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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
 DEPARTMENT OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION j 
 
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 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA . 
 
 DEPARTMENT OF UNIVERSITY EXTENSION 
 
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MEMOIRS 
 
 OF 
 
 MADAME DE RfiMUSAT, 
 
 1802-1808. 
 
 WITH A PREFACE AND NOTES BY HER GRANDSON. 
 
 PAUL DE RfiMUSAT, 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY 
 
 MRS. CASHEL HOEY AND JOHN LILLIE. 
 
 IN THREE VOLUMES. 
 VOL.1. 
 
 NEW YORK : 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 
 1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET. 
 1880. 
 
H!ST68f I 
 
 COPTEICHT BY 
 
 D. APPLETON AND COMPANY, 
 
 1879. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 PAGE 
 POBTRAITS AND ANECDOTES 1 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 (1802-1803.) 
 
 Family Affairs My First Evening at Saint Cloud General Moreau M. de Ee- 
 rnusat is made Prefect, and I, Lady of the Palace Habits of the First 
 Consul and of Mme. Bonaparte M. de Talleyrand The Family of the 
 First Consul Miles. Georges and Duchesnois Mme. Bonaparte's Jeal- 
 ousy .... 8 <f 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 (1803.) 
 
 A Eeturn to the Customs of the Monarchy M. de Fontanes Mme. d'Houde- 
 tot Burners of "War Meeting of the Corps Legislatif Departure of the 
 English Ambassador M. Maret Marshal Berthier Journey of the First 
 Consul to Belgium A Carriage Accident The Amiens Fetes . . 65 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 (1803.) 
 
 Continuation of the Journey to Belgium Opinions of the First Consul on 
 Gratitude, on Glory, and on the French Ghent, Malines, and Brussels 
 The Clergy M. de Eoquelaure Eeturn to Saint Cloud Preparations for 
 an Invasion of England Marriage of Mme. Leclerc Journey of the 
 First Consul to Boulogne Illness of M. de Eemusat I rejoin him Con- 
 versations with the First Consul . . . . . .80 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 (1803-1804.) 
 
 Continuation of the First Consul's Conversations at Boulogne Ecading of 
 the Tragedy of "Philippe Auguste" My New Impressions Eeturn to 
 Paris Mme. Bonaparte's Jealousy Winter Fetes of 1804 M. de Fon- 
 tanes M. Fouche* Savary Pichegru Arrest of General Moreau . 101 
 
 373177 
 
ii CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The Arrest of Georges Cadoudal The Mission of M. de Caulaincourt to 
 Ettenheim The Arrest of the Due d'Enghien My Distress and my 
 Urgency with Mme. Bonaparte An Evening at Malmaison The Death 
 of the Due d'Enghien Kemarkable "Words of the First Consul . . 120 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 (1804.) 
 5 
 
 The Impression produced in Paris by the Death of the Due d'Enghien The 
 First Consul's Efforts to dispel it Performance at the Opera House- 
 Death of Pichegru Breach between Bonaparte and his Brother Lucien 
 Project of adopting the Young Napoleon Foundation of the Empire . 140 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Effects and Causes of the Accession of Bonaparte to the Imperial Throne 
 The Emperor converses The Grievances of Mme. Murat The Character 
 of M. de Ke"mu8at The New Court . , 158 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 (1804.) PAGB 
 
 The Trial of General Moreau Condemnation of MM. de Polignac, De Ei- 
 viere, etc. Pardon of M. de Polignae A Letter from Louis XVHI . 179 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 (1804.) 
 
 Plans for the Invasion An Article in the " Moniteur "The Great Offi- 
 cers of State The Ladies-in- Waiting The Anniversary of July 14th 
 Beauty of the Empress Projects of Divorce Preparations for the Coro- 
 nation .......... 192 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Pope's Arrival in Paris The Plebiscitum The Marriage of the Em- 
 press Josephine The Coronation Fetes in the Champ de Mars, at the 
 Ope"ra, etc. The Court of the Empress 214 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 (1807.) 
 
 The Emperor in Love Mme. de X . Mme. de Damas The Empress con- 
 fides in me Palace Intrigues Murat is raised to the Bank of Prince . 229 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 (1805.) 
 
 Opening of the Session of the Senate M. do Talleyrand's Eeport Letter from 
 the Emperor to the King of England Union of the Crown of Italy to the 
 Empire Mme. Bacciochi becomes Princess of Piombino Performance 
 of " Athalie " The Emperor goes to Italy His Dissatisfaction M. de 
 Talleyrand Prospect of War with Austria ..... 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 (1805.) 
 
 Fe"tes at Verona and Genoa Cardinal Maury My Retired Life in the Country 
 Mme. Louis Bonaparte " Les Templiers " The Emperor's Eeturn 
 His Amusements The Marriage of M. de Talleyrand War is declared 
 
iv CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 (1805.) PAGE 
 
 M. de Talleyrand and M. Fouche" The Emperor's Speech to the Senate 
 The Departure of the Emperor The Bulletins of the Grand Army Pov- 
 erty in Paris during the War The Emperor and the Marshals The Fau- 
 bourg St. Germain Trafalgar Journey of M. de K6musat to Vienna . 284 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 .(1805.) 
 
 The Battle of Austerlitz The Emperor Alexander Negotiations Prince 
 Charles M. d' Andre* M. de Ee*musat in Disgrace Duroc Savary The 
 Treaty of Peace . . . . . . . .303 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 (1805-1806.) 
 
 State of Paris during the War Cambace'res Le Brun Mme. Louis Bona- 
 parteMarriage of Eugene de Beauharnais Bulletins and Proclama- 
 tions Admiration of the Emperor for the Queen of Bavaria Jealousy of 
 
 the Empress M. de Nansouty Mme. de . Conquest of Naples 
 
 Position and Character of the Emperor . . . . .321 
 
 CHAPTER XVII. 
 (1806.) 
 
 The Death of Pitt Parliamentary Debates in England Public Works In- 
 dustrial Exhibition New Etiquette Performances at the Opera House 
 and at the Come'die Franijaise Monotony of the Court Opinions of the 
 Empress Mine. Louis Bonaparte Mme. Murat The Bourbons New 
 Ladies-in- Waiting M. Mole Mme. d'Houdetot Mme. de Barante . 341 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 (1806.) 
 
 The Emperor's Civil List His Household and its Expenses Dress of the 
 Empress and of Mme. Murat Louis Bonaparte Prince Borghese Fetes 
 at Court The Empress's Family Marriage of Princess Stephanie 
 Jealousy of the Empress Theatricals at Malmaison . . . 365 
 
 CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 The Emperor's Court His Ecclesiastical Household His Military House- 
 holdThe Marshals The Ladies Delille Chateaubriand Mme. de 
 Genlis Romances Literature Arts . . . . . 387 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 (1806.) PAGB 
 
 Senatus-Consultum of the 30th of March Foundation of Monarchies and 
 
 Duchies Queen Hortense . . . . . . .419 
 
 CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 (1806.) 
 
 I go to Cauterets The King of Holland Factitious Tranquillity of France 
 M. de Metternich The New Catechism The Germanic Confedera- 
 tion Poland Death of Mr. Fox "War is declared Departure of the 
 Emperor M. Pasquier and M. Mold Session of the Senate The Open- 
 ing of Hostilities The Court Eeception of Cardinal Maury . . 439 
 
 CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 (1806-1807.) 
 
 Death of Prince Louis of Prussia Battle of Jena The Queen of Prussia 
 and the Emperor Alexander The Emperor and the Ee volution Court 
 Life at Mayence Life in Paris Marshal Brune Taking of Lubeck 
 The Princess of Hatzfeld The Auditors of the State Council Suffer- 
 ings of the Army The King of Saxony Battle of Eylau . . . 463 
 
 CHAPTER XXIH. 
 (1807.) 
 
 The Eeturn of the Empress to Paris The Imperial Family Junot Fouch6 
 The Queen of Holland Levy of the Conscripts of 1808 Theatricals at 
 Court Letter from the Emperor Siege of Dantzic Death of the Em- 
 press of Austria Death of Queen Hortense'a Son M. Decazes The 
 Emperor's Want of Feeling 486 
 
 CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 (1807.) 
 
 The Duke of Dantzic Fouche's Police Battle of Friedland M. de La- 
 meth Treaty of Tilsit Eeturn of the Emperor M. de Talleyrand 
 The Ministers The Bishops 505 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 (1807.) PAG* 
 
 Vexations at Court Friendship with M. de Talleyrand General Kapp Gen- 
 eral Clarke Session of the Legislative Bodies The Emperor's Speech 
 Fetes of the 15th of August Marriage of Jerome Bonaparte Death of Le 
 Brun The Abbe Delille M. de Chateaubriand Dissolution of the 
 Tribunate The Court removes to Fontainebleau . 523 
 
 CHAPTER XXVI. 
 (1807.) 
 
 The Power of the Emperor Resistance of the English The Emperor's 
 Life at Fontainebleau Plays Talma King J4rome The Princess of 
 Baden The Grand Duchess of Berg Princess Borghese Cambace'res 
 Foreign Princes Spanish Affairs Previsions of M. de Talleyrand 
 M. de Ke*musat is made Superintendent of Theatres The Fortunes and 
 the Difficulties of the Marshals ...... 543 
 
 CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 (1807-1808.) 
 Projects of Divorce . x . . . . . . .580 
 
 CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 (1807-1808.) 
 
 Eeturn from Fontainebleau The Emperor's Journey in Italy The Youth of 
 M. de Talleyrand Fetes at the Tuileries The Emperor and the Artists 
 The Emperor's Opinion of the English Government The Marriage of 
 Mile, de Tascher Count Eomanzoff Marriage of Marshal Berthier 
 The University Affairs of Spain . .... 603 
 
 CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 (1808.) 
 
 The "War with Spain The Prince of the Peace The Prince of the Asturias 
 The Abdication of King Charles IV. The Departure of the Emperor 
 His Sojourn at Bayorme Letter of the Emperor Arrival of the 
 Princes in France Birth of the Second Son of the Queen of Holland- 
 Abdication of the Prince of the Asturias . . . . 631 
 
 CONCLUSION 649 
 
 POSTSCRIPT C65 
 
 NOTES 6 ? 7 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 I. 
 
 MY father bequeathed to me the manuscript of the me- 
 moirs of my grandmother, who was lady-in-waiting to the 
 Empress Josephine, accompanied by an injunction that I 
 should publish them. He regarded those memoirs as ex- 
 tremely important to the history of the first portion of the 
 present century, and had frequently contemplated publishing 
 them himself ; but he was always hindered from doing so, 
 either by his other duties, by his many labors, or by certain 
 scruples. He deferred the moment at which the public was 
 to be made acquainted with these valuable reminiscences of 
 an epoch recent, indeed, but respecting which the present 
 generation is so ill informed precisely because that epoch 
 was recent, and many persons who had been involved in its 
 important events were still living. Although the author of 
 these memoirs can not be accused of intentional malice, she 
 passes judgment upon persons and things very freely. A cer- 
 tain consideration, which is not always consonant with the 
 verity of history, is due, not only to the living, but to the 
 children of the dead ; the years passed on, however, and the 
 reasons for silence diminished with the lapse of time. 
 
 About 1848 my father would perhaps have allowed this 
 manuscript to see the light ; but the empire and the Emperor 
 returned, and then the book might have been regarded either 
 as a piece of flattery tendered to the son of Queen Hortense, 
 who is very gently handled by the writer, or as a direct insult, 
 on other points, to the dynasty. Circumstances had thus 
 given a polemic character an aspect of actuality, as the 
 
iv PREFACE. 
 
 phrase goes to a work which should be regarded as a candid 
 and impartial history, the narrative of a remarkable woman, 
 who relates with simple sincerity that which she witnessed 
 at the court and during the reign of the Emperor, and who 
 records her estimate of him as an individual. In any case, it 
 is probable that the book would have been prosecuted, and 
 its publication interdicted. I may add, lest any should con- 
 sider these reasons insufficient, that my father, who was al- 
 ways willing that his politics, his opinions, and his personal 
 conduct should be discussed by the critics and the press, who 
 lived in the full glare of publicity, yet shrank with great re- 
 luctance from placing names which were dear to him before 
 the public. That they should incur the slightest censure, 
 that they should be uttered with any severity of tone, he 
 dreaded extremely. He was timid when either his mother 
 or his son was in question. His love for his mother had been 
 the " grand passion " of his life. To her he ascribed all the 
 happiness of his youth, every merit which he possessed, and 
 all the success of every kind that had come to him through- 
 out his whole existence. He derived from her his qualities 
 alike of heart and mind ; he was bound to her by the tie of 
 close similarity of ideas, as well as by that of filial affection. 
 Her memory, her letters, her thoughts occupied a place in 
 his life which few suspected, for he seldom spoke of her, pre- 
 cisely because he was always thinking of her, and he would 
 have feared imperfect sympathy from others in his admira- 
 tion of her who was incomparable in his eyes. Who among 
 us does not know what it is to be united by a passionate, 
 almost fierce affection to one who is no more ; ceaselessly to 
 think of that beloved one, to question, to dream, to be always 
 under the impression of the vanished presence of the silent 
 counsels ; to feel that the life gone from us is mixed up with 
 our own life, every day, not only on great occasions, and in 
 all our actions, whether public or private ; and yet, that we 
 can not bear to speak to others of the ever-present occupant 
 of our thoughts no, not even to our dearest friends and 
 
PREFACE. v 
 
 can not even hear the dear name uttered without secret pain 
 and disquiet? Rarely, indeed, can even the sweetness of 
 praise lavished upon that name by a friend or a stranger 
 avail to soothe our deep, mysterious trouble, or render it 
 endurable. 
 
 While, however, a proper and natural sentiment dictates 
 that memoirs should not appear until a considerable time has 
 elapsed, it is equally desirable that their publication should 
 not be delayed until all trace of the facts related, of the im- 
 pressions made, or of the eye-witnesses of events has passed 
 away. In order that the accuracy, or at least the sincerity 
 of memoirs may not be disputed, each family should be in a 
 position to substantiate them by its own recollections ; and it 
 is well that the generation which reads them should follow 
 that which they depict. The records they contain are all the 
 more useful because the times which they chronicle have not 
 yet become altogether historic. This is our case at the pres- 
 ent moment, and the great name of Napoleon is still a party 
 battle-cry. It is interesting to introduce a new element into 
 the strife which rages around that majestic shade. Although 
 the epoch of the First Empire has been much discussed by 
 the writers of memoirs, the inner life of the imperial palace 
 has never been handled freely, and in detail ; and for this 
 good reasons have existed. The functionaries or the fre- 
 quenters of the court of Napoleon I. did not care to reveal 
 with entire unreserve the story of the time they had passed 
 in his service. The majority, having joined the Legitimist 
 ranks after the Restoration, were humiliated by the remem- 
 brance that they had served the usurper, especially in offices 
 which are generally held to be ennobled only by the heredi- 
 tary greatness of him who confers them ; and their descend- 
 ants would have been disconcerted had such manuscripts 
 been left to them, by their authors, with the obligation of 
 giving them to the world. It would, perhaps, be difficult to 
 find another editor, also a grandson, who could publish such 
 a work so willingly as I. The talent of the writer and the 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 utility of her book affect me much more than the difference 
 between the opinions of my grandmother and those of her 
 descendants. My father's life, his renown, the political creed 
 which is his most precious bequest to me, absolve me from 
 any necessity for explaining how and why it is that I do not 
 necessarily adopt all the views of the author of these Me- 
 moirs. On the contrary, it would be easy to find in this 
 book the first traces of that liberal spirit which animated 
 my grandparents in the first days of the Revolution, which 
 was transmitted to and happily developed in their son. It 
 was almost being liberal already not to regard the principles 
 of political liberty with hatred at the end of the last century, 
 when so many people were ready to lay crimes which tar- 
 nished the Revolution to the charge of that liberty, and to 
 pass judgment, notwithstanding the true admiration and the 
 deep gratitude with which they regarded the Emperor, on 
 the defects of his character and the evils of despotism. 
 
 Such valuable impartiality was rare indeed among the 
 contemporaries of the great Emperor, nor have we met with 
 it in our own time among the servants of a sovereign far less 
 likely to dazzle those who approached him. Such a senti- 
 ment is, however, easy at the present day. Events have 
 brought France into a state in which she is ready to receive 
 everything with equanimity, to judge every one with equity. 
 We have observed many changes of opinion concerning the 
 early years of the present century. One need not have 
 reached a very advanced stage of life to recall a time when 
 the legend of the Empire was accepted even by the enemies 
 of the Empire ; when it might be admired with impunity ; 
 when children believed in an Emperor, who was at once a 
 grand personage and a good fellow, somewhat like the notion 
 of God entertained by Beranger, who indeed turned both 
 God and Napoleon into heroes for his odes. The most <Je- 
 tennined adversaries of despotism, those who were them- 
 selves destined to undergo persecution by a new Empire, 
 brought back to France the mortal remains of Napoleon the 
 
PREFACE. v ii 
 
 Great his " ashes," as, lending an antique coloring to a mod- 
 em ceremony, it was the fashion to say just then. At a later 
 date, experience of the Second Empire opened the eyes, even 
 of those who do not admit passion into politics, to the truth 
 respecting the first. The disasters brought upon France in 
 1870, by Napoleon III., have reminded us that it was the 
 other Emperor who commenced that fatal work; and an 
 almost general malediction rises to the lips of the nation at 
 that name Bonaparte which was once uttered with re- 
 spectful enthusiasm. So fluctuating is the justice of nations! 
 It is, however, allowable to say that the justice of France 
 to-day comes nearer to true justice than at the time when, 
 swayed by the longing for rest and the dread of liberty, she 
 surrendered herself to the passion for military glory. Be- 
 tween these two extremes how many modes of opinion have 
 arisen, and gone through their several phases of triumph and 
 decline ! It will be evident to all readers, I hope, that the 
 author of the following Memoirs, who came to the Court in 
 her youth, regarded those problems which were then and still 
 are in debate, although General Bonaparte thought he had 
 solved them, with an entire absence of prejudice. Her opin- 
 ions were formed by degrees, like the opinions of France 
 itself, which was also very young in those days. She was at 
 first dazzled and aroused to enthusiasm by the great genius of 
 the age, but she afterward recovered the balance of her judg- 
 ment by the aid of events and of contact with other minds. 
 More than one of our contemporaries may find in these Me- 
 moirs an explanation of the conduct or the state of mind of 
 some persons of their kin whose Bonapartism or Liberalism 
 at different epochs has hitherto appeared inexplicable to them. 
 And also not their least merit in my eyes these Memoirs 
 will reveal to the reader the first germs of a remarkable tal- 
 ent, which was developed in the writer's son to a supreme 
 degree. 
 
 A brief summary of the life of my grandmother, or at 
 least of the period which preceded her arrival at Court, is 
 
viii PREFACE. 
 
 indispensable to the reader's comprehension of the impres- 
 sions and the remembrances which she brought thither. My 
 father had frequently projected a complete biography of his 
 parents, and had, indeed, sketched out some portions of the 
 work. He did not leave any of it in a finished condition ; 
 but a great number of notes and fragments written by his 
 own hand, concerning the members of his family, his own 
 youthful opinions, and persons whom he had known, render 
 it easy to narrate the incidents of my grandmother's early 
 years, the feelings with which she entered upon her life at 
 Court, and the circumstances that led her to write her Me- 
 moirs. It is also in my power to add some comments upon 
 her by her son, which will lead the reader to know and es- 
 teem her. It was my father's strong desire that her readers 
 should be inspired with kindly sentiments toward the object 
 of his own devoted love and admiration ; and I believe that 
 the perusal of her reminiscences, and especially of her cor- 
 respondence, which is also to be given to the public in due 
 time, can not fail to secure the realization of his wish. 
 
 II. 
 
 Claire Elisabeth Jeanne Gravier de Yergennes was born 
 on the 5th of January, 1780. Her father was Charles Gra- 
 vier de Yergennes, Counselor to the Parliament of Bur- 
 gundy, Master of Kequests,* afterward Intendant of Auch, 
 and finally Director of the Yingtiemes. f My great-grand- 
 father was not, therefore, as it has been frequently but erro- 
 neously stated, the minister who was so well known as the 
 Comte de Yergennes. That minister had an elder brother 
 who was called " the Marquis," the first of the family, I be- 
 lieve, who bore such a title. This marquis had quitted the 
 
 * An officer in France, whose duty it is to report petitions to the Council of 
 State. 
 
 f The Vingtibne was a tax imposed, under the ancien regime, on land and 
 house property, and which amounted to a twentieth of the revenue. 
 
PREFACE. ix 
 
 magistracy to enter upon a diplomatic career. He was act- 
 ing as minister in Switzerland in 1777, when the French 
 treaties with the Helvetian Republic were renewed. After- 
 ward he was given the title of ambassador. His son, Charles 
 Gravier de Yergennes, who was born at Dijon in 1751, mar- 
 ried Adelaide Franchise de Bastard, born about 1760. This 
 lady's family came originally from Gascony, and a branch of 
 it, whose members distinguished themselves at the bar and 
 in the magistracy, was settled at Toulouse. Her father, 
 Dominique de Bastard, born at Laffitte (Haute-Garonne), had 
 been one of the counselors to the parliament, and was the 
 senior counselor at the time of his death. His bust is in the 
 Salle des Illustres in the Capitol. He took an active part in 
 the measures of Chancellor Maupeou. His daughter's hus- 
 band, M. de Yergennes, being a member of the legal pro- 
 fession, bore, as was the custom under the old regime, no 
 title. It is said that he was a man of only ordinary ability, 
 who took his pleasure in life without much discrimination, 
 but also that he had good sense and was a useful official. He 
 belonged to that administrative school of which MM. de 
 Trudaine were the leaders. 
 
 Madame de Yergennes, of whom my father constantly 
 spoke, was a person of more individuality of character ; she 
 was both clever and good. When he was quite a child, my 
 father was on most confidential terms with her, as grandsons 
 frequently are with their grandmothers. In his bright and 
 kindly nature, his pleasant raillery, which was never mali- 
 cious, he resembled her ; and from her he also inherited his 
 musical gifts, a good voice for singing, and a quick memory 
 for the airs and couplets of the vaudevilles of the day. He 
 never lost his habit of humming the popular songs of the old 
 regime. Madame de Yergennes had the ideas of her time 
 a touch of philosophy, stopping short of incredulity, and a 
 certain repugnance to the Court, although she regarded Louis 
 XYI. with affection and respect. Her intellect, which was 
 bright, practical, and independent, was highly cultivated ; 
 
x PREFACE. 
 
 her conversation was brilliant and sometimes very free, after 
 the manner of the period. Nevertheless, she gave her two 
 daughters, Claire and Alix,* a strict and indeed rather soli- 
 tary education, for it was the fashion of that day that parents 
 should see but little of their children. The two sisters studied 
 in a large, fireless room, apart from the rest of the house, 
 under the inspection of a governess, and were instructed in 
 what may be called the frivolous arts music, drawing, and 
 dancing. They were seldom taken to see a play, but they 
 were occasionally indulged with a visit to the opera, and now 
 and then with a ball. 
 
 M. de Vergennes had not desired or foreseen the Revolu- 
 tion ; but he was neither displeased nor alarmed by it. He 
 and his friends belonged to that citizen class, ennobled by 
 holding public offices, which seemed to be the nation itself, 
 and he can not have found himself much out of his place 
 among those who were called "the electors of '89." He 
 was elected a member of the Council of the Commune, and 
 made a major in the National Guard. M. de Lafayette, 
 whose granddaughter was to become the wife of M. de Ver- 
 gennes's grandson, forty years after, and M. Eoyer-Collard, 
 whom that grandson was to succeed at the French Academy, 
 treated him like one of themselves. His opinions were more 
 in accordance with those of M. Royer-Collard than with those 
 of H. de Lafayette, and the French Revolution soon shot far 
 ahead of him. He did not, however, feel any inclination to 
 emigrate. His patriotism, as well as his attachment to Louis 
 XYL, led him to remain in France ; and thus he was unable 
 to elude that fate which, in 1793, threatened all who were in 
 positions similar to his and of the same way of thinking. 
 He was falsely accused of intending to emigrate, by the 
 Administration of the Department of Saone et Loire; his 
 property was placed under sequestration ; and he was arrest- 
 ed in Paris, at the house in the Rue Saint Eustache which 
 
 * Some years later, Mademoiselle Alix de Vergennes married General de 
 Nansouty. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XI 
 
 he had inhabited since 1788. The man who arrested him 
 had no warrant from the Committee of Public Safety except 
 for the arrest of M. de Yergennes's father. He took the son 
 because he lived with the father, and both died on the same 
 scaffold on the 6th Thermidor (24th July, 1794), three days 
 before the fall of Robespierre.* 
 
 M. de Yergennes's death left his unhappy wife and daugh- 
 ters unprotected, and in straitened circumstances, as he had 
 sold his estate in Burgundy a short time previously, and its 
 price had been confiscated by the nation. There remained 
 to them, however, one friend, not powerful, indeed, but full 
 of zeal and good will. This was a young man with whom 
 M. de Yergennes had become acquainted in the early days 
 of the Revolution, whose family had formerly been of some 
 importance in the commercial world, and also in the civic 
 administration of Marseilles, so that the younger members 
 were taking their places in the magistracy and in the army, 
 in short, among " the privileged," as the phrase then went. 
 This young man,.Augustin Laurent de Remusat, was born 
 at Yalensoles, in Provence, on the 28th of August, 1762. 
 After having studied, with great credit, at Juilly, the former 
 seat of that Oratorian College which still exists near Paris, 
 he was nominated, at twenty years of age, advocate-general 
 to the Cour des Aides and the Charribre des Comptes JReunies f 
 of Provence. My father has sketched the portrait of that 
 young man, his arrival in Paris, and his life in the midst of 
 the new society. The following note tells, better than I 
 could, how M. de Remusat loved and married Mademoiselle 
 Claire de Yergennes : 
 
 " The society of Aix, a city in which nobles dwelt and a 
 parliament assembled, was of the brilliant order. My father 
 lived a great deal in society. He was of an agreeable pres- 
 
 * For the text of the accusation against M. de Vergennes, see Appendix. 
 
 f These obsolete institutions have no English equivalents. They are, re- 
 spectively, the auxiliary and superior courts established for the examination of 
 the accounts of the receivers of the money of the state. 
 
xii PREFACE. 
 
 ence, had a great deal of pleasant humor, fine and polished 
 manners, high spirits, and a reputation for gallantry. He 
 sought and obtained all the social success that a young man 
 could desire. Nevertheless, he attended sedulously to his 
 profession, which he liked, and he married, in 1783, Made- 
 moiselle de Sannes, the daughter of the Procureur- General 
 of his Compagnie. This marriage was dissolved by the death 
 of Madame de Remusat, who died shortly after the birth of 
 a daughter. 
 
 " The Revolution broke out ; the supreme courts were 
 suppressed ; and the settling of their business was a serious 
 and important affair. In order to carry it through, the 
 Cour des Aides sent a deputation to Paris. My father was 
 one of the delegates. He has often told me that he then 
 had occasion to see M. de Mirabeau, deputy for Aix, on the 
 business of his mission ; and, notwithstanding his prejudices 
 as an adherent of the old parliaments, he was charmed with 
 Mirabeau's pompous politeness. My father never told me 
 details of his manner of living, so that I do not know 
 what were the circumstances under which he went to the 
 house of my grandfather Yergennes. He passed through 
 the terrible years of the Revolution alone and unknown in 
 Paris, and without any personal mishaps. Society no longer 
 existed. His company was therefore all the more agreeable, 
 and even the more useful to my grandmother (Madame de 
 Yergennes), who was involved in great anxieties and mis- 
 fortunes. My father used to tell me that my grandfather 
 was a commonplace sort of man, but he soon learned to ap- 
 preciate my grandmother very highly, and she conceived a 
 liking for him. She was a wise, moderate-minded woman, 
 who entertained no fancies, cherished no prejudices, and 
 gave way to no impulses. She distrusted everything in 
 which there was any exaggeration, and detested affectation 
 of every kind, but she was readily touched by solid worth 
 and by genuine feeling ; while her clear-headedness and her 
 practical, somewhat sarcastic turn of mind preserved her 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 from everything that lacked prudence or morality. Her 
 head was never betrayed by her heart ; but, as she had suf- 
 fered from the neglect of a husband to whom she was supe- 
 rior, she was disposed to make inclination and choice the 
 ruling motives of marriage. 
 
 "Immediately after the death of my grandfather, a 
 decree was issued, by which all nobles were ordered to quit 
 Paris. Madame de Yergennes retired to Saint Gratien, in 
 the valley of Montmorency, with her two daughters, Claire 
 and Alix ; and she gave my father permission to follow her 
 thither. His presence was precious to them. His bright 
 and cheerful nature, his amiability, and careful attentions to 
 those he loved, made him a charming companion. His taste 
 for a quiet life, the country, and seclusion, and his cultivated 
 mind, exactly fitted him for a family circle composed of in- 
 telligent persons, and in which education was always going 
 on. I can not believe that my grandmother did not early 
 foresee and acquiesce in that which was destined to happen, 
 even supposing there was not at that time anything to read 
 in the heart of her daughter. It is certain, for my mother 
 says so in several of her letters, that, although she was then 
 only a child, her prematurely serious turn of mind, her sen- 
 sitive and emotional nature, her vivid imagination, and 
 finally, the combined influences of intimacy, solitude, and 
 misfortune, all united to inspire her with an interest in my 
 father, which had from the first all the characteristics of a 
 lofty and abiding sentiment. I do not think I have ever 
 met a woman in whom so much moral strictness was com- 
 bined with so much romantic sensibility as in my mother. 
 Her youth, her extreme youth, was, as it were, steadied by 
 those fortunate circumstances which bound her to duty by 
 ties of passion, and procured for her that rare combination, 
 peace of soul and the delightful agitation of the heart. 
 
 " She was not tall, but her figure was elegant and well 
 proportioned. She was fair and plump ; indeed, it used to 
 be feared that she would grow too fat. Her eyes were fine 
 
xiv PREFACE. 
 
 and expressive, black, like her hair ; her features were regu- 
 lar, but rather too large. Her countenance was grave, al- 
 most imposing ; but the intelligent kindliness of her glance 
 tempered the gravity of her features very pleasantly. Her 
 strong, well-trained, fertile intellect had certain virile quali- 
 ties, with which the extreme vividness of her imagination 
 frequently clashed. She possessed sound judgment and 
 keen powers of observation, and she was entirely unaffected 
 in her manners and in her modes of expression, although 
 she was not without a certain subtlety of ideas. In reality, 
 she was profoundly reasonable, but she was headstrong ; her 
 intellect was more reasonable than herself. In her youth 
 she lacked gayety and probably ease, may have appeared to 
 be pedantic because she was serious, affected because she was 
 silent, absent-minded, and indifferent to almost all the small 
 things of every-day life. But, with her mother, whose 
 cheerful moods she sometimes crossed, with her husband, 
 whose simple tastes and easy temper she never crossed, she 
 was not wanting in richness and freedom. She had even a 
 kind of gayety of her own, which developed as she grew 
 older, when, having been very absent and absorbed in her 
 own thoughts while she was very young, she became more 
 like her mother. I have often thought that, if she had lived 
 long enough to share the house in which I am writing to- 
 day, she would have been the merriest of us all." 
 
 My father wrote these lines in 1857, at Laffitte (Haute- 
 Garonne), where all those whom he loved were assembled, 
 and we were gay and happy. In quoting them I am some- 
 what outrunning my narrative, for he speaks here of his 
 mother as of a woman and not as of a young girl, and Claire 
 de Yergennes, when she married, early in the year 1796, was 
 hardly sixteen years old. 
 
 M. and Mme. de Kmusat for thus I shall designate 
 them henceforth, for the sake of clearness in my story 
 lived sometimes in Paris, and sometimes in a modest country 
 house at Saint Gratien, a residence which had two strong 
 
PEEFAGE. xv 
 
 recommendations the beauty of the landscape and the at- 
 traction of the neighborhood. 
 
 Nearest and pleasantest of neighbors were the owners of 
 Sannois, with whom Madame de Yergennes was very inti- 
 mate. Jean Jacques Rousseau's "Confessions," Madame 
 d'Epinay's " Memoires," and a hundred works of the last 
 century as well, have made the place and the persons known 
 to the world. Madame d'Houdetot (Sophie de Lalive) had 
 lived peacefully, in her old age, throughout the troublous 
 time of the Revolution in that country house, in the society 
 of her husband and of M. de Saint Lambert.* Between the 
 famous trio and the young couple at Saint Gratien so close 
 an intimacy was formed that, when the house at Saint Gra- 
 tien was sold, my grandparents hired one within a shorter 
 distance of the residence of their friends, and a way of com- 
 munication was made between the gardens of their respective 
 abodes. By degrees, however, M. de Remusat got into the 
 habit of going to Paris more and more frequently ; and, as 
 the times became quieter, he began to think of emerging 
 from obscurity, and from the narrow circumstances to which 
 he was reduced by the confiscation of the property of his 
 wife's father and the loss of his own place in the magistracy. 
 As is always the case in France, it was of employment in 
 some public function that he thought. He had no relations 
 with the Government, or even with M. de Talleyrand, who 
 was then Foreign Minister, but he directed his efforts toward 
 that department, and obtained, if not exactly a place, at least 
 an occupation, which was likely to lead to a place, in the 
 office of the solicitors to the Ministry. 
 
 Besides the agreeable and intellectual relations which 
 they maintained with Sannois, M. and Mme. de Remusat 
 had formed an intimacy no less close, but which was destined 
 to exercise a much greater influence over their fortunes, 
 with Madame de Beauharnais, who, in 1796, became the 
 wife of Bonaparte. When her friend had acquired power 
 
 * Soe Appendix. 
 
xvi PREFACE. 
 
 through her all-powerful husband, Madame de Yergennes 
 applied to her on behalf of her son-in-law, who wished to 
 enter the Council of State or the Administration. The 
 First Consul, however, or his wife, had a different idea of 
 what ought to be done. The consideration and respect in 
 which Madame de Yergennes was held, her social station, 
 her name which was allied both to the old regime and to 
 the new ideas gave a certain value to the relations of her 
 family with the consular palace, which at that time had but 
 little intercourse with Parisian society. Quite unexpectedly, 
 M. de Remusat was appointed Prefect of the Palace, in 
 1802; and shortly afterward Madame de Remusat became 
 Lady-in-Waiting (Dame pour Accompagner) to Madame 
 Bonaparte, a title which was soon changed into the better 
 sounding one of Lady of the Palace (Dame du Palais). 
 
 in. 
 
 Persons of the way of thinking of M. and Mine, de 
 !Remusat had no sacrifice to make in casting in their lot 
 with the new regime. They had neither the extravagant 
 sentiments of the Royalists, nor the austerity of the Repub- 
 licans. No doubt their attitude of mind approached more 
 nearly to that of the Royalists than to that of the Republi- 
 cans, but their royalism reduced itself to pious veneration 
 for Louis XYI. The misfortunes of that unhappy prince 
 rendered his memory sacred, and his person had always been 
 regarded in the family of M. de Yergennes with peculiar 
 respect.; but -"Legitimacy" had not yet been invented, and 
 those persons who most deeply deplored the fall of the old 
 regime, or rather that of the ancient dynasty, did not hold 
 themselves under any obligation to believe that everything 
 done in France in the absence of the Bourbons was null and 
 void. Pure and unalloyed admiration was inspired by the 
 young general who was reestablishing material, if not moral 
 order, with such .brilliant success, in a society which was dis- 
 
PREFACE. xv ii 
 
 tiirbed after a fashion very different from that of those suc- 
 cessive later times, in which so many worthless " saviours " 
 have turned up. 
 
 Public functionaries in those days adhered to the opinion 
 which was very natural under the old regime, that an official 
 is responsible only for what he does, and not for either the 
 acts or the origin of the Government. The sense of " soli- 
 darity " does not exist in absolute monarchies. The parlia- 
 mentary regime has happily rendered us more sensitive, and 
 all honest people now admit the collective responsibility of 
 all the agents of a power. One could not nowadays serve a 
 government whose tendency and general policy one did not 
 approve ; but it was otherwise in former times. My father 
 who had more right than any one else to be strict in these 
 matters, and who, perhaps, owed somewhat of his extreme 
 political scrupulousness to the difficult position in which he 
 had seen his parents placed during his own childhood, be- 
 tween their private impressions and their official duties 
 explains these shades of difference in an unpublished letter 
 to M. Sainte Beuve, to whom he had communicated certain 
 biographical details for an article in the " Revue des Deux 
 Mondes." 
 
 " It w r as not as a pis alien*, from necessity, weakness, or 
 as a temporary expedient, that my parents attached them- 
 selves to the new regime. Of their free will and with entire 
 confidence they united themselves with its fortunes. If you 
 add to that all the pleasures of an easy and prominent posi- 
 tion to be stepped into from one of poverty and obscurity, 
 the curiosity which a court of so novel a kind inspired, the 
 incomparable interest of the spectacle of a man like the 
 Emperor at an epoch when he was irreproachable, young, 
 and still amiable, you can easily conceive the attraction 
 which induced my parents to overlook all that was in reality 
 opposed to their tastes, their reason, and even their true in- 
 terests in this new position. At the end of two or three 
 years, they had learned too well that a court is always a 
 
xviii PREFACE. 
 
 court, and that all is not pleasure in the personal service of 
 an absolute master, even though he may charm and dazzle. 
 But this did not prevent their being for a long time well 
 enough satisfied with their lot. My mother especially was 
 much amused with all that passed before her eyes, and she 
 was on very good terms with the Empress, who was ex- 
 tremely kind and generous, while she enthusiastically ad- 
 mired the Emperor. He treated my mother with flattering 
 distinction. She was almost the only woman with whom he 
 ever talked. My mother would sometimes say, after the 
 Empire had ceased to exist : 
 
 ' Va, je t'ai trop aim6 pour ne pas te hair! ' ' 
 
 Of the impressions made by the new Court upon the 
 new Lady of the Palace we have no record. The security 
 of the Post-office was very doubtful. Madame de Yergennes 
 burned all her daughter's letters, and the correspondence of 
 the latter with her husband does not commence until some 
 years later, during the Emperor's journeys in Italy and Ger- 
 many. Nevertheless, we can perceive from her Memoirs, 
 although they do not abound in personal details, how strange 
 and novel everything seemed to so very young a woman, 
 transplanted all of a sudden into this palace, and an eye- 
 witness of the private life of the glorious chief of an un- 
 known government. She was very serious, as, when they 
 are not very frivolous, the young are apt to be, and much 
 disposed to observation and reflection. She seems to have 
 had no taste for display, no great solicitude about external 
 things, no turn for gossip or the running down of other peo- 
 ple, no love of talking or display. "What was thought of her 
 at that time ? "We can not tell. "We only know, from cer- 
 tain passages in sundry letters and memoirs, that she was 
 considered clever, and that people were a little afraid of her. 
 Probably, however, her companions thought her pedantic 
 rather than dangerous. She had a considerable " success," 
 especially at first ; for in its early days the Court was not 
 
PREFACE. x ix 
 
 numerous there were few distinctions or favors to be 
 schemed for, rivalry was not very brisk or ardent. Little by 
 little, however, this little society became a real court. Now, 
 courtiers are always afraid of intellect, and especially of that 
 disposition, unintelligible to them, which clever people have 
 to interest themselves in a disinterested manner, so to speak, 
 in knowing things and judging characters, without even 
 thinking of turning their knowledge to their own advantage. 
 Courtiers always suspect that every opinion has a hidden aim. 
 Persons of quick intellect are very strongly impressed by the 
 spectacle of human affairs, even when they are merely look- 
 ing on at them. And that faculty is the most incomprehen- 
 sible to those who do not possess it, and who attribute its 
 effects to some personal motive, or interested calculation. 
 They suspect intrigue or resentment every time that they 
 observe a movement in any direction, but they have no idea 
 of the spontaneous and gratuitous action of the mind. Every- 
 one has been exposed to mistrust of this kind, which is more 
 to be dreaded when a woman, endowed with excessive ac- 
 tivity of imagination, and drawn on by her intelligence to 
 form opinions on matters out of her sphere, is in question. 
 Many persons, especially in that somewhat coarse society, 
 would detect egotism and pretension in her life and conver- 
 sation, and accuse her unduly of ambition. 
 
 That her husband was entirely devoid of ambition, and 
 free from any disposition to intrigue, was evident to all. 
 The position in which the favor of the First Consul had 
 placed him did not suit him ; he would, no doubt, have pre- 
 ferred some laborious administrative function to one which 
 demanded nothing of him but suavity and a graceful de- 
 meanor. From the " Memoirs," from his own letters, and 
 from my father's account of him, we gather that M. de 
 Ke*musat was a man of discreet conduct, with keen wits, and 
 a cheerful and even temper not at all a person calculated 
 to make enemies. Indeed, he would never have had any, 
 but for a certain shyness, which, little as it seems to harmo- 
 
XX PREFACE. 
 
 nize with conversational powers and an agreeable manner, is, 
 nevertheless, occasionally allied with them. His taste for 
 quiet life, and some indolence and timidity of character, had 
 impelled him more and more toward retirement and isola- 
 tion. Modesty and self-esteem mingled in his nature ; and, 
 without rendering him insensible to the honors of the post 
 which he had obtained, they sometimes made him ashamed 
 of the solemn trifles to which that very post forced him to 
 devote his life. He believed himself to be made for better 
 things, but he did not care for toiling in search of that which 
 did not come to him of itself. He took but little pleasure 
 in expressing the art, in which he was probably not deficient, 
 of managing men. He did not love to put himself forward, 
 and his indolent temperament induced him to let things take 
 their chance. He afterward became a hard-working prefect, 
 but he was a negligent and inactive courtier. He employed 
 his skill simply to avoid disputes, and he discharged his offi- 
 cial functions with quiet good taste. After having had many 
 friends, and entered into numerous relations, he let them 
 drop through, or at least he never seemed to do anything to 
 retain them. Unless great care be taken, ties are loosened, 
 recollections are effaced, rivalries are formed, and all the 
 chances of ambition escape one's grasp. M. de Kemusat had 
 no skill in playing a part, forming connections, bringing 
 people together, or contriving the opportunities of fortune 
 or success. He seems never to have regretted this. It 
 would be easy for me to trace his motives to depict his 
 character in detail, and to narrate his errors, his grievances, 
 and even his sufferings ; for was he not my grandfather ? 
 
 The first severe trial which M. and Mme. de Eemusat 
 had to endure in their new position was the murder of the 
 Due d'Enghien. How profound was the grief which they 
 felt when the man whom they ardently admired, as the ex- 
 press image of power and genius, and whom they strove to 
 love, stained his hands with innocent blood, and they were 
 forced to recognize that such a deed was simply the result of 
 
PREFACE. xxi 
 
 a cold and inhuman calculation, the following narrative will 
 prove. It will, indeed, be seen that the impression made 
 by the crime upon all honest persons at the Court was even 
 deeper than that which it produced outside among the gen- 
 eral public, who had become almost indifferent, through cus- 
 tom, to deeds of this kind. Even among the Royalists, who 
 were absolutely inimical to the Government, the event caused 
 more sorrow than indignation, so perverted had the public 
 mind become in political matters and respecting State ex- 
 pedients ! Where could the men of that day have acquired 
 principles ? Was it the old regime or the Terror which could 
 have instructed them ? A short time afterward, the Sover- 
 eign Pontiff came to Paris, and, among the reasons which 
 made him hesitate to crown the new Charlemagne, it is very 
 doubtful whether this one was ever even weighed for a mo- 
 ment. The press was dumb, and men must be possessed of 
 information before they are aroused to anger. Let us hope 
 that civilization has now made so much progress that a 
 repetition of similar incidents would be impossible. We 
 should, however, be restrained from optimism on this point 
 by the remembrance of what we have witnessed in our own 
 time. 
 
 The following Memoirs are an exact record of the life of 
 the author, and the history of the early years of the present 
 century. They show us what changes the establishment of 
 the Empire effected at the Court, and how lif e there and its 
 relations became more difficult and embarrassing; how by 
 degrees the prestige of the Emperor declined, in proportion 
 as he misused his great gifts, his power, and his chances. 
 Mistakes, reverses, and failures were multiplied ; and at the 
 same time the adhesion of the earliest admirers of the Em- 
 peror became less fervent, and the manner of serving re- 
 flected the mode of thinking. Two parties, the Beauhar- 
 nais and the Bonapartes, disputed the favor of the sovereign 
 master with each other ; and M. and Mme. de Remusat were 
 regarded as belonging to the former, by reason of their natu- 
 
xxii PREFACE. 
 
 ral feelings and their family relations. Their position was 
 consequently affected in no small degree by the downfall and 
 departure of the Empress Josephine. Everything was, how- 
 ever, much changed, and, when her lady-in-waiting followed 
 her into her retirement, the Emperor seems to have made 
 but little effort to detain Mme. de Remusat. Perhaps he 
 was glad that a person of good sense and quick intelligence 
 should watch over his forsaken and somewhat imprudent 
 wife ; but it must also be taken into account that my grand- 
 mother's delicate health, her love of quiet, and her distaste 
 for all festivities, had isolated her almost entirely from court 
 life. 
 
 Her husband, wearied and disgusted, gave way every day 
 more and more to his discontent, and to his inability to lay 
 himself out to please the great personages who were either 
 cold or hostile to him. He neglected his functions as Cham- 
 berlain in order to concentrate himself on his duties as " Ad- 
 ministrator of Theatres," but the latter he fulfilled admirably. 
 A great part of the actual organization of the Theatre Fran- 
 $ais is due to him. My father, born in 1797, and very young 
 when his father was Chamberlain to the Emperor, was re- 
 markable as a child for his intelligence and his observation, 
 and he retained a very distinct recollection of that period of 
 discouragement and ennui. He has told me that he frequent- 
 ly knew his father to return from Saint Cloud utterly worn 
 out, and tried beyond his patience by the burden which the 
 arbitrariness and the ill temper of the Emperor laid upon all 
 who approached him. That the child was an eye- and ear- 
 witness of his complaints at those moments in which re- 
 straints are cast off is evident, for, when he was more master 
 of himself, he was fain to represent himself as satisfied with 
 his master and his position, and he endeavored to conceal his 
 vexations from his son. Perhaps he was better calculated to 
 serve the simple, tranquil, sober, intellectual Bonaparte, while 
 still a novice in the pleasures of sovereignty, than the llase 
 and intoxicated Napoleon, who exhibited the worst taste 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 possible on all State occasions, and became more exacting 
 every day in the matter of ceremonial and adulatory observ- 
 ance. 
 
 An apparently trifling circumstance, whose gravity was 
 not at first perceived by those whom it concerned, increased 
 the difficulties of the situation, and hurried on the inevitable 
 catastrophe. Although the history of the affair is insignifi- 
 cant, it will not be read without interest, and it sheds a light 
 upon times now happily far removed from us, and which 
 Frenchmen, if the lessons of the past are to avail, will not 
 suffer to return. 
 
 The celebrated Lavoisier was very intimate with M. de 
 Yergennes. He died, as every one knows, on the scaffold on 
 the 19th Floreal, year 2 (9th May, 1794). His widow, who 
 contracted a second marriage with M. Rumford, a German 
 savant, or at least a commercial man aiming at science for 
 he was the inventor of the Prussian stoves, and also of the 
 thermometer that bears his name remained on terms of 
 close friendship with Madame de Yergennes and her family. 
 This second marriage had not been happy, and compassion 
 was, very justly, excited on behalf of the ill-treated wife, who 
 was compelled to invoke the protection of the law against 
 unendurable tyranny and exaction. As M. Rumford was a 
 foreigner, it was in the power of the police to procure infor- 
 mation respecting him from his own country, to reprimand 
 him severely, and even to oblige him to leave France. This, 
 I believe, was eventually done, and it was at the request of 
 my grandmother that M. de Talleyrand and M. Fouche took 
 up the matter. Madame Eumford was anxious to evince 
 her gratitude to those personages, and the following is my 
 father's account of the results of her wish : 
 
 "My mother consented to invite Madame Rumford to 
 dinner, to meet M. de Talleyrand and M. Fouche. Surely, 
 it was not an act of opposition to entertain the High Cham- 
 berlain and the Minister of Police at her table ! Neverthe- 
 less, that meeting so naturally brought about, the motive of 
 
xxiv PREFACE. 
 
 which, was as insignificant as it was harmless, but which was, 
 I acknowledge, unusual, and never occurred again was rep- 
 resented to the Emperor, in the reports that were sent out to 
 him in Spain, as a political conference, and the proof of an 
 important coalition. Although I do not contend that it was 
 impossible for M. de Talleyrand and M. Fouche to have 
 taken advantage of the opportunity of talking together ; or 
 deny that my mother, perceiving the respective inclinations 
 of the two, or put upon the scent by something that was said 
 by M. de Talleyrand, might have regarded the occasion as a 
 favorable one for bringing about an interview which amused 
 herself at the same time that it was useful to one of her 
 friends, I have not the slightest reason for supposing that 
 such was the case. I am, on the contrary, perfectly certain 
 of having heard my father and mother quote this incident, 
 when reverting to it some years afterward, as an instance of 
 the unexpected importance which may be assumed by a for- 
 tuitous and insignificant matter, and say, smilingly, that Ma- 
 dame Rumford little knew what she had cost them. 
 
 " They added that on that occasion the word i triumvirate ' 
 had been uttered, and my mother had said, laughingly, 4 My 
 dear, I am sorry for it ; but your lot could only be that of 
 Lepidus.' My father also said that certain persons of the 
 Court, not enemies of his, had sometimes spoken of ' the 
 Conference ' to him as a fact, and had said, though with- 
 out any hostile intention, E"ow that it is all over, tell 
 us what it was about, and what it was you really meant 
 to do?'" 
 
 This narrative gives us an insight into the life of Courts, 
 and also testifies to the intimacy of my grandparents with 
 M. de Talleyrand. Although the former Bishop of Autun 
 does not seem to have been actuated in this particular in- 
 stance by that kind of feeling which he habitually carried 
 into his relations with women, he both liked and admired 
 Mme. de Remusat. I have found amusing evidence of his 
 sentiments in a sketch of her which he wrote, on the official 
 
PREFACE. xxv 
 
 paper of the Senate, during the leisure time of a sitting at 
 which he presided as "Vice-Grand Elector," probably in 
 1811: 
 
 " CONSERVATIVE SENATE, ) 
 " LUXEMBOURG, April 29th. } 
 
 " I have a fancy for commencing the portrait of Clari. 
 She is not what the world calls a beauty, but every one 
 agrees in pronouncing her an agreeable woman. She is 
 twenty-eight or twenty-nine years old, and she is neither 
 more nor less blooming than she ought to be at twenty-eight. 
 Her figure is good, her carriage is graceful and unaffected. 
 Clari is not thin ; she is only slight and refined. Her com- 
 plexion is not brilliant, but she has the special charm of look- 
 ing fairer in proportion as she is in a stronger light. To de- 
 scribe Clari in a sentence, let me say that the better she is 
 known the more amiable she appears. 
 
 " Clari has large, black eyes ; their long lids give an ex- 
 pression of mingled tenderness and vivacity which is striking, 
 even when her mind is inactive and she does not want to 
 express anything. Those occasions are, however, very rare. 
 Lively ideas, quick perception, a vivid imagination, exquisite 
 sensibility, and constant kindness are expressed in her glance. 
 To give an idea of that, it would be necessary to paint the 
 soul which depicts itself in it, and then Clari would be the 
 most beautiful of beings. I am not sufficiently well versed 
 in the rales of drawing to know whether Clari' s features are 
 quite regular. I believe her nose is too thick ; but I know 
 that she has beautiful eyes, lips, and teeth. A great part of 
 her forehead is generally hidden by her hair, and that is a 
 pity. Her smile is rendered as arch as it is sweet by her two 
 dimples. Her dress is often careless, but never in bad taste, 
 and she is scrupulously neat. That neatness forms part of 
 the system of order and decorum from which Clari never 
 deviates. Clari is not rich, but as she is moderate in her 
 tastes and above caprice and fancy, she despises extravagance, 
 and has never perceived that her fortune is limited, except 
 
xxvi PREFACE. 
 
 when she has been obliged to restrain her benevolence. But, 
 besides the art of giving, she has a thousand other ways of 
 conferring kindnesses. Always ready to commend good 
 deeds and to excuse faults, her mind is always bent on 
 beneficent purposes. Clari affords us a striking proof of 
 how much superior a kindly wit is to talent which produces 
 only severity, criticism, and satire. She is more ingenious 
 in her manner of passing favorable judgments than ever was 
 malignity in the art of suggesting the false and suppressing 
 the true. 
 
 " Clari always vindicates those whose part she takes, but 
 without offending those whom she confutes. Clari has a 
 large and cultivated mind. I know no one who can talk 
 better than she ; but she exhibits her superior information 
 only when she is giving one a proof of her confidence and 
 friendship. Clari's husband knows that he possesses a trea- 
 sure, and has the good sense to appreciate it. Clari is a good 
 mother ; that is her reward." 
 
 The Emperor was displeased at the intimacy between the 
 Grand Chamberlain and the First Chamberlain, and these 
 Memoirs will show that he tried more than once to set the 
 two at variance. He even succeeded for a time in alienating 
 them. But their intimacy was unbroken when M. Talley- 
 rand fell into disgrace. 
 
 It is well known that honorable motives on his part led 
 to a violent altercation between himself and his imperial 
 master in January, 1809, at the period of the Spanish war, 
 which was the beginning of the misfortunes of the empire, 
 and the result of the Emperor's errors. Both M. de Talley- 
 rand and M. Fouche predicted, or at least foreboded, that 
 public disapprobation and suspicion would be aroused. 
 "Throughout the whole empire," writes M. Thiers,* "hate 
 was beginning to take the place of love." This change was 
 taking place among officials as well as citizens. Moreover, 
 M. de Montesquiou, a member of the Legislature, who suc- 
 * "Histoire du Consulat et de 1'Empire," vol. xi., p. 312. 
 
PREFACE. xxvii 
 
 ceeded M. de Talleyrand in his place at court, was a less 
 important personage than the latter, who had relegated to 
 the First Chamberlain not only the troublesome portions of 
 the duties of his post, but also those which were agreeable, 
 and which conferred distinction. It was a " come-down " to 
 lose a chief whose own importance enhanced that of the 
 position next below him. Truly this was a strange time ! 
 
 Talleyrand, though in disgrace as a minister, and as the 
 holder of one of the highest posts at Court, had not forfeited 
 the Emperor's confidence. The latter would send for him 
 every now and then, and freely disclose the secret of the 
 question or the circumstance on which he desired his advice. 
 These consultations went on to the end, even at those times 
 when the Emperor was talking of sending M. de Talleyrand 
 to Yincennes. In return, M. de Talleyrand would enter into 
 his views, and advise him with perfect frankness ; and so 
 this strange intercourse was carried on as if nothing had 
 happened between them. 
 
 State policy and the greatness of his own position afford- 
 ed certain privileges and consolations to M. de Talleyrand 
 which were beyond the reach of a chamberlain or a lady-in- 
 waiting. Those who are in close contact with absolute power 
 do not foresee that the day must come when their feelings 
 will clash with their interests, and some of their duties with 
 others. They forget that there are principles of government 
 which must be guarded by constitutional guarantees. They 
 yield to the natural desire to be " somebodies " in the state, 
 to serve the established authority; they do not study the 
 nature and conditions of that authority. So long as it exacts 
 nothing against their conscience, they serve it in the sphere 
 to which it has appointed them. But the hour comes when, 
 without exacting anything new from them, it carries extrava- 
 gance, violence, and injustice to such a height that it becomes 
 hard to obey it, even in things of no moment ; they remain, 
 nevertheless, bound to obedience, while in their inmost soul 
 they are full of indignation and of pain. Then comes actual 
 
xxviii PREFACE. 
 
 desire for its fall. It may be said that their course is simple ; 
 let them resign. But they are afraid of giving rise to rumor 
 and scandal, of being neither understood nor approved by 
 public opinion. Moreover, no contract binds the servants of 
 the state to the conduct of the chief of the state. Having 
 no rights, they would seem to have no duties. They are 
 powerless for prevention, and are, therefore, not afraid of 
 having to expiate errors. Thus people thought in the reign 
 of Louis XIV., and thus they still think in a great part of 
 Europe ; it was thus they thought under Napoleon, and per- 
 haps they will be of the same opinion again. So shameful 
 and wretched a thing is absolute power ! It paralyzes both 
 the honest scruples and the real duties of honest men. 
 
 IY. 
 
 Traces of these convictions, or at least of their germ, may 
 be discerned in the correspondence of M. and Madame de 
 Hemusat, and all things contributed to confirm them. Direct 
 communication with the Emperor became more and more 
 infrequent, and his charm of manner, though still powerful, 
 failed to weaken the impression made by his policy. The 
 divorce of the Empress restored to Madame de Remusat, in 
 great part, her freedom of judgment and the disposal of her 
 time. She attached herself to the Empress Josephine in her 
 disgrace, a proceeding not calculated to raise her in the esti- 
 mation of the Court. Her husband soon after retired from 
 the post of Keeper of the "Wardrobe, under circumstances 
 which are detailed in these Memoirs, and the coolness in- 
 creased. I use the word " coolness " advisedly, because in 
 certain pamphlets written against my father it was alleged 
 that his family had been guilty of grave offenses, at which 
 the Emperor was much incensed. That this was quite 
 untrue is amply proved by the fact that although M. de 
 Ke'musat resigned the post of Keeper of the Wardrobe, he 
 continued to be Chamberlain and Supervisor of Theatres. 
 
PREFACE. xxix 
 
 He merely gave up the most troublesome and most onerous 
 of his offices. Xo doubt those habits of intimacy and con- 
 fidence which arise in common every-day life were weak- 
 ened by his relinquishment of that post ; but, on the other 
 hand, he gained greater freedom and more frequent inter- 
 course, both with his family and with society, and, as they 
 were no longer restricted to the drawing-rooms of the Tuile- 
 ries and St. Cloud, both husband and wife were enabled to 
 bring more clear-sightedness and independence of judgment 
 to bear upon the policy of their sovereign. Before the final 
 disasters, aided by the advice and predictions of M. de Tal- 
 leyrand, they foresaw the fall of the Empire, and were ena- 
 bled to choose between the possible solutions of the problem 
 then in course of working out. There was no hope that the 
 Emperor would be satisfied with a peace more humiliating to 
 himself than to France, and indeed Europe was no longer in 
 the humor to gratify him even to that extent. 
 
 The public mind turned naturally toward the return of 
 the Bourbons, notwithstanding certain drawbacks, which 
 were but dimly apprehended. The salons of Paris, without 
 being actually Royalist, were anti-revolutionary. At this 
 epoch the plan of making the Bonapartes heads of the Con- 
 servative and Catholic party had not yet been invented. 
 To bring back the Bourbons was a very momentous reso- 
 lution, and it was not adopted without struggles, anx- 
 ieties, and apprehensions of all sorts. My father regarded 
 the painful recollection which he always retained of the at- 
 titude of his family in 1814 a family so simple, so honor- 
 able, and so unpretending as a useful political lesson, one 
 which contributed, as much as his own reflections, to lead 
 him to believe that simplicity and straightforwardness are 
 the truest policy. He records in the following words his 
 own observations on the state of feeling that prevailed at 
 the fall of the Empire : 
 
 " Policy alone reconciled my family to the Restoration. 
 My father never for a moment regarded his own acquiescence 
 
xxx PREFACE. 
 
 otherwise than as an absolute necessity, of which he volun- 
 tarily accepted the consequences. It would have been foolish 
 to conceal the nature of those consequences, or to have en- 
 deavored to avoid them altogether; but they might have 
 been more firmly resisted, or at least some effort might have 
 been made to reduce their proportions. My mother, as a 
 woman, was influenced by the sentimental aspect of Bour- 
 bonism, and allowed herself to be carried away by the en- 
 thusiasm of the moment. In every great political movement 
 there is a fascination, unless one is preserved from it by party 
 spirit ; and this sympathy, combined with the national taste 
 for declamation, has a large share in the absurdities which 
 accompany every change of government. My mother was, 
 however, disgusted from the first by the exaggeration of sen- 
 timent, of opinion, and of ridiculous language, that prevailed. 
 The humiliating and insolent side of the Restoration, as in- 
 deed of every restoration, is what shocks me the most ; but, 
 if the Royalists had not gone too far, a great deal would have 
 been overlooked. The things of this kind which sensible 
 folk will endure are surprising. I still feel grateful to my 
 father because, in the very first days of the Monarchy, he 
 somewhat sharply rebuked a person who was advocating in 
 our salon the extreme doctrines of Legitimacy. Neverthe- 
 less, we had to accept this Legitimacy under a more politic 
 form. The word itself was, I -believe, sanctioned by M. de 
 Talleyrand, and thence ensued an inevitable train of conse- 
 quences which speedily developed themselves." 
 
 This is not merely an historical judgment of my father's ; 
 at that time he was beginning, notwithstanding his youth, 
 to think for himself, and to guide, or at least to influence, the 
 political opinions of his parents. As I shall soon be in a 
 position to publish the reminiscences of his youth, I will not 
 dwell upon them here. I must, however, mention him in 
 connection with the memoirs of his mother, as he had more 
 to do with them than might be supposed. 
 
 I have not hitherto alluded to one of the most character- 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 istic traits of her whose life I have undertaken to narrate. 
 She was a tender, careful, and admirable mother. Her son 
 Charles, born on the 24th Yentose, year 5 (March 14, 1797), 
 cheered her from his childhood with the hopes which he af- 
 terward realized, and, as he grew in years and intelligence, 
 aroused in her intellectual tastes similar to his own. Her 
 second son, Albert, was born five years later than Charles, 
 and died in 1830. His faculties were never completely de- 
 veloped ; he remained a child until the end. She had tender 
 compassion for him, and lavished upon him care so unceasing 
 and devoted that it was admirable even in a mother. But 
 her great love was for her first-born, and never was filial or 
 maternal affection founded on more striking resemblance in 
 mind and character. Her letters are full of her maternal 
 tenderness. The following is addressed to her beloved son, 
 when he was just sixteen. I think it will convey a favorable 
 impression of both, and throw a light on the history of their 
 after lives : 
 
 VICHY, July 25, 1813. 
 
 " I have been suffering from a severe sore throat for the 
 last few days, and time has hung heavily, my child ; to-day 
 I feel a little better, and I am going to amuse myself by 
 writing to you. Besides, you have been scolding me for my 
 silence, and reproaching me too often with your four letters. 
 I will no longer be behindhand with you, and this letter, I 
 think, will entitle me to scold you in my turn, if an oppor- 
 tunity offers. My dear boy, I follow you step by step in all 
 your studies, and I see you are full of work during this 
 month of July, which I am passing so monotonously. I 
 know pretty well, too, all you say and do on Thursdays and 
 Sundays. Madame de Grasse * tells me of your little talks, 
 and amuses me with it all. For instance, she told me that 
 
 * Madame de Grasse was the widow of an emigre, who lived in my grand- 
 mother's house and was very intimate with her. Her son, Count Gustave de 
 Grasse, was a lieutenant-colonel in the Royal Guard, and lived on terms of the 
 
xxxii PREFACE. 
 
 the other day you had praised me to her, and said that when 
 you and I talk together you are sometimes tempted to think 
 me too clever. But you need not be checked by any fear of 
 that, for you, my dear child, have at least as much wit as I. 
 I tell you so frankly, because that gift, although an advan- 
 tage, needs many other things to support it, and therefore 
 you may take my words rather as warning than as praise. 
 If my conversation with you often takes a serious turn, you 
 must impute it to the fact that I am your mother, and have 
 not relinquished that rdle to my discovery of some wise 
 thoughts in my own head, and wanting to put them into 
 yours ; and to my desire to make good use of the quickly 
 passing time that will soon bear you far from me. When I 
 need no longer advise and warn you, we shall talk together 
 quite at our ease, interchanging our reflections, our remarks, 
 and our opinions on everything and everybody quite frankly, 
 without fear of vexing one another ; in fact, with all that 
 sincere and intimate friendship which, I believe, may per- 
 fectly well exist between a mother and a son. There are 
 not so many years between us as to prevent me from sym- 
 pathizing with your youth, or sharing some of your feelings. 
 Women's shoulders wear young heads for a long time, and 
 in the head of a mother one side is always just the same age 
 as her child's. 
 
 " Madame de Grasse told me also that you want to amuse 
 yourself during these holidays by writing some of your no- 
 tions on various subjects. I think you are right. It will be 
 interesting for you to read them again in a few years. Your 
 father would say I want to make you a scribbler like myself 
 for he does not stand on ceremony with me but I do not 
 care. There can be no harm in setting down one's thoughts 
 in writing for one's self alone, and I think both taste and 
 style may be formed in this way. It is just because your 
 father is lazy, and only writes one letter a week ; true, it is 
 
 closest friendship with my father until his death in 1859, notwithstanding the 
 wide dissimilarity of their opinions and habits. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 XXXlll 
 
 a very pleasant one, but still that is not much. . . . But 
 there ! I must not run on about him. 
 
 " During my retirement I thought I should like to draw 
 your portrait, and if I had not had a sore throat, I would 
 have tried to do so. While I was thinking it over, I found 
 that in order not to be insipid, and, indeed, to be correct, I 
 should have to point out a few faults, and I do believe the 
 hard words have stuck in my throat and given me quinsy. 
 While planning this portrait, I assure you I took you to 
 pieces very carefully, and I found many good qualities well 
 developed, a few just beginning to bud, and then some 
 slight congestions which hinder certain others from exhibit- 
 ing themselves. I beg your pardon for using a medical ex- 
 pression ; it is because I am in a place where nothing but 
 congestions and the way to get rid of them is talked about. 
 I will explain all this some day when I am in the vein, but 
 to-day I will touch only on one point your behavior to 
 others. You are polite more so, indeed, than is customary 
 at your age : you have a pleasant manner in addressing 
 people, and you are a good listener. Do not let this last quali- 
 ty slip. Madame de Sevigne* says that an appreciative silence 
 is a mark of superior sense in young people. < But, mother, 
 what are you driving at ? You promised to point out a fault, 
 and hitherto I see nothing like one. A father's blow turns 
 aside. Let us come to the fact, my dear mother.' So I will, 
 my son, in one moment ; you forget that I have a sore throat, 
 and can only speak slowly. Well, then, you are polite. When 
 you are asked to do something which will gratify those you 
 love, you consent willingly ; but, when an opportunity of so 
 doing is merely pointed out to you, natural indolence and a 
 certain love of self make you hesitate ; and, when left to 
 yourself, you do not seek such opportunities, for fear of the 
 trouble they might entail. Can you understand these subtile 
 distinctions ? While you are still partly under my authority, 
 I can influence and guide you : but you will soon have to 
 answer for yourself, and I should wish you to think a little 
 
xxxiv PREFACE. 
 
 about other people, notwithstanding the claims of your own 
 youth, which are naturally engrossing. I am not sure that 
 I have expressed myself clearly. As my ideas have to find 
 their way through a headache and all my bandages, and for 
 the last four days I have not sharpened my wits by contact 
 with those of Albert, the quinsy may possibly have got into 
 my discourse. 
 
 " You must make the best of it. At any rate, it is a fact 
 that you have polished manners, in other words, you are kind. 
 Kindness is the politeness of the heart. But enough. 
 
 " Your little brother makes a good figure at the village 
 dances. He has become quite a rustic. In the morning he 
 fishes and takes long walks about the country. He under- 
 stands more about trees and agriculture than you do. In the 
 evening he shines among our big Auvergne shepherdesses, to 
 whom he shows off all those little airs and graces which you 
 know so well. 
 
 " Adieu, my dear son ; I leave off because I have come 
 to the end of my paper. "Writing all this to you relieves me 
 a little of my ennui, but I must not quite overwhelm you by 
 pouring out too much at a time. My respects to Griffon, 
 and best compliments to M. Leclerc." * 
 
 In this confidential strain the mother and the son carried 
 on their correspondence. One year later, in 1814, the son 
 left school, destined to fulfill all the promise of his childhood, 
 and to hold thenceforth a more important place in the life 
 and occupations of his parents. His influence soon began to 
 tell on theirs, the more so that there existed no absolute di- 
 vergence in their opinions. But he was more positive and 
 bolder than his parents, because he was not fettered by the 
 ties of old memories and old affection. He felt no regret for 
 the Emperor, and, although deeply moved by the sufferings 
 
 * Griffon was a little dog. M. Leclerc was a member of the Institute and 
 Dean of the Faculty of Letters. He died a few years ago. At that time he was 
 a professor at the LycSe Napoleon, and gave lessons to my father. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 of the French army, lie witnessed the fall of the Empire, if 
 not with joy, at least with indifference. To him, as to most 
 talented young men of his time, it came as an emancipation. 
 He eagerly embraced the first notions of constitutional order, 
 which made their reappearance with the Bourbons. But he 
 was struck by the ridiculous side of Royalist society. Many 
 of the revived fashions and phrases * seemed to him to be 
 mere foolery ; he was disgusted by the abuse lavished upon 
 the Emperor and the men of the Empire, but neither his 
 parents nor he, although still a little suspicious of the new 
 order of things, was seriously opposed to it. Neither the 
 personal vexations which resulted from it, such as the depri- 
 vation of employment, the necessity of selling to great disad- 
 vantage a library which was the delight of my grandfather, 
 and which lives in the recollection of lovers of books, nor a 
 thousand other annoyances, could prevent their experiencing 
 a sense of relief. They almost verified a celebrated saying 
 of the Emperor, who, when at the zenith of his power, once 
 asked those surrounding him what would be said after his 
 death. They all hastened to answer in phrases of compli- 
 ment or of flattery. But he interrupted them by exclaiming, 
 " "What ! you are at a loss to know what people will say ? 
 They will say <Ouf !'" 
 
 Y. 
 
 It was difficult to attend to personal interests in those 
 days ; one could hardly help being diverted from them, and 
 engrossed solely by the spectacle of France and Europe. 
 Curiosity would naturally outweigh ambition in a family 
 such as we are depicting. My grandfather did nevertheless 
 think of entering the administration, and once more revived 
 his project, hitherto doomed to disappointment, of gaining 
 admittance to the Council of State; but he was as supine 
 about it as before. Had he entered the administration, he 
 would only have been following the example of the majority 
 * For a note by Count de Remusat, Bee Appendix. 
 
xxxvi PREFACE. 
 
 of the former officials of the Empire, for the Bonapartist Op- 
 position did not come into existence until the latter days of 
 the Monarchy. The members of the Imperial family lived 
 in constant and friendly intercourse with the new regime, or 
 rather the reinstated old regime. The Empress Josephine 
 was treated with great respect, and the Emperor Alexander 
 frequently visited her at Malmaison. She wished to take up 
 a dignified and fitting position, and she confided to her lady- 
 in-waiting that she thought of asking the title of High Con- 
 stable for her son Eugene, showing thereby that she scarcely 
 understood the spirit of the Restoration. Queen Hortense, 
 who afterward became the bitter enemy of the Bourbons, 
 and was concerned in numerous conspiracies, obtained the 
 Duchy of Saint Leu, for which she intended to return thanks 
 in person to Louis XYIII. All projects of this kind had, 
 however, to be abandoned ; for the Empress Josephine was 
 suddenly carried off by malignant sore throat in March, 1814, 
 and the last link that bound my kinsfolk to the Bonaparte 
 family was sundered for ever. 
 
 The Bourbons seemed to make a point of annoying and 
 depressing those very persons whom their Government 
 should have endeavored to conciliate, and by slow degrees 
 a belief gained ground that their reign would be of short 
 duration, and that France, just then more in love with equal- 
 ity than with liberty, would demand to be placed once more 
 under the yoke which had seemed to be shattered ; in fact, 
 that the days of Imperial splendor and misery would return. 
 It was, therefore, with less amazement than might be sup- 
 posed that my grandfather learned one day from a friend 
 that the Emperor had escaped from Elba and landed at 
 Cannes. Historical events seem more astounding to those 
 who read of them than to eye-witnesses. Those who knew 
 Bonaparte could readily believe him capable of again putting 
 France and Frenchmen in peril for the sake of a selfish 
 scheme. His return was, however, a tremendous event, and 
 every one had to think not only of the political future, but 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 xxx vii 
 
 also of his own. Even those who, like M. de Remusat, had 
 not publicly taken any political side, and who only wanted 
 to be left in repose and obscurity, had everything to lose, 
 and were bound to provide against eventualities. The gen- 
 eral suspense did not last long ; even before the Emperor's 
 entry into Paris, M. Real came to announce to M. de Remu- 
 sat that he was sentenced to exile together with twelve or fif- 
 teen others, among whom was M. Pasquier. 
 
 An event still more serious than exile, and which left a 
 deeper trace in my father's memory, occurred between the 
 first news of the return of Napoleon and his arrival at the 
 Tuileries. On the day after that on which the landing was 
 publicly announced, Mme. de Nansouty hurried to her sister's 
 house, full of dismay at all that she had been told of the per- 
 secution to which the opponents of the vindictive and all- 
 powerful Emperor were about to be exposed. She told my 
 grandparents that a rigorous inquisition by the police was 
 to be put in action ; that M. Pasquier apprehended molesta- 
 tion, and that everything in the house which could give rise 
 to suspicion must be got rid of. My grandmother, who 
 might not otherwise have thought of danger, remembered 
 with alarm that a manuscript highly calculated to com- 
 promise her husband, her sister, her brother-in-law, and her 
 friends, was in the house. For many years, probably from 
 her first appearance at Court, she had been in the habit 
 of taking notes daily of the events and conversations which 
 came under her notice, while her memory of them was fresh. 
 She had recorded nearly everything she saw and heard, at 
 Paris, at St. Cloud, and at Malmaison. For twelve years she 
 had transferred, not only events and circumstances, but 
 studies of character and disposition, to the pages of her jour- 
 nal. This journal was kept in the form of a correspondence. 
 It consisted of a series of letters, written from Court to a 
 friend from whom nothing was concealed. The author well 
 knew all the value of these fictitious letters, which recalled 
 her whole life, with its most precious and most painful 
 
xxxviii PREFACE. 
 
 recollections. Ought she to risk, for what would appear to 
 others only literary or sentimental selfishness, the peace, the 
 liberty, nay, even the life of those she loved ? No one was 
 aware of the existence of this manuscript, except her hus- 
 band and Mme. Cheron, the wife of the Prefect of that 
 name, a very old and attached friend. Her thoughts turned 
 to this lady, who had once before taken charge of the dan- 
 gerous manuscript, and she hastened to seek her. Unfor- 
 tunately Mme. Che'ron was from home, and not likely to 
 return for a considerable time. What was to be done ? My 
 grandmother came back, greatly distressed, and, without 
 further reflection or delay, threw her manuscripts into the 
 fire. My father came into the room just as she was burn- 
 ing the last sheets, somewhat cautiously, lest the flame should 
 reach too high. He was then seventeen, and has often de- 
 scribed the scene to me the remembrance of it was most 
 painful to him. He thought at first .that his mother was 
 merely destroying a copy of the memoirs, which he had 
 never read, and that the precious original manuscript was 
 safely concealed. He threw the last sheets into the fire with 
 his own hand, attaching but little importance to the action. 
 " Few deeds," he used to say, " after I learned all the truth, 
 have I ever so bitterly regretted." 
 
 From the very first, the author and her son so deeply 
 lamented what they had done for they learned almost im- 
 mediately that the sacrifice was uncalled for that for years 
 they could not speak of it between themselves or to my 
 grandfather. The latter bore his exile with much philosophy. 
 He was not forbidden to dwell in France, but only in Paris 
 and its neighborhood, and it was decided that they should all 
 await the passing of the storm in Languedoc, where he pos- 
 sessed an estate which he had bought back from the heirs of 
 M. de Bastard, his wife's grandfather, and which had long 
 been neglected. The family removed, therefore, to Laffitte, 
 where my father afterward passed so many years, now in the 
 midst of political agitation, again in quiet study. In after 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 days he again came thither from exile ; for the sufferings of 
 good citizens from absolute power were not to be restricted 
 to the year 1815, and Napoleons have returned to France 
 from a greater distance than the Isle of Elba. 
 
 My grandfather started for Laffitte on March 13th, and 
 his family joined him there a few days afterward. At Laf- 
 fitte they passed the three months of that reign, shorter but 
 still more fatal than the first, which has been called " The 
 Hundred Days." There my father entered upon his literary 
 career, not as yet producing original works, but translating 
 Pope, Cicero, and Tacitus. His only original writings were 
 his songs. The family lived quietly, unitedly, and almost 
 happily, waiting the end of a tragedy of which they foresaw 
 the denoument, and at Laffitte they received the news of 
 Waterloo. They heard at the same time of the abdication of 
 Napoleon, and that M. de Eemusat was appointed Prefect 
 of Haute-Garonne, by a decree of July 12, 1815. This ap- 
 pointment was quite to the taste of my grandfather, for it 
 placed him once more in office, without involving him in the 
 parade of a court ; but it was less pleasing to his wife, who 
 regretted Paris and her old friends there, and who dreaded 
 the disturbances at Toulouse, at that time a prey to the vio- 
 lence of southern Eoyalism " the White Terror," as it was 
 then called. 
 
 The new Prefect immediately set out for Toulouse, and 
 was greeted on his arrival with the news that General Kamel, 
 notwithstanding that he had hoisted the white flag on the 
 Capitol, had been assassinated. Such are the injustice and 
 violence of party spirit, even when victorious; nay, espe- 
 cially when victorious ! 
 
 But, however interesting this episode of our national 
 troubles may be, it is not necessary to dwell on them here. 
 The principal personage in these Memoirs is not the Prefect, 
 but Mme. de Remusat. My grandmother, anxious about 
 the course of events, and perhaps afraid of the vehemence 
 of her son's opinions, which were little suited to his father's 
 
xl PREFACE. 
 
 official position, sent him back to Paris, to his great satis- 
 faction. 
 
 Then ensued a correspondence between them which will 
 make both of them known to us, and will perhaps depict the 
 writer of these Memoirs more clearly than do the Memoirs 
 themselves. 
 
 As, however, the latter work only is in question at pres- 
 ent, it is not necessary to give in detail the history of the 
 period subsequent to 1815. The administration of the de- 
 partment, which commenced under such gloomy auspices, 
 was, for a period of nineteen months, extremely difficult. 
 While the son, mixing in very Liberal society in Paris, 
 adopted the opinions of advanced constitutional Royalism, 
 which did little more than tolerate the Bourbons, the father, 
 amid totally different surroundings, underwent a similar men- 
 tal process, and placed himself by word and deed in the front 
 rank of those officials of the King's Government who were 
 the least Eoyalist and the most Liberal. He was a just and 
 moderate man, a lover of law, neither an aristocrat nor a 
 bigot. The people of Toulouse were all that he was not ; 
 nevertheless he was successful there, and left behind him a 
 kindly memory, which lapsed as the men of his time disap- 
 peared, but of which my father has more than once found 
 traces. These early days of constitutional liberty, even in a 
 province which did not afterward put its theories boldly in 
 practice, are curious to contemplate. 
 
 The light of that liberty illumined all that the Empire 
 had left in darkness. Opinions, ideas, hatred, passions, came 
 to life. The Government of the Bourbons was represented 
 by a married priest, M. de Talleyrand, and a regicide Jaco- 
 bin, M. Fouche ; but even they could not oppose the reac- 
 tionary tendency of the time, and the Liberal policy did not 
 triumph until the accession of MM. Decazes, Pasquier, Mole, 
 and Koyer-Collard to the ministry, and the passing of the 
 famous decree of the 5th of September. The new policy 
 was of course advantageous to those who had practiced it be- 
 
PREFACE. x li 
 
 forehand, and there could be no ill will toward the Prefect 
 on account of the failure of the Liberal party in the elec- 
 tions of Haute-Garonne. So soon as the ministry was firm- 
 ly established, and as M. Laine had succeeded M. de Yau- 
 blanc, my grandfather was appointed Prefect of Lille. My 
 father records in a letter already quoted the effect of these 
 events on the mind of Mme. de Remusat : 
 
 " The nomination of my father to Lille brought my mo- 
 ther back into the midst of the great stir of public opinion, 
 which was soon to declare itself as it had not done since 1789. 
 Her intelligence, her reason, all her feelings and all her con- 
 victions, were about to make a great step in advance. The 
 Empire, after awakening her interest in public affairs and 
 enabling her to understand them, subsequently directed her 
 mind toward a high moral aim, by inspiring her with a hor- 
 ror of tyranny. Hence came her desire for a government 
 of order, founded on law, reason, and the spirit of the na- 
 tion ; hence a certain leaning toward the forms of the Eng- 
 lish constitution. Her stay at Toulouse and the reaction of 
 1815 gave her such a knowledge of social realities as nhe 
 could never have acquired in the salwis of Paris, enlighten- 
 ing her as to the results and the causes of the Revolution, 
 and the needs and sentiments of the nation. She under- 
 stood, in a general way, on which side lay true help, strength, 
 life, and right. She learned that a new France had been 
 called into existence, and what it was, and that it was for 
 and by this new France that government must be carried 
 
 YI. 
 
 My grandmother's stay at Lille was occasionally varied 
 by visits to her son in Paris. The pleasures of society were 
 but a prelude to the literary success that he achieved a few 
 months later ; and indeed he was already practicing compo- 
 sition in his frequent letters to his mother on politics and 
 literature. Mme. de Remusat had more leisure at Lille than 
 
xlii PREFACE. 
 
 in Paris, and, although her health was still delicate, she in- 
 dulged her taste for intellectual pursuits. Hitherto she had 
 written nothing but the Memoirs that she had afterward de- 
 stroyed, and a few short tales and essays. In the leisure of 
 a country life she now attempted a romance in the form 
 of letters, called " Les Lettres Espagnols, ou PAmbitieux." 
 While she was working at this with ardor and success, the 
 posthumous work of Mme. de Stael, " Considerations sur la 
 Revolution Franchise," came out in 1818, and made a great 
 impression on her. !N"ow that sixty years have elapsed, it is 
 difficult for us to realize the extraordinary effect of Mme. de 
 Stael's eloquent dissertation on the principles of the Revolu- 
 tion. The opinions of the author, then quite novel, are now 
 merely noble truisms obvious to all. But in the days that 
 immediately followed the Empire they were something more. 
 Everything was then new, and the younger generation, wno 
 had undergone twenty years of tyranny, had to learn over 
 again that which their fathers had known so well in 1T89. 
 
 My grandmother was especially struck by the eloquent 
 pages in which the author gives somewhat declamatory ex- 
 pression to her hatred of Napoleon. Mme. de Remusat felt 
 a certain sympathy with the author's sentiments, but she 
 could not forget that at one time she had thought differently. 
 People who are fond of writing are easily tempted into ex- 
 plaining their conduct and feelings on paper. She conceived 
 a strong desire to arrange all her reminiscences, to describe 
 the Empire as she had seen it, and how she had at first loved 
 and admired, next condemned and dreaded, afterward sus- 
 pected and hated, and finally renounced it. The Memoirs 
 she had destroyed in 1815 would have been the most accu- 
 rate exposition of this succession of events, situations, and 
 feelings. It was vain to think of rewriting them, but it 
 was possible, with the help of a good memory and an up- 
 right intention, to compose others which should be equally 
 sincere. Full of this project, she wrote to her son (May 27, 
 1818) : 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 " I have taken up a new notion. You must know that I 
 wake every morning at six o'clock, and that I write regularly 
 from that hour until half -past nine. Well, I was sitting up 
 with the manuscript of my c Lettres Espagnols ' all scattered 
 about me, when certain chapters of Mme. de StaeTs book 
 came into my head. I flung my romance aside, and took up 
 a clean sheet of paper, bitten with the idea that I must write 
 about Bonaparte. On I went, describing the death of the 
 Duke d'Enghien and that dreadful week I spent at Malmai- 
 son ; and, as I am an emotional person, I seemed to be living 
 all through that time over again. Words and events came 
 back of themselves; between yesterday and to-day I have 
 written twenty pages, and am somewhat agitated in conse- 
 quence." 
 
 The same circumstance which reawakened the recollec- 
 tions of the mother aroused the literary tastes of the son ; 
 and while he was publishing an article on Mme. de Stae'l in 
 the " Archives," * his first appearance in print, he wrote as 
 follows to his mother on the same date, May 27, 1818. Their 
 respective letters crossed on the road : 
 
 " c All honor to the sincere ! ' This book, my dear mother, 
 has renewed my regret that you have burned your Memoirs, 
 and has made me most anxious that you should retrieve that 
 loss. You really owe this to yourself, to us, to the interests 
 of truth. Eead up the old almanacs ; study the ' Moniteur ' 
 page by page ; get back your old letters from your friends, 
 and go over them, especially those to my father. Try to 
 remember not only the details of events, but your own im- 
 pressions of them. Try to resuscitate the views you formerly 
 held, even the illusions you have lost ; recall your very er- 
 rors. Show how you, with many other honorable and sensi- 
 ble people, indignant and disgusted with the horrors of the 
 
 * "Archives Philosophiques, Politiques et Litte>aires," rol. v., Paris, 1818. 
 My father reprinted this article in the collection entitled " Critiques et Etudes 
 Litteraires, ou Passe" et Present," par Ch. de Rerausat. 2 vols., 12rno. Paris, 
 1857. 
 
xliv PREFACE. 
 
 Eevolution, were carried away by natural aversions, and be- 
 guiled by enthusiasm for one man, which was in reality high- 
 ly patriotic. Explain how we had all of us become, as it 
 were, strangers to political life. We had no dread of the 
 empire of an individual; we went out to meet it. Then 
 show how this man either became corrupt, or else displayed 
 his true character as his power increased. Tell how it un- 
 fortunately happened that, as you lost one by one your illu- 
 sions concerning him, you became more and more dependent, 
 and how the less you submitted to him in heart, the more 
 you were obliged to obey him in fact ; how at last, after hav- 
 ing believed in the uprightness of his policy because you 
 were mistaken in himself, your discovery of his true charac- 
 ter led you to a correct view of his system ; and how moral 
 indignation finally brought you by degrees to what I may 
 call a political hatred of him. This, my dear mother, is 
 what I entreat of you to do. You see what I mean, do you 
 not ? and you will do it." 
 
 Two days after, on the 30th of May, my grandmother re- 
 plied as follows : 
 
 " Is it not wonderful how perfectly we understand each 
 other ? I am reading the book, and I am as much struck by 
 it as you are. I regret my poor Memoirs for new reasons, 
 and I take up my pen again without quite knowing whither 
 it will lead me ; for, my dear child, this task which you have 
 set me, and which of itself is tempting, is also formidable. 
 I shall, however, set about reviving my impressions of cer- 
 tain epochs, at first without order or sequence, just as things 
 come back to me. You may trust me to set down the very 
 truth. Yesterday, when I was alone and at my desk, I was 
 trying to recall my first meeting with this wretched man. 
 A tide of remembrance rushed over me, and that which you 
 so justly call my political hatred was ready to fade away and 
 give place to my former illusions." 
 
 A few days later, on the 8th of June, 1818, she dwells 
 on the difficulties of her task : 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 " Do you know that I need all my courage to do as you 
 tell me ? I am like a person who, having spent ten years at 
 the galleys, is asked to write an account of how he passed his 
 time. My heart sinks when I recall old memories. There is 
 pain both in my past fancies and in my present feelings. You 
 are right in saying I love truth ; but it follows that I can not, 
 like so many others, recall the past with impunity, and I assure 
 you that, for the last week, I have risen quite saddened from 
 the desk at which you and Mme. de Stael have placed me. I 
 could not reveal these feelings to any one but you. Others 
 would not understand, and would only laugh at me." 
 
 On the 28th of September and the 8th of October of the 
 same year, she writes to her son : 
 
 " If I were a man, I should certainly devote a part of 
 my life to studying the League; being only a woman, I 
 confine myself to verbal utterances about you know whom. 
 What a man ! what a man ! It terrifies me to retrace it 
 all. It was my misfortune to be very young when I was 
 placed near him; I did not reflect on what passed before 
 me ; but now that w r e are both older, I and the generation 
 to which I belong, my memories move me more than did 
 events at that time. If you come ... I think you will 
 find that I have not lost much time this summer. I have 
 already written nearly five hundred pages, and I am going 
 to write much more ; the task lengthens as I work at it. 
 Afterward much time and patience will be required to put 
 all this material in order. Perhaps I shall never have either 
 one or the other ; if so, that will be your business when I 
 shall be no longer here." 
 
 " Your father," she writes again, " says that he does not 
 know of any one to whom I could show what I am writing. 
 He declares that no one excels me in ' the talent for being 
 true ' as he expresses it. So, therefore, I write for nobody 
 in particular. Some day you will find my manuscripts among 
 my effects, and you can do what you like with them." 
 
 On the 8th of October, 1818, she writes : There is a 
 
xlvi PREFACE. 
 
 thought that sometimes troubles me. I say to myself, < Sup- 
 pose some day my son publishes this, what will be said of 
 me ? ' Then the fear seizes me that I shall be held to have 
 been malicious, or at least ill-natured, and I rack my brain 
 for something to praise. But this man (Bonaparte) was such 
 a ruthless destroyer of all worth and we were brought so 
 low that I am straitened by the demands of truth, and I 
 grow quite disheartened." 
 
 These fragments of her letters indicate the spirit in which 
 the Memoirs of Mme. de Remusat were written ; and it was 
 not that of a literary pastime, nor a pleasure of the imagina- 
 tion. Her motive was neither ambition to be an author, nor 
 the desire to put forward an apology. The love of truth, 
 the political spectacle before her eyes, and the influence of a 
 son who became day by day more strongly confirmed in those 
 Liberal opinions which were destined to be the delight and 
 the honor of his life these things gave her courage to per- 
 severe in her task for more than two years. She understood 
 that noble policy which places the rights of man above the 
 rights of the State. Nor was this all. As often happens to 
 persons deeply engaged in intellectual work, her task became 
 plain and easy, and she led a more active life than at any 
 previous time. In spite of failing health, she constantly 
 traveled from Lille to Paris ; she acted the part of Elmire in 
 " Tartuffe " at M. Mole's house at Champldtreux ; she com- 
 menced a work on the Women of the Seventeenth Century, 
 which she afterward expanded into her " Essai sur 1'Educa- 
 tion des Femmes " ; she supplied Dupuytren with material 
 for a panegyric on Corvisart, and she even published a tale 
 in the " Lycee Fran^ais." * 
 
 In the midst of the happiness which she derived from 
 her quiet life and her busy mind, from her husband's official 
 and her son's literary success, her health failed. First came 
 a weakness of the eyes, which, without actually threatening 
 
 * " Lyc6e Frai^ais, on Melange de Litte'rature ct de Critique," t. iii., p. 281 
 (1820). ' 
 
PREFACE. X l vii 
 
 her sight, occasioned her both pain and inconvenience ; then 
 followed a general delicacy of the system, in which the 
 stomach was chiefly affected. After alternate changes for 
 the better and the worse, her son brought her to Paris on 
 the 28th of November, 1821, in a suffering condition, which 
 was alarming to those who loved her, but did not appear to 
 the doctors to indicate immediate danger. Broussais, how- 
 ever, took a desponding view of her case, and my father was 
 then first struck by the power of induction to which the 
 discoveries and the errors of that eminent man are alike due. 
 Notwithstanding her illness, she occupied herself on her re- 
 turn to Lille with literary and historical work, and received 
 company, including a great number of political personages. 
 She was still able to feel interested in the fall of the Duke 
 Decazes, and she foresaw that the coming into power of M. 
 de Villele that is to say, of the ultras or reactionaries, as 
 they are now called would render it impossible for her 
 husband to retain the Prefecture of Lille ; and, in fact, he 
 was superseded on the 9th of January, 1822. Before this 
 occurred, Mme. de Kemusat was no more. She expired sud- 
 denly in the night, December 16, 1821, aged forty-one years. 
 She bequeathed to her son a lifelong sorrow, and to her 
 friends the memory of a remarkable and charming woman. 
 Not one of those friends is now living; M. Pasquier, M. 
 Mole, M. Guizot, and M. Leclerc have recently passed away. 
 I render her memory the truest homage in my power by the 
 publication of these unfinished Memoirs, which, with the 
 exception of a few chapters, she was unable to read over or 
 correct. The work was to have been divided into five parts, 
 corresponding with five distinct epochs. She completed only 
 three, which- treat of the interval between 1802 and 1808 ; 
 that is to say, from her first appearance at Court to the 
 breaking out of the war in Spain. The unwritten portions 
 would have described the period that elapsed between that 
 war and the divorce (1808-1809), and the five following 
 years, ending with the fall of the Emperor. I am well 
 
xlviii PREFACE. 
 
 aware that a work of the nature of this one is calculated to 
 bring down upon both its author and its editor much blame, 
 many insinuations, and a great deal of political animosity. 
 Its apparent contradictions will be held up to observation, 
 rather than the interesting analogy of the opinions of three 
 generations which it sets forth, and the difference in the 
 times. It will be a theme for wonder that any man could 
 be a chamberlain and any woman a lady-in-waiting, and yet 
 that both could be so far from servile, so liberal, so little 
 shocked by the 18th Brumaire, so patriotic, so much fasci- 
 nated by that man of genius, Bonaparte, and so severe upon 
 his faults, so clear-sighted respecting the majority of the 
 members of the Imperial family, so indulgent or so blind 
 with regard to others who have left an equally fatal impress 
 on our national history. It will, however, be difficult to 
 avoid doing justice to the sincerity, the honesty, and the 
 intelligence of the author, or to read the book without de- 
 riving from it an increased aversion to absolute power, a 
 keener perception of its sophistry, and the hollowness of the 
 apparent prosperity with which it dazzles public opinion. 
 These impressions I have especially derived from it, and I 
 desire to retain them. It would have been sufficient preface 
 to this book had I written only those words which my father 
 uttered, sixty years ago, when, on reading Mme. de Stael, 
 he asked his mother to tell him the story of the cruel years 
 of the First Empire : " All honor to the sincere ! " 
 
 PAUL DE EfiMUSAT. 
 
MEMOIES OF 
 
 MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 INTEODUCTIOK 
 
 PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 
 
 Now that I am about to commence these Memoirs, I 
 think it well to precede them by some observations on the 
 character of the Emperor, and the various members of his 
 family respectively. These observations will help me in the 
 difficult task I am about to undertake, by aiding me to recall 
 the impressions of the last twelve years. I shall begin with 
 Bonaparte himself. I am far from saying that he always 
 appeared to me in the light in which I see him now ; my 
 opinions have progressed, even as he did ; but I am so far 
 from being influenced by personal feelings, that I do not 
 think it is possible for me to deviate from the exact truth. 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte is of low stature, and rather ill- 
 proportioned ; his bust is too long, and so shortens the rest 
 of his figure. He has thin chestnut hair, his eyes are grayish 
 blue, and his skin, which was yellow while he was slight, 
 became in later years a dead white without any color. His 
 forehead, the setting of his eye, the line of his nose all that 
 is beautiful, and reminds one of an antique medallion. His 
 mouth, which is thin-lipped, becomes agreeable when he 
 laughs ; the teeth are regular. His chin is short, and his 
 
2 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 jaw heavy and square. He has well-formed hands and feet ; 
 I mention them particularly, because he thought a good deal 
 of them. 
 
 He has an habitual slight stoop. His eyes are dull, giv- 
 ing to his face when in repose a melancholy and meditative 
 expression. When he is excited with anger his looks are 
 fierce and menacing. Laughter becomes him ; it makes him 
 look more youthful and less formidable. It is difficult not 
 to like him when he laughs, his countenance improves so 
 much. He was always simple in his dress, and generally 
 wore the uniform of his own guard. He was cleanly rather 
 from habit than from a liking for cleanliness; he bathed 
 often, sometimes in the middle of the night, because he 
 thought the practice good for his health. But, apart from 
 this, the precipitation with he did everything did not admit 
 of his clothes being put on carefully ; and on gala days and 
 full-dress occasions his servants were obliged to consult to- 
 gether as to when they might snatch a moment to dress him. 
 
 He could not endure the wearing of ornaments ; the 
 slightest constraint was insupportable to him. He would 
 tear off or break anything that gave him the least annoy- 
 ance ; and sometimes the poor valet who had occasioned him 
 a passing inconvenience would receive violent proof of his 
 anger. I have said there was a sort of fascination in the 
 smile of Bonaparte ; but, during all the time I was in the 
 habit of seeing him, he rarely put forth that charm. Gravity 
 was the foundation of his character ; not the gravity of a 
 dignified and noble manner, but that which arises from pro- 
 found thought. In his youth he was a dreamer ; later in life 
 he became a moody, and later still an habitually ill-tempered 
 man. When I first began to know him well, he was exceed- 
 ingly fond of all that induces reverie Ossian, the twilight, 
 melancholy music. I have seen him enraptured by the mur- 
 mur of the wind, I have heard him talk with enthusiasm of 
 the moaning of the sea, and he was tempted sometimes to 
 believe that nocturnal apparitions were not beyond the bounds 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 3 
 
 of possibility ; in fact, he had a leaning to certain supersti- 
 tions. When, on leaving his study in the evening, he went 
 into Mme. Bonaparte's drawing-room, he would sometimes 
 have the candles shaded with white gauze, desire us to keep 
 profound silence, and amuse himself by telling or hearing 
 ghost stories ; or he would listen to soft, sweet music exe- 
 cuted by Italian singers, accompanied only by a few instru- 
 ments lightly touched. Then he would fall into a reverie 
 which all respected, no one venturing to move or stir from 
 his or her place. When he aroused himself from that state, 
 which seemed to procure him a sort of repose, he was gen- 
 erally more serene and more communicative. Pie liked then 
 to talk about the sensations he had experienced. He would 
 explain the effect music had upon him ; he always preferred 
 that of Paisiello, because he said it was monotonous, and 
 that impressions which repeat themselves are the only ones 
 that take possession of us. The geometrical turn of his mind 
 disposed him to analyze even his emotions. No man has 
 ever meditated more deeply than Bonaparte on the " where- 
 fore " that rules human actions. Always aiming at some- 
 thing, even in the least important acts of his life, always lay- 
 ing bare to himself a secret motive for each of them, he 
 could never understand that natural nonchalance which leads 
 some persons to act without a project and without an aim. 
 He always judged others by himself, and was often mistaken, 
 his conclusions and the actions which ensued upon them both 
 proving erroneous. 
 
 Bonaparte was deficient in education and in manners ; it 
 seemed as if he must have been destined either to live in a 
 tent where all men are equal, or upon a throne where every- 
 thing is permitted. He did not know how either to enter or 
 to leave a room ; he did not know how to make a bow, how 
 to rise, or how to sit down. His questions were abrupt, and 
 so also was his manner of speech. Spoken by him, Italian 
 loses all its grace and sweetness. Whatever language he 
 speaks, it seems always to be a foreign tongue to him ; he 
 
4: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE JR^MUSAT. 
 
 appears to force it to express his thoughts. And then, as 
 any rigid rule becomes an insupportable annoyance to him, 
 every liberty which he takes pleases him as though it were a 
 victory, and he would never yield even to grammar. He 
 used to say that in his youth he had liked reading romances 
 as well as studying the exact sciences ; and probably he was 
 influenced by so incongruous a mixture. Unfortunately, he 
 had met with the worst kind of romances, and retained so 
 keen a remembrance of the pleasure they had given him that, 
 when he married the Archduchess Marie Louise, he gave her 
 "Hippolyte, Comte de Douglas," and "LesContemporains,"* 
 so that, as he said, she might form an idea of refined feeling, 
 and also of the customs of society. 
 
 In trying to depict Bonaparte, it would be necessary, fol- 
 lowing the analytical forms of which he was so fond, to sepa- 
 rate into three very distinct parts his soul, his heart, and his 
 mind ; for no one of these ever blended completely with the 
 others. Although very remarkable for certain intellectual 
 qualities, no man, it must be allowed, was ever less lofty of 
 soul. There was no generosity, no true greatness in him. 
 J haye never known him to admire, I have never known him 
 to comprehend, a fine action. He always regarded every in- 
 dication of a good feeling with suspicion ; he did not value 
 sincerity ; and he did npt hesitate to say that he recognized 
 the superiority, of a man by the greater or less degree of 
 cleverness with which he used the art of lying. On the oc- 
 casion of his saying this, he added, with great complacency, 
 that when he was a child one of his uncles had predicted 
 that he should govern the world, because he was an habitual 
 liar. " M. de Metternich," he added, " approaches to being 
 a statesman he lies very well." 
 
 All Bonaparte's methods of government were selected 
 from among those which have a tendency to debase men. 
 He dreaded the ties of affection ; he endeavored to isolate 
 
 * " Les Contemporains " was a romance, or rather a series of stories or por- 
 raits, by Retif de la Bretonne. 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 5 
 
 every one ; he never sold a favor without awakening a sense 
 of uneasiness, for he held that the true way to attach the 
 recipients to himself was by compromising them, and often 
 even by blasting them in public opinion. He could not 
 pardon virtue until he had succeeded in weakening its effect 
 by ridicule. He can not be said to have truly loved glory, 
 for he never hesitated to prefer success to it ; thus, although 
 he was audacious in good fortune, and although he pushed 
 it to its utmost limits, he was tirnid and troubled when 
 threatened with reverses. Of generous courage he was not 
 capable ; and, indeed, on that head one would hardly ven- 
 ture to tell the truth so plainly as he has told it himself, by 
 an admission recorded in an anecdote which I have never 
 forgotten. One day, after his defeat at Leipsic, and when, 
 as he was about to return to Paris, he was occupied in col- 
 lecting the remains of his army for the defense of our fron- 
 tiers, he was talking to M. de Talleyrand of the ill success 
 of the Spanish war, and of the difficulty in which it had in- 
 volved him. He spoke openly of his own position, not with 
 the noble frankness that does not fear to own a fault, but 
 with that haughty sense of superiority which releases one 
 from the necessity of dissimulation. At this interview, in 
 the midst of his plain speaking, M. de Talleyrand said to 
 him suddenly, " But how is it ? You consult me as if we 
 had not quarreled." 
 
 Bonaparte answered, " Ah, circumstances ! circumstances! 
 Let us leave the past and the future alone. I want to hear 
 what you think of the present moment." 
 
 "Well," replied M. de Talleyrand, "there is only one 
 thing you can do. You have made a mistake : you must say 
 so ; try to say so nobly. Proclaim, therefore, that being a 
 King by the choice of the people, elected by the nations, it 
 has never been your design to set yourself against them. 
 Say that, when you began the war with Spain, you believed 
 you were about to deliver the people from the yoke of an 
 odious minister, who was encouraged by the weakness of his 
 
6 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 prince ; but that, on closer observation, you perceive that the 
 Spaniards, although aware of the faults of their King, are 
 none the less attached to his dynasty, which you are there- 
 fore about to restore to them, so that it may not be said you 
 ever opposed a national aspiration. After that proclamation, 
 restore King Ferdinand to liberty, and withdraw your troops. 
 Such an avowal, made in a lofty tone, and when the enemy 
 are still hesitating on our frontier, can only do you honor ; 
 and you are still too strong for it to be regarded as a coward- 
 ly act." 
 
 " A cowardly act ! " replied Bonaparte ; " what does that 
 matter to me ? Understand that I should not fail to com- 
 mit one, if it were useful to me. In reality, there is nothing 
 really noble or base in this world ; I have in my character 
 all that can contribute to secure my power, and to deceive 
 those who think they know me. Frankly, I am base, essen- 
 tially base. I give you my word that I should feel no re- 
 pugnance to commit what would be called by the world a 
 dishonorable action ; my secret tendencies, which are, after 
 all, those of nature, opposed to certain affectations of great- 
 ness with which I have to adorn myself, give me infinite 
 resources with which to baffle every one. Therefore, all I 
 have to do now is to consider whether your advice agrees 
 with my present policy, and to try and find out besides," he 
 added (says M. de Talleyrand), with a satanic smile, " wheth- 
 er you have not some private interest in urging me to take 
 this step." 
 
 Another anecdote which bears on the same characteristic 
 will not be out of place here. Bonaparte, when on the 
 point of setting out for Egypt, went to see M. de Talley- 
 rand, then Minister of Foreign Affairs under the Directory. 
 " I was in bed, being ill," said M. de Talleyrand. " Bona- 
 parte sat down near me, and divulged to me all the dreams 
 of his youthful imagination. I was interested in him be- 
 cause of the activity of his mind, and also on account of the 
 obstacles which I was aware would be placed in his way by 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 7 
 
 secret enemies of whom I knew. He told me of the diffi- 
 culty in which he was placed for want of money, and that 
 he did not know where to get any. i Stay,' I said to him ; 
 ' open my desk. You will find there a hundred thousand 
 francs which belong to me. They are yours for the present ; 
 you may repay the money when you return.' Bonaparte 
 threw himself on my neck, and I was really delighted to 
 witness his joy. When he became Consul, he gave me back 
 the money I had lent him ; but he asked me one day, ' What 
 interest could you have had in lending me that money ? I 
 have thought about it a hundred times since then, and have 
 never been able to make out your object.' ' I had none,' I 
 replied. ' I was feeling very ill : it was quite possible I 
 might never see you again ; but you were young, you had 
 impressed me very strongly, and I felt impelled to render 
 you a service without any afterthought whatsoever.' ' In 
 that case,' said Bonaparte, ' and if it was really done without 
 any design, you acted a dupe's part.' '' 
 
 According to the order I have laid down, I ought now to 
 speak of Bonaparte's heart ; but, if it were possible to believe 
 that a being, in every other way similar to ourselves, could 
 exist without that portion of our organization which makes 
 us desire to love and to be loved, I should say that in his cre- 
 ation the heart was left out. Perhaps, however, the truth 
 was that he succeeded in suppressing it completely. He was 
 always too much engrossed by himself to be influenced by 
 any sentiment of affection, no matter of what kind. He al- 
 most ignored the ties of blood and the rights of nature ; I do 
 not know that even paternity weighed with him. It seemed, 
 at least, that he did not regard it as his primary relation with 
 his son. One day, at breakfast, when, as was often the case, 
 Talma had been admitted to see him, the young Napoleon 
 was brought to him. The Emperor took the child on his 
 knee, and, far from caressing, amused himself by slapping 
 him, though not so as to hurt him ; then, turning to Talma, 
 he said, "Talma, tell me what I am doing?" Talma, as 
 
8 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 may be supposed, did not know what to say. " You do not 
 see it," continued the Emperor ; " I am slapping a King." 
 
 Notwithstanding his habitual hardness, Bonaparte was 
 not entirely without experience of love. But, good heav- 
 ens ! what manner of sentiment was it in his case ? A sen- 
 sitive person forgets self in love, and becomes almost trans- 
 formed ; but to a man of the stamp of Bonaparte it only 
 supplies an additional sort of despotism. The Emperor de- 
 spised women, and contempt can not exist together with love. 
 He regarded their weakness as an unanswerable proof of 
 their inferiority, and the power they have acquired in socie- 
 ty as an intolerable usurpation a result and an abuse of the 
 progress of that civilization which, as M. de Talleyrand said, 
 was always his personal enemy. On this account Bonaparte 
 was under restraint in the society of women ; and, as every 
 kind of restraint put him out of humor, he was always awk- 
 ward in their presence, and never knew how to talk to them. 
 It is true that the women with whom he was acquainted 
 were not calculated to change his views of the sex. "We 
 may easily imagine the nature of his youthful experiences. 
 In Italy morals were utterly depraved, and the general licen- 
 tiousness was augmented by the presence of the French 
 army. "When he returned to France society was entirely 
 broken up and dispersed. The circle that surrounded the 
 Directory was a corrupt one, and the Parisian women to 
 whose society he was admitted were vain and frivolous, the 
 wives of men of business and contractors. When he became 
 Consul, and made his generals and his aides-de-camp marry, 
 or ordered them to bring their wives to Court, the only 
 women he had about him were timid and silent girls, newly 
 married, or the wives of his former comrades, suddenly with- 
 drawn from obscurity by the good fortune of their husbands, 
 and ill able to conform to the change in their position. 
 
 I am disposed to believe that Bonaparte, almost always 
 exclusively occupied by politics, was never awakened to love 
 except by vanity. He thought nothing of a woman except 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECD01E8. 9 
 
 while she was beautiful, or at least young. He would prob- 
 ably have been willing to subscribe to the doctrine that, in a 
 well-organized country, we should be killed just as certain 
 kinds of insects are destined by nature to a speedy death, so 
 soon as they have accomplished the task of maternity. Yet 
 Bonaparte had some affection for his first wife ; and, if he was 
 ever really stirred by any emotion, it was by her and for her. 
 Even a Bonaparte can not completely escape from every influ- 
 ence, and a man's character is composed, not of what he is 
 always, but of what he is most frequently. 
 
 Bonaparte was young when he first made the acquain- 
 tance of Mme. de Beauharnais, who was greatly superior to 
 the rest of the circle in which she moved, both by reason 
 of the name she bore and from the elegance of her manners. 
 She attached herself to him, and flattered his pride ; she pro- 
 cured him a step in rank ; he became accustomed to associate 
 the idea of her influence with every piece of good fortune 
 which befell him. This superstition, which she kept up 
 very cleverly, exerted great power over him for a long time ; 
 it even induced him more than once to delay the execution of 
 his projects of divorce. When he married Mme. de Beau- 
 harnais, Bonaparte believed that he was allying himself to a 
 very great lady ; his marriage, therefore, was one conquest 
 the more. I shall give further details of the charm she exer- 
 cised over him when I have to speak more particularly 
 of her. 
 
 Notwithstanding his preference for her, I have seen him 
 in love two or three times, and it was on those occasions 
 that he exhibited the full measure of the despotism of his 
 character. How irritated he became at the least obstacle! 
 How roughly he put aside the jealous remonstrances of his 
 wife ! " It is your place," he said, " to submit to all my 
 fancies, and you ought to think it quite natural that I should 
 allow myself amusements of this kind. I have a right to an- 
 swer all your complaints by an eternal I. I am a person 
 apart ; I will not be dictated to by any one." But he soon 
 
10 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 began to desire to exercise over the object of his passing 
 preference an authority equal to that by which he silenced 
 his wife. Astonished that any one should have any ascen- 
 dancy over him, he speedily became angry with the auda- 
 cious individual, and he would abruptly get rid of the object 
 of his brief passion, having let the public into the transpa- 
 rent secret of his success. 
 
 The intellect of Bonaparte was most remarkable. It 
 would be difficult, I think, to find among men a more power- 
 ful or comprehensive mind. It owed nothing to education ; 
 for, in reality, he was ignorant, reading but little, and that 
 hurriedly. But he quickly seized upon the little he learned, 
 and his imagination developed it so extensively that he might 
 easily have passed for a well-educated man. 
 
 His intellectual capacity seemed to be vast, from the 
 number of subjects he could take in and classify without 
 fatigue. With him one idea gave birth to a thousand, and a 
 word would lift his conversation into elevated regions of 
 fancy, in which exact logic did not indeed keep him com- 
 pany, but in which his intellect never failed to shine. 
 
 It was always a great pleasure to me to hear him talk, or 
 rather to hear him hold forth, for his conversation was com- 
 posed generally of long monologues ; not that he objected to 
 replies when he was in a good humor, but, for many reasons, 
 it was not always easy to answer him. His Court, which for 
 a long time was entirely military, listened to his least word 
 with the respect that is paid to the word of command ; and 
 afterward it became so numerous that any individual under- 
 taking to refute him, or to carry on a dialogue with him, felt 
 like an actor before an audience. I have said that he spoke 
 badly, but his language was generally animated and brilliant ; 
 his grammatical inaccuracies sometimes lent his sentences 
 an unexpected strength, very suitable to the originality of 
 his ideas. He required no interlocutor to warm him up. 
 He would dash into a subject, and go on for a long time, 
 careful to notice, however, whether he was followed, and 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. H 
 
 pleased with those who comprehended and applauded him. 
 Formerly, to know how to listen to him was a sure and easy 
 way of pleasing him. Like an actor who becomes excited 
 by the effect he produces, Bonaparte enjoyed the admiration 
 he watched for closely in the faces of his audience. I re- 
 member well how, because he interested me very much when 
 he spoke, and I listened to him with pleasure, he proclaimed 
 me a woman of intellect, although at that time I had not 
 addressed two consecutive sentences to him. 
 
 He was very fond of talking about himself, and criticised 
 himself on certain points, just as another person might have 
 done. Eather than fail to make the most out of his own 
 character, he would not have hesitated to subject it to the 
 most searching analysis. He used often to say that a real 
 politician knows how to calculate even the smallest profits 
 that he can make out of his defects ; and M. de Talleyrand 
 carried that reflection even further. I once heard him say, 
 " That devil of a man deceives one on all points. His very- 
 passions mislead, for he manages to dissemble them even 
 when they really exist." I can recall an incident which will 
 show how, when he found it useful, he could pass from the 
 most complete calm to the most violent anger. 
 
