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THE RETURN OF "THE LAST HOPE".
Not only France, but all Europe, had at this time to reckon with one who, if, as his enemies said, was no Bonaparte, was a very plausible imitation of one.
In 1849 France, indeed, was kind enough to give the world a breathing space.

She had herself just come through one of those seething years from which she alone seems to have the power of complete recovery.
Paris had been in a state of siege for four months; not threatened by a foreign foe, but torn to pieces by internal dissension.

Sixteen thousand had been killed and wounded in the streets.

A ministry had fallen.