good of the country." The instrument for dissolving the marriage was then signed by the following personages:- Napoleon, Josephine, Madame, (the mother of Bonaparte) Louis, Jerome Napoleon, Joachim Napoleon, Eugene Napo- leon, Julie, Hortense, Catherine, Pauline, Caroline.
Josephine now withdrew from the palace of the Tuilleries, and retired once more to Malmaison, where she was visited daily by Bonaparte until the period of his nuptials.
Henceforward, Josephine's life was passed alternately at Malmaison and Navarre, and, gliding away in an equal tenor of benevolent exertion and elegant employment, offers but few incidents. A description of one day is the account of all. The villa of Malmaison, to whieh she first retired, from its vicinity to Paris, might be regarded as her residence of ceremony. Here she received the visits, almost the homage, of the members of the court of Napoleon and Maria Louisa; for it was quickly discovered that, however unpleasant they might be to her new rival, such visits were reeommendations to the emperor's favour. A little after nine, these receptions took place; and from the visitors of the morning were retained, or previously invited, some ten or twelve guests to breakfast at eleven. From the personages present being always among the most distinguished in Parisian soeiety, and appearing only in uniform or official eostume, these morning parties were equally agreeable and brilliant. After breakfast, the empress adjourned to the saloon, where she eonversed for about an hour, or walked in the delightful gallery adjoining, whieh eontained many of the masterpieees of painting and seulpture. Of these, a few were aneient, but the greater number were the works of living artists, the most distinguished of whom were not without obligations to the patronage of Josephine; and while Gros, Girodet, Guerin, with their peneils, Spontini, Mehul, Paer, Boieldieu, with their voiee or lyre, Fontanes, Arnault, Andrien, Lemercier, with their pen or conversation, and Canova with his ehisel, adorned the gallery or the parties of Malmaison, they ranked among the personal friends of the mistress of the retreat. The arrival of the carriages was the signal for the departure of the
