t, and I remained in the room attending to my duties, and
while busied with these saw the Emperor re-enter, a paper in his hand.
He said to me, "Come, Constant, read this; you will see that you are
mistaken, and the government owes nothing to the Cerf-Berr brothers; so
say nothing more to me about it; they are regular Arabs." I threw my
eyes on the paper, and read a few words obediently; and though I
understood almost nothing of it, from that moment I was certain that the
claim of these gentlemen would never be paid. I was grieved at this, and
knowing their disappointment, made them an offer of services which they
refused. The Cerf-Berr brothers, notwithstanding my want of success,
were convinced of the zeal I had manifested in their service, and thanked
me warmly. Each time I addressed a petition to the Emperor, I saw M. de
Meneval, whom I begged to take charge of it. He was very obliging, and
had the kindness to inform me whether my demands could hope for success;
and he told me that as for the Cerf-Berr brothers, he did not think the
Emperor would ever compensate them.

In fact, this family, at one time wealthy, but who had lost an immense
patrimony in advances made to the Directory, never received any
liquidation of these claims, which were confided to a man of great
honesty, but too much disposed to justify the name given him.

Madame Theodore Cerf-Berr on my invitation had presented herself several
times with her children at Rambouillet and Saint-Cloud, to beseech the
Emperor to do her justice. This respectable mother of a family whom
nothing could dismay, again presented herself with the eldest of her
daughters at Compiegne. She awaited the Emperor in the forest, and
throwing herself in the midst of the horses, succeeded in handing him her
petition; but this time what was the result? Madame and Mademoiselle
Cerf-Berr had hardly re-entered the hotel where they were staying, when
an officer of the secret police came and requested them to accompany him.
He made them enter a mean cart filled with straw, and conducted them
under the escort of two gens d'armes to the prefecture of police at
Paris, where they were forced to sign a contract never to present
themselves again before the Emperor, and on this condition were restored
to liberty.

About this time an occasion arose in which I was more successful.
General Lemarrois, one of the oldest of his Majesty's aides-de-camp, a
soldier of well-known courage, who won all