also elected.  The two new members were presented to the Emperor on the same day.  On this occasion upwards of 400 persons were present in the salon, from one of whom I received these details.  When the Emperor saw M. Lemercier, for whom he had long pretended great friendship, he said to him in a kind tone, “Well, Lemercier, you are now installed.”  Lemercier respectfully bowed to the Emperor; but without uttering a word of reply.  Napoleon was mortified at this silence, but without saying anything more to Lemercier he turned to Esmenard, the member who should have been most acceptable to him, and vented upon him the whole weight of his indignation in a manner equally unfeeling and unjust.  “Well, Esmenard,” said he, “do you still hold your place in the police?” These words were spoken in so loud a tone as to be heard by all present; and it was doubtless this cruel and ambiguous speech which furnished the enemies of Esmenard with arms to attack his reputation as a man of honour, and to give an appearance of disgrace to those functions which he exercised with so much zeal and ability.

When, at the commencement of 1811, I left Paris I had ceased to delude myself respecting the brilliant career which seemed opening before me during the Consulate.  I clearly perceived that since Bonaparte, instead of receiving me as I expected, had refused to see me at all, the calumnies of my enemies were triumphant, and that I had nothing to hope for from an absolute ruler, whose past injustice rendered him the more unjust.  He now possessed what he had so long and ardently wished for,—­a son of his own, an inheritor of his name, his power, and his throne.  I must take this opportunity of stating that the malevolent and infamous rumours spread abroad respecting the birth of the King of Rome were wholly without foundation.  My friend Corvisart, who did not for a single instant leave Maria Louisa during her long and painful labour, removed from my mind every doubt on the subject.  It is as true that the young Prince, for whom the Emperor of Austria stood sponsor at the font, was the son of Napoleon and the Archduchess Maria Louisa as it is false that Bonaparte was the father of the first child of Hortense.  The birth of the son of Napoleon was hailed with general enthusiasm.  The Emperor was at the height of his power from the period of the birth of his son until the reverse he experienced after the battle of the Moskowa.  The Empire, including the States possessed by the Imperial family, contained nearly 57,000,000 of inhabitants; but the period was fast approaching when this power, unparalleled in modern times, was to collapse under its own weight.

   —­[The little King of Rome, Napoleon Francis Bonaparte, was born on
   the 20th of March 1811.  Editor of 1836 edition.]—­

CHAPTER XXVI.