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Madame Gallifet knew it as "Sir Roger de Coverley" from her English days, and Prince Murat must have learned it from his American mother. The Emperor danced with me, as he said he would only dance with an expert! Madame de Persigny and Prince Murat were at the end of the line; the other guests filled the intermediate places.
The inventor of these two jokes, which by the way are very poor, has since allied himself to the Second of December, to Morny and Persigny; he has covered his cowardice with the embroidery of a senator. The roll-call verified the presence of two hundred and twenty Representatives, whose names were as follows: After this list of names may be read as follows in the shorthand report:
The cousins, male and female, of the Emperor, received 1,310,975fr. per annum; the Duc de Persigny received in two months, 60,000fr.; Prince Jablonowyski, Countess Gajan, Madame Claude Vignon, Le General Morris, and many other ladies and gentlemen who never did the State any service, are down for various sums. Among other items is one of 1,200fr. to General de Failly for sugar plums.
By the autumn of 1851 Louis Napoleon had fully made up his mind as to his coup d'état, and had arranged all its details. He had five intimates, who were his counsellors, De Morny, De Maupas, De Persigny, Fleury, and General Saint-Arnaud. De Morny has always been reputed to have been the half-brother of Louis Napoleon.
From the sentry-box where he was stationed Boillay saw defined on the windows black profiles and gesticulating shadows, which were Magnan, Saint-Arnaud, Persigny, Fleury, the spectres of the crime. Korte, the General of the Cuirassiers, had been summoned, as also Carrelet, who commanded the division which did the hardest work on the following day, the 4th.
De Persigny, like Saint-Arnaud, had changed his name, having begun life as Fialin. These five plotted the coup d'état ; arranged all its details, and kept their own counsel.
By his death, in 1865, Louis Napoleon was bereft of his ablest adviser. Persigny, or Fialin, had been the close personal friend of the emperor in his exile, and took a prominent part in the abortive expedition to Boulogne. In his youth he had led a disreputable life, and was not a man of great intellect, but he was presumed to be devoted to his old comrade.
The rest of the story I will tell in Count Orsi's own words. He wrote his account in "Fraser's Magazine," 1879: "The wrath of the major was extreme. There was danger in his anger. I consulted Persigny on the advisability of letting him go on shore, with the distinct understanding that he should be accompanied by me or by Charles Thélin."
Not one utters a word about his crime, and no one bears the name of his father. Ah! may God grant me life, and may Jesus pardon me, I will raise a gibbet a hundred yards high, I will take hammer and nails, and I will crucify this Beauharnais called Bonaparte, between this Leroy called Saint-Arnoud, and this Fialin called Persigny! And I would drag you there also, all of you accomplices!
This was the party: the two ambassadors, the Prince de la Moskowa, Persigny, Walewski Bonaparte's natural son, and the image of his father the Marquis de Toulongeon, Master of the Horse, and we three Englishmen. We met punctually at eleven in the grand saloon. Here the Emperor joined us, with his cigarette in his mouth, shook hands with each, and bade us take our places in the char-a-bancs.
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