e was chosen to be her escort and companion.

When Neipperg received this commission he was with Teresa Pola at
Milan. A strange smile flitted across his face; and presently he
remarked, with cynical frankness:

"Before six months I shall be her lover, and, later on, her husband."

He took up his post as chief escort of Marie Louise, and they journeyed
slowly to Munich and Baden and Geneva, loitering on the way. Amid the
great events which were shaking Europe this couple attracted slight
attention. Napoleon, in Elba, longed for his wife and for his little
son, the King of Rome. He sent countless messages and many couriers;
but every message was intercepted, and no courier reached his
destination. Meanwhile Marie Louise was lingering agreeably in
Switzerland. She was happy to have escaped from the whirlpool of
politics and war. Amid the romantic scenery through which she passed
Neipperg was always by her side, attentive, devoted, trying in
everything to please her. With him she passed delightful evenings. He
sang to her in his rich barytone songs of love. He seemed romantic with
a touch of mystery, a gallant soldier whose soul was also touched by
sentiment.

One would have said that Marie Louise, the daughter of an imperial
line, would have been proof against the fascinations of a person so far
inferior to herself in rank, and who, beside the great emperor, was
less than nothing. Even granting that she had never really loved
Napoleon, she might still have preferred to maintain her dignity, to
share his fate, and to go down in history as the empress of the
greatest man whom modern times have known.

But Marie Louise was, after all, a woman, and she followed the guidance
of her heart. To her Napoleon was still the man who had met her amid
the rain-storm at Courcelles, and had from the first moment when he
touched her violated all the instincts of a virgin. Later he had in his
way tried to make amends; but the horror of that first night had never
wholly left her memory. Napoleon had unrolled before her the drama of
sensuality, but her heart had not been given to him. She had been his
empress. In a sense it might be more true to say that she had been his
mistress. But she had never been duly wooed and won and made his
wife--an experience which is the right of every woman. And so this
Neipperg, with his deferential manners, his soothing voice, his
magnetic touch, his ardor, and his devotion, appeased that craving
which