"Well," said the First Consul to the latter; "we are going to Mass; what do they think of that in Paris?"

"Many people," responded M. Cambacérès, "propose going to the first representation and hissing the piece, if they do not find it amusing."

"If any one takes a notion to hiss, I will have him turned out of doors by the grenadiers of the consular guard."

"But what if the grenadiers begin to hiss like the others?"

"As to that I have no fears. My 'old moustaches' will go to Notre-Dame here, just as they went to the mosque in Cairo. They will look to see what I am doing, and seeing me behave seriously and decently, they will do the same, saying to themselves: That's the regulation."

"I am afraid," said M. Joseph Bonaparte, "that the general officers may not be so accommodating. I have just left Augereau, who is spitting fire and flame at what he calls your pious affectations. He and several others will not be easy to bring into the bosom of our holy mother, the Church."

"Bah! is Augereau like that? He's a brawler who makes a good deal of racket, and if he has some imbecile little cousin, he will put him in the seminary for me to make a chaplain of him. Apropos," pursued the First Consul, addressing his colleague, "when is your brother going to take possession of his see of Rouen? Do you know he has the finest archbishopric in France there? He will be a cardinal before the year is over; that is a settled affair."

The Second Consul bowed. From that moment his behavior towards the First Consul was rather that of a courtier than an equal.

The plenipotentiaries who had been appointed to discuss and sign the Concordat were MM. Joseph Bonaparte, Crétet, and the Abbé Bernier. The latter, whom I have sometimes seen at the Tuileries, had been a chief of Chouans, and everything about him showed it. In the same conversation of which I have just related the commencement, the First Consul spoke with his two interlocutors about the conferences on the Concordat. "The Abbé Bernier," said he, "frightened the Italian prelates by the vehemence of his logic. One would have thought he believed himself still conducting the Vendéans to the charge against the blues. Nothing was more singular than the contrast of his rude and disputatious manners with the polished formalities and honeyed tone of the prelates. Cardinal Caprara came two days ago with a frightened air, to ask whether it was true that during the war of La Vendée the Abbé Bernier made an altar out of Republican corpses to celebrate the Mass on. I told him that I knew nothing about it, but that it was possible. ‘General First Consul,' cried the terrified Cardinal, ‘it is not a red hat but a red cap that this man needs!'

"I am very much afraid," went on the First Consul, "that that may stand in the way of the Abbé Bernier's berretta."

These gentlemen quitted the First Consul when his toilet was finished, and went to prepare themselves for the ceremony. On that day the First Consul wore the consular costume, which was a scarlet coat without lapels, with a large embroidery of golden palms on all the seams. The sabre he had brought from Egypt was suspended at his side by a shoulder belt that was rather narrow, but finely wrought and richly embroidered. He retained his black collar, being unwilling to wear a lace cravat. Otherwise he was like his colleagues, in knee-breeches and slippers. A French hat with waving plumes in the three colors completed this rich apparel.

This first celebration of the divine at Note Dame was a singular spectacle for the Parisians. Many people hastened thither as they would to a theatrical representation. Many also, especially among the military men, made it a subject of raillery rather than of edification. And as to those who, during the Revolution, had done all in their power to overthrow the cult which the First Consul had just re- established, they found it hard to hide their indignation and chagrin. The populace saw nothing in the Te Deum, which was chanted that day for peace and concord but a new aliment offered to their curiosity. But in the middle class, a great number of pious persons, who had leadenly regretted the suppression of the devotional practices in which they had been brought up, were glad of the return of the ancient worship. Moreover, there was not at this time any symptom of superstition or rigorism capable of alarming the enemies of intolerance. The clergy were very careful not to show themselves too exacting. They asked very little, condemned nobody, and the representative of the Holy Father, the Cardinal legate, pleased everybody, except perhaps some old priests vexed by his indulgence, the worldly grace of his manners, and the freedom of his conduct. This prelate was in perfect accord with the First Consul, who liked his conversation very much.

