Page:Napoleon (O'Connor 1896).djvu/125

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The Estimate of a Worshipper.
109

violent moral and physical shock. He was calm, deeply sad, and deplored the unhappy state in which he was leaving France. As to Doctor Yvan, still troubled by the scene of the previous night, and under the impression of the terror with which Napoleon had filled him, he at once decided to remain no longer in the palace. And so, on leaving the levée, he rushed down into the courtyard, and finding a horse tied to one of the gates, jumped on its back and galloped away."

XXII.

NAPOLEON's FORLORN YOUNG MEN.

Two scenes, finally, I shall quote in the closing hours of the great Napoleon drama. Méneval was attached to the person of Marie Louise for some time after the abdication of the Emperor, and only returned to France when Napoleon came back from Elba and had again mounted the throne. Honest Méneval gives a pathetic picture of his last interview with the poor boy who had inherited Napoleon's name:

"Before leaving, I went to take leave of the young Prince at the Imperial Palace of Vienna. It grieved me to notice his serious and even melancholy air. He had lost that childish cheerfulness and loquacity which had so much charm in him. He did not come to meet me as he was accustomed to do, and saw me enter without