That my visit to Paris had caused displeasure at the court at home, and had intensified, especially in the case of Queen Elizabeth, the ill-feelings already entertained towards me, I was able to perceive at the end of September of the same year.  While the King was proceeding down the Rhine to Cologne to attend the cathedral building festival, I reported myself at Coblentz and was, with my wife, invited by his Majesty to perform the journey to Cologne on the steamer; my wife, however, was ignored by the Queen on board and at Remagen.[33] The Prince of Prussia, who had observed this, gave my wife his arm and led her to table.  At the conclusion of the meal I begged for permission to return to Frankfort, which was granted me.

It was not until the following winter, during which the King had again approached me, that he asked me once at dinner, straight across the table, my opinion concerning Louis Napoleon; his tone was ironical.  I replied:  “It is my impression that the Emperor Napoleon is a discreet and amiable man, but that he is not so clever as the world esteems him.  The world places to his account everything that happens, and if it rains in eastern Asia at an unseasonable moment chooses to attribute it to some malevolent machination of the Emperor.  Here especially we have become accustomed to regard him as a kind of genie du mal who is forever only meditating how to do mischief in the world.[34] I believe he is happy when he is able to enjoy anything good at his ease; his understanding is overrated at the expense of his heart; he is at bottom good-natured and has an unusual measure of gratitude for every service rendered him.”

The King laughed at this in a manner that vexed me and led me to ask whether I might be permitted to guess his Majesty’s present thoughts.  The King consented, and I said:  “General von Canitz used to lecture to the young officers in the military school on the campaigns of Napoleon.  An assiduous listener asked him how Napoleon could have omitted to make this or that movement.  Canitz replied:  ’Well, you see just what this Napoleon was—­a real goodhearted fellow, but so stupid!’ which naturally excited great mirth among the military scholars.  I fear that your Majesty is thinking of me much as General von Canitz thought of his pupils.”

The King laughed and said:  “You may be right; but I am not sufficiently acquainted with the present Napoleon to be able to impugn your impression that his heart is better than his head.”  That the Queen was dissatisfied with my view I was enabled to gather from the external trifles by which impressions are made known at court.

The displeasure felt at my intercourse with Napoleon sprang from the idea of “Legitimacy,” or, more strictly speaking, from the word itself, which was stamped with its modern sense by Talleyrand, and used in 1814 and 1815 with great success and to the advantage of the Bourbons as a deluding spell.