The great perplexity of the new emperor was his relation to Italy.  He and his brother had taken the oaths of a Carbonaro in that country, in 1831.  It is not to this day certain that his brother did not die by a Carbonaro’s knife, rather than by the measles.  Be that as it may, Louis Napoleon knew that if he failed to keep his promises as to the liberation of Italy, assassination awaited him.

How he endeavored to reconcile his engagements as a Carbonaro with his policy as the French emperor belongs less to the historical gossip of France than to that of Italy.  So too the history of the Crimean War seems to belong par excellence to that of Russia.  It was undertaken by England and France as allies, joined afterwards by a Sardinian army under General La Marmora, by the Turkish troops under Omar Pasha, and by an Egyptian contingent; but as we are now engaged on the personal history of the emperor and empress, I will rather here tell how Napoleon III., having formed a camp of one hundred thousand soldiers at Boulogne, on the very ground where his uncle had assembled his great army for the invasion of England, decided to ascertain, through his ambassador in London, if it would be agreeable to Prince Albert to visit that camp and see the manoeuvres of his army.  Finding that the invitation would be acceptable to the prince, he addressed him the following letter:—­

  July 3, 1854.

MON FRERE,—­Your Royal Highness knows that putting in practice your own idea, and wishing to carry out to the end the struggle with Russia that we have begun together, I have decided to form an army between Boulogne and St. Omer.  I need not tell your Highness how pleased I should be to see you, and how happy I should be to show you my soldiers.  I am convinced, moreover, that personal ties will strengthen the union so happily established between two great nations.  I beg you to present my respectful homage to the queen, and to receive this expression of the esteem and sincere affection I have conceived for you.

With this, mon frere, I pray God to have you in his holy keeping.

  NAPOLEON.

The prince accepted the invitation, addressing the emperor as “Sire et mon frere.”  The queen entirely approved the visit, and Baron Stockmar predicted much advantage from it, “inasmuch,” he said, “as the good or evil destiny of the present time will directly and chiefly depend upon a rational, honorable, and resolute alliance between England and France.”

Prince Albert met the emperor at Boulogne, Sept. 4, 1854.  The Duke of Newcastle, who was in attendance on Prince Albert, wrote to a friend that tears stood in the emperor’s eyes when he received his guest as he stepped upon French soil; and the prince wrote that evening to the queen:—­