Description 'In 1811, twelve young men were chosen among the families in the Emperor's personal service to serve as ushers in his apartments.
My mother, attached to the household of the King of Rome as first nurse to the prince, requested this favour for me from the grand chamberlain, the Count de Montesquiou, and it was granted.
' Louis-Joseph Marchand's intimate memoir of his time as Napoleon's valet is the last of the significant Napoleonic manuscripts to be translated into.