did not attain. All
these little circumstances passed unobserved; but Bonaparte had so often
developed to me his theory of the art of deceiving mankind that I knew
their true value. It was likewise at the camp of Boulogne that, by a
decree emanating from his individual will, he destroyed the noblest
institution of the Republic, the Polytechnic School, by converting it
into a purely military academy. He knew that in that sanctuary of high
study a Republican spirit was fostered; and whilst I was with him he had
often told me it was necessary that all schools, colleges, and
establishments for public instruction should be subject to military
discipline. I frequently endeavoured to controvert this idea, but
without success.

It was arranged that Josephine and the Emperor should meet in Belgium.
He proceeded thither from the camp of Boulogne, to the astonishment of
those who believed that the moment for the invasion of England had at
length arrived. He joined the Empress at the Palace of Lacken, which the
Emperor had ordered to be repaired and newly furnished with great
magnificence.

The Emperor continued his journey by the towns bordering on the Rhine.
He stopped first in the town of Charlemagne, passed through the three
bishoprics,

--[There are two or three little circumstances in connection with
this journey that seem worth inserting here:

Mademoiselle Avrillion was the 'femme de chambre' of Josephine, and
was constantly about her person from the time of the first
Consulship to the death of the Empress in 1814. In all such matters
as we shall quote from them, her memoirs seem worthy of credit.
According to Mademoiselle, the Empress during her stay at Aix-la-
Chapelle, drank the waters with much eagerness and some hope. As
the theatre there was only supplied with some German singers who
were not to Josephine's taste, she had part of a French operatic
company sent to her from Paris. The amiable creole had always a
most royal disregard of expense. When Bonaparte joined her, he
renewed his old custom of visiting his wife now and then at her
toilet, and according to Mademoiselle Avrillion, he took great
interest in the subject of her dressing. She says, "It was a most
extraordinary thing for us to see the man whose head was filled with
such vast affairs enter into the most minute details of the female
toilet and of what dresses, what robes, and what jewels the Empre