Charles was a very nice little boy, and had been taught good manners by
Queen Hortense. When he went into Nanon's dressing-room he did not pull
about the things that were lying on the dressing-table, but sat still
while he chattered to his uncle, or repeated some fable of La Fontaine's
which he had learned the day before. He was a generous little fellow,
and would readily give away his toys or sweets, and only laughed when
Napoleon pulled his ears, instead of getting angry like his cousins, the
little Murats. Every day he did his lessons, and was allowed sometimes,
as a great treat, to copy out the 'Wolf and the Lamb,' or the 'Lion and
the Mouse,' or the 'Goose with the Golden Eggs,' to show to Nanon. But
by-and-by he had to say good-bye to Nanon and go back to his father and
mother in Holland, where he fell ill and died, at the age of four and a
half, in May 1807.
After Charles's death Napoleon made a pet of the dead child's younger
brother, Napoleon Louis, though he never took the elder child's place in
his uncle's heart. Still, the Emperor liked to have Louis about him, and
swung him on to his knee at breakfast, and gave him bits of omelette or
cutlet on his fork. Louis, of course, wanted to do everything his uncle
did, and one day insisted on sipping his coffee, but he did not like it,
and made a face. 'Oh, Louis!' cried the Emperor, 'your education is
certainly not finished, as you have not learned how to hide your
feelings.' The boy stared and grew rather cross, for he felt he was
being laughed at, though he did not understand why. His temper was never
as good as his brother's, and he often flew into a rage when Napoleon
teased him, as he was very fond of doing. One morning, when Louis was
three years old, he was breakfasting with the Emperor, and was just
going to eat an egg, when Napoleon caught it up, and held it out of his
reach. 'Give me my egg, or I will kill you,' said Louis, picking up a
knife. 'Would you really kill your uncle?' asked Napoleon.
'Give me my egg, or I will _kill_ you,' repeated Louis, louder than
before; and Napoleon laughed and gave it back to him, and patted his
head, saying, 'Ah, some day you will be a fine fellow!'
But now that he had a son of his own, who would by-and-by inherit the
Empire he had created and tread in his footsteps, Napoleon could not
make enough of him. He, too, came to breakfast, and, much to Madame de
Montesquiou's disgust, the Emperor would dip his fingers in the red wine
he was drinking, and give it to the baby to suck. The King of Rome would
shrink away in terror from the bunch of nodding plumes on his mother's
bonnet, but he smiled and crowed when his father lifted him in the air.
Sometimes, however, the play got too rough, and the child would screw up
the corners of his mouth and begin to cry. Then the Emperor would stop
and look at him gravely, and say to him:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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