he vice-king
accompanied his Majesty.

The Emperor stopped only two or three days at Milan, and continued his
journey. On reaching the plains of Marengo, he found there the entire
population of Alexandria awaiting him, and was received by the light of
thousands of torches. We passed through Turin without stopping, and on
the 30th of December again descended Mont Cenis, and on the evening of
the 1st of January arrived at the Tuileries.

CHAPTER VII.

We arrived in Paris on the 1st of January at nine o'clock in the evening;
and as the theater of the palace of the Tuileries was now completed, on
the Sunday following his Majesty's return the Griselda of M. Paer was
presented in this magnificent hall. Their Majesties' boxes were situated
in front of the curtain, opposite each other, and presented a charming
picture, with their hangings of crimson silk draped above, and forming a
background to broad, movable mirrors, which reflected at will the
audience or the play. The Emperor, still impressed with the
recollections of the theaters of Italy, criticised unsparingly that of
the Tuileries, saying that it was inconvenient, badly planned, and much
too large for a palace theater; but notwithstanding all these criticisms,
when the day of inauguration came, and the Emperor was convinced of the
very great ingenuity M. Fontaine had shown in distributing the boxes so
as to make the splendid toilets appear to the utmost advantage, he
appeared well satisfied, and charged the Duke of Frioul to present to M.
Fontaine the congratulations he so well deserved.

A week after we saw the reverse of the medal. On that day Cinna was
presented, and a comedy, the name of which I have forgotten. It was such
extremely cold weather that we were obliged to leave the theater
immediately after the tragedy, in consequence of which the Emperor
exhausted himself in invectives against the hall, which according to him
was good for nothing but to be burnt. M. Fontaine [Born at Pontoise,
1762; erected the arch of the Carrousel; died 1853] was summoned, and
promised to do everything in his power to remedy the inconveniences
pointed out to him; and in fact, by means of new furnaces placed under
the theater, with pipes through the ceiling, and steps placed under the
benches of the second tier of boxes, in a week the hall was made warm and
comfortable.

For several weeks the Emperor occupied himself almost exclusively with
buildings and improvements. The