of a schoolboy. See him on horseback pursuing her in a gallop along the terraces of Saint Cloud. The horse bucks, the rider falls and gets up laughing, and crying, 'Breakneck.' See him playing a game of baseball at Malmaison, kicking a football, or amusing himself as 'catch-who-can.' To the life of the cloister prepared for her and which she had wholly accepted, she only proposes one amendment-she wishes to ride on horseback, a time-honoured custom for the Princesses of Lorraine ever since they were freed from maternal tutelage. Marie Antoinette has done the same, and one may remember the similar remonstrance of Marie Therese. Napoleon will not leave to anybody else the task of teaching her to manage a horse. It is he who places the Empress in the saddle, and holding the horse by the bridle, runs alongside. When the learner has to some extent found her seat, each morning after breakfast, he orders one of his horses to be made ready, jumps on its back without taking time to put on his boots, and in the large courtyard where, every ten paces, a stableman is stationed on orderly duty to guard against every fall, he prances near his wife in silk stockings, amusing himself during the gallop with exciting cries, urging on the horses to make them stride out, falling himself more frequently than he wishes.
". . . Marie Louise, up to that time, had only one society trick of which she was proud, that was
