Produced by Chuck Greif and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from scanned images of public domain material from the Google Print project.) MATED FROM THE MORGUE _A TALE OF THE SECOND EMPIRE_ BY JOHN AUGUSTUS O'SHEA AUTHOR OF 'LEAVES FROM THE LIFE OF A SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT,' 'AN IRON-BOUND CITY,' 'ROMANTIC SPAIN,' 'MILITARY MOSAICS,' ETC. 'La Ville de Paris a son grand mât tout de bronze, sculpté de victoires, et pour vigie Napoléon.'--DE BALZAC. LONDON SPENCER BLACKETT [Successor to J. & R. Maxwell] MILTON HOUSE, 35, ST. BRIDE STREET, E.C. 1889 [_All rights reserved_] APOLOGETIC. This tale, such as it is, has one merit. It is a study of manners, mainly made on the spot, not evolved from the shelves of the British Museum. There is in it, at least, a crude attempt at photography, a process in which sunlight and air have some part, and, therefore, liker to nature than the adumbrations of the reading-room. The localities are faithfully drawn, the persons are not dolls with stuffing of sawdust, but human animals who might have lived--and, mayhap, did live. If the volume does not kill an hour, the writer is murderer only in thought. TO MY FRIEND, COLONEL THE BARON CRAIGNISH, EQUERRY TO HIS HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF SAXE-COBURG-GOTHA, This Little Book, IN TARDY THANK-OFFERING FOR THAT LARGE LEG OF MUTTON. CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. A HOUSELESS DOG 1 II. A CRUSH AT THE MORGUE 8 III. LE VRAI N'EST PAS TOUJOURS VRAISEMBLABLE 20 IV. THE SONG-BIRD'S NEST 30 V. NAPOLEONIC IDEAS 40 VI. THE OLD BONAPARTIST'S STORY 52 VII. FRIEZECOAT AT HOME 65 VIII. POPPING THE QUESTION 75 IX. A SOLDIER OF FORTUNE 85 X. 'LA JEUNE FRANCE' 96 XI. THE BONE OF CONTENTION 104 XII. ORANGE BLOSSOMS 121 XIII. THE HONEYMOON TRIP 128 XIV. VANITAS VANITATUM 139 XV. THE FIFTH OF MAY, 1870 152 MATED FROM THE MORGUE. CHAPTER I. A HOUSELESS DOG.