having touched Madame Valevska's heart, she consented to an interview
between ten and eleven o'clock that evening, which took place at the
appointed time. She returned a few days after at the same hour, and her
visits continued until the Emperor's departure.

Two months after the Emperor sent for her; and she joined him at his
headquarters in Finkenstein, where she remained from this time, leaving
at Warsaw her old husband, who, deeply wounded both in his honor and his
affections, wished never to see again the wife who had abandoned him.
Madame Valevska remained with the Emperor until his departure, and then
returned to her family, constantly evincing the most devoted and, at the
same time, disinterested affection. The Emperor seemed to appreciate
perfectly the charms of this angelic woman, whose gentle and self-
abnegating character made a profound impression on me. As they took
their meals together, and I served them alone, I was thus in a position
to enjoy their conversation, which was always amiable, gay, and animated
on the Emperor's part; tender, impassioned, and melancholy on that of
Madame Valevska. When his Majesty was absent, Madame Valevska passed all
her time, either in reading, or viewing through the lattice blinds of the
Emperor's rooms the parades and evolutions which took place in the court
of honor of the chateau, and which he often commanded in person. Such
was her life, like her disposition, ever calm and equable; and this
loveliness of character charmed the Emperor, and made him each day more
and more her slave.

After the battle of Wagram, in 1809, the Emperor took up his residence at
the palace of Schoenbrunn, and sent immediately for Madame Valevska, for
whom a charming house had been rented and furnished in one of the
faubourgs of Vienna, a short distance from Schoenbrunn. I went
mysteriously to bring her every evening in a close carriage, with a