e the wonder of the world.

The Revolution of the 18th and 19th of Brumaire (9th and 10th November
1799) ended the Directory and set the people's idol, Napoleon
Bonaparte, at the helm of her mighty State as First Consul.

There was now little need--indeed there had not been for some time any
need--for Vigee Le Brun to remain an exile; but, as a matter of fact,
exile she had found to be so sweet a thing, so magnificent and
perpetual a triumph, so delightful an existence, that Paris had early
ceased to call her. Her experience with her rascally husband scarcely
beckoned her back to her old home; she was now sole mistress of her
considerable earnings. Besides, the Paris of her delight had been the
Paris of Marie Antoinette--aristocratic Paris. Where was that Paris to
be found? The personages and the atmosphere and the palaces and homes
of all that Paris meant to her were gone into thin air--a sad memory.
During her exile her mother had died; her last link with Paris died
with her. She probably rarely gave the city of her youth's delight a
thought, and likely enough never would have given it another serious
one, had not destiny now struck her a blow which she bitterly resented;
but which she should have foreseen to be as inevitable as death. Her
daughter betrothed herself to, and married, a Russian, M. Nigris,
secretary to the Count Czernicheff. Vigee Le Brun had been sorely
tempted to oppose the match, for she foresaw that the girl would find
no happiness in the union. She had poured out upon her child all the
passionate love that had been so miserably thwarted in her own
marriage. It had been more than bitterness to her to note that whilst
her love for her girl increased, the girl's love for her seemed to
dwindle. It was the bitterest blow that Vigee Le Brun had ever known;
and she had been struck more than once. It turned the wanderer's eyes
homewards to her wrecked Paris. Russia was no longer a delight to her.
She became restless. The wander-fever came upon her; she got roaming;
she went to Moscow for five or six months; but she could not
settle--she decided to leave Russia.

The people amongst whom she had lived so long showed their affection,
and personally appealed to her to make her home amongst them. The
grandees went to her and told her of the sorrow that the news of her
going had brought to them. The Emperor Alexander the First, himself,
begged her not to leave them. She fenced all their kindnes