assumed the places her taste appointed them, and innumerable lights shone among them from lamps of every colour, the staircase and hall resembled an enchanted palace.

6 Madame Bonaparte arrived about nine o'clock, accompanied by her son and daughter, and led by Colonel Rapp. My mother met her in the middle of the dining-room, the other ladies she received at the door of the saloon. She conducted Madame Bonaparte to the arm-chair on the right of the fire-place, and begged her, with the hospitable grace of the South, to make herself perfectly at home. She must have appeared to her a very charming woman. She wore on this evening a dress, made by Madame Germon, of white crape, trimmed with bunches of double jonquils. Her head-dress had a degree of eccentricity in its composition which became her admirably. As she could not, or rather did not choose to appear, on the occasion of my marriage, with her hair wholly uncovered, she had a toque of white crape, made by Leroi, who then lived in the Rue DespetitsChamps, and had already acquired some reputation, through the folds of which her fine black hair appeared, resembling velvet, intermingled with branches of jonquil, like those which trimmed her gown. The flowers were furnished by Madame Roux. I was proud of my mother.'

At a few minutes before eleven, the trampling of the First Consul's horse-guards was heard. Very soon afterwards the carriage drove up to the door, and almost immediately he appeared at the entrance of the dining-room, with Albert and Junot, who had received him in the hall. My mother advanced towards him, and saluted him with her most courteous obeisance. To which he replied, with a smile, "Eh! Madame Permon, is it thus you receive an old friend?" and held out his hand. My mother gave him her's, and they entered the ball-room together. The heat was excessive. The First Consul remarked it, but without taking off his grey surtout; and was on the point of making the tour of the room, but his eagle eye had already observed that of the many ladies present, some had not risen at his entrance; he was offended, and passed immediately into the bedroom, still retaining my mother's arm, and appearing to look at her with admiration.

Dancing had been discontinued as soon as he appeared, and Bonaparte soon perceived it, by the stillness of the saloon, from whence issued only the murmuring sounds produced by the observations made upon him in an under tone.

"Pray, Madame Permon," said he, "let the dancing be resumed; young people must be amused, and dancing is their favourite pastime. I am told, by the by, that your daughter's dancing equals Mademoiselle Chameroi's*. I must see it. And if you will, you and I will dance the monaco, the only one I know."

"I have not danced these thirty years,” replied my mother.

Mademoiselle Chameroi was the finest dancer at the Opera. At this period Eugene Beauharnais was attached to her.

"Oh!

"Oh! you are jesting. You look to-night like your daughter's sister."

'M. de Talleyrand was of the party. The First Consul, after having spoken to us all in the most agreeable manner, entered into a conversation with him in my mother's bed-room, which lasted without interruption for three-quarters of an hour. Towards midnight he returned to the saloon, and appeared determined to make himself perfectly agreeable, and to every one.'

When he left my mother's on the ball-night, he promised to come again to see her; but she had preserved so much distance of manner in their conversation, as was likely to prevent all renewal of intimacy. I believe, however, that the definitive rupture must be attributed to a cause, natural perhaps, but which was indelicately made use of.'Ibid. p. 223.

From the time of her marriage, it is easy, however indelicate, to see that Madame Junot occupied more of the First Consul's attention than Madame Permon; and in the fourth of these volumes there occur various tête-à-têtes between the authoress and him of the delicious little hands,' which will no doubt be considered by many readers as the most interesting passages of the work. We can afford room for but one specimen of this part of Madame Junot's history. Her husband, being commandant of Paris, cannot sleep out of the capital; Josephine has gone to the waters of Plombières; and Madame Junot is invited to spend a week or two with Hortense at Malmaison. Madame Junot had hardly been a year married, and was very sorry to be apart from the commandant of Paris; but she could not refuse the invitation of the First Consul and Madame Louis Bonaparte. The time passed gaily: On jouait la comédie-on allait beaucoup à la chasse-le soir, on riait, on causait.' The days and the evenings are thus accounted for now as to the mornings:

