She adds, speaking of the empress:  “Her manner is the most perfect thing I have ever seen, so gentle and graceful and kind, and the courtesy is charming,—­so modest and retiring withal.”

The next day came a council attended by the emperor, Prince Albert, ministers, and diplomatists, which lasted so very long that the queen herself knocked at the door and reminded them that at four o’clock the emperor was to be invested with the Order of the Garter.

After this ceremony was over, the emperor remarked to the queen that he had now sworn fidelity to her Majesty, and would carefully keep his oath.

At dinner that day the talk fell on assassination.  The emperor was shot at by a Carbonaro only a few days after his return from Windsor, and four years later by Orsini.

Before leaving England the emperor attended a banquet given to him by the Lord Mayor.  At Windsor he read his speech (in English) to the queen and prince, who pronounced it a very good one.

Next day the royalties went to see the Crystal Palace, at Sydenham.  There they were surrounded by sight-seeing throngs, and in such a crowd there was every chance for a pistol-shot from some French or Italian refugee.  “I own I felt anxious,” writes the queen; “I felt as I walked, leaning on the emperor’s arm, that I was possibly a protection to him.”

Afterwards she writes,—­

“On all, this visit has left a permanent satisfactory impression.  It went off so well,—­not a contre-temps ... fine weather, everything smiling, the nation enthusiastic and happy in the alliance of two great countries whose enmity would be fatal....  I am glad to have known this extraordinary man, whom it is certainly not possible not to like when you live with him, and not, even to a considerable extent, to admire....  I believe him capable of kindness, affection, friendship, gratitude.  I feel confidence in him as regards the future.  I think he is frank, means well to us, and, as Stockmar says, that we have insured his sincerity and good faith to us for the rest of his life.”

Nearly a year after this visit, when the emperor and empress had been married about three years, the Prince Imperial was born, March 16, 1856.  A few hours after his birth he was christened Napoleon Eugene Louis Jean Joseph.  Pope Pius IX. was his godfather, the Queen of Sweden his godmother.  For many hours the empress, like her imperial predecessor Marie Louise, was dangerously ill.

The Crimean War had by that time virtually come to a triumphant end.  The emperor had at last an heir; all things appeared to smile upon him.  A general amnesty was issued to all political offenders.  The emperor became godfather and the empress godmother to all legitimate children born in France upon their son’s birthday, and finally the little prince had a public baptism at Notre Dame, followed by a ball of extraordinary magnificence, given by the city of Paris to the mother of the heir-apparent, at the Hotel-de-Ville.