at he had
to do, he passed into the waiting-room, where he found assembled the
ladies of the palace, the chamberlains, etc., who were awaiting to
enter the apartments of the Princess.

They hastened to ask Bousquet news of the princess, "Her Imperial
Highness is very well, and must be happy in the tender attachment
her august husband feels for her, which he has shown in my presence
in so touching a manner. His anxiety was extreme. It was only with
difficulty I could reassure him as to the result of the simplest
thing in the world; I shall tell everywhere what I have just
witnessed. It is pleasant to be able to cite such an example of
conjugal tenderness in so high a rank. I am deeply impressed with
it." They did not try to stop good M. Bousquet in these expressions
of his enthusiasm. The desire to laugh prevented a single word; and
he left convinced that nowhere existed a better household than that
of the Prince and Princess Borghese. The latter was in Italy, and
the handsome young man was M. de Canouville.

I borrow this curious anecdote from the "Memoirs of Josephine," the
author of which, who saw and described the Court of Navarre and
Malmaison with so much truth and good judgment, is said to be a
woman, and must be in truth a most intellectual one, and in a better
position than any other person to know the private affairs of her
Majesty, the Empress.--CONSTANT.

He was slain by a ball from a French cannon, which was discharged
after the close of an action in which he had shown the most
brilliant courage.--CONSTANT.]

Moreover, however great may have been the frailty of Princess Pauline in
regard to her lovers, and although most incredible instances of this can
be related without infringing on the truth, her admirable devotion to the
person of the Emperor in 1814 should cause her faults to be treated with
indulgence.

On innumerable occasions the effrontery of her conduct, and especially
her want of regard and respect for the Empress Marie Louise, irritated
the Emperor against the Princess Borghese, though he always ended by
pardoning her; notwithstanding which, at the time of the fall of her
august brother she was again in disgrace, and being informed that the
island of Elba had been selected as a prison for the Emperor, she
hastened to shut herself up there with him, abandoning Rome and Italy,
whose finest palaces were hers. Before the