possession. His Majesty himself did not like double-barreled guns, and
used in preference the simple, small guns which had belonged to Louis
XVI., and on which this monarch, who was an excellent gunsmith, had
worked, it is said, with his own hands.

The sight of these guns often led the Emperor to speak of Louis XVI.,
which he never did except in terms of respect and pity. "That
unfortunate prince," said the Emperor, "was good, wise, and learned. At
another period he would have been an excellent king, but he was worth
nothing in a time of revolution. He was lacking in resolution and
firmness, and could resist neither the foolishness nor the insolence of
the Jacobins. The courtiers delivered him up to the Jacobins, and they
led him to the scaffold. In his place I would have mounted my horse,
and, with a few concessions on one side, and a few cracks of my whip on
the other, I would have reduced things to order."

When the diplomatic corps came to pay their respects to the Emperor at
Saint-Cloud (the same custom was in use at the Tuileries), tea, coffee,
chocolate, or whatever these gentlemen requested, was served in the
saloon of the ambassadors. M. Colin, steward controller, was present at
this collation, which was served by the domestics of the service.

There was at Saint-Cloud an apartment which the Emperor fancied very
much; it opened on a beautiful avenue of chestnut-trees in the private
park, where he could walk at any hour without being seen. This apartment
was surrounded with full-length portraits of all the princesses of the
Imperial family, and was called the family salon. Their Highnesses were
represented standing, surrounded by their children; the Queen of
Westphalia only was seated. She had, as I have said, a very fine bust,
but the rest of her figure was ungraceful. Her Majesty the Queen of