All manner of rumours are in circulation in London, but
none of them deserve or receive very much belief. It is said that the Empress Eugenie has requested permission to pass through Belgium, a permission not needed ; that 50 tons of bullion have been forwarded to England through the South-Eastern Railway, an improbability, though 50 tons of gold would be little more than the sum withdrawn this week from the cellars of the Bank of France ; that Prince Jerome has sent all valuables in the Palais Royal to Switzerland ; and finally, that the Emperor has been visited with an attack of febrile monomania, during which he perpetually exclaims, " I am betrayed!" That he is betrayed is true, the men he made turning on him with all the violence of enemies, —vide About's diary, the object of which is to make the Emperor per- sonally responsible for MacMahon's defeat—but these rumours are very vague. It is not even certain, though the Paris correspondent of the Pall Mall Gazette affirms it positively, that the Emperor is at Rheims, much less that he is ill. Indeed, perhaps the most wonderful incident in this wonderful war is the way in which Napoleon, but yesterday re-elected by seven millions of votes, has lost control of France. His uncle was master, and was obeyed, till the day of abdication.
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