Note 245 — Chapter XCV
Reading edition
"Sept. 19.—The Emperor examined a large basket-full of broken plate, which was to be sent next day to the town. This was to be for the future the indispensable complement for our monthly subsistence, in consequence of the late reductions of the governor. When the moment had come for breaking up this plate, the servants could not, without the greatest reluctance, bring themselves to apply the hammer to these objects of their veneration. This act upset all their ideas; it was to them a sacrilege, a desolation! Some of them shed tears on the occasion!!"—Las Cases, tom. iii., p. 184.