I digressed considerably, in the preceding chapter, from my recollections
of Paris subsequent to our return from Germany after the battle of
Leipzig, and the Emperor's short sojourn at Mayence. I cannot even now
write the name of the latter town without recalling the spectacle of
tumult and confusion which it presented after the glorious battle of
Hanau, where the Bavarians fought so bravely on this the first occasion
when they presented themselves as enemies before those in whose ranks
they had so recently stood. It was, if I am not mistaken, in this last
engagement that the Bavarian general, Wrede, was, with his family, the
immediate victims of their treachery. The general, whom the Emperor had
overwhelmed with kindness, was mortally wounded, all his relatives in the
Bavarian army were slain, and his son-in-law, Prince of Oettingen, met
the same fate. It was one of those events which never failed to make a
deep impression on the mind of his Majesty, since it strengthened his
ideas of fatality. It was also at Mayence that the Emperor gave orders
for the assembling of the Corps Legislatif on the 2d of December. The
opening was delayed, as we shall see; and far better would it have been
had it been indefinitely postponed; since in that case his Majesty would
not have experienced the misfortunes he afterwards endured from their
opposition, symptoms of which now manifested themselves for the first
time in a manner which was, to say the least, intemperate.

One of the things which astonished me most at the time, and which still
astonishes me when I recall it now, was the incredible activity of the
Emperor, which, far from diminishing, seemed to increase each day, as if
the very exercise of his strength redoubled it. At the period of which I
now speak, it is impossible to describe how completely every moment of
his Majesty's time was filled. Since he had again met the Empress and
his son, the Emperor had resumed his accustomed serenity; and I rarely