the first time he came to visit me after his marriage, what a meeting was
that! How many tears I shed! The days on which he comes are to me days
of misery, for he spares me not. How cruel to speak of his expected
heir. Bourrienne, you cannot conceive how heart-rending all this is to
me! Better, far better to be exiled a thousand leagues from hence!
However," added Josephine, "a few friends still remain faithful in my
changed fortune, and that is now the only thing which affords me even
temporary consolation." The truth is that she was extremely unhappy, and
the most acceptable consolation her friends could offer her was to weep
with her. Yet such was still Josephine's passion for dress, that after.
having wept for a quarter of an hour she would dry her tears to give
audience to milliners and jewellers. The sight of a new hat would call
forth all Josephine's feminine love of finery. One day I remember that,
taking advantage of the momentary serenity occasioned by an ample display
of sparkling gewgaws, I congratulated her upon the happy influence they
exercised over her spirits, when she said, "My dear friend, I ought,
indeed, to be indifferent to all this; but it is a habit." Josephine
might have added that it was also an occupation, for it would be no
exaggeration to say that if the time she wasted in tears and at her
toilet had been subtracted from her life its duration would have been
considerably shortened.

The vast extent of the French Empire now presented a spectacle which
resembled rather the dominion of the Romans and the conquests of
Charlemagne than the usual form and political changes of modern Europe.
In fact, for nearly two centuries, until the period of the Revolution,
and particularly until the elevation of Napoleon, no remarkable changes
had taken place in the boundaries of European States, if we except the
partition of Poland, when two of the co-partitioners committed the error
of turning the tide of Russia towards the west! Under Napoleon