prove it to me.

I have said above that my wife's younger sister was the favorite of her
Majesty the Empress; and yet she received on her marriage no richer dowry
than Louise, nevertheless, the Empress asked to have my sister-in-law's
husband presented to her, and said to him in the most maternal tone,
"Monsieur, I recommend my daughter to you, and I entreat you to make her
happy. She deserves it, and I earnestly hope that you know how to
appreciate her!" When my sister-in-law, fleeing from Compiegne, in 1814,
went with her husband's mother to Evreux for her confinement, the Empress
sent by her first valet de chambre every thing necessary for a young
woman in that condition, and, even reproached her with not having come to
Navarre.

My sister-in-law had been reared in the same boarding-school as
Mademoiselle Josephine Tallien, god-daughter of the Empress, who has
since married M. Pelet de la Lozere, and another daughter of Madame
Tallien, Mademoiselle Clemence Cabarus. The school was conducted by
Madame Vigogne, widow of the colonel of that name, and an old friend of
the Empress, who had advised her to take a boarding-school, and promised
to procure for her as many pupils as she could. This institution
prospered under the direction of this lady, who was distinguished for her
intelligence and culture; and she frequently brought to the Empress these
protegees, with other young persons who by good conduct had earned this
reward; and this was made a powerful means of exciting the emulation of
these children, whom her Majesty overwhelmed with caresses, and presented
with little gifts.

One morning just as Madame Vigogne was about to visit the Empress, and
was descending the staircase to enter her carriage, she heard piercing