 A little while before our last rupture with England, a 
 rumor was spread that war was about to recommence, and 
 that the ambassador, Lord Whitworth, was preparing to leave 
 Paris. Once a month the First Consul was in the habit of 
 receiving, in Mme. Bonaparte's apartments, the ambassadors 
 and their wives. This reception was held in great pomp. 
 The foreigners were ushered into a drawing-room, and when 
 they were all there the First Consul would appear, accompa- 
 nied by his wife. Both were attended by a prefect and a 
 lady of the palace. To each of them the ambassadors and 
 their wives were introduced by name. Mme. Bonaparte 
 would take a seat ; the First Consul would keep up the con- 
 versation for a longer or a shorter time, according to his con- 
 venience, and then withdraw with a slight bow. A few 
 
12 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 days before the breach of the peace, the Corps Diplomatique 
 had met as usual at the Tuileries. While they were wait- 
 ing, I went to Mme. Bonaparte's apartment, and entered the 
 dressing-room, where she was finishing her toilet. 
 
 The First Consul was sitting on the floor, playing with 
 little Napoleon, the eldest son of his brother Louis. He 
 presently began to criticise his wife's dress, and also mine, 
 giving us his opinion on every detail of our costume. He 
 seemed to be in the best possible humor. I remarked this, 
 and said to him that, judging by appearances, the letters the 
 ambassadors would have to write, after the approaching audi- 
 ence, would breathe nothing but peace and concord. Bona- 
 parte laughed, and went on playing with his little nephew. 
 
 By-and-by he was told that the company had arrived. 
 Then he rose quickly, the gayety vanished from his face, and 
 I was struck by the severe expression that suddenly replaced 
 it : he seemed to grow pale at will, his features contracted ; 
 and all this in less time than it takes me to describe it. " Let 
 us go, mesdames," said he, in a troubled voice ; and then he 
 walked on quickly, entered the drawing-room, and, without 
 bowing to any one, advanced to the English ambassador. 
 To him he began to complain bitterly of the proceedings of 
 his Government. His anger seemed to increase every min- 
 ute ; it soon reached a height which terrified the assembly ; 
 the hardest words, the most violent threats, were poured 
 forth by his trembling lips. No one dared to move. Mme. 
 Bonaparte and I looked at each other, dumb with astonish- 
 ment, and every one trembled. The impassibility of the 
 Englishman was even disconcerted, and it was with difficulty 
 he could find words to answer. 
 
 Another anecdote* which sounds strange, but is very 
 
 * The Abbe de Pradt relates that on one occasion, after a violent Bcene, the 
 Emperor came to him and said : " You thought me terribly angry ? Undeceive 
 yourself; with me anger never goes beyond this." And he passed his hand 
 across his throat, thus indicating that his passion never rose high enough to 
 disturb his head. 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 13 
 
 characteristic, proves how completely he could command 
 himself when he chose to do so. 
 
 When he was traveling, or even during a campaign, he 
 never failed to indulge in gallantries which he regarded as 
 a short respite from business or battles. His brother-in-law 
 Murat, and his grand-marshal Duroc, were charged with the 
 task of procuring him the means of gratifying his passing 
 fancies. On the occasion of his first entry into Poland, 
 Murat, who had preceded him to Warsaw, was ordered 
 to find for the Emperor, who would shortly arrive, a young 
 and pretty mistress, and to select her from among the nobil- 
 ity. He acquitted himself cleverly of this commission, and 
 induced a noble young Polish lady, who was married to an 
 old man, to comply with the Emperor's wishes. Ko one 
 knows what means he employed, or what were his promises ; 
 but at last the lady consented to go in the evening to the 
 castle near "Warsaw, where the Emperor was lodged. 
 
 The fair one arrived rather late at her destination. She 
 has herself narrated this adventure, and she acknowledges, 
 what we can readily believe, that she arrived agitated and 
 trembling. 
 
 The Emperor was in his cabinet. The lady's arrival was 
 announced to him ; but, without disturbing himself, he or- 
 dered her to be conducted to her apartment, and offered 
 supper and a bath, adding that afterward she might retire to 
 rest if she chose. Then he quietly went on writing until a 
 late hour at night. 
 
 At last, his business being finished, he proceeded to the 
 apartment where he had been so long waited for, and pre- 
 sented himself with all the manner of a master who disdains 
 useless preliminaries. Without losing a moment, he began a 
 singular conversation on the political situation of Poland, 
 questioning the young lady as if she had been a police agent, 
 and demanding some very circumstantial information respect- 
 ing the great Polish nobles who were then in Warsaw. He 
 inquired particularly into their opinions and their present in- 
 
14 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 terests, and prolonged this extraordinary interrogatory for a 
 long time. The astonishment of a woman twenty years of 
 age, who was not prepared for such a cross-examination, may 
 be imagined. She answered him as well as she could, and 
 only when she could tell him no more did he seem to remem- 
 ber that Murat had promised, in his name, an interview of a 
 more tender nature. 
 
 This extraordinary wooing did not, however, prevent the 
 young Polish lady from becoming attached to the Emperor, 
 for their liaison was prolonged during several campaigns. 
 Afterward the fair Pole came to Paris, where a son was 
 born, who became the object of the hopes of Poland, the 
 rallying point of Polish dreams of independence. 
 
 I saw his mother when she was presented at the Imperial 
 Court, where she at first excited the jealousy of Mine. Bona- 
 parte ; but after the divorce she became the intimate friend 
 of the repudiated Empress at Malmaison, whither she often 
 brought her son. It is said that she was faithful to the Em- 
 peror in his misfortunes, and that she visited him more than 
 once at the Isle of Elba. He found her again in France 
 when he made his last and fatal appearance there. But, 
 after his second fall (I do not know at what time she became 
 a widow), she married again, and she died in Paris this year 
 (1818). I had these details from M. de Talleyrand. 
 
 I will now resume my sketch. Bonaparte carried self- 
 ishness so far that it was not easy to move him about any- 
 thing that did not concern himself. He was, however, oc- 
 casionally surprised, as it were, into impulses of tenderness ; 
 but they were very fugitive, and always ended in ill humor. 
 It was not uncommon to see him moved even to the point of 
 shedding a few tears ; they seemed to arise from nervous ir- 
 ritation, of which they became the crisis. "I have," he 
 said, " very unmanageable nerves,, and at these times, if my 
 blood did not always flow slowly, I think I should be very 
 likely to go mad." I know, indeed, from Corvisart, that his 
 pulse beat more slowly than is usual for a man's. Bonaparte 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 15 
 
 never felt what is commonly called giddiness, and lie always 
 said that the expression, " My head is going round," con- 
 veyed no meaning to him. It was not only from the ease 
 with which he yielded to all his impulses that he often used 
 language which was painful and distressing to those whom 
 he addressed, but also because he felt a secret pleasure in 
 exciting fear, and in harassing the more or less trembling 
 individuals before him. He held that uncertainty stimulates 
 zeal, and therefore he rarely displayed satisfaction with 
 either persons or things. Admirably served, always obeyed 
 on the moment, he would still find fault, and keep every- 
 body in the palace in dread of his displeasure about some 
 small detail. If the easy flow of his conversation had estab- 
 lished for the time a sense of ease, he would suddenly imag- 
 ine that it might be abused, and by a hard and imperious 
 word put the person whom he had welcomed and encouraged 
 in his or her place that is to say, in fear. He hated repose 
 for himself and grudged it to others. When M. de Kemusat 
 had arranged one of those magnificent fetes where all the 
 arts were laid under contribution for his pleasure, I was 
 never asked whether the Emperor was pleased, but whether 
 he had grumbled more or less. His service was the severest 
 of toil. He has been heard to say, in one of those moments 
 when the strength of conviction appeared to weigh upon 
 him, " The truly happy man is he who hides from me in 
 the country, and when I die the world will utter a great 
 
 I have said that Bonaparte was incapable of generosity ; 
 and yet his gifts were immense, and the rewards he bestowed 
 gigantic. But, when he paid for a service, he made it plain 
 that he expected to buy another, and a vague uneasiness as to 
 the conditions of the bargain always remained. There wag 
 also a good deal of caprice in his gifts, so that they rarely ex- 
 cited gratitude. Moreover, he required that the money he 
 distributed should all be expended, and he rather liked peo- 
 ple to contract debts, because it kept them in a state of de- 
 5 
 
16 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE EtiMUSAT. 
 
 pendence. His wife gave him complete satisfaction in the 
 latter particular, and he would never put her affairs in order, 
 so that he might keep the power of making her uneasy in his 
 hands. At one time he settled a considerable revenue on M. 
 de R6musat, that we might keep what is called open house, 
 and receive a great many foreigners. We were very exact 
 in the first expenses demanded by a great establishment. A 
 little while after, I had the misfortune to lose my mother, 
 and was forced to close my house. The Emperor then re- 
 scinded all his gifts, on the ground that we could not keep 
 the engagement we had made, and he left us in what was 
 really a position of embarrassment, caused entirely by his 
 fugitive and burdensome gifts. I pause here. If I carry 
 out the plan I have formed, my memory, carefully consulted, 
 will furnish me by degrees with other anecdotes which will 
 complete this sketch. What I have already written will suf- 
 fice to convey an idea of the character of him with whom 
 circumstances connected the best years of my life. 
 
 BONAPARTE'S MOTHER. 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte (nee Ramolini) was married in 1767 to 
 Charles Bonaparte, who belonged to one of the noble fami- 
 lies of Corsica. It is said that there had been a liaison be- 
 tween her and M. de Marbeuf, governor of the island ; and 
 some went so far as to allege that Napoleon was the son of 
 M. de Marbeuf. It is certain that he always showed kind- 
 ness to the family of Marbeuf. However that may have 
 been, the governor had Napoleon Bonaparte included among 
 the number of noble children who were to be sent from Cor- 
 sica to France, to be educated at a military school. He was 
 placed at that of Brienne. 
 
 The English having become masters of Corsica in 1790, 
 Mme. Bonaparte, a rich widow, retired to Marseilles with 
 her other children. Their education had been much neg- 
 lected, and, if we are to accept the recollections of the Mar- 
 seillais as evidence, her daughters had not been brought up 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 17 
 
 under the strict rule of a scrupulous morality. The Em- 
 peror, indeed, never pardoned the town of Marseilles for 
 having been aware of the position his family occupied at 
 that period, and the disparaging anecdotes of them impru- 
 dently repeated by certain Provencals seriously militated 
 against the interests of the whole of Provence. 
 
 The widowed Mme. Bonaparte established herself at 
 Paris on her son's attainment of power. She lived a retired 
 life, amassing as much money as possible ; she meddled in 
 no public matters, and neither had nor wished to have any 
 influence. Her son overawed her, as he did all the rest of 
 the world. She was a woman of very ordinary intelligence, 
 who, notwithstanding the rank in which events placed her, 
 never did anything worthy of praise. After the fall of the 
 Empire she retired to Home, where she lived with her brother, 
 Cardinal Fesch. It is said that he, in the first Italian cam- 
 paign, showed himself eager to profit by the opportunity of 
 founding his fortune which then presented itself. He ac- 
 quired, received, or even took, it is said, a considerable quan- 
 tity of pictures, statues, and valuable articles, which have 
 since served to decorate his various residences. When he 
 afterward became a Cardinal and Archbishop of Lyons, he 
 devoted himself wholly to the duties of his two great offices, 
 and in the end he acquired a most honorable reputation 
 among the clergy. He often opposed the Emperor while 
 his disputes with the Pope were pending, and was not one 
 of the least obstacles to the execution of Bonaparte's wishes 
 on the occasion of the futile attempt to hold a council at 
 Paris. Either for political reasons or from religious motives, 
 he made some opposition to the divorce ; at least, the Em- 
 press Josephine believed him to have done so. I shall go 
 more into details on this subject hereafter. The Cardinal 
 has, since his retirement to Rome, preserved the unvarying 
 favor of the Sovereign Pontiff.* 
 
 * Mme. Bonaparte, born in 1750, died in 1839. Cardinal Fesch, born at 
 Ajaccio the 3d of January, 1763, died at Rome the 13th of May, 1839. P. R. 
 
18 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 JOSEPH BONAPARTE. 
 
 Joseph Bonaparte was born in 1768. He has a hand- 
 some face, is fond of the society of women, and has always 
 been remarkable for having gentler manners than any of his 
 brothers. Like them, however, he affects astute duplicity. 
 His ambition, although less developed than that of Napo- 
 leon, has nevertheless come out under certain circumstances, 
 and he has always shown capacity enough to be master of the 
 situations in which he has been placed, difficult though they 
 have often been. In 1805 Bonaparte wished to make Joseph 
 King of Italy, requiring him, however, to renounce all claim 
 to the succession to the throne of France. This Joseph re- 
 fused to do. He always adhered tenaciously to what he 
 called his rights, and believed himself destined to give the 
 French repose from the turmoil in which they were kept by 
 the over-activity of his brother. He understood better than 
 Napoleon how to carry a point by fair means, but he failed 
 to inspire confidence. He is amiable in domestic life ; but 
 he did not exhibit much ability, either on the throne of 
 Naples or on that of Spain. It is true he was permitted to 
 reign only as if he were Napoleon's lieutenant, and in nei- 
 ther country did he inspire personal esteem or arouse ani- 
 mosity.* 
 
 His wife, the daughter of a Marseilles merchant named 
 Clary, is the simplest and the best woman in the world. 
 Plain, common-looking, timid, and silent, she attracted no 
 attention, either at the Emperor's Court, or when she suc- 
 cessively wore those two crowns which she has apparently 
 lost without regret. There are two daughters by this mar- 
 riage. The family is now established in America. The sis- 
 ter of Mme. Bonaparte was married to General Bernadotte, 
 now King of Sweden. She, who was not a commonplace 
 person, had before her marriage been very much in love with 
 Napoleon, and appears to have always preserved the memory 
 
 * Joseph Bonaparte died at Florence, the 28th of July, 1844. P. R. 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 19 
 
 of that feeling. It has been supposed that her hardly 
 extinguished passion caused her obstinate refusal to leave 
 France. She lives in Paris at present, where she leads a 
 very retired life.* 
 
 LTTCIEN BONAPARTE. 
 
 Lucien Bonaparte has a great deal of ability. He dis- 
 played a taste for the arts and for certain kinds of literature 
 at an early age. As a deputy from Corsica, some of his 
 speeches in the Council of the Five Hundred were remarked 
 at the time ; among others, that which he made on the 22d 
 of September, 1798, the anniversary of the foundation of 
 the Republic. He there defined the oath that each member 
 of the Council ought to take to watch over the constitution 
 and liberty, and to execrate any Frenchman who should en- 
 deavor to reestablish royalty. On General Jourdan's express- 
 ing some fears relative to the rumors that the Council was 
 menaced with a speedy overthrow, Lucien reminded them of 
 the existence of a decree which pronounced outlawry on all 
 who should attack the inviolability of the national repre- 
 sentation. It is probable that all the time he had a secret 
 understanding with his brother, and was awaiting like him 
 the approach of the hour when they might lay the founda- 
 tion for the elevation of their family. There were, however, 
 some constitutional ideas in Lucien' s head ; and, perhaps, if 
 he had been able to preserve any influence over his brother, 
 he might have opposed the indefinite growth of arbitrary 
 power. He succeeded in sending information to Napoleon 
 in Egypt of the state of affairs in France ; and, having thus 
 hastened his brother's return, he aided him effectually, as is 
 well known, in the revolution of the 18th Brumaire, 1799. 
 
 Lucien afterward became minister of the interior, then 
 Ambassador to Spain, and in both capacities he gave offense 
 to the First Consul. Bonaparte did not like to remember 
 
 * The Queen of Sweden died a few years ago, after having long lived in 
 Paris, in the Rue d'Anjou, Saint Honore. 
 
20 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 services which had been rendered to him, and Lucien was in 
 the habit of reminding him of them in an aggressive manner 
 during their frequent altercations. 
 
 While he was in Spain he became very intimate with the 
 Prince of the Peace, and assisted to arrange the treaty of 
 Badajoz,* which on that occasion saved Portugal from inva- 
 sion. . 
 
 He received a sum which has been estimated at five hun- 
 dred millions of francs as a reward for his services. This 
 was paid partly in money, and partly in diamonds. At this 
 time he also formed a project of marriage between Bona- 
 parte and an Infanta of Spain ; but Napoleon, either from 
 affection for his wife, or from fear of exciting the suspicions 
 of the republicans, with whom he was still keeping on terms, 
 rejected the idea of this marriage, which was to have been 
 concluded through the agency of the Prince of the Peace. 
 
 In 1790 Lucien Bonaparte, who was then keeper of the 
 military stores near Toulon, had married the daughter of an 
 innkeeper, who bore him two daughters, and who died a few 
 years later. The elder of these two girls was in after years 
 recalled to France by the Emperor, who, when he saw his 
 affairs going badly in Spain, wished to treat for peace with 
 the Prince of the Asturias, and to make him marry this 
 daughter of Lucien's. But the young girl, who was placed 
 under her grandmother's care, too frankly imparted in her 
 letters to her father the impression she received at her uncle's 
 Court ; she ridiculed the most important personages, and her 
 letters, having been opened, so irritated the Emperor that he 
 sent her back to Italy. 
 
 In 1803 Lucien, now a widower and entirely devoted to 
 a life of pleasure, to which I might indeed give a harsher 
 name, fell suddenly in love with Mme. Jouberthon, the wife 
 of a stock-broker. Her husband was promptly sent to Saint 
 Domingo, where he died, and then this beautiful and clever 
 woman managed to make Lucien marry her, despite the op- 
 * June 6, 1801. P. R. 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 21 
 
 position of the First Consul. An open rupture took place be- 
 tween the two brothers on that occasion. Lucien left France 
 in the spring of 1804, and established himself at Rome. 
 
 It is well known that since then he has devoted himself 
 to the interests of the Pope, and has adroitly secured his 
 protection ; so much so that even now, although he was re- 
 called to Paris at the period of the fatal enterprise of 1815, 
 he was permitted to return, after the second restoration of 
 the King, to the Roman States, and live quietly with those 
 members of his family who had retired thither. Lucien was 
 born in 1775.* 
 
 LOUIS BONAPABTE. 
 
 Louis Bonaparte, born in 1778, is a man concerning 
 whom opinions have differed widely. His assumption of a 
 stricter morality, than that of other members of his family, 
 his odd opinions based, however, on daring theories rather 
 than on solid principles have deceived the world, and made 
 for him a reputation apart from that of his brothers. With 
 much less talent than either Napoleon or Lucien, he has a 
 touch of romance in his imagination, which he manages to 
 combine with complete hardness of heart. Habitual ill 
 health blighted his youth, and has added to the harsh mel- 
 ancholy of his disposition. I do not know whether, had he 
 been left to himself, the ambition so natural to all his family 
 would have been developed in him; but he has, at least, 
 shown upon several occasions that he considered himself en- 
 titled to profit by the chances which circumstances have 
 thrown in his way. He has been applauded for wishing to 
 govern Holland in the interests of the country, in spite of 
 his brother's projects, and his abdication, although it was due 
 to a whim rather than to generous feeling, has certainly done 
 him honor. It is, after all, the best action of his life. 
 
 Louis Bonaparte is essentially egotistical and suspicious. 
 In the course of these Memoirs he will become better known. 
 
 * Lucien Bonaparte died at Viterbo, June 30, 1840. P. R. 
 
22 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 Bonaparte said of him one day, " His feigned virtues give 
 me almost as much trouble as Lucien's vices." He has re- 
 tired to Rome since the downfall of his family. 
 
 MADAME JOSEPHINE BONAPARTE AND HER FAMILY. 
 
 The Marquis de Beauharnais, father of the general who 
 was the first husband of Mme. Bonaparte, having been em- 
 ployed in a military capacity at Martinique, became attached 
 to an aunt of Mme. Bonaparte's, with whom he returned to 
 France, and whom he married in his old age. 
 
 This aunt brought her niece, Josephine de la Pagerie, to 
 France. She had her educated, and made use of her ascen- 
 dancy over her aged husband to marry her niece, at the age 
 of fifteen years, to young Beauharnais, her stepson. Al- 
 though he married her against his inclination, there is no 
 doubt that at one time he was much attached to his wife ; 
 for I have seen very loving letters written by him to her 
 when he was in garrison, and she preserved them with great 
 care. Of this marriage were born Eugene and Hortense. 
 When the Revolution began, I think that Beauharnais's love 
 for his wife had cooled. At the commencement of the Ter- 
 ror M. de Beauharnais was still commanding the French 
 armies, and had no longer any relations with his wife. 
 
 I do not know under what circumstances she became ac- 
 quainted with certain deputies of the Convention, but she 
 had some influence with them ; and, as she was kind-hearted 
 and obliging, she used it to do as much good to as many peo- 
 ple as possible. From that time her reputation for good 
 conduct was very much damaged; but her kindness, her 
 grace, and the sweetness of her manners could not be dis- 
 puted. She served my father's interests more than once 
 with Barrere and Tallien, and owed to this my mother's 
 friendship. In 1793 chance placed her in a village on the 
 outskirts of Paris, where, like her, we were passing the sum- 
 mer. Our near neighborhood led to some intimacy. I re- 
 member that Hortense, who was three or four years younger 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 23 
 
 than I, used to visit me in my room, and, while amusing her- 
 self by examining my little trinkets, she would tell me that 
 all her ambition for the future was to be the owner of a simi- 
 lar treasure. Unhappy woman ! She has since been laden 
 with gold and diamonds, and how has she not groaned under 
 the crushing weight of the royal diadem ! 
 
 In those evil days when every one was forced to seek a 
 place of safety from the persecution by which all classes of 
 society were beset, we lost sight of Mme. de Beauharnais. 
 Her husband, being suspected by the Jacobins, had been 
 thrown into prison in Paris, and condemned to death by the 
 Revolutionary Tribunal. She also was imprisoned, but es- 
 caped the guillotine, which preyed on all without distinction. 
 Being a friend of the beautiful Mme. Tallien, she was intro- 
 duced into the society of the Directory, and was especially 
 favored by Barras. Mme. de Beauharnais had very little 
 fortune, and her taste for dress and luxury rendered her de- 
 pendent on those who could help her to indulge it. With- 
 out being precisely pretty, she possessed many personal 
 charms. Her features were delicate, her expression was 
 sweet; her mouth was very small, and concealed her bad 
 teeth ; her complexion was rather dark, but with the help of 
 red and white skillfully applied she remedied that defect ; 
 her figure was perfect ; her limbs were flexible and delicate ; 
 her movements were easy and elegant. La Fontaine's line 
 could never have been more fitly applied than to her : 
 
 " Et la grace, plus belle encore que la beaut6." 
 
 She dressed with perfect taste, enhancing the beauty of 
 what she wore ; and, with these advantages and the constant 
 care bestowed upon her attire, she contrived to avoid being 
 eclipsed by the youth and beauty of many of the women by 
 whom she was surrounded. To all this, as I have already 
 said, she added extreme kindness of heart, a remarkably even 
 temper, and great readiness to forget any wrong that had 
 been done to her. 
 
24: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 She was not a person of remarkable intellect. A Creole, 
 and frivolous, her education had been a good deal neglected ; 
 but she recognized her deficiencies, and never made blunders 
 in conversation. She possessed true natural tact ; she readily 
 found pleasant things to say ; her memory was good a use- 
 ful quality for those in high position. Unhappily, she was 
 deficient in depth of feeling and elevation of mind. She 
 preferred to charm her husband by her beauty, rather than 
 the influence of certain virtues. She carried complaisance 
 to excess for his sake, and kept her hold on him by conces- 
 sions which, perhaps, contributed to increase the contempt 
 with which he habitually regarded women. She might have 
 taught him some useful lessons; but she feared him, and 
 allowed him to dictate to her in everything. She was 
 changeable, easy to move and easy to appease, incapable of 
 prolonged emotion, of sustained attention, of serious reflec- 
 tion; and, although her greatness did not turn her head, 
 neither did it educate her. The bent of her character led 
 her to console the unhappy ; but she could only dwell on the 
 troubles of individuals she did not think of the woes of 
 France. The genius of Bonaparte overawed her : she only 
 criticised him in what concerned herself personally ; in 
 everything else she respected what he called " the force of 
 his destiny." He exerted an evil influence over her, for he 
 inspired her with contempt for morality, and with a large 
 share of his own characteristic suspicion ; and he taught her- 
 the art of lying, which each of them practiced with skill and 
 effect. 
 
 It is said that she was the prize of his command of the 
 army of Italy ; she has often assured me that at that time 
 Bonaparte was really in love with her. She hesitated be- 
 tween him, General Hoche, and M. de Caulaincourt, who 
 also loved her. Bonaparte prevailed. I know that my 
 mother, then living in retirement in the country, was much 
 surprised on learning that the widow of M. de Beauharnais 
 was about to marry a man so little known as Bonaparte. 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 35 
 
 When I questioned her as to what Bonaparte was like in 
 his youth, she told me that he was then dreamy, silent, and 
 awkward in the society of women, but passionate and fasci- 
 nating, although rather an odd person in every way. She 
 charged the campaign in Egypt with having changed his 
 temper, and developed that petty despotism from which she 
 afterward suffered so much. 
 
 I have seen letters from Napoleon to Mme. Bonaparte, 
 written at the time of the first Italian campaign. She ac- 
 companied him to Italy, but he sometimes left her with the 
 rearguard of the army, until a victory had secured the safe- 
 ty of the road. These epistles are very singular. The writ- 
 ing is almost illegible ; they are ill spelt ; the style is strange 
 and confused. But there is in them such a tone of passion- 
 ate feeling ; the expressions are so animated, and at the same 
 time so poetical ; they breathe a love so different from mere 
 " amours," that there is no woman who would not have prized 
 such letters. They formed a striking contrast with the grace- 
 ful, elegant, and measured style of those of M. de Beauhar- 
 nais. How strange it must have been for a woman to find 
 herself one of the moving powers of the triumphant march 
 of an army, at a time when politics alone governed the ac- 
 tions of men ! On the eve of one of his greatest battles, 
 Bonaparte wrote : " I am far from you ! It seems to me 
 that I am surrounded by the blackest night ; I need the lurid 
 light of the thunderbolts which we are about to hurl upon 
 our enemies to dispel the darkness into which your absence 
 has thrown me. Josephine, you wept when I parted from 
 you you wept ! At that thought all my being trembles. 
 But calm yourself : "Wurmser shall pay dearly for the tears 
 I have seen you shed." And on the morrow "Wurmser was 
 beaten. 
 
 The enthusiasm with which General Bonaparte was re- 
 ceived in beautiful Italy, the magnificence of the fetes, the 
 fame of his victories, the wealth which every officer might 
 acquire there, the unbounded luxury in which she lived, 
 
26 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMUS AT. 
 
 accustomed Mme. Bonaparte from that time forth to all the 
 pomp with which she was afterward surrounded ; and she 
 acknowledged that nothing in her life ever equaled the 
 emotions of that time, when love came (or seemed to come) 
 daily, to lay at her feet a new conquest over a people enrap- 
 tured with their conqueror. It is, however, plain from these 
 letters that Mme. -Bonaparte, in Ijhe midst of this life of 
 triumph, of victory, and of license, gave some cause for 
 uneasiness to her victorious husband. His letters, some- 
 times sullen and sometimes menacing, reveal the torments 
 of jealousy; and they abound in melancholy reflections, 
 which betray his weariness of the fleeting delusions of life. 
 It may have been that these misunderstandings, which out- 
 raged the first very keen feelings Bonaparte had ever ex- 
 perienced, had a bad effect upon him, and hardened him by 
 degrees. Perhaps he would have been a better man if he 
 had been more and better loved. 
 
 When, on his return from this brilliant campaign, the 
 conquering general was obliged to exile himself to Egypt, to 
 escape from the growing suspicion of the Directory, Mme. 
 Bonaparte's position became precarious and difficult. Her 
 husband entertained serious doubts of her, and these were 
 prompted by Joseph and Lucien, who dreaded the powerful 
 influence that she might exercise through her son, who had 
 accompanied Bonaparte. Her extravagant tastes led her 
 into reckless expense, and she was harassed by debts and 
 duns. 
 
 Before leaving France, Bonaparte had directed her to 
 purchase an estate ; and as she wished to live in the neigh- 
 borhood of Saint Germain, where her daughter was being 
 educated, she selected Malmaison. There we met her again, 
 when we were residing for some months at the chateau of 
 one of our friends, * at a short distance from Malmaison. 
 
 * Mme. de Vergennes was very intimate with M. Chanorier, a wealthy and 
 intelligent man living at Croissy, on the bank of the Seine, and who was one of 
 the first to introduce the merino sheep into France. It was from Croissy that 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 37 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte, who was naturally unreserved, and even 
 indiscreet, had no sooner met my mother again than she 
 talked to her very freely about her absent husband, about 
 her brothers-in-law in fact, about a host of people who 
 were utter strangers to us. Bonaparte was supposed to be 
 almost lost to France, and his wife was neglected. My 
 mother took pity on her; we showed her some attention, 
 which she never forgot. At that time I was seventeen years 
 ef age, and I had been married one year. 
 
 It was at Malmaison that Mme. Bonaparte showed us an 
 immense quantity of pearls, diamonds, and cameos, which at 
 that time constituted the contents of her jewel-case. Even 
 at that time it might have figured in a story of the " Arabian 
 Nights," and it was destined to receive immense accessions. 
 Invaded and grateful Italy had contributed to these riches, 
 and the Pope also, as a mark of his appreciation of the re- 
 spect with which the conqueror treated him by denying him- 
 self the pleasure of planting his flag upon the walls of Rome. 
 The reception-rooms at Malmaison were sumptuously deco- 
 rated with pictures, statues, and mosaics, the spoils of Italy, 
 and each of the generals who figured in the Italian campaign 
 exhibited booty of the same kind. 
 
 Although she was surrounded with all these treasures, 
 Mme. Bonaparte was often without money to meet her every- 
 day expenses ; and, to get out of this difficulty, she trafficked 
 in her influence with the people in power at the time, and 
 compromised herself by entering into imprudent relations. 
 Dreadfully embarrassed, on worse terms than ever with her 
 brothers-in-law, supplying too much reason for their accusa- 
 tions against her, and no longer counting on the return of 
 her husband, she was strongly tempted to give her daughter 
 in marriage to the son of Rewbell, a member of the Direc- 
 tory ; but Mile, de Beauharnais would not consent, and her 
 
 she and her daughters made a neighborly visit to Malmaison, and resumed with 
 Mme. Bonaparte their former intimacy with Mme. de Beauharnais. 
 
28 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 opposition put an end to a project whose execution would 
 doubtless have been highly displeasing to Bonaparte. 
 
 Presently a rumor of Bonaparte's arrival at Frej'us arose. 
 He came back with his mind full of the evil reports that 
 Lucien had repeated to him in his letters. His wife, on hear- 
 ing of his disembarkation, set out to join him ; she missed 
 him, had to retrace her steps, and returned to the house in 
 the Rue Chantereine some hours after his arrival there. She 
 descended from her carriage in haste, followed by her son 
 and daughter, and ran up the stairs leading to his room ; but 
 what was her surprise to find the door locked ! She called to 
 Bonaparte, and begged him to open it. He replied through the 
 door that it should never again be opened for her. Then she 
 wept, fell on her knees, implored him for her sake and that 
 of her two children ; but all was profound silence around her, 
 and several hours of the night passed over her in this dread- 
 ful suspense. At last, however, moved by her sobs and her 
 perseverance, Bonaparte opened the door at about four o'clock 
 in the morning, and appeared, as Mme. Bonaparte herself 
 told me, with a stern countenance, which, however, betrayed 
 that he too had been weeping. He bitterly reproached her 
 with her conduct, her forgetfulness of him, all the real or 
 imaginary sins of which Lucien had accused her, and con- 
 cluded by announcing an eternal separation. Then turning 
 to Eugene de Beauharnais, who was at that time about twenty 
 years old " As for you," he said, " you shall not bear the 
 burden of your mother's faults. You shall be always my 
 son ; I will keep you with me." 
 
 " No, no, General," replied Eugene ; " I must share the 
 ill fortune of my mother, and from this moment I say fare- 
 well to you." 
 
 These words shook Bonaparte's resolution. He opened 
 his arms to Eugene, weeping ; his wife and Hortense knelt 
 at his feet and embraced his knees ; and, soon after, all was 
 forgiven. In the explanation that ensued, Mme. Bonaparte 
 succeeded in clearing herself from the accusations of her 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 29 
 
 brother-in-law ; and Bonaparte, then burning to avenge her, 
 sent for Lucien at seven o'clock in the morning, and had him, 
 without any forewarning, ushered into the room where the 
 husband and wife, entirely reconciled, occupied the same bed. 
 
 From that time Bonaparte desired his wife to break with 
 Mme. Tallien and all the society of the Directory. The 18th 
 Brumaire completely severed her connection with those indi- 
 viduals. She told me that on the eve of that important day 
 she observed, with great surprise, that Bonaparte had loaded 
 two pistols and placed them beside his bed. On her ques- 
 tioning him, he replied that a certain event might happen in 
 the night which would render such a precaution necessary. 
 Then, without another word, he lay down, and slept soundly 
 until the next morning. 
 
 When he became Consul, the gentle and gracious quali- 
 ties of his wife, which attracted many persons to his Court 
 whom his natural rudeness would have otherwise kept away, 
 were of great service to him. To Josephine he intrusted the 
 measures to be taken for the return of the emigres. Nearly 
 all the " erasures " * passed through the hands of Mme. Bona- 
 parte ; she was the first link that united the French nobility 
 to the Consular Government. We shall learn more of this 
 in the course of these Memoirs. 
 
 Eugene de Beauharnais, born in 1780, passed through all 
 the phases of a sometimes stormy and sometimes brilliant 
 life, without ever forfeiting his title to general esteem. 
 Prince Eugene, sometimes in camp with his father, some- 
 times in all the leisure and luxury of his mother's house, 
 was, to speak correctly, educated nowhere. His natural in- 
 stinct led toward what is right ; the schooling of Bonaparte 
 formed but did not pervert him ; the lessons taught him by 
 events -all these were his instructors. Mme. Bonaparte was 
 incapable of giving sound advice ; and therefore her son, who 
 loved her sincerely, perceived very early in his career that 
 it was useless to consult her. 
 
 * See Appendix. 
 
30 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 Prince Eugene did not lack personal attractions. His 
 figure was graceful ; lie was skilled in all bodily exercises ; 
 and he inherited from his father that fine manner of the old 
 French gentleman, in which, perhaps, M. de Beauharnais 
 himself gave him his earliest lessons. To these advantages 
 he added simplicity and kindheartedness ; he was neither 
 vain nor presumptuous ; he was sincere without being in- 
 discreet, and could be silent when silence was necessary. 
 Prince Eugene had not much natural talent ; his imagination 
 was not vivid, and his feelings were not keen. He was al- 
 ways obedient to his stepfather ; and, although he appre- 
 ciated him exactly, and was not mistaken with regard to 
 him, he never hesitated to observe the strictest fidelity to 
 him, even when it was against his own interests. Never 
 once was he surprised into showing any sign of discontent, 
 either when the Emperor, while loading his own family with 
 honors, seemed to forget him, or when his mother was re- 
 pudiated. At the time of the divorce Eugene maintained a 
 very dignified attitude. 
 
 Eugene, as colonel of a regiment, was beloved by his sol- 
 diers. In Italy he was held in high honor. The sovereigns 
 of Europe esteemed him, and the world was well pleased 
 that his fortunes have survived those of his family. He had 
 the good fortune to marry a charming princess, who never 
 ceased to love him, and whom he rendered happy. He pos- 
 sessed in perfection those qualities which make the happi- 
 ness of home life sweet temper, and that natural cheerful- 
 ness which rises above every ill, and was perhaps due to 
 the fact that he was never profoundly moved by anything. 
 When, however, that kind of indifference toward the inter- 
 ests of other people is also displayed in one's own personal 
 troubles, it may fairly be called philosophy. 
 
 Hortense, Prince Eugene's younger sister (she was born in 
 1783), was, I think, the most unhappy person of our time, 
 and the least formed by nature to be so. Cruelly slandered 
 by the Bonapartes, who hated her, included in the accusa- 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 31 
 
 tions which the public delighted to bring against all who be- 
 longed to that family, she was not strong enough to contend 
 against such a combination of ills, and to defy the calumnies 
 that blighted her life.* 
 
 Mme. Louis Bonaparte, like her mother and brother, was 
 not remarkable for intellect ; but, like them, she possessed 
 tact and good feeling, and she was more high-minded and 
 imaginative than they. Left to herself in her youth, she es- 
 caped the contagion of the dangerous example of evil. At 
 Mme. Campan's select and elegant boarding-school she ac- 
 quired accomplishments rather than education. While she 
 was young, a brilliant complexion, beautiful hair, and a fine 
 figure rendered her agreeable to look upon; but she lost 
 her teeth early, and illness and sorrow altered her features. 
 Her natural instincts were good ; but, being absolutely igno- 
 rant of the world and the usages of society, and entirely given 
 up to ideal notions drawn from a sphere which she had cre- 
 ated for herself, she was unable to rule her life by those 
 social laws which do not indeed preserve the virtue of 
 women, but which procure them support when they are ac- 
 cused, without which it is impossible to pass through the 
 
 * There are few things in these Memoirs which will be read with greater 
 surprise than the pages relating to Queen Hortense. My grandmother lived and 
 died in the conviction that in speaking thus she was strictly adhering to the 
 truth. The contrary opinion has, however, prevailed ; and it has been confirmed 
 by the conduct of her son, Napoleon III., who rendered marked honors to the 
 Duke de Morny. Very likely that, as often happens, all was true according to 
 the epoch in youth, innocence, and sorrow ; afterward, consolation. It is un- 
 necessary to say that on this point I preserve the exact text of the Memoirs, as 
 they were written by the hand of their author. I have only thought it right to 
 suppress comments of an opposite nature on certain ladies of the Court. The 
 reader will, perhaps, be surprised to find no mention in these portraits of the 
 family of either Queen Caroline or Princess Pauline Bonaparte. I leave out 
 certain matters in relation to them which have no bearing on the Emperor him- 
 self. My father particularly desired that the text of his mother's Memoirs 
 should be scrupulously respected. It seemed to me, however, that on this point 
 I might fairly depart from the rules of strict editing. Habits, tastes, customs 
 become modified by time, and much that seemed natural to a clever woman in 
 high life at that period would give scandal in our more punctilious day. 
 6 
 
32 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMUS AT. 
 
 world, and which the approbation of conscience can not re- 
 place. It is not sufficient to lead a good life in order to 
 appear virtuous; women must also obey those rules which 
 society has made. Mme. Louis, who was placed in circum- 
 stances of extreme difficulty, never had a guide ; she under- 
 stood her mother, and could not venture to place any confi- 
 dence in her. As she held firmly to the principles, or rather 
 to the sentiments, her imagination had created, she was at 
 first very much surprised at the lapses from morality in 
 which she detected the women by whom she was surrounded, 
 and was still more surprised when she found that these faults 
 were not always the result of love. Her marriage cast her 
 on the mercy of the most tyrannical of husbands ; she be- 
 came the resigned and dejected victim of ceaseless and un- 
 remitting persecution, and sank under the weight of her sor- 
 row. She yielded to it without daring to complain, and it 
 was not until she was on the point of death that the truth 
 became known. I knew Mme. Louis Bonaparte very inti- 
 mately, and was acquainted with all the secrets of her do- 
 mestic life. I have always believed her to be the purest, as 
 she was the most unfortunate, of women. 
 
 Her only consolation was in her tender love for her 
 brother ; she rejoiced in his happiness, his success, his amia- 
 ble temper. How many times have I heard her say, " I only 
 live in Eugene's life ! " 
 
 She declined to marry Kewbell's son, and this reasonable 
 refusal was the result of one of the errors of her imagination. 
 From her earliest youth she had persuaded herself that a 
 woman, if she would be virtuous and happy, should marry 
 no man unless she loved him passionately. Afterward, when 
 her mother wished her to marry the Comte de Mun, now a 
 peer of France, she again refused to obey her. 
 
 M. de Mun had emigrated; Mme. Bonaparte obtained 
 permission for his return. He came back to a considerable 
 fortune, and asked for the hand of Mile, de Beauharnais in 
 marriage. Bonaparte, then First Consul, had little liking 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 33 
 
 for this union. Mme. Bonaparte would, however, have had 
 her own way about it, only for the obstinate resistance of 
 her daughter. Some one said before her that M. de Mun 
 had been, while in Germany, in love with Mme. de Stael. 
 That celebrated woman was in the imagination of the young 
 girl a sort of monster, whom it was impossible to know with- 
 out scandal and without taint. M. de Mun became odious to 
 her, and thus he missed a great match and the terrible down- 
 fall that was to ensue. It was a strange accident of destiny, 
 thus to have missed being a prince, perhaps a king, and then 
 dethroned. 
 
 A little while after, Duroc, then one of the Consul's 
 aides-de-camp, and in high favor with him, fell in love with 
 Hortense. She was not insensible to his passion, and thought 
 she had at length found that other half of her being which 
 she sought for. Bonaparte was in favor of the marriage ; 
 but this time Mme. Bonaparte was inflexible. " My daugh- 
 ter," she said, " must marry a gentleman or a Bonaparte." 
 Then Louis was proposed. He had no liking for Hortense, 
 he detested the Beauharnais family, and despised his sister-in- 
 law : but, as he was taciturn, he was supposed to be amiable ; 
 as he was severe in his judgments, he was supposed to be a 
 good man. Mme. Louis has since told me that when she 
 first heard of this arrangement she suffered terribly. Not 
 only was she forbidden to think of the man she loved, but 
 she was also to be given to another, whom she instinctively 
 distrusted. However, as this marriage was in accordance 
 with her mother's wishes, as it would cement the family ties, 
 and might advance her brother's interests, she yielded her- 
 self a submissive victim ; nay, she did even more. Her im- 
 agination was full of the duties imposed on her ; she deter- 
 mined to make every sort of sacrifice to the wishes of a hus- 
 band whom she had the misfortune not to love. Too sincere 
 and too reserved to feign sentiments she did not feel, she was 
 gentle, submissive, full of deference, and more anxious per- 
 haps to please him than if she had loved him. The false and 
 
34 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE BfiMUSAT. 
 
 suspicious disposition of Louis Bonaparte led him to regard 
 the gentle deference of his wife as affectation and coquetry. 
 " She practices on me," he said, " to deceive me." He be- 
 lieved that her conduct was dictated by the counsels of her 
 experienced mother ; he repelled the efforts she made to 
 please him, and treated her with rude contempt. Nor was 
 this all. He actually divulged to Mme. Louis all the accu- 
 sations which had been brought against her mother, and, 
 after having gone as far in that direction as he could go, 
 he signified his pleasure that confidential relations between 
 his wife and her mother should cease. He added, "You 
 are now a Bonaparte. Our interests should be yours ; 
 those of your own family no longer concern you." He ac- 
 companied this cruel notification with insulting threats, and 
 a coarse expression of his disdainful opinion of women ; he 
 enumerated the precautions he meant to take in order, as he 
 said, to escape the common fate of all husbands, and declared 
 that he would not be the dupe either of her attempts to es- 
 cape his vigilance or of the tricks of pretended docility by 
 which she might hope to win him over. 
 
 The effect of such a declaration upon a young woman 
 full of fancies may easily be conceived. She conducted 
 herself, however, as an obedient wife, and for many years 
 only her sadness and her failing health betrayed her suffer- 
 ings. Her husband, who was hard and capricious, and, like 
 all the Bonapartes, selfish worn and embittered besides by 
 a painful disease which he had contracted during the Egyp- 
 tian campaign set no limit to his exactions. As he was 
 afraid of his brother, while at the same time he wanted to 
 keep his wife away from Saint Cloud, he ordered her to say 
 it was by her own wish that she seldom went thither, and 
 forbade her to remain there a single night, no matter how 
 much her mother might press her to do so. Mme. Louis 
 became pregnant very soon after her marriage. The Bona- 
 partes and Mme. Murat, who were displeased at this mar- 
 riage, because, as Joseph's children were girls, they foresaw 
 
PORTRAITS AND ANECDOTES. 35 
 
 that a son of Louis, who would also be a grandson of Mme. 
 Bonaparte, would be the object of natural interest, spread 
 the outrageous report that this pregnancy was the result of 
 an intimacy between the First Consul and his stepdaughter, 
 with the connivance of Josephine herself. The public was 
 quite ready to believe this scandalous falsehood, and Mme. 
 Murat repeated it to Louis, who, whether he believed it or 
 not, made it a pretext for every kind of conjugal tyranny. 
 The narrative of his cruelty to his wife would lead me too 
 far at present ; I shall return to the subject hereafter. Her 
 servants were employed as spies upon her ; the most trifling 
 notes addressed to or written by her were opened ; every 
 friendship was prohibited; Louis was jealous even of Eu- 
 gene. Scenes of violence were frequent; nothing was 
 spared her. Bonaparte was not slow to perceive this state 
 of affairs, but he was grateful to Mme. Louis for her silence, 
 which put him at his ease, and exempted him from the ne- 
 cessity of interference. He, who never esteemed women, 
 always professed positive veneration for Hortense, and the 
 manner in which he spoke of and acted toward her is a for- 
 mal contradiction of the accusations which were brought 
 against her. In her presence his language was always care- 
 ful and decent. He often appealed to hef to arbitrate be- 
 tween his wife and himself, and he took rebukes from her 
 that he would not have listened to patiently from any one 
 else. " Hortense," he said more than once, " forces me to 
 believe in virtue." 
 
BOOK I. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 (1S02-1803 ) 
 
 Family affairs My first evening at Saint Cloud Grontfrtu Moreau M. de Re*musat 
 is made Prefect, and I, Lady of the Palace Habile of the First Consul and of 
 Mme. Bonaparte M. de Talleyrand The iamily of the First Consul Miles. 
 Georges and Duchesnois Mme. Bonaparce v s jealousy. 
 
 NOTWITHSTANDING the date of the year in which I under- 
 take this narrative, I shall not seek to excuse the motives 
 which led my husband to attach himself to the person of 
 Bonaparte, but shall simply explain them. In political 
 matters justifications are worth nothing. Certain persons, 
 having returned to France only three years ago, or having 
 taken no part in public affairs before that epoch, have pro- 
 nounced a sort of anathema against those among our fellow 
 citizens who for twenty years have not held completely 
 aloof from passing events. If it be represented to them 
 that nobody pretends to pronounce whether they were right 
 or wrong to indulge in their long sleep, and that they are 
 merely asked to remain equally neutral on a similar question, 
 they reject such a proposition with all the strength of their 
 present position of vantage ; they deal out unsparing and 
 most ungenerous blame, for there is now no risk in under- 
 taking the duties on which they pride themselves. And 
 yet, when a revolution is in progress, who can flatter himself 
 that he has always adopted the right course ? Who among 
 us has not been influenced by circumstances ? Who, indeed, 
 
FAMILY AFFAIRS. 37 
 
 can venture to throw the first stone, without fear lest it re- 
 coil upon himself ? Citizens of the same country, all more 
 or less hurt by the blows they have given and received, 
 ought to spare each other they are more closely bound to- 
 gether than they think ; and when a Frenchman mercilessly 
 runs down another Frenchman, let him take care he is put- 
 ting weapons to use against them both into the hands of the 
 foreigner. 
 
 "Not the least evil of troubled times is that bitter spirit of 
 criticism which produces mistrust, and perhaps contempt, of 
 what is called public opinion. The tumult of passion enables 
 every one to defy it. Men live for the most part so much 
 outside of themselves, that they have few opportunities of con- 
 sulting their conscience. In peaceful times, and for common 
 ordinary actions, the judgments of the world replace it well 
 enough; but how is it possible to submit to them, when 
 they are ready to deal death to those who would bow to 
 them ? It is safest, then, to rely on that conscience which 
 one can never question with impunity. Neither my hus- 
 band's conscience nor my own reproaches him or me. The 
 entire loss of his fortune, the experience of facts, the march 
 of events, a moderate and legitimate desire for easier circum- 
 stances, led M. de Remusat to seek a place of some kind in 
 1802. To profit by the repose that Bonaparte had given to 
 France, and to rely on the hopes he inspired, was, no doubt, 
 to deceive ourselves, but we did so in common with all the 
 rest of the world. 
 
 Unerring prevision is given to very few ; and if, after 
 his second marriage, Bonaparte had maintained peace, and 
 had employed that portion of his army which he did not 
 disband to line our frontiers, who is there that would have 
 dared to doubt the duration of his power and the strength 
 of his rights ? At that time both his power and his rights 
 seemed to have acquired the force of legitimacy. Bonaparte 
 reigned over France with the consent of France. That fact 
 only blind hatred or foolish pride can now attempt to deny. 
 
38 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 He reigned for our misfortune and for our glory : the alli- 
 ance of those two words is, in the present state of society, 
 more natural than it seems, at least when military glory is in 
 question. When he became Consul, people breathed freely. 
 At first he won public confidence ; when, afterward, causes 
 of disquiet arose, the country was already committed to him. 
 At last he frightened all the minds who had believed in him, 
 and led true citizens to desire his fall, even at the risk of loss 
 to themselves. This is the history of M. de Kemusat and 
 myself ; there is nothing humiliating in it. We too were re- 
 lieved and confident when the country had breathing space, 
 and afterward we desired its deliverance before all things. 
 
 ]$To one will ever know what I suffered during the later 
 years of Bonaparte's tyranny. It would be impossible for 
 me to describe the absolute sincerity with which I longed 
 for the return of the King, who would, as I firmly believed, 
 restore peace and liberty to us. I foresaw all my personal 
 losses ; and M. de Remusat foresaw them even more clearly 
 than I did. That which we desired would ruin the fortune 
 of our children. But the loss of that fortune, which we 
 could have preserved only by the sacrifice of our convictions, 
 did not cost us a regret. The ills of France cried too loud 
 then shame to those who would not listen to them ! We 
 served Bonaparte, we even loved and admired him ; and it 
 costs me nothing to make this avowal. It seems to me it is 
 never painful to avow a genuine feeling. I am not at all 
 embarrassed because the opinions I held at one time are op- 
 posed to those which I held at another ; I am not incapable 
 of being mistaken. I know what I have felt, and I have 
 always felt it sincerely ; that is sufficient for God, for my 
 son, for my friends, for myself. 
 
 My present task is, however, a difficult one, for I must 
 go back in search of a number of impressions which were 
 strong and vivid when I received them, but which now, like 
 ruined buildings devastated by fire, have no longer any con- 
 nection one with another. 
 
MY FIRST EVENING AT SAINT CLOUD. 39 
 
 At the commencement of these Memoirs I shall pass as 
 briefly as possible over all that is merely personal to our- 
 selves, up to the time of our introduction to the Court of 
 Bonaparte ; afterward I shall perhaps revert to still earlier 
 recollections. A woman can not be expected to relate the 
 political life of Bonaparte. If he was so reserved with those 
 who surrounded him that persons in the next room to him 
 were often ignorant of events which they would indeed learn 
 by going into Paris, but could only comprehend fully by 
 transporting themselves out of France, how much more im- 
 possible would it have been for me, young as I was when I 
 made my entry into Saint Cloud, and during the first years 
 that I lived there, to do more than seize upon isolated facts 
 at long intervals of time ? I shall record what I saw, or 
 thought I saw, and will do my best to make my narrative as 
 accurate as it is sincere. 
 
 I was twenty-two years old when I became lady-in-waiting 
 to Mine. Bonaparte. I was married at sixteen years of age, 
 and had previously been perfectly happy in a quiet life, full 
 of home affections. The convulsions of the Revolution, the 
 execution of my father in 1794, the loss of our fortune, and 
 my mother's love of retirement, kept me out of the gay 
 world, of which I knew and desired to know nothing. I 
 was suddenly taken from this peaceful solitude to act a 
 part upon the stage of history ; and, without having passed 
 through the intermediate stage of society, I was much 
 affected by so abrupt a transition, and my character has 
 never lost the impression it then received. I dearly loved 
 my husband and my mother, and in their society I had been 
 accustomed to follow the impulses of my feelings. In the 
 Bonaparte household I interested myself only in what moved 
 me strongly. I never in my life could occupy myself with 
 the trifles of what is called the great world. 
 
 My mother had brought me up most carefully ; my edu- 
 cation was finished under the superintendence of my husband, 
 who was a highly cultivated man, and older than I by sixteen 
 
4:0 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 years. I was naturally grave, a tendency which in women is 
 always allied to enthusiasm. Thus, during the early part of 
 my residence with Mme. Bonaparte and her husband, I was 
 full of the sentiments which I considered due to them. Their 
 well-known characters, and what I have already related of 
 their domestic life, rendered this a sure preparation for many 
 mistakes, and certainly I did not fail to make them. 
 
 I have already mentioned our friendship with Mme. 
 Bonaparte during the expedition to Egypt. After that we 
 lost sight of her, until the time when my mother, having ar- 
 ranged a marriage for my sister with a relative of ours,* who 
 had returned secretly, but was still included in the list of the 
 proscribed, addressed herself to Mme. Bonaparte in order to 
 obtain his " erasure." f The matter was readily arranged. 
 Mme. Bonaparte, who was then endeavoring, with much tact 
 and kindness, to win over persons of a certain class who still 
 held aloof from her husband, begged that my mother and M. 
 de Remusat would visit her one evening, in order to return 
 thanks to the First Consul. It was not possible to refuse, 
 and accordingly, one evening, shortly after Bonaparte had 
 taken up his abode there, we went to the Tuileries. J His 
 wife told me afterward that on the first night of their sojourn 
 in the palace, he said to her, laughing, " Come, little Creole, 
 get into the bed of your masters." 
 
 "We found Bonaparte in the great drawing-room on the 
 ground floor ; he was seated on a sofa. Beside him I saw 
 General Moreau, with whom he appeared to be in close con- 
 versation. At that period they were still trying to get on 
 
 * M. Charles de Ganay, son of a sister of M. Charles Gravier de Yergcnncs, 
 and first cousin of the author of these Memoirs. He was a deputy and colonel 
 of the Royal Guard under the Restoration. I do not know what prevented his 
 marriage with Mile. Alix de Vergennes, who shortly after married General Nan- 
 souty. The friendship between the two branches of the family was not disturbed 
 by this affair, and it is happily perpetuated. P. R. 
 
 f See Appendix. 
 
 t It was on the 19th of February, 1800 (30th Pluviose, year 8), that the First 
 Consul took possession of the Tuileries. P. B. 
 
GENERAL MOREAU. 41 
 
 together. A very amiable speech of Bonaparte's, of a grace- 
 ful kind unusual with him, was much talked of. He had 
 had a superb pair of pistols made, with the names of all 
 Moreau's battles engraved on the handles in gold letters. 
 " You must excuse their not being more richly ornamented," 
 said Bonaparte, presenting them to him ; " the names of your 
 victories took up all the space." 
 
 There were in the drawing-room ministers, generals, and 
 ladies. Among the latter, almost all young and pretty, were 
 Mme. Louis Bonaparte ; * Mme. Murat, who was recently 
 married, and who struck me as very charming ; and Mme. 
 Marat, who was paying her wedding visit, and was at that 
 time perfectly beautiful. Mme. Bonaparte received her 
 company with perfect grace ; she was dressed tastefully in a 
 revived antique style which was the fashion of the day. 
 Artists had at that time a good deal of influence on the cus- 
 toms of society. 
 
 Bonaparte rose when we courtesied to him, and after a 
 few vague words reseated himself, and took no more notice 
 of the ladies who were in the room. I confess that, on this 
 occasion, I was less occupied with him than with the luxury, 
 the elegance, and the magnificence on which my eyes rested 
 for the first time. 
 
 From that time forth we made occasional visits to the 
 Tuileries ; and after a while it was suggested to us, and we 
 took to the idea, that M. de Remusat might fill some post, 
 which would restore us to the comfort of which the loss of 
 our fortune had deprived us. M. de Remusat, having been 
 a magistrate before the Revolution, would have preferred oc- 
 cupation of a legal character. He would not grieve me by 
 separating me from my mother and taking me away from 
 Paris, and therefore he was disposed to ask for a place in the 
 Council of State, and to avoid prefectures. But then we 
 really knew nothing of the structure and composition of the 
 
 * Hortense de Beauharnais had married Louis Bonaparte on the 4th of Janu- 
 ary, 1802. 
 
42 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 Government. My mother had mentioned our position to 
 Mme. Bonaparte, who had taken a liking to me, and was 
 also pleased with my husband's manners, and it occurred to 
 her that she might place us near herself. Just at this time 
 my sister, who had not married the cousin whom I have men- 
 tioned, married M. de Nansouty, a general of brigade, the 
 nephew of Mme. de Montesson, and a man very much es- 
 teemed in the army and in society. This marriage strength- 
 ened our connection with the Consular Government, and a 
 month afterward Mme. Bonaparte told my mother that she 
 hoped before long M. de Remusat would be made a Prefect 
 of the Palace. I will pass over in silence the sentiments 
 with which this news was received in the family. For my 
 own part, I was exceedingly frightened. M. de Remusat 
 was resigned rather than pleased ; and, as he is a particularly 
 conscientious man, he applied himself to all the minute de- 
 tails of his new occupation immediately after his nomination, 
 which soon followed. Shortly afterward I received the fol- 
 lowing letter from General Duroc, Governor of the Palace : 
 
 " MADAME : The First Consul has nominated you to at- 
 tend upon Mme. Bonaparte, in doing the honors of the pal- 
 ace. His personal knowledge of your character and of your 
 principles satisfies him that you will acquit yourself of this 
 duty with the politeness which distinguishes French ladies, 
 and with dignity such as the Government requires. I am 
 happy to have been made the medium of announcing to you 
 this mark of his esteem and confidence. 
 
 " Receive, madame, my respectful homage." 
 
 Thus did we find ourselves installed at this singular Court. 
 Although Bonaparte would have been angry if any one had 
 seemed to doubt the sincerity of his utterances, which were 
 at this period entirely republican, he introduced some novel- 
 ty into his manner of life every day, which tended to give 
 the place of his abode more and more resemblance to the 
 
HABITS OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 4.3 
 
 palace of a sovereign. He liked display, provided it did not 
 interfere with his own particular habits ; therefore he laid 
 the weight of ceremonial on those who surrounded him. He 
 believed also that the French are attracted by the glitter of 
 external pomp. He was very simple in his own attire, but 
 he required his officers to wear magnificent uniforms. He 
 had already established a marked distance between himself 
 and the two other Consuls ; and just as, although he used the 
 preamble, "By order of the Consuls," etc., in the acts of 
 government, his own signature only was placed at the end, 
 so he held his court alone, either at the Tuileries or at Saint 
 Cloud ; he received the ambassadors with the ceremonial used 
 by kings, and always appeared in public attended by a nu- 
 merous guard, while he allowed his colleagues only two 
 grenadiers before their carriages; and finally he began to 
 give his wife rank in the state. 
 
 At first we found ourselves in a somewhat difficult posi- 
 tion, which, nevertheless, had its advantages. Military glory 
 and the rights it confers were all-in-all to the generals and 
 aides-de-camp who surrounded Bonaparte. They seemed to 
 think that every distinction belonged exclusively to them. 
 The Consul, however, who liked conquest of all kinds, and 
 whose design was to gain over to himself all classes of society, 
 made his Court pleasant to persons belonging to other profes- 
 sions. Besides this, M. de Remusat, who was a man of in- 
 tellect, of remarkable learning, and superior to his colleagues 
 in conversational powers, was soon distinguished by his mas- 
 ter, who was quick at discovering qualities which might be 
 useful to himself. Bonaparte was glad that persons in his 
 service should know, for his purposes, things of which he 
 was ignorant. He found that my husband knew all about 
 certain customs which he wanted to reestablish, and was a 
 safe authority on matters of etiquette and the habits of good 
 society. He briefly indicated his projects, was at once un- 
 derstood, and as promptly obeyed. This unusual manner of 
 pleasing him at first gave some offense to the military men. 
 
44 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 They foresaw that they would no longer be the only persons 
 in favor, and that they would be required to alter the rough 
 manners which did well enough for camps and fields of bat- 
 tle ; therefore our presence displeased them. For my own 
 part, although I was so young, I had more ease of manner 
 than their wives. Most of my companions were ignorant of 
 the world, timid and silent, and they were either shy or 
 frightened in the presence of the First Consul. As for me, 
 I was, as I have already said, very quick and lively, easily 
 moved by novelty, fond of intellectual pleasures, interested 
 in observing so many persons, all unknown to me ; and I 
 found favor with my new sovereign, because, as I have said 
 elsewhere, I took pleasure in listening to him. And then, 
 Mme. Bonaparte liked me, because she herself had chosen 
 me ; she was pleased that she had been able to attach a per- 
 son of good family to herself, and that through the medium 
 of my mother, whom she respected highly. She trusted me, 
 and I was attached to her, so that before long she confided all 
 her secrets to me, and I received them with discretion. Al- 
 though I might have been her daughter,* I was often able to 
 give her good advice, because the habits of a secluded and 
 strict life make one take a serious view of things. My hus- 
 band and I were soon placed in so prominent a position that 
 we had to secure forgiveness for it. We obtained that posi- 
 tion almost entirely by preserving our simple ways, by keep- 
 ing within the bounds of politeness, and by avoiding every- 
 thing which might lead to the suspicion that we wanted to 
 trade on the favor we were in. 
 
 M. de Kemusat lived in a simple and kindly fashion in 
 the midst of this warlike Court. As for me, I was fortu- 
 nate enough to hold my own without offense, and I put for- 
 ward no pretension distasteful to other women. The greater 
 
 * The Empress Josephine was born at Martinique in 1763. She married M. 
 de Beauharnais in 1779, and separated from him in 1783. After the death of 
 her husband she was married (civilly) to General Bonaparte, on the 9th of 
 March, 1796. She died on the 29th of May, 1814. P. K. 
 
HABITS OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 45 
 
 number of my companions were much handsomer than I 
 some of them were very beautiful ; and they were all su- 
 perbly dressed. My face, which had no beauty but that of 
 youth, and the habitual simplicity of my attire, satisfied 
 them that in several ways they were superior to me ; and it 
 soon seemed as if we had made a tacit compact that they 
 should charm the eyes of the First Consul when we were in 
 his presence, and that I should endeavor, as far as lay in my 
 power, to interest his mind. As I have already said, to do 
 that one had only to be a good listener. 
 
 Political ideas rarely enter into the head of a woman at 
 twenty-two. I was at that time quite without any kind of 
 party spirit. I never reasoned on the greater or less right 
 which Bonaparte had to the power of which every one de- 
 clared that he made a good use. M. de Remusat, who be- 
 lieved in him, as did nearly the whole of France, was full of 
 the hopes which at that time seemed to be well founded. 
 All classes, outraged and disgusted by the horrors of the 
 Revolution, and grateful to the Consular Government which 
 preserved us from the Jacobite reaction, looked upon its 
 coming into power as a new era for the country. The trials 
 of liberty that had been made over and over again had in- 
 spired a very natural, though not very reasonable, aversion 
 to it ; for, in truth, liberty always disappeared when its name 
 was used merely to vary successive species of tyranny. Gen- 
 erally speaking, nobody in France wanted anything except 
 quiet, the right to free exercise of the intellect, the cultiva- 
 tion of private virtues, and the reparation by degrees of 
 those losses of fortune which were common to all. When I 
 remember all the dreams which I cherished at that time, the 
 recollection makes me sick at heart. I regret those fancies, 
 as one regrets the bright thoughts of ihe springtime of life 
 of that time when, to use a simile familiar to Bonaparte 
 himself, one looks at all things through a gilded veil which 
 makes them bright and sparkling. " Little by little" said 
 he, " this veil thickens as we advance in life, until all is 
 
46 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 nearly Hack." Alas ! lie himself soon stained with blood 
 that gilded veil through which France had gladly contem- 
 plated him. 
 
 It was in the autumn of 1802 that I established myself 
 for the first time at Saint Cloud, where the First Consul 
 then was. There were four ladies, and we each passed a 
 week in succession in attendance on Mme. Bonaparte. The 
 service, as it was called, of the prefects of the palace, of the 
 generals of the guard, and of the aides-de-camp, was con- 
 ducted in the same way. Duroc, the Governor of the Pal- 
 ace, lived at Saint Cloud ; he kept the household in perfect 
 order ; we dined with him. The First Consul took his meals 
 alone with his wife. Twice a week he invited some mem- 
 bers of the Government ; once a month he gave a great din- 
 ner to a hundred guests at the Tuileries, in the Gallery of 
 Diana ; after these dinners he received every one who held 
 an important post or rank, either military or civil, and also 
 foreigners of note. During the winter of 1803 we were 
 still at peace with England. A great number of English 
 people came to Paris, and as we were not accustomed to see- 
 ing them, they excited great curiosity. 
 
 At these brilliant receptions there was a great display of 
 luxury. Bonaparte liked women to dress well, and, either 
 from policy or from taste, he encouraged his wife and sisters 
 to do so. Mme. Bonaparte and Mmes. Bacciochi and Murat 
 (Mme. Leclerc, afterward Princess Pauline, was at Saint 
 Domingo in 1802) were always magnificently attired. Cos- 
 tumes were given to the different corps ; the uniforms were 
 rich ; and this pomp, coming as it did after a period in which 
 the affectation of squalor had been combined with that of 
 extravagant civisme, seemed to be an additional guarantee 
 against the . return of that fatal regime which was still re- 
 membered with dread. 
 
 Bonaparte's costume at this period is worthy of record. 
 On ordinary days he wore one of the uniforms of his guard ; 
 but he had decreed, for himself and his two colleagues, that 
 
HABITS OF THE FIRST CONSUL. tf 
 
 on all occasions of grand ceremonial each should wear a red 
 coat, made in winter in velvet, in summer of some other 
 material, and embroidered in gold. The two Consuls, Cam- 
 baceres and Lebrun, elderly, powdered, and well set up, 
 wore this gorgeous coat, with lace, ruffles, and a sword, after 
 the old fashion of full dress ; but Bonaparte, who detested 
 all such adornments, got rid of them as much as possible. 
 His hair was cut short, smoothed down, and generally ill 
 arranged. With his crimson-and-gold coat he would wear a 
 black cravat, a lace frill to his shirt, but no sleeve ruffles. 
 Sometimes he wore a white vest embroidered in silver, but 
 more frequently his uniform waistcoat, his uniform sword, 
 breeches, silk stockings, and boots. This extraordinary cos- 
 tume and his small stature gave him the oddest possible 
 appearance, which, however, no one ventured to ridicule. 
 When he became Emperor, he wore a richly laced coat, with 
 a short cloak and a plumed hat ; and this costume became 
 him very well. He also wore a magnificent collar of the 
 Order of the Legion of Honor, in diamonds, on state occa- 
 sions; but on ordinary occasions he wore only the silver 
 cross. 
 
 On the eve of his coronation, the marshals he had newly 
 created a few months before came, to pay him a visit, all 
 gorgeously arrayed. The splendor of their costume, in 
 k contrast with his simple uniform, made him smile. I was 
 standing at a little distance from him, and as he saw that I 
 smiled also, he said to me, in a low tone, "It is not every one 
 who has the right to be plainly dressed." Presently the 
 marshals of the army began disputing among themselves 
 about the great question of precedence. Their pretensions 
 were very well founded, and each enumerated his victories. 
 Bonaparte, while listening to them, again glanced at me. " I 
 think," said I, " you must have stamped your foot on France, 
 and said, < Let all the vanities arise from the soil.' " " That 
 is true," he replied ; "but it is fortunate that the French are 
 to be ruled through their vanity." 
 
48 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 During the first months of my sojourn at Saint Cloud in 
 the winter, and at Paris, my life was very pleasant. In the 
 morning at eight o'clock Bonaparte left his wife's room and 
 Went to his study. When we were in Paris he again went 
 down to her apartments to breakfast; at Saint Cloud he 
 breakfasted alone, generally on the terrace. While at break- 
 fast he received artists and actors, and talked to them freely 
 and pleasantly. Afterward he devoted himself to public 
 affairs until six o'clock. Mme. Bonaparte remained at home 
 during the morning, receiving an immense number of visit- 
 ors, chiefly women. Among these would be some whose 
 husbands belonged to the Government, and some (these were 
 called de Vcvncien regime) who did not wish to have, or to 
 appear to have, relations with the First Consul, but who 
 solicited, through his wife, " erasures " or restitutions. Mme. 
 Bonaparte received them all with perfect grace. She prom- 
 ised everything, and sent every one away well pleased. The 
 petitions were put aside and lost sometimes, but then they 
 brought fresh ones, and she seemed never tired of listening. * 
 
 * My father, born in 1797, was very young at this time. He had, however, 
 a distinct recollection of a visit which he paid to the palace with his mother, 
 and he writes in a note respecting it : 
 
 " On Sunday I was taken to the Tuileries, and allowed to look on the review of 
 the troops in the Carrousel from the ladies'-maids' window. A large drawing 
 by Isabey, which has been engraved, exactly reproduces all that was interesting 
 in that spectacle. One day, after the parade, my mother came for me (I think she 
 had accompanied Mme. Bonaparte into the court of the Tuileries), and took me 
 up a staircase full of soldiers, at whom I stared hard. One of them, who was 
 coming down, spoke to her ; he wore an infantry uniform. ' Who is that ? ' I 
 asked, when he had passed. He was Louis Bonaparte. Then I saw a young 
 man going up stairs, in the well-known uniform of the Guides. His name I did 
 not need to ask. Children in those days knew the insignia of every rank and 
 corps in the army, and who did not know that Eugene de Beauharnais was 
 Colonel of the Guides ? At last we reached Mme. Bonaparte's drawing-room. 
 At first there was no one there but herself, one or two ladies, and my father 
 wearing his red coat embroidered in silver. I was probably kissed perhaps 
 they thought me grown ; then no one noticed me any further. Soon an officer 
 of the Consul's guard entered. He was short, thin, and carried himself badly, 
 or at least carelessly. I was sufficiently drilled in etiquette to observe that he 
 
HABITS OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 49 
 
 We dined at six in Paris ; at Saint Cloud we went out to 
 drive at that hour the Consul alone in a caleche with his 
 wife, we in other carriages. Bonaparte's brother and sisters 
 and Eugene de Beauharnais might come to dine with him 
 whenever they wished to do so. Sometimes Mme. Louis 
 came ; but she never slept at Saint Cloud. The jealousy of 
 Louis Bonaparte, and his extreme suspicion, had already 
 made her shy and melancholy. Once or twice a week the 
 little Napoleon (who afterward died in Holland) was sent to 
 Saint Cloud. Bonaparte seemed to love that child ; he built 
 hopes for the future upon him. Perhaps it was only on ac- 
 count of those hopes that he noticed him ; for M. de Talley- 
 rand has told me that, when the news of his nephew's death 
 reached Berlin, Bonaparte, who was about to appear in pub- 
 lic, was so little affected that M. de Talleyrand said, "You 
 forget that a death has occurred in your family, and that you 
 ought to look serious." " I do not amuse myself," replied 
 Bonaparte, " by thinking of dead people." 
 
 It would be curious to compare this frank utterance with 
 the fine speech of M. de Fontanes, who, having to deliver an 
 address upon the depositing of the Prussian flags in great 
 pomp at the Invalides, dwelt pathetically upon the majestic 
 grief of a conqueror who turned from the splendor of his vic- 
 tories to shed tears over the death of a child.* 
 
 moved about a great deal, and made rather free. Among other things, I was 
 surprised to see him sit on the arm of a chair. From thence he spoke, across a 
 considerable distance, to my mother. We were in front of him, and I remarked 
 his thin, almost wan face, with its brown and yellowish tints. We drew near 
 him while he spoke. When I was within his reach, he noticed me ; he took me by 
 my two ears and pulled them rather roughly. He hurt me, and, had I not been 
 in a palace, I should have cried. Then, turning to my father, * Is .he learning 
 mathematics ? ' he said. Soon I was taken away. ' Who is that soldier ? ' I 
 asked my mother. 'That soldier is the First Consul.' " 
 
 Such was my father's introduction to the life of courts. He saw the Em- 
 peror only once more, and under similar circumstances. P. R. 
 
 * The following letters were written by the Emperor on the occasion of the 
 death of this child, in May, 1807. He was at Finkestein, and he wrote to the 
 Empress Josephine : 
 
50 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMUS AT. 
 
 After the Consul had dined, we were told we might go 
 upstairs again. The conversation was prolonged, according 
 as he was in a good or a bad humor. He would go away after 
 a while, and in general we did not see him again. He re- 
 turned to work, gave some particular audience or received 
 one of the ministers, and retired early. Mme. Bonaparte 
 played at cards in the evening. Between ten and eleven 
 o'clock she would be told, " Madame, the First Consul has 
 gone to his room," and then she would dismiss us for the 
 night. 
 
 She and every one about her were very reserved respect- 
 ing public affairs. Duroc, Maret (then Secretary of State), 
 and the private secretaries were all impenetrable. Most of 
 the soldiers, to avoid talking, as I believe, abstained from 
 thinking ; in that kind of life there was not much wear and 
 tear of the mind. 
 
 On my arrival at Court, I was quite ignorant of the more 
 or less dread that Bonaparte inspired in those who had known 
 him for some time, and I was less embarrassed in his pres- 
 ence than the others ; and I did not think myself bound to 
 adopt the system of monosyllables religiously, and perhaps 
 prudently, adopted by all the household. This, however, ex- 
 
 "I know how much the death of poor Napoleon grieves you; you can 
 comprehend the pain I feel. I wish I were near you, that you might be mod- 
 erate and reasonable in your grief. You have had the happiness never to lose a 
 child ; but that loss is one of the conditions and the penalties attached to our 
 miserable human destiny. Let me hear that you have been reasonable, and that 
 you are well, if you would not increase my trouble. Adieu, my love." 
 
 Some days later (the 20th of May) he wrote to the Queen of Holland : " My 
 daughter, all that I hear from the Hague proves to me that you are not reason- 
 ble. However legitimate may be your grief, it ought to have limits. Do not 
 ruin your health. Take some recreation, and learn that life is strewn with so 
 many trials, and may be the cause of so many evils, that death is not the worst 
 one of all." He wrote the same day to M. Fouche : " I have felt the loss of lit- 
 tle Napoleon very much. I could have wished that his father and mother had 
 received from nature as much courage as I have to endure all the evils of life. 
 But they are young, and they have reflected less on the fragility of all things 
 here below." P. R. 
 
HABITS OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 51 
 
 posed me to ridicule in a way of which I was unconscious at 
 first, which afterward amused me, but which in the end I 
 had to avoid. 
 
 One evening Bonaparte was praising the ability of the 
 elder M. Portalis, who was then working at the Civil Code, 
 and M. de Eemusat said M. Portalis had profited by the study 
 of Montesquieu in particular, adding that he had read and 
 learned Montesquieu as one learns the catechism. Bonaparte, 
 turning to one of my companions, said to her, laughing, " I 
 would bet something that you do not know what this Mon- 
 tesquieu is." "Pardon me," she replied, "everybody has 
 read < Le Temple de Guide.' " At thifr Bonaparte went off 
 into a fit of laughter, and I could not help smiling. He 
 looked at me and said, "And you, madame?" I replied 
 simply that I was not acquainted with "Le Temple de 
 Guide," but had read " Considerations sur les Eomains," and 
 that I thought neither the one nor the other work was the 
 catechism to which M. de Remusat alluded. " Diable ! " 
 said Bonaparte, " you are a savante ! " This epithet discon- 
 certed me, for I felt that it would stick. A minute after, 
 Mme. Bonaparte began to talk of a tragedy (I do not know 
 what it was) which was then being performed. On this the 
 First Consul passed the living authors in review, and spoke 
 of Ducis, whose style he did not admire. He deplored the 
 mediocrity of our tragic poets, ajid said that, above every- 
 thing in the world, he should like to recompense the author 
 of a fine tragedy. I ventured to say that Ducis had spoilt 
 the "Othello" of Shakespeare. This long English name 
 coming from my lips produced a sensation among our silent 
 and attentive audience in epaulettes. Bonaparte did not al- 
 together like anything English being praised. We argued 
 the point awhile. All I said was very commonplace ; but I 
 had named Shakespeare, I had held my own against the 
 Consul, I had praised an English author. "What audacity ! 
 what a prodigy of erudition ! I was obliged to keep silence 
 for several days after, or at least only to take part in idle 
 
52 MEMOIRS OF MADAME LE REMUS AT. 
 
 talk, in order to efface the effect of my unlucky and easily 
 gained reputation for cleverness. 
 
 When I left the palace and went back to my mother's 
 house, I associated there with many amiable women and dis- 
 tinguished men, whose conversation was most interesting; 
 and I smiled to myself at the difference between their soci- 
 ety and that of Bonaparte's Court. 
 
 One good effect of our almost habitual silence was, that 
 it kept us from gossip. The women had no chance of in- 
 dulging in coquetry ; the men were incessantly occupied in 
 their duties ; and Bonaparte, who did not yet venture to in- 
 dulge all his fancies, and who felt that the appearance of 
 regularity would be useful to him, lived in a way which de- 
 ceived me as to his morality. He appeared to love his wife 
 very much ; she seemed to be all in all to him. Neverthe- 
 less, I discovered ere long that she had troubles of a nature 
 which surprised me. She was of an exceedingly jealous dis- 
 position. It was a very great misfortune for her that she 
 had no children by her second husband ; he sometimes ex- 
 pressed his annoyance, and then she trembled for her future. 
 The family of the First Consul, who were always bitter 
 against the Beauharnais, made the most of this misfortune. 
 From these causes quarrels arose. Sometimes I found Mme. 
 Bonaparte in tears, and then she would complain bitterly of 
 her brothers-in-law, of Mme. Murat, and of Murat, who kept 
 up their own influence by exciting the Consul to passing 
 fancies, and promoting his secret intrigues. I begged her 
 to keep quiet. I could see that if Bonaparte loved his wife, 
 it was because her habitual gentleness gave him repose, and 
 that she would lose her power if she troubled or disturbed 
 him. However, during my first years at Court, the slight 
 differences which arose between them always ended in satis- 
 factory explanations and in redoubled tenderness. 
 
 After 1802 I never saw General Moreau at Bonaparte's 
 Court ; they were already estranged. Moreau's mother-in- 
 law and wife were schemers, and Bonaparte could not endure 
 
HABITS OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 53 
 
 a spirit of intrigue in women. Moreover, on one occasion 
 the mother of Mme. Moreau, being at Malmaison, had ven- 
 tured to jest about the suspected scandalous intimacy between 
 Bonaparte and his young sister Caroline, then newly mar- 
 ried. The Consul had not forgiven these remarks, for which 
 he had severely censured both the mother and the daughter. 
 Moreau complained, and was sharply questioned about his 
 own attitude. He lived in retirement, among people who 
 kept him in a state of constant irritation ; and Murat, who 
 was the chief of an active secret police, spied out causes of 
 offense which were wholly unimportant, and continually car- 
 ried malicious reports to the Tuileries. This multiplication 
 of the police was one of the evils of Bonaparte's govern- 
 ment, and was the result of his suspicious disposition. The 
 agents acted as spies upon each other, denounced each other, 
 endeavored to make themselves necessary, and kept alive Bo- 
 naparte's habitual mistrust. After the affair of the infernal 
 machine, of which M. de Talleyrand availed himself to pro- 
 cure the dismissal of Fouche, the police had been put into 
 the hands of Eegnier, the chief judge. Bonaparte thought 
 that his suppressing the Ministry of Police, which was a 
 revolutionary invention, would look like liberalism and mod- 
 eration. He soon repented of this step, and replaced the 
 regular ministry by a multitude of spies, whom he continued 
 to employ even after he had reinstated Fouche. His Prefect 
 of Police, Murat, Duroc, Savary (who then commanded the 
 gendarmerie d? elite), Maret (who had also a secret police, at 
 the head of which was M. de Semonville), and I don't know 
 how many others, did the work of the suppressed ministry. 
 
 Fouche, who possessed in perfection the art of making 
 himself necessary, soon crept back secretly into the favor of 
 the First Consul, and succeeded in getting himself made 
 minister a second time. The badly conducted trial of Gen- 
 eral Moreau aided him in that attempt, as will be seen by 
 what follows. 
 
 At this time Cambace'res and Lebrun, Second and Third 
 
54: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 Consuls, took very little part in the administration of the 
 Government. The latter, who was an old man, gave Bona- 
 parte no concern. The .former, a distinguished magistrate, 
 who was of great weight in all questions within the province 
 of the Council of State, took part only in the discussion of 
 certain laws. Bonaparte profited by his knowledge, and re- 
 lied with good reason on the ridicule which his petty vanity 
 excited to diminish his importance. Cambaceres, charmed 
 with the distinctions conferred on him, paraded them with 
 childish pleasure, which was humored and laughed at. His 
 self-conceit on certain points frequently secured his safety. 
 
 At the time of which I speak, M. de Talleyrand had vast 
 influence. Every great political question passed through his 
 hands. Not only did he regulate foreign affairs at that 
 period, and principally determine the new State constitu- 
 tions to be given to Germany & task which kid the founda- 
 tions of his immense fortune but he had long conferences 
 with Bonaparte every day, and urged him to measures for 
 the establishment of his power on the basis of reparation and 
 reconstruction. At that time I am certain that measures for 
 the restoration of monarchy were frequently discussed be- 
 tween them. M. de Talleyrand always remained unalterably 
 convinced that monarchical government only was suitable to 
 France ; while, for his own part, it would have enabled him 
 to resume all his former habits of life, and replaced him on 
 familiar ground. Both the advantages and the abuses proper 
 to courts would offer him chances of acquiring power and in- 
 fluence. I did not know M. de Talleyrand, and all I had 
 heard of him had prejudiced me strongly against him. I 
 was, however, struck by the elegance of his manners, which 
 presented so strong a contrast to the rude bearing of the 
 military men by whom I was surrounded. He preserved 
 among them the indelible characteristics of a grand seigneur. 
 He overawed by his disdainful silence, by his patronizing 
 politeness, from which no one could escape. M. de Talley- 
 rand, who was the most artificial of beings, contrived to 
 
Jf. DE TALLEYRAND. 55 
 
 make a sort of natural character for himself out of a number 
 of habits deliberately adopted; he adhered to them under 
 all circumstances, as though they had really constituted his 
 true nature. His habitually light manner of treating the 
 most momentous matters was almost always useful to him- 
 self, but it frequently injured the effect of his actions. 
 
 For several years I had no acquaintance with him I 
 distrusted him vaguely ; but it amused me to hear him talk, 
 and see him act with ease peculiar to himself, and which 
 lent infinite grace to all those ways of his, which in any 
 other man would be regarded as sheer affectation. 
 
 The winter of this year (1803) was very brilliant. Bona- 
 parte desired that fetes should be given, and he also occu- 
 pied himself with the restoration of the theatres. He con- 
 fided the carrying out of the latter design to his Prefects 
 of the Palace. M. de Remusat was intrusted with the charge 
 of the Comedie Francaise ; a number of pieces which had 
 been prohibited by Republican policy were put upon the 
 stage. By degrees all the former habits of social life were 
 resumed. This was a clever way of enticing back those who 
 had been familiar with that social life, and of reuniting the 
 ties that bind civilized men together. This system was skill- 
 fully carried out. Hostile opinions became weaker daily. 
 The Royalists, who had been bafiled on the 18th Fructidor, 
 continued to hope that Bonaparte, after having reestablished 
 order, would include the return of the house of Bourbon 
 among his restorations. They deceived themselves on this 
 point indeed, but at least they might tlinank him for the re- 
 establishment of order ; and they looked forward to a deci- 
 sive blow, which, by disposing of his person and suddenly 
 rendering vacant a place which henceforth no one but he 
 could fill, would make it evident that only the legitimate 
 sovereign could be his natural successor. This secret idea 
 of a party which is generally confident in what it hopes, and 
 always imprudent in what it attempts, led to renewed secret 
 correspondences with our princes, to attempts by the emigres. 
 
56 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K&MUSAT. 
 
 and to movements in La Vendee ; and all these proceedings 
 Bonaparte watched in silence. 
 
 On the other hand, those who were enamored of federal 
 government observed with uneasiness that the consular au- 
 thority tended toward a centralization which was by degrees 
 reviving the idea of royalty. These malcontents were al- 
 most of the same mind as the few individuals who, notwith- 
 standing the errors into which the cause of liberty had led 
 some of its partisans, were forced by their consciences to 
 acknowledge that the French Revolution was a movement 
 of public utility, and who feared that Bonaparte might suc- 
 ceed in paralyzing its action. Now and then a few words 
 were said on this subject, which, although very moderate in 
 tone, showed that the Hoyalists were not the only antagonists 
 the secret projects of Bonaparte would meet with. Then 
 there were the ultra-Jacobins to be kept within bounds, and 
 also the military, who, full of their pretensions, were aston- 
 ished that any rights except their own should be recognized. 
 The state of opinion among all these different parties was 
 accurately reported to Bonaparte, who steered his way among 
 them prudently. He went on steadily toward a goal, which 
 at that time few people even guessed at. He kept attention 
 fixed upon a portion of his policy which he enveloped in 
 mystery. He could at will attract or divert attention, and 
 alternately excite the approbation of the one or the other 
 party disturb or reassure them as he found it necessary ; 
 now exciting wonder, and then hope. He regarded the 
 French as fickle children ready to be amused by a new play- 
 thing at the expense of their own dearest interests. His 
 position as First Consul was advantageous to him, because, 
 being so undefined, it excited less uneasiness among a certain 
 class of people. At a later period the positive rank of Em- 
 peror deprived him of that advantage ; then, after having 
 let France into his secret, he had no other means left where- 
 by to efface the impression from the country, but that fatal 
 lure of military glory which he displayed before her. From 
 
M. DE TALLEYRAND. 57 
 
 this cause arose his never-ending wars, his interminable con- 
 quests ; for he felt we must be occupied at all hazards. And 
 now we can see that from this cause, too, arose the obligation 
 imposed on him to push his destiny to its limits, and to re- 
 fuse peace either at Dresden or even at Chatillon. For 
 Bonaparte knew that he must infallibly be lost, from that 
 day on which his compulsory quietude should give us time 
 to reflect upon him and upon ourselves. 
 
 At the end of 1802, or the beginning of 1803, there ap- 
 peared in the " Moniteur " a dialogue between a Frenchman, 
 enthusiastic on the subject of the English constitution, and 
 a so-called reasonable Englishman, who, after having shown 
 that there is, strictly speaking, no constitution in England, 
 but only institutions, all more or less adapted to the position 
 of the country and to the character of its inhabitants, en- 
 deavors to prove that these institutions could not be adopted 
 by the French without giving rise to many evils. By these 
 and similar means, Bonaparte endeavored to control that de- 
 sire for liberty which always springs up anew in the minds 
 of the French people. 
 
 About the close of 1802 we heard at Paris of the death 
 of General Leclerc, of yellow fever, at Saint Domingo. In 
 the month of January his pretty young widow returned to 
 France. She was then in bad health, and dressed in deep, 
 somber mourning ; but still I thought her the most charming 
 person I had ever seen. Bonaparte strongly exhorted her to 
 conduct herself better than she had done before she went 
 out to Saint Domingo ; and she promised everything, but 
 soon broke her word. 
 
 The death of General Leclerc gave rise to a little diffi- 
 culty, and the settling of this tended toward that revival of 
 former customs which was preparing the way for monarchy. 
 Bonaparte and Mme. Bonaparte put on mourning, and we 
 received orders to do likewise. This was significant enough ; 
 but it was not all. The ambassadors were to pay a visit at 
 the Tuileries, to condole with the Consul and his wife on 
 
58 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMUSAT. 
 
 their loss, and it was represented to them that politeness re- 
 quired them to wear mourning on the occasion. They met 
 to deliberate, and, as there was not time for them to obtain 
 instructions from their several courts, they resolved to accept 
 the intimation they had received, thus following the custom 
 usual in such cases. Since September, 1802, an ambassador 
 from England, Lord Whitworth, had replaced the charge 
 & affaires. There was hope of a lasting peace ; intercourse 
 between England and France increased daily ; but, notwith- 
 standing this, persons who were a little better informed than 
 the crown foresaw causes of dissension between the two 
 Governments. There had been a discussion in the English 
 Parliament about the part which the French Government 
 had taken in the matter of the new Swiss constitution, and 
 the " Moniteur," which was entirely official, published arti- 
 cles complaining of certain measures which were taken in 
 London against Frenchmen. Appearances were, however, 
 extremely favorable ; all Paris, and especially the Tuileries, 
 seemed to be -given up to fetes and pleasures. Domestic life 
 at the chateau was all peace, when suddenly the First Con- 
 sul's taking a fancy to a young and beautiful actress, of the 
 Theatre Franais, threw Mme. Bonaparte into great distress, 
 and gave rise to bitter quarrels. 
 
 Two remarkable actresses (Miles. Duchesnois and Georges) 
 had made their debut in tragedy almost at the same time. 
 The one was very plain, but her genius speedily gained 
 popularity ; the other was not so talented, but was extremely 
 beautiful.* The Parisian public sided warmly with one or 
 
 * The following is my father's recollection of the talents and the rivalry of 
 these two celebrated actresses: "The liaison of the Emperor with Mile. Georges 
 was much talked about. I myself remember when a controversy raged in soci- 
 ety respecting the merits of the two tragediennes. After each representation 
 given by the one or the other, there were very animated disputes. Connoisseurs 
 and the public in general preferred Mile. Duchesnois. She had not much tal- 
 ent, however, and acted without intelligence ; but she had passion, tenderness, 
 and a touching voice, which moved her audience to tears. It was, I believe, for 
 her that the phrase, ' to have tears in the voice,' was invented. My mother and 
 
MADAME BONAPARTE'S JEALOUSY. 59 
 
 the other, but in general the success of talent was greater 
 than that of beauty. Bonaparte, on the contrary, was charmed 
 with the latter ; and Mme. Bonaparte soon learned, through 
 the spying of her servants, that Mile. Georges had on sev- 
 eral occasions been introduced into a little back room in the 
 chateau. This discovery caused her extreme distress; she 
 told me of it with great emotion, and shed more tears than 
 I thought such a temporary affair called for. I represented 
 to her that gentleness and patience were the only remedies 
 for a grief which time would certainly cure ; and it was dur- 
 ing the conversations we had on this subject that she gave 
 me a notion of her husband which I would not otherwise 
 have formed. According to her account, he had no moral 
 principles whatever, and only concealed his vicious inclina- 
 tions at that time because he feared they might harm him ; 
 but, when he could give himself up to them without any 
 risk, he would abandon himself to the most shameful pas- 
 sions. Had he not seduced his own sisters one after the 
 other ? Did he not hold that his position entitled him to 
 gratify all his inclinations ? And, besides, his brothers were 
 practicing on his weaknesses to induce him to relinquish all 
 relations with his wife. As the result of their schemes she 
 foresaw the much-dreaded divorce, which had already been 
 mooted. " It is a great misfortune for me," she added, " that 
 I have not borne a son to Bonaparte. That gives their hatred 
 
 my aunt (Mme. de Nansouty) were in favor of Mile. Duchesnois, even to the 
 point of disputing with my father himself, who, in his official capacity, was 
 bound to be impartial. These discussions on dramatic art, enlivened by the fa- 
 cility which my father's functions gave us for attending the theatres, inspired 
 me with a taste for literature and conversation quite beyond my age. When 
 very young, I was taken to the theatre, and I saw both these Melpomenes. It 
 was said the one was so good as to be beautiful, and the other was so beautiful 
 as to be good. The latter, who was then very young, trusting to her charms, 
 was indolent, and the want of flexibility in her voice and a kind of drawl in her 
 pronunciation interfered with her elocution. I think, however, in reality she 
 was more clever than her rival, but that, by using her talent in so many differ- 
 ent ways, she at the same time developed and depreciated it ; and she deserved 
 at least a part of the reputation that she acquired in her old age." 
 
60 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 a weapon which they can always use against me." " But, 
 madame," I said, "it appears to me that your daughter's 
 child almost repairs that misfortune ; the First Consul loves 
 him, and will, perhaps, in the end adopt him." " Alas ! " 
 replied she, " that is the object of my dearest wishes ; but 
 the jealous and sullen disposition of Louis Bonaparte leads 
 him to oppose it. His family have maliciously repeated to 
 him the insulting rumors concerning my daughter's conduct 
 and the paternity of her son. Slander has declared the child 
 to be Bonaparte's, and that is sufficient to make Louis refuse 
 his consent to the adoption. You see how he keeps away 
 from us, and now my daughter is obliged to be on her guard 
 in everything. Moreover, independently of the good rea- 
 sons I have for not enduring Bonaparte's infidelities, they 
 always mean that I shall have a thousand other annoyances 
 to submit to." 
 
 This was quite true. I observed that from the moment 
 the First Consul paid attention to another woman whether 
 it was that his despotic temper led him to expect that his 
 wife should approve this indication of his absolute indepen- 
 dence in all things, or whether nature had bestowed upon 
 him so limited a faculty of loving that it was all absorbed by 
 the person preferred at the time, and that he had not a par- 
 ticle of feeling left to bestow upon another he became 
 harsh, violent, and pitiless to his wife. Whenever he had a 
 mistress, he let her know it, and showed a sort of savage sur- 
 prise that she did not approve of his indulging in pleasures 
 which, as he would demonstrate, so to speak, mathematically, 
 were both allowable and necessary for him. " I am not an 
 ordinary man," he would say, " and the laws of morals and 
 of custom were never made for me." Such speeches as 
 these aroused the anger of Mme. Bonaparte, and she replied 
 to them by tears and complaints, which her husband resented 
 with the utmost violence. After a while his new fancy 
 would vanish suddenly, and his tenderness for his wife re- 
 vive. Then he was moved by her grief, and would lavish 
 
MADAME BONAPARTE' S JEALOUSY. 61 
 
 caresses upon her as unmeasured as his wrath had been; 
 and, as she was very placable and gentle, she was easily 
 appeased. 
 
 While the storm lasted, however, my position was ren- 
 dered embarrassing by the strange confidences of which I 
 was the recipient, and at times by proceedings in which I 
 was obliged to take part. I remember one occurrence in 
 particular, during the winter of 1803, at which, and the ab- 
 surd panic into which it threw me, I have often laughed 
 since. 
 
 Bonaparte was in the habit of occupying the same room 
 with his wife ; she had cleverly persuaded him that doing so 
 tended to insure his personal safety. "I told him," she 
 said, "that as I was a very light sleeper, if any nocturnal 
 attempt against him was made, I should be there to call for 
 help in a moment." In the evening she never retired until 
 Bonaparte had gone to bed. But when Mile. Georges was 
 in the ascendant, as she used to visit the chateau very late, 
 he did not on those occasions go to his wife's room until an 
 advanced hour of the night. One evening Mme. Bonaparte, 
 who was more than usually jealous and suspicious, kept me 
 with her, and eagerly talked of .her troubles. It was one 
 o'clock in the morning ; we were alone in her bondoir, and 
 profound silence reigned in the Tuileries. All at once she 
 rose. "I can not bear it any longer," she said. "Mile. 
 Georges is certainly with him ; I will surprise them." I 
 was alarmed by this sudden resolution, and said all I could 
 to dissuade her from acting on it, but in vain. " Follow 
 me," she said ; " let us go up together." Then I represented 
 to her that such an act, very improper even on her part, 
 would be intolerable on mine ; and that, in case of her mak- 
 ing the discovery which she expected, I should certainly be 
 one too many at the scene which must ensue. She would 
 listen to nothing ; she reproached me with abandoning her 
 in her distress, and she begged me so earnestly to accompany 
 her, that, notwithstanding my repugnance, I yielded, saying 
 
62 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE KfiMUSAT. 
 
 to myself that our expedition would end in nothing, as no 
 doubt precautions had been taken to prevent a surprise. 
 
 Silently we ascended the back staircase leading to Bona- 
 parte's room ; Mme. Bonaparte, who was much excited, go- 
 ing first, while I followed slowly, feeling very much ashamed 
 of the part I was being made to play. On our way we heard 
 a slight noise. Mme. Bonaparte turned to me and said, 
 " Perhaps that is Rustan, Bonaparte's Mameluke, who keeps 
 the door. The wretch is quite capable of killing us both." 
 On hearing this, I was seized with such terror that I could 
 not listen further, and, forgetting that I was leaving Mme. 
 Bonaparte in utter darkness, I ran back as quickly as I could 
 to the boudoir, candle in hand. She followed me a few min- 
 utes after, astonished at my sudden flight. When she saw 
 my terrified face, she began to laugh, which set me off laugh- 
 ing also, and we renounced our enterprise. I left her, tell- 
 ing her I thought the fright she had given me was a very 
 good thing for her, and that I was very glad I had yielded 
 to it. 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte's jealousy affected her sweet temper so 
 much that it could not long be a secret to anybody. I was 
 in the embarrassing position of a confidant without influence 
 over the person who confided in me, and I could not but 
 appear to be mixed up in the quarrels which I witnessed. 
 Bonaparte thought that one woman must enter eagerly into 
 the feelings of another, and he showed some annoyance at 
 my being made aware of the facts of his private life. 
 
 Meantime, the ugly actress grew in favor with the pub- 
 lic of Paris, and the handsome one was frequently received 
 with hisses. M. de Eemusat endeavored to divide patronage 
 equally between the two ; but whatever he did for the one 
 or for the other was received with equal dissatisfaction, either 
 by the First Consul or by the public. 
 
 These petty affairs gave us a good deal of annoyance. 
 Bonaparte, without confiding the secret of his interest in the 
 fair actress to M. de Remusat, complained to my husband, 
 
MADAME BONAPARTE'S JEALOUSY. 63 
 
 saying that he would not object to my being his wife's con- 
 fidant, provided I would only give her good advice. My 
 husband represented me as a sensible person, brought up 
 with a great regard for propriety, and who would be most 
 unlikely to encourage Mme. Bonaparte's jealous fancies. 
 The First Consul, who was still well disposed toward us, ac- 
 cepted this view of my conduct ; but thence arose another 
 annoyance. He called upon me to interfere in his conjugal 
 quarrels, and wanted to avail himself of what he called my 
 good sense against the foolish jealousy of which he was 
 wearied. As I never could conceal my real sentiments, I 
 answered quite sincerely, when he told me how weary he 
 was of all these scenes, that I pitied Mme. Bonaparte very 
 much, whether she suffered with or without cause, and that 
 he, above all persons, ought to excuse her ; but, at the same 
 time, I admitted that I thought it undignified on her part to 
 endeavor to prove the infidelity which she suspected by em- 
 ploying her servants as spies on her husband. The First 
 Consul did not fail to tell his wife that I blamed her in this 
 respect, and then I was involved in endless explanations be- 
 tween the husband and the wife, into which I imported all 
 the ardor natural to my age, and also the devotion and at- 
 tachment which I felt for both of them. We went through 
 a constant succession of scenes, whose details have now faded 
 from my memory, and in which Bonaparte would be at one 
 time imperious, harsh, excessively suspicious, and at another 
 suddenly moved, tender, almost gentle, atoning with a good 
 grace for the faults he acknowledged but did not renounce. 
 
 I remember one day, in order to avoid an awkward tete- 
 a-tete with Mme. Bonaparte, he made me remain to dinner. 
 His wife was just then very angry, because he had declared 
 that henceforth he would have a separate apartment, and he 
 insisted that I should give my opinion on this point. I was 
 quite unprepared to answer him, and I knew that Mme. 
 Bonaparte would not readily forgive me if I did not decide 
 in her favor. I tried to evade a reply ; but Bonaparte, who 
 
64 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 enjoyed my embarrassment, insisted. I could find no other 
 way out of the difficulty than by saying that I thought any- 
 thing which might make people think the First Consul was 
 altering his manner of living would give rise to injurious 
 reports, and that the least change in the arrangements of the 
 chdteau would inevitably be talked about. Bonaparte laughed, 
 and, pinching my ear, said, " Ah ! you are a woman, and you 
 all back each other." 
 
 Nevertheless, he carried out his resolution, and from that 
 time forth occupied a separate apartment. His manner to- 
 ward his wife, however, became more affectionate after this 
 breeze, and she, on her side, was less suspicious of him. She 
 adopted the advice which I constantly urged upon her, to 
 treat such unworthy rivalry with disdain. "It would be 
 quite time enough to fret," I said, " if the Consul chose one 
 of the women in your own society ; that would be a real grief, 
 and for me a serious annoyance." Two years afterward my 
 prediction was only too fully realized, especially as regarded 
 myself. 
 
CHAPTEK II. 
 
 (1803.) 
 
 A Eeturn to the Customs of the Monarchy M. de Fontanes Mme. d'Houdetot 
 Kumors of War Meeting of the Corps Le"gislatif Departure of the English Am- 
 bassador M. Maret Marshal Berthier Journey of the First Consul to Belgium 
 A Carriage Accident The Amiens Fe"tes. 
 
 WITH the exception of this slight disturbance, the winter 
 passed quietly. The progress of the restoration of order was 
 marked by several new institutions. The lyceums were or- 
 ganized ; the magistrates again wore official robes, and were 
 also invested with some importance. A collection of French 
 paintings was placed at the Louvre, and called " the Museum," 
 and M. Denon was appointed superintendent. Pensions and 
 rewards were conferred on men of letters, and M. de Fontanes 
 was frequently consulted on these points. Bonaparte liked 
 to talk with him, and their conversations were in general 
 very entertaining. The First Consul amused himself by at- 
 tacking the pure and classical taste of M. de Fontanes, who 
 defended our French chefs-cTceuvre with warmth, and thus he 
 gained a reputation for courage among those present. For 
 there were already persons at that Court who took so readily 
 to the rdle of the courtier, that they looked upon any one who 
 ventured to admire "Merope"or " Mithridates," after the 
 master had declared that he cared for neither of those works, 
 as quite a heroic being. 
 
 Bonaparte appeared to derive great amusement from these 
 literary controversies. At one time he even thought of in- 
 viting certain men of letters to come twice a week to Mme. 
 
66 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 Bonaparte's receptions, so that he might enjoy their conver- 
 sation. M. de Remusat, who was acquainted with a number 
 of distinguished men in Paris, was directed to invite them to 
 the chateau. Accordingly, one evening, several academicians 
 and well-known literary men were invited. Bonaparte was 
 in a good humor that night ; he talked very well, and allowed 
 others to talk ; he was agreeable and animated. I was 
 charmed to see him make himself so agreeable. I was very 
 anxious that he should make a favorable impression on .per- 
 sons who had not previously known him, and thus defeat 
 certain prejudices which prevailed against him. When he 
 chose, he could exhibit keen judgment, as he did, for instance, 
 in appraising the worth of the old Abbe Morellet's intellect.* 
 Morellet was a straightforward, positive man, who proceeded 
 in argument from fact to fact and would never admit the 
 power of the imagination on the progress of human ideas. 
 Bonaparte delighted in upsetting this system. Allowing his 
 imagination to take any flight it wished and in the Abbe's 
 presence it carried him far he broached all kinds of subjects, 
 gave full flight to his ideas, was highly amused at the bewil- 
 derment of the Abbe, and was really very entertaining. 
 
 The next day he spoke with pleasure of the previous 
 evening, and said he would like to have many such. A 
 similar reception was therefore fixed for a few days later. 
 Somebody (I forget who) began to talk with much animation 
 about liberty of thought and speech, and the advantages 
 which they secure to nations. This led to a discussion con- 
 siderably less free than on the former occasion, and the Con- 
 sul maintained a silence when seemed to paralyze the com- 
 pany. On the third evening he came in late, was absent 
 and gloomy, and spoke only a few unconnected sentences. 
 Every one was silent and constrained ; and the next day the 
 First Consul told us that he saw there was nothing to be 
 
 * The Abbe Morellet, a friend of Mme. d'Houdetot and Mme. de Vergennes, 
 was a well-known personage at the end of the eighteenth century, and was called 
 by Voltaire the Abbe Mord-les. He died January 12, 1819. P. R. 
 
MADAME &HOUDETOT. 67 
 
 made of these men of letters, nothing to be gained by ad- 
 mitting them to intimacy, and he did not wish they should 
 be invited again. He could not bear any restraint, and being 
 obliged to appear affable and in a good humor on a certain 
 day and at a certain hour was a yoke which he hastened to 
 shake off. 
 
 During that winter two distinguished academicians, MM. 
 de la Harpe and de Saint-Lambert, died. I regretted the 
 latter very much, because I was exceedingly attached to 
 Mme. d'Houdetot, whose intimate friend he had been for 
 forty years, and at whose house he died. This delightful 
 old lady received all the best and most agreeable society of 
 Paris. I was a constant visitor at her house ; there I found 
 the revival of a day which then seemed lost beyond recall 
 I mean that in which people conversed in an agreeable and 
 instructive manner. Mme. d'Houdetot, whose age and dis- 
 position alike kept her aloof from all political parties, en- 
 joyed the repose that the country was enjoying, and profited 
 by it to collect all that remained of Parisian good society at 
 her house. They came willingly to tend and to amuse her 
 old age. To go to her house was a relief from the restraint 
 under which I lived at the Tuileries, partly from the exam- 
 ple of others and partly from the experience which I was 
 beginning to acquire. 
 
 About this time a rumor rose that war with England was 
 likely to break out again. Private letters revealing certain 
 enterprises set on foot in La Yendee were published. In 
 these letters the English Government was accused of aiding 
 the Yendeans, and George Cadoudal was named in them as 
 the agent between the English Government and the Chouans. 
 M. Andre was also mentioned ; it was said he had got into 
 France secretly, after already having endeavored, before the 
 18th Fructidor, to assist the Eoyalist cause. "While this rumor 
 was spreading, the Legislative Assembly was called together. 
 The report of the state of the Kepublic which was laid be- 
 fore it was remarkable, and gave rise to much comment. It 
 
68 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 included peace with foreign powers ; the conduswm given at 
 Ratisbon upon the new partition of Germany, and recognized 
 bj all the sovereigns ; the constitution accepted by the Swiss ; 
 the Concordat ; the regulation of public education ; the for- 
 mation of the Institute ; * the improved administration of 
 justice ; the amelioration of the finances ; the Civil Code, of 
 which a portion was submitted to the Assembly; various 
 public works commenced both on our frontiers and in 
 France ; plans for Antwerp, for Mont Cenis, the banks of 
 the Rhine, and the canal de TOurcq ; the acquisition of the 
 island of Elba; the possession of Saint Domingo; several 
 proposals for laws, upon indirect taxation, on the formation 
 of chambers of commerce, on the exercise of the profession 
 of medicine, and on manufactures. All this formed a satis- 
 factory statement, and one honorable to the Government. 
 At the end of the report, however, a few words were slipped 
 in with reference to the possibility of a rupture with Eng- 
 land, and the necessity for increasing the army. Neither the 
 Legislative Assembly nor the Tribunate offered any opposi- 
 tion whatever, and approbation which at that time was really 
 deserved was bestowed upon so fair a beginning to many 
 great undertakings. 
 
 In March, bitter complaints appeared in our newspapers 
 of certain pamphlets against Bonaparte which were circulated 
 in England. This sensitiveness to strictures by the English 
 free press was only a pretext ; the occupation of Malta and 
 our intervention in the Government of Switzerland were the 
 true causes of the rupture. On the 8th of March, 1803, a 
 message from the King of England to the Parliament de- 
 clared that important differences between the two Govern- 
 ments had arisen, and complained of the warlike preparations 
 which were being made in the ports of Holland. Immedi- 
 ately afterward the scene took place in which Bonaparte 
 
 * It would be more correct to say that the First Consul reorganized the In- 
 stitute, by suppressing the class of moral and political sciences on January 23, 
 1803. This class was not reestablished till after 1830. P. R. 
 
DEPARTURE OF ENGLISH AMBASSADOR. 69 
 
 either feigned or allowed himself to exhibit violent anger in 
 the presence of all the ambassadors. A little later he left 
 Paris for Saint Cloud. 
 
 Notwithstanding his absorption in public affairs, he took 
 care to direct one of his Prefects of the Palace to write a 
 letter of congratulation and compliment to the celebrated 
 musician Paisiello on the opera of " Proserpine," which had 
 just been given in Paris. The First Consul was exceedingly 
 anxious to attract the celebrated people of all countries to 
 France, and he paid them liberally. 
 
 Shortly afterward the rupture between France and Eng- 
 land took place, and the English ambassador before whose 
 house a great crowd had been in the habit of assembling 
 daily, in order to judge of the state of affairs, according to 
 the preparations for departure which they could or could not 
 perceive in the courtyard left Paris abruptly. M. de Tal- 
 leyrand communicated to the Senate a statement of the rea- 
 sons that rendered war inevitable. The Senate replied that 
 they could only applaud the combined moderation and firm- 
 ness of the First Consul, and sent a deputation to Saint Cloud 
 to express their gratitude and their devotion. M. de Yau- 
 blanc, when speaking in the Legislative Assembly, exclaimed 
 enthusiastically, "What chief of a nation has ever shown a 
 greater love of peace ? " If it were possible to separate the 
 history of the negotiations of the First Consul from that of 
 his exploits, it would read like the life of a magistrate whose 
 sole endeavor had been the establishment of peace. The 
 Tribunate expressed a desire that energetic measures should 
 be taken ; and, after these various acts of admiration and obe- 
 dience, the session of the Legislative Assembly came to a close. 
 
 Then appeared certain violent notes against the English 
 Government, which soon became numerous, and dealt in 
 detail with the attacks of the free daily press in London. 
 Bonaparte dictated the substance of these notes, and M. 
 Maret drew them up. Thus the sovereign of a great empire 
 entered, so to speak, into a war of words with journalists, 
 
70 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 and lowered his own dignity by allowing it to be seen that 
 he was stung by the criticisms of ephemeral newspapers, 
 whose comments it would have been far wiser to ignore. It 
 was easy for the English journalists to find out how hard 
 their remarks hit the First Consul, and a little later the Em- 
 peror of France, and they accordingly redoubled their at- 
 tacks. How many times, when we saw him gloomy and out 
 of temper, did Mme. Bonaparte tell us it was because he had 
 read some article against himself in the "Courier" or the 
 " Sun " ! He tried to wage a pen-and-ink war with the Eng- 
 lish press ; he subsidized certain journals in London, expended 
 a great deal of money, and deceived no one either in France 
 or in England. 
 
 I have said that he often dictated notes on this subject 
 for the " Moniteur." Bonaparte dictated with great ease. 
 He never wrote anything with his own hand. His hand- 
 writing was bad, and as illegible by himself as by others ; his 
 spelling was very defective. He utterly lacked patience to 
 do anything whatever with his own hands. The extreme 
 activity of his mind and the habitual prompt obedience ren- 
 dered to him prevented him from practicing an occupation 
 in which the mind must necessarily wait for the action of 
 the body. Those who wrote from his dictation first M. 
 Bourrienne, then M. Maret, and Menneval, his private secre- 
 tary had made a sort of shorthand for themselves, in order 
 that their pens might travel as fast as his thoughts. He dic- 
 tated while walking to and fro in his cabinet. When he 
 grew angry, he would use violent imprecations, which were 
 suppressed in writing, and which had at least the advantage 
 of giving the writer time to come up with him. He never re- 
 peated anything that he once said, even if it had not been 
 heard ; and this was very hard on the poor secretary, for he 
 remembered accurately what he had said and detected every 
 omission. One day he read a tragedy in manuscript, and it 
 interested him sufficiently to inspire him with a fancy to 
 make some alterations in it. " Take a pen and paper," said 
 
M. MARET. 71 
 
 he to M. de Remusat, " and write for me." Hardly giving 
 my husband time to seat himself at a table, he began to dic- 
 tate so quickly that M. de Reniusat, although accustomed to 
 write with great rapidity, was bathed in perspiration while 
 trying to follow him. Bonaparte perceived his difficulty, 
 and would stop now and then to say, " Come, try to under- 
 stand me, for I will not repeat what I say." He always de- 
 rived amusement from causing any one uneasiness and dis- 
 tress. His great general principle, which he applied to every- 
 thing, both small and great, was that there could be no zeal 
 where there was no disquiet. Fortunately he forgot to ask 
 for the sheet of observations he had dictated. M. de Re- 
 musat and I have often tried to read it since, but we have 
 never been able to make out a word of it. 
 
 M. Maret, the Secretary of State, was a man of very 
 ordinary intellect ; indeed, Bonaparte did not dislike medi- 
 ocrity, because he said he had enough brains to give those 
 about him what they wanted in that way. M. Maret rose to 
 high favor in consequence of his great facility in writing 
 from the First Consul's dictation. He accustomed himself 
 to follow and seize upon the first indication of Bonaparte's 
 idea so faithfully that he could report it just as it came from 
 the speaker's brain without making an observation. His 
 favor with his master was perhaps still more largely due to 
 the fact that he felt or feigned boundless devotion to him, 
 and it was displayed by such enthusiastic admiration that 
 Bonaparte could not help being flattered. So far did M. 
 Maret carry the art of skillful adulation, that it was posi- 
 tively asserted that when he traveled with the Emperor he 
 took the trouble to leave with his wife drafts of letters, 
 which she copied carefully, complaining that her husband 
 was so exclusively devoted to his master that she could not 
 help feeling jealous. As all' the letters were delivered at 
 the Emperor's own quarters while he was traveling, and as 
 he frequently amused himself by opening them, these clever 
 complainings produced exactly the intended effect. 
 
