[6] 1,000 frs. = £40.
[7] Napoleon I.
[8] An allusion to M. Flaubert's 'Madame Bovary.'—Ed.
[9] This was the duel between St. Arnaud and Cornemuse, in which the latter was killed. Both had been accused of stealing 4,000l. in notes off the Emperor's table, but the real culprit was probably King Jérôme, Napoleon's uncle.—Ed.
[10] There was a similar instrument—like a cottage piano in shape but with a handle at the side—in the Empress's private rooms at the Tuileries; and at her Majesty's Monday receptions, Prince Richard Metternich, the Austrian Ambassador, would 'grind' it by the hour just like some professional of the streets. Mérimée fell out for a time with Chevalier Nigra, Victor Emmanuel's representative, because he suggested one afternoon that the latter should relieve the Prince, maliciously adding that organ grinding was essentially an Italian art.—Ed.
[11] One million sterling per annum for himself; 400,000l. for the Empress Eugénie; and 200.000l. for the Prince Imperial!—Ed.
[12] The narrative which follows above is virtually matter of history, only for Gilquin's name one should substitute that of a detective officer who carried his information to M. Claude, afterwards famous as the chief of the French detective police.—Ed.
[13] Felice Orsini.
[14] A favourite nickname for Napoleon III.; properly the name of the workman whose clothes he donned when escaping from the fort of Ham.—Ed.
[15] The Opera-house then stood there.—Ed.