untains as they splashed in the pale moonlight, and look
upon the happy children who played about them, their merry laughter
ringing through the water's plash. What a fairy scene it was to
watch the groups as they passed and repassed--came and went and
disappeared--amid those dark alleys where the silent footstep did not
mar the sounds of happy voices! and then, how have I turned from
these to throw a wistful glance towards the palace windows, where some
half-closed curtain from time to time would show the golden sparkle of
a brilliant lustre or the rich frame of a mirror,--mayhap an open sash
would for a moment display some fair form, the outline only seen as she
leaned on the balcony and drank in the balmy air of the mild evening,
while the soft swell of music would float from the gorgeous saloon,
and falling on my ear, set me a-dreaming of pleasures my life had never
known!

My utter loneliness pressed deeper on me every day; for while each of
my companions had friends and relatives, among whom their evenings were
passed, I was friendless and alone. The narrowness of my means--I had
nothing save my pay--prevented my frequenting the theatre, or even
accepting such invitations as the other cadets pressed upon me; and thus
for hours long have I sat and watched the windows of the palace, weaving
to myself stories of that ideal world from which my humble fortune
debarred me.

It had been years since the Tuileries exhibited anything resembling the
state that formerly prevailed in that splendid palace; but at the period
I speak of Bonaparte had just been chosen Consul for life, and already
the organization of his household had undergone a most considerable
alteration. In the early years of the Consulate a confused assemblage of
aides-de-camp, whose heavy gait and loud speech betokened less the court
than the camp, were the only attendants on his person; he lived in the
centre pavilion, as if in a tent in the midst of his army. But now he
inhabited the splendid suite of rooms to the left of the pavilion,--_de
l'horloge_, as it is called,--which stretches away towards the river.
The whole service of the palace was remodelled; and without wounding
those prejudices that attached to the times of the deposed Monarchy
by adopting the titles of chamberlain, or gentlemen of the chamber,
he gradually instituted the ceremonial of a Court by preferring to the
posts about his person those whose air and manners savored most of the
high