A Foreign Office Romance.docVIP

A Foreign Office Romance Project Gutenberg Consortia Centers Classic Literature Collection Britannica Online Encyclopedia and the Project Gutenberg Consortia Center, bringing the great eBooks of the world together. A Foreign Office Romance Arthur Conan Doyle ? There are many folk who knew Alphonse Lacour in his old age. From about the time of the Revolution of 48 until he died in the second year of the Crimean War he was always to be found in the same corner of the Café de Provence, at the end of the Rue St. Honoreé, coming down about nine in the evening, and going when he could find no one to talk with. It took some self-restraint to listen to the old diplomatist, for his stories were beyond all belief, and yet he was quick at detecting the shadow of a smile or the slightest little raising of the eyebrows. Then his huge, rounded back would straighten itself, his bull-dog chin would project, and his rs would burr like a kettle-drum. When he got as far as Ah, monsieur r-r-r-rit! or Vous ne me cr-r-r-royez pas donc! it was quite time to remember that you had a ticket for the opera. There was his story of Talleyrand and the five oyster-shells, and there was his utterly absurd account of Napoleons second visit to Ajaccio. Then there was that most circumstantial romance (which he never ventured upon until his second bottle had been uncorked) of the Emperors escape from St. Helena — how he lived for a whole year in Philadelphia, while Count Herbert de Bertrand, who was his living image, personated him at Longwood. But of all his stories there was none which was more notorious than that of the Koran and the Foreign Office messenger. And yet when Monsieur Ottos memoirs were written it was found that there really was some foundation for old Lacours incredible statement. You must know, monsieur, he would say, that I left Egypt after Klebers assassination. I would gladly have stayed on, for I was engaged in a translation of the Koran, and between ourselves I had thoughts at