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 Napoleon then called the keeper of the portfolio, whose duty it was to be in constant attendance at the door of the Cabinet, which also opened upon the corridor. Giving the taper to his attendant, and directing him to precede, the emperor himself supportiug Josephine's limbs, and descending last, the party thus attamed the door of her bedroom. Here Napoleon dismissed both his companions, and laying the empress on her bed rang for her women, who, on entering, found him hanging over her with an expression of the deepest anxiety.

On the 16th of the following December, Napoleon assembled all the members of the senate, including the kings of Westphalia and Naples, the grand admiral, the prince viceroy of Italy, the arch-chancellor of state, the prince vice-constable, etc. After the usual ceremonies, a project of a "Senatus Consultum" was read, respecting a dissolution of the marriage between the emperior Napoleon and the empress Josephine.

This deed of separation required by the two high contracting parties themselves, and approved of by a family council at which all the princes and princesses of the imperial family now at Paris had assisted, received, on the same day, the assent of the senate, after having been duly examined by a special commission. Jean Jaques Regis Cambaceres, prince arch-chancellor of the empire, then stated, that on the preceding day, he had visited the palace of the Tuilleries, attended by Michael Louis Etienne de St. Jean d'Angeley, count of the empire, minister of state and secretary of state for the imperial family. On being introduced to the grand cabinet of the emperor, he there found his majesty the emperor and king, with her majesty the empress, attended by their majesties the kings of Holland, Westphalia, and Naples.