“Le Prince Impérial a eu beaucoup de succès au camp de Châlons. Il avait tant d’aplomb, et tenait son rang si bien, qu’on croyait voir le père rajeuni. Bachon son écuyer, que vous connaissez, me dit qu’il n’y a pas un Prince pour passer une revue comme lui, sur un grand cheval, qui piaffe de côté, du pas le plus égal tout le long d’une ligne d’infanterie, sans que la musique ou les éclairs des reflets du soleil sur les fusils lui fassent perdre la piste.” To one of Mérimée’s letters the Empress herself adds the conclusion and signature. Her words in the following extracts are in italics. “Biarritz, 27 Septembre, 1863. “Nous avons eu un très agréable voyage de Tarbes à Pau et à Biarritz. Vos commissions ont été fidèlement remplies et aussitôt que possible. Je suis chargé pour vous de tous les compliments et tendresses des dames et des messieurs à commencer par deux augustes personnages. Adieu et portez-vous bien. _Je veux vous dire, mon cher M. Panizzi, tout le regret que j’ai de ne plus vous avoir parmi nous. Je vous demande de vouloir bien me conserver un de vos bons et meilleurs souvenirs._ _Votre alliée politique_, EUGÉNIE.” These letters to Panizzi must not, however, cause us to lose ourselves in a labyrinth of quotations and remarks. It is to be feared that enough has already been placed before the reader to spoil his enjoyment of the collection itself, and more than enough to fulfil our own purpose of throwing light on Mérimée’s life and opinions from the letters themselves. By no means always, but certainly sometimes, it has happened that absolute dependence on some more solid reward than popular applause has tended to fetter the pen of a brilliant writer. It is equally true that what is done by men for their diversion is frequently of superior merit to that which is the product of sheer necessity, and we have often thought, though this, we admit, may be but fancy, that the peculiar facility conspicuous throughout Mérimée’s works might be traced to the fact that, being placed by fortune above necessity, he wrote as one in no way enforced, and as much for his own pleasure as for the amusement of his readers. The style of some of his lighter works, it may be remarked _en passant_, reminds one strongly of some of Voltaire’s _Romans_, than which there can assuredly be no higher praise. Of artist blood on the side both of his father and mother, he inherited much of his parents’ ability, and has left behind a goodly stock of productions, of which (_Exceptis Excipiendis_ for one, at least, might be objected to on the ground of propriety) it is much to be wished that a collection could be made.