will
give you instructions." I hastened to do as his Majesty ordered, donned a
Swiss costume which suited me very well, and thus equipped awaited his
Majesty's orders.

He had a plan for mystifying several great personages, and two or three
ladies whom the Emperor designated to me with such minute details that it
was impossible to mistake them, and told me some singular things in
regard to them, which were not generally known, and were well calculated
to embarrass them terribly. As I was starting, the Emperor called me
back, saying, "Above all, Constant, take care to make no mistake, and do
not confound Madame de M---- with her sister; they have almost exactly
the same costume, but Madame de M--- is larger than she, so take care."
On my arrival at the ball, I sought and easily found the persons whom his
Majesty had designated, and the replies which they made afforded him much
amusement when I narrated them as he was retiring.

There was at this time a third marriage at the court, that of the Prince
de Neuchatel and the Princess of Bavaria, which was celebrated in the
chapel of the Tuileries by Cardinal Fesch.

A traveler just returned from the Isle of France presented to the Empress
a female monkey of the orang-outang species; and her Majesty gave orders
that the animal should be placed in the menagerie at Malmaison. This
baboon was extremely gentle and docile, and its master had given it an
excellent education. It was wonderful to see her, when any one
approached the chair on which she was seated, take a decent position,
draw over her legs and thighs the fronts of a long redingote, and, when
she rose to make a bow, hold the redingote carefully in front of her,
acting, in fact, exactly as would a young girl who had been well reared.
She ate at the table with a knife and fork more properly than many
children who are thought to be carefully trained, and liked, while
eating, to cover her face with her napkin, and then uncover it with a cry
of joy. Turnips were her favorite food; and, when a lady of the palace
showed her one, she began to run, caper, and cut somersaults, forgetting
entirely the lessons of modesty and decency her professor had taught her.
The Empress was much amused at seeing the baboon lose her dignity so
completely under the influence of this lady.

This poor beast had inflammation of the stomach, and, according to the
directions of the traveler who brought her, was placed in bed and a
night-dress put