On the 15th of Fructidor, Mr. Fox was presented to Bonaparte, who seems to have studied how to receive him in a distinguished manner. He addressed him in a speech evidently got by heart and of course highly complimentary. The purport was that he was the greatest man of one of the greatest countries, and that his voice had always been exerted on the side of humanity and justice, and that to its influence the world owed the blessings of peace. [Sidenote: ST. CLOUD] On Saturday, the 21st August, 1802, we went with the General,[182] Ld. Robert,[183] and Frederick,[184] and we took Charles to St. Cloud. It was a palace belonging formerly to the Dukes of Orleans, but poor Marie Antoinette liked it, and is accused of having exerted her royal influence to compel the late Duke to sell it, which he did most reluctantly. She was so partial to its beauties that she was profuse in her expense to decorate it. In each taste the First Consul imitates her, as he is so impatient to take possession that the surveyors are obliged to make the men work all night; and he likes it so much that no expense is spared to render it a fit residence for the Sovereign of France. The gallery remains as it was finished by Gaston, Duke of Orleans, Louis XIII’s brother; only on the panels some of the plunder of Italy, which was in the Museum of the Louvre, has been placed, much to their disadvantage, as the gaudy ceiling and rich gilding kills the colouring of the pictures. They are capital; some of my old acquaintances out of the Palais Pitti. The apartments that are fitted up are done in _le goût sévère_, which, in other words, means a dark and dingy style. The walls are hung with cloth, and draperies of cloth edged with magnificent deep parti-coloured fringes are festooned over it. The colours being generally dark green and brown produce a solemn effect, and the whole has a sombre military appearance; the rods of the curtains are finely polished spears. Where the Queen’s apartments have been preserved, I admire them far beyond those in the _goût sévère_, and prefer bright gilding to the heavy mahogany, and a well-stuffed sofa to a small, hard one. In short, the exchange is a bad one, _les ris et les amours_ please me, broad cloth and sphinxes do not. The Library is very pretty, and the books placed in very appropriate cases, plain and simple, but at the same time rich and decorated. The gardens are insignificant, but if the Consul continues to like living there, I doubt not he will find means to extend them, tho’ as yet I only look upon St. Cloud as a halt on the road to Versailles.