with cheerful and beaming faces, for the government sought their support and influence; the papers were filled with the movements of the imperial court at races, in hunting-parties, and visits to the chateaux of the great.  The whole city seemed to be absorbed in pleasure or gain, and crowds swarmed at all places of amusement with contented faces:  there was no outward sign of despotism or unhappiness, since everybody found employment.  Even the idlers who frequented the crowded cafes of the boulevards seemed to take unusual pleasure at their games of dominoes and at their tables of beer and wine.  Visitors wondered at the apparent absence of all restraint from government and at the personal liberty which everybody seemed practically to enjoy.  For ten years after the coup d’etat it was the general impression that the government of Louis Napoleon was a success.  In spite of the predictions and hostile criticisms of famous statesmen, it was, to all appearance at least, stable, and the nation was prosperous.

The enemies that the emperor had the most cause to dread were these famous statesmen themselves.  Thiers, Guizot, Broglie, Odillon Barrot, had all been prime ministers, and most of the rest had won their laurels under Louis Philippe.  They either declined to serve under Napoleon III. or had been neglected by him; their political power had passed away.  They gave vent, whenever they could with personal safety, to their spleen, to their disappointment, to their secret hostility; they all alike prophesied evil; they all professed to believe that the emperor could not maintain his position two years,—­that he would be carried off by assassination or revolution.  And joined with them in bitter hatred was the whole literary class,—­like Victor Hugo, Lamartine, and Cousin,—­who hurled curses and defiance from their retreats, or from the fashionable salons and clubs which they frequented.  The old noblesse stood aloof.  St. Germain was like a foreign city rather than a part of Paris.  All the traders among the Legitimists and Orleanists continued in a state of secret hostility, and threw all the impediments they could against the government.

The situation of Louis Napoleon was indeed extremely difficult and critical.  He had to fight against the combined influences of rank, fashion, and intellect,—­against an enlightened public opinion; for it could not be forgotten that his power was usurped, and sustained by brute force and the ignorant masses.  He would have been nothing without the army.  In some important respects he showed marvellous astuteness and political sagacity,—­such, for instance, as in converting England from an enemy to a friend.  But he won England by playing the card of common interests against Russia.

The emperor was afraid to banish the most eminent men in his empire; so he tolerated them and hated them,—­suspending over their heads the sword of Damocles.  This they understood, and kept quiet except among themselves.  But France was a hotbed of sedition and discontent during the whole reign of Louis Napoleon, at least among the old government leaders,—­Orleanists, Legitimists, and Republicans alike.