having been applied to the bowl, the only question now was to light the tobacco; but from the manner in which his Majesty attempted this it was impossible for him to succeed, as he alternately opened and closed his lips repeatedly without drawing in his breath at all.  “Why, what is the matter?” cried he; “it does not work at all.”  I called his attention to the fact that he was not inhaling properly, and showed him how it ought to be done; but the Emperor still continued his performances, which were like some peculiar kind of yawning.  Tired out by his fruitless efforts at last, he told me to light it for him, which I did, and instantly handed it back to him.  But he had hardly taken a whiff when the smoke, which he did not know how to breathe out again, filled his throat, got into his windpipe, and came out through his nose and eyes in great puffs.  As soon as he could get his breath, he panted forth, “Take it away! what a pest!  Oh, the wretches! it has made me sick.”  In fact, he felt ill for at least an hour after, and renounced forever the “pleasure of a habit, which,” said he, “is only good to enable do-nothings to kill time.”

The only requirements the Emperor made as to his clothing was that it should be of fine quality and perfectly comfortable; and his coats for ordinary use, dress-coats, and even the famous gray overcoat, were made of the finest cloth from Louviers.  Under the Consulate he wore, as was then the fashion, the skirts of his coat extremely long; afterwards fashion changed, and they were worn shorter; but the Emperor held with singular tenacity to the length of his, and I had much trouble in inducing him to abandon this fashion, and it was only by a subterfuge that I at last succeeded.  Each time I ordered a new coat for his Majesty, I directed the tailor to shorten the skirts by an inch at least, until at last, without his being aware of it, they were no longer ridiculous.  He did not abandon his old habits any more readily on this point than on all others; and his greatest desire was that his clothes should not be too tight, in consequence of which there were times when he did not make a very elegant appearance.  The King of Naples, the man in all France who dressed with the most care, and nearly always in good taste, sometimes took the liberty of bantering the Emperor slightly about his dress.  “Sire,” said he to the Emperor, “your Majesty dresses too much like a good family man.  Pray, Sire, be an example to your faithful subjects of good taste in dress.”—­“Would you like me, in order to please you,” replied the Emperor, “to dress like a scented fop, like a dandy, in fine, like the King of Naples and the Two Sicilies.  As for me, I must hold on to my old habitudes.”—­“Yes, Sire, and to your ’habits tues’,” added the king on one occasion.  “Detestable!” cried the Emperor; “that is worthy of Brunet;” and they laughed heartily over this play on words, while declaring it what the Emperor called it.