when I saw that we had found nothing; I thought that some one had seen and followed us, in fact, that I had been robbed.  This was a more crushing blow to me than the first, and I foresaw the consequences with horror; what would be said, what would be thought, of me?  Would my word be taken?  The grand marshal, already prejudiced by the inexplicable reply of the Emperor, would consider me a person totally devoid of honor.  I was overwhelmed by these fatal thoughts when Denis suggested to me that we had not dug in the right spot, and had made a mistake of some feet.  I eagerly embraced this ray of hope; we began again to dig up the earth with more eagerness than ever, and I can say without exaggeration that my joy bordered almost on delirium when I saw the first of the bags.  We drew out in succession all the five; and with the assistance of Denis I carried them to the palace, and placed them without delay in the hands of the grand marshal, with the keys of the Emperor’s trunk, and the casket which M. Fain had committed to me.  I said to him as I left, “Monseigneur, be good enough to say to his Majesty that I will not accompany him.”—­“I will tell him.”

After this cold and laconic reply I immediately left the palace, and was soon after in Rue du Coq-Gris, with M. Clement, a bailiff, who for a long time had been charged with my small affairs, and had given the necessary attention to my farm during the long absences which the journeys and campaigns of the Emperor necessitated.  Then I gave full vent to my despair.  I was choking with rage as I remembered that my honesty had been suspected,—­I, who for fourteen years had served the Emperor with a disinterestedness which was so scrupulous, and even carried to such a point that many persons called it silliness; I, who had never demanded anything of the Emperor, either for myself or my people!  My brain reeled as I tried to explain to myself how the Emperor, who knew all this so well, could have allowed me to appear to a third person as a dishonorable man; the more I thought of it the more extreme became my irritation, and yet it was not possible to find the shadow of a motive for the blow aimed at me.  My despair was at its height, when M. Hubert, ordinary valet de chambre of the Emperor, came to tell me that his Majesty would give me all I wished if I would follow him, and that three hundred thousand francs would be immediately handed me.  In these circumstances, I ask of all honest men, what could I do, and what would they have done in my place?  I replied that when I had resolved to consecrate my whole life to the service of the unfortunate Emperor, it was not from views of vile interest; but I was in despair at the thought that he should have made me appear before Count Bertrand as an impostor and a dishonest man.  Ah! how happy would it then have been for me had the Emperor never thought of giving me those accursed one hundred thousand francs!  These ideas tortured me.  Ah! if I could only have taken twenty-four hours for reflection, however just might have been my resentment, how gladly would I have sacrificed it!  I would have thought of the Emperor alone, and would have followed him; but a sad and inexplicable fatality had not decreed this.