history of all countries in times of civil or religious wars.
Children, young girls, old men shared the monarchial fever to which
the country was then a victim. Discord glided beneath all roofs;
distrust dyed with its gloomy colors the words and the actions of the
most intimate friends.

Ginevra Piombo loved Napoleon to idolatry; how, then, could she hate
him? The emperor was her compatriot and the benefactor of her father.
The Baron di Piombo was among those of Napoleon's devoted servants who
had co-operated most effectually in the return from Elba. Incapable of
denying his political faith, anxious even to confess it, the old baron
remained in Paris in the midst of his enemies. Ginevra Piombo was all
the more open to condemnation because she made no secret of the grief
which the second Restoration caused to her family. The only tears she
had so far shed in life were drawn from her by the twofold news of
Napoleon's captivity on the "Bellerophon," and Labedoyere's arrest.

The girls of the aristocratic group of pupils belonged to the most
devoted royalist families in Paris. It would be difficult to give an
idea of the exaggerations prevalent at this epoch, and of the horror
inspired by the Bonapartists. However insignificant and petty Amelie's
action may now seem to be, it was at that time a very natural
expression of the prevailing hatred. Ginevra Piombo, one of Servin's
first pupils, had occupied the place that was now taken from her since
the first day of her coming to the studio. The aristocratic circle had
gradually surrounded her. To drive her from a place that in some sense
belonged to her was not only to insult her, but to cause her a species
of artistic pain; for all artists have a spot of predilection where
they work.