of this office changed if the ministers went out of office; Marie Louise had five governesses in eighteen years, but her education was controlled by laws so severe and so strict that, beyond the mutations in the personnel of the establishment, there was no variety for her.
"For amusement she had those forms which belong to convent life: flowers to cultivate, birds to take care of, sometimes a little frolic on the lawn with the governess's daughter; on days when she went out she had a familiar intimacy, very sweet, but very plebeian, with the old uncles who dabbled in painting and music. There was no toilet, no jewellery, no dancing, nor any participation in the gaieties of the Court—only some journeys to and from the Diet. The thing which was the most memorable to Marie Louise—that which afforded her the greatest break in the routine of life—was an occasional flight before a French invasion; discipline then lost something of its regularity, and her tasks were somewhat slackened. Therefore it is not a woman whom they deliver to Napoleon, it is a child bent to a control so severe, so uniform, and so narrow, that any discipline will be sweet in comparison, and even the least pleasure will be new.
"But if education has in her case so compressed nature, it need not be feared that nature will not in due course take its revenge. This is the education that the daughters of Marie Thérèse
