Presently M. L was announced, and Mme. Le Brun having hidden herself behind the curtains, Mme. de Strogonoff ordered him to be shown in, and said to him
She had stopped to change horses and found that she could get none, as they were being sent all over the country to convey the news. She was consequently obliged to remain all night in her carriage, which was drawn up by the roadside close to a river, from which blew a bitterly cold wind.M. Ducrest accordingly went with the usual request to Fouch, then minister of police, who repliedIt is true! I have not my cocarde! No doubt I must have forgotten it and left it on my night-cap.Another and more reprehensible episode took place when the Comte dArtois, then a lad of sixteen, was just going to be married to the younger sister of the Comtesse de Provence, daughter of the King of Sardinia.