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Ch. IV.]
the Emperor Napoleon.
35

finished, he would abruptly push away his chair from the table, and quit the dining-room, apparently glad it was over.

A few days after his arrival, he invited my sister and myself to dine with him, aud began quizzing the English for their fondness for rosbif and plum pudding. I accused the French, in return, of living on frogs; and, running into the house, I brought him a caricature of a long, lean Frenchman, with his mouth open, his tongue out, and a frog on the tip of it, ready to jump down his throat: underneath was written, "A Frenchman's dinner!" He laughed at my impertinence, and pinched my ear, as he often did when he was amused, and sometimes when a little provoked at my "espièglerie."

"Le petit Las Cases," as he called Count Las Cases' son, formed one of the party on that day. He was then a lad of fourteen, and the emperor was fond of quizzing me about him, and telling me I should