her apartments, were covered with garlands | Queen, and at the moment we approached I of this flower, her vases and baskets were heard the lady say to the soldier, 'They defilled with them; another day, roses were ceive you, he is beaten; there are no longer mingled with heartsease, scabius with sweet-any hopes for him: the allies are advancing, briar; and on entering the hall one could at and there is no safety but with the Bouronce divine the sentiments of tenderness, bons.' jealousy, hatred, or indulgence which occupied the goddess of the mansion.

"It was also Monsieur de Metternich who taught us to use jewels for alphabets; every precious stone stood for an initial letter, and thus were names or devices framed which became necklaces, rings, or bracelets. I had one made in this way for the Queen, who wore her name thus formed."-vol. iii. p. 117. The catastrophe followed close the rejoicings.

""Let me alone, with your Bourbons!' said the soldier, turning away abruptly

"Is it then possible,' said the Queen, as she walked away, 'that they even attempt to win the Emperor's guards!"-vol. iii. p. 130.

"The Queen went in the afternoon to the Elysée, whither I had the honour of accompanying her. I remained in the saloon whilst the Queen was with the Emperor; I presently saw her walking in the gardens with Madame Mère, whilst the Emperor, a few paces further off, was talking with his brother Lucien. "On the 17th of June we were suddenly All at once cries of 'Long live the emperor,' waked at day-break by the report of cannon, made us run to the windows. Crowds of and in a few moments the certainty that a people, exasperated by the abdication, survictory had been won by the Emperor, dis-rounded the palace and gardens, calling sipated all our gloomy presentiments; a loudly for the emperor; and when they perbattle had taken place and we had won the ceived him walking, several men scaled the victory: confidence and hope revived in walls to approach him; they threw themFrance, and the old good fortune of our ar- selves at his feet, and with those touching mies, so often triumphant, favoured us again. tones which come from the heart, besought The next day, the 18th, the same success, a him not to abandon them, to renounce the more complete victory than the day before, project of abdication which drove them to and more detailed intelligence of what had despair, and to put himself at their head to occurred; our joy was at the highest pitch!" go and repulse the enemy. -vol. iii. p. 120.

"In the evening, the Queen received as usual those who generally visited her; at the moment that the conversation became more animated by a gay and amusing discussion, the subject of which the Queen had supplied, she was told some one wished to speak privately with her the names of those who were waiting for her were mentioned in a whisper, and she passed into her saloon to receive them; her absence was long. When she returned, I did not observe any other change in her countenance than that she looked somewhat paler. She resumed the conversation, disclosed nothing to any one, but dismissed them all earlier than usual.

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"We were scarcely alone when she said to me, Well, now misfortune is come; all that I feared has been realised; the Empe. ror is beaten, France is in danger, the allies are marching upon Paris!"-vol. iii. p. 123. "We both walked silently by the side of the Queen, who did not even lift her eyes to those pretty houses for which she had made such elegant plans; she did not now look at them; doubtless she thought it was no longer in France that she could lay her plans for the future.

"Well!' said Count Réal, who was with us, 'I have been doing nothing else but endeavouring to repress outbreaks like this, and to prevent similar scenes.'"-vol. iii. p. 141.

In the Chamber of Peers, too, another faithful follower, Labédoyère, insisted that the abdication was void if the young Emperor was not recognized. He bitterly reflected on the members and military chiefs holding an opposite opinion, recalled their oaths, and concluded by saying—

"Shall we never hear in this precinct any thing but perjuries ?'

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At these words, furious cries arose on every side; Monsieur de Valence fidgetted on his chair, crying, 'I do not listen to you; recant what you have said.'-vol. iii. p. 147.

"Monsieur de Labédoyère being still with us at six o'clock, the Queen kept him to dinner. At the moment of sitting down to table, some one made the remark that there were thirteen of us. Although not superstitious, I do not to this number. I mentioned this to my like to find myself one of a party amounting neighbour; Labédoyère heard me. 'Do not be alarmed, Mademoiselle Cochelet,' said he, from the turn events are taking, the thirteenth is probably myself, who will be absent vol. iii. p. 148. from the invitation of this day twelvemonth.*

"We were walking towards the Place de la Concorde; at the moment that we turned into the Allée de Marigny, I observed with astonishment a lady very elegantly dressed, who had stopped close to a sentinel placed at the gratings of the garden, and was talking to him with much vehemence and great from the name of the narrator as well as the The following we preserve as interesting gesticulation. As her back was turned she

did not perceive us; the thing seemed so sin-actors.

