is Majesty at once gave orders that she should be reconducted to Paris,
and several superior officers disputed with each other the pleasure of
accompanying her. Generals Wolff, aide-de-camp of Prince Louis, and
Lavalette were charged with this duty, and conducted her to the
conciergerie where her father was confined. On entering his cell, she
threw herself on his neck and tried to tell him of the pardon she had
just obtained; but overcome by so many emotions, she was unable to utter
a word, and it was General Lavalette

[Marie Chamans, Count de Lavalette, was born in Paris, 1769.
Entered the army 1792, made Captain at Arcola 1796, and served in
Egyptian campaign. Married Emilie de Beauharnais, a niece of
Josephine. Postmaster-general, 1800-1814. Condemned to death
during the Hundred Days, he escaped from prison in his wife's dress.
His wife was tried, but became insane from excitement. He was
pardoned 1822, and died 1830, leaving two volumes of Memoirs.]

who announced to the prisoner what he owed to the brave persistence of
his daughter. The next day she obtained, through the favor of the
Empress Josephine, the liberty of her mother, who was to have been
transported.

Having obtained the life of her father and the liberty of her mother, as
I have just related, she still further exerted herself to save their
companions in misfortune, who had been condemned to death, and for this
purpose joined the ladies of Brittany, who had been led to seek her
cooperation by the success of her former petitions, and went with them to
Malmaison to beg these additional pardons.

These ladies had succeeded in getting the execution of the condemned
delayed for two hours, with the hope that the Empress Josephine would be
able to influence the Emperor; but he remained inflexible, and their
generous attempt met with no success, whereupon Mademoiselle Lajolais
returned to Paris, much grieved that she had not been able to snatch a
few more unfortunates from the rigor of the law.

I have already said two things which I am compelled to repeat here: the
first is, that, not feeling obliged to relate events in their
chronological order, I shall narrate them as they present themselves to
my memory; the second is, that I deem it both an obligation and a duty
which I owe to the Emperor to relate every event which may serve to make
his true character better known, and which has been omitted, whether
involuntarily or by design,