which Louis
XV had ordered for Maria Leszcynska, the splendors of the ceremonial
were to be royal, the new Empress's train was arranged according to
the same model, the itinerary of her journey was marked out as a royal
progress. The civil contract was signed on the tenth; the religious
ceremony occurred on the eleventh, as appointed; and then followed a
banquet where Berthier was absolved from all the ceremonies considered
obligatory upon one of his rank in the Hofburg. Three days later the
new Empress was handed to her traveling-carriage by the Archduke
Charles, and amid salvos of artillery, mingled with the cheers of the
populace, she set forth. There were a few signs of discontent among
little knots who collected to curse their national humiliation, and
the aristocracy were not reconciled to see Prince Esterhazy in the
role of guide to the Prince of Wagram, as Berthier had now been styled
by imperial decree in Paris. But, on the whole, Europe was impressed
with a sense of Francis's sincerity. The father went forth a day's
journey to spend an evening alone with his daughter and bestow in
parting his paternal blessing on a child who had saved her country.
Her journey through Bavaria and Wuertemberg was one long ovation, for
these countries believed their welfare to be bound up with that of
France. On the twenty-sixth her cortege, having passed by way of
Strasburg, was moving toward Soissons.

After the divorce Napoleon had withdrawn in solitude to the Trianon at
Versailles, as if to mourn his widowhood the appointed and decent time
in silence. The spot chosen had a significance with reference to the
coming celebrations. For a week he spent his days in the unaccustomed
but truly royal occupation of field sports. Once he visited Josephine
at Malmaison. The next months he had spent again in Paris conducting
the matrimonial negotiations and arranging every detail of the
etiquette to be observed in the cumbrous ceremonial which he had
devised for the celebration of his marriage in France. When all was
completed to his satisfaction he left for Compiegne to supervise the
arrangements made for the reception of his new consort, and spent the
last week of waiting there. Of all his family the giddiest and most
worldly was his sister Pauline. She and his sister-in-law, the
sensible and charming Queen of Westphalia, were chosen to advise and
counsel regarding matters of dress and behavior. The latter wrote to
her brother a full a