d left there on his departure for Naples.

I was in the Emperor's apartment when the King of Naples entered, and saw
him for the first time. I did not know to what cause to attribute it,
but I noticed that the Emperor did not give his brother-in-law as cordial
a welcome as in the past. Prince Murat said that he could no longer
remain idle at Naples, knowing that the French army to which he still
belonged was in the field, and he asked only to be allowed to fight in
its ranks. The Emperor took him with him to the parade, and gave him the
command of the Imperial Guard; and a more intrepid commander would have
been difficult to find. Later he was given the general command of the
cavalry.

During the whole time of the armistice, spun out rather than filled with
the slow and useless conferences of the Congress of Prague, it would be
impossible to describe the various labors in which the Emperor occupied
himself from morning till evening, and often far into the night. He
could frequently be seen bending over his maps, making, so to speak, a
rehearsal of the battles he meditated. Nevertheless, greatly exasperated
by the slowness of the negotiations as to the issue of which he could no
longer delude himself, he ordered, shortly before the end of July, that
everything should be prepared and in readiness for a journey he intended
making as far as Mayence. He made an appointment to meet the Empress
there; and as she was to arrive on the 25th, the Emperor consequently
arranged his departure so as to arrive only a short time after. I recall
this journey only as a fact, since it was signalized by nothing
remarkable, except the information the Emperor received at this time of
the death of the Duke of Abrantes, who had just succumbed at Dijon to a
violent attack of his former malady. Although the Emperor was already
aware that he was in a deplorable state of mental alienation, and must
consequently have expected this loss, he felt it none the less sensibly,
and sincerely mourned his former aide-decamp.

The Emperor remained only a few days with the Empress, whom he met again
with extreme pleasure. But as important political considerations
recalled him, he returned to Dresden, visiting several places on his
route, and the 4th of August we returned to the capital of Saxony.
Travelers who had seen this beautiful country only in a time of peace
would have recognized it with difficulty. Immense fortifications had
metamorphosed it into a w