n,
well-informed officers, and celebrated artists appreciated the extent of
his information. He made less impression at Court, and very little in the
private circle of the King and Queen. His eccentric manners, his
frankness, often degenerating into rudeness, and his evidently affected
simplicity,--all these characteristics caused him to be looked upon as a
prince rather singular than admirable. The Queen spoke to him about the
apartment she had prepared for him in the Chateau; the Emperor answered
that he would not accept it, and that while travelling he always lodged at
a cabaret (that was his very expression); the Queen insisted, and assured
him that he should be at perfect liberty, and placed out of the reach of
noise. He replied that he knew the Chateau of Versailles was very large,
and that so many scoundrels lived there that he could well find a place;
but that his valet de chambre had made up his camp-bed in a lodging-house,
and there he would stay.

He dined with the King and Queen, and supped with the whole family. He
appeared to take an interest in the young Princesse Elisabeth, then just
past childhood, and blooming in all the freshness of that age. An
intended marriage between him and this young sister of the King was
reported at the time, but I believe it had no foundation in truth.

The table was still served by women only, when the Queen dined in private
with the King, the royal family, or crowned heads.

[The custom was, even supposing dinner to have commenced, if a princess of
the blood arrived, and she was asked to sit down at the Queen's table, the
comptrollers and gentlemen-in-waiting came immediately to attend, and the
Queen's women withdrew. These had succeeded the maids of honour in
several parts of their service, and had preserved some of their
privileges. One day the Duchesse d'Orleans arrived at Fontainebleau, at
the Queen's dinner-hour. The Queen invited her to the table, and herself
motioned to her women to leave the room, and let the men take their
places. Her Majesty said she was resolved to continue a privilege which
kept places of that description most honourable, and render them suitable
for ladies of nobility without fortune. Madame de Misery, Baronne de
Biache, the Queen's first lady of the chamber, to whom I was made
reversioner, was a daughter of M. le Comte de Chemant, and her grandmother
was a Montmorency. M. le Prince de Tingry, in the presence of the Queen,
used to