Death of General Foy--His funeral--The _Royal Highness_--Assassination of Paul-Louis Courier--Death of the Emperor Alexander--Comparison of England and Russia--The reason why these two powers have increased during the last century--How Napoleon meant to conquer India. CHAPTER IX The Emperor Alexander--Letter from Czar Nicolas to Karamsine--History after the style of Suetonius and Saint-Simon--Catherine and Potemkin--Madame Braniska--The cost of the imperial cab-drive--A ball at M. de Caulaincourt's--The man with the pipe--The emperor's boatman and coachman. CHAPTER X Alexander leaves St. Petersburg--His presentiments of his death--The two stars seen at Taganrog--The emperor's illness--His last moments--How they learnt of his death in St. Petersburg--The Grand-Duke Constantine--His character and tastes--Why he renounced his right to the imperial throne--Jeannette Groudzenska. BOOK II CHAPTER I Rousseau and Romieu--Conversation with the porter--The eight hours' candle--The _Deux Magots_--At what hour one should wind up one's watch--M. le sous-préfet enjoys a joke--Henry Monnier--A paragraph of information--On suppers--On cigars. CHAPTER II The lantern--_Le Chasse et l'Amour_--Rousseau's part in it--The couplet about the hare--The _couplet de facture_--How there may be hares _and_ hares--Reception at l'Ambigu--My first receipts as an author--Who Porcher was--Why no one might say anything against Mélesville. CHAPTER III The success of my first play--My three stories--M. Marle and his orthography--Madame Setier--A bad speculation--The _Pâtre,_ by Montvoisin--The _Oreiller_--Madame Desbordes-Valmore--How she became a poetess--Madame Amable Tastu--The _Dernier jour de l'année--Zéphire._ CHAPTER IV Talma's illness--How he would have acted _Tasso_--His nephews--He receives a visit from M. de Quélen--Why his children renounced his faith--His death--_La Noce et l'Enterrement_--Oudard lectures me on my fondness for theatre-going--The capital reply that put the Palais-Royal in a gay humour--I still keep the confidence of Lassagne and de la Ponce--I obtain a success anonymously at the Porte-Saint-Martin. CHAPTER V Soulié at the mechanical saw-mill--His platonic love of gold--I desire to write a drama with him--I translate _Fiesque_--Death of Auguste Lafarge--My pay is increased and my position lowered--Félix Deviolaine, condemned by the medical faculty, is saved by illness--_Louis XI. à Péronne_--Talma's theatrical wardrobe--The _loi de justice et d'amour_--The disbanding of the National Guard. CHAPTER VI