The artist, even when absorbed in

gular, that I could not resist my curiosity to grief, had a keen eye to effective expres know what it was; I pointed her out to the sion.

"The Emperor's mother was the last of him from his fatal resolutions; Murat should the imperial family who came to take leave have had to pass over your corpse before of the Emperor. Talma, who in the uniform committing such a crime: the Emperor was of the National Guard, had repaired to Mal- no less his benefactor than yours; retire, Camaison to see the great man* before his de-roline:' and she turned her back upon her. parture, visited me the next day, and told It was only after the Emperor's death that me how much he had been affected at the Madame Letitia became reconciled to her Emperor having received him after the order | daughter."—vɔl. iii. p. 173. had been given not to let another person en- "Madame Letitia, who had let him speak ter; that the Emperor appeared gratified at without interruption, then answered with dighis visit, and had manifested much interest nity:-'My Lord Cardinal, I have not miifor him. Of what a fine tragic scene have lions; but be pleased to say to the Pope, so I been witness, Mademoiselle Cochelet!' said that my words may come to the ears of Louis Talma, with the fiery animation of his cha- | XVIII., that if I was happy enough to possess racter. What a spectacle was the separa- the fortune so charitably ascribed to me, I tion of Madame Mère and her son! She should not employ it in fomenting troubles in could not draw any sign of emotion from the Corsica, nor in making partisans in France Emperor; but what expression she threw for my son; he has enough of them; but in into those fine features, that attitude, and how equipping a fleet whose special object should much probably was in her thoughts! The emo- be to liberate the Emperor from the Island of tion of the Empress-mother declared itself St. Helena, where the most infamous want of in two large tears which trickled down her faith detains him prisoner.' Then, saluting fine antique face, and her tongue pronounced the Cardinal, she retired to her interior apartonly these three words, when she gave him ments."-vol. iii p. 177. her hand at the moment of departure, Farewell, my son!' The Emperor's answer was equally laconic, 'My mother, adieu!' then they embraced; such was their separation, doomed to be eternal."-vol. iii. p. 172.

Two anecdotes of Madame Mère may be introduced here. The second refers to the visit of the Cardinal-secretary of His Holiness at the instance of the French Ambassador, Blacas, who insisted that the ex-Empress-Mother was fomenting insurrection.

It is singular, and proves that "Reality is more extraordinary than Romance," as Byron observed, that nearly the same means of safety which the noble poet censured Hook for introducing in his play of Tekeli, should have been actually proposed to no less a personage than the great bard's idol, the fallen master of Europe.

that nation; the voyage was completed without mishap, avoiding the English cruizers. A Danish Captain, whose vessel was considered a fast sailer, and which was in the road of La Rochelle, offered to transport the Emperor to New York, and said he would answer with his head for the success of the enterprise; but he made one special condition; it was, that the Emperor should embark alone, and should conceal himself in a chest: the Emperor refused.

"At his arrival at Rochefort, the Emperor "After the defection of Murat, which met there his brother Joseph, who was about caused so much evil to our arms, and which to embark for the Netherlands in a vessel of contributed greatly to the misfortunes of France, the Empress-Mother broke off all connection with her daughter, the Queen of Naples. The attempts which the latter made towards reconciliation were vain; at last, one day she forced her way, presented herself to her mother, and with all the tenderness and affection of a daughter, asked what she had done to merit such treatment? The only answer she received was in these remarkable words, 'What you have done! You have "There was yet a means of delivering the betrayed your brother, your benefactor!' The Queen of Naples urged with reason that Emperor from the English; the attachment her husband was the sole master of his politi- which his brother Joseph felt for him was a cal actions; that imperious circumstances guarantee that it would not have been proand the interests of his kingdom had driven posed in vain. Joseph must have put on the him to his rupture with France, and that no grey great coat and the peculiar hat of the Emone, much less her mother, could with reason peror, and, surrounded by faithful adherents, denounce her as guilty. You have betrayed have allowed himself to be taken by the Enyour benefactor, repeated the Empress-Mo-glish in his stead. The striking resemblance ther, 'you ought to have used all your influ-in face, and not an inch difference in height, ence with your husband, in order to dissuade would have made it almost impossible to dis. cover the ingenious stratagem. The English. The expression Talma always used when in possession of Joseph, would have hastened speaking of him, especially since the day when to conduct him to the banks of the Thames? performing at Tilsit in Edipus, before the Em- then the Emperor would the more easily peror Napoleon, the King of Prussia, and the Ein- have passed into America, as the English peror Alexander, this last, seizing the allusion at the moment when Talma said, cruizing fleet would have left the coast. "The friendship "I have often reasoned on this subject with of a great man is a boon from the gods," threw himself into the arms of Napoleon. "How far the Queen, and we both agreed as to its sucIf the Emperor or his brother had those two sovereigns are from being so intimate cess. now!" said Talma to me, with a deep sigh. thought of it, it would have been a noble page

in the history of Joseph's life,' said the Queen, and I know him well; he would not have let such an opportunity escape of devoting himself for his brother."-vol. iii. p. 177.

