"I must tell you (for family use only) that the Emperor Napoleon made to me a marked recognition as he passed along. Sarah and I were standing upon two chairs overlooking the front rank of those ranged on each side. The emperor gave his usual bow on each side, but, as he came near us, he gave an unusual and special bow to me, which I returned, and he then, with a smile, gave me a second bow so marked as to draw the attention of those around, who at once turned to see to whom this courtesy was shown. I should not mention this but that Sarah and others observed it as an unusual mark of courtesy." Feeling the need of rest after all the gayety and excitement of Paris, Morse and part of his family retired to Shanklin, on the Isle of Wight, where in a neat little furnished cottage--Florence Villa--they spent part of two happy months. Then with his wife and daughter and youngest son he journeyed in leisurely fashion through England and Scotland, returning to Paris in October. Here he spent some time in working on his report to the. United States Government as Commissioner to the Exposition. Among his notes I find the following, which seems to me worthy of record:-- "_The Sounder._ Mr. Prescott, I perceive, is quoted as an authority. He is not reliable on many points and his work should be used with caution. His work was originally written in the interest of those opposing my patents, and his statements are, many of them, grossly unjust and strongly colored with prejudice. Were he now to reprint his work I am convinced he would find it necessary, for the sake of his reputation, to expunge a great deal, and to correct much that he has misstated and misapprehended. "He manifests the most unpardonable ignorance or wilful prejudice in regard to the _Sounder_, now so-called. The possibility of reading by sound was among the earliest modes noticed in the first instrument of 1835, and it was in consequence of observing this fact that, in my first patent specifications drawn up in 1837-1838, I distinctly specify these _sounds_ of the signs, and they were secured in my letters patent. Yet Mr. Prescott makes it an accidental discovery, and in 1860 (the date of his publication) he wholly ignores my agency in this mode. The sounder is but the pen-lever deprived of the pen. In everything else it is the same. The sound of the letter is given with and without the pen." On November 8, 1867, he writes from Paris to his friend, the Honorable John Thompson:--