etween Talma and Geoffroy which
had occurred a few days before his arrival. The Emperor, although he had
a high opinion of Talma, thought him completely in the wrong, and
repeated several times, "A man of his age! A man of his age! that is
inexcusable. Zounds!" added he, smiling, "do not people speak evil of
me also? Have I not also critics who do not spare me? He should not be
more sensitive than I?" This affair, however, had no disagreeable result
for Talma; for the Emperor was much attached to him, and overwhelmed him
with pensions and presents.

Talma in this respect was among the very privileged few; for giving
presents was not in his Majesty's role, especially to those in his
private service. It was then near the 1st of January; but we built no
air castles at this period, for the Emperor never made gifts. We knew
that we could not expect any emoluments; though I, especially, could
exercise no economy, for the Emperor required that my toilet should
always be extremely elegant. It was something really extraordinary to
see the master of half of Europe not disdaining to occupy himself with
the toilet of his valet de chambre; even going so far that when he saw me
in a new coat which pleased him he never failed to compliment me on it,
adding, "You are very handsome, Monsieur Constant."

Even on the occasion of the marriage of the Emperor and Marie Louise, and
that of the birth of the King of Rome, those composing the private
service of his Majesty received no present, and the Emperor thought the
expenses of these ceremonies too great. On one occasion, however, but
not in consequence of any unusual circumstance, the Emperor said to me
one morning as I finished dressing him, "Constant, go to M. Meneval; I
have given him orders to allow you eighteen hundred livres of income."
Now, it happened that the funds had gone up in the interval between the
order and its execution; and instead of receiving eighteen hundred livres
of rent, I received only seventeen, which I sold a short time after, and
with the product of this sale bought a modest piece of property in the
forest of Fontainebleau.

Sometimes the Emperor made presents to the princes and princesses of his
family, of which I was nearly always the bearer; and I can assert that
with two or three rare exceptions this duty was perfectly gratuitous, a
circumstance which I recall here simply as a recollection. Queen
Hortense and Prince Eugene were never included, according to