temptation of rendering it more explicit in the homelier garb of humble prose.

It was on a beautiful morning in May that we drove up to the splendid palace of Madame Letitia. I was determined, if possible, before I left Rome, to look upon the mother of Napoleon. Let the supercilious and the unimaginative say what they will, and sneer as they may, I must confess to the weakness (if weakness it were) of being extremely anxious to behold that celebrated woman. Surely, surely, if in herself she was nothing interesting or remarkable, the extraordinary fortunes in which she had borne her part, the unparalleled vicissitudes and reverses which she had witnessed and endured, and that stupendous pageant which had unfolded, blazed, and faded under her very eyes, would be enough to excite some degree of interest and curiosity in even the least reflective mind concerning her but did not Napoleon himself say, "All that I am or have been, I owe to my mother."

Still I am aware that many there are in this world, who through vulgar prejudice and stolid ignorance, cannot view things in this way, and who can see nothing in beings who have been the victims of such reverses, but individuals thrust back again to the station for which it appears to them Providence originally designed them. Have these superficial observers forgotten that that Providence in its infinite wisdom and intelligence must have foreseen and ordained every event and issue of the lives of persons destined to fill such important parts in the great drama? and if mighty trials and tremendous reverses awaited them, doubtless fitted their natures and their minds to meet and sustain them; does not this

I

make them objects of interest, aye, and of profound interest, too, to minds not stupified to the last degree by thicksighted prejudice and gross insensibility? But enough of these! It was not without great difficulty that we accomplished our object, all the answer we could elicit to our enquiries being that Madame Letitia had kept her bed for several years, and made it a rule never to see any one. At length, however, perseverance overcame all obstacles, and, chiefly through the instrumentality of Lady Dudley Stuart's name, the grand-daughter of the venerable Madame Letitia, and niece of Napoleon, with whom by marriage we were connected, we obtained admission to the palazzo, and had the pleasure of an interview with Mademoiselle Rose Meline, who in the most amiable manner promised to convey to Madame Letitia our earnest desire of admittance into her presence. Mademoiselle Rose speedily returned, and informed me Madame Letitia would see me, but was sorry she could not also receive my husband, who was with me. I immediately followed Mademoiselle Rose into the chamber, and was introduced to the mother of Napoleon. Madame Letitia was at that period eighty-three years of age, and never did I see a person so advanced in life with a brow and countenance so beaming with expression and undiminished intelligence; the quickness and brilliancy of her large, speaking eye was most remarkable. She was laid in a small white bed in one corner of the room, to which she told me she had been confined for three years, having as long as that ago had the misfortune to break her leg. The room was completely hung round with pictures, large, full length portraits of her family, which covered

every portion of the wall. All those of her sons who had attained to the regal dignity were represented in their kingly robes; Napoleon, I believe, in the gorgeous apparel he wore at his coronation. After a few minutes conversation, she informed me that she had not seen any English person for the three years she had been confined to her room, with the exception, if I remember correctly, of the Duke of Hamilton and Lord Dudley Stuart, who she afterwards confessed to me were the only English she ever liked; adding with a mournful expression of countenance, and in a deprecatory tone, that she thought I could not wonder at her thus entertaining inimical feelings towards my countrymen. I told her I was not indeed surprised at her sentiments, and added, that we should not have ventured to have attempted intruding ourselves upon her, had we not considered we had some slight claim on her indulgence, from our connexion with Lady Dudley Stuart, and I then entreated her to allow me to introduce my husband to her. After some difficulty, I succeeded in gaining my point, and obtained admission for him.

After the little preliminary formalities of an introduction, he assured her how very grateful he felt to her for having thus consented to extend to him the kind indulgence she had already shown towards me; and, as I had just before done, observed, that nothing but our connexion with Lady Dudley Stuart would have emboldened us to ask so great a favour, and that our hopes of an interview with her had been grounded entirely upon that connexion.

Upon which, in the most amiable, friendly, and flatter

ing manner possible, she extended a hand to each of us, and said in the kindest and most cordial tone

"Eh! je vous reçois comme mes parens."

She, then seeing us looking earnestly at the magnificent picture of Napoleon, which was hung close to the side of her bed, asked us if we did not admire it, gazing herself at it proudly and fondly, and saying

“Cela ressemble beaucoup a l'empereur, oui, cela lui ressemble beaucoup !"

And, then observing the very great interest I took in it, she begged me to walk into the adjoining room, where she said there was a bust of the emperor that was the very image of him, and also one of the Duke of Reichstadt, when a child, that was an excellent likeness, and the very one that was sent to Napoleon at St. Helena, which was placed at the feet of his bed in his last illness, and was only removed after his death. I immediately obeyed, and was struck with admiration at the beauty of both the busts; the one of the infant King of Rome was angelic, and that of Napoleon (which you could not doubt for a moment must be a likeness) quite superb.

While I was examining and admiring these exquisite works of art, Madame Letitia (as Mr. Wortley afterwards told me) dwelt upon the painful topic of St. Helena, and gave vent to many expressions that showed how bitterly she felt on the distressing subject of Napoleon's captivity in that island, saying, that her son had died by inches there, and speaking in a strain of glowing indignation of Sir H— L—, whom she emphatically termed ce bourreau."

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When I returned into the room I found her earnestly conversing on this subject, and I listened with intense and painful interest to her energetic and impassioned outpourings of her feelings; and I must confess that I cordially assented mentally to much that she said. After a momentary pause, she again reverted to the magnificent pictures with which her room was literally lined, and drew my attention to the one at the head of her bed (which was quite open, in the Italian fashion, without canopy or curtains), informing me, that it was the portrait of her husband, Charles Buonaparte. She then particularized every one of those mute representations of the absent or the dead, giving me little interesting details of each; amongst others were a smaller portrait of Josephine, and one of the ex-empress, Marie Louise; also numerous beautiful miniatures of the different members of her family, amongst these was one of a beautiful youth, who had died, I believe, not long before; Mademoiselle Meline pointed this out to me, and said, whispering, that it was the resemblance of one of Madame Letitia's grandsons, now dead, the delight and hope and pride of the whole family, but I cannot now remember of which of Madame Letitia's children he was the offspring.

After having attentively examined all these interesting pictures, I returned to take my place beside the bed of the venerable lady. I could not help feeling that she must exist, as it were, in a world of the past, in a world of dreams, in a world of her own, or rather of memory's creation, with all these splendid shadows around her, that silently, but eloquently, spoke of the days departed.

The limits that I have here assigned to myself are very