was most enviable.  Lodged in the palace, and consequently supplied with fuel and lights, they were also fed, and received each a salary of eight thousand francs.  It might well have been thought that this sum would be sufficient for these gentlemen to live most comfortably; but this was not the case.  For if they were assiduous during the hours of labor, they were not less so during those devoted to pleasure; whence it arose that the second quarter had hardly passed before the whole year’s salary was spent, part of it in gambling, and the rest among low companions.

Among the two secretaries added to the Emperor’s service, there was one especially who had contracted so many debts, and whose creditors were so pitiless, that, had there been no other reason, he would infallibly have been dismissed from the private cabinet if the report of this had reached his Majesty’s ears.

After passing an entire night reflecting on his embarrassing position, searching his imagination to secure some means of obtaining the sum necessary to satisfy those creditors who were most importunate, the new spendthrift sought distraction in work, and went to his desk at five o’clock in the morning in order to drive away his painful thoughts; not thinking that at this hour any one would hear him, and while working began to whistle La Linotte with all his might.  Now, this morning, as often before, the Emperor had already been working a whole hour in his cabinet, and had just gone out as the young man entered, and, hearing this whistling, immediately returned.

“Already here, Monsieur,” said his Majesty.  “Zounds!  Why, that is remarkable!  Maret should be well satisfied with you.  What is your salary?”—­“Sire, I have eight thousand francs a year, and besides am boarded and lodged in the palace.”—­“That is well, Monsieur, and you ought to be very happy.”

The young man, seeing that his Majesty was in a very good humor, thought that fortune had sent him a favorable opportunity of being relieved of his embarrassment, and resolved to inform the Emperor of his trying situation.  “Alas, Sire!” said he, “no doubt I ought to be happy, but I am not.”—­“Why is that?”—­“Sire, I must confess to your Majesty that I have so many English to carry, and besides I have to support an old father, two sisters, and a brother.”—­“You are only doing your duty.  But what do you mean by your English?  Are you supporting them also?”—­ “No, Sire; but it is they who have fed my pleasures, with the money they have lent me, and all who have creditors now call them the English.”—­ “Stop! stop, Monsieur!  What! you have creditors, and in spite of your large salary you have made debts!  That is enough, Monsieur.  I do not wish to have any longer near me a man who has recourse to the gold of the English, when on what I give him he can live honorably.  In an hour you will receive your discharge.”

The Emperor, having expressed himself as we have just heard, picked up some papers from the desk, threw a severe glance at the young secretary, and left him in such a state of despair that, when some one else fortunately entered the cabinet, he was on the point of committing suicide with a long paper-cutter he held in his hand.  This person was the aide-de-camp on duty, who brought him a letter from the Emperor, couched in the following terms: