Three months before his death, in 1845, he wrote to her that
the ring she had given him should follow him to the tomb, and her
portrait, painted by Gerard, was, at his death, returned to her by his
orders. Either the Prince had two portraits of Madame Recamier, or else
Madame Lenormant's statements are contradictory. She says that her aunt
sent him her portrait soon after her return to Paris, and the date of
the Prince's letter acknowledging the favor confirms this statement. It
is afterward asserted that Madame Recamier gave him her portrait in
exchange for one of Madame de Stael, painted by Gerard, as Corinne.

The next important event in Madame Recamier's life is her exile, caused
by a visit she paid Madame de Stael when the surveillance exercised over
the latter by the government had become more rigorous. Montmorency had
been already exiled for the same offence. But, disregarding this
warning, Madame Recamier persisted in going to Coppet, and though she
only remained one night there, she was exiled forty leagues from Paris.

She bore her exile with dignity. She would not solicit a recall, and she
forbade those of her friends, who, like Junot, were on familiar terms
with the Emperor, to mention her name in his presence. She doubtless
felt all its deprivations, even more keenly than Madame de Stael, though
she made no complaints. Her means were narrow, as she does not appear to
have been in the full possession of her mother's fortune until after the
Restoration. She had lived, with scarcely an interruption, a life of
society; now she was thrown on her own resources, with little except
music to cheer and enliven her. It was not only the loss of Paris that
exiles under the Empire had to endure. They were subjected to an
annoying surveillance by the police, and even the friends who paid them
any attention became objects of suspicion.

The first eight months of her exile Madame Recamier passed at Chalons.
She had for companionship a little niece of her husband's, whom she had
previously adopted. At the suggestion of Madame de Stael, she removed to
Lyons, where Monsieur Recamier had many influential relatives. Here she
formed an intimacy with a companion in misfortune, the high-spirited
Duchess of Chevreuse, whose proud refusal to enter into the service of
the captive Spanish Queen was the cause of her exile. "I can be a
prisoner," she replied, when the offer was made to her, "but I will
never be a jailer."

Though the