d moans increased. Her female attendants, who had come
in, placed her on a couch. In her agony, she seized the hands of the
officer, and besought him to tell the emperor not to forget her, and
to assure him that her attachment would survive all contingencies. It
was with difficulty that she suffered him to leave her, as if his
absence severed the last link by which she still held to the emperor.

Henceforward, the life of Josephine, passed either at Malmaison
or Navarre, offers but few incidents. The emperor would not suffer
any change to be made in the regal state to which she had been
accustomed at the Tuileries. Her household was on a scale of
imperial magnificence. She continued to receive the visits, almost
the homage, of the members of the court of Napoleon and Maria Louisa;
for it was quickly discovered, that, however unpleasant to her new
rival, such visits were recommendations to the emperor's favor. The
apartments in which the empress received her guests were elegant, the
furniture being covered with needle-work, wrought by the empress and
her ladies; but the residence altogether was small--an inconvenience
increased through Josephine's veneration of every thing that had
been Napoleon's. The apartment he had occupied remained exactly as
he had left it; she would not suffer a chair to be moved, and,
indeed, very rarely permitted any person to enter, keeping the key
herself, and dusting the articles with her own hands. On the table
was a volume of history, with the page doubled down where he had
finished reading; beside it lay a pen, with the ink dried upon the
point, and a map of the world, on which he was accustomed to point
out his plans to those in his confidence, and which still showed on
its surface many marks of his impatience. These Josephine would
allow to be touched on no account. By the wall stood his camp-bed,
without curtains; above hung his arms; on different pieces of
furniture lay different articles of apparel, just as Napoleon had
flung them from him.

It was long before the harassed feelings of Josephine were
sufficiently calmed to take any interest in common affairs. So severe
had been her sufferings, that it was six months before her sight
recovered from the effects of inflammation and swelling of the eyes.
The first circumstance which produced something like a change for the
better, was her removal to Navarre, the repairing of which became at
once a source of amusement and a means of benev