Duchesse d'Aiguillon and two other ladies, and told me he was going to
take my mattress, and give it to another prisoner.

"'Why,' said Madame d'Aiguillon, eagerly, 'I will not Madame de
Beauharnais obtain a better one?'

"'No, no,' replied he, with a fiendish smile, 'she will have no need of
one, for she is about to be led to the Conciergerie, and then to the
guillotine.'

"At these words, my companions in misfortune uttered piercing shrieks. I
consoled them as well as I could; and, at length, worn out with their
eternal lamentations, I told them that their grief was utterly
unreasonable; that I not only should not die, but live to be Queen of
France.

"'Why, then, do you not name your maids of honor?' said Madame
d'Aiguillon, irritated at such expressions, at such a moment.

"'Very true,' said I; 'I did not think of that. Well, my dear, I make
you one of them.'[12]

"Upon this the tears of the ladies fell apace for they never doubted I
was mad; but the truth was, I was not gifted with any extraordinary
courage, but internally persuaded of the truth of the oracle.

"Madame d'Aiguillon soon after became unwell, and I drew her toward the
window, which opened, to admit through the bars a little fresh air. I
then perceived a poor woman who knew us, and who was making a number of
signs, which I could not at first understand. She constantly held up her
gown (_robe_); and, seeing that she had some object in view, I called
out _robe_; to which she answered, _yes_. She then lifted up a stone,
and put it into her lap, which she lifted a second time. I called out,
_pierre_. Upon this, she evinced the greatest joy at perceiving that her
signs were understood. Joining then the stone to her robe, she eagerly
imitated the motion of cutting off the head, and immediately began to
dance and evince the most extravagant joy.

"This singular pantomime awakened in our minds a vague hope that
possibly Robespierre might be no more.

"At this moment, while we were vacillating between hope and fear, we
heard a great noise in the corridor, and the terrible voice of our
jailer, who said to his dog, giving him at the same time a kick, 'Get
in, you cursed Robespierre.'"

This speech told them they were saved.

Through the influence of Barras, a portion of her husband's property, in
which Malmaison was included, was restored to Josephine. In this
favorite abode she amused herself in exercising her taste in the
embellishment of the gro