Memoirs of Napoleon, vol 13 | Page 9

gives some details of her interview with the Emperor Francis on the
16th of April, says nothing about the Czar having been there; a fact he
would have been sure to have remarked upon. It was only on the 19th
of April that Alexander visited her, the King of Prussia coming in his
turn on the 22d; but Bourrienne is right in saying that Maria Louisa
complained bitterly of having to receive Alexander, and considered that
she was forced by her father to do so. The poor little King of Rome,
then only three years old, had also to be seen by the monarchs. He was
not taken with his grandfather, remarking that he was not handsome.
Maria Louisa seems, according to Meneval, to have been at this time
really anxious to join Napoleon (Meneval, tome ii. p. 94). She left
Rambouillet on the 28d of April stopped one day at Grossbois,
receiving there her father and Berthier, and taking farewell of several
persons who came from Paris for that purpose. On the 25th of April she
started for Vienna, and later for Parma, which state she received under
the treaty of 1814 and 1815. She yielded to the influence brought to
bear on her, became estranged from Napoleon, and eventually married
her chamberlain, the Comte de Neipperg, an Austrian general.]--

The two Emperors set off from Paris shortly after each other. The
Emperor of Austria arrived first at Rambouillet, where he was received
with respect and affection by his daughter. Maria Louisa was happy to
see him, but the many tears she shed were not all tears of joy. After the
first effusion of filial affection she complained of the situation to which
she was reduced. Her father sympathised with her, but could offer her
no consolution, since her misfortunes were irreparable. Alexander was
expected to arrive immediately, and the Emperor of Austria therefore
informed his daughter that the Russian monarch wished to see her. At
first Maria Louisa decidedly refused to receive him, and she persisted
for some time in this resolution. She said to her father, "Would he too
make me a prisoner before your eyes? If he enters here by force I will
retire to my chamber. There, I presume, he will not dare to follow me
while you are here." But there was no time to be lost; Francis II. heard
the equipage of the Emperor of Russia rolling through the courtyard of
Rambouillet, and his entreaties to his daughter became more and more
urgent. At length she yielded, and the Emperor of Austria went himself
to meet his ally and conduct him to the salon where Maria Louisa
remained, in deference to her father. She did not, however, carry her
deference so far as to give a favourable reception to him whom she
regarded as the author of all her misfortunes. She listened with
considerable coldness to the offers and protestations of Alexander, and
merely replied that all she wished for was the liberty of returning to her
family. A few days after this painful interview Maria Louisa and her
son set off for Vienna.
--[A few days after this visit Alexander paid his respects to Bonaparte's
other wife, Josephine. In this great breaking up of empires and
kingdoms the unfortunate Josephine, who had been suffering agonies
on account of the husband who had abandoned her, was not forgotten.
One of the first things the Emperor of Russia did on arriving at Paris
was to despatch a guard for the protection of her beautiful little palace
at Malmaison. The Allied sovereigns treated her with delicacy and
consideration.
"As soon as the Emperor Alexander knew that the Empress Josephine
had arrived at Malmaison he hastened to pay her a visit. It is not

possible to be more amiable than he was to her. When in the course of
conversation he spoke of the occupation of Paris by the Allies, and of
the position of the Emperor Napoleon, it was always in perfectly
measured language: he never forgot for a single instant that be was
speaking before one who had been the wife of his vanquished enemy.
On her side the ex-Empress did not conceal the tender sentiments, the
lively affection she still entertained for Napoleon . . . . Alexander had
certainly something elevated and magnanimous in his character, which
would not permit him to say a single word capable of insulting
misfortune; the Empress had only one prayer to make to him, and that
was for her children."]--
This visit was soon followed by those of the other Allied Princes.
"The King of Prussia and the Princes, his sons, came rather frequently
to pay their court to Josephine; they even dined with her several times
at Malmaison; but the Emperor Alexander come much more frequently.
The