added her persuasions to his.  The conversation turning on Talma, who was then performing at the French theatre, the Princess put her box, which was opposite the Emperor’s, at Madame Recamier’s disposal; she used it twice, and each time the Emperor was present, and kept his glass so constantly in her direction that it was generally remarked, and it was reported that she was on the eve of high favor.  Upon further persistence on the part of Fouche, Madame Recamier gave him a decided refusal.  He was vehemently indignant, and left Clichy never to return thither.  In the St. Helena Memorial, Napoleon attributes Madame Recamier’s rejection of his overtures to personal resentment on account of her father.  In 1800 Monsieur Bernard had been appointed Administrateur des Postes; being implicated in a Royalist conspiracy, he was imprisoned, but finally set at liberty through the intercession of Bernadotte.  Napoleon believed that Madame Recamier resented her father’s removal from office, but 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.”