affections which bring veritable happiness and the true dignity of
woman. Her barren heart, desirous of tenderness and devotion, sought
recompense for this need of living, in the homage of passionate
admiration, the language of which pleases the ears." Mme. Recamier,
while still a child, seemed to realize the power of her beauty, and
even before her marriage in 1793 she would often say, when demanded
in marriage: "Mon Dieu! how beautiful I must be already!" A mere girl
when married, being only sixteen years of age, she felt no love for
her husband, who was her senior by twenty-five years. Soon after the
terrible times of "the Reign of Terror" she found herself one of the
most beautiful women in Paris, and her husband one of the wealthiest
of bankers. The three rival women of the times were Mme. Recamier,
Mme. Tallien, and Josephine. The terrible days of the guillotine were
succeeded by an uninterrupted reign of pleasure, "when a fever of
amusement possessed everyone, and the desire for distraction of all
kinds seemed to have been pushed to its limits." M. Turquan states
that in the reign of dissolute extravagance, immorality, and gorgeous
splendor, Mme. Recamier formed a striking contrast by her simplicity.
Her first triumph was at the church Saint-Roche, the most fashionable
of Paris, where she was selected to raise a purse for charity. On one
occasion the collection amounted to twenty thousand francs, all due to
the beauty of the woman passing the plate. She was soon invited by her
friend Barras to all the balls and fetes under the Directorate.

In 1798 M. Recamier bought the house formerly tenanted by Necker, and
later established himself in a chateau at Clichy, where he received
his friends, among whom was Lucien Bonaparte, who attempted the
ruin of the beautiful hostess, but without success. Napoleon himself
attempted in vain to win her to his court as maid of honor and as an
ornament, her refusal incurring his anger, especially as she was the
height of fashion and courted by all the great men of the age. Through
her preference for the Royalists--persisting in her line of conduct
in spite of her friend Fouche--she finally incurred the enmity of
the emperor. Even the Princess Caroline endeavored to obtain Mme.
Recamier's friendship for Napoleon, "but, although the princess gave
her _loge_ twice to the favorite, and upon each occasion the emperor
went to the theatre expressly to gaze upon her, she remained firm in
h