so that I was forced to scrape off the hair
I had painted on the face, and was likewise compelled to blot out a
brow-band of pearls and put cameos in its place. The same thing
happened with her dress. One I had painted at first was cut rather
open, as dresses were then so worn, and furnished with wide
embroidering. The fashion having changed, I was obliged to close in
the dress and do the embroidering anew. All the annoyances that Mme.
Murat subjected me to at last put me so much out of temper that one
day, when she was in my studio, I said to M. Denon, loudly enough for
her to hear, "I have painted real princesses who never worried me, and
never made me wait." The fact is, Mme. Murat was unaware that
_punctuality is the politeness of kings_, as Louis XIV. so well said.

Delivered of the vexations arising from Mme. Murat's portrait, I
resumed the peaceful life I was accustomed to, but my desire for
travel was not yet stilled: I had never seen Switzerland. I therefore
resolved to leave Paris once more, and soon was making for the
mountains.

In the period succeeding my Swiss travels I at length acquired an
inclination for rest. This, together with a taste I had always had for
the country, prompted me to leave for Louveciennes before the breaking
of the first buds, and consequently I was established there by the
time the allies were making their second descent upon Paris. It is
well known that the villages fared much worse than the towns at the
hands of the foreign troops. I shall never forget the night of March
31, 1814.

Ignorant that danger was so near, I had not as yet considered flight.
It was eleven o'clock in the evening, and I had just gone to bed, when
Joseph, my Swiss man servant, who spoke German, entered my room, in
the belief that I should need protection. The village was being
invaded by the Prussians, who were sacking all the houses, and Joseph
was followed by three soldiers with villainous faces, who approached
my bed with brandished swords. Joseph tried to fool them by saying in
German that I was Swiss and an invalid. But paying no attention to
him, they began by taking my gold snuff-box, which was on my
night-stand. Then they felt under my quilt, to find out whether I had
any money concealed, one of them calmly slicing off a piece of the
quilt with his sword. Another, who seemed to be French, or at least
spoke our language perfectly, said, "Give her back the box"; but far
from acceding, his companion