"'We have made an useless journey,' he said to me at once; 'I much regret having undertaken it. I saw the Duchesse de Berry yesterday, one hour after my arrival. I found her more excited, more irritated against the King than ever. She is firmly decided to yield on no point and to risk all the consequences of a rupture by arriving in Prague, in spite of the measures taken to close the road to her. All my arguments, all my entreaties were useless. She ended by flying out against what she calls the partiality of my conduct. I can do no more. As for you, she expects you with impatience. She is persuaded that the letter which you are bringing her from the Emperor will give her the liberty to continue her journey. That letter, so different from what she expects, will increase her irritation two-fold. You will have a painful scene and it appears to me impossible that you should succeed in making her listen to reason.'" As the Duchesse de Berry was not to receive M. de La Ferronnays until eleven o'clock, the latter, on leaving M. de Montbel, went to the Comte de Saint-Priest. M. de Saint-Priest was the Princess's most authorized adviser. The reception was perfect, but nevertheless wrapped up in every imaginable kind of reserve. "At bottom, the question remains the same," said M. de Saint-Priest. "However affectionate the letter which M. de Montbel brought from the King may be, it makes no alteration in the first demands, nor, consequently, in the reasons which the Duchess has for rejecting them. The mere fact," concluded M. de Saint-Priest, "of handing over the marriage-deed, as Madame is asked to do, would be enough to deprive her of her rights as a mother, a princess of the Blood and Regent She refuses and will always refuse to hand it over." This was brusquely broaching a question which M. de La Ferronnays meant to discuss only with the Duchess herself. He therefore left M. de Saint-Priest, not, however, without obtaining from him a promise of complete neutrality. "At the appointed hour," he continues, in his narrative, "I called at the Poggio Imperiale, where Madame was staying. When I was announced, she was alone, in a small drawing-room, with Count Lucchesi, who at once withdrew. "Her Royal Highness' first sentence was one of thanks. The second was to ask me for the Emperor's letter. She read it with ever-increasing excitement: