as Paris, and of which, until this present time, only a few fathoms have
been made. From Dieppe we went to Gisors and to Beauvais; and finally
the First Consul and his wife returned to Saint-Cloud, after an absence
of two weeks, during which workmen had been busily employed in restoring
the ancient royal residence, which the First Consul had decided to
accept, as I have before stated.




CHAPTER X.

The tour of the First Consul through the wealthiest and most enlightened
departments of France had removed from his mind the apprehension of many
difficulties which he had feared at first in the execution of his plans.
Everywhere he had been treated as a monarch, and not only he personally,
but Madame Bonaparte also, had been received with all the honors usually
reserved for crowned heads. There was no difference between the homage
offered them at this time, and that which they received later, even
during the Empire, when their Majesties made tours of their states at
different times. For this reason I shall give some details; and if they
should seem too long, or not very novel, the reader will remember that I
am not writing only for those who lived during the Empire. The
generation which witnessed such great deeds, and which, under their very
eyes, and from the beginning of his career, saw the greatest man of this
century, has already given place to another generation, which can judge
him only by what others may narrate of him. What may be familiar to
those who saw with their own eyes is not so to others, who can only take
at second-hand those things which they had no opportunity of seeing for
themselves. Besides, details omitted as frivolous or commonplace by