Chapter FourAs Lord Marston stepped out of the carriage, he yawned with relief that the evening was over.
He always disliked the more intimate parties that he had to attend at the Tuileries.
The old Palace of Catherine de Medici had for three hundred years housed a succession of French Sovereigns.
When the Second Empire came into being, the Emperor Napoleon III had to create a Court.
He restored the pomp and ceremony of his uncle’s Empire and, as it was a vital and brilliant age, his Court, which was to be the last, was the most resplendent ever known.
But in spite of all the pomp and circumstance, the food and wine that was served at the Emperor’s table was second rate and, as one guest wrote afterwards, ‘the cooking was simple, plentiful and the slightly dated cooking of a conscient
