odious picture of Napoleon's Court which I quoted from Taine. I put in contrast with this the picture which is drawn by M. de Ségur. Writing of 1802, M. de Ségur exclaims: "No epoch was more glorious for Paris. What a happy and glorious time! The whole year has left on my memory the impression of a realisation of the most brilliant Utopias, a spectacle of the finest galas, and that of a grand society restored to all good things by the presiding genius."
And then he goes on to give this interesting and agreeable picture of Napoleon at home:
"The First Consul in his more personal surroundings had initiated many ingenious amusements, and given the signal for an almost universal joy.
"True, his household was divided into two parties, but kept in check by the firmness of their chief, they remained in the shade. These were, on one hand, the Beauharnais; on the other, Napoleon's own family. The marriage of Louis Bonaparte with Hortense de Beauharnais on July 17th, 1802, appeared to have put an end to these differences, so that peace seemed to pervade everything, a domestic peace which was not one whit more durable than the other peaces of this epoch. But at first this alliance, and several other marriages amongst the younger members of Napoleon's family, increased the general cheerful disposition of mind by the addition of their honey-