Every thing relating to Talleyrand is an object of more than usual interest at this mo

ment.

"With M. Talleyrand conversation is car. ried on by a few words, whch he launches as oracles; he puts into them all his wit and genius: they are retained and circulated; and even, on occasion, words are put into his mouth. Here is one which at the time was much repeated: This affair is a question of legitimacy for Europe.' Thus in the opinion of him who had been the soul of all the diplomatic measures against France, every foreign prince should feel a personal interest in it; this explains their animosity against all that related to the Emperor."-vol. iii. p.

214.

The restoration produces a singular scene.

do? To whom address himself? to his other brothers?-they were absent. Joseph and Louis commanded regiments at a distance; Lucien was on an embassy to Lisbon or Ma. drid. As to his mother, she could not see any reason for giving money to a young scapegrace like him, whom she loved tenderly, but whose morals she was more anxious for than his prodigality. What could he think of? It come into his head to pay a visit to a holy man, his uncle Fesch (become a cardinal.) He presents himself, and is well received by this worthy relation, at whose house a numerous party is assembled. He is invited to dinner; after dinner they passed into the saloon to take coffee. At this moment Jerome watches the Cardinal entering another room; he follows him thither, draws into a corner this dear uncle, whom he had already so often wheedled out of money, and requests the same favour again: but the other is immoveable, and refuses flatly.

"Cardinal Fesch, it was well known, was always a great lover of pictures; now the room in which they were, formed the commencement of his fine gallery, which has become so remarkable for its collection of the master-pieces of all schools. When Jerome heard this positive refusal, he turned abruptly round. 'See!' said he, there is a rascal who seems to be laughing at the affront I have received. I will be revenged.' At the same time he draws his sabre, and directs the point against the face of a fine old man (painted by Van Dyck,) whose eyes he threatens to cut out. It may be imagined what a fright the Cardinal was in at seeing him ready to transpierce a masterpiece; he attempts to stay his arm; but the young man will not hear reason, till the twenty-five louis have been promised him. The uncle capitulates, peace is made, and they embrace.-vol. iii. p. 219.

"On the 3d of July Louis XVIII. made his triumphal entry into Paris. It was the more brilliant, as dukes, marquises, and counts composed the attending crowds; quality substituted quantity. The excitement was almost to madness: the cries and gestures were convulsive, so violent was the joy of the winning party. Fine equipages of elegant ladies im peded the passage of the sovereign surnamed The Desired; they went and came, passed and repassed unceasingly, waving their white handkerchiefs; they stretched their hands to one another out of the carriage windows; they embraced each other on meeting; in fact, in the midst of these transports, where voices failed in prolonged cries, a great lady, whose equipage was stopping on the Boule- Hortense was greatly surprised and pain. vart de Grand, was seen to take her coach-ed at the conduct of the Emperor Alexander, man round the neck, and embrace him convulsively."-vol. iii. p. 215.

Of two very opposite anecdotes which we select for our readers, the first is not known so widely as it ought to be; the second is of Jerome Bonaparte, and might have been worthy Sheridan.

"I was informed that one day the Prussians wanted to blow up the Bridge of Jena. Louis the XVIII. had exclaimed against it warmly to the allies, and told Blucher, that if he persisted in blowing up the bridge, he would place himself on it at the time of the explosion. The bridge was left unmolested." -vol. iii. p. 217.

"He was one day, he said, absolutely in want of twenty-five louis, his purse being empty, although General Murat, governor of Paris, and who was very fond of him, often assisted him with his : but this time the latter resource failed him; and the quarter's al. lowance which he received from the consul had been spent in advance. What was he to

who on his return to Paris, though he once entered the Queen's hotel, according to Ma demoiselle de Cochelet, never made the least attempt to renew the former intimacy. She laire, who repeated them to the King of Prusexpressed her feelings to Madame St. Au

sia.