72 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 When M. Maret* was Minister of Foreign Affairs, he 
 took care not to follow the example of M. de Talleyrand, 
 who used to say that it was, above all, Bonaparte himself 
 whom it was necessary for that minister to manage. Maret, 
 on the contrary, fostered all Bonaparte's passions, and was 
 surprised that foreign sovereigns should dare to be angry 
 when he insulted them, or should offer any resistance to 
 their own ruin. He thus advanced his personal fortune at 
 the expense of Europe, whose just interests an honest and 
 able minister would have endeavored to protect. A courier 
 was always in readiness, by whom he might dispatch to any 
 one of the sovereigns the first angry words that escaped 
 from Bonaparte, when he heard news which displeased him. 
 His weak complaisance was sometimes injurious to his mas- 
 ter. It caused more than one rupture which was regretted 
 when the first outbreak of violence had passed, and it proba- 
 bly contributed to the fall of Bonaparte; for, in the last 
 year of his reign, while he lingered at Dresden uncertain 
 what to do, Maret delayed for eight days the retreat it was 
 so important to make, because he had not the courage to 
 inform the Emperor of the defection of Bavaria, a piece of 
 intelligence it was most necessary he should learn.f An 
 
 * Afterward Due de Bassano. 
 
 f The duties of the most conscientious editor do not bind him to explain, to 
 justify, or, still less, to contradict the assertions or the suppositions of the au- 
 thor whose recollections he lays before the public. It is evident that a great 
 many of the views expressed here are personal, or that they represent public 
 opinion at that period of our history. While taking the responsibility of what 
 he prints, the editor does not profess entire agreement with all the opinions of 
 the author ; and it is not necessary to bring forward an opinion in opposition to 
 an impression, or a new document or a recent history in contrast with a contem- 
 poraneous impression of the facts, on every occasion of divergence. For in- 
 stance, M. Maret doubtless merits reproach on more than one head, but the 
 accusation that he was so base as not to inform the Emperor in time of the 
 defection of Bavaria, in 1813, is probably one of those imputations which are 
 due to the contempt with which M. de Talleyrand treated his pitiful, insignificant 
 successor. He is known to have said, " I never knew but one man so stupid as 
 the Due de Bassano ; he was M. Maret." It is probable that Maret, on his 
 arrival at Leipsic in October, 1813, was made aware of the treaty of Bavaria 
 
M. MARET. 73 
 
 anecdote of M. de Talleyrand may be related here, as a sam- 
 ple of the skill with which that astute minister managed 
 
 with the Coalition, but that he did not attach any great importance to it, or did 
 not dare speak of it to a master who was becoming day by day less capable of 
 bearing the truth, and of facing things which displeased him. The Due de Bas- 
 sano was, of all the ministers, the least fit to cope with this fatal tendency. 
 There was in his nature a mixture of sincere servility and blind admiration, 
 which made him a courtier rather than a minister. The following is my father's 
 opinion of Bassano : " He was neither an utterly unintelligent nor a bad man, 
 but he was one of those people whose mediocrity, alike in good or in evil, may 
 be as pernicious as stupidity or villainy. He had but little intellect ; his self- 
 sufficiency and haughtiness as an improvised nobleman and a parvenu statesman 
 were absolutely absurd. His heavy frivolity, his bourgeois dignity, and his vul- 
 gar affectation obscured what there really was in him. He had a great capacity 
 for work, much facility of expression, a quick and tolerably just perception of 
 the superficial and material side of affairs, an accurate memory for details, a 
 faculty for attending to several things at once, and a talent for identifying him- 
 self with the idea or even the sentiment of what was dictated to him. The lat- 
 ter quality made him a useful, or rather a convenient instrument, and as a 
 minister of the second or third rank he would have done well. He had no lean- 
 ing toward wrong or injustice. Violence directed against individuals was not to 
 his liking, and it is said that he sometimes averted it. He was, moreover, sin- 
 cerely attached to the Emperor, and, to my knowledge, he never endeavored to 
 elude by any meanness those misfortunes which in later years that attachment 
 drew down upon himself ; but, full of self-confidence, greedy of favor, jealous 
 of his influence, inflated with a sense of bis own rank and power, he regarded 
 with the eye of an enemy merit, independence, anything which might tend to 
 throw himself into the shade, or did not serve his ambition, flatter his vanity, or 
 minister to his greatness. To keep his place near the Emperor had become his 
 sole thought, and was regarded by him as his chief duty ; to please the Emperor 
 in everything was all his study and all his policy. The Napoleonic system, as 
 the Emperor practiced it, was to him official truth, and official truth was to him 
 all truth." In the Memoirs of Count Beugnot, published a few years ago by 
 his grandson, the following passage occurs : " M. Maret has an excellent heart ; 
 he is therefore by nature inclined to everything good. His mind is cultivated, 
 and, if diplomacy had not drawn him away from the profession of letters, he 
 would have made a respectable, if not a distinguished, figure in literature. His 
 talent lies chiefly in a singular facility for reproducing the ideas of others, and 
 he has exercised it so largely in editing the * Moniteur,' and in other work of the 
 same nature, that his whole mind is, as it were, absorbed by it. It was the 
 Abbe Sieyes who originally procured the post of Secretary to the Consulate for 
 him. At first he failed to please the First Consul, precisely on account of those 
 qualities which since then have endeared him to Bonaparte his obsequiousness, 
 his eagerness, his propensity to merge his own mind in that of another ; but by 
 
74: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 Bonaparte, and also of the completeness of his own ascen- 
 dancy. 
 
 A treaty of peace between England and France was be- 
 ing arranged at Amiens in the spring of 1810. Certain 
 difficulties which had arisen between the plenipotentiaries 
 were giving rise to some little uneasiness, and Bonaparte 
 was anxiously expecting dispatches. A courier arrived, and 
 brought to the Minister of Foreign Affairs the much-desired 
 signature. M. de Talleyrand put it in his pocket and went 
 to the First Consul. He appeared before him with that im- 
 movable countenance which he wears on every occasion. 
 For a whole hour he remained with Bonaparte, transacting 
 a number of important matters of business, and when all was 
 done, " Now," said he, smiling, " I am going to give you a 
 great pleasure ; the treaty is signed, and here it is." Bona- 
 parte was astounded at this fashion of announcing the mat- 
 ter. " Why did you not tell me at once ? " he demanded. 
 " Ah," replied M. de Talleyrand, " because then you would 
 not have listened to me on any other subject. When you 
 are pleased, you are not always pleasant." The self-control 
 displayed in this reticence struck the Consul, " and," added 
 M. de Talleyrand, " did not make him angry, because he saw 
 immediately how far it might be made useful to himself." 
 
 degrees, as the First Consul absorbed authority, and became accustomed to rule 
 alone, he grew reconciled to the Secretary of the Consulate. The despotism of 
 the one and the favor of the other grew in the same proportion." (" Mdmoires 
 du Comte Beugnot," vol. ii., p. 316.) Baron Ernouf has recently published an 
 apology for the Due de Bassano, under the title " Maret, Due de Bassano." 
 These several estimates, which are different without being contradictory, show 
 that the influence of the Due de Bassano in the Imperial councils was not bene- 
 ficial to the common weal. He was apparently one of those who think that a 
 disagreeable disclosure or unwelcome advice is more hurtful to the offerer than 
 useful to the recipient. Such people are careful rather to foster the weaknesses 
 than to consider the actual situation of their masters, and to serve their passions 
 at the expense of their interests. Such flatterers are doubtless detestable, but 
 the source of their crimes is absolute power. It is because the monarch is all- 
 powerful that it is dangerous to displease him. All meanness, as well as all 
 justice, emanates from the king. P. R. 
 
MARSHAL BERTHIEB. 75 
 
 Another person, who was really more attached to Bona- 
 parte, and quite as demonstrative in his admiration for him 
 as M. Maret, was Marshal Berthier, Prince of Wagram. 
 He had served in the campaign in Egypt, and had become 
 strongly attached to his General. Berthier's friendship for 
 him was so great that, little as Bonaparte valued anything 
 coming from the heart, he could not but respond to it in 
 some degree. The sentiment was, however, very unequally 
 divided between them, and was used by the powerful one of 
 the two as a means of exaction. One day Bonaparte said to 
 M. de Talleyrand : " I really can not understand how a rela- 
 tion that bears some appearance of friendship has established 
 itself between Berthier and me. I don't indulge in useless 
 sentiments, and Berthier is so uninteresting that I do not 
 know why I should care at all about him ; and yet, when I 
 think of it, I believe I really have some liking for him." 
 " If you do care about him," replied M. de Talleyrand, " do 
 you know the reason why? It is because he believes in you." 
 
 These anecdotes, which I set down as they recur to my 
 memory, did not come to my knowledge till a much later 
 period, when my greater intimacy with M. de Talleyrand 
 revealed to me the chief traits in Bonaparte's character. At 
 first I was completely deceived by him, and was very happy 
 to be so. I knew he had genius, I saw that he was disposed 
 to make amends for the passing wrongs he did his wife, and 
 I remarked his friendship for Berthier with pleasure ; he 
 caressed little Napoleon in my presence, and seemed to love 
 him. I regarded him as accessible to kindly natural feelings, 
 and my youthful imagination arrayed him in all those quali- 
 ties which I desired to find in him. It is only just to him 
 also to admit that excess of power intoxicated him ; that his 
 passions were increased in violence by the facility with which 
 he was enabled to gratify them ; but that while he was young, 
 and as yet uncertain of the future, he frequently hesitated 
 between the open exhibition of vice and, at least, the affec- 
 tation of virtue. 
 
76 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 After the declaration of war with England, somebody (I 
 do not know who) suggested to Bonaparte the idea of an in- 
 vasion by means of flat-bottomed boats. I can not say with 
 certainty whether he really believed in this plan, or whether 
 he only used it as a pretext for collecting and increasing his 
 army, which he assembled at the camp of Boulogne. So 
 many people maintained that a descent upon the shores of 
 England in this way was practicable, that it is quite possible 
 he may have thought fate had a success of the kind in store 
 for him. Enormous works were begun in our ports, and in 
 some of the Belgian towns ; the army marched to the coast, 
 and Generals Soult and Ney were sent to command it at 
 different points. The idea of a conquest of England fired 
 the general imagination ; and even the English themselves 
 began to feel uneasy, and thought it necessary to make some 
 preparations for defense. Attempts were made to excite the 
 public mind against the English by dramatic representations ; 
 scenes from the life of "William the Conqueror were repre- 
 sented at the theatres. The conquest of Hanover was easily 
 effected, but then came the blockade of our ports that did us 
 so much harm. 
 
 During the summer of this year (1803) a journey to Bel- 
 gium was arranged, and Bonaparte required that it should be 
 made with great magnificence. He had little trouble in per- 
 suading Mme. Bonaparte to take with her everything that 
 could make an impression on the people to whom she was 
 about to exhibit herself. Mme. Talhouet and I were selected 
 to accompany her, and the Consul gave me thirty thousand 
 francs for those expenses which he prescribed. He set out 
 on the 24:th of June, with a cortege of several carriages, two 
 generals of his guard, his aides-de-camp, Duroc, two Prefects 
 of the Palace (M. de Remusat and a Piedmontese named 
 Salmatoris), and commenced the journey in great pomp. 
 
 Before we set out, we went for one day to Mortef ontaine, 
 an estate which had been purchased by Joseph Bonaparte. 
 All the family were assembled there, and a strange occur- 
 
THE JOURNEY TO BELGIUM. 77 
 
 rence took place. We passed the morning in walking about 
 the gardens, which are beautiful. When dinner hour ap- 
 proached, a question arose about the placing of the guests. 
 The elder Mme. Bonaparte was at Mortef ontaine, and Joseph 
 told his brother that he intended to take his mother in to 
 dinner, and to place her on his right hand, while Mme. Bona- 
 parte was to sit on his left. The First Consul took offense 
 at this arrangement, which placed his wife in the second rank, 
 and insisted that his brother should transfer their mother to 
 that position. Joseph refused, and no argument could in- 
 duce him to give way. When dinner was announced, Joseph 
 took his mother's hand, and Lucien escorted Mme. Bonaparte. 
 The First Consul, incensed at this opposition to his will, hur- 
 riedly crossed the room, took the arm of his wife, passed out 
 before every one, seated her' beside himself, and then, turn- 
 ing to me, ordered me to place myself near him. The com- 
 pany were all greatly embarrassed, I even more so than the 
 others ; and Mme. Joseph Bonaparte,* to whom some polite- 
 ness was due, found herself at the bottom of the table, as if 
 she were not one of the family. 
 
 The stiffness and gloom of that dinner-party may be easily 
 imagined. The brothers were angry, Mme. Bonaparte was 
 wretched, and I was excessively embarrassed by my promi- 
 nent position. During the dinner Bonaparte did not address 
 a single member of his family ; he occupied himself with his 
 wife, talked to me, and chose this opportune occasion to in- 
 form me that he had that morning restored to my cousin, the 
 Vicomte da Yergennes, certain forests which had long been 
 sequestrated on account of his emigration, but which had not 
 been sold. I was touched by this mark of his kindness, but 
 it was very vexatious to me that he selected such a moment 
 to tell me of it, because the gratitude which I would other- 
 wise have gladly expressed, and the joy which I really felt, 
 made me appear to the observers of the little scene to be 
 
 * Joseph Bonaparte had married Mile. Julia Clary, the daughter of a mer- 
 chant at Marseilles.?. B. 
 
78 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE KfiMUSAT. 
 
 talking freely to him, while I was really in a state of painful 
 constraint. The remainder of the day passed drearily, as 
 may be supposed, and we left Mortefontaine on the morrow. 
 
 An accident which happened at the beginning of our 
 journey increased the regard which I was then happy to feel 
 for Bonaparte and his wife. He traveled with her and one 
 of the generals of his guard, and his carriage was preceded 
 by one containing Duroc and three aides-de-camp. A third 
 carriage was occupied by Mme. Talhouet, M. de Remusat, 
 and myself ; two others followed. Shortly after we had left 
 Compiegne, where we visited a military school, on our way 
 to Amiens, our carriage was violently overturned. Mme. 
 Talhouet's head was badly cut ; M. de Remusat and I were 
 only bruised. With some trouble we were extricated from 
 the carriage. Bonaparte, who was on in front, was told of 
 this accident ; he at once alighted from his carriage, and 
 with Mme. Bonaparte, who was much frightened about me, 
 hastened to join us at a cottage, whither we had been taken. 
 I was so terrified that, as soon as I saw Bonaparte, I begged 
 him with tears to send me back to Paris ; I already disliked 
 traveling as much as did the pigeon of La Fontaine, and in 
 my distress I cried out that I must return to my mother and 
 my children. 
 
 Bonaparte said a few words intended to calm me ; but, 
 finding that he could not succeed in doing so, he took my arm 
 in his, gave orders that Mme. Talhouet should be placed in 
 one of the carriages, and, after satisfying himself that M.- de 
 Remusat was none the worse for the accident, led .me, fright- 
 ened as I was, to his own carriage, and made me get in with 
 him. "We set off again, and he took pains to cheer up his 
 wife and me, and told us, laughingly, to kiss each other and 
 cry, " because," he said, "that always does women good." 
 After a while his animated conversation distracted my 
 thoughts, and my fear of the further journey subsided. 
 Mme. Bonaparte having referred to the grief my mother 
 would feel if any harm happened to me, Bonaparte ques- 
 
ENTHUSIASM AT AMIENS. 79 
 
 tioned me about her, and appeared to be well aware of the 
 high esteem in which she was held in society. Indeed, it 
 was largely to this that his attention to me was due. At that 
 period, when so many people still held back from the ad- 
 vances he made to them, he was greatly gratified that my 
 mother had consented to my holding a place in his household. 
 At that time I was in his eyes almost a personage Whose ex- 
 ample would, he hoped, be followed. 
 
 On the evening of the same day we arrived at Amiens, 
 where we were received with enthusiasm impossible to de- 
 scribe. The horses were taken from the carriage, and re- 
 placed by the inhabitants, who insisted on drawing it them- 
 selves. I was the more affected by this spectacle, as it was 
 absolutely novel to me. Alas ! since I had been of an age to 
 observe what was passing around me, I had witnessed only 
 scenes of terror and woe, I had heard only sounds of hate and 
 menace ; and the joy of the inhabitants of Amiens, the gar- 
 lands that decorated our route, the triumphal arches erected 
 in honor of him who was represented on all these devices as 
 the saviour of France, the crowds who fought for a sight of 
 him, the universal blessings which could not have been ut- 
 tered to order the whole spectacle, in fact, so affected me 
 that I could not restrain my tears. Mme. Bonaparte wept ; 
 I saw even the eyes of Bonaparte himself glisten for a mo- 
 ment. 
 
CHAPTEE III. 
 
 (1803.) 
 
 Continuation of the Journey to Belgium Opinions of the First Consul on Grati- 
 tude, on Glory, and on the French Ghent, Malines, and Brussels The Clergy 
 M. de Koquelaure Eetum to Saint Cloud Preparations for an Invasion of 
 England Marriage of Mme. Leclerc Journey of the First Consul to Boulogne 
 Illness of M. de E&nusat I rejoin him Conversations with the First Consul. 
 
 ON Bonaparte's arrival in town, the Prefect of the Palace 
 was directed to summon the various persons in authority, that 
 they might be presented to him. The prefect, the mayor, 
 the bishop, the presidents of the tribunals, would read an 
 address to him, and then, turning to Mme. Bonaparte, make 
 her a little speech also. According to the mood he happened 
 to be in, Bonaparte would listen to these discourses to the 
 end, or interrupt them by questioning the deputation on the 
 nature of their respective functions, or on the district in 
 which they exercised them. He rarely put questions with 
 an appearance of interest, but rather with the air of a man 
 who desires to show his knowledge, and wants to see whether 
 he can be answered. These speeches were addressed to the 
 Republic ; but any one who reads them may see that in 
 almost every respect they might have been addressed to a 
 sovereign. Indeed, the mayors of some of the Flemish 
 towns went so far as to urge the Consul to " complete the 
 happiness of the world by exchanging his precarious title for 
 one better suited to the lofty destiny to which he was called." 
 I was present the first time that happened, and I kept my 
 eyes fixed upon Bonaparte. When these very words were 
 uttered, he had some difficulty in checking the smile that 
 
THE JOURNEY TO BELGIUM. 81 
 
 hovered about his lips ; but, putting strong control upon 
 himself, he interrupted the orator, and replied, in a tone of 
 feigned anger, that it would be unworthy of him to usurp 
 an authority which must affect the existence of the Republic. 
 Thus, like Caesar, he repudiated the crown, though perhaps 
 he was not ill pleased that they were beginning to offer it to 
 him. The good people of the provinces we visited were 
 not very far wrong ; for the splendor that surrounded us, 
 the sumptuousness of that military yet brilliant court, the 
 strict ceremonial, the imperious tone of the master, the sub- 
 mission of all about him, and, finally, the expectation that 
 homage should be paid the wife of the first magistrate, to 
 whom the Republic certainly owed none all this strongly 
 resembled the progress of a king. 
 
 After these audiences, Bonaparte generally rode out on 
 horseback ; he showed himself to the people, who followed 
 him with acclamations ; he visited the public monuments 
 and manufactories, but always in a hurried way, for he could 
 never get over that precipitation which gave him an ill-bred 
 air. Afterward he would give a dinner, or attend a fete 
 which had been prepared for him, and this was always the 
 most wearisome part of the business to him. " I am not 
 made for pleasure," he would say, in a melancholy tone. 
 Then he would leave the town, after having received peti- 
 tions, attended to complaints, and distributed alms and pres- 
 ents. He was accustomed, when on a journey of this sort, 
 to inform himself at each town he went to what public 
 establishments were wanting there, and he would order them 
 to be founded, in commemoration of his visit. The inhabi- 
 tants would load him with blessings for this munificence. 
 But shortly afterward a mandate from the Minister of the 
 Interior would arrive, drawn up in this form : " In conform- 
 ity with the gracious permission of the First Consul " (later 
 it was "the Emperor"), "you are directed, citizen mayors, 
 to have such and such a building constructed, taking care 
 that the expenses shall be defrayed by the funds of your 
 
82 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 commune." Thus these towns would suddenly find them- 
 selves obliged to alter the disposition of their funds, very 
 often at a moment when they were not sufficient for neces- 
 sary expenses. The Prefect took care, however, that the 
 orders were executed, or at least the most useful portion of 
 of them ; and it must be admitted that, from one end 
 France to the other, everything was being embellished, and 
 that the general prosperity was such that new works, even of 
 the most important nature, might safely be undertaken every- 
 where. 
 
 At Arras, at Lille, and at Dunkirk, we had similar re- 
 ceptions; but it seemed to me that the enthusiasm cooled 
 down when we got beyond the former boundaries of France. 
 At Ghent, especially, we detected some coldness in the popu- 
 lar greeting. In vain did the authorities endeavor to stir up 
 the zeal of the inhabitants ; they were curious, but not en- 
 thusiastic. Bonaparte was a little annoyed, and inclined to 
 proceed without delay. He thought better of this, however, 
 and said in the evening to his wife : " These people are 
 bigoted and under the influence of the priests ; we must re- 
 main a* long time at church to-morrow, and propitiate the 
 clergy by some favor. In this way we shall regain lost 
 ground." Next day he attended high mass with every ap- 
 pearance of devoutness ; he talked to the Bishop, whom he 
 completely captivated, and by degrees he obtained the popu- 
 lar acclamations he desired. At Ghent he met the daughters 
 of the Due de Yillequier, formerly one of the four Gentle- 
 men of the Chamber to the King. These ladies were nieces 
 of the Bishop, and Bonaparte restored to them the beautiful 
 estate of Yillequier, with its large revenues. I had the hap- 
 piness of contributing to this restitution, by urging it with 
 all my might, both upon Bonaparte and upon his wife. The 
 two amiable young ladies have never forgotten this to me. 
 When I assured Bonaparte of their gratitude, " Ah," said he, 
 " gratitude ! That is a poetic word which has no meaning 
 in times of revolution ; and what I have just done would not 
 
OPINIONS OF THE FIRST CONSUL. 83 
 
 prevent your friends from rejoicing if some Koyalist emis- 
 sary should succeed in assassinating me during this journey." 
 And, as I betrayed the surprise with which I heard him, he 
 continued : " You are young ; you do not know what politi- 
 cal hatred is. It is like a pair of spectacles : one sees every- 
 body, every opinion, or every sentiment only through the 
 glass of one's passions. Hence, nothing is bad or good of it- 
 self, but simply according to the party to which one belongs. 
 In reality, this mode of seeing is convenient, and we profit 
 by it ; for we also have our spectacles, and, if we do not see 
 things through our passions, we see them through our in- 
 terests." 
 
 " But," I replied, " where, in such a system, do you place 
 the applause which you do care to win ? For what class of 
 men do you spend your life in great and often perilous en- 
 terprises ? " 
 
 " Ah," he answered, " one can not avoid L one's destiny ; 
 he who is called can not resist. Besides, human pride finds 
 the public it desires in that ideal world which is called pos- 
 terity. He who believes that, a hundred years hence, a fine 
 poem, or even a line in one, will recall a great action of his 
 own, or that a painting will commemorate it, has his imagi- 
 nation fired by that idea. The battle-field has no dangers, 
 the cannon roars in vain ; to him it is only that sound which, 
 a thousand years hence, will carry a brave man's name to the 
 ears of our distant descendants." 
 
 " I shall never be able to understand," I continued, " how 
 a man can expose himself to every sort of danger for fame's 
 sake, if his own inward sentiment be only contempt for the 
 men of his own time." 
 
 Here Bonaparte interrupted me quickly. " I do not de- 
 spise men, madame that is a thing you must never say ; and 
 I particularly esteem the French." 
 
 I smiled at this abrupt declaration, and, as he guessed 
 why, he smiled also ; and approaching me and pulling my 
 ear, which was, as I have already said, a trick of his when 
 
84: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 he was in a good humor, he repeated, " Do you hear, ma- 
 dame ? you must never say that I despise the French." 
 
 From Ghent we went to Antwerp, where we were re- 
 ceived with a special ceremony. On occasions of visits from 
 kings and princes, the people of Antwerp are in the habit of 
 parading through their streets a giant, who never makes his 
 appearance except on such solemn festivals. Although we 
 were neither king nor prince, we were obliged to yield to 
 the people's wish in this matter, and it put Bonaparte in 
 good humor with the town of Antwerp. He occupied him- 
 self much while there with the important extension which 
 he designed for its harbor, and gave orders for the com- 
 mencement of the great works which have since been exe- 
 cuted there. 
 
 On the way from Antwerp to Brussels we stopped at 
 Malines for a few hours, and there we saw the new Arch- 
 bishop, M. de Roquelaure.* He was Bishop of Senlis under 
 Louis XVI., and had been the intimate friend of my great- 
 uncle, the Count de Yergennes. I had seen a great deal of 
 him in my childhood, and I was glad to meet him again. 
 Bonaparte talked to him in a very insinuating manner. At 
 this period he affected great esteem for the priests, and care 
 for their interests. He knew how steadily religion supports 
 royalty, and he hoped that through the priests he might get 
 the people taught that catechism which we have since seen, 
 in which all who did not love and obey the Emperor were 
 threatened with eternal condemnation. For the first time 
 since the Revolution, the clergy found the Government oc- 
 cupying itself with their welfare, and giving them rank and 
 consideration. They showed themselves grateful, and were 
 useful to Bonaparte until the moment came when he endea- 
 vored to impose his ever-growing despotism on their con- 
 
 * M. de Roquelaure had been Bishop of Senlis and Almoner to the King. 
 He became Archbishop of Malines in 1802. The Emperor replaced him in 1808 
 by the Abbe de Pradt. He was a member of the Academie Fran9aise, and died 
 in 1818. He did not belong to the family of the Due de Roquelaure. P. R. 
 
ENTRY INTO BRUSSELS. 85 
 
 sciences, and the priests had to choose between him and their 
 duty. At this time, however, the words, " He has reestab- 
 lished religion," * were in every pious mouth, and told im- 
 mensely in his favor. 
 
 Our entry into Brussels was magnificent. Several fine 
 regiments awaited the First Consul at the gate, where he 
 mounted his horse. Mine. Bonaparte found a superb car- 
 riage, presented to her by the city, awaiting her ; the streets 
 were lavishly decorated, cannon were fired, the bells were 
 rung ; the numerous clergy were assembled in great pomp 
 on the steps of all the churches ; there was an immense 
 crowd of the population, and also many foreigners, and the 
 weather was beautiful. I was enchanted. Our stay in 
 Brussels was a succession of brilliant fetes. The French 
 ministers, Consul Lebrun, the envoys from the foreign 
 courts who had business to arrange, came to meet us there. 
 At Brussels I heard M. de Talleyrand reply in an adroit and 
 flattering manner to a question suddenly put to him by Bona- 
 parte, who asked him how he had so rapidly made his great 
 fortune ? " Nothing could be more simple," replied M. de 
 Talleyrand ; " I bought stock on the 17th Brumaire, and I 
 sold it again on the 19th." 
 
 One Sunday we were to visit the cathedral in great state. 
 M. de Remusat went early in the morning to the church, to 
 arrange the ceremony. He had been directed not to object 
 to any honor which the clergy might propose to pay to the 
 First Consul on this occasion. As, however, it was arranged 
 that the priests should go to the great doors with the canopy 
 and the cross to receive the First Consul, a question arose 
 whether Mme. Bonaparte was to share this distinction with 
 him, and Bonaparte did not venture to bring her so promi- 
 nently forward. She was, therefore, placed in a tribune 
 with the Second Consul. At twelve o'clock, the hour agreed 
 upon, the clergy left the altar, and proceeded to the grand 
 
 * Bonaparte, knowing that in Belgium he would have to deal with religious 
 people, took Cardinal Caprera with him. The Cardinal was extremely useful. 
 
86 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 entrance of the magnificent Church of Sainte Gudule. They 
 awaited the arrival of the First Consul, but he did not ap- 
 pear. At first they were astonished, then alarmed ; but they 
 presently perceived that he had slipped into the church, and 
 seated himself on the throne which was prepared for him. 
 The priests, surprised and disconcerted, returned to the sanc- 
 tuary, and commenced divine service. The fact was, just as 
 he was setting out, Bonaparte was told that, at a similar 
 ceremony, Charles Y. had preferred to enter the Church of 
 Sainte Gudule by a little side-door which had ever after been 
 called by his name ; and it seemed he had taken a fancy to 
 use the same entrance, hoping, perhaps, that henceforth it 
 would be called the door of Charles Y. and of Bonaparte. 
 
 One morning the numerous and magnificent regiments 
 which had been brought to Brussels were reviewed by the 
 Consul, or, as on this occasion I ought to call him, the Gen- 
 eral. His reception by the troops was nothing short of rap- 
 turous. It was well worth seeing how he talked to the sol- 
 diers how he questioned them one after the other respect- 
 ing their campaigns or their wounds ; taking particular in- 
 terest in the men who had accompanied him to Egypt. I 
 have heard Mme. Bonaparte say that her husband was in the 
 constant habit of poring over the list of what are called the 
 cadres of the army, at night, before he slept. He would go 
 to sleep repeating the names of the corps, and even those of 
 some of the individuals who composed them ; he kept those 
 names in a corner of his memory, and this habit came to his 
 aid when he wanted to recognize a soldier, and to give him 
 the pleasure of a cheering word from his General. He spoke 
 to the subalterns in a tone of good fellowship, which de- 
 lighted them all, as he reminded them of their common feats 
 of arms. Afterward, when his armies became so numerous, 
 when his battles became so deadly, he disdained to exercise 
 this kind of fascination. Besides, death had extinguished so 
 many remembrances, that in a few years it became difficult 
 for him to find any great number of the companions of his 
 
M. MONGE. 87 
 
 early exploits ; and, when lie addressed his soldiers before 
 leading them into battle, it was as a perpetually renewed 
 posterity, to which the preceding and destroyed army had 
 bequeathed its glory. But even this somber style of en- 
 couragement availed for a long time with a nation which be- 
 lieved itself to be fulfilling its destiny while sending its sons 
 year after year to die for Bonaparte. 
 
 I have said that Bonaparte took great pleasure in recall- 
 ing his campaign in Egypt; it was, indeed, his favorite 
 theme of discourse. He had taken with him, on the journey 
 I am describing, M. Monge the savant, whom he had made 
 a senator, and whom he liked particularly, for the sole reason 
 that he was among the number of the members of the Insti- 
 tute who had gone with him to Egypt. Bonaparte often 
 talked to him of that expedition " that land of poetry," he 
 would say, " which was trodden by Caesar and Pompey." He 
 would speak with enthusiasm of the time when he appeared 
 before the amazed Orientals like a new Prophet; for the 
 sway he exercised over imagination, being the most complete 
 of all, he prized more highly than any other. " In France," 
 he said, " one must conquer everything at the point of de- 
 monstration. In Egypt we did not require our mathematics ; 
 did we, Monge ? " 
 
 It was at Brussels that I began to get accustomed to M. 
 de Talleyrand, and to shake off the earlier impression made 
 by his disdainful manner and sarcastic disposition. The idle- 
 ness of a court life makes the day seem a hundred hours 
 long, and it happened that we often passed many of those 
 hours together in the salon, waiting until it should please 
 Bonaparte to come in or to go out. It was during one of 
 these weary waits that I heard M. de Talleyrand complain 
 that his family had not realized any of the plans he had 
 formed for them. His brother, Archambault de Perigord, 
 had just been sent into exile for having indulged in the sar- 
 castic language common to the family. He had, however, 
 applied it to persons of rank too high to be ridiculed with 
 
88 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 impunity, and he had also offended by refusing to give his 
 daughter in marriage to Eugene de Beauharnais, to whom 
 he had preferred Count Just de Noailles. M. de Talleyrand, 
 who was quite as anxious as Mme. Bonaparte that his niece 
 should marry Beauharnais, blamed his brother's conduct 
 severely, and I could perfectly understand that such an alli- 
 ance would have been advantageous to his personal policy. 
 One of the first things that struck me, when I had talked for 
 a little while with M. de Talleyrand, was the entire absence 
 of any kind of illusion or enthusiasm on his part with regard 
 to all that was passing around us. Every one else was more 
 or less under the influence of feelings of this kind. The 
 implicit obedience of the military officers might easily pass 
 for zeal, and, in the case of some of them, it really was devo- 
 tion. The ministers affected or felt profound admiration ; 
 M. Maret paraded his worship of the First Consul on every 
 occasion ; Berthier was happy in the sincerity of his attach- 
 ment ; in short, every one seemed to feel something. M. de 
 Remusat tried to like his post, and to esteem the man who 
 had conferred it on him. As for myself, I cultivated every 
 opportunity of emotion and of self-deception ; and the calm 
 indifference of M. de Talleyrand amazed me. " Good heav- 
 ens ! " I said to him on one occasion, " how is it possible that 
 you can live and work without experiencing any emotion 
 either from what passes around us, or from your own ac- 
 tions ? " " Ah ! what a woman you are, and how young ! " 
 he replied: and then he began to ridicule me, as he did 
 every one else. His jests wounded my feelings, yet they 
 made me laugh. I was angry with myself for being amused, 
 and yet, because my vanity was pleased at my own compre- 
 hension of his wit, less shocked than I ought to have been 
 at the hardness of his heart. However, I did not yet 
 know him, and it was not till much later, when I had got 
 over the restraint that he imposed on every one at first, 
 that I observed the curious mixture of qualities in his 
 character. 
 
RETURN TO SAINT CLOUD. 89 
 
 On leaving Brussels we went to Liege and Maestricht, 
 and reentered the former boundaries of France by way of 
 Mezieres and Sedan. Mine. Bonaparte was charming during 
 this journey, and left an impression on my mind of her kind- 
 ness and graciousness which, as I found fifteen years after- 
 ward, time could not efface. 
 
 I was delighted to return to Paris, and to find myself 
 once more among my family and free from the restraint of 
 court life. M. ,de Remusat, like myself, was tired of the idle 
 yet restless pomp of the last six weeks ; and we rejoiced in 
 the quiet of our happy home. 
 
 On his return to Saint Cloud, Bonaparte and Mme. Bona- 
 parte received complimentary addresses from the Corps Le- 
 gislatif , the tribunals, etc. ; the First Consul also received a 
 visit from the Corps Diplomatique. Shortly after this, he 
 enhanced the dignity of the Legion of Honor by appointing 
 M. de Lacepede its Chancellor. Since the fall of Bonaparte, 
 certain liberal writers, and among others Mme. de Stael, have 
 endeavored to stigmatize that institution by reviving the re- 
 collection of an English caricature which represented Bona- 
 parte cutting up the bonnet rouge of the Revolution to make 
 the crosses of the Legion. But, if he had not misused that 
 institution as he misused everything, there would have been 
 nothing to blame in the invention of a recompense which 
 was an inducement to every kind of merit, without being a 
 great expense to the State. What splendid deeds on the 
 battle-field has that little bit of ribbon inspired ! If it had 
 been accorded to merit only in every walk of life, if it had 
 never been given from motives of caprice or individual fa- 
 vor, it would have been a fine idea to assimilate all services 
 rendered to the country, no matter of what nature, and to 
 bestow a similar decoration upon them all. The institutions 
 of Bonaparte in France ought not to be indiscriminately con- 
 demned. Most of them have a commendable purpose, and 
 might have been made of advantage to the nation. But his 
 insatiable greed of power perverted them. So intolerant 
 
90 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMUS AT. 
 
 was he of any obstacles, that he could not even endure those 
 which arose from his own institutions, and he instantly set 
 them aside by an arbitrary decision. 
 
 Having in the course of this year (1803) created the dif- 
 ferent senatorships, he gave a Chancellor, a Treasurer, and 
 Praetors to the Senate. M. de Laplace was the Chancellor. 
 Bonaparte honored him because he was a savant, and liked 
 him because he was a skillful flatterer. The two Praetors 
 were General Lefebvre and General Serrurier. M. de Far- 
 gues * was the Treasurer. 
 
 The Republican year ended as usual in the middle of 
 September, and the anniversary of the Republic was cele- 
 brated by popular fetes, and kept with royal pomp at the 
 palace of the Tuileries. We heard at the same time that the 
 Hanoverians, who had been conquered by General Mortier, 
 had celebrated the First Consul's birthday with great rejoic- 
 ings. Thus, by degrees, by appearing at first at the head 
 of all, and then quite alone, he accustomed Europe to see 
 France in his person only, and presented himself everywhere 
 as the sole representative of the nation. 
 
 Bonaparte, who well knew that he would meet with re- 
 sistance from those who held by the old ways of thinking, 
 applied himself early and skillfully to gain the young, to 
 whom he opened all the doors of advancement in life. He 
 attached auditors to the different ministries, and gave free 
 scope to ambition, whether in military or in civil careers. 
 He often said that he preferred to every other advantage that 
 of governing a new people, and the youthful generation af- 
 forded him that novelty. 
 
 The institution of the jury was also discussed in that 
 year. I have heard that Bonaparte himself had no liking for 
 it ; but, as he intended later on to govern rather by himself 
 than with the assistance of assemblies which he feared, he 
 was obliged to make some concessions to their most distin- 
 guished members. By degrees, all the laws were presented 
 
 * M. de Fargues had been useful to Bonaparte on the 18th Brumaire. 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR AN" INVASION. 91 
 
 to the Council by the ministers, and were either changed 
 into decrees, which, without any other sanction, were put in 
 force from one end of France to the other ; or else, having 
 been received with the silent approbation of the Corps Legis- 
 latif , they were passed with no more trouble than that im- 
 posed upon reporters of the Council, who had to preface 
 them by a discourse, so that they might have some show of 
 necessity. Lyceums were also established in all the impor- 
 tant towns, and the study of ancient languages, which had 
 been abolished during the Revolution, was again made obli- 
 gatory in public education. 
 
 It was at this time that the flotilla of flat-bottomed boats 
 which was to be used for the invasion of England was being 
 constructed. Day by day it was more confidently asserted 
 that in fine weather it would be possible for the flotilla to 
 reach the shores of England without being impeded by ships 
 of war. It was said that Bonaparte himself would command 
 the expedition, and such an enterprise did not seem to be be- 
 yond the bounds of his daring or of his good fortune. Our 
 newspapers represented England as agitated and alarmed, 
 and in reality the English Government was not quite exempt 
 from fear on the subject. The " Moniteur " still complained 
 bitterly of the English liberal journals, and the gauntlet of 
 wordy war was taken up on both sides. In France the law 
 of conscription was put in action, and large bodies of troops 
 were raised. Sometimes people asked what was the mean- 
 ing of this great armament, and of such paragraphs as the 
 following, which appeared in the " Moniteur " : " The Eng- 
 lish journalists suspect that the great preparations for war, 
 which the First Consul has just commenced in Italy, are in- 
 tended for an Egyptian expedition." 
 
 No explanation was given. The French nation placed 
 confidence in Bonaparte of a kind like that which some 
 credulous minds feel in magic ; and, as his success was be- 
 lieved to be infallible, it was not difficult to obtain a tacit 
 consent to all his operations from a people naturally prone 
 
92 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMUS AT. 
 
 to worship success. At that time a few wise heads began to 
 perceive that he would not be useful to us ; but, as the gen- 
 eral dread of the Revolutionary Government still proclaimed 
 him to be necessary, no opposition could be made to his au- 
 thority without the risk of facilitating the revolt of that 
 party, which it was believed he alone could control. 
 
 In the mean time he was always active and energetic ; 
 and, as it did not suit him that the public mind should be 
 left to repose, which leads to reflection, he aroused appre- 
 hension and disturbance in every way that might be useful 
 to himself. A letter from the Comte d'Artois, taken from 
 the " Morning Chronicle," was printed about this time ; it 
 offered the services of the emigres to the King of England, 
 in case of a descent upon his coasts. Rumors were spread 
 of certain attempts made in the eastern departments ; and 
 since the war in La Yendee had been followed by the in- 
 glorious proceedings of the Chouans, people had become 
 accustomed to the idea that any political movement set on 
 foot in that part of France had pillage and incendiarism for 
 its objects. In fact, there seemed no chance of quietness 
 except in the duration of the established Government ; and 
 when certain friends of liberty deplored its loss for the 
 new liberal institutions were of little value in their eyes be- 
 cause they were the work of absolute power they were met 
 with the following argument, which was perhaps justified 
 by circumstances : " After the storm through which we have 
 passed, and amid the strife of so many parties, superior force 
 only can give us liberty ; and, so long as that force tends to 
 promote principles of order and morality, we ought not to 
 regard ourselves as straying from the right road ; for the 
 creator will disappear, but that which he has created will 
 remain with us." 
 
 While more or less disturbance was thus kept up by his 
 orders, Bonaparte himself maintained a peaceful attitude. 
 He had returned to his usual orderly and busy life at Saint 
 Cloud, and we passed our days as I have already described. 
 
MARRIAGE OF MADAME LECLERC. 93 
 
 His brothers were all employed * Joseph, at the camp of 
 Boulogne ; Louis, at the Council of State ; Jerome, the 
 youngest, in America, whither he had been sent, and where 
 he was well received by the Anglo-Americans. Bonaparte's 
 sisters, who were now in the enjoyment of wealth, vied with 
 each other in the decoration of the houses which the First 
 Consul had given them, and in the luxury of their furni- 
 ture and equipment. Eugene de Beauharnais occupied him- 
 self exclusively in his military duties ; his sister lived a dull 
 and quiet life. 
 
 Mme. Leclerc had inspired Prince Borghese (who had 
 not long arrived in France from Rome) with an ardent 
 attachment, which she returned. The Prince asked her 
 hand of Bonaparte, but his demand was at first refused. I 
 do not know what the motive of his refusal was, but think 
 it may perhaps have been dictated by his vanity, which 
 would have been hurt by the supposition that he desired to 
 be relieved of any family claims ; and probably, also, he did 
 not wish to appear to accept a first proposal with alacrity. 
 But, as the liaison between his sister and the Prince became 
 publicly known, the Consul consented at last to legitimize it 
 by a marriage, which took place at Mortefontaine while he 
 was at Boulogne. 
 
 He set out to visit the camp and the flotilla on the 3d of 
 November, 1803. This time his journey was of an entirely 
 military character. He was accompanied only by the gen- 
 erals of his guard, by his aides-de-camp, and by M. de Re- 
 musat. 
 
 When they arrived at Pont de Briques, a little village 
 about a league from Boulogne, where Bonaparte had fixed 
 his headquarters, my husband fell dangerously ill. So soon 
 as I heard of his illness I set out to join him, and arrived at 
 Pont de Briques in the middle of the night. Entirely occu- 
 pied by my anxiety, I had thought of nothing but of the 
 
 * It was at the end of the autumn or the beginning of winter, in 1803, that 
 Lucien married Mme. Jouberthon and quarreled with his brother. 
 
94: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 state in which I should find the invalid. But, when I got 
 out of the carriage, I was rather disconcerted by finding 
 myself alone in the midst of a camp, and not knowing what 
 the First Consul would think of my arrival. I was reassured, 
 however, by the servants, who told me I was expected, and 
 that a room had been set apart for me two days before. I 
 passed the remainder of the night there, waiting until day- 
 light before I saw my husband, as I did not like to risk dis- 
 turbing him. I found him greatly pulled down by illness, 
 but he was so rejoiced/ to see me that I congratulated myself 
 on having come without asking permission. 
 
 In the morning Bonaparte sent for me. I was so agitated 
 that I could hardly speak. He saw this the moment I en- 
 tered the room, and he kissed me, made me sit down, and 
 restored me to composure by his first words. " I was expect- 
 ing you," he said. " Your presence will cure your husband." 
 At these words I burst into tears. He appeared touched, 
 and endeavored to console me. Then he directed me to 
 come every day to dine and breakfast with him, laughing as 
 he said, " I must look after a woman of your age among so 
 many soldiers." He asked me how I had left his wife. A 
 little while before his departure some more secret visits from 
 Mile. Georges had given rise to fresh domestic disagreements. 
 " She troubles herself," he said, " a great deal more than is 
 necessary. Josephine is always afraid that I shall fall seri- 
 ously in love. Does she not know, then, that I am not made 
 for love ? For what is love ? A passion which sets all the 
 universe on one side, and on the other the beloved object. 
 I certainly am not of a nature to give myself up to any such 
 exclusive feeling. What, then, do these fancies, into which 
 my affections do not enter, matter to her ? This," he con- 
 tinued, looking at me seriously, " is what her friends ought 
 to dwell upon ; and, above all, they ought not to try to in- 
 crease their influence over her by fostering her jealousy." 
 There was in his last words a tone of suspicion and severity 
 which I did not deserve, and I think he knew that very 
 
ILLNESS OF M. DE KfiMUSAT. 95 
 
 well ; but lie never missed an opportunity of carrying out 
 his favorite system, which was to keep one's mind what he 
 called " breathless " ; that is to say, constantly anxious. 
 
 He remained at Pont de Briques for ten days after I ar- 
 rived there. My husband's malady was a painful one, but 
 the doctors were not alarmed. With the exception of one 
 quarter of an hour during which the First Consul's break- 
 fast lasted, I spent the morning with my dear invalid. Bona- 
 parte went to the camp every day, reviewed the troops, 
 visited the flotilla, and assisted at some slight skirmishes, or 
 rather at an exchange of cannon-balls, between us and the 
 English, who constantly cruised in front of the harbor and 
 tried to molest our workmen. 
 
 At six o'clock Bonaparte returned, and then I was sum- 
 moned. Occasionally some of the officers of his household, 
 the Minister of Marine or the Minister of Public Works, 
 who had accompanied him, were invited to dinner. At 
 other times we dined tete-d-tete, and then he talked on a 
 multitude of subjects. He spoke of his own character, and 
 described himself as having always been of a melancholy 
 temperament far more so than any of his comrades. My 
 memory has faithfully preserved all he said to me. The 
 following is a correct summary of it : 
 
 " I was educated," he said, " at a military school, and I 
 showed no aptitude for anything but the exact sciences. 
 Every one said of me, ( That child will never be good for 
 anything but geometry.' I kept aloof from my schoolfel- 
 lows. I had chosen a little corner in the school-grounds, 
 where I would sit and dream at my ease ; for I have always 
 liked reverie. When my companions tried to usurp posses- 
 sion of this corner, I defended it with all my might. I al- 
 ready knew by instinct that my will was to override that of 
 others, and that what pleased me was to belong to me. I 
 was not liked at school. It takes time to make one's self 
 liked ; and, even when I had nothing to do, I always felt 
 
 vaguely that I had no time to lose. 
 5 J 10 
 
96 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 " I entered the service, and soon grew tired of garrison 
 work. I began to read novels, and they interested me deep- 
 ly. I even tried to write some. This occupation brought 
 out something in my imagination which mingled itself with 
 the positive knowledge I had acquired ; and I often let my- 
 self dream, in order that I might afterward measure my 
 dreams by the compass of my reason. I threw myself into 
 an ideal world, and I endeavored to find out in what precise 
 points it differed from the actual world in which I lived. I 
 have always liked analysis ; and, if I were to be seriously in 
 love, I should analyze my love bit by bit. Why f and How f 
 are questions so useful that they can not be too often asked. 
 I conquered, rather than studied, history ; that is to say, I 
 did not care to retain, and did not retain, anything that could 
 not give me a new idea ; I disdained all that was useless, but 
 took possession of certain results which pleased me. 
 
 " I did not understand much about the Revolution, but I 
 approved of it. Equality, which was to elevate myself, at- 
 tracted me. On the 20th of June I was in Paris, and I saw 
 the populace marching upon the Tuileries. I have never 
 liked popular movements, and I was indignant at the violent 
 deeds of that day. I thought the ringleaders in the attack 
 very imprudent, for I said to myself, ( It is not they who will 
 profit by this revolution.' But, when I was told that Louis 
 had put the red cap on his head, I came to the conclusion 
 that he had ceased to reign ; for in politics there is no resur- 
 rection. 
 
 " On the 10th of August I felt that, had I been called 
 upon, I would have defended the King. I set myself against 
 those who founded the Republic by the people. Besides, I 
 saw men in plain clothes attacking men in uniform, and I 
 could not stand that. 
 
 " One evening I was at the theatre ; it was the 12th Ven- 
 de*miaire. I heard it said about me that next day du train 
 might be looked for. You know that was the usual expres- 
 sion of the Parisians, who regarded the various changes of 
 
CONVERSATIONS WITH FIRST CONSUL. 97 
 
 government with indifference, as those changes did not dis- 
 turb their business, their pleasures, or even their dinners. 
 After the Terror, people were satisfied with anything, so 
 that they were allowed to live quietly. 
 
 " I heard it said that the Assembly was sitting in per- 
 manence ; I went there, and found all confusion and hesita- 
 tion. Suddenly I heard a voice say from the middle of the 
 hall, ' If any one here knows the address of General Bona- 
 parte, he is begged to go and tell him that he is expected at 
 the Committee of the Assembly.' I have always observed 
 with interest how chance interferes in certain events, and 
 this chance decided me. I went to the Committee. 
 
 "There I found several terrified deputies, Cambaceres 
 among others. They expected to be attacked the next day, 
 and they could not come to any resolution. They asked my 
 advice ; I answered by asking for guns. This proposition so 
 alarmed them that the whole night passed without their com- 
 ing to any decision. In the morning there was very bad 
 news. Then they put the whole business into my hands, 
 and afterward began to discuss whether they had the right 
 to repel force by force. ' Are you going to wait,' I asked 
 them, * until the people give you permission to fire upon 
 them ? I am committed in this matter ; you have appointed 
 me to defend you ; it is right that you should leave me to 
 act.' Thereupon I left these lawyers to stultify themselves 
 with words. I put the troops in motion, and pointed two 
 cannons with terrible effect from Saint Koch ; the army of 
 citizens and the conspirators were swept away in an instant. 
 
 " But I had shed Parisian blood ! "What sacrilege ! It 
 was necessary to obliterate the effect of such a deed. I felt 
 myself more and more urgently called upon to do something. 
 I asked for the command of the army of Italy. Everything 
 had to be put in order in that army, both men and things. 
 Only youth can have patience, because it has the future 
 before it. I set out for Italy with ill-trained soldiers, who 
 were, however, full of zeal and daring. In the midst of the 
 
98 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE EfiMUSAT. 
 
 troops I had wagons placed, and escorted on the march, al- 
 though they were empty. These I called the treasure-chests 
 of the army. I put it in the order of the day that shoes 
 should be distributed to the recruits: no one would wear 
 them. I promised my soldiers that fortune and glory should 
 await us behind the Alps; I kept my word, and ever since 
 then the army would follow me to the end of the world. 
 
 " I made a splendid campaign ; I became a person of im- 
 portance in Europe. On the one hand, with the assistance 
 of my orders of the day, I maintained the revolutionary sys- 
 tem ; on the other hand, I secretly conciliated the emigres 
 by allowing them to form certain hopes. It is easy to de- 
 ceive that party, because it starts always not from what exists, 
 but from what it wishes to believe. I received magnificent 
 offers of recompense if I would follow the example of General 
 Monk ; the Pretender even wrote to me in his vague and 
 florid style ; I conquered the Pope more effectually by not 
 going to Rome than if I had burned his capital. In short, 
 I became important and formidable ; and the Directory, al- 
 though I made them very uneasy, could not bring any formal 
 accusation against me. 
 
 " I have been reproached with having favored the 18th 
 Fructidor ; they might as well reproach me with having sup- 
 ported the Revolution. It was necessary to take advantage 
 of the Revolution, and to derive some profit from the blood 
 that had been shed. What ! were we to give ourselves up 
 unconditionally to the princes of the house of Bourbon, who 
 would have thrown in our teeth all the misfortunes we had 
 suffered since their departure, and would have imposed si- 
 lence upon us, because we had solicited their return ? Were 
 we to exchange our victorious flag for that white banner 
 which had mingled with the standards of our enemies ? Was 
 I to content myself with a few millions and a petty duke- 
 dom ? The part of Monk is not a difficult one to play ; it 
 would have given me less trouble than the Egyptian cam- 
 paign, or even than the 18th Brumaire; but can anything 
 
CONVERSATIONS WITH FIRST CONSUL. 99 
 
 teach princes who have never seen a battle-field ? To what 
 did the return of Charles II. lead the English, except the de- 
 thronement of James II. ? Had it been necessary, I should 
 certainly have dethroned the Bourbons a second time, so that 
 the best thing they could have done would have been to get 
 rid of me. 
 
 " "When I returned to France, I found public opinion in 
 a lethargic condition. In Paris and Paris is France peo- 
 ple can never interest themselves in things if they do not 
 care about persons. The customs of an old monarchy had 
 taught them to personify everything. This habit of mind is 
 bad for a people who desire liberty seriously ; but French- 
 men can no longer desire anything seriously, except perhaps 
 it be equality ; and even that they would renounce willingly 
 if every one could flatter himself that he was the first. To 
 be equals, with everybody uppermost, is the secret of the 
 vanity of all of you ; every man among you must, therefore, 
 be given the hope of rising. The great difficulty of the Di- 
 rectory was that no one cared about them, and that people 
 began to care a good deal about me. 
 
 " I do not know what would have happened to me had I 
 not conceived the happy thought of going to Egypt. When 
 I embarked I did not know but that I might be bidding an 
 eternal farewell to France ; but I had no doubt that she 
 would recall me. The charm of Oriental conquest drew my 
 thoughts away from Europe more than I should have believed 
 possible. My imagination interfered this time again with my 
 actions ; but I think it died out at Saint Jean d' Acre. How- 
 ever that may be, I shall never allow it to interfere with me 
 again. 
 
 " In Egypt I found myself free from the wearisome re- 
 straints of civilization. I dreamed all sorts of things, and I 
 saw how all that I dreamed might be realized. I created a 
 religion. I pictured myself on the road to Asia, mounted on 
 an elephant, with a turban on my head, and in my hand a 
 new Koran, which I should compose according to my own 
 
100 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 ideas. I would have the combined experience of two worlds 
 to set about my enterprise ; I was to have ransacked, for my 
 own advantage, the whole domain of history ; I was to have 
 attacked the English power in India, and renewed my rela- 
 tions with old Europe by my conquest. The time which I 
 passed in Egypt was the most delightful part of my life, for 
 it was the most ideal. Fate decided against my dreams ; I 
 received letters from France ; I saw that there was not a 
 moment to lose. I reverted to the realities of life, and I 
 returned to Paris to Paris, where the gravest interests of 
 the country are discussed in the entr'acte of an opera. 
 
 " The Directory trembled at my return. I was very cau- 
 tious ; that is one of the epochs of my life in which I have 
 acted with the soundest judgment. I saw the Abbe Sieyes, 
 and promised him that his verbose constitution should be put 
 into effect ; I received the chiefs of the Jacobins and the 
 agents of the Bourbons; I listened to advice from every- 
 body, but I only gave it in the interest of my own plans. I 
 hid myself from the people, because I knew that when the 
 time came curiosity to see me would make them run after 
 me. Every one was taken in my toils ; and, when I became 
 the head of the State, there was not a party in France which 
 did not build some special hope upon my success." 
 
CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 (1803-1804.) 
 
 Continuation of the First Consul's Conversations at Boulogne Reading of the 
 Tragedy of "Philippe Auguste" My new Impressions Return to Paris 
 Mme. Bonaparte's Jealousy Winter Fetes of 1804 M. de Fontanes M. 
 Fouche" Savary Pichegru Arrest of General Moreau. 
 
 ONE evening, while we were at Boulogne, Bonaparte 
 turned the conversation upon literature. Lemercier, the 
 poet, whom Bonaparte liked, had just finished a tragedy, 
 called " Philippe Auguste," which contained allusions to the 
 First Consul, and had brought the manuscript to him. Bo- 
 naparte took it into his head to read this production aloud to 
 me. It was amusing to hear a man, who was always in a 
 hurry when he had nothing to do, trying to read Alexandrine 
 verses, of which he did not know the meter, and pronouncing 
 them so badly that he did not seem to understand what he 
 read. Besides, he no sooner opened any book than he wanted 
 to criticise it. I asked him to give me the manuscript, and 
 I read it out myself. Then he began to talk ; he took the 
 play out of my hand, struck out whole passages, made several 
 marginal notes, and found fault with the plot and the char- 
 acters. He did not run much risk of spoiling the piece, for 
 it was very bad.* Singularly enough, when he had done 
 reading, he told me he did not wish the author to know that 
 all these erasures and corrections were made by so important 
 a hand, and he directed me to take them upon myself. I 
 objected to this, as may be supposed. I had great difficulty 
 
 * This piece was never acted, nor, I believe, printed. P. R. 
 
102 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 in convincing him that, as it might be thought strange that 
 even he should thus have meddled with an author's manu- 
 script, it would be contrary to all the convenances for me to 
 have taken such a liberty. " Well, well," said he, " perhaps 
 you are right ; but on this, as on every other occasion, I own 
 I do not like that vague and leveling phrase, the convenances, 
 which you women are always using. It is a device of fools 
 to raise themselves to the level of people of intellect ; a sort 
 of social gag, which obstructs the strong mind and only serves 
 the weak. It may be all very well for women : they have 
 not much to do in this life ; but you must be aware that I, 
 for example, can not be bound by the convenances? 
 
 " But," I replied, " is not the application of these laws to 
 the conduct of life like that of the dramatic unities to the 
 drama? They give order and regularity, and they do not 
 really trammel genius, except when it would, without their 
 control, err against good taste." 
 
 " Ah, good taste ! That is another of those classical 
 words which I do not adopt.* It is perhaps my own fault, 
 but there are certain rules which mean nothing to me. For 
 example, what is called ' style,' good or bad, does not affect 
 me. I care only for the force of the thought. I used to 
 like Ossian, but it was for the same reason which made me 
 delight in the murmur of the winds and waves. In Egypt 
 I tried to read the ' Iliad ' ; but I got tired of it. As for 
 French poets, I understand none of them except Corneille. 
 That man understood politics, and if he had been trained to 
 public afMrs he would have been a statesman. I think I 
 appreciate him more truly than any one else does, because I 
 exclude all the dramatic sentiments from my view of him. 
 For example, it is only lately I have come to understand the 
 denouement of i Cinna.' At first I regarded it as merely a 
 contrivance for a pathetic fifth act; for really, clemency, 
 
 * M. de Talleyrand once said to the Emperor, " Good taste is your personal 
 enemy ; if you could have got rid of it by cannon-balls, it would long ago have 
 ceased to exist." 
 
MY NEW IMPRESSIONS. 103 
 
 properly speaking, is such a poor little virtue, when it is not 
 founded on policy, that to turn Augustus suddenly into a 
 kind-hearted prince appeared to me an unworthy climax. 
 However, I saw Monvel act in the tragedy one night, and 
 the mystery of the great conception was revealed to me. He 
 pronounced the 'Soyons amis, Cinna,' in so cunning and 
 subtle a tone, that I saw at once the action was only a feint 
 of the tyrant, and I approved as a calculation what had ap- 
 peared to me silly as a sentiment. The line should always 
 be so delivered that, of all those who hear it, only Cinna is 
 deceived. 
 
 " As for Racine, he pleases me in c Iphigenie.' That piece, 
 while it lasts, makes one breathe the poetic air of Greece. 
 In ' Britannicus ' he has been trammeled by Tacitus, against 
 whom I am prejudiced, because he does not sufficiently ex- 
 plain his meaning. The tragedies of Yoltaire are passionate, 
 but they do not go deeply into human nature. For instance, 
 his Mahomet is neither a prophet nor an Arab. He is an 
 impostor, who might have been educated at the ICcole Poly- 
 technique, for he uses power as I might use it in an age like 
 the present. And then, the murder of the father by the son 
 is a useless crime. " Great men are never cruel except from 
 necessity. 
 
 u As for comedy, it interests me about as much as the 
 gossip of your drawing-rooms. I understand your admira- 
 tion of Moliere, but I do not share it ; he has placed his per- 
 sonages in situations which have no attractions for me." 
 
 From these observations it is plain that Bonaparte cared 
 only to observe human nature when it was struggling with 
 the great chances of life, and that man in the abstract inter- 
 ested him but little. In conversations of this kind the time 
 I spent at Boulogne with the First Consul was passed, and it 
 was at the close of my sojourn there that I underwent the 
 first experience that inspired me with mistrust of persons 
 among whom I was obliged to live at Court. The officers 
 of the household could not believe that a woman might re- 
 
104: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE M&MU8AT. 
 
 main for hours together with their master, simply talking 
 with him on matters of general interest, and they drew con- 
 clusions which were injurious to my character. I may now 
 venture to say that the purity of my mind, and my life-long 
 attachment to my husband, prevented my even conceiving 
 the possibility of such a suspicion as that which was formed 
 in the Consul's ante-chamber, while I was conversing with 
 him in his salon. When Bonaparte returned to Paris, his 
 aides-de-camp talked about my long interviews with him, and 
 Mme. Bonaparte took fright at their stories ; so that when, 
 after a month's stay at Pont de Briques, my husband was suf- 
 ficiently recovered to bear the journey, and we returned to 
 Paris, my jealous patroness received me coldly. 
 
 I returned full of gratitude toward the First Consul. He 
 had received me so kindly ; he had shown such interest in 
 the state of my husband's health ; his attention to me had so 
 much soothed my troubled and anxious mind, and had been 
 so great a resource in that solitary place ; and I was so much 
 flattered by the pleasure he seemed to take in my society, 
 that on my return I told every one, with the eager gratitude 
 of one twenty-three years old, of the extreme kindness he 
 had shown me. My friend, who was rea"lly attached to me, 
 advised me to be careful of my words, and apprised me of 
 the impression they had made. I remember to this hour that 
 her hint struck like a dagger to my heart. It was the first 
 time I had suffered injustice ; my youth and all my feelings 
 revolted against such an accusation. Stern experience only 
 can steel us against the unjust judgments of the world, and 
 perhaps we ought to regret the time when they had the pow- 
 er to wound us deeply. My friend's warning had, however, 
 explained Mme. Bonaparte's conduct toward me. One day, 
 when I was more hurt by this than usual, I could not refrain 
 from saying to her, with tears in my eyes, " What, madame ! 
 do you suspect me ? " As she was very kind and always 
 easily touched by passing emotions, she embraced me, and 
 thenceforth treated me with her former cordiality. But she 
 
MADAME BONAPARTE'S JEALOUSY. 105 
 
 did not understand my feelings. There was nothing in her 
 mind which corresponded to my just indignation ; and, with- 
 out endeavoring to ascertain whether my relations with her 
 husband at Bolougne had been such as they were represented 
 to her, she was content to conclude that in any case the affair 
 had been merely temporary, since I did not, when under her 
 own eyes, depart from my usual reserve toward Bonaparte. 
 In order to justify herself, she told me that the Bonaparte 
 family had spread injurious reports against me during my 
 absence. " Do you not perceive," I asked her, " that, rightly 
 or wrongly, it is believed here that my tender attachment to 
 you, madame, makes me clear-sighted to what is going on, 
 and that, feeble as my counsels are, they may help you to act 
 with prudence ? Political jealousy spreads suspicion broad- 
 cast everywhere, and, insignificant as I am, I do believe they 
 want to make you quarrel with me." Mme. Bonaparte agreed 
 in the truth of my observation ; but she had not the least 
 idea that I could feel aggrieved because it had not occurred 
 to herself in the first instance. She acknowledged that she 
 had reproached her husband about me, and he had evidently 
 amused himself by leaving her in doubt. These occurrences 
 opened my eyes about the people among whom I lived to an 
 extent which alarmed me and upset all my former feelings 
 toward them. I began to feel that the ground which I had 
 trodden until then with all the confidence of ignorance was 
 not firm ; I knew that from the kind of annoyance I had just 
 experienced I should never again be free. 
 
 The First Consul, on leaving Boulogne, had declared, in 
 the order of the day, that he was pleased with the army ; 
 and in the "Moniteur" of November 12, 1803, we read the 
 following : " It was remarked as a presage that, in the course 
 of the excavations for the First Consul's camp, a war hatchet 
 was found, which probably belonged to the Roman army 
 that invaded Britain. There were also medals of William 
 the Conqueror found at Ambleteuse, where the First Con- 
 sul's -tent was pitched. It must be admitted that these cir- 
 
106 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 cumstances are singular, and they appear still more strange 
 when it is borne in mind that when General Bonaparte vis- 
 ited the ruins of Pelusium, in Egypt, he found there a me- 
 dallion of Julius Caesar." 
 
 The allusion was not a very fortunate one, for, notwith- 
 standing the medallion of Julius Caesar, Bonaparte was 
 obliged to leave Egypt ; but these little parallels, dictated 
 by the ingenious flattery of M. Maret, pleased his master 
 immensely, and Bonaparte was confident that they were not 
 without effect upon the country. 
 
 In the journals every effort was made at that time to 
 excite the popular imagination on the subject of the invasion 
 of England. I do not know whether Bonaparte really be- 
 lieved that such an adventure was possible, but he appeared 
 to do so, and the expense incurred in the construction of flat- 
 bottomed boats was considerable. The war of words be- 
 tween the English newspapers and the " Moniteur " con- 
 tinued. We read in the " Times," " It is said that the 
 French have made Hanover a desert, and they are now about 
 to abandon it " ; to which a note in the " Moniteur " imme- 
 diately replied, " Yes, when you abandon Malta." The 
 Bishops issued pastorals, in which they exhorted the nation 
 to arm itself for a just war. " Choose men of good courage," 
 said the Bishop of Arras, " and go forth to fight Amalek. 
 Bossuet has said, ' To submit to the public orders is to sub- 
 mit to the orders of God, who establishes empires.' 5: 
 
 This quotation from Bossuet reminds me of a story 
 which M. Bourlier, the Bishop of Evreux, used to tell. It 
 related to the time when the Council was assembled at Paris 
 with a view to inducing the Bishops to oppose the decrees 
 of the Pope. " Sometimes," said the Bishop of Evreux, 
 " the Emperor would have us all summoned, and would be- 
 gin a theological discussion with us. He would address him- 
 self to the most recalcitrant among us, and say, ' My religion 
 is that of Bossuet ; he is my Father of the Church ; he de- 
 fended our liberties. I want to commence his work and to 
 
WINTER FfiTES OF 1804. 107 
 
 maintain your dignity. Do you understand me ? ' Speak- 
 ing thus, and pale with anger, he would clap his hand on the 
 hilt of his sword. The ardor with which he was ready to 
 defend us made me tremble, and this singular amalgamation 
 of the name of Bossuet and the word liberty, with his own 
 threatening gestures, would have made me smile if I had 
 not been too heavy-hearted at the prospect of the hard times 
 which I foresaw for the Church." 
 
 I now return to the winter of 1804. This winter passed 
 as the preceding one had done, in balls and fetes at Court 
 and in Paris, and in the organization of the new laws which 
 were presented to the Corps Legislatif. Mme. Bacciochi, 
 who had a very decided liking for M. de Fontanes, spoke of 
 him so often at that time to her brother, that her influence, 
 added to Bonaparte's own high opinion of the academician, 
 determined him to make M. de Fontanes President of the 
 Corps Legislatif. This selection appeared strange to some 
 people ; but a man of letters would do as well as any other 
 President for what Bonaparte intended to make of the Corps 
 Legislatif. M. de Fontanes had to deliver harangues to the 
 Emperor under most difficult circumstances, but he always 
 acquitted himself with grace and distinction. He had but 
 little strength of character, but his ability told when he had 
 to speak in public, and his good taste lent him dignity and 
 impressiveness. Perhaps that was not an advantage for 
 Bonaparte. Nothing is so dangerous for sovereigns as to 
 have their abuses of power clothed in the glowing colors of 
 eloquence, when they figure before nations ; and this is es- 
 pecially dangerous in France, where forms are held in such 
 high esteem. How often have the Parisians, although in 
 the secret of the farce the Government was acting, lent them- 
 selves to the deception with a good grace, simply because 
 the actors did justice to that delicacy of taste which de- 
 mands that each shall do his best with the role assigned 
 to him ? 
 
 In the course of the month of January, the "Moniteur" 
 
108 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE ItfiMUSAT. 
 
 published a selection of articles from the English journals, in 
 which the differences between Bavaria and Austria, and the 
 probabilities of a continental war, were discussed. Para- 
 graphs of this kind were from time to time inserted in the 
 newspapers, without any comment, as if to prepare us for 
 what might happen. These intimations like the clouds 
 over mountain summits, which fall apart for a moment now 
 and then, and afford a glimpse of what is passing behind 
 allowed us to have momentary peeps at the important dis- 
 cussions which were taking place in Europe, so that we 
 should not be much surprised when they resulted in a rup- 
 ture. After each glimpse the clouds would close again, and 
 we would remain in darkness until the storm burst. 
 
 I am about to speak of an important epoch, concerning 
 which my memory is full and faithful. It is that of the 
 conspiracy of Georges Cadoudal, and the crime to which it 
 led. With respect to General Moreau, I shall repeat what I 
 have heard said, but shall be careful to affirm nothing. I 
 think it well to preface this narrative by a brief explanation 
 of the state of affairs at that time. Certain persons, some- 
 what closely connected with politics, were beginning to as- 
 sert that France felt the necessity of hereditary right in the 
 governing power. Political courtiers, and honest, sincere 
 revolutionists, seeing that the tranquillity of the country de- 
 pended on one life, were discussing the instability of the 
 Consulate. By degrees the thoughts of all were once more 
 turned to monarchy, and this would have had its advantages 
 if they could have agreed to establish a monarchy tempered 
 by the laws. Revolutions have this great disadvantage, that 
 they divide public opinion into an infinite number of varie- 
 ties, which are all modified by circumstances. This it is 
 which gives opportunity to that despotism which comes after 
 revolutions. To restrain the power of Bonaparte, it would 
 have been necessary to venture on uttering the word " Lib- 
 erty " ; but as, only a few years before, that word had been 
 used from one end of France to the other as a disguise for 
 
THE JACOBINS. 109 
 
 the worst kind of slavery, it inspired an unreasonable but 
 fatal repugnance. 
 
 The Royalists, finding that day by day Bonaparte was 
 departing more widely from the path they had expected he 
 would take, were much disturbed. The Jacobins, whose op- 
 position the First Consul feared much more, were secretly 
 preparing for action, for they perceived that it was to their 
 antagonists that the Government was giving guarantees. 
 The Concordat, the advances made to the old nobility, the 
 destruction of revolutionary equality, all these things consti- 
 tuted an encroachment upon them. How happy would 
 France have been had Bonaparte contended only against the 
 factions! But, to have done that, he must have been ani- 
 mated solely by the love of justice, and guided by the coun- 
 sels of a generous mind. 
 
 When a sovereign, no matter what his title may be, sides 
 with one or other of the violent parties which stir up civil 
 strife, it is certain that he has hostile intentions against the 
 rights of citizens, who have confided those rights to his keep- 
 ing. Bonaparte, in order to fix his despotic yoke upon 
 France, found himself obliged to come to terms with the 
 Jacobins ; and, unfortunately, there are persons whom no 
 guarantee but that of crime will satisfy. Their ally must 
 involve himself in some of their iniquities. This motive had 
 a great deal to do with the death of the Due d'Enghien ; 
 and I am convinced that all which happened at that time was 
 the result of no violent feeling, of no blind revenge, but 
 simply of a Machiavellian policy, resolved to smooth its own 
 path at any cost. Neither was it for the gratification of vani- 
 ty that Bonaparte wanted to change his title of Consul for 
 that of Emperor. We must not believe that he was always 
 ruled by insatiable passions ; he was capable of controlling 
 them by calculation, and, if in the end he allowed himself to 
 be led away, it was because he became intoxicated by success 
 and flattery. The comedy of republican equality, which he 
 was obliged to play so long as he remained Consul, annoyed 
 
110 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 him, and in reality only deceived those who were willing to 
 be deceived. It resembled the political pretenses of ancient 
 Rome, when the Emperors from time to time had themselves 
 reflected by the Senate. I have heard persons who, having 
 put on the love of liberty like a garment, and yet paid assidu- 
 ous court to Bonaparte while he was First Consul, declare 
 that they had quite withdrawn their esteem from him so soon 
 as he conferred the title of Emperor upon himself. I never 
 could understand their argument. How was it possible that 
 the authority which he exercised almost from the moment of 
 his entrance into the government did not enlighten them as 
 to his actual position ? Might it not rather be said that he 
 gave a proof of sincerity in his assumption of a title whose 
 real powers he exercised ? 
 
 At the epoch of which I am treating, it became necessary 
 that the First Consul should strengthen his position by some 
 new measure. The English, who had been threatened, were 
 secretly exciting disturbances to act as diversions from the 
 projects formed against themselves ; their relations with the 
 Chouans were resumed ; and the Royalists regarded the Con- 
 sular Government as a mere transition state from the Direc- 
 tory to the Monarchy. One man only stood in the way ; it 
 became easy to conclude that he must be got rid of. 
 
 I remember to have heard Bonaparte say in the summer of 
 that year (1804) that for once events had hurried him, and 
 that he had not intended to establish royalty until two years 
 later. He had placed the police in the hands of the Minis- 
 ter of Justice. This was a sound and moral proceeding, but it 
 was contradicted by his intention that the magistracy should 
 use that police as it had been used when it was a revolution- 
 ary institution. I have already said that Bonaparte's first 
 ideas were generally good and great. To conceive and carry 
 them out was to exercise his power, but to submit to them 
 afterward savored of abdication. . He was unable to endure 
 the dominion even of any of his own institutions. Restrained 
 by the slow and regular forms of justice, and also by the 
 
FOUCHfi. 
 
 feebleness and mediocrity of Ms Chief Judge, he surrounded 
 himself with innumerable police agents, and by degrees 
 regained confidence in Fouche, who was an adept in the art 
 of making himself necessary. Fouche, a man of keen and 
 far-seeing intellect, a Jacobin grown rich, and consequently 
 disgusted with some of the principles of that party with 
 which, however, he still remained connected, so that he 
 might have support should trouble arise had no objection 
 to invest Bonaparte with royalty. His natural flexibility 
 made him always ready to accept any form of government 
 in which he saw a post for himself. His habits were more 
 revolutionary than his principles, and the only state of things, 
 I believe, which he could not have endured, would have been 
 one which should make an absolute nonentity of him. To 
 make use of him one must thoroughly understand his dispo- 
 sition, and be very cautious in dealing with him, remember- 
 ing that he needed troublous times for the full display of his 
 capacity ; for, as he had no passions and no aversions, he rose at 
 such times superior to the generality of those about him, who 
 were all more or less actuated by either fear or resentment. 
 
 Fouche has denied that he advised the murder of the Due 
 d'Enghien. Unless there is complete certainty of the fact, I 
 see no reason for bringing the accusation of a crime against a 
 man who positively denies it. Besides, Foiiche, who was 
 very far-sighted, must have foreseen that such a deed would 
 give only a temporary guarantee to the party which Bona- 
 parte wanted to win. He knew the First Consul too well to 
 fear that he would think of replacing the King on a throne 
 which he might occupy himself , and there is little doubt 
 that, with the information he possessed, he would have pro- 
 nounced the murder of the Due d'Enghien to be a mistake. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand's plans were also served by his advice 
 that Bonaparte should invest himself with royalty. That 
 proceeding would suit M. de Talleyrand to a nicety. His 
 enemies, and even Bonaparte himself, have accused him of 
 having advised the murder of the unhappy prince. But 
 
112 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 Bonaparte and his enemies are not credible on this point ; 
 the well-known character of M. de Talleyrand is against the 
 truth of the statement. He has said to me more than once 
 that Bonaparte informed him and the two Consuls of the 
 arrest of the Due d'Enghien and of his own unalterable de- 
 termination at the same time. He added that they all three 
 saw that words were useless, and therefore kept silence. 
 That was indeed a deplorable weakness, but one very com- 
 mon to M. de Talleyrand, who would not think of remon- 
 strating for the sake of conscience only, when he knew that 
 a line of action had been decided upon. Opposition and 
 bold resistance may take effect upon any nature, however 
 resolute. A sovereign of a cruel and sanguinary disposition 
 will sometimes sacrifice his inclination to the force of reason 
 arrayed against it. Bonaparte was not cruel either by incli- 
 nation or on system ; he merely wanted to carry his point by 
 the quickest and surest method. He has himself said that 
 at that time he was obliged to get rid of both Jacobins and 
 Koyalists. The imprudence of the latter furnished him with 
 this fatal opportunity. He seized it ; and what I shall here- 
 after have to relate will show that it was with the coolest of 
 calculation, or rather of sophistry, that he shed illustrious and 
 innocent blood. 
 
 A few days after the first return of the King, the Due 
 de Eovigo [General Savary] presented himself at my house 
 one morning.* He then tried to clear himself from the 
 accusations that were brought against him. He spoke to me 
 of the death of the Due d'Enghien. " The Emperor and I," 
 he said, " were deceived on that occasion. One of the infe- 
 rior agents in Georges Cadoudal's conspiracy had been sub- 
 orned by my police. He came to us, and stated that one 
 night, when all the conspirators were assembled, the secret 
 arrival of an important chief who could not yet be named 
 
 * The Due de Rovigo knew how intimate my husband and I were with M. 
 de Talleyrand, and he was anxious to induce us to further his interests in that 
 quarter. 
 
PICHEGRU. 113 
 
 had been announced to them. A few nights later, a person 
 appeared among them, to whom the others paid great respect. 
 The spy described the unknown so as to give us the impres- 
 sion that he was a prince of the house of Bourbon. About 
 the same time the Due d'Enghien had established himself 
 at Ettenheim, with the intention, no doubt, of awaiting the 
 result of the conspiracy. The police agents wrote that he 
 sometimes disappeared for several days together. "We con- 
 cluded that at these times he came to Paris, and his arrest 
 was resolved upon. Afterward, when the spy was confront- 
 ed with the persons who had been arrested, he recognized Pi- 
 chegru as the important personage of whom he had spoken ; 
 and when I told this to Bonaparte he exclaimed, with a 
 stamp of his foot, 'Ah, the wretch! what has he made 
 me do?'" 
 
 To return to the facts. Pichegru arrived in France on 
 the loth of January, 1804, and from the 25th of January was 
 concealed in Paris. It was known that, in the year 5 of the 
 Eepublic, General Moreau had denounced him to the Govern- 
 ment for keeping up relations with the house of Bourbon. 
 Moreau was supposed to hold Republican opinions ; but he 
 had probably then exchanged them for the idea of a constitu- 
 tional monarchy. I do not know whether his family would 
 now defend him as earnestly as they did then from the accu- 
 sation of having aided the plans of the Royalists, nor do I 
 know whether implicit confidence is to be placed on confes- 
 sions made in the reign of Louis XVIII. The conduct of 
 Moreau in 1813, and the honor paid to his memory by our 
 princes, might, however, fairly lead us to believe that they 
 had reason to count on him previously. At the period of 
 which I am now speaking, Moreau was deeply irritated 
 against Bonaparte. It has never been doubted that he visited 
 Pichegru in secret ; he certainly kept silence about the con- 
 spiracy. Some of the Royalists who were arrested at this 
 time declared that he had merely displayed that prudent 
 hesitation which waits to declare itself for the success of a 
 
114: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 party. Moreau, it was said, was a feeble and insignificant 
 man, except on the field of battle, and overweighted by his 
 reputation. " There are persons," said Bonaparte, " who do 
 not know how to wear their fame. The part of Monk suited 
 Moreau perfectly. In his place I should have acted as he 
 did, only more cleverly." 
 
 It is not, however, in order to justify Bonaparte that I 
 mention my doubts. Whatever was Moreau's character, his 
 fame was real ; it ought to have been respected, and an old 
 comrade in arms, grown discontented and embittered, ought 
 to have been excused. A reconciliation with him, even if it 
 had only been a result of that political calculation which 
 Bonaparte discerned in the " Auguste " of Corneille, would 
 still have been the wisest proceeding. But I do not doubt 
 that Bonaparte was sincerely convinced of what he called 
 Moreau's moral treason, and he held that to be sufficient for 
 the law and for justice, because he always refused to look at 
 the true aspect of anything which was displeasing to himself. 
 He was assured that proofs to justify the condemnation of 
 Moreau were not wanting. He found himself committed to 
 a line of action, and afterward he refused to recognize any- 
 thing but party spirit in the equity of the tribunals ; and, 
 besides, he knew the most injurious thing which could hap- 
 pen to him would be that this interesting prisoner should 
 be declared innocent. When he found himself on the point 
 of being compromised, he would stop at nothing. From this 
 cause arose the deplorable incidents of the famous trial. The 
 conspiracy had been a subject of conversation for several 
 days. On the 17th of February, 1804, I went to the Tuile- 
 ries in the morning. The Consul was in the room with his 
 wife ; I was announced and shown in. Mme. Bonaparte was 
 in great distress ; her eyes were red with crying. Bonaparte 
 was sitting near the fireplace, with little Napoleon * on his 
 
 * The eldest child of Mme. Louis Bonaparte, afterward Queen Hortense. He 
 was born on the 10th of October, 1802, and died of croup on the 5th of May, 
 1807. P. R. 
 
ARREST OF GENERAL MOREAU. 115 
 
 knees. He looked grave, but not agitated, and was playing 
 mechanically with the child. 
 
 " Do you know what I have done ? " said he. I answered 
 in the negative. " I have just given an order for Moreau's 
 arrest." 1 could not repress a start. " Ah, you are aston- 
 ished," said he. " There will be a great fuss about this, will 
 there not ? Of course, it will be said that I am jealous of 
 Moreau, that this is revenge, and other petty nonsense of the 
 same kind. I jealous of Moreau ! Why, he owes the best 
 part of his reputation to me. It was I who left a fine army 
 with him, and kept only recruits with myself in Italy. I 
 wanted nothing more than to get on well with him. I cer- 
 tainly was not afraid of him ; I am not afraid of anybody, 
 and less of Moreau than of other people. I have hindered 
 him from committing himself twenty times over. I warned 
 him that there would be mischief made between us; he 
 knew that as well as I did. But he is weak and conceited ; 
 he allows women to lead him, and the various parties have 
 urged him." 
 
 While he was speaking Bonaparte rose, approached his 
 wife, and, taking her by the chin, made her hold up her 
 head. " Ha ! " he said, " every one has not got a good wife, 
 like me. You are crying, Josephine. What for, eh ? Are 
 you frightened ? " " No ; but I don't like to think of what 
 will be said." " What ? How can that be helped ? " Then, 
 turning to me, he added, " I am not actuated by any enmity 
 or any desire of vengeance ; I have reflected deeply before 
 arresting Moreau. I might have shut my eyes, and given 
 him time to fly, but it would have been said that I did not 
 dare to bring him to trial. I have the means of convicting 
 him. He is guilty ; I am the Government ; the whole thing 
 is quite simple." 
 
 I can not tell whether the power of my old recollections 
 ^ still upon me, but I confess that even at this moment I can 
 hardly believe that when Bonaparte spoke thus he was not 
 sincere. I have watched each stage of progress in the art of 
 
116 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 dissimulation, and I know that at that particular epoch he 
 still retained certain accents of truthfulness, which after- 
 ward were no longer to be detected in his voice. Per- 
 haps, however, it was only that at that time I still believed 
 in him. 
 
 With the above words he left us, and Mme. Bonaparte 
 told me that he remained up almost the whole of the night, 
 debating whether or not he should have Moreau arrested, 
 weighing the pros and cons of the measure, without any 
 symptom of personal feeling in the matter ; that then, toward 
 daybreak, he sent for General Berthier, and after a long in- 
 terview with him he determined on sending to Grosbois, 
 whither Moreau had retired. 
 
 This event gave rise to a great deal of discussion, and 
 opinion was much divided. General Moreau's brother, a 
 tribune, spoke with great vehemence at the Tribunate, and 
 produced considerable effect. A deputation was sent up by 
 the three representative bodies with an address of congratu- 
 lation to the First Consul. In Paris, all who represented the 
 liberal portion of the population, a section of the bourgeoisie, 
 lawyers, and men of letters, were warmly in favor of Moreau. 
 It was, of course, plain enough that political opposition formed 
 an element in the interest exhibited on his behalf ; his parti- 
 sans agreed that they would throng the court at which he 
 was to be brought up, and there was even a threatening 
 whisper about what should be done if he were condemned. 
 Bonaparte's police informed him that there was a plot to 
 break into Moreau's prison. This irritated him, and his 
 calmness began to give way. Murat, his brother-in-law, who 
 was then Governor of Paris, hated Moreau, and took care to 
 add to Bonajparte's exasperation by his daily reports to him, 
 he and Dubois, the Prefect of Police, combining together to 
 pursue him with alarming rumors. Events, unhappily, came 
 to the aid of their design. Each day a fresh ramification of 
 the conspiracy was discovered, and each day Parisian society 
 refused more obstinately than on the preceding to believe 
 
ARREST OF GENERAL MOREAU. 
 
 that there was any conspiracy at all. A war of opinion was 
 being waged between Bonaparte and the Parisians. 
 
 On the 29th of February Pichegru's hiding-place was dis- 
 covered, and he was arrested, after a gallant struggle with 
 the gendarmes. This event somewhat shook the general in- 
 credulity, but public interest still centered in Moreau. His 
 wife's grief assumed a rather theatrical aspect, and this also 
 had its effect. In the mean time Bonaparte, who was igno- 
 rant of the formalities of law, found them much more tedi- 
 ous than he had expected. At the commencement of the 
 affair, the Chief Judge had too readily undertaken to sim- 
 plify and shorten the procedure, and now only one charge 
 was distinctly made : that Moreau had held secret conferences 
 with Pichegru, and had received his confidence, but without 
 pledging himself positively to anything. This was not suffi- 
 cient to secure a condemnation, which was becoming a neces- 
 sity. In short, notwithstanding that great name which is 
 mixed up in the affair, Georges Cadoudal has always been 
 believed to have been, as at the trial he appeared to be, the 
 real leader of the conspiracy. 
 
 It would be impossible to describe the excitement that 
 pervaded the palace. Everybody was consulted ; the most 
 trifling conversations were repeated. One day Savary took 
 M. de Eemusat aside, and said, " You have been a magis- 
 trate, you know the laws ; do you think the details of this 
 affair that we are in possession of are sufficient for the infor- 
 mation of the judges ? " " No man," replied my husband, 
 " has ever been condemned merely because he did not reveal 
 projects with which he was made acquainted. No doubt 
 that is a political wrong with respect to the Government, but 
 it is not a crime which ought to involve the penalty of death ; 
 and, if that is your sole plea, you will only have furnished 
 Moreau with evidence damaging to yourselves." " In that 
 case," said Savary, "the Chief Judge has led us into making 
 a great blunder. It would have been better to have had a 
 military commission." 
 
118 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 From the day of Picliegru's arrest, the gates of Paris 
 were shut, while search was made for Georges Cadoudal, who 
 eluded pursuit with extraordinary success. Fouche, who 
 laid the foundations of his new reputation on this occasion, 
 mercilessly ridiculed the unskillfulness of the police, and his 
 comments enraged Bonaparte, who was already angry enough ; 
 so that, when he had incurred a real danger, and saw that the 
 Parisians were disinclined to believe the statement of the 
 facts, he began to wish for revenge. "Judge," said he, 
 "whether the French can ever be governed by legal and 
 moderate institutions ? I have put down a revolutionary but 
 useful department of the ministry, and conspiracies are im- 
 mediately formed. I have foregone my own personal feel- 
 ings ; I have handed over the punishment of a man who in- 
 tended to kill me to an authority independent of myself ; 
 and, far from giving me any thanks for all this, people laugh 
 at my moderation, and assign corrupt motives to my conduct. 
 I will teach them to belie my intentions. I will lay hold of 
 all my powers again, and prove to them that I alone am 
 made to govern, to decide, and to punish." 
 
 Bonaparte grew more and more angry as lie became 
 aware, from moment to moment, that something was amiss 
 with himself. He had thought to rule public opinion, but 
 here was public opinion escaping from his hold. He had 
 been ruled himself by it in the outset of his career, I am 
 certain, and he had gained no credit by that ; so he resolved 
 that never again would he be so mistaken. It will seem 
 strange, to those who do not know how utterly the wearing 
 of a uniform destroys the habit of thinking, that not the 
 slightest uneasiness was felt on this occasion with respect to 
 the army. Military men do everything by word of com- 
 mand, and they abstain from opinions which are not pre- 
 scribed to them. Yery few officers remembered then that 
 they had fought and conquered under Moreau, and the 'bour- 
 geoisie was much more excited about the affair than any 
 other class. 
 
ARREST OF GENERAL MOREAU. H9 
 
 The Polignacs, M. de Riviere, and some others were 
 arrested. Then the public began to think there really was 
 some truth in the story of the conspiracy, and that the plot 
 was a Eoyalist one. Nevertheless, the Republican party 
 still demanded Moreau. The nobility were alarmed and 
 kept very quiet ; they condemned the imprudence of the 
 Polignacs, who have since acknowledged that they were not 
 seconded with so much zeal as they had been led to expect. 
 The error into which they fell, and to which the Royalist 
 party was always prone, was that they believed in the exist- 
 ence of what they desired, and acted upon their illusions. 
 This is a mistake common to men who are led by their pas- 
 sions or by their vanity. 
 
 I suffered a great deal at this time. At the Tuileries the 
 First Consul was moody and silent, his wife was frequently 
 in tears, his family were angry ; his sister exasperated him 
 by her violent way of talking. In society opinions were 
 divided : on the one hand were distrust, suspicion, indignant 
 satisfaction ; on the other, regret that the attempt had failed 
 and passionate condemnation. All these contentions dis- 
 tracted and upset me. I shut myself up with my mother 
 and my husband ; we questioned one another about all that 
 we heard and everything that we respectively thought. M. 
 de Remusat's steady rectitude of mind was grieved by the 
 errors which were perpetrated ; and, as his judgment was 
 quite uninfluenced by passion, he began to dread the future, 
 and imparted to me his sagacious and melancholy prevision 
 of a character which he studied closely and silently. His 
 apprehensions distressed me ; the doubts which were spring- 
 ing up in my own mind rendered me very unhappy. Alas ! 
 the moment was drawing near when I was to be far more 
 painfully enlightened. 
 
CHAPTER Y. 
 
 The Arrest of Georges Cadoudal The Mission of M. de Caulaincourt to Ettenheim 
 The Arrest of the Due d'Enghien My Distress and my Urgency with Mme. 
 Bonaparte An Evening at Malmaison The Death of the Due d'Enghien 
 Eemarkable Words of the First Consul. 
 
 AFTEE the arrests which I have already recorded, there 
 appeared in the "Moniteur" certain articles from the 
 " Morning Chronicle," in which it was stated that the death 
 of Bonaparte and the restoration of Louis XVIII. were im- 
 minent. It was added that persons newly arrived from 
 London affirmed that speculation upon these eventualities 
 was rife on the Stock Exchange, and that Georges Cadoudal, 
 Pichegru, and Moreau were named openly there. In the 
 same " Moniteur " appeared a letter from an Englishman to 
 Bonaparte, whom he addressed as " Monsieur Consul." The 
 purport of this letter was to recommend, as specially appli- 
 cable to Bonaparte, a pamphlet written in Cromwell's time, 
 which tended to prove that persons such as Cromwell and 
 himself could not be assassinated, because there was no crime 
 in killing a dangerous animal or a tyrant. " To kill is not to 
 assassinate in such cases," said the pamphlet ; " the difference 
 is great." 
 
 In France, however, addresses from all the towns and 
 from all the regiments, and pastorals by all the Bishops, 
 complimenting the First Consul and congratulating France 
 on the danger which had been escaped, were forwarded to 
 Paris ; and these documents were punctually inserted in the 
 " Moniteur." 
 
 At length, on the 29th of March, Georges Cadoudal was 
 
ARREST OF GEORGES CADOUDAL. 
 
 arrested in the Place de POdeon. He was in a cabriolet, 
 and, perceiving that he was followed, he urged on his horse. 
 A gendarme bravely caught the animal by the head, and was 
 shot dead by Cadoudal ; the cabriolet was, however, stopped 
 owing to the crowd which instantly collected at the noise of 
 the pistol-shot, and Cadoudal was seized. Between sixty 
 thousand and eighty thousand francs in notes were found on 
 him, and given to the widow of the man whom he had 
 killed. The newspapers stated that he acknowledged he had 
 come to France for no other purpose than to assassinate 
 Bonaparte ; but I remember to have heard at the time that 
 the prisoner, whose courage and firmness during the whole 
 of the proceedings were unshaken, and who evinced great 
 devotion to the house of Bourbon, steadily denied that there 
 had ever been any purpose of assassination, while admitting 
 that his intentions had been to attack the carriage of the 
 First Consul, and to carry him off without harming him. 
 
 At this time the King of England (George III.) was 
 taken seriously ill, and our Government reckoned upon his 
 death to insure the retirement of Mr. Pitt from the ministry. 
 
 On the 21st of March the following appeared in the 
 " Moniteur " : " Prince de Conde has addressed a circular to 
 the emigres, with a view to collecting them on the Rhine. 
 A prince of the house of Bourbon is now on the frontier for 
 that purpose." 
 
 Immediately afterward the secret correspondence that 
 had been taken from Mr. Drake, the accredited English 
 Minister in Bavaria, was published. These proved that the 
 English Government was leaving no means untried of creat- 
 ing disturbance in France. M. de Talleyrand was directed 
 to send copies of this correspondence to all the members of 
 the Corps Diplomatique, and they expressed their indigna- 
 tion in letters which were inserted in the " Moniteur." 
 
 Holy Week was approaching. On Passion Sunday, the 
 18th of March, my week of attendance on Mme. Bonaparte 
 began. I went to the Tuileries in the morning, in time for 
 
122 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 mass, which, was again celebrated with all the former pomp. 
 After mass, Mme. Bonaparte received company in the great 
 drawing-room, and remained for some time, talking to sev- 
 eral persons. When we went down to her private apart- 
 ments, she informed me that we were to pass that week at 
 Malmaison. " I am very glad," she added ; "Paris frightens 
 me just now." Shortly afterward we set out; Bonaparte 
 was in his own carriage, Mme. Bonaparte and myself in hers. 
 I observed that she was very silent and sad for a part of the 
 way, and I let her see that I was uneasy about her. At first 
 she seemed reluctant to give me any explanation, but at 
 length she said, " I am going to trust you with a great secret. 
 This morning Bonaparte told me that he had sent M. de 
 Caulaincourt to the frontier to seize the Due d'Enghien. 
 He is to be brought back here." "Ah, madame," I ex- 
 claimed, " what are they going to do with him ? " "I be- 
 lieve," she answered, " he will have him tried." I do not 
 think I have ever in my life experienced such a thrill of 
 terror as that which her words sent through me. Mme. 
 Bonaparte thought I was going to faint, and let down all the 
 glasses. " I have done what I could," she went on, " to in- 
 duce him to promise me that the prince's life shall not 
 be taken, but I am greatly afraid his mind is made up." 
 " What, do you really think he will have him put to death ? " 
 " I fear so." At these words I burst into tears, and then, so 
 soon as I could master my emotion sufficiently to be able to 
 speak, I urged upon her the fatal consequences of such a 
 deed, the indelible stain of the royal blood, whose shedding 
 would satisfy the Jacobin party only, the strong interest 
 with which the prince inspired all the other parties, the great 
 name of Conde, the general horror, the bitter animosity 
 which would be aroused, and many other considerations. I 
 urged every side of the question, of which Mme. Bonaparte 
 contemplated one only. The idea of a murder was that 
 which had struck her most strongly; but I succeeded in 
 seriously alarming her, and she promised me that she would 
 
THE MISSION OF M. CAULAINGOUET. 123 
 
 endeavor by every means in her power to induce Bonaparte 
 to relinquish his fatal purpose. 
 
 We both arrived at Malmaison in 'the deepest dejection. 
 I took refuge at once in my own room, where I wept bitter- 
 ly. I was completely overwhelmed by this terrible discov- 
 ery. I liked and admired Bonaparte ; I believed him to be 
 called by an invincible power to the highest of human desti- 
 nies; I allowed my youthful imagination to run riot con- 
 cerning him. All in a moment, the veil which hid the truth 
 from my eyes was torn away, and by my own feelings at that 
 instant I could only too accurately divine what would be the 
 general opinion of such an act. 
 
 There was no one at Malmaison to whom I could speak 
 freely. My husband was not in waiting, and had remained 
 in Paris. I was obliged to control my agitation, and to 
 make my appearance with an unmoved countenance; for 
 Mme. Bonaparte had earnestly entreated me not to let Bo- 
 naparte divine that she had spoken to me of this matter. 
 
 On going down to the drawing-room at six o'clock, I 
 found the First Consul playing a game of chess. He ap- 
 peared quite serene and calm ; it made me ill to look at his 
 face. So completely had my mind been upset by all that 
 had passed through it during the last two hours, that I could 
 not regard him with the feelings which his presence usually 
 inspired ; it seemed to me that I must see some extraordinary 
 alteration in him. A few officers dined with him. Nothing 
 whatever of any significance occurred. After dinner he 
 withdrew to his cabinet, where he transacted business with 
 his police. That night, when I was leaving Mme. Bona- 
 parte, she again promised me that she would renew her en- 
 treaties. 
 
 I joined her as early as I could on the following morning, 
 and found her quite in despair. Bonaparte had repelled her 
 at every point. He had told her that women had no concern 
 with such matters ; that his policy required this coup $etat / 
 that by it he should acquire the right to exercise clemency 
 
124 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 hereafter ; that, in fact, he was forced to choose between this 
 decisive act and a long series of conspiracies which he would 
 have to punish in detail, as impunity would have encouraged 
 the various parties. He should have to go on prosecuting, 
 exiling, condemning, without end ; to revoke his measures 
 of mercy toward the emigres ; to place himself in the hands 
 of the Jacobins. The Royalists had more than once com- 
 promised him with the revolutionists. The contemplated 
 action would set him free from all parties alike. Besides, 
 the Due d'Enghien, after all, had joined in the conspiracy of 
 Georges Cadoudal ; he was a cause of disturbance to France, 
 and a tool in the hands of England for effecting her purposes 
 of vengeance. The prince's military reputation might in the 
 future prove a source of trouble in the army ; whereas by 
 his death the last link between our soldiers and the Bourbons 
 would be broken. In politics, a death which tranquillizes a 
 nation is not a crime. Finally, he had given his orders he 
 would not withdraw them ; ' there was an end of the matter. 
 
 During this interview, Mme. Bonaparte informed her 
 husband that he was about to aggravate the heinousness of 
 the deed by the selection of M. de Caulaincourt, whose pa- 
 rents had formerly been in the household of the Prince de 
 Conde, as the person who was to arrest the Due d'Enghien. 
 " I did not know that," replied Bonaparte ; " but what does 
 it matter? If Caulaincourt is compromised, there is no 
 great harm in that ; indeed, it will only make him serve me 
 all the better, and the opposite party will henceforth forgive 
 him for being a gentleman." He then added that M. de 
 Caulaincourt, who had been informed of only a portion of 
 his plan, believed that the Due d'Enghien was to be impris- 
 oned in France. 
 
 My heart failed me at these words. M. de Caulaincourt 
 was a friend of mine. It seemed to me that he ought to 
 have refused to undertake such a task as that which had been 
 imposed upon him. 
 
 The day passed drearily. I remember that Mme. Bona- 
 
MY DISTRESS AND URGENCY. 125 
 
 parte, who was very fond of trees and flowers, was busy dur- 
 ing the morning superintending the transplanting of a cy- 
 press to a newly laid-out portion of her garden. She threw 
 a few handfuls of earth on the roots of the tree, so that she 
 might say that she had planted it with her own hands. " Ah, 
 madame," said I to her, as I observed her doing so, "a 
 cypress is just the tree to suit such a day as this." I have 
 never passed by that cypress since without a thrill of pain. 
 
 My profound emotion distressed Mme. Bonaparte. She 
 had great faith in all Bonaparte's views, and, owing to her 
 natural levity and fickleness, she excessively disliked painful 
 or lasting impressions. Her feelings were quick, but extra- 
 ordinarily evanescent. Being convinced that the death of 
 the Due d'Enghien was inevitable, she wanted to get rid of 
 an unavailing regret ; but I would not allow her to do so. 
 I importuned her all day long, without ceasing. She listened 
 to me with extreme gentleness and kindness, but in utter 
 dejection ; she knew Bonaparte better than I. I wept while 
 talking to her ; I implored her not to allow herself to be put 
 down, and, as I was not without influence over her, I suc- 
 ceeded in inducing her to make a last attempt. 
 
 " Mention me to the First Consul, if necessary," said I. 
 " I am of very little importance, but at least he will be able 
 to judge of the impression he is about to make by the effect 
 upon me, and I am more attached to him than other people 
 are. I 3 who would ask nothing better than to find excuses 
 for him, can not see even one for what he intends to do." 
 
 We saw very little of Bonaparte during the whole of that 
 second day. The Chief Judge, the Prefect of Police, and 
 Murat all came to Malmaison, and had prolonged audience 
 of the First Consul ; I augured ill from their countenances. 
 I remained up a great part of the night ; and when at length 
 I fell asleep my dreams were frightful. I fancied that I 
 heard constant movements in the chateau, and that a fresh 
 attempt was about to be made upon our lives. I was pos- 
 sessed with a strong desire to go and throw myself at Bona- 
 
126 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 parte's feet, and implore him to take pity upon his own fame, 
 which I then believed to be very pure and bright, and I 
 grieved heartily over the tarnishing of it. The hours of that 
 night can never be effaced from my memory. 
 
 On the Tuesday morning Mme. Bonaparte said to me, 
 " All is useless. The Due d'Enghien arrives this evening. 
 He will be taken to Yincennes and tried to-night. Murat 
 has undertaken the whole. He is odious in this matter ; it is 
 he who is urging Bonaparte on, by telling him that his clem- 
 ency will be taken for weakness, that the Jacobins will be 
 furious, and one party is now displeased because the former 
 fame of Moreau has not been taken into consideration, and 
 will ask why a Bourbon should be differently treated. Bona- 
 parte has forbidden me to speak to him again on the sub- 
 ject. He asked me about you," she added, " and I acknowl- 
 edged that I had told you everything. He had perceived 
 your distress. Pray try to control yourself." 
 
 At this I lost all self-restraint, and exclaimed, " Let him 
 think what he likes of me. It matters very little to me, 
 madame, I assure you ; and if he asks me why I am weeping, 
 I will tell him that I weep for him." And, in fact, I again 
 burst into tears. 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte was thrown into utter consternation by 
 the state I was in she was almost a stranger to any strong 
 mental emotion ; and when she tried to calm me by reassur- 
 ing words I could only say to her, " Ah, madame, you do not 
 understand me!" After this event, she said, Bonaparte 
 would go on just as he had done before. Alas ! it was not 
 the future which was troubling me. I did not doubt his 
 power over himself and others. The anguish that filled my 
 whole being was interior and personal. 
 
 Dinner hour came, and she had to go down with a com- 
 posed face. Mine was quite beyond my control. Again Bo- 
 naparte was playing chess : he had taken a fancy to that game. 
 Immediately on perceiving me he called me to him, saying 
 that he wanted to consult me. I was not able to speak. He 
 
AN EVENING AT MALMAISON. 127 
 
 addressed me in a tone of kindness and interest, which in- 
 creased my confusion and distress. When dinner was served, 
 he placed me near himself, and asked me a number of ques- 
 tions about the affairs of my family. He seemed bent on 
 bewildering me, and hindering me from thinking. Little 
 Napoleon (the son of Louis and Hortense) had been brought 
 down from Paris ; and his uncle placed the child in the mid- 
 dle of the table, and seemed much amused when he pulled 
 the dishes about, and upset everything within his reach. 
 
 After dinner he sat on the floor, playing with the boy, 
 and apparently in very high spirits, but, it seemed to me, as- 
 sumed. Mme. Bonaparte, who was afraid that he would 
 have been angry at what she had told him about me, looked 
 from him to me, smiling sweetly, as if she would have said, 
 "You see, he is not so bad after all ; we may make our 
 minds easy." 
 
 I hardly knew where I was. I felt as though I were 
 dreaming a bad dream ; no doubt I looked bewildered. Sud- 
 denly, fixing a piercing gaze on me, Bonaparte said, " Why 
 have you no rouge on ? You are too pale." I answered 
 that I had forgotten to put on any. " What ! " said he, " a 
 woman forget to put on her rouge?" And then, with a 
 loud laugh, he turned to his wife and added, " That would 
 never happen to you, Josephine." I was greatly disconcert- 
 ed, and he completed my discomfiture by remarking, " Two 
 things are very becoming to women rouge and tears." 
 
 When General Bonaparte was in high spirits, he was 
 equally devoid of taste and moderation, and on such occasions 
 his manners smacked of the barrack-room. He went on for 
 some time jesting with his wife with more freedom than 
 delicacy, and then challenged me to a game of chess. He 
 did not play well, and never would observe the correct 
 " moves." I allowed him to do as he liked ; every one in 
 the room kept silence. Presently he began to mutter some 
 lines of poetry, and then repeated a little louder, " Soyons ami, 
 
 Cinna " and Guzman's lines in Act v. Scene vii. of " Alzire " : 
 12 
 
128 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RJ&MUSAT. 
 
 " Des dieux que nous servons connais la difference : 
 Les tiens font coramande le meurtre et la vengeance : 
 Et le mien, quand ton bras vient de m'assassiner, 
 M'ordonne de te plaindre et de te pardonner." 
 
 As he half whispered the line, 
 
 " Et le mien, quand ton bras vient de m'assassiner," 
 
 I could not refrain from raising my eyes and looking at him. 
 He smiled, and went on repeating the verses. In truth, at 
 that moment I did believe that he had deceived his wife and 
 everybody else, and was planning a grand scene of magnani- 
 mous pardon. I caught eagerly at this idea, and it restored 
 me to composure. My imagination was very juvenile in 
 those days, and I longed so much to be able to hope ! 
 
 " You like poetry ? " Bonaparte asked me. How I longed 
 to answer, " Especially when the lines are applicable " ; but 
 I did not dare to utter the words. I may as well mention in 
 this place that the very day after I had set down the above 
 reminiscence, a friend lent me a book entitled " Memoires 
 Secretes sur la Yie de Lucien Bonaparte." This work, which 
 is probably written by a secretary of Lucien's, is inaccurate 
 in several instances. Some notes added at the end are said 
 to be written by a person worthy of belief. I found among 
 them the- following, which struck me as curious : " Lucien 
 was informed of the death of the Due d'Enghien by General 
 Hullin, a relative of Mme. Jouberthon, who came to her 
 house some hours after that event, looking the image of grief 
 and consternation. The Military Council had been assured 
 that the First Consul only purposed to assert his authority, 
 and fully intended to pardon the prince, and certain lines 
 from * Alzire,' commencing 
 
 4 Des dieux que nous servons connais la difference,' 
 
 had been quoted to them." 
 
 But to resume. We went on with our game, and his 
 gayety gave me more and more confidence. We were still 
 
DEATH OF TEE DUG &ENGHIEN. 129 
 
 playing when the sound of carriage-wheels was heard, and 
 presently General Hullin was announced. Bonaparte pushed 
 away the chess-table roughly, rose, and went into the adjoin- 
 ing gallery. There he remained all the rest of the evening, 
 with Murat, Hullin, and Savary. We saw no more of him, 
 and yet I went to my room feeling more easy. I could not 
 believe but that Bonaparte must be moved by the fact of 
 having such a victim in his hands. I hoped the prince would 
 ask to see him ; and in fact he did so, adding, " If the First 
 Consul would consent to see me, he would do me justice, for 
 he would know that I have done my duty." My idea was 
 that Bonaparte would go to Yincennes, and publicly grant 
 the prince pardon in person. If he were not going to act 
 thus, why should he have quoted those lines from " Alzire " ? 
 That night, that terrible night, passed. Early in the 
 morning I went down to the drawing-room, and there I 
 found Savary. He was deadly pale, and I must do him the 
 justice to say that his face betrayed great agitation. He 
 spoke to me with trembling lips, but his words were quite 
 insignificant. I did not question him; for persons of his 
 kind will always say what they want to say without being 
 asked, although they never give answers. 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte came in, looked at me very sadly, and, 
 as she took her seat, said to Savary, " Well so it is done ? " 
 " Yes, madame," he answered. " He died this morning, and, 
 I am bound to acknowledge, with great courage." I was 
 struck dumb with horror. 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte asked for details. They have all been 
 made known since. The prince was taken to one of the 
 trenches of the chateau. Being offered a handkerchief to 
 bind his eyes with, he rejected it with dignity, and, address- 
 ing the gendarmes, said, " You are Frenchmen : at least you 
 will do me the service not to miss your aim." He placed in 
 Savary's hands a ring, a lock of hair, and a letter for Mme. 
 de Rohan ; and all these Savary showed to Mme. Bonaparte. 
 The letter was open ; it was brief and tender. I do not 
 
130 MEMOIRS OF MADAME LE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 know whether these last wishes of the unfortunate prince 
 were carried out. 
 
 "After his death," said Savary, "the gendarmes were 
 told that they might take his clothes, his watch, and the 
 money he had in his pocket ; bat not one of them would 
 touch anything. People may say what they like, but one 
 can not see a man like that die as coolly as one can see others. 
 I feel it hard to get over it." 
 
 Presently Eugene de Beauharnais made his appearance. 
 He was too young to have recollections of the past, and in 
 his eyes the Due d'Enghien was simply a conspirator against 
 the life of his master. Then came certain generals, whose 
 names I will not set down here ; and they approved of the 
 deed so loudly that Mme. Bonaparte thought it necessary to 
 apologize for her own dejection, by repeating over and over 
 again the unmeaning sentence, " I am a woman, you know, 
 and I confess I could cry." 
 
 In the course of the morning a number of visitors came 
 to the Tuileries. Among them were the Consuls, the Min- 
 isters, and Louis Bonaparte and his wife. Louis preserved a 
 sullen silence, which seemed to imply disapprobation. Mme. 
 Louis was so frightened that she did not dare to feel, and 
 seemed to be asking what she ought to think. "Women, even 
 more than men, were subjugated by the magic of that sacra- 
 mental phrase of Bonaparte's "My policy." "With those 
 words he crushed one's thoughts, feelings, and even impres- 
 sions ; and, when he uttered them, no one in the palace, 
 especially no woman, would have dared to ask him what he 
 meant. 
 
 My husband also came during the morning, and his pre- 
 sence relieved me from the terrible oppression from which I 
 was suffering. He, like myself, was grieved and downcast. 
 How grateful I was to him for not lecturing me upon the 
 absolute necessity of our appearing perfectly composed under 
 the circumstances ! We sympathized in every feeling. He 
 told me that the general sentiment in Paris was one of dis- 
 
THE FIRST CONSUL'S REMARKABLE WORDS. 131 
 
 gust, and that the heads of the Jacobin party said, " He be- 
 longs to us now." He added the following words, which I 
 have frequently recalled to mind since: "The Consul has 
 taken a line which will force him into laying aside the use- 
 ful, in order to efface this recollection, and into dazzling us 
 by the extraordinary and the unexpected." He also said to 
 Mme. Bonaparte : " There is one important piece of advice 
 which you ought to give the First Consul. It is that he 
 should not lose a moment in restoring public confidence. 
 Opinion is apt to be precipitate in Paris. He ought at least 
 to prove to the people that the event which has just occurred 
 is not due to the development of a cruel disposition, but to 
 reasons whose force I am not called upon to determine, and 
 which ought to make him very circumspect." 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte fully appreciated the advice of M. de 
 Kemusat, and immediately repeated his words to her husband. 
 He seemed well disposed to listen to her, and answered 
 briefly, " That is quite true." On rejoining Mme. Bonaparte 
 before dinner, I found her in the gallery, with her daughter 
 and M. de Caulaincourt, who had just arrived. He had 
 superintended the arrest of the prince, but had not accom- 
 panied him to Paris. I recoiled at the sight of him. " And 
 you, too," said he, addressing me, so that all could hear him, 
 " you are going to detest me ! And yet I am only unfor- 
 tunate ; but that I am in no small degree, for the Consul has 
 disgraced me by this act. Such is the reward of my devotion 
 to him. I have been shamefully deceived, and I am now 
 ruined." He shed tears while speaking, and I could not but 
 pity him. 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte assured me afterward that he had spoken 
 in the same way to the First Consul, and I was myself a 
 witness to his maintenance of a severe and angry bearing 
 toward Bonaparte, who made many advances to him, but for 
 a long time in vain. The First Consul laid out his plans be- 
 fore him, but found him cold and uninterested ; then he made 
 him brilliant offers, by way of amends, which were at first 
 
132 MEMOIRS Of MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 rejected. Perhaps they ought to have been always re- 
 fused. 
 
