Amongst the various subjects of our conversation, he once told me certain things which he had heard, and at which I much rejoiced. Nothing can give a more striking proof of the horrors of our situation than the importance which I attached to them. But every thing is in proportion to the situation in which we are placed. At another time, the Emperor expressed his regret at being so lazy with respect to the English language. I told him that he now knew as much of it as he wanted. He could read all books; it was now only necessary to reduce the whole to a regular system—but, were the rule and compass fit things for him? After going through several subjects of conversation, the Emperor spoke of Baron Larrey, on whom he passed the highest encomium, saying that Larrey had left the impression on his mind of a truly honest man; that to science he united, in the highest degree, the virtue of active philanthropy: he looked upon all the wounded as belonging to his family; every consideration gave way before the care which he bestowed upon the hospitals. “In our first campaigns under the Republic, which have been so much calumniated,” said the Emperor, “a most fortunate revolution took place in the surgical department, which has since spread to all the armies of Europe; and to Larrey it is, in great measure, that mankind is indebted for it. The surgeon now shares the dangers of the soldier: it is in the midst of the fire that he devotes his attentions to him. Larrey possesses all my esteem and my gratitude,” &c. This favourable impression seems clearly to have occupied Napoleon’s mind in his last moments; for he has left Larrey a mark of his remembrance, with this honourable testimony “_The most virtuous man that I have known_.” On reading these words, I concluded that some peculiar circumstance must have produced this most magnificent expression of esteem, and the following is the result of my inquiries.