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116
Recollections of
[Ch. XI.

I named it to Napoleon as an inducement for him to eat the cake, saying, "It is the least you can do for getting us into such disgrace." Having thus induced him to eat a thick slice, he pinched my ear, calling me a saucy simpleton, and galloped away humming, or rather attempting to sing, with his most unmusical voice, "Vive Henri Quatre."

One morning we went to call on Madame Bertrand, and found Napoleon seated by her bedside. We were about retreating, thinking we had been shown into a wrong room, when he called out in his imperfect English, desiring us to enter, and asked what we were afraid of, saying, "I am visiting my dear loaf, my mistress." My mother observed that the latter term had a strange signification, and that it was never used in our language to express friendship. He laughed heartily at the awkward error he had made, and promised not to forget the interpretation of the

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