modation, but
Napoleon had named Pont de Briques, so Pont de Briques it had to be.
The word impossible was not permitted amongst those who had to carry out
his wishes. So an army of cooks and footmen settled upon the little
place, and then there arrived the dignitaries of the new Empire, and
then the ladies of the Court, and then their admirers from the camp.
The Empress had a chateau for her accommodation. The rest quartered
themselves in cottages or where they best might, and waited ardently for
the moment which was to take them back to the comforts of Versailles or
Fontainebleau.

The Empress had graciously offered me a seat in her berline, and all the
way to the village, entirely forgetful apparently of the scene through
which she passed, she chatted away, asking me a thousand personal
questions about myself and my affairs, for a kindly curiosity in the
doings of everyone around her was one of her most marked
characteristics. Especially was she interested in Eugenie, and as the
subject was one upon which I was equally interested in talking it ended
in a rhapsody upon my part, amid little sympathetic ejaculations from
the Empress and titterings from Madame de Remusat.

'But you must certainly bring her over to the Court!' cried the kindly
woman. 'Such a paragon of beauty and of virtue must not be allowed to
waste herself in this English village. Have you spoken about her to the
Emperor?'

'I found that he knew all about her, your Majesty.'

'He knows all about everything. Oh, what a man he is! You heard him
about those diamonds and sapphires. Lefebvre gave me his word that no
one should know of it but ourselves, and that I should pay at my
leisure, and yet you see that the Emperor knew. But what did he say,
Monsieur de Laval?'

'He said that my marriage should be his affair.'

Josephine shook her head and groaned.

'But this is serious, Monsieur de Laval. He is capable of singling out
any one of the ladies of the Court and marrying you to her within a
week. It is a subject upon which he will not listen to argument. He
has brought about some extraordinary matches in this way. But I will
speak to the Emperor before I return to Paris, and I will see what I can
arrange for you.'

I was still endeavouring to thank her for her sympathy and kindness when
the berline rattled up the drive and pulled up at the entrance to the
chateau, where the knot of scarlet footmen and the bearskins of two
sentries f