missionaries and propagandists, as if I were a penitent, and as if a
whole string of their Eminences had not always attended at my chapel.
I will do what he ought to have done; I possess the right of investiture,
and I shall use it." Abbe Buonavita was just entering the room, "'I give
you the episcopal mitre.'--'Sire!'--'I restore it to you; you shall wear
it in spite of the heretics; they will not again take it from you.'--
'But, Sire!'--'I cannot add to it so rich a benefice as that of Valencia,
which Suchet had given you, but at any rate your see shall be secure from
the chances of battles. I appoint you Bishop of--let me see--of the
Jumna. The vast countries through which that river flows were on the
point of entering into alliance with me--all was in readiness, all were
going to march. We were about to give the finishing blow to England."
The speech concluded with an order to Count Montholon to procure the
necessary dress for the abbe in order to strike with awe all the
heretics. The upshot of the whole was, that the scarlet and violet
coloured clothes necessary to furnish the new bishop with the only
valuable portion of his temporalities, his dress, could not be procured
in the island, and the abbe remained an abbe in spite of the investiture,
and the whole farce was forgotten.

We occasionally see the Exile in better moods, when he listened to the
voice of reason, and thought less of the annoyances inseparable from the
state to which his ambition, or as he himself always averred, his
destiny, had reduced him. He had for a long time debarred himself from
all exercise, having, as he expressed it, determined not to expose
himself to the insult of being accompanied on his ride by a British
officer; or the possibility of being challenged by a sentinel. One day
when he complained of his inactive life his medical attendant recommended
the exercise of digging the ground; the idea was instantly seized upon by
Napoleon with his characteristic ardour. Noverraz, his chasseur, who had