d like an infant, his mind filled with business during
the entire performance.

I had forgotten to say that he used boxwood toothpicks, and a brush
dipped in some opiate. The Emperor was born, so to speak, to be waited
on (homme d valets de chambre). When only a general, he had as many as
three valets, and had himself served with as much luxury as at the height
of his fortunes, and from that time received all the attentions I have
just described, and which it was almost impossible for him to do without;
and in this particular the etiquette was never changed. He increased the
number of his servants, and decorated them with new titles, but he could
not have more services rendered him personally. He subjected himself
very rarely to the grand etiquette of royalty, and never, for example,
did the grand chamberlain hand him his shirt; and on one occasion only,
when the city of Paris gave him a dinner at the time of his coronation,
did the grand marshal hand him water to wash his hands. I shall give a
description of his toilet on the day of his coronation; and it will be
seen that even on that day his Majesty, the Emperor of the French, did
not require any other ceremonial than that to which he had been
accustomed as general and First Consul of the Republic.

The Emperor had no fixed hour for retiring: sometimes he retired at ten
or eleven o'clock in the evening; oftener he stayed awake till two,
three, or four o'clock in the morning. He was soon undressed; for it was
his habit, on entering the room, to throw each garment right and
left,--his coat on the floor, his grand cordon on the rug, his watch
haphazard at the bed, his hat far off on a piece of furniture; thus with
all his clothing, one piece after another. When he was in a good humor,
he called me in a loud voice, with this kind of a cry: "Ohe, oh! oh!"
at other times, when he was not in good humor, "Monsieur, Monsieur
Constant!"

At all seasons his bed had to be warmed with a warming-pan, and it was
only during the very hottest weather that he would dispense with this.
His habit of undressing himself in haste rarely left me anything to do,
except to hand him his night-cap. I then lighted his night-lamp, which
was of gilded silver, and shaded it so that it would give less light.
When he did not go to sleep at once, he had one of his secretaries
called, or perhaps the Empress Josephine, to read to him; which duty no
one could discharge better than her Majesty, for whic