addressing these last words to her, had fallen at his feet; but he raised her with the most touching kindness, and said to her, “The truth is, Mother Marguerite, I have still a schoolboy’s appetite.  Have you nothing to give me?” The good woman, almost beside herself with happiness, served his Majesty with eggs and milk; and when this simple repast was ended, his Majesty gave his aged hostess a purse full of gold, saying to her, “You know, Mother Marguerite, that I believe in paying my bills.  Adieu, I shall not forget you.”  And while the Emperor remounted his horse, the good old woman, standing on the threshold of her door, promised him, with tears of joy, to pray to the good God for him.

One morning, when he awoke, his Majesty was speaking of the possibility of finding some of his old acquaintances; and an anecdote concerning General Junot was related to him, which amused him greatly.  The General finding himself, on his return from Egypt, at Montbard, where he had passed several years of his childhood, had sought with the greatest care for his companions in school and mischief, and had found several, with whom he had talked gayly and freely of his early frolics and his schoolboy excursions.  As they went together to revisit the different localities, each of which awakened in them some memory of their youth, the general saw an old man majestically promenading on the public square with a large cane in his hand.  He immediately ran up to him, threw his arms around him, and embraced him many times, almost suffocating him.  The promenader disengaged himself with great difficulty from his warm embraces, regarded General Junot with an amazed air, and remarked that he was ignorant to what he could attribute such excessive tenderness from a soldier wearing the uniform of a superior officer, and all the indications of high rank.  “What,” cried he, “do you not recognize me?”—­“Citizen General, I pray you to excuse me, but I have no idea”—­“Ah, morbleu, my dear master, have you forgotten the most idle, the most lawless, the most incorrigible of your scholars?”—­“A thousand pardons, you are Monsieur Junot.”—­“Himself!” replied Junot, renewing his embraes, and laughing with his friends at the singular characteristics by which he had caused himself to be recognized.  As for his Majesty the Emperor, if any of his old masters had failed to recognize him, it could not be by reminiscences of this kind that he could have recalled himself to them; for every one knows that he was distinguished at the military school for his application to work, and the regularity and sobriety of his life.

A meeting of the same nature, saving the difference in recollections, awaited the Emperor at Brienne.  While he was visiting the old military school, now falling to ruin, and pointing out to the persons who surrounded him the situation of the study halls, dormitories, refectories, etc., an ecclesiastic who had been tutor of one of the classes in the school was presented to him.  The Emperor recognized him immediately; and, uttering an exclamation of surprise, his Majesty conversed more than twenty minutes with this gentleman, leaving him full of gratitude.