e, Talleyrand
and Murat, all maintained splendid establishments. Their dinners were
given twice each week, and their receptions were almost every evening.
If the Emperor conferred wealth with a liberal hand, so did he expect to
see it freely expended. He knew well the importance of conciliating the
affections of the _bourgeoisie_ of Paris; and that by no other means
could such an end be accomplished more readily than by a lavish
expenditure of money throughout all classes of society. This was alone
wanting to efface every trace of the old Republican spirit. The simple
habits and uncostly tastes of the Jacobins were at once regarded as
meannesses; their frugal and unpretending modes of life pronounced low
and vulgar; and many, who could have opposed a stout heart against
the current of popular feeling on stronger grounds, yielded to the
insinuations and mockeries of their own class, and conformed to tastes
which eventually engendered opinions and even principles.

I ask pardon of my reader for digressing from the immediate subject of
my own career, to speak of topics which are rather the province of the
historian than a mere story-teller like myself; still, I should not be
able to present to his view the picture of manners I desired, without
thus recalling some features of that time, so pregnant with the fate of
Europe and the future destiny of France. And now to return.

Immediately on the Emperor's arrival, the Empress and her suite took
their departure for Versailles; from whence it was understood they were
not to return before the end of the month, for which time a splendid
ball was announced at the Tuileries. Unwilling to detain General
d'Auvergne's letter so long, and unable from the position I occupied
to obtain leave of absence from Paris, I forwarded the letter to the
comtesse, and abandoned the only hope of meeting her once more. The
disappointment from this source; the novelty of the circumstances in
which I found myself; the fascinations of a world altogether strange
to me,--all conspired to confuse and excite me, and I entered into the
dissipation of those around me, if not with all their zest, at least
with as headlong a resolution to drown all reflection in a life of
voluptuous enjoyment.

The only person of my own standing among the _compagnie d'elite_ was a
captain of the Chasseurs of the Guard, who, although but a few years
my senior, had seen service in the Italian campaign. By family a
Bour-bonist,