oleon himself would command at the parade. Loud cheers and the
constantly-repeated shout of "_Vive l'empereur_!" received him when,
surrounded by his marshals, and with a smiling face, he walked down the
broad steps of the palace.

"These soldiers are foolish children," said he, turning to Marshal
Lannes. "Why are they cheering incessantly, as if they had not seen me
for a year? Have I not been among them every day?"

"No, sire," said the marshal, who had regained his former good-humor and
merry face, "no, sire; those brave boys really have not seen your
majesty for a long while, and they are perfectly right to manifest their
joy. The great Napoleon, whose face was our sun in so many battles and
in so many countries, and whose smile, when we were hungry and thirsty,
often satisfied our hunger and quenched our thirst, really was not here.
In his place we have had during the last few weeks a grave and taciturn
emperor, whom every one feared."

Napoleon laughed. "Were you also afraid, my old comrade?" he asked.

"I cannot say that I was," said Lannes, gayly, "but, nevertheless, I
feel to-day as though a heavy burden had been removed from my heart. I
can breathe more freely, inasmuch as I have back my excellent Napoleon
in place of that morose emperor. The sun has risen once more for all of
us!"

"Was I really as you pretend?" asked Napoleon, who was always delighted
at the unceremonious words of his old comrade, and who permitted to
Lannes that bluntness which he would not have tolerated in another.

The marshal bent closer to the emperor's ear. "Sire, your majesty will
permit me to tell you that you were shockingly morose and surly. We were
beginning to feel anxious and weary. But it is all over now, and when I
look at you to-day my heart is as glad as that of a lover who sees his
sweetheart after a long separation. I should like to know what miracle
has happened since yesterday, and what magician has arrived to dispel
your discontent. I should be exceedingly grateful to your majesty if you
would show him to me!"

"What an inquisitive fellow!" said the emperor, turning his eyes
involuntarily to the window of the castle. He nodded almost
imperceptibly, and laid his hand on his heart for a moment. The
marshal's eyes had followed the glances of his master, and he beheld a
strange object at one of the windows of the emperor's rooms. The curtain
was cautiously drawn aside, and the beautiful head of a young lady was
see