But the King, in order to stop her mouth, told her that a letter had been her brother, and in which the Emperor Alexseized, which Queen Hortensia had written to ander was very ill spoken of: he whom she had praised so much in 1814. It was pretended that the Queen described him as a man without mind, without decision, over turn him any way."-vol. iii. p. 230. whom it was easy to gain an ascendant and

This assertion, which the fair biographer does not hesitate to call a wanton falsehood on the part of his majesty, was certainly not the plea set up by a follower of the Czar. It is singular that both in France and Eng

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talk with her. A phrase of hers proves how great is the fascination of success, since it misled even her superior mind. Madame de Really I cannot understand it; I always Staël said of the Eniperor, after the last events, looked upon him as a great man !”—vol. iii. p. 308.

The preservers of ancient relics may take a lesson from this discovery of the value of History to Archæologists.

"The Queen had graciously received the envoy of General Rochemann, and had invit

He (M. Boutikim) insisted much on the point that his sovereign was not master to do whatever he pleased, and was answerable for the slightest act, in the present state of France, to the sovereigns his allies: that they had reciprocally engaged not to do any thing but by common consent.ed to dinner. Then with an air of mystery Boutikim added, that it had pained the Emperor Alexander much not to see the Queen; that it was a great constraint on his inclinations, but that Louis XVIII. had so strongly urged him not to do it, that the Emperor did not know how to refuse promising; that he had been pained to see an old man so tenacious on this head; and that, fearing he would go so far as to petition on his knees, he had been obliged to give his word not see the queen.

"The importance attached to a simple act of politeness towards a lady, and the idea of a King of France supplicating thus the Emperor of Russia, appeared to me so ridiculous, that I conducted Boutikim to the Queen, that he himself night tell her this incredible fact. She smiled, but did not seem to give much credence to it."-vol. iii. p. 245.

Not less ignoble were the fears of Made. moiselle de Staël, for she, it seems, candidly confessed them to the exiled ex-Queen. But we hope she could not really apprehend that Louis XVIII. would have denied a just debt had she acted otherwise, and been heroic enough to see a Queen and a friend in adversity.

"One could not be near Coppet, where Madame de Staël resided, without desiring to see this literary wonder of our times. Monsieur de Voyna paid her a visit; he was well received, and returned charmed with her wit, and still more with the beauty of her daughter, then a fine and graceful girl, whose presence at Coppet was an additional attraction for the numerous visitors. Monsieur de Voyn did not fail to return thither several times. Madame de Staël begged him to present her compliments to the Queen, and to express her regret at not being able to come and pay her respects to her; that she would leave her to judge of her position; that at that moment she was prosecuting a claim of 2,000,000 of francs, lent by Monsieur Necker to the Bourbons; that this obliged her to be circumspect, to avoid injuring her interests. The Queen liked her frankness, and let her know that she should be grieved if any attempt to see her should do her injury. The Queen had the mere merit in thus answering Madame de Staël, as she had never wished so much to

At the hour fixed the aid-decamp arrived in full uniform, wearing at his side a sword, which he was not long in making us observe. It was his favourite subject; he said that this sword, which was a very old and handsome one, had belonged to Richard Coeur-de-Lion. It had been found, he said, after his captivity in Germany on his return from the Crusades, and had been preserved with great care as a precious relic of such a valiant and illustrious warrior. The aid-decamp wore it as a remembrance of his ances. tors, who had transmitted it from father to son.

"The Queen, who had scarcely listened to our conversation, asked in a careless manner to see the sword, which we were passing from hand to hand, accompanying it with expressions of the admiration it excited in us. The Austrian officer presented to her the weapon, on which was actually engraved the name of Richard. The queen examined it with great attention, and then returned it, saying very quietly that it was very handsome, and had very likely belonged to a king of England, called Richard the Third, but could not possibly have been worn by Richard Cœurde-Lion, for among the ornaments on the hilt was the device of the Order of the Garter, which was not instituted till the time of Edward the Third.

"The Queen did not observe the stupefacticn of the poor officer. I believe I was the first to understand the whole extent of his annoyance. A single word had sufficed to ruin completely the importance of possessing the authenticity of a title to nobility, which so precious a weapon; he saw vanish at once had procured him much politeness from several great personages, and particularly the favourable opinion of Englishmen, who always feel great interest in all that concerns their national remembrances. had got him invitations to dinner, great attentions, and once the offer of a considerable sum, which he now most surely repented He must have regretted of not accepting. this discovery the more as it was now evident that the sword could only have belonged to the wicked Richard, who is accused, not without foundation, of the murder of his two nephews."-vol. iii. p. 343.

