There is a gap in the letter-books until October, 1866, but from the few letters to members of the family which have been preserved, and from my own recollections, we know that the summer of 1866 was most delightfully spent in journeying through France, Germany, and Switzerland. The children were now old enough not to be the nuisances they seem to have been in 1858, for we find no note of complaint on that account.
In September he returned with his wife, his daughter, and his youngest son to Paris, leaving his two older sons with their tutor in Geneva. As he wished to make Paris his headquarters for nearly a year, he sought and found a furnished apartment at No. 10 Avenue du Roi de Rome (now the Avenue du Trocadero), and he writes to his mother-in-law on September 22: "We are fortunate in having apartments in a new building, or rather one newly and completely repaired throughout. All the apartments are newly furnished with elegant furniture, we having the first use of it. We have ample rooms, not large, but promising more comfort for winter residence than if they were larger. The situation is on a wide avenue and central for many purposes; close to the Champs Elysées, near also to the Bois de Boulogne, and within a few minutes walk of the Champ de Mars, so that we shall be most eligibly situated to visit the great Exposition when it opens in April."
His wife's sister, Mrs. Goodrich, with her husband and daughters, occupied an apartment in the same building; his grandson Charles Lind was also in Paris studying painting, and before the summer of the next year other members of his family came to Paris, so that at one time eighteen of those related to him by blood or marriage were around him. To a man of Morse's affectionate nature and loyalty to family this was a source of peculiar joy, and those Parisian days were some of the happiest of his life. The rest of the autumn and early winter were spent in sight-seeing and in settling his children in their various studies.
The brilliance of the court of Napoleon III just before the débâcle of 1870 is a matter of history, and it reached its high-water mark during the Exposition year of 1867, when emperors, kings, and princes journeyed to Paris to do homage to the man of the hour. Court balls, receptions, gala performances at opera and theatre, and military reviews followed each other in bewildering but well-ordered confusion, and Morse, as a man of worldwide celebrity, took part in all of them. He and his wife and his young daughter, a girl of sixteen, were presented at court, and were fêted everywhere. In a letter to his mother-in-law he gives a description of his court costume on the occasion of his first presentation, when he was accompanied only by his brother-in-law, Mr. Goodrich:—
"We received our cards inviting us to the soirée and to pass the evening with their majesties on the 16th of January (Wednesday evening). 'En uniforme' was stamped upon the card, so we had to procure court dresses. Mr. Goodrich, as is the custom in most cases, hired his; I had a full suit made for me. A chapeau bras, with gold lace loop, a blue coat, with standing collar, single breasted, richly embroidered with gold lace, the American eagle button, white silk lining, vest light cashmere with gilt buttons, pantaloons with a broad stripe of gold lace on the outside seams, a small sword, and patent-leather shoes or boots completed the dress of ordinary mortals like Brother Goodrich, but for _extra_ordinary mortals, like my humble republican self, I was bedizened with all my orders, seven decorations, covering my left breast. If thus accoutred I should be seen on Broadway, I should undoubtedly have a numerous escort of a character not the most agreeable, but, as it was, I found myself in very good and numerous company, none of whom could consistently laugh at his neighbors."
After describing the ceremony of presentation he continues:—
"Occasionally both the emperor and empress said a few words to particular individuals. When my name was mentioned the emperor said to me, 'Your name, sir, is well known here,' for which I thanked him; and the empress afterwards said to me, when my name was mentioned, 'We are greatly indebted to you, sir, for the Telegraph,' or to that effect. Afterwards Mr. Bennett, the winner of the yacht race, engaged for a moment their particular regards…. [I wonder if the modest inventor appreciated the irony of this juxtaposition.] After the dancers were fully engaged, the refreshment-room, the Salon of Diana, was opened, and, as in our less aristocratic country, the tables attracted a great crowd, so that the doors were guarded so as to admit the company by instalments. I had in vain for some time endeavored to gain admittance, and was waiting patiently quite at a distance from the door, which was thronged with ladies and high dignitaries, when a gentleman who guarded the door, and who had his breast covered with orders, addressed me by name, asking me if I was not Professor Morse. Upon replying in the affirmative, quite to my surprise, he made way for me to the door and, opening it, admitted me before all the rest. I cannot yet divine why this special favor was shown to me.
"The tables were richly furnished. I looked for bonbons to carry home to the children, but when I saw some tempting looking almonds and candies and mottoes, to my surprise I found they were all composed of fish put up in this form, and the mottoes were of salad."
It is good to know that Morse, ever willing to forgive and forget, was again on terms of friendly intercourse with Cyrus W. Field, who was then in London, as the following letter to him, dated March 1, 1867, will show:—
"Singular as it may seem, I was in the midst of your speech before the Chamber of Commerce reception to you in New York, perusing it with deep interest, when my valet handed me your letter of the 27th ulto.