I live on as plain food and as little as is for my health; less and plainer would make me ill, for I have given it a fair experiment.

As for clothes, I have been decent and that is all.

If I visited a great deal this would be a heavy expense, but, the less I go out, the less need I care for clothes, except for cleanliness.

My only heavy expenses are colors, canvas, frames, etc., and these are heavy." A number of pages of this letter are missing, much to my regret.

He must have been telling of some of the great events which were happening on the Continent, probably of the Return from Elba, for it begins again abruptly.
"-- when he might have avoided it by quietness; by undertaking so bold an attempt as he has done without being completely sure of success, and having laid his plans deeply; and, thirdly, I knew the feelings of the French people were decidedly in his favor, more especially the military.
They feel as though Louis XVIII was forced upon them by their conquerors; they feel themselves a conquered nation, and they look to Bonaparte as the only man who can retrieve their character for them.
"All these reasons rushing into my mind at the time, I gave it as my opinion that Napoleon would again be Emperor of the French, and again set the world by the ears, unless he may have learned a lesson from his adversity.