her beautiful skin seemed to have suffered | found it very good. It was a sort of apri from intense cold; seen from a little dis- cot ice, and if it had appeared at the destance she appeared to have been weeping, sert instead of beginning the dinner there which increased the interest she inspired. would have been nothing to say about it." The Queen of Sweden, although not so vol. ii. p. 67. distinguished, was yet very beautiful; her complexion was more fresh than her sister's, but her eyes had not the same mildness. The Queen of Bavaria, tall and imposing, and perhaps less beautiful than her sisters, had a more brilliant expression, and something indefinable in her looks which was extremely winning." vol. ii. p. 49.

"I returned to the Queen, and found that she had been weeping. Ah, your majesty,' said I, kissing her hand, 'has she grieved you."

"Can you conceive,' he would often say to me, 'that I was brought up a Bourbonist, and detested the Emperor. When I went to Coppet and performed tragedy with Madame de Staël, it did not diminish my antipathy for him who kept her in exile. I was very young then. They forced me to enter the army. I rose to be aide-de-camp to Marshal Lannes, and afterwards to Prince Eugene. I was witness of the divorce, at which I was indignant; to abandon so excellent a woman in order to marry an arch-duchess of Austria! I think that I could have kill

"How could it be otherwise? She opens all the wounds in my heart by talk-ed the Emperor with my own hand, so ing to me of what I have lost. much was I incensed against him! But vol. ii. p. 87. afterwards, I saw our misfortunes; I learnt 1. I do not think Madame to understand the projects of the enemies de Krudner mad for saying to me, 'Do of France; I studied our history and at not return to France;' for she was perhaps the same time studied this hero, and I felt right. From the turn that affairs are tak- that in this man was our glory, our destiny; ing, I perceive that I should find it difficult those who abandon his cause abandon to live there in peace. But when she says without knowing it the common cause of that I must go to Russia, that the Con- France. So, wounded as I was, and havgress will break up, that Napoleon will ing scarcely approached him while with come from the Island of Elba, and that those who return with him will be lost, how can she know that? I told her quietly that I could not go into Russia; that it was the Emperor Alexander, whom she called the universal protector, who had fixed my lot in France; and I added that if the Emperor Napoleon returned to France, as she predicted, I could not for get I was his daughter; and that, even if those evils were to befal me which she foretold for his adherents, my place was at his side, and I could not forsake it.""vol. ii. p. 90.

Amongst the books read by Mademoiselle de Cochelet to the Queen were Miss Porter's Wallace, and Réné, by Chateaubriand, and the first impression it had crea. ted on the mind of Hortense is just and sound enough.

She had read it when very young, and told me that this work, which I praised so much, had displeased her exceedingly. I exclaimed against this: 'I was shocked,' said she, 'to see the purest, truest, most consolatory sentiment of life placed under an aspect which did not belong to it. The affection of a sister for her brother is a love without pain, a joy without alloy ! we love all who love a brother. Ah! there is no trenching upon what is most pure and disinterested in the heart of man."

the army, I placed myself by his side at Fontainebleau. If every one had thought as I thought, he would not have abdicated; and he alone can save our country. The queen is always talking to us of peace and tranquillity; but can a people subjected and humbled remain tranquil? I for one will never consent to it. I was wounded whilst charging at the head of my regi ment, and did not return to it afterwards. It submitted without my consent. They allowed me to keep it, thanks to my alliance with all the Damas and Chatellux. I have not taken any oath, and I hold myself free to belong to whichever party suits me best. I am a republican in principle; but all the old French republicans are dead, or become the weakest portion of the em pire; Carnot is the only one of them that I like; as for Fouché, he appears to me a mere intriguer. I see none, therefore, but our generation that can worthily revenge to seize the moment as soon as it presents our present abasement, and I shall not fail itself."-ii. 166.

666

You think then that they have restored you the Bourbons for the good of France! Do not deceive yourselves, our enemies are not such fools.They have given you an apple of discord that will last you for centuries; and whilst they talk to you about liberty, you will resume your chains. They will re-establish tithes; the peasants will no longer be allowed to learn to read, for fear they should have again the audacity to become the marshals of France; it appears very disagreeable at court to bear with those that are already there, and who are stupid enough to serve as laughing stocks for greater fools than themselves.'”—vol. ii. p. 169.

