been there, I don't see how you could have got those cries so perfectly."
In suggesting that Napoleon might have been in London incognito, Jane was only repeating what then had wide currency—that Napoleon in the height of his power had slipped away from Paris, letting no one know that he was to cross the Channel, to spend a few days in London, studying the English and their ways.
To the inquisitive Jane, however, Napoleon gave no information as to the truth of this belief.
"I was much entertained," he said, "by one of my buffos, who introduced London street cries into a comedy that he got up in Paris."
This mention of the theatre led Napoleon to speak of Talma. "He was the truest actor to nature that ever trod the boards," he said.
"Talma?" repeated Betsy, catching the actor's name. "Oh, I remember; they used to say that you took lessons from him how to sit on the throne."
"I have often heard that myself," responded Napoleon, "and I even mentioned it once to
