“I had for some time remained in expectation, and in almost perfect solitude, when, at fifteen minutes before nine, an extraordinary noise that I heard outside announced to me the Emperor’s arrival; and a few moments after I saw him appear, amidst cries of enthusiasm, borne on the arms of the officers who had escorted him from the island of Elba.  The Emperor begged them earnestly to let him walk; but his entreaties were useless, and they bore him thus to the very door of his apartment, where they deposited him near me.  I had not seen the Emperor since the day of his farewell to the National Guard in the great court of the palace; and in spite of the great agitation into which I was thrown by all this commotion, I could not help noticing how much stouter he had become.

“The Emperor had hardly entered his apartments than I was assigned to duty in the interior.  Marshal Bertrand, who had just replaced General Excelmans in the command of the Tuileries, gave me an order to allow no one to enter without informing him, and to give him the names of all who requested to see the Emperor.  One of the first to present himself was Cambaceres, who appeared to me even more pallid than usual.  A short time after came the father of General Bertrand; and as this venerable old man attempted to pay his respects first to the Emperor, Napoleon said to him, ‘No, monsieur! nature first;’ and in saying this, with a movement as quick as his words, the Emperor, so to speak, threw him into the arms of his son.  Next came Queen Hortense, accompanied by her two children; then, Count Regnault de Saint-Jean d’Angely, and many other persons whose names have escaped me.  I did not see again those I announced to Marshal Bertrand, as they all went out by another door.  I continued this duty till eleven o’clock in the evening, at which time I was relieved of my duties, and was invited to supper at an immense table of about three hundred covers.  All the persons presented at the palace took their places at this table, one after the other.  I there saw the Duke of Vicenza, and found myself placed opposite General Excelmans.  The Emperor supped alone in his room with Marshal Bertrand, and their supper was by no means so splendid as ours, for it consisted only of a roast chicken and a dish of lentils; and yet I learned from an officer who fad attended him constantly since he left Fontainebleau, that his Majesty had eaten nothing since morning.  The Emperor was exceedingly fatigued; I had opportunity to mark this each time his door was opened.  He was seated on a chair in front of the fire, with his feet on the mantelpiece.