laints. "No, I will never
survive it," said she. Napoleon said to me, "Are you sufficiently strong
to raise Josephine, and to carry her to her apartments by the private
staircase, in order that she may receive the care and assistance which
she requires?" I obeyed, and raised the princess, who, I thought, was
seized with a nervous affection. With the aid of Napoleon, I raised her
into my arms, and he himself taking a light from the table, opened the
door, which, by an obscure passage, led to the little staircase of
which he had spoken. When we reached the first step of the staircase,
I observed to Napoleon, that it was too narrow for it to be possible
for me to descend without the danger of falling. He forthwith called the
keeper of the portfolio, who day and night was in attendance at one of
the doors of his closet, the entrance to which was on the landing-place
of this little staircase. Napoleon gave him the light, of which we had
little need, for the passages had become light. He commanded the keeper
to go on before, and took himself the legs of Josephine in order to
assist me in descending with less difficulty. At one moment, however,
I was embarrassed by my sword, and I thought we must have fallen, but
fortunately we descended without any accident, and deposited the
precious burden on an ottoman in the sleeping-chamber. Napoleon
immediately pulled the little bell, and summoned the empress's women.
When I raised the empress in the chamber she ceased to moan, and I
thought that she had fainted; but at the time I was embarrassed by my
sword in the middle of the little staircase, of which I have already
spoken, I was obliged to hold her firmly to prevent a fall which would
have been dreadful to the actors in this melancholy scene. I held the
empress in my arms, which encircled her waist, her back rested against
my chest, and her hand leaned upon my right shoulder. When she felt the
efforts which I made to prevent falling, she said to me in a very low
tone, "You press me too hard." I then saw that I had nothing to fear for
her health, and that she had not for an instant lost her senses. During
the whole of this scene I was wholly occupied with Josephine, whose
situation afflicted me; I had not power to observe Napoleon; but when
the empress's women had come, he retired into a little room which
preceded the sleeping-chamber, and I followed him. His agitation, his
inquietude were extreme. In the distress which he felt he mad