saw my wife more recently than I did myself. Josephine is beautiful,
is she not? No young girl can boast of more freshness, more grace,
innocence, and loveliness. Whenever I am with her, I feel as
contented, as happy and tranquil as a man who, on a very warm day,
is reposing in the shade of a splendid myrtle-tree, and whenever I
am far from her--"

Bonaparte paused, and a slight blush stole over his face. The young
lover of twenty-eight had triumphed for a moment over the stern,
calculating general, and the general was ashamed of it.

"This is no time to think of such things," he said, almost
indignantly. "Seal the letters now, and dispatch a messenger to
Paris. Ah, Paris! Would to God I were again there in my little house
in the Rue Chantereine, alone and happy with Josephine! But in order
to get there, I must first make peace here--peace with Austria, with
the Emperor of Germany. Ah, I am afraid Germany will not be much
elated by this treaty of peace which her emperor is going to
conclude, and by which she may lose some of her most splendid
fortresses on the Rhine."

"And the Republic of Venice, general?"

"The Republic of Venice is about to disappear," exclaimed Bonaparte,
frowning. "Venice has rendered herself unworthy of the name of a
republic--she is about to disappear."

"General, the delegates of the republic were all day yesterday in
your anteroom, vainly waiting for an audience."