many names that had lain buried in
obscurity, now brought back to Paris a person who had been banished by
Napoleon, and who had been adding new lustre and renown to her name in a
foreign land. This personage was Madame de Stael, the daughter of
Necker, the renowned poetess of "Corinne" and "Delphine."

It had been a long and bitter struggle between Madame de Stael and the
mighty Emperor of the French; and Madame de Stael, with her genius and
her impassioned eloquence, and adorned with the laurel-wreath of her
exile, had perhaps done Napoleon more harm than a whole army of his
enemies. Intense hatred existed on both sides, and yet it had depended
on Napoleon alone to transform this hatred into love. For Madame de
Stael had been disposed to lavish the whole impassioned enthusiasm of
her heart upon the young hero of Marengo and Arcola--quite disposed to
become the Egeria of this Numa Pompilius. In the warm impulse of her
stormy imagination, Madame de Stael, in reference to Bonaparte, had
even, in a slight measure, been regardless of her position as a lady,
and had only remembered that she was a poetess, and that, as such, it
became her well to celebrate the hero, and to bestow on the luminous
constellation that was rising over France the glowing dithyrambic of her
greetings.

Madame de Stael had, therefore, not waited for Napoleon to seek her, but
had made the first advances, and sought him.

To the returning victor of Italy she wrote letters filled with
impassioned enthusiasm; but these letters afforded the youthful general
but little pleasure. In the midst of the din of battle and the grand
schemes with which he was continually engaged, Bonaparte found but
little time to occupy himself with the poetical works of Madame de
Stael. He knew of her nothing more than that she was the daughter of the
minister Necker, and that was no recommendation in Napoleon's eyes, for
he felt little respect for Necker's genius, and even went so far as to
call him the instigator of the great revolution. It was, therefore, with
astonishment that the young general received the enthusiastic letter of
the poetess; and, while showing it to some of his intimate friends, he
said, with a shrug of his shoulders, "Do you understand these
extravagances? This woman is foolish!"

But Madame de Stael did not allow herself to be dismayed by Bonaparte's
coldness and silence--she continued to write new and more
glowing letters.

In one of these letters