Page:Life of Her Majesty Queen Victoria (IA lifeofhermajesty01fawc).pdf/206

 the changes and vicissitudes of life he would ever be scheming and suspicious. Their eyes must have been opened to his real character by the quality of the people by whom he was served and surrounded. Throughout France, with very few exceptions, honest men and women held aloof from him. Greville speaks of the crowd which formed his Court as being more "encanaillées" than ever. The Prince Consort saw and lamented this, and endeavored to convince him that no Sovereign could be great without the aid of great Ministers. But great Ministers were not to be had for the asking. Louis Napoleon had so little confidence in his accredited representatives that in matters of first-class importance they were set on one side, and the business was conducted by the Emperor in person. This was not astonishing, as honest men mostly declined to serve him; he had to do as best he could with inferior material, and naturally could not rely on it in moments of emergency.

Little by little the true character of Louis Napoleon was revealed to the Queen, and under these circumstances it is easy to understand that though the social intercourse between the two Sovereigns was not abruptly cut short, yet it became very constrained and uneasy. The Queen and Prince paid two visits to Cherbourg: the first was in 1857, and was entirely private and informal; the Royal couple were accompanied by six of their children, and the main object of the visit was holiday-making; but their diaries and letters contain significant observations upon the great strength of the Cherbourg fortifications, and the Queen, with her habitual openness, said it made her "very unhappy" to see the enormous strength and size of the forts; while the Prince, in more diplomatic language, says the gigantic strength of the place had given him "grave cause for reflection." They went