It was a fortunate time to be in Paris for those who had no personal nervousness, and liked to be near the scene of great events--a most anxious time for any who were alarmed at disturbances, or took keenly to heart the horrors of street fighting.

Fortunately for the Brownings, they, whether by temperament or through their Italian experiences, were not unduly disturbed at revolutions, while the horrors of Louis Napoleon's _coup d'etat_ were, no doubt, only partly known to Mrs.Browning at the time, and were palliated to her by the view she took of Napoleon's character.

She had not, it is true, raised him as yet to the pinnacle on which his intervention on behalf of Italy subsequently caused her to place him, but (perhaps owing to what Mr.
Kenyon called her 'immoral sympathy with power') she was always disposed to put a favourable construction on his actions, and the _coup d'etat_ was finally whitewashed for her by the approbation which the _plebiscite_ of December 20 gave to his assumption of supreme power.

Her views are, however, so fully set forth in her own letters that they need not be detailed here.

For her husband's opinion of the character of Louis Napoleon, at least as it appeared to him when looking back after the lapse of years, it is only necessary to refer to 'Prince Hohenstiel-Schwangau.' * * * * * _To Mrs.Jameson_ [Paris,] 138 Avenue des Champs-Elysees: October 21, [1851].
But didn't you, dearest friend, get 'Casa Guidi' and the portrait of Madme de Goethe, left for you in the London house?
I felt a _want_ of leaving a word of adieu with these, and then the chaotic confusion in which we left England stifled the better purpose out of me.
With such mixed feelings I went away.