-Libris Alsaciens, par Auguste Stoeber, avec un facsimile de l’Ex-Libris de C. Wolfhardt, dit Lycosthenes, de Rouffach.” Mulhouse, Veuve Bader et Cie, 1881. M. Stoeber died a few years later, and his little pamphlet is now very rare.