 In the mean time public opinion declared itself strongly 
 against M. de Caulaincourt. Certain persons condemned 
 the aide-de-camp mercilessly, while they made excuses for 
 the master; and such injustice exasperated M. de Caulain- 
 court, who might have bowed his head before frank and 
 candid censure, fairly distributed between them. When, 
 however, he saw that every sort of affront was to be heaped 
 on him, in order that the real culprit might go quite free, he 
 conceived an utter disdain for these people, and consented to 
 force them into silence by placing himself in a position of 
 such authority as would enable him to overrule them. He 
 was urged to take this course by Bonaparte, and also by his 
 own ambition. " Do not act like a fool," said the former. 
 " If you retreat before the blows which are aimed at you, 
 you will be done for ; no one will give you any thanks or 
 credit for your tardy opposition to my wishes, and you will 
 be all the more heavily censured because you are not formid- 
 able." By dint of similar reasoning frequently reiterated, 
 and by the employment of every sort of device for consoling 
 and coaxing M. de Caulaincourt, Bonaparte succeeded in 
 appeasing his resentment, and by degrees he raised him to 
 posts of great dignity about his own person. The weakness 
 which induced M. de Caulaincourt to pardon the indelible 
 injury which the First Consul had done him may be more 
 or less blamed ; but, at least, it should be admitted that he 
 was never a blind or servile courtier, and that he remained to 
 the last among the small number of Bonaparte's servants who 
 never neglected an opportunity of telling him the truth.* 
 
 * M. de Caulaincourt retained the same feelings all his life, and very severely 
 condemned the policy and the personal character of Bonaparte, whose fatal pro- 
 jects he frequently endeavored to avert. M. Monnier, the son of the celebrated 
 member of the Assemblies of the Revolution, with whom my father was very in- 
 timate in his youth, told him that in the campaign of 1813 M. de Caulaincourt, 
 then Due de Vienne, while accompanying the Emperor with several members of 
 his staff and of his household, saw a shell strike the ground close by Napoleon. 
 
THE FIRST CONSUL'S REMARKABLE WORDS. 133 
 
 Before dinner, both Mme. Bonaparte and her daughter 
 entreated me to command my countenance as much as pos- 
 sible. The former told me that her husband had asked her 
 that morning what effect the deplorable news had produced 
 upon me ; and on her replying that I had wept, he said, 
 " That is a matter of course ; she merely did what was to be 
 expected of her as a woman. You don't understand any- 
 thing about our business ; but it will all subside and every- 
 body will see that I have not made a blunder." 
 
 At length dinner was announced. In addition to the 
 household officers on duty for that week, the dinner-party 
 included M. and Mme. Louis Bonaparte, Eugene Beauharnais, 
 M. de Caulaincourt, and General Hullin, who was then Com- 
 mandant of Paris. The sight of this man affected me pain- 
 fully. His expression of face, perfectly unmoved, was just 
 the same on that day as it had been on the preceding.* I 
 quite believe that he did not think he had done an ill deed, 
 or that he had performed an act of zeal in presiding over the 
 military commission which condemned the prince. Bonaparte 
 rewarded the fatal service which he had rendered him with 
 money and promotion, but he said more than once, when he 
 noted Hullin's presence, " The sight of him annoys me ; he 
 reminds me of things which I do not like." 
 
 Bonaparte did not come into the drawing-room at all ; he 
 went from his cabinet to the dinner-table. He affected no 
 high spirits that day ; on the contrary, he remained during 
 the whole time of dinner in a profound reverie. We were 
 all very silent. Just as we were about to rise from table, the 
 First Consul said, in a harsh, abrupt tone, as if in reply to 
 
 He rode up, putting his horse between the Emperor and the missile, and covered 
 him as much as possible from the fragments of the shell, which happily explod- 
 ed without hitting anybody. In the evening. M. Monnier, who was supping at 
 headquarters, spoke to him of this deed of bravery, by which he had risked his 
 own life to save that of his master. " That is true," replied the Due de Vienne, 
 " and yet I could not believe that there is a God in heaven if that man were to 
 die on the throne." 
 
 * I have since been assured that he was deeply grieved. 
 
134: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 his own thoughts, " At least they will see what we are capa- 
 ble of, and henceforth, I hope, they will leave us alone." 
 He then passed on into the drawing-room, where he talked 
 for a long time in a low voice with his wife, looking at me 
 now and then, but without any anger in his glance. I sat 
 apart from all, downcast and ill, without either the power or 
 the wish to utter a word. 
 
 Presently Joseph Bonaparte and M. and Mme. Bacciochi * 
 arrived, accompanied by M. de Fontanes.f Lucien was on 
 bad terms with his brother, who had objected to his marriage 
 with Mme. Jouberthon, and came no more to the palace ; 
 indeed, he was then making ready to leave France. During 
 the evening, Murat, Dubois, who was Prefect of Police, the 
 members of the Council of the State, and others arrived, 
 all with composed faces. The conversation was at first tri- 
 fling and awkward : the women sitting silent, the men stand- 
 ing in a semicircle, Bonaparte walking about from one side 
 of the room to the other. Presently he began a discussion, 
 half literary, half historical, with !M. de Fontanes. The men- 
 tion of certain names which belong to history gave him an 
 opportunity of bringing out his opinion of some of our 
 kings and great military commanders. I remarked on this 
 evening that he dwelt on dethronements of every kind, both 
 actual and such as are effected by a change of mind. He lauded 
 Charlemagne, but maintained that France had always been 
 en decadence under the Yalois. He depreciated the great- 
 ness of Henry IY. " He was wanting," said he, " in gravi- 
 ty. Good nature is an affectation which a sovereign ought 
 to avoid. What does he want ? Is it to remind those who 
 surround him that he is a man like any other ? What non- 
 sense ! So soon as a man is a king he is apart from all, and 
 I have always held that the instinct of true policy was in 
 
 * M. Bacciochi was then a colonel of dragoons, and had nothing whatever to 
 do with politics. He had a passion for the violin, and played all day. 
 
 f M. de Fontanes was appointed President of the Corps Legislatif at this 
 time, and afterward perpetual President. 
 
THE FIRST CONSUL'S REMARKABLE WORDS. 135 
 
 Alexander's idea of making himself out to be the descendant 
 of a god." He added that Louis XIY. knew the French bet- 
 ter than Henry IY. ; but he hastened to add that Louis had 
 allowed " priests and an old woman " to get the better of 
 him, and he made some coarse remarks on that point. Then 
 he held forth on Louis XIY.'s generals, and on military 
 science in general. 
 
 "Military science," said Bonaparte, "consists in calcu- 
 lating all the chances accurately in the first place, and then 
 in giving accident exactly, almost mathematically, its place 
 in one's calculations. It is upon this point that one must 
 not deceive one's self, and that a decimal more or less may 
 change all. Now, this apportioning of accident and science 
 can not get into any head except that of a genius, for genius 
 must exist wherever there is a creation ; and assuredly the 
 grandest improvisation of the human mind is the gift of an 
 existence to that which has it not. Accident, hazard, chance, 
 whatever you choose to call it, a mystery to ordinary minds, 
 becomes a reality to superior men. Turenne did not think 
 about it, and so he had nothing but method. I think," he 
 added with a smile, " I should have beaten him. Conde had 
 a better notion of it than Turenne, but then he gave himself 
 up to it with impetuosity. Prince Eugene is one of those 
 who understood it best. Henry IY. always put bravery in 
 the place of everything ; he only fought actions he would 
 not have come well out of a pitched battle. Catinat has 
 been cried up chiefly from the democratic point of view ; I 
 have, for my own part, carried off a victory on the spot where 
 he was beaten. The philosophers have worked up his repu- 
 tation after their own fancy, and that was all the easier to 
 do, because one may say anything one likes about ordinary 
 people who have been lifted into eminence by circumstances 
 not of their own creating. A man, to be really great, no 
 matter in what order of greatness, must have actually im- 
 provised a portion of his own glory must have shown him- 
 self superior to the event which he has brought about. For 
 
136 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 instance, Csesar acted now and then with weakness, which 
 makes me suspect the praises that are lavished on him in 
 history. 
 
 " I am rather doubtful of your friends the historians, M. 
 de Fontanes. Even your Tacitus himself explains nothing ; 
 he arrives at certain results without indicating the routes that 
 have been followed. He is, I think, able as a writer, but 
 hardly so as a statesman. He depicts Nero as an execrable 
 tyrant, and then he tells us, almost in the same page with a 
 description of the pleasure he felt in burning down Rome, 
 that the people loved him. All that is not plain and clear. 
 Believe me, we are sometimes the dupes of our beliefs of 
 writers who have fabricated history for us in accordance 
 with the natural bent of their own minds. But do you know 
 whose history I should like to read, if it were well written ? 
 That of King Frederick II. of Prussia. I hold him to be 
 one of those who has best understood his business in every 
 sort of way. These ladies " here he turned to us " will 
 not be of my opinion ; they will say that he was harsh and 
 selfish. But, after all, is a great statesman made for feeling ? 
 Is he not a completely eccentric personage, who stands al- 
 ways alone, on his own side, with the world on the other ? 
 The glass through which he looks is that of his policy ; his 
 sole concern ought to be that it should neither magnify nor 
 diminish. And, while he observes objects with attention, he 
 must also be careful to hold the reins equally ; for the chariot 
 which he drives is often drawn by ill-matched horses. How, 
 then, is he to occupy himself with those fine distinctions of 
 feelings which are important to the generality of mankind ? 
 Can he consider the affections, the ties of kinship, the puerile 
 arrangements of society? In such a position as his, how 
 many actions are regarded separately, and condemned, al- 
 though they are to contribute as a whole to that great work 
 which the public does not discern ? One day, those deeds 
 will terminate the creation of the Colossus which will be the 
 wonder of posterity. And you, mistaken as you are you 
 
THE FIRST CONSUL'S REMARKABLE WORDS. 137 
 
 will withhold your praises, because you are afraid lest the 
 movement of that great machine should crush you, as Gulli- 
 ver crushed the Lilliputians when he moved his legs. Be 
 advised ; go on in advance of the time, enlarge your imagina- 
 tion, look out afar, and you will see that those great person- 
 ages whom you think violent and cruel are only politic. 
 They know themselves better, they judge themselves more 
 correctly than you do ; and, when they are really able men, 
 they know how to master their passions, for they even calcu- 
 late the effects of them." 
 
 From this, which was a kind of manifesto, the opinions 
 of Bonaparte may be gathered, and also a notion of the rapid 
 succession in which his ideas followed each other when he 
 allowed himself to talk. It sometimes happened that his 
 discourse would be less consecutive, for he put up well 
 enough with interruptions ; but on the day in question every 
 one seemed to be benumbed in his presence ; no one ven- 
 tured to take up certain applications of his words, which it 
 was evident he intended. He had never ceased walking to 
 and fro while he was talking, and this for more than an hour. 
 Many other things which he said have escaped my memory. 
 At length, abruptly breaking off the chain of his ideas, he 
 directed M. de Fontanes to read aloud certain extracts from 
 Drake's correspondence, which I have already mentioned, all 
 relating to the conspiracy. When the reading of the extracts 
 was concluded, " There are proofs here," said he, " that can 
 not be disputed. These people wanted to throw France into 
 confusion, and to destroy the Revolution by destroying me ; 
 it was my duty both to defend and to avenge the Revolution. 
 I have proved of what it is capable. The Due d'Enghien 
 was a conspirator like any other, and he had to be treated as 
 such. The whole affair, moreover, was arranged without 
 caution or accurate knowledge of the ground, on the faith of 
 some obscure correspondence ; a few credulous old women 
 wrote letters, and were believed. The Bourbons will never 
 see anything except through the CEU-de-Bceuf, and they are 
 
138 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 fated to be perpetually deluded. The Polignacs made sure 
 that every house in Paris would he open to them ; and, when 
 they arrived here, not a single noble would receive them. 
 If all these fools were to kill me, they would not get their 
 own way ; they would only put angry Jacobins in my place. 
 The day of etiquette is over, but the Bourbons can not give 
 it up. If ever you see them return, mark my words that it 
 will be the first subject that will occupy their minds. Ah ! 
 it would have been another story could they have been seen, 
 like Henry IY., covered with dust and blood on a battle- 
 field. A kingdom is not got back by dating a letter from 
 London, and signing it * Louis.' Nevertheless, such a letter 
 compromises imprudent people, and I am obliged to punish 
 them, although I feel a sort of pity for them. I have shed 
 blood ; it was necessary to do so. I may have to shed more, 
 but not out of anger simply because blood-letting is one of 
 the remedies in political medicine. I am the man of the 
 State ; I am the French Kevolution. I say it, and I will up- 
 hold it." 
 
 After this last declaration, Bonaparte dismissed us all. 
 We dispersed without daring to interchange our ideas, and 
 thus ended this fatal day.* 
 
 * The murder of the Due d'Enghien is an inexhaustible subject of contro- 
 versy between the opponents of the Empire and the supporters of Napoleon. 
 In the most recent and important works of historians and memoir-writers, there 
 is nothing to contradict the above narrative, which possesses, moreover, every 
 mark of sincerity and truthfulness. The First Consul originated and ordered 
 the crime ; Savary and the military commission executed it ; M. de Caulaincourt 
 was the unconscious medium. A full account of the trial may be found in a 
 work entitled " Le Due d'Enghien d'apres les Documents Historiques," par L. 
 Constant, 8vo, Paris, 1869. The following extract from Chateaubriand's "Me- 
 moires d'Outre-tombe " will, I think, be of interest at this point, although the 
 work does not rank among the best productions of its author, and can not be 
 absolutely relied on. Nevertheless, M. de Chateaubriand's resignation of his 
 post on the day following the crime is justly held honorable to him. " A coun- 
 cil was held on the proposed arrest of the Due d'Enghien. Cambaceres, in his 
 unpublished Memoirs, asserts and I believe him that he opposed the arrest ; 
 but, although he records his own words, he does not say what replies they eli- 
 cited. The * M6morial de Ste. H61ene ' denies, however, that Bonaparte had to 
 
THE FIRST CONSUL'S REMARKABLE WORDS. 139 
 
 refuse any entreaties for clemency. The imaginary scene in which Josephine 
 begs on her knees for the life of the Due d'Enghien, and, clinging to the coat of 
 Napoleon, is dragged along the ground by her inexorable husband, is one of 
 those melodramatic inventions with which the fiction-writers of the present day 
 compose their veracious histories. On the evening of March 19th Josephine 
 was in ignorance that the Due d'Enghien was to be tried ; she only knew that 
 he had been arrested. She had promised Mme. de Re'musat to interest herself 
 in his fate. ... On March 21st, Bonaparte said to his wife, * The Due d'En- 
 ghien has been shot.' The Memoirs of Mme. de Remusat, with whom I was 
 acquainted, were full of exceedingly curious details of the private life of the 
 Imperial Court. Their author burned them during the Hundred Days, but after- 
 ward rewrote them. They are now but recollections of former recollections ; 
 the colors are faded ; but Bonaparte is always clearly depicted and impartially 
 judged."-?. B. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 (1804.) 
 
 The Impression produced in Paris "by the Death of the Due d'Enghien The First 
 Consul's Efforts to dispel itn-Performance at the Opera House Death of Piche- 
 gru Breach between Bonaparte and his Brother Lucien Project of adopting 
 the young Napoleon Foundation of the Empire. 
 
 THE First Consul spared no pains to allay the excitement 
 which was caused by this event. He perceived that his con- 
 duct had raised the question of his real character, and he set 
 himself to prove, both by his speeches in the Council of 
 State, and also to all of us, that political considerations only, 
 and not passion of any kind, had led to the death of the Due 
 d'Enghien. As I said before, he made no attempt to check 
 the genuine indignation evinced by M. de Caulaincourt, and 
 toward me he displayed indulgence which once more unset- 
 tled my opinions. How strong a power of persuasion do 
 sovereigns, whatever their character, exercise over us ! Our 
 feelings, and, to be frank, our vanity also, run to meet their 
 slightest advances half-way. I grieved, but I felt myself be- 
 ing slowly won over by the adroitness of Bonaparte ; and I 
 cried 
 
 "Pint Dieu ce fat le dernier de ses crimes ! " 
 
 Meanwhile we returned to Paris, and then my feelings 
 were again painfully excited by the state of opinion there. 
 I could make no reply to what was said. I could only try to 
 persuade those who believed that this fatal act was but the 
 beginning of a blood-stained reign, that they were mistaken ; 
 and although it would be difficult, in point of fact, to ex- 
 
EXCITEMENT IN PARIS. 
 
 aggerate the impression that such a crime must produce, still 
 party spirit ran so high that, although my own feelings re- 
 volted against it, I sometimes found myself endeavoring to 
 offer some sort of excuse for it uselessly enough, since I was 
 addressing myself to people whose convictions were unalter- 
 able. 
 
 I had a warm discussion with Mme. de , a cousin of 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte's. She was one of those persons who did 
 not attend the evening receptions at the Tuileries, but who, 
 having divided the palace into two separate regions, con- 
 sidered that they might appear in Mme. Bonaparte's apart- 
 ment on the ground floor in the morning, without departing 
 from their principles or sullying their reminiscences by re- 
 cognition of the actual government on the first floor. 
 
 She was a clever, animated woman, with rather high- 
 flown notions. Mme. Bonaparte was frightened by her 
 vehement indignation ; and, finding me with her one day, 
 she attacked me with equal vigor, and compassionated both 
 of us for being, as she said, bound in chains to a tyrant. She 
 went so far that I tried to make her understand the distress 
 she was inflicting on her cousin. Then she turned violently 
 upon me, and accused me of not sufficiently appreciating the 
 horror of the event that had just taken place. " As for me," 
 she said, " every sense and every feeling is so outraged that, 
 if your Consul were to come into this room, you would see 
 me fly on the instant, as one flies from a venomous beast." 
 " Ah, madame," I answered (little thinking that my words 
 would prove prophetic), " refrain from expressions which at 
 some future day may prove embarrassing to you. Weep 
 with us, but reflect that the recollection of words uttered in 
 a moment of excitement often complicates one's subsequent 
 actions. To-day you are angry with me for my apparent 
 moderation ; yet, perhaps, my feelings will las,t longer than 
 
 yours." And, in fact, a few months later, Mme. de 
 
 became lady-in-waiting to her cousin, the newly made Em- 
 press. 
 
142 MEMOIRS OF MADAME LE 
 
 Hume says somewhere that Cromwell, having established 
 a sort of phantom of royalty, very soon found himself sur- 
 rounded by that particular class of nobles who conceive them- 
 selves called on to live in palaces so soon as their doors are 
 reopened. The First Consul, on assuming the insignia of 
 the power he already wielded, offered a salve to the con- 
 science of the old nobility which vanity always readily ap- 
 plies ; for who can resist the temptation of recovering the 
 rank he feels himself made to adorn ? I am about to draw 
 a very homely comparison, but I believe a true one. In the 
 nature of the grand seigneur there is something of the char- 
 acter of the cat, which remains faithful to the same house, 
 no matter who may become the proprietor of it. 
 
 Bonaparte, stained with the blood of the Due d'Enghien, 
 but having become an Emperor, succeeded in obtaining from 
 the French nobles that for which he would have vainly 
 sought so long as he was only First Consul ; and when, in 
 later days, he maintained to one of his ministers that this 
 murder was indeed a crime, but not a blunder " for," he 
 added, "the consequences that I foresaw have all exactly 
 happened " he was, in that sense, right. 
 
 And yet, if we look at things from a higher standpoint, 
 the consequences of this act of his reached further than he 
 thought for. He succeeded, doubtless, in moderating certain 
 opinions, for there are numbers of people who give up feel- 
 ing when there is nothing to hope ; but, as M. de Remusat 
 said, the odium which the crime cast upon him obliged him 
 to divert our thoughts from it by a succession of extraordi- 
 nary feats, which would impose silence respecting the past. 
 Moreover, he bound himself, as it were, to be always success- 
 ful, for by success alone could he be justified. If we con- 
 template the tortuous and difficult path he was henceforth 
 obliged to tread, we shall conclude that a noble and pure 
 policy, based upon the prosperity of the human race and the 
 free exercise of its rights, would have been then, as it is 
 always, the best on which a sovereign can act. 
 
PERFORMANCE AT THE OPERA HOUSE. 143 
 
 By the death of the Due d'Enghien, Bonaparte succeeded 
 in compromising, first ourselves, then the French nobility, 
 finally the whole nation and all Europe. Our fate was 
 united with his, it is true this was a great point for him ; 
 but, when he dishonored us, he lost the right to that devotion 
 and adherence which he claimed in vain when the hour of 
 his ill fortune came. How could he reckon on a link forged, 
 it must be owned, at the cost of the noblest feelings of the 
 soul? Alas! I judge by my own case. From that time 
 forward I began to blush in secret at the chain I wore; 
 and this hidden feeling, which I stifled at different times 
 with more or less success, afterward became the general sen- 
 timent. 
 
 On his return to Paris, the First Consul was struck by 
 the effect he had produced. He perceived that feelings go 
 more slowly than opinions, and that men's countenances 
 wore a new expression in his presence. Weary of a remem- 
 brance that he would have liked to render a bygone from the 
 very first, he thought the best plan was to let the people 
 wear out their emotions as quickly as possible ; and so he 
 determined to appear in public, although certain persons ad- 
 vised him to defer doing so for a while. " But we must, at 
 any cost," he answered, " throw that event into the past ; and 
 it will remain new so long as anything fresh is to be felt 
 about it. If we change nothing in our habits, the public 
 will soon regard the occurrence as an old affair." It was 
 therefore arranged that he should go to the opera. 
 
 On that evening I was in attendance on Mme. Bonaparte ; 
 her carriage followed her husband's. His usual custom was 
 not to wait for her, but to pass rapidly up the staircase 
 and show himself in his box ; on this occasion, however, he 
 waited in the little ante-room adjoining it until Mme. Bona- 
 parte arrived. She was trembling very much, and he was 
 excessively pale ; he looked round at us all, as if mutely ask- 
 ing us how we thought he would be received ; and then he 
 
 went forward at last like a man marching up to a battery. 
 13 
 
MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 He was greeted in the usual way, either because the sight of 
 him produced its customary effect for the multitude do not 
 change their habits in a moment or because the police had 
 taken measures of precaution beforehand. I had greatly 
 feared he would 'not be applauded, and yet, when I saw that 
 he was, my heart sank within me. 
 
 He remained only a few days in Paris ; thence he removed 
 to Saint Cloud, and I believe from that time forth he began 
 to carry his projects of sovereignty into execution. He felt 
 the necessity of imposing an authority which could no longer 
 be contested upon Europe, and, at the very moment when he 
 had just broken with all parties by deeds which he himself 
 regarded as merely acts of vigor, he thought it well to reveal 
 the goal toward which he had been advancing with more or 
 less precaution. He began by obtaining from the Corps 
 Legislatif , now assembled, a levy of sixty thousand men ; not 
 that he wanted them for the war with England, which could 
 only be carried on by sea, but because he required to assume 
 an imposing attitude when about to astonish Europe by an 
 altogether novel incident. The Code of Civil Laws had just 
 been completed ; this was an important work, and was said 
 to be worthy of general approval. The halls wherein the 
 three great bodies of the State assembled rang on this occa- 
 sion with the praises of Bonaparte. M. Marcorelle, a deputy 
 of the Corps Legislatif, moved, amid loud acclamations, on 
 the 24th of March, three days after the death of the Due 
 d'Enghien, that a bust of the First Consul should be placed 
 in the Chamber of Deputies. " Let us," he said, " by a strik- 
 ing mark of our affection, proclaim to Europe that he who 
 has been threatened by the daggers of vile assassins is the 
 object of our attachment and admiration." 
 
 A few days later, Fourcroy, a member of the Council of 
 State, closed the session in the name of the Government. He 
 alluded to the princes of the house of Bourbon as " members 
 of that unnatural family which would have drowned France 
 in her own blood, so that they might reign over her," and 
 
DEATH OF PICHEGRU. 145 
 
 added that they must be threatened with death if they ven- 
 tured to pollute French territory by their presence. 
 
 Meanwhile, preparations for the great trial were going 
 on ; every day more Chouans were arrested, either in Brit- 
 tany or in Paris, who were concerned in this conspiracy, 
 and Georges Cadoudal, Pichegru, and Moreau had already 
 been examined several times. The two first, it was said, 
 answered with firmness ; Moreau appeared to be much de- 
 jected. No clear information was obtained by these inter- 
 rogatories. 
 
 One morning General Pichegru was found strangled in 
 his prison. This event made a great sensation. It was un- 
 hesitatingly attributed to the need of getting rid of a formid- 
 able enemy. Pichegru's determination of character would, it 
 was said, have led him, when the proceeding became public, 
 to utter strong language, which would have had an undesir- 
 able effect. He would, perhaps, have created a party in his 
 favor; he would have cleared Moreau, whose guilt it was 
 already so difficult to prove. On the other hand, the parti- 
 sans of Bonaparte said : " Nobody can doubt that Pichegru 
 came to Paris in order to get up an insurrection. He him- 
 self does not deny it. His own avowals would have con- 
 vinced the most incredulous ; Ms absence will prevent that 
 full light, which is so desirable, from being thrown on the 
 proceedings." 
 
 Many years afterward I asked M. de Talleyrand one day 
 what he thought of the death of Pichegru. " I think," said 
 he, "that it happened very suddenly and in the nick of 
 time ! " But just then M. de Talleyrand had fallen out with 
 Bonaparte, and took every opportunity of bringing accusa- 
 tions against him ; I therefore by no means commit myself 
 to any statement respecting this event. The subject was not 
 spoken of at Saint Cloud, and every one refrained from the 
 slightest reflection on it. 
 
 About this time Lucien Bonaparte left France, having 
 quarreled irrevocably with his brother. His marriage with 
 
146 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 Mme. Jouberthon, which Bonaparte had been unable to pre- 
 vent, was the cause of the rupture. The Consul, full of his 
 great projects, made a last attempt to induce him to renounce 
 this marriage ; but it was in vain that Lucien was apprised 
 of the approaching grandeur of his family, in vain that a 
 marriage with the Queen of Etruria* was proposed to 
 him. "Love was the strongest," and he refused every- 
 thing. A violent scene ensued, and Lucien was exiled from 
 France. 
 
 On this occasion I happened to see the First Consul give 
 way to one of those rare bursts of emotion of which I have 
 before spoken. It was at Saint Cloud, rather late one even- 
 ing. Mme. Bonaparte was anxiously waiting the result of 
 this final conference between the two brothers ; M. de R6- 
 musat and I were the only persons with her. She did not 
 care for Lucien, but she deprecated any family scandal. It 
 was near midnight when Bonaparte came into the room ; he 
 was deeply dejected, and, throwing himself into an arm-chair, 
 he exclaimed, in a troubled voice, " It is all over ! I have 
 broken with Lucien, and ordered him from my presence." 
 Mme. Bonaparte began to expostulate. "You are a good 
 woman," he said, " to plead for him." Then he rose from 
 his chair, took his wife in his arms, and laid her head softly 
 on his shoulder, and with his hand still resting on the beau- 
 tiful head which formed a contrast to the sad, set counte- 
 nance so near it, he told us that Lucien had resisted all his 
 entreaties, and that he had resorted equally in vain to both 
 threats and persuasion. " It is hard, though," he added, " to 
 find in one's own family such stubborn opposition to inter- 
 ests of such magnitude. Must I, then, isolate myself from 
 every one? Must I rely on myself alone? Well! I will 
 
 * After the treaty of LunSville, in 1801, Tuscany had been erected into the 
 kingdom of Etruria and given to the son of the Duke of Parma. The King 
 having died in 1803, his widow, Marie Louise, a daughter of Charles IV., King 
 of Spain, succeeded him, and reigned until 1807, at which period the little 
 kingdom was incorporated with the Empire, to be again dismembered in 1809 
 in favor of Mme. Bacciochi, who took the title of Grand Duchess of Tuscany. 
 
PROJECT OF ADOPTING YOUNG NAPOLEON. 147 
 
 suffice to myself, and you, Josephine you will be my com- 
 fort always." 
 
 I retain a pleasurable recollection of this little scene. 
 Tears were in Bonaparte's eyes as he spoke. I felt inclined 
 to thank him when he betrayed feelings like those of other 
 men. Shortly after this, his brother Louis crossed his wishes 
 in another way, and this incident had probably a great influ- 
 ence on the fate of Mme. Bonaparte. 
 
 The Consul, being quite resolved to raise himself to the 
 throne of France and to found a dynasty, had occasionally 
 glanced at the question of a divorce already ; but, either be- 
 cause of his attachment to his wife being still too strong, or 
 because his existing relations with Europe did not permit him 
 to hope for an alliance which would strengthen his political 
 position, he seemed just then disinclined to break with Jo- 
 sephine, and disposed to adopt the young Louis Napoleon, 
 who was his own nephew and also Josephine's grandson. 
 
 He no sooner allowed this project to be discerned than 
 his family rebelled. Joseph Bonaparte ventured to repre- 
 sent to him that he had done nothing to forfeit the right to 
 the crown which, as eldest brother, he would acquire, and 
 he defended that right as if it had really existed of old. 
 
 Bonaparte, who was always irritated by opposition, grew 
 very angry, and only the more determined. He confided his 
 intentions to his wife, who was overjoyed, and spoke to me 
 as though the realization of this project would bring her own 
 anxieties to an end. Mme. Louis assented, but without dis- 
 playing any gratification. She was not at all ambitious, and, 
 in fact, could not help fearing that such an elevation would 
 bring down misfortune on the head of her son. 
 
 One day, when Bonaparte was surrounded by his family, 
 he placed the little Napoleon between his knees, and said, 
 while playing with him, " Do you know, my little fellow, 
 that you run the risk of being a king some day ? " " And 
 Achille?"* immediately asked Murat, who was present. 
 * Achille was the eldest son of Murat. 
 
14:8 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K&MUSAT. 
 
 " Oh, Achille," answered Bonaparte, " will be a great sol- 
 dier." This reply incensed Mme. Murat; but Bonaparte, 
 pretending not to notice her, and stung by his brother's 
 opposition, which he believed with reason to have been 
 prompted by Mme. Murat, went on to say to his little step- 
 grandson, " And mind, my poor child, I advise you, if you 
 value your life, not to accept invitations to dine with your 
 cousins." 
 
 We may imagine to what feelings such bitter words 
 would give rise. From that moment Louis Bonaparte was 
 beset by his family, who adroitly reminded him of the ru- 
 mors respecting his wife, and that he ought not to sacrifice 
 the interests of his own kinsfolk to those of a child who was 
 at least half a Beauharnais ; and, as Louis Bonaparte was not 
 quite so destitute of ambition as people have since made him 
 out, he, like Joseph, went to the First Consul to ask why 
 the sacrifice of his own rights should be demanded of him. 
 " Why;" said he, " should I yield my share of inheritance to 
 my son ? How have I deserved to be cut off ? What will 
 my position be when this child, having become yours, finds 
 himself very much higher placed than I, and quite indepen- 
 dent of me, standing next to yourself, and regarding me 
 with suspicion, if not with contempt ? ~No ; I will never 
 consent to this ; and, rather than renounce the proper course 
 of succession to the royalty which is to be yours, rather than 
 consent to humble myself before my own son, I will leave 
 France, taking Napoleon with me, and we shall see whether 
 you will dare openly to take a child from his father ! " 
 
 The First Consul, powerful as he was, found it impossi- 
 ble to overcome his brother's opposition. His wrath availed 
 nothing, and he was obliged to yield, for fear of a vexatious 
 and even ridiculous scandal ; for such it certainly would have 
 been, to see this whole family quarreling beforehand over 
 the crown which France had not yet actually conferred. 
 
 The strife was hushed up, and Napoleon was obliged to 
 draw up the scheme of succession, and the possible case of 
 
PROJECT OF ADOPTING YOUNG NAPOLEON. 149 
 
 adoption which he reserved to himself the power of making, 
 in the terms to be found in the decree relating to the eleva- 
 tion of the First Consul to the Empire. 
 
 These quarrels embittered the enmity already existing 
 between the Bonapartes and the Beauharnais. The former 
 regarded the plan of adoption as the result of Mme. Bona-- 
 parte's scheming. Louis gave stricter orders to his wife than 
 before that she should hold no familiar intercourse with her 
 mother. " If you consult her interests at the cost of mine," 
 he told her harshly, "I swear to you that I will make you 
 repent. I will separate you from your son ; I will shut you 
 up in some out-of-the-way place, and no power on earth shall 
 deliver you. You shall pay for your concessions to your own 
 family by the wretchedness of the rest of your life. And 
 take care, above all, that none of my threats reach the ears 
 of my brother. Even his power should not save you from 
 my anger." 
 
 Mme. Louis bowed her head, a patient victim to this vio- 
 lence. She was then expecting the birth of her second child. 
 Grief and anxiety told upon her health, which was perma- 
 nently injured ; the fresh complexion, her only beauty, dis- 
 appeared. She had possessed natural spirits, but they now 
 died away for ever ; and she became silent and timid. She 
 refrained from confiding her troubles to her mother, whose 
 indiscretion and hasty temper she dreaded; and neither 
 would she further irritate the First Consul. He, knowing 
 well his brother's character, felt grateful to her for her reti- 
 cence, and guessed at the sufferings she had to endure. From 
 that time forth he never let an opportunity pass without ex- 
 hibiting the interest I may even say the respect with which 
 the mild and prudent demeanor of his stepdaughter inspired 
 him. 
 
 What I have just said is quite opposed to the general 
 opinion which has unfortunately been entertained of this 
 unhappy woman; but her vindictive sisters-in-law never 
 missed an opportunity of injuring her reputation by the 
 
150 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RJ&MUSAT. 
 
 most odious calumnies, and, as she bore the name of Bona- 
 parte, the public, who, when they came to hate the Imperial 
 despotism, included every one belonging to the family in 
 their impartial contempt, readily believed every calumny 
 against Mme. Louis. Her husband (whose ill treatment r of 
 her irritated him all the more against her), obliged to own 
 that she could not love him after the tyranny he had exer- 
 cised, jealous with the jealousy of pride, and naturally suspi- 
 cious, embittered by ill health, and utterly selfish, made her 
 feel the full weight of conjugal despotism. She was sur- 
 rounded by spies ; her letters were opened before they reached 
 her hands ; her conversations even with female friends were 
 resented ; and, if she complained of this insulting severity, 
 he would say to her, " You can not love me. You are a 
 woman consequently a being all made up of evil and deceit ; 
 you are the daughter of an unprincipled mother ; you belong 
 to a family that I loathe. Are not these reasons enough for 
 me to suspect you ? " 
 
 Mme. Louis, from whom I obtained these details long 
 afterward, found her only comfort in the affection of her 
 brother, whose conduct, though jealously watched by the 
 Bonapartes, was unassailable. Eugene, who was simple and 
 frank, light-hearted, and open in all his dealings, displaying 
 no ambition, holding himself aloof from every intrigue, and 
 doing his duty wherever he was placed, disarmed calumny 
 before it could reach him, and knew nothing of all that took 
 place in the palace. His sister loved him passionately, and 
 confided her sorrows to him only, during the few moments 
 that the jealous watchfulness of Louis allowed them to pass 
 together. 
 
 Meanwhile, the First Consul, having complained to the 
 Elector of Bavaria of the correspondence which Mr. Drake 
 kept up in France, and this English gentleman entertaining 
 some apprehensions as to his own safety, as did also Sir Spen- 
 cer Smith, the British Envoy at the Court of "Wiirtemberg, 
 they both suddenly disappeared. Lord Morpeth asked the 
 
FOUNDATION OF THE EMPIRE. 
 
 Government, in the House of Commons, for an explanation 
 of Drake's conduct. The Chancellor of the Exchequer re- 
 plied that the envoy had been given authority for his pro- 
 ceedings, and that a fuller explanation should be afforded 
 when the ambassador had furnished the information that had 
 been demanded from him. 
 
 At this time Bonaparte held long and frequent consulta- 
 tions with M. de Talleyrand. The latter, whose opinions were 
 essentially monarchical, urged the Consul to change his title 
 to that of King. He has since owned to me that the name 
 of Emperor alarmed him ; it conveyed a sense of vagueness 
 and immensity, which was precisely what charmed the imagi- 
 nation of Bonaparte. He added, "A combination of the 
 Roman Republic and of Charlemagne in the title turned his 
 head. I amused myself one day by mystifying Berthier. I 
 took him aside, and said to him, ' You know of the great 
 scheme that is occupying us. Go to the Consul, and urge 
 him to take the title of King ; it will please him.' Accord- 
 ingly Berthier, who was delighted to have an opportunity of 
 speaking to Bonaparte on an agreeable subject, went up to 
 him at the other end of the room in which we were all as- 
 sembled, and I drew back a little, foreseeing the storm. Ber- 
 thier began his little speech, but at the word 'King' Bona- 
 parte's eyes flashed fire ; he seized Berthier by the throat, 
 and pushed him back against the wall. 'You idiot!' he 
 said ; ' who has been advising you to come here and excite 
 my anger ? Another time, don't take such a task on your- 
 self.' Poor Berthier, in dire confusion, looked piteously at 
 me, and it was a long time before he forgave my sorry jest." 
 
 At last, on April 30, 1804, the tribune Curee, who had 
 no doubt learnt his part, and who, later on, was rewarded 
 for his complaisance by being created a senator, made what 
 was then called " a motion of order " in the Tribunate, de- 
 manding that the government of the Republic should be con- 
 fided to an Emperor, and that the Empire should be made 
 hereditary in the family of Napoleon Bonaparte. His speech 
 
152 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 was effective. He regarded an hereditary succession, he 
 said, as a guarantee against plots from without, and that in 
 reality the title of Emperor only meant " Yictorious Consul." 
 Nearly all the tribunes put down their names to speak. A 
 commission of thirteen members was appointed. Carnot 
 alone had the courage to protest against this proposal. He 
 declared that he would vote against an Empire, for the same 
 reason that he had voted against a life Consulship, but with- 
 out any personal animosity, and that he was quite prepared 
 to render obedience to the Emperor should he be elected. 
 He spoke in high praise of the American form of govern- 
 ment, and added that Bonaparte might have adopted it at 
 the time of the treaty of Amiens ; that the abuses of despot- 
 ism led to worse results than the abuses of liberty ; and that, 
 before smoothing the way to this despotism, which would be 
 all the more dangerous because it was reared on military suc- 
 cess, it would have been advisable to create institutions for 
 its due repression. Notwithstanding Carnot's opposition, the 
 motion was put to the vote and adopted. 
 
 On May 4th a deputation from the Tribunate carried it 
 to the Senate, who were already prepared for it. The Yice- 
 President, Frangois de Neufchateau, replied that the Senate 
 had expected the vote, and would take it into consideration. 
 At the same sitting it was decided that the motion of the 
 Tribunate and the answer of the Yice-President should be 
 laid before the First Consul. 
 
 On May 5th the Senate sent an address to Bonaparte, 
 asking him, without further explanation, for a final act 
 which would insure the future peace of France. His answer 
 to this address may be read in the "Moniteur." "I beg 
 you," he said, "to let me know your entire purpose. I 
 desire that we may be able to say to the French nation on 
 the 14th of next July, 'The possessions that you acquired 
 fifteen years ago, liberty, equality, and glory, are now be- 
 yond the reach of every storm." In reply, the Senate voted 
 unanimously for imperial government, adding that, in the 
 
FOUNDATION OF TEE EMPIRE. 153 
 
 interests of the French people, it was important that it 
 should be intrusted to Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 
 After May 8th addresses from the towns poured in at 
 Saint Cloud. An address from Lyons came first; a little 
 later came those from Paris and other places. At the same 
 time came the vote from Klein's division,* and then one 
 from the troops in camp at Montreuil under the orders of 
 General Ney ; f and the other divisions promptly followed 
 these examples. M. de Fontanes addressed the First Consul 
 in the name of the Corps Le*gislatif, which at this moment 
 was not sitting; but those among its members who were 
 then in Paris met, and voted as the Senate had done. The 
 excitement that these events caused at Saint Cloud may 
 readily be imagined. 
 
 I have already recorded the disappointment which Louis 
 Bonaparte's rejection of the project of adoption had inflicted 
 on his mother-in-law. She still hoped, however, that the 
 First Consul would contrive, if he himself remained in the 
 same mind, to overcome the opposition of his brother ; and 
 she expressed to me her delight that her husband's new pros- 
 pects had not induced him to reconsider the terrible question 
 of the divorce. Whenever Bonaparte was displeased with 
 his brothers, Mme. Bonaparte always rose in his estimation, 
 because he found consolation in the unfailing sweetness of 
 her disposition. She never tried to extract from him any 
 promise either for herself or for her children ; and the confi- 
 dence she showed in his affection, together with the disin- 
 terestedness of Eugene, when contrasted with the exactions 
 of the Bonaparte family, could not fail to please him. Mme. 
 Bacciochi and Murat, who were in great anxiety about com- 
 ing events, endeavored to worm out of M. de Talleyrand, or 
 out of Fouche*, the secret projects of the First Consul, so 
 that they might know what to expect. Their perturbation 
 
 * General Klein afterward married the daughter of the Countess d'Arberg, a 
 lady-in-waiting. He was created senator, and remained a peer under the King, 
 t Afterward Marshal Ney. 
 
154 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MU8AT. 
 
 was beyond their power to conceal ; and it was with some 
 amusement that I detected it in their troubled glances and 
 in every word they let fall. 
 
 At last we were told, one evening, that on the following 
 day the Senate was to come in great state and lay before 
 Bonaparte the decree which should give him a crown. 
 When I recall that evening, the emotions I experienced on 
 hearing the news return to me. The First Consul, when in- 
 forming his wife of the coming event, had told her he in- 
 tended to surround himself with a more numerous Court, 
 but that he would fitly distinguish between the new-comers 
 and those old servants who had first devoted themselves to his 
 service. He particularly desired her to assure M. de Re- 
 musat and me of his good will toward us. I have already 
 told how he bore with the anguish which I was unable to 
 hide on the occasion of the death of the Due d'Enghien. 
 His indulgence on this point did not diminish ; perhaps it 
 amused him to pry into my secret feelings, and gradually to 
 appease them by such marked kindness that it revived my 
 flagging attachment to him. 
 
 I could not as yet overcome my feelings toward him. I 
 grieved over his great fault ; but when I saw that he was, so 
 to speak, a better man than formerly, though I believed he 
 had made a fatal mistake, I felt grateful to him for keeping 
 his word and being gentle and kind afterward, as he had 
 promised. The fact is that at this period he could not afford 
 to dispense with anybody, and he therefore neglected no 
 means of success. His dexterous behavior toward M. de 
 Caulaincourt had won him over so that he had gradually re- 
 covered his former serenity of mind, and was at this epoch 
 one of the confidants of the First Consul's schemes. Bona- 
 parte, having questioned his wife as to what each person at 
 Court had said at the time of the prince's death, learned from 
 her that M. de Bemusat, who was habitually reticent both 
 from inclination and from prudence, but who always spoke 
 the truth when asked, had not hesitated to own his indigna- 
 
FOUNDATION OF THE EMPIRE. 155 
 
 tion. Being apparently resolved that nothing should irritate 
 him, he broached the subject to M. de Remusat, and, having 
 revealed to him as much of his policy as he thought proper, 
 succeeded in convincing my husband that he had really be- 
 lieved the Duke's death indispensable to the safety of France. 
 My husband, when repeating this conversation to me, said, 
 " I am far from agreeing with him that this deed of blood 
 was needed to establish his authority, and I did not hesitate 
 to tell him so ; but I own that it is a relief to me to think 
 that he did not commit the crime out of revenge. He is 
 evidently distressed, no matter what he may say, by the ef- 
 fect it has produced ; and I believe he will never again seek 
 to strengthen his authority by such terrible means. I did 
 not neglect to point out to him that in an age like ours, and 
 in a nation like ours, it is playing a dangerous game to rule 
 by terror and bloodshed ; and I think that the earnest atten- 
 tion with which he listened to me augurs well for the future." 
 
 This sincere avowal of what we both felt shows how much 
 need we had of hope. Severe judges of other people might 
 blame us, no doubt, for the facility with which we again de- 
 ceived ourselves, and impute our credulity, with apparent 
 justice, to our own position in the Court. Ah ! it is so hard to 
 have to blush in secret for the calling one has chosen, it is so 
 pleasant to like one's self-imposed duties, it is so natural to 
 paint in bright colors one's own and one's country's future, 
 that it is only after a long struggle the conviction of a truth 
 which must shatter one's whole life is admitted. Such a 
 truth did come home to us, slowly, but with a strength that 
 could not be gainsaid ; and we paid dearly for an error to 
 which all well-disposed persons clung as long as possible. 
 
 On May 18, 1804, the Second Consul, Cambace*res, Presi- 
 dent of the Senate, came to Saint Cloud, accompanied by all 
 the senators and escorted by a large body of troops. He 
 made a set speech, and gave to Bonaparte for the first time 
 the title of "Your Majesty." Bonaparte took it calmly, just 
 as though he had borne it all his life. The Senate then pro- 
 
156 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 ceeded to the apartment of Mme. Bonaparte, who in her turn 
 was proclaimed Empress. She replied with that natural 
 grace which always raised her to the level of any position, 
 however lofty, in which she might be placed. 
 
 At the same time, the Grand Dignitaries, as they were 
 called, were created Grand Elector, Joseph Bonaparte; 
 High Constable, Louis Bonaparte ; Arch-Chancellor of the 
 Empire, Cambaceres ; Arch-Treasurer, Lebrun. The Minis- 
 ters, Maret (the Secretary of State, who ranked with the 
 Ministers), the Colonels-general of the Guards, Duroc (the 
 Governor of the Palace), and the aides-de-camp took the 
 oaths; and the next day the officers of the army, among 
 whom was Colonel Eugene Beauharnais, were presented to 
 the Emperor by the new Constable. 
 
 The opposition which Bonaparte had encountered in his 
 own family, to his intended adoption of the little Louis, in- 
 duced him to postpone that project. The succession was 
 therefore declared to belong to the heirs male of Napoleon 
 Bonaparte, and failing these, to the sons of Joseph and of 
 Louis, who were created Imperial Princes. The organic 
 senatus consultum declared that the Emperor might adopt 
 as his successor any one of his nephews whom he chose, but 
 not until the selected individual had reached the age of 
 eighteen, and that no further act of adoption could take place 
 in the family. 
 
 The civil list was to be the same as that granted to the 
 King in 1791, and the princes were to be endowed in accord- 
 ance with the law of December 20, 1791. The great digni- 
 taries were to have one third of the sum settled on the 
 princes. They were to preside over the electoral colleges of 
 the six largest towns in the Empire, and the princes, from 
 the eighteenth year of their age, were to be permanent mem- 
 bers of the Senate and the Council of State. 
 
 Fourteen Marshals of France were created at this date, 
 and the title of Marshal was conferred on four of the Sena- 
 tors. The new Marshals were Berthier, Murat, Moncey, 
 
FOUNDATION OF THE EMPIRE. 157 
 
 Jourdan, Massena, Augereau, Bernadotte, Soult, Brune, 
 Lannes, Mortier, Ney, Davoust, Bessieres ; the four Senators 
 were Kellermann, Lefebvre, Perignon, and Semirier. 
 
 An article in the " Moniteur " apprised the public that 
 the title of Imperial Highness was to be given to the princes, 
 that of Serene Highness and Monseigneur to the great dig- 
 nitaries ; that the Ministers were to be called Monseigneur 
 by public officials and all petitioners, and the Marshals Mon- 
 sieur le Marechal. 
 
 Thus disappeared the title of " Citizen," which had long 
 since been disused in society, where "Monsieur" had re- 
 sumed its former place, but which Bonaparte was always 
 most careful to employ. On the same day, the 18th of May, 
 his brothers, with Cambaceres and Lebrun and the officers of 
 his household, were invited to dine with him, and we heard 
 him use the old word " Monsieur " for the first time, without 
 being betrayed by habit into saying " Citizen " even once. 
 
 Titles were also accorded to the great officers of the Em- 
 pire, eight inspectors and colonels-general of artillery, engi- 
 neers, cavalry, and the navy, and the great civil officers of 
 the Crown, to whom I shall refer hereafter. 
 
CHAPTEK VIL 
 
 Effects and Causes of the Accession of Bonaparte to the Imperial Throne The 
 Emperor converses The Grievances of Mme. Murat The Character of M. de 
 Ke"musat The New Court. 
 
 THE accession of Bonaparte to the Imperial throne was 
 very variously regarded in Europe, and even in France opin- 
 ions were divided. It is, however, quite certain that it did 
 not displease the great majority of the nation. The Jaco- 
 bins were not astonished by it, for they themselves were in 
 the habit of pushing success as far as it would go, whenever 
 luck favored them. Among the Royalists it spread disheart- 
 enment, and that was just what Bonaparte wanted. The 
 exchange of the Consulate for Imperial authority was, how- 
 ever, regarded with dislike by all true friends of liberty. 
 These true friends were, unfortunately, divided into two 
 classes, so that their influence was diminished an evil which 
 still exists. One class regarded the change of the reigning 
 dynasty with indifference, and would have accepted Bona- 
 parte as readily as another, provided that he had received his 
 royal authority in right of a constitution which would have 
 restrained as well as founded it. They regarded the seizure 
 of power by an enterprising and warlike man with serious 
 apprehension; for it was plain enough that the so-called 
 " bodies of the State," which were already reduced to insig- 
 nificance, would be unable to check his encroachments. The 
 Senate seemed to be given over to mere passive obedience ; 
 the Tribunate was shaken to its foundations ; and what was 
 to be expected from a silent Corps Legislatif ? The Minis- 
 ters, deprived of all responsibility, were no more than head 
 
EFFECTS AND CAUSES OF THE ACCESSION. 159 
 
 clerks, and it was evident beforehand that the Council of 
 State would henceforth be merely a storehouse, whence such 
 laws as circumstances might demand could be taken, as occa- 
 sion for them arose. 
 
 If this section of the friends of liberty had been more 
 numerous and better led, it might have set itself to demand 
 the settled and legitimate exercise of its rights, which is 
 never demanded in vain by a nation in the long run. There 
 existed, however, a second party, which agreed with the first 
 on fundamental principles only, and, abiding by theories of 
 its own, which it had already attempted to practice in a dan- 
 gerous and sanguinary manner, lost the opportunity of pro- 
 ducing an effective opposition. To this section belonged the 
 proselytes of the Anglo-American Government, who had 
 disgusted the nation with the notion of liberty. 
 
 They had witnessed the creation of the Consulate without 
 any protest, for it was a tolerably fair imitation of the Presi- 
 dentship of the United States ; they believed, or wished to 
 believe, that Bonaparte would maintain that equality of rights 
 to which they attached so much importance, and some among^ 
 them were really deceived. I say " some," because I think 
 the greater number fell into a trap, baited with flattery and 
 consultations on all sorts of matters, which Bonaparte dex- 
 terously set for them. If they had not had some private 
 interest to serve by deceiving themselves, how could they 
 have declared afterward that they had approved of Bona- 
 parte only as Consul, but that as Emperor he was odious to 
 them? In what respect was he, while Consul, different 
 from his ordinary self ? What was his Consular authority 
 but dictatorship under another name ? Did he not, as Con- 
 sul, make peace and declare war without consulting the* 
 nation ? Did not the right of levying the conscription de- 
 volve upon him ? Did he permit freedom in the discussion 
 of affairs ? Could any journal publish a single article with- 
 out his approval ? Did he not make it perfectly clear that 
 he held his power by the right of his victorious arms ? How y 
 
160 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K^MUSAT. 
 
 then, could stern Republicans have allowed him to take them 
 by surprise ? 
 
 I can understand how it was that men, worn out by the 
 turmoil of the Revolution, and afraid of that liberty which 
 had been so long associated with death, looked for repose 
 under the dominion of an able ruler, on whom fortune was 
 seemingly resolved to smile. I can conceive that they 
 regarded his elevation as a decree of destiny, and fondly 
 believed that in the irrevocable they should find peace. I 
 may confidently assert that those persons believed quite sin- 
 cerely that Bonaparte, whether as Consul or as Emperor, 
 would exert his authority to oppose the attempts of faction, 
 and would save us from the perils of anarchy. 
 
 None dared to utter the word Republic, so deeply had 
 the Terror stained that name, and the Directorial govern- 
 ment had perished in the contempt with which its chiefs 
 were regarded. The return of the Bourbons could only be 
 brought about by the aid of a revolution ; and the slightest 
 disturbance terrified the French people, in whom enthusiasm 
 of every kind seemed to be dead. Besides, the men in whom 
 they had trusted had, one after the other, deceived them ; 
 and as, this time, they were yielding to force, they were at 
 least certain that they were not deceiving themselves. 
 
 The belief, or rather the error, that only despotism could 
 at that epoch maintain order in France, was very widespread. 
 It became the mainstay of Bonaparte ; and it is due to him 
 to say that he also held it. The factions played into his 
 hands by imprudent attempts which he turned to his own 
 advantage ; he had some grounds for his belief that he was 
 necessary ; France believed it too ; and he even succeeded 
 in persuading foreign sovereigns that he formed a barrier 
 against Republican influences, which, but for him, might 
 spread widely. At the moment when Bonaparte placed the 
 Imperial crown upon his head, there was not a king in Eu- 
 rope who did not believe that he wore his own crown more 
 securely because of that event. Had the new Emperor added 
 
EFFECTS AND CAUSES OF THE ACCESSION. 161 
 
 to that decisive act the gift of a liberal constitution, the 
 peace of nations and of kings might, in sober seriousness, 
 have been for ever secured. 
 
 Sincere defenders of Bonaparte's original system and 
 some of these still exist advance, in justification of it, that 
 we could not have exacted from him that which it belongs 
 only to a legitimate sovereign to bestow ; that freedom to 
 discuss our interests might have been followed by the dis- 
 cussion of our rights ; that England, jealous of our reviving 
 prosperity, would have fomented fresh disturbances among 
 us ; that our princes had not abandoned their designs, and 
 that the slow methods of constitutional government would 
 not have availed to restrain the contending factions. Hume 
 says, when speaking of Cromwell, that it is a great difficulty 
 for a usurping government that its personal policy is gener- 
 ally opposed to the interest of its country. This gives a su- 
 periority to hereditary authority, of which it would be well 
 that nations should be convinced. But, after all, Bonaparte 
 was not an ordinary usurper ; his elevation offered no point 
 of comparison with that of Cromwell. " I found the crown 
 of France lying on the ground," said he, " and I took it up 
 on the point of my sword." He was the product of an in- 
 evitable revolution ; but he had no share in its disasters, and 
 I sincerely believe that, until the death of the Due d'Enghien, 
 it would have been possible for him to legitimize his power 
 by conferring upon France benefits of a kind which would 
 have pledged the nation to him and his for ever. 
 
 His despotic ambition misled him ; but, I say it again, he 
 was not the only one who went astray. He was beguiled by 
 appearances which he did not take the trouble to investigate. 
 The word " liberty " did indeed resound in the air about him, 
 but those who uttered it were not held in sufficient esteem 
 by the nation to be made its representatives to him. Well- 
 meaning, honest folk asked nothing of him but repose, and 
 did not trouble themselves about the form under which it 
 was to be granted. And then, he knew well that the secret 
 
162 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 weakness of the French nation was vanity, and he saw a 
 means of gratifying it easily by the pomp and display that 
 attend on monarchical power. He revived distinctions which 
 were now, in reality, democratic, because they were placed 
 within the reach of all and entailed no privileges. The 
 eagerness displayed in the pursuit of these titles, and of 
 crosses, which were objects of derision while they hung on 
 the coats of one's neighbors, was not likely to undeceive 
 him, if indeed he was on the wrong road. Was it not natu- 
 ral, on the contrary, that he should applaud and congratulate 
 himself, when he had succeeded in bringing feudal and re- 
 publican pretensions to the same level by the assistance of a 
 few bits of ribbons and some words added to men's names ? 
 Had not we ourselves much to do with that notion which be- 
 came so firmly fixed in his mind, that, for his own safety and 
 for ours, he ought to use the power which he possessed to 
 suspend the Revolution without destroying it ? " My suc- 
 cessor," said he, " whoever he may be, will be forced to march 
 with his own times, and to find his support in liberal opin- 
 ions. I will bequeath them to him, but deprived of their 
 primitive asperity." France imprudently applauded this 
 idea. 
 
 Nevertheless, a warning voice that of conscience for 
 him, that of our interests for us spoke to him and to us 
 alike. If he would silence that importunate whisper, he 
 would have to dazzle us by a series of surprising feats. 
 Hence those interminable wars, whose duration was so all- 
 important to him that he always called the peace which he 
 signed " a halt," and hence the fact that into every one of 
 his treaties he was forced by M. de Talleyrand's skill in nego- 
 tiation. When he returned to Paris, and resumed the' admin- 
 istration of the affairs of France, in addition to the fact that 
 he did not know what to do with an army whose demands 
 grew with its victories, he had to encounter the dumb but 
 steady and inevitable resistance which the spirit of the age, 
 in spite of individual proclivities, opposes to despotism ; so 
 
EFFECTS AND CAUSES OF THE ACCESSION. 163 
 
 that despotism has happily become an impracticable mode of 
 government. It died with the good fortune of Bonaparte, 
 when, as Mme. de Stael said, " The terrible mace which he 
 alone could wield fell at last upon his own head." Happy, 
 thrice happy, are the days in which we are now living, since 
 we have exhausted every experiment, and only madmen can 
 dispute the road which leads to safety. 
 
 Bonaparte was seconded for a long time by the military 
 ardor of the youth of France. That insensate passion for 
 conquest which has been implanted by an evil spirit in men 
 collected into societies, to retard the progress of each genera- 
 tion in every kind of prosperity, urged us forward in the 
 path of Bonaparte's career of devastation. France can rarely 
 resist glory, and it was especially tempting when it covered 
 and disguised the humiliation to which we were then con- 
 demned. When Bonaparte was quiet, he let us perceive the 
 reality of our servitude ; when our sons marched away to 
 plant our standards on the ramparts of all the great cities of 
 Europe, that servitude disappeared. It was a long time be- 
 fore we recognized that each one of our conquests was a link 
 in the chain that fettered our liberties ; and, when we became 
 fully aware of what our intoxication had led us into, it was 
 too late for resistance. The army had become the accom- 
 plice of tyranny, had broken with France, and would treat 
 a cry for deliverance as revolt. 
 
 The greatest of Bonaparte's errors one very characteris- 
 tic of him was that he never took anything but success into 
 account in the calculations on which he acted. Perhaps he 
 was more excusable than another would have been in doubt- 
 ing whether any reverse could come to him. His natural 
 pride shrank from the idea of a defeat of any kind. There 
 was the weak point in his strong mind, for such a man as he 
 ought to have contemplated every contingency. But, as he 
 lacked nobility of soul, and had not that instinctive elevation 
 of mind which rises above evil fortune, he turned his thoughts 
 away from this weakness in himself, and contemplated only 
 
164 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE KfiMUSAT. 
 
 his wonderful faculty of growing greater with success. " / 
 shall succeed " was the basis of all his calculations, and his 
 obstinate repetition of the phrase helped him to realize the 
 prediction. At length his own good fortune grew into a 
 superstition with him, and his worship of it made every sac- 
 rifice which was to be imposed upon us fair and lawful in his 
 eyes. 
 
 And we ourselves let us once more own it did we not 
 at first share this baleful superstition ? At the time of which 
 I write, it had great mastery over our wonder-loving imagina- 
 tions. The trial of General Moreau and the death of the Due 
 d'Enghien had shocked every one's feelings, but had not 
 changed public opinion. Bonaparte scarcely tried to conceal 
 that both events had furthered the project which for a long 
 time past he had been maturing. It is to the credit of hu- 
 man nature that repugnance to crime is innate among us ; 
 that we willingly believe, when a guilty act is acknowledged 
 by its perpetrator, that he has been absolutely forced to 
 commit it; and, when he succeeded in raising himself by 
 such deeds, we too readily accepted the bargain that he of- 
 fered us absolution on our part, as the guerdon of success 
 on his. 
 
 Thenceforth he was no longer beloved ; but the days in 
 which monarchs reign through the love of nations are gone 
 by, and, when Bonaparte let us see that he could punish even 
 our thoughts, he was well pleased to exchange the affection 
 we had striven to retain for him for the very real fear that 
 he inspired. We admired, or at least we wondered at, the 
 boldness of the game which he was openly playing; and 
 when at last he sprang, with imposing audacity, from the 
 blood-stained grave at Yincennes to the steps of the Imperial 
 throne, exclaiming, " I have won ! " France, in her amaze- 
 ment, could but reecho his words. And that was all he 
 wanted her do. 
 
 A few days after Bonaparte had assumed the title of 
 Emperor (by which I shall not scruple to designate him, for, 
 
THE EMPEROR CONVERSES. 165 
 
 after all, lie bore it longer than that of Consul *), on one of 
 those occasions when, as I have said before, he was disposed 
 to talk freely to us, he was discussing his new position with 
 the Empress, my husband, and myself. I think I see him 
 still, in the window-recess of a drawing-room at Saint Cloud, 
 astride on a chair, resting his chin on the back of it. Mme. 
 Bonaparte reclined on a sofa near him ; I was sitting oppo- 
 site him, and M. de Remusat stood behind my chair. For a 
 long time the Emperor had been silent ; then he suddenly 
 addressed me : " You have borne me a grudge for the death 
 of the Due d'Enghien?" "It is true, Sire," I answered, 
 " and I still bear it you. I believe you did yourself much 
 harm by that act." " But are you aware that he was waiting 
 at the frontier for me to be assassinated ? " " Possibly, Sire ; 
 but still he was not in France." " Ah ! there is no harm in 
 showing other countries, now and then, that one is the mas- 
 ter." " There, Sire, do not let us speak of it, or you will 
 make me cry." " Ah ! tears ! "Woman's only weapon. That 
 is like Josephine. She thinks she has carried her point when 
 she begins to cry. Are not tears, M. de Remusat, the strong- 
 est argument of women?" "Sire," replied my husband, 
 " there are tears which can not be censured." 
 
 " All ! I perceive that you also take a serious view of the 
 matter. But that is quite natural ; you have seen other days, 
 all of you, and you remember them. I only date from the 
 day when I began to be somebody. What is a Due d'En- 
 ghien to me 3 Only an emigre, more important than the 
 others nothing more. But that was enough to make me 
 strike hard. Those crack-brained Royalists had actually 
 spread a report that I was to replace the Bourbons on the 
 throne. The Jacobins became alarmed, and they sent Fouche* 
 to me to inquire into my intentions. Power has for the last 
 two years fallen so naturally into my hands, that people may 
 
 * This remark would appear a strange one, if the reader did not recollect 
 that the Memoirs were written under the Restoration, when the wx)rds Emperor, 
 Empire, and Bonaparte were no longer uttered in good society. P. R. 
 
166 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 well have doubted sometimes whether I had any serious in- 
 tention of investing myself with it officially. I came to the 
 conclusion that it was my duty to profit by this, in order to 
 put a lawful end to the Revolution. The reason why I chose 
 Empire rather than Dictatorship is because one becomes 
 legitimate by taking up well-known ground. I began by 
 trying to reconcile the two contending factions at the time 
 of my accession to the Consulship. I thought that, in estab- 
 lishing order by means of permanent institutions, I should 
 put an end to their enterprises ; but factions are not to be 
 put down so long as any fear of them is shown, and every 
 attempt to conciliate them looks like fear. Besides, it may 
 sometimes be possible to get the better of a sentiment ; but 
 of an opinion, never. I saw clearly that I could make no 
 alliance between the two, but that I might make one with 
 both of them on my own account. The Concordat and the 
 permissions to return have conciliated the emigres, and I 
 shall soon be completely reconciled with them ; for you will 
 see how the attractions of a Court will allure them. The 
 mere phrases that recall former habits will win over the no- 
 bility, but the Jacobins require deeds. They are not men to 
 be won by fair words. They were satisfied with my neces- 
 sary severity when, after the 3d Nivose,* at the very mo- 
 ment of a purely Royalist conspiracy, I transported a number 
 of Jacobins. They might justly have complained if I had 
 struck a weaker blow. You all thought I was becoming 
 cruel and bloodthirsty, but you were wrong. I have no feel- 
 ings of hatred I am not capable of acting from revenge ; I 
 only sweep obstacles from my path, and, if it were expedient, 
 you should see me pardon Georges Cadoudal to-morrow, al- 
 though he came simply and solely to assassinate me. 
 
 " When people find that public tranquillity is the result 
 of the event in question, they will no longer reproach me 
 with it, and in a year's time this execution will be regarded 
 as a great act of policy. It is true, however, that it has 
 
 * The epoch of the " infernal machine." 
 
THE EMPEROR CONVERSES. 167 
 
 driven me to shorten the crisis. What I have just done I 
 did not intend to do for two years yet. I meant to retain 
 the Consulate, although words and things clash with one an- 
 other under this form of government, and the signature I 
 affixed to all the acts of my authority was the sign manual of 
 a continual lie. We should have got on nevertheless, France 
 and I, because she has confidence in me, and what I will she 
 wills. 
 
 "As, however, this particular conspiracy was meant to 
 shake the whole of Europe, the Eoyalists and also Europe 
 had to be undeceived. I had to choose between continuous 
 persecution or one decisive blow ; and my decision was not 
 doubtful. I have for ever silenced both Royalists and Jaco- 
 bins. Only the Republicans remain mere dreamers, who 
 think a republic can be made out of an old monarchy, and 
 that Europe would stand by and let us quietly found a fede- 
 rative government of twenty million men. The Republicans 
 I shall not win, but they are few in number and not impor- 
 tant. The rest of you Frenchmen like a monarchy ; it is only 
 the government that pleases you. I will wager that you, M. 
 de Remusat, are a hundred times more at your ease, now 
 that you call me Sire and that I address you as Mon- 
 sieur?" 
 
 As there was some truth in this remark, my husband 
 laughed, and answered that certainly the sovereign power be- 
 came his Majesty very well. 
 
 " The fact is," resumed the Emperor, good-humoredly, " I 
 believe I should not know how to obey. I recollect, at the 
 time of the Treaty of Campo Formio, M. de Cobentzel and I 
 met, in order to conclude it, in a room where, according to 
 an Austrian custom, a dais had been erected and the throne 
 of the Emperor of Austria was represented. On entering 
 the room, I asked what that meant ; and afterward I said to 
 the Austrian Minister, 'Now, before we begin, have that 
 arm-chair removed, for I can never see one seat higher than 
 the others without instantly wanting to place myself in it.' 
 
168 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMITS AT. 
 
 You see, I had an instinct of what was to happen to me some 
 day. 
 
 " I have now acquired one great advantage for my gov- 
 ernment of France : neither she nor I will deceive ourselves 
 any longer. Talleyrand wanted me to make myself King 
 that is the word of his dictionary ; but I will have no grands 
 seigneurs, except those I make myself. Besides which, the 
 title of King is worn out. Certain preconceived ideas are 
 attached to it ; it would make me a kind of heir, and I will 
 be the heir of no one. The title that I bear is a grander 
 one ; it is still somewhat vague, and leaves room for the im- 
 agination. Here is a revolution brought to an end, and, I 
 flatter myself, not harshly. Would you know why? Be- 
 cause no interests have been displaced, and many have been 
 revived. That vanity of yours must always have breathing 
 room ; you would have been wearied to death with the dull 
 sternness of a republican government. What caused the 
 Bevolution? Yanity. What will end it? Vanity again. 
 Liberty is a pretext ; equality is your hobby, and here are 
 the people quite pleased with a king taken from the ranks 
 of the soldiery. Men like the Abbe Sieyes," he added, 
 laughing, " may inveigh against despotism, but my authority 
 will always be popular. To-day I have the people and the 
 army on my side ; and with these a man would be a great 
 fool who could not reign." 
 
 With these concluding words, Bonaparte rose. Hitherto 
 he had been very agreeable; his tone of voice, his counte- 
 nance, his gestures, all were familiar and encouraging. He 
 had been smiling, he had seen our answering smiles, and had 
 even been amused by the remarks we had made on his dis- 
 course ; in fact, he had put us perfectly at our ease. But 
 now, in a moment, his manner changed. He looked at us 
 sternly, in a way that always seemed to increase his short 
 stature, and gave M. de Hemusat some insignificant order in 
 the curt tone of a despotic master, who takes care that every 
 request shall be a command. 
 
THE GRIEVANCES OF MADAME MURAT. 169 
 
 His tone of voice, so different from that to which I had 
 been listening for the last hour, made me start ; and, when 
 we had withdrawn, my husband, who had noticed my invol- 
 untary movement, told me that he had felt the same sensa- 
 tion. "You perceive," he said, a he was afraid that this 
 momentary unbending and confidence might lessen the fear 
 he is always anxious to inspire. He therefore thought proper 
 to dismiss us with a reminder that he is the master." I 
 never forgot this just observation, and more than once I have 
 seen that it was founded on a sound appreciation of Bona- 
 parte's character. 
 
 I have allowed myself to digress in relating this conver- 
 sation and the reflections which preceded it, and must now 
 return to the day on which Bonaparte was made Emperor, 
 and continue to depict the curious scenes of which I was an 
 eye-witness. 
 
 I have already enumerated the guests whom Bonaparte 
 invited to dine with him on that day. Just before dinner 
 was announced, Duroc, the Governor of the Palace, informed 
 each of us, severally, that the title of Prince was to be given 
 to Joseph and Louis Bonaparte, and that of Princess to their 
 wives. Mmes. Bacciochi and Murat were enraged at the 
 distinction thus made between themselves and their sisters- 
 in-law; and Mme. Murat could hardly conceal her anger. 
 At six o'clock the new Emperor made his appearance, and, 
 with perfect ease and readiness, saluted each one present by 
 his or her new title. The scene made a deep impression on 
 me ; I felt it like a presentiment. The early part of the day 
 had been fine, but very hot ; but, about the time of the arri- 
 val of the Senate at Saint Cloud, the weather suddenly 
 changed, the sky became overcast, thunder was heard, and 
 for several hours a storm seemed impending. The dark and 
 heavy atmosphere which weighed on the palace of Saint 
 Cloud struck me as an evil omen, and I could hardly conceal 
 the depression I felt. The Emperor was in good spirits, and, 
 I think, secretly enjoyed the slight confusion which the 
 
170 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 new ceremonial created among us all. The Empress was, 
 as usual, gracious, and unaffected, and easy; Joseph and 
 Louis looked pleased ; Mme. Joseph appeared resigned to 
 anything that might be required of her ; Mme. Louis was 
 equally submissive ; and Eugene Beauharnais, whom I can 
 not praise too highly in comparison with the others, was sim- 
 ple and natural, evidently free from any secret ambition or 
 repining. This was not the case with the new-made Mar- 
 shal Murat ; but his fear of his brother-in-law forced him to 
 restrain himself, and he maintained a sullen silence. Mme. 
 Murat was excessively angry, and during the dinner had so 
 little control over herself that, on hearing the Emperor ad- 
 dress Mme. Louis several times as "Princess," she could not 
 restrain her tears. She drank several glasses of water in or- 
 der to recover herself, and to appear to be taking something 
 at the table, but her tears were not to be checked. Every 
 one was embarrassed, and her brother smiled maliciously. 
 For my own part, I was surprised, and even shocked, to see 
 that young and pretty face disfigured by emotions whose 
 source was so mean a passion. 
 
 Mme. Murat was then between twenty-two and twenty- 
 three years of age ; her dazzlingly white skin, her beautiful 
 fair hair, the flowery wreath which decked it, the rose-colored 
 dress she wore, all contributed to give her a youthful and 
 childlike appearance. The feelings which she now displayed 
 contrasted harshly with those charms. ]STo one could pity 
 her tears, and I think they impressed every one else as disa- 
 greeably as they impressed me. 
 
 Mme. Bacciochi, who was older and had more command 
 over herself, shed no tears ; but her manner was abrupt and 
 sarcastic, and she treated us all with marked haughtiness. 
 
 The Emperor became annoyed at last by his sisters' be- 
 havior, and he aggravated their ill humor by indirect taunts, 
 which wounded them very deeply. All that I witnessed 
 during that eventful day gave me new notions of the effect 
 which ambition produces on minds of a certain order ; it was 
 
THE GRIEVANCES OF MADAME MURAT. 
 
 a spectacle of which I could have formed no previous con- 
 ception. 
 
 On the following day, after a family dinner, a violent 
 scene took place, at which I was not present ; but we could 
 hear something of it through the wall which divided the 
 Empress's boudoir from our salon. Mme. Murat burst into 
 complaints, tears, and reproaches; she asked why she and 
 her sisters were to be condemned to obscurity and contempt, 
 while strangers were to be loaded with honors and dignity ? 
 Bonaparte answered her angrily, asserting several times that 
 he was master, and would distribute honors as he pleased. 
 It was on this occasion that he uttered the memorable re- 
 mark, " Really, inesdames, to hear your pretension, one would 
 think we hold the crown from our father, the late King." 
 
 The Empress afterward retailed to me the whole of this 
 angry dispute. With all her kind-heartedness, she could not 
 help enjoying the wrath of a person who so thoroughly dis- 
 liked her. The discussion ended by Mme. Murat's falling 
 on the floor in a dead faint, overcome by her excessive anger 
 and by the acrimony of her brother's reproaches. At this, 
 Bonaparte's anger vanished, and when his sister recovered 
 consciousness he gave her some little encouragement. A 
 few days later, after a consultation with M. de Talleyrand, 
 Cambaceres, and others, it was arranged that titles of courtesy 
 should be given to the sisters of the Emperor, and we learned 
 from the "Moniteur" that they were to be addressed as 
 " Imperial Highness." 
 
 Another vexation was, however, in store for Mme. Murat 
 and her husband. The private regulations of the palace of 
 Saint Cloud divided the Imperial apartment into several re- 
 ception-rooms, which could only be entered according to the 
 newly acquired rank of each person. The room nearest the 
 Emperor's cabinet became the throne-room, or Princes' room, 
 and Marshal Murat, although the husband of a princess, was 
 excluded from it. M. de Eemusat had the unpleasant task 
 of refusing him admittance when he was about to pass in. 
 
172 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 Although my husband was not responsible for the orders he 
 had received, and executed them with scrupulous politeness, 
 Murat was deeply offended by this public aifront; and he 
 and his wife, already prejudiced against us on account of our 
 attachment to the Empress, henceforth honored us both, if I 
 may use the word, with a secret enmity, of which we have 
 more than once experienced the effects. Mme. Murat, how- 
 ever, who had discovered her influence over her brother, was 
 far from considering the case hopeless on this occasion ; and, 
 in fact, she eventually succeeded in raising her husband to 
 the position she so eagerly desired for him. 
 
 The new code of precedence caused some disturbance in 
 a Court which had hitherto been tolerably quiet. The 
 struggle of contending vanity that convulsed the Imperial 
 family was parodied in Mme. Bonaparte's circle. 
 
 In addition to her four ladies-in-waiting, Mme. Bonaparte 
 was in the habit of receiving the wives of the various officers 
 attached to the service of the First Consul. Besides these, 
 Mme. Murat was frequently invited she lived permanently 
 at Saint Cloud on account of her husband's position there ; 
 also Mme. de la Yalette, the Marquis de Beauharnais's daugh- 
 ter, whose misfortunes and conjugal tenderness afterward 
 made her famous at the time of the sentence passed on her 
 husband and his escape, in 1815. He was of very humble 
 origin, but clever, and of an amiable disposition. After hav- 
 ing served some time in the army, he had abandoned a mode 
 of life unsuited to his tastes. The First Consul had employed 
 him on some diplomatic missions, and had just appointed him 
 Counsellor of State. He evinced extreme devotion to all the 
 Beauharnais, whose kinsman he had become. His wife was 
 amiable and unpretending by nature, but it seemed as though 
 vanity were to become the ruling passion in every one be- 
 longing to the Court, of both sexes and all ages. 
 
 An order from the Emperor which gave the ladies-in- 
 waiting precedence over others became a signal for an out- 
 burst of feminine jealousy. Mme. Maret, a cold, proud per- 
 
THE GRIEVANCES OF MADAME MURAT. 173 
 
 sonage, was annoyed that we should take precedence of her, 
 and made common cause with Mme. Murat, who fully shared 
 her feelings. Besides this, M. de Talleyrand, who was no 
 friend to Maret, and mercilessly ridiculed his absurdities, 
 and was also on bad terms with Murat, had become an object 
 of dislike to both, and, consequently, a bond of union be- 
 tween the two. The Empress did not like anybody who 
 was a friend of Mme. Murat, and treated Mme. Maret with 
 some coldness ; and, although I never shared any of these 
 feelings, and, for my own part, disliked nobody, I was in- 
 cluded in the animadversions of that party upon the Beau- 
 harnais. 
 
 On Sunday morning the new Empress received com- 
 mands to appear at mass, attended only by her four ladies- 
 in-waiting. Mme. de la Yalette, who had hitherto accom- 
 panied her aunt on all occasions, finding herself suddenly 
 deprived of this privilege, burst into tears, and so we had to 
 set about consoling this ambitious young lady. I observed 
 these things with much amusement, preserving my serenity 
 in these somewhat absurd dissensions, which were, neverthe- 
 less, natural enough. So much was it a matter of course for 
 the inmates of the palace to live in a state of excitement, and 
 to be either joyous or depressed according as their new-born 
 projects of ambition were accomplished or disappointed, that 
 one day, when I was in great spirits and laughing heartily at 
 some jest or other, one of Bonaparte's aides-de-camp came up 
 to me and asked me in a low voice whether I had been prom- 
 ised some new dignity. I could not help asking him in re- 
 turn whether he fancied that at Saint Cloud one must always 
 be in tears unless one was a princess. 
 
 Yet I had my own little ambition too, but it was moderate 
 and easy to satisfy. The Emperor had made known to me 
 through the Empress, and M. de Caulaincourt had repeated 
 it to my husband, that, on the consolidation of his own for- 
 tunes, he would not forget those who had from the first de- 
 voted themselves to his service. Relying on this assurance, 
 
174 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 we felt easy with regard to our future, and took no steps to 
 render it secure. We were wrong, for every one else was 
 actively at work. M. de Remusat had always kept aloof 
 from any kind of scheming, a defect in a man who lived at 
 a Court. Certain good qualities are absolutely a bar to ad- 
 vancement in the favor of sovereigns. They do not like to 
 find generous feelings and philosophical opinions which are 
 a mark of independence of mind in their surroundings ; and 
 they think it still less pardonable that those who serve them 
 should have any means of escaping from their power. Bo- 
 naparte, who was exacting in the kind of service he required, 
 quickly perceived that M. de Remusat would serve him faith- 
 fully, and yet would not bend to all his caprices. This dis- 
 covery, together with some additional circumstances which I 
 shall relate in their proper places, induced him to discard his 
 obligations to him. He retained my husband near him ; he 
 made use of him to suit his own convenience ; but he did 
 not confer the same honors upon him which he bestowed on 
 many others, because he knew that no favors would procure 
 the compliance of a man who was incapable of sacrificing 
 self-respect to ambition. The arts of a courtier were, be- 
 sides, incompatible with M. de Remusat's tastes. He liked 
 solitude, serious occupations, family life ; every feeling of 
 his heart was tender and pure ; the use, or rather the waste 
 of his time, which was exclusively occupied in a continual 
 and minute attention to the details of Court etiquette, was a 
 source of constant regret to him. The Revolution, which 
 removed him from the ranks of the magistracy, having de- 
 prived him of his chosen calling, he thought it his duty to 
 his children to accept the position which had offered itself ; 
 but the constant attention to important trifles to which he 
 was condemned was wearisome, and he was only punctual 
 when he ought to have been assiduous. Afterward, when 
 the veil fell from his eyes, and he saw Bonaparte as he really 
 was, his generous spirit was roused to indignation, and close 
 personal attendance on him became very painful to my hus- 
 
THE NEW COURT. 175 
 
 band. Nothing is so fatal to the promotion of a courtier as 
 his being actuated by conscientious scruples which he does 
 not conceal. But, at the period of which I am speaking, 
 these feelings of ours were still only vague, and I must re- 
 peat what I have already said that we believed that the 
 Emperor was in some measure indebted to us, and we relied 
 on him. 
 
 The time soon came, however, when we lost some of our 
 importance. People of rank equal to our own, and soon 
 afterward those who were our superiors both in rank and 
 fortune, begged to be allowed to form part of the Imperial 
 Court ; and thenceforth the Cervices of those who were the 
 first to show the way thither decreased in value. Bonaparte 
 was highly delighted at his gradual conquest of the French 
 nobility, and even Mme. Bonaparte, who was more suscepti- 
 ble of affection than he, had her head turned for a time by 
 finding real grandes dames among her ladies-in-waiting. 
 Wiser and more far-sighted persons than ourselves would 
 have been more than ever attentive and assiduous in order to 
 keep their footing, which was disputed in every direction by 
 a crowd full of their own importance ; but, far from acting 
 thus, we gave way to them. We saw in all this an oppor- 
 tunity of partially regaining our freedom, and imprudently 
 availed ourselves of it ; and when, from any cause whatever, 
 one loses ground at Court, it is rarely to be recovered. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand, who was urging Bonaparte to surround 
 himself with all the prestige of royalty, advised him to grati- 
 fy the vanity and pretension of those whom he wished to 
 allure ; and in France the nobility can be satisfied only by 
 being placed in the front. Those distinctions to which they 
 thought themselves entitled had to be dangled before their 
 eyes ; the Montmorencys, the Montesquious, etc., were se- 
 cured by the promise that, from the day they cast in their lot 
 with Bonaparte, they should resume all their former impor- 
 tance. In fact, it could not be otherwise, when the Emperor 
 had once resolved on forming a regular Court. 
 
 lo 
 
176 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 Some persons have thought that Bonaparte would have 
 done more wisely had he retained some of the simplicity and 
 austerity in externals which disappeared with the Consulate 
 when he adopted the new title of Emperor. A constitutional 
 government and a limited Court, displaying no luxury, and 
 significant of the change which successive revolutions had 
 wrought in people's ideas, might perhaps have been less 
 pleasing to the national vanity, but it would have com- 
 manded more real respect. At the time of which I am 
 speaking, the dignities to be conferred on those persons sur- 
 rounding the new sovereign were much discussed. Duroc 
 requested M. de Eemusat to give his ideas on the subject in 
 writing. He drew up a wise and moderate plan, but which 
 was too simple for those secret projects which no one had 
 then divined. " There is not sufficient display in it," said 
 Bonaparte, as he read it ; " all that would not throw dust in 
 people's eyes." His object was to decoy, in order to deceive 
 more effectually. 
 
 As he refused to give a free constitution to the French, 
 he had to conciliate and fascinate them by every possible 
 means ; and, there being always some littleness in pride, 
 supreme power was not enough for him he must have the 
 appearance of it too ; he must have etiquette, chamberlains, 
 and so forth, which he believed would disguise the parvenu. 
 He liked display ; he leaned toward a feudal system quite 
 alien to the age in which he lived, but which nevertheless he 
 intended to establish. It would, however, in all probability, 
 have only lasted for the duration of his own reign. 
 
 It would be impossible to record all his notions on this 
 subject. The following were some of them : " The French 
 Empire," he would say, " will become the mother country of 
 the other sovereignties of Europe. I intend that each of the 
 kings shall be obliged to build a big palace for his own use 
 in Paris ; and that, on the coronation of the Emperor of the 
 French, these kings shall come to Paris, and grace by their 
 presence that imposing ceremony to which they will render 
 
THE NEW COURT. 177 
 
 homage." What did this project mean, except that he hoped 
 to revive the feudal system, and to resuscitate a Charlemagne 
 who, for his own advantage only, and to strengthen his own 
 power, should avail himself of the despotic notions of a for- 
 mer era and also of the experience of modern times ? 
 
 Bonaparte frequently declared that he alone was the whole 
 Revolution, and he at length persuaded himself that in his 
 own person he preserved all of it which it would not be well 
 to destroy. 
 
 A fever of etiquette seemed to have seized on all the inhab- 
 itants of the Imperial palace of Saint Cloud. The ponderous 
 regulations of Louis XIY. were taken down from the shelves 
 in the library, and extracts were commenced from them, 
 in order that a code might be drawn up for the use of the 
 new Court. Mme. Bonaparte sent for Mine. Campan, who 
 had been First Bedchamber Woman to Marie Antoinette. 
 She was a clever woman, and kept a school, where, as I have 
 already mentioned, nearly all the young girls who appeared 
 at Bonaparte's Court had been educated. She was questioned 
 in detail as to the manners and customs of the last Queen of 
 France, and I was appointed to write everything that she re- 
 lated from her dictation. Bonaparte added the very volu- 
 minous memoranda which resulted from this to those which 
 were brought to him from all sides. M. de Talleyrand was 
 consulted about everything. There was a continual coming 
 and going ; people were living in a kind of uncertainty which 
 had its pleasing side, because every one hoped to rise higher. 
 I must candidly confess that we all felt ourselves more or less 
 elevated. Vanity is ingenious in its expectations, and ours 
 were unlimited. 
 
 Sometimes it was disenchanting, for a moment, to ob- 
 serve the almost ridiculous effect that this agitation produced 
 upon certain classes of society. Those who had nothing to 
 do with our brand-new dignities said with Montaigne, " Verb- 
 geons-nous par en medire" Jests more or less witty, and ca- 
 lembours more or less ingenious, were lavished on these new- 
 
178 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 made princes, and somewhat disturbed our brilliant visions ; 
 but the number of those who dare to censure success is 
 small, and flattery was much more common than criticism, at 
 any rate in the circle under our observation. 
 
 Such was, then, the position of affairs at the close of the 
 era which terminates here. The narrative of the second 
 epoch will show what progress we all made (when I say " we 
 all," I mean France and Europe) in this course of brilliant 
 errors, which was destined to lead to the loss of our liberties 
 and the obscuration of our true greatness for a long period. 
 
 In the April of that year Bonaparte made his brother 
 Louis a member of the Council of State, and Joseph colonel 
 of the 4th Regiment of Infantry. " You must both belong 
 to the civil and military service by turns," he said. " You 
 must not be strangers to anything that concerns the interests 
 of the country." 
 
CHAPTEK Yin. 
 
 (1804.) 
 
 The Trial of General Moreau Condemnation of MM. de Polignac, De Riviere, etc. 
 Pardon of M. de Polignac A Letter from Louis XVm. 
 
 THE creation of the Empire had turned public attention 
 away from the proceedings against Moreau, which were, 
 however, going on. The accused had been brought before 
 the tribunal several times ; but, the more the case was inves- 
 tigated, the less hope there was of the condemnation of 
 Moreau, which became day by day an object of greater im- 
 portance. I am perfectly convinced that the Emperor would 
 not have allowed Moreau's life to be taken. That the Gen- 
 eral should be condemned and pardoned would have been 
 sufficient for his purpose, which was to refute, by the sen- 
 tence of the court, those who accused him of having acted 
 with undue haste and personal animosity. 
 
 All who have brought cool observation to bear upon this 
 important event are agreed in thinking that Moreau ex- 
 hibited weakness and want of judgment. When he was 
 brought up for examination, he showed none of the dignity 
 that was expected from him. He did not, like Georges Ca- 
 doudal, assume the attitude of a determined man, who open- 
 ly avowed the lofty designs that had actuated him ; neither 
 did he assume that of an innocent man, full of righteous in- 
 dignation at an unjust charge. He prevaricated in some of 
 his answers, and the interest which he inspired was dimin- 
 ished by that fact ; but even then Bonaparte gained nothing 
 
180 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 by this lessening enthusiasm, and not only party spirit, but 
 reason itself, censured no less strongly than before a proceed- 
 ing which was still attributed to personal enmity. 
 
 At length, on the 30th of May, the formal indictment 
 (acte d? accusation) appeared in the " Moniteur." It was ac- 
 companied by certain letters written by Moreau in 1795, be- 
 fore the 18th Fructidor, which proved that the General, be- 
 ing then convinced that Pichegru was corresponding with 
 the princes, had denounced him to the Directory. A gen- 
 eral and natural question then arose : Why had Moreau acted 
 so differently in the case of this second conspiracy, justifying 
 himself by the statement that he had not thought it proper 
 to reveal the secret of a plot, in which he had refused to en- 
 gage, to the First Consul ? 
 
 On the 6th of June the examinations of all the accused 
 persons were published. Among these there were some who 
 declared positively that the princes, in England, were quite 
 confident that they might count upon Moreau ; that it was 
 with this hope Pichegru had gone to France, and that the 
 two generals had subsequently on several occasions had in- 
 terviews with Georges Cadoudal. They even asserted that 
 Pichegru had evinced great dissatisfaction after these inter- 
 views, had complained that Moreau gave him only half- 
 hearted support, and seemed anxious to profit on his own ac- 
 count by the blow which was to strike Bonaparte. A person 
 named Bolland declared that Moreau had said, " The first 
 thing to be done is to get rid of the First Consul." 
 
 Moreau, on being questioned in his turn, answered that 
 Pichegru, when he was in England, had conveyed an in- 
 quiry to him as to whether he would assist him in case he 
 should wish to return to France, and that he had prom- 
 ised to help him to carry out that project. It naturally occa- 
 sioned no little astonishment tfrat Pichegru, who had been 
 denounced some years before by Moreau himself, should 
 have applied to him to obtain his " erasure " ; and Pichegru 
 had, at the time of his examination, denied that he had done 
 
TEE TRIAL OF GENERAL MOREAU. 181 
 
 so. At the same time, however, he also denied that he had 
 seen Moreau, although Moreau acknowledged that they had 
 met, and he persisted in declaring that in coming to France 
 he had been actuated solely by his aversion to a foreign 
 country, and his desire to return to his own. Shortly after- 
 ward Pichegru was found strangled in his prison, and the 
 circumstances of his death have never been explained, nor 
 have any comprehensible motives which could have rendered 
 it necessary to himself been assigned.* 
 
 Moreau admitted that he had received Pichegru (who 
 took him, he said, by surprise) at his house, but he de- 
 clared at the same time that he had positively refused 
 to enter into a scheme for the replacement of the house 
 of Bourbon on the throne, because such a resolution would 
 disturb the settlement of the national property; and he 
 added that, so far as his own personal pretensions were con- 
 cerned, the notion was absurd, as it would have been neces- 
 sary to their success that not only the First Consul, but 
 the two other Consuls, the Governors of Paris, and the 
 guard, should be got rid of. He declared that he had seen 
 Pichegru but once, although others of the accused asserted 
 
 * Here, as in the preceding chapter, the author is not sufficiently precise in 
 relating the cause of the death of General Pichegru. The statement that he 
 had committed suicide was received at the time with widespread incredulity, and 
 the first result of the death of the Due d'Enghien was that the Emperor was 
 made to expiate that crime, by having others imputed to him which his most de- 
 termined enemies would not have attributed to him previously. It is only com- 
 mon justice to Napoleon to record that his accusers have never been able to 
 prove that it was for his interest in any way that the accused should not appear 
 before his judges. M. Thiers has demonstrated that Pichegru's presence at the 
 trial was necessary. The depositions of the accused of all parties were all 
 equally condemnatory of him. His legal criminality was certain, and he could 
 not fail to be condemned, and to deserve his condemnation. The man who was 
 really to be feared was Moreau. It has, indeed, been said that a report made 
 by experts established the impossibility of suicide under the circumstances ; i. e., 
 the use of a silk handkerchief, from which the body was found hanging. We 
 must, however, bear in mind that legal medicine seventy years ago was a merely 
 conjectural science, and that recent experience has proved suicide by strangula- 
 tion to be easily and rapidly effected. 
 
182 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 that several interviews had taken place between them ; and 
 he maintained this line of defense unshaken. He was, how- 
 ever, obliged to admit that he had discovered at an advanced 
 stage of the affair that Frasnieres, his private secretary, was 
 deeply involved with the conspirators. Frasnieres had fled on 
 the first alarm. 
 
 Georges Cadoudal answered that his plan was to attack 
 the First Consul, and remove him by force ; that he had 
 never entertained a doubt of finding in Paris itself a num- 
 ber of enemies of the actual regime who would aid him in 
 his enterprise ; and that he would have endeavored by every 
 means in his power to replace Louis X VIII. upon his throne. 
 He steadily denied, however, that he knew either Pichegru 
 or Moreau ; and he terminated his replies with these words : 
 " You have victims enough ; I do not wish to augment their 
 number." 
 
 Bonaparte seemed to be impressed by this strength of 
 character, and said to us on that occasion, " If it were pos- 
 sible that I could save any of these assassins, I should pardon 
 Georges." 
 
 The Due de Polignac replied that he had come to France 
 secretly, with the sole purpose of ascertaining positively the 
 state of public opinion, and what were the chances it af- 
 forded ; but that, when he perceived that an assassination 
 was in question, he had thought only of getting away again, 
 and would have left France if he had not been arrested. 
 
 M. de Kiviere made a similar answer, and M. Jules de 
 Polignac declared that he had merely followed his brother. 
 
 On the 10th of June twenty of the accused persons were 
 convicted and sentenced to death. At the head of the list 
 were Georges Cadoudal and the Marquis de Kiviere. The 
 judgment went on to state that Jules de Polignac, Louis 
 Meridan, Moreau, and Bolland were guilty of having taken 
 part in the said conspiracy, but that it appeared from the 
 " instruction " and the investigation that there were circum- 
 stances which rendered them excusable, and that the court 
 
CONDEMNATION OF M. DE POLIGNAC. 183 
 
 therefore commuted the punishment which they had incurred 
 to that of fine and imprisonment. 
 
 I was at Saint Cloud when the news of this finding of the 
 court arrived. Every one was dumfounded. The Chief 
 Judge had pledged himself to the First Consul that Moreau 
 should be condemned to death, and Bonaparte's discomfiture 
 was so great that he was incapable of concealing it. It was 
 publicly known that, at his first public audience on the Sun- 
 day following, he displayed ungoverned anger toward Le- 
 courbe (brother to the general of that name), the judge who 
 had spoken strongly in favor of Moreau's innocence at the 
 trial. He ordered Lecourbe out of his presence, calling him 
 a " prevaricating judge " an epithet whose signification no- 
 body could guess ; and shortly afterward he deprived him of 
 his judgeship. 
 
 I returned to Paris, much troubled by the state of things 
 at Saint Cloud, and I found that among a certain party in 
 the city the result of the trial was regarded with exultation 
 which was nothing short of an insult to the Emperor. The 
 nobility were much grieved by the condemnation of the Due 
 de Polignac. 
 
 I was with my mother and my husband, and we were de- 
 ploring the melancholy results of these proceedings, and the 
 numerous executions which were about to take place, when 
 I was informed that the Duchesse de Polignac, and her 
 aunt, Mme. Daudlau, the daughter of Helvetius, whom I 
 had often met in society, had come to visit me. They were 
 ushered into the room, both in tears. The Duchess, who 
 was in an interesting situation, enlisted my sympathies at 
 once ; she came to entreat me to procure an audience of the 
 Emperor for her, that she might implore him to pardon her 
 husband. She had no means of gaining admission to the 
 palace of Saint Cloud, and she hoped I would assist her. 
 M. de'Eemusat and my mother were, like myself, fully alive 
 to the difficulty of the enterprise, but we all three felt that I 
 ought not to allow that difficulty to hinder me from making 
 
184: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 the attempt ; and as we still had some days before us, be- 
 cause of the appeal against their sentence which the con- 
 demned men had made, I arranged with the two ladies that 
 they should go to Saint Cloud on the following day, while I 
 was to precede them by a few hours, and induce Mme. Bona- 
 parte to receive them. 
 
 Accordingly, the next day I returned to Saint Cloud, and 
 I had no difficulty in obtaining a promise from my good 
 Empress that she would receive a person in so unhappy a 
 position. But she did not conceal from me that she felt 
 considerable dread of approaching the Emperor at a moment 
 when he was so much displeased. " If," said she, " Moreau 
 had been condemned, I should feel more hopeful of our 
 success ; but he is in such a rage that I am afraid he will 
 turn us away, and be angry with you for what you are going 
 to make me do." 
 
 I was too much moved by the tears and the condition of 
 Mme. de Polignac to be influenced by such a consideration, 
 and I did my best to make the Empress realize the impres- 
 sion which these sentences had produced in Paris. I re- 
 minded her of the death of the Due d'Enghien, of Bona- 
 parte's 'elevation to the imperial throne in the midst of 
 sanguinary punishments, and pointed out to her that the 
 general alarm would be allayed by one act of clemency 
 which might, at least, be quoted side by side with so many 
 acts of severity. 
 
 While I was speaking to the Empress with all the warmth 
 and earnestness of which I was capable, and with streaming 
 tears, the Emperor suddenly entered the room from the 
 terrace outside ; this he frequently did of a morning, when 
 he would leave his work, and come through the glass door 
 into his wife's room for a little talk with her. He instantly 
 perceived our agitation, and, although at another moment I 
 should have been taken aback at his unlooked-for presence, 
 the profound emotion which I felt overcame all other con- 
 siderations, and I replied to his questions with a frank 
 
CONDEMNATION OF M. DE POLIGNAC. 185 
 
 avowal of what I had ventured to do. The Empress, who 
 was closely observing his countenance, seeing the sever.e look 
 that overcast it, did not hesitate to come to my aid by tell- 
 ing him that she had already consented to receive Mme. de 
 Polignac. 
 
 The Emperor began by refusing to listen to us, and com- 
 plaining that we were putting him in for all the difficulty of 
 a position which would give him the appearance of cruelty. 
 " I will not see this woman," he said to me. " I can not 
 grant a pardon. You do not see that this Royalist party is 
 full of young fools, who will begin again with this kind of 
 thing, and keep on at it, if they are not kept within bounds 
 by a severe lesson. The Bourbons are credulous ; they be- 
 lieve the assurances which they get from schemers who de- 
 ceive them respecting the real state of the public mind of 
 France, 'and they will send a lot of victims over here." 
 
 This answer did not stop me ; I was extremely excited, 
 partly by the event itself, and perhaps also by the slight risk 
 I was running of displeasing my formidable master. I would 
 not be so cowardly in my own eyes as to retreat before any 
 personal consideration, and that feeling made me bold and 
 tenacious. I insisted so strongly, and entreated with such 
 earnestness, that the Emperor, who was walking hurriedly 
 about the room while I was speaking, suddenly paused oppo- 
 site to me, and, fixing a piercing gaze on me, said : " What 
 personal interest do you take in these people ? You are not 
 excusable except they are your relatives." 
 
 " Sire," I answered, with all the firmness I could sum- 
 mon up, " I do not know them, and until yesterday I had 
 never seen Mme. de Polignac." " What ! And you thus 
 plead the cause of people who came here to assassinate me ? " 
 " No, sire ; I plead the cause of an unfortunate woman who 
 is in despair, and I must say it I plead your own cause 
 too." And then, quite carried away by my feelings, I re- 
 peated all that I had said to the Empress. She was as much 
 affected as myself, and warmly seconded all I said. But we 
 
186 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K&MUSAT. 
 
 could obtain nothing from the Emperor at that moment ; he 
 went angrily away, telling us not to " worry " him any more. 
 
 A few minutes afterward I was informed that Mme. de 
 Polignac had arrived. The Empress received her in a pri- 
 vate room, and promised that she would do everything in 
 her power to obtain a pardon for the Due de Polignac. Dur- 
 ing the course of that morning, certainly one of the most 
 agitating I have ever lived through, the Empress went twice 
 into her husband's cabinet, and twice had to leave it, repulsed. 
 Each time she returned to me, quite disheartened, and I was 
 losing hope and beginning to tremble at the prospect of hav- 
 ing to take a refusal to Mme. de Polignac as the final answer. 
 At length we learned that M. de Talleyrand was with the 
 Emperor, and I besought the Empress to make one last at- 
 tempt, thinking that, if M. de Talleyrand were a witness to 
 it, he would endeavor to persuade Bonaparte. And, in fact, 
 he did second the Empress . at once and strongly ; and at 
 length Bonaparte, vanquished by their supplications, consent- 
 ed to allow Mme. de Polignac to appear before him. This 
 was promising everything ; it would have been impossible to 
 utter a cruel " No ! " in such a presence. Mme. de Polignac 
 was ushered into the cabinet, and fell fainting at the Emper- 
 or's feet. The Empress was in tears ; the pardon of the Due 
 de Polignac was granted, and an article written by M. de 
 Talleyrand gave a charming account of the scene, in what 
 was then called the " Journal de 1'Empire," on the following 
 day. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand, on leaving the Emperor's cabinet, 
 found me in the Empress's boudoir, and related to me all 
 that had occurred. He made me cry afresh, and he was far 
 from being unmoved himself ; but, nevertheless, he also made 
 me laugh by his recital of an absurd little circumstance which 
 had not escaped his keen perception of the ridiculous. Poor 
 Mme. Daudlau, who had accompanied her niece, and wanted 
 to produce her own particular little effect, kept on repeating, 
 in the midst of her efforts to revive Mme. de Polignac who 
 
PARDON OF M. DE POLIGNAC. 187 
 
 was restored to consciousness with great difficulty " Sire, I 
 am the daughter of Helvetius ! " 
 
 The Due de Polignac's sentence was commuted to four 
 years' imprisonment, to be followed by banishment. He was 
 sent to join his brother, and, after having been confined in a 
 fortress, they were removed to a civil prison, whence they 
 escaped during the campaign of 1814. The Due de Kovigo 
 (Fouche*), who was then Minister of Police, was suspected of 
 having connived at their escape, in order to curry favor with 
 the party whose approaching triumph he foresaw. 
 
 I have no desire to make more of myself on this occasion 
 than I strictly deserve, but I think it will be admitted that 
 circumstances so fell out as to permit me to render a very 
 substantial service to the Polignac family one of which it 
 would seem natural that they should have preserved some 
 recollection. Since the return of the King to France, I 
 have, however, been taught by experience how effectually 
 party spirit, especially among courtiers, effaces all senti- 
 ments of which it disapproves, no matter how just they 
 may be. 
 
 After the incident which I have just related, I received 
 a few visits from Mme. de Polignac, who doubtless held her- 
 self bound to so much recognition of me ; but, by degrees, 
 as we lived in different circles, we lost sight of each other for 
 some years, until the Restoration. At that epoch the Due 
 de Polignac, having been sent by the King to Malmaison to 
 thank the Empress Josephine in his Majesty's name for her 
 zealous efforts to save the life of the Due d'Enghien, took 
 advantage of the opportunity to express his own gratitude to 
 her at the same time. The Empress informed me of this 
 visit, and said that no doubt the Duke would also call on 
 me ; and I confess that I expected some polite recognition 
 from him. I did not receive any ; and, as it was not accord- 
 ing to my notions to endeavor to arouse by any words of 
 mine gratitude which could only be valuable by being volun- 
 tary, I remained quietly at home, and made no reference to 
 
188 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 an event which the persons concerned in it seemed to wish to 
 forget, or at least to ignore. 
 
 One evening chance brought me in contact with Mme. 
 de Polignac. It was at a reception at the house of the Due 
 d'Orleans, and in the midst of a great crowd. The Palais 
 Royal was splendidly decorated, all the French nobility were 
 assembled there, and the grands seigneurs and high-born gen- 
 tlemen to whom the Restoration at first seemed to mean the 
 restoration of their former rights, accosted each other with 
 the easy, secure, and satisfied manner so readily resumed with 
 success. Amid this brilliant crowd I perceived the Duchesse 
 de Polignac. After long years I found her again, restored 
 to her rank, receiving all those congratulations which were 
 due to her, surrounded by an adulatory crowd. I recalled 
 the day on which I first saw her, the state she was then in, 
 her tears, her terror, the way in which she came toward me 
 when she entered iny room, and almost fell at my feet. I 
 was deeply moved by this contrast, and, being only a few 
 paces from her, the interest with which she inspired me led 
 me to approach her. I addressed her in a tone of voice 
 which, no doubt, fully conveyed the really tender feeling of 
 the moment, and congratulated her on the very different cir- 
 cumstances under which we met again. All I would have 
 asked of her was a word of remembrance, which would have 
 responded to the emotion I felt on her account. This feeling 
 was speedily chilled by the indifference and constraint with 
 which she listened to what I said. She either did not recog- 
 nize me, or she affected not to do so ; I had to give my name. 
 Her embarrassment increased. On perceiving this I imme- 
 diately turned away, and with very painful feelings ; for those 
 which her presence had caused, and which I had thought at 
 first she would share, were rudely dispelled. 
 
 The Empress's goodness in obtaining a remission of the 
 capital sentence for M. de Polignac made a great sensation 
 in Paris, and gave rise to renewed praise of her kindness of 
 heart, which had obtained almost universal recognition. The 
 
PARDON OF THE MARQUIS DE RIVIERE. 189 
 
 wives, or mothers, or sisters of the other political offenders 
 immediately besieged the palace of Saint Cloud, and en- 
 deavored to obtain audience of the Empress, hoping to enlist 
 her sympathy. Applications were also made to her daughter, 
 and they both obtained further pardons or commutations of 
 sentence. The Emperor felt that a dark shadow would be 
 cast on his accession to the throne by so many executions, 
 and showed himself accessible to the petitions addressed to 
 him. 
 
 His sisters, who were by no means included in the popu- 
 larity of the Empress, and were anxious to obtain if possible 
 some public favor for themselves, gave the wives of some of 
 the condemned men to understand that they might apply to 
 them also. They then took the petitioners in their own car- 
 riages to Saint Cloud, in a sort of semi-state, to entreat par- 
 don for their husbands. These proceedings, as to which the 
 Emperor, I believe, had been consulted beforehand, seemed 
 less spontaneous than those of the Empress indeed, bore 
 signs of prearrangement ; but at any rate they served to save 
 the lives of several persons. Murat, who had excited uni- 
 versal indignation by his violent behavior and by his hostility 
 to Moreau, also tried to regain popularity by similar devices, 
 and did in fact obtain a pardon for the Marquis de Riviere. 
 On the same occasion he brought a letter from Georges Ca- 
 doudal to Bonaparte, which I heard read. It was a manly 
 and outspoken letter, such as might be penned by a man 
 who, being convinced that the deeds he has done, and which 
 have proved his destruction, were dictated by a generous 
 sense of duty and an unchangeable resolution, is resigned to 
 his fate. Bonaparte was deeply impressed by this letter, and 
 again expressed his regret that he could not extend clemency 
 to Georges Cadoudal. 
 
 This man, the real head of the conspiracy, died with un- 
 shaken courage. Twenty had been condemned to death. 
 The capital sentence was, in the cases of seven, commuted to 
 a more or less prolonged imprisonment. Their names are as 
 
190 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE B^MUSAT. 
 
 follows : the Due de Polignac, the Marquis de Riviere, Rus- 
 sillon, Kochelle, D'Hozier, Lajollais, Guillard. The others 
 were executed. General Moreau was taken to Bordeaux, 
 and put on board a ship for the United States. His family 
 sold their property by Imperial command ; the Emperor 
 bought a portion of it, and bestowed the estate of Grosbois 
 on Marshal Berthier. 
 
 A few days later, the "Moniteur" published a protest 
 from Louis XVIII. against the accession of Napoleon. It 
 appeared on July 1, 1804, but produced little effect. The 
 Cadoudal conspiracy had weakened the faint sentiment -of 
 barely surviving allegiance to the old dynasty. The plot 
 had, in fact, been so badly conceived ; it seemed to be based 
 on such total ignorance of the internal state of France, and 
 of the opinions of the various parties in the country ; the 
 names and the characters of the conspirators inspired so lit- 
 tle confidence ; and, above all, the further disturbances whieh 
 must have resulted from any great change, were so univer- 
 sally dreaded that, with the exception of a small number of 
 gentlemen whose interests would be served by the renewal of 
 an abolished state of things, there was in France no regret 
 for a result which served to strengthen the newly inaugu- 
 rated system. Whether from conviction, or from a longing 
 for repose, or from yielding 'to the sway of the great fortunes 
 of the new Head of the State, many gave in their adhesion 
 to his sovereignty, and from this time forth France assumed 
 a peaceful and orderly attitude. The opposing factions be- 
 came disheartened, and, as commonly happens when this is 
 the case, each individual belonging to them made secret at- 
 temps to link his lot to the chances offered by a totally new 
 system. Gentle and simple, Royalists and Liberals, all be- 
 gan to scheme for advancement. New ambitions and vani- 
 ties were aroused, and favors solicited in every direction. 
 Bonaparte beheld those on whom he could least have counted 
 suing for the honor of serving him. 
 
 Meanwhile he was not in haste to choose from among 
 
A RESPITE FROM COURT LIFE. 
 
 them ; he delayed a long time, in order to feed their hopes 
 and to increase the number of aspirants. During this respite, 
 I left the Court for a little breathing-time in the country. 
 I staid for a month in the valley of Montmorency, with 
 Mme. d'Houdetot, of whom I have already spoken. The 
 quiet life I led in her house was refreshing after the anxie- 
 ties and annoyances which I had recently had to endure 
 almost uninterruptedly. I needed this interval of rest ; iny 
 health, which since that time has always been more or less 
 delicate, was beginning to fail, and my spirits were depressed 
 by the new aspect of events, and by discoveries I was slowly 
 making about things in general, and about certain great per- 
 sonages in particular. The gilded veil which Bonaparte used 
 to say hung before the eyes of youth was beginning to lose 
 its brightness, and I became aware of the fact with astonish- 
 ment, which always causes more or less suffering, until time 
 and experience have made us wiser and taught us to take 
 things more easily. 
 
 IT 
 
CHAPTER IX. 
 
 (1804.) 
 
 Plans for the Invasion An Article in the "Moniteur" The Great Officers of 
 State The Ladies-in- Waiting The Anniversary of July 14th Beauty of the 
 Empress Projects of Divorce Preparations for the Coronation. 
 
 BY degrees the flotillas built in our other harbors came 
 round to join those of Boulogne. They sometimes met with 
 obstacles on the way, for English vessels were always cruis- 
 ing about the coast to prevent their junction. The camps at 
 Boulogne, at Montreuil, and at Compiegne presented an im- 
 posing appearance, and the army became daily more numer- 
 ous and more formidable. 
 
 There is no doubt that these preparations for war, and 
 the comments which were made upon them in Paris, caused 
 some anxiety in Europe; for an article appeared in the 
 newspapers which created no great impression at the time, 
 but which I considered to be worth preserving, because it 
 was an exact forecast of all that has since occurred. It ap- 
 peared in the " Moniteur " of July 10, 1804, on the same 
 day with an account of the audience given by the Emperor 
 to all the ambassadors who had just received fresh creden- 
 tials to his Court. Some of the latter contained nattering 
 expressions from foreign sovereigns on his accession to the 
 throne. 
 
 This is the article : 
 
 " From time immemorial, the metropolis has been the 
 home of hearsay (les on dif). A new rumor springs up every 
 day, to be contradicted on the next. Although there has 
 
AN ARTICLE IN THE "MONITEUR." 193 
 
 been of late more activity, and a certain persistence in these 
 reports which gratify idle curiosity, we think it more desira- 
 ble to leave them to time, and that wisest of all possible re- 
 plies, silence ! Besides, what sensible Frenchman, really in- 
 terested in discovering the truth, will fail to recognize in the 
 current rumors the offspring of malignity more or less inter- 
 ested in their circulation ? 
 
 " In a country where so large a number of men are well 
 aware of existing facts, and are able to judge of those which 
 do not exist, if any one imagines that current rumors ought 
 to cause him real anxiety, if a credulous confidence in them 
 influences his commercial enterprises or his personal interests, 
 either his error is not a lasting one, or he must lay the blame 
 on his own want of reflection. 
 
 " But foreigners, persons attached to diplomatic missions, 
 not having the same means of judging, nor the same knowl- 
 edge of the country, are often deceived ; and, although for a 
 long time past they have had opportunities of observing how 
 invariably every event gives the lie to current gossip, they 
 nevertheless repeat it in foreign countries, and thus give rise 
 to most erroneous notions about France. "We therefore think 
 it advisable to say a few words in this journal on the subject 
 of political gossip. 
 
 "It is said that the Emperor is about to unite the Italian 
 republic, the Ligurian republic, the republic of Lucca, the 
 kingdom of Etruria, the Papal States, and, by a necessary 
 consequence, Naples and Sicily, under his own rule. It is 
 said that the same fate is reserved for Switzerland and Hol- 
 land. It is said that, by annexing Hanover, the Emperor 
 will be enabled to become a member of the Germanic Con- 
 federation. 
 
 " Many deductions are drawn from these suppositions ; 
 and the first we remark is that the Pope will abdicate, and 
 that Cardinal Fesch or Cardinal Euffo will be raised to the 
 Pontifical Throne. 
 
 " We have already said, and we repeat it, that if the in- 
 
194 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 fiuence of France were to be exerted in any changes affecting 
 the Sovereign Pontiff, it would be exerted for the welfare of 
 the Holy Father, and to increase the respect due to the Holy 
 See and its possessions, rather than to diminish it. 
 
 " As to the kingdom of Naples, Mr. Acton's aggressive 
 action and his constantly hostile policy might in former times 
 have afforded France a legitimate cause of war, which she 
 would never have undertaken with the intention of uniting 
 the Two Sicilies to the French Empire. 
 
 " The Italian and Ligurian republics and the kingdom of 
 Etruria will not cease to exist as independent States, and it 
 is surely very unlikely that the Emperor would disown both 
 the duties attached to the authority which he derives from 
 the comitia of Lyons, and the personal glory he has acquired 
 by twice restoring to independence the States which twice 
 he has conquered. 
 
 " We may ask, as regards Switzerland, who prevented its 
 annexation to France before the Act of Mediation ? This 
 Act, the immediate result of care and thought on the part of 
 the Emperor, has restored tranquillity to those peoples, and 
 is a guarantee of their independence and security, so long as 
 they themselves do not destroy this guarantee by substitut- 
 ing the will of one of their constituent corporations, or that 
 of a party, for the elements of which it is composed. 
 