The following notices possess the interest which attaches to every thing respecting

our national hero.-But it is not from a lady, the princess of Wurtemberg might bring and in Mademoiselle de Cochelet's position, upon him, he had returned to ask the same that an opinion can be formed upon a Monsieur *** what he should do with pergreat political event like that to which sons so nearly related to the allied sovethe last sentence of the following quotation eral measure?' he asked. Then Monsieur reigns? Are they comprised in the gen refersL**** answered angrily-'What, you are not gone yet! go quick, and do whatever you please with them.' Maubreuil had passports from all the powers; but those of the object of his mission."-vol. ii. pp. who gave them were doubtless ignorant 311, 312.

Upon the news of the return from Elba, the state of the capital and the uncertainty and doubt that attended the first announce

"Lord Wellington had charged Monsieur de Récamier to request the queen to receive him. He was admitted, even with pleasure; for at this time the queen was tormented with anxiety as to the Emperor's fate. From the recent measures adopted with regard to the property of the Bonaparte family, it seemed but little probable that the treaty made with Napoleon on the 11th of April would be held sacred. In fact, this was not intended: and even ments are given with considerable effect the private property, which should never and at great detail. Madame Hortense aphave been touched, was seized and appro- pears to have been totally confounded by priated. I will speak of it to Lord Wel- the attempt, to have utterly discredited it at lington,' said the queen to me; 'the Eng- first, and when placed beyond a question, lish government has some honour, they to have augured the worst possible results say; its ministers signed the treaty of the from it, as certain of failure. Watched, sus 11th of April, and Lord Wellington can

require the French government to fulfil pected, and cut off from all other means of the engagements it entered into with the intelligence, she betakes herself to the winEmperor.' dow and the following extract has something ingenious in its development of feminine quickness of apprehension.

"When the Duke of Wellington visited the queen, she spoke to him to the same effect. He answered with his English calmness, his penetrating watchful eyes fixed upon her, This is an injustice which England will not permit; I will remind the French government that the treaty of Fontainebleau is sacred and must be fulfilled to the letter.' The queen repeated these words to me the next day with much pleasure. Little did she think that the man who spoke thus in 1814 could himself sign a treaty in 1815, and abandon it afterwards so unfairly."-ii. 245.

"What are you doing there, Madame?' said I; 'take care that you are not seen.'

"I am doing like the diable boiteux,' replied she. 'I can observe all that passes in all the apartments opposite to me, and I endeavour to guess events by examining what passes under my eye. Just now, a regiment of cuirassiers passed the Boulevard. If you had seen their disdainful air when every one was crying around them, 'Long live the king! They did not open

The following is equally singular and their lips, but maintained a mournful si

novel.

"You remember that Maubreuil who detained my sister-in-law Catharine, and robbed her of her diamonds?-Well! He was charged to go and assassinate the Emperor Napoleon and all his family! At the instance of the Emperor Alexander, who would have the queen of Westphalia's diamonds found, he was arrested, and he has at his examination confessed all; therefore they will not have him executed. They are afraid his disclosures will become public, and he will therefore remain in prison.'

Can the Bourbons be guilty of such infamous conduct?' said I to the queen.

"No. The King had not yet come, and him I believe to be incapable of such a crime. But you will never guess the man who gave all these orders to Maubreuil. It is Monsieur ***, one of the counsel they have given me!'

"Maubreuil reflecting on the consequences which the assassination of the Empress Maria Louisa and her son, and of

lence; now if these men were sent against the Emperor, I have no great difficulty in guessing what they would do....... A moment before I saw old men and young, with their arms and baggage, but without uniforms, shouting Long live the king!' loud enough to kill one. Madame Lefebvre says they are the royal volunteers. I observed their lassitude; they would have done well to use their muskets as walking sticks, for they seemed to have scarcely strength left to carry them. If the Bourbons have no other defenders than these, they are lost. Now look at that apartment on the first floor exactly opposite-it is occupied by some young men of the bodyguard. They often come there in uniform. Hitherto they were always gay and triumphant; but to-day they looked very serioùs, and the woman who seems to be their mother, appeared plunged in such deep sorrow that she saddened me. They are about to depart, no doubt. You see I enter into all the feelings of my neighbours; they are at present my only acquaintance, and I feel an interest in them.

