, and his
father-in-law, the Emperor of Austria. Opposite them sat the King of
Prussia, his ally, although Napoleon had deprived him of the Rhine
provinces; and the Kings of Bavaria and Wuertemberg, to whom Napoleon had
given crowns, whose electorate and duchy he had converted into kingdoms,
and of whom the first had given his daughter in marriage to Napoleon's
adopted son, Eugene, and the second his daughter to Napoleon's brother
Jerome. There were, further, at the table, the King of Saxony and the
Grand-duke of Baden, to the latter of whom Napoleon had given the hand
of Josephine's niece, Stephanie de Beauharnais. All these were princes,
"by the grace of God," of brilliant and haughty dynasties; and in their
midst sat the son of the advocate of Corsica--he, the Emperor of
France--he, upon whom the gaze of all these emperors and kings was
fastened in admiration and respect. Napoleon's extraordinary memory had
just been the topic of conversation, and the emperor was about to
explain how he had brought it to such a state of perfection.

"While I was still a sub-lieutenant," began Napoleon, and instantly his
hearers let fall their gaze, and looked down in shame at their plates,
while a cloud of displeasure passed over the brow of the emperor of
Austria at this mention of the low origin of his son-in-law. Napoleon
observed this, and for an instant his eagle glance rested on the
embarrassed countenances that surrounded him; he then paused for a
moment. He began again, speaking with sharp emphasis: "When I still had
the honor of being a sub-lieutenant," said he, and the Emperor Alexander
of Russia, the only one of the princes who had remained unembarrassed,
laid his hand on the emperor's shoulder, smiled approvingly, and
listened with interest and pleasure to the emperor's narrative of the
time when he "still had the honor of being a sub-lieutenant[21]."

[Footnote 21: Bossuet, Memoires, vol. V.]

Napoleon, as we have said, had already mounted so high that for him
there was no longer a summit to be attained, and now his heart's last
and dearest wish had been granted by destiny. His wife, Marie Louise,
had given birth to a son on the 20th of May, 1811, and the advent of the
little King of Rome had fulfilled the warmest desires of Napoleon and of
France. The emperor now had an heir; Napoleon's dynasty was assured.

Festivities were therefore held in honor of this event, in the
Tuileries, at the courts, of the Queen of Naple