It was these apparently incongruous things, together with legends that I
had heard and read of Napoleon, which gave me the idea of Valmond. First,
a sketch of about five thousand words was written, and it looked as
though I were going to publish it as a short story; but one day, sitting
in a drawing-room in front of a grand piano, on the back of which were a
series of miniatures of the noted women who had played their part in
Napoleon's life, the incident of the Countess of Carnstadt (I do not use
the real name) at St. Helena associated itself with the picture in my
memory of the philanthropist of the street corner. Thereupon the whole
story of a son of Napoleon, ignorant of his own birth, but knowing that a
son had been born to Napoleon at St. Helena, flitted through my
imagination; and the story spread out before me all in an hour, like an
army with banners.
The next night--for this happened in New York--I went down to Hot
Springs, Virginia, and began a piece of work which enthralled me as I had
never before been enthralled, and as I have never been enthralled in the
same way since; for it was perilous to health and mental peace.
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