Volume 1

The memoirs of Dr. Thomas W. Evans : recollections of the second French empire / edited by Edward A. Crane, M. D.

  • Thomas W. Evans
Date:
1905
Catalogue details

Licence: Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)

Credit: The memoirs of Dr. Thomas W. Evans : recollections of the second French empire / edited by Edward A. Crane, M. D. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    family and country. I had a strong attachment to the relatives and friends I had left in America, and, more especially, I wished to see my mother, as she was advancing in years, and I told him that I felt it a duty to go to her. He said he perfectly understood my wish to return home and my strong desire to see my mother, and that he was glad I felt as I did. He then asked me when I proposed going. On my telling him the date of sailing I had fixed upon, he said, “ Come and see me again before you go,” naming a day. As he was at the Palace of Saint Cloud I was to go there. Upon my arrival, at the time appointed, he received me in the room which he occupied as a study, on the floor below the apartments of the Empress. After some conversation he led me up the private staircase, and opened the door into the first room, which was a boudoir, or ante-chamber, giving access to her Majesty’s apartments. Imme- diately upon my entering this room with him, for the purpose of saying, as he said, goodbye to the Empress, he took from the table a case containing the cross of a Knight of the Legion of Honour, and, as I stood before him, he fixed the cross to the lapel of my coat, saying, “ We want you to go home a Knight.” He then opened the door leading into the room where the Empress was, and said, as she came forward, “ The Empress wishes to be the first to con- gratulate the Chevalier; ” and he added, “ I hope your friends in America will understand how much you are appreciated by us. You will promise us to come back again, won’t you ? ” This was said in that tone of voice and with an expression in his eyes, full
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