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?'

"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 like to find myself one of a party amounting to this number. I mentioned this to my 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 from the invitation of this day twelvemonth."-vol. iii. p. 148.

The following we preserve as interesting from the name of the narrator as well as the actors. The artist, even when absorbed in grief, had a keen eye to effective expression.

"The Emperor's mother was the last of the imperial family who came to take leave of the Emperor. Talma, who in the uniform of the National Guard, had repaired to Malmaison to see the great man before his departure, visited me the next day, and told me how much he had been affected at the Emperor having received him after the order had been given not to let another person enter; that the Emperor appeared gratified at his visit, and had manifested much interest for him. Of what a fine tragic scene have I been witness, Mademoiselle Cochelet!' said Talma, with the fiery animation of his character. What a spectacle was the separation of Madame Mère and her son! She could not draw any sign of emotion from the Emperor; but what expression she threw into those fine features, that attitude, and how much probably was in her thoughts! The emotion of the empress-mother declared itself in two large tears which trickled down her fine antique face, and her tongue pronounced only these three words, when she gave him 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,

* The expression Talma always used when speaking of him, especially since the day when performing at Tilsit in Edipus, before the Emperor Napoleon, the King of Prussia, and the Emperor Alexander, this last, seizing the allusion at the moment when Talma said, "The friendship of a great man is a boon from the gods," threw himself into the arms of Napoleon."How far those two sovereigns are from being so intimate now!" said Talma to me, with a deep sigh.

who insisted that the ex-Empress-Mother was fomenting insurrection.

"After the defection of Murat, which caused so much evil to our arms, and which contributed greatly to the misfortunes of France, the Empress-Mother broke off all connexion 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 betrayed your brother, your benefactor!' The Queen of Naples urged with reason that her husband was the sole master of his political actions; that imperious circumstances and the interests of his kingdom had driven him to his rupture with France, and that no one, and much less her mother, could with reason denounce her as guilty. You have betrayed your benefactor,' repeated the Empress-Mother, you ought to have used all your influence with your husband, in order to dissuade him from his fatal resolutions; Murat should have had to pass over your corpse before committing such a crime; the Emperor was no less his benefactor than yours; retire, Caroline;' and she turned her back upon her. It was only after the Emperor's death that Madame Letitia became reconciled to her daughter."-vol. iii. p. 173.

"Madame Letitia, who had let him speak without interruption, then answered with dignity: My Lord Cardinal, I have not millions; but be pleased to say to the Pope, so that my words may come to the ears of Louis the XVIII., that if I was happy enough to possess the fortune so charitably ascribed to me, I should not employ it in fomenting troubles in Corsica, nor in making partisans in France for my son; he has enough of them; but in equipping a fleet whose special object should be to liberate the Emperor from the Island of St. Helena, where the most infamous want of faith detains him prisoner.' Then, saluting the Cardinal, she retired to her interior apartments."-vol. iii. p. 177.

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.

"At his arrival at Rochefort, the Emperor met there his brother Joseph, who was about to embark for the Netherlands in a vessel of 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.

"There was yet a means of delivering the Emperor from the English;

the attachment which his brother Joseph felt for him was a guarantee that it would not have been proposed in vain._Joseph must have put on the grey great coat and the peculiar hat of the Emperor, and, surrounded by faithful adherents, have allowed himself to be taken by the English in his stead. The striking resemblance in face, and not an inch difference in height, would have made it almost impossible to discover the ingenious stratagem. The English, in possession of Joseph, would have hastened to conduct him to the banks of the Thames? then the Emperor would the more easily have passed into America, as the English cruizing fleet would have left the coast.

"I have often reasoned on this subject with the Queen, and we both agreed as to its success. If the Emperor or his brother had 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 moment.

"With M. Talleyrand conversation is carried on by a few words, which 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.

"On the 3rd 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 impeded 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 Boulevart de Gand, was seen to take her coachman 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 Jéna. Louis 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 25 louis, his purse being empty, although General Murat, governor of Paris, and who was very fond of him, often assisted him with bis: but this time the latter resource failed him; and the quarter's allowance which he received from the consul had been spent in advance. What was he to 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 Madrid. 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 came 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 is 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 25 louis have been promised him. The uncle capitulates, peace is made, and they embrace."-vol. iii. p. 219.

Hortense was greatly surprised and pained at the conduct of the Emperor Alexander, who on his return to Paris, though he once entered the Queen's hotel, according to Mademoiselle de Cochelet, never made the least attempt to renew the former intimacy. She expressed her feelings to Madame St. Aulaire, who repeated them to the King of Prussia.

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But the King, in order to stop her mouth, told her that a letter had been seized, which Queen Hortensia had written to her brother, and in which the Emperor Alexander 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 whom it was easy to gain an ascendant and turn him any way."-vol. iii. p. 230.

This assertion, which the fair biographer does not hesitate to call a wanton falsehood on the part of his majesty, was certainly

VOL. XXI. NO. XLII.

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not the plea set up by a follower of the Czar. It is singular that both in France and England his Imperial Majesty should have been prevented from paying a visit on which, according to his apologists in these cases, he had so much set his heart, by the personal anxiety of the respective monarchs, if we can trust the same authorities; which assuredly we do not.

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. 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 to 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 might 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 Mademoiselle 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 Voyna 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 more merit in thus answering Madame de Staël, as she had never wished so much to talk with her. A phrase of hers proves how great is the fascination of success, since it misled even her superior mind. Madame de Staël said of the Emperor, after the last events, Really I cannot understand it; I always looked upon him as a great man !”—vol. iii. p. 308.