As to the window on the third floor, where of whom he was deprived. He showed you see that thin and withered old woman, them with pride to the people who were I have learnt from Madame Lefebvre that crowding under his windows; and they she is the wife of a violent Bourbonist.- were present at the parade, which was a She often talks to her husband at the win- great treat to them." dow; he always carries a fleur-de-lis cross a yard long, and I can assure you he has now abandoned his pencils, and is occupied entirely with political events. His wife and he continually gesticulate with much vehemence, and when the royal volunteers passed by they did not feel quite easy.'' vol. ii. p. 383.

When the king had quitted Paris, Sebastiani induced Lavalette to resume the direction of the post office, as one means of obvi. ating the incipient confusion.

No very distinct light has ever been thrown, that we are aware of, upon the truth or falsehood of the following once widelyasserted fact.

"I have since learnt that the Duc de Vicence had shown to the agent of the Emperor of Russia some papers found in the apartments of the Count de Blacas, at the Tuileries, the hurry of whose departure had not allowed him time to think of carrying them away or destroying them. It was a treaty, an alliance concluded between France, Austria, and England, against Russia, but the apparition of the Emperor overturned all the hostile projects, and directed them against himself.” The next is a step beyond the preceding in the realms of improbability.

"I have been told that a worthy Englishman coming to France during the first year of the restoration, said, whilst looking at the Place de Carrousel, 'So it is here that Bonaparte used to cause one or two persons to be shot every day, and diverted himself by looking at the spectacle from his windows."-vol. iii. p. 6.

"M. de Lavalette was at last persuaded -but he wished, before he acted, to know what Cambacérès thought of this step; the latter having often governed during the absence of the Emperor, might be considered at that moment as his representative. He went to the chancellor Cambacérès, and found him very indifferent about the matter. 'Do whatever you please,' said he to Monsieur de Lavalette; as to my self, I shall not interfere by giving any orders. I remember too well how the Emperor reproached me on his return from Russia, about Mallet's affair. There was need of promptitude in judging and executing such criminals. I espected to be praised A few anecdotes of Napoleon possess infor this; instead of which, the Emperor said to me with great severity, 'Monsieur terest solely from their relation to a characCambacérès, you have arrogated to your- ter so little generally understood. self the right of executing Frenchmen without my knowledge! If now, I had chosen to use my prerogative and pardon them? Oh! I am not dead yet. Since that time,' said Cambacérès to Monsieur de Lavalette, 'I take nothing upon myself, nor meddle with the matter, till I have the Emperor's positive orders.''-vol. ii. p. 392.

That this jealousy of power, in Napoleon, was not unaccompanied with the far humbler jealousy of state, this anecdote will evince.

"The Emperor had established so severe an etiquette for the princesses of his family, that they had contracted the habit of being always surrounded by many attendants, and never going out to walk."

The following possesses some interest, as one of the recorded instances of private feelings in Napoleon.

"The first time the Emperor saw Marshal Soult again (who was minister of war at the time of his disembarkation at Cannes, and who had spoken so ill of him in his proclamation to the army,) he said to him-'Duke of Dalmatia, do you know that you have fired at me with grape shot?' It is true, Sire; but it was a shot that could not touch you.' The Emperor made him major general of the army, a situation. which had always been filled by Berthier. It is asserted that the Emperor said, 'Why has the Prince of Neufchatel quitted France? Why did he not present himself at the Tuileries? I should have given him but one punishment, and that would have been to appear the first time before me in the full uniform of captain of the bodyguard to Louis the Eighteenth.'" "— vol. iii. p. 27.

pictures contained in the fine gallery of

"After breakfast, they went to see all the

Malmaison, belonging to the Queen and "The day after the arrival of the Em- the Prince Eugene, as a part of the inheritperor, the Queen went early to the Tuille-ance of the Empress Josephine. ries, and took with her her two sons, who "What is the worth of these picwere very anxious to see their uncle again. He received them with tenderness, caressed them much, and kept them a long time with him; he seemed desirous to lavish on these two youthful heads the affection which he could no longer show to the son

tures?' said the Emperor, showing them to Mr. Denon. The latter estimated their value, and the Emperor exclaimed with surprise, 'So much as that! Ah! if I had known that they were worth so much, I would not have given them to Josephine;

they must be bought back again; they regarded him as their support, and the soldare fine enough to be made national pro- iers, who loved him with enthusiam and perty.' These pictures belong at present without after-thought; but he lost all those to the Emperor of Russia, who bought who wanted only to make their fortunes, and them of the Queen and her brother."-vol. the number was unhappily very great. Beiii. p. 37.

