"  When  I  came  home  Julie  talked  of  her  recollections  of  the
Emperor.  She  remembered  seeing  him  when  he  came  back  to
Paris  in  1852,  and,  when  kneeling  on  the  steps  of  the  Madeleine,
he  was  blessed  by  the  cure.  As  he  rode  from  the  church  and
entered  the  gate  leading  from  the  Place  de  la  Concorde  into  the
Tuileries  garden,  a  crown  of  flowers  was  let  down  from  the  upper
part  of  the  grille  upon  his  head,  and  the  people  called  out  for  the
first  time,  'Vive  1'Empereur! '  Three  weeks  later  he  was  crowned
at  Notre  Dame.  She  also  talked  of  his  marriage,  and  Julie  knew
the  details  because  she  was  in  Henry  Howard's  service,  and  he
was  Mrs.  Gould's  lover.1  Mademoiselle  Monti  jo  was  taken  to
Compiegne  by  Mrs.  Gould,  though  she  was  not  invited,  and  there
the  Emperor  saw  her  out  riding.  She  was  very  beautiful,  and  had
a  wonderfully  fair  complexion.  The  Emperor,  although  he  knew
she  was  the  Marquis  d'Aguado's  mistress,  had  a  caprice  for  her,
and  wanted  to  make  her  leave  Aguado,  but  she  said  he  must
marry  her  and  he  did  so,  in  spite  of  his  friends  and  Ministers.  He
said  in  his  excuse  that  having,  as  they  told  him,  done  so  much  for
France,  France  must  do  this  for  him.  According  to  Julie,  Napo-
leon and  Eugenie  made  mauvais  menage  at  first,  but  the  Empress
had  never  been  reproached  for  misconduct  since  the  marriage.
