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336 very ball which he mentioned in his letter to Josephine. Napoleon afterwards said of her: "She was a charming woman, an angel. One might say that her soul was as beautiful as her face." She is thus described at the moment when Napoleon saw her for the first time:

"She was two-and-twenty, fair, with blue eyes, and a skin of dazzling whiteness; she was not tall, but perfectly formed, with an exquisite figure. A slight shadow of melancholy lay on her whole person, and rendered her still more attractive. Recently married to an old nobleman of bad temper and extremely rigid views, she seemed to Napoleon like a woman who has been sacrificed and who is unhappy at home. This idea increased the passionate interest the Emperor felt in her as soon as he saw her."

The records of the time show that in this case Napoleon was prompt and strong; but his lovemaking was never of a very refined order. Thirty-seven years of age, a great General, with Europe gradually falling at his feet, he conducted his siege of a woman after the fashion of an attack on a fortified town. The courtship, indeed, is one of the most curious in history; I can but glance at it for more reasons than one. Says Constant:

"The day after the ball the Emperor seemed to me in an unusually agitated state. He walked about the room, sat down, got up, and walked about again. Immediately after luncheon he sent