which the instruction was given; but a high order of intelligence, combined with great diligence and unremitting labour, have enabled him to improve his position in almost every succeeding examination, and he now, as a final result, stands seventh in a class of thirty-four, a position which, if he was to enter her Majesty's army, entitles him to elect service in either the artillery or engineers corps.

"I have further to report, that the Prince Imperial, by his invariable punctuality and exactitude in the performance of his duties and submission to discipline, has set an example which deserves honourable mention even among these his comrades of the commission class."

Great applause followed this announcement from Sir G. Lintorn Simmons.

On February 24th, 1875, the officers of the Royal Artillery entertained the Prince at mess, when General Aguilar rose to propose his health, and spoke in high praise of the manner in which he had acquitted himself in his studies at Woolwich. General Aguilar said that as the position he had attained would have enabled him to choose service in either ordnance corps, had he been about to enter the English army, he imagined that were the Prince ever to associate his imperial name with the grand artillery of France, it would be with the Royal Artillery Corps.

The Prince, when he rose to reply, thanked General Aguilar for the hearty manner in which

the toast, given in his honour, had been drunk, and said he hoped that the officers of the Royal Artillery would still let him feel that he belonged

to their corps. Thanks to the hospitality of

England, he had been able to carry on the tradition of his family, which had always been "a family of gunners.'

He had been precluded from obtaining his education in France, but was proud for having as companions the sons of men who had fought so bravely with France on many a battlefield. He should never forget the years he spent at Woolwich, or the honour of belonging to a corps whose motto was

"Ubique quo fas et gloria ducunt."

Although the Prince had completed his military studies at Woolwich, and in 1875 took up his abode at Chislehurst, he continued to take the warmest interest in all that pertained to the Royal Academy, and constantly went over to visit his fellow-cadets there. One of these, a very promising young man, the son of General Philpot, died soon after the Prince left Woolwich, and he attended his funeral, walking as one of the mourners behind the coffin to the cemetery.

The following year the Prince was attached, during the autumn manoeuvres, to Major Ward Ashton's battery of Artillery, and showed, both in these military operations, as well as others in which he took part, great interest.

R

On July 22nd, 1876, the Prince, while serving with a battery of artillery at Aldershot, attempted somewhat rashly to jump a cainp-fire, and falling into it, burnt his arm severely.

Notwithstanding the severe pain the accident caused, he rode into Guildford with the battery on the following Monday, but during the day his arm became so swollen, and the pain so severe, that considerable fever followed, and Dr. Stedman was called in to attend his Imperial Highness. The Prince, with his usual courage, determined, however, to ride on the following day. When, however, Dr. Stedman saw him at six a.m., his arm was so inflamed that he forbad horse exercise, and the Prince drove into Dorking, where for two days he remained under Dr. Stedman's care, when he was permitted to travel as far as Chislehurst, where the Empress nursed him until his

recovery.

Dr. Stedman was much impressed with the fortitude the Prince displayed during the dressing of the wound, which caused excessive pain, as also with the courteous and kindly manner with which he thanked him for the services he had rendered him.

243

CHAPTER XIII.

MAJORITY OF THE PRINCE.

"The shades of night were falling fast,
As through an Alpine village pass'd
A youth, who bore, 'mid snow and ice,
A banner with the strange device

Excelsior."

ON the 16th of March, 1874, the Prince Imperial attained his majority. He was then eighteen. years old; and according to the decree passed by the Senate at Paris at his birth, this was the age at which he was to enter into possession of his rights, and be considered, in case of his father's previous death, the head of the Napoleon dynasty. Although the Prince was separated from it by exile, the Imperialist party determined to celebrate the event with as great a demonstration as possible. As this could not under the circumstances take place in France, they decided to go over in numbers to Chislehurst, and there swear fealty to their new chief.

The interest in the event was so widespread in Paris that the authorities took alarm, and issued a proclamation forbidding the railways to organize

any cheap or special train to London, as also any Government officials whatever to attend the proposed inauguration. In face of this determined op. position, Buonapartists arrived from all quarters ; at Paris alone the tickets registered for Chislehurst, at the Station du Nord, amounted to nearly 8000, whilst large reinforcements from the provinces swelled the train. These masses of French people arrived early in the day at Chislehurst, and congregated in the fields, on the common, and in and around the little church of that quiet Kentish village, where a religious service was to be held previously to the inauguration ceremony. Here in its marble sarcophagus the remains of their exiled Emperor lay, a centre of reverent and devoted affection to the numbers assembled that day to transfer their allegiance to his son. The morning was bright, and the inhabitants of Chislehurst, anxious also to tender their congratulations to the Prince who had made his home among them, suspended tricoloured flags and banners from every available height, and joined with the foreign crowds in celebrating the anniversary with joy.

Camden House had already been filled by the various members of the Buonaparte family, and Imperialists of distinction who had likewise assembled to honour the occasion. These, with the Empress and her son, first attended service in the chapel; and as they passed slowly along through lines of their French adherents, every head was uncovered, and cries of "Vive l'Empereur!" were