anxious to do this, these ladies dared not make use of it. At last a
considerable number of Parisian beauties, touched by the sad fate of so
many brave and handsome officers, came to Boulogne to charm away the
ennui of so long a peace. The example of the Parisian women piqued those
of Abbeville, Dunkirk, Amiens; and soon Boulogne was filled with
strangers, male and female, who came to do the honors of the city. Among
all these ladies the one most conspicuous for style, intellect, and
beauty was a Dunkirk lady, named Madame F----, an excellent musician,
full of gayety, grace, and youth; it was impossible for Madame F----not
to turn many heads. Colonel Joseph, brother of the First Consul,
General Soult, who was afterwards Marshal, Generals Saint-Hilaire and
Andre Ossy, and a few other great personages, were at her feet; though
two alone, it is said, succeeded in gaining her affections, and of those
two, one was Colonel Joseph, who soon had the reputation of being the
preferred lover of Madame F----. The beautiful lady from Dunkirk often
gave soirees, at which Colonel Joseph never failed to be present. Among
all his rivals, and certainly they were very numerous, one alone bore him
ill-will; this was the general-in-chief, Soult. This rivalry did no
injury to the interests of Madame F----; but like a skillful tactician,
she adroitly provoked the jealousy of her two suitors, while accepting
from each of them compliments, bouquets, and more than that sometimes.

The First Consul, informed of the amours of his brother, concluded one
evening to go and make himself merry in the little salon of Madame F----,
who was very plainly domesticated in a room on the first floor in the
house of a joiner, in the Rue des Minimes. In order not to be
recognized, he was dressed as a citizen, and wore a wig and spectacles.
He took into his confidence General Bertrand, who was already in great
favor with him, and who did all in his power to render his disguise
complete.

Thus disguised, the First Consul and his companion presented themselves
at Madame F----'s, and asked for Monsieur the Superintendent Arcambal.
The most perfect incognito was impressed on Arcambal by the First Consul,
who would not for all the world have been recognized; and M. Arcambal
promising to keep the secret, the two visitors were announced under the
title of commissaries of war.

They were playing bouillotte; gold covered the tables, and the game and
punch absorbed the