He is really safest in time of war, for it is only then that he is away from the assassins who hate him.
And now I understand that a new Jacobin plot has only just been discovered.' 'This is the same Monsieur de Laval who was there when the conspirator was taken,' said Talleyrand.
The Empress overwhelmed me with questions, hardly waiting for the answers in her anxiety.
'But this dreadful man Toussac has not been taken yet,' she cried.
'Have I not heard that a young lady is endeavouring to do what has baffled the secret police, and that the freedom of her lover is to be the reward of her success ?' 'She is my cousin, your Imperial Majesty.

Mademoiselle Sibylle Bernac is her name.' 'You have only been in France a few days, Monsieur de Laval,' said Josephine, smiling, 'but it seems to me that all the affairs of the Empire are already revolving round you.

You must bring this pretty cousin of yours--the Emperor said that she is pretty--to Court with you, and present her to me.

Madame de Remusat, you will take a note of the name.' The Empress had stooped again to the basket of aloes wood which stood beside the fireplace.

Suddenly I saw her stare hard at something, and then, with a little cry of surprise, she stooped and lifted an object from the carpet.