semblage whatever, my cousin watched with anxious
solicitude over his purse, watch, and handkerchief; and this habitual
prudence did not abandon him even at the court theater, for just as we
were leaving our box, to mingle with the brilliant crowd which came out
of the pit and descended from the boxes, he said to me with the utmost
coolness, covering with his hand his chain and the seals of his watch,
"After all, it is well to take precautions; one does not know every one
here."

At the time of his marriage the Emperor was more than ever overwhelmed
with petitions, and granted, as I shall relate farther on, a large number
of pardons and petitions.

All petitions sent to the Emperor were handed by him to the aide-de-camp
on duty, who carried them to his Majesty's cabinet, and received orders
to make a report on them the next day; and not even as many as ten times
did I find any petitions in his Majesty's pockets, though I always
examined them carefully, and even these rare instances were owing to the
fact that the Emperor had no aide-de-camp near him when they were
presented. It is then untrue, as has been so often said and written,
that the Emperor placed in a private pocket, which was called the good
pocket, the petitions he wished to grant, without even examining them.
All petitions which deserved it received an answer, and I remember that I
personally presented a large number to his Majesty; he did not put these
in his pocket, and in almost every instance I had the happiness of seeing
them granted. I must, however, make an exception of some which I
presented for the Cerf-Berr brothers, who claimed payment for supplies
furnished the armies of the republic; for to them the Emperor was always
inexorable. I was told that this was because Messieurs Cerf-Berr had
refused General Bonaparte a certain sum which he needed during the
campaign of Italy.

These gentlemen interested me deeply in their cause; and I several times
presented their petition to his Majesty, and in spite of the care I took
to place it in his Majesty's hands only when he was in good humor,
I received no reply. I nevertheless continued to present the petition,
though I perceived that when the Emperor caught a glimpse of it he always
became angry; and at length one morning, just as his toilet was
completed, I handed him as usual his gloves, handkerchief, and snuff-box,
and attached to it again this unfortunate paper. His Majesty passed on
into his cabine