and furniture. This was ever
the favorite residence of Napoleon and Josephine.

As the leaves of autumn began to fall, Josephine, who had been slowly
recovering from the effects of the accident, left Plombieres and took up
her residence at Malmaison. Napoleon was absent in Egypt about eighteen
months. During the winter and the ensuing summer, Josephine remained
with Hortense, and several other ladies, who composed her most agreeable
household, in this beautiful retreat. The celebrity of Napoleon
surrounded them with friends, and that elegant mansion was the resort of
the most illustrious in rank and intellect. Napoleon, who had ever a
spice of jealousy in his nature, had every thing reported to him which
occurred at Malmaison. He was informed respecting all the guests who
visited the chateau, and of the conversation which passed in every
interview.

Hortense was a lively girl of fifteen, and the time hung rather heavily
upon her hands. She amused herself in playing all manner of pranks upon
a very singular valet de chambre, by the name of Carrat, whom her mother
had brought from Italy. This man was very timid and eccentric, but, with
most enthusiastic devotion, attached to the service of Josephine.

One evening Carrat received orders to attend Madame Bonaparte and
several ladies who were with her in their twilight walk through the
magnificent park belonging to the estate. Carrat, ever delighted with
an opportunity to display his attachment to his kind mistress, obeyed
with great alacrity. No ladies in peril could desire a more valiant
knight-errant than the vaunting little Italian assumed to be. They
had not advanced far into the somber shadows of the grove when they
saw, solemnly emerging from the obscurity, a tall specter in its
winding-sheet. The fearful apparition approached the party, when the
valet, terrified beyond all power of self-control, and uttering the most
fearful shrieks, abandoned the ladies to the tender mercies of the
ghost, and fled. The phantom, with its white drapery fluttering in
the wind, pursued him. Soon the steps of the affrighted valet began
to falter, and he dropped upon the ground, insensible, in a fit.
Hortense, who had been perfectly convulsed with laughter in view of the
triumphant success of her experiment, was now correspondingly alarmed.
The ghost was a fellow-servant of Carrat, who had been dressed out under
the superintendence of the mischievous Hortense.

As the poor man recove