fatigue of the last campaign.  Nevertheless, the mental suffering to which I saw the Emperor a victim so entirely absorbed all my thoughts, that I took no precautions against the physical suffering which I endured; and I had not even thought of asking for a safeguard for the country-house I possessed in the environs of Fontainebleau.  A free corps having seized it, had established themselves there, after having pillaged and destroyed everything, even the little flock of merino sheep which I owed to the kindness of the Empress Josephine.  The Emperor, having been informed of it by others than myself, said to me one morning at his toilet, “Constant, I owe you indemnity.”—­“Sire?”—­“Yes, my child, I know that your place has been pillaged, I know that you have incurred considerable losses in the Russian campaign; I have given an order that fifty thousand francs should be handed you to cover the whole.”  I thanked his Majesty, who more than indemnified me for my losses.

This occurred during the first days of our last stay at Fontainebleau.  At the same period the Emperor’s removal to the Island of Elba having been already discussed, the grand marshal of the palace asked me if I would follow his Majesty to this residence.  God is my witness that I had no other wish than to consecrate all my life to the service of the Emperor; therefore I did not need a moment’s reflection to reply that this could not be a matter of doubt; and I occupied myself almost immediately with preparations for the sojourn, which proved to be not a long one, but the duration of which no human intelligence could then have been able to foretell.

Meanwhile, in the retirement of his chamber, the Emperor became each day more sad and careworn; and when I saw him alone, which often occurred, for I tried to be near him as much as possible, I remarked the extreme agitation which the reading of the dispatches he received from Paris caused him; this agitation was many times so great that I noticed he had torn his leg with his nails until the blood flowed, without being aware of it.  I then took the liberty of informing him of the fact as gently as possible, with the hope of putting an end to this intense preoccupation, which cut me to the heart.  Several times also the Emperor asked Roustan for his pistols; fortunately I had taken the precaution, seeing his Majesty so unnerved, to recommend him not to give them to him, however much the Emperor might insist.  I thought it my duty to give an account of all this to the Duke of Vicenza, who entirely approved of my conduct.  One morning, I do not recall whether it was the 10th or 11th of April, but it was certainly on one of those days, the Emperor, who had said nothing to me in the morning, had me called during the day.  I had hardly entered his room when he said to me, in a tone of most winning kindness, “My dear Constant, there is a hundred thousand francs waiting for you at Peyrache’s; if your wife arrives before our departure, you will