brought manufactured and other goods to show to the followers of the Court; and we had the greatest difficulty to avoid buying them.  At last they proposed that we should barter with them; and when Her Majesty had given us dresses that were far too rich for us to wear ourselves, we exchanged them with the Jews for piecegoods.  The robes we thus bartered did not long remain in the hands of the Jews, and there must have been a great demand for them among the belles of Mayence, for I remember a ball there at which the Empress might have seen all the ladies of a quadrille party dressed in her cast-off clothes.—­I even saw German Princesses wearing them” (Memoires de Mademoiselle Avrillion).

—­on his way Cologne and Coblentz, which the emigration had rendered so famous, and arrived at Mayence, where his sojourn was distinguished by the first attempt at negotiation with the Holy See, in order to induce the Pope to come to France to crown the new Emperor, and consolidate his power by supporting it with the sanction of the Church.  This journey of Napoleon occupied three months, and he did not return to St. Cloud till October.  Amongst the flattering addresses which the Emperor received in the course of his journey I cannot pass over unnoticed the speech of M. de la Chaise, Prefect of Arras, who said, “God made Bonaparte, and then rested.”  This occasioned Comte Louis de Narbonne, who was not yet attached to the Imperial system, to remark “That it would have been well had God rested a little sooner.”

During the Emperor’s absence a partial change took place in the Ministry.  M. de Champagny succeeded M. Chaptal as Minister of the Interior.  At the camp of Boulogne the pacific Joseph found himself, by his brother’s wish, transformed into a warrior, and placed in command of a regiment of dragoons, which was a subject of laughter with a great number of generals.  I recollect that one day Lannes, speaking to me of the circumstance in his usual downright and energetic way, said, “He had better not place him under my orders, for upon the first fault I will put the scamp under arrest.”

CHAPTER XXIX.

1804.

England deceived by Napoleon—­Admirals Missiessy and Villeneuve—­ Command given to Lauriston—­Napoleon’s opinion of Madame de Stael—­ Her letters to Napoleon—­Her enthusiasm converted into hatred—­ Bonaparte’s opinion of the power of the Church—­The Pope’s arrival at Fontainebleau—­Napoleon’s first interview with Pius VII.—­ The Pope and the Emperor on a footing of equality—­Honours rendered to the Pope—­His apartments at the Tuileries—­His visit to the Imperial printing office—­Paternal rebuke—­Effect produced in England by the Pope’s presence in Paris—­Preparations for Napoleon’s coronation—­Votes in favour of hereditary succession—­Convocation of the Legislative Body—­The presidents of cantons—­Anecdote related by Michot the actor—­Comparisons—­Influence