And, as a matter of fact, M. de Metternich did say so to the Emperor Francis, and the Emperor Francis believed M. de Metternich. We may as well add that he had every reason to believe him, because the Empress Marie Louise was then really happy, and in the sky destined to witness such terrible storms there was then no cloud.

We will close this chapter by transcribing a very curious letter which the Empress of Austria, the step-mother of Marie Louise, wrote to Napoleon on the 10th of April, 1810, and which displays in almost intimate terms the very favourable impressions of the Court of Vienna. My brother, I cannot express to your Majesty the feelings of gratitude which I experienced on receiving your last letter, which filled me with joy by the assurance it gave me that you are satisfied with the child we confided to you. My maternal heart was all the more alive to it, because it was anxious about so interesting a result. But now, reassured by your Majesty, I have no further fear, and I give myself up with joy to the happiness of sharing that of my beloved daughter. She has written me in detail with touching sincerity, and she cannot repeat to me often enough how deeply her heart appreciates the tender attention of which she has been the object since her first interview with you. Her sole desire is to make the happiness of your Majesty, and I am bold enough to flatter myself that she will succeed, for I

have a thorough knowledge of her excellent disposition. Louise promises me that she will be very punctual in her correspondence, and this friendly interchange is some compensation to me for a loss which I keenly regret. It is so sweet to be able to converse with a cherished being, and I can truthfully affirm that I feel for her the tenderness of a mother, which she has won by her behaviour to me, seeing that she has always treated me as a true friend. Your Majesty is good enough to observe that your wife has spoken of me. I am not astonished, as I know her heart and my own, both extremely affectionate. But, to speak the truth, I cannot leave your Majesty in any error in regard to the pretended obligations of my dear Louise. I hope she will listen to the truth and deduct from it a result most advantageous to the candour of her soul! If I may take any credit to myself, it is for having sedulously preserved in her that candour which, while in the first instance it rendered her more timid in the eyes of the world, will deserve the esteem and the friendship of your Majesty.

"I may, perhaps, be reproached in that my daughter has but few ideas and little instruction. I admit it. But one learns to know the world and its dangers only too soon, and I frankly confess that as she was only eighteen, I preferred jealously to preserve her innocence, and I occupied myself solely in forming in

her a feeling heart, an upright mind, and clear ideas on the subjects with which she was acquainted. I have handed her over to your Majesty. As a mother I entreat you to be the friend and guide of my daughter, even as she is your most tender wife. She will be happy if your Majesty will allow her to come to you for advice on every occasion; for, I repeat, she is young, and not sufficiently hardened to avoid unaided the dangers of the world, and to play her part with discretion. But I am wearying your Majesty with so lengthy a letter. Please attribute it to the effusion of a maternal heart, which can never exhaust itself in words when the subject is the happiness of a dear daughter. I must, however, add one word. Your Majesty attaches too much importance to my readiness to please you by giving up the portrait of my dear Louise. I was too much interested in her pleasing you as soon as possible to avoid being somewhat egotistical on this point, but I shall highly appreciate the portrait she promises me. It will have the advantage of showing in her features the happiness she is experiencing."

It must be confessed that very rarely has a motherin-law made use of more tender or more touching language. No letter could possibly have been more agreeable to Napoleon. It was not couched in official language, nor did it express formal compliments. It was sincere and really affectionate. In reading the

prose of the Empress of Austria, the conqueror of Wagram felt seriously that he had definitely entered the family of Kings. All that the amiable Sovereign said in regard to her step-daughter was true. There was in the whole personality of the young Empress of the French a candour, an ingenuity, and a freshness of mind and body which constituted the joy of her husband. Undoubtedly the sentiment with which she inspired him was not a romantic and ardent passion, such as he had formerly felt for his first wife, and Marie Louise, a northern beauty, had not the same attractiveness as Josephine, a seductive Creole. Napoleon assuredly would not have written his second wife the burning letters, in the tone of the NouvelleHéloïse, which he wrote to Josephine at the time of his first campaign in Italy. He had a less ardent love, but a greater esteem, for Marie Louise. He thought that after all the society of the Austrian Court was a better school for a woman than the society of the Directory, and he found in Marie Louise, a girl worthy of all respect, one inestimable blessing, a treasure such as a delicious but coquettish widow could not give-innocence.

CHAPTER XVI.

THE TOUR IN THE NORTH.

NAPOLEON and Marie Louise left Compiègne on the 27th of April, 1810, at seven o'clock in the morning, for a trip through several departments of the North, which was one long ovation. Among their suite were the Grand Duke de Würzburg, brother of the Emperor of Austria, the Queen of Naples, the King and Queen of Westphalia, Prince Eugène de Beauharnais, the Prince de Schwarzenberg, and the Count de Metternich. "I was a witness," says the last-mentioned in his Memoirs, "of the enthusiasm with which the young Empress was everywhere received by the population. At Saint Quentin Napoleon formally expressed his desire that I should be present at an audience which he had granted the authorities of the town. 'I want to show you,' he added, 'how I am in the habit of speaking to these people.' I saw that the Emperor