"Where are you going?" she asked, surprised to see me there, when she thought I was at my uncle's.
"I am going to heaven," I replied.
"What! you are going to heaven?"
"Yes, let me go."
"What are you going to do in heaven, my poor child?"
"I am going to kill the good God for killing papa."
My mother seized me in her arms and pressed me closely to her.
"Oh! my child," she cried, "do not say such things; we are quite unhappy enough already."
Indeed, the death of my father, who had only received a retiring salary of 4000 francs, left us with no other fortune than about 30 roods of land in the village of Soucy, which had belonged to my maternal grandfather, who was still living at that time. There were arrears of salary due to my father, as I have said, arrears of 28,500 francs, for the years VII and VIII, but since our journey to Paris a law had been passed which declared that no arrears before the year IX should be paid.
As for the indemnity of 500,000 francs, due from the King of Naples for the French prisoners, which Bonaparte had exacted, nothing was heard of it, and it was for this reason, no doubt, that the French seized the kingdom of Naples.