it was thought extraordinary at the time that the Emperor Alexander
should accompany him on this visit; and, indeed, the sight of the
sovereign, who was regarded as the head and arbiter of the coalition,
could not be agreeable to the dethroned Empress.

--[ Meneval (tome ii. p. 112), then with Maria Louisa as Secretary,
who gives some details of her interview with the Emperor Francis on
the 16th of April, says nothing about the Czar having been there; a
fact he would have been sure to have remarked upon. It was only on
the 19th of April that Alexander visited her, the King of Prussia
coming in his turn on the 22d; but Bourrienne is right in saying
that Maria Louisa complained bitterly of having to receive
Alexander, and considered that she was forced by her father to do
so. The poor little King of Rome, then only three years old, had
also to be seen by the monarchs. He was not taken with his
grandfather, remarking that he was not handsome. Maria Louisa
seems, according to Meneval, to have been at this time really
anxious to join Napoleon (Meneval, tome ii. p. 94). She left
Rambouillet on the 28d of April stopped one day at Grossbois,
receiving there her father and Berthier, and taking farewell of
several persons who came from Paris for that purpose. On the 25th
of April she started for Vienna, and later for Parma, which state
she received under the treaty of 1814 and 1815. She yielded to the
influence brought to bear on her, became estranged from Napoleon,
and eventually married her chamberlain, the Comte de Neipperg, an
Austrian general.]--

The two Emperors set off from Paris shortly after each other. The
Emperor of Austria arrived first at Rambouillet, where he was received
with respect and affection by his daughter. Maria Louisa was happy to