with so much fondness. Nature had endowed him with an excellent
heart, but with very limited talents; and his mind had imbibed the
false impress consequent upon his monastic education. He resided at
Malmaison nearly the whole time of his visit to Paris. Madame
Bonaparte used to lead the Queen to her own apartments; and as the
First Consul never left his closet except to sit down to meals, the
aides de camp were under the necessity of keeping the King company,
and of endeavoring to entertain him, so wholly was he devoid of
intellectual resources. It required, indeed, a great share of
patience to listen to the frivolities which engrossed his attention.
His turn of mind being thus laid open to view, care was taken to
supply him with the playthings usually placed in the hands of
children; he was, therefore, never at a loss for occupation. His
nonentity was a source of regret to us: we lamented to see s tall
handsome youth, destined to rule over his fellow-men, trembling at
the eight of a horse, and wasting his time in the game of hide-and-
seek, or at leap-frog and whose whole information consisted in
knowing his prayers, and in saying grace before and after meals.
Such, nevertheless, was the man to whom the destinies of a nation
were about to be committed! When he left France to repair to his
kingdom, "Rome need not be uneasy," said the First Consul to us
after the farewell audience, "there is no danger of his crossing the
Rubicon" (Memoirs of the Duke of Rovigo, vol. i. p. 363).]--

In order to show still further attention to the King of Etruria, after
his three weeks' visit to Paris, the First Consul directed him to be
escorted to Italy by a French guard, and selected his brother-in-law
Murat for that purpose.

The new King of a new kingdom entered Florence on the 12th of April 1801;