She bore her exile with dignity. She would not solicit a recall, and she forbade those of her friends, who, like Junot, were on familiar terms with the Emperor, to mention her name in his presence. She doubtless felt all its deprivations, even more keenly than Madame de Stael, though she made no complaints. Her means were narrow, as she does not appear to have been in the full possession of her mother's fortune until after the Restoration. She had lived, with scarcely an interruption, a life of society; now she was thrown on her own resources, with little except music to cheer and enliven her. It was not only the loss of Paris that exiles under the Empire had to endure. They were subjected to an annoying surveillance by the police, and even the friends who paid them any attention became objects of suspicion. The first eight months of her exile Madame Recamier passed at Chalons. She had for companionship a little niece of her husband's, whom she had previously adopted. At the suggestion of Madame de Stael, she removed to Lyons, where Monsieur Recamier had many influential relatives. Here she formed an intimacy with a companion in misfortune, the high-spirited Duchess of Chevreuse, whose proud refusal to enter into the service of the captive Spanish Queen was the cause of her exile. "I can be a prisoner," she replied, when the offer was made to her, "but I will never be a jailer." Though the society of friends offered Madame Recamier many diversions, she was often a prey to melancholy. The Duchess D'Abrantes, who saw her here, casually mentions her dejection in her Memoirs, and Chateaubriand says that the separation from Madame de Stael weighed heavily upon her spirits. He also alludes to a coolness between the friends, caused by Madame de Stael's marriage with Monsieur de Rocca. The desire to keep this connection secret induced Madame de Stael to write to her friend, declining a proposed visit from her, on the plea that she was about to leave Switzerland. Chateaubriand asserts that Madame Recamier felt this slight severely, but Madame Lenormant makes no allusion to the circumstance.