repeated them, and gave me a thousand directions regarding his health,
and the cares with which she desired I should surround him. After this
she deigned to question me about myself, my prospects, the health of my
wife, her former protegee; and at last dismissed me, with a letter for
his Majesty, begging me to say to the Emperor how happy she would be if
he would come to see her.

Before his departure for Russia, the Empress, distressed at this war, of
which she entirely disapproved, again redoubled her recommendations
concerning the Emperor, and made me a present of her portrait, saying to
me, "My good Constant, I rely on you; if the Emperor were sick, you would
inform me of it, would you not? Conceal nothing from me, I love him so
much."

Certainly the Empress had innumerable means of hearing news of his
Majesty; but I am persuaded that, had she received each day one hundred
letters from those near the Emperor, she would have read and reread them
with the same avidity.

When I had returned from Saint-Cloud to the Tuileries, the Emperor asked
me how Josephine was, and if I found her in good spirits; he received
with pleasure the letters I brought, and hastened to open them. All the
time I was traveling, or on the campaign in the suite of his Majesty, in
writing to my wife, I spoke of the Emperor, and the good princess was
delighted that she showed my letters to her. In fact, everything having
the least connection with her husband interested the Empress to a degree
which proved well the singular devotion that she still felt for him
after, as before, their separation. Too generous, and unable to keep her
expenses within her income, it often happened that the Empress was
obliged to send away her furnishers unpaid the very day she had herself