It is certain also that, all religious sentiment apart, the fidelity of the people to their ancient customs made them return with pleasure to the repose and the celebration of Sunday. The Republican calendar was no doubt learnedly calculated; but it had been smitten with ridicule in the first place by the replacement of the saints of the ancient calendar by the days of the ass, the pig, the turnip, the onion, etc. . . . Besides, if it was skilfully calculated, it was not at all commodiously divided, and on this head I recall the witticism of a very clever man, and one who, in spite of the disapprobation contained in his words, would yet have desired the establishment of the Republican system everywhere except in the almanac. When the decree of the Convention ordaining the adoption of the Republican calendar was published, he said: "They may say what they like, but they will have to do with two enemies who will not yield: the beard and the white shirt." The fact is that for the working class, and for all classes employed in difficult tasks, there was too long an interval between one décadi and another. I do not know whether this was the effect of a deeply rooted routine; but the populace, accustomed to work for six consecutive days, and to rest on the seventh, found nine days of uninterrupted labor very long. Hence, the suppression of the décadis was universally approved. The decree which appointed Sunday as the day for the publication of the banns of marriage was not so much so, some persons dreading that the former pretensions of the clergy over the civil state might revive.

A few days after the formal re-establishment of the Catholic worship, I saw a general officer arrive at the Tuileries who would perhaps have preferred the establishment of the religion of Mahomet, and the change of Notre-Dame into a mosque. This was the last general-in-chief of the army of Egypt, who, people said, had become a Mussulman at Cairo, the ci-devant Baron de Menou. In spite of the latest check he had been subjected to by the English in Egypt, General Abdallah-Menou was well received by the First Consul, who soon after appointed him governor-general of Piedmont. General Menou's bravery was equal to every test, and he had displayed the greatest courage elsewhere than on the field of battle, and amidst the most difficult circumstances. After the day of August 10, although he belonged to the Republican party, he had been seen to follow Louis XVI. to the assembly, and had been denounced as a Royalist by the Jacobins. In 1795, the Faubourg Saint- Antoine having risen en masse, and advanced towards the Convention, General Menou had surrounded and disarmed the seditious; but he had resisted the atrocious orders of the commissioners of the Convention, who wanted to have the entire quarter burned, in order to punish the inhabitants for their continual insurrections. Some time after, having again failed to comply with the order of the Conventionists to riddle the sections of Paris with grapeshot, he was arraigned before a commission, which would have caused him to lose his head if General Bonaparte, who had replaced him in command of the army of the interior, had not used all his influence to save his life. Such multiplied acts of courage and generosity would suffice, and more than suffice, to excuse in this brave officer the otherwise very legitimate pride with which he boasted of having armed the national guards and substituted for the white flag the tricolor, which he called my standard. From the government of Piedmont he passed to that of Venice, and died of love, in 1810, in spite of his sixty years, for an actress whom he had followed from Venice to Reggio.

The institution of the order of the Legion of Honor preceded by a few days the proclamation of the Consulate for life. This proclamation gave rise to a feast which was celebrated the 15th of August. This was the anniversary of the First Consul's birth, and people profited by the occasion to celebrate this anniversary for the first time. On that day the First Consul completed his thirty-third year.

In the following month of October I attended the First Consul in his journey to Normandy. We stopped at Ivry, where the First Consul visited the battle-field. He said on reaching it: "Honor to the memory of the best Frenchman who ever sat on the throne of France." And he ordered the restoration of the column which had been erected in memory of the victory gained by Henri IV.

The reader will perhaps thank me for giving here the inscriptions cut on the four faces of the pyramid.

Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul, to the memory of Henri IV., victorious over the enemies of the State, on the field of Ivry, March 14, 1590.

Great men love the glory of those who resemble them.

In the year IX. of the French Republic, the 7th Brumaire, Napoleon Bonaparte, First Consul, after having passed over this plain, ordered the reconstruction of the monument destined to consecrate the memory of Henri IV. and that of the victory of Ivry.

The misfortunes experienced by France at the epoch of the battle of Ivry, were the result of the appeal made by the different French parties to the Spanish and English nations. Every family, every party which calls foreign powers to its assistance, has merited and will merit to the latest posterity the maledictions of the French people.

All of these inscriptions have been effaced and replaced by the following:

This is the place of the pillar where Henri IV. stood on the day of Ivry, March 14, 1590.

M. Lédier, mayor of Ivry, accompanied the First Consul on this excursion. The First Consul talked with him a long time and seemed well satisfied. The mayor of Evreux did not give him an equally good idea of his talents; hence he rudely interrupted him in the middle of a sort of compliment this worthy magistrate was trying to pay him, by inquiring whether he knew his confrère, the mayor of Ivry. "No, General," replied the mayor. "Well, so much the worse for you; I advise you to make his acquaintance."

