yle, she at once removed them from her
arms and put them on mine. This gift was more welcome to me than a
fortune would have been; from that day forth those bracelets have
travelled with me everywhere. She was also obliging enough to give me
a box at the theatre quite near hers. From this place of vantage I
enjoyed, above all, looking at Her Majesty, whose lovely face was like
that of a sixteen-year-old girl. During one of our sittings the Queen
sent for her children. To my great surprise I found that they were
ugly. In showing them to me she said, "They are not pretty." I confess
I had not the courage to deny it. I contented myself with replying
that their faces had a great deal of character.

Besides the two pastels I made of Her Majesty, I did two others of
Prince Ferdinand's family. One of the young princesses, Louise, who
had married Prince Radziwill, was pretty and very genial. For some
time I had a delightful correspondence with her; I count her as one of
the people one can never forget. Her husband was a thorough musician.
I remember a surprise he caused me arising solely from a difference in
national customs. During my sojourn at Berlin I was taken to a grand
public concert, and was amazed to the last degree, upon entering the
hall, to see Prince Radziwill performing on the harp! Such a thing
would be impossible with us. Never could an amateur, especially a
prince, play before any one but his own social circle, and certainly
not before people who paid. I suppose in Prussia it was quite usual.

In Berlin I made the acquaintance of the Baroness de Krudener, so well
known for her cleverness and her rhapsodical notions. Her renown as an
author was already established, but she had not yet gained the
reputation of a religious prophet that made her so famous in the
North. She and her husband treated me with great civility. I can say
the same for Mme. de Souza, the Portuguese Ambassadress, whose
portrait I painted at the time.

On first arriving at Berlin I called upon the French Ambassador,
General Bournonville, for I was at last beginning to consider a return
to Paris. My friends, and particularly my brother, urgently suggested
I should do so. They had easily had my name taken off the list of
exiles, so that I was reestablished as a Frenchwoman, which, in spite
of all, I had ever remained in my heart. Although General Bournonville
was the first republican ambassador I visited, I had already seen
others. Toward the