 "Had France- desired to annex Holland, Holland would 
 now be French, like Belgium. That she is an independent 
 power is because France felt with regard to that country, as 
 she felt in the case of Switzerland, that the localities required 
 an individual existence and a particular kind of organization. 
 
 " A still more absurd supposition is entertained respect- 
 ing Hanover. The annexation of that province would be 
 the most fatal gift that could be made to France, and no 
 lengthened consideration of the matter is needed in order to 
 perceive this. Hanover would become a cause of rivalry 
 between the French nation and that prince who was the ally 
 and friend of France at a time when all Europe was in coa- 
 
AN ARTICLE IN THE "MONITEUR." 195 
 
 lition against her. In order to retain Hanover, it would be 
 necessary to keep up a military force at a cost out of all pro- 
 portion to the few millions which constitute the whole of the 
 revenues of that country. Will that Government which has 
 made sacrifices in order to maintain the principle that a sim- 
 ple and continuous frontier-line, even as far as the fortifi- 
 cations of Strasbourg and of Mayence on the right bank, is 
 necessary, be so shortsighted as to wish for the incorporation 
 of Hanover ? 
 
 " But, it is said, the advantage of belonging to the Ger- 
 manic Confederation depends on the possession of Hanover. 
 The mere title of Emperor of the French is sufficient answer 
 to this singular idea. The Germanic Confederation is com- 
 posed of kings, electors, and princes, and it recognizes, in re- 
 lation to itself, but one imperial dignity. It would be to 
 misjudge the noble pride of our country to suppose she 
 would ever consent to become an element in any other con- 
 federation, even had such a thing been compatible with na- 
 tional dignity. What could have prevented France from main- 
 taining her rights in the circle of Burgundy, or those which 
 conferred on her the possession of the Palatinate ? We may 
 even ask, with pardonable pride, who was it that prevented 
 France from keeping part of the States of Baden and of the 
 Swabian territory ? 
 
 " No, France will never cross the Ehine ! Nor will her 
 armies pass over it, unless it become necessary for her to 
 protect the German Empire and its princes, who inspire an 
 interest in her because of their attachment to her, and their 
 value in the balance of power in Europe. 
 
 " If these are simply idle rumors, we have answered them 
 sufficiently. If they owe their origin to the anxious jealousy 
 of foreign Powers, who are always crying out that France is 
 ambitious in order to cloak their own ambition, there is an- 
 other answer to be made. Owing to the two coalitions suc- 
 cessively entered into against us, and to the treaties of Cam- 
 po Formio and Lun6ville, France has no province for her 
 
196 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 neighbor which she could wish to annex ; and, if in the past 
 she has displayed an example of moderation unexampled in 
 modern history, the result is an advantage for her, inasmuch 
 as she need not henceforth take up arms. 
 
 " Her capital is in the center of her Empire ; her fron- 
 tiers are bounded by small States which complete her politi- 
 cal constitution ; geographically she can desire nothing be- 
 longing to her neighbors she is therefore naturally inimical 
 to none ; and, as there exists in her respect neither another 
 Finland, nor another River Inn, she is in a position which 
 no other Power enjoys. 
 
 "As it is with those rumors which try to prove that 
 France is inordinately ambitious, so it is with others of a dif- 
 ferent nature. 
 
 " Not long ago rebellion was in our camps. Two days 
 back thirty thousand Frenchmen had refused to embark at 
 Boulogne ; yesterday our legions were at war with each 
 other, ten against ten, thirty against thirty, flag against flag. 
 Our four Rhenish departments were informed that we were 
 about to restore them to their former ruler. To-day, per- 
 haps, it is said that the public treasury is empty, that the 
 public works have been discontinued, that discord prevails 
 everywhere, and that the taxes are unpaid. If the Emperor 
 starts for the camps, it will be said, perhaps, that he is hur- 
 rying thither to restore peace. In fact, whether he remains 
 at Saint Cloud, or goes to the Tuileries, or lives at Malmai- 
 son, there will be opportunities for absurd reports. 
 
 "And if these rumors, simultaneously spread about in 
 foreign countries, were intended to cause alarm on account 
 of the ambition of the Emperor, and at the same time to 
 encourage any unbecoming and mistaken acts, by leading 
 people to hope that his Government is weak, we can but re- 
 peat the words that a Minister was instructed to utter on 
 leaving a certain Court : ' The Emperor of the French de- 
 sires war with no one, whosoever he may be ; he dreads 
 war with no one. He does not meddle with his neigh- 
 
THE GREAT OFFICERS OF STATE. 197 
 
 bors' business, and he has a right to similar treatment. He 
 has always manifested a wish for a durable peace, but the 
 history of his life does not justify us in thinking that he will 
 suffer himself to be insulted or despised.' r 
 
 After a refreshing sojourn in the country, I came back 
 once more to the whirl of Court life, where the fever of 
 vanity seemed every day to lay stronger hold of us. 
 
 The Emperor now appointed the great officers of the 
 household. General Duroc was made Grand Marshal of 
 the Palace ; Berthier, Master of the Hunt (Grand Veneivr) ; 
 M. de Talleyrand, Grand Chamberlain; Cardinal Fesch,. 
 High Almoner; M. de Caulaincourt, Grand Equerry; and 
 M. de Segur, Grand Master of the Ceremonies. M. de 
 Kemusat received the title of First Chamberlain. He 
 ranked immediately next to M. de Talleyrand, who would 
 be chiefly occupied by foreign affairs, and was to depnte my 
 husband to do the greater part of his duties. The matter 
 was thus arranged at first ; but soon after the Emperor ap- 
 pointed Chamberlains in Ordinary. Among them were the 
 Baron de Talleyrand (a nephew of the Grand Chamberlain), 
 some senators, some Belgian gentlemen of high birth, and, a 
 little later, some French gentlemen also. 
 
 With these began little emulations as to precedence, and 
 discontent on account of distinctions which were withheld 
 from them. M. de Kemusat found himself exposed to con- 
 tinual envy, and as it were at war with these personages. I 
 am now ashamed when I recall the annoyance which all this 
 caused me ; but whatever the Court in which one lives and 
 ours had become a very real one it is impossible not to 
 attach importance to the trifles of which it is composed. 
 An honorable and sensible man is often ashamed in his own 
 eyes of the pleasure or annoyance which he experiences in 
 the profession of a courtier, and yet he can scarcely avoid 
 either the one or the other. A ribbon, a slight difference in 
 dress, permission to pass through a particular door, the 
 entree to such or such a salon these are the pitiful causes 
 
198 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 of a constantly recurring vexation. In vain do we try to 
 harden ourselves against them. The importance in which 
 they are held by a great number of persons obliges us, in 
 spite of ourselves, to prize them. In vain do sense and rea- 
 son rebel against such a use of human faculties ; however 
 dissatisfied we may feel with ourselves, we must needs be- 
 come as small-minded as everybody, else, and either fly the 
 Court altogether, or consent to take seriously all the follies 
 that fill the very air we breathe. 
 
 The Emperor added to the difficulties inseparable from 
 the regulations of a palace those of his own temper. He 
 enforced etiquette with the strictness of martial law. Cere- 
 monies were gone through as though by beat of drum; 
 everything was done at double-quick time; and the per- 
 petual hurry, the constant fear that Bonaparte inspired, 
 added to the unf amiliarity of a good half of his courtiers 
 with formalities of the kind, rendered the Court dull rather 
 than dignified. Every countenance wore an expression of 
 uneasiness and solicitude in the midst of all the magnificence 
 with which his ostentatious tastes led the Emperor to sur- 
 round himself. 
 
 Mme. de la Eochefoucauld, who was the Empress's 
 cousin, was appointed her Lady of Honor, and Mme. de la 
 Fayette Lady of the Bedchamber. Twelve Ladies-in-Wait- 
 ing were nominated, and by degrees the number of these 
 was augmented. Many great ladies from different parts of 
 the country were included in the list, persons who were 
 much surprised at finding themselves in each other's society. 
 Without entering into any details here, which would now 
 serve no good purpose, I may mention that applications 
 were then made by persons who now affect a strict royalism, 
 hardly compatible with the opinions they then professed. 
 It ought to be frankly admitted that all classes wanted to 
 have their share of these new creations, and I could point 
 to several persons who, after having blamed me because I 
 came to the First Consul's Court in consequence of an old 
 
THE ANNIVERSARY OF JULY 14th. 199 
 
 friendship, spared no efforts on their own part to obtain 
 places at that of the Emperor, from ambitious motives. 
 
 As for the Empress, she was delighted to find herself 
 surrounded by a numerous suite, and one so gratifying to 
 her vanity. The victory she had won over Mme. de la 
 Rochefoucauld by attaching her to her person, the pleasure 
 of reckoning M. d'Aubusson de la Feuillade among her 
 Chamberlains, Mme. d'Arberg de Segur and the Mare*chales 
 among her Ladies-in-Waiting, intoxicated her a little ; but I 
 must admit that this essentially feminine feeling deprived 
 her of none of her accustomed grace and kindliness. The 
 Empress always knew perfectly well how to preserve the 
 supremacy of her own rank, while showing polite deference 
 toward those men or women who added to the splendor of 
 her Court by their personal distinction. 
 
 At this time the " Ministry of General Police " was re- 
 constructed, and Fouche was once more placed at its head. 
 
 The 18th Brumaire was the date at first fixed for the 
 coronation, and in the mean time, to show that the revolu- 
 tionary epochs were not to be disregarded, the Emperor re- 
 paired in great pomp to the Invalides on the 14th of July, 
 and, after having heard mass, distributed the Cross of the 
 Legion of Honor to a number of persons selected from all 
 classes comprised in the Government, the army, and the 
 Court. I must not omit to record that on this occasion the 
 Empress looked young and lovely among all the youthful 
 and handsome women by whom she was surrounded for the 
 first time in public. Her costume was admirably selected 
 and in perfect taste. The ceremony took place under burn- 
 ing sunshine. She appeared in broad daylight, attired in a 
 robe of rose-colored tulle, spangled with silver stars, and cut 
 very low, according to the fashion of the day. Her head- 
 dress consisted of a great number of diamond wheat-ears. 
 This brilliant attire, the elegance of her bearing, the charm 
 of her smile, the sweetness of her countenance, produced 
 such an effect, that I heard many persons who were present 
 
200 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 at the ceremony say that the Empress outshone all the ladies 
 of her suite. 
 
 A few days afterward the Emperor set out for the camp 
 at Boulogne, and, if public rumor was to be believed, the 
 English began to feel really alarmed at the prospect of an 
 invasion. 
 
 He passed more than a month in inspecting the coasts 
 and reviewing the troops in the various camps. The army 
 was at that time numerous, flourishing, and animated by the 
 best spirit. He was present at several engagements between 
 the vessels which were blockading us and our flotillas, which 
 by this time had a formidable aspect. 
 
 While engaged in these military occupations, he fixed, 
 by several decrees, the precedence and the rank of the va- 
 rious authorities which he had created ; for his mind em- 
 braced every topic at once. He had already formed a pri- 
 vate intention of asking the Pope to crown him, and, in 
 order to carry this out, he neglected neither that address by 
 which he might amicably carry his point, nor certain mea- 
 sures by which he might be able to render a refusal exceed- 
 ingly difficult. He sent the Cross of the Legion of Honor to 
 Cardinal Caprara, the Pope's legate, and accompanied the 
 distinction by words equally flattering to the Sovereign Pon- 
 tiff and promising for the reestablishment of religion. These 
 fine phrases appeared in the "Moniteur." Nevertheless, 
 when he communicated his project of confirming his eleva- 
 tion by so solemn a religious ceremony to the Council of 
 State, he had to encounter determined opposition from cer- 
 tain of his councilors. Treilhard, among others, resisted the 
 proposal strongly. The Emperor allowed him to speak, and 
 then replied : " You do not know the ground we are standing 
 on so well as I know it. Let me tell you that religion has 
 lost much less of its power than you think. You do not 
 know all that I effect by means of the priests whom I have 
 gained over. There are thirty departments in France suffi- 
 ciently religious to make me very glad that I am not obliged 
 
MME. DE LA ROCHEFOUCAULD. 201 
 
 to dispute with the Pope for power in them. It is only by 
 committing every other authority in succession to mine that 
 I shall secure my own, that is to say, the authority of the 
 Revolution, which we all wish to consolidate." 
 
 While the Emperor was inspecting the ports, the Em- 
 press went to Aix-la-Chapelle % to drink the waters. She was 
 accompanied by some of her new household, and M. de 
 Remusat was ordered to follow her, and to await the Em- 
 peror, who was to rejoin her at Aix. I was glad of this res- 
 pite. I could not disguise from myself that so many new- 
 comers were effacing by degrees her first estimate of my 
 value to her, which had owed much to the non-existence of 
 comparisons ; and, although I was yet young in experience 
 of the world, I felt that a short absence would be useful, and 
 that I should afterward take, if not the first place, that of 
 my choice, and hold it throughout securely. 
 
 Mme. de la Rochefoucauld, who attended the Empress, 
 was then a woman of between thirty-six and forty years old, 
 short and ill-made, with a striking countenance, but only 
 ordinary abilities. SJie had a great deal of assurance, like 
 most plain women who have had some success notwithstand- 
 ing their defects. She was very lively, and not at all ill-na- 
 tured. She proclaimed her adherence to all the opinions of 
 those who were called " aristocrats " by the Revolution ; and, 
 as she would have been puzzled to reconcile those views with 
 her present position, she made up her mind to laugh at them, 
 and would jest about herself with the utmost good humor. 
 The Emperor liked her because she was quick, frivolous, and 
 incapable of scheming. Indeed, no Court in which women 
 were so numerous ever offered less opportunity for any kind 
 of intrigue. Affairs of state were absolutely confined to the 
 cabinet of the Emperor only ; we were ignorant of them, 
 and we knew that nobody could meddle with them. The 
 few persons in whom the Emperor confided were wholly 
 devoted to the execution of his will, and absolutely unap- 
 proachable. Duroc, Savary, and Maret never allowed an un- 
 
202 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtilMUSAT. 
 
 necessary word to escape them, confining themselves strictly 
 to communicating to us without delay such orders as they 
 received. We were in their sight and in our own mere 
 machines, simply and solely doing those things which we 
 were ordered to do, and of about as much importance as 
 the elegant articles of new furniture with which the pal- 
 aces of the Tuileries and Saint Cloud were now profusely 
 adorned. 
 
 I remarked at this time, with some amusement, that, as 
 by degrees the grands seigneurs of former days came to 
 Court, they all experienced, no matter how widely their 
 characters differed, a certain sense of disappointment curious 
 to observe. When at first they once more breathed the air of 
 palaces, found themselves again among their former associates 
 and in the atmosphere of their youth, beheld anew decora- 
 tions, throne-rooms, and Court costumes, and heard the forms 
 of speech habitual in royal dwellings, they yielded to the 
 delightful illusion. They fondly believed that they might 
 conduct themselves as they had been accustomed to do in those 
 same palaces, where all but the master remained unchanged. 
 But a harsh word, a peremptory order, the pressure of an 
 arbitrary will, soon reminded them roughly that everything 
 was new in this unique Court. Then it was strange to see 
 how, despite all their efforts, they lost their presence of mind, 
 feeling the ground uncertain under their feet, and became 
 constrained and uneasy in all their futile little ways. They 
 were too vain or too weak to substitute a grave bearing, un- 
 like the manners of their past, for their former customs, and 
 they did not know what course to adopt. The arts of the 
 courtier availed nothing with Bonaparte, arid so profited them 
 not at all. It was not safe to remain a man in his presence 
 that is to say, to preserve the use of one's intellectual facul- 
 ties ; it was easier and quicker for everybody, or nearly every- 
 body, to assume the attitude of servility. If I chose, I could 
 tell exactly the individuals to whom such a course came most 
 readily ; but, if I were to go more at length into this subject, 
 
THE EMPEROR AT AIX-LA-CHAPELLE. 
 
 I should give my Memoirs the color of a satire, which is 
 neither acccording to niy taste nor my intention. 
 
 While the Emperor was at Boulogne, he sent his brother 
 Joseph to Paris, where all the governing bodies presented 
 addresses to him and his wife. Thus, he assigned each per- 
 son his own place, and dictated supremacy to some and ser- 
 vitude to others. On the 3d of September he rejoined his 
 wife at Aix-la-Chapelle, and remained there some days, hold- 
 ing a brilliant Court and receiving the German Princes. 
 During this sojourn, M. de Eemusat was directed to send to 
 Paris for the company of the second theatre, then managed 
 by Picard, and several fetes were given to the Electors, which, 
 although they did not approach the magnificence of later oc- 
 casions, were very splendid. The Elector Arch-Chancellor 
 of the German Empire and the Elector of Baden paid assidu- 
 ous court to our sovereigns. The Emperor and Empress 
 visited Cologne, and ascended the Rhine as far as Mayence, 
 where they were met by a crowd of princes and distinguished 
 foreigners. This excursion lasted until the month of October. 
 
 On the 14th Mme. Louis Bonaparte gave birth to a sec- 
 ond son.* Bonaparte arrived in Paris a few days later. This 
 event was a great source of happiness to the Empress. She 
 believed that it would have a most favorable effect upon her 
 future, and yet at that very moment a new plot was being 
 formed against her, which she only succeeded in defeating 
 after much effort and mental suffering. 
 
 Ever since we had learned that the Pope would come to 
 Paris for the coronation of the Emperor, the Bonaparte fam- 
 ily had been exceedingly anxious to prevent Mme. Bonaparte 
 from having a personal share in the ceremony. The jealousy 
 of our Princesses was strongly excited on this point. It 
 seemed to them that such an honor would place too great a 
 
 * The second son of Queen Hortense was Napoleon Louis. This Prince died 
 suddenly during the insurrection of the Pontifical States against the Pope, in 
 which he took part. The third son of the Queen, Napoleon III., was born on the 
 20th of April, 1808. 
 
204 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R$MUSAT. 
 
 distance between themselves and their sister-in-law, and, be- 
 sides, dislike needs no motive of interest personal to itself to 
 make anything which is a gratification to its object distaste- 
 ful. The Empress ardently longed for her coronation, which 
 she believed would establish her rank and her security, and 
 the silence of her husband alarmed her. He appeared to be 
 hesitating, and Joseph spared no argument to induce him to 
 make his wife merely a witness of the ceremony. He even 
 went so far as to revive the question of the divorce, advising 
 Bonaparte to profit by the approaching event to decide upon 
 it. He pointed out the advantage of an alliance with some 
 foreign princess, or at least with the heiress of a great name 
 in France, and cleverly held out the hope that such a mar- 
 riage would give him of having a direct heir ; and he spoke 
 with all the more chance of being listened to, because he 
 insisted strongly on the personal disinterestedness of advice 
 which, if taken, might remove himself from all chance of 
 the succession. The Emperor, incessantly harassed by his 
 family, appeared to be impressed by his brother's arguments, 
 and a few words which escaped him threw his wife into ex- 
 treme distress. Her former habit of confiding all her trou- 
 bles to me now led her to restore me to her confidence. I 
 was exceedingly puzzled how to advise her, and not a little 
 afraid of committing myself in so serious a matter. An un- 
 expected incident was near bringing about the very thing 
 which we dreaded. 
 
 For some time Mine. Bonaparte had perceived an increase 
 of intimacy between her husband and Mme. de . In 
 vain did I entreat her not to furnish the Emperor with a 
 pretext for a quarrel, which would be made use of against 
 her. She was too full of her grievance to be prudent, and, 
 in spite of my warning, she watched for an opportunity of 
 confirming her suspicions. At Saint Cloud the Emperor 
 occupied the apartment which opens upon the garden, and is 
 on the same level. Above this apartment was a small suite 
 of rooms communicating with his own by a back staircase, 
 
TEE EMPRESS'S SUSPICIONS CONFIRMED. 205 
 
 which he had recently had furnished, and the Empress 
 strongly suspected the purpose of this mysterious retreat. 
 One morning, when there were several persons in her draw- 
 ing-room, the Empress, seeing Mme. de (who was then 
 
 resident at Saint Cloud) leave the room, suddenly rose a few 
 minutes afterward, and, taking me apart into a window, said : 
 " I am going to clear up my doubts this very moment ; stay 
 here with all these people, and, if you are asked where I 
 have gone, say that the Emperor sent for me." I tried to 
 restrain her, but she was quite ungovernable, and would not 
 listen to me. She went out at the same moment, and I re- 
 mained, excessively apprehensive of what might be going to 
 happen. In about half an hour the Empress reentered the 
 room by the opposite door. She seemed exceedingly agi- 
 tated, and almost unable to control herself, but took her seat 
 before an embroidery frame. I remained at a distance from 
 her, apparently occupied by my needlework, and avoiding 
 her eye ; but I could easily perceive her agitation by the ab- 
 ruptness of all her movements, which were generally slow 
 and soft. At last, as she was incapable of keeping silence 
 under strong emotion of any kind, she could no longer endure 
 this constraint, and, calling to me in a loud voice, she bade me 
 follow her. When we had reached her bedroom, she said : 
 "All is lost. It is but too true. I went to look for the 
 Emperor in his cabinet, and he was not there ; then I went 
 up the back stairs into the upper room. I found the door 
 shut, but I could hear Bonaparte's voice, and also that of 
 
 Mme. de . I knocked loudly at the door, and called out 
 
 that I was there. You may imagine the start I gave them. 
 It was some time before the door was opened, and when at 
 last I was admitted, though I know I ought to have been 
 able to control myself, it was impossible, and I reproached 
 
 them bitterly. Mme. de began to cry, and Bonaparte 
 
 flew into so violent a passion that I had hardly time to fly 
 before him and escape his rage. I am still trembling at the 
 thought of it ; I did not know to what excess his anger might 
 
MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 have gone. JSTo doubt he will soon come here, and I may 
 expect a terrible scene." The emotion of the Empress moved 
 me deeply. " Do not," said I, " commit a second fault, for 
 the Emperor will never forgive you for having admitted any 
 one, no matter whom, to your confidence. Let me leave you, 
 Madame. You must wait for him ; let him find you alone." 
 I returned at once to the drawing-room, where I found 
 Mme. de . She glanced at me nervously ; she was ex- 
 tremely pale, talked almost incoherently, and tried hard to 
 find out whether I knew what had passed. I resumed my 
 
 work as tranquilly as I could, but I think Mme. de , 
 
 having seen me leave the room, must have known that the 
 Empress had told me. Every one was looking at every one 
 else, and nobody could make out what was happening. 
 
 A few minutes afterward we heard a great noise in the 
 apartment of the Empress, and of course I knew that the 
 Emperor was there, and that a violent quarrel was taking 
 
 place. Mme. de called for her carriage, and at once 
 
 left for Paris. This sudden departure was not likely to mend 
 matters. I was to go to Paris in the evening. Before I left 
 Saint Cloud the Empress sent for me, and told me, with 
 many tears, that Bonaparte, after having insulted her in 
 every possible way, and smashed some of the furniture in his 
 rage, had signified to her that she was at once to quit Saint 
 Cloud. He declared that, weary of her jealous spying, he 
 was determined to shake off such a yoke, and to listen hence- 
 forth only to the counsels of his policy, which demanded that 
 he should take a wife capable of giving him children. She 
 added that he had sent orders to Eugene de Beauharnais to 
 come to Saint Cloud in order to make arrangements for the 
 departure of his mother, and she added that she was now lost 
 beyond redemption. She then directed me to go and see 
 her daughter in Paris on the following day, and to inform 
 her exactly of all that had occurred. 
 
 Accordingly, I went to Mme. Louis Bonaparte. She had 
 just seen her brother, who had come from Saint Cloud. The 
 
PROJECTS OF DIVORCE. 207 
 
 Emperor had signified to him his resolution to divorce his 
 wife, and Eugene had received the communication with his 
 accustomed submission, but refused all the personal favors 
 which were offered to him as a consolation, declaring that 
 from the moment such a misfortune should fall upon his 
 mother he would accept nothing, but that he would follow 
 her to any retreat which might be assigned to her, were it 
 even at Martinique, as he was resolved to sacrifice all to her 
 great need of comfort. Bonaparte had appeared to be deeply 
 impressed by this generous resolution ; he had listened to all 
 that Eugene said in unbroken silence. 
 
 I found Mme. Louis less affected by this event than I 
 expected. " I can not interfere in any way," she said. " My 
 husband has positively forbidden me to do so. My mother 
 has been very imprudent. She is about to forfeit a crown, 
 but, at any rate, she will have peace. Ah ! believe me, there 
 are women more unhappy than she." She spoke with such 
 profound sadness that I could not fail to read her thoughts ; 
 but, as she never allowed a word to be said about her own 
 personal position, I did not venture to reply in such a. way as 
 would make it evident that I had understood her. " And, 
 besides," said she in conclusion, " if there be any chance at all 
 of setting this matter right, it is the influence of my mother's 
 tears and her gentleness over Bonaparte. Believe me, it is 
 better to leave them to themselves not to interfere at all 
 between them ^ and I strongly advise you not to return to 
 Saint Cloud, especially as Mme. N - has mentioned you, 
 and believes that you would give hostile advice." 
 
 I remained away from Saint Cloud for two days, in ac- 
 cordance with the advice of Mme. Louis Bonaparte ; but on 
 the third I rejoined my Empress, concerning whom I felt 
 the deepest solicitude. I found her relieved from one press- 
 ing trouble. Her submission and her tears had, in fact, dis- 
 armed Bonaparte ; his anger and its cause were no longer in 
 question. A tender reconciliation had taken place between 
 them ; but, immediately afterward, the Emperor had thrown 
 18 
 
208 MEMOIRS OF MADAME LE REMUS AT. 
 
 his wife into fresh agitation by letting her see that he was 
 seriously entertaining the idea of a divorce. " I have not 
 the courage," he said to her, " to come to a final resolution ; 
 and if you let me see that you are too deeply afflicted if 
 you can render me obedience only I feel that I shall never 
 have the strength to oblige you to leave me. I tell you 
 plainly, however, that it is my earnest desire that you should 
 resign yourself to the interests of my policy, and yourself 
 spare me all the difficulties of this painful separation." The 
 Empress told me that he wept bitterly while uttering these 
 terrible words. I remember well how, as I listened to her, 
 I conceived in my mind the plan of a great and generous 
 sacrifice which she might make to France. 
 
 Believing, as I then believed, that the fate of the nation 
 was irrevocably united with that of Napoleon, I thought 
 there would be true greatness of soul in devoting one's self 
 to all that might secure and confirm that destiny. I thought, 
 had I been the woman to whom such a representation had 
 been made, that I should have had courage to abandon the 
 brilliant position which, after all, was grudged to me, and 
 retire into a peaceful solitude, satisfied with the sacrifice that 
 I had made. But, when I saw in Mme. Bonaparte's face 
 what suffering the Emperor's words had caused her, I re- 
 membered that my mother had once said that advice to be 
 useful must be adapted to the character of the person to 
 whom it is offered, and I refrained from uttering the lofty 
 sentiments of which my mind was full. I bethought me in 
 time of the dread with which the Empress would contem- 
 plate retirement, of her taste for luxury and display, and of 
 the devouring ennui to which she would inevitably fall a 
 prey when she had broken with the world ; and I confined 
 myself to saying that I saw only two alternatives for her. 
 The first of these was to sacrifice herself bravely and with 
 dignity ; in which case she ought to go to Malmaison on the 
 following morning, and thence to write to the Emperor, de- 
 claring that she restored his freedom to him ; or to remain 
 
THE POPE TO ARRIVE IN PARIS. 209 
 
 where she was, acknowledging herself to be unable to decide 
 upon her own fate, and, though always ready to obey, posi- 
 tively determined to await his direct orders before she should 
 descend from the throne on which he had placed her. 
 
 She adopted the second alternative. Assuming the atti- 
 tude of a resigned and submissive victim, she excited the 
 jealous anger of all the Bonapartes by her gentle demeanor. 
 Yielding, sad, considerate of everybody, entirely obedient, 
 but also skillful in availing herself of her ascendancy over 
 her husband, she reduced him to a condition of agitation and 
 indecision from which he could not escape. 
 
 At length, one memorable evening, after long hesitation, 
 during which the Empress suffered mortal anguish and sus- 
 pense, the Emperor told her that the Pope was about to 
 arrive in Paris, that he would crown them both, and that she 
 had better at once begin to prepare for the great ceremony. 
 It is easy to picture to one's fancy the joy with which such 
 a termination to all her misery filled the heart of the Em- 
 press, and also the discomfiture of the Bonapartes, especially 
 Joseph ; for the Emperor had not failed to acquaint his wife, 
 according to his usual custom, with the attempts that had 
 been made to induce him to decide on a divorce, and it is 
 only reasonable to suppose that these revelations increased 
 the ill feeling already existing on both sides. 
 
 On this occasion the Empress confided to me the ardent 
 desire she had long felt to have her marriage, 'which had 
 been civilly contracted, confirmed by a religious ceremony. 
 She said that she had sometimes spoken of this to the Em- 
 peror, and that, although he had not evinced any repugnance, 
 he had objected that, even if a priest were brought into the 
 palace to perform the religious rite, it could not be done 
 with sufficient secrecy to conceal the fact that until then they 
 had not been married according to the Church. Either that 
 was his real reason, or he wanted to hold this means of break- 
 ing his marriage in reserve for future use, should he consider 
 it really advisable to do so ; at any rate, he had rejected his 
 
210 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 wife's pleading firmly, but mildly. She therefore deter- 
 mined to await the arrival of the Pope, being persuaded, 
 very reasonably, that his Holiness would espouse her inter- 
 ests on such a point. 
 
 The entire Court was now occupied in, preparations for 
 the ceremony of the coronation. The Empress was continu- 
 ally surrounded by all the best artists in millinery in Paris, 
 and the venders of the most fashionable wares. With their 
 assistance she decided on the new form of Court dress, and 
 on her own costume. As may be supposed, there was no 
 thought of resuming the hoop worn under the old regime; 
 it was merely proposed that to our ordinary garments the 
 long mantle (which was still worn after the return of the 
 King) should be added, and also a very becoming ruff of 
 blonde, which was attached to the shoulders and came high 
 up at the back of the head, as we see it in portraits of Cath- 
 arine de' Medici. The use of this ruff was afterward dis- 
 continued, although it was, in my opinion, very pretty, and 
 lent dignity and grace to the whole costume. The Empress 
 already possessed diamonds of considerable value, but the 
 Emperor not only made costly additions to her jewel-case, 
 but also placed the diamonds belonging to the national trea- 
 sury in her hands, and desired that she should wear them on 
 the great day. A diadem of brilliants, above which the 
 Emperor was with his own hands to place the closed crown 
 upon her head, was made for her, and the ceremony was pri- 
 vately rehearsed. David, who afterward painted the great 
 picture of the coronation of the Emperor and Empress, at- 
 tended these rehearsals, and arranged the positions of each. 
 The coronation of the Emperor had been eagerly discussed. 
 The first idea was that the Pope should place the diadem 
 upon the head of the Emperor ; but Bonaparte refused to 
 receive the crown from any hand but his own, and uttered 
 on that occasion the sentence which Mme. de Stael has 
 quoted in her work : " I found the crown of France upon 
 the ground, and I picked it up." 
 
PREPARATIONS FOR THE CORONATION. 211 
 
 At length, after a great deal of discussion, it was ar- 
 ranged that the Emperor was to crown himself, and that the 
 Pope should only give his benediction. Everything was 
 done to make the fetes brilliant and popular, and people be- 
 gan to flock into Paris. Considerable bodies of troops were 
 ordered up to the capital ; all the chief authorities of the 
 provinces were invited ; the Arch-Chancellor of the German 
 Empire and a great number of foreigners arrived. Party 
 spirit slumbered for the time being, and the whole city gave 
 itself up to the excitement and curiosity of so novel an inci- 
 dent, and a spectacle which would doubtless be magnificent. 
 The shopkeepers drove a thriving trade; workmen of all 
 kinds were employed, and rejoiced in the occasion that pro- 
 cured them such a stroke of luck ; the population of the city 
 seemed to be doubled ; commerce, public establishments, and 
 theatres all profited by the occasion, and all was bustle and 
 activity. 
 
 The poets were requested to celebrate this great event. 
 Ch6nier was ordered to compose a tragedy for the perpetual 
 commemoration of it, and he took Cyrus for his hero. The 
 Opera was to give splendid ballets. To us dwellers in the 
 palace money was given for our expenses, and the Empress 
 presented each of her Ladies-in-Waiting with handsome dia- 
 mond ornaments. The Court dress of the gentlemen about 
 the Emperor was also regulated. This becoming costume 
 consisted of the French coat, in different colors for those 
 who belonged to the department of the Grand Marshal, the 
 Grand Chamberlain, and the Grand Equerry respectively; 
 silver embroidery for all ; a cloak of velvet lined with satin, 
 worn over one shoulder; a sash, a lace cravat, and a hat 
 turned up in front, with a white plume. The Princes were 
 to wear white coats embroidered in gold ; the Emperor was 
 to wear a long robe somewhat resembling that worn by our 
 kings, a mantle of purple velvet sewn with golden bees, and 
 his crown, a golden wreath of laurels like that of the Caesars. 
 
 It seems like a dream, or a story from the "Arabian 
 
212 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 Nights," when I recall the luxury that was displayed at that 
 period, the perpetual disputes about precedence, the claims 
 of rank, and all the demands made by everybody. The 
 Emperor directed that the Princesses should carry the Em- 
 press's mantle ; there was the greatest difficulty in inducing 
 them to consent to do this ; and I remember well that, when 
 at last they did consent, they performed their office with so 
 ill a grace that the Empress, overpowered by the weight of 
 her magnificent robe, could hardly walk, .for they would 
 scarcely lift the folds off the ground. They obtained per- 
 mission to have their own trains borne by their respective 
 chamberlains, and this distinction somewhat consoled them 
 for the obligation that was imposed upon them.* 
 
 In the mean time we learned that the Pope had left 
 Kome on the 2d of November. The slowness of his jour- 
 ney and the vast scale of the preparations rendered it neces- 
 sary to put off the coronation until the 2d of December ; 
 and on the 24th of November the Court went to Fontaine- 
 bleau to receive his Holiness, who arrived there on the fol- 
 lowing day. 
 
 Before I close this chapter, I wish to mention a circum- 
 stance which ought, it seems to me, to be recorded. The 
 Emperor had for the moment relinquished the idea of a 
 divorce, but, being still extremely anxious to have an heir, he 
 asked his wife whether she would consent to acknowledge a 
 child of his as her own, and to feign pregnancy, so that every 
 
 * The Memoirs of Count Miot de Melito contain some curious particulars of 
 Court life during the Consulate and the Empire ; the quarrels of Bonaparte with 
 his brothers on account of the succession to the throne, and the adoption of the 
 son of Louis Bonaparte. He also narrates in detail the disputes about prece- 
 dence, and the vexed question of the Empress's mantle. It was after a long 
 discussion between the Arch-Chancellor, the Arch-Treasurer, the Minister of the 
 Interior, the Grand Equerry, and the Grand Marshal of the Court, the Princes 
 Louis and Joseph, and the Emperor himself, that a decision was arrived at 
 which deprived those Princes of the large mantle of ermine " an attribute," as 
 it was called, "of sovereignty" ; and that it was resolved the words "to hold 
 up the mantle " should be used in the proces-verbal instead of " to carry the 
 train." (" MSmoires du Comte Miot de Melito," vol. ii., p. 323, et seq.)P. R. 
 
I 
 BONAPARTE'S PLAN. 213 
 
 one should be deceived. She consented to accede to any 
 wish of his on this point. Then Bonaparte sent for Corvisart, 
 his chief physician, in whom he had well-merited confidence, 
 and confided his plan to him. " If I succeed," said he, " in 
 making sure of the birth of a boy who shall be my own son, 
 I want you, as a witness of the pretended confinement of the 
 Empress, to do all that would be necessary to give the device 
 every appearance of reality." Corvisart, who felt that his 
 honor and probity were injured by the mere proposition, 
 refused to do what the Emperor required of him, but prom- 
 ised inviolable secrecy. It was not until long afterward, and 
 since Bonaparte's second marriage, that he confided this fact 
 to me, while at the same time he afiinned in the strongest 
 terms the legitimate birth of the King of Home, concerning 
 which some entirely unfounded doubts had been raised. 
 
CHAPTEE X. 
 
 The Pope's Arrival in Paris The Plebiscitum The Marriage of the Empress 
 Josephine The Coronation Fetes in the Champ de Mars, at the Ope'ra, etc. 
 The Court of the Empress. 
 
 THE Pope was probably induced to come to France solely 
 by the representations which were made to him of advan- 
 tages and concessions to be gained by such a gracious act. 
 He arrived at Fontainebleau with the intention of lending 
 himself to all that might be required of him, within legiti- 
 mate bounds ; and, notwithstanding the superiority on which 
 the conqueror who had forced him to take this unheard-of 
 step plumed himself, and the small respect in which the 
 Court held a sovereign who did not reckon the sword among 
 the insignia of his royalty, he impressed everybody by his 
 dignity and the gravity of his bearing. 
 
 The Emperor went to meet him at a few leagues' distance 
 from the chateau, and, when the carriages met, he alighted, 
 as did his Holiness also. The Pope and the Emperor em- 
 braced, and then got into the same carriage, the Emperor 
 entering first, in order, as the "Moniteur" of the day ex- 
 plained, to give the Pope the right-hand seat, and so they 
 came to the palace. 
 
 The Pope arrived on Sunday,* at noon; and having 
 rested for a while in his own apartment, to which he was 
 conducted by the Grand Chamberlain (i. e., M. de Talley- 
 rand), the Grand Marshal, and the Grand Master of Cere- 
 monies, he visited the Emperor, who met him outside the 
 
 * November 25, 1804, or 4th Frimaire, year 13. P. R. 
 
ARRIVAL OF THE POPE. 215 
 
 door of his cabinet, and, after an interview of half an 
 hour's duration, reconducted him to the great hall, which 
 was then called " The Hall of the Great Officers." The 
 Empress had received instructions to place the Pope at her 
 right hand. 
 
 After these visits, Prince Louis, the Ministers, the Arch- 
 Chancellor, the Arch-Treasurer, Cardinal Fesch, and the 
 great officers then at Fontainebleau, were presented to the 
 Pope, who received them all most graciously. He afterward 
 dined with the Emperor and retired early. 
 
 The Pope was at this time sixty-two years of age, tall and 
 upright of figure, and with a handsome, grave, benevolent 
 face. He was attended by a numerous suite of Italian priests 
 anything but impressive personages, whose rough, noisy, 
 and vulgar manners contrasted strangely with the grave good 
 breeding of the French clergy. The Palace of Fontainebleau 
 presented a strange spectacle just then, inhabited as it was 
 by so extraordinary a medley of persons sovereigns, princes, 
 military officers, priests, women, all gathered together in the 
 different salons at the prescribed hours. On the day after 
 his arrival, his Holiness -received all those persons belonging 
 to the Court who desired that honor, in his own apartment. 
 We had the privilege of kissing his hand and receiving his 
 blessing. His presence in such a place, and on so great an 
 occasion, affected me very deeply. 
 
 After these receptions, visits were again interchanged be- 
 tween the sovereigns. On the occasion of her second inter- 
 view with the Pope, the Empress carried out the intention 
 she had secretly formed, and confided to him that her mar- 
 riage had been a civil ceremony only. His Holiness, after 
 having commended her for the good use she made of her 
 power, and addressing her as " My daughter," promised her 
 that he would require of the Emperor that his coronation 
 should be preceded by the ceremony necessary to legiti- 
 mize his marriage with her ; and, in fact, the Emperor was 
 obliged to consent to this. On their return to Paris Cardinal 
 
216 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 Fesch married Bonaparte to Josephine, as I shall presently 
 relate. 
 
 On the Monday evening a concert was to take place in 
 the apartments of the Empress. The Pope, however, declined 
 to be present, and retired just as the entertainment was about 
 to begin. 
 
 At this time the Emperor took a fancy to Mme. de 
 
 X , and whether it was that his budding passion had 
 
 inspired him with a wish to please, or that his satisfaction at 
 the success of his plans kept him in good humor, I can not 
 say ; certain it is, however, that while we were at Fontaine- 
 bleau he was more affable and approachable than usual. Af- 
 ter the Pope had retired, the Emperor remained in the Em- 
 press's drawing-room, and talked, not with the men, but, by 
 preference, with the women who were there. His wife, 
 keen of perception where anything which aroused her jeal- 
 ousy was in question, was struck by this departure from his 
 ordinary habits, and suspected that some new fancy was the 
 cause of it. She could not, however, discover the real ob- 
 ject of his thoughts, because he very adroitly paid marked 
 
 attention to each of us in succession ; and Mme. de X , 
 
 who as yet conducted herself with great reserve, did not seem 
 to perceive that she was the particular object of the general 
 gallantries that the Emperor affected to distribute among us. 
 Some of those present believed that the Marechale "Ney was 
 about to receive his homage. The Marechale is the daughter 
 of M. Augue, formerly Keceiver-General of Finance, and her 
 mother was one of the Bedchamber Women to Queen Marie 
 Antoinette. She was educated by her aunt, Mme. Campan, 
 and when in her establishment became the friend and com- 
 panion of Hortense de Beauharnais, now the Princess Louis. 
 She was at this time about twenty-two or twenty-three years 
 old, and rather pretty, but too thin. She knew very little of 
 the world, was excessively shy, and had not the slightest de- 
 sire to attract the Emperor, whom she regarded with extreme 
 dread. 
 
RETURN OF TEE COURT TO PARIS. 217 
 
 During our sojourn at Fontainebleau, a decree of the Sen- 
 ate was published in the " Moniteur." It was to the effect 
 that, according to the verification of the registers of the votes 
 given upon the question of the Empire, made by a commis- 
 sion of the Senate, Bonaparte and his family were declared 
 to be called to the throne of France. The general total of 
 voters amounted to 3,574,898. Of these, 3,572,329 were ayes, 
 2,569 noes. 
 
 The Court returned to Paris on Thursday, the 29th of 
 November. The Emperor and the Pope traveled in the same 
 carriage, and his Holiness was lodged in the Pavilion of 
 Flora. Certain members of the household were appointed 
 to attend on him. 
 
 During the first few days of his residence in Paris, the 
 Pope was not treated by the inhabitants with all the respect 
 which might have been anticipated A crowd, attracted by 
 curiosity, thronged his path when he visited the churches, 
 and assembled under his balcony when he appeared there to 
 give his blessing. By degrees, however, the description of the 
 dignity of his manners given by those who had access to him, 
 several noble and affecting sayings of his on different occa- 
 sions, and the self-possession which he maintained in a position 
 so new and strange to the head of Christendom, produced a 
 marked change even among the lower classes of the people. 
 
 Every morning the terrace of the Tuileries was covered 
 with a great multitude, calling loudly for him, and kneeling 
 to receive his blessing. The people were admitted to the 
 gallery of the Louvre at certain specified times during the 
 day, and then the Pope would walk from end to end of it 
 and bless the multitude. Mothers flocked thither with their 
 children, and were received with special kindness. One day 
 an individual who was a well-known enemy of religion was 
 in the gallery when the Pope arrived, and, as his curiosity 
 urged him to stay, he held himself aloof, as though to avoid 
 the benediction. The Pope drew near him, divined his se- 
 cret hostility, and said to him, in the gentlest tone : " Why do 
 
218 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 you avoid me, sir ? Is there any danger in an old man's 
 blessing?" 
 
 Yery soon all Paris resounded with praise of the Pope, 
 and the Emperor's jealousy was excited. He made certain 
 arrangements which obliged his Holiness to deny himself to 
 the too eager entreaties of the faithful ; and the Pope, who 
 detected the Emperor's uneasiness, adopted extreme reserve, 
 but without allowing the slightest sign of human pride to 
 appear in his manner or conduct. 
 
 Two days before the coronation, M. de Re'musat, who, 
 in addition to being Grand Chamberlain, was also Keeper of 
 the Wardrobe, and therefore charged with all the details of 
 the Imperial costumes, submitted to the Empress the superb 
 diadem which had just been made for her. He found her 
 in a state of delight and satisfaction, which she could hardly 
 conceal from general notice. Presently she took my hus- 
 band apart, and confided to him that, on the morning of that 
 same day, an altar had been erected in the Emperor's cabi- 
 net, and that Cardinal Fesch had performed the marriage 
 ceremony between herself and Bonaparte, in the presence 
 of two aides-de-camp. After the ceremony she had pro- 
 cured a written certificate of the marriage from the Cardinal. 
 She carefully preserved this document, and, notwithstanding 
 all the Emperor's efforts to obtain it from her, she never 
 could be induced to part with it. 
 
 It has since been said that any religious marriage not 
 witnessed by the cure of the parish in which it is celebrated 
 is de facto null and void, and that a means of breaking the 
 marriage was purposely reserved by this expedient. In that 
 case, Cardinal Fesch must have been a consenting party to 
 the fraud ; and yet his subsequent conduct forbids any such 
 supposition. When violent quarrels arose on the subject of 
 the divorce, and the Empress went so far as to threaten her 
 husband with the publication of the certificate in her posses- 
 sion, Cardinal Fesch was consulted upon the point. He 
 repeatedly affirmed that the document was in good form, 
 
THE CORONATION. 219 
 
 and that his conscience obliged him to declare the marriage 
 so validly solemnized that it could not be broken otherwise 
 than by an act of arbitrary authority. 
 
 After the divorce the Emperor wanted to get possession 
 of the document in question ; but the Cardinal advised the 
 Empress not to part with it. It is a remarkable proof of the 
 extent to which suspicion and distrust prevailed among all 
 the members of the Bonaparte family, that the Empress, 
 while availing herself of advice that coincided with her own 
 feelings, told me she sometimes thought the Cardinal gave 
 her that advice in connivance with the Emperor, who wanted 
 to drive her to some outbreak which would give him an ex- 
 cuse for banishing her from France. And yet, the uncle 
 and nephew had quarreled, at that very time, about the 
 Pope's affairs. 
 
 On the 2d of December the coronation took place. It 
 would be difficult to describe its splendor or to enter into the 
 details of that day. The weather was cold ; but dry and 
 bright ; the streets of Paris were crowded with people more 
 curious than enthusiastic ; the guard under arms presented a 
 fine spectacle. 
 
 The Pope preceded the Emperor by several hours, and 
 waited with admirable patience for the long-delayed arrival 
 of the procession. He sat upon the throne erected for him 
 in the church, and made no complaint either of cold or 
 weariness. The Cathedral of Notre Dame was decorated 
 with taste and magnificence. At the far end was a splendid 
 throne for the Emperor, on which he was to appear sur- 
 rounded by his entire Court. Before setting out for Notre 
 Dame, we were admitted to the apartment of the Empress. 
 Our attire was very brilliant, but it paled before the magnifi- 
 cence of the costumes of the Imperial family. The Empress 
 especially, sparkling with diamonds, and wearing her hair in 
 countless curls, a style of the time of Louis XVI., did not 
 look more than twenty-five.* She wore a white satin gown, 
 
 * She was forty-one, having been born at Martinique on the 23d of June, 1763. 
 
220 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 and a Court mantle of the same material, both profusely 
 embroidered in mingled gold and silver. Her ornaments 
 consisted of a diadem, a necklace, earrings, and a girdle of 
 diamonds of immense value ; and all this gorgeous attire was 
 worn with her customary easy grace. Her sisters-in-law were 
 also adorned with a vast quantity of jewels. The Emperor 
 inspected each of us in our turn, smiling at this luxury, which 
 was, like all the rest, a sudden creation of his sovereign will. 
 
 His own costume was brilliant. He was to assume the 
 Imperial robes at Notre Dame, but for the present he wore 
 a French coat of red velvet embroidered in gold, a white 
 sash, a short cloak sewn with bees, a plumed hat turned up 
 in front with a diamond buckle, and the collar of the Legion 
 of Honor in diamonds. This superb dress became him well. 
 The whole Court wore velvet cloaks embroidered in gold. 
 It must be acknowledged that we paraded ourselves a little 
 for our mutual amusement; but the spectacle was really 
 beautiful. 
 
 The Emperor got into his carriage it had seven glasses, 
 and was gorgeously gilded with his wife and his two broth- 
 ers, Joseph and Louis. Then we all took our appointed 
 places in the carriages which were to follow, and the splen- 
 did cortege proceeded at a foot-pace to Notre Dame. There 
 was no lack of shouting on our way ; and, although the accla- 
 mations of the people had not that ring of enthusiasm which 
 a sovereign jealous of his people's love longs to recognize, 
 they sufficed to gratify the vanity of a haughty master, but 
 one who was not sensitive. 
 
 On his arrival at Notre Dame, the Emperor entered the 
 archiepiscopal palace, and there assumed his robes of state. 
 They seemed almost to crush him ; his slight frame collapsed 
 under the enormous mantle of ermine. A simple laurel- 
 wreath encircled his head ; he looked like an antique medal- 
 lion, but he was extremely pale, and genuinely affected. 
 The expression of his countenance was stern and somewhat 
 distressed. 
 
AN IMPRESSIVE CEREMONY. 221 
 
 The ceremony was grand and impressive. A general 
 movement of admiration was noticeable at the moment 
 when the Empress was crowned. She was so unaffected, 
 so graceful, as she advanced toward the altar, she knelt 
 down with such simple elegance, that all eyes were de- 
 lighted with the picture she presented. When she had to 
 walk from the altar to the throne, there was a slight alter- 
 cation with her sisters-in-law, who carried her mantle with 
 such an ill grace that I observed at one moment the new- 
 made Empress could not advance a step. The Emperor 
 perceived this, and spoke a few sharp short words to his 
 sisters, which speedily brought them to reason. 
 
 During the ceremony, the Pope bore an air of resigna- 
 tion of a noble sort, the result of his own will, and for a 
 purpose of great utility. It was between two and three 
 o'clock when the cortege left Notre Dame, and we did not 
 reach the Tuileries until the short December day had closed 
 in. We were lighted by the general illuminations, and a 
 number of torches were carried along the line of vehicles. 
 We dined at the chateau, with the Grand Marshal, and 
 after dinner the Emperor received all the members of the 
 Court who had not yet retired. He was in high spirits, 
 and delighted with the ceremony ; he admired us all, jested 
 about the effect of finery on women, and said to us, laugh- 
 ingly, " You owe it to me, mesdames, that you are so charm- 
 ing ! " He had not allowed the Empress to take off her 
 crown, although she had dined tete-a-tete with him, and he 
 complimented her on the grace with which she wore it. At 
 length he dismissed us. 
 
 Innumerable fetes and rejoicings took place during the 
 ensuing month. On the 5th of December the Emperor 
 went to the Champ de Mars with the same state as on the 
 coronation day, and distributed eagles to a number of regi- 
 ments. The enthusiasm of the soldiers far surpassed that 
 of the people; but the bad weather spoiled the effect of 
 this second great day. It rained in torrents, but neverthe- 
 
222 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUS AT. 
 
 less an immense multitude thronged the Champ de Mars. 
 M. Maret devoted the following flowery passage in the 
 " Moniteur " to the rain of the 5th of December : " Al- 
 though the situation of the spectators was distressing, there 
 was not one among them who did not find ample com- 
 pensation in the sentiment which induced him to remain 
 in his place, and in the utterance of aspirations (ywux\ 
 to which his acclamations bore testimony." 
 
 A common and absurd form of flattery, and one which 
 has been resorted to in every age, is the making believe that, 
 because a king has need of sunshine, he can secure its pres- 
 ence. I remember when it was a current saying at the Tui- 
 leries that the Emperor had only to fix a certain day for a 
 review or a hunting-party, and the sky could not fail to be 
 cloudless. Whenever it was so, the fact was eagerly re- 
 marked ; but nothing was said about the days that were dull 
 01; rainy. A similar device was adopted in the time of Louis 
 XIY. It was not, indeed, possible to say that it did not 
 rain during the distribution of the eagles at the Champ de 
 Mars, but I met many people who gravely assured me that 
 the rain did not wet them. 
 
 A spacious platform had been constructed for the accom- 
 modation of the Imperial family and the Court; on this 
 the throne, protected as much as possible from the rain, 
 was placed. The canvas and hangings were speedily wet 
 through ; the Empress was obliged to withdraw, with her 
 daughter who was out for the first time after the birth of 
 her second child and her sisters-in-law, excepting Mme. 
 Murat, who continued to brave the weather although she 
 was lightly dressed. She was training herself, as she said 
 laughingly, "to endure the inevitable constraints of roy- 
 alty." 
 
 On that day a sumptuous banquet was given at the Tui- 
 leries. A table was laid in the Gallery of Diana, beneath a 
 magnificent canopy, for the Pope, the Emperor, the Empress, 
 and the first Arch-Chancellor of the German Empire. The 
 
PLAY AT THE EMPERORS COURT. 223 
 
 Pope sat on the left of the Empress, and the Emperor on her 
 right. They were waited on by the great officers of the 
 household. Lower down, there was a table for the Princes, 
 among whom was the Hereditary Prince of Baden ; a table 
 for the Ministers ; one for the ladies and gentlemen of the 
 Imperial household all served with the utmost luxury. 
 Some fine music was performed during the repast. Then 
 came a largely attended reception, at which the Pope was 
 present ; and a ballet, performed by dancers from the Opera, 
 in the great drawing-room. The Pope withdrew before the 
 ballet. The evening concluded with cards, and the Emperor 
 gave the signal for departure by retiring. 
 
 At the Emperor's Court, play merely formed a portion of 
 the ceremonial. He never allowed money to be staked, and 
 the games were whist and loto. We used to make up the 
 tables just for something to do, and generally talked, while 
 we held our cards without looking at them. The Empress 
 was fond of playing cards, even without money, and played 
 whist in real earnest. Her card-table and that of the Prin- 
 cesses were placed in the room called the Emperor's cabinet, 
 at the entrance of the Gallery of Diana. She played with 
 the greatest personages present, foreigners, ambassadors, or 
 Frenchmen. The two ladies-in-waiting on duty for the week 
 occupied seats behind her; a chamberlain stood near her 
 chair. While she was playing, all who were in the rooms 
 came, one after the other, to make their bows and courtesies 
 to her. Bonaparte's brothers and sisters also played, and sent 
 invitations to join their card-tables, by their respective cham- 
 berlains, to various persons. His mother, who had been 
 given a house and the title of Princess, but who was always 
 called Madame Mere, did the same. The Emperor walked 
 about everywhere, preceded by chamberlains who announced 
 his presence. On his approach every voice was hushed ; no 
 one left his place ; the ladies stood up, waiting for the insig- 
 nificant, and frequently ungracious, remarks which he would 
 address to them. He never remembered a name, and his 
 19 
 
224: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 first question almost invariably was, " And what do you call 
 yourself ? " There was not a woman present on those occasions 
 who did not rejoice when he moved away from her vicinity. 
 
 This reminds me of an anecdote about Gretry. As a 
 member of the Institute he frequently attended the Sunday 
 receptions, and it happened several times that the Emperor, 
 who had come to recognize his face, approached him almost 
 mechanically and asked him his name. One day Gretry, 
 who was tired of this perpetual question, and perhaps a little 
 annoyed at not having produced a more lasting impression, 
 answered to the Emperor's rudely uttered " And you ! who 
 are you?" in a sharp, impatient tone, "Sire, I am still 
 Gretry." Ever afterward the Emperor recognized him per- 
 fectly. The Empress, on the contrary, had an accurate mem- 
 ory for names, and also for the smallest particulars concern- 
 ing each individual. 
 
 For a long time the routine of the Court receptions con- 
 tinued to be what I have described. Afterward, concerts, 
 ballets, and even plays, were added to the list of amuse- 
 ments ; but I shall refer to this subject in due order of time. 
 The Emperor desired that special places should be assigned 
 to the ladies-in-waiting, and these small privileges excited 
 small jealousies which engendered great animosities, after 
 the invariable law of courts. At this period the Emperor 
 indulged in ceremonies of every kind ; he liked them, espe- 
 cially because they were of his own creation. He always 
 spoiled their effect to some extent by the habitual precipita- 
 tion from which he could rarely refrain, and by the appre- 
 hension lest all should not be exactly as he wished, with 
 which he inspired everybody. On one occasion, he gave 
 audience, seated on his throne and surrounded by the great 
 officers of the household, the Marshals, and the Senate, to all 
 the Prefects, and to the Presidents of the electoral colleges. 
 He then granted a second audience to the former, and 
 strongly urged them to carry out the conscription. " With- 
 out that," said the Emperor (and these words were inserted 
 
CHfiNIER'S TRAGEDY. 225 
 
 in the " Moniteur "), " there can be neither national power 
 nor national independence." No doubt, he was then cher- 
 ishing a project for placing the crown of Italy upon his 
 head, and felt that his designs must lead to war ; and, be- 
 sides, as the impossibility of an invasion of England had 
 been made clear to him, although the preparations were still 
 carried on, the necessity for employing an army which was 
 becoming a burden to France was pressed upon his atten- 
 tion. In the midst of these graver subjects of anxiety, he 
 had reason to be provoked with the Parisians. He had be- 
 spoken from Chenier a tragedy to be acted on the occasion 
 of the coronation. The poet had selected Cyrus for his 
 theme, and the fifth act of the tragedy (the coronation of the 
 hero of ancient history) represented the ceremony of Notre 
 Dame accurately enough. The piece was a poor production, 
 and the allusions in it were too palpable, too evidently writ- 
 ten to order. The Parisian audience hissed the tragedy 
 from first to last, and laughed aloud at the scene of the en- 
 thronement. The Emperor was much displeased ; he was as 
 angry with my husband as if M. de Remusat had been re- 
 sponsible to him for the approbation of the public, and by 
 the revelation of this weak point the public learned to avenge 
 themselves at the theatre for the silence BO rigorously im- 
 posed upon them elsewhere. 
 
 The Senate gave a magnificent fete, and the Corps Legis- 
 latif followed the example. On the 16th of December an 
 entertainment took place, by which the city of Paris incurred 
 a debt, unpaid for many years, for a grand public feast, fire- 
 works, a ball, and the silver-gilt toilet-services presented to 
 the Emperor and Empress. Addresses and laudatory in- 
 scriptions abounded in all directions. The flatteries lavished 
 upon Louis XIY. during his reign have been much com- 
 mented upon ; I am sure, if they were all put together, they 
 would not amount to one tenth of those which were be- 
 stowed upon Bonaparte. Some years later, at another fete 
 given by the city of Paris to the Emperor, the repertory of 
 
226 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 inscriptions being exhausted, a brilliant device was resorted 
 to. Over the throne which he was to occupy were placed 
 the following words from the Holy Scriptures, in letters of 
 gold : " I am that I am." And no one seemed to be scan- 
 dalized ! 
 
 France was given up at this time to fetes and merry- 
 making. Medals were struck and distributed profusely. 
 The Marshals gave a great ball in the Opera House, at a cost 
 of ten thousand francs to each. The pit was boarded over, 
 on a level with the stage ; the boxes were festooned with 
 silver gauze, brilliantly lighted, and filled with ladies in full 
 dress. The Imperial family were seated apart on an es- 
 trade, and the company danced in the vast inclosure. Flow- 
 ers and diamonds in profusion, splendid dresses, and the 
 magnificence of the Court made this a most brilliant enter- 
 tainment. We were all put to great expense on these occa- 
 sions. A sum of ten thousand francs was allowed to the 
 ladies-in-waiting as compensation for their expenditure, but 
 it was not nearly sufficient. The cost of the coronation 
 amounted to four millions of francs. 
 
 The princes and distinguished foreigners staying in Paris 
 paid an assiduous court to our sovereign, and the Emperor 
 did the honors of Paris with a good grace. Prince Louis of 
 Baden was then very young, and rather shy ; he kept him- 
 self in the background. The Prince Primate, who was over 
 sixty, was amiable, lively, and garrulous. He was well ac- 
 quainted with France, and with Paris, where he had lived in 
 his youth ; he was fond of literature, and friendly with the 
 former Academicians, who were admitted, with a few other 
 persons, to the smaller receptions held by the Empress. 
 During this winter about fifty ladies and a number of gen- 
 tlemen used to be invited, once or twice a week, to sup at 
 the Tuileries. Eight o'clock was the hour named, and full 
 dress, but not Court dress, was worn. We played at cards 
 in the drawing-room on the ground-floor, which is now 
 Madame's drawing-room. On Bonaparte's appearance we 
 
THE COURT OF THE EMPRESS. 227 
 
 used to pass into a music-room, where a musical performance 
 by Italian singers occupied half an hour ; then we returned 
 to the drawing-room, and resumed our cards. The Emperor 
 would move about, either playing or talking. A sumptuous 
 and elegant supper was served at eleven o'clock, the ladies 
 only being seated. Bonaparte's arm-chair would remain un- 
 occupied ; he would saunter round the table, but eat nothing. 
 When supper was over, he would take his departure. The 
 princes and princesses, the great officers of the Empire, two 
 or three ministers, a few marshals, some generals, senators, 
 State councilors, and their wives, were always invited to 
 these small parties. There was great rivalry in dress. The 
 Empress, as well as her sisters-in-law, always appeared in 
 something new, with quantities of pearls and precious stones. 
 She was the possessor of pearls worth a million of francs. 
 At that time stuffs shot with gold or silver began to be worn. 
 During the winter turbans became the fashion at court ; they 
 were made either of white or colored muslin, spotted with 
 gold, or of a brilliant Turkish material. By degrees our gar- 
 ments assumed an Eastern shape : over our richly embroidered 
 muslin gowns we used to wear short dresses of some colored 
 fabric, open in front, and our arms, shoulders, and bosoms 
 uncovered. 
 
 The Emperor, who, as I shall presently relate, was be- 
 coming more and more deeply in love, sought to disguise 
 the fact by paying attentions to all the ladies, and seemed at 
 his ease only when surrounded by them. The gentlemen 
 would then become aware that their presence embarrassed 
 him, and they would retire to an adjoining room. The scene 
 was then not unlike a harem, as I remarked one evening to 
 Bonaparte. He was in a good humor, and laughed ; but my 
 jest was far from pleasing to the Empress. 
 
 The Pope, who passed his evenings in retirement, visited 
 the churches, hospitals, and public institutions in the morn- 
 ing. He officiated on one occasion at Notre Dame, and a 
 great crowd was admitted to kiss his feet. He visited Yer- 
 
228 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 sallies and the suburbs of Paris, and was received with such 
 profound respect at the Invalides that the Emperor grew 
 uneasy. And yet I heard that, while his Holiness was most 
 anxious to return to Rome, the Emperor still detained him. 
 I have never been able to discover his motive. 
 
 The Pope was always dressed in white : having been a 
 monk, he wore a woolen habit, and over it a sort of surplice 
 of cambric trimmed with lace, which had a curious effect. 
 His calotte, or skull-cap, was of white woolen stuff. 
 
 At the end of December the Corps Legislatif was opened 
 in state ; labored speeches upon the importance and the hap- 
 piness of the great event which had just taken place were 
 delivered, and a report, not only flourishing but als*o true, on 
 the prosperous condition of France, was presented. 
 
 Meanwhile, applications for places at the new Court were 
 numerous, and the Emperor acceded to some of them. He 
 also named senators from among the presidents of the elec- 
 toral colleges. Marmont was made colonel-general of the 
 Mounted Chasseurs ; and the Grand Cordon of the Legion of 
 Honor was bestowed on Cambaceres, Lebrun, the Marshals, 
 Cardinal Fesch, MM. Duroc, De Caulaincourt, De Talley- 
 rand, De Segur, and also on several Ministers, the Chief 
 Judge, and on MM. Gaudin and Portalis, Ministers of Pub- 
 lic Worship. These appointments and favors kept every 
 one in a state of expectation. 
 
 Thenceforth the impulse was given ; people became ac- 
 customed to wishing, to waiting, to seeing daily some new 
 thing. Each day would bring forth some little circumstance, 
 unexpected in itself, but anticipated ; for we had acquired a 
 habit of always being on the lookout for something. After- 
 ward the Emperor extended to the entire nation, to the whole 
 of Europe, the system of continually exciting ambition, cu- 
 riosity, and hope : this was not the least ingenious secret of 
 his government. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 (1807.) 
 
 The Emperor in Love Mme. de X Mme. de Damas The Empress confides 
 
 in me Palace Intrigues Murat is raised to the Rank of Prince. 
 
 THE Empress could not forbear from occasionally com- 
 plaining, in private, that her son had no share in the promo- 
 tions which were made daily ; but she had the good sense to 
 conceal her dissatisfaction, and Eugene himself maintained 
 an easy attitude, which was highly honorable to him, and in 
 marked contrast with the jealous impatience of Murat. Mme. 
 Murat was continually importuning the Emperor to raise her 
 husband to a rank which would place him above the Mar- 
 shals, among whom it annoyed him to be included. During 
 the winter both the husband and wife contrived to profit by 
 the weakness of the Emperor, and earned a claim to his favor 
 by making themselves useful in his new love affair, as we 
 shall presently see. 
 
 I have already said that Eugene was captivated by Mme. 
 de X . This lady, who was then twenty-four or twenty- 
 five years of age, was of fair hair and complexion ; her blue 
 eyes could wear any expression she chose, except indeed that 
 of frankness ; her disposition was habitually deceitful. Her 
 nose was aquiline and rather long, her mouth was lovely, and 
 her teeth, which she frequently displayed, were beautiful. 
 She was of middle height, with an elegant but too slender 
 figure ; she had small feet, and danced to perfection. She 
 had no remarkable ability, but was not wanting in clever- 
 
230 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 ness ; her manners were quiet and cold. It was difficult to 
 excite her feelings, still more difficult to hurt them. 
 
 The Empress had at first treated her with marked dis- 
 tinction. She praised her beauty, approved of her style of 
 dress, and made more of her than of others, for the sake of 
 her son, Prince Eugene. This, perhaps, led in the first in- 
 stance to the Emperor's taking notice of her. He began to 
 pay her attention during the sojourn of the Court at Fon- 
 tainebleau. 
 
 Mme. Murat, who was the first to discern her brother's 
 inclination, tried to insinuate herself into the confidence of 
 the lady, and succeeded so far as to set her on her guard 
 against the keen eyes of the Empress. Murat, in accordance, 
 I believe, with some private arrangement, pretended to be 
 
 an admirer of Mme. de X , and thus for a time threw 
 
 the Court off the scent. 
 
 The Empress, who was well aware of the new passion of 
 the Emperor, but could not discover its object, at first sus- 
 pected the Marechale Ney, to whom he was in the habit of 
 talking a good deal ; and for a few days that poor lady was 
 closely watched. As usual, the Empress confided her jealous 
 suspicions to me, but I saw nothing as yet to justify them. 
 
 The Empress complained to Mme. Louis of what she 
 called the perfidy of Mme. Ney. The latter was questioned, 
 and, after having declared that her own feeling toward the 
 Emperor was simply fear, she admitted that he had some- 
 times appeared to pay her attention, and that Mme. de X 
 
 had congratulated her on the grand conquest she was about 
 to make. This was a flash of light to the Empress. She at 
 once discovered the truth, and saw that Murat was feigning 
 love for the lady only that he might be the bearer of declara- 
 tions from the Emperor. 
 
 In Duroc's deference toward Mme. de X she also 
 
 discerned a proof of his master's sentiments, and in the con- 
 duct of Mme. Murat a deeply laid scheme against her own 
 peace of mind. The Emperor began to pass more time in 
 
MME. DE X . 231 
 
 his wife's apartments. Nearly every evening he would come 
 down, and his looks and words betrayed the object of his 
 preference. If Josephine went privately to the theatre for 
 the Emperor did not like her to appear in public without 
 him he would join her party unexpectedly; and day by 
 day he became more engrossed and less capable of self-con- 
 trol. Mme. de X maintained an appearance of indiffer- 
 ence, but she made use of every art of feminine coquetry. 
 Her dress became more and more elegant, her smile more 
 subtle, her looks more full of meaning ; and it was soon easy 
 enough to guess what was going on. The Empress suspected 
 that Mme. Murat connived at secret interviews in her own 
 house, and she afterward became certain of the fact. Then/ 
 according to her custom, she burst into tears and reproaches, 
 and once more I found myself obliged to listen to confidences 
 which were dangerous to receive, and to give advice which 
 was never heeded. 
 
 The Empress attempted expostulations, but they were 
 very badly taken. Her husband lost his temper, reproached 
 her with opposing his pleasures, and ordered her to be silent ; 
 and while she, abandoned to her grief, was sad and downcast 
 in public, he, more gay, free, and animated than we had yet 
 seen him, paid attention to us all, and lavished rough com- 
 pliments on us. On the occasions of the Empress's recep- 
 tions, of which I have already spoken, he looked really like 
 a Sultan. He would sit down to a card-table, often selecting 
 
 his sister Caroline, Mme. de X , and myself to make up 
 
 his game ; and, scarcely noticing his cards, he would start 
 some sentimental discussion in his own style, with more wit 
 than sentiment, occasionally with doubtful taste, but with a 
 
 great deal of animation. On these occasions Mme. de X 
 
 was very reserved, and, being probably afraid lest I might 
 make some discoveries, would answer in monosyllables only. 
 
 Mme. Murat took but slight interest in these conversa- 
 tions ; she always went straight to her point, and cared little 
 for detail. As for me, I was amused by them, and I could 
 
232 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 take my part with a liberty of spirit not possessed by the 
 other three, who were all more or less preoccupied. Some- 
 times, without naming any one, Bonaparte would commence 
 . a dissertation on jealousy, and then it was easy to see that 
 he applied it to his wife. I understood him, and defended 
 her gayly, as well as I could, without plainly indicating her ; 
 
 and I could see that Mme. de X and Mme. Murat gave 
 
 me no thanks for that. 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte would keep a watch on us during these 
 conversations, which always made her uneasy, from the 
 other end of the room, where she was playing at cards. Al- 
 though she had reason to know she might depend on me, 
 "yet, as she was naturally suspicious, she sometimes feared 
 that I would sacrifice her to the desire of pleasing the Em- 
 peror, and she was also vexed with me because I would not 
 tax him with his conduct. 
 
 She would sometimes ask me to go to him and tell him 
 of the harm which, as she said, this new entanglement was 
 doing him in the eyes of the world ; again, she wanted me 
 
 to contrive that Mme. de X should be watched in her 
 
 own house, whither she knew Bonaparte sometimes went of 
 an evening ; or else she would make me write, in her pres- 
 ence, anonymous letters full of reproaches. These I wrote 
 in order to satisfy her, and to prevent her from getting other 
 persons to write them ; but I carefully burned them after- 
 ward, although I assured her that I had sent them. 
 
 Servants whom she could trust were employed to dis- 
 cover the proofs she sought for. The employees of her 
 favorite tradespeople were taken into her confidence, and I 
 suffered the more from her imprudent conduct, when I 
 learned shortly afterward that Mme. Murat put down all the 
 discoveries made by the Empress to my account, and accused 
 me of a mean espionage of which I was incapable. 
 
 The Empress was the more distressed because her son 
 
 was profoundly grieved by this affair. Mme. de X , 
 
 who, either from coquetry, inclination, or vanity, had at first 
 
MME. DE X. 233 
 
 listened favorably to him, avoided even the slightest appear- 
 ance of friendship with him since her new and more brilliant 
 conquest. She probably boasted to the Emperor of the pas- 
 sion with which she had inspired Eugene ; certain it is that 
 the latter was treated with coldness by his stepfather. The 
 Empress showed her anger at this ; the Princess Louis was 
 also distressed, but she concealed her feelings ; Eugene was 
 sore at heart, but his outward composure laid him little open 
 to attack. 
 
 In all this the undying hatred between the Bonapartes 
 and the Beauharnais was displayed, and it was my fate to 
 find myself entangled in it, notwithstanding all my modera- 
 tion. I have discovered by experience that everything, or 
 nearly everything, depends on chance at Court. Human 
 prudence is not a sufficient safeguard, and I know no means 
 of escaping from misconstruction, unless the sovereign him- 
 self be incapable of suspicion. Far from this, however, the 
 Emperor welcomed all gossip, and believed everything that 
 was ill-natured, on any subject. The surest way to please 
 him was to carry every rumor to him, and to denounce 
 everybody's conduct ; and therefore M. de Remusat, who 
 was placed so near him, never obtained his favor. He de- 
 clined to tread such a path to success, although it was fre- 
 quently pointed out to him by Duroc. 
 
 One evening the Emperor, who was quite out of patience, 
 owing to a scene with his wife, in which, driven to despera- 
 tion, she had declared she would forbid the entry of her 
 
 apartments to Mme. de X , addressed himself to M. de 
 
 Remusat, and complained that I did not use my influence 
 over her to dissuade her from acts of imprudence. He con- 
 cluded by telling him that he wished to speak to me in pri- 
 vate, and that I was to ask for an audience. M. de Kemusat 
 conveyed this order to me, and accordingly on the following 
 day I asked for an audience, which was fixed for the next 
 morning. 
 
 A hunting-party had been arranged for that day. The 
 
234: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 Empress started first with the foreign princes ; she was to 
 wait for the Emperor in the Bois de Boulogne. I arrived 
 just as the Emperor was entering his carriage ; his suite was 
 assembled round him. He returned to his cabinet in order 
 to receive me, to the great astonishment of the Court, to 
 whom the merest trifle was an event. 
 
 He began by complaining bitterly of the discussions in 
 his household, and launched out into invectives against wo- 
 men in general, and his own wife in particular. He re- 
 proached me with assisting her spies, and accused me of 
 many actions of which I knew nothing whatever, but which 
 had been reported to him. I recognized in all he said the 
 ill offices of Mme. Murat, and, what hurt me more, I per- 
 ceived that in several instances the Empress had used my 
 name, and had attributed to me her own words or thoughts, 
 in order to strengthen her case. This, together with the 
 Emperor's angry words, distressed me, and tears rose to 
 my eyes. The Emperor noticed them, and rudely rebuked 
 my emotion with a saying which he frequently used, and 
 which I have already quoted : " Women have always two 
 ways of producing an effect paint and tears." Just then 
 these words, uttered in an ironical tone and with the inten- 
 tion of disconcerting me, had the opposite effect ; they an- 
 gered me, and gave me courage to answer : " No, Sire ; but 
 when I am unjustly accused, I can not but weep tears of in- 
 dignation." 
 
 I must render this testimony to the Emperor : he was 
 seldom hard upon any one who displayed firmness ; either 
 because, meeting with it seldom, he was unprepared for it, 
 or because his natural sense of justice responded to a feeling 
 justly entertained. 
 
 He was not displeased with me. " Since you do not ap- 
 prove," he said, " of the watch set over me by the Empress, 
 how is it your influence is not sufficient to deter her ? She 
 humiliates both herself and me by surrounding me with 
 spies; she only furnishes weapons to her enemies. Since 
 
MMR DE X 235 
 
 you are in her confidence, you must answer for her, and I 
 shall hold you responsible for all her faults." He smiled 
 slightly as he spoke these words. Then I represented to 
 him that I was tenderly attached to the Empress ; that I 
 was incapable of advising her to an improper course of ac- 
 tion ; but that no one could gain much influence over a per- 
 son of so passionate a nature. I told him that he showed 
 no tact in dealing with her, and that, whether he was right- 
 ly or wrongly suspected, he was harsh and treated her too 
 roughly. I durst not blame the Empress for that which was 
 really blameworthy in her conduct, for I knew he would not 
 fail to repeat my words to his wife. I ended by telling him 
 that I should keep away from the palace for some time, and 
 that he would see whether things went on any better in con- 
 sequence. 
 
 He then said that he was not, and could not be, in love ; 
 that he thought no more of Mme. de X than of any- 
 body else ; that love was for men of a different disposition 
 from his own ; that he was altogether absorbed in politics ; 
 that he would have no women ruling in his Court ; that they 
 had injured Henry IY. and Louis XIV. ; that his own busi- 
 ness was a much more serious one than that of those kings, 
 and that Frenchmen had become too grave to pardon their 
 sovereign for recognized liaisons and official mistresses. He 
 spoke of his wife's past conduct, adding that she had not the 
 right to be severe. I ventured to check him on this subject, 
 and he was not angry with me. Finally, he questioned me 
 as to the individuals who were employed as spies by the Em- 
 press. I could only answer that I knew none of them. Then 
 he reproached me with want of attachment to himself. I 
 maintained that I was more sincerely devoted than those who 
 carried worthless gossip to him. This conversation ended 
 better than it had begun ; I could perceive that I had made 
 a favorable impression. 
 
 . This interview had lasted a long time ; and the Empress, 
 who grew tired of waiting in the Bois de Boulogne, had sent 
 
236 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 a mounted servant to discover what was detaining her hus- 
 band. She was informed that he was alone with me. Her 
 uneasiness became very great ; she returned to the Tuileries, 
 and, finding I was no longer there, she sent Mme. de Tal- 
 houet to m y house to learn all that had taken place. In 
 obedience to the Emperor's commands, I replied that the 
 conversation had been restricted to certain matters relative 
 to M. de Kemusat. 
 
 In the evening there was a dance at General Savary's, at 
 which the Emperor had promised to be present. During 
 the winter he took every opportunity of appearing in so- 
 ciety ; he was in good spirits, and would even dance, rather 
 awkwardly. I arrived at Mme. Savary's before the Court 
 party. The Grand Marshal (Duroc) came forward to meet 
 me, and offered his arm to conduct me to my place ; and our 
 host was full of attentions. My long audience of that morn- 
 ing had given rise to conjectures ; I was treated with re- 
 spect, as though I were in high favor, or had received confi- 
 dential communications. I could not help smiling at the 
 simple cunning of these courtiers. 
 
 Presently the Emperor and Empress arrived. In making 
 his progress round the room, Bonaparte stopped and spoke 
 to me in a friendly manner. The Empress was watching us, 
 full of anxiety. Mme. Murat looked astonished and Mme. 
 
 de X nervous. All this amused me ; I did not foresee 
 
 the consequences. The next day the Empress pressed me 
 with questions which I took care not to answer ; she became 
 offended, and declared that I was sacrificing her to the Em- 
 peror, that I chose the safe side, and that I no more than 
 others cared for her. Her reproaches grieved me deeply. 
 
 I confided all my troubles to my dear mother. I was ac- 
 quiring a bitter experience, and was still young enough to 
 shed tears over it. My mother comforted me, and advised 
 me to hold myself a little aloof, which I did ; but this did 
 not help me. The Emperor obliged me to speak to him, 
 and, when he reproached his wife for her indiscreet behavior, 
 
MME. DE DAMAS. 237 
 
 pretended he was repeating my opinions. The Empress 
 treated me with coldness ; I saw that she avoided speaking 
 to me, and, for my part, I did not consider myself bound to 
 seek her confidence. 
 
 The Emperor, who enjoyed sowing dissension between 
 us, perceived the coolness, and paid me, in consequence, all 
 
 the more attention; but Mme. de X , who had been 
 
 taught to dislike me, and was uneasy at the favor in which I 
 was held, and who also perhaps did me the honor of feeling 
 a little jealous, tried in every way to injure me. As every- 
 thing in this world works together for evil purposes only 
 too readily, she found an opportunity in which she was per- 
 fectly successful. 
 
 On the other hand, Eugene Beauharnais and the Princess 
 Louis were convinced that I had betrayed their mother, in 
 order to further the ambition of M. de Remusat, who pre- 
 ferred the favor of the master to that of the mistress. M. 
 de Remusat held himself entirely aloof from all these mat- 
 ters ; but, where ambition is concerned, the probable is al- 
 ways the true in the belief of dwellers in a court. Eugene, 
 who had been friendly to my husband, now kept aloof from 
 him. As courtiers, our position was not an unfavorable one ; 
 but, as we were merely honorable people and would not reap 
 any disgraceful advantage from it, we were both greatly dis- 
 tressed. 
 
 I have still to relate how Mme. de X contrived to 
 
 strike the final blow. Among my mother's friends and mine 
 was Mme. Charles de Damas, whose daughter, the wife of 
 the Count de Yogiie, was the intimate friend of my sister, 
 and was also intimate, though in a less degree, with myself. 
 Mme. de Damas was an ardent Hoyalist, and in the habit of 
 expressing her opinions with some imprudence. She had 
 even been accused, after the affair of the 3d Mvose (the in- 
 fernal machine), of having concealed certain Chouans who 
 were implicated. In the autumn of 1804 Mme. de Damas 
 was exiled to a distance of forty leagues from Paris, on ac- 
 
238 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 count of some foolish speeches. This act of severity sorely 
 distressed both the mother and the daughter : the latter was 
 near her confinement, and I, having witnessed their tears and 
 shared their grief, went for consolation to the Empress. She 
 spoke to her husband, and he was good enough to listen to 
 my petition, and to grant me the revocation of the sentence. 
 
 Mme. de Damas, in her impulsive and affectionate way, 
 published abroad the service I had rendered her, and, bound 
 by feelings of gratitude to the Empress, as well as alarmed 
 at the risk she had run, she became thenceforth more careful 
 of her words. She never mentioned politics to me, but re- 
 spected my position as I respected her feelings. 
 
 It happened, however, that in the Marquise de C , a 
 
 lady who had formerly been celebrated at Court and in so- 
 ciety for her brilliancy of repartee, Mme. de Damas had an 
 
 enemy. Mme. de C was on friendly terms with Mme. de 
 
 X , and, having discovered her liaison with the Emper- 
 or, she extorted an avowal of the facts from Mme. de X . 
 
 Then, being of an active and scheming disposition, she 
 undertook to advise her friend in her capacity of mistress 
 to the sovereign. They had some conversation about me, 
 
 and Mme. de C , who always imagined the intrigues of 
 
 Versailles in the incidents of the Emperor's Court, con- 
 cluded, with some show of probability, that it was my inten- 
 tion to supplant the new favorite. As I was reputed to pos- 
 sess some talent, and as my reputation on this point owed a 
 great deal to my mother's, it was supposed that I must be 
 
 fond of intrigue. Mme. de C , intending to do a bad 
 
 turn to Mme. de Damas, and at the same time to injure me, 
 
 mentioned her to Mme. de X as a woman more devoted 
 
 than ever to her Eoyalist opinions, ready to enter into any 
 secret correspondence, and to abuse the indulgence with 
 which she had been treated, by acting against the Emperor 
 whenever she could. My friendship with her was described 
 as more intimate than it really was ; and this, being reported 
 to the Emperor, served to prejudice him against me. He no 
 
THE EMPRESS CONFIDES IN ME. 239 
 
 longer summoned me to join him at the card-table, nor con- 
 versed with me ; I was not invited to Malmaison or to the 
 hunting-parties ; in short, I found myself in disgrace without 
 being able to guess at the cause, for, on account of my fail- 
 ing health, I was living in comparative solitude and retire- 
 ment. My husband and I were too closely united for dis- 
 grace to fall on one without including the other, and neither 
 of us could understand why we were thus treated. 
 
 As the Emperor's friendship for me cooled, I regained 
 the confidence of his wife, who took me back into favor as 
 lightly as she had given me up, and without a word of ex- 
 planation. By this time I knew her sufficiently to under- 
 stand that explanations would be useless. She enlightened 
 me respecting the Emperor's displeasure. She had learned 
 from him that Mme. de C and Mme. de X had in- 
 formed against me. He had gone so far as to acknowledge to 
 his wife that he was in love, and gave her to understand that 
 he must not be thwarted ; adding, in order to console her, 
 that it was a passing fancy, which would only be increased by 
 opposition, but would soon pass away if it were not balked. 
 
 The Empress made up her mind to endurance ; but she 
 
 never addressed Mme. de X . The latter cared little for 
 
 that, however, and regarded the conjugal broils of which she 
 was the cause with impudent indifference. Besides, under 
 the direction of Mme. Murat, she ministered to the Emper- 
 or's tastes by retailing to him a great deal of evil of a great 
 number of people. Many persons were ruined during her 
 spell of favor, and she fostered the worst qualities of the 
 Emperor's suspicious nature. 
 
 When I learned this new accusation against me, I again 
 requested an audience of him ; but this time his manner was 
 stern. He reproached me with being friendly only with his 
 enemies, with having defended the Polignacs, with being an 
 agent of the "aristocrats." "I intended to make a great 
 lady of you," he said "to raise your fortunes to a great 
 height ; but all that can only be the reward of entire devo- 
 20 
 
MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE KfiMUSAT. 
 
 tion. You must break with your former friends, and, the 
 next time Mme. de Damas comes to your house, you must 
 refuse her admittance, and have her told that you can not 
 associate with my enemies. Then I shall believe in your 
 attachment." I made no attempt to point out to him how 
 contrary such a mode of action would be to all my habits; 
 but I consented to refrain from seeing Mme. de Damas, 
 whose conduct, at least since the pardon had been granted 
 her, I defended. He spoke to me very severely; he was 
 deeply prejudiced, and I saw that I must only trust to time 
 to open his eyes. 
 
 A few days later Mme. de Damas was again ordered into 
 exile. She was ill in bed ; and the Emperor sent Corvisart 
 to her, to certify whether, in fact, she could not be removed. 
 Corvisart was a friend of mine, and gave his opinion accord- 
 ing to my wishes ; but at length Mme. de Damas recovered 
 and left Paris. It was long before she returned. I no longer 
 visited her, nor did she come to me, but she retained her 
 former affection for me, and perfectly understood the mo- 
 tives which constrained me to act as I did. Count Charles 
 de Damas, who was straightforward, simple, and less indis- 
 creet than his wife, was never annoyed by the police, while 
 they kept constant watch on Mme. de Damas. Some years 
 later, the Emperor gave Mme. de Yogiie to understand that 
 he wished her to be presented at Court : this was during the 
 reign of the Archduchess.* 
 
 Meanwhile the Bonapartes triumphed. Eugene, the con- 
 stant object of their jealousy, was positively badly treated, 
 and was a source of secret trouble to the Emperor. Sud- 
 denly, toward the end of January, in very severe weather, 
 Eugene received orders to proceed with his regiment to Italy 
 within four and twenty hours. Eugene felt convinced that 
 he was in complete disgrace. The Empress, believing this to 
 be the doing of Mme. de X , wept bitterly, but her son 
 
 * On the death of M. de Vogue, his widow married the Count de Chastellux, 
 now a colonel, and brother-in-law to the imprudent La Bedoyere. 
 
A BROTHERS OBEDIENCE. 241 
 
 strictly forbade her to make any appeal. He took leave of 
 the Emperor, who received him with coldness, and we heard 
 the following day that the Guards' Hegiment of Guides had 
 departed, its colonel marching at its head, notwithstanding 
 the inclemency of the season. 
 
 The Princess Louis, in speaking to me of this harsh act, 
 expressed her pride in her brother's obedience. "If the 
 Emperor," she said, " had exacted such a thing from a mem- 
 ber of his own family, you would have seen what a noise 
 would have been made ; but not one word has been uttered 
 in this case, and I think Bonaparte must be impressed by 
 such an act of submission." And in fact he was, but still 
 more by the ill-natured satisfaction of his brothers and sisters. 
 He liked to disappoint them ; and although, in a fit of jeal- 
 ousy, he had sent away his stepson, he immediately re- 
 warded him for his good behavior. On the 1st of February, 
 1805, the Senate received two letters * from the Emperor. 
 
 * The following are the two messages addressed by the Emperor on the same 
 day, 12th Pluvi6se, year 13 (1st February, 1805), to the Senate: 
 
 " SENATORS : We have appointed our brother-in-law, Marshal Murat, to be 
 Grand Admiral of the Empire. We desire to recognize not only his services to the 
 country, and the particular attachment he has shown to our person throughout his 
 whole life, but also what is due to the luster and dignity of the Crown, by raising 
 to the rank of Prince an individual so closely allied to us by the ties of blood." 
 
 " SENATORS : We have appointed our stepson, Eugene Beauharnais, Vice- 
 Arch-Chaneellor of State to the Empire. Among all the acts of our sovereignty, 
 there is not one more gratifying to our heart. Brought up by our care, and 
 from his childhood, under our own people, he has proved himself worthy of imi- 
 tating, and, with the help of God, of some day surpassing, the ^samples and the 
 lessons we have given him. Although he is still young, we shall from this day 
 forward consider him, on account of the experience we have had of his conduct 
 in the most momentous circumstances, as one of the pillars of our throne, and 
 one of the most able defenders of his country. In the midst of the cares and 
 trials of the high rank to which we have been called, our heart has sought for 
 affection in the tenderness and consoling friendship of this child of our adop- 
 tion; a consolation which is, no doubt, necessary to all men, but preeminently 
 so to us, whose every moment is devoted to the affairs of nations. Our paternal 
 blessing will follow this young Prince throughout his whole career, and, with 
 the help of Providence, he will one day be worthy of the approbation of pos- 
 terity." P. R. 
 
24:2 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE EtiMUSAT. 
 
 In one he announced the elevation of Marshal Murat to the 
 rank of Prince and Grand Admiral of the Empire. This 
 was the reward of his recent acts of complaisance, and the 
 result of Mme. Murat's importunities. In the other letter, 
 which was couched in nattering and affectionate terms toward 
 Eugene, he was created Yice- Arch-Chancellor of State. This 
 was one of the great posts of the Empire. Eugene heard of 
 his promotion when ha was a few miles from Lyons, where 
 the courier found him on horseback at the head of his regi- 
 ment, covered with thickly falling snow. 
 
 Before I deal with the union of the crown of Italy with 
 that of France, a great event which afforded us a new spec- 
 tacle, and was the cause of the war that broke out in the 
 autumn of this year, I will relate all that remains to be told 
 concerning Mme. de X . 
 
 She seemed to engross the Emperor's thoughts more and 
 more ; and, as she became assured of her power, so she be- 
 came less circumspect in her conduct toward the Empress, 
 and seemed to delight in her misery. During a short stay 
 which we made at Malmaison, appearances were more than 
 ever outraged. To the surprise of every one, the Emperor 
 
 would walk about the grounds with Mme. de X and 
 
 young Mme. Savary whose eyes and tongue were not at all 
 formidable and he devoted less time than usual to business. 
 The Empress remained in her room, weeping, tortured with 
 apprehension, brooding upon recognized liaisons, disgrace 
 and oblivion for herself, and possibly divorce, the continu- 
 ally recurring' object of her apprehensions. She no longer 
 had courage for useless altercations ; but her sadness bore 
 witness to her grief, and at last touched her husband's heart. 
 Perhaps his love for her revived, or possession weakened his 
 
 passion for Mme. de X , or he became ashamed of the 
 
 sway the latter exercised over him ; but, whatever was the 
 cause, that which he had predicted of himself came to pass. 
 One day, when he was alone with his wife and saw her 
 weeping at something he had said, he suddenly resumed the 
 
AN INTERVIEW. 243 
 
 affectionate manner of former times, and, admitting her to 
 the most intimate confidence, owned to her once more that 
 he had been very much infatuated, but said that it was all 
 over. He added that he had detected an attempt to govern 
 
 him that Mme. de X had told him a number of very 
 
 ill-natured stories ; and he actually concluded by asking the 
 Empress to assist him to put an end to a liaison which he no 
 longer cared about. 
 
 The Empress was not in the least vindictive ; it is but 
 just to say that for her. So soon as she found that she no 
 longer had anything to fear, her anger vanished. Delighted 
 to be rid of her trouble, she showed no severity toward the 
 Emperor, but once more became the gentle and indulgent 
 wife, always ready to forgive him. She objected to any 
 publicity on this occasion, and even promised her husband 
 
 that, if he would alter his behavior to Mme. de X , she, 
 
 on her part, would alter hers also, and would shield the lady 
 from any annoyance which might result from the change. 
 She only claimed the right to an interview with Mme. de 
 
 X . Accordingly, she sent for her, and spoke to her 
 
 plainly and frankly, pointing out the risk she had run, ex- 
 cusing her apparent levity on the plea of her youth and im- 
 prudence, recommending greater discretion for the future, 
 and promising that the past should be forgotten. 
 
 During this conversation Mme. de X remained per- 
 fectly self-possessed, calmly denying that she deserved any 
 such admonitions, evincing no emotion, not a trace of grati- 
 tude. In sight of the whole Court, which for some time 
 continued to observe her, she maintained a cool and self- 
 contained demeanor, which proved that her heart was not 
 much concerned in the intimacy now broken off, and also 
 that she could keep her private feelings well in check for 
 it is difficult to believe that her vanity, at any rate, was not 
 deeply mortified. The Emperor, who, as I have already 
 said, dreaded the least appearance of being ruled by anybody, 
 ostentatiously exhibited his freedom. He was not even 
 
244 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 commonly civil to Mme. de X ; he never looked at her ; 
 
 and he spoke slightingly of her, either to Mme. Bonaparte, 
 who could not deny herself the pleasure of repeating his 
 words, or to men with whom he was on familiar terms. He 
 was careful to explain that this had only been a passing 
 fancy, and would relate the successive phases of it with in- 
 decent candor, most insulting toward her who had been its 
 object. He was ashamed of his infatuation, for it was a 
 proof that he had submitted to a power stronger than his 
 own. 
 
 This behavior confirmed me in a belief which I had 
 often expounded to the Empress in order to console her. To 
 be the wife of such a man might be a grand and enviable 
 position, gratifying to one's pride at least ; but to be his mis- 
 tress could never be otherwise than unsatisfactory, for his 
 was not a nature to compensate a weak and loving woman 
 for the sacrifices she would have to make for him, nor to af- 
 ford an ambitious one the means of exercising power. 
 
 With the short reign of Mme. de X the influence of 
 
 Murat and the Bonapartes came for the time being to an 
 end ; for, on the reconciliation of the Emperor with his wife, 
 his former confidence in her revived, and he heard from her 
 lips of all the petty schemes of which she had been the vic- 
 tim and himself the object. I profited in a measure by the 
 change ; yet the impression which had been made could not 
 be altogether effaced, and the Emperor retained his convic- 
 tion that M. de Eemusat and I were incapable of the sort of 
 devotion that he required, a devotion claiming the sacrifice 
 both of personal inclinations and of those convenances which 
 he despised. He had a right, perhaps, to expect the former : 
 one ought to renounce a Court life, unless one can make it the 
 only sphere of one's thoughts and actions ; and neither my 
 husband nor I was capable of doing so. I have always longed to 
 attach myself with all my heart to the duties of my state, and 
 at this period I was too heart-sore not to feel some constraint 
 in performing those which devolved on me. I began to see 
 
DIFFERENCE OF CHARACTER IN SOVEREIGNS. 245 
 
 that the Emperor was not the man I had taken him for. 
 Already he inspired me with fear rather than with affection ; 
 and, in proportion as my assiduity in obeying him increased, 
 I felt the sharp pain of vanishing illusions, and I suffered 
 beforehand from all that I foresaw. The quaking of the 
 earth on which we stood alarmed both M. de Remusat and 
 myself, and he especially resigned himself with difficulty to 
 a life which was extremely unpleasing to him. 
 
 When I recall these troubles now, how happy I am to 
 see him, quiet and contented, at the head of affairs in an im- 
 portant province, honorably fulfilling the duty of a good 
 citizen, and serving his country usefully ! * Can there be a 
 worthier employment of the faculties of an enlightened and 
 high-hearted man, or a greater contrast with the restless, 
 troublesome, not to say ridiculous life which has to be led, 
 without one moment's intermission, in the courts of kings ? 
 I say courts, because they are all alike. No doubt the dif- 
 ference of character in sovereigns has some influence over 
 the lives of those who surround them ; there are shades of 
 difference in the homage exacted by Louis XIV., our own 
 King Louis XVIII., the Emperor Alexander, or Bonaparte. 
 But, though masters may differ, courtiers are everywhere the 
 same ; the same passions are in play, for vanity is invariably 
 their secret spring. Jealousy, the longing to supplant others, 
 the fear of being stopped on the road, or finding others pre- 
 ferred to one's self these do, and always will, cause similar 
 perturbations ; and I am prof oundly persuaded that any one, 
 who, dwelling in a palace, wishes to exercise his faculties of 
 thinking and of feeling, must be unhappy. 
 
 Toward the end of this winter the Imperial Court was 
 again augmented. A number of persons, among whom I 
 could name some who are now inexorable to all who ever 
 were in the Emperor's service, were eagerly bidding for place. 
 The Empress, M. de Talleyrand, and M. de Bmusat received 
 
 * At the time I write, September, 1818, my husband is Prefect of the D6par- 
 tement du Nord. 
 
24:6 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 their requests, and handed long lists to Bonaparte, who would 
 smile when he saw in the same column the names of ci-de- 
 vant Liberals, of soldiers who had been jealous of his pro- 
 motion, and of gentlemen who, after having jeered at what 
 they called our farce of royalty, were now all begging to be 
 allowed to play parts in it. Some of these petitions were 
 granted. Mesdames de Turenne, de Montalivet, de Bouille, 
 Devaux, and Marescot were appointed Ladies-in- Waiting ; 
 MM. Hedouville, de Croij, de Mercy d'Argenteau, de 
 Tournon, and de Bondy were made Chamberlains to the 
 Emperor ; MM. de Beam, de Courtomer, and the Prince de 
 Gavre, Chamberlains to the Empress ; M. de Canisy, Equer- 
 ry ; M. de Bausset, Prefect of the Palace, etc. 
 
 This numerous Court consisted of various elements for- 
 eign to each other, but all were brought to one level by fear 
 of the all-powerful master. There was little rivalry among 
 the ladies ; they were strangers to each other, and did not 
 become intimate. The Empress treated them all alike. 
 Mme. de la Rochefoucauld, light-hearted and easy-tempered, 
 showed no jealousy toward any one. The Mistress of the 
 Robes was amiable, silent, and nothing more. Day by day 
 I drew back from the somewhat dangerous friendship of the 
 Empress; but I must own that such was her evenness of 
 temper, so gracious was her bearing, that the Court circle by 
 which she was surrounded was free from disturbance or jeal- 
 ousy. 
 
 It was not so in the case of the Emperor but then he 
 himself designedly kept up a state of disquiet. For instance, 
 M. de Talleyrand, who had slightly diminished the impor- 
 tance of M. de Remusat's position, not with the intention of 
 injuring him, but in order to satisfy some new-comers who 
 were jealous of my husband, was brought into closer contact 
 with him afterward, and began to appreciate his worth and 
 to show some interest in him. Bonaparte perceived this. 
 The slightest appearance of private friendship alarmed him, 
 and he took the minutest precautions to prevent anything of 
 
BONAPARTE'S ADVICE. 247 
 
 the kind ; so he spoke to m j husband one day in a tone of 
 unusual cordiality. " Take care," said he, " M. de Talley- 
 rand seems to be making advances to you ; but I know to a 
 certainty that he bears you no good will." 
 
 " And why should M. de Talleyrand bear me ill will ? " 
 said my husband to me, on repeating these words. "We could 
 not tell why, but this speech gave us a feeling of distrust, 
 which was all that the Emperor wanted. 
 
 Such was the state of things at the Emperor's Court in 
 the spring of 1805. I will now retrace my steps and give an 
 account of the momentous resolution that was come to con- 
 cerning the crown of Italy. 
 
BOOK II. 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 (1805.) 
 
 Opening of the Session of the Senate M. de Talleyrand's Eeport Letter from the 
 Emperor to the King of England Union of the Crown of Italy to the Empire 
 Mme. Bacciochi becomes Princess of Piombino Performance of " Athalie" 
 The Emperor goes to Italy His Dissatisfaction M. de Talleyrand Prospect 
 of War with Austria. 
 
 ON the 4th of February, 1805, we were informed by the 
 " Moniteur " that the King of England had intimated, in his 
 speech on the opening of Parliament on the 16th of January, 
 that the Emperor had made fresh propositions of reconcilia- 
 tion. The Government had replied that nothing could be 
 agreed upon without previously conferring with the other 
 Powers of the Continent, and especially with the Emperor 
 Alexander. 
 
 According to custom, some sharp comments were made 
 upon this speech, which, while they put forward the friendly 
 relations that existed at least, outwardly between ourselves 
 and the sovereigns of Europe, yet admitted a certain coolness 
 between the Emperors of Russia and of France, and attributed 
 this coolness to the intrigues of MM. de Marcoff and de Yo- 
 ronzoff, who were both partisans of the English policy. The 
 King's speech also announced war between England and 
 Spain. 
 
 On the same day, the 4th of February, the Senate having 
 been assembled, M. de Talleyrand presented a report, very 
 
LETTER FROM THE EMPEROR. 249 
 
 ably drawn up, in which he expounded the system of con- 
 duct adopted by Bonaparte toward the English. He de- 
 scribed it as a constant effort for peace, while entertaining 
 no fear of war. He drew attention to the state of our prepa- 
 rations which threatened the English coasts, many flotillas 
 being equipped and ready in the harbors ; and to the army, 
 large in numbers and high in heart. He gave an account of 
 the means of defense which the enemy had gathered together 
 on the coasts, and which proved that the landing of the 
 French was not looked upon as impossible ; and, after be- 
 stowing the highest praise on the conduct of the Emperor, 
 he read to the assembled Senate the following letter, ad- 
 dressed to the King of England : 
 
 " SIR AND BROTHER : 
 
 " Having been called by Providence, and by the voice of 
 the Senate, the people, and the army, to the throne of France, 
 my first feeling is a desire for peace. 
 
 " France and England are wasting their prosperity. They 
 may contend for centuries ; but are their Governments right- 
 fully fulfilling their most sacred duty, and does not their con- 
 science reproach them with so much blood shed in vain, for 
 no definite end ? I am not ashamed to take the initiative. 
 I have, I think, sufficiently proved to the whole world that I 
 do not fear the chances of war. Indeed, war can bring me 
 nothing to fear. Peace is my heartfelt wish, but war has 
 never been adverse to my renown. I implore your Majesty 
 not to deprive yourself of the happiness of bestowing peace 
 on the world. Do not delegate so consolatory an action to 
 your children. Never was there a better occasion, nor a 
 more favorable moment for imposing silence on passion, and 
 for listening only to the voice of humanity and reason. If 
 this opportunity be lost, what term can be assigned to a war 
 which all my endeavors might fail to terminate ? In the last 
 ten years your Majesty's kingdom has increased in magnitude 
 and wealth by more than the whole extent of Europe ; your 
 
250 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MU8AT. 
 
 nation has reached the highest point of prosperity. What 
 do you hope to gain by war ? The coalition of some con- 
 tinental powers ? The Continent will remain tranquil. A 
 coalition would but increase the preponderance and the con- 
 tinental greatness of France. To renew internal difficulties ? 
 The times are no longer the same. To destroy our revenues ? 
 Revenues founded on good husbandry are not to be destroyed. 
 To snatch her colonies from France ? Colonies are objects 
 of but secondary importance to France ; and does not your 
 Majesty already possess more than you can keep ? If your 
 Majesty will reflect on it, you will see that war will be with- 
 out an object, without any probable result for yourself. Ah ! 
 how sad a prospect is it to engage nations in war for war's 
 sake! 
 
 " The world is large enough for our two nations to live 
 in it, and the power of reason is sufficient to enable us to 
 overcome all difficulties, if on both sides there is the will to 
 do BO. In any case, I have fulfilled a duty which I hold to 
 be righteous, and which is dear to my heart. I trust your 
 Majesty will believe in the sincerity of the sentiments I have 
 just expressed, and in my earnest desire to give you a proof 
 
 of them. On this, etc. 
 
 (Signed) " NAPOLEON. 
 
 PAMS ji2Niv6se,yeari3. 
 
 '( Id January, 1806." 
 
 After having eulogized this letter (surely a remarkable 
 one !) as a striking proof of Bonaparte's love for the French, 
 of his desire for peace, and of his generous moderation, M. 
 de Talleyrand communicated the reply of Lord Mulgrave, 
 the Foreign Secretary. It was as follows : 
 
 " His Majesty has received the letter addressed to him by 
 the chief of the French Government, dated the 2d inst. 
 
 " His Majesty has no dearer wish than to embrace the 
 first opportunity of once more procuring for his subjects the 
 advantages of a peace which shall be founded on bases not 
 
LORD MULGRAVE'S REPLY. 251 
 
 incompatible with, the permanent security and the essential 
 interests of his States. His Majesty is convinced that this 
 end can only be attained by an arrangement which will pro- 
 vide alike for the future security and tranquillity of Europe, 
 and prevent a renewal of the dangers and misfortunes which 
 have beset the Continent. 
 
 " His Majesty, therefore, feels it to be impossible to reply 
 more decisively to the question which has been put to him, 
 until he has had time to communicate with those continental 
 Powers with whom he is allied, and particularly with the 
 Emperor of Eussia, who has given the strongest proofs of 
 his wisdom and good feeling, and of the deep interest which 
 he takes in the security and independence of Europe. 
 
 " Uth January, 1805." 
 
 The vague and indefinite character of this thoroughly 
 diplomatic reply exhibited the Emperor's letter to great 
 advantage. That letter was firm in tone, and bore every 
 appearance of magnanimous sincerity. It had, therefore, a 
 good effect, and the various reports of those whose task it 
 was to present it to the three great bodies of the State put it 
 in the most favorable light. . 
 
 The report of Kegnault de Saint-Jean d'Angely, Coun- 
 cilor of State, is remarkable and interesting even now. The 
 praises accorded to the Emperor, thpugh carried to excess, 
 are finely phrased ; the picture of Europe is ably drawn ; 
 that of the evil which war must entail on England is at least 
 specious ; and, finally, the description of our prosperity at 
 that period is impressive, and very little, if at all, exagger- 
 ated. 
 
 "France," he said, "has nothing to ask from Heaven, but 
 that the sun may continue to shine, the rain to fall on our 
 fields, and the earth to render the seed fruitful." 
 
 All this was true then, and, had a wise administration, a 
 moderate government, and a liberal constitution been given to 
 France, that prosperity would have been consolidated. But 
 
252 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^SMUSAT. 
 
 constitutional ideas formed no part of Bonaparte's plan. 
 Perhaps he really believed, as he often said, that the French 
 character and the geographical position of France were op- 
 posed to representative government. Perhaps, conscious of 
 his own strength and ability, he could not make up his mind 
 to sacrifice to the future well-being of France those advan- 
 tages which he believed he could give us by the mere strength 
 of his will. Whatever was the case, he seldom lost an oppor- 
 tunity of disparaging our neighbor's form of government. 
 
 " The unfortunate position in which you have placed your 
 nation," he wrote in the " Moniteur," addressing himself to 
 the English Cabinet, " can only be explained by the ill for- 
 tune of a State whose home policy is insecure, and whose 
 Government is the wretched tool of Parliamentary factions 
 and of a powerful oligarchy." 
 
 Although he felt at times that he was opposing the spirit 
 of the age, he believed himself strong enough to resist it. At 
 a later period he said : " During my lifetime I shall reign as 
 I please; but my son must perforce be a Liberal." And 
 meanwhile he pictured to himself the creation of feudal states, 
 believing that he could make them acceptable, and preserve 
 them from the criticism which was beginning to assail ancient 
 institutions, by establishing them on a scale so grand that, as 
 our pride would be enlisted, our reason might be silenced. 
 He believed that once again he could exhibit what history 
 has already witnessed, the world subject to a " People-King," 
 but that royalty was to be represented in his own person. 
 A combination of Eastern and Roman institutions, bearing 
 also some resemblance to the times of Charlemagne, was to 
 transform the sovereigns of Europe into great feudatories of 
 the French Empire ; and perhaps, if the sea had not effectu- 
 ally preserved England from invasion, this gigantic project 
 might have been carried out. 
 
 Shortly after, the Emperor laid the foundation-stone of 
 this brain-built edifice. I allude to the union of the Iron 
 Crown with that of France. 
 
UNION OF THE GROWN OF ITALY. 253 
 
 On the 17th of March M. de Melzi, Vice-President of the 
 Italian Kepublic, accompanied by the principal members of 
 the Council of State and a numerous deputation of presi- 
 dents of the electoral colleges, deputies from the Corps Le- 
 gislatif, and other important persons, was received by the 
 Emperor on his throne, and submitted to him the ardent 
 desire of the Council that he would graciously consent to 
 reign over the ultramontane republic also. "Our present 
 Government," said M. de Melzi, " can not continue, because 
 it throws us behind the age in which we live. Constitution- 
 al monarchy is everywhere indicated by the finger of progress. 
 
 " The Italian Kepublic claims a King, and her interests 
 demand that this King should be Napoleon, on the condition 
 that the two crowns shall be united on his head only, and 
 that, so soon as the Mediterranean is once more free, he will 
 himself nominate a successor of his own blood." 
 
 Bonaparte replied that he had always labored for the wel- 
 fare of Italy ; that for this end he would accept the crown, 
 because he believed that any other course would just now be 
 fatal to her independence; and that afterward, when the 
 time came for so doing, he would gladly place the Iron 
 Crown on some younger head, as he should always be ready 
 to sacrifice himself for the interests of the States over which 
 he was called to reign. 
 
 On the following day, the 18th of March, he proceeded 
 to the Senate in state, and announced both the request of the 
 Council and his own consent. M. de Melzi and all the Ital- 
 ians took the oaths, and the Senate approved and applauded 
 as usual. The Emperor concluded his speech by declaring 
 that the genius of evil would seek in vain to rekindle the fire 
 of war on the Continent ; that which had been united to the 
 Empire would remain united. 
 
 He doubtless foresaw that this event would be the occa- 
 sion of an early war, at least with the Emperor of Austria, 
 which, however, he was far from dreading. The army was 
 becoming weary of inaction ; the invasion of England was * 
 
254: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 too perilous. It might be that favorable circumstances would 
 render the landing possible, but how could the army main- 
 tain its footing afterward in a country where reinforcement 
 would be wellnigh impossible ? And, in case of failure, what 
 would be the chances of retreat ? It may be observed, in 
 the history of Bonaparte, that he always contrived to avoid 
 a positively hopeless position as far as possible, and especial- 
 ly for himself personally. A war, therefore, would serve his 
 purpose by relieving him from this project of invasion, which, 
 from the moment he renounced it, became ridiculous. 
 
 During the same session, the State of Piombino was given 
 to the Princess Elisa. On announcing this to the Senate, 
 Bonaparte stated that the principality had been badly governed 
 for several years ; that the interests of France were concerned, 
 on account of the facilities which it offered for communica- 
 tion with the Island of Elba and with Corsica ; and that the 
 gift was not a token of special affection, but an act in accord- 
 ance with a wise policy, with the splendor of the crown, and 
 with the interests of nations. 
 
 As a proof that these gifts of the Emperor were in the 
 nature of fiefs, the Imperial decree was to the effect that the 
 children of Mme. Bacciochi, on succeeding to their mother, 
 should receive investiture from the Emperor of the French ; 
 that they should not marry without his consent ; and that the 
 Princess's husband, who was to assume the title of Prince of 
 Piombino, should take the following oath : 
 
 " I swear fidelity to the Emperor ; I promise to aid with 
 my whole power the garrison of the Island of Elba ; and I 
 declare that I will not cease, under any circumstances, to 
 fulfill the duties of a good and faithful subject toward his 
 Majesty the Emperor of the French." 
 
 A few days after this the Pope solemnly baptized the 
 second son of Louis Bonaparte, who was held at the font by 
 his father and mother. This great ceremony took place at 
 Saint Cloud. The park was illuminated on the occasion, 
 and public games were provided for the people. In the 
 
RACINE'S "ATHALIE." 255 
 
 evening there was a numerous reception, and a first perform- 
 ance of " Athalie" at the theatre at Saint Cloud. 
 
 Racine's great tragedy had not been performed since the 
 Revolution. The Emperor, who admitted he had never been 
 impressed by reading the play, was much struck by its repre- 
 sentation, and repeated on that occasion that he greatly wished 
 such a tragedy might be written during his own reign. He 
 gave leave that it should be performed in Paris ; and thence- 
 forth most of our great plays resumed their place on the 
 stage, whence they had been prudently banished by the Rev- 
 olution. 
 
 Some few lines, nevertheless, were cut out, lest applica- 
 tion might be made of them to present circumstances. Luc 
 de Lancival, the author of " Hector," and shortly afterward 
 Esmenard, author of " Le Poeme de la Navigation," were in- 
 trusted with the task of revising Corneille, Racine, and Vol- 
 taire. But, with all due respect to these precautionary mea- 
 sures of a too careful police, the missing lines, like the statues 
 of Brutus and Cassius, were the more conspicuous by their 
 absence. 
 
 In consequence of the momentous decision he had arrived 
 at, the Emperor announced that he would speedily proceed 
 to Italy, and fixed the epoch of his coronation for the month 
 of May. He convened the Italian Legislature for the same 
 date, and issued several decrees and ordinances relating to 
 the new customs to be established in Italy. 
 
 He also appointed ladies-in-waiting and chamberlains to 
 attend on his mother ; and among others M. de Cosse-Brissac, 
 who had solicited that favor. At the same time Prince Bor- 
 ghese was declared a French citizen, and the ladies-in-waiting 
 received an accession to their number in Mme. de Canisy, 
 one of the most beautiful women of her time. 
 