It was at Evreux also that an administrator of high rank had the opportunity of amusing Madame Bonaparte and her suite by a piece of naïveté which diverted everybody but the First Consul, because he did not like such silly things when they proceeded from a man of position. M. de Ch—— did the honors of the county town to the wife of the First Consul, and in spite of his great age showed much alacrity and promptness in so doing. Among other questions dictated by her usual benevolence and grace, Madame Bonaparte asked him if he was married, and if he had a family. "O Madame, I should think so,"' replied M. de Ch—— with a smile and a bow; "I have cinq-z-enfants." "Ah! mon Dieu!" cried Madame Bonaparte, "what a regiment! it is extraordinary. How, Monsieur, sixteen children? (seize enfants)." "Yes, Madame, cinq-z-enfants, cinq-z-enfants," repeated the administrator, not seeing anything very marvellous in that, and being astonished merely by the astonishment manifested by Madame Bonaparte. In the end some one explained to the latter the error she had been let into by the dangerous liaison of M. de Ch——, adding as seriously as he could: "Deign, Madame, to excuse M. de Ch——; the Revolution interrupted the course of his studies." He was more than sixty years old.

From Evreux we started for Rouen, where we arrived at about three in the afternoon. M. Chaptal, minister of the interior, M. Beugnot, prefect of the department, and M. Cambacérès, Archbishop of Rouen, came to meet the First Consul at a certain distance from the city. The mayor, M. Fontenay, awaited him at the gates, of which he presented him the keys. The First Consul held them for some time in his hands, and then returned them to the mayor, saying in a tone loud enough to be heard by the crowd surrounding his carriage: "Citizens, I could not better confide the keys than to the charge of the worthy magistrate who enjoys my confidence and yours by so many titles." He caused M. Fontenay to get into his carriage, saying that he wished to honor Rouen in the person of its mayor.

Madame Bonaparte was in her husband's carriage; General Moncey rode at the right-hand side of it.

In the second carriage were General Soult and two aides-de-camp; in a third, General Bessières and M. de Luçay; in a fourth, General Lauriston. Then came the servants' carriages. Hambart, Hébert, and I were in the first one.

I should try in vain to give an idea of the enthusiasm of the people of Rouen on the arrival of the First Consul. The market porters and boatmen in grand costume were awaiting us on the outside of the city, and when the carriage containing the two august personages was within their reach, these excellent fellows ranged themselves in double file and preceded the carriage in this way as far as the hotel of the prefecture, where the First Consul alighted.

The prefect and the mayor of Rouen, the Archbishop and the general commanding the division, dined with the First Consul, who displayed the most amiable gaiety during the repast, and was most careful to inform himself concerning the condition of manufactures, new discoveries in the arts of making fabrics, and, in short, all that could relate to the prosperity of this essentially industrial city.

In the evening, and nearly all night, an immense crowd surrounded the hotel and filled the gardens of the prefecture, which were illuminated and adorned with allegorical transparencies in praise of the First Consul. Each time that he showed himself on the terrace of the garden, the air resounded with applause and acclamations which seemed to flatter him extremely.

The next morning, after having made the rounds of the city on horseback, and visiting the magnificent places by which it is surrounded, the First Consul heard Mass, which was celebrated at eleven o'clock by the Archbishop in the chapel of the prefecture. An hour later he had to receive the general council of the department, the municipal council, the clergy of Rouen, and the tribunals. He had to listen to a half-dozen discourses, all conceived in nearly the same terms, and to which he replied in a manner calculated to give the orators the highest opinion of their own merits. All these bodies, on quitting the First Consul, were presented to Madame Bonaparte, who received them with her usual grace.

In the evening Madame Bonaparte gave a reception for the wives of the functionaries. The First Consul was present at this reception, a fact availed of in order to present to him several newly amnestied persons, whom he received with benevolence.

For the rest, there were the same illuminations, the same acclamations as on the evening before. All countenances wore a festive look which delighted me, and, in my opinion, contrasted singularly with the horrible wooden houses, the dirty and narrow streets, and the Gothic constructions which then characterized the city of Rouen.

