Morny having given in his report, went away. Louis Bonaparte entered an adjoining room; a woman awaited him there. It appears that she came to entreat mercy for some one. Dr. Conneau heard these expressive words: "Madam, I wink at your loves; do you wink at my hatreds." [13] The above is a free rendering of the original, which is as follows:-- Des rayons du matin l'horizon se colore, Le jour vient éclairer notre tendre entretien, Mais est-il un sourire aux lèvres de l'aurore. Aussi doux que le tien? CHAPTER IV. BONAPARTE'S FAMILIAR SPIRITS M. Mérimée was vile by nature, he must not be blamed for it. With regard to M. de Morny it is otherwise, he was more worthy; there was something of the brigand in him. M. de Morny was courageous. Brigandage has its sentiments of honor. M. Mérimée has wrongly given himself out as one of the confederates of the _coup d'état_. He had, however, nothing to boast of in this. The truth is that M. Mérimée was in no way a confidant. Louis Bonaparte made no useless confidences. Let us add that it is little probable, notwithstanding some slight evidence to the contrary, that M. Mérimée, at the date of the 2d December, had any direct relations with Louis Bonaparte. This ensued later on. At first Mérimée only knew Morny. Morny and Mérimée were both intimate at the Elysée, but on a different footing. Morny can be believed, but not Mérimée. Morny was in the great secrets, Mérimée in the small ones. Commissions of gallantry formed his vocation. The familiars of the Elysée were of two kinds, the trustworthy confederates and the courtiers. The first of the trustworthy confederates was Morny; the first--or the last--of the courtiers was Mérimée. This is what made the fortune of M. Mérimée. Crimes are only glorious during the first moment; they fade quickly. This kind of success lacks permanency; it is necessary promptly to supplement it with something else. At the Elysée a literary ornament was wanted. A little savor of the Academy is not out of place in a brigand's cavern. M. Mérimée was available. It was his destiny to sign himself "the Empress's Jester." Madame de Montijo presented him to Louis Bonaparte, who accepted him, and who completed his Court with this insipid but plausible writer. This Court was a heterogeneous collection; a dinner-wagon of basenesses, a menagerie of reptiles, a herbal of poisons. Besides the trustworthy confederates who were for use, and the courtiers who were for ornament, there were the auxiliaries. Certain circumstances called for reinforcements; sometimes these were women, _the Flying Squadron_. Sometimes men: Saint-Arnaud, Espinasse, Saint-George, Maupas. Sometimes neither men nor women: the Marquis de C. The whole troop was noteworthy. Let us say a few words of it. There was Vieillard the preceptor, an atheist with a tinge of Catholicism, a good billiard player.