 Mme. Murat gave birth to a child just at this time ; she 
 
 was then residing at the Hotel Thelusson, at the end of the 
 
 Rue d'Artois. It was observed on this occasion that the 
 
 luxuriousness of the new Princesses was continually on the 
 
 21 
 
256 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 increase, and yet it had not then reached the height which it 
 afterward attained. Mine. Murat's bedchamber was hung 
 with pink satin, the bed and window curtains were of the 
 same material, and these hangings were trimmed with broad 
 and very fine lace, instead of fringe. 
 
 The preparations for the Emperor's departure soon occu- 
 pied us exclusively. This event was fixed for the 2d of 
 April, when the Pope was also to leave Paris ; and a few 
 days previously M. de Remusat started for Milan, in charge 
 of the regalia and the crown diamonds, which were to be 
 used at the coronation. This was for me the beginning of 
 troubles, which were destined to recur for some years. I had 
 never before been separated from my husband, and I was so 
 much accustomed to the enjoyments of my home that I found 
 it hard to be deprived of them. It made the Court life to 
 which I was condemned more irksome, and was very pain- 
 ful to my husband also, who, like myself, fell into the error 
 of letting his feelings be perceived. I have already said 
 that a courtier is a failure if he suffer any feelings to 
 divert his attention from the minutiae which constitute his 
 duties. 
 
 My distress at my husband's departure on a journey which 
 seemed to me so long, and even dangerous for my imagina- 
 tion exaggerated everything regarding him made me desir- 
 ous that he should be accompanied by a friend of ours, named 
 Salembemi, who had formerly been an officer in the navy. 
 He was badly off had only the salary of some small appoint- 
 ment to live on, with what M. de Kemusat, who employed 
 him as his secretary, paid him. To him I confided the care 
 of my husband's health. He was a clever man, but difficult 
 to deal with, somewhat malicious, and of a peevish temper. 
 He was the cause of more than one of our troubles, and this 
 is why I now make mention of him.* 
 
 * M. Salembemi, who had a ready pen, wrote freely from Italy, and dwelt 
 rather on the scandals of the Court than on politics. His letters were opened 
 and shown to the Emperor, who ordered him to leave within twenty -four hours. 
 
THE EMPEROR GOES TO ITALY. 257 
 
 My delicate health made it impossible to include me in 
 the suite. The Empress seemed to regret this. As for my- 
 self, I was, on the whole, glad of a rest after the busy life I 
 had been leading, and happy to remain with my mother and 
 my children.* 
 
 Mesdames de la Rochefoucauld, d'Arberg, de Serrant, 
 and Savary, a considerable number of chamberlains, the great 
 officers, and, in short, a numerous and youthful Court, ac- 
 companied the Empress. The Emperor started on the 2d, 
 and the Pope on the 4th of April. At every stage of his 
 journey to Home his Holiness received tokens of great re- 
 spect ; and he then, no doubt, believed he was bidding adieu 
 to France for ever. 
 
 Murat remained as Governor of Paris, and with a charge 
 of superintendence which he extended over everything ; but 
 his reports, I think, were not always disinterested. Fouche, 
 who was more liberal, if I may use the expression, in the 
 exercise of his police functions, and who was well entitled 
 to consider himself necessary, carried things with rather a 
 
 His disgrace caused some vexation to my grandfather. Although a certain con- 
 straint may be observed in the correspondence of the author of these Memoirs, 
 and many phrases are inserted for the purpose of contenting a jealous master, 
 it is probable that the letters of the husband and wife were also regarded as too 
 free in expression for courtiers. We know that the hateful custom of opening 
 letters was transmitted from the First to the Second Empire ; and it is a curious 
 coincidence that, on the 4th of September, 1870, a letter addressed to my father 
 by my mother was discovered in a drawer of the writing-table of the Emperor 
 Napoleon III. That letter was, however, evidently written without any fear of 
 the post-office. P. R. 
 
 * My grandmother, whose health had always been delicate, now began to be 
 seriously indisposed, and unable for any exertion. Her disposition became in- 
 fluenced by this. She lost none of her goodness, but her composure, serenity, 
 and gayety failed her. She suffered frequently from nervous attacks, which, 
 together with her naturally vivid imagination, rendered her more liable to dis- 
 quiet and melancholy. The journey undertaken by her husband, although dif- 
 fering so much from the dangerous exploits of the time, and, in fact, little more 
 than a pleasure-trip, troubled her to a degree which can hardly be believed now- 
 adays, and astonished even the most romantic women of a period so far removed 
 from ours. A worldly life, and especially a Court life, became more and more 
 distasteful to her. 
 
258 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 high hand, but was conciliatory to all parties, according to 
 his system of making himself useful to everybody. 
 
 The Arch-Chancellor Cambaceres also remained as Di- 
 rector of the Council of State an office of which he acquit- 
 ted himself well and to do the honors of Paris. He re- 
 ceived a good deal of company, welcoming them with a 
 gloomy civility which gave him an almost ridiculous air. 
 
 Paris and France were at that time in repose ; all things 
 seemed to work together for order, and the general state of 
 subjection to be complete. The Emperor went first to Cham- 
 pagne. He passed a day at the fine old chateau of Brienne, in 
 order that he might visit the scenes of his childhood. Mme. 
 de Brienne professed extreme enthusiasm for him, and, as 
 worship was not displeasing to him, he behaved to her with 
 great amiability. It was amusing, just then, to see some of 
 her kinsfolk at Paris receiving the lively letters she wrote 
 to them on this Imperial visit. However, as she described 
 events, these letters produced a good effect in what we call 
 here " good society." Success is easy to the powerful ; they 
 must needs be very ill-natured or very blundering when they 
 fail to please. 
 
 A few days after all these grand departures, the follow- 
 ing paragraph appeared in the "Moniteur": "Monsieur 
 Jerome Bonaparte has arrived at Lisbon, on board an Ameri- 
 can vessel. Among the passengers are Mr. and Miss Patter- 
 son. M. Je*rome immediately took the post for Madrid. 
 Mr. and Miss Patterson have reembarked. It is understood 
 that they have returned to America." * I believe that they 
 crossed to England.f 
 
 * The Emperor announced the return of his brother to the Minister of the 
 Admiralty, Vice-Admiral DScres, in the following terms : 
 
 " MILAN, 23d FlorSal, year 13 (13th May, 1805). 
 "MONSIEUR DECRES: 
 
 " M. J6r6me has arrived. Mademoiselle Patterson has returned to America. 
 He has owned his fault, and does not recognize this person as his wife. He 
 promises miracles of good behavior. Meanwhile I have sent him to Genoa for 
 some time." P. R. f See Appendix. 
 
M. DE R&HUSAT IN MILAN. 259 
 
 This Mr. Patterson was no other than the father-in-law 
 of Jerome, who, having fallen in love while in America with 
 the daughter of an American merchant, had made her his 
 wife, persuading himself that, after some displeasure on his 
 brother's part, he should obtain his forgiveness. But Bona- 
 parte, who was already forming other projects for his family, 
 was highly incensed, annulled the marriage, and forced his 
 brother to an immediate separation. Jerome traveled to 
 Italy, and joined him at Turin, but was very badly received. 
 He was ordered to join one of our fleets then cruising in the 
 Mediterranean, remained at sea for a considerable time, and 
 was not restored to favor until several months afterward. 
 
 Throughout all France the Emperor was welcomed with 
 genuine enthusiasm. He staid at Lyons, where he secured 
 the good will of the traders by issuing decrees favorable to 
 their interests. He crossed Mont Cenis and remained a few 
 days at Turin. 
 
 Meanwhile M. de Kemusat had reached Milan, where he 
 met Prince Eugene, who received him with his characteristic 
 cordiality. The Prince questioned my husband as to what 
 had taken place in Paris since he had left that city, and suc- 
 ceeded in eliciting some details concerning Mme. de X 
 
 which were very grievous to his feelings. M. de Remusat 
 wrote to me that, pending the arrival of the Court, he was 
 leading a tolerably quiet life. He explored Milan, which 
 seemed to him a dull town, and its palace was dull also. 
 The inhabitants showed little affection for the French. The 
 nobles shut themselves up in their houses, under the pretext 
 that they were not rich enough to do the honors of the place 
 in a fitting style. Prince Eugene endeavored to collect them 
 about him, but succeeded imperfectly. The Italians, still in 
 a state of suspense, did not know whether to rejoice or re- 
 pine at the novel destiny which we forced upon them. 
 
 M. de Remusat sent me at this period some rather curious 
 details of the life of the Milanese. Their ignorance of all 
 that constitutes agreeable society ; the absolute non-existence 
 
260 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 among them of family life, the husbands, strangers to their 
 wives, leaving them to the care of a cavaliere servente the 
 dullness of the theatres ; the darkness of the house, whither 
 people go in morning-dress, to occupy themselves in the 
 nearly closed boxes with anything rather than listening to 
 the opera; the want of variety in the performances; the 
 difference between the costumes and those of France all 
 these things gave M. de Remusat matter for remarks, which 
 were all to the advantage of our beloved country, while they 
 also increased his desire to return to France and to me. 
 
 During this time the Emperor was revisiting the scenes 
 of his former victories. He held a grand review on the 
 battle-field of Marengo, and distributed crosses on that occa- 
 sion. The troops who had been massed together on the 
 pretext of this review, and remained afterward in the neigh- 
 borhood of the Adige, furnished a reason or pretext on 
 which the Austrian Government strengthened their already 
 very powerful line of defense behind this river ; and French 
 policy took offense at these precautions. 
 
 On the 9th of May the Emperor reached Milan. His 
 presence caused great excitement in the town, and the cir- 
 cumstances attending the coronation aroused the same ambi- 
 tion as they had caused in Paris. The highest nobles of 
 Milan began to long for the new distinctions and the advan- 
 tages appertaining to them ; independence and unity of gov- 
 ernment were held out to the Italians, and they gave them- 
 selves up to the hopes they were allowed to conceive. 
 
 Immediately on the arrival of the Court at Milan, I was 
 struck by the dismal tone of M. de Remusat's letters, and 
 soon afterward I learned that he was suffering from his 
 master's displeasure. The naval officer of whom I have 
 spoken, a satirical spectator of what was going on at Milan, 
 having taken it into his head to write to Paris some lively 
 and rather sarcastic accounts of what was passing before his 
 eyes, his letters had been opened, and M. de Remusat was 
 ordered to send him back to Paris. He was not at first told 
 
A BREACH OF CONFIDENCE. 261 
 
 the reason for this order, and it was only at a later period 
 that he learned its cause. The displeasure of the Emperor 
 was not confined to the secretary ; it fell also on him who 
 had brought him to Italy. 
 
 Besides this, Prince Eugene let fall some of the details he 
 had obtained in confidence from my husband ; and, finally, 
 it was discovered from our letters, as I have said before, that 
 our thoughts and aspirations were not entirely centered in 
 the interests of our places at Court. These causes were suf- 
 ficient to anger a master who was by nature irascible ; and 
 so, according to his custom of using men for his own advan- 
 tage when they could be useful to him, whatever might be 
 his feelings toward them, he exacted from my husband a 
 service of the most rigid punctuality, because the length of 
 time M. de Kemusat had passed at Court had given him ex- 
 perience in a ceremonial which daily became more minute, 
 and to which the Emperor attached greater importance. At 
 the same time he treated him with harshness and severity, 
 repeating continually to those who, with good reason, would 
 praise the high and estimable qualities of my husband, 
 " All that you say may be true, but he does not belong to 
 me as I wish him to belong to me." This reproach was al- 
 ways on his lips during the years we passed in his service, 
 and perhaps there is some merit in our never having ceased 
 to deserve it. 
 
 This Court life, so busy and yet so idle, gave M. de Tal- 
 leyrand and M. de Remusat an opportunity of becoming bet- 
 ter acquainted, and was the beginning of an intimacy which 
 at a later period caused me many and various emotions. 
 
 The fine tact of M. de Talleyrand discerned the right- 
 mindedness and the keenness of observation of my husband ; 
 they agreed on a multitude of subjects, and the difference 
 of their dispositions did not prevent them from enjoying 
 an interchange of ideas. One day M. de Talleyrand said 
 to M. de Remusat : " I can see that you distrust me, and I 
 know whence your caution proceeds. "We serve a master 
 
262 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R$MUSAT. 
 
 who does not like intimacies. When he appointed us both 
 to the same service, he foresaw there might be friendship 
 between us. You are a clever man, and that is enough to 
 make him wish that you and I should remain apart. He 
 therefore prejudiced you in some way against me, and he 
 also tried, by I know not what reports, to put me on my 
 guard. It will not be his fault if we do not remain stran- 
 gers to one another. This is one of his weaknesses, and we 
 must recognize, indulge, and excuse, without, however, sub- 
 mitting to it." This straightforward way of speaking, en- 
 hanced by the graceful manner which M. de Talleyrand 
 knows so well how to assume when he likes, pleased my 
 husband, who, moreover, found in this friendship something 
 to make up for the weariness of his post.* 
 
 At this period M. de K6musat perceived that M. de 
 Talleyrand, who had the influence over Bonaparte of his 
 utility, felt considerable jealousy of Fouche, whom he dis- 
 liked. He entertained a positive contempt for M. Maret, 
 and gratified it by the biting sarcasm in which he habitually 
 indulged, and which few could escape. Although under no 
 delusion regarding Bonaparte, he nevertheless served him 
 well ; for he tried to restrain his passions by the position in 
 
 * This mutual distrust between his Great Chamberlain and his First Cham- 
 berlain, originated and kept up by the Emperor, was slow in dying out ; and, 
 notwithstanding the good will of both, no real intimacy existed between them 
 until the following year, during the tour in Germany. After the first advances 
 had been made by M. de Talleyrand, my grandfather wrote to his wife in the 
 following terms, in a letter dated Milan, 17th Flore"al, year 13 (7th May, 1805): 
 "M. de Talleyrand has been here for the last week. It only depends on my- 
 self to believe him my best friend. In words he seems friendship itself. I 
 often go to see him. He takes my arm whenever he happens to meet me, and 
 talks with me in a low voice for two or three hours at a time ; he tells me vari- 
 ous things which have every appearance of being confidential, interests himself 
 in my career, talks to me about it, and wants me to be distinguished among all 
 the other Chamberlains. Tell me, my dear one, am I really held in esteem, or 
 does he want to play me a trick ? " Shortly after this, his language completely 
 changed, and the friendship became intimate and affectionate on both sides. 
 P. R. 
 
WAR BETWEEN ENGLAND AND SPAIN. 263 
 
 which he placed him, both with respect to foreign affairs and 
 in France; and he also advised him to create certain insti- 
 tutions which would control him. The Emperor, who, as I 
 have said, liked to create, and who seized rapidly upon any- 
 thing novel and impressive, would follow the advice of M. 
 de Talleyrand, and, in concert with him, would lay the foun- 
 dation of some useful enterprise. But afterward his domi- 
 neering temper, his suspicion, his dread of finding himself 
 restrained, made him afraid of the action of that which he 
 had himself created, and, with sudden caprice, he would 
 abruptly suspend or relinquish the work he had begun. M. 
 de Talleyrand was provoked by this ; but, as he was naturally 
 indolent and careless, and did not possess in himself those 
 qualities of strength and perseverance which enable a man to 
 carry his points in detail, he usually ended by neglecting and 
 abandoning the fatiguing task of solicitude and superinten- 
 dence. The sequence of events will, however, explain all this 
 better than I can in this place. 
 
 Meantime, war broke out between England and Spain, 
 and we were frequently, sometimes successfully, engaged at 
 sea. A fleet which sailed out from Toulon found means to 
 join the Spanish squadron, and the press exulted loudly over 
 this feat.* 
 
 On the 30th of May Bonaparte was crowned King of 
 Italy, with great pomp. The ceremony was similar to that 
 which had taken place in Paris. The Empress sat in a gal- 
 lery and beheld the spectacle. M. de Eemusat told me that 
 a thrill of emotion passed over the crowd in the church at 
 the moment when Bonaparte, taking hold of the Iron Crown, 
 and placing it on his head, uttered in a threatening voice the 
 antique formula, " H cielo me la diede, guai a chi la toc- 
 cherd ! " The remainder of the Emperor's stay at Milan was 
 divided between attending fetes and issuing decrees for the 
 
 * This passage refers to the achievement of Admiral Villeneuve, who, hav- 
 ing set sail on the 30th of March, contrived to get clear of the port of Toulon 
 without encountering the English fleet. P. R. 
 
264 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 regulation and administration of his new kingdom. Rejoic- 
 ings took place all over France in honor of the event ; and 
 yet it caused great apprehension among many people, who 
 foresaw that war with Austria would result from it. 
 
 On the 4th of June the Doge of Genoa arrived at Milan. 
 He came to beg that his Republic might be united to the 
 Empire ; and this action, which had been concerted or com- 
 manded beforehand, was made the occasion of a grand recep- 
 tion and state ceremony. That portion of Italy was at once 
 divided into new departments, and shortly afterward the new 
 constitution was sent to the Italian Legislature, and Prince 
 Eugene was made Viceroy of the kingdom. The order of 
 the Iron Crown was created; and, the distributions being 
 made, the Emperor left Milan and set out on a journey 
 which, under the appearance of a pleasure-trip, was in reality 
 undertaken for the purpose of reconnoitering the Austrian 
 forces on the line of the Adige. 
 
 By the treaty of Campo Formio Bonaparte had aban- 
 doned the Venetian States to the Emperor of Austria, and 
 the latter thus became a formidable neighbor to the king- 
 dom of Italy. On his arrival at Verona, he received a visit 
 from Baron Vincent, who commanded the Austrian garrison 
 in that portion of the town which belonged to his sovereign. 
 The Baron was commissioned to inform himself of the state 
 of our forces in Italy ; the Emperor, on his part, observing 
 those of the foreigner. On inspecting the banks of the 
 Adige, he perceived that forts would have to be constructed 
 for the defense of the river ; but, on calculating the neces- 
 sary time and expense, he said that it would be better and 
 quicker to push the Austrians back from that frontier alto- 
 gether. From that moment we may believe that he had 
 resolved upon the war which was declared some months 
 later. 
 
 It was impossible that the Emperor of Austria should 
 regard with indifference the acquisition by France of so 
 much power in Italy ; and the English Government, which 
 
PROSPECT OF WAR WITH AUSTRIA. 265 
 
 was making great efforts to stir up a continental war against 
 us, skillfully availed itself of the uneasiness of the Emperor 
 of Austria, and the dissatisfaction which was by degrees 
 impairing the cordiality of our relations with Russia. The 
 English newspapers hastened to assert that the Emperor had 
 held a review of his troops in Italy for the sole purpose of 
 putting them on the footing of a formidable enemy ; and 
 thenceforth movements began in the Austrian army. Those 
 appearances of peace which were still observed up to the 
 time of the rupture were in reality preparations by both 
 Emperors, who at that period had become almost declared 
 enemies. 
 
CHAPTEK XIII. 
 
 (1805.) 
 
 FStes at Verona and Genoa Cardinal Maury My Eetired Life in the Country^- 
 Mme. Louis Bonaparte " Les Templiers " The Emperor's Eeturn His 
 Amusements The Marriage of M. de Talleyrand War is declared. 
 
 THE Emperor visited Cremona, Yerona, Mantua, Bo- 
 logna, Modena, Parma, and Piacenza, and then went to 
 Genoa, where he was received with enthusiasm. He sent 
 for Le Brun, the Arch-Treasurer, to whom he intrusted the 
 task of superintending the new administration to be estab- 
 lished in that city. At Genoa also he parted with his sister 
 Elisa, who had accompanied him on his journey, and to 
 whom he gave the little Republic of Lucca, adding to it the 
 States of Piombino. At this period the French began once 
 more to wear foreign decorations. Prussian, Bavarian, and 
 Spanish orders were sent to the Emperor, to be distributed 
 by him at his pleasure. He divided them among his great 
 officers, some of his ministers, and a few of his marshals. 
 
 At Yerona a fight between dogs and bulls was given, for 
 the entertainment of the Emperor, in the ancient amphi- 
 theatre, which contained forty thousand spectators. Loud 
 applause greeted his arrival, and he was really affected by 
 this reception, rendered impressive by the place, and by the 
 magnitude of the crowd. The fetes at Genoa were very 
 magnificent. Floating gardens were constructed on huge 
 flat barges; these gardens led to a floating temple, which, 
 approaching the land, received Bonaparte and his Court. 
 Then the barges, which were all fastened together, were set 
 
CARDINAL MAURT. 267 
 
 in motion, and the Emperor found himself on a beautiful 
 island in the middle of the harbor, whence he had a com- 
 plete view of Genoa, and of the simultaneous displays of 
 fireworks from various parts of the splendidly illuminated 
 city. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand found amusement entirely to his taste 
 during his stay at Genoa ; for he was always pleased to de- 
 tect an absurdity and to point it out to others. Cardinal 
 Maury, who had retired to Home since his emigration, had 
 gained a great reputation there by the firmness of his atti- 
 tude in our famous Constituent Assembly. Nevertheless, 
 he was desirous of returning to France, and M. de Talley- 
 rand wrote to him from Genoa, advising him to come at 
 once and present himself to the Emperor. The Cardinal 
 acted upon this, and, immediately assuming that obsequious 
 attitude which he has ever since scrupulously retained, he 
 entered Genoa, loudly proclaiming that he had come to see 
 " the great man." 
 
 He obtained an audience. " The great man " took his 
 measure very quickly, and, while esteeming him at his proper 
 value, resolved to make him give a complete contradiction 
 to his past conduct. He gained him over easily by flatter- 
 ing him a little, and induced him to return to France, where 
 we have since seen him play a somewhat ridiculous part. 
 M. de Talleyrand, whose recollections of the Constituent 
 Assembly were not effaced, took many opportunities of 
 wreaking a petty revenge upon the Cardinal, by bringing 
 out his silly sycophancy in the most skillful and cunning 
 manner. 
 
 While the Emperor was thus traveling through Italy and 
 consolidating his power, and everybody around him was get- 
 ting tired of the continual full-dress parade at which he kept 
 his Court ; while the Empress, happy in the elevation of her 
 son, and yet grieved by her separation from him, amused 
 herself and distracted her mind by the perpetual fetes given 
 in her honor, and took pleasure in exhibiting her magnificent 
 
268 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMUS AT. 
 
 jewels and her elegant costumes, I was leading a quiet and 
 pleasant life in the valley of Montmorency, at the house of 
 Mme. d'Houdetot. I have already mentioned this amiable 
 and accomplished woman. Her recollections enabled me to 
 reconstruct in my imagination those days of which she loved 
 to talk. It gave me great pleasure to hear her speak of the 
 famous philosophers whom she had known, and whose ways 
 and sayings she remembered so clearly. I was so full of the 
 " Confessions " of Jean Jacques Rousseau that I was not a 
 little surprised to find her somewhat cold in her appreciation 
 of him; and I may say, in passing, that the opinion of 
 Mme. d'Houdetot, who would, I should think, have re- 
 garded Rousseau with exceptional indulgence, contributed 
 not a little to make me distrust his character, and believe 
 that he was only great in point of talent.* 
 
 During the absence of the Court, Paris was quiet and 
 dull. The Imperial family were living in the country. I 
 sometimes saw Mme. Louis Bonaparte at Saint Leu, a place 
 which her husband had just bought. Louis appeared to oc- 
 cupy himself exclusively with his garden. His wife wa-s 
 lonely, ill, and always afraid of letting some word at which 
 he might be offended escape her. She had not ventured 
 either to rejoice at the elevation of Prince Eugene or to 
 weep for his absence, which was, of course, indefinite. She 
 wrote to him seldom and briefly, because she knew that the 
 privacy of her letters was not respected. On one occasion, 
 when I was visiting her, she told me a rumor had arisen 
 that the Due de Polignac and his brother, who were im- 
 prisoned in the Chateau of Ham, had attempted to escape ; 
 that they had been transferred to the Temple ; and that 
 Mme. Bonaparte and myself were accused of being con- 
 cerned in the affair. This accusation, of which Mme. Louis 
 suspected Murat to be the author, was utterly unfounded. 
 Mme. Bonaparte never gave a thought to the two prisoners, 
 and I had entirely lost sight of the Duchesse de Polignac. 
 
 * For a note on this passage by M. Paul de Remusat, see Appendix. 
 
RETIRED LIFE IN TEE COUNTRY. 269 
 
 I lived in the strictest retirement, so that my solitude 
 might supply a sufficient answer to any gossip concerning 
 my conduct ; but I was more and more distressed by the 
 necessity for taking such precautions, and especially at being 
 unable to use the position in which I was placed for any pur- 
 poses of utility to the Emperor, to myself, or to those per- 
 sons who wished to obtain certain favors from him through 
 me. There was no want of kindness in my natural disposi- 
 tion ; and, besides that, I felt a degree of pride, which I do 
 not think was misplaced, in serving those who had formerly 
 blamed me, and in silencing their criticisms of my conduct 
 by favors which could not be said to lack generosity. I also 
 believed that the Emperor might win many persons who now 
 held aloof, by the permission which he had granted me to 
 bring their solicitations and their necessities under his atten- 
 tion ; and as I was still attached to him, although he inspired 
 me with more fear than formerly, I would have gained all 
 hearts for him had it been possible. But, as it became evi- 
 dent that my plan was not always approved by him, I found 
 I had to think of defending myself, rather than assisting 
 others. 
 
 My reflections were occasionally very sad. At other 
 times I could make up my mind to the difficulties of my 
 position, and resolve that I would only look at the agreeable 
 side of it. I enjoyed a certain consideration in society, and 
 I liked that ; and we were fairly prosperous, though not free 
 from the difficulties which always beset persons whose for- 
 tunes have no secure basis, and whose expenses are obliga- 
 tory. But I was young, and I thought little of the future. 
 I was surrounded by pleasant society ; my mother was per- 
 fection to me, my husband most kind and good, my eldest 
 son all I could wish. I lived on the pleasantest terms with 
 my kind and charming sister. All this turned away my 
 thoughts from the Court, and enabled me to bear the draw- 
 backs of my position patiently. My health was a perpetual 
 trial to me ; it was always delicate, and an unquiet life was 
 
270 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 evidently injurious. I must not, however, dwell upon my- 
 self ; I do not know how I have been tempted into doing so. 
 If ever this narrative should be read by others, as well as by 
 my son, all this ought to be suppressed without hesitation.* 
 
 During the Emperor's sojourn in Italy, two plays had a 
 great success at the Comedie Francaise. The first was " Le 
 Tartufe des Mceurs," translated, or rather adapted, from 
 Sheridan's " School for Scandal," by M. Cheron ; the second 
 was " Les Templiers." M. Che'ron had been a deputy to the 
 Legislative Assembly. He married a niece of the Abbe 
 Morellet; his wife and himself were intimate friends of 
 mine. The Abbe had written to the Emperor to solicit a 
 place for M. Cheron ; and, on Bonaparte's return, " Le Tar- 
 tufe des Mceurs " was acted before him. He was so much 
 amused by the play that, having ascertained the name of its 
 author from M. de Remusat, and also learned that M. Cheron 
 was well deserving of employment, he, in a moment of easy 
 good nature, sent him to Poitiers as Prefect. Unfortunately, 
 he died there three years afterward. His widow is a most 
 estimable and talented person. 
 
 M. de Fontanes had read " Les Templiers " to Bonaparte, 
 who approved of some portions of the piece, but objected to 
 others. He wished to have certain corrections made, but 
 the author refused, and the Emperor was annoyed. He was 
 by no means pleased that " Les Templiers " had a brilliant 
 success, and set himself against both the play and the author, 
 with a petty despotism which was characteristic of him when- 
 either persons or things incurred his displeasure. All this 
 happened when he came back.f 
 
 * Notwithstanding the above injunction, my readers will not be surprised 
 that I have retained these personal details, which lend a particular interest to 
 the narrative. P. R. 
 
 f It was not until his return to Paris that the Emperor displayed the ill 
 humor which the Memoirs record. On the 1st of June, 1805, he wrote from 
 Milan to M. Fouche as follows : " It seems to me that the success of ' Les 
 Templiers' leads the people to dwell upon this point of French history. That 
 is well, but I do not think it would be wise to allow pieces taken from historical 
 
THE EMPEROR RETURNS TO PARIS. 271 
 
 Bonaparte expected that his wishes and his opinions 
 should be accepted as rules. He had taken a fancy to the 
 music of " Les Bardes," an opera by Lesueur, and he was 
 almost angry thaf the Parisian public did not think as highly 
 of it as he did. 
 
 The Emperor came direct from Genoa to Paris. This 
 was to be his last sight of fair Italy, that land in which he 
 seemed to have exhausted every mode of impressing the 
 minds of men, as a general, as a pacificator, and as a sover- 
 eign. He returned by Mont Cenis, and gave orders for 
 great works which, like those of the Simplon Pass, should 
 facilitate the communications between the two nations. The 
 Court was increased in number by several Italian noblemen 
 and ladies who were attached to it. The Emperor had al- 
 ready appointed some Belgians as additional chamberlains, 
 and the obsequiorus forms in which he was addressed were 
 now uttered in widely varying accents. 
 
 He arrived at Fontainebleau on the llth of July, and 
 went thence to reside at Saint Cloud. Shortly after, the 
 " Moniteur " began to bristle with notes, announcing in al- 
 most threatening language the storm which was so soon to 
 burst over Europe. Certain expressions which occurred 
 from time to time in these notes revealed the author who 
 had dictated them. One of these in particular made an im- 
 pression on my memory. It. had been stated in the English 
 newspapers that a supposed genealogy of the Bonaparte 
 family, which retraced its nobility to an ancient origin, had 
 
 subjects of a period too close to our own times to be acted. I read in a news- 
 paper that it is proposed to act a tragedy on the subject of Henry IV. That 
 epoch is near enough to ours to arouse popular passions. The stage requires 
 antiquity, and, without restricting the theatre too much, I think you ought to 
 prevent this, but not to allow your interference to appear. You might speak of 
 it to M. Raynouard, who seems to be a man of ability. Why should you not 
 induce him to write a tragedy upon the transition from the first to the second 
 line [from Valois to Bourbon] ? Instead of being a tyrant, he who should suc- 
 ceed to that would be the saviour of the nation. The oratorio of 'Saul' is no 
 other than this ; it is a great man succeeding a degenerate king." 
 22 
 
272 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K&MUSAT. 
 
 been printed in London. " Researches of this kind are pur- 
 poseless," said the note. " To all those who may ask from 
 what period dates the house of Bonaparte, there is a ready 
 answer : < It dates from the 18th Brumaire.' ' 
 
 I met the Emperor after his return with mingled feelings. 
 It was difficult not to be affected by his presence, but it was 
 painful to me to feel that my emotion was tempered by the 
 distrust with which he was beginning to inspire me.* The 
 Empress received me in a most friendly manner, and I avowed 
 to her quite frankly the trouble that was on my mind. I ex- 
 pressed my surprise that no past proof of devotedness or dis- 
 interested service could avail with her husband against a 
 sudden prejudice. She repeated my words to him, and he 
 well^ understood what they meant; but he persisted in his 
 own definition of what he called devotedness, which was an 
 entire surrender of one's being, of one's sentiments and one's 
 opinions, and repeated that we ought to give up all our for- 
 mer habits, in order to have only one thought, that of his 
 interest and his will. He promised, in recompense for this 
 exaction, that we should be raised to a great height of rank 
 and fortune, and have everything that could gratify our pride. 
 " I will give them," said he, speaking of us, " enough to en- 
 able them to laugh at those who find fault with them now ; 
 and, if they will break with my enemies, I will put their ene- 
 mies under their feet." Apart from this, I had but little 
 annoyance in the household, and my position was easy enough, 
 as Bonaparte's mind was fixed on important affairs during his 
 stay in France before the campaign of Austerlitz. 
 
 A circumstance recurs to my memory at this moment, 
 which is only important because it serves to depict this 
 strange man. I therefore give it a place here. The despot- 
 ism of his will grew in proportion to the enlargement of the 
 circle with which he surrounded himself ; he wanted to be 
 the sole arbiter of reputations, to make them and to unmake 
 them at his pleasure. He branded a man or blighted a woman 
 
 * For a fuller explanation of this passage, see Appendix. 
 
BONAPARTE^S GALLANTRIES. 273 
 
 for a word, without any kind of hesitation ; but he was much 
 displeased that the public should venture to observe and to 
 comment on the conduct of either the one or the other, if 
 he had placed them within the rays of the aureole with which 
 he surrounded himself. 
 
 During his journey in Italy, the idleness of life in palaces 
 and its opportunities had given rise to several gallant adven- 
 tures on his part, which were more or less serious, and these 
 had been duly reported in France, where they fed the general 
 appetite for gossip. One day, when several ladies of the 
 Court among them those who had been in Italy were 
 breakfasting with the Empress, Bonaparte came suddenly 
 into the room, and, leaning on the back of his wife's chair, 
 addressed to one and another of us a few words, at first in- 
 significant enough. Then he began to question us about 
 what we were all doing, and let us know, but only by hints, 
 that some among us were considerably talked of by the pub- 
 lic. The Empress, who knew her husband's ways, and was 
 aware that, when talking in this manner, he was apt to go 
 very far, tried to interrupt him ; but the Emperor, persisting 
 in the conversation, presently gave it an exceedingly embar- 
 rassing turn. " Yes, ladies, you occupy the attention of the 
 worthy inhabitants of the Faubourg St. Germain. They say, 
 
 for instance, that you, Mme. , have a liaison with M. 
 
 ; that you, Mme. ." And so he went on, address- 
 ing himself to three or four ladies in succession. The effect 
 upon us all of such an attack may easily be imagined. The 
 Emperor was amused by the confusion into which he threw 
 us. " But," added he, " you need not suppose that I approve 
 of talk of this kind. To attack my Court is to attack myself, 
 and I do not choose that a word shall be said, either of me, 
 or of my family, or of my Court." While thus speaking, his 
 countenance, which had previously been smiling, darkened, 
 and his voice became extremely harsh. He then burst out 
 violently against that section of Parisian society which was 
 still rebellious, declaring that he would exile every woman 
 
274: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMITS AT. 
 
 who should say a word against any lady-in-waiting ; and he 
 proceeded to work himself into a violent passion upon this 
 text, which he had entirely to himself, for not a single one 
 of us attempted to make him an answer. The Empress at 
 length rose from the table in order to terminate this un- 
 pleasant scene, and the general movement put an end to it. 
 The Emperor left the room as suddenly as he had come in. 
 One of our ladies, a sworn admirer of everything that Bona- 
 parte said and did, began to expatiate upon the kindness of 
 such a master, who desired that our reputation should be held 
 
 a sacred thing. But Mme. de , a very clever woman, 
 
 answered her impatiently, "Yes, madame, let the Emperor 
 only defend us once again in that fashion, and we are lost." x 
 
 Bonaparte was greatly surprised when the Empress rep- 
 resented to him the absurdity of this : scene, and he always 
 insisted that we ought to have been grateful for the readi- 
 ness with which he took offense when we were attacked. 
 
 During his stay at Saint Cloud he worked incessantly, 
 and issued a great number of decrees relative to the adminis- 
 tration of the new departments he had acquired in Italy. 
 He also augmented his Council of State, to which he gave 
 more influence from day to day, because he was quite sure 
 of having it completely under his authority. He showed 
 himself at the Opera, and was well received by the Parisians, 
 whom, however, he still thought cold in comparison with the 
 people of the provinces. He led a busy and laborious life, 
 sometimes allowing himself the recreation of hunting ; but 
 he walked out for one hour a day only, and received com- 
 pany on but one day in each week. On that day the Come- 
 die Francaise came to Saint Cloud, and acted tragedies or 
 comedies in a very pretty theatre which had been recently 
 built. Then began the difficulties of M. de Eemusat in pro- 
 viding amusement for him whom Talleyrand called "the 
 Unamusable." In vain were the masterpieces of our theatri- 
 cal repertoire performed ; in vain did our best actors strive 
 their very best to please him : he generally appeared at these 
 
ADMIRAL NELSON. 275 
 
 representations preoccupied and weighed down by the gravity 
 of his thoughts. He laid the blame of his own want of at- 
 tention to the play on his First Chamberlain, on Corneille, 
 on Racine, or on the actors. He liked Talma's acting, or 
 rather Talma himself there had been some sort of acquaint- 
 ance between them during his obscure youth ; he gave him 
 a great deal of money, and received him familiarly; but 
 even Talma could not succeed in interesting him. Just like 
 an invalid, who blames others for the state of his own health, 
 he was angry with those who could enjoy the pleasures that 
 passed him by; and he always thought that by scolding and 
 worrying he should get something invented which would 
 succeed in amusing him. The man who was intrusted with 
 Bonaparte's pleasures was very seriously to be pitied ; unfor- 
 tunately for us, M. de Remusat was the man, and I can not 
 describe what he had to bear. 
 
 At this time the Emperor was still flattering himself that 
 he would be able to gain some naval triumphs over the Eng- 
 lish. The united French and Spanish fleets made several 
 efforts, and an attempt was made to defend the colonies. 
 Admiral Kelson, pursuing us everywhere, no doubt -upset 
 the greater part of our plans; but this was carefully con- 
 cealed, and our newspapers taught us to believe that we 
 were beating the English every day. It is likely that the 
 project of the invasion was abandoned. The English Gov- 
 ernment was raising up formidable enemies for us upon the 
 Continent. The Emperor of Russia, who was young and 
 naturally inclined to independence, was perhaps already 
 tempted to resent the preponderance that our Emperor de- 
 sired to exercise, and some of his ministers were suspected 
 of favoring the English policy, which aimed at making him 
 our enemy. The peace with Austria held only by a thread. 
 The King of Prussia alone seemed resolved to maintain his 
 alliance with us. "Why," said a note in the "Moniteur," 
 " while the Emperor of Russia exercises his influence upon 
 the Porte, should he object to that of France being exer- 
 
276 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 cised upon certain portions of Italy ? When with Herschel's 
 telescope he observes from the terrace of his palace that 
 which passes between the Emperor of the French and a few 
 Apennine populations, why should he exact that the Em- 
 peror of the French shall not see what is passing in the an- 
 cient empire of Solyman, and what is happening in Persia ? 
 It is the fashion to accuse France of ambition, and yet how 
 great has been her past moderation," etc., etc. 
 
 In the month of August the Emperor set out for Bou- 
 logne. It was no longer his purpose to inspect the flotillas, 
 but he intended to review that numerous army encamped in 
 the north, which before long he was destined to set in mo- 
 tion. During his absence the Empress made an excursion 
 to the baths of Plombieres. I think I shall usefully employ 
 this interval of leisure by retracing my steps, in order to 
 mention certain particulars concerning M. de Talleyrand 
 which I have hitherto omitted. 
 
 Talleyrand, who had come back to France some time be- 
 fore, was appointed " Minister of External Relations " through 
 the influence of Mme. de Stael, who induced Barms, the 
 Director, to select him for that post.* It was under the 
 Directory that he made the acquaintance of Mme. Grand. 
 Although she was no longer in her first youth, this lady, who 
 was born in the East Indies, was still remarkable for her 
 beauty. She wished to go to England, where her husband 
 resided, and she applied to M. de Talleyrand for a passport. 
 Her beauty and her visit produced, apparently, such an effect 
 upon him that either the passport was not given, or it re- 
 mained unused. Mme. Grand remained in Paris ; shortly 
 afterward she was observed to frequent the " Hotel of Ex- 
 ternal Belations," and after a while she took up her abode 
 there. Meanwhile, Bonaparte was First Consul ; his victo- 
 ries and his treaties had brought the ambassadors of the first 
 Powers in Europe and a crowd of other foreigners to Paris. 
 
 *0n the 15th of July, 1797. He had returned to France in September, 
 1795. P. R. 
 
A DECISIVE INTERVIEW. 2T7 
 
 Persons who were obliged by their position to frequent M. 
 de Talleyrand's society accepted the presence of Mme. Grand, 
 who did the honors of his table and his salon with a good 
 grace ; but they were somewhat surprised at the weakness 
 which had consented to put so prominently forward a woman 
 who was indeed handsome, but so deficient in education and 
 so faulty in temper that she was continually annoying Tal- 
 leyrand by her foolish conduct, and disturbing him by her 
 uncertain humor. M. de Talleyrand has a very good temper, 
 and much laisser-aller in the events of every-day life. It is 
 easy enough to rule him by frightening him, because he hates 
 a disturbance, and Mme. Grand ruled him by her charms 
 and her exactions. "When, however, the ambassadresses were 
 in question, difficulties arose, as some of them would not con- 
 sent to be received at the Hotel of External Relations by 
 Mme. Grand. She complained, and these protests on both 
 sides came to the ears of the First Consul. 
 
 He immediately had a decisive interview on this subject 
 with Talleyrand, and informed his minister that he must 
 banish Mme. Grand from his house. No sooner had Mme. 
 Grand been apprised of this decision, than she went to Mme. 
 Bonaparte, whom she induced, by dint of tears and supplica- 
 tions, to procure for her an interview with Bonaparte. She 
 was admitted to his presence, fell on her knees, and entreated 
 him to revoke a decree which reduced her to despair. Bo- 
 naparte allowed himself to be moved by the tears and sobs 
 of this fair personage, and, after having quieted her, he said : 
 "I see only one way of managing this. Let Talleyrand 
 marry you, and all will be arranged ; but you must bear his 
 name, or you can not appear in his house." Mme. Grand was 
 much pleased with this decision ; the Consul repeated it to 
 Talleyrand, and gave him twenty-four hours to make up his 
 mind. It is said that Bonaparte took a malign pleasure in 
 making Talleyrand marry, and was secretly delighted to have 
 this opportunity of branding his character, and thus, accord- 
 ing to his favorite system, getting a guarantee of his fidelity. 
 
278 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 It is very possible that lie may have entertained such an idea ; 
 it is also certain that Mme. Bonaparte, over whom tears 
 always exercised a great influence, used all her power with 
 her husband to induce him to favor Mme. Grand's petition. 
 
 Talleyrand went back to his hotel, gravely troubled by 
 the prompt decision which was required of him. There he 
 had to encounter tumultuous scenes. He was attacked by all 
 the devices likely to exhaust his patience. He was pressed, 
 pursued, urged against his inclination. Some remains of 
 love, the power of habit, perhaps also the fear of irritating a 
 woman whom it is impossible to suppose he had not admitted 
 to his confidence, combined to influence him. He yielded, 
 set out for the country, and found, in a village in the valley 
 of Montmorency, a cure who consented to perform the mar- 
 riage ceremony. Two days afterward we were informed that 
 Mme. Grand had become Mme. de Talleyrand, and the diffi- 
 culty of the Corps Diplomatique was at an end. It appears 
 that M. Grand, who lived in England, although little desirous 
 of recovering a wife from whom he had long been parted, 
 contrived to get himself largely paid for withholding the 
 protest against this marriage with which he repeatedly men- 
 aced the newly wedded couple. M. de Talleyrand, wanting 
 something to amuse him in his own house, brought over from 
 London the daughter of one of his friends, who on her death- 
 bed had confided the child to him. This child was that little 
 Charlotte who was, as we all know, brought up in his house, 
 and who has been very erroneously believed to be his daugh- 
 ter. He attached himself strongly to his young ward, edu- 
 cated her carefully, and, having adopted her and bestowed 
 his name upon her, married her in her seventeenth year to 
 his cousin Baron de Talleyrand. The Talleyrands were at 
 first justly annoyed by this marriage, but she ultimately suc- 
 ceeded in gaining their friendship. 
 
 Those persons who are acquainted with Talleyrand, who 
 know to what a height he carries delicacy of taste, wit, and 
 grace in conversation, and how much he needs repose, are 
 
TALLEYRAND 8 MARRIAGE. 279 
 
 astonished that he should have united himself with a person 
 so uncongenial to him. It is, therefore, most likely that im- 
 perative circumstances compelled him to do so, and that Bona- 
 parte's command and the short time allowed him in which 
 to come to a decision prevented a rupture, which in fact 
 would have suited him much better. What a difference it 
 would have made for Talleyrand if he had then dissolved 
 this illicit union, and set himself to merit and effect a future 
 reconciliation with the Church he had abandoned ! Apart 
 from desiring for him that that reconciliation had been made 
 then in good faith, how much consideration would he have 
 gained if afterward, when all things were reordered and re- 
 placed, he had resumed the Roman purple in the autumn of 
 his days, and at least repaired in the eyes of the world the 
 scandal x of his life ! As a cardinal, a noble, and a truly dis- 
 tinguished man, he would have had a right to respect and 
 regard, and his course would not have been beset with em- 
 barrassment and hesitation. 
 
 In the situation in which he was placed by his marriage, 
 he had to take constant precaution to escape, as far as pos- 
 sible, from the ridicule which was always suspended over 
 him. No doubt he managed better than others might have 
 done in such a position. Profound silence respecting his 
 private troubles, an appearance of complete indifference to 
 the foolish things which his wife was always saying and the 
 blunders which she was always making, a haughty demeanor 
 to those who ventured to smile at him or at her, extreme 
 politeness, which was called benevolence, great social influ- 
 ence and political weight, a large fortune, unalterable pa- 
 tience under insult, and great dexterity in taking his re- 
 venge, were the weapons with which he met the general 
 condemnation; and, notwithstanding his great faults, the 
 public have never dared to despise him. Nevertheless, it is 
 not to be supposed that he has not paid the private penalty 
 of his imprudent conduct. Deprived of domestic happiness, 
 almost at variance with his family, who could not associate 
 
280 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 with Mme. de Talleyrand, he was obliged to resort to an 
 entirely factitious existence, in order to escape from the 
 dreariness of his home, and perhaps from the bitterness of 
 his secret thoughts. Public affairs occupied him, and such 
 leisure as they left him he gave to play. He was always 
 attended by a crowd of followers, and by giving his morn- 
 ings to business, his evenings to society, and his nights to 
 cards, he never exposed himself to a tiresome tete-d-tete with 
 his wife, or to the dangers of solitude, which would have 
 brought serious reflection. Bent on getting away from him- 
 self, he never sought sleep until he was quite sure that ex- 
 treme fatigue would enable him to procure it. 
 
 The Emperor did not make up for the obligation which 
 he had imposed on him by his conduct to Mme. de Talley- 
 rand. He treated her coldly, even rudely ; never admitted 
 her to the distinctions of the rank to which she was raised, 
 without making a difficulty about it ; and did not disguise 
 the repugnance with which she inspired him, even while 
 Talleyrand still possessed his entire confidence. Talleyrand 
 bore all this, never allowed the slightest complaint to escape 
 him, and arranged so that his wife should appear but seldom 
 at Court. She received all distinguished foreigners on cer- 
 tain days, and on certain other days the Government offi- 
 cials. She made no visits, none were exacted from her ; in 
 fact, she counted for nothing. Provided each person bowed 
 to her on entering and leaving his salon, Talleyrand asked 
 no more. Let me say, in conclusion, that he always seemed 
 to bear with perfectly resigned courage the fatal "tu Vas 
 voulu " of Moliere's comedy. 
 
 In the course of these Memoirs I shall have to speak of 
 M. de Talleyrand again, when I shall have reached the pe- 
 riod of our intimacy with him.* 
 
 * My grandparents' friendship with M. de Talleyrand, which commenced dur- 
 ing the sojourn of my grandfather at Milan, became more intimate in the course 
 of the same year. My grandmother wrote to her husband on the 28th of Sep- 
 tember, 1805 : "I have been really pleased with the Minister. In a brief audi- 
 
MME. GRAND. 281 
 
 I did not know Mme. Grand in the prime of her life and 
 beauty, but I have heard it said that she was one of the most 
 charming women of her time. She was tall, and her figure 
 had all the suppleness and grace so common to women born 
 in the East. *Her complexion was dazzling, her eyes of the 
 brightest blue, and her slightly retrousse nose gave her, sin- 
 gularly enough, a look of Talleyrand himself. Her fair 
 golden hair was of proverbial beauty. I think she was about 
 thirty-six when she married M. de Talleyrand. The elegance 
 of her figure was already slightly injured by her becoming 
 stout. This afterward increased, and by degrees her features 
 lost their delicacy and her complexion became very red. The 
 tone of her voice was disagreeable, her manners were abrupt ; 
 she was of an unamiable disposition, and so intolerably stupid 
 that she never by any chance said the right thing. Talley- 
 rand's intimate friends were the objects of her particular dis- 
 like, and they cordially detested her. Her elevation gave 
 her little happiness, and what she had to suffer never excited 
 anybody's interest.* 
 
 ence which he gave me he showed me much friendship, after his fashion. You 
 may tell him that he has been very amiable, and that I have told you so ; that 
 never does any harm. I said to him, laughing : ' You must like my husband 
 very much ; that will not give you much trouble, and will give me a great deal 
 of pleasure.' He told me that he did like you, and / believe him. He insists 
 that we suffer too much from ennui at the Court not to be, all of us, a little gal- 
 lant. I said, '/ shall be longer about becoming so than the others, because lam 
 not altogether stupid, and intellect is the surest safeguard? I was inclined to say 
 to him that he was not a proof of that, and that I felt in myself a much better de- 
 fense, the dear and constant sentiment with which you have inspired me, and which 
 constitutes the happiness of my life, even at this moment, when it also causes a 
 keen sorrow." That sorrow was absence. P. R. 
 
 * The papal brief which relieved M. de Talleyrand from the excommunications 
 he had incurred was considered by him as a permission to become a layman, and 
 even to marry, although nothing of the kind was expressed in it. The reader 
 may convince himself on this point by reading the very interesting work of Sir 
 Henry Lytton Bulwer, which appears to me to be the most just and the most 
 kindly view that has yet been taken of M. de Talleyrand, as regards his charac- 
 ter, his talent, and the influence which he exercised in Europe, so often with 
 great utility to France. The author speaks thus of Talleyrand's marriage: 
 
282 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE B&MU8AT. 
 
 While the Emperor was reviewing the whole of his army, 
 Mme. Murat went to Boulogne to pay him a visit, and he 
 desired that Mme. Louis Bonaparte, who had accompanied 
 her husband to the baths of Saint Amand, should also attend 
 him there, and bring her son. On several occasions he went 
 through the ranks of his soldiers, carrying this child in his 
 arms. The army was then remarkably fine, strictly disci- 
 plined, full of the best spirit, well provided, and impatient 
 for war. This desire was destined to be satisfied before 
 long. 
 
 Notwithstanding the reports in our newspapers, we were 
 almost always stopped in everything that we attempted to 
 do for the protection of our colonies. The proposed inva- 
 sion appeared day by day more perilous. It became neces- 
 sary to astonish Europe by a less doubtful novelty. " We 
 are no longer," said the notes of the " Moniteur," addressed 
 to the English Government, " those Frenchmen who were 
 sold and betrayed by perfidious ministers, covetous mis- 
 tresses, and indolent kings. You march toward an inevitable 
 destiny." 
 
 The two nations, English and French, each claimed the 
 victory in the naval combat off Cape Finisterre, where no 
 doubt our national bravery opposed a strong resistance to 
 the science of the enemy, but which had no other result than 
 to oblige our fleet to reenter the port. Shortly afterward 
 our journals were full of complaints of the insults which 
 the flag of Yenice had sustained since it had become a de- 
 pendency of Austria. We soon learned that the Austrian 
 troops were moving ; that an alliance between the Emperors 
 of Austria and Kussia was f onned against us ; and the Eng- 
 
 " The lady whom he married, born in the East Indies, and separated from 
 Grand, was remarkable for her beauty and for her lack of sense. Every one 
 has heard the anecdote of her asking Sir George Robinson after his ' man Fri- 
 day.' Talleyrand, however, defended his choice by saying : * A clever woman 
 often compromises her husband ; a stupid woman only compromises herself.' " 
 P. R. 
 
LAST TRACES OF THE REPUBLIC. 283 
 
 lish journals triumphantly announced a continental war. 
 This year the birthday of Napoleon was celebrated with 
 great pomp from one end of France to the other. He re- 
 turned from Boulogne on the 3d of September, and at that 
 time the Senate issued a decree by which the Gregorian cal- 
 endar was to be resumed on the 1st of January, 1806. Thus 
 disappeared, little by little, the last traces of the Eepublic, 
 which had lasted, or appeared to last, for thirteen years. 
 
CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 (1805.) 
 
 M. de Talleyrand and M. Fouch6 The Emperor's Speech to the Senate The De- 
 parture of the Emperor The Bulletins of the Grand Army Poverty in Paris 
 during the War The Emperor and the Marshals The Faubourg St. Germain 
 Trafalgar Journey of M. de Re"musat to Vienna. 
 
 AT the period of which I am writing, M. de Talleyrand 
 was still on bad terms with M. Fouche, and, strange to say, 
 I remember that the latter charged him with being deficient 
 in conscientiousness and sincerity. He always remembered 
 that on the occasion of the attempt of the 3d Mvose (the 
 infernal machine) Talleyrand had accused him to Bonaparte 
 of neglect, and had contributed not a little to his dismissal. 
 On his return to the Ministry he secretly nursed his resent- 
 ment, and let slip no opportunity of gratifying it, by that 
 bitter and cynical mockery which was the habitual tone of 
 his conversation. 
 
 Talleyrand and Fouche were two very remarkable men, 
 and both were exceedingly useful to Bonaparte. But it 
 would be difficult to find less resemblance and fewer points 
 of contact between any two persons placed in such close and 
 continuous relations. The former had studiously preserved 
 the carelessly resolute manner, if I may use that expression, 
 of the nobles of the old regime. Acute, taciturn, measured 
 in his speech, cold in his bearing, pleasing in conversation, 
 deriving all his power from himself alone for he held no 
 party in his hand his very faults, and even the stigma of 
 his abandonment of his former sacred state of life, were suf- 
 
M. DE TALLEYRAND AND M. FOUCHfi. 285 
 
 ficient guarantee to the Eevolutionists, who knew him to be 
 so adroit and so supple that they believed him to be always 
 keeping the means of escaping them in reserve. Besides, 
 he opened his mind to no one. He was quite impenetrable 
 upon the affairs with which he was charged, and upon his 
 own opinion of the master whom he served ; and, as a final 
 touch to this picture, he neglected nothing for his own com- 
 fort, was careful in his dress, used perfumes, and was a 
 lover of good cheer and all the pleasures of the senses. He 
 was never subservient to Bonaparte, but he knew how to 
 make himself necessary to him, and never flattered him in 
 public. 
 
 Fouche, on the contrary, was a genuine product of the 
 Revolution. Careless of his appearance, he wore the gold 
 lace and the ribbons which were the insignia of his dignities 
 as if he disdained to arrange them. He could laugh at him- 
 self on occasion : he was active, animated, always restless ; 
 talkative, affecting a sort of frankness which was merely the 
 last degree of deceit ; boastful ; disposed to seek the opinion 
 of others upon his conduct by talking about it ; and sought 
 no justification except in his contempt of a certain class of 
 morality, or his carelessness of a certain order of approba- 
 tion. But he carefully maintained, to Bonaparte's occasional 
 disquiet, relations with a party whom the Emperor felt him- 
 self obliged to conciliate in his person. With all this, Fouche 
 was not deficient in a sort of good fellowship ; he had even 
 some estimable qualities. He was a good husband to an 
 ugly and stupid wife, and a very good, even a too-indulgent, 
 father. He looked at revolution as a whole ; he hated small 
 schemes and constantly recurring suspicions, and it was be- 
 cause this was his way of thinking that his police did not 
 suffice for the Emperor. Where Fouche recognized merit, 
 he did it justice. It is not recorded of him that he was 
 guilty of any personal revenge, nor did he show himself 
 capable of persistent jealousy. It is even likely that, al- 
 though he remained for several years an enemy of Talley- 
 
286 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 rand's, it was less because he had reason to complain of him 
 than because the Emperor took pains to keep up a division 
 between two men whose friendship he thought dangerous to 
 himself ; and, indeed, it was when they were reconciled that 
 he began to distrust them both, and to exclude them from 
 affairs. 
 
 In 1805 Talleyrand stood much higher in favor than 
 Fouehe. The business in hand was to found a monarchy, 
 to impose it upon Europe and upon France by skillful diplo- 
 macy and the pomp of a Court ; and the ci-devcmt noble was 
 much fitter to advise upon all these points. He had an im- 
 mense reputation in Europe. He was known to hold con- 
 servative opinions, and that was all the morality demanded 
 by the foreign sovereigns. The Emperor, in order to inspire 
 confidence in his enterprise, needed to have his signature 
 supported by that of his Minister for Foreign Affairs. So 
 necessary to his projects did he consider this that he did 
 not grudge the distinction. The agitation which reigned in 
 Europe at the moment when the rupture with Austria and 
 Russia took place called for very frequent consultations be- 
 tween the Emperor and M. de Talleyrand ; and, when Bona- 
 parte left Paris to commence the campaign, the Minister 
 established himself at Strasburg, so that 'he might be able to 
 reach the Emperor when the French cannon should announce 
 that the hour of negotiations had arrived. 
 
 About the middle of September rumors of an approach- 
 ing departure were spread at Saint Cloud. M. de Remusat 
 received orders to repair to Strasburg, and there to prepare 
 the Imperial lodgings ; and the Empress declared so de- 
 cidedly her intention of following her husband that it was 
 settled she should go to Strasburg with him. A numerous 
 Court was to accompany them. As my husband was going, 
 I should have been very glad to accompany him, but I was 
 becoming more and more of an invalid, and was not in a 
 state to travel. I was therefore obliged to submit to this 
 new separation, a more sorrowful one than the former. This 
 
THE EMPERORS SPEECH TO THE SENATE. 287 
 
 was the first time since I had been at the Court that I had 
 seen the Emperor setting out for the army. The dangers to 
 which he was about to be exposed revived all my former 
 attachment to him. I had not courage to reproach him with 
 anything when I saw him depart on so serious a mission ; 
 and the thought that, of many persons who were going, 
 there would no doubt be some whom I should never see 
 again, brought tears to my eyes, and made my heart sink. 
 In the glittering salon of Saint Cloud I saw wives and 
 mothers in terror and anguish, who did not dare to let their 
 grief be seen, so great was the fear of displeasing the Em- 
 peror. The officers affected carelessness, but that was the 
 necessary bravado of their profession. At that time, how- 
 ever, there were a great many of them who, having attained 
 a sufficient fortune, and being unable to foresee the almost 
 gigantic height to which the continuity of war was afterward 
 to raise them, were very sorry to relinquish the pleasant and 
 quiet life which they had now led for some years. 
 
 Throughout France the law of the conscription was 
 strictly carried out, and this caused some disturbance in the 
 provinces. The fresh laurels which our army was about to 
 acquire were regarded with indifference. But the soldiers 
 and subalterns were full of hope and ardor, and rushed to 
 the frontiers with eagerness, a presage of success. 
 
 On the 20th of September the following appeared in the 
 "Moniteur": 
 
 "The Emperor of Germany, without previous negotia- 
 tion or explanation, and without any declaration of war, has 
 invaded Bavaria. The Elector has retreated to Warzburg, 
 where the whole Bavarian army is assembled." 
 
 On the 23d the Emperor repaired to the Senate, and issued 
 a decree calling out the reserves of the conscripts of five years' 
 standing. Berthier, the Minister of "War, read a report on 
 the impending war, and the Minister of the Interior demon- 
 strated the necessity of employing the National Guard to 
 protect the coasts. 
 23 
 
288 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 The Emperor's speech was simple and impressive ;-it was 
 generally approved. Our causes of complaint against Austria 
 were fully set forth in the " Moniteur." There is little .doubt 
 that England, if not afraid, was at least weary of the stay of 
 our troops on the coast, and that it was her policy to raise 
 up enemies for us on the Continent, while the division of 
 the kingdom of Italy, and still more its union with the French 
 Empire, was sufficiently disquieting to the Austrian Cabinet. 
 Without a knowledge of the diplomatic secrets of the period, 
 which I do not possess, it is hard to understand why the 
 Emperor of Russia broke with us. It is probable that com- 
 mercial difficulties were making him anxious about his rela- 
 tions with England. It may be well to quote some words of 
 Napoleon's on this subject. " The Emperor Alexander," he 
 said, " is a young man ; he longs for a taste of glory, and, 
 like all children, he wants to go a different way from that 
 which his father followed." Neither can I explain the neu- 
 trality of the King of Prussia, which was so advantageous to 
 us, and to himself so fatal, since it did but delay his over- 
 throw for one year. It seems to me that Europe blundered. 
 The Emperor's character should have been better appreciated ; 
 and there should have been either a clear understanding that 
 he must be always yielded to, or he should have been put 
 down by general consent at the outset of his career. 
 
 Eut I must return to my narrative, from which I have 
 digressed in order to treat of a subject beyond my pow- 
 ers. 
 
 I passed the last few days preceding the Emperor's de- 
 parture at Saint Cloud. The Emperor worked unremit- 
 tingly; when over-fatigued, he would lie down for a few 
 hours in the daytime, but would rise in the middle of the 
 night and go on with his labors. He was, however, more 
 serene and gracious than at other times ; he received com- 
 pany as usual, went occasionally to the theatres, and did not 
 forget, when he was at Strasburg, to send a present to 
 Fleury, the actor, who, two days before his departure, had 
 
DEPARTURE OF THE EMPEROR. 289 
 
 performed Corneille's "Menteur," by which he had suc- 
 ceeded in amusing the Emperor. 
 
 The Empress was as full of confidence as the wife of 
 Bonaparte would naturally be. Happy to be allowed to 
 accompany him and to escape from the talk of Paris, which 
 alarmed her, from the spying of her brothers-in-law, and the 
 monotony of Saint Cloud, delighted with the fresh oppor- 
 tunity for display, she looked on a campaign as on a journey, 
 and maintained a composure which, as it could not by reason 
 of her position proceed from indifference, was a genuine 
 compliment to him whom she firmly believed fortune would 
 not dare to forsake. Louis Bonaparte, who was in bad 
 health, was to remain in Paris, and had received orders, as 
 had also his wife, to entertain liberally in the absence of the 
 Emperor. Joseph presided over the Administrative Council 
 of the Senate. He resided at the Luxembourg, where he 
 was also to hold a Court. Princess Borghese was recovering 
 her health at Trianon. Mme. Murat withdrew to Neuilly, 
 where she occupied herself in beautifying her charming 
 dwelling ; Murat accompanied the Emperor to headquarters. 
 M. de Talleyrand was to remain at Strasburg until further 
 orders. M. Maret attended the Emperor; he was the au- 
 thor-in-chief of the bulletins. 
 
 On the 24th the Emperor set out, and he reached Stras- 
 burg without stopping on the way. 
 
 I returned in low spirits to Paris, where I rejoined my 
 children, my mother, and my sister. I found the latter 
 much distressed by her separation from M. de Nansouty, 
 who was in command of a division of cavalry. 
 
 Immediately on the departure of the Emperor, rumors 
 became rife in Paris of an intended invasion of the coast, 
 and, in fact, such an expedition might have been attempted ; 
 but, fortunately, our enemies were not quite so audacious 
 and enterprising as ourselves, and at that time the English 
 had not such confidence in their army as since then it has 
 justly inspired. 
 
290 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 The tightening of the money-market began almost imme- 
 diately to be felt : in a short time payment at the Bank was 
 suspended; money fetched a very high price. I heard it 
 said that our export trade did not suffice for our wants; 
 that war had stopped it, and was raising the price of all our 
 imports. This, I was told, was the cause of the sudden em- 
 barrassment which had come upon us. 
 
 Special and personal anxieties were added to the general 
 depression. Many families of distinction had sons in the 
 army, and trembled for their fate. In what suspense did 
 not parents await the arrival of bulletins which might sud- 
 denly apprise them of the loss of those most dear to them ! 
 What agonies did not Bonaparte inflict on women, on moth- 
 ers, during many years ! He has sometimes expressed aston- 
 ishment at the hatred he at last inspired ; but could he expect 
 to be forgiven such agonized and prolonged suspense, so much 
 weeping, so many sleepless nights, and days of agonizing 
 dread 3 If he had but admitted the truth, he must have known 
 there is not one natural feeling on which he had not trampled. 
 
 Before his departure, and in order to gratify the nobles, 
 he created what was called the Guard of Honor. He gave 
 the command to his Grand Master of Ceremonies. It was 
 almost funny to see poor M. de Segur's zeal in forming his 
 Guard, the eagerness displayed by certain great personages to 
 obtain admittance into it, and the anxiety of some of the 
 chamberlains, who imagined the Emperor would much ad- 
 mire the change of their red coats for a military uniform. I 
 shall never forget the surprise, nay, the fright which M. de 
 Lugay, Prefect of the Palace, a mild and timid person, gave 
 me, when he asked me whether M. de Remusat, the father 
 of a family, a former magistrate, and at that time more than 
 forty years of age, did not also intend to embrace the mili- 
 tary career thus suddenly opened to everybody. "We were 
 beginning to be accustomed to so many strange things that, 
 in spite of sense and reason, I felt some solicitude on this 
 subject, and I wrote to my husband, who replied that he 
 
BULLETINS OF THE GRAND ARMY. 291 
 
 had not been seized with martial ardor, and that he hoped 
 the Emperor might still reckon among his servants some who 
 did not wear swords. 
 
 ' At this time the Emperor had partly restored us to favor. 
 On his departure from Strasburg he confided the entire 
 charge of the Court and the Empress's household to my 
 husband. These were sufficiently easy duties, with no great- 
 er drawback than a certain amount of tedium. M. de Tal- 
 leyrand, who also remained behind at Strasburg, gave some 
 zest to the daily routine of M. de Kemusat's life. They now 
 became really intimate, and were frequently together. M. 
 de Remusat, who was by nature simple, modest, and retir- 
 ing, showed to advantage as he became better known, and 
 M. de Talleyrand recognized his intellectual qualities, his 
 excellent judgment, and his uprightness. He began to trust 
 him, to appreciate the safety of intercourse with him, and to 
 treat him as a friend; while my husband, who was gratified 
 by receiving such overtures from a quarter whence he had 
 not expected them, conceived for him from that moment an 
 affection which no subsequent vicissitude has lessened. 
 
 Meanwhile the Emperor had left Strasburg. On the 1st 
 of October he commenced the campaign, and the entire army, 
 transported as if by magic from Boulogne, was crossing the 
 frontier. The Elector of Bavaria, on being called upon by 
 the Emperor of Austria to afford free passage to his troops, 
 refused to do so, and was being invaded on every side ; but 
 Bonaparte marched to his aid without delay. 
 
 We then received the first bulletin from the Grand Army. 
 It announced a first success at Donauworth, and gave us the 
 proclamations of the Emperor, and that of the Viceroy of 
 Italy. Massena was ordered to reenforce the latter, and to 
 push into the Tyrol with the united French and Italian 
 armies. To phrases well calculated to inflame the zeal of 
 our soldiers were added others of biting sarcasm against our 
 enemy. A circular addressed to the inhabitants of Austria, 
 asking for contributions of lint, was published, accompanied 
 
MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 by the following note : " "We hope the Emperor of Austria 
 will not require any, as he has gone back to Vienna." 
 
 Insults to the ministers were not spared, nor to some of 
 the great Austrian nobles, among whom was the Count de 
 Colloredo, who was accused of being governed by his wife, 
 herself entirely devoted to English policy. These unworthy 
 attacks occurred promiscuously in the bulletins, among really 
 elevated sentiments, which, although put forth with Roman 
 rather than with French eloquence, were very effective. 
 
 Bonaparte's activity in this campaign was positively mar- 
 velous. From the beginning he foresaw the advantages that 
 would accrue to him from the first blunders of the Austrians, 
 and also his ultimate success. Toward the middle of October 
 he wrote to his wife : " Rest easy ; I promise you the shortest 
 and most brilliant of campaigns." 
 
 At Wertingen our cavalry obtained some advantage over 
 the enemy, and M. de Nansouty distinguished himself. A 
 brilliant skirmish also took place at Giinzburg, and the Aus- 
 trians were soon retreating from every point. 
 
 The army became more and more enthusiastic, and seemed 
 to take no heed of the approach of winter. Just before going 
 into action, the Emperor harangued his soldiers on the Lech 
 bridge, in the midst of thickly falling snow. " But," con- 
 tinued the bulletin, " his words were of fire, and the soldiers 
 forgot their privations." The bulletin ended with these pro- 
 phetic words : " The destinies of the campaign are fixed." * 
 
 * The actual text of the fifth bulletin from the Grand Army is as follows : 
 " Augsburg, 20th Vendemiaire, year 14 (12th October, 1805). The Emperor was 
 on the Lech bridge when the division under General Marmont defiled past him. 
 He ordered each regiment to form in circle, and spoke to them of the enemy's 
 position,, of the imminence of a great battle, and of his confidence in them. He 
 made this speech in the most severe weather. Snow was falling thick, the troops 
 stood in mud up to their knees, and the cold was intense; but the Emperor's 
 words were of fire, and while listening to him the soldiers forgot their fatigue 
 and their privations, and were impatient for the moment of battle. Never can 
 great events have been decided in a shorter time. In less than a fortnight the 
 destinies of the campaign, and of the Austrian, and Russian armies, will be 
 fixed." P. R. 
 
PO VERTY IN PARIS. 293 
 
 The taking of Ulm and the capitulation of its immense 
 garrison completed the surprise and terror of Austria, and 
 served to silence the factious spirit in Paris, which had been 
 with difficulty repressed by the police. It is hard to prevent 
 Frenchmen from ranging themselves on the side of glory, 
 and we began to share .in that which our army was gaining. 
 But the monetary difficulty was still painfully felt; trade 
 suffered, the theatres were empty, an increase of poverty 
 was perceptible, and the only hope that sustained us was 
 that a campaign so brilliant must be followed by an imme- 
 diate peace. 
 
 After the capitulation of Ulm, the Emperor himself dic- 
 tated the following phrase in the bulletin : " The panegyric 
 of the army may be pronounced in two words : It is worthy 
 of its leader." * He wrote to the Senate, sending the colors 
 taken from the enemy, and announcing that the Elector had 
 returned to his capital. Letters from him to the bishops, 
 requesting them to offer thanksgiving for our victories, were 
 also published. 
 
 From the very beginning of the campaign pastoral letters 
 had been read in every metropolitan church, justifying the 
 war, and encouraging the new recruits to march promptly 
 whithersoever they should be called. The bishops now be- 
 gan the task once more, and exhausted the Scriptures for 
 texts to prove that the Emperor was protected by the God 
 of armies." f 
 
 * These words are, in fact, to be found in the sixth bulletin from the Grand 
 Army, dated Elchingen, 26th Vend6miaire, year 14 (18th October, 1805). P. R. 
 
 f The extreme subservience shown by the clergy toward the Emperor was 
 not sufficient in his eyes, if we may judge by the following letter, which he 
 addressed to Fouche" during the campaign: "4th Nivose, year 14 (25th Decem- 
 ber, 1805). I perceive some difficulty on the subject of reading out the bulletins 
 in churches ; I do not consider this advisable. It would only give more im- 
 portance to priests than is their due ; for it gives them a right of comment, and, 
 should the news be bad, they would not fail to remark on it. It is thus because 
 there are no fixed principles : now there are to be no priests at all, again there 
 are to be too many ; all this must come to an end. M. Portalis was wrong to 
 write his letter without knowing my intentions on the subject." P. R. 
 
294 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 Joseph Bonaparte was the bearer of his brother's letter 
 to the Senate. That body decreed that, in reply, an address 
 of congratulation should be carried to headquarters by a cer- 
 tain number of its members. 
 
 At Strasburg the Empress received a number of German 
 princes, who came to join her Court^ and to offer her their 
 homage and congratulations. With a natural pride she 
 showed them the Emperor's letters, in which long before- 
 hand he announced to her the victories he was about to 
 gain; and either his skillful foresight must needs be ad- 
 mired, or else the power of a destiny which never for a 
 moment belied itself must be recognized. 
 
 Marshal Ney distinguished himself at Elchingen, and the 
 Emperor consented so fully to leave the honors of the occa- 
 sion to him that afterward, when he created dukes, he de- 
 sired that the Marshal's title should be Duke of Elchingen. 
 
 I use the word consented, because it is admitted that 
 Bonaparte was not always perfectly just in apportioning 
 the fame which he accorded to his generals. In one of his 
 occasional fits of frankness, I heard him say that he liked to 
 bestow glory only on those who knew not how to sustain it. 
 According to his policy with respect to the military chiefs 
 under his orders, or the degree of confidence which he placed 
 in them, he would either preserve silence concerning certain 
 victories of theirs, or change the blunder of a particular 
 marshal into a success. A general would hear through some 
 bulletin of an action which had never taken place, or of a 
 speech which he had never made. Another would find him- 
 self famous in the newspapers, and would wonder how he 
 had deserved to be thus distinguished. Others would en- 
 deavor to protest against his neglect of them, or against 
 distorted accounts of events. But how was it possible to 
 correct what had once been read, and was already effaced by 
 more recent news ? For Bonaparte's rapidity in war gave 
 us daily something fresh to learn. On these occasions he 
 would either impose silence on the protest, or, if he wished 
 
THE EMPFROR AND TEE MARSHALS. 295 
 
 to appease the offended officer, a sum of money, a prize from 
 the enemy, or permission to levy a tax was granted to him, 
 and thus the affair would end. 
 
 This crafty spirit, which was inherent in Bonaparte's 
 character, and which he employed adroitly in dealing with 
 his marshals and superior officers, may be justified, up to a 
 certain point, by the difficulty he occasionally met with in 
 managing so large a number of individuals of widely differ- 
 ing characters but similar aims. He was perfectly cognizant 
 of the scope of their various talents ; he knew in what man- 
 ner each of them might be useful to him : while rewarding 
 their services he was perpetually obliged to repress their 
 pride and jealousy. He was forced to use every means in 
 his power to secure his own success ; above all, he could miss 
 no opportunity of making them feel their entire dependence 
 on himself, and that their renown as well as their fortune was 
 in his hands alone.* This point once reached, he might 
 
 * I find among my father's papers a note which further develops what is 
 said here concerning the marshals- of the Empire: "The Emperor took the 
 utmost license in composing his bulletins, seeking especially to eclipse all the 
 others, and to establish his own infallibility ; then considering the kind of effect 
 he wished to produce on foreigners and on the public in France ; and, lastly, 
 having regard to his intentions and his good or ill will toward his lieutenants. 
 Truth came a long way behind all these things. Nothing could equal the sur- 
 prise of his officers on reading the bulletins which came back to them from 
 Paris ; but they made few complaints. The Emperor is, like the Convention 
 and Louis XIV., one of the few powers able to subdue and to discipline the 
 vanity of subordinates. 
 
 " The Emperor praised the great generals of his time but little. Military 
 men are more jealous of each other than those of any other profession ; they 
 are the least to be relied on in their estimation of each other. They are dis- 
 couraging or irritating when judging one of another. To this natural jealousy 
 the Emperor added the calculations of a despot who will have no one of impor- 
 tance except himself. Desaix is the only man of whom he spoke with any 
 enthusiasm, and he knew him only at the opening of his career of power. He 
 always continued, I believe, to treat him well, but Desaix died [at Marengo, 
 June 14, 1800]. His comments on his lieutenants, in the beginning of his nar- 
 rative of the first campaign in Italy, are remarkable, and their severity has no 
 appearance of jealousy. Generally he spoke of the marshals with a not very 
 flattering freedom. In his correspondence with King Joseph we may read what 
 
296 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 feel certain not to be importuned by them, and to be at 
 liberty to reward their services at his own price. In general, 
 however, the marshals have had no cause to complain that 
 he did not rate them highly. The rewards obtained by them 
 were frequently gigantic ; and, the long continuance of war 
 having raised their hopes to the highest pitch, we have seen 
 them become dukes and princes without being astonished at 
 the fact, and end by thinking that royalty alone could wor- 
 thily crown their destiny. Enormous sums were divided 
 among them, and every kind of -exaction from the van- 
 quished was permitted them ; some of them made immense 
 fortunes, and, if most of these disappeared with the Govern- 
 ment .under which they had been amassed, it was because 
 
 he said of Mass6na, Jourdan, and some others. General Foy told me that he 
 had heard him say of Soult, * He can array a battle well, but is incapable of 
 fighting one.' Then he would dwell on the exactions, the pretensions, the am- 
 bition, and the cupidity of his marshals. * No one knows,' he said to M. Pas- 
 quier, ' what it is to have to deal with two such men as Soult and Ney.' His 
 lieutenants frequently paid him back, in their conversations, what he had said 
 concerning them. It was not in the army, especially during the campaigns that 
 followed that of Austerlitz, that he was chiefly held in admiration, esteem, and 
 affection. He had, as it were, an off-hand way of making war. He neglected 
 many things, and risked many. He sacrificed everything to his personal success. 
 Becoming more and more confident in his destiny, and in the terror inspired by 
 his presence, his only thought was to repair any blunders, checks, or losses by 
 decisive blows struck with his own hand. He was always resolute in denying or 
 in preserving silence concerning anything which might injure him. This ren- 
 dered the service unbearable to those generals who were at a distance from 
 himself. They retained all their responsibility, were often without the neces- 
 sary means of action, and received only orders impossible to execute, and which 
 were intended to put them in the wrong. They accused him consequently of 
 selfishness, of injustice, of perfidy, and even of malice toward them, or of envy. 
 Barante has told me that, when the auditors arrived at the army, they were con- 
 founded at what they heard said among the staff, and sometimes even at head- 
 quarters. He himself, when attached to the staff of Marshal Lannes during 
 the campaign of Poland, I believe heard him frequently say at his own table 
 that the Emperor, being jealous of him and eager to ruin him, gave him orders 
 with this end in view ; and once, when suffering from internal pain, he went so 
 far as to say the Emperor had tried to have him poisoned." I have quoted the 
 whole of this interesting passage ; but it is evident that all this was in embryo 
 at the time of the campaign of 1805. P. R. 
 
A SOLEMN TE DEUM. 297 
 
 they had been acquired so easily that their upstart possessors 
 naturally spent them lavishly, feeling confident that the fa- 
 cilities for making such fortunes would never be exhausted. 
 
 In this first campaign of Napoleon's reign, although the 
 army was as yet subject to a discipline which was afterward 
 considerably relaxed, the vanquished people found themselves 
 a prey to the rapacity of the conqueror, and the obligation of 
 receiving some field officer for a single night, or even for a 
 few hours, cost many a great Austrian noble or prince the 
 entire destruction and pillage of his home. The common 
 soldiers were under discipline, and there was an outward ap- 
 pearance of order, but there was nothing to hinder a marshal 
 from taking away with him, on his departure, any objects 
 which had caught his fancy. After the close of the war, I 
 
 have often heard the wife of Marshal X relate, with 
 
 laughter, that her husband, knowing her taste for music, had 
 sent her an immense collection of music-books, which he had 
 found in some German prince's house ; and she would add, 
 with equal ingenuousness, that he had dispatched so many 
 packing-cases full of lusters and Vienna glass, which he had 
 picked up in every direction, to their house in Paris, that she 
 was quite at a loss to know where to put them. 
 
 While the Emperor knew so well how to hold the preten- 
 sions of his generals in check, he spared no pains to encourage 
 and satisfy the rank and file. After the taking of Ulm, a 
 decree was issued to the effect that the month of Yende- 
 miaire, which was just closed, should in itself be reckoned as 
 a campaign. 
 
 On the feast of All Saints a solemn Te Dewm was sung 
 at Notre Dame, and Joseph gave several entertainments in 
 honor of our victories. 
 
 Meanwhile Masse*na was distinguishing himself by vic- 
 tories in Italy, and it soon became certain that the Emperor 
 of Austria would have to pay dearly for this great campaign. 
 The Russian army was hastening by forced marches to his 
 aid, but had not yet joined the Austrians, who meanwhile 
 
 , 
 
298 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 were being defeated by our Emperor. It was said at the 
 time that the Emperor Francis made a blunder by entering 
 upon the war before the Emperor Alexander was in a posi- 
 tion to help him. 
 
 During this campaign Bonaparte induced the King of 
 Naples to remain neutral, and agreed to rid him of the 
 French garrison which he had hitherto been obliged to main- 
 tain. Several decrees relating to the administration .of France 
 were promulgated from various headquarters, and the former 
 Doge of Genoa was created a senator. 
 
 The Emperor liked to appear to be engaged in a number 
 of different affairs at once, and to show that he could cast 
 what he called " an eagle glance " in every direction at the 
 same instant. For this reason, and also on account of his 
 suspicious disposition, he wrote a letter to the Minister of 
 Police, desiring him to keep a watchful eye on the Faubourg 
 St. Germain, meaning those members of the French nobility 
 who remained opposed to him, and stating that he had been 
 informed of certain things that had been said against him in 
 his absence, and would punish them on his return. 
 
 It was Fouche*'s habit, on receiving such orders as these, 
 to send for the persons, both men and women, who were 
 more specially accused. Whether he really thought the Em- 
 peror's displeasure was excited by mere trifles, and that, as 
 he sometimes used to say, it was foolish to prevent French 
 people from talking, or whether he desired to win golden 
 opinions by his own moderation, after advising those persons 
 for whom he had sent to be more cautious, he would conclude 
 by admitting that the Emperor made too much ado about 
 trivialities. Thus, by degrees, he acquired a reputation for 
 justice and moderation, which did away with the first im- 
 pressions of his character. The Emperor, who was informed 
 of this conduct on his part, resented it, and was secretly on 
 his guard against one so careful to conciliate all parties. 
 
 On the 12th of November our victorious army entered 
 the gates of Vienna. The newspapers gave full details of 
 
TRAFALGAR. 999 
 
 the circumstances, and these accounts acquire additional in- 
 terest from the fact that they were all dictated by Bonaparte, 
 and that he frequently took upon himself to invent, as an 
 afterthought, circumstances or anecdotes likely to strike the 
 popular imagination. 
 
 "The Emperor," says the bulletin, "has taken up his 
 abode in the palace of Schonbrunn ; he writes in a cabinet in 
 which stands a statue of Maria Theresa. On observing this, 
 he exclaimed : ' Ah ! if that great queen were still living, she 
 would not allow herself to be led by such a woman as Mme. 
 de Colloredo ! Surrounded by her nobles, she would have 
 ascertained the wishes of her people. She would never have 
 allowed her provinces to be ravaged by the Muscovites,' 
 etc."* 
 
 Meanwhile some bad news came to temper Bonaparte's 
 success. Admiral Nelson had just beaten our fleet at Tra- 
 falgar. The French navy had fought with splendid bravery, 
 but had been disastrously defeated. This produced a bad 
 effect in Paris, and disgusted the Emperor for ever with 
 naval enterprises. He became so deeply prejudiced against 
 the French navy that from that time it was scarcely possible 
 to induce him to take any interest in or pay any attention to 
 the subject. Vainly did the sailors or soldiers who had dis- 
 tinguished themselves on that fatal day endeavor to obtain 
 recognition or sympathy for the dangers they had encoun- 
 tered : they were practically forbidden even to revert to the 
 disaster; and when, in after-years, they wanted to obtain 
 any favor, they took care not to claim it on the score of the 
 admirable courage to which only the English dispatches ren- 
 dered justice. 
 
 Immediately on the Emperor's return to Vienna, he sent 
 for M. de Talleyrand, perceiving that the time for negotia- 
 tions was at hand, and that the Emperor of Austria was 
 about to treat for peace. It is probable that our Emperor 
 had already decided on making the Elector of Bavaria a 
 
 * The whole of this lengthy effusion may be read in the " Moniteur." 
 
300 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 King, on enlarging his dominions, and also on the marriage 
 of Prince Eugene. 
 
 M. de Remusat was sent to Paris in order that he might 
 convey the Imperial insignia and the crown diamonds to Vi- 
 enna. I saw him but for an instant, and learned with fresh 
 vexation that he was about to leave for a still more, distant 
 country. On his return to Strasburg he received orders to 
 proceed at once to Vienna, and the Empress was directed to 
 repair to Munich with the whole Court. Nothing could ex- 
 ceed the honors rendered to her in Germany. Princes and 
 Electors crowded to welcome her, and the Elector of Bavaria, 
 especially, neglected nothing to make her reception all that 
 could be desired. She remained at Munich, waiting for her 
 husband's return. 
 
 M. de Remusat, while on his journey, reflected sadly 
 upon the condition of the countries through which he passed. 
 The land still reeked of battle. Devastated villages, roads 
 encumbered with corpses and ruins, brought before his eyes 
 all the horrors of war. The distress of the vanquished added 
 an element of danger to the discomfort of this journey so 
 late in the season. Everything contributed painfully to im- 
 press the imagination of a man who was a friend to human- 
 ity, and who lamented the disasters which result from the 
 passions of conquerors. My husband's letters, full of pain- 
 ful reflections, grieved me deeply, and served to lessen the 
 enthusiasm which had been beginning to revive as I read 
 accounts of victories, in which the bright side only was 
 shown to the public. 
 
 When M. de R&nusat reached Vienna, the Emperor was 
 no longer there. The negotiations had lasted but a short 
 time, and our army was marching forward. M. de Talley- 
 rand and M. Maret remained at Schonbrunn, where they 
 both lived, but without intimacy. M. Maret's familiarity 
 with the Emperor gave him a sort of influence, which he 
 kept up, as I have already said, by adoration, true or feigned, 
 and displayed in all his words and actions. M. de Talleyrand 
 
M. DE RtiMUSAT GOES TO VIENNA. 301 
 
 would make fun of this sometimes, and quiz the Secretary of 
 State, who resented such conduct excessively. He was there- 
 fore always on his guard against M. de Talleyrand, and dis- 
 liked him sincerely. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand, who was thoroughly weary of Vienna, 
 greeted M. de Kemusat on his arrival with great cordiality, 
 and the intimacy between them increased during the idle 
 life both were leading. It is very likely that M. Maret, who 
 wrote regularly to the Emperor, reported upon this new 
 friendship, and that it was displeasing to a person always 
 prone to take offense, and apt to detect ulterior motives in 
 the most unimportant actions of life. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand, finding scarcely any one but M. de Ke- 
 musat who could understand him, disclosed to him the polit- 
 ical views with which the victories of our armies inspired 
 him. He warmly desired to consolidate the peace of Europe, 
 and his great fear was that the glamour of victory and the 
 predilections of the military men surrounding the Emperor, 
 all of them having again become accustomed to war, would 
 induce the latter to prolong it. " When the moment comes 
 for actually concluding peace," he said, " you will see that 
 the greatest difficulty I shall have will be in treating with 
 the Emperor himself, and it will take much talking to sober 
 the intoxication produced by gunpowder." In these moments 
 of confidence M. de Talleyrand would speak candidly of the 
 Emperor. While he admitted the great defects of his char- 
 acter, he believed him to be destined irrevocably to end the 
 Revolution in France, and to found a lasting government ; 
 and he also believed that he himself should be able to rule 
 the Emperor's conduct with regard to Europe. " If I fail to 
 persuade him," he said, " I shall, at any rate, know how to 
 fetter him in spite of himself, and to force him to take some 
 repose." 
 
 M. de Eemusat was delighted to find an able statesman, 
 and one who enjoyed the confidence of the Emperor, full of 
 projects so wise in themselves ; and he began to regard him 
 
302 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 with the esteem that every French citizen owes to a man 
 who endeavors to control the effects of a boundless ambition. 
 He often wrote to me that he was delighted with the discov- 
 eries which his intimacy with M. de Talleyrand enabled him 
 to make, and I began to feel interest in one who alleviated 
 the wearisome exile of my husband. 
 
 In my hours of solitude and anxiety, my husband's let- 
 ters were my only pleasure and the sole charm of my exist- 
 ence. Although he prudently avoided details, I could see 
 that he was satisfied with his position. Then he would de- 
 scribe to me the different sights he had seen. He would tell 
 me of his drives or walks in Yienna, which he described as a 
 large and beautiful city, and of his visits to certain important 
 personages who had remained there, as well as to other fam- 
 ilies. He was struck by their extreme attachment to the 
 Emperor Francis. These good people of Yienna, although 
 their city was conquered, did not hesitate openly to express 
 their hopes of a speedy return to the paternal rule of their 
 master ; and, while they sympathized with him in his re- 
 verses, they never uttered a single reproach. 
 
 Good order was maintained in Yienna ; the garrison was 
 under strict discipline, and the inhabitants had no great cause 
 of complaint against their conquerors. The French entered 
 into some of the amusements of the place ; they frequented 
 the theatres, and it was at Yienna that M. de Kemusat first 
 heard the celebrated Italian singer Crescentini, and subse- 
 quently engaged him for the Emperor's musical service. 
 
CHAPTEE XY. 
 
 (1805.) 
 
 The Battle of Austerlitz The Emperor Alexander Negotiations Prince Charles 
 M. d' Andre M. de Be"musat in Disgrace Duroc Savary The Treaty of 
 Peace. 
 
 THE arrival of the Eussian forces and the severe condi- 
 tions exacted by the conqueror made the Emperor of Austria 
 resolve on once more trying the fortune of war. Having 
 assembled his forces and joined the Emperor Alexander, he 
 awaited Bonaparte, who was advancing to meet him. The 
 two immense armies met in Moravia, near the little village 
 of Austerlitz, which, until then unknown, has become for 
 ever memorable by reason of the great victory which France 
 won there. 
 
 Bonaparte resolved to give battle on the following day, 
 the 1st of December, the anniversary of his coronation. 
 
 The Czar had sent Prince Dolgorouki to our headquar- 
 ters with proposals of peace, which, if the Emperor has told 
 the truth in his bulletins, could hardly be entertained by a 
 conqueror in possession of his enemy's capital. If we may 
 believe him, the surrender of Belgium was demanded, and 
 that the Iron Crown should be placed on another head. 
 The envoy was taken through a part of the encampment 
 which had been purposely left in confusion ; he was deceived 
 by this, and misled the Emperors by his report of the state 
 of things. 
 
 The bulletin of those two days, the 1st and 2d of Decem- 
 ber, states that the Emperor, on returning to his quarters 
 24 
 
304 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 toward evening, spoke these words: "This is the fairest 
 evening of my life ; but I regret to think that I must lose a 
 good number of these brave fellows. I feel, by the pain it 
 gives me, that they are indeed my children ; and I reproach 
 myself for this feeling, for I fear it may render me unfit to 
 make war." 
 
 The following day, in addressing his soldiers, he said: 
 " This campaign must be ended by a thunder-clap. If France 
 is to make peace only on the terms proposed by Dolgorouki, 
 Russia shall not obtain them, even were her army encamped 
 on the heights of Montmartre." Yet it was decreed that 
 these same armies should, one day, be encamped there, and 
 that at Belleville Alexander was to receive Napoleon's envoy, 
 coming to offer him peace on any terms he chose to dictate. 
 
 I will not transcribe the narrative of that battle, so truly 
 honorable to our arms it will be found in the " Moniteur " ; 
 and the Emperor of Eussia, with characteristic and noble 
 simplicity, declared that the dispositions taken by the Em- 
 peror to insure success, the skill of his generals, and the ar- 
 dor of the French soldiers, were all alike incomparable. The 
 flower of the three nations fought with unflagging determina- 
 tion ; the two Emperors were obliged to fly in order to es- 
 cape being taken, and, but for the conferences of the follow- 
 ing day, it seems that the Emperor of Russia would have 
 found his retreat very difficult. 
 
 The Emperor dictated almost from the field of battle the 
 narrative of all that had taken place on the 1st, the 2d, and 
 the 3d of December. He even wrote part of it himself. 
 The dispatch, hurriedly composed, yet full of details and 
 very interesting, even at the present day, on account of the 
 spirit in which it was conceived, consisted of twenty-five 
 pages covered with erasures and with references, and was 
 sent to M. Maret at Yienna, to be immediately put in form 
 and sent to the " Moniteur " in Paris. 
 
 On receiving this dispatch, M. Maret hastened to com- 
 municate it to M. de Talleyrand and M. de Remusat. All 
 
AFTER THE BATTLE OF AU3TERLITZ. 3Q5 
 
 three were then residing in the palace of the Emperor of 
 Austria ; they shut themselves up in the Empress's private 
 apartment, then occupied by M. de Talleyrand, in order to 
 decipher the manuscript. The handwriting of the Emperor, 
 which was always very illegible, and his bad spelling, made 
 this a somewhat lengthy task. The order of events had to 
 be rearranged, and incorrect expressions to be replaced by 
 more suitable ones, and then, by the advice of M. de Talley- 
 rand and to the great terror of M. Maret, certain phrases 
 were suppressed, as too humiliating to the foreign sovereigns, 
 or so directly eulogistic of Bonaparte himself that one won- 
 ders he could have penned them. They retained certain 
 phrases which were underscored, and to which it was evident 
 he attached importance. This task lasted several hours, and 
 was interesting to M. de Remusat, as it gave him an oppor- 
 tunity of observing the very different methods of serving 
 the Emperor adopted by the two Ministers respectively. 
 
 After the battle, the Emperor Francis asked for an in- 
 terview, which took place at the French Emperor's quar- 
 ters. 
 
 " This," said Bonaparte, " has been my only palace for 
 the last two months." 
 
 " You make such good use of it," replied the Emperor of 
 Austria, " that it ought to be agreeable to you." 
 
 " It is asserted," says the bulletin, " that the Emperor, 
 in speaking of the Emperor of Austria, used these words : 
 * That man has led me to commit an error, for I could have 
 followed up my victory, and have taken the whole Russian 
 and Austrian army prisoners; but, after all, there will be 
 some tears the less.' " 
 
 According to the bulletin, the Czar was let off easily. 
 Here is the account of the visit which Savary was sent to 
 make to him : 
 
 " The Emperor's aide-de-camp had accompanied the Em- 
 peror of Germany after the interview, in order to learn 
 whether the Emperor of Russia would agree to the capitula- 
 
306 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 fcion. He found the remnant of the Russian army without 
 artillery or baggage, and in frightful disorder. 
 
 " It was midnight ; General Meerfeld had been repulsed 
 from Golding by Marshal Davoust, and the Russian army 
 was surrounded not a man could escape. Prince Czarto- 
 ryski presented General Savary to the Emperor. 
 
 " ' Tell your master,' said the Czar, i that I am going away ; 
 that he did wonders yesterday, that his achievements have 
 increased my admiration for him, that he is predestined by 
 Heaven, and that my army would require a hundred years 
 to equal his. But can I withdraw in safety ? ' * Yes, sire, if 
 your Majesty ratifies what the two Emperors of France and 
 Austria have agreed upon in their interview.' ' And what is 
 that ? ' * That your Majesty's army shall return home by 
 stages to be regulated by the Emperor, and that it shall evac- 
 uate Germany and Austrian Poland. On these conditions I 
 have it in commission to go to our outposts, and give them 
 orders to protect your retreat, as the Emperor is desirous to 
 protect the friend of the First Consul.' ' What guarantee is 
 required ? ' ' Your word, sire.' ' I give it you.' 
 
 " General Savary set out on the instant at full gallop, and, 
 having joined Davoust, he gave orders to suspend all opera- 
 tions and remain quiet. It is to be hoped that the generosity 
 of the Emperor of France on this occasion may not be so 
 soon forgotten in Russia as was his sending back six thousand 
 men to the Emperor Paul, with expressions of his esteem. 
 
 " General Savary had an hour's conversation with the 
 Emperor of Russia, and found him all that a man of good 
 sense and good feeling ought to be, whatever reverses he 
 may have experienced. 
 
 "The Emperor asked him about the details of the day. 
 ' You were inferior to me,' he said, ( and yet you were supe- 
 rior upon all the points of attack.' ' That, sire,' answered 
 the General, ' is the art of war, and the fruit of fifteen years 
 of glory. This is the fortieth battle the Emperor has fought.' 
 ' True. He is a great warrior. As for me, this is the first 
 
SPECULATION. 307 
 
 time I have seen fighting. I have never had any pretension 
 to measure myself with him.' ' When you have experience, 
 sire, you may perhaps surpass him.' ' I shall now go away 
 to my capital. I came to lend my aid to the Emperor of 
 Austria ; he has had me informed that he is content, and I 
 am the same.' " * 
 
 There was a good deal of speculation at that time as to 
 what was the Emperor's real reason for consenting to make 
 peace after this battle, instead of pushing his victory further ; 
 for, of course, nobody believed in the motive which was as- 
 signed for it, i. e., the sparing of so many tears which must 
 otherwise have been shed. 
 
 May we conclude that the day of Austerlitz had cost him 
 so dear as to make him shrink from incurring another like it, 
 and that the Russian army was not so utterly defeated as he 
 would have had us believe ? Or was it that again he had 
 done as he himself expressed it, when he was asked why he 
 had put an end to the march of victory by the treaty of Leo- 
 ben : " I was playing at vingt-et-un, and I stopped short at 
 vingt " \ May we believe that Bonaparte, in his first year 
 of empire, did not yet venture to sacrifice the lives of the 
 people as ruthlessly as he afterward sacrificed them, and that, 
 having entire confidence in M. de Talleyrand at that period, 
 he yielded more readily to the moderate policy of his Minis- 
 ter ? Perhaps, too, he believed that he had reduced the Aus- 
 trian power by his campaign more than he really had reduced 
 it ; for he said, after his return from Munich, " I have left 
 the Emperor Francis too many subjects." 
 
 "Whatever may have been his motives, he deserves praise 
 for the spirit of moderation that he maintained in the midst 
 of an army heated by victory, and which certainly was at 
 that moment desirous of prolonging the war. The marshals 
 
 * All these anecdotes are related in the 30th and Slst bulletins of the Grand 
 Army, dated from Austerlitz, 12th and 14th Frimaire, year 14 (3d and 5th De- 
 cember, 1806), pages 543 and 555 of vol. xi. of the " Correspondence of Napo- 
 leon the First," published by order of the Emperor Napoleon the Third. P. K. 
 
308 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MVSAT. 
 
 and all the officers about the Emperor did everything iii 
 their power to induce him to carry on the campaign ; they 
 were certain of victory everywhere, and by shaking the pur- 
 pose of their chief they created for M. de Talleyrand all the 
 difficulties that he had foreseen. The Minister, summoned 
 to headquarters, had to contend with the disposition of the 
 army. He maintained, alone and unsupported, that peace 
 must be concluded that the Austrian power was necessary 
 to the equilibrium of Europe ; and it was then that he said, 
 u When you shall have weakened all the powers of the cen- 
 ter, how are you to hinder those of the extremities the Eus- 
 sians, for instance from falling upon them?" In reply to 
 this he was met by private interests, by a personal and insa- 
 tiable desire for the chances of fortune which the continu- 
 ance of the war might offer ; and certain persons, who knew 
 the Emperor's character well, said, " If even we do not put 
 an end to this affair on the spot, you will see that we shall 
 commence another campaign by and by." 
 
 As for the Emperor himself, disturbed by this diversity 
 of opinion, urged by his love of war, and influenced by his 
 habitual distrust, he allowed M. de Talleyrand to perceive 
 that he suspected him of a secret understanding with the 
 Austrian ambassador, and of sacrificing the interests of 
 France. M. de Talleyrand answered with that firmness 
 which he always maintains in great affairs, when he has 
 taken a certain line : " You deceive yourself. My object 
 is to sacrifice the interest of your generals, which is no con- 
 cern of mine, to the interests of France. Eeflect that you 
 lower yourself by saying such things as they say, and that 
 you are worthy to be something more than a mere soldier." 
 The Emperor was flattered by being praised at the expense 
 of his former companions in arms ; and by adroitness of this 
 kind M. de Talleyrand succeeded in gaining his ends. At 
 length he brought the Emperor to resolve on sending him to 
 Presburg, where the negotiations were to take place ; but it 
 is a strange and probably unexampled fact that Bonaparte, 
 
MEETING OF THE TWO EMPERORS. 309 
 
 while giving M. de Talleyrand powers to treat for peace, 
 actually deceived him on a point of vital importance, and 
 placed in his path the greatest difficulty that ever a negotia- 
 tor had experienced. 
 
 On the occasion of the meeting of the two Emperors 
 after the battle, the Emperor of Austria consented to relin- 
 quish the State of Venice ; but he had demanded that the 
 portion of the Tyrol conquered by Massena should be re- 
 stored to Austria, and Napoleon, no doubt affected in spite 
 of his mastery over his emotions, and a little off his guard in 
 the presence of this vanquished sovereign, who had come to 
 discuss his interests in person on the battle-field where the 
 bodies of his subjects who had fallen in his cause still lay, 
 had not been able to maintain his inflexibility. He gave up 
 the Tyrol ; but no sooner had the interview come to an end 
 than he repented of what he had done, and, when giving M. 
 de Talleyrand details of the engagements to which he had 
 pledged himself, he kept that one secret.* 
 
 The Minister having set out for Presburg, Bonaparte re- 
 turned to Vienna, and took up his abode in the palace at 
 Schonbrunn. He occupied himself in reviewing his army, 
 verifying his losses, and reforming each corps as it presented 
 itself for inspection. In his pride and satisfaction in the 
 results of the campaign, he was good-humored with every- 
 body, behaved well to all those members of the Court who 
 awaited him at Vienna, and took great pleasure in relating 
 the wonders of the war. 
 
 On one point only did he exhibit displeasure. He was 
 greatly surprised that his presence produced so little effect 
 upon the Viennese, and that it was so difficult to induce 
 them to attend the fetes he provided for them, and the din- 
 ners at the palace to which he invited them. Bonaparte 
 could not understand their attachment to a conquered sov- 
 
 * In the definitive treaty the Tyrol was given to Bavaria in consideration of 
 the marriage of the Princess Augusta with Eugene de Beauharnais, Viceroy of 
 Italy.-?. R. 
 
310 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 ereign one, too, so much inferior to himself. One day he 
 spoke quite openly about this to M. de Kemusat. " You 
 have passed some time at Vienna," he said, " and have had 
 opportunities of observing them. What a strange people 
 they are ! They seem insensible alike to glory and to re- 
 verses." M. de Remusat, who had formed a high opinion 
 of the Viennese, and admired their disinterested and loyal 
 character, replied by praising them, and relating several in- 
 stances of their attachment to their sovereign of which he 
 had been an eye-witness. " But," said Bonaparte, " they 
 must sometimes have talked of me. "What do they say ? " 
 " Sire," answered M. de Kemusat, " they say, 'The Emperor 
 Napoleon is a great man, it is true ; but our Emperor is per- 
 fectly good, and we can love none but him.' " These senti- 
 ments, which were all unchanged by misfortune, were in- 
 comprehensible to a man who recognized no merit except in 
 success. When, after his return to Paris, he heard of the 
 touching reception given by the Viennese to their vanquished 
 Emperor, he exclaimed : " What people ! If I came back 
 to Paris thus, I should certainly not be received after that 
 fashion." 
 
 A few days after the Emperor's return, M. de Talleyrand 
 arrived at Vienna from Presburg, to the great surprise of 
 everybody. The Austrian ministers at Presburg had brought 
 forward the subject of the Tyrol ; he had been obliged to 
 admit that he had no instructions on that point, and he now 
 came to obtain them. He was much displeased at having 
 been treated in such a manner. When he spoke of this to 
 the Emperor, the latter told him that in a yielding moment, 
 of which he now repented, he had acceded to the request of 
 the Emperor Francis, but that he was quite resolved not to 
 keep his word. M. de Remusat told me that M. de Talley- 
 rand, of whom he saw a great deal at this time, was really 
 indignant. Not only did he perceive that war was about to 
 begin again, but that the Cabinet of France was stained by 
 perfidy, and a portion of the dishonor would inevitably fall 
 
PRINCE CHARLES. 311 
 
 upon him. His mission to Presburg would henceforth be 
 ridiculous, would show how little influence over his master 
 he possessed, and would destroy his personal credit in Europe, 
 which he took such care to preserve. The marshals raised 
 their war-cry anew. Murat, Berthier, Maret, all the flatter- 
 ers of the Emperor's ruling passion, seeing to which side he 
 leaned, urged him on toward what they called " glory." M. 
 de Talleyrand had to bear reproaches from every one, and 
 he often said to my husband, bitterly enough : " I find no one 
 but yourself here to show me any friendship ; it would take 
 very little more to make those people regard me as a traitor." 
 His conduct at this period, and his patience, did him honor. 
 He succeeded in bringing the Emperor back to his way of 
 thinking upon the necessity of making peace, and, after 
 having extracted from him the final word which he required, 
 he set out a second time for Presburg, better satisfied, al- 
 though he could not obtain the restitution of the Tyrol. On 
 taking leave of M. de Eemusat, he said, " I shall settle the 
 affair of the Tyrol, and induce the Emperor to make peace, 
 in spite of himself." 
 
 During Bonaparte's stay at Schonbrunn he received a 
 letter from Prince Charles, to the effect that, being full of 
 admiration for his person, the Prince wished to see and con- 
 verse with him. The Emperor, flattered by this compliment 
 from a man who enjoyed a high reputation in Europe, fixed 
 upon a small hunting-lodge a few leagues from the palace as 
 the place of meeting, and directed M. de Remusat to join 
 the other persons who were to accompany him. He also 
 bade him take with him a very richly mounted sword. 
 " After our conversation," said he, " you will hand it to me. 
 I wish to present it to the Prince on leaving him." 
 
 The Emperor joined the Prince, and they remained in 
 private conference for some time. "When he came out of 
 the room my husband approached him, according to the 
 orders he had received. Bonaparte impatiently waved him 
 off, telling him that he might take the sword away;' and 
 
312 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 when he returned to Schonbrunn he spoke slightingly of the 
 Prince, saying that he had found him very commonplace, 
 and by no means worthy of the present he had intended for 
 him.* 
 
 I must now relate an incident which concerned M. de 
 Remusat personally, and which once more checked the favor 
 that the Emperor seemed disposed to extend toward him. I 
 have frequently remarked that our destiny always arranged 
 matters so that we should not profit by the advantages of our 
 position, but since that time I have often felt thankful to 
 Providence ; for that very contrariety preserved us from a 
 more disastrous fall. 
 
 In the early years of the Consular Government the 
 King's party had clung to the hope of a revival of favorable 
 chances for him in France, and they had more than once 
 tried to establish an understanding with the country. M. 
 d' Andre, formerly a deputy to the Constituent Assembly, an 
 emigre, and devoted to the royal cause, had undertaken 
 Royalist missions to some of the sovereigns of Europe, and 
 Bonaparte was perfectly aware of that fact. M. d' Andre 
 was, like M. de Remusat, a native of Provence, and they 
 had been schoolfellows. M. d' Andre had also been a magis- 
 trate prior to the Revolution (he was Councilor to the Par- 
 liament of Aix), and, although they did not keep up any 
 mutual relations, they were not entirely strangers. At the 
 period of which I am writing, M. d' Andre, disheartened by 
 the failure of his fruitless efforts, convinced that the Impe- 
 rial cause was absolutely victorious, and weary of a wander- 
 ing life and consequently straitened means, was longing to 
 return to his own country. Being in Hungary during the 
 campaign of 1805, he sent his wife to Vienna, and appealed 
 to his friend General Mathieu Dumas to obtain leave for 
 him. The General, although rather alarmed at having to 
 
 * This is a softened version of what the Emperor said. The truth is that, 
 when his Chamberlain drew near to remind him of his intentions and to hand 
 him the sword, the Emperor said : " Let me alone ; he's a fool ! " 
 
M. DE ANDR& 313 
 
 undertake such a mission, promised to take steps in the mat- 
 ter, but advised Mine, d' Andre to see M. de Remusat and 
 procure his interest. One morning Mme. d' Andre arrived. 
 My husband received her as he conceived he ought to re- 
 ceive the wife of a former friend ; he was much concerned 
 at the position in which she represented M. d' Andre to be, 
 and, not knowing that there were particular circumstances in 
 the case which were likely to render the Emperor implacable, 
 thinking besides that his victories might incline him to clem- 
 ency, consented to present her petition. His official position 
 as Keeper of the Wardrobe gave him the right to enter the 
 Emperor's dressing-room. He hastened down to his Majes- 
 ty's apartment, and found him half dressed and in a good 
 humor, whereupon he immediately gave him an account of 
 Mme. d' Andre's visit, and preferred the request which he had 
 undertaken to urge. 
 
 At the mention of the name of M. d' Andre the Emper- 
 or's face darkened. " Do you know," said he, " that you are 
 talking to me of a mortal enemy ? " " No, sire," replied M. 
 de Remusat; "I am ignorant whether your Majesty has 
 really reason to complain of him ; but, if such be the case, I 
 would venture to ask pardon for him. M. d' Andre is poor 
 and proscribed ; he asks only that he may return and grow 
 old in our common country." "Have you any relations 
 with him?" "None, sire." "And why do you interest 
 yourself in him 2 " " Sire, he is a Provencal ; he was edu- 
 cated with me at Juilly, he is of my own profession, and he 
 was my friend." " You are very fortunate," said the Em- 
 peror, darting a fierce glance at him, " to have such motives 
 to excuse you. Never speak of him to me again ; and know 
 this: if he were at Vienna, and I could get hold of him, 
 he should be hanged within twenty-four hours." Having 
 said these words, the Emperor turned his back on M. de 
 Remusat. 
 
 Wherever the Emperor was with his Court, he habitually 
 held what was called his levee every morning. So soon as 
 
314 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMUSAT. 
 
 he was dressed, he entered a reception-room, and those per- 
 sons who formed what was called the " service " were sum- 
 moned. These were the great officers of his household, M. 
 de Remusat, as Keeper of the Wardrobe and First Cham- 
 berlain, and the generals of his guard. The second levee 
 was composed of the Chamberlains, of such generals of the 
 army as could present themselves, and, in Paris, of the Pre- 
 fect of Paris, the Prefect of Police, the Princes, and the 
 Ministers. Sometimes he greeted all these personages 
 silently, with a mere bow, and dismissed them at once. 
 He gave orders when it was necessary, and he did not hesi- 
 tate to scold any one with whom he was displeased, without 
 the slightest regard to the awkwardness of giving or receiv- 
 ing reprimands before a crowd of witnesses. . 
 
 After he left M. de Remusat, the Emperor held his 
 levee ; then he sent everybody away, and held a long con- 
 versation with General Savary. On its conclusion, Savary 
 rejoined my husband in one of the reception-rooms, took 
 him aside, and addressed him after a fashion which would 
 appear very strange to any one unacquainted with the crudity 
 of the General's principles in certain matters. 
 
 " Let me congratulate you," said he, accosting M. de Re"- 
 musat, " on a fine opportunity of making your fortune, of 
 which I strongly advise you to avail yourself. You played 
 a dangerous game just now by talking to the Emperor of 
 M. d' Andre", but all may be set right again. Where is he ? 
 But, now I think, of it, he is in Hungary at least, his wife 
 told me so. Ah, bah ! don't dissimulate about it. The Em- 
 peror believes that he is in Yienna ; he is convinced that you 
 know where he is, and he wants you to tell." " I assure 
 you, General," replied M. de Remusat, " that I am abso- 
 lutely ignorant of where he is. I had no correspondence 
 with him. His wife came to see me to-day for the first 
 time ; she begged me to speak for her husband to the Em- 
 peror ; I have done so, and that is all." " Well, then, if 
 that be so, send for her to come to you again. She will 
 
M. DE RtiMUSAT IN DISGRACE. 315 
 
 have no suspicion of you. Make her talk, and try to elicit 
 from her where her husband is. You can not imagine how 
 much you will please the Emperor by rendering him this 
 service." 
 
 M. de Remusat, utterly confounded at this speech, was 
 quite unable to conceal his astonishment. " What ! " he ex- 
 claimed, " you make such a proposal as that to me ? I told 
 the Emperor that I was the friend of M. d' Andre; you 
 also know that, and you would have me betray him, give 
 him up, and that by means of his wife, who has trusted 
 me ! " Savary was astonished, in his turn, at the indigna- 
 tion of M. de Remusat. "What f oily ! " said he. "Take 
 care you do not spoil your luck ! The Emperor has more 
 than once had occasion to doubt that you are as entirely de- 
 voted to him as he would have you to be. Now, here is an 
 opportunity for removing his suspicions, and you will be 
 very unwise if you let it escape." 
 
 The conversation lasted for some time. M. de Remusat 
 was, of course, unshaken ; he assured Savary that, far from 
 seeking out Mme. d' Andre, he would not even consent to see 
 her, and he informed her, through General Mathieu Dumas, 
 of the failure of his mission. Savary returned to the sub- 
 ject in the course of the day, and said, over and over again : 
 " You are throwing away your chances ; I confess I can not 
 make you out." " That does not matter," my husband would 
 reply. 
 
 And, in fact, the Emperor did resent this refusal, and 
 assumed toward M. de Remusat the harsh, icy tone which 
 was always a mark of his displeasure. M. de Remusat en- 
 dured it with resignation, and complained only to Duroc, the 
 Grand Marshal of the Palace, who understood his difficulty 
 better than Savary could, but regretted that anything should 
 have occurred to diminish his favor with Bonaparte. He 
 also congratulated my husband on his conduct, which seemed 
 to him an act of the greatest courage ; for not to obey the Em- 
 peror was, in his eyes, the most wonderful thing in the world. 
 
316 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE B^MUSAT. 
 
 Duroc was a man of a singular character. His mind was 
 narrow ; his feelings and thoughts were always, perhaps de- 
 liberately, confined to a small circle ; but he lacked neither 
 cleverness nor clear-sightedness. He was filled, perhaps, 
 rather with submission than devotion to Bonaparte, and be- 
 lieved that no one placed near him could use any or every 
 faculty better than in exactly obeying him. 
 
