During the time of the Empress Josephine, there were four ladies whose
only duty was to announce the persons received by her Majesty. The
excessive indulgence of Josephine prevented her repressing the jealous
pretensions of some persons of her household, which gave rise to endless
debates and rivalries between the ladies of the palace and those of
announcement. The Emperor had been much annoyed by all these bickerings,
and, in order to avoid them in future, chose, from the ladies charged
with the education of the daughters of the Legion of Honor in the school
at Rouen, four new ladies of announcement for the Empress Marie Louise.
Preference was at first given to the daughters or widows of generals; and
the Emperor decided that the places becoming vacant belonged by right to
the best pupils of the Imperial school of Rouen, and should be given as a
reward for good conduct. A short time after, the number of these ladies
now being as many as six, two pupils of Madame de Campan were named, and
these ladies changed their titles to that of first ladies of the Empress.

This change, however, excited the displeasure of the ladies of the
palace, and again aroused their clamors around the Emperor; and he
consequently decided that the ladies of announcement should take the
title of first ladies of the chamber. Great clamor among the ladies of
announcement in their turn, who came in person to plead their cause
before the Emperor; and he at last ended the matter by giving them the
title of readers to the Empress, in order to reconcile the requirements
of the two belligerent parties.

These ladies of announcement, or first ladies of the chamber, or readers,
as the reader may please to call them, had under their orders six femmes
de chambre, who entered the Empress's rooms only when summoned there by a
bell. These latter arranged her Majesty's toilet and hair in the