New Orleans, May 7th, 1835 · The Shattered Congress
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Jean Therriot arrived in the great harbour-town of New Orleans in the middle of the night. A fervent Bonapartist and liberal, Therriot was part of the latent Bonapartist stream of French society. They pretend not to plot to overthrow the Bourbons, the Bourbons pretend not to notice them.
Moving in great haste and excitation, Therriot bought a carriage to take him to the famous estate of his beloved Emperor.
Dawn's rosy fingers woke him to the sight of the grandest estate he ever saw in his life. It seemed to him Versailles writ small. Neoclassical columns of marble, ordered gardens and mazes, exotic fruits and animals and a huge mansion planted in the middle of it all. He sat frozen beholding all dreamy thoughts was rudely dispersed by the sight of slaves, dozens of them. Perhaps even hundreds.
"Surely these aren't the Emperor's" he thought as he rode in.
The moment he stepped out dozens of slaves swarmed around him to take care of his belongings and soon the chief house slave announced that the Empress and Emperor awaited him.
Therriot could not shake the odious feelings in him. So many slaves, what would France think? In the colonies, they are a small issue, but to have them among polite society like this?
His meeting with the imperial family went along well, he came to give news and honied words of their popularity in the Metropole. But he could not hide his heart grew weary from the misery he witnessed. His faith shaken, he slowly abandoned the Bonapartist cause. Later, he wrote an article which roused French opinion for some time. The article became a major source of information for many Frenchmen about their Emperor-in-exile and his degenerate ways, christening him "The Emperor of the Slaves", a moniker which took hold among those opposed to both.
