Page:History of the Empress Josephine (3).pdf/22

 morning visitors; and after a drive of a couple of hours in the park, the empress and her suite retired to dress for dinner, to which never less than from twelve to fifteen strangers sat down. The evening passed in amusement, conversation, and music, and was always very gay, owing to the number of visitors from Paris. At eleven, tea, ices, and sweetmeats were served; and at midnight, the empress retired. The apartments in which these re-unions took place were elegant and spacious, the furniture being covered with needlework on a ground of white silk, wrought by the empress and her ladies: but the residence altogether was small, an inconvenience still further increased through Josephine's veneration of every thing that had been Napoleon's. The apartment which he had occupied remained exactly as he had left it; she would not suffer even a chair to be moved, and indeed very rarely permitted any one to enter, keeping the key herself, and dusting the articles with her own hands. On the table was a volume of history, with the page doubled down where he had finished reading; beside it lay a pen with the ink dried on the point, and a map of the world, on which he was accustomed to point out his plans to those in his confidence, and which still shewed on his surface many marks of his impatience;-these, Josephine would not allow to be touched on any account. By the wall stood Napoleon's camp-bed, without curtains.

The close of Josephine's life is thus described by Dr. Memes ;— “A variety of grievances preyed upon Josephine's spirits, but without producing any appearance of disease till the 4th of May, when she dined at St. Leu with Hortense, Eugene, and the emperor of Russia. On returning to Malmaison, she felt a general uneasiness, which, yielded to some