carried on the whole conversation alone; and his royal audience paid him
as much attention as scholars, eager to learn, pay to the instructions of
their teacher.

When his Majesty returned to his apartment, I heard Marshal Berthier say
to him, "Sire, are you not afraid that the sovereigns may some day use to
advantage against you all that you have just taught them? Your Majesty
just now seemed to forget what you formerly told us, that it is necessary
to act with our allies as if they were afterwards to be our enemies."--
"Berthier," replied the Emperor, smiling, "that is a good observation on
your part, and I thank you for it; I really believe I have made you think
I was an idiot. You think, then," continued his Majesty, pinching
sharply one of the Prince de Neuchatel's ears, "that I committed the
indiscretion of giving them whips with which to return and flog us? Calm
yourself, I did not tell them all."

The Emperor's table at Erfurt was in the form of a half-moon; and at the
upper end, and consequently at the rounded part, of this table their
Majesties were seated, and on the right and left the sovereigns of the
Confederation according to their rank. The side facing their Majesties
was always empty; and there stood M. de Beausset, the prefect of the
palace, who relates in his Memoirs that one day he overheard the
following conversation:

"On that day the subject of conversation was the Golden Bull, which,
until the establishment of the Confederation of the Rhine, had
served as a constitution, and had regulated the law for the election
of emperors, the number and rank of the electors, etc. The Prince
Primate entered into some details regarding this Golden Bull, which
he said was made in 1409; whereupon the Emperor Napoleon pointed out