﻿134 PICTORIAL MISCELLANY. 



was not believed. If I recollect rightly, his mother way at the time 

 on a visit to M. de Marbeuf, or some other friend. The result of 

 Napoleon's obstinacy was, that he was kept three whole days upon 

 bread and cheese. However, he would not cry : he was dull, but 

 not sulky. At length, on the fourth day of his punishment, a little 

 friend of Marianne Bonaparte returned from the country, and, on 

 hearing of Napoleon's disgrace, she confessed that she and Marianne 

 had eaten the fruit. It was now Marianne's turn to be punished. 

 When Napoleon was asked why he had not accused his sister, he 

 replied, that though he suspected that she was guilty, yet, out of con- 

 sideration to her little friend, who had no share in the falsehood, he 

 had said nothing. He was then only seven years of age. 



This fact, which would have been nothing extraordinary in any 

 other child, appeared to me worthy of a place among recollections 

 which are connected with the whole life of Napoleon. It is some- 

 what characteristic of the man. I ought to add that the affair was 

 never forgotten by Napoleon. Of this I observed a proof in 1801, at 

 a fete given by Madame Bacciochi (formerly Marianne Bonaparte) 

 at Neuilly, where she resided with Lucien. 



Saveria told me that Napoleon was never a pretty boy, as Joseph 

 had been ; his head always appeared too large for his body - - a defect 

 common to the Bonaparte family. AVhen Napoleon grew up, the 

 peculiar charm of his countenance lay in his eye, especially in 

 the mild expression it assumed in his moments of kindness. His 

 anger, to be sure, was frightful, and though I am no coward, I never 

 could look at him in his fits of rage without shuddering. Though 

 his smile was captivating, yet the expression of his mouth when dis- 

 dainful or angry could scarcely be seen without terror. But that 

 forehead, which seemed formed to bear the crowns of a whole world ; 

 those hands, of which the most coquettish women might have been 

 vain, and whose white skin covered muscles of iron ; in short, of all 

 that personal beauty which distinguished Napoleon as a young man, 

 no traces were discernible in the boy. Saveria spoke truly when 

 she said, that of all the children of Signora Lcetitia, the emperor 

 was the one from whom future greatness was least to be prognosti- 

 cated 