"I cannot express how delighted I was to see the Emperor so close, and with what eagerness I examined him, and retained every word he uttered.

"I imbued myself with the tone of his voice, the expression of his countenance, so important to study in a man so great and extraordinary. Seen so close, he impressed every one with respect mingled with admir. ation; but at the same time he touched the heart with an air of great bonhommie, which was the more astonishing to find in him from the fear he generally inspired. I soon found how much those, in their judgment of his mind, who accused him of being unfeeling, were deceived. Though strong, it was accessible to all emotions of true feeling.

"I should like to see the chamber of the

sides, we must be just, the Bourbons had been mild and indulgent; they had received, more or less, all parties, without showing themselves vindictive. If their nobility and their emigrants had crushed much self-love, the Bourbons felt still so little strength that they worked only in the dark."-vol. iii.p.52. Fouché had his admirer, as well as Nero.

"She (Mademoiselle de Ribou) was inexhaustible in her admiration of the Duke. He appeared to her eyes a great citizen and at the same time the best of fathers, the most heart. perfect friend, and a man of most amiable

As a highly skilful minister she thought him of the greatest use to the cause to which he seemed entirely devoted; and Empress Josephine,' said he, in a voice which yet, in spite of all these fine protestations, I learned indirectly that he held correspondbetrayed his strong sensibility. The Queen ence with Austria, and that he received from rose from her seat. No, Hortense; sit still, M. de Metternich messages which he kept child; I will go alone, it would distress you secret. The minister at the court of Vienna too much.' The eyes of the Queen filled with tears; she sat down again without professed, in the name of his master, the most pacific and generous dispositions towards speaking, and the Emperor left the room France; but always refused to treat with the much affected. He returned not long after, Emperor Napoleon, whose expulsion he deand in spite of all his efforts to appear commanded as the first condition for the mainposed, one could easily perceive that he was tenance of peace."-vol. iii. p. 104. much depressed, and that a sweet yet melancholy remembrance had taken possession of his soul. His eyes were moist; and he seemed desirous of shrouding himself in seriousness and severity, to escape a weakness which he wished neither to feel nor display.' —vol. iii. pp. 39, 40.

"When I spoke to the Queen regarding Tallien, who had kept at a distance, she answered, 'It is not on account of his opinions that the Emperor has been severe against Tallien; but he has never forgiven him for having left Egypt (!) without his permission; he looked upon that as a desertion, which set so pernicious an example, that he has always remained inexorable towards him.'"-vol. iii. p. 49.

The real position of Bonaparte is given in these few lines, more valuable than they appear at first from the source from whence they come-the bosom of his family.

We preserve a lady's bon-mot and some minor traits of a celebrated statesman, whose general talent for the agreeable, in female society especially, has been the basis and stepping.stone of one half of his power.

"The Countess Dulauloy was not, as may well be thought, in odour of sanctity in the noble faubourg, where Madame Alf.... de N.... had given her the nick-name of 'Le Grenadier tricolore,' in allusion to her tall and fine figure' as well as to the opinions this lady professed. She again had retaliated by calling the other the Venus of the Père la Chaise.' And, to those who knew the leanness of Madame Alf.... de N... ., the application was very diverting, and the laughers were not on her side.”—vol. iii.

p.

56.

"M. de Metternich, young, amiable, intellectual and brilliant, was not the least remarkable of those I remember. He was the "From the tenacity of resolution in the al- soul of our parties, and we delighted to have lies not to treat with the Emperor, war ap him. He brought into vogue the thousand peared inevitable, and this idea depressed all little nothings which became afterwards except the military. People began to doubt sources of variety and amusement; to him the Emperor's good fortune; it was discovered we owe the language of the flowers, which that some officers who had asked for active was in many circles a symbolical mode of service, had notwithstanding gone to Ghent understanding one another at all times; it is always at the critical moment that the amongst others they spoke of a lovely and weakness of some characters is bared to the amiable lady, whom M. de Metternich visited view. As long as the Emperor was fortunate every day, and all whose impressions were every one was for him; but when obliged interpreted by the flowers that surrounded again to struggle against Europe, he had no- her. One day, troubled with vapours, she thing remaining but those good people who crowned herself with marigolds; her dress,

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