 In order not to fail in this, which he considered a strict 
 duty, he would not allow himself even a thought beyond 
 the obligations of his post. Cold, silent, and impenetrable 
 as to every secret confided to him, I believe he had made it 
 a law to himself never to reflect on the orders he received. 
 He did not flatter the Emperor ; he did not seek to please 
 him by tale-bearing, which, though often tending to no re- 
 sult, was yet gratifying to Bonaparte's naturally suspicious 
 mind ; but, like a mirror, Duroc reflected for his master all 
 that had taken place in his presence, and, like an echo, he 
 repeated his master's words in the same tone and manner in 
 which they had been uttered. Were we to have fallen dead 
 before his eyes in consequence of a message of which he was 
 the bearer, he would still have delivered it with imperturba- 
 ble precision. 
 
 I do not think he ever inquired of himself whether the 
 Emperor was or was not a great man ; he was the master, 
 and that was enough. His obedience made him of great use 
 to the Emperor ; the interior of the palace, the entire man- 
 agement of the household and its expenditure, was his 
 charge, and everything was regulated with perfect brder and 
 extreme economy, and yet with great magnificence. 
 
 Marshal Duroc had married a Spanish lady of great for- 
 tune, little beauty, and a good deal of intelligence. She was 
 the daughter of a Spanish banker named Hervas, who had 
 been employed in some second-rate diplomatic capacity, and 
 had subsequently been created Marquis d'Abruenara. He 
 was Minister in Spain under Joseph Bonaparte. Mme. Du- 
 roc had been brought up at Mme. Campan's school, where 
 
DUROC. 317 
 
 Mme. Louis Bonaparte, Mme. Savary, Mme. Davoust, Mme. 
 Ney, and others, had also been educated. 
 
 She and her husband lived together on good terms, but 
 without that perfect union which is so great a source of con- 
 solation to those who have to endure the restraints of a 
 Coiirt. He would not allow her to hold an opinion of her 
 own on passing events, or to have any familiar friend ; and 
 he had none himself. I have never known any one who 
 felt less need of friendship, or who cared less for the plea- 
 sures of conversation. He had not the slightest idea of social 
 life ; he did not know the meaning of a taste for literature 
 or art ; and this indifference to things in general, which he 
 combined with the most perfect obedience to orders, while 
 he never showed any sign of weariness or constraint, nor yet 
 the slightest appearance of enthusiasm, made him quite a 
 remarkable character, and interesting to observe. He was 
 greatly esteemed at Court, or at any rate was of great im- 
 portance. Everything was referred to him, and to him all 
 complaints were addressed. He attended to everybody, sel- 
 dom offering an opinion, still less a counsel ; but he listened 
 with attention, faithfully reported what was said, and never 
 showed either the slightest mark of ill will or the least sign 
 of interest.* 
 
 * " This sketch of the Due de Friuli," writes my father, " is in perfect con- 
 formity with all well-founded contemporary opinion. Few men have ever been 
 more harsh, more cold, more selfish, without bearing any ill will to others. His 
 justice, his honesty, his trustworthiness were incomparable. He had great tal- 
 ent for organization. But there was one curious fact of which my mother seems 
 to have been unaware, although it is acknowledged to have been true : he did 
 not like the Emperor, or, at any rate, judged him with severity. In later times 
 he was wearied out by Bonaparte's temper, and still more by his system of gov- 
 ernment, and on the day preceding his death he let this be perceived, even by 
 the Emperor." Marshal Marmont, who knew him well, has left a sketch of bis 
 character which bears all the marks of truth : " The Emperor felt for him what 
 in such a man was almost friendship, for he wrote thus from Haynau, on June 7, 
 1813, to Mme. de Montesquieu : * The death of the Due de Friuli grieves me. 
 It is the first time for twenty years that he has not divined what would give me 
 pleasure.' "-P. JL 
 
318 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 Bonaparte, who had great skill in utilizing men, liked to 
 be served by one who stood so completely apart from others. 
 There was no danger in aggrandizing such a man as this ; he 
 therefore loaded him with honors and riches. His gifts to 
 Savary, which were also very considerable, were dictated by 
 a different motive. " That is a man," he used to say, "who 
 must continually be bought; he would belong to any one 
 who would give him a crown more than I do." And yet, 
 strange to say, notwithstanding this feeling, Bonaparte trusted 
 him, or at any rate believed the tales he brought. He knew, 
 in truth, that Savary would refuse him nothing, and he would 
 say of him sometimes, " If I ordered Savary to rid himself 
 of his wife and children, I am sure he would not hesitate." 
 
 Savary, though an object of general terror, was, in spite 
 of his mode of life and his actions, hidden or otherwise, not 
 radically a bad man. Love of money was his ruling passion. 
 He had no military talent, and was even accused by his brave 
 comrades of being wanting in courage on the battle-field. 
 He had, therefore, to build up his fortune in a different 
 fashion from that of his companions in arms.* He per- 
 ceived a way open to him in the system of cunning and 
 tale-bearing which Bonaparte favored; and, having once 
 entered on it, it was not possible for him to retrace his steps. 
 He was, intrinsically, better than his reputation ; that is, his 
 first impulses were superior to his subsequent action. He 
 was not wanting in natural ability ; could be kindled to a 
 momentary enthusiasm of the imagination ; was ignorant, 
 but with a desire for information, and had an instinctively 
 right judgment. He was rather a liar than a deceitful man ; 
 harsh in manner, but very timid in reality. He had reasons 
 of his own for knowing Bonaparte and trembling before 
 him. Nevertheless, while he was Minister, he ventured on 
 
 * During the campaign, a large coffer of gold was intrusted to him, to meet 
 the charges of the secret police which he conducted for the Emperor, both in 
 the army and in the conquered cities. He discharged this trust with great skill. 
 In no place was a word spoken or a deed done of which he was not informed. 
 
THE TEE ATT OF PEACE. 319 
 
 some show of opposition, and then appeared to entertain a 
 certain desire to gain public esteem. He, perhaps, like 
 many others, owed the development of his views to the 
 times he lived in, which stifled the better side of his charac- 
 ter. The Emperor sedulously cultivated evil passions in the 
 men who served him, and they flourished abundantly under 
 his reign. 
 
 To return. M. de Talleyrand's negotiations were slowly 
 advancing. In spite of every obstacle, he succeeded, by 
 means of correspondence, in persuading the Emperor to 
 make peace; and the Tyrol, that stumbling-block of the 
 treaty, was ceded by the Emperor Francis to the King of 
 Bavaria. When, a few years afterward, the Emperor had 
 quarreled with M. de Talleyrand, he would angrily refer to 
 this treaty, and complain that his Minister had wrested from 
 him the fruit of victory, and brought about the second Aus- 
 trian campaign by leaving too much power in the hands of 
 the sovereign of that country. 
 
 The Emperor had time, before leaving Vienna, to receive 
 a deputation from four of the mayors of the city of Paris, 
 who came to congratulate him on his victories. Shortly 
 afterward he departed for Munich, having announced that he 
 was about to place the regal crown on the head of the Elec- 
 tor of Bavaria, and to conclude the marriage of Prince 
 Eugene. 
 
 The Empress, who had been staying at Munich for some 
 time, was overjoyed at a union which would ally her son 
 with the greatest houses of Europe. She greatly wished that 
 Mme. Louis Bonaparte should be present at the ceremony ; 
 but the request met with an obstinate refusal from Louis, 
 and, as usual, his wife was obliged to submit. 
 
 The Emperor, who also wished to introduce a kinswoman 
 to the Bavarians, summoned. Mme. Murat to Munich. She 
 came thither with mingled feelings. The pleasure of being 
 regarded as a person of importance, and of displaying her- 
 self, was damped by the elevation of the Beauharnais family; 
 25 
 
320 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE KtiMUSAT. 
 
 and she had some difficulty, as I shall presently relate, in 
 concealing her dissatisfaction. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand returned to the Court after signing the 
 treaty, and once more peace seemed restored to Europe at 
 any rate, for a time. Peace was signed on Christmas Day, 
 1805. 
 
 In this treaty the Emperor of Austria recognized the Em- 
 peror Napoleon as King of Italy. He ceded the Venetian 
 States to the kingdom of Italy. He recognized the Electors 
 of Bavaria and Wurtemburg as kings, ceding to the former 
 several principalities and the Tyrol, to the latter a number 
 of towns, and to the Elector of Baden part of the Brisgau. 
 
 The Emperor Napoleon undertook to obtain the princi- 
 pality of "Wurzburg from the King of Bavaria for the Arch- 
 duke Ferdinand, who had been Grand Duke of Tuscany. 
 The Yenetian States were to be handed over within a fort- 
 night. These were the principal conditions of the treaty. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 (1805-1806.) 
 
 State of Paris during the "War Cambace'res Le Brun Mme. Louis Bonaparte 
 Marriage of Eugene de Beauharnais Bulletins and Proclamations Admiration 
 of the Emperor for the Queen of Bavaria Jealousy of the Empress M. de Nan- 
 
 souty Mme. de .Conquest of Naples Position and Character of the 
 
 Emperor. 
 
 I HAVE already described the dullness and depression of 
 Paris during this campaign, and the sufferings of every class 
 of society from the renewal of war. Money had become 
 still more scarce ; in fact, it attained such a price that, being 
 obliged to send some in haste to my husband, I had to pay 
 ninety francs merely for obtaining gold for a thousand-franc 
 bank-note. Such an opportunity of spreading and increasing 
 the general anxiety was, of course, turned to advantage by 
 the malcontents. Warned by former experience, and alarmed 
 by the imprudence of certain utterances, I held aloof from 
 every one, seeing only my own friends and persons who could 
 not involve me in any difficulty. 
 
 When the Princes or Princesses of the Imperial family 
 held their receptions, I went, as did others, to pay my respects 
 to them, and also to the Arch-Chancellor Cambaceres, who 
 would have been highly displeased at any neglect. He gave 
 grand dinners, and held receptions twice a week. He resided 
 in a large house on the Carrousel, which has since been con- 
 verted into the Hotel des Cent Suisses.* At seven in the 
 
 * This hotel was pulled down in the reign of Louis Philippe. P. R. 
 
322 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MU8AT. 
 
 evening a line of carriages would generally stretch across the 
 Carrousel, and Cambaceres would note its length from his 
 window with delight. Some time was occupied in getting 
 into the courtyard and reaching the foot of the staircase. At 
 the door of the first reception-room an attendant announced 
 the guest's name in a loud voice ; this was repeated until the 
 presence-chamber was reached. There an immense crowd 
 would be collected; there were two or three rows of wo- 
 men ; the men stood close together, forming a sort of passage 
 from one angle of the room to the opposite corner. Up 
 and down this walked Cambaceres with great gravity, cov- 
 ered with decorations, and usually wearing all his orders 
 and diamonds; on his head an enormous powdered wig. 
 He kept on making civil little speeches right and left. 
 When we felt quite sure he had seen us, especially if he had 
 spoken, it was the custom to retire, and thus make room for 
 others. We frequently had to wait a long time for our car- 
 riages, and the surest way to be agreeable to Cambaceres was 
 to tell him, the next time, of the inconvenience caused by the 
 numberless vehicles in the Place all crowding toward his 
 house. 
 
 Fewer persons went to the receptions of the Arch-Trea- 
 surer Le Brun, who seemed to attach less importance to 
 these outward observances, and lived quietly. But, although 
 he had not the foibles of his colleague, he was also deficient 
 in some of his qualities. Cambaceres was a kind-hearted 
 man ; he received petitions graciously, and, if he promised 
 to support them, his word could be relied on. Le Brun's 
 only care was to amass a fortune, which became considerable. 
 He was a selfish, cunning old man, who never did any good 
 to anybody. 
 
 The member of the Imperial family whom I saw most 
 frequently was Mme. Louis Bonaparte. People came to her 
 house of an evening to hear the news. 
 
 In December, 1805, a report having been spread that the 
 English were likely to descend on the Dutch coast, Louis 
 
LE BRUNMME. LOUIS BONAPARTE. 323 
 
 Bonaparte received commands to travel through Holland, 
 and to inspect the Army of the North. His absence, which 
 gave a little more freedom to his wife, and was a relief to 
 his household, who held him in awe and aversion, enabled 
 Mme. Louis to pass her evenings pleasantly. Music and 
 drawing at a large table in the center of the salon were the 
 chief amusements. Mme. Louis had a great taste for the 
 arts : she composed charming ballads ; she painted well ; she 
 liked the society of artists. Her only fault, perhaps, was in 
 not maintaining the ceremonious demeanor in her house de- 
 manded by the rank to which she had been elevated. She 
 always remained on intimate terms with her schoolfellows, 
 and with the young married women who habitually visited 
 her, and her manners retained something of the freedom of 
 those school-days. This gave rise to remark and censure.* 
 
 After a long silence respecting the movements of the 
 army, which produced general uneasiness, Le Brun, aide-de- 
 camp to the Emperor, and a son of the Arch-Treasurer, was 
 dispatched from the battle-field of Austerlitz, and arrived 
 one evening with news of the victory, of the succeeding ar- 
 mistice, and of the well-founded hope of peace. The news 
 was announced at all the theatres, and posted up everywhere 
 
 * Mme. de Remusat's feelings toward Queen Hortense and her opinion of 
 her character were lasting; for, some years later, on July 12, 1812, she thus 
 writes to her husband : 
 
 " Speaking of the Queen, I can not find words in which to tell you the plea- 
 sure I take in her society. She is really angelic in disposition, and completely 
 
 different from what is generally supposed. M. F , who when he came was 
 
 full of prejudice against her, is quite captivated. She is so true, so pure- 
 hearted, so perfectly ignorant of evil ; there is about her so sweet a melancholy ; 
 she seemed so resigned to whatever may happen, that it is impossible not to be 
 deeply impressed by her. Her health is good ; she dislikes this rainy weather, 
 because she is fond of walking ; she reads a great deal, and would like to make 
 up for the defects of her education in certain respects. Her children's tutor 
 makes her work hard ; sometimes she laughs at the pains she takes, and she 
 is right. Nevertheless, I wish a more enlightened person were directing her 
 studies. She has reached an age when study should be pursued rather to teach 
 us to think than to know, and history should not be learned at five and twenty 
 as it is at ten years old." P. R. 
 
324 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MU8AT. 
 
 on the following day. It produced a great effect, and dis- 
 pelled the gloom and apathy of Paris. 
 
 It was impossible not to be elated by so great a success, 
 and not to take the side of glory and of fortune. The 
 French were carried away by the description of the victory, 
 to which nothing was wanting, since it terminated the war ; 
 and this time again there was no need to prescribe public 
 rejoicing : the nation identified itself with the success of its 
 army. 
 
 I look upon this period as the zenith of Bonaparte's good 
 fortune, for his mighty deeds were made their own by the 
 bulk of his people. Afterward, doubtless, he increased in 
 power and in authority, but he had to bespeak enthusiasm, 
 and, though he sometimes succeeded in enforcing it, the 
 efforts he was obliged to make must have lessened the value 
 of the applause. 
 
 In the midst of the pride and delight displayed by the 
 city of Paris, it may well be believed that the great bodies 
 of the State and the public officers did not neglect the oppor- 
 tunity of expressing the general admiration in high-flown 
 language. "When we now read the speeches delivered on 
 the occasion in the Senate and the Tribunate, the orations of 
 prefects and mayors, the pastoral letters of bishops, one won- 
 ders if it be possible that a human head should not be turned 
 by such excess of praise. Every glory of the past was to 
 fade before that of Bonaparte ; the greatest names were to 
 drop into obscurity ; fame would thenceforth blush at what 
 she had formerly proclaimed, etc., etc. 
 
 On the 31st of December the Tribunate was assembled, 
 and Fabre de PAude, the President, announced the return 
 of a deputation which had been sent to the Emperor. Its 
 members had brought back a glowing account of the mar- 
 vels they had witnessed. A great number of flags had also 
 arrived. The Emperor bestowed eight on the city of Paris, 
 eight on the Tribunate, and fifty-four on the Senate ; the 
 entire Tribunate was to present the latter. 
 
SCENE IN THE TRIBUNATE. 325 
 
 On the conclusion of the President's speech, a crowd of 
 tribunes rushed forward to propose what was called des mo- 
 tions de vceux. One of them moved that a gold medal should 
 be struck ; another, that a public monument should be erect- 
 ed ; that the Emperor should receive the honors of a triumph, 
 after the old fashion of imperial Rome ; that the whole city 
 of Paris should go forth to meet him. "Language," said 
 one member, " can not attain such height of grandeur, nor 
 express the emotions it calls forth." 
 
 Carrion-Nisas proposed that, on the proclamation of the 
 general peace, the sword worn by the Emperor at the battle 
 of Austerlitz should be solemnly consecrated. Each speaker 
 endeavored to surpass the others, and certainly, during this 
 sitting, which lasted several hours, all that flattery could sug- 
 gest to the imagination was exhausted. And yet this very 
 Tribunate was a source of anxiety to the Emperor, because 
 it contained in itself a semblance of liberty ; and he subse- 
 quently abolished it in order to consolidate his despotic 
 power, even in the smallest outward signs. When Bona- 
 parte " eliminated " the Tribunate (this was the technical 
 expression for that measure), he did not shrink from using 
 these words : " This is my final break with the Republic." 
 
 The Tribunate, having arranged to carry the flags to the 
 Senate on the 1st of January, 1806, decided that on the same 
 occasion it should be proposed to erect a column. The Sen- 
 ate hastened to pass a decree to this effect, and also decreed 
 that the Emperor's letter, which had accompanied the flags, 
 should be engraved on marble and placed in the Hall of As- 
 sembly. The senators on this occasion rose to the height at- 
 tained by the tribunes. 
 
 Preparations were now made for the rejoicings which 
 were to take place on the return of the Emperor. M. de 
 Remusat sent orders, through me, for the performance of 
 various pieces containing appropriate passages at the theatres. 
 The Theatre Frangais having selected " Gaston et Bayard," 
 some slight changes were made by the police in certain lines 
 
326, MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RASMUS AT. 
 
 that were deemed inadmissible.* The Opera House pre- 
 pared a new piece. 
 
 Meanwhile the Emperor, after receiving the signature of 
 the peace, was preparing to quit Vienna, and addressed its 
 inhabitants in a proclamation full of compliments, both to 
 themselves and to their sovereign. It ended thus : 
 
 " I have shown myself little among you, not from disdain 
 or a vain pride, but I did not wish to interfere with the feel- 
 ings due to your sovereign, with whom it was my intention 
 to make a prompt peace." 
 
 We have already seen what were the Emperor's real mo- 
 tives for remaining in retirement at Schonbrunn. 
 
 Although, in point of fact, the French army had been 
 kept under tolerable discipline while in Yienna, there can be 
 no doubt that the inhabitants were overjoyed at the depar- 
 ture of the guests they had been obliged to receive, to lodge, 
 and to feed liberally. To give an idea of the consideration 
 with which our vanquished enemies were forced to treat us, 
 it will be sufficient to state that Generals Junot f and Bes- 
 sieres, who were quartered on Prince Esterhazy, were daily 
 supplied from Hungary with every delicacy of the table, 
 including Tokay. This was due to the generosity of the 
 Prince, who defrayed the whole cost. 
 
 I recollect hearing M. de Remusat relate that, on the ar- 
 rival of the Emperor at Yienna, the Imperial cellars were 
 explored in search of this same Tokay, and much surprise 
 was expressed that not a single bottle was forthcoming ; all 
 had been carefully removed by the orders of Francis. 
 
 The Emperor reached Munich on the 31st of December, 
 
 * The line "Et suivre les Bourbons, c'est marcher a la gloire" (To follow 
 the Bourbons is to march to glory), was replaced by " Et suivre les Frangais, 
 c'est marcher a la gloire" (To follow the French is to march to glory). 
 
 f Junot was a true soldier of fortune. He had a good deal of natural 
 humor. On one occasion the exclusiveness of the old French nobility was 
 spoken of before him. " And why," said he, " are all these people so angered 
 at our elevation ? The only difference between them and me is that they are 
 descendants, while I am an ancestor ! " 
 
BULLETINS AND PROCLAMATIONS. 327 
 
 and on the next day proclaimed the Elector of Bavaria King. 
 He announced this in a letter to the Senate, in which he also 
 made known his adoption of Prince Eugene, and the mar- 
 riage of the latter, which was to take place before the Em- 
 peror's return to Paris. 
 
 Prince Eugene hastened to Munich, having first taken 
 possession of the States of Venice, and reassured his new 
 subjects, as far as possible, by dignified and moderate proc- 
 lamations. 
 
 The Emperor felt himself bound also to bestow some 
 praise on the army of Italy. A bulletin says : " The Italians 
 have displayed great spirit. The Emperor has frequently 
 said : ' Why should not my Italian people appear gloriously 
 on the world's stage ? They are full of intelligence and pas- 
 sion ; it will be easy henceforth to give them soldierly quali- 
 ties.' ' : He made a few more proclamations to his army, in 
 his usual turgid style, but they are said to have produced a 
 great effect on the army. 
 
 He issued one decree which would have been good if it 
 had been put into execution. "We adopt," he said, "the 
 children of those generals, officers, and privates who lost 
 their lives at the battle of Austerlitz. They shall be brought 
 up at Rambouillet and at St. Germain, and placed out* in the 
 world, or suitably married by our care. To their own names 
 they shall add that of Napoleon." 
 
 The Elector, or rather the King, of Bavaria is a younger 
 son of the house of Deux-Ponts, who came to the Electorate 
 through the extinction of that branch of his family which 
 was governing Bavaria. In the reign of Louis XVI. he was 
 sent to France a ad placed in the King's service. He soon 
 obtained a regiment, and resided for a considerable time* either 
 in Paris or in garrison at one of our towns. He became 
 attached to France, and left behind him the recollection of 
 much kindness of disposition and cordiality of manner. He 
 was known as Prince Max. He declined, however, to marry 
 in France. The Prince de Conde offered him his daughter ; 
 
328 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 but his father and his uncle, the Elector, objected to the 
 match on the grounds that Prince Max, not being rich, 
 would probably have to make canonesses of some of his 
 daughters, and that the admixture in their veins of the blood 
 of Louis XIY. with that of Mme. de Montespan would be 
 an obstacle to their admittance into certain chapters. 
 
 When, at a later period, this Prince succeeded to the 
 Electorate, he always retained an affectionate remembrance 
 of France, and a sincere attachment to her people. Having 
 become King by the will of the Emperor, he took pains to 
 prove his gratitude by a splendid welcome, and he received 
 all the French with extreme kindness. It may well be im- 
 agined that not for one moment did he dream of declining 
 the proposed marriage for his daughter. The young Prin- 
 cess was tllen seventeen or eighteen years of age, and pos- 
 sessed attractive qualities, as well as personal charms. The 
 marriage, which was due to political reasons, became the 
 source of uninterrupted happiness to Eugene. Princess 
 Augusta of Bavaria attached herself warmly to the husband 
 chosen for her ; she aided him in no small measure to win 
 the hearts of the Italians. With beauty, sense, piety, and 
 amiability, she could not fail to be tenderly beloved by Prince 
 Eugene, and at the present day they are settled in Bavaria, 
 and enjoy the happiness of a perfect union.* 
 
 * Prince Eugene de Beauharnais died in 1824. The Emperor announced 
 his marriage to him in the following terms, in a letter dated Munich, 19 Nivose, 
 year 14 (31st December, 1805): "My cousin, I have arrived at Munich. I have 
 arranged a marriage for you with Princess Augusta. It has been announced. 
 The Princess paid me a visit this morning, and I conversed with her for a con- 
 siderable time. She is very pretty. You will see her portrait on the tazza which 
 accompanies this, but she is much better-looking." The Emperor's affection for 
 the Viceroy of Italy was extended in full measure to the Princess, who from the 
 first had impressed him so favorably, and his letters are full of solicitude for her 
 health and happiness. Thus, he writes to her from Stuttgart, on the 17th of 
 January, 1806: "My daughter, your letter to me is as charming as yourself. 
 My feelings of affection for you will but increase every day ; I know this by the 
 pleasure I feel in recalling all your good qualities, and by my desire to receive 
 frequent assurances from yourself that you are pleased with everybody and 
 
THE EMPEROR AND THE QUEEN OF BAVARIA. 329 
 
 During the Emperor's stay at Munich, he took it into his 
 head, by way of recreation after his labors of the past months, 
 to indulge a fancy, partly political, partly amorous, for the 
 Queen of Bavaria. That Princess, who was the King's sec- 
 ond wife, without being very beautiful, was of an elegant 
 figure and pleasing though dignified manners. I think the 
 Emperor pretended to be in love with her. The lookers-on 
 said it was amusing to watch the struggle between his impe- 
 rious temper and rude manners and the desire to please a 
 Princess accustomed to that kind of etiquette which is never 
 relaxed in Germany on any occasion whatever. The Queen 
 of Bavaria contrived to exact respect from her strange ad- 
 mirer, and yet seemed to be amused with his devotion. The 
 
 happy in your husband. Among all my other cares, there will be none dearer 
 to me than those which may insure the happiness of my children. Believe me, 
 Augusta, I love you as a father, and I rely on your filial tenderness. Take care 
 of yourself on your journey, and also in the new climate to which you are travel- 
 ing, by taking all necessary rest. You have had much to try you for a month 
 past. Remember that I must not have you ill." 
 
 A few months later he writes to Prince Eugene : " My son, you work too 
 hard ; your life is too monotonous. It is good for you, because your work should 
 be your recreation ; but you have a young wife, who is just now in a delicate 
 state. I think you should contrive to pass your evenings with her, and to gather 
 some society round you. Why don't you go to the theatre once a week in a 
 state box ? I think you should have also a small hunting establishment, and 
 hunt at least once a week ; I would willingly devote a grant to this object. 
 There must be more gayety in your house ; it is necessary for your wife's happi- 
 ness and your own health. A great deal of work can be got through in a short 
 tune. I am leading the life that you lead, but I have an old wife who does not 
 need me for her amusements ; I have also more work than you, yet I can say 
 truly I take more pleasure and diversion than you do. A young wife requires 
 amusement, especially when in the state of health she now is. You liked plea- 
 sure pretty well in former times ; you must return to it. What you might not 
 choose to do for yourself, you must do out of duty toward the Princess. I have 
 just established myself at Saint Cloud. Stephanie and the Prince of Baden get 
 on pretty well together. I spent the last two days at Marshal Bessieres's ; we 
 behaved like lads of fifteen. You were formerly in the habit of rising early ; 
 you should return to that custom. This would not disturb the Princess, if you 
 retired to rest with her at eleven o'clock ; and, by leaving off work at six in the 
 evening, you would still have had ten hours for work, if you rise at seven or 
 eight o'clock." P. R. 
 
330 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 Empress considered her to be more coquettish than was de- 
 sirable, and the whole business made her anxious to get away 
 quickly from the Bavarian Court, and spoilt the pleasure she 
 would otherwise have felt in her son's marriage. 
 
 At the same time, Mme. Murat took offense because the 
 new Yice-Queen, who had become the adopted daughter of 
 Napoleon, took precedence of her on ceremonial occasions. 
 She feigned illness in order to avoid what seemed to her an 
 affront, and her brother was obliged to get into a rage with 
 her, to prevent her from too plainly exhibiting her discontent. 
 Had we not actually witnessed the rapid rise of certain pre- 
 tensions in those who are the favorites of fortune, we should 
 have been astonished at these sudden bursts of temper in 
 princes of so recent a date that they could scarcely yet have 
 become accustomed to the advantages and rights appertain- 
 ing to their rank. This spectacle we have, however, beheld 
 so frequently that we are not surprised, but merely admit 
 that no human passion is so easily aroused, or grows so rap- 
 idly, as vanity. 
 
 Bonaparte had always been well aware of this, and he 
 used the knowledge as his surest method of governing. 
 "While at Munich, he made many promotions in the army. 
 He gave a regiment of Carbineers to his brother-in-law, 
 Prince Borghese. He rewarded several officers by promo- 
 tion, or by the Legion of Honor. Among others, he created 
 M. de Nansouty, my brother-in-law, grand officer of the 
 order. He was a brave man, esteemed in the army, straight- 
 forward, and endowed with a keen sense of duty, not very 
 common, unfortunately, among our military chiefs. He left 
 behind him in a foreign country a reputation which is very 
 honorable to his family.* 
 
 The Emperor's military Court, encouraged by their mas- 
 ter's example, and, like him, flushed with victory, took great 
 
 * On the occasion of the first return of the King, his Majesty gave M. de 
 Nansouty the command of a company of Gray Musketeers. He fell ill shortly 
 afterward, and died one month before the 20th of March, 1815. 
 
MME. DE C . 331 
 
 pleasure in the society of the ladies who had accompanied 
 the Empress. It seemed as if Love was now to have his 
 share of power in a world which had hitherto somewhat 
 neglected him ; but it must be admitted that not much time 
 was allowed to him for the establishment of his reign, and 
 his attacks were of necessity rather brisk. 
 
 "We may date from this period the passion which the 
 
 beautiful Mme. de C inspired in M. de Caulaincourt. 
 
 She had been appointed Lady-in-Waiting in the summer of 
 1805. When quite young she had married her cousin, who 
 was at that time equerry to the Emperor, and she drew all 
 eyes on herself by her striking beauty. M. de Caulaincourt 
 fell desperately in love with her, and this feeling, which was 
 for several years more or less reciprocal, deterred him from 
 
 thinking of marriage. Mme. de C became more and 
 
 more estranged from her husband, and at last took advantage 
 of the law of divorce.* When the return of the King con- 
 demned M. de Caulaincourt, otherwise the Duke of Yicenza, 
 to a life of obscurity, she resolved to share his ill fortune, 
 and married him. 
 
 I have already said that the Emperor announced during 
 this campaign his consent to the evacuation of the kingdom 
 of Naples by our troops ; but before long he again quarreled 
 with the sovereign of that kingdom, either because the King 
 did not exactly carry out the treaty that had been concluded 
 with him, and was too much under the influence of the Eng- 
 lish, who were continually threatening his ports, or because 
 the Emperor wished to accomplish his project of subjecting 
 the whole of Italy to his own authority. He also thought, 
 no doubt, that it would be his best policy to eject the house 
 of Bourbon by degrees from the thrones of the Continent. 
 Be this as it may, according to custom, and without any pre- 
 vious communication, France learned by an order of the day, 
 
 * The Duchess of Vicenza died at a very advanced age in 1878, leaving be- 
 hind her the memory of an excellent and distinguished woman. M. de Caulain- 
 oourt had died fifty years earlier, in 1828. P. R. 
 
332 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 dated from the Imperial camp at Schonbrunn, 6th Nivose, 
 year 14,* that the French army was marching to the con- 
 quest of the kingdom of Naples, and would be under the 
 command of Joseph Bonaparte, who accordingly repaired 
 thither. 
 
 " We will pardon no longer," so runs the proclamation. 
 " The dynasty of Naples has ceased to reign. Its existence 
 is incompatible with the repose of Europe and the honor of 
 my crown. Soldiers, forward! . . . and delay not to tell 
 me that all Italy is subject to my laws or those of my 
 
 allies." f 
 
 It is in this summary tone that Bonaparte, fresh from 
 signing treaties of peace, began another war, gave new of- 
 
 * 27th of December, 1805. P. R. 
 
 f The following is the proclamation, which is to the effect indicated by the 
 Memoirs, but in still rougher language : 
 
 " Soldiers ! for ten years I have done all I could to save the King of Naples ; 
 he has done everything to ruin himself. After the battles of Dego, of Mondovi, 
 and of Lodi, he could offer me but feeble resistance. I trusted to his word, and 
 I was generous toward him. 
 
 " When the second coalition was dissolved at Marengo, the King of Naples, 
 who had been the first to declare this unjust war, was abandoned at Luneville by 
 his allies, and remained alone and defenseless. He appealed to me ; for the 
 second time I forgave him. But a few months ago you were at the gates of 
 Naples. I had sufficient reasons for suspecting the treason that was in prepa- 
 ration, and for avenging the insults that had been offered me. Once more I 
 acted generously. I recognized the neutrality of Naples; I ordered you to 
 evacuate the kingdom ; and for a third time the house of Naples was strength- 
 ened and saved. 
 
 "Shall we forgive a fourth time? Shall we rely a fourth time on a Court 
 without faith, without honor, without sense ? No, no ! The dynasty of Naples 
 has ceased to reign. Its existence is incompatible with the repose of Europe 
 and the honor of my crown. 
 
 " Forward, soldiers ! Cast into the ocean, if indeed they wait your arrival, 
 the weakly battalions of the tyrants of the seas. Show forth to the world how 
 we punish perjury. Make no delay in informing me that all Italy is under my 
 laws, or those of my allies ; that the most beautiful country on earth is free 
 from the yoke of perfidious men ; that the sanctity of treaties is avenged ; and 
 that the manes of my brave soldiers, who were massacred in Sicilian ports on 
 their return from Egypt, after they had escaped the dangers of shipwreck, of 
 deserts, and of battle, are at last appeased." P. R. 
 
CONQUEST OF NAPLES. 333 
 
 fense to the sovereigns of Europe, and incited the English 
 Government to stir up fresh enemies against himself. 
 
 On the 25th of January the Court of Naples, under the 
 pressure of a skillful and victorious enemy, embarked for 
 Palermo, abandoning the capital to its new sovereign, who 
 would soon take possession of it. Meanwhile the Emperor, 
 having been present at the marriage of Prince Eugene on 
 the 14th of January, left Munich, and, having received on 
 his way through Germany the honors that were invariably 
 offered him in every place, reached Paris on the night of 
 the 26th to the 27th of January. 
 
 I have thought it well to conclude here the history of 
 what was to me Bonaparte's second epoch, because, as I said 
 before, I look upon the close of this first campaign as the 
 highest pitch of his glory; and for this reason, that now 
 the French people again consented to bear their share in it. 
 
 Nothing, perhaps, in the history of circumstances and of 
 men, can be compared to the height of power to which he 
 attained after the peace of Tilsit ; but, if at that time all 
 Europe bent before him, the spell of victory had been 
 strangely weakened in France, and our armies, although 
 consisting of our own citizens, were beginning to be aliens 
 to us. 
 
 The Emperor, who often appreciated things with mathe- 
 matical accuracy, was well aware of this ; for, on his return 
 from concluding the above treaty, I heard him say, " Mili- 
 tary glory, which lasts so long in history, is that which fades 
 the quickest among its contemporaries. All our recent bat- 
 tles have not produced in France half the effect of the one 
 victory of Marengo." 
 
 Had he carried his reflections further, he would have seen 
 that the people who are governed need eventually a glory 
 that will be of solid use, and that admiration for that which 
 bears but a barren brilliancy is soon exhausted. 
 
 In 1806 England was again accused, rightly or wrongly, 
 of inciting enmity against us. Supposing her to be with 
 
334 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 justice jealous of our returning prosperity, we did not think 
 it impossible that she might endeavor to molest us, even if 
 we had in perfect good faith shown every sign of intended 
 moderation. We did not think the Emperor had been the 
 cause of the last rupture which had destroyed the treaty of 
 Amiens ; and, as it seemed impossible for a long time to 
 come to compete with the naval power of the English, it 
 did not appear to us to be politically wrong to endeavor to 
 balance the weight which commerce gave to our enemies by 
 the constitution given to Italy that is, by a powerful influ- 
 ence on the Continent. 
 
 With such feelings as these, the marvels of this three 
 months' campaign could not fail to impress us deeply. Aus- 
 tria had been conquered ; the united armies of the two 
 greatest sovereigns of Europe had fled before ours ; the 
 Czar had retreated ; the Emperor Francis had personally 
 sued for peace a peace as yet bearing signs of moderation ; 
 kings had been created by our victories ; the daughter of a 
 crowned sovereign had been given in marriage to a mere 
 French gentleman ; finally, the prompt return of the con- 
 queror, which gave hopes of permanent peace, and perhaps 
 also a desire to retain our illusions respecting our master a 
 desire inspired by human vanity, for men do not like to 
 blush for him by whom they are ruled all these things 
 again roused national admiration, and were only too favor- 
 able to the ambition of the victor. The Emperor perceived 
 the progress he had made in popularity, and he concluded, 
 with some appearance of probability, that glory would make 
 up to us for all the losses we were about to sustain at the 
 hands of despotism. He believed that Frenchmen would 
 not murmur were but their slavery brilliant, and that we 
 would willingly barter all the liberty that the Revolution 
 had so hardly won for us, for his dazzling military success. 
 
 Finally, and this was the worst, he saw in war a means 
 of stifling the reflections which his mode of government was 
 sure sooner or later to evoke, and he reserved it to dazzle us, 
 
POSITION AND CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 335 
 
 or at least to reduce us to silence. As he felt himself per- 
 fectly master of the science of war, he had no fear of its re- 
 sults ; and, when he could engage in it with such immense 
 armies and such formidable artillery, he felt there was scarce- 
 ly any danger to himself. Although in this I may be mis- 
 taken, I do believe that, after the campaign of Austerlitz, 
 war was rather the result of his system than the gratifica- 
 tion of his taste. The first, the real ambition of Napoleon 
 was for power, and he would have preferred peace if it could 
 have increased his authority. There is a tendency in the 
 human mind to bring to perfection anything with which it 
 is exclusively occupied. The Emperor, who was continually- 
 bent on increasing his power by every possible means, and 
 who was becoming accustomed to the exercise of his own will 
 on every occasion, became more and more impatient of the 
 slightest opposition. The European phalanxes were gradu- 
 ally giving way before him, and he began to believe that he 
 was destined to regulate the affairs of every continental king- 
 dom. He looked with disdain on the progress of the age, 
 regarding the French Revolution, which was so solemn a 
 warning to sovereigns, only as an event whose results he 
 might use to his own advantage ; and he came to despise the 
 cry for liberty which for twenty years had been uttered at 
 intervals by the people. He was persuaded that he could, at 
 any rate, trick them by accomplishing the destruction of what 
 had existed, and replacing it by sudden creations, which would 
 appear to satisfy that longing for equality which he believed 
 with reason to be the ruling passion of the time. 
 
 He tried to turn the French Revolution into a mere freak 
 of fortune, a useless disturbance which had merely upset in- 
 dividuals. How often has he not made use of these specious 
 words, in order to allay apprehension : " The French Revo- 
 lution need fear nothing, since the throne of the Bourbons 
 is occupied by a soldier " ! And at the same time he would 
 assume toward kings the attitude of a protector of thrones 
 " for," he would say, " I have abolished republics." Mean- 
 26 
 
336 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 while he was dreaming of I know not what half -feudal pro- 
 ject, the execution of which must inevitably be full of danger, 
 since it drove him to war, and had besides the deplorable 
 effect of diminishing the interest he ought to have taken in 
 France itself. Our country soon ceased to be anything more 
 to him than one large province of that empire which he de- 
 sired to bring under his rule. Less interested in our pros- 
 perity than in our grandeur, which, in point of fact, was only 
 his own, he conceived the idea of making every foreign sov- 
 ereign a feudatory of his own power. He believed he should 
 attain to this by placing members of his family on the various 
 thrones which at the time actually sprang from himself ; and 
 we may assure ourselves that this was really his project, by 
 attentively reading the form of oath which he exacted from 
 the kings or princes created by him. He sometimes said : 
 " It is my intention to reach such a point that the kings of 
 Europe shall be forced, each one of them, to have a palace in 
 Paris ; and, at the time of the coronation of an Emperor of 
 the French, they shall take up their residence in it, be present 
 at the ceremony, and render it more imposing by their hom- 
 age." This, it seems to me, was a sufficiently plain decla- 
 ration of his intention of renewing in 1806 the empire of 
 Charlemagne. 
 
 But times were changed, and, as the light of knowledge 
 spread, the people became capable of forming a judgment as 
 to the mode in which they ought to be governed. Besides 
 this, the Emperor perceived that the nobles could never again 
 exercise influence over the people, which had often been an 
 obstacle to the authority of our kings ; and he conceived the 
 idea that it was from popular encroachment he must defend 
 himself, and that the spirit of the age required him to take a 
 contrary course to that which for centuries past had been the 
 custom of kings. 
 
 It was the fact that, whereas formerly the nobles had al- 
 most always hampered the royal authority, at the present 
 time some intermediary creation was needed by that very 
 
POSITION AND CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 337 
 
 authority, which, in this age of liberal opinions, would natu- 
 rally lean to the side of the sovereign, and retard the march 
 of pretensions which, from being merely popular, had now 
 become national. From this came the reestablishment of a 
 nobility, and the renewal of certain privileges which were 
 always prudently distributed among distinguished members 
 of the ancient nobility, and plebeians who had been ennobled 
 by an act of the Imperial will. 
 
 All these things are a proof that the Emperor entertained 
 this project of a new kind of feudality fashioned in accord- 
 ance with his own ideas. But, besides the obstacles which 
 England continually placed in his way, there was another, 
 absolutely inherent in his own character. There would seem 
 to have been in him two different men. The one, rather 
 gigantic than great, but nevertheless prompt to conceive and 
 also prompt to execute, laid from time to time some of the 
 foundations of the plan he had formed. This man, actuated 
 by one single idea, untouched by any secondary impression 
 likely to interfere with his projects, had he but taken for his 
 aim the good of mankind, would, with such abilities as he 
 displayed, have become the one greatest man of the earth ; 
 even now he remains, through his perspicacity and his 
 strength of will, the most extraordinary. 
 
 The other Bonaparte, forming a kind of uneasy con- 
 science to the first, was devoured by anxiety, agitated by 
 continual suspicion, a slave to passions which gave him no 
 rest, distrustful, fearing every rival greatness, even that 
 which he had himself created. If the necessity of political 
 institutions was made plain to him, he was struck at the same 
 moment by the rights which they must confer on individuals, 
 and then, gradually becoming afraid of his own handiwork, 
 lie could not resist the temptation to destroy it piecemeal. 
 He has been heard to say. after he had restored titles of no- 
 
 V ' 
 
 bility and given inalienable possessions * to his marshals : " I 
 have made these people independent ; but I shall know how to 
 
 * Majorats. 
 
338 MEMOIRS OF MADAME LE R&MUSAT. 
 
 reach them and prevent them from being ungrateful." When 
 seized upon by this spirit of distrust of other men, he gave 
 himself up to it entirely, and thought only of how to create 
 divisions among them. He weakened family ties, and ap- 
 plied himself to promote individual rather than general in- 
 terests. Sole center of an immense circle, he would have 
 liked it to contain as many radii as he had subjects, that they 
 might meet nowhere save in him. This suspicious jealousy, 
 which incessantly pursued him, fastened like a canker on all 
 his undertakings, and prevented him from establishing on a 
 solid foundation any of the schemes which his prolific imagi- 
 nation was continually inventing. 
 
 After the campaign of Austerlitz he was so inflated with 
 success, and with the worship which the people, half dazzled 
 and half subjugated, paid to him, that his despotism became 
 more than ever intensified. Every citizen felt the yoke that was 
 laid on him heavier ; heads were bowed almost perforce before 
 his glory, but it was discovered afterward that he had taken 
 means to prevent their being lifted again. He surrounded 
 himself with new splendor in order to put a greater distance 
 between himself and other men. He copied, from German 
 customs which he had carefully observed, the whole etiquette 
 of courts, which he made a daily slavery, and no one was 
 exempt from minute observances which he brought to the 
 utmost perfection. 
 
 It must be owned, however, that immediately after a cam- 
 paign he was almost obliged to take measures which would 
 silence the clamorous pretensions of his followers ; and, when 
 he had put these down, it did not occur to him that he ought 
 to treat with greater consideration the other classes of citi- 
 zens, of far less importance in his eyes. Military men, still 
 flushed with victory, would assume a haughty position from 
 which it was difficult to bring them down. I have kept a 
 letter from M. de Eemusat, written from Schonbrunn, which 
 describes very exactly the inflation of the generals, and the 
 prudence that was required in order to live peaceably with 
 
POSITION AND CHARACTER OF THE EMPEROR. 339 
 
 them. " The military profession," he writes, " gives to a 
 man's character a certain blunt sincerity, so that he does not 
 try to hide the meanest passions. Our heroes, who are ac- 
 customed to open war with their enemies, acquire a habit of 
 disguising nothing, and see a battle-field in 'any opposition 
 they may meet with, of whatever kind. It is curious to hear 
 them speak of civilians, and indeed, afterward, to hear them 
 discuss each other each depreciating the deeds of the oth- 
 ers, attributing a large share of their success to luck ; black- 
 ening reputations which we outsiders had thought firmly 
 established ; and, in their behavior to us, so puffed up with 
 their newly acquired glory that one needs much tact and 
 many sacrifices of pride, even of proper pride, to procure 
 toleration from them." 
 
 The Emperor noticed this somewhat belligerent attitude 
 of the officers of his army. He cared little that it was an- 
 noying to civilians, but he would not have it reach a point 
 which might be inconvenient to himself. Therefore, while 
 still at Munich, he thought proper to rebuke the arrogance 
 of his marshals, and on this occasion self-interest induced him 
 to use the language of reason. " Kecollect," he said, " that 
 you are to be soldiers only when with the army. The title 
 of marshal is merely a civil distinction, which gives you the 
 honorable rank at my Court that is jour due, but it carries 
 with it no authority. On the battle-field you are generals ; 
 at Court be merely great nobles, belonging to the State by 
 the civil position I created for you when I bestowed on you 
 the title which you bear." 
 
 This warning would have produced a greater effect had 
 the Emperor ended it with such words as these : "In camp 
 or in Court, recollect that your first duty everywhere is to 
 be good citizens." He should have held similar language to 
 all classes, to whom he was bound to be a protector as well 
 as a master ; he should have spoken the same words to all 
 Frenchmen, and so have united them in a new equality, not 
 adverse to distinctions won by valor. But Bonaparte, as we 
 
340 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 have seen, was always in dread of natural and generous ties, 
 and the iron chain of despotism is the only bond he em- 
 ployed, because it binds each man, as it were, separately, 
 leaving him no commerce with his fellows. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 (1806.) 
 
 The Death of Pitt Parliamentary Debates in England Public Works Industrial 
 Exhibition New Etiquette Performances at the Opera House and at the 
 Come'die Franchise Monotony of the Court Opinions of the Empress Mine. 
 Louis Bonaparte Mme. Murat The Bourbons New Ladies-in- Waiting M. 
 Mole Mme. d'Houdetot Mme. de Barante. 
 
 WHEN the Emperor arrived in Paris, at the end of Janu- 
 ary, 1806, the* death of Pitt, at the age of forty-seven, had 
 just occurred in England. His loss was deeply felt by the 
 English, and a truly national regret did honor to his mem- 
 ory. Parliament, which had just opened, voted a large sum 
 to defray his debts, for he died leaving no fortune, and he 
 was splendidly buried in Westminster Abbey. When the 
 new Ministry was formed, Mr. Fox, his opponent, was made 
 Foreign Secretary. The Emperor looked upon the death of 
 Pitt as a fortunate event for him, but he soon perceived that 
 English policy had not changed, and that the British Govern- 
 ment would not relax its endeavors to excite enmity against 
 him among the continental Powers.* 
 
 * The debates of the English Parliament and English policy itself were at 
 that time so little known in France that the reader must not be surprised if the 
 consequences of the death of Pitt are hardly appreciated in these Memoirs. 
 When Fox came into office, he took a step which led to overtures of peace. A 
 secret negotiation was carried on by Lord Yarmouth, and afterward by Lord 
 Lauderdale, and until the middle of summer there was a chance of mutual un- 
 derstanding. But Fox was in failing health, and he died in September. It is 
 true, moreover, that, although a partisan of peace, he did not look upon a war 
 with Napoleon as he had looked upon a war with the French Revolution. It 
 was no longer the liberty of France that was in question, but the independence 
 of Europe. P. R. 
 
342 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 During the month of January, 1806, the debates in the 
 English Parliament had been very warm. The Opposition, 
 led by Mr. Fox, asked the Government for explanations as 
 to the carrying out of the late war ; it asserted that the Em- 
 peror of Austria had not been faithfully assisted, and that he 
 had been left to the mercy of the conqueror. The Ministers 
 then laid on the table the text of the conditions of the treaty 
 between the various Powers at the beginning of the cam- 
 paign. This treaty proved that subsidies had been granted 
 to the coalition which had undertaken to drive the Emperor 
 from Hanover, Germany, and Italy, to replace the King of 
 Sardinia on the throne of Piedmont, and to secure the inde- 
 pendence of Holland and Sweden. The rapid victories of 
 our troops had upset these plans. The Emperor of Austria 
 was blamed for having begun the campaign too precipitately, 
 without waiting for the arrival of the Russians ; and the 
 King of Prussia, whose neutrality had been the principal 
 cause of the failure of the coalition, was especially blamed. 
 The Czar's anger was roused, and he might have been tempt- 
 ed to punish this fatal inaction, had not the lovely and fasci- 
 nating Queen of Prussia interceded between the two sov- 
 ereigns. A rumor then arose in Europe that her beauty had 
 disarmed the Emperor of Russia, and that to it he had sacri- 
 ficed his just displeasure. Napoleon, who had subdued the 
 King of Prussia by the fear of his arms, thought it well to 
 reward him for his neutrality by handing over Hanover to 
 him until the very uncertain epoch of general peace. On 
 his side, the King ceded Anspach to Bavaria, and abandoned 
 in favor of France his claims to the duchies of Berg and of 
 Cleves, which were bestowed shortly afterward on Prince 
 Joachim, otherwise Murat. 
 
 The report laid before the English Parliament on the 
 treaty of which I speak was published in our newspapers, and 
 accompanied, as may be imagined, by remarks hostile to the con- 
 tinental Powers. The weakness of those kings who place them- 
 selves at the mercy of the shopkeepers of Europe was deplored. 
 
THE ORDER OF ST. GEORGE. 343 
 
 " If England," so ran the comment, " should succeed in 
 forming a fourth coalition, Austria, who lost Belgium by the 
 first, Italy and the left bank of the Ehine by the second, 
 Tyrol, Swabia, and the Venetian States by the third, would 
 by the fourth lose her own crown. 
 
 " The influence of the French Empire on the Continent 
 will secure the well-being of Europe, for with it will have 
 begun the age of civilization, of science, of light, and of law. 
 The Emperor of Kussia has imprudently embarked, like a 
 young man, in a dangerous policy. As to Austria, we must 
 forget her faults, since she has suffered for them. However, 
 it is right to say that if the treaty now made public in Eng- 
 land had been known, perhaps Austria might not have ob- 
 tained the terms which have been granted to her ; and we 
 may remark, in passing, that Count de Stadion, who con- 
 cluded this treaty of subsidies, is still at the head of affairs 
 under the Emperor Francis." 
 
 These remarks, which were the expression of an ill-con- 
 cealed irritation, began -to cause some little uneasiness in the 
 early part of February, and to make attentive observers fear 
 that peace would not be of long duration. 
 
 No treaty had been concluded with the Czar. Under 
 pretext that he had only acted as auxiliary to the Austrians, 
 he refused to be included in the negotiations ; and I have 
 heard it said that the Emperor, impressed by this conduct, 
 looked upon him, from that time forth, as the veritable an- 
 tagonist who would dispute with him the empire of the 
 world. He always endeavored to depreciate him as much as 
 possible. 
 
 There is an order * in Kussia which can only be worn by 
 a general whose services have on some great occasion been 
 useful to the empire. When Alexander returned to his cap- 
 ital, the knights of this order came to offer him the decora- 
 tion. The Emperor declined it, replying that he had not 
 held the chief command during the campaign, and therefore 
 
 * The order of St. George. 
 
344: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E&MUSAT. 
 
 had not merited the honor, as he had only imitated the in- 
 trepidity of his brave soldiers to the best of his ability. 
 
 While our journals praised his modesty, they added: 
 " The Czar deserved this decoration if, in order to wear it, 
 it is sufficient to be in command without being victorious. 
 It is well known that it was not the Emperor Francis who 
 decided on joining battle at Austerlitz, still less did he direct 
 operations. Certainly, by accepting the decoration, Alexan- 
 der would have taken on himself the oversights of his gen- 
 erals ; but that would have been better than to attribute the 
 defeat of the Russians to a small number of Austrians, who 
 fought with courage. They did all that could have been 
 expected of them by their allies." 
 
 It was on the 2d of February that this article appeared in 
 our public "prints ; on the preceding day they had published 
 the proclamation to the Army of Italy, which announced the 
 invasion of the kingdom of Naples. Joseph Bonaparte, sec- 
 onded by Marshal Massena, was very shortly to occupy the 
 capital; Prince Eugene was taking possession of Venice. 
 Thus the whole of Italy was becoming dependent on the 
 French Empire. On another side, northern Germany was 
 subject to us, the kings whom we had set up bound them- 
 selves to our interests, and we were shortly to witness an- 
 other marriage, which would be likely to further the projects 
 in which the Emperor was secretly indulging. 
 
 On the occasion of his journey from Munich, he had made 
 a few hours' stay at Augsburg. While there, the former 
 Elector of Treves, uncle to the King of Saxony, had present- 
 to him the young Hereditary Prince of Baden, who, con- 
 fused and almost trembling in the presence of Napoleon, 
 had humbly implored the honor of alliance with him by a 
 marriage with some member of his family. The Emperor 
 accepted this respectful request, and promised to bear it in 
 mind on his return to his own states.* 
 
 * This young Prince had formerly been betrothed to Princess Augusta of 
 Bavaria, recently married to the Viceroy of Italy. P. B. 
 
PUBLIC WORKS. 345 
 
 Finally, he had just dispatched his brother Louis on an 
 expedition to Holland, in order to establish some acquain- 
 tanceship between the Prince and a country which was soon 
 to receive the Imperial command to erect a throne for Louis 
 on the wreck of the republic. 
 
 Such was the political situation of the Emperor. Such a 
 position would surely have satisfied any views less ambitious 
 than his own, nor can it be denied that he had made full 
 use of the eighteenth month of his reign, now just expired. 
 
 In France, party spirit seemed absolutely to have died 
 out. All bent under the yoke ; no class could be indifferent 
 to so much glory ; and the Emperor endeavored to increase 
 the prestige which surrounded him still further by numerous 
 public works, simultaneously undertaken. As soon as it be- 
 came possible for him to divert his attention for a moment 
 from foreign affairs, he devoted it to the improvement of the 
 finances of the country, which had suffered during his ab- 
 sence. M. Barbe-Marbois, Minister of the Treasury,* hav- 
 ing incurred his displeasure, was replaced by M. Mollien, 
 who was a skillful financier. The Emperor was ably sec- 
 onded by his Minister of Finance, Gaudin, whose perfect 
 integrity and sound knowledge sustained credit and im- 
 proved the system of taxation. Indirect taxes were ven- 
 tured on to a greater extent than before; luxury, which 
 would render these taxes more productive, was encouraged ; 
 and the heavy contributions which the Emperor had every- 
 where levied upon his conquered enemies afforded him the 
 means, without burdening his people, of keeping up the 
 strength of his army, and undertaking all the improvements 
 which were begun throughout France, as if by magic, at his 
 command. 
 
 Eoads over Mont Cenis and the Simplon were actively 
 pushed on ; bridges were built, roadways repaired ; a town 
 was founded in Yendee ; canals were dug at Ourcq and at 
 
 * M. de Marbois, who was very unjustly accused of misconduct in some 
 money transaction, was exiled on the return of Bonaparte from this campaign. 
 
346 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 Saint Quentin ; telegraphs (i. e., signals) were established to 
 accelerate correspondence ; Saint Denis was about to be re- 
 paired ; the Yendome column and the triumphal arch at the 
 Carrousel were commenced. A plan for embanking the 
 Seine with new quays, and for embellishing the whole neigh- 
 borhood lying between the Tuileries and the Boulevards, was 
 adopted, and the work of demolition had already made some 
 progress. The Hue de Rivoli was planned, the colon- 
 nade of the Louvre nearly completed; Lemot, the sculp- 
 tor, was intrusted with the decoration of the pediment. "We 
 could observe the gradual rise of the Pont des Arts, and the 
 commencement of the bridge near the Jardin des Plantes, 
 which was to bear the name of Austerlitz. The conserva- 
 tories in these gardens had been enriched with spoils from 
 those of Schonbrunn ; scientific men were encouraged in the 
 pursuit of fresh discoveries ; painters received orders for 
 pictures to commemorate our victories; the Academy of 
 Music was encouraged ; the first musical artists in Italy came 
 to France to direct our vocal music ; literary men received 
 pensions, and large grants were made to actors; military 
 schools were founded at Fontainebleau and at Saint Cyr; 
 and the Emperor himself inspected the public schools of 
 Paris. Finally, in order that the industry of the nation 
 might be encouraged in every branch at once, he conceived 
 the idea of an exhibition, to be held in the spring, and in 
 commemoration of the campaign, in which every product of 
 industry, of whatever kind, should be represented.* 
 
 M. de Champagny, the Minister of the Interior, wrote a 
 circular letter to all the prefects, directing them to inform 
 the departments over which they presided that, on the 1st of 
 May, there would be exhibited on the Place des Invalides, 
 under tents erected for the occasion, everything deserving of 
 notice in articles of use and of luxury. Trade was in this 
 manner awakened from the torpor in which it had been 
 
 *An exhibition of industrial products had already taken place in 1802; 
 this, therefore, was the second, not the first exhibition of the kind. P. B. 
 
THE CROSS OF ST. HUBERT. 347 
 
 plunged by the war. The Emperor ordered the splendor 
 and the cost of his Court to be increased. He gave his ap- 
 proval to the growing elegance of the women's dress, to the 
 sumptuous decoration of his own palaces, and to that of the 
 houses of his sisters and his great nobles. The French na- 
 tion, which is naturally prone to vanity and extravagance, 
 gave itself up to the comforts and luxuries of life ; and as 
 for us, whose fortunes were but annuities depending not only 
 on the life but on the caprice of our master, with an utter 
 disregard of prudence, influenced by the example of others 
 and by the fear of displeasing him, we were ruled by the 
 will of Bonaparte alone in the use to which we put the 
 greater or less sums he distributed to us, and which he gave 
 with the intention of subduing rather than of enriching us. 
 
 I say we, and yet at this time neither M. de Remusat nor 
 I had any share in his gifts. The cross of Saint Hubert had 
 been given to my husband as a recompense for his recent 
 journey, but he never stood in the full light of Imperial 
 favor. As for myself, I led an unobtrusive life in the midst 
 of the Court, whose numbers were greatly augmented. To 
 speak frankly, although I had taken pleasure in the promi- 
 nence assigned to me by my masters when I first entered 
 their service, the little experience I had acquired warned me 
 not to endeavor to regain any position of importance, now 
 that the interior of the palace was no longer the same. I 
 shall devote the following chapter to the details of Court 
 life, as it was now regulated, but I will return for the present 
 to my narrative of events.* 
 
 Immediately on the Emperor's return to his capital, he 
 was congratulated by the respective bodies of the State. 
 
 During his stay at Munich he had witnessed a German 
 ceremonial, in which the King and Queen of Bavaria, having 
 taken their places on the throne, received all the persons be- 
 
 * Our newspapers gave us the proclamation of Francis on his return to 
 Vienna ; it was fatherly and touching, contrasting with those dictated by our 
 own sovereign. 
 
348 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 longing to their Court, who passed before them in succession, 
 each making a low salutation. He desired to establish a simi- 
 lar custom in France, and we received orders to prepare for 
 this new " etiquette." 
 
 The fact is that, at that time, everything had to be con- 
 structed afresh. Revolutionary liberty had suppressed all 
 the rules of politeness. People no longer knew how to 
 salute each other when they met, and all we court ladies 
 suddenly discovered that the art of making a courtesy had 
 been omitted in our education. Despreaux, who had been 
 dancing-master to the last Queen, was thereupon summoned 
 to give us lessons. He taught us how to walk and how to 
 bow ; and thus a little boundary-line, trifling enough in itself, 
 but which acquired some importance from its motive, was 
 drawn between the ladies of the Imperial Court and those 
 belonging to other circles. We took with us into society 
 ceremonious manners, which distinguished us everywhere; 
 for a spirit of opposition caused those women who kept aloof 
 from the new Court to retain the free and rather abrupt 
 manners which the absence of the habits of society had given 
 them. In France, opinions make themselves felt everywhere ; 
 they now showed themselves in the different way in which 
 a lady-in-waiting and a lady from the Faubourg Saint Germain 
 would enter a drawing-room. But, putting motives aside, it 
 must be owned that the advantage was ours. This was evi- 
 dent after the return of the King : those ladies who had a 
 real right to be about him, either from the habit of freedom 
 of manner which they had acquired, or from the relief they 
 affected to feel at finding themselves on what great people 
 call their own ground, introduced at the Tuileries a bold 
 manner and loud tones of voice, which contrasted sharply 
 with the quiet and graceful behavior that Bonaparte's punc- 
 tilious etiquette had made habitual to us. 
 
 On an appointed day, therefore, the Emperor placed 
 himself on his throne, having the Empress on his left, the 
 Princesses and the Lady of Honor seated on court tabourets, 
 
PERFORMANCES AT THE OPERA HOUSE. 349 
 
 and the grand officers standing on either side. The ladies- 
 in-waiting, the wives of the marshals, of the great officials, 
 and of the ministers, all in full court dress, then came in 
 slow procession to the foot of the throne, where they courte- 
 sied in silence. They were followed by the gentlemen. 
 
 The ceremony was very long. At first the Emperor was 
 delighted. He took pleasure in etiquette, especially when 
 invented by himself; but he ended by being mortally wea- 
 ried. Toward the end, every one was hurried past ; there 
 was some difficulty in inducing him to remain on the throne 
 until the close, and he was almost angry with us for our 
 share in a ceremonial which he himself had imposed on us, 
 in the exercise of his own will. 
 
 A few nights afterward he went to the Opera, and was 
 received with applause by an immense crowd. A piece by 
 Esmenard, author of the " Poeme de la Navigation," was 
 given. 
 
 The scenery at the Opera represented the Pont JSTeuf. 
 Persons of all nationalities were rejoicing together, and sing- 
 ing verses in honor of the conqueror. The pit joined in the 
 choruses ; branches of laurel were distributed throughout the 
 house, and waved aloft with cries of " Yive PEmpereur ! " 
 He was touched, as well he might be. It was, perhaps, the 
 very last time that public enthusiasm for him was spontaneous. 
 
 Shortly afterward the Emperor received a similar ovation 
 at the Comedie Francaise, but an unforeseen circumstance 
 threw a slight shadow over the evening. Talma was acting 
 the part of Abner in the tragedy of " Athalie." During the 
 performance Bonaparte received a messenger bringing the 
 news of the entry of the French troops into Naples. He 
 immediately dispatched an aide-de-camp to Talma, with 
 orders to interrupt the play, and to announce the news from 
 the foot-lights. Talma obeyed, and read the bulletin aloud. 
 The audience applauded, but I remember thinking that the 
 applause was not so spontaneous as that we had heard at the 
 Opera. 
 
350 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 On the following day our newspapers announced the fall 
 of her whom they designated as the modern Athalie ; * and 
 the vanquished Queen was grossly insulted, with total disre- 
 gard of the social propriety that generally enforces respect 
 toward misfortune. 
 
 It was remarked shortly afterward that, on the opening 
 of the Legislative Assemblies, M. de Fontanes displayed 
 great tact, when he praised Bonaparte, in avoiding any in- 
 sult to the fallen sovereigns whom he had dethroned. He 
 dwelt chiefly, in his eulogium, on the moderation which had 
 promoted peace, and on the restoration of the tombs in St. 
 Denis. M. de Fontanes's speeches during this reign are, on 
 the whole, distinguished by propriety and good taste. 
 
 After having thus shown himself to the public and ex- 
 hausted every form of adulation, the Emperor resumed his 
 life of hard work at the Tuileries, and we our life of eti- 
 quette, which was regulated with extreme precision. He 
 began from this period to surround himself with so much 
 ceremonial that none of us thenceforth could be said to have 
 any familiarity with him. In proportion as the Court be- 
 came more numerous, it assumed a greater appearance of 
 monotony, each one doing his own task by clockwork ; but 
 no one thought of emancipating himself from the one groove 
 of thought belonging to a narrow circle of small duties. A 
 daily growing despotism, the fear we all felt of it a fear 
 which consisted simply in our dread of receiving a rebuke 
 for the smallest fault and the silence we observed on every 
 subject, placed the various inhabitants of the Tuileries on 
 the same level. It was useless to have either opinions or 
 talents, for there was never any possibility of experiencing a 
 feeling of any kind, nor of exchanging an idea. 
 
 The Emperor, feeling secure of France, gave himself up 
 
 to his grand projects, and kept his eyes fixed on Europe. 
 
 His policy was no longer directed to securing his power over 
 
 the opinions of his fellow citizens. In like manner, he dis- 
 
 * The Queen of Naples. 
 
MONOTONY OF THE COURT. 351 
 
 darned the little successes of private life, which we have 
 seen him at an earlier period anxious to obtain ; and I may 
 say that he looked upon his Court with the indifference 
 which a complete conquest inspires, when compared with 
 one as yet unattained. He was always anxious to impose a 
 yoke on every one, and to succeed in this he neglected no 
 means to his end ; but, from the moment he perceived his 
 power to be established, he took no pains to make himself 
 agreeable. 
 
 The dependence and constraint in which he held the 
 Court had at least this one advantage : anything resembling 
 intrigue was almost unknown. As each individual was firm- 
 ly convinced that everything depended on the sole will of 
 the master, no one attempted to follow a different path from 
 that traced out by him ; and in our dealings with each other 
 there was a feeling of security. 
 
 His wife was almost in the same position of dependence 
 as others. In proportion as Bonaparte's affairs increased in 
 magnitude, she became a stranger to them. European poli- 
 tics, the destiny of the world, mattered little to her ; her 
 thoughts did not reach to heights which could have no influ- 
 ence on her own fate. At this period she was tranquil as to 
 her own lot, and happy in that of her son ; and she lived a 
 life of peaceful indifference, behaving to all with equal gra- 
 ciousness, showing little or no special favor to any one, but a 
 general good will. She neither sought for amusement nor 
 feared ennui she was always gentle and serene, and, in fact, 
 was indifferent to nearly all things. Her love for her hus- 
 band had greatly declined, and she no longer suffered from 
 the jealousy which had in former years so much disturbed 
 her. Every day she judged him with greater clearness, and, 
 being convinced that her greatest source of influence over 
 him consisted in the sense of restfulness imparted to him by 
 the evenness of her temper, she took great pains to avoid 
 disturbing him. I have said long ago that such a man as he 
 had neither time nor inclination for much display of affec- 
 27 
 
352 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 tion, and the Empress at this period forgave him all the 
 fancies which sometimes take the place of love in a man's 
 life; nay, more, she became his confidante in these little 
 affairs. 
 
 On his return from Austerlitz, he again met Mme. de 
 
 X , but seemed to take no notice of her. The Empress 
 
 treated her precisely as she treated others. It has been said 
 that Bonaparte occasionally returned to his former fancy for 
 this lady ; but, if so, it was so temporarily that the Court 
 barely perceived the fact, and, as it gave rise to no new inci- 
 dent, it awakened no interest. The Emperor, who was con- 
 vinced that the influence of women had harmed the kings of 
 France, was irrevocably resolved that they should never be 
 more than an ornament to his Court, and he kept his resolu- 
 tion. He had persuaded himself, I know not how, that in 
 France women are cleverer than men, or at any rate he often 
 said so, and that the education they receive develops a certain 
 kind of ability, against which one must be on one's guard. 
 He felt, therefore, a slight fear of them, and kept them at a 
 distance on this account. He exhibited a dislike of certain 
 women's temper which amounted to weakness. 
 
 He banished Mme. de Stael, of whom he was genuinely 
 afraid, and shortly afterward Mme. de Balbi, who had ven- 
 tured on some jesting remarks concerning himself. She had 
 indiscreetly made these observations in the hearing of 'a 
 person whom I will not name, and who repeated all he had 
 heard. This individual was a gentleman and a Chamberlain. 
 I mention the fact in order to prove that the Emperor found 
 persons in every class who were willing to serve him in his 
 own way. 
 
 "We began to perceive, during the winter of this year, how 
 unhappy Mme. Louis was in her home life. Her husband's 
 tyranny was exercised in every particular; his character, 
 quite as despotic as his brother's, made itself felt throughout 
 his household. Until now his wife had courageously hidden 
 the excess to which he carried his tyranny ; but a circum- 
 
LOUIS BONAPARTE IN BAD HEALTH. 353 
 
 stance occurred which obliged her to confide some of her 
 troubles to her mother. 
 
 The health of Louis Bonaparte was very bad. Since his 
 return from Egypt he had suffered from frequent attacks 
 of a malady which had so weakened his legs and his hands 
 that he walked with difficulty, and was stiff in every joint. 
 Every remedy known to medicine was tried in vain. Cor- 
 visart, who was medical attendant to the whole family, ad- 
 vised him to try, as a last resource, a disgusting remedy. 
 He imagined that a violent eruption on the skin would per- 
 haps draw out the poison which had defied other treatment. 
 It was therefore decided that on the state bed of Louis, un- 
 der its embroidered canopy, should be spread the hospital 
 sheets of some patient suffering from the itch ; and his Im- 
 perial Highness placed himself between them, and even put 
 on the sick man's night-shirt. Louis, who wished to hide 
 this experiment from everybody, insisted that nothing should 
 be changed in the habits of his wife. They usually slept in 
 the same room, though not in the same bed ; he had always 
 obliged her to pass the night near him on a small bed placed 
 under the same canopy. He imperatively commanded that 
 she should continue to occupy this bed, adding, in a spirit of 
 strange jealousy, that no husband should ever omit to take 
 precautions against the natural inconstancy of women. Mme. 
 Louis, notwithstanding her disgust, submitted in silence to 
 this gross abuse of conjugal authority. 
 
 Meanwhile, Corvisart, who was in attendance on her, and 
 who remarked a change in her appearance, questioned her 
 respecting the details of her life, and obtained from her an 
 admission of her husband's strange fancy. He thought it 
 his duty to inform the Empress, and did not conceal from 
 her that, in his opinion, the atmosphere of Louis's bedroom 
 was very unwholesome for his wife. 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte warned her daughter, who replied that 
 she had thought as much ; but, nevertheless, she earnestly 
 entreated her mother not to interfere between her husband 
 
354: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 and herself. Then, no longer able to restrain herself, she 
 entered into particulars which showed how grinding was the 
 tyranny from which she suffered, and how admirable the si- 
 lence she had hitherto kept. Mine. Bonaparte appealed to 
 the Emperor, who was attached to his stepdaughter, and he 
 expressed his displeasure to his brother. Louis coldly re- 
 plied that, if his private affairs were interfered with, he 
 should leave France ; and the Emperor, who could not toler- 
 ate any open scandal in the family, and who was perhaps, 
 like the others, daunted by Louis's strange and obstinate 
 temper, advised Mme. Louis to have patience. Happily for 
 her, her husband soon gave up the disgusting remedy in 
 question, but he owed her a deep grudge for not having kept 
 his secret. 
 
 Had her daughter been happy, there was nothing at this 
 time to disturb the tranquillity of the Empress. The Bona- 
 parte family, full of their own affairs, no longer interfered 
 with her ; Joseph was absent and about to ascend the throne 
 of Naples ; Lucien was exiled for ever from France ; the 
 youthful Jerome was cruising along our coasts ; Mme. Bac- 
 ciochi was reigning at Piombino ; and the Princess Borghese, 
 alternating between physic and dissipation, meddled with 
 nobody. Mme. Murat only might have caused annoyance to 
 her sister-in-law, but she was engaged in promoting her hus- 
 band's interests, to which the Empress made no opposition ; 
 for she would have rejoiced greatly at Murat's obtaining a 
 principality which would have removed him from Paris. 
 
 Mme. Murat used her utmost efforts, and was even im- 
 portunate with the Emperor, in order to attain her ends. 
 She connived at his gallantries, lent him her house on occa- 
 sions when it was convenient to him to use it, and tried to 
 divert him by fetes, and to please him by a display of luxury 
 according to his taste. She interested herself in every detail 
 of the etiquette that he wished to introduce, and assumed 
 airs of dignity, somewhat stilted perhaps, which induced him 
 to declare that -his sister was in every respect fitted to be a 
 
MME. MURAT. 355 
 
 queen. She neglected no means of success, paid attention 
 to Maret, who had gradually gained the sort of influence 
 that is acquired by assiduity, and flattered Fouche into a 
 zealous attachment to her interests. The understanding be- 
 tween Mme. Murat and these two personages, who were both 
 ill-disposed toward M. de Talleyrand, increased the dislike of 
 the latter to Murat ; and, as at this period he was in high 
 favor, he often thwarted Mme. Murat's plans. Murat used 
 to say, in the southern accent he never lost, " "Would not 
 Moussu de Talleyrand like me to be broken on the wheel ! " 
 
 Murat, relying on his wife to further his interests, con- 
 tented himself with giving no cause of offense to the Em- 
 peror, behaved toward him with entire submission, and bore 
 his alternations of temper without complaint. Brave to 
 excess on the battle-field, he had not, it was said, any great 
 military talent ; and when with the army he asked for no- 
 thing but the post of danger. He was not wanting in quick- 
 ness, his manners were obliging ; his attitudes and his dress 
 were always rather theatrical, but a fine figure and noble 
 appearance saved him from looking ridiculous. The Em- 
 peror reposed no confidence in him, but he employed him, 
 because he feared him in no wise, and because he could not 
 help believing in every kind of flattery. A certain sort of 
 credulity is not rarely combined in the same character with 
 distrust ; and those great men who are the most suspicious 
 by nature are not the least amenable to flattery. 
 
 On his return from the campaign of Austerlitz, the Em- 
 peror distributed further rewards to his generals. ' To some 
 he gave considerable sums of money, to reimburse them for 
 the expenses of the campaign. General Clarke was made 
 Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor, in recognition of the 
 manner in which he had fulfilled his duties as Governor of 
 Yienna. Hitherto Clarke had been treated with some cold- 
 ness ; the Emperor showed him but little confidence, and 
 accused him of retaining a secret affection for the house of 
 Orleans ; but he succeeded in convincing Bonaparte of his 
 
356 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 obsequious devotion. General Clarke, now Due de Feltre, 
 has for the last three years played a somewhat conspicuous 
 part, and it may be well to give some particulars of his 
 career. 
 
 His uncle, M. Shee, who was made Senator by the Em- 
 peror, and who is a peer of France, was previous to the 
 Revolution secretary-general to a division of light cavalry, 
 of which the Duke of Orleans was colonel-general. He was 
 accompanied by his nephew, Clarke, whom he had sent for 
 from the country.* The young man found himself specially 
 attached to the house of Orleans, and it is on this account, 
 perhaps, that Bonaparte suspected him of private leanings 
 toward that party. He served the Revolution with zeal, and 
 was teven employed, in 1794 and 1T95, by the Committee of 
 Public Safety, in the war administration. 
 
 He accompanied Bonaparte into Italy, but haughty man- 
 ners were displeasing to the commander-in-chief . Later on 
 he was sent as ambassador to Tuscany, and remained there 
 for a considerable time, although he frequently applied for 
 his recall and for employment in France. On finally obtain- 
 ing these, he applied himself to overcoming Bonaparte's pre- 
 judice against him : he nattered him assiduously, solicited the 
 favor of a post in his personal service, displayed the abso- 
 lute submission demanded by such a master, and was eventu- 
 
 * It is clear that the author was induced to give this finished sketch of Gen- 
 eral Clarke, Due de Feltre, on account of the prominent part taken by him in 
 the early days of the Restoration, and the effect produced by his death in 1818, 
 at the very time that these Memoirs were being written. General Clarke was 
 born at Landrecies in 1763. He was Minister of War in 1807 and in 1814. 
 He was a peer of France, was created a Marshal in 1817, and was an active in- 
 strument in the reaction of 1815. In 1818 he was an object of passionate 
 regret to the Right, who enthusiastically upheld him in opposition to his suc- 
 cessor, Marshal Gouvion Saint-Cyr. A few years previously, when Minister to 
 the Emperor, he had attracted notice by an eagerness to please his master which 
 made him unpopular, and placed him in the public estimation on a level with 
 M. Maret. Nevertheless he had the reputation of an honest and guileless man, 
 and, notwithstanding the zeal with which he served under both regimes, his pri- 
 vate character stands high. P. R. 
 
GENERAL CLARKE. 35Y 
 
 ally made Councilor of State and private secretary. He 
 was very hard-working and punctual, and never wanted rec- 
 reation. He was narrow-minded and unimaginative, but 
 clear-headed. He accompanied the Emperor in the first 
 Yienna campaign, showed capacity as Governor of the city, 
 and received a first reward on his return. We shall hear of 
 him later on as Minister of War, and in every capacity as a 
 man of second-rate ability. His integrity has always been 
 freely acknowledged ; he amassed no fortune except that 
 which resulted from the savings of his various salaries. 
 Like M. Maret, he carried the language of flattery to its ex- 
 treme limits. 
 
 His first marriage was unhappy, and he obtained a divorce. 
 He had one daughter, a gentle and agreeable girl, whom 
 he gave in marriage while he was in office to the Yicomte 
 Emery de Montesquiou-Fezensac,* whose military advance- 
 ment, thanks to his father-in-law, was very rapid.f This 
 young man is at the present time aide-major-general in the 
 Eoyal Guards., The Due de Feltre's second wife was an 
 excellent but insignificant woman. By her he had several 
 sons. 
 
 Meanwhile, M. de Talleyrand's friendliness toward M. de 
 Kemusat brought me into a closer acquaintance with him. 
 He did not as yet visit at my house, but I frequently met 
 him, and wherever this occurred he took more notice of me 
 than formerly. He seldom missed an opportunity of prais- 
 ing my husband, and thus he gratified the feelings dearest to 
 
 * Nephew to the Abbe* de Montesquieu. 
 
 f M. de Fezensac, afterward Due de Fezensac, was made in 1813, while quite 
 a young man, general of brigade, but he had been twelve or thirteen years in 
 the service. He had served a long time as a private. He died on November 
 18, 186Y. We all were acquainted with him during the late years of his life. 
 He was a sincere man, mild and conscientious, and gifted with a wonderful 
 memory. He wrote a volume of interesting Memoirs, describing with truth and 
 piquancy certain sides of life in the Imperial armies. He was related on the 
 side of his mother, Mile, de la Live, to M. Mole, who appointed him ambassador 
 to Spain in 1837. P. R. 
 
358 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 my heart ; and, if I must speak the whole truth, he gratified 
 my vanity also by seeking me out on all occasions. He won 
 me over to him by degrees, and my former prejudice against 
 him vanished. Yet he would sometimes alarm me by cer- 
 tain expressions for which I was unprepared. One day I was 
 speaking to him of the recent conquest of Naples, and ven- 
 tured to let him perceive that I disapproved of our policy of 
 universal dethronement. He replied in the cold and delib- 
 erate tone that he knows so well how to assume when he 
 means to permit no reply, " Madame, we shall not desist until 
 there shall no longer be a Bourbon on a European throne." 
 These words gave me pain. I thought little, I must admit, 
 about our royal family ; but still, at the sound of the name 
 of Bourbon, certain recollections of my early days awakened 
 former feelings that had faded rather than disappeared. 
 
 I could not, at the present time, attempt to explain this 
 feeling without running the risk of being accused of insin- 
 cerity, which is absolutely foreign to my character. It may 
 be thought that, remembering the period at which I write, I 
 want gradually to prepare the way for my own return to 
 those opinions which everybody now hastens to parade. But 
 this is not the case. In those days I admired the Emperor ; 
 I was still attached to him, although less fascinated by him ; 
 I believed him to be necessary to France ; he appeared to 
 me to have become her legitimate sovereign. But all these 
 feelings were combined with a tender reverence for the heirs 
 and all the kin of Louis XIV. ; it pained me deeply when 
 fresh misfortunes were prepared for them and I heard them 
 evil spoken of. Bonaparte had often inflicted suffering of 
 this kind on me. To a man who only appreciated success, 
 Louis XYI. must have seemed deserving of little respect % 
 He was entirely unjust toward him, and believed in all the 
 popular stories against him, which were the offspring of the 
 Revolution. When the conversation turned on that illus- 
 trious and unfortunate King, I endeavored as soon as pos- 
 sible to change the subject. 
 
NEW LADIES-IN-WAITING. 359 
 
 But to return. Such was M. de Talleyrand's opinion at 
 that time ; I will show by degrees, and when the time comes, 
 how events subsequently modified it. 
 
 During this winter the heir of the King of Bavaria came 
 on a visit to our Court. He was young, deaf, not very ami- 
 able ; but he had very polished manners, and he showed great 
 deference toward the Emperor. He had apartments at the 
 Tuileries, two chamberlains and an equerry were placed at 
 his service, and every attention was paid to him. 
 
 On the 10th of February the list of ladies-in-waiting was 
 increased by the names of Mme. Maret, on the request of 
 Mme. Murat, and of Mmes. de Chevreuse, de Montmorency- 
 Matignon, and de Mortemart. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand was an intimate friend of the Duchesse 
 de Luynes, and he induced her to make her daughter-in-law 
 accept a place at Court. The Duchess was greatly attached 
 to Mme. de Chevreuse.* The latter had very pronounced 
 opinions of her own, and every one of them distinctly op- 
 posed to what was expected of her. Bonaparte threatened ; 
 M. de Talleyrand negotiated, and, according to custom, ob- 
 tained his way. Madame de Chevreuse was pretty, although 
 red-haired,f and very witty, but excessively spoiled by her 
 family, willful and fantastic. Her health even then was 
 very delicate. The Emperor tried by coaxing to console 
 her for having forced her into the Court. At times he 
 would appear to have succeeded, and then at others she 
 would take no pains to conceal her dislike to her position. 
 Her natural disposition gave her an attraction for the Em- 
 peror, which others would have vainly endeavored to exert, 
 the charm of combat and of victory. For she would some- 
 times seem to be amused with the fetes and the splendor of 
 the Court ; and when she appeared there in full dress and 
 
 * Mile, de Narbonne-Fritzlar. Her brother was a chamberlain. 
 
 f Madame de Chevreuse was one day rudely taunted by Bonaparte with hav- 
 ing red hair. " Very likely," she answered, " but no man ever complained of it 
 before." P. R. 
 
360 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 apparently in good spirits, then the Emperor, who enjoyed 
 even the smallest success, would laugh and say, " I have 
 overcome the aversion of Mme. de Chevreuse." But, in 
 reality, I do not think he ever did. 
 
 'The Baronne de Montmorency (now Duchesse de Mont- 
 morency), who was extremely intimate with M. de Talley- 
 rand, had been induced to join the Court, partly by his per- 
 suasions, and partly by her wish to regain some extensive 
 forest-lands which were seized by Government during her 
 emigration, but had not yet been sold. Mme. de Montmo- 
 rency was extremely pleasant at Court ; she demeaned her- 
 self without either pride or subservience, appeared to enjoy 
 herself, and made no pretense of being there against her 
 will.* I think she found court life very agreeable, and that 
 possibly she may have regretted it. Her name gave her an 
 advantage, as it does in every place. The Emperor often 
 said that he cared only for the nobility of history, and he 
 certainly paid it great honor. 
 
 This reminds me of an anecdote concerning Bonaparte. 
 When he resolved on reconstituting titles, he decided by a 
 stroke of his pen that all the ladies-in-waiting should be 
 countesses. Mme. de Montmorency, who stood in no need 
 of a title, but found herself obliged to take one, asked for 
 the title of baroness, which, she said laughingly, suited her 
 name so well. " That can not be," replied Bonaparte, laugh- 
 ing too ; " you, inadame, are not a sufficiently good Chris- 
 tian." 
 
 Some years later the Emperor restored to MM. de Mont- 
 morency and de Mortemart a large portion of the fortune 
 they had lost. M. de Mortemart, declining to become an 
 equerry on account of the too great fatigue of the post, was 
 made Governor of Rambouillet. We have all known the 
 Yicomte de Laval-Montmorency, father of the Yicomte Ma- 
 
 * Mme. de Matignon, the mother of the Duchesse de Montmorency, was the 
 daughter of the Baron de Breteuil, who, after his return from emigration, al- 
 ways resided in Paris. 
 
M. MOLti. 361 
 
 thieu de Montmorency, a Gentleman of Honor to Madame, 
 Governor of Compiegne, and one of the most ardent admir- 
 ers of Bonaparte. 
 
 From this time forward there was increasing eagerness to 
 belong to the Emperor's Court, and especially to be presented 
 to him. His receptions became very brilliant. Ambition, 
 fear, vanity, love of amusement and novelty, and the desire 
 of advancement, caused a crowd of people to push themselves 
 forward, and the mixture of names and ranks became greater 
 than ever. 
 
 M. Mole joined the Government in the month of March 
 of this year. He was the heir and last descendant of Ma- 
 thieu Mole, and was then twenty-six years of age. He was 
 born during the Kevolution, and had suffered from the mis- 
 fortunes it caused. His father perished under the tyranni- 
 cal rule of Kobespierre, and he became his own master at an 
 early age. He made use of his freedom to devote himself 
 to serious and varied study. His family and friends married 
 him, at the age of nineteen, to Mile, de la Briche, heiress to 
 a considerable fortune, and niece to Mme. d'Houdetot, of 
 whom I have already spoken. M. Mole, who was naturally 
 of a grave disposition, soon became weary of a merely world- 
 ly life, and, having no profession, he sought to fill up his 
 time by literary compositions, which he showed to his friends. 
 Toward the end of 1805 he wrote a short treatise, extremely 
 metaphysical and not very clear, on a theory of authority 
 and the will of man. His friends, who were surprised at the 
 research indicated by such a work, advised him to print the 
 treatise. His youthful vanity readily consented to this. The 
 public looked indulgently on the work on account of his 
 youth ; both depth and talent were recognized in it, but, at 
 the same time, a tendency to praise despotic government, 
 which gave rise to an impression that the author aimed at 
 attracting the attention of him who at that time held the 
 destinies of all in his hand. Whether this was really in the 
 mind of the writer, or whether he was horrified at the abuse 
 
362 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 of liberty, and for the first time in his life believed his coun- 
 try to be at rest and in security under the guidance of a 
 strong will, I do not know. At any rate, M. Mole gave his 
 work to the public, and it made some sensation. 
 
 After the return from Yienna, M. de Fontanes, who had 
 a great regard for M. Mole, read the book to Bonaparte, who 
 was greatly struck by it. The opinions it advanced, the su- 
 perior mind it attested, and the distinguished name of Mole 
 attracted his attention. He sent for the author, and praised 
 him as he well knew how ; for he had great skill in the use 
 of words seductive to the young. He succeeded in persuad- 
 ing him to enter into public life, promising him that his 
 career should be rapid and brilliant ; and, a few days after 
 this interview, M. Mole was appointed one of the auditors 
 attached to the Interior Section. He was a familiar friend 
 of M. d'Houdetot, his cousin, a grandson of her whom the 
 " Confessions " of J. J. Rousseau have made famous, and M. 
 Mole persuaded "him to enter together with himself on the 
 same career. M. d'Houdetot was made auditor to the Naval 
 Section. His father held a command in the colonies, and 
 was taken prisoner by the English on the capture of Marti- 
 nique. He had passed a part of his life in the Isle de France, 
 and returned, bringing with him a beautiful wife and nine 
 children, five of them girls. His daughters were all hand- 
 some ; they are now living in Paris. Some of them are mar- 
 ried ; one of them is Mme. de Barante,* the most beautiful 
 woman in Paris at the present time.f 
 
 * M. de Barante was at the head of the Indirect Taxation, and was prefect 
 under Bonaparte. He was a great friend of Mme. de Stae'Ps, very liberal in his 
 opinions, and a clever man. 
 
 f My father, who, from his youth upward, was on intimate terms with M. 
 Mole until the death of the latter, has written a good deal about him, both in 
 articles for publication and in manuscript notes. The following are his reflec- 
 tions on the earlier part of his career : " M. Mole", who was born in 1*780, received 
 little education. When scarcely nineteen he married Caroline de la Briche. He 
 had been able, by following public classes and by superficial study of various 
 branches, to supply the deficiencies of his education, which, however, he never 
 
SOCIAL CONCORD. 363 
 
 The fusion that was spreading with so much rapidity 
 brought about social concord, by mingling the interests of 
 all. M. Mole, for instance, belonging on his own side to a 
 very distinguished family, and on his wife's to people of 
 rank for Mme. Mole's cousins were Mmes. de Yintimille 
 and de Fezensac became a link between the Emperor and 
 a large circle of society. My intimacy with members of his 
 family was of old date, and I was glad to see them taking 
 their share of the new places which were within the reach 
 of those who chose to take them. Opinions abated in the 
 face of self-interest ; party spirit began to die out ; ambition, 
 pleasure, and luxury drew people together ; and every day 
 discontent was lessened. 
 
 If Bonaparte, who was so successful in conciliating indi- 
 viduals, had but gone a step further, and, instead of govern- 
 ing by force alone, had yielded to the reaction which longed 
 for repose ; if, now that he had conquered the present mo- 
 ment, he had made himself master of the future, by creating 
 durable institutions independent of his own caprice there 
 is little doubt but that his victory over our recollections, our 
 prejudices, and our regrets would have been as lasting as it 
 was remarkable. But it must be confessed that liberty, true 
 
 completely overcame. He had a gifted mind, upright, receptive, and elegant, 
 and he possessed to the highest degree the power of complete sympathy in con- 
 versation. In youth he had a tendency to severity, to philosophy even ; but this 
 diminished as he grew older. His 'Essai de Morale et de Politique,' founded on 
 the writings of Bonald, both as regards style and matter, is a poor book ; yet it 
 is so superior in thought and in expression to anything he was able to do at the 
 age of forty, that even now I can scarcely understand how he wrote it Expe- 
 rience, ambition, and contact with the world considerably modified his character. 
 This was a loss to him, but at the same time a greater gain. He took the fancy 
 of the Emperor. From the beginning Mole took a lofty view of his own position. 
 He retained a serious manner, which became stiff and haughty, except toward 
 people whom he wished to please, in which case he could do so to perfection. 
 He was admitted to exceptionally frequent converse with the Emperor. It was 
 thus that he rose ; and, in fact, during his Ministry, he did little more than talk 
 to Napoleon. M. Frederic d'Houdetot, a first cousin of Mme. Mold's, was pre- 
 fect, and subsequently deputy, under the various successive regimes, until his 
 death, which took place under the second Empire. P. R. 
 
364 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE B^MUSAT. 
 
 liberty, was wanting everywhere ; and the fault of the nation 
 consisted in not perceiving this in time. As I have said be- 
 fore, the Emperor improved the finances, -and encouraged 
 trade, science, and art ; merit was rewarded in every class ; 
 but all this was spoiled by the stamp of slavery. Being re- 
 solved on ruling everything himself, and for his own advan- 
 tage, he always put himself forward as the ultimate aim. It 
 is said that on starting for the first campaign in Italy, he told 
 a friend who was editor of a newspaper : " Recollect in your 
 accounts of our victories to speak of me, always of me. Do 
 you understand?" This "me" was the ceaseless cry of 
 purely, egoistical ambition. " Quote me" " Sing, praise, and 
 paint me" he would say to orators, to musicians, to poets, 
 and to painters. " I will buy you at your own price ; but 
 you must all be purchased." Thus, notwithstanding his de- 
 sire to make his reign famous by gathering together every 
 kind of prodigy, he neutralized his efforts and ours by deny- 
 ing to talent that noble independence which alone can de- 
 velop invention or genius of any kind. 
 
CHAPTEK XYIII. 
 
 (1806.) 
 
 The Emperor's Civil List His Household and its Expenses Dress of the Empress 
 and of Mme. Murat Louis Bonaparte Prince Borghese Fetes at Court The 
 Empress's Family Marriage of Princess Stephanie Jealousy of the Empress 
 Theatricals at Malmaison. 
 
 I THINK it will not be amiss at this point to devote a few 
 pages to the interior management of what was called " the 
 Emperor's household." Although, at the present time, his 
 own private concerns and those of his Court have even more 
 completely passed away than his policy and his power, still 
 there will be perhaps some interest in an account of his mi- 
 nute regulation of the actions and the expenditure of each 
 person belonging to the Court. He was always and in all 
 things the same, and this fidelity to the system he had irrev- 
 ocably adopted is one of the most singular sides of his char- 
 acter. The details I am about to give relate to several periods 
 of his reign ; but from the year 1806 the rules of his house- 
 hold were pretty nearly invariable, and the slight modifica- 
 tions which they sometimes received scarcely altered the 
 general plan of their arrangement. I shall therefore sketch 
 this general plan, aided by the excellent memory of M. de 
 Eemusat, who during ten years was both a spectator and an 
 actor in the scenes I am about to describe.* 
 
 * The details to which this chapter is devoted will perhaps appear trivial, 
 but, that we may not lose the spirit of these Memoirs, it is important to omit 
 nothing from them. Such descriptions have always been admissible, and the 
 most celebrated historians of the seventeenth century have painted for us the 
 minutest, and I had almost said the meanest, particulars of the daily life of 
 
366 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 The civil list of France, under Bonaparte, amounted to a 
 sum of twenty-five millions ; in addition to this, crown lands 
 and forests brought in three millions, and the civil list of 
 Italy eight millions, of which he granted four to Prince 
 Eugene. From Piedmont, partly by the civil list and partly 
 by crown property, he received three millions ; after Prince 
 Borghese had been appointed Governor, only half that sum. 
 Finally, four millions came from Tuscany, which were also 
 afterward shared with Mme. Bacciochi, when she became 
 Grand Duchess of Tuscany. The fixed revenue of the Em- 
 peror amounted, therefore, to 35,500,000 francs. 
 
 He kept at his own disposal the greater part of the sum 
 allotted to the secret service of foreign affairs, and also the 
 eighteen hundred thousand francs allotted to the theatres, of 
 which barely twelve hundred thousand were voted by the 
 yearly budget for their support. He dispensed the remain- 
 der in presents to actors,* artists, men of letters, or even to 
 officers of his household. 
 
 The fund for the maintenance of the police, after sub- 
 tracting the expenses of the department, was also at his dis- 
 posal ; and this yielded a considerable sum every year, being 
 derived from the tax on gaming-houses, which amounted to 
 more than four million francs.f He could also dispose of 
 the share that' the Government had reserved to itself on all 
 
 Louis XIV., and of the principal people of his time. It should be observed 
 also that Mme. de Remusat must, at the time she was writing, have been all the 
 more impressed by her recollections of the splendor of the Empire, inasmuch as, 
 during the earlier years of the Restoration, the poverty of France, the age, tastes, 
 and habits 'of the royal family, and the apathy characteristic of the Bourbons, 
 gave to the Court an air of simplicity which formed a strong contrast with Im- 
 perial display. That display, however, has since then been so greatly surpassed 
 that what is described here as excessive luxury may appear simplicity itself to 
 our contemporaries. P. R. 
 
 * His own liking for certain actors generally regulated these grants. He 
 frequently paid Talma's debts, and made him gifts of twenty, thirty, and forty 
 thousand francs at a time. 
 
 f Fouche, while Minister, made his fortune by these taxes on gaming-tables. 
 Savary drew a thousand francs a day from them. 
 
THE EMPEROR'S HOUSEHOLD. 367 
 
 newspapers, which must have brought in nearly a million 
 francs ; and, finally, of the sum yielded by stamps on pass- 
 ports and on permits to carry arms. 
 
 The sums levied during war were placed to the extraor- 
 dinary credit, of which Bonaparte disposed as he liked. He 
 frequently retained a large portion, which he made use of to 
 supply the cost of the Spanish war, and for the immense 
 preparations for the Russian campaign. Finally, he convert- 
 ed a considerable portion into specie and diamonds ; these 
 were deposited in the cellars of the Tuileries, and defrayed 
 the cost of the war of 1814, when the destruction of public 
 credit had paralyzed other resources. 
 
 The utmost order prevailed in Bonaparte's household; 
 liberal salaries were paid to every one, but all was so regu- 
 lated that no official could use for himself the sums that 
 were intrusted to him. 
 
 His great officers received a fixed salary of forty thousand 
 francs. The last two years of his reign he endowed the 
 posts of great officers with a considerable income, besides the 
 sums granted to the individuals who filled them. 
 
 The posts of Grand Marshal, of Grand Chamberlain, and 
 of Grand Equerry were each endowed with one hundred 
 thousand francs ; those of High Almoner and Grand Yeneur 
 with eighty thousand francs ; that of Grand Master of Cere- 
 monies with sixty thousand. The Intendant and the Trea- 
 surer each received forty thousand francs. M. Daru was the 
 first Intendant; he was succeeded by M. de Champagny 
 when the latter retired from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
 The First Prefect of the Palace and the Gentleman of Hon^ 
 or to the Empress each received thirty thousand francs. 
 
 M. de Nansouty, my brother-in-law, was for some time 
 First Chamberlain to the Empress; but, this post having 
 been abolished, he was made First Equerry to the Emperor. 
 The Lady of Honor received forty thousand francs; the 
 Mistress of the Robes, thirty thousand. There were eighteen 
 Chamberlains. Those of oldest date received either twelve, 
 28 
 
368 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 six, or three thousand francs, varying according to a sum 
 fixed by the Emperor every year ; the others were honorary. 
 Bonaparte, moreover, regulated every salary in his household 
 annually, augmenting thereby the dependence of us all by 
 the uncertainty in which we were kept. 
 
 The Equerries received twelve thousand francs ; the Pre- 
 fects of the Palace, or Maitres d'H6tel, fifteen thousand, and 
 the Master of Ceremonies a like sum. Each aide-de-camp re- 
 ceived twenty-four thousand, as an officer of the household. 
 
 The Grand Marshal, or Master of the Household, super- 
 intended all the expenses of the table, of the domestic ser- 
 vice, lighting and heating, etc. These expenses amounted 
 to nearly two millions. 
 
 Bonaparte's table was abundant and well served. The 
 plate was of silver and very handsome ; on great occasions 
 the dinner service was of silvjer-gilt. Mme. Murat and the 
 Princess Borghese used dinner-services of silver-gilt. 
 
 The Grand Marshal was the chief of the Prefects of the 
 Palace; his uniform was amethyst-colored, embroidered in 
 silver. The Prefects of the Palace wore the same colored 
 uniform, less richly embroidered. 
 
 The expenditure of the Grand Equerry (Master of the 
 Horse) amounted to three or four millions. There were 
 about twelve hundred horses. The carriages, which were 
 more ponderous than elegant, were all painted green. The 
 Empress had some equipages, among them some pretty open 
 carriages, but no separate stable establishment. The Grand 
 Equerry and the other Equerries wore a uniform of dark 
 blue, embroidered in silver. 
 
 The Grand Chamberlain had charge of all the attendance 
 in the interior of all the palaces, of the wardrobe, the Court 
 theatricals, the fetes, the chapel choir, of the Emperor's 
 Chamberlains, and of those of the Empress. The expendi- 
 ture on all these scarcely exceeded three millions. His uni- 
 form was red, with silver embroidery.* The Grand Master 
 
 * The embroidery was the same for all the great officers. 
 
INCREASED EXPENDITURES. 369 
 
 of Ceremonies received little more^than three hundred thou- 
 sand francs; his costume was of violet and. silver. The 
 Grand Veneur, or Master of the Hunt, received seven hun- 
 dred thousand francs : he wore green and silver. The ex- 
 penditure on the chapel was three hundred thousand francs. 
 
 The decoration of the apartments, as well as the care of 
 the buildings, was in charge of the Intendant. The expenses 
 of these would amount to five or six millions. 
 
 It will be seen that, on an average, the expenditure of 
 the Emperor's household would amount to fifteen or sixteen 
 millions of francs annually. 
 
 In later years he built extensively, and the expenditure 
 was increased. 
 
 Every year he ordered hangings and furniture for the 
 various palaces from Lyons. This was with a view to en- 
 coura'ging the manufactures of that city. For the same 
 reason he bought handsome pieces of furniture in mahog- 
 any, which were placed in storerooms, and also bronzes, 
 etc. Porcelain manufacturers had orders to supply complete 
 services of extreme beauty. 
 
 On the return of the King, the palaces were all found to 
 be newly furnished, and the furniture stores quite full. 
 
 But, including all these things, the expenditure never 
 exceeded twenty millions, even in the most costly years, 
 such as those of the coronation and of the marriage. 
 
 Bonaparte's expenditure on dress was put down on the 
 budget at forty thousand francs. Sometimes it slightly ex- 
 ceeded this sum. During campaigns it was necessary to 
 send him both linen and clothes 'to several places at once. 
 The slightest sense of inconvenience, or the smallest differ- 
 ence of quality in the linen or cloth, would make him throw 
 aside a coat or any other garment. 
 
 He always said he wished to dress like a simple officer of 
 his own Guards, and grumbled continually at what, as he 
 said, " he was made to spend " ; while, from his caprice or 
 awkwardness, the entire renewal of his wardrobe was con- 
 
370 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE B^MUSAT. 
 
 stantly necessary. Among other destructive habits, he had 
 that of stirring the wood-fires with his foot, thereby scorch- 
 ing his shoes and boots. This generally happened when he 
 was in a passion ; at such times he would violently kick the 
 blazing logs in the nearest fireplace. 
 
 M. de Remusat was for several years Keeper of the 
 Wardrobe, receiving no emoluments. When M. de Turenne 
 succeeded to that post, a salary of twelve thousand francs 
 was awarded to him. 
 
 Every year the Emperor himself drew up a scheme of 
 household expenditure with scrupulous care and remarkable 
 economy. During the last quarter of each year the head of 
 each department regulated his expenses for the following 
 twelvemonth. When this was accomplished, a council was 
 held and everything was carefully discussed. This council 
 consisted of the Grand Marshal, who presided, the great 
 officers, the Intendant, and the Treasurer to the Crown. 
 The expenses of the Empress's household were comprised 
 in the accounts of the Grand Chamberlain, on whose budget 
 they were entered. In these councils the Grand Marshal 
 and the Treasurer undertook to defend the Emperor's in- 
 terests. The consultation being over, the Grand Marshal 
 took the accounts to the Emperor, who examined them him- 
 self, and returned them with marginal notes. After a short 
 interval, the council met again, under the presidency of the 
 Emperor himself, who went over each item of expenditure 
 anew. These consultations were generally repeated several 
 times ; the accounts of each department were then returned 
 to its chief, and fair copies of them were made, after which 
 they passed through the hands of the Intendant, who finally 
 inspected them, together with the Emperor, in presence of 
 the Grand Marshal. By these means all expenditure was 
 fixed, and seldom indeed did any of the great officers obtain 
 the sums for which they had asked. 
 
 Bonaparte's hour for rising was irregular, but usually it 
 was seven o'clock. If he woke during the night, he would 
 
THE EMPEROR'S HABITS. 371 
 
 resume his .work, or take a bath or a meal. He generally 
 awoke depressed, and apparently in pain. He suffered fre- 
 quently from spasms in the stomach, which produced vomit- 
 ing. At times this appeared to alarm him greatly, as if he 
 feared he had taken poison, and then it was difficult to pre- 
 vent him from increasing the sickness by taking emetics.* 
 
 The only persons who had the right of entry into his 
 dressing-room without being announced were the Grand 
 Marshal and the principal physician. The Keeper of the 
 Wardrobe was announced, but was almost always admitted. 
 He would have wished M. de Re*musat to employ these 
 morning visits in giving him an account of all that was said 
 or done at Court or in the city ; but my husband invariably 
 declined the task, and persevered in his determination with 
 praiseworthy obstinacy. 
 
 The other physicians or surgeons on duty might not come 
 unless they were summoned. Bonaparte seemed to put no 
 great faith in medicine it was frequently a matter of jest- 
 ing with him ; but he had great confidence in Corvisart, and 
 much esteem for him. He had good health and a strong 
 constitution ; but, when he suffered from any indisposition, 
 he became uneasy and nervous. He was occasionally troubled 
 with a slight affection of the skin, and sometimes complained 
 of his liver. He ate moderately, drank little, and indulged 
 in no excesses of any kind. He took a good deal of coffee. 
 
 While dressing, he was usually silent, unless a discussion 
 arose between him and Corvisart on some medical subject. 
 In everything he liked to go straight to the point, and, if any 
 one was mentioned as being ill, his first question was always, 
 "Will he die?" A doubtful answer displeased him, and 
 would make him argue on the inefficiency of medical science. 
 
 He acquired with great difficulty the art of shaving him- 
 self. M. de Eemusat induced him to undertake this task on 
 seeing that he was uneasy and nervous under the hands of a 
 barber. After many trials, and when he had finally succeed- 
 
 * The principal physician, Corvisart, gave me these details. 
 
372 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 ed, lie often said that the advice to shave himself with his 
 own hand had been of signal service to him. 
 
 Bonaparte so thoroughly accustomed himself during his 
 reign to make no account of those about him, that this ha- 
 bitual disregard pervaded all his habits. He had not any of 
 the delicacy that is ordinarily imparted by training and edu- 
 cation, and would make his toilet in the most thorough fash- 
 ion in the presence of any person whomsoever. In the same 
 way, if he got impatient while his valet was dressing him, 
 he would fly into a passion, heedless of all respect for him- 
 self or others. He would throw any garment that did not 
 please him on the floor or into the fire. He attended to his 
 hands and nails with great care. Several pairs of nail-scis- 
 sors had to be in readiness, as he would break or throw them 
 away if they were not sufficiently sharp. He never made 
 use of any perfume except eau de Cologne, but of that he 
 would get through sixty bottles in a month. He considered 
 it a very wholesome practice to sprinkle himself thoroughly 
 with eau de Cologne. Personal cleanliness was with him a 
 matter of calculation, for, as I said before, he was naturally 
 careless. 
 
 When his toilet was concluded, he went to his cabinet, 
 where his private secretary was in attendance. Precisely at 
 nine o'clock, the Chamberlain on duty, who had arrived at 
 the palace at eight A. M.*, and had carefully inspected the 
 whole suite of rooms, that all might be in perfect order, and 
 seen that the servants were at their posts, knocked at the 
 door and announced the levee. He never entered the cabi- 
 net unless told to come in by the Emperor. I have already 
 given an account of these levees. When they were over, 
 Bonaparte frequently gave private audiences to some of the 
 principal persons present princes, ministers, high officials 
 or prefects on leave. Those who had not the right of entry 
 to the levee could only obtain an audience by applying to 
 the Chamberlain on duty, who presented their names to the 
 Emperor. He generally refused to see the applicants. 
 
MINISTERIAL COUNCILS. 373 
 
 The levee and audiences would last until the hour of 
 breakfast. That meal was served at eleven o'clock, in what 
 was called the salon de service, the same apartment in which 
 he held private audiences and received his ministers. The 
 Prefect of the Palace announced breakfast, and remained 
 present, standing all the time. During breakfast the Em- 
 peror received artists or actors. He would eat quickly of 
 two or three dishes, and finish with a large cup of coffee 
 without milk. After breakfast he returned to his work. 
 The salon of which I have just spoken was ordinarily occu- 
 pied by the Colonel-General of the Guards on duty for the 
 week, the Chamberlain, the Equerry, the Prefect of the 
 Palace, and, on a hunting morning, one of the officers of 
 the hunt. 
 
 The ministerial councils were held on fixed days. There 
 were three State councils a week. For five or six years 
 the Emperor frequently presided over them, his Colonel- 
 General and the Chamberlain being in attendance on 
 him. He is said to have generally displayed remarkable 
 ability in carrying on or suggesting discussions. He fre- 
 quently astonished his hearers by observations full of lumin- 
 ousness and depth on subjects which would have seemed 
 to be quite beyond his reach. In more recent times he 
 showed less tolerance for others in these discussions, and 
 adopted a more imperious tone. The State council, or 
 that of the Ministers, or his own private work, lasted to 
 six P. M. 
 
 After 1806 he almost always dined alone with his wife, 
 except when the Court was. at Fontainebleau ; he would 
 then invite guests to his table. He had all courses of the 
 dinner placed before him at once ; and he ate without pay- 
 ing any attention to his food, helping himself to whatever 
 was at hand, sometimes taking preserves or creams before 
 touching the more solid dishes. The Prefect of the Palace 
 was present during dinner; two pages waited, and were 
 assisted by the footmen. The dinner-hour was very irregu- 
 
3Y4: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MTTSAT. 
 
 lar. If there happened to be any important business re- 
 quiring his immediate attention, Bonaparte worked on, 
 detaining the Council until six, seven, or even eight o'clock 
 at night, without showing the smallest fatigue, or ap- 
 pearing to feel the need of food. Mme. Bonaparte waited 
 for him with admirable patience, and never uttered a com- 
 plaint. 
 
 The evenings were very short. I have already said how 
 they were spent. During the winter of 1806 there were 
 many small dancing entertainments given, both at the Tuile- 
 ries and by the Princes. The Emperor would make his 
 appearance at them for a few minutes, and always looked 
 excessively bored. The routine of the coucher (retiring 
 for the night) was the same as it was in the morning, except 
 that the attendants came in last to receive orders. The Em- 
 peror in undressing and going to bed had no one near him 
 except the valets de chambre. 
 
 No one slept in his chamber. His Mameluke lay 
 near the inner entrance. The aide-de-camp of the day 
 slept in the anteroom with his head against the door. In 
 the rooms on the other side of this salon or anteroom, a 
 Marshal of the Home Guard and two footmen kept watch 
 all night. 
 
 No sentinel was ever seen in the interior of the palace. 
 At the Tuileries there was one upon the staircase, because 
 the staircase is open to the public, and they were everywhere 
 at the outer doors. Bonaparte was very well protected by 
 very few persons ; this was the care of the Grand Marshal. 
 The police of the palace was extremely well managed. The 
 name of every person who entered its doors was always 
 known. No one resided there except the Grand Marshal, 
 who ate there, and whose servants wore the Emperor's liv- 
 ery ; but of these there were only the valets de chambre and 
 the femmes de chambre. The Lady of Honor had an apart- 
 ment which Mme. de la Rochefoucauld never occupied. At 
 the time of the second marriage Bonaparte wished Mme. de 
 
THE EMPRESS'S PERSONAL EXPENSES. 375 
 
 Montebello* to live there altogether. In the time of the 
 Empress Josephine the Comtesse d'Arberg and her daugh- 
 ter, who had come from Brussels to be Lady of the Palace, 
 were always lodged in the palace. At Saint Cloud all the 
 attendants resided there. The Grand Equerry lived at the 
 stables, which were or are those of the King.f The Inten- 
 dant and the Treasurer were installed there. 
 
 The Empress Josephine had six hundred thousand francs 
 for her personal expenses. This sum in no degree sufficed 
 her, and she incurred many debts annually. A hundred and 
 twenty thousand francs were allowed her for her charities. 
 The Archduchess had but three hundred thousand francs, 
 and sixty thousand for her private purse. The reason of 
 this difference was, that Mme. Bonaparte was compelled to 
 assist many poor relations, whose claims on her were great 
 and frequent. She having certain connections in France 
 and the Archduchess none, Mme. Bonaparte was naturally 
 obliged to spend more money. She gave much away, but, 
 as she never made her presents from her own resources, but 
 bought incessantly, her generosity only augmented her debts 
 to an appalling degree. 
 
 Notwithstanding the wishes of her husband, she could 
 never submit to either order or etiquette in her private life. 
 He was unwilling that any salesman of any kind should be 
 received by her, but was obliged to relinquish this point. 
 Her small private apartments were crowded by these people, 
 as well as by artists of all kinds. She had a perfect mania 
 for being painted, and gave her pictures to whomsoever 
 wanted them relations, friends, femmes de chambre, and 
 even to her tradespeople, who brought her constantly dia- 
 monds and jewels, stuffs and gewgaws of all kinds. She 
 bought everything, rarely asking the price, and the greater 
 
 * La Marechale Lannes. 
 
 f Hotel de Longueville, on the Carrousel. It is unnecessary to say that 
 these stables and this hotel were demolished at the time of the changes made 
 in the Louvre. 
 
376 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE IttiMUSAT. 
 
 part of the time forgot what she had bought. From the 
 beginning she had signified to her Lady of Honor and her 
 Lady in Waiting that they were not to interfere with her 
 wardrobe. All matters of that kind were arranged between 
 herself and her femmes de chanibre, of whom she had six or 
 eight, I think. 
 
 She rose at nine o'clock. Her toilet consumed much 
 time ; a part of it was entirely private, when she lavished 
 unwearied efforts on the preservation of her person and on 
 its embellishment, with the aid of paint and powder. When 
 all this was accomplished, she wrapped herself in a long and 
 very elegant peignoir trimmed with lace, and placed herself 
 under the hands of her hair-dresser. Her chemises and skirts 
 were embroidered and trimmed. She changed all her linen 
 three times each day, and never wore any stockings that were 
 not new. While her hair was being dressed, if we presented 
 ourselves at her door, we were admitted. When this process 
 was finished, huge baskets were brought in containing many 
 different dresses, shawls, and hats. There were in summer 
 muslin or percale robes, much embroidered and trimmed ; 
 in winter there were redingotes of stuff or of velvet. From 
 these baskets she selected her costume for the day, and al- 
 ways wore in the morning a hat covered with feathers or 
 flowers, and wraps that made considerable drapery about 
 her. The number of her shawls was between three and four 
 hundred. She had dresses made of them, coverings for her 
 bed, cushions for her dog. She always wore one in the 
 morning, which she draped about her shoulders with a grace 
 that I never saw equaled. Bonaparte, who thought these 
 shawls covered her too much, tore them off, and more than 
 once threw them in the fire ; after which she would then 
 send for another. She purchased all that were brought to 
 her, no matter at what price. I have seen her buy shawls 
 for which their owner asked eight, ten, and twelve thousand 
 francs. They were the great extravagance of this Court, 
 where those which cost only fifty louis were looked at dis- 
 
NEW COSTUMES. 377 
 
 dainf ullj, and where the women boasted of the price they 
 had paid for those they wore.* 
 
 I have already described the life which Mme. Bonaparte 
 led. This life never varied in any respect. She never 
 opened a book, she never took up a pen, and never touched 
 a needle ; and yet she never seemed to be in the least bored. 
 She was not fond of the theatre ; the Emperor did not wish 
 her to go there without him, and receive applause which he 
 did not share. She walked only when she was at Malmaison, 
 a dwelling that she never ceased to improve, and on which 
 she had spent enormous sums. 
 
