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Ch. VIII.]
the Emperor Napoleon.
79

On New Year's Day a deputation, consisting of the son of General Bertrand, Henri, and Tristram, Madame Montholon's little boy, arrived with a selection of bon-bons for us, and Napoleon observed that he had sent his Cupidous to the Graces. The bon-bons were placed in crystal baskets, covered with white satin napkins, on Sevres plates. The plates I kept till lately, when I presented them to a lady who had shewn my mother and myself many very kind attentions; and they were some of the last presents I possessed of Napoleon's many little gifts to me, with the exception of a lock of his hair, which I still retain, and which might be mistaken for the hair of an infant, from its extreme softness and silkiness. Napoleon delighted in sending these little presents to ladies, and was generally courteous and attentive in his demeanour towards them. He always gave me the impression of being fond of ladies' society, and as Mr. O'Meara remarks, when allud-

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