On Monday, November 1, at seven o'clock in the morning, the First Consul mounted a horse, escorted by a detachment of the young men of the city, forming a voluntary guard. He crossed the bridge of boats, and went through the Faubourg Saint-Sever. On returning from this promenade, we found the people awaiting him at the head of the bridge, who conducted him back to the hotel of the prefecture, making the air ring with shouts of joy.

After breakfast, High Mass was sung by Monseigneur the Archbishop, it being the feast of All Saints; then came the learned societies, the heads of the administration, and the judges of the peace, with their discourses. That of the latter contained a remarkable phrase: these good magistrates, in their enthusiasm, asked the First Consul's permission to surname him the grand judge of the peace of Europe. As they were leaving the apartment of the First Consul, I noticed the man who had delivered the speech; there were tears in his eyes, and he was proudly repeating the response just made to him. I regret not having remembered his name; he was, I was told, one of the most respectable men in Rouen. His face inspired confidence and wore an expression of frankness that prepossessed one in his favor.

In the evening, the First Consul went to the theatre. The hall, filled to the roof, presented a charming sight. The municipal authorities had caused a superb entertainment to be prepared, which the First Consul found greatly to his taste; he complimented the prefect and the mayor on it several times. After having seen the opening of the ball, and made two or three turns around the hall, he withdrew, surrounded by the staff of the nationa guard.

A great part of Tuesday was employed by the First Consul in visiting the workshops of the numerous manufactories of the city. The minister of the interior, the prefect, the mayor, the general commanding the division, the inspector-general of the county police, and the staff of the consular guard accompanied him. In one manufactory of the Faubourg Saint-Sever, the minister of the interior presented to him the senior workman, known for having woven the first piece of velvet in France. After complimenting this honorable old man, the First Consul granted him a pension. Other rewards or encouragements were likewise distributed to several persons whose useful inventions recommended them to public gratitude.

On Monday morning early, we started for Elbeuf, where we arrived at ten o'clock, preceded by some sixty young men of the most distinguished families in the city, who, after the example of those of Rouen, aspired to the honor of forming the guard of the First Consul.

The country all around was covered by an innumerable multitude, coming from the surrounding communes. The First Consul alighted at the house of the mayor of Elbeof, where he breakfasted. Afterwards he visited the city in detail, seeking information everywhere; and learning that one of the principal needs of the citizens was the construction of a road from Elbeuf to a little neighboring town called Romilly, he gave orders to the minister of the interior to have the work begun at once.

At Elbeuf, as at Rouen, the First Consul was loaded with homage and benedictions. We returned to the latter city at four in the afternoon.

The merchants of Rouen had prepared a fête in the stock exchange. The First Consul and his wife went there after dinner. He remained a long while on the ground-floor of this great building, where magnificent samples of the industries of the department were displayed. He examined all, and had them examined by Madame Bonaparte, who wished to buy several pieces of stuff.

Then the First Consul went up into the first story; there, in a beautiful salon, were assembled a hundred ladies and misses, nearly all pretty, the wives or daughters of the principal merchants of Rouen, who were waiting to pay him their compliments. He sat down in this charming circle, and remained there about a quarter of an hour, going afterwards into another hall, where he listened to the representation of a little "proverb," mingled with couplets, expressive, as one may guess, of the attachment and the gratitude of the people of Rouen.

This "proverb" was followed by a ball.

On Thursday evening, the First Consul announced that he would leave for Havre the next morning at daybreak. I was, in fact, awakened by Hébert at five in the morning, who told me we would start at six o'clock. I had a bad awakening, which made me sick all day: I would have given a good deal to sleep some hours longer. . . . Finally, we had to set off. Before getting into the carriage, the First Consul made a present to Monseigneur the Archbishop of a snuff-box with his portrait. He also gave one to the mayor bearing the inscription: The French People.

