ade, without dreaming that it was in France.

CHAPTER 4.

Exile of M. de Montmorency and Madame Recamier--New persecutions.

This continual chicanery upon my most trifling actions, rendered my
life odious to me, and I could not divert myself by occupation;
for the recollection of the fate of my last work, and the certainty
of never being able to publish any thing in future, operated as a
complete damper to my mind, which requires emulation to be capable
of labor. Notwithstanding, I could not yet resolve to quit for ever
the borders of France, the abode of my father, and the friends who
remained faithful to me. Every day I thought of departing, and every
day I found in my own mind some reason for remaining, until the last
blow was aimed at my soul; God knows what I have suffered from it.

M. de Montmorency came to pass several days with me at Coppet, and
the wickedness of detail in the master of so great an empire is so
well calculated, that by the return of the courier who announced his
arrival at Coppet, my friend received his letter of exile. The
emperor would not have been satisfied if this order had not been
signified to him at my house, and if there had not been in the
letter itself of the minister of police, a word to signify that I
was the cause of this exile. M. de Montmorency endeavoured, in every
possible way, to soften the news to me, but, I tell it to Bonaparte,
that he may applaud himself on the success of his scheme, I shrieked
with agony on learning the calamity which I had drawn on the head of
my generous friend; and never was my heart, tried as it had been for
so many years, nearer to despair. I knew not how to lull the rending
thoughts which succeeded each other in my bosom, and had recourse to
opium to suspend for some hours the anguish which I felt. M. do
Montmorency, calm and religious, invited me to follow his example;
the consciousness of the devotedness to me which he had condescended
to show, supported him: but for me, I reproached myself for the
bitter consequences of this devotedness, which now separated him
from his family and friends. I prayed to the Almighty without
ceasing, but grief would not quit its hold of me for a moment, and
life became a burden to me.

While I was in this state, I received a letter from Madame Recamier,
that beautiful person who has received the admiration of the whole
of Europe, and who has never abandoned an unfortunate friend. She
informed me, that