Note 255 — Chapter XCVI
Reading edition
"The sound of bells produced upon Napoleon a singular effect. When we were at Malmaison, and while walking in the avenue leading to Ruel, how often has the booming of the village bell broken off the most interesting conversations. He stopped, lest the moving of our feet might cause the loss of a tone in the sounds which charmed him. The influence, indeed, was so powerful, that his voice trembled with emotion while he said—'That recalls to me the first years I passed at Brienne.'"—Bourrienne, tom. iii., p. 222.