Je dormais profondément. Tout à coup je suis réveillée par un coup très-violent frappé près de mois, et tout aussitôt j'aperçois le premier consul près de mon lit! Je crus rêver et me frottai les yeux. Il se mit à rire. "C'est bien moi," dit-il; "pourquoi cet air étonné?" Une minute avait suffi pour m'éveiller entièrement. Pour réponse j'étendis en souriant la main vers la fenêtre que la grande chaleur m'avait forcée de laisser ouverte. Le ciel était encore de ce bleu vif qui suit la première heure de l'aube. On voyait au vert sombre des arbres que le soleil était à peine levé. Je pris ma montre: il n'était pas cinq heures. "Vraiment ! dit-il quand je la lui montrai; il n'est que cette heure-là? Eh bien! tant mieux, nous allons causer." Et prenant un fauteuil, il le plaça au pied de mon lit, s'y assit, croisa ses jambes, et s'établit là comme il le faisait cinq ans avant dans la bergère de ma mère à l'hôtel de la Tranquillité. Il tenait à la main. un énorme paquet de lettres sur lesquelles on voyait en gros carac

tères :

tères: Au premier consul, à lui-même ; à lui seul en personne: enfin toutes les formules de secret et de sûreté pour le solliciteur étaient employées et avec succès, car le premier consul réservait pour lui seul les lettres qui portaient ces mots sur la suscription.......

Il se leva pour aller prendre une plume sur une table; il fit une sorte de signe, convenu probablement entre Bourrienne et lui, sur une lettre, et revint s'asseoir comme s'il eût été dans son cabinet. Je crois, Dieu me pardonne, qu'il pensait y être en effet.

"Ah ça! voici une attrappe," dit-il on ôtant une, deux, trois, quatre enveloppes; sur chacune étaient toujours les mots sacramentels: Pour lui seul, et en mains propres. Enfin, impatienté, il dit fort drôlement, et comme si la lettre pouvait l'entendre: "Mais c'est moi !-Et quant à mes mains," et il retournait sa jolie petite main mottelée-" j'espère qu'elles sont propres ?"—

Il était enfin arrivé à la dernière enveloppe. Toutes celles qu'il avait enlevées sentaient l'essence de rose à n'y pas résister. J'avais attrapé une de ces enveloppes, et je regardais l'écriture, qui était assez jolie, lorsque le premier consul se mit à rire. C'était toujours assez extraordinaire chez lui; aussi, nous qui le connaissions, avionsnous la mesure assez juste de son hilarité, pour attendre une explication d'un accès aussi joyeux.

66

"C'est une déclaration," dit-il, après avoir jeté encore un ou deux petits éclats; non pas de guerre, mais d'amour. C'est une belle dame, qui m'aime, dit-elle, depuis le jour où elle me vit présenter le traité de paix de Campo-Formio au Directoire. Et si je veux la voir, je n'ai qu'à donner des ordres au factionnaire de la grille du côté de Bougival, pour qu'il laisse passer une femme vêtue de blanc, qui dira: Napoleon! Et cela..." (Il regarda la date :) "Ma foi! dès ce soir. Mon Dieu! m'écriai-je, vous n'irez pas faire une pareille im

prudence?"

Il ne me répondit pas, mais me regarda fixement:

"Qu'est-ce que cela vous fait, que j'aille à la grille de Bougival? Que peut-il m'arriver?

"Ce que cela me fait? ce qu'il peut vous arriver? Mais, général, voilà d'étranges questions. Comment ne voyez-vous pas que cette femme est une misérable gagnée peut-être par vos ennemis ?.. mais le piége est lui-même trop grossier. N'importe ! il peut y avoir péril: et vous me demandez après cela ce que peut me faire votre imprudence?

Napoléon me regarda encore, puis se mit à rire: "Je disais cela pour plaisanter, me dit-il; croyez-vous donc que je sois assez simple, assez bête pour mordre à un pareil appât? Imaginez-vous que tous les jours je recois des lettres de ce genre-là, avec des rendez-vous indiqués tantôt ici, tantôt aux Tuileries, tantôt au Luxembourg; mais la seule réponse que je fasse à ces belles missives, et la seule qu'elles méritent, c'est celle-ci." Et, allant de nouveau vers la table, il écrivit quelques mots. C'était un renvoi au ministre de la police,

"Diable! voilà six heures, dit-il en entendant sonner une pendule.

Adieu, madame Junot." Et, s'approchant de mon lit, il ramassa tous ses papiers, me pinça le pied à travers mes couvertures, et, me souriant avec cette grâce qui éclairait sa figure, il s'en alla en chantant d'une voix fausse et criarde, malgré le bel accent sonore qu'elle avait en parlant: Non, non, z'il est impossible

D'avoir un plus aimable enfant.

Un plus aimable? Ah! si vraiment, etc. 'Cétait son air favori... Il ne chantait au reste cet air que lorsqu'il était de fort bonne humeur.

Je me levai sans penser autrement à cette visite du premier consul. Je ne pensai pas davantage, ainsi que lui, à cette foule d'enveloppes laissées par terre dans ma chambre, et ma femme de chambre n'y songea pas plus que nous deux. La journée se passa comme toutes les autres.'-vol. iv. pp. 375-380.

This scene is several times repeated, before Madame, beginning to think such interviews might be uncharitably interpreted in the house, desires her maid to lock the door; but the First Consul carries a passepartout, and that precaution avails nothing.

Je dormais donc profondément lorsque ma porte s'ouvrit avec assez de force, et je vis le premier consul. "Craignez-vous donc que l'on vous assassine!" me dit-il avec une aigreur assez forte pour m'ôter toute crainte. "Vouz voyez," dit-il, " que votre précaution contre un vieil ami ne l'a pas empêché d'arriver jusqu'à vous. Adieu!" Adieu!" Et il s'en alla-mais cette fois sans chanter.'-vol. iv.

p. 391.

It is extremely mortifying that the fourth volume of these Memoirs breaks off before the First Consul appears to have laid aside his passepartout; but we shall no doubt hear a great deal more of the uses to which he applied it, especially after the master of Malmaison had been crowned at Notre Dame. The French reader, we are told, looks with particular curiosity to the period of General Junot's command in Portugal, at which time his interesting lady must have been left in Paris in a forlorn condition.

As to the present volumes, it is not, we must repeat, for the light they throw on the character of Buonaparte, nor even on the fooleries of his family, and the little intrigues of his villa, but on the history of murders and minuets, during the earlier revolutionary epoch, that we chiefly recommend them to attention. Respecting the minor branches of the fourth dynasty,' the Duchess's details, indeed, are copious; but we must think she has vastly overrated the importance of these personages. It is obvious that none of them could ever have been heard of beyond their original, humble, and obscure circle, but for Napoleon's military greatness; and what can be more disappointing than the impression left on every mind, as respects them, by the whole history of the family's rise and downfall! Somehow they have all of them so contrived

it, that the reader of their imperial brother's life, the most pic turesque and dazzling episode in the modern annals of mankind, attaches no more importance to them than to his boots and shoesnot half so much certainly as to his little cocked hat and grey surtout. The chattering pretender, Lucien, was the only one of the brothers whom any one ever suspected of more than mediocrity of talents; and the overweening self-conceit, which alone prevented him from playing king for a time like the rest, that extravagant excess of vanity which, and not virtue of any sort, induced him to rebel in limine against the absolute predominance of Napoleon, is the only part of his character which will survive, to amuse posterity. 'The heavy imbecility of Joseph, and the pompous nullity of Louis, will be remembered only for the contrast they present to the restless audacity of their master's genius on the one hand, and the pert blackguardism of their fellow-slave Jerome on the other. The sisters seem, no doubt, to have been nearer of kin to Napoleon, in most respects, than any of these. They were all clever, extravagantly ambitious, and, with at most one exception, entirely unprincipled. Setting, however, the deepbrowed usurper himself aside, we venture to say, that it would scarcely have been possible to pick out a family of the same class for such a series of adventures, whose members should have, on dropping the curtain, been dismissed with so little feeling of any sort among the spectators. The only admiration any of them ever commanded in the hour of greatness, was what fell to the ladies in their natural capacity of coquettes. Nobody thought of pitying their fall more than a parcel of theatrical kings and queens stripping off their tinsel crowns and plush robes to sup at a guingette and sleep in a garret; and if none of them earned the sheer bitterness of contempt, Joseph and Louis may thank their stupidity-Lucien anything but his poetry-and His Westphalian Majesty that mixture of intellectual feebleness with looseness of morals and absurdity of manners, which makes society hesitate between scorn, laughter, and compassion.

ART. II.-Der Germanische Ursprung der Lateineschen Sprache und des Römischen Volkes, nachgewiesen von Ernst Jäkel, Professor am Friedrichswerd'schen Gymnasium in Berlin. Breslaw. 1831. 8vo. pp. 287.

TO

O enter into a full and systematic examination of the subject, one detached portion of which has been concisely treated in this volume, is obviously far beyond the scope and purpose of a

periodical