ock than that I felt on seeing the Emperor himself
address the general officer beside me.

I cannot pretend to have enjoyed many opportunities of royal notice. At
the time I speak of, such distinction was altogether unknown to me; but
even when most highly favoured in that respect, I have never been able
to divest myself of a most crushing feeling of my inferiority--a sense
at once so humiliating and painful, that I longed to be away and out
of a presence where I might dare to look at him who addressed me,
and venture on something beyond mere replies to interrogatories. This
situation, good reader, with your courtly breeding and _aplomb_ to boot,
is never totally free of constraint; but imagine what it can be when,
instead of standing in the faint sunshine of a royal smile, you find
yourself cowering under the stern and relentless look of anger, and that
anger an emperor's.

This was precisely my predicament, for in my confusion I had not noticed
how, as the Emperor drew near to any individual to converse, the others,
at either side, immediately retired out of hearing, preserving an air of
obedient attention, but without in any way obtruding themselves on the
royal notice. The consequence was, that as his Majesty stood to talk
with Marshal Oudinot, I maintained my place, never perceiving my
awkwardness till I saw that I made one of three figures isolated in the
floor of the chamber. To say that I had rather have stood in face of an
enemy's battery, is no exaggeration. I'd have walked up to a gun with
a stouter heart than I felt at this terrible moment; and yet there was
something in that sidelong glance of angry meaning that actually nailed
me to the spot, and I could not have fallen back to save my life. There
were, I afterwards learned, no end of signals and telegraphic notices
to me from the officers-in-waiting. Gestures and indications for my
guidance abounded, but I saw none of them. I had drawn myself up in an
attitude of parade stiffness--neither looked right nor left--and waited
as a criminal might have waited for the fall of the axe that was to end
his sufferings for ever.

That the Emperor remained something like two hours and a half in
conversation with the marshal, I should have been quite ready to verify
on oath; but the simple fact was, that the interview occupied under four
minutes, and then General Oudinot backed out of the presence, leaving me
alone in front of his Majesty.

The silence of the chamb