The college friend was now a great personage.

He had got the command of Paris in return for his share in the events of Vendemiaire.

Instead of a small house in the Rue des Marais, he occupied a splendid hotel in the Rue des Capucines; the modest cabriolet was converted into a superb equipage, and the man himself was no longer the same.

But the friends of his youth were still received when they made their morning calls.

They were invited to grand dejeuners, which were sometimes attended by ladies; and, among others, by the beautiful Madame Tallien and her friend the amiable Madame de Beauharnais, to whom Bonaparte had begun to pay attention.