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72
Recollections of
[Ch. VII.

consent, by way of amende honorable, to any thing I chose to demand to console me for my disappointment.

"Dites moi—Que veux-tu que je fasse, Mademoiselle Betsee, pour te consoler?" I replied instantly, if you will play the game of blindman's buff, that you have so often promised me, I will forgive you the ball, and never ask for it again. Not knowing the French term (if there be any) for blind-man's buff, I had explained before to the emperor the nature of the operation to be gone through. He laughed at my choice, and tried to persuade me to choose something else, but I was inexorable; and seeing his fate inevitable, he resigned himself to it with a good grace, proposing we should begin at once. My sister and myself, and the son of General Bertrand, and some other of the emperor's suite formed the party. Napoleon said we should draw lots who should be blindfolded first, and he would distribute the

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