 Bonaparte was extremely irritated by these expenditures. 
 He would fly into a passion, and his wife would weep, prom- 
 ising to be wiser and more prudent ; after which she would 
 go on in the same way, and in the end he was obliged to pay 
 the bills. The evening toilet was as careful as that of the 
 morning. Everything was elegant in the extreme. We 
 rarely saw the same dresses and the same flowers appear the 
 second time. In the evening the Empress appeared without 
 a hat, with flowers, pearls, or precious stones in her hair. 
 Then her dresses showed her figure to perfection, and the 
 most exquisite toilet was that which was most becoming to 
 her. The smallest assembly, the most informal dance, was 
 always an occasion for her to order a new costume, in spite 
 of the hoards of dresses which accumulated in the various 
 palaces ; for she had a mania for keeping everything. It 
 would be utterly impossible for me to give any idea of the 
 sums she spent in this way. At every dressmaker's and mil- 
 liner's in Paris, go in when we would, we were sure to find 
 something being made for her or ordered by her. I have 
 seen several lace robes, at forty, fifty, and even a hundred 
 thousand francs each. It is almost incredible that this pas- 
 sion for dress, which was so entirely satisfied, should never 
 
 * Of course, my readers know that these were Cashmere shawls, which the 
 Egyptian campaign and the Oriental mania that followed had made very fash- 
 ionable. 
 
378 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 have exhausted itself. After the divorce, at Malmaison, she 
 had the same luxurious tastes, and dressed with as much care, 
 even when she saw no one. The day of her death she insisted 
 on being dressed in a very elegant robe de cfianibre^ because 
 she thought that the Emperor of Russia would come perhaps 
 to see her. She died covered with ribbons and pale rose- 
 colored satin. These tastes and these habits on her part 
 naturally increased the expenses of those about her, and we 
 found it difficult at times to appear in suitable toilets.* 
 
 Her daughter was dressed with equal richness it was 
 the tone of this Court ; but she had order and economy, and 
 never seemed to take much pleasure in dress. Mine. Murat 
 and the Princess Borghese put their whole souls into it. 
 Their court dresses cost them generally from ten to fifteen 
 thousand francs ; and they supplemented them by rare pearls 
 and jewels without price. 
 
 "With all this extreme luxury, the exquisite taste of the 
 Empress, and the rich costumes of the men, the Court was, 
 as may readily be imagined, most brilliant. It may even- be 
 said that on certain days the coup cPceil was absolutely daz- 
 zling. Foreigners were much struck by it. It was during 
 this year (1806) that the Emperor decided to give occasional 
 concerts in the Hall of the Marshals, as a certain large hall, 
 hung with portraits of the Marshals, was called. These por- 
 traits are very likely there now. This hall was lighted by 
 an infinite number of candles, and to it were invited all those 
 persons who had any connection with the Government and 
 those who had been presented. Thus there were assembled 
 usually between four and five hundred persons. 
 
 After haying walked through the saloons where all these 
 people were assembled, Bonaparte entered the hall and took 
 his place at the end ; the Empress on his left, as well as the 
 Princesses of his family, in the most dazzling costumes ; his 
 mother on his right still a very handsome woman, with an 
 
 * Mmes. Savary and Maret expended for their toilets fifty and sixty thousand 
 francs per annum. 
 
HALL OF THE MARSHALS. 379 
 
 air of great distinction. His brothers were richly dressed, 
 and they with foreign princes and other dignitaries were 
 seated. Behind were the grand officers, the chamberlains, 
 and all the staff, in their embroidered uniforms. Upon the 
 right and the left, in curved lines, sat two rows of ladies the 
 Lady of Honor, the Lady in Waiting, and the Ladies of the 
 Palace, almost all of them young, the greater number of them 
 pretty and beautifully dressed.* Then came a large num- 
 ber of ladies foreigners and Frenchwomen whose toilets 
 were exquisite beyond words. Behind these two rows of 
 seated ladies were men standing ambassadors, ministers, 
 marshals, senators, generals, and so on all in the most gor- 
 geous costumes. Opposite the imperial chairs were the mu- 
 sicians, and as soon as the Emperor was seated they executed 
 the best music, which, however, in spite of the strict silence 
 that was enjoined and preserved, fell on inattentive ears. 
 "When the concert was over, in the center of the room, which 
 had been kept vacant, appeared the best dancers, male and 
 female, from the opera, and executed a charming ballet. This 
 part of the entertainment of the evening amused every one, 
 even the Emperor. 
 
 M. de Kemusat had all these arrangements under his 
 charge, and it was no petty matter either, for the Emperor 
 was extremely particular and exacting in regard to the most 
 trivial details. M. de Talleyrand said sometimes to my hus- 
 band, " I pity you, for you are called upon to amuse the 
 unamusable." 
 
 The concert and the ballet did not last more than an hour 
 and a half. Then the assembly went to supper, which was 
 laid in the Gallery of Diana, and there the beauty of the 
 gallery, the brilliancy of the lights, the luxury of the tables, 
 the display of silver and glass, and the magnificence and ele- 
 
 * A court dress cost at the least fifty louis, and we changed them very often. 
 As a general thing this costume was embroidered in gold or silver, and trimmed 
 with mother-of-pearl. Many diamonds were worn, in sprays and scattered 
 among garlands for the hair, or set in bands for the neck and arms. 
 
380 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 gance of the guests, imparted to the whole scene something 
 of the air of a fairy-tale. There was, however, something 
 lacking. I will not say that it was the ease which can never 
 be found in a court, but it was that feeling of security which 
 each person might have brought there if the powers that 
 presided had added a little more kindliness to the majesty 
 by which they surrounded themselves. 
 
 I have already spoken of Mme. Bonaparte's family. In 
 the first years of her elevation she had brought four nephews 
 and a niece to Paris from Martinique. These all bore the 
 name of Tascher. For the young men situations were found, 
 and the young lady was lodged in the Tuileries. She was 
 by no means deficient in beauty, but the change of climate 
 affected her health, and rendered impossible all the plans 
 which the Emperor had formed for a brilliant marriage for 
 her. At first he thought of marrying her to the Prince of 
 Baden ; then for some time he destined her for a prince of 
 the house of Spain. At last, however, she was married to 
 the son of the Duke of Arenberg, who was of a Belgian fam- 
 ily. This marriage, so much desired by this family, who 
 hoped from it to gain great advantages, was in no degree a 
 success. The husband and wife never suited each other, and 
 after a time their misunderstandings and incompatibilities 
 culminated in a separation which was without scandal. After 
 the divorce the Arenbergs, disappointed in their ambitious 
 hopes and plans, openly evinced their discontent at this alli- 
 ance, and after the King's return the. marriage was complete- 
 ly broken. Mme. de lives to-day very obscurely in 
 
 Paris. 
 
 The eldest of her brothers, after residing in France some 
 two or three years without being in the least dazzled by the 
 honor of having an aunt who was an Empress, began to 
 grow very weary of the Court ; and, having no taste for mili- 
 tary life, he yielded to his homesickness, and asked and ob- 
 tained permission to return to the colonies. He took some 
 money back with him, and, leading a calm life there, has 
 
THE EMPRESS'S FAMILY. 381 
 
 probably more than once congratulated himself on this 
 philosophical departure. Another brother was attached to 
 Joseph Bonaparte, and remained in Spain in his military 
 service. He married Mile. Clary, daughter of a merchant at 
 Marseilles, and niece of Mme. Joseph Bonaparte.* A third 
 brother married the daughter of the Princess of Leyen. He 
 is now with her in Germany. The fourth brother was in- 
 firm, and lived with his sister. I do not know what became 
 of him. 
 
 The Beauharnais have also profited by the elevation of 
 Mme. Bonaparte, and continued to crowd about her. I have 
 told how she married the daughter of the Marquis de Beau- 
 harnais to M. de la Yalette. The Marquis was for a long 
 time Ambassador to Spain ; he is in France to-day. The 
 Comte de Beauharnais, the son of the lady who wrote poetry 
 and novels, f had married early in life Mile, de Lesay-Mar- 
 nesia. From this marriage sprang a daughter, who resided 
 after her mother's death with an old aunt, who was very 
 religious. The Comte de Beauharnais, marrying again, never 
 seemed to think of this young girl. Bonaparte made him 
 Senator. M. de Lesay-Marnesia, uncle to the young Ste- 
 phanie, suddenly recalled her from Languedoc ; she was 
 fourteen or fifteen. He presented her to Mme. Bonaparte, 
 who found her very pretty and refined in all her little ways. 
 She placed her in Mme. Campan's boarding-school, from 
 which she emerged in 1806 to find herself suddenly adopted 
 by the Emperor, called Princess Imperial, and married short- 
 ly after to the hereditary Prince of Baden. She was then 
 seventeen, with a most agreeable face, great natural clever- 
 ness and vivacity, a certain childishness in her manner which 
 suited her well, a charming voice, lovely complexion, and 
 clear, blue eyes. Her hair was exquisitely blonde. 
 
 * I think he perished in the campaign of 1814. 
 
 f It was upon her that the poet Lebrun made this malicious epigram : 
 " Egle, fair and a poet, has two eccentricities : 
 She makes her face, but does not make her verses." 
 
382 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 The Prince of Baden was not long in falling in love with 
 her, but at first his affection was not returned. He was 
 young, but very stout ; his face was commonplace and inex- 
 pressive ; he talked little, seemed always out of place and 
 bored, and generally fell asleep wherever he might be. The 
 youthful Stephanie, gay, piquante, dazzled by her lot, and 
 proud of being adopted by the Emperor, whom she then re- 
 garded with some reason as the first sovereign in the world, 
 gave the Prince of Baden to understand that he was greatly 
 honored by her bestowing her hand upon him. In vain did 
 they seek to 'correct her ideas in this respect. She made no 
 objection to the marriage, and was quite ready to consent to 
 its taking place whenever the Emperor wished it ; but she 
 persisted in saying that Napoleon's daughter should marry a 
 king or the son of a king. This little vanity, accompanied 
 by many piquante jests, to which her seventeen years gave 
 a charm, did not displease the Emperor, and in fact rather 
 amused him. He became more interested than before in his 
 adopted daughter, and precisely at the time he married her 
 to the Prince he became, with considerable publicity, her 
 lover. This conquest finished turning the head of the new 
 Princess, and confirmed her in her haughtiness toward her 
 future husband, who sought in vain to please her.* 
 
 * This is the decree, issued March 3, 1806, by which the Emperor bestowed 
 such distinguished rank on this young girl: "Our intention being that the 
 Princess Stephanie Napoleon, our daughter, shall enjoy all the prerogatives of 
 her rank, we hereby state that at the table and at all fetes she shall be placed 
 at our side, and on those occasions when we ourselves shall be absent she will 
 be placed on the right of her Majesty the Empress." 
 
 The next day, March 4th, the marriage was announced to the Senate in these 
 terms : " Senators, wishing to give a proof of the affection with which we re- 
 gard the Princess Beauharnais, the niece of our well-beloved spouse, we have 
 affianced her to Prince Charles, hereditary Prince of Baden. We have deemed 
 it wise, under these circumstances, to adopt the said Stephanie Napoleon as our 
 daughter. This union, resulting from the friendship which has existed for 
 several years between ourselves and the Elector of Baden, has seemed to us in 
 especial conformity with our policy and productive of good to our people. Our 
 departments on the Rhine will welcome with pleasure an alliance which will be 
 
JEALOUSY OF THE EMPRESS. 383 
 
 As soon as the Emperor had announced to the Senate the 
 news of this marriage, the youthful Stephanie was installed 
 in the Tuileries, in an apartment especially arranged for her, 
 and there she received the deputations from the govern- 
 mental bodied. Of that from the Senate her father was one. 
 Her situation was certainly a little odd, but she received all 
 the addresses and felicitations without any embarrassment, 
 and replied extremely well. Having become the daughter 
 of the sovereign, and being a favorite in addition, the Em- 
 peror ordered that she should everywhere follow next to the 
 Empress, thus taking precedence of the whole Bonaparte 
 family. Mme. Murat was extremely displeased, who hated 
 her with a cordial hatred, and could not conceal her pride 
 and jealousy. Mademoiselle thought this very amusing, 
 and laughed at it as she did at everything else, and succeeded 
 in making the Emperor laugh also, as he was inclined to be 
 amused at all she said. The Empress was much displeased 
 at this new fancy of her husband's. She spoke seriously to 
 her niece, and showed her how wrong it would be for her 
 not to resist the efforts which Bonaparte was making to 
 complete her seduction. Mile, de Beauharnais listened to 
 her aunt's counsels with some docility. She confided to her 
 certain attempts, sometimes extremely bold, made by her 
 adopted father, and promised to conduct herself with caution 
 and reserve. These confidences renewed all the former dis- 
 cord of the Imperial household. Bonaparte, unchanged, did 
 not take the trouble to conceal his inclination from his wife, 
 and, too sure of his power, thought it extremely unhandsome 
 in the Prince of Baden that he should be wounded by what 
 was going on under his very eyes. Nevertheless, the fear of 
 
 to them a new motive for cultivating their commercial and neighborly relations 
 with the subjects of the Elector. The distinguished qualities of Prince Charles 
 of Baden and the particular affection that he has shown us under all circum 
 stances are to us a sure guarantee for the happiness of our daughter. Accus 
 tomed to share with you all that interests us, we determined to no longer delay 
 bringing to your knowledge an alliance that is so agreeable to ourselves." 
 
 RR.. 
 
384 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 an outburst and the number of eyes fixed upon all the per- 
 sons concerned rendered him prudent. On the other side, 
 the young girl, who only wished to amuse herself, showed 
 more resistance than he had at first anticipated. But she hated 
 her husband. The evening of her marriage it was impossible 
 to persuade her to receive him in her apartment. A little 
 later the Court went to Saint Cloud, and with it the young 
 pair. Nothing, however, could induce the Princess to per- 
 mit her husband to approach her. He complained to the 
 Empress, who scolded her niece. The Emperor, however, 
 upheld her, and his own hopes revived. All this had a very 
 bad effect, which at last the Emperor realized ; and at the 
 end of some little time occupied with grave affairs, fatigued 
 by the importunity of his wife, struck by the discontent of the 
 young Prince, and persuaded that he had to do with a young 
 person who only wished to amuse herself by coquetting with 
 him he consented to the departure of the Prince of Baden, 
 who took his wife away with him. She shed many tears at 
 leaving France, regarding the principality of Baden as a land 
 of exile. When she arrived there she was received somewhat 
 coldly by the reigning Prince. She lived for a long time 
 on bad terms with her husband. Secret negotiators were 
 sent from France to make her understand how important it 
 was to her that she should become the mother of a Prince 
 an hereditary Prince in his turn. She submitted ; but the 
 Prince, rendered frigid by so much resistance, now showed 
 very little tenderness toward her, and this marriage seemed 
 destined to make them both very unhappy. It was not 
 eventually so, however ; and we shall see later that the Prin- 
 cess of Baden, having acquired a little more sense with years, 
 began at last to recognize her duty, and by her good conduct 
 succeeded finally in regaining the affection of the Prince, 
 and enjoyed the advantages of a union which she at first had 
 so entirely under-estimated.* 
 
 I have 'not as yet mentioned the fact that among the 
 
 * The Prince of Baden is brother to the Empress of Russia. 
 
THE ATEI GALS AT MALMAISON. 335 
 
 amusements of this Court was an occasional theatrical rep- 
 resentation a comedy played at Malmaison which was no 
 uncommon thing during the first year of the Consulate. 
 Prince Eugene and his sister had real talent in this direction, 
 and found great amusement in exercising it. At this time 
 Bonaparte too was greatly interested in these representations, 
 which were given before a limited audience. A pretty hall 
 was built at Malmaison, and we played there very often. But 
 by degrees the rank of the family became too exalted for 
 this kind of pleasure, and finally it was permitted only on 
 certain occasions, like that of the birthday of the Empress. 
 When the Emperor came back from Vienna, Mme. Louis 
 Bonaparte took it into her head to have an appropriate little 
 vaudeville arranged in which we all played, and each sang a 
 verse. A number of persons had been invited, and Malmai- 
 son was illuminated in a charming manner. It was some- 
 what of a trying ordeal to appear on the stage before an 
 audience like this, but the Emperor showed himself particu- 
 larly well disposed. We played well. Mme. Louis had, and 
 was entitled to have, a great triumph. The verses were 
 pretty, the flattery delicate, and the evening a complete suc- 
 cess.* It was really curious to observe the tone in which each 
 
 * This representation may have been given a trifle later than the date I have 
 stated. At all events, when Barre, Radet, and Desfontaines, the great vaude- 
 villists of that time, presented to the public of Paris this same piece, they called 
 it " La Colonne de Rosbach." They seemed to have written it in honor of the 
 Jena campaign. It is true that the authors could without any trouble have 
 changed the scene from the war of 1805 to the Prussian campaign; but neither 
 the courtiers nor the playwrights concerned themselves upon this point. It is, 
 however, quite certain that the role of the old Alsatian woman is much as my 
 grandmother related it. The princesses were her daughters or her nieces. This 
 Alsatian showed the greatest enthusiasm for the Emperor, and sang this stanza, 
 which my father's wonderful memory permitted him to retain, and which I learned 
 from him : 
 
 Air: " J'ai vu partout dan mes voyages." 
 
 " All through the day my thoughts are of the glorious feats of my hero : 
 All through the night my dreams repeat my thoughts. 
 
386 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 said in the evening, " The Emperor laughed, the Emperor 
 applauded!" and how we congratulated each other. I 
 particularly, who accosted him always with a certain reserve, 
 found myself all at once in a better position toward him, in 
 consequence of the manner in which I had fulfilled the 
 part of an old peasant-woman who dreamed continually that 
 her hero did the most incredible things, and who saw events 
 surpass her wildest dreams. After the play was over, he 
 paid me a few compliments. We had played with our 
 whole hearts, and he seemed somewhat touched. "When I 
 saw him in this mood thus suddenly and unexpectedly 
 moved by emotion, I was tempted to exclaim, " Why will 
 you not allow yourself occasionally to feel and think like 
 other men ? " I felt a sensation of intense relief on these 
 rare occasions, for it seemed to me that hope once more 
 revived within me. Ah ! how easily the great master us, 
 and how little trouble they need take to make themselves 
 beloved ! Perhaps this last reflection has already escaped 
 me, but I have made it so often during the last twelve years 
 of my life, and it presses so heavily upon me whenever I look 
 back upon the past, that it is by no means extraordinary 
 that I should express it more than once. 
 
 Dreams, I am told, are but follies and fables ; 
 
 But when they are of him, however wild and improbable they may seem, 
 
 They are always accomplished." 
 
 In the memoirs of Bourrienne some details may be found of these repre- 
 sentations at Malmaison. These vaudevilles were much the fashion at this 
 Court ; they were all the literature known to many of the persons of that 
 time. P. R. 
 
CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 The Emperor's Court His Ecclesiastical Household His Military Household 
 The Marshals The Ladies Delille Chateaubriand Mme. de Genlis 
 Eomances Literature Arts. 
 
 BEFOEE resuming the succession of events, I have a strong 
 desire to dwell a little on the names of those persons who 
 at this time composed the Court, and who occupied a distin- 
 guished position in the Government. I shall not be able, 
 however, to draw a series of portraits which can vary enough, 
 one from the other, to be piquant. We know very well 
 that despotism is the greatest of levelers. It regulates the 
 thoughts, it determines both actions and words; and the 
 regulations to which all submit are often so strictly observed 
 that the exteriors are assimilated, and perhaps even some of 
 the impressions received. 
 
 I remember that during the winter of 1814: the Empress 
 Maria Louisa received a large number of persons every even- 
 ing. They came to obtain news of the army, in whose move- 
 ments and plans every one was deeply interested. At the 
 moment when the Emperor, in his pursuit of the Prussian 
 General Bliicher, left to the Austrian army leisure to ad- 
 vance as far as Fontainebleau, Paris believed itself about to 
 fall into the power of strangers. Many persons met in the 
 saloons of the Empress and questioned each other with great 
 anxiety. Toward the end of this evening M. de Talleyrand 
 came to call on me after leaving the Tuileries. He told me 
 of the anxiety which he had witnessed, and then said: 
 " What a man, madame, this must be, who can cause the 
 
388 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 Comte de Montesquieu and the Councilor of State Boulay 
 (de la Meurthe)* to experience the same anxiety, and to 
 evince it in the same words ! " He had found these two 
 persons with the Empress. They had both struck him by 
 their pallor, and both expressed their dread of the events 
 which they began to foresee in the future.f 
 
 With few exceptions either because chance did not 
 gather around the Emperor persons of any marked individ- 
 uality, or because of the uniformity of conduct of which I 
 have just spoken I can not recall many purely personal 
 peculiarities which deserve to be commemorated. Setting 
 
 * The Comte de Montesquieu was then Grand Chamberlain. Boulay (de la 
 Meurthe) had been a member of the Left of the Five Hundred, and had drawn 
 up the famous law of the suspects. 
 
 f My father, in the last days of his life, reading these Memoirs and deciding 
 to publish them, wrote, dpropos of this conversation, the following note: "The 
 observation of M. de Talleyrand was made at a soiree where I was or had been 
 present. I did not hear the remark, but I remember that my mother repeated 
 it to us. It was even more distinctly stated than she has given it. One even- 
 ing in the first two months of 1814, or rather in the last months of 1813, one 
 day when I was on leave, I went to the theatre in the evening, and on coming 
 back found in my mother's small salon, in the entresol of No. 6 Place Louis 
 XV., my father, M. Pasquier, and M. de Talleyrand. The latter was speaking, 
 and describing having the breathless attention of his listeners the situation 
 of public affairs, which was deplorable enough. He did not cease speaking as 
 I entered. They signed to me, however, not to withdraw, and I too listened 
 with eager interest. M. de Talleyrand this time spoke with earnest force and 
 simplicity ; he passed in review all the powers and the men of the moment, in- 
 sisting that things were in a desperate position, but attributing this position 
 less to the situation itself than to the character of the Emperor and to the dis- 
 position of the people by whom he was surrounded. M. de Talleyrand insisted 
 that common sense, courage, and ability were lacking on all sides, or were not 
 united in any one person in a degree sufficient to hold back the Empire and its 
 master on the downward slope that led to their ruin. It was one of those rare 
 occasions when I saw M. de Talleyrand at his best a thing which never hap- 
 pened to me more than two or three times in my life. This was the first time 
 that I had ever heard him talk politics. This conversation was, I think, in- 
 tended more especially for M. Pasquier, who listened with more deference than 
 assent. It seemed to me that he was not altogether pleased, either because he 
 recognized with regret the truth of what was said, or because he was unwilling 
 to receive such confidences." P. B. 
 
THE EMPEROR'S COURT. 339 
 
 the principal figures aside, as well as the events which I 
 propose to relate, I have but the names of the others to re- 
 count, the costumes which they wore, and the duties with 
 which they were intrusted. It is a hard thing for men to 
 feel that the sovereign to whom they are attached has a 
 thorough and universal contempt for human nature. Such 
 a consciousness saddens the spirits, discourages the soul, 
 and compels each man to confine himself to the purely 
 material duties of his position, which he ends by regard- 
 ing as mere business. Each one of these men who com- 
 posed the Court and the Government of the Emperor had 
 undoubtedly a mind of his own, and especial feelings and 
 opinions. Some among them silently practiced certain vir- 
 tues, others concealed their faults and even their vices. But 
 both appeared oh the surface only at the word of command, 
 and, unfortunately for the men of that time, Bonaparte be- 
 lieved that more was to be made out of the bad side of hu- 
 man nature than from the good, and therefore looked for 
 vices rather than for virtues. He liked to discover weak- 
 nesses, and profited by them ; and, where there were no vices, 
 he encouraged these weaknesses, or, if he could do no better, 
 he worked on their fears anything to prove himself always 
 and constantly the strongest. Thus he was by no means i]l 
 pleased that Cambaceres, though possessing estimable and dis- 
 tinguished qualities, allowed his foolish pride to be seen, and 
 gave himself the reputation of a certain license of morals 
 and habits which counterbalanced "the just admiration ren- 
 dered to his cultivation and to his natural probity. Nor did 
 the Emperor ever deplore the indolent immorality of M. de 
 Talleyrand, his careless indifference, nor the small value he 
 placed on the esteem of the public. He was infinitely amused 
 by what he saw fit to call the silliness of the Prince de Neu- 
 chatel, and the servile flattery of M. Maret. 
 
 He took advantage of the avarice which he himself had 
 developed in Savary, and of the callousness of Duroc's 
 disposition. He never shrank from the remembrance that 
 
390 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 Fouche had once been a Jacobin; indeed, lie said with a 
 smile : " The only difference is that he is now a rich Jacobin ; 
 but that's all I want." 
 
 His Ministers he regarded and treated as more or less 
 efficient clerks, and he used to say, " I should not know what 
 to do with them if they were not men of mere ordinary abili- 
 ties and character." 
 
 If any one had been conscious of real superiority of any 
 kind, he must needs have endeavored to hide it ; and it is 
 probable that, warned by an instinctive sense of danger, 
 everybody affected dullness or vacuity when those qualities 
 were' not real. 
 
 Memoirs of this period will suffer from this remarkable 
 feature of it, which will give rise to a plausible, though un- 
 merited, accusation against the writers of being malevolent 
 in their views, partial toward themselves, and extremely se- 
 vere toward others. Each writer will in reality be able to 
 tell his own secret only, but will have been unable to pene- 
 trate that of his neighbor. 
 
 Ecclesiastical influence in the Emperor's household was 
 insignificant. Mass was celebrated in his presence every 
 Sunday, and that was all. I have already spoken of Cardi- 
 nal Fesch. In 1807 M. de Pradt, Bishop of Poitiers, and 
 subsequently Archbishop of Mechlin, made his appearance 
 at Court. He was clever and scheming, verbose but amus- 
 ing, and fond of gossip ; he held liberal opinions, but he 
 expressed them in cynical language. He attempted many 
 things without perfectly succeeding in any one of them. He 
 could, indeed, talk over the Emperor himself, and he may 
 perhaps have given him good advice ; but, when he was ap- 
 pointed to put his own counsels into action, nothing came of 
 the attempt, for he possessed neither the confidence nor the 
 esteem of the public. 
 
 The Abbe de Broglie, Bishop of Ghent, was cunning, 
 but also imprudent ; he obtained at a cheap rate the honor 
 of persecution. 
 
HIS MILITARY HOUSEHOLD. 391 
 
 The Abbe de Boulogne, Bishop of Troyes, proved him- 
 self in those days as eager to extol despotism as he now is to 
 emerge from the obscurity to which he has happily been 
 reduced by the constitutional government of the King.* 
 
 Bonaparte made use of the clergy, but he disliked priests. 
 He had both philosophical and revolutionary prejudices 
 against them. I do not know whether he was a deist or an 
 atheist, but he habitually ridiculed everything connected 
 with religion in familiar conversation ; and, besides, he was 
 taken up too much with the affairs of this world to concern 
 himself with the next. I may venture to say, that the im- 
 mortality of his name was to him of much greater impor- 
 tance than that of his soul. He had an antipathy to pious 
 persons, and invariably accused them of hypocrisy. When 
 the priesthood in Spain stirred up the people against him, 
 when he met with opposition from the French Bishops which 
 did them honor, when the Pope's cause was embraced by 
 great numbers, he was quite confounded, and said more than 
 once, " I thought men were more advanced than they really 
 are." 
 
 The military household of the Emperor was numerous, 
 but, except in times of war, its members had to discharge 
 duties of a civil nature. Dreading the recollections of the 
 field of battle, he distributed the various functions on another 
 footing at the palace of the Tuileries. He made chamber- 
 lains of the generals, and subsequently he obliged them to 
 wear embroidered uniforms, and to exchange their swords 
 for court rapiers. This transformation was displeasing to 
 many of them, but they had to submit, and, having been 
 wolves, to become shepherds. There was, however, a good 
 reason for this. A display of military renown would, to a 
 certain extent, have eclipsed other classes whom it was neces- 
 sary to conciliate ; military manners were by this expedient 
 refined perforce, and certain recalcitrant marshals lost some 
 of their prestige while acquiring the polish of court man- 
 
 * I have already made sufficient mention of Cardinal Maury. 
 
392 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE ItfiMUSAT. 
 
 ners. They became, indeed, slightly ridiculous by this ap- 
 prenticeship a fact which Bonaparte knew how to turn to 
 advantage. 
 
 I believe I may confidently state that the Emperor did 
 not like any of his marshals. He frequently found fault with 
 them, sometimes in very serious respects. He accused them 
 all of covetousness, which he deliberately encouraged by his 
 gifts. One day he passed them all in review before me. On 
 Davoust he pronounced the verdict which I think I have 
 already mentioned : " Davoust is a man on whom I may be- 
 stow glory ; he will never know how to wear it." Of Mar- 
 shal Key he said : " He is ungrateful and factious. If I were 
 destined to die by the hand of a marshal, I would lay a wager 
 that hand would be his." I recollect that he said he regarded 
 Moncey, Brune, Bessieres, Victor, and Oudinot as men of 
 middling abilities, who would never be more than titled sol- 
 diers. Massena he looked upon as effete, but it was evident 
 he had formerly been jealous of him. Soult sometimes gave 
 him trouble ; he was clever, rough, and vain, and he would 
 argue with his master and dispute his conditions. Bonaparte 
 could rule Augereau, who was rather unpolished in manner 
 than obstinate. He was aware of Marmont's vanity, which 
 he might wound with impunity, and of Macdonald's habitual 
 ill humor. Lannes had been his comrade, and the Marshal 
 would sometimes remind him of this : on such occasions he 
 would be gently called to order. Bernadotte had more spirit 
 than the others ; he was continually complaining, and, indeed, 
 he often had cause for complaint. 
 
 The way in which the Emperor curbed, rewarded, or 
 snubbed with impunity men so proud and puffed up with 
 military fame was very remarkable. Other writers can relate 
 with what wonderful skill he made use of these men in war, 
 and how he won fresh glory for himself by utilizing their 
 fame, ever showing himself, in very truth, superior to all 
 others. 
 
 I need not give the names of the chamberlains ; the Im- 
 
THE LADIES. 393 
 
 perial Almanac supplies them. By degrees their number 
 became considerable. They were taken from all ranks and 
 classes. Those who were most assiduous and least talkative 
 got on best ; their duties were troublesome and very tedious. 
 In proportion as one's place was nearer to the Emperor, one's 
 life became more burdensome. Persons who have had none 
 but business relations with him can have no adequate idea of 
 the unpleasantness of any that were closer ; it w,as always 
 easier to deal with his intellect than with his temper. 
 
 Nor shall I have much to relate concerning the ladies of 
 the period. Bonaparte frequently said : " Women shall have 
 no influence at my Court ; they may dislike me, but I shall 
 have peace and quietness." He kept his word. We were 
 ornamental at the fetes, and that was about all. Neverthe- 
 less, as it is the privilege of beauty never to be forgotten, 
 some of the ladies-in-waiting deserve a passing notice here. 
 In Mme. de Mottevelle's Memoirs, she pauses to describe the 
 beauties of her time, and I must not pass over in silence 
 those of our own. 
 
 At the head of the Empress's household was Mme. de la 
 Eochefoucauld. She was short and deformed, not pretty, 
 yet her face was not unattractive. Her large blue eyes, with 
 black eyebrows, had a fine effect ; she was lively, fearless, 
 and a clever talker ; a little satirical, but kind-hearted, and 
 of a gay and independent spirit. She neither liked nor dis- 
 liked any one at Court, lived on good terms with all, and 
 looked at nothing very seriously. She considered she had 
 done Bonaparte an honor by coming to his Court, and by 
 dint of saying so she persuaded others of it, so that she was 
 treated with consideration. She employed herself princi- 
 pally in repairing her shattered fortunes, obtaining several 
 ambassadorships for her husband, and giving her daughter in 
 marriage to the younger son of the princely house of Bor- 
 ghese. The Emperor thought her wanting in dignity, and 
 he was right ; but he was always embarrassed in her com- 
 pany, for he had no idea of the deference due to a woman, 
 
394: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 and she would answer him sharply. The Empress, too, was 
 rather afraid of her, for in her easy manner there was no 
 little imperiousness. She remained faithful to old friends 
 who held opposite opinions to her own, or rather to what we 
 may suppose to have been her own, judging by the post she 
 occupied at Court. She was daughter-in-law to the Due de 
 Liancourt, and she left the Court when the divorce took 
 place. Ste died in Paris, under the Restoration. 
 
 Mme. de la Yalette, the Mistress of the Robes, was 
 daughter to the Marquis de Beauharnais. Her complexion 
 had been slightly spoiled by small-pox, but she had a pleasing 
 though expressionless face. Her gentleness almost amounted 
 to inanity, and small vanities chiefly occupied her thoughts. 
 Her mind was narrow, her conduct was correct. Her post 
 was a complete sinecure, for Mme. Bonaparte allowed no one 
 to interfere with her dress. In vain did the Emperor insist 
 that Mme. de la Yalette should make up accounts, regulate 
 expenditure, and superintend purchases ; he was obliged to 
 yield, and to give up the idea of maintaining any order on 
 these points, for Mme. de la Yalette was incapable of defend- 
 ing the rights of her place in opposition to her aunt. She 
 confined herself, therefore, to taking Mme. de la Rochefou 
 cauld's duties when the latter absented herself on account of 
 illness. Everybody knows what courage and energy misfor- 
 tune and conjugal love subsequently developed in this young 
 lady. 
 
 Chief among the Ladies of the Palace was Mme. de Lu- 
 cay, who had held that position longest. In 1806 she was no 
 longer young. She was a gentle and quiet person. Her 
 husband was Prefect of the Palace ; their daughter married 
 the younger son of the Count de Segur, and has since died. 
 
 I come next on the list, and I feel inclined to make a lit- 
 tle sketch of my myself ; I believe I can do this truthfully. 
 I was twenty-three when I first came to Court ; I was not 
 pretty, yet not altogether devoid of attraction, and I looked 
 well in full dress. My eyes were fine, my hair was black, 
 
SKETCH OF MYSELF. , 395 
 
 and I had good teeth ; my nose and face were too large in 
 proportion to my figure, which was good, but small. I had 
 the reputation of being a clever woman, which was almost a 
 reproach at Court. In point of fact, I lack neither wit nor 
 sense, but my warmth of feeling and of thought leads me to 
 speak and act impulsively, and makes me commit errors 
 which a cooler, even though less wise, person would avoid. 
 
 I was often misinterpreted at Bonaparte's Court. I was 
 lively, and was supposed to be scheming. I liked to be ac- 
 quainted with persons of importance, and I was accused of 
 being ambitious. I am too much devoted to persons and to 
 causes which appear to me to have right on their side, to 
 deserve the first accusation ; and my faithfulness to friends 
 in misfortune is a sufficient answer to the second. Mme. 
 Bonaparte trusted me more than others, and thereby put me 
 into a difficult position ; people soon perceived this, and no 
 one envied me the onerous distinction of her friendship. 
 The preference which the Emperor at first showed me was a 
 cause of greater jealousy. I reaped little benefit from his 
 favor, but I was flattered by it and grateful for it ; and, so long 
 as I felt a regard for him, I sought to please him. When 
 my eyes were opened, I drew back ; dissimulation is abso- 
 lutely opposed to my character. I came to Court too full of 
 inquisitiveness. It seemed to me so curious a scene that I 
 watched it closely, and asked many questions that I might 
 fully understand it. It was often thought that I did this 
 from design. In palaces no action is supposed to be without 
 a motive ; " Cui bono f " is said on every occasion.* 
 
 My impetuosity frequently brought me into trouble. E"ot 
 that I acted altogether on impulse, but I was very young, very 
 unaffected, because I had always been very happy ; in nothing 
 was I sufficiently sedate, and my qualities sometimes did me 
 as much harm as my defects. But, amid all this, I have met 
 
 * I knew a man who always asked himself this question with great gravity, 
 before deciding on the visits he should pay each evening. 
 
396 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 with friends who loved me, and of whom, no matter how I 
 may be circumstanced, I shall retain a loving recollection. 
 
 I soon began to suffer from disappointed hopes, betrayed 
 affections, and mistaken beliefs. Moreover, my health failed, 
 and I became tired of so arduous a life, and disenchanted 
 both with men and things. I withdrew myself as far as 
 possible, and found in my own home feelings and enjoy- 
 ments that could not deceive. I loved my husband, my 
 mother, my children, and my friends ; I should have been 
 unwilling to give up the peaceful pleasure I found in their 
 society. I contrived to retain a kind of liberty amid the 
 numerous trivial duties of my post. Lastly, when I ap- 
 proved of any one and when I ceased to do so, both states of 
 mind too plainly showed. There could be no greater fault 
 in the eyes of Bonaparte. He dreaded nothing in the world 
 so much as that any one in his circle should use their critical 
 faculty with regard to him. 
 
 Mme. de Canisy, a great-niece of M. de Brienne, the 
 former Archbishop of Sens, was a beautiful woman when 
 first she came to Court. She was tall and well made, with 
 eyes and hair of raven-black, lovely teeth, an aquiline nose, 
 and a rich brunette complexion. 
 
 Mme. Maret was a fine woman ; her features were regu- 
 lar and handsome. She seemed to live on excellent terms 
 with her husband, who imparted to her some of his own 
 ambition. Seldom have I seen more unconcealed or more 
 solicitous vanity in any one. She was jealous of every dis- 
 tinction, and tolerated superior rank in the Princesses only. 
 Born in obscurity, she aimed at the highest distinctions. 
 "When the Emperor granted the title of countess to all the 
 ladies-in-waiting, Mme. Maret felt annoyed at the equality it 
 implied, and, obstinately refusing to bear it, she remained 
 plain Mme. Maret until her husband obtained the title of 
 Due de Bassano. Mme. Savary and she were the most ele- 
 gantly dressed women at Court. Their dress is said to have 
 cost more than fifty thousand francs a year. Mme. Maret 
 
MME. NARET. 397 
 
 thought that the Empress did not sufficiently distinguish her 
 from the others ; she therefore made common cause with the 
 Bonapartes against her. She was feared and distrusted with 
 some reason, for she repeated things which reached the ear 
 of the Emperor through her husband, and did a great deal of 
 harm. She and M. Maret would have liked people to pay 
 regular court to them, and many persons lent themselves to 
 this pretension. As I showed a decided objection to doing 
 so, Mme. Maret took an aversion to me, and contrived to 
 inflict many petty annoyances upon me. 
 
 Any one who chose to speak evil of others to Bonaparte 
 was pretty sure of gaining his ear ; for he was always credu- 
 lous of evil. He disliked Mme. Maret ; he even judged her 
 too severely ; nevertheless he chose to believe all stories that 
 came to him through her. I believe her to have been one of 
 the greatest sufferers by the fall of that great Imperial scaf- 
 folding which brought us all to the ground. 
 
 During the King's first residence in Paris, from 1814 to 
 1815, the Due de Bassano was accused, on sufficient grounds, 
 of having carried on a secret correspondence with the Em- 
 peror in the island of Elba, and kept him informed of the 
 state of feeling in France, so that he was induced to believe 
 he might once more offer himself to the French as their 
 ruler. Napoleon returned, and his sudden arrival clashed 
 with and thwarted the revolution which Fouche and Carnot 
 were preparing. Then these two, being obliged to accept 
 Bonaparte, compelled him to reign during the Hundred 
 Days according to their own system. The Emperor wished 
 to take M. Maret, whom he had so many reasons for trust- 
 ing, back into his service ; but Fouche and Carnot strongly 
 objected to Maret, as a man of no ability and only capable of 
 blind devotion to his master's interest. Some idea of the 
 state of bondage in which the men of the Revolution kept 
 the netted lion at this period may be gathered from the 
 answer that Carnot ventured to make when the Emperor 
 proposed putting M. Maret into the Government. "No, 
 
398 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMITS AT. 
 
 certainly not ; the French do not wish to see two Blacas in 
 one year" alluding to the Count de Blacas, whom the 
 King had brought with him from England, and who had all 
 the influence of a favorite. 
 
 On the second fall of Bonaparte, Maret and his wife has- 
 tened to leave Paris. M. Maret was exiled, and they repaired 
 to Berlin. For the last few months Mme. Maret has been 
 again in Paris, endeavoring to obtain the recall of her hus- 
 band. It is not unlikely she may succeed, such is the kind- 
 ness of the King.* 
 
 Pride of rank was not confined to Mme. Maret alone. 
 Mme. Ney also possessed it. She was niece to Mme. Cam- 
 pan, first dresser to Marie Antoinette, and daughter of Mme. 
 Augue, also one of the Queen's dressers, and she had been 
 tolerably well educated. She was a mild, kind-hearted wo- 
 man, but her head was a little turned by the honors to which 
 she attained. She occasionally displayed a pretentiousness 
 which, after all, was not inexcusable, for she based it on the 
 great military renown of her husband, whose own pride was 
 sufficiently self-asserting. Mme. Key, afterward Duchesse 
 d'Elchingen, and later Princesse de la Moskowa, was in real- 
 ity a very good, quiet woman, incapable of speaking or doing 
 evil, and perhaps as incapable of saying or doing anything 
 good. She enjoyed the privileges of her rank to the full, 
 especially in the society of inferiors. She was much ag- 
 grieved at the Restoration by certain differences in her posi- 
 tion, and by the disdain of the ladies of the royal Court. 
 She complained to her husband, and may have contributed 
 not a little to irritate him against the new state of things, 
 which, though not altogether ousting him, laid them both 
 open to little daily humiliations, quite unintentionally on the 
 part of the King. On the death of her husband she took up 
 her abode in Italy with three or four sons. Her means were 
 much smaller than might have been supposed, and she had 
 acquired habits of great luxury. I have seen her start for a 
 
 * Written in June, 1819. 
 
LADIES-IN-WAITING. 399 
 
 watering-place, taking with her a whole household, so as to 
 be waited on according to her liking. She took a bedstead, 
 articles of furniture, a service of traveling-plate made ex- 
 pressly for her, a train offourgons, and a number of couriers ; 
 and she would affirm that the wife of a marshal of France 
 could not travel otherwise. Her house was magnificently 
 appointed ; the purchase and furnishing cost eleven hundred 
 thousand francs. Mme. Ney was tall and slight ; her fea- 
 tures were rather large, her eyes fine. Her expression was 
 mild and pleasant, and her voice very sweet. 
 
 Mme. Lannes, afterward Duchesse de Montebello, was 
 another of our beauties. There was something virginal in 
 her face ; her features were pure and regular, her skin was 
 of a delicate fairness. She was a good wife and an excellent 
 mother, and was always cold, reserved, and silent in society. 
 The Emperor appointed her Lady of Honor to the Arch- 
 duchess, who became passionately fond of her, and whom 
 she completely governed. She accompanied the Archduchess 
 on her return to Yienna, and then came back to Paris, where 
 she now lives in retirement, entirely devoted to her children. 
 
 The number of the ladies-in-waiting became by degrees 
 considerable, but, on the whole, there is little to be said 
 about so many women, all playing so small a part. I have 
 already spoken of Mmes. de Montmorency, de Mortemart, 
 and de Chevreuse. There remains for me simply to name 
 Mmes. de Talhouet, Lauriston, de Colbert, Marescot, etc. 
 These were quiet, amiable persons, of ordinary appearance, 
 no longer young. The same might be said of a number of 
 Italians and Belgians who came to Paris for their two months 
 of Court attendance, and who were all more or less silent 
 and apparently out of their element. In general sufficient 
 regard was paid to youth and beauty in the selection of 
 the ladies-in-waiting ; they were always placed with ex- 
 treme care. Some of them lived in this Court silent 
 and indifferent; others received its homages with more or. 
 less ease and pleasure. Everything was done quietly, be- 
 30 
 
400 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 cause Bonaparte willed that such should be the case. He 
 had prudish caprices at times either in regard to himself or 
 others. He objected to any demonstrations of friendship or 
 dislike. In a life that was so busy, so regulated and dis- 
 ciplined, there was not much chance for either the one or 
 the other. 
 
 Among the persons of whom the Emperor had composed 
 the various households of his family, there were also ladies 
 of distinction ; but at Court they were of still less importance 
 than ourselves. 
 
 I am inclined to believe that life was rather dreary under 
 his mother's roof. With Mme. Joseph Bonaparte it was 
 simple and easy. Mme. Louis Bonaparte gathered about her 
 her old school companions, and kept up with them, so far as 
 lay in her power, the familiarity of their youth. At Mine. 
 Murat's, although a trifle stiff and stilted, things were care- 
 fully regulated with order and discipline. Public opinion 
 stigmatized the Princess Borghese ; her conduct cast an un- 
 fortunate reflection upon the young and pretty women who 
 formed her court. 
 
 It may not be useless to linger here for a little, to say a 
 few words in regard to those persons who were at this time 
 distinguished in literature and art, and to the works which 
 appeared from the foundation of the Consulate up to this 
 year, 1806. Among the former I find four of whom I can 
 speak with some detail.* 
 
 Jacques Delille, whom we more generally know under 
 the title of the Abbe de Delille, had seen the best years of 
 his life pass away in the times which preceded our Revolu- 
 tion. He united to brilliant talents the charms of sweetness 
 of temper and agreeable manners. He acquired the title of 
 Abbe because in those days it conferred a certain rank ; he 
 dropped it after the Revolution to marry a woman of good 
 family, commonplace, and by no means agreeable, but whose 
 ministrations had become essential to him. Always received 
 
 * Jacques Delille, M. de Chateaubriand, Mme. de Stae'l, Mme. de Genlis. 
 
JACQUES DELILLE. 401 
 
 in the best society of Paris, highly regarded by Queen Marie 
 Antoinette, overwhelmed by kindnesses from the Comte 
 d' Artois, he knew 'only the pleasant side of the life of a man 
 of letters. He was petted and made much of ; his grace and 
 simplicity of soul were very remarkable ; the magic of his 
 diction was incomparable ? when he recited verses every one 
 was eager for the pleasure of hearing him. The bloody 
 scenes of the Revolution appalled this young and tender 
 nature ; he emigrated, and met everywhere in Europe with 
 a reception so warm that it consoled him for his exile. How- 
 ever, when Bonaparte had reestablished order in France, M. 
 Delille wished to return to his native land, and he came 
 back to Paris with his wife. He had grown old and was 
 nearly blind, but always delightful, and teeming with fine 
 works which he meant to publish in his own country. Again 
 did all literary people crowd about him, and Bonaparte him- 
 self made some advances. The professor's chair in which he 
 had inculcated with so much talent the principles of French 
 literature was restored to him, and pensions were offered him 
 as the price of a few laudatory verses. But M. Delille, desir- 
 ing to preserve the liberty of the recollections which attached 
 him irrevocably to the house of Bourbon, withdrew to a 
 retired part of the city, and thus escaped both caresses and 
 offers. He gave himself up exclusively to work, and an- 
 swered every one with his own lines from " L'Homme des 
 Champs": 
 
 " Auguste triomphant'pour Virgile fut juste. 
 J'imitai le poete, imitez-donc Auguste, 
 Et laissez-moi sans nom, sans fortune, et sans fers, 
 Rever au bruit des eaux, de la lyre et des vers."* 
 
 If Bonaparte was offended by this resistance, he never 
 showed it ; esteem and general affection were the aegis which 
 
 * We had from him in the space of a few years translations of the " JSneid " 
 and of " Paradise Lost," his own poem of " L'Homme des Champs," " L'lmagi- 
 nation," and others, and finally " La Pitie," which appeared only in boards by 
 order of the police. 
 
402 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE B^MUSAT. 
 
 protected the amiable poet. He lived, therefore, a serene 
 and tranquil life, and died too soon, since, with the senti- 
 ments he had preserved, he would have rejoiced at the return 
 of the Princes whom he had never ceased to love. 
 
 In the times when Bonaparte was still only Consul, and 
 when he amused himself in following up even less conspicu- 
 ous persons, he took it into his head that he wished M. De- 
 lille to see him, hoping perhaps to gain him over, or at all 
 events to dazzle him. Mme. Bacciochi was bidden to invite 
 the poet to pass an evening at her house. Some few per- 
 sons, of whom I was one, were also invited. The First 
 Consul arrived with something of the air of Jupiter Tonans, 
 for he was surrounded by a great number of aides, who stood 
 in line and showed some surprise at seeing their General 
 take so much trouble for this frail old gentleman in a black 
 coat, who seemed, moreover, a little afraid of them all. Bo- 
 naparte, by way of doing something, took his seat at a card- 
 table, and summoned me. I was the only woman in the 
 salon whose name was not unknown to M. Delille, and I 
 instantly understood that Bonaparte had selected me as the 
 connecting link between the poet's time and that of the 
 Consul. I endeavored to establish a certain harmony be- 
 tween them. Bonaparte consented to the conversation being 
 literary, and at first our poet seemed not insensible to the 
 courtesy extended him. Both men became animated, but 
 each in his own way ; and I very soon realized that neither 
 the one nor the other produced the effect he desired and in- 
 tended. Bonaparte liked to talk ; M. Delille was loquacious 
 and told long stories ; they interrupted each other constantly ; 
 they did not listen, and never replied ; they were both ac- 
 customed to praise ; they each felt a conviction before many 
 minutes had expired that they were not making a good im- 
 pression on each other, and ended by separating with some 
 fatigue, and perhaps discontented. After this evening M. De- 
 lille said that the Consul's conversation smelled of gun-pow- 
 der ; Bonaparte declared that the old poet was in his dotage. 
 
M. DE CHATEAUBRIAND. 4-03 
 
 I know very little in regard to M. de Chateaubriand's 
 youth. Having emigrated with his family, he knew in Eng- 
 land M. de Fontanes, who saw his first manuscript, and en- 
 couraged him in his intention of writing. On his return to 
 France they kept up their relations, and I believe Chateau- 
 briand was presented by M. de Fontanes to the First Consul. 
 Having published the " Genie du Christianisme " at the 
 time of the Concordat of 1801, he concluded that he had 
 best dedicate his work to the restorer of religion. He was 
 by no means wealthy ; his tastes, his somewhat disorderly 
 character, his ambition, which was boundless though vague, 
 and his excessive vanity, all inspired him with the desire as 
 well as the need of attaching himself to something. I do 
 not know under what title he was employed on a mission 
 to Rome. He conducted himself there imprudently, and 
 wounded Bonaparte. The ill humor that he had caused and 
 his indignation at the death of the Due d'Enghien embroiled 
 them completely. M. de Chateaubriand, on his return to 
 Paris, saw himself surrounded by women who greeted and 
 exalted him as if he had been a victim ; he eagerly embraced 
 the opinions to which he has since adhered. It was not in 
 his nature to wish to seclude himself, or to be forgotten by 
 the world. He was put under surveillance, which gratified 
 his vanity. Those who claim to know him intimately say 
 that if Bonaparte, instead of having him watched, had sim- 
 ply shown a more profound consciousness of his merits, 
 Chateaubriand would have been completely won over. The 
 author would not have been insensible to praise coming 
 from so high a source. I repeat this opinion without assert- 
 ing that it was well founded. I know, however, that it was 
 also that of the Emperor, who said very openly, " The diffi- 
 culty I have is not on the score of buying M. de Chateau- 
 briand, but as regards paying him the price he sets upon 
 himself." However this may be, he kept himself aloof, and 
 frequented only the circles of the opposition. His journey 
 to the Holy Land caused him to be forgotten for some time ; 
 
4:04: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MU3AT. 
 
 he suddenly reappeared, and published " Les Martyrs." The 
 religious ideas found in every page of his works, set off with 
 the coloring of his brilliant talents, formed of his admirers a 
 sort of sect, and raised up enemies among the philosophical 
 writers. The newspapers both praised and attacked him, 
 and a controversy arose in regard to him, sometimes very 
 bitter, which the Emperor favored, " because," he said, " this 
 controversy occupies fine society." 
 
 At the time of the appearance of " Les Martyrs " a kind 
 of Royalist conspiracy broke out in Brittany. One of M. 
 de Chateaubriand's cousins, who was found to be involved in 
 it, was taken to Paris, tried, and condemned to death. I was 
 connected with some of Chateaubriand's intimate friends; 
 they brought him to me, and joined him in begging me to 
 solicit, through the Empress, mercy for his relative. I asked 
 him to give me a letter to the Emperor ; he refused, and 
 seemed to feel the greatest repugnance to such a step, but 
 consented to write to Mme. Bonaparte. He gave me at the 
 same time a copy of " Les Martyrs," hoping that Bonaparte 
 would look it over, and that it would soften him toward the 
 author. As I was by no means sure that this would be 
 enough to appease the Emperor, I advised M. de Chateau- 
 briand to try several methods at the same time. 
 
 " You are a relative," I said, " of M. de Malesherbes, 
 whose name may always be uttered with the certainty of 
 obtaining respect and consideration.* Let us now endeavor 
 to make it of use, and name him when you write to the Em- 
 press." 
 
 M. de Chateaubriand surprised me greatly by rejecting 
 this advice. He allowed me to see that his vanity would be 
 wounded if he did not personally obtain that for which he 
 asked. His pride of authorship was clearly his strongest 
 feeling, and he wished to influence the Emperor in that ca- 
 pacity. He consequently did not write precisely what I 
 
 * Bonaparte returned to Mme. Montboissier, an tmigree, a portion of her 
 estates, because she was the daughter of M. de Malesherbes. 
 
M. DE CHATEAUBRIAND. 405 
 
 would have desired. I, however, took his letter, and did my 
 best in addition. I even spoke to the Emperor, and seized 
 upon a favorable moment to read to him some pages of " Les 
 Martyrs." Finally, I mentioned M. de Malesherbes. 
 
 " You are a skillful advocate," said the Emperor, " but 
 you do not comprehend the affair. It is necessary for me to 
 make an example in Brittany ; it will fall upon a man of 
 very little interest, for this relation of M. de Chateaubriand 
 has a mediocre reputation. I know that his cousin cares not 
 one sou for him, and this fact is proved to me by the very 
 things he has compelled you to do. He has had the childish- 
 ness not to write to me ; his letter to the Empress is stiff 
 and even haughty in tone. He would like to impress me 
 with the importance of his talents ; I answer him with that 
 of my policy , and in all conscience this ought not to humili- 
 ate him. I have need of an example in Brittany to avoid a 
 crowd of petty political prosecutions. This will give M. de 
 Chateaubriand an opportunity of writing some pathetic pages, 
 which he will read aloud in the Faubourg Saint- Germain. 
 The fine ladies will weep, and you will see that this will 
 console him!" 
 
 It was impossible to shake a determination expressed in 
 this way. All means that the Empress and I attempted 
 were useless, and the sentence was executed. That same 
 day I received a note from M. de Chateaubriand, which in 
 spite of myself recalled Bonaparte's words. He wrote to 
 me that he had thought it his duty to be present at the 
 death of his relative, and that he had shuddered afterward 
 on seeing dogs lap up the blood. The whole note was 
 written in a similar tone. I had been touched, but this re- 
 volted me. I do not know whether it was he or myself that 
 was in fault. A few days later M. de Chateaubriand, dressed 
 in full mourning, did not appear much afflicted, but his irri- 
 tation against the Emperor was greatly augmented. 
 
 This event brought me into connection with him. His 
 works pleased me, but his presence disturbed my liking for 
 
406 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 them. He was, and is still, much spoiled by society, par- 
 ticularly by women. He places his associates in a most em- 
 barrassing position at times, because one sees immediately 
 that one has nothing to teach him as to his own value. He 
 invariably takes the first place, and, making himself com- 
 fortable there, becomes extremely amiable. But his conver- 
 sation, which displays a vivid imagination, exhibits also a 
 certain hardness of heart, and a selfishness that is but ill con- 
 cealed. His works are religious, and indicate none but the 
 noblest sentiments. He is in earnest when he writes, but 
 he lacks gravity in his bearing. His face is handsome, his 
 form somewhat awry, and he is careful and even affected in 
 his toilet. It would seem that he prefers in love that which 
 is generally known as les bonnes fortunes. It is plain that 
 he prefers to have disciples rather than friends. In fine, I 
 conclude from all that I have seen that it is better to read 
 him than to know him. Later on, I will narrate what took 
 place in regard to the decennial prizes. 
 
 I have hardly seen Mme. de Stael, but I have been sur- 
 rounded by persons who have known her well. My mother 
 and some of my relatives were intimate with her in their 
 youth, and have told me that in her earliest years she dis- 
 played a character which promised to carry her beyond the re- 
 straints of nearly all social customs. At the age of fifteen she 
 enjoyed the most abstract reading and the most impassioned 
 works. The famous Franclieu of Geneva, finding her one 
 day with a volume of J. J. Rousseau in her hand, and sur- 
 rounded by books of all kinds, said to her mother, Mme. 
 decker : " Take, care ; you will make your daughter a rana- 
 tic or a fool." This severe judgment was -not realized, and 
 yet it is impossible not to feel that there was something 
 very odd, something that looked like mental alienation, in the 
 manner in which Mme. de Stael acted her part as a woman 
 in the world. Surrounded in her father's house by a circle 
 consisting of all the men in the city who were in any way 
 distinguished, excited by the conversations that she heard as 
 
MME. DE STAEL. 407 
 
 well as by her own nature, her intellectual faculties were 
 perhaps developed to excess. She then acquired the taste 
 for controversy which she has since practiced so much, and 
 in which she has shown herself so piquante and so distin- 
 guished. She was animated even to agitation, perfectly true 
 and natural, felt with force, and expressed "herself with fire. 
 Harassed by an imagination which consumed her, too eager 
 for notoriety and success, hampered by those laws of society 
 which keep women within narrow bounds, she braved every- 
 thing, conquered everything, and suffered much from this 
 stormy contest between the demon that pushed her on and 
 the social proprieties which could not restrain her. 
 
 She had the misfortune to be excessively plain, and to be 
 miserable on that account ; for it seemed as if she felt within 
 herself a craving for successes of all kinds. "With a passably 
 pretty face, she would probably have been happier, because 
 she would have been calmer. Her nature was too passionate 
 for her not to love strongly, and her imagination too vivid 
 for her not to think that she loved often. The celebrity she 
 acquired naturally brought to her much homage, by which 
 her vanity was gratified. Although ahe had great kindness 
 of heart, she excited both hatred and envy; she startled 
 women, and she wounded many men whose superior she 
 thought herself. Some of her friends, however, were always 
 faithful, and her own loyalty to friendship never failed. 
 
 When Bonaparte was made Consul, Mme. de Stael had 
 already become famous through her opinions, her conduct, 
 and her works. A personage like Bonaparte excited the 
 curiosity, and at first even the enthusiasm, of a woman who 
 was always awake to all that was remarkable. She became 
 deeply interested in him sought him, pursued him every- 
 where. She believed that the happy combination of so 
 many distinguished qualities and of so many favorable cir- 
 cumstances might be turned to the profit of her idol, Lib- 
 erty ; but she quickly startled Bonaparte, who did not wish 
 to be either watched or divined. Mme. de Stael, after mak- 
 
4:08 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 ing him uneasy, displeased him. He received her advances 
 coldly, and disconcerted her by his bluntness and sharp 
 words. He offended many of her opinions ; a certain dis- 
 trust grew up between them, and, as they were both high- 
 tempered, this distrust was not long in changing to hatred. 
 
 When in Paris, Mme. de Stael received many people, and 
 all political subjects were freely discussed under her roof. 
 Louis Bonaparte, then very young, visited her sometimes 
 and enjoyed her conversation. His brother became uneasy 
 at this, and forbade his frequenting the house, and even went 
 so far as to have him watched. Men of letters, publicists, 
 men of the Revolution, great lords, were all to be met there. 
 
 " This woman," said the First Consul, " teaches people to 
 think who never thought before, or who had forgotten how 
 to think." And there was much truth in this. The publi- 
 cation of certain works by M. decker put the finishing touch 
 to his irritation : he banished Mme. de Stael from France, 
 and did himself great harm by this act of arbitrary persecu- 
 tion. In addition to this, as nothing excites one like a first 
 injustice, he even pursued those persons who believed it 
 their duty to show her kindness in her exile. Her works, 
 with the exception of her novels, were mutilated before 
 their appearance in France ; all the journals were ordered to 
 speak ill of them ; no generosity was shown her. When she 
 was driven from her own land, foreign countries welcomed 
 her warmly. Her talents fortified her against the annoy- 
 ances of her life, and raised her to a height which many men 
 might well have envied. If Mme. de Stael had known how 
 to add to her goodness of heart and to her brilliant genius 
 the advantages of a calm and quiet life, she would have 
 avoided the greater part of her misfortunes, and seized while 
 living the distinguished rank which will not long be refused 
 her among the writers of her century. Her works indicate 
 rapid and keen insight, and a warmth that comes from her 
 soul. They are characterized by an imagination that is al- 
 most too vivid, but she lacks clearness and good taste. In 
 
MME. DE STAEL. 409 
 
 reading her writings one sees at once that they are the results 
 of an excitable nature, rebelling under order and regularity. 
 Her lif e was not exactly that of a woman, nor could it be 
 that of a man ; it was utterly deficient in repose a depriva- 
 tion without remedy for happiness, and even for talent. 
 
 After the first restoration, Mme. de Stael returned to 
 France, overwhelmed with joy at being once more in her 
 own land, and at seeing the dawn of the constitutional regime 
 for which she had so ardently longed. Bonaparte's return 
 struck terror to her soul. Again she resumed her wander- 
 ings, but her exile this time lasted only a hundred days. 
 She reappeared with the King. She was very happy. She 
 had married her daughter to the Due de Broglie, who unites 
 to the distinction of his name a noble and , elevated nature ; 
 the liberation of France satisfied her, her friends were near 
 her, and the world crowded about her. This was the time 
 when death claimed her, at the age of fifty.* The last work 
 on which she was engaged, and which she had not completed, 
 was published after her death ; this has made her thoroughly 
 known to us.f This work not only paints the times in 
 which she lived, but gives a clear and exact idea of the cen- 
 tury which gave her birth which alone could have developed 
 her, and of which she is not one of the least results. 
 
 I occasionally heard Bonaparte speak of Mme. de Stael. 
 The hatred he bore her was unquestionably founded in some 
 degree upon that jealousy with which he was inspired by any 
 superiority which he could not control ; and his words were 
 often characterized by a bitterness which elevated her in 
 spite of himself, and lowered him in the estimation of those 
 who, in the full possession of their reasoning faculties, lis- 
 tened to him. 
 
 While Mme. de Stael could complain with so much jus- 
 tice of the persecution to which she was subjected, there was 
 another woman, much her inferior and far less celebrated, 
 * In 1817. 
 
 f " Considerations sur la Revolution Fra^aise." -P. R. 
 
410 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 who had had reason to rejoice in the protection accorded to 
 her by the Emperor. This was Mme. de Genlis. He never 
 found in her either talents or opinions in opposition to his 
 own. She had loved and glorified the Revolution, and well 
 understood how to profit by all its liberties. In her old age 
 she became both a prude and a devote. She attached herself 
 to order and discipline, and for this reason, or under this 
 pretext, manifested a profound admiration for Bonaparte, by 
 which he was much flattered ; he bestowed a pension upon 
 her, and instituted a sort of correspondence with her, in the 
 course of which she kept him informed of all that she felt 
 would be useful to him, and taught him much regarding the 
 ancient regime which he wished to know. She loved and 
 protected M. Fievee, then a very young writer; she drew 
 him into this correspondence, and it was in this way that 
 between himself and Bonaparte were established those rela- 
 tions of which Fievee subsequently boasted so much. Al- 
 though flattered by the admiration of Mme. de Genlis, 
 Bonaparte understood her thoroughly. He once expressed 
 himself openly in my presence in regard to her. He was 
 speaking of that prudery which permeates all her works. 
 " "When Mme. de Genlis," he said, " wishes to define virtue, 
 she speaks of it as of a discovery ! " 
 
 The Restoration did not reestablish relations between 
 Mme. de Genlis and the house of Orleans. The Duke of 
 Orleans did not choose to see her more than once, but con- 
 tented himself with continuing the pension allowed her by 
 the Emperor. 
 
 These two women were not the only ones who wrote and 
 published their works under Bonaparte's rule. Of the others 
 I will mention only a few, at the head of whom I will place 
 Mme. Cottin, so distinguished for the warmth of an impas- 
 sioned imagination which communicated itself to her style, 
 and Mme. de Flahault, who married at the beginning of this 
 century M. de Souza, then Ambassador from Portugal, and 
 who wrote some very pretty novels. There were others still 
 
ROMANCES. 
 
 whose names are to be found in the newspapers of that day. 
 Novels have multiplied greatly in France in the last thirty 
 years, and merely by reading these one has a very clear idea 
 of the progress of the French mind since the Be volution. 
 The disorder of the first years of this Revolution turned the 
 mind from all those pleasures which only interest when in 
 repose. Young people generally were but half educated ; 
 the differences of parties destroyed public opinion. At the 
 time when that great regulator had entirely disappeared, 
 mediocrity could show itself without fear. All sorts of at- 
 tempts were made in literature, and imaginative works, al- 
 ways easiest when most fantastic, were published with impu- 
 nity. People, with their minds heated by the rapidity of 
 events, yielded to a kind of excitement and enthusiasm 
 which found a field in the invention of fables and in the 
 style of our romances. Liberty alone, which men did not 
 enjoy, can develop with grandeur those emotions which our 
 great political storms had aroused. But in all times and 
 under all governments women can write and talk of love, 
 and works of this kind met wi'th general approval. There 
 was little or none of Mme. de la Fayette's elegance, nor of 
 Mme. Riccoboni's delicate, refined wit ; nor did they amuse 
 themselves by describing the usages of courts, the habits of 
 a state of society now nearly passed away ; but they repre- 
 sented powerful scenes of passion and human nature in try- 
 ing positions. The heart was often unveiled in these ani- 
 mated fables, and some men even, in order to give variety 
 to their sensations, engaged in this style of composition. 
 
 After all, there is some truth and nature in the tone of 
 the works published since the epoch of which we speak. 
 Even in the romances, the enthusiasm is rather too strong 
 than too affected, and, generally speaking, they are not per- 
 verted by a false taste. The wild errors of our Revolution 
 upheaved French society, and later this society was unable to 
 recreate itself on the same erroneous foundation. Each of 
 the individuals who composed it was not only displaced, but 
 
412 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE KfiMUSAT. 
 
 was even entirely changed. Merely conventional customs 
 have by degrees disappeared, and in all the relations of life 
 the difference has been felt. Discourses written and spoken 
 are no longer the same, nor are pictures. We have come to 
 seek stronger sensations and emotions that are more real, 
 because sorrow has developed the habit of keener feeling. 
 Bonaparte caused nothing to move backward, but he re- 
 strained everything. The return of order to the Govern- 
 ment brought back also what M. de Fontanes called les bonnes 
 lettres. It now began to be felt that good taste, discretion, 
 and moderation should count for something in the works of 
 talent. If the good genius of France had permitted Bonaparte 
 to bestow upon us some shadow of liberty at the same time 
 that he brought us repose, it is probable that the recollections 
 of a stormy period, combined with the comfort of a more 
 settled state of things, would have led to more important 
 productions. But the Emperor, desiring that all should turn 
 to his advantage alone, while at the same time making enor- 
 mous efforts to attach to his reign all celebrities, so ham- 
 pered their minds and marked them with the seal of his 
 despotism that he virtually interdicted all hearty efforts. 
 The greater number of writers exhausted their inventive ge- 
 nius in varying the prescribed and well-recompensed praise. 
 No political works were sanctioned, and in all imaginary cre- 
 ations every doubtful application was avoided with the ut- 
 most care. Comedy dared not depict* the manners of the 
 day. Tragedy only ventured to represent certain heroes. 
 There was so much in the Emperor that could honestly be 
 praised, that conscience was appeased ; but true invention, 
 repressed, soon becomes extinct. 
 
 Meanwhile time and progress, combined with the habit- 
 ual good taste of France, which had such examples in the 
 past, all had their effect. All that was produced had a cer- 
 tain amount of elegance, and those who engaged in authorship 
 wrote more or less well. A prudent mediocrity was the 
 order of the day. The first quality of genius is strength of 
 
LITERATURE. 413 
 
 thought, and when thought is restrained one limits one's self 
 to the perfecting of one's diction. One can only conscien- 
 tiously do the best that is permitted. And this explains the 
 sameness of the works of the beginning of this century. But 
 nowadays the liberty we have gained extends in all direc- 
 tions, and we have bequeathed to our children the habit of 
 perfecting the details of execution, with the hope that they 
 will enrich these details by their genius. 
 
 I have previously said that, while strength of expression 
 was forbidden us, we were at least allowed to be natural ; 
 and this quality certainly makes itself felt in the greater 
 number of the literary productions of our time. The stage, 
 which was afraid to present the vices and the follies of each 
 class, because all classes were recreated by Bonaparte, and it 
 was necessary to respect his work, disembarrassed itself of 
 the affectation and cant which preceded the Revolution. At 
 the head of our comic authors Picard must be placed Picard, 
 who has so often, with so much originality and gayety, given 
 us an idea of the manners and customs of Paris under the 
 government of the Directory. After his name come those 
 of Duval and several authors of comic opera. 
 
 We have seen the birth and death of many distinguished 
 poets : Legouve, who was made known to us by " La Mort 
 d'Abel," which he followed by " La Mort d'Henri IY.," and 
 who wrote fine fugitive poems ; Arnault, author of " Marius 
 a Minturnes " ; Raynouard, who made a great success in " Les 
 Templieres " ; Lemercier, who appeared before the public 
 first with his " Agamemnon," the best of his works ; Chenier, 
 whose talents bore too revolutionary an imprint, but who 
 had a strong perception of the tragic. Then follow a whole 
 crowd of poets,* all more or less pupils of M. Delille, and 
 who, having acquired from him the art of rhyming elegantly, 
 celebrated the charms of the country and simple pleasures 
 and repose to the sound of Bonaparte's cannon echoing all 
 
 * Such as Esmenard, Parseval-Grandmaison, Luce de Lancival, Campenon, 
 Michaud, etc. 
 
414 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE IttiMUSAT. 
 
 through Europe. I will not enter on this long list, which 
 may be found anywhere. There were excellent translations 
 made. Yery little history was written ; the time had come 
 when it was necessary to use a forcible pen in writing it, and 
 no one was prepared to use such a pen. 
 
 Every one had fortunately become disgusted with the 
 light and mocking tone of the philosophy of the last cen- 
 tury, which, overthrowing all belief by the aid of ridicule, 
 blighted and tarnished all that was best in life, and made of 
 irreligion a jest and an intolerant dogma. Sorrowful experi- 
 ence had begun to teach the value of religious faith. Men 
 were insensibly drawn into a better path, and followed it, 
 though slowly.* 
 
 * This is what my father thought in regard to this chapter of literary his- 
 tory : " The opinions of my mother on literature and art may seem to be a little 
 incoherent. It is just on these points that the lingering prejudices (if I may 
 venture to use this word) imparted by her education still appear. She had a 
 strong admiration for Louis XIV., with political aspirations which would have 
 been senseless if the government of Louis XIV. had been a model government. 
 She herself preferred the cold, dispassionate literature of that reign, and thought 
 she saw little beauty in any other style. At the same time, when her classic 
 conscience was not aroused, it was the natural and unexpected that she enjoyed. 
 She had when young preferred Rousseau to all others. As soon as the horizon 
 of politics opened before her, she became enthusiastic over Mme. de Stael. The 
 novelty of Chateaubriand's style enchanted her. She watched the dawn of the 
 Romantic epoch. She was carried away by Walter Scott's romances, by Byron's 
 'Childe Harold' and 'Parisina,' and by Schiller's tragedies. In spite of all 
 this, she always seemed to think that the literature of the Revolution was irreg- 
 ular, and rejoiced at the return under the Empire of a correct style and careful 
 composition, and maintained, moreover, that she had done her part toward the 
 restoration of a higher standard for literature and art. 
 
 " What she has said of Chateaubriand is a little hard. She does not say 
 enough of the strong admiration she felt for his talent. It is true that the part 
 he played and his writings from 1815 to 1820 displeased her greatly; and, as 
 his character had never been agreeable to her, she allowed herself to judge him 
 with some severity. She had at intervals invited him to her house during 
 the Empire, and wished that he should seem to appreciate her. It is neverthe- 
 less true that his hard, dry manner did not please her, and this manner he never 
 laid aside except to adopt a certain mocking laisser-aller a Voltairean indiffer- 
 ent way of talking. This style he never adopted in her presence. It was under 
 this last unceremonious aspect that many persons knew him, however, and par- 
 
ART. 415 
 
 Art, which stands not in so much need of liberty as 
 letters, had not stood altogether still. It had made some 
 progress, but at the same time it had suffered from the gen- 
 eral restraint. Among our most famous painters was David, 
 who most unfortunately marred his reputation by abandon- 
 ing himself to the most disgusting errors of the Eevolution- 
 ary madness. After refusing in 1792 to paint Louis XVI., 
 because he said he did not choose that his brush should 
 delineate a tyrant's features, he submitted with a very good 
 grace to Bonaparte, and represented him in all ways. Then 
 came Gerard, who painted so many historical portraits, an 
 immortal " Battle of Austerlitz," and not long since an 
 "Entry of Henry IY. into Paris," which stirred every 
 French heart ; Girodet, so admirable for the purity of his 
 drawing and the boldness of his conceptions ; Gros, an emi- 
 nently dramatic artist ; Guerin, whose brush stirs the souls 
 of all who can feel ; Isabey, so clever and so delicate in his 
 miniatures ; and a crowd of others of all kinds. The Em- 
 peror patronized and protected all. Everything was repro- 
 duced by the brush and the palette and money was lavished 
 
 ticularly Mol6, who was to a certain extent intimate with him. In that circle 
 which may be called the society of the Faubourg Saint-Honor^, Chateaubriand 
 was judged very severely. 
 
 "My mother had lived entirely out of Mme. de Stael'a circle, and felt against 
 her all the prejudices which were the natural result of her education and social 
 position. She heard people speak of her, more especially M. de Talleyrand, 
 who laughed at her, than which nothing could have done her more harm. As 
 oar impressions are much less independent of our opinions than we could wish, 
 those of my mother at first prevented her from feeling with sufficient force all 
 Mme. de Stael's wit and talent. It was not so much that she did not like ' Co- 
 rinne ' and * Delphine,' but she was afraid to like them ; and it was only with 
 many scruples and restrictions that she allowed herself to admire in her youth 
 those works which betrayed the influence of philosophy or of the Revolution. 
 All this was changed hi 1818; but there are nevertheless marked traces of the 
 past in the manner in which my mother sat in judgment on the person of Mme. 
 de Stae'l, as well as on her literary works. I can not restrain a smile when I see 
 her speak of repose as one of the conditions of talent. This was an idea of the 
 seventeenth century, or rather of the manner in which the rheteurs of those 
 times compelled us to judge the seventeenth century." P. B. 
 31 
 
416 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 on these artists. The Kevolution had placed them in society, 
 where they occupied an agreeable and often very useful po- 
 sition. They guided the development of luxury, and at the 
 same time drew largely on the poetic and picturesque inci- 
 dents of our Kevolution and of the Imperial reign. Bona- 
 parte was able indeed to chill the expression of strong 
 thoughts; but he kindled men's imaginations, and that is 
 enough for most poets and for all painters. 
 
 The progress of science was not interrupted, for it was 
 useful to the Government and awakened no distrust. The 
 Institute of France numbers many distinguished men. Bona- 
 parte courted them all, and enriched some. He even be- 
 stowed some of his new dignities upon them. He summoned 
 them to his Senate. It seems to me that this was an honor 
 to that body, and that the idea was not without grandeur. 
 Savants under his rule have been more independent than 
 any other classes. Lagrange, whom Bonaparte made Sena- 
 tor, held himself aloof ; but Laplace, Lacepede, Monge, Ber- 
 thollet, Cuvier, and some others accepted his favors eagerly, 
 and repaid them with unfailing admiration. 
 
 I can not conscientiously close this chapter without men- 
 tioning the great number of musicians who did honor to 
 their profession. Music has attained to high perfection in 
 France. Bonaparte had an especial liking for the Italian 
 school. The expenditures he made in transplanting it to 
 France were very useful to us, although he allowed his own 
 caprices to govern him in the distribution of his favors. For 
 example, he always repelled Cherubini, because that composer, 
 displeased on one occasion by a criticisn^ made by Bonaparte 
 when he was only a general, had answered him somewhat 
 rudely that " a man might be skillful enough on a battle- 
 field and yet know nothing of harmony." He took a fancy 
 to Lesueur,* and lost his temper at the time of the award of 
 the decennial prizes because the Institute did not proclaim 
 this musician worthy of the prize. But as a general thing 
 
 * Author of the operas of " Les Bardes " and " Trajan." 
 
ART. 
 
 he did his best to advance this art. I saw him receive at 
 Malmaison old M. Gretry, and treat him with remarkable 
 distinction. Gretry, Dalayrac, Mehul, Berton, Lesueur, Spon- 
 tini, and others still were distinguished under the Empire, 
 and received recompenses for their works.* 
 
 In like manner actors met with great favor. All that 
 I have said of the tendency of our authors may apply with 
 equal truth to the drama. The natural has acquired a great 
 influence on our stage since the Revolution. Good taste has 
 proscribed pompous gravity in tragedy and affectation in 
 comedy. Talma and Mile. Mars have done much toward 
 strengthening the alliance between art and nature. Ease 
 united to vigor has been introduced in dancing. In short, 
 it may be said that simplicity, elegance, and harmony now 
 characterize French taste, and that all the shams of phantasy 
 and conventionality have disappeared. 
 
 * It is much to be regretted that my grandmother, who was a good musician 
 and composed some pretty songs, did not more fully express her judgment of 
 the musicians of her day. As to the Emperor, I find in his correspondence sev- 
 eral interesting letters on this subject. Here they are : 
 
 " BOLOONA, June 23, 1805. 
 
 " M. FOUCHE : I beg that you will let me know what this piece is, called 
 * Don Juan,' that they wish to give at the Ope" ra, and for which I am asked to 
 authorize the expense. I wish to know your opinion on this piece as regards 
 the view the public are likely to take of it." 
 
 " LUDWIGSBUBO, October 4, 1805. 
 
 " MY BROTHER : I leave to-night. Events will soon become daily more inter- 
 esting. You must at once put in the ' Moniteur ' that the Emperor is well, and 
 that on the 4th of October he was still at Ludwigsburg, and that the junction 
 of the army with the Bavarians is accomplished. I yesterday heard at the thea- 
 tre of this court the German opera of * Don Juan.' I imagine that the music of 
 this opera is the same as that given in Paris. It strikes me as being very good." 
 
 The same day he wrote to the Minister of the Interior : 
 
 " M. CHAMPAGNY : I am here at the Court of WUrtemberg, and, in spite of 
 the fact that the war is going on, I heard yesterday some excellent music. Ger- 
 man singing seems to me a trifle odd. Is the reserve on the march ? Where is 
 the conscription of 1805 ? "P. R. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 (1806.) 
 
 Senatm-ConsuUum of the 30th of March Foundation of Monarchies and Duchies 
 Queen Hortense. 
 
 ON the suggestion of M. Portalis, the Minister of Public 
 Worship, the Emperor issued a decree appointing his birth- 
 day to be kept on the Feast of the Assumption, the 15th of 
 August, which was also the anniversary pf the conclusion of 
 the Concordat. The first Sunday of each December was 
 also set apart as a holiday, in commemoration of Austerlitz. 
 
 On the 30th of March there was an important session of 
 the Senate, which gave rise to much and various comment. 
 The Emperor communicated to the Senators a long list of 
 decrees, which were destined to affect Europe from one end 
 to the other. It will not be amiss to give some details of 
 these, as well as an extract from the speech of Cambaceres, 
 the Arch-Chancellor, which affords an example of the obse- 
 quious skill with which the sudden resolves of a master who 
 kept all things, even men's minds, in unceasing ferment, 
 could be clothed in specious phrases. 
 
 " Gentlemen," said Cambaceres, " at the time when 
 France, animated by the same spirit as ourselves, secured 
 alike her happiness and her glory by an oath of obedience to 
 our august sovereign, you foresaw in your wisdom the neces- 
 sity of coordinating the system of hereditary government in 
 all its parts, and likewise of strengthening it by institutions 
 analogous to its nature. 
 
420 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 " Your wishes have been partly fulfilled ; they will be 
 still further accomplished by the various enactments which 
 his Majesty the Emperor and King orders me to lay before 
 you. You will receive with gratitude these fresh proofs of 
 his confidence in the Senate, and his love for the people, and 
 you will hasten, in conformity with his Majesty's intention, 
 to inscribe them on your registers. 
 
 "The first of these decrees is a statute to regulate all 
 things relating to the civil status of the Imperial family, and 
 it also defines the duties of the princes and princesses toward 
 the Emperor. 
 
 " The second decree unites the states of Venice to the 
 kingdom of Italy. 
 
 " The third confers the throne of Naples on Prince Jo- 
 seph." (Here follows an elaborate panegyric of the virtues 
 of the new Bang, and of the measure, by which he retains 
 the title of Grand Dignitary of the Empire.) 
 
 " The fourth contains the cession of the duchy of Cleves 
 and the duchy of Berg to Prince Murat." (Similar pane- 
 gyric.) 
 
 " The fifth bestows the principality of Guastalla on the 
 Princess Borghese and her husband." (Praises of both.) 
 
 " The sixth transfers to Marshal Berthier the principality 
 of Neufcha'tel." * (He is complimented like the rest. This 
 touching proof of the solicitude of the Emperor for his com- 
 panion in arms, for his brave and intelligent fellow soldier, 
 
 * In the following terms, alike familiar and unkind, the Emperor informs 
 Marshal Berthier of the new favors he bestowed on him : " MALMAISON, April 1, 
 1806. I send you the * Moniteur.' You will see what I am doing for you. I 
 make but one condition : it is that you should marry ; and this must also be a 
 condition of my friendship for you. Your infatuation has lasted long enough ; 
 it has become absurd ; and I have the right to expect that you, whom I have 
 called my companion in arms, and whom posterity will always place at my side, 
 shall no longer remain enslaved by such a weakness. You must therefore marry, 
 or I will see you no more. You are fifty ; but you come of a family who live to 
 eighty, and these thirty years are precisely those in which the comforts of home 
 life will be most necessary to you." P. B. 
 
SENATUS-CONSULTUM OF MARCH. 421 
 
 will not fail to touch every loyal heart, and to gladden every 
 loyal spirit.) 
 
 " The seventh erects in the states of Parma and Piacenza 
 three great titles, which will be suitably supported by con- 
 siderable sums to be raised in those states by order of his 
 Majesty. 
 
 " By similar provisions, contained in decrees relating to 
 the states of Venice, the kingdom of Naples, and the princi- 
 pality of Lucca, his Majesty has created rewards worthy of 
 himself for several of his subjects who have performed great 
 services in war, or who, in the discharge of important func- 
 tions, have contributed in a signal manner to the welfare of 
 the state. These dignities and titles become the property of 
 those invested with them, and will descend in the male line 
 to their legitimate heirs. This grand conception, while it 
 proclaims to Europe the price attached by his Majesty to 
 acts of valor in his soldiers, and to faithfulness in those em- 
 ployed by him in important affairs, is also of political advan- 
 tage. The brilliant position of eminent men gives to their 
 example and their counsels an influence with the people 
 which a monarch may sometimes substitute, with advantage, 
 for the authority of public officials. At the same time, such 
 men are intercessors between the people and the throne." 
 
 It must be admitted that a good deal of progress had been 
 made since the still recent time when the decrees of the Gov- 
 ernment were dated " Year 14 of the Republic." 
 
 " It is, therefore, on these bases that the Emperor wishes 
 to build the great political system with the idea of which 
 Providence has inspired him, and by which he increases the 
 love and admiration for his person which you share with all 
 the French nation." 
 
 After this speech, the various decrees were read aloud. 
 The following are the most important articles : 
 
 By the decree regulating the civil status of the Imperial 
 family, the princes and princesses could not marry without 
 
 the consent of the Emperor. Children born of a marriage 
 
 . 
 
 < 
 
 
422 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 contracted without his consent would have no claim to the 
 privileges which in certain countries attach to morganatic 
 marriages. 
 
 Divorce was forbidden to the Imperial family, but sepa- 
 ration, if authorized by the Emperor, was allowed. 
 
 The guardians of Imperial children were to be named by 
 him. 
 
 Members of the Imperial family could not adopt children 
 without his permission. 
 
 The Arch-Chancellor of the Empire was to fulfill toward 
 the Imperial family all the functions assigned by law to the 
 officers of the civil status. A Secretary for the status of the 
 Imperial family was to be chosen among the Ministers or 
 from among the State councilors.* 
 
 The ceremonial for marriages and births was arranged. 
 
 The Arch-Chancellor was to receive the will of the Em- 
 peror, as dictated by him to the Secretary of the Imperial 
 Family, in presence of two witnesses. The will was to be 
 placed in the keeping of the Senate. 
 
 The Emperor was to regulate everything concerning the 
 education of the princes and princesses of his family, ap- 
 pointing or removing those who had it in charge. All 
 princes born in the order of succession were to be brought 
 up together in a palace not more than twenty leagues from 
 the residence of the Emperor. 
 
 The education of the princes was to begin at the age of 
 seven, and end at that of sixteen. Children of certain per- 
 sons distinguished by their services might be admitted by 
 the Emperor to share in the advantages of this education. 
 
 If a prince in the order of succession should ascend a 
 foreign throne, he would be bound, on his sons attaining 
 the age of seven, to send them to the aforesaid palace. 
 
 The princes and princesses could not leave France, nor 
 remove beyond a radius of thirty leagues, without permis- 
 sion of the Emperor. 
 
 * This was State Councilor Regnault de Saint-Jean d'Angely. 
 
FOUNDATION OF MONARCHIES. 423 
 
 If a member of the Imperial family were to misconduct 
 himself, forgetting his high position and his duties, the Em- 
 peror might, for a space of time not exceeding one year, 
 place him under arrest, forbid him his presence, or send him 
 into exile. He might forbid any intercourse between mem- 
 bers of his family and persons who seemed to him of doubt- 
 ful character. In serious cases, he might order two years' 
 seclusion in a state prison. This was to be done in the 
 presence of the Arch-Chancellor and of a family council pre- 
 sided over by himself ; the Secretary of the Imperial Family 
 to be in attendance. 
 
 The great dignitaries and the dukes of the Empire were 
 subject to the provisions of these latter articles. 
 After this first decree came the following : 
 " We have established and we establish as duchies and 
 great fiefs of our Empire the provinces hereinafter to be 
 named : 
 
 Dalmatia, Treviso, 
 
 Istria, Feltre, 
 
 Friuli, Bassano, 
 
 Cadore, Yicenza, 
 
 Belluno, Padua, 
 
 Conegliano, Eovigo. 
 
 " We reserve to ourselves the investiture of the said fiefs y 
 to descend in succession to male issue. In the event of ex- 
 tinction, the said fiefs shall revert to the Imperial Crown. 
 
 "It is our intention that a fifteenth part of the revenue 
 that our kingdom of Italy draws, or may draw, from the 
 said provinces shall be an appanage to the said fiefs, and be 
 possessed by those whom we shall have invested with them. 
 We reserve to ourselves for the same purpose the disposal of 
 thirty millions of francs from national property situate in the 
 said provinces. Le Mont Napoleon * shall be charged with 
 twelve hundred thousand francs as Government annuities, in 
 
 * Le Mont Napoleon was a creation of Government stock for Italy. 
 
424: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE IttiMUSAT. 
 
 favor of those generals, officers, and soldiers who have done 
 good service to the country and to our Crown, but on the 
 express condition that they shall not alienate the same within 
 ten years, without our permission. 
 
 " Until the kingdom of Italy shall have an army, we 
 grant to the said kingdom a French contingent, to be main- 
 tained by our Imperial Treasury. To this end, our Royal 
 Treasury of Italy shall pay monthly to our Imperial Treasury 
 the sum of two million five hundred thousand francs during 
 the time that our army shall sojourn in Italy, that is, during 
 six years. The heir presumptive of Italy shall be entitled 
 Prince of Yenice. 
 
 "The tranquillity of Europe requires that we should 
 secure the safety of the peoples of Naples and Sicily, who 
 have fallen into our power by the right of conquest, and 
 who are part of the Grand Empire ; we therefore declare our 
 brother Joseph Napoleon, Grand Elector of France, King 
 of Naples and Sicily. The crown shall be hereditary in the 
 male line ; failing this, we appoint it to our own legitimate 
 children in the male line, and failing these, to the children 
 of our brother Louis Napoleon ; * reserving to ourselves, in 
 the event of our brother Joseph's dying without male chil- 
 dren, the right of naming as successor to the said crown a 
 prince of our own family, or an adopted son, according as 
 we may deem it desirable in the interests of our people, and 
 of that great system which Divine Providence has destined 
 us to found. 
 
 "Six great fiefs are established in the said kingdom, 
 with the title of duchy, and the same prerogatives as the 
 others, to be in perpetuity appointed by us and our succes- 
 sors. 
 
 " We reserve to ourselves a revenue of one million on the 
 kingdom of Naples, for distribution among the generals, 
 officers, and privates of our army, on the same conditions as 
 those set forth in the case of le Mont Napoleon. 
 
 * Bonaparte had made all his brothers take the name of Napoleon. 
 
FOUNDATION- OF MONARCHIES. 425 
 
 " The King of Naples shall be in perpetuity a grand dig- 
 nitary of the Empire, we reserving to ourselves the right of 
 creating him a Prince instead of Grand Elector. 
 
 " We declare that the crown of Naples, which we place 
 on the head of Prince Joseph and his heirs, shall in no way 
 bar their right to the succession to the throne of France.* 
 But it is our will also that the crowns of France, Italy, and 
 Naples and Sicily shall never be united on the same head. 
 
 "We give the duchies of Cleves and of Berg to our 
 brother-in-law Prince Joachim, and to his heirs male ; failing 
 whom, they shall devolve on our brother Joseph, and if he 
 have no male issue, on our brother Louis ; but they are never 
 to be united to the crown of France. The Duke of Cleves 
 and Berg will continue to be Grand Admiral, and we shall 
 have power to create a Vice- Admiral." 
 
 Lastly, the principality of Guastalla was bestowed on 
 Princess Borghese. The Prince was to bear the title of 
 Prince of Guastalla. Should they have no issue, the Em- 
 peror was to dispose of the principality at his pleasure. The 
 same conditions were to hold good in the case of the princi- 
 pality of Neuf chdtel.f 
 
 The principality of Lucca was augmented by the addition 
 of some lands detached from the kingdom of Italy, and in 
 return was to pay an annual sum of two hundred thousand 
 francs,^ which was likewise destined for military rewards. 
 A portion of the national property situate in the duchies of 
 Parma and Piacenza was reserved for the same object. 
 
 I have deemed it well to give almost the entire text of 
 the different decrees which seem to me to call for comment. 
 This act of Bonaparte's revealed to some extent the prepon- 
 derance which he intended to give the French Empire over 
 
 * Joseph Bonaparte had insisted on the insertion of this article. 
 
 f Oudinot took possession of Neufchatel, at the head of his grenadiers, and 
 began by confiscating all English merchandise. 
 
 \ All these annual revenues were comprised, together with the levies made 
 in war time, in what was called the Extraordinary Estate. 
 
426 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 the conquered states of Europe, and also that which he re- 
 served to himself personally. It may easily be conceived 
 that these decrees excited such disquiet throughout Europe 
 as forbade us to cherish the hope of a long peace. It is also 
 plain from them that Italy, which had been eager to seize 
 on the independence which unity of government seemed to 
 promise her, soon found her hopes betrayed by the secondary 
 position in which she was placed by the bonds which sub- 
 jected her to the Emperor. 
 
 ~No matter how careful Prince Eugene was, or how mild 
 and just his government, the Italians soon perceived that 
 conquest had placed them in the power of a master, who 
 made use of the resources of their beautiful land for his own 
 advantage only. They maintained on their territory, and at 
 their cost, a foreign army. The largest part of their revenue 
 served to enrich Frenchmen. In everything that was exact- 
 ed of them, much less regard was paid to their interests than 
 to the advantage of the Grand Empire, and this soon became 
 synonymous with the ambitious projects of one man, who 
 did not hesitate to claim from Italy sacrifices he would scarce- 
 ly have dared to ask of France. The Yiceroy endeavored to 
 obtain some alleviation for the Italians, but in vain. They 
 learned, however, to do justice to the character of Eugene, 
 and to distinguish between him and the rigorous measures 
 which he was forced to carry out ; they were grateful to him 
 for what he tried to do, and for his good intentions. This, 
 however, did not last ; the too much oppressed people lost 
 the power of being just, and included all Frenchmen, Prince 
 Eugene at their head, in the hatred they bore to the Emperor. 
 
 The Yiceroy himself, who was a faithful servant to Bona- 
 parte, though he was under no delusion regarding him, told 
 his mother in my presence that the Emperor, jealous of the 
 affection Eugene had won, had imposed useless and oppressive 
 measures upon him, in order to alienate the good will of the 
 Italians. 
 
 The Yice-Queen contributed also, at first, to the popular- 
 
FOUNDATION OF MONARCHIES. 427 
 
 ity of her husband. She was beautiful, very kind-hearted, 
 pious, and benevolent, and she charmed every one who ap- 
 proached her. Toward Bonaparte her manner was dignified 
 and cold. He disliked to hear her praised. She never passed 
 much time in Paris. 
 
 Several of the articles of these decrees were never car- 
 ried out. Change of circumstances led to change of purpose ; 
 new passions brought forth new fancies, or sudden suspicion 
 altered former resolves. In many respects the government 
 of Bonaparte resembled the Palace of the Legislature, in 
 which the Chamber of Deputies is now installed. The for- 
 mer building remains unaltered ; but, in order to render it 
 more imposing, a facade has been erected, which seen from 
 the river-side is undoubtedly a grand object', but, if we walk 
 round the building, we find that it does not harmonize with 
 the architecture of the front. Bonaparte frequently erected 
 facades only, political, legislative, or administrative. 
 
 After the reception of these messages the Senate passed 
 a vote of thanks to the Emperor, and deputations were sent 
 to the new Queen of Naples, who received them with her 
 usual simple grace, and to the two princesses. Murat had 
 already departed to take possession of his duchy. The news- 
 papers assured us he was received with acclamations, and 
 gave a similar account of the delight of the Neapolitans ; 
 but from private letters we learned that the war was to be 
 continued, and that Calabria would make a stout resistance. 
 Joseph has a mild disposition, and in no place has he made 
 himself personally disliked ; but he is wanting in tact, and 
 he has always shown himself unequal to the position in which 
 he was placed. To tell the truth, the business of kingship, 
 as established by Bonaparte, has been a difficult one. 
 
 Having settled these important points, the Emperor turned 
 to occupations of a lighter kind. On the 7th of April the 
 betrothal of the young couple of whom I have already spoken 
 in a preceding chapter took place at the Tuileries. The 
 ceremony was performed in the Diana Gallery in the even- 
 
428 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 ing ; there was a numerous and brilliant Court. The bride 
 elect wore a silver-embroidered gown ornamented with roses. 
 The witnesses on her side were MM. de Talleyrand, de 
 Champagny, and de Segur; and for the bridegroom, the 
 Hereditary Prince of Bavaria, the Grand Chamberlain of 
 the Elector of Baden, and Baron Dalberg, Minister Pleni- 
 potentiary of Baden.* 
 
 On the following evening the marriage was celebrated in 
 state. The Tuileries were illuminated ; fireworks were ex- 
 hibited on the Place Louis XY., then called Place de la 
 Concorde. 
 
 The Court displayed a special splendor for the occasion, 
 even beyond its usual extravagant luxury. The Empress 
 wore a gown entirely covered with gold embroidery of dif- 
 ferent shades, and wore, besides the Imperial crown, pearls 
 in her hair to the value of a million francs. Princess Bor- 
 ghese shone with all the Borghese diamonds added to her 
 own, which were priceless ; Mme. Murat wore rubies ; Mme. 
 Louis was almost covered with turquoises set in brilliants ; 
 the new Queen of Naples, slight and delicate-looking, seemed 
 to bend beneath the weight of precious stones. I remember 
 that I had a Court dress made for the occasion, f although I 
 was not usually among the most brilliantly dressed ladies of 
 the Court. It was of pink crape, spangled with silver, and 
 looped up with wreaths of jasmine ; on my hair was a crown 
 of jasmine and diamond wheat-ears. My jewels were worth 
 from forty thousand to fifty thousand francs far less than 
 those of most of our Court ladies. 
 
 Princess Stephanie had received magnificent gifts from 
 her husband, and still more splendid ones from the Emperor. 
 She wore a circlet of diamonds surmounted with orange- 
 blossom. Her court dress was of white tulle, with silver 
 stars and sprays of orange-blossom. She approached the 
 altar with much gracefulness, and made her deep courtesies 
 
 * Nephew to the Prince Primate, Arch-Chancellor of the German Empire, 
 f It cost me sixty louis. 
 
MARRIAGE OF PRINCESS STEPHANIE. 429 
 
 so as to charm the Emperor and every one else. Her father, 
 who stood among the Senators, was moved to tears. His 
 position in this ceremony was curious, and his feelings must 
 have been rather complex. The Order of Baden was con- 
 ferred on him. 
 
 Tlie Cardinal Legate, Caprara, solemnized the marriage. 
 At the conclusion of the ceremony, we returned from the 
 chapel to the state apartments in the same order as that in 
 which we had come down : the princes and princesses head- 
 ing the procession, the Empress followed by all her ladies, 
 with the Prince of Baden at her side, and the Emperor lead- 
 ing the bride. He wore his state costume. I have already 
 said that it became him well. Nothing was wanting to the 
 pageantry of the procession but a more deliberate step ; but 
 Bonaparte always would walk fast, and he hurried us more 
 than was dignified or desirable. 
 
 The trains of the princesses and queens and that of the 
 Empress were borne by pages. As for the rest of us, al- 
 though letting our trains fall would have greatly improved 
 our appearance, we were obliged to carry them over one 
 arm, because their excessive length would have caused far 
 too much delay for the Emperor's quick pace. 
 
 It frequently happened in state ceremonials, and rendered 
 them less imposing, that the chamberlains preceding him 
 would repeat in a low tone, as they trod on our heels, " Now 
 then, ladies, please to get on." The Countess d'Arberg, who 
 had been at the Court of the Archduchess in the Netherlands, 
 and was accustomed to German etiquette, was always so 
 visibly annoyed by this intimation, that we who were used 
 to it could not but laugh at her. She used to say, with some 
 humor, that we ought to be called " postillions-in- waiting," 
 and that we had better have had short skirts given to us than 
 the long train, which was of no use. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand also was much annoyed by this habit, 
 as, in his capacity of Grand Chamberlain, he had to precede 
 the Emperor, and he, on account of a weakness of the lower 
 
430 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 limbs, found even slow walking difficult. The aides-de-camp 
 used to be amused at his vexation. As for the Empress, this 
 was one of the points on which she would not yield to her 
 husband. She had a very graceful manner of walking, and 
 was averse to hiding any of her accomplishments ; therefore 
 nothing could induce her to hurry. The pressure began 
 among those who were following her. 
 
 When we were starting for the chapel, I recollect that 
 the Emperor, who was little used to giving his hand to ladies, 
 was puzzled, not knowing whether to offer his right or his 
 left hand to the bride. It was she who had to make the de- 
 cision. 
 
 A great reception was held that day in the state apart- 
 ments ; there was a concert, then a ballet and supper, as I 
 have before described. The Queen of Naples having passed 
 next after the Empress, Bonaparte placed his adopted daugh- 
 ter at his right hand, above his mother. On that evening 
 again Mme. Murat had to endure the great mortification of 
 passing through the doorways after the young Princess of 
 Baden. 
 
 The Court removed next day to Malmaison, and shortly 
 afterward to Saint Cloud. I have already related what oc- 
 curred there. On the 20th we came back to Paris, to be 
 present at a splendid fete given in honor of the marriage. 
 
 The Emperor, wishing to display his Court to the Paris- 
 ians, allowed a considerable number of invitations to be sent 
 to men and women of every class. The state apartments 
 were filled by an immense crowd.* Two quadrilles were 
 danced. One, in which I took part, was Mme. Louis Bona- 
 parte's, and was performed with dance-steps in the Salle des 
 Marechaux. Sixteen ladies, in groups of four, dressed in 
 white, their heads wreathed with flowers of different colors, 
 their dresses ornamented with flowers, and with diamond 
 wheat-ears in their hair, danced with sixteen gentlemen wear- 
 
 * There were 2,500 persons at this ball Supper was served in the State- 
 Council room. 
 
MAKING AND UNMAKING KINGS. 431 
 
 ing white satin coats, and scarfs corresponding in color to 
 their partners' flowers. When our dance was concluded, the 
 Empress and the Imperial family entered the Diana Gallery, 
 where Mme. Murat was at the head of another quadrille 
 the persons composing it being costumed as Spaniards, with 
 hats and feathers. 
 
 After this, every one was allowed to dance city and 
 Court together. Ices and refreshments were distributed in 
 profusion. The Emperor returned to Saint Cloud, having 
 remained about an hour, and spoken to a great number of 
 persons ; that is to say, having asked each one his or her 
 name. Dancing was kept up after his departure until morn- 
 ing. 
 
 Perhaps I have lingered too long on these details, but 
 they are a relief from the serious narrative I have under- 
 taken, and of which my woman's pen becomes at times a 
 little weary. 
 
 While making and unmaking kings, according to the ex- 
 pression of M. de Fontanes,* while giving his adopted daugh- 
 ter in marriage, and joining in the festivities of which I have 
 spoken, the Emperor assiduously attended the state councils, 
 hastened on their work, and forwarded daily a great number of 
 laws to the Legislature. State Councilor Treilhard was the 
 bearer of the code of procedure, completed during this year ; 
 many regulations were agreed to concerning trade, and the 
 session was closed by a statement which conveyed grand ideas 
 of the flourishing state of our finances. Not an extra sou 
 was demanded from the nation ; public works had been ac- 
 complished, and others were in contemplation ; there was a 
 formidable army, as was well known, and only a fixed debt 
 of 48,000,000 ; a civil list of 35,000,000 against 8,000,000 of 
 revenue. 
 
 Meanwhile the Emperor's resentment against the Eng- 
 lish Government was growing deeper. The Cabinet, which, 
 however changed in its individual members, had not changed 
 
 * Speech of the President of the Corps LSgislatif, this year. 
 33 
 
432 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 in its policy toward us, declared war on the King of Prussia, 
 to punish him for his neutrality in the last war, and for his 
 conquest of Hanover, which he had just taken. 
 
 A long article on European politics appeared in the 
 " Moniteur." The author tried to prove that by this rupture 
 England would accelerate the policy which must close the 
 northern ports against her (the ports of the south being 
 already closed), and that she would strengthen the union be- 
 tween France and the Continent. The position of Holland 
 was next fully discussed. The Grand Pensionary Schimmel- 
 penninck had, it was reported, become blind. What would 
 be the course taken by the Dutch ? It was known that the 
 Emperor had not directly authorized the recent changes in 
 the organization of that country, and that he had said on the 
 occasion that "the prosperity and liberty of nations could 
 only be assured by one of two systems of government a 
 constitutional monarchy or a republic, constituted according 
 to the principles of liberty. In Holland the Grand Pension- 
 ary exercises an important influence on the elections of the 
 representatives of the legislative body ; this is a radical vice 
 in the Constitution. Nevertheless all nations can not with 
 impunity leave the choice of their representatives to the 
 public, and, when there is danger to be apprehended from 
 assembling the people, recourse must be had to the principles 
 of a good and wise monarchy. This, perhaps, is what will 
 occur to the Dutch. It is for them to appreciate their situ- 
 ation, and to choose between the two systems that one which 
 is most likely to establish public prosperity and public liberty 
 on a solid basis." These words were sufficiently indicative 
 of what was in store for Holland. The writer next pointed 
 out the advantages which must result to France from the 
 duchies of Cleves and Berg being occupied by a Frenchman, 
 inasmuch as our relations with Holland would be better, and 
 that all the countries on the right bank of the Hhine would 
 be occupied by allies of the Imperial family. 
 
 The Prince of ISTeufchatel was about to close Switzerland 
 
THE KINGDOM OF NAPLES. 433 
 
 against English traders.* The Emperor of Austria was said 
 to be engaged in tending his wounds, and resolved on a long 
 peace. The Russians, still agitated by English policy, had 
 had fresh contests in Dalmatia, being unwilling to give up 
 the country situated near the mouth of the Cattaro, which 
 was in their occupation; but the presence of the Grand 
 Army, whose return had been suspended, had compelled 
 them at length to fulfill the conditions of the last treaty. 
 
 The Pope was dismissing from Rome all persons,, whether 
 English, Russians, or Sardinians, suspected of intriguing, and 
 whose presence gave umbrage to the French Government. 
 
 The kingdom of Naples was almost entirely subjugated ; 
 Sicily was defended by a mere handful of English. France 
 was in close alliance with the Porte ; the Turkish Govern- 
 ment was less mercenary and less ignorant than had been 
 supposed, and understood that the presence of the French in 
 Dalmatia might be most useful in protecting Turkey from 
 Russian invasion. Lastly, our army was more formidable 
 than ever, and well able to resist the attacks of a fourth coa- 
 lition, to form which, after all, Europe was not disposed. 
 
 This sketch of our position with regard to Europe could 
 only be reassuring to those who took plausible phrases ema- 
 nating from the highest quarter in their literal sense. It was 
 easy enough for any one who read them without absolute 
 credulity to perceive that the populations were not so docile 
 as we tried to make out ; that we were beginning to sacrifice 
 their interests to our own policy ; that England, angered by 
 failure, was bent on raising up new enemies for us ; that the 
 King of Prussia was selling us his friendship ; and that Russia 
 was still threatening us. Men no longer believed in the 
 pacific intentions which the Emperor announced in all his 
 speeches. But there was something so impressive in his 
 plans, his military talent was so abundantly proved, he be- 
 
 * The town of Basel, alarmed by the threats of the French Government, 
 declined all commerce with England. The Queen of Etruria, who was but ill 
 established on her throne, did the same. 
 
434: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 stowed such greatness on France, that, duped by her own 
 glory, forced as she was to bend beneath the yoke, she con- 
 sented also to be beguiled by the enchanter. Moreover, the 
 internal prosperity of the country had apparently increased ; 
 there was no augmentation of taxes ; everything contributed 
 to dazzle us, and not one of us, acted upon as we were by 
 the impulsion which Bonaparte had given us all, had either 
 the leisure or the will for serious reflection. The Emperor 
 used to say, " Luxury and glory have never failed to turn the 
 heads of the French." 
 
 Shortly after, we were told that a great council had been 
 held at the Hague by the representatives of the Batavian 
 people, at which affairs of the highest importance had been 
 discussed; and a rumor was allowed to spread that a new 
 Dutch monarchy was about to be founded. 
 
 Meanwhile, the English newspapers were full of criticisms 
 on the progress which the Imperial power was making in 
 Europe. "If Bonaparte," they said, "succeeds in accom- 
 plishing his system of a Federal Empire, France will become 
 the sovereign arbiter of almost the whole continent." He 
 was delighted at this prediction, and resolutely strove to 
 realize it. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand, at that time in great repute, used his 
 influence in Europe to gain over the foreign Ministers. He 
 asked for and obtained from the sovereigns exactly those 
 ambassadors whom he knew he could make amenable. For 
 instance, he obtained from Prussia the Marquis de Lucche- 
 sini,* who subsequently acted in the French interest, against 
 his own master. He was a clever man, of a somewhat schem- 
 ing disposition. He was born at Lucca, but a taste for trav- 
 
 * It might be inferred from this passage that Lucchesini was ambassador at 
 Paris only from this period ; he had, however, filled that post at the time of the 
 Peace of Amiens. But he had not always supported the interests of France, 
 and, although he was in personal relations with M. de Talleyrand, he belonged 
 rather to the English party, as we shall describe in chapter xxi., and his reports 
 aroused a hostile feeling in Prussia against us. P. R. 
 
AMBASSADOR FROM THE PORTE. 435 
 
 eling took him in his youth to Berlin, where he was received 
 by Frederick the Great, who, liking his conversation and his 
 philosophical principles, kept him near his own person, gave 
 him a place at Court, and founded his fortunes. He was sub- 
 sequently intrusted with Prussian affairs, became a person of 
 importance, and had sufficient luck and ability to remain long 
 in high repute. He married a Prussian lady, and both he 
 and his wife, when they came to France, devoted themselves 
 to M. de Talleyrand, who made use of them to further his 
 own ends. It was long before the King of Prussia found 
 out that his ambassador had joined in the plots against him, 
 and Lucchesini did not fall into disgrace until some years 
 later. The Marquis then repaired to Italy, and found a fresh 
 field for his ambition in the influence he obtained over the 
 sovereign of Lucca, who had become Grand Duchess of Tus- 
 cany. The events of 1814 caused his downfall to follow on 
 that of his mistress. The Marchesa de Lucchesini, who was 
 rather addicted to coquetry, was while in Paris one of the 
 most obsequious of Madame de Talleyrand's friends. 
 
 On the 5th of June the Emperor received an Ambassa- 
 dor Extraordinary from the Porte, with messages of con- 
 gratulation and friendship from the Sultan. These messages 
 were accompanied by magnificent presents of diamonds, a 
 pearl necklace worth eighty thousand francs, perfumes, innu- 
 merable shawls, and Arab horses, with housings adorned 
 with precious stones. The Emperor gave the necklace to 
 his wife, and distributed the diamonds and the shawls among 
 the ladies-in-waiting. Some were given also to the wives of 
 ministers and marshals, and to a few others. The Empress 
 reserved the finest for herself, and there yet remained enough 
 to be used afterward for the decoration of a boudoir at Com- 
 piegne, which Josephine had arranged for herself with spe- 
 cial care, but which was never used except by the Empress 
 Marie Louise. 
 
 On the same day the Envoy from Holland came to an- 
 nounce that it had been decided at the Hague, upon mature 
 
436 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 deliberation, that a constitutional monarchy was the only 
 form of government that would thenceforth be suitable for 
 Holland, because such a monarchy would harmonize with 
 the principles now spreading in Europe ; and that, in order 
 to consolidate it, they solicited Louis Napoleon, the Empe- 
 ror's brother, to become their first King. 
 
 Bonaparte replied that such a monarchy would doubtless 
 be profitable to the general policy of Europe, and that, by 
 removing anxieties of his own, it would enable him to de- 
 liver important places into the hands of the Dutch, which 
 hitherto he had felt it his duty to retain. Then, turning 
 toward his brother, he enjoined him to have a care of the 
 people intrusted to him. 
 
 This scene was well acted. Louis made a fitting reply. 
 On the audience coming to an end, the doors were flung 
 open, as on the occasion when Louis XIY. accepted the suc- 
 cession to Spain, and the new King of Holland was an- 
 nounced to the assembled Court. 
 
 Immediately on this, the Arch-Chancellor carried to the 
 Senate, according to custom, the new Imperial message, and 
 made the usual speech. 
 
 The Emperor guaranteed to his brother the integrity of 
 his states, and that his children should succeed him ; but the 
 crowns of France and of Holland were never to be united 
 on one head. 
 
 In the case of a minority, the Queen was to be regent, 
 and failing her, the Emperor of the French, in right of his 
 position as perpetual head of the Imperial family, was to 
 appoint a regent, whom he was to select from among the 
 princes of the royal family or among the Dutch nation. 
 
 The King of Holland was to remain Constable of the 
 Empire, a Yice-Constable to be created at the Emperor's 
 pleasure. 
 
 The message also contained an announcement to the Sen- 
 ate that the Arch-Chancellor of the German Empire had 
 asked of the P'ope that Cardinal Fesch might be designated 
 
QUEEN HORTENSE. 43Y 
 
 as his coadjutor and successor ; and that His Holiness had 
 informed the Emperor of this request, who had approved of 
 it. 
 
 " Lastly, the duchies of Benevento and of Ponte Corvo 
 being a subject of litigation between the Courts of Naples 
 and Home, in order to put an end to these difficulties, and 
 reserving to ourselves the indemnification of these Courts, 
 we erect them," says the decree, