During the twenty days which the Emperor passed at Tilsit he had sent a great many officers both to Paris and to other parts of the Empire, so that the number available for this duty was almost exhausted. Not wishing to take officers from the regiments, Napoleon ordered that a list should be drawn up of all those who, having served as volunteers in the campaign, belonged to none of the army corps nor to the staffs of the five marshals who were to command them. My name was upon this list, and I felt sure that as I had already carried the Emperor's despatches he would employ me in preference to officers whom he did not know. Accordingly, on July 9, he sent for me, and giving me bulky portfolios and despatches for the King of Saxony, he ordered me to go to Dresden and await him there. He was to leave Tilsit that day, but was going on a round of visits to Königsberg, Marienwerder, and Silesia, so that I should have several days' start of him. I crossed Prussia afresh, revisited several of our battle-fields, reached Berlin, and got to Dresden two days before the Emperor. The Saxon court knew already that peace had been made and its elector raised to the rank of king, with the possession of the grand duchy of Warsaw, but I was the first to bring tidings of the approaching visit of the Emperor to Dresden on his way to Paris.

You may imagine the effect of this. The court, the town, the army were in a turmoil of preparation. A magnificent reception was due to the great Emperor, who, after having so generously set free the Saxon troops captured at Jena, was heaping benefits on their sovereign. I was most warmly received, I was lodged in the palace in delightful rooms and sumptuously attended. The king's aide- de-camp showed me everything noticeable in the palace and the town. When the Emperor arrived, according to the practice with which I was by this time familiar, I at once handed the portfolios to M. de Meneval, and asked for the Emperor's orders. These suited me admirably, for I was directed to take fresh portfolios to Paris, and the Emperor confided to me a letter which I was personally to hand to the Empress Josephine. Duroc let me have 8,000 francs for posting expenses from Tilsit to Dresden and from Dresden to Paris. I went off in high spirits. I had just been through three fine campaigns, in the course of which I had risen to the rank of captain and earned the Emperor's notice; we were about to enjoy the delights of peace, which would allow me to remain a long time with my mother, my health was quite restored, I had more money than I ever had in my life, everything invited me to be cheerful, and very cheerful I was.

So I came to Frankfort. A lieutenant-colonel of the imperial guard named M. de L---- was in command there. The Emperor had given me a letter for this officer containing, I think, a request for some private information, for M. de L---- was in close communication with M. Savary, the head of the secret police. After having made me breakfast with him the colonel would see me back to my carriage, but as l got in I noticed a largish packet which formed no part of my despatches. I was about to ask my servant to explain this when Colonel de L---- stopped me, saying in a whisper that the packet contained dresses of Berlin wool and other stuffs contraband in France, and that they were intended for the Empress Josephine, who would be very gratified to me for bringing them. I remembered too well my anxieties on the occasion of the report about the chasseurs of the guard, which I had been weak enough to make to the Emperor before the battle of Austerlitz, to be at all disposed to engage in another questionable business, so I refused very flatly. 1 should no doubt have been very glad to oblige the Empress, but I knew how inflexibly severe Napoleon was towards all smuggling, and having run so much danger and shed so much blood in fighting, I did not wish to lose the credit which I had thus obtained in the Emperor's eyes by transgressing his laws to obtain a smile of thanks from the Empress. To overcome my scruples Colonel de L---- pointed out that the parcel was in several wrappers and that the outside was addressed to the Minister of War, and bore the seal of the 7th Light Infantry with the inscription, 'Papers relating to the accounts.' He concluded that the customs authority would not venture to open the packet, and that I might take off the outside cover when I got to Paris, and take the goods to the Empress without being compromised. But in spite of all these fine arguments I flatly refused to undertake the job, and ordered the postillion to start. On reaching the stage halfway between Frankfort and Mainz, it occurred to me to scold my servant for having taken a parcel into my carriage when he replied that during breakfast M. de L---- had himself placed the parcels there, and that, supposing they were some additional despatches, he had thought that he could not refuse to receive them from the governor of the place. 'Parcels!' I exclaimed; 'there are several, then? and he only took back one!' and when I turned over the Emperor's portfolios I did actually find a second bundle of contraband, which the colonel without my knowledge had left among my baggage. This trick was too much for me, and I debated whether I should throw the dresses out in the road. I did not venture, however, and continued my journey, fully resolved if the smuggled goods were seized to declare how they had got into my carriage, and by whom the seal of the 7th Light Infantry had been put on the wrapper, for I wished to save myself from the Emperor's wrath. However, as this defence would have compromised the Empress, I thought I must only use it at the last extremity, and do all that depended on myself to prevent my carriage from being searched. Good luck and a little subterfuge got me out of the difficulty in the following way.

I was full of anxiety when I reached the bridge over the Rhine at Mainz, and my uneasiness was increased by seeing a large assembly of superior officials of the customs, officers and soldiers in full uniform, waiting at this advanced post. The sentry having, according to custom, stopped my carriage, two men appeared simultaneously at the two doors, namely, a douanier to make his search and an aide-de-camp of Marshal Kellermann, commanding at Mainz, to inquire if the Emperor would soon arrive. 'Excellent,' said I to myself, and pretending not to see the inquisitor of the customs, I replied to the aide-de-camp, 'The Emperor is behind me.' I was not telling an untruth: he was behind me, but at two days' distance which I did not think it necessary to add.

All the bystanders overhearing my words were thrown into a great flutter, the aide-de-camp dashed off, crossed the bridge at a gallop at the risk of tumbling into the Rhine, and hastened to warn Marshal Kellermann. The guard stood to its arms, the douaniers and their officers sought to draw themselves up in the most military fashion possible, so as to make a proper appearance before the Emperor, and as my carriage was in their way, they told the postillion to drive on. Once out of the clutches of these gentry, I reached the post and ordered the horses to be promptly changed. But while this was being done a perfectly fearful storm burst over Mainz, rain falling in torrents. It was five o'clock in the evening and just dinner time, but at the news of the Emperor's immediate arrival, the general assembly was beaten throughout the town. At this signal marshals, generals, prefect, mayor, civil and military authorities, throwing their napkins aside, bustled into their best clothes, and went off to their posts under a pelting rain, paddling through the overflowing gutters. Meanwhile I, the cause of this tremendous hullabaloo, was laughing like a lunatic as I went away at the best speed of three good post horses. But why did the Empress in disobedience to her husband want to wear dresses of contraband stuff? Why did a colonel slip contraband goods into my carriage when my back was turned? This seemed to excuse the trick which I had played. Besides in the month of June the bath which I caused all the officials of Mainz to take could injure only their clothes! I could still hear the sound of the drums more than two leagues away from Mainz, and I learnt afterwards that the authorities had been on their legs all night, and that the Emperor had not come till two days later. However, as an accident had happened to his carriage the good people of Mainz could ascribe to that the delay which had ruined their best clothes.

I was going along quickly and gaily towards Paris, when a most disagreeable event interrupted my journey and changed my gaiety to grumbling. You know that when a sovereign is travelling it would be impossible to horse the numerous carriages which precede and follow his if their relays were not supplemented by horses brought for the occasion from posts on other roads. Now, as I was going out of Dombasle, a little town the other side of Verdun, a confounded emergency postillion, who having only come the night before, had not noticed a steep descent upon which one comes immediately after leaving the post-house, unable to check his horses when they were once on the hill, upset my carriage, and broke the springs and the body of it. As a finishing stroke it was Sunday, and all the population had gone off to a neighbouring village feast; so it was impossible to find a workman, and those whom I got the next day were very clumsy: the end of it being that I had to pass two days in this wretched little place.

At last, just when I was starting again, an outrider came up announcing the Emperor's approach, and I took the liberty of stopping his carriage to let him know the accident which had befallen me. He laughed at it, took back the letter for the Empress, and went on. I followed him to Saint-Cloud, and having placed the portfolios in the hands of the private secretary, I went to my mother at Paris.

I resumed my duties of aide-de-camp to Marshal Augereau. It was easy work, for it consisted in passing a week or two out of every month at La Houssaye, where we led a very merry life. So passed the summer and autumn. During this time the Emperor's policy was leading up to new events and new tempests, which went near to engulf me in their terrible commotions, insignificant as I was, and thinking in my careless youth of nothing but enjoying life after having seen death so near.