to exclude all else. I can cite, among many others in my knowledge, a
little anecdote which touched me exceedingly, and which I take much
pleasure in relating, since, while it triumphantly answers the calumnies
of which I have spoken, it also proves the special consideration with
which his Majesty honored me, and consequently, both as a father and a
faithful servant, I experience a mild satisfaction in placing it in these
Memoirs. Napoleon was very fond of children; and having one day asked me
to bring mine to him, I went to seek him. Meanwhile Talleyrand was
announced to the Emperor; and as the interview lasted a long time, my
child grew weary of waiting, and I carried him back to his mother. A
short time after he was taken with croup, which cruel disease, concerning
which his Majesty had made a special appeal to the faculty of Paris, [on
the occasion of the death from croup in 1807 of his heir presumptive, the
young son of the King of Holland]. It snatched many children from their
families. Mine died at Paris. We were then at the chateau of Compiegne,
and I received the sad news just as I was preparing to go to the toilet.
I was too much overcome by my loss to perform my duties; and when the
Emperor asked what prevented my coming, and was told that I had just
heard of the death of my son, said kindly, "Poor Constant! what a
terrible sorrow! We fathers alone can know what it is!"

A short time after, my wife went to see the Empress Josephine at
Malmaison; and this lovely princess deigned to receive her alone in the
little room in front of her bedroom. There she seated herself beside
her, and tried in touching words of sympathy to console her, saying that
this stroke did not reach us alone, and that her grandson, too, had died
of the same disease. As she said this she began to weep; for this
remembrance reopened in her soul recent griefs, and my wife bathed with
tears the hands of this excellent princess. Josephine added many
touching remarks, trying to alleviate her sorrow by sharing it, and thus