ersary of the Empire.
He now sought employment under it, and was made inspector-general of
the university, an office which he did not live long to enjoy. All the
old favorites were remembered in a general distribution of good
things. Talleyrand having just lost an immense sum by the failure of a
trusted bank, the Emperor came to his relief by purchasing one of his
minister's most splendid palaces for more than two million francs. The
court resided sometimes at St. Cloud, sometimes at Rambouillet,
sometimes at the Trianon, but for the most part at Fontainebleau,
where the ceremonious life, to which all concerned were now well
accustomed, was marked by none of the old awkwardness and friction,
but ran as brilliantly as lavish expenditure could make it.

The pregnancy of the Empress was celebrated with great festivities,
during which Napoleon performed one of his most applauded acts--the
endowment of a vast maternity hospital. The Empress was brought into
great prominence as the president of a society consisting of a
thousand noble ladies under whose patronage the charity was placed.

The unconcealed and ecstatic delight of the prospective father found
vent in delicate and tender attention to the mother of his child, and
until her deliverance he was a gentle, devoted, and considerate
husband. His whole nature seemed transformed. When in the early
morning of March twentieth, 1811, word was brought that the Empress
was in labor, and that a false presentation made it of instant
necessity to choose between the life of the mother and that of the
child, the feelings of the Emperor can better be imagined than
described.

If the expected heir should die his dynasty would be jeopardized, his
enemies would once more be making appointments over his grave, the
hopes of a lifetime might be shattered. But there was not a moment's
wavering. "Think only of the mother," he cried. The fears of the
attending physician were vain, after all, and the man-child, coming
without a cry into the world and lying breathless for seven minutes as
if hesitating to accept or decline his destiny, finally gave a wail as
at last he caught the breath of life. Napoleon turned, caught up his
treasure, and pressed it to his bosom. A hundred guns announced the
birth, and the city burst into jubilations, which were reechoed
throughout Europe from Dantzic to Cadiz. Festival succeeded festival,
and for an interval men believed that the temple of Janus would be
a