t she was too thankful at his release
from prison to expect any further favors. Her dislike of the Emperor
was caused by his treatment of her friends, more particularly of the one
dearest to her, Madame de Stael.

The friendship between these women was highly honorable to both, though
the sacrifices were chiefly on Madame Recamier's side. She espoused
Madame de Stael's cause with zeal and earnestness; and when the latter
was banished forty leagues from Paris, she found an asylum with her.
Among the few fragments of autobiography preserved by Madame Lenormant
is this account of the first interview between the friends.

"One day, which I count an epoch in my life, Monsieur Recamier arrived
at Clichy with a lady whom he did not introduce, but whom he left alone
with me while he joined some other persons in the park. This lady came
about the sale and purchase of a house. Her dress was peculiar. She wore
a morning-robe, and a little dress-hat decorated with flowers. I took
her for a foreigner, and was struck with the beauty of her eyes and of
her expression. I cannot analyze my sensations, but it is certain I was
more occupied in divining who she was than in paying her the usual
courtesies, when she said to me, with a lively and penetrating grace,
that she was truly enchanted to know me; that her father, Monsieur
Necker.... At these words, I recognized Madame de Stael! I did not hear
the rest of her sentence. I blushed. My embarrassment was extreme. I had
just read with enthusiasm her letters on Rousseau, and I expressed what
I felt more by my looks than by my words. She intimidated and attracted
me at the same time. I saw at once that she was a perfectly natural
person, of a superior nature. She, on her side, fixed upon me her great
black eyes, but with a curiosity full of benevolence, and paid me
compliments which would have seemed too exaggerated, had they not
appeared to escape her, thus giving to her words an irresistible
seduction. My embarrassment did me no injury. She understood it, and
expressed a wish to see more of me on her return to Paris, as she was
then on the eve of starting for Coppet. She was at that time only an
apparition in my life, but the impression was a lively one. I thought
only of Madame de Stael, I was so much affected by her strong and ardent
nature."

The sweet serenity of Madame Recamier's nature soothed the more restless
and tumultuous spirit of her friend. The unaffected veneration, too, of