to me these words:—­“The interest of France and of my dynasty does violence to my heart—­the divorce has become a rigorous duty to me—­I am the more afflicted by what has happened to Josephine, because three days ago she must have learned it from Hortensia—­the unhappy obligation which condemns me to separate myself from her—­I deplore it with all my heart, but I thought she possessed more strength of character, and I was not prepared for the bursts of her grief.”  In fact, the emotion which oppressed him, compelled him to make a long pause between each phrase he uttered, in order to breathe.  His words came from him with labour and without connexion; his voice was tremulous and oppressed, and tears moistened his eyes.  It really seemed as if he were beside himself to give so many details to me, who was so far removed from his councils and his confidence.  The whole of this transaction did not occupy more than seven or eight minutes.  Napoleon immediately went to seek for Corvisart, queen Hortensia, Cambaceres, and Fouche; and before he returned to his apartment, he assured himself of the condition of Josephine, whom he found more calm and more resigned.  I followed him, and after having recovered my hat, which I had thrown on the carpet that my motions might be more free, I retired to the attendance-chamber.  To avoid all kinds of commentaries, I said before the pages and the ushers that the empress had been seized with a violent affection of the nerves.

Private Anecdotes of Foreign Courts.

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THE GATHERER.

“I am but a Gatherer and disposer of other men’s stuff.”—­Wotton.

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STORY OF CINDERELLA.

The origin of this nursery tale is sufficiently curious.  About the year 1730, a French actor of equal talent and wealth, named Thevenard, in passing through the streets of Paris, observed upon a cobbler’s stall, the shoe of a female, which struck him by the remarkable smallness of its size.  After admiring it for some time, he returned to his house; but his thoughts reverted to the shoe with such intensity, that he reappeared at the stall the next day; but the cobbler could give him no other clue to the owner, than that it had been left in his absence, for the purpose of being repaired.  Day after day did Thevenard return to his post to watch the re-integration of the slipper, which proceeded slowly; nor did the proprietor appear to claim it.  Although he had completed the sixtieth year of his age, so extravagant became his passion for the unknown fair one, that he became (were it possible for a Frenchman of that day to be so) melancholy and miserable.  His pain was, however, somewhat appeased by the avatar of the little foot itself, appertaining to a pretty and youthful girl in the very humblest class of life.  All distinctions were levelled at once by love:  the actor sought the parents of the female, procured their consent to the match, and actually made her his wife.