r the Island of
Elba; for I was so completely absorbed in the unhappy condition of my
good master that all my faculties hardly sufficed for the sensations I
experienced every moment. We suffered in the Emperor's sufferings; it
occurred to none of us to imprint on his memory the recollection of so
much agony, for we lived, so to speak, only provisionally.

During the first days of our stay at Fontainebleau the idea that the
Emperor would soon cease to reign over France was very far from entering
the minds of any of those around him, for every one was possessed with
the conviction that the Emperor of Austria would not consent that his
son-in-law, daughter, and grandson should be dethroned; in this they were
strangely mistaken. I remarked during these first days that even more
petitions than usual were addressed to his Majesty; but I am ignorant
whether he responded favorably, or even if he replied at all. The
Emperor often took up the daily papers, but after casting his eyes over
them threw them down angrily; and if we recall the shameless abuse in
which those writers indulged who had so often lavished fulsome praises on
him, it may well be understood that such a transition would naturally
excite his Majesty's disgust. The Emperor usually remained alone; and
the person whom he saw most frequently was the Duke of Bassano, the only
one of his ministers then at Fontainebleau; for the Duke of Vicenza,
being charged continually with missions, was, so to speak, constantly on
the wing, especially as long as his Majesty retained the hope of seeing a
regency in favor of his son succeed him in the government. In seeking to
recall the varied feelings whose impress I remarked on his Majesty's
countenance, I think I may affirm that he was even more deeply affected
by being compelled to renounce the throne for his son than in resigning
it for himself. When the marshals or the Duke of Vicenza spoke to his
Majesty of arrangements relating to his person, it was easy to see that
he forced himself to listen to them only with the greatest repugnance.
One day when they spoke of the Island of Elba, and I do not know what sum
per year, I heard his Majesty reply vehemently: "That is too much, much
too much for me. If I am no longer anything more than a common soldier,
I do not need more than one louis per day."

Nevertheless, the time arrived when, pressed on every side, his Majesty
submitted to sign the act of abdication pure and simple, which