greater extent, had not those in high places set an opposite example.
But so it was; and in the hope of obtaining more favorable treatment in
their last extremity, the princes of the Imperial House, and the highest
nobles of the land, freely accepted the invitations of our marshals, and
as freely received them at their own tables.

There was something of pride, too, in the way these great families
continued to keep up the splendor of their households, large retinues of
servants and gorgeous equipages, when the very empire itself was crumbling
to pieces. And to the costly expenditure of that fevered interval may be
dated the ruin of some of the richest of the Austrian nobility. To
maintain a corresponding style, and to receive the proud guests with
suitable magnificence, enormous "allowances" were made to the French
generals; while in striking contrast to all the splendor, the Emperor
Napoleon lived at Schoenbrunn with a most simple household and restricted
retinue.

"Berthier's" Palace, in the "Graben," was, by its superior magnificence,
the recognized centre of French society; and thither flocked every evening
all that was most distinguished in rank of both nations. Motives of
policy, or at least the terrible pressure of necessity, filled these
salons with the highest personages of the empire; while as if accepting,
as inevitable, the glorious ascendency of Napoleon, many of the French
_emigre_ families emerged from their retirement to pay their court to the
favored lieutenants of Napoleon. Marmont, who was highly connected with
the French aristocracy, gave no slight aid to this movement; and it was
currently believed at the time, was secretly intrusted by the Emperor with
the task of accomplishing, what in modern phrase is styled a "fusion."

The real source of all these flattering attentions on the Austrian side,
however, was the well-founded dread of the partition of the empire; a plan
over which Napoleon was then hourly in deliberation, and to the
non-accomplishment of which he ascribed, in the days of his last exile,
all the calamities of his fall. Be this as it may, few thoughts of the
graver interests at stake disturbed the pleasure we felt in the luxurious
life of that delightful city; nor can I, through the whole of a long and
varied career, call to mind any period of more unmixed enjoyment.

Fortune stood by me in every thing. Marshal Marmont required as the head
of his Etat-major an officer who could speak