Recollections of the Last Half-Century. By Count Orsi. (Long- mans
and Co.)—Count Orsi's " Reoolleetions " are chiefly concerned with the early days of Napoleon III. He went to America on a mission to extract from the ex-King Joseph funds which might be used in subsidising a movement. Joseph was careful of his money, but gave some pictures, which may be guessed to have been Spanish loot, to be sold for what they would fetch. The Count was concerned in the insurrection of the Brothers Menotti, in 1831, though he tells us that he protested against an attempt which was certain, he thought, to end in failure. (We wonder whether the speech on p. 13, assigned to the year 1828, but so marvellously forecasting the events of 1858, was a prophecy or a recollection ?) He accompanied Prince Louis in the Boulogne expedition, and has a curious explanation to make about the famous eagle. A certain colonel, he tells us, found a boy with the bird in the streets of Gravesend, and insisted on buying it. Surely here was a manifest interference of the good or evil genius of the Napoleons. Never before and never since, we may safely affirm, was a boy to be seen in the streets of Gravesend with a tame eagle for sale. Perhaps the most amusing thing in the book is the interview with the Duke of Brunswick, from whom Prince Louis wanted to borrow some money. This was the manner of the Duke's introducing himself to his visitor :—" All of a sudden, the head of man, covered with a huge, black-plash hood, which concealed all but the nose, peeped in through the curtains. The hood formed part of a long gown, also of black plush, which was fastened to the waist by thick silk cord. It was the Duke of Brunswick. His hands were
plunged into the two side pockets of his robe de chambre, grasping a revolver in each of them."
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