I will tell Cordelia to take this basket away, and inform
the cook that we have a guest." She rang the bell; the door of the
adjoining room opened immediately, and old Cordelia entered. She
stood still at the door, and cast mournful glances, now on Madame
Letitia, now on the emperor.
"Well, Cordelia, do you not greet my son?" asked madame. "He is not
the emperor to-day, but comes incognito as my son to ask dinner of
me."
"And listen, dear Delia," said the emperor, speaking to her in the
voice of a child--"listen, dear old Cordelia; afterward let us go
and play, and gather shells on the sea-shore. Shall we do so, 'Lia?"
An air of unutterable happiness illuminated the face of old Cordelia
when Napoleon repeated to her, in the voice of his childhood, the
words which he had so often addressed to her. She rushed toward him,
and, sinking down before him, seized both his hands and pressed them
to her lips. "Now do with me what you like, Napoleon," she cried, in
the language of her native country, while the tears were rolling
down her cheeks, "I belong to you again, with every drop of my
heart's blood. Trample me under foot, strike me, kick me, as you
often did during your childhood--I shall never murmur. I am as a
faithful dog, who allows himself to be beaten, and yet loves his
master to the last!"
"Yes, she is as constant as the sea that washes the shores of our
native country," said madame, with a tear in her eye.
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