This sword

The sword of Marshal Ney was produc tive of a more serious catastrophe

"Marshal Ney was arrested on the 11th | de Montesquiou to say to the emperor, when of August at the Castle of Bessoines the prop- the latter reproached him, generally so puncerty of one of his wife's relations. These are tual, for being ten minutus behind his time, a few particulars of his arrest: the marshal What was I to do, sire? in crossing the had been some days in this retreat, when a apartments, I was stopped by a crowd of Bourbonist of the neighbourhood, at a visit kings, who all asked after your majesty's he made to the castle, observed in a corner health.' of the room a sabre, which, from its richness and military emblems, he imagined to belong to some great military personage. In his opinion, the owner of this sabre could be none other than either Marshal Ney or Murat.From this clue it was guessed that one or other of these two illustrious fugitives was concealed at Bessoines; official information was forwarded to Monseiur Locard, prefect of Cantal, and to the under-prefect of Aurillac, who, seconded by a captain of gens d'armes, had the castle surrounded, and took the marshal, whom they immediately conveyed to Paris."-vol. iii. p. 346.

Of Lavalette we hear little, of his wife a footman, approaching respectfully, told less of the former we are told

"When he knew who composed the jury summoned to judge him, he bent down his head and said in the ear of his counsel, 'I am condemned!' Monseur Tripier, who had the greatest confidence in the goodness of his cause, would not give any credence to these sinister words; when, therefore, he heard the terrible declaration, he was so overwhelmed that he fell back on the bench, where, being a short man, he was almost out of sight. Lavalette, turning at the moment the words to the pain of death' were being pronounced, gave him his hand, saying, 'After all, my friend, it is but a cannon shot.' Saluting with his hand the officers of the post who had appeared as witnesses, he said to them in the kindest manner, Farewell, gentlemen of the post-office.'"-vol. iv. p. 120.

Of Fouché as a dreamer the anecdote must be new; here is his letter to Mademoiselle Cochelet

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'Dresden, June 5th. "You have good reason to believe that you made a conquest of me; I dreamed that I had also made a conquest of you, and this dream is not without some reality, as you will see.

"At this great epoch foreign kings and princes flocked to Paris; the primate was of the number; during his stay in the capital, he had contracted the habit of repairing every day to the house of the witty Fanny de Beauharnais, god-mother to Queen Hortensia ; she was an old and esteemed acquaintance of his. He generally spent an hour there; he never took leave of her without pressing sometimes one, sometimes both his cheeks to her's. One day, when the separation had been more affectionate than usual, the primate went from Fanny de Beauharnais to the Tuilleries, where he had been invited to dine with the emperor. He had scarcely entered when him that his cheeks were quite red. His highness immediately remembered the farewell embrace of his old friend, and turning to a mirror, saw that his face was coloured by the contact with the rouged cheeks of Fanny de Beauharnais. Having remedied this disorer, or rather excess of toilet, he causes himself to be announced to the emperor, of whom he asks permission to give a pension of 1200 francs to a valet of his majesty's, who, by a timely hint, saved him from a ridicule which could not have failed to attach to him; the primate then related what had happened at the house of the empress's relation. The emperor and the company laughed heartily; but he to whom the affair was the most agreeable and advantageous was the valet, who they say did not blush to accept the primate's bounty."-vol. iv. p. 325, 826.

We must however make room for one reminiscence of Talleyrand

"The members of the imperial family might have expected all sort of chicanery from him. It is stated that the animosity of this diplomatist against all that related to the emperor, arose from a misadventure he had had in consequence of the return from the island of Elba. He was then at Bern as French minister, and gave a brilliant evening party, at which several amateurs performed a comedy; he himself took the character of a miller, and in order to be more correct in his costume, he covered himself with flower from head to foot; he was white all over, clothes, hands and face. As he was about to come upon the stage, and promised himself much applause, a secretary of embassy approached, and delivered him a packet. What did it announce? The disembarkation of the emperor in the gulf of Juan. This was a thunderbolt for the ambassador.— "At the time of the marriage of the Em- Without taking time to change his clothes, peror Jerome with a Princess of Wurtem- he dismissed the party, and with his secreberg, kings stood waiting in the anti-cham- taries, occupied himself all night in expeditber of the Tuilleries, which caused Monsieur ing despatches to his court, as well as to the

"We were walking together, last week, in the outskirts of Constance; the heat of the sun drew us towards the lake, and in an instant I saw you in the middle of the water, and, plunging in after you, brought you to the shore. As a good action always has its recompense, guess what will be mine!"-vol. iv. p. 196.

We conclude with two little anecdotes