How dreadful it must have been!
Prince Metternich was most indignant at Rochefort, and says he can never forgive him because, in an article in La Lanterne, he called the royal martyr "the Archdupe." Auber said:
"You must not forget that Rochefort would rather sell his soul than lose an occasion to make a clever remark."
"Yes, I know," moaned the Prince. "But how can one be so cruel?"
"C'est un mauvais drôle," Auber answered (don't think Auber meant that Rochefort was droll; on the contrary, this is a neat way that the French have of calling a man the worst kind of a scamp), and added, "Rochefort's brains are made of pétards," which is the French for firecrackers.
Auber told many anecdotes. I fancy he wanted to cheer Prince Metternich up a little. One of them was that, on taking leave of the Emperor, the Shah had said:
"Sire, your Paris is wonderful, your palaces splendid, and your horses magnificent, but," waving his hand toward the mature but noble dames d'honneur with an expression of disapproval, "you must change all that." Imagine what their feelings would have been had they heard him.
PARIS, August, 1867.
DEAR M.,—I thought there would be a little rest for me after the distribution of prizes and before going to Dinard; but repose is a thing, it seems, that I am destined never to get.
Monday morning I received a letter from Princess Metternich saying that the Minister of Foreign Affairs had sent her his box for that evening, to hear Schneider in "La Belle Hélène," adding that Cora Pearl was to appear as Cupidon as an extra attraction, and asked if we would dine with them first, and go afterward to the theater.