Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/281

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SUET AN. 239 than as a politician. He was a buyer and seller chap. of those fractional and volatile interests in trading XIV ' adventures which go by the name of ' shares ; ' and since it has chanced that the nature of some of his transactions has been brought to light by the public tribunals, it is probable that the kind of repute in which he is held may be owing in part to those disclosures.* He knew how to found a ' company/ and he now undertook to estab- lish institutions which were destined to be more lucrative to him than any of his former adventures. M. Morny was a practical man. If Prince Louis Napoleon was going to be content with a vision- ary life, thinking fondly of the hour when grateful France would come of her own accord and salute him Emperor, M. Morny was not the sort of person who would consent to stand loitering with him in the hungry land of dreams. It seems, however, that the man who was the Fieury. most able to make the President act, to drive him deep into his own plot, and fiercely carry him through it, was Major Fieury. Fieury was young, but his life had been checkered. He was the son of a Paris tradesman, from whom at an early age he had inherited a pleasant sum of money. He plunged into the enjoyments of Paris with so much ardour that that phase of his career was soon cut short; but whilst his father's friends were no M. Cabrol, Tribunal of the Seine, January 21 and June 30, 1853 ; and the suit instituted by the shareholders of the 'Con- ' Btitutionnel ' against Veron, Mires, and Morny.
 * The trials here referred to are the action for libel against