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 294 THE FLIGHT OF EUGENIE. "The Prussians are beaten ! " Court etiquette and the rules of audience were insensi- bly relaxed, and strange visitors were admitted to the Tuileries. Eugenie found herself besieged by men deter- mined to bully or coax her into giving countenance to their plans for a new campaign, new implements of war, new policy, or new officials — the latter represented by themselves. The servants of the palace, too, perceived their opportunity and did not let it slip. Many absconded, carrying away with them valuable bronzes, statuettes, and articles of clothing ; others invited their friends and held feasts in the kitchen. Once, owing to their carelessness, a lunch set out for the Empress was devoured by a crowd of people awaiting audience, who swooped down upon it from a neighboring ante-chamber. At last came the news of her husband's surrender at Sedan. Eugenie was up all night ; council after council was held, as new reports and scraps of information arrived. Finally, at five o'clock in the morning, it was decided that she should ride on horseback through the streets of Paris, and herself proclaim to the unpopular Legislature its dissolution. This resolution, however, was never carried into effect, for lack of a riding dress ! A plain black habit with the cross of the Legion of Honor pinned upon her breast was what she had made up her mind to wear, but among the three hundred dresses then hanging on their pegs in the Tuileries, there was only one riding habit to be found, and that was neither black nor plain. It was a dress of gorgeous green, embroidered with gold, and designed to be worn with a three-cornered Louis XV hat — the costume of the imperial hunt at Fontainebleau. This was pronounced, with evident justice, to be too theatrical, and the enterprise was con- sequently relinquished. Upon the fourth of September, the mob so long feared