The fact is, we are not writing isolated books, but, as we have already said, we are filling, or trying to fill, an immense frame.
To us, the presence of our characters is not limited to their appearance in one book.

The man you meet in one book may be a king in a second volume, and exiled or shot in a third.
Balzac did a great and noble work with a hundred aspects, and he called it the "Comedie Humaine." Our work, begun at the same time as his--although, be it understood, we do not praise it--may fitly be called "The Drama of France." Now, let us return to Murat, and tell how this love, which had so glorious and, possibly, so fatal an influence on his destiny, came to him.
In 1796, Murat was sent to Paris, charged with the duty of presenting to the Directory the flags and banners taken by the French army at the battles of Dego and Mondovi.

During this voyage he made the acquaintance of Madame Bonaparte and Madame Tallien.

At Madame Bonaparte's house he again met Mademoiselle Caroline Bonaparte.

We say _again_, for that was not the first time he had met the woman who was to share the crown of Naples with him.