thed with an ever-verdant forest.
Down the center, in a deep channel, flows a limpid stream,
refreshing and fertilizing the whole scene. On this spot,
the veterans who occupy it gave a fete to the emperor which
was at once military and rural. The wives, daughters, and
little children of these brave men formed the most pleasing,
as they were themselves the noblest ornament of the
festival. Amid piles of arms were seen beautiful shrubs
covered with flowers, while the echoes of the mountain
resounded to the bleating of flocks and the warlike strains
of a soldiery intoxicated on thus receiving their chief. The
emperor raised this enthusiasm to the highest pitch by
sitting down at a table at once quite military and perfectly
pastoral. I dare not mention the attentions of which I was
the object. They affected me deeply. I regarded them as
proofs of that veneration which France has vowed to the
emperor."

The infamous Ferdinand of Spain, who was then claiming the throne, in a
disgraceful quarrel with his equally infamous father, sent an embassador
to Bayonne to meet the emperor. Ferdinand, with the utmost servility,
was courting the support of Napoleon. The embassador possessed, some
leagues from Bayonne, an extensive farm, on which were bred numerous
flocks of merinoes. "Thither," writes Josephine, "under a plausible
pretext, we were conducted to-day. After a feast of really rustic
magnificence, we made the tour of the possession on foot. At the bottom
of a verdant dell, surrounded on all sides by rocks, covered with moss
and flowers, all of a sudden a picturesque cot appeared, lightly
suspended on a projecting point of rock. Around it were feeding seven or
eight hundred sheep of the most beautiful breed. We could not restrain a
cry of admiration. Upon the emperor addressing some compliments to the
embassador, he declared that these flocks belonged to me. 'The king, my
master,' he added, 'knows the empress's taste for rural occupations, and
as this species of sheep is little known in France, and will constitute
the principal ornament, and, consequently, wealth of a farm, he entreats
her not to deprive herself of an offering at once so useful and so
agreeable.' 'Don Pedro,' replied the emperor, with a tone of severity,
'the empress can not accept a present save from the hand of a king, and
your master is not yet one. Wait, before making your offer