The Emperor Napoleon III

His first appearance in La Curée is when the Saccard's attend a ball at the Tuilleries. Renée found him small, with legs that were too short. He had a pale face and heavy leaden eyelids that drooped over his lifeless eyes. The emperor and one of his general's described her as a carnation fit to go in the Emperor's buttonhole. We learn that he brought skating into fashion one winter in the early sixties when he went skating in the Bois de Boulogne. A more aged emperor is seen again by Renée at the end of the novel, looking older he is riding through the Bois de Boulogne in a carriage.