[NAPOLEON].
The crowd flowing along the Quai Voltaire in Paris, on the shores of the Seine, changed its varied pictures so quickly that it resembled a kaleidoscope.
One bright morning about ten o'clock, a man was to be seen pursuing his way with hasty steps from the Rue Bonaparte across the bridge towards the Tuileries.
Although he was scarcely of the middle height, and rather shabby in dress, yet he caused many passengers to look at him for a moment--certainly only for a moment, but a Parisian seldom looks at anything much longer--from the unusual swiftness of his step, and the thoughtfulness with which he hastened on without looking to right or left, pursuing his way in a manner which proved him to be usually a dweller in large capitals.
The man thus hurrying to the royal and imperial palace was even meanly clad; from his dress, and his bent form, he might have been supposed a master in some elementary school, or a lawyer's clerk; but the changing expression of his sharply-cut features, his red and white northern complexion, and the penetrating glances of his light grey eyes, gave to his appearance a character which belied the impression first formed.
The man gained the other side of the Seine and entered the courtyard leading to the portal of the Tuileries.
He showed the sentry a paper, and on glancing at it the voltigeur de la garde stepped back, and with a short "Bien, Monsieur," admitted him into that inner court of the imperial residence, where no profane foot was permitted to enter, and into which only the court equipages and the carriages of the grandees of the empire were allowed to drive.
Without slackening his pace the little man hastened on. He passed by the great imperial entrance--before which, under a wide canopy, supported by golden lances, stood a group of officers of the household, and laquais de palais, conversing in whispers--to a smaller one, where he entered with the assurance of one who well knows the locality. He went up a step and into an anteroom, where in a large arm-chair sat a huissier de palais, performing his duty with quiet dignity.
"M. Piétri?" said the visitor.
"M. Piétri is in his cabinet," replied the huissier, half raising himself from his chair.