When his Majesty returned to his apartment, I heard Marshal Berthier say to him, “Sire, are you not afraid that the sovereigns may some day use to advantage against you all that you have just taught them?  Your Majesty just now seemed to forget what you formerly told us, that it is necessary to act with our allies as if they were afterwards to be our enemies.”—­ “Berthier,” replied the Emperor, smiling, “that is a good observation on your part, and I thank you for it; I really believe I have made you think I was an idiot.  You think, then,” continued his Majesty, pinching sharply one of the Prince de Neuchatel’s ears, “that I committed the indiscretion of giving them whips with which to return and flog us?  Calm yourself, I did not tell them all.”

The Emperor’s table at Erfurt was in the form of a half-moon; and at the upper end, and consequently at the rounded part, of this table their Majesties were seated, and on the right and left the sovereigns of the Confederation according to their rank.  The side facing their Majesties was always empty; and there stood M. de Beausset, the prefect of the palace, who relates in his Memoirs that one day he overheard the following conversation: 

“On that day the subject of conversation was the Golden Bull, which, until the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine, had served as a constitution, and had regulated the law for the election of emperors, the number and rank of the electors, etc.  The Prince Primate entered into some details regarding this Golden Bull, which he said was made in 1409; whereupon the Emperor Napoleon pointed out to him that the date which was assigned to the Golden Bull was not correct, and that it was proclaimed in 1336, during the reign of the Emperor Charles IV.  ‘That is true, Sire,’ replied the Prince Primate I was mistaken; but how does it happen that your Majesty is so well acquainted with these matters?’—­’When I was a mere sub-lieutenant in the artillery, said Napoleon,—­at this beginning, there was on the part of the guests a marked movement of interest, and he continued, smiling,—­when I had the honor to be simply sub-lieutenant in the artillery I remained three years in the garrison at Valence, and, as I cared little for society, led a very retired life.  By fortunate chance I had lodgings with a kind and intelligent bookseller.  I read and re-read his library during the three years I remained in the garrison and have forgotten nothing, even matters which have had no connection with my position.  Nature, besides, has given me a good memory for figures, and it often happens with my ministers that I can give them details and the sum total of accounts they presented long since.’”

A few days before his departure from Erfurt, the Emperor bestowed the cross of the Legion of Honor on M. de Bigi, commandant of arms at this place; M. Vegel, burgomaster of Jena; Messrs. Weiland and Goethe; M. Starlk, senior physician at Jena.  He gave to General