The name of the authoress of Corinne, naturally calls to mind that of the friend who was most faithful to her in misfortune, and who was not herself screened from the severity of Napoleon by the just and universal admiration of which she was the object.  In 1815 Madame Recamier did not leave Paris, to which she had returned in 1814, though her exile was not revoked.  I know positively that Hortense assured her of the pleasure she would feel in receiving her, and that Madame Recamier, as an excuse for declining the perilous honour, observed that she had determined never again to appear in the world as long as her friends should be persecuted.  The memorial de Sainte Helene, referring to the origin of the ill-will of the Chief of the Empire towards the society of Madame de Stael and Madame Recamier, etc., seems to reproach Madame Recamier, “accustomed,” says the Memorial, “to ask for everything and to obtain everything,” for having claimed nothing less than the complete reinstatement of her father.  Whatever may have been the pretensions of Madame Recamier, Bonaparte, not a little addicted to the custom he complains of in her, could not have, with a good grace, made a crime of her ingratitude if he on his side had not claimed a very different sentiment from gratitude.  I was with the First Consul at the time M. Bernard, the father of Madame Reamier, was accused, and I have not forgotten on what conditions the re-establishment would have been granted.

The frequent interviews between Madame Recamier and Madame de Stael were not calculated to bring Napoleon to sentiments and measures of moderation.  He became more and more irritated at this friendship between two women formed for each other’s society; and, on the occasion of one of Madame Recamier’s journeys to Coppet he informed her, through the medium of Fouche, that she was perfectly at liberty to go to Switzerland, but not to return to Paris.  “Ah, Monseigneur! a great man may be pardoned for the weakness of loving women, but not for fearing them.”  This was the only reply of Madame Recamier to Fouche when she set out for Coppet.  I may here observe that the personal prejudices of the Emperor would not have been of a persevering and violent character if some of the people who surrounded him had not sought to foment them.  I myself fell a victim to this.  Napoleon’s affection for me would perhaps have got the upper hand if his relenting towards me had not been incessantly combated by my enemies around him.

I had no opportunity of observing the aspect of Paris during that memorable period recorded in history by the name of the Hundred Days, but the letters which I received at the time, together with all that, I afterwards heard, concurred in assuring me that the capital never presented so melancholy a picture as:  during those three months.  No one felt any confidence in Napoleon’s second reign, and it was said, without any sort of reserve, that Fouche, while serving