head of the expedition. I knew him very well, and I hastened to beg him to solicit the Minister to give me a command under the Comte in this expedition. I was in error, there had never been any question of employing Comte de Behague, and I do not know to whom the command was
eventually given.
It was a pleasant dream the more; but at all events I had the advantage of seeing the royal present which the little prince had bestowed,—I do not know why,—on the Comtesse la Marck. She was then living in the Tuileries, in the rooms now occupied by the Dauphiness. I saw on the
chimney-piece a pair of stag's horns,—a singular present about which a good many sarcastic remarks were made. For my own part, I was more struck by the beauty of the Cochin-Chinese stags than I was by the importance of a kingdom, the sovereign of which could be driven from his throne by five hundred men and a couple of frigates, but, between ourselves, I never said this until after I knew that I should not belong to the expedition.
