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At the end of that summer of 1879, Bart went off to Edinburgh to medical college, and Philo returned to his house in Paris after an absence of more than three years.
Beth remained with the Empress.
"I do not wish to interfere with your life," Eugénie told her, "but only you can fully understand the depth of my grief as you, like me, invested all your love in my son."
Queen Victoria invited Eugénie to spend the following summer of 1880 at Aberfeldie in Scotland, near Balmoral Castle. The Empress had just made a pilgrimage to the South African scene of her son's death. Still terribly depressed upon her return from the now-subdued Zululand, she asked Beth to go with her to Scotland and decided to surround herself with young people for the whole summer. Bart joined them at Aberfeldie with several of his fellow medical students from Edinburgh.
One was Bart's special friend from Mongolia, Dash Lyn. The young men were so often seen together they were addressed jointly as "Doctors Bart and Dash."
Dash came from Urga, the capital of the country in North Asia that produced Jenghiz Khan, one-time ruler of the largest kingdom in history.
"Western people are still inclined to think of us as thirteenth-century barbarians who swept into Eastern Europe and killed everyone in sight," Dash commented one balmy afternoon when the beautiful Empress gathered her entourage of admirers for elegant alfresco dining at linen-covered tables under the trees. "That's why I am here, to prove that we are marching toward the twentieth century with you."
"No one could be more representative of civilized man than you are, Doctor Dash," Eugénie praised him. "You bring grace and refinement to my table. If brilliant young people like yourself are those who will lead us into the next century, it promises to usher in a millennium of peace and prosperity for mankind."
There was a cry of "Hear, Hear, Your Imperial Majesty!" whereupon Bart stood and raised his glass.
"I propose a toast to a fallen hero 'the loss of whom,' Queen Victoria wrote in a letter to a friend, 'is a misfortune for the future and who died doing his duty in my service.' Let us drink to the late Prince Imperial - Napoleon the Fourth!"
All lifted their glasses and drank. One, named Chavadzy, a distant cousin to the Russian imperial family, threw his against the trunk of a tree. Everyone followed suit.
"Thank you, Doctor Bart, and my dear young friends," acknowledged the Empress, her eyes filling with tears.
Beth pressed her hand in sympathy.
Both were especially grateful to Bart for the toast. Only they, and he, knew of a Republican newspaper article received from Paris that morning. It belittled the courage of the dead Prince by accusing him of dying from la malaise Bonaparte, "the Bonaparte indisposition," a spurious reference to cowardice. The calumny had continued with a snide reference to "Napoleon Three-and-a-half."
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