After his escape to London from Ham, Louis Napoleon, however, does seem to have consulted with D’Orsay, and acting upon his advice to have written to the French Ambassador to the Court of St James, stating that it was his intention to settle down quietly as a private individual; which statement was doubtless taken for what it was worth. D’Orsay may have helped, also, toward Napoleon’s election as President by interesting friends in his cause, but of the schemes upon the empty imperial throne D’Orsay appears to have been ignorant. Indeed, he went so far as to express his opinion of the coup d’état, that “it is the greatest political swindle that ever has been practised in the world!”
The following letter to Landor from Lady Blessington is interesting:—
“Gore House, 28th February 1848.
“I will not admit that the eruption of the Parisian volcano has brought out only cinders from your brain, au contraire, the lava is glowing and full of fire—your honest indignation has been ignited and has sent forth a bright flame.
“It gave me great pleasure to see your handwriting again, for I had thought it long since I had heard from you. I saw it stated to-day in the Daily News that Count d’Orsay had set out for Paris with Prince Louis. This report is wholly untrue. Prince Louis has gone to Paris alone. Here no one pities Louis Philippe, nor has the report of his death mitigated the indignation excited against him. His family are to be pitied, for I believe they were not implicated in his crooked policy. Seldom has vengeance so rapidly overtaken guilt.”
Still more interesting this from Landor to Lady Blessington, written about a year later, on 9th January 1849—
“Possibly you may never have seen the two articles I enclose. I inserted in the Examiner another, deprecating the anxieties which a truly patriotic and, in my opinion, a singularly wise man, was about to encounter, in accepting the Presidency of France. Necessity will compel him to assume the Imperial Power, to which the voice of the army and people will call him.
“You know (who know not only my writings, but my heart) how little I care for station. I may therefore tell you safely, that I feel a great interest, a great anxiety, for the welfare of Louis Napoleon. I told him if ever he were again in prison, I would visit him there; but never, if he were upon a throne, would I come near him. He is the only man living who would adorn one, but thrones are my aversion and abhorrence. France, I fear, can exist in no other condition. Her public men are greatly more able than ours, but they have less integrity. Every Frenchman is by nature an intriguer. It was not always so, to the same extent; but nature is modified, and even changed, by circumstances. Even garden statues take their form from clay.
“God protect the virtuous Louis Napoleon, and prolong in happiness the days of my dear, kind friend, Lady Blessington.
“W. S. L.”