‘“Calm yourself, my dear Teresina. Let us allow the first storm to go by, and everything will turn out for the best. But above all, don’t let us irritate him still further. He is very incensed with Ouvrard, and people say he is at your house, or expected.”
‘“Oh!” replied Teresina, indignant, “is that it? Does he pretend to tyrannise over our hearths because he happens to govern France? Must one sacrifice even one’s dearest and closest affections?”
‘As she spoke these words there was a knock at the door. It was Eugène de Beauharnais, who came to fetch one of these ladies.
‘“Let us go,” he said. “You have been here more than an hour. The Council is perhaps finished, and what would the First Consul say if he failed to find you at home?”
‘We stole away on tiptoe, Madame R—— and I.
‘“Let’s leave the ball,” I said, going down. “Whatever we may see there is not worth what we have just heard.”
‘One of these ladies was Josephine, she who in a short time was to be Empress. The other was Madame Tallien, as famous for her striking beauty as for her energetic character; to whom France owed the overthrow of Robespierre.’