ties required of me, in
her service, were altogether nominal; and nearly all my time was at my
own disposal, of which I took advantage to visit Paris frequently. The
life that I led at this time was very pleasant to a young man like
myself, who could not foresee that in a short while he would be as much
under subjection as he was then at liberty.

Before bidding adieu to a service in which I had found so much that was
agreeable, I will relate some incidents which belong to that period, and
which my situation with the stepson of General Bonaparte gave me the
opportunity of learning.

M. de Bourrienne has related circumstantially in his memoirs the events
of the 18th Brumaire; [The 18th Brumaire, Nov. 9, 1799, was the day
Napoleon overthrew the Directory and made himself First Consul.--TRANS.]
and the account which he has given of that famous day is as correct as it
is interesting, so that any one curious to know the secret causes which
led to these political changes will find them faithfully pointed out in
the narration of that minister of state. I am very far from intending to
excite an interest of this, kind, but reading the work of M. Bourrienne
put me again on the track of my own recollections. These memoirs relate
to circumstances of which he was ignorant, or possibly may have omitted
purposely as being of little importance; and whatever he has let fall on
his road I think myself fortunate in being permitted to glean.

I was still with Eugene de Beauharnais when General Bonaparte overthrew
the Directory; but I found myself in as favorable a situation to know all
that was passing as if I had been in the service of Madame Bonaparte, or
of the general himself, for my master, although he was very young, had
the entire confidence of his stepfather, and, to an even greater degree,
that of his mother, who consulted him on every occasion.

A few days before the 18th Brumaire, Eugene ordered me to make
preparations for a breakfast he wished to give on that day to his
friends, the number of the guests, all military men, being much larger
than usual. This bachelor repast was made very gay by an officer, who
amused the company by imitating in turn the manners and appearance of the
directors and a few of their friends. To represent the Director Barras,
he draped himself 'a la grecque' with the tablecloth, took off his black
cravat, turned down his shirt-collar, and advanced in an affected manner,
resting his left arm on the s