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 THE FLIGHT OF EUGENIE. 289 From Madrid she was sent to Toulouse, and afterwards to Bristol to pursue her education. When she left school she was a beautiful and accomplished young lady, easy in her manners and fluent in conversation, which she could carry on with apparently equal ease in Spanish, English, or French. She possessed more than the average informa- tion, and displayed a readiness and aptness of reply which on some occasions approached the brilliancy of wit. Her beauty was striking and exceptional ; her form slen- der and perfectly moulded ; her complexion brilliantly fair ; her black eyes large and expressive ; her hair abund- ant and of a rich auburn color. It is not surprising that when she traveled with her mother she became success- ively the belle of the season in London, Madrid, and Paris. While in London she was introduced to Louis Napoleon, then an exile from France, and distinguished chiefly for the absurd and disastrous failure of his first attempt to overthrow the government of Louis Philippe. In 1851 she met him again. He was then called Napoleon III, and she was regarded as one of the leaders of fashion in Paris. In 1853 he communicated to the Senate his determination to marry her. " I come, then, gentlemen," he said in the document conveying this intelligence, "to say to France that I have preferred the woman whom I love, and whom I respect, to one who is unknown, whose alliance would have advant- ages mingled with sacrifices." This had rather a taking sound, and, in truth, the man did possess a small literary gift, adapted to his style of public falsehood. It was a purely histrionic style, designed to conceal the writer's thought, but often failing in that design. Unfortunately for the effect of these fine words upon the public, it was surmised at the time, and is now known, that he had been soliciting the alliance of