the
nobleness of their mutual sacrifice, accepted and ratified the
dissolution of the marriage. The title of Empress was to continue with
Josephine for life, and a pension of two millions of francs (to which
Napoleon afterwards added a third million from his privy purse) was
allotted to her. She retired from the Tuileries, residing thenceforth
mostly at the villa of Malmaison; and in the course of a few weeks it
was signified that Napoleon had demanded the hand of the Archduchess
Maria Louisa, daughter to the Emperor Francis, the same youthful
princess who has been mentioned as remaining in Vienna, on account of
illness, during the second occupation of that capital.

Having given her hand, at Vienna, to Berthier, who had the honour to
represent the person of his master, the young archduchess came into
France in March, 1810. On the 28th, as her carriage was proceeding
towards Soissons, Napoleon rode up to it, in a plain dress, altogether
unattended; and, at once breaking through all the etiquettes of such
occasions, introduced himself to his bride. She had never seen his
person till then, and it is said that her first exclamation was, "Your
majesty's pictures have not done you justice." Buonaparte was at this
time forty years of age; his countenance had acquired a certain fulness,
and that statue-like calmness of expression with which posterity will
always be familiar; but his figure betrayed as yet nothing more than a
tendency towards corpulence. He was considered as a handsomer man at
this period than he had been in her earlier days. They spent the evening
at the chateau of Compiegne, and were remarried, on the 2nd of April, at
Paris, amidst every circumstance of splendour. Among other imperial
gallantries, Napoleon had provided a set of apartments at the Tuileries
in which, down to the minutest article of furniture, Maria-Louisa found
a facsimile of those which she had been accustomed to occupy in her
father's palace of Schoenbrunn. For some time he seemed to devote
himself, like a mere lover, to the society of his new partner; and was
really, according to his own account at St. Helena, enchanted with the
contrast which her youthful simplicity of character and manners
presented to the finished and elaborate graces of Josephine. Of the
uniform attachment and affection of both his wives, he spoke afterwards
with equal praises. But he in vain endeavoured to prevail on
Maria-Louisa to make a personal acquaintance with he