‘It is four hours after it, Sire.’

‘Serve it up then at once.’

‘Yes, Sire.  Monsieur Isabey is outside, Sire, with his dolls.’

‘Ah, we shall see them at once.  Show him in.’

A man entered who had evidently just arrived from a long journey.  Under his arm he carried a large flat wickerwork basket.

‘It is two days since I sent for you, Monsieur Isabey.’

’The courier arrived yesterday, Sire.  I have been travelling from Paris ever since.’

‘Have you the models there?’

‘Yes, Sire.’

‘Then you may lay them out on that table.’

I could not at first imagine what it meant when I saw, upon Isabey opening his basket, that it was crammed with little puppets about a foot high, all of them dressed in the most gorgeous silk and velvet costumes, with trimmings of ermine and hangings of gold lace.  But presently, as the designer took them out one by one and placed them on the table, I understood that the Emperor, with his extraordinary passion for detail and for directly controlling everything in his Court, had had these dolls dressed in order to judge the effect of the gorgeous costumes which had been ordered for his grand functionaries upon State occasions.

‘What is this?’ he asked, holding up a little lady in hunting costume of amaranth and gold with a toque and plume of white feathers.

‘That is for the Empress’s hunt, Sire.’

‘You should have the waist rather lower,’ said Napoleon, who had very definite opinions about ladies’ dresses.  ’These cursed fashions seem to be the only thing in my dominions which I cannot regulate.  My tailor, Duchesne, takes three inches from my coat-tails, and all the armies and fleets of France cannot prevent him.  Who is this?’

He had picked up a very gorgeous figure in a green coat.

‘That is the grand master of the hunt, Sire.’

’Then it is you, Berthier.  How do you like your new costume?  And this in red?’

‘That is the Arch-Chancellor.’

‘And the violet?’

‘That is the Grand Chamberlain.’

The Emperor was as much amused as a child with a new toy.  He formed little groups of the figures upon the table, so that he might have an idea of how the dignitaries would look when they chatted together.  Then he threw them all back into the basket.

‘Very good,’ said he.  ’You and David have done your work very well, Isabey.  You will submit these designs to the Court outfitters and have an estimate for the expense.  You may tell Lenormand that if she ventures to send in such an account as the last which she sent to the Empress she shall see the inside of Vincennes.  You would not think it right, Monsieur de Laval, to spend twenty-five thousand francs upon a single dress, even though it were for Mademoiselle Eugenie de Choiseul.’

Was there anything which this wizard of a man did not know?  What could my love affairs be to him amidst the clash of armies and the struggles of nations?  When I looked at him, half in amazement and half in fear, that pleasant boyish smile lit up his pale face, and his plump little hand rested for an instant upon my shoulder.  His eyes were of a bright blue when he was amused, though they would turn dark when he was thoughtful, and steel-grey in moments of excitement.