My wife's mother had been presented to Madame Bonaparte during the first Italian campaign, and had pleased her, for Madame Bonaparte, who was so perfectly kindly and who had also known misfortune, knew how to compassionate the afflictions of others. She promised to interest the General in the fate of my father-in-law, who had just lost a place in the treasury. During this time Madame Charvet was in correspondence with a friend of her husband, who was, I think, General Bonaparte's courier. The former opened and read the letters addressed to his courier, and he asked who was the young woman who wrote to him with so much wit and intelligence. In fact, Madame Charvet was very well worthy of this double eulogy. My father-in-law's friend took occasion from this question to relate the misfortunes of the family. On his return to Paris the General said that he would like to see M. and Madame Charvet. Consequently they were presented, and Madame Bonaparte was delighted to learn that her protégés had also become those of her husband. It was decided that M. Charvet should follow the General to Egypt. But on arriving at Toulon, Madame Bonaparte asked that my father-in-law should accompany her to the baths of Plombières. I have previously described the accident that happened at Plombières, and M. Charvet's mission to Saint-Germain to withdraw Mademoiselle Hortense from boarding-school. On returning to Paris he hunted through all the environs to find a country house, which the General had commissioned his wife to buy in his absence. When Madame Bonaparte had decided upon Malmaison, M. Charvet, his wife, and their three children were established in this charming residence. My father-in-law devoted his whole attention to the interests of the benefactress of his family, and Madame Charvet often served as private secretary to Madame Bonaparte, for her correspondence.

Mademoiselle Louise, who became my wife, and Mademoiselle Zoe, her younger sister, were Madame Bonaparte's favorites; especially the second, who spent more time than Louise at Malmaison. The kindness of their noble benefactress had rendered this child so familiar that she habitually thee-d and thou-d Madame Bonaparte, to whom she said one day: "Thee is very happy, I think. Thee has no mamma to scold thee when thee tears thy frocks."

During one of the campaigns which I made in the train of the Emperor, I one day wrote to my wife to ask her for some details of the life which she and her sister led at Malmaison. She wrote me, among other things (I transcribe a passage of her response): "We sometimes played parts in buffooneries beyond my conception. One evening the salon was divided in two by a gauze, behind which was a bed draped in the Greek style, and on this bed a sleeping man wrapped in large white draperies. Near the sleeper, Madame Bonaparte and other ladies beat time (and besides not always exactly) on bronze vases, which made a terrible music. During this racket, one of those gentlemen held me by the middle of the body up from the ground, and I moved my arms and legs in regular time. The concert of the ladies awoke the sleeper, who opened big eyes on me and seemed to be frightened by my gestures. He rose and moved rapidly away, followed by my brother, who crawled on his hands and feet, I think to imitate a dog that this strange personage was supposed to have. As I was then quite a child, I have only a confused idea of all this, but Madame Bonaparte's company appeared to be very much amused by it."

When the First Consul went to live at Saint-Cloud, he said some flattering things to my father-in-law, and gave him the conciergerie of the château. It was a place of confidence, the details and responsibility of which were considerable. M. Charvet was commissioned to reorganize the service, and, by the First Consul's orders, he selected from among the former servants of the Queen for the places of porters, floor-polishers, and château servants. Those incapacitated for duty were pensioned.

When the fire broke out at the château, in 1802, as I have previously related, Madame Charvet, who was in delicate health, had a great fright. It was not thought advisable to bleed her. She had an unfortunate delivery, and died before she was thirty. Louise had been away at school for some years; her father recalled her that she might keep house for him. She was then twelve years old. One of her friends has kindly communicated to me a letter written her by Louise shortly after our marriage, from which I make the following extract:

"On my return from boarding-school, I went to see Her Majesty the Empress (then Madame Bonaparte) at the Tuileries. I was in deep mourning. She took me on her lap, comforted me, said she would be my mother and would find me a husband. I cried, and said I did not want to be married. 'Not at present,' returned Her Majesty, 'but that will happen, you may be sure.' I was not persuaded, however, that this mortification must come to me. I received some more caresses, and came away. When the First Consul was at Saint-Cloud, it was at my father's apartment that all the heads of the

different services assembled. For my father is much beloved by the household, of which he is the oldest member. M. Constant, who had seen me as a child at Malmaison, found me sufficiently sensible at Saint-Cloud to ask me of my father, with the approbation of Their Majesties. It was decided that we should be married after the coronation. I was fourteen years old a fortnight after our marriage.

"My sister and I were always received with extreme kindness by Her Majesty the Empress, and when, fearing to weary her, we did not go to see her for some time, she complained about it to my father. She admitted us to her morning toilet. They laced her stays and dressed her before us. There was no one in her chamber but her women and some persons of the household, who, like us, count among their sweetest moments those in which they could see this adored princess. Familiar talk is almost always full of charm. Her Majesty sometimes told anecdotes, not a word of which either of us recalls."

Her Majesty the Empress had promised Louise a dowry; but the money intended for it had been spent otherwise, and my wife had nothing but a few little jewels, and two or three pieces of stuff. M. Charvet was too delicate to remind Her Majesty of her promise; now, one never got anything from her without that; for she could neither economize nor refuse. Some time after my marriage the Emperor asked me what the Empress had given my wife, and seemed extremely dissatisfied when I told him; doubtless because the sum asked from him for Louise's dowry had received another destination. On this subject His Majesty the Emperor had the kindness to assure me that henceforward it should be his business to provide for my fortune, that he was satisfied with my services, and that he would prove it to me.

I have said above that it was my wife's younger sister who was the favorite of Her Majesty the Empress. Nevertheless, she did not receive, when she married, a richer dowry than that of Louise. But the Empress wished to see my sister-in-law's husband, and she said to him with a truly maternal accent: "Sir, I recommend my daughter to you, and I beg you to make her happy. She deserves it, and I shall think very ill of you if you do not know how to appreciate her." When my sister-in-law, escaping from Compiègne, in 1814, with her mother-in-law, went to Evreux for her delivery, the Empress, who heard of it, sent her first valet de chambre to her with all she thought necessary for a young woman in that condition. She even reproached her for not having alighted at Navarre.

My sister-in-law had been educated in the same boarding-school as Mademoiselle Josephine Tallien, god-daughter of the Empress, who has since married M. Pelet de La Lozère, and another daughter of Madame Tallien, Mademoiselle Clemence Cabarus. The school was directed by Madame Vigogne, widow of the colonel of that name, and an old friend of the Empress, who had induced her to take a boarding-school, and promised to secure her as many pupils as she could. The institution prospered under the direction of this lady, who was of distinguished intelligence and perfect manners. She often brought to the Empress the protégés of the latter, and other young persons who had deserved this reward. It was a powerful means to excite emulation in these children, whom Her Majesty covered with caresses and to whom she made little presents. One morning when Madame Vigogne had dressed to go and see the Empress, as she was coming downstairs to go to her carriage, she heard piercing screams from one of the class-rooms. She ran thither, and beheld a young girl whose clothes were all in flames. With a presence of mind worthy of a mother, Madame Vigogne at once enveloped the child in the train of her long dress, and put out the fire. But the hands of the courageous teacher were cruelly burned. She went in this condition to make her call upon Her Majesty the Empress, and related to her the wretched accident which had caused it. Her Majesty, who was easily moved by all that was fine and generous, was so affected that she wept with admiration. One of Her Majesty's physicians was charged to give the first attentions to Madame Vigogne and her young pupil.