The Empress overpersuaded the Queen, and the Prince went out. It was a wild-cat scheme, for he was sent out with no status in the army and therefore with no object, but the Empress thought that being a Buonaparte fighting would give him and the dynasty prestige with his people—and so an important life which could not but have weighed in the history of Europe was sacrificed. He was a gallant lad, with good abilities, and a great favourite with his contemporaries at our military college of whom my brother-in-law was one and a great friend of his. I only met him once, but was much struck by his charm of manner. The weaknesses of great men should be recorded, otherwise anything in the shape of a memoir, or even sketch, becomes what a German critic would call a mere _Ja und Amen Buch_. Lord Beaconsfield’s weakness consisted in occasionally, perhaps unconsciously, borrowing a good saying or epigram which had struck his imagination and serving it up as his own. In the famous case of his speech on the death of the Duke of Wellington he went a step further and translated verbatim a speech or essay by Thiers on the qualities which go to make up a great Captain. Of course this was duly shown up[41] and was the subject of much ridicule at the time—but he lived it down as he did all his other mistakes; all men, great and small, make mistakes, but whereas the small men are drowned, the great men rise up again; that is one true sign of greatness. Almost his last speech, certainly his last great speech, was delivered on March the 4th, 1881, upon the subject of the proposed evacuation of Candahar, against which he fought stoutly and eloquently. In that speech he used these words which have been preserved as a classical utterance: “But, my Lords, the key of India is not Herat or Candahar. The key of India is London.” Prince Lobanoff was at that time Russian ambassador, and three years later, when he was Chancellor of the Empire, we met at Contrexéville, and used to breakfast, drive out, and dine together every day. He talked a great deal of his London days and of his admiration for Lord Beaconsfield. But he told me that the day before the delivery of the Candahar speech he called in Curzon Street and had a long talk with Lord Beaconsfield on the Indian question—the Russian question, as it was called in England at that time. Lord Beaconsfield said: “We cannot evacuate Candahar, for it is the key of India.” Prince Lobanoff answered: “No! London is the key of India.” “Le lendemain il a reproduit mon mot dans son fameux discours!”