I did not blame France for her part in the scheme to erect a monarchy upon the ruins of the Mexican Republic. That was the
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for his influence would have been very great with the Mexicans, who knew how ardently he had supported their cause, but he sternly refused to interfere.
Indeed, his indirect advice to the Mexican Minister at Washington, doubtless communicated to his Government, was in favor of meting the same punishment to a crowned offender as to humbler culprits.
I state this on General Grant's authority.
He never forgave the Bonapartes.
When he was in England and a guest at my house, he received an invitation from Mr., now Sir Algernon Borthwick, the proprietor of The Morning Post, a man of political and social importance, and who had been a staunch friend of Napoleon III.
The party was a breakfast in the country to meet the Prince Imperial; Grant declined the invitation politely; he said to me that he was unwilling to show any courtesy of a significant character to the son of the man who had so injured this country in the moment of its greatest peril.
I went to the party, for Borthwick had always been civil to me, and when I was presented to the Prince he inquired very courteously about General Grant.
On my return I repeated his remarks, for I always told my chief whatever was said to me about him, of whatever character; but he was in no degree mollified.
He was never good at concealing emotions of a harsher character, and disliked to the last all hollow courtesies.
The Empress heard some of his criticisms and retaliated in kind.
In the last months, almost the last weeks, of Grant's life, when he was closing his eyes upon the dissensions and rancors of this world, after he had forgiven the South and spoken kindly even of Rosecrans and Jefferson Davis, he still retained an implacable dislike for Louis Napoleon's acts and character.
In the concluding pages of his Memoirs—written under the very shadow of the scythe of the Destroyer —may be found these lines:
S. S. Scranton and Co., Hartford, 1887.
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