Note 10 — HIS EXCELLENCY (continued 4)

There was a similar instrument—like a cottage piano in shape but with a handle at the side—in the Empress's private rooms at the Tuileries; and at her Majesty's Monday receptions, Prince Richard Metternich, the Austrian Ambassador, would 'grind' it by the hour just like some professional of the streets. Mérimée fell out for a time with Chevalier Nigra, Victor Emmanuel's representative, because he suggested one afternoon that the latter should relieve the Prince, maliciously adding that organ grinding was essentially an Italian art.—Ed.