"Well! there she is," said my husband, taking me by the hand, "look at her; but I am now going to bed with her, and if you dare to offer the smallest violence, or attempt to come into the room, I will that moment blow

your brains out. Shew me your authority."

"I have none," said the officer, "but that which I have just mentioned;" for he was only one of the runners of the police.

On the next morning I was allowed to go to my country residence at Treviso, accompanied by this man, who followed my footsteps, even to church. For the two first days, I only walked about my garden, and on the third and fourth, upon the high road; and, on my return, I always gave directions to have him well taken care of previous to my taking my own breakfast. On the fifth day, he left me to take my walk by myself; when, without taking any thing with me but what I had on, I set off in a postchaise for Venice, and, scraping together a few hundred dollars, I hired a fishing boat, as I knew that the British squadron was then blockading the ports in the Adriatic; but, contrary winds detained me in this open boat for more than three days; when I came up with Admiral Fremantle's ship, which took me to Malta; from which place I wrote to my husband, and

then set off for Sicily, where I continued until

the peace.

Whether this business was planned at Paris, at Milan, or at Venice, I am unable to say; but it took place while Napoleon was in Russia. A criminal process was commenced against my husband; and Heaven only knows what would have been the consequence, had not a change in the government happily taken place!

CHAPTER XXIX.

VENICE.

THE BUONAPARTE FAMILY IN THE VENETIAN TERRITORY.

Further Anecdotes illustrative of the French Rule in the Venetian Territory......Anecdote of Buonaparte and St. Mark's Place......Parisian Gasconade......The Imperial Whitewashers exposed......Anecdote of Fouché and Buonaparte...... Dr. O'Meara and his "Voice from St. Helena"......Anecdote of Buonaparte's Escape from Elba.......General Character of his Government in Italy......His Encouragement of Literary Men, contrasted with that of another great Hero.

A FEW more anecdotes illustrative of the conduct of Buonaparte towards the people of Venice, and I have done. As I have already stated, Buonaparte never had the courage to pay a visit to that city, until he had been crowned Emperor of France and King of Italy; which event took place in 1810. Nevertheless, in the year 1796, shortly after he had upset and

revolutionized the Venetian government, he caused a picture to be painted of himself and staff, in which he was represented as reviewing the cavalry in the Piazza di San Marco; and from which picture a print was actually engraved and publicly sold at Paris! Now, to those who know any thing of Venice, and that St. Mark's Place is paved with large broad flagstones, and was never intended for equestrian prancings, the absurdity of the thing will be sufficiently apparent.

This reminds me of another piece of Parisian gasconade, which occurred while I was in Poland. I say "Parisian," for, according to their own account, all Frenchmen are Parisians.

On my return to Italy from Sweden and Russia, dining one day with the Princess Lubormiski, at Warsaw, during my visit to that amiable and accomplished lady, one of the party was a Parisian traveller, whose tongue went at a quicker pace than his body. Being asked, in the course of conversation, how he liked the city of Venice, the impudent braggart replied, with the utmost sang froid, that," he could not tell us much about Venice, as he had only stopped there to change horses!!"

This anecdote I introduce by way of a caution to such of my readers as may be too much

in the habit of swallowing with greedy appetite every thing that is told them by the mercenary advocates of the revolutionary system, respecting the wonderful exploits of Buonaparte, which have been so loudly trumpeted forth by individuals, who have doubtless had weighty reasons for so doing; and several of them, aware of the gullibility of my countrymen, and who have taken for their motto the answer of Vespasian to his son Titus, when the latter reproached him with having laid a tax upon a certain article—

"Lucri bonus odor, ex re qualibet—”

are said to have reaped a tolerable harvest from their base and filthy employ.

Thanks, however, to the native good sense of my countrymen, I am happy to see that they are rapidly returning to their sober senses, and that the writings of the whole train of Imperial White-washers are sinking into that contempt, which the utter worthlessness of the trash they have been imposing upon the public, so loudly called for.

That Buonaparte did more mischief in the course of his reign than can be redeemed for centuries, and that he is more to be condemned for the good which he left undone, than for the evil which he accomplished, are facts which