celebrated in the annals of our crimes and our
victories.

When the review was over, the Emperor returned to his closet, and
applied himself immediately to business. His situation rendered it
necessary, that he should ascertain without delay the precise state of
the country, of the government of which he had resumed the reins. This
was so vast an undertaking, that the faculties of any other man would
have been overwhelmed by it. He found the writing table covered with
mystic authors[77]; and substituted for them plans and maps. "The
closet of a French monarch," said he, "should resemble the tent of a
general, not an oratory." His eyes rested on the map of France. After
having contemplated its recent limits, he exclaimed in a tone of
profound sorrow, "_Poor France_!" He kept silence a few minutes, and
then began to hum in a low voice one of his usual burdens of songs:

"S'il est un tems pour la folie,
Il en est un pour la raison[78]."

[Footnote 77: The king departed with such
suddenness, that he had not time to carry away his
private papers. In his writing table was found his
family port-folio. It contained a great number of
letters from Madame the Duchess of Angouleme, and
from some of the princes. Napoleon cast his eye
over several of them, and gave me the port-folio,
with orders, that it should be scrupulously
preserved. Napoleon would have respect paid to
royal majesty, and to every thing that pertained to
the person of kings.

The king habitually used a small table, that he had
brought from Hartwell. Napoleon took pleasure in
writing on it for a few hours: he afterwards
ordered it to be removed, and the greatest care to
be taken of it.

The Merlin's chair used by the king, not being
suited to Napoleon, whose limbs and health were in
full strength and vigour, was banished to the back
closet. Some person being found sitting in it, when
the Emperor passed through unexpectedly, he gave
him an angry look, and the chair was removed.

One of his valets de chambre,