In support of what I have said of the incredible preoccupation of the Emperor, I will mention an occurrence which comes to my memory.  During our sojourn at Fontainebleau the Countess Walewska, of whom I have heretofore spoken, came, and having summoned me, told me how anxious she was to see the Emperor.  Thinking that this would be sure to distract his Majesty, I mentioned it to him that very evening, and received orders to have her come at ten o’clock.  Madame Walewska was, as may well be believed, promptly on hand at the appointed hour, and I entered the Emperor’s room to announce her arrival.  He was lying on his bed, and plunged so deeply in meditation that it was only on a second reminder from me he replied, “Ask her to wait.”  She then waited in the apartment in front of his Majesty’s, and I remained to keep her company.  Meanwhile the night passed on, and the hours seemed long to the beautiful visitor; and her distress that the Emperor did not summon her became so evident that I took pity on her, and reentered the Emperor’s room to remind him again.  He was not asleep, but was so deeply absorbed in thought that he made no reply.  At last day began to break; and the countess, fearing to be seen by the people of the household, withdrew in despair at not having bidden adieu to the object of her affections; and she had been gone more than an hour when the Emperor remembered that she was waiting, and asked for her.  I told his Majesty how it was, and did not conceal the state of despair in which the countess took her departure.  The Emperor was much affected.  “Poor woman, she thinks herself humiliated!  Constant, I am really grieved.  If you see her again, tell her so.  But I have so many things there!” added he in a, very energetic tone, striking his brow with his hand.

The visit of this lady to Fontainebleau recalls another of almost the same kind, but to describe which it is necessary that I take up the thread of events a little further back.

[I have learned since that the Countess de Walewska went with her son to visit the Emperor on the Island of Elba.  This child resembled his Majesty so greatly that the report was started that the King of Rome had visited his father.  Madame de Walewska remained only a short time at the Island of Elba.—­Constant.]

A short time after his marriage with the Archduchess Marie Louise, although she was a young and beautiful woman, and although he really loved her devotedly, the Emperor was no more careful than in the time of the Empress Josephine to scrupulously observe conjugal fidelity.  During one of our stays at Saint-Cloud he took a fancy to Madamoiselle L——­, whose mother’s second husband was a chief of squadron.  These ladies then stayed at Bourg-la-Reine, where they were discovered by M. de ——­, one of the most zealous protectors of the pretty women who were presented to his Majesty, and who spoke to him of this young person, then seventeen years old.