Act II. The drawing-room of the Château de Compiègne. The Empire has

been established. _Lefebvre_ is a Marshal and has been created Duke of Danzig. _Catherine_ is his duchess. She scandalizes the court with her frequent breaches of etiquette.

When the act opens _Despréaux_, the dancing master, _Gelsomino_, the valet, and _Leroy_, the ladies' tailor, are engaged in passing criticisms upon her. She enters, is as unconventional as ever, and amusingly awkward, when she tries on the court train, or is being taught by _Despréaux_ how to deport herself, when she receives the Emperor's sisters, whom she is expecting. _Lefebvre_ comes in like a thunder cloud. _Napoleon_, he tells her, has heard how she has scandalized the court by her conduct and has intimated that he wishes him to divorce her. There is a charming scene--perhaps the most melodious in the opera--between the couple who love each other sincerely. _Neipperg_, who now is Austrian Ambassador, comes upon the scene to bid his old friends good-bye. _Napoleon_ suspects that there is an intrigue between him and the Empress, and has had him recalled. _Fouché_, Minister of Police, announces _Napoleon's_ sisters--_Queen Carolina_ and _Princess Elisa_. _Catherine's_ court train bothers her. She is unrestrained in her language. The royal ladies and their suite at first laugh contemptuously, then as _Catherine_, in her resentment, recalls to _Carolina_ that _King Murat_, her husband, once was a waiter in a tavern, the scene becomes one of growing mutual recrimination, until, to the measures of "The Marseillaise," _Catherine_ begins to recount her services to _Napoleon's_ army as _Cantinière_. Enraged, the royal ladies and their suite leave. _De Brigode_, the court chamberlain, summons _Catherine_ to the presence of the _Emperor_. Not at all disconcerted, she salutes in military fashion the men who have remained behind, and follows _De Brigode_.