'
'Then you may lay them out on that table.'
I could not at first imagine what it meant when I saw, upon Isabey
opening his basket, that it was crammed with little puppets about a foot
high, all of them dressed in the most gorgeous silk and velvet costumes,
with trimmings of ermine and hangings of gold lace. But presently, as
the designer took them out one by one and placed them on the table, I
understood that the Emperor, with his extraordinary passion for detail
and for directly controlling everything in his Court, had had these
dolls dressed in order to judge the effect of the gorgeous costumes
which had been ordered for his grand functionaries upon State occasions.
'What is this?' he asked, holding up a little lady in hunting costume of
amaranth and gold with a toque and plume of white feathers.
'That is for the Empress's hunt, Sire.'
'You should have the waist rather lower,' said Napoleon, who had very
definite opinions about ladies' dresses. 'These cursed fashions seem to
be the only thing in my dominions which I cannot regulate.
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