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134
Recollections of
[Ch. XII.

France he did not permit any tea to be drunk in his dominions except that grown in Switzerland, which so nearly resembled the Chinese plant that the difference was not perceptible. He also cultivated the growth of beet-root, for the purpose of making sugar, instead of depending upon foreign produce.

Seeing the ex-emperor one day less amiable than usual, and his face very much swollen and inflamed, I inquired the cause, when he told me that Mr. O'Meara had just performed the operation of drawing a tooth, which caused him some pain. I exclaimed, "What!—you complain of the pain so trifling an operation can give? You, who have passed through battles innumerable, amid storms of bullets whizzing around you, and by some of which you must occasionally have been hit! I am ashamed of you. But, nevertheless, give me the tooth, and I will get it set by Mr. Solomons as an ear-ring, and wear it for your sake." The

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