n order to give this ball had added to this
residence a broad hall and wooden gallery, decorated with quantities of
flowers, banners, candelabra, etc. Just as the Emperor, who had been
present at the fete for two or three hours, was about to retire, one of
the curtains, blown by the breeze, took fire from the lights, which had
been placed too near the windows, and was instantly in flames. Some
persons made ineffectual efforts to extinguish the fire by tearing down
the drapery and smothering the flames with their hands; but in the
twinkling of an eye the curtains, papers, and garlands caught, and the
wood-work began to burn.

The Emperor was one of the first to perceive the rapid progress of the
fire, and foresee the results. He approached the Empress, who had
already risen to join him, and got out with her, not without some
difficulty, on account of the crowd which rushed towards the doors; the
Queens of Holland, Naples, Westphalia, the Princess Borghese, etc.,
following their Majesties, while the Vice-queen of Italy, who was
pregnant, remained in the hall, on the platform containing the Imperial
boxes. The vice-king, fearing the crowd as much as the fire for his
wife, took her out through a little door that had been cut in the
platform in order to serve refreshments to their Majesties. No one had
thought of this opening before Prince Eugene, and only a few persons went
out with him. Her Majesty the Queen of Westphalia did not think herself
safe, even when she had reached the terrace, and in her fright rushed
into the rue Taitbout, where she was found by a passer-by.

The Emperor accompanied the Empress as far as the entrance of the
Champs-Elysees, where he left her to return to the fire, and did not
re-enter Saint-Cloud until four o'clock in the morning. From the time
of the arrival of the Empress we were in a state of terrible
apprehension, and every one in the chateau was a prey to the greatest
anxiety in regard to the Emperor. At last he arrived unharmed, but very
tired, his clothing all in disorder, and his face blackened with smoke,
his shoes and stockings scorched and burned by the fire. He went
directly to the chamber of the Empress to assure himself if she had
recovered from the fright she had experienced; and then returned to his
room, and throwing his hat on the bed, dropped on a sofa, exclaiming,
"Mon Dieu! What a fete!" I remarked that the Emperor's hands were all
blackened, and he had lost his gloves at t