--"Of this your Majesty
may judge: here is a twenty-franc piece."--"What! they have not
re-coined louis: I am surprised at this. (Turning the piece over) He
does not look as if he would starve himself: but observe, they have
taken away _Dieu protege la France_ (God protect France), to restore
their _Domine, salvum fac regem_ (Lord, preserve the King). This is as
they always were: every thing for themselves, nothing for France.
Where is Maret? where is Caulincourt? where is Lavalette? where is
Fouche?"--"They are all at Paris."--"And Mole?"--"He, too, is at
Paris; I observed him a short time ago at the Queen's."--"Have we any
persons hereabout, who were nearly attached to me?"--"I do not know,
Sire."--"You must inquire, and bring them to me. I should be glad to
be thoroughly acquainted with the spirit of the times, and know
something of the present state of affairs. What does Hortense
do?"--"Sire, her house is still the resort of men, who know how to
appreciate wit and elegance: and the Queen, though without a throne,
is not less an object of the respect and homage of all Paris."--"She
did a very foolish thing, in exhibiting herself as a spectacle before
the tribunals. They who advised her to it were blockheads. Why, too,
did she go and demand the title of duchess?"--"She, Sire, did not
demand it, it was the Emperor Alexander...."--"No matter, she ought
not to have accepted, any more than demanded it: she should have
called herself Madame Bonaparte: this name is full as good as any
other. Besides, what right had she to have her son made a duke of St.
Leu, and a peer of the Bourbons? Louis was in the right to oppose it:
he was sensible, that the name of her son was sufficiently honourable,
not to suffer himself to change it. If Josephine had been alive, she
would have prevented her from engaging in such a foolish piece of
business. Was she much regretted?"--"Yes, Sire, your Majesty knows how
much she was beloved and honoured by the French."--"She deserved it.
She was an excellent woman: she had a great deal of sense. I greatly
regretted her too, and the day when I heard of her death was one of
the most unhappy of my life. Was there a public mourning for
her?"--"No, Sire. Indeed I think she would have been refused the
honours due to her rank, had not the Emperor Alexander insisted on
their being paid her."--"So I heard at the time, but I did not believe
it. He was no way interested in it."--"The generosity of Alexander was