exes, she had engaged,
according to his carte blanche given her, as necessary and as unavoidable
decorations of the drawing-room of an Emperor and Empress, as thrones and
as canopies of State. She referred him to Madame Remusat, who, though
but half-dressed, was instantly ordered to appear before him. This lady
avowed that his grand master of the ceremonies, De Segur, had been
entrusted by her with the whole arrangement, but that she feared that he
had not yet been able to complete the full establishment of the Imperial
Court. The aide-de-camp Rapp was then despatched after De Segur, who, as
usual, presented himself smiling and cringing.

"Give me the list," said Napoleon, "of the ladies and gentlemen you have
no doubt engaged for our household."

"May it please Your Majesty," answered De Segur, trembling with fear, "I
humbly supposed that they were not requisite before the day of Your
Majesty's coronation."

"You supposed!" retorted Napoleon. "How dare you suppose differently
from our commands? Is the Emperor of the Great Nation not to be
encompassed with a more numerous retinue, or with more lustre, than a
First Consul? Do you not see the immense difference between the
Sovereign Monarch of an Empire, and the citizen chief magistrate of a
commonwealth? Are there not starving nobles in my empire enough to
furnish all the Courts in Europe with attendants, courtiers, and valets?
Do you not believe that with a nod, with a single nod, I might have them
all prostrated before my throne? What can, then, have occasioned this
impertinent delay?"

"Sire!" answered De Segur, "it is not the want of numbers, but the
difficulty of the choice among them. I will never recommend a single
individual upon whom I cannot depend; or who, on some future day, may
expose me to the greatest of all evils, the displeasure of my Prince."

"But," continued Napoleon, "what is to be done to-day that I may augment
the number of my suite, and by it impose upon the gaping multitude and
the attending deputations?"--"Command," said De Segur, "all the officers
of Your Majesty's staff, and of the staff of the Governor of Paris,
General Murat, to surround Your Majesty's sacred person, and order them
to accoutre themselves in the most shining and splendid manner possible.
The presence of so many military men will also, in a political point of
view, be useful. It will lessen the pretensions of the constituted
authorities, by telling them indirectly, 'It is