The Bennington Evening Banner

AWED BY NAPOLEON.
Queer Impression the Emperor Made Upon Countess Potocka.
We waited rather long, and it must be acknowledged our curiosity was not unmingled with fright. Of a sudden the silence was broken by a swift rumor, the wings of the door opened noisily, and M. de Talleyrand advanced, with a loud and intelligible voice uttering the magic word that made the world tremble, "The emperor." Immediately Napoleon made his appearance and halted for a minute as if to be admired.
So many portraits exist of this astonishing man, his history has been so much written about, all the stories told by the children of his old soldiers will live so long, that the generations to come will know him almost as well as ourselves. But what will be difficult to grasp is how deep and unexpected the impression was which those felt who saw him for the first time.
As for me, I experienced a sort of stupor, a mute surprise, like that which seizes one at the aspect of a prodigy. It seemed to me that he wore an aureole. The only thought I could frame when I recovered from this first shock was that such a being could not possibly die: that such a mighty organization, such a stupendous genius should never perish. I inwardly awarded him double immortality. -
From the Memoirs of the Countess Potocka.