of several provinces, but she could not make up her mind to part with the strong place of Magdeburg, the retaining of which would be Prussia's safeguard. On his side, Napoleon, who proposed to make his brother Jerome King of Westphalia, wished to add Magdeburg to the new state. It is said that in order to retain this important town, the Queen of Prussia, during dinner, used all the methods of friendliness until Napoleon, to change the conversation, praised a superb rose that the Queen was wearing. The story goes that she said: 'Will your Majesty have this rose in exchange for Magdeburg?' Perhaps it would be chivalrous to accept, but the Emperor was too practical a man to let himself be caught by a pretty offer, and it is averred that while praising the beauty of the rose and of the hand which offered it, he did not take the flower. The Queen's eyes filled with tears, but the victor affected not to perceive it. He kept Magdeburg, and escorted the Queen politely to the boat which was to take her across to the other side."
XI.
NAPOLEON WOUNDED.
There is a popular and widespread delusion that Napoleon was never wounded; indeed, this is taken as one of the many signs and tokens of that demoniacal luck which for a long time marked