We stopped at Caudebec for breakfast. The mayor of this town presented to the First Consul a corporal who had made the Italian campaign (his name, I think, was Roussel), and who had received a sabre of honor as the reward of his fine conduct at Marengo. He was at Caudebec on a six months' furlough, and he asked the First Consul's permission to stand sentry at the door of the apartment occupied by the august travellers. This was granted, and when the First Consul and Madame Bonaparte sat down at table, Roussel was called and invited to breakfast with his former general. At Havre and at Dieppe, the First Consul thus invited to his table all those, whether soldiers or sailors, who had obtained guns, sabres, or boarding-axes of honor. The First Consul stopped for half an hour at Bolbec, displaying much attention and interest in examining the industrial products of the arrondissement, complimenting the guards of honor who came to meet him on their fine appearance, thanking the priest for the prayers he addressed to Heaven for him, and leaving in his hands and those of the mayor tokens for the poor of his passage. On the arrival of the First Consul at Havre, the city was illuminated. The First Consul and his numerous cortege marched between two rows of illumination-stands, of fiery columns of every sort. The vessels that were in the harbor looked like a forest in flames; they were surcharged with colored lamps to the tops of their masts. On the day of his arrival, the First Consul received only a part of the authorities of the city; he went to bed shortly afterwards, saying that he was sleepy; but by six o'clock next morning he was on horseback, and for more than two hours he was ranging the beach, the hillsides of Ingouville for more than a league, the banks of the Seine as far as the acclivity of Hoc; and he made the exterior round of the citadel. About three o'clock the First Consul began to receive the authorities. He conversed with them, in the greatest detail, about the works which must be accomplished in order that their port, which he always called the port of Paris, should attain the highest degree of prosperity. He did the sub-prefect, the mayor, the two presidents of the tribunals, the commandant of the place, and the chief of the 10th half brigade of light infantry, the honor of inviting them to his table.

In the evening the First Consul went to the theatre, where they played a little piece written for the occasion, about as good as such things ever are, but for which the First Consul, and especially Madame Bonaparte, were well pleased with the au thors.The illuminations were still more brilliant than on the previous evening. I especially remember that the majority of the transparencies were inscribed with these words: 18 Brumaire, year VIII.

At seven o'clock on Sunday morning, after having visited the marine arsenal and all the basins, the First Consul embarked on a little yawl, the weather being fine, and remained in the roadstead during several hours. His cortège was composed of a great number of boats filled with fashionable men and women, and with musicians who played the favorite airs of the First Consul. Several more hours were spent in receiving merchants, to whom the First Consul said openly that he had had the greatest pleasure in conferring on the commerce of Havre with the colonies. That evening there was a fête arranged by the mercantile community, at which the First Consul was present for half an hour. On Monday, at five o'clock in the morning, he embarked on a lugger, and went to Honfleur. The weather was somewhat threatening at the time of departure, and several persons had tried to persuade the First Consul not to go on board. Madame Bonaparte, to whose ears this rumor came, ran to her husband and begged him not to start, but he embraced her, laughing and calling her a trembler, and went aboard the boat that was awaiting him. He had scarcely done so when the wind suddenly became more calm and the weather was magnificent. On his return to Havre, the First Consul held a review on the Place de la Citadelle, and visited the artillery establishments. He again received until evening a great number of public functionaries and merchants, and the next day, at six o'clock in the morning, we started for Dieppe.

At the moment when we arrived at Fécamp, the town presented an extremely curious spectacle. All the inhabitants of the neighboring towns and villages accompanied the clergy in chanting a Te Deum for the anniversary of the 18th Brumaire. These innumerable voices, rising to Heaven in prayer for him, moved the First Consul deeply. He repeated several times, during breakfast, that he had experienced more emotion from these chants under the vaulted sky, than he had ever done from more brilliant music.

We reached Dieppe at six in the evening; the First Consul did not go to bed until after having received all the felicitations, which were certainly very sincere there, as they were at that time throughout France. At eight o'clock next day he went down to the wharf, where he stayed a long time watching the fishing boats come in, and then visited the Faubourg du Pollet and the works they were commencing in the basins. He admitted to his table the sub-prefect, the mayor, and three sailors of Dieppe, who had obtained boarding-axes of honor for distinguishing themselves at the combat of Boulogne. The First Consul ordered the construction of a sluice in the last wharf, and the construction of a canal which was to extend to Paris but of which only a few feet had yet been built. From Dieppe we went to Gisors and to Beauvais; and finally the First Consul and his wife returned to Saint-Cloud, after an absence of fifteen days, during which time active restorations had been in progress in this ancient royal residence, which the First Consul had decided to accept, as I shall presently explain.