By the time he was two years old the little king had a whole roomful of
toys of every sort: there was a drum, mounted in silver, that Napoleon
had given him on his first birthday, before the ill-fated army started
for Russia; there was a top in an ivory frame, and a Polish lancer who
could move his legs; there was a wonderful pearl and enamel box, with a
locket inside, and out of the locket a bird jumped and sang. The King of
Rome cherished them all; but best he loved a woolly sheep with a velvet
collar and golden bells. He would play with this sheep for hours
together, pretending it was the lamb that the wicked wolf was trying to
catch, as told in his favourite story. When he went out, he had two real
white sheep to draw him, in a beautiful little carriage given him on his
birthday by his aunt, Caroline Murat, and in this he drove along the
riverside terrace of the Tuileries, dressed in white muslin and lace,
with the red ribbon of the Legion of Honour peeping out of the folds.
And the Parisians were always delighted to see him, and at the bidding
of his governess he smiled and waved his hand, for the Emperor was most
particular about his manners. He was also anxious that the child should
grow up as strong and hardy as he himself had done, so every day,
whatever the weather, the little prince drove out in his carriage, with
a merino pelisse over his muslin frock, and a pink or blue loose coat on
top. The Empress thought it a pity, and feared her son might catch cold,
but in this matter Napoleon had his way.
Long before this the château at Meudon had been prepared as a sort of
school for the Imperial children; if indeed the King of Rome should have
any brothers or sisters. It was a rest for Napoleon to turn from the
thoughts of war, and to plan every detail of the education that was to
be given to his son. He collected a library of 6,000 volumes, which it
would be years before the boy could read or understand. After the
fashion of the day he ordered a dinner-service to be made at the
manufactory at Sèvres, and each of the seventy plates contained a
lesson. Eleven of them were painted with scenes from Roman history,
thirty-two with famous victories of the French; while the rest were
covered with pictures of sun, moon, and stars, or birds, beasts, and
fishes. His rooms were hung with blue velvet, and the backs of the
chairs and sofas, as well as the walls, were covered with drawings of
the most celebrated Roman buildings. It was in the same spirit that
Madame de Genlis desired to teach Roman history to her two pupils, Louis
Philippe and his sister, only she wished to have the events woven into
tapestries, which would have taken even longer to make than the
dinner-set and have been still more costly.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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