the Empress against her wishes.  The Prince of Neuchatel (Berthier) announced that the stag was at bay.  “Madame,” said the Emperor gallantly to Madame de C——­ , “I place his fate in your hands.”—­“Do with him, Sire,” replied she, “as you please.  It is no difference to me.”  The Emperor gave her a glance of disapproval, and said to the master of the hounds, “Since the stag in his misery does not interest Madame C——­, he does not deserve to live; have him put to death;” whereupon his Majesty turned his horse’s bridle, and rode off.  The Emperor was shocked by such an answer, and repeated it that evening, on his return from the hunt, in terms by no means flattering to Madame de C——.

It is stated in the Memorial of Saint-Helena that the Emperor, while hunting, was thrown and wounded by a wild boar, from which one of his fingers bore a bad scar.  I never saw this, and never knew of such an accident having happened to the Emperor.  The Emperor did not place his gun firmly to his shoulder, and as he always had it heavily loaded and rammed, never fired without making his arm black with bruises; but I rubbed the injured place with eau de Cologne, and he gave it no further thought.

The ladies followed the hunt in their coaches; a table being usually arranged in the forest for breakfast, to which all persons in the hunt were invited.

The Emperor on one occasion hunted with falcons on the plain of Rambouillet, in order to make a trial of the falconry that the King of Holland (Louis) had sent as a present to his Majesty.  The household made a fete of seeing this hunt, of which we had been hearing so much; but the Emperor appeared to take less pleasure in this than in the chase or shooting, and hawking was never tried again.

His Majesty was exceedingly fond of the play, preferring greatly French tragedy and the Italian opera.  Corneille was his favorite author; and he had always on his table some volume of the works of this great poet.  I have often heard the Emperor declaim, while walking up and down in his room, verses of Cinna, or this speech on the death of Caesar: 

   “Caesar, you will reign; see the august day
   In which the Roman people, always unjust to thee,” etc.

At the theater of Saint-Cloud, the piece for the evening was often made up of fragments and selections from different authors, one act being chosen from one opera, one from another, which was very vexatious to the spectators whom the first piece had begun to interest.  Often, also, comedies were played; on which occasions there was great rejoicing in the household, and the Emperor himself took much pleasure in them.  How many times have I seen him perfectly overcome with laughter, when seeing Baptiste junior in ‘les Heritiers’, and Michaut also amused him in ’la Partie de Chasse de Henry iv’.