er
was expected to arrive immediately, and the Emperor of Austria therefore
informed his daughter that the Russian monarch wished to see her. At
first Maria Louisa decidedly refused to receive him, and she persisted
for some time in this resolution. She said to her father, "Would he too
make me a prisoner before your eyes? If he enters here by force I will
retire to my chamber. There, I presume, he will not dare to follow me
while you are here." But there was no time to be lost; Francis II.
heard the equipage of the Emperor of Russia rolling through the courtyard
of Rambouillet, and his entreaties to his daughter became more and more
urgent. At length she yielded, and the Emperor of Austria went himself
to meet his ally and conduct him to the salon where Maria Louisa
remained, in deference to her father. She did not, however, carry her
deference so far as to give a favourable reception to him whom she
regarded as the author of all her misfortunes. She listened with
considerable coldness to the offers and protestations of Alexander, and
merely replied that all she wished for was the liberty of returning to
her family. A few days after this painful interview Maria Louisa and her
son set off for Vienna.

--[A few days after this visit Alexander paid his respects to
Bonaparte's other wife, Josephine. In this great breaking up of
empires and kingdoms the unfortunate Josephine, who had been
suffering agonies on account of the husband who had abandoned her,
was not forgotten. One of the first things the Emperor of Russia
did on arriving at Paris was to despatch a guard for the protection
of her beautiful little palace at Malmaison. The Allied sovereigns
treated her with delicacy and consideration.

"As soon as the Emperor Alexander knew that the Empress Josephine
had arrived at Malmaison he hastened to pay her a visit. It is not
possible to be more amiable than he was to her. When in the course
of conversation he spoke of the occupation of Paris by the Allies,
and of the position of the Emperor Napoleon, it was always in
perfectly measured language: he never forgot for a single instant
that he was speaking before one who had been the wife of his
vanquished enemy. On her side the ex-Empress did not conceal the
tender sentiments, the lively affection she still entertained for
Napoleon. . . . Alexander had certainly something elevated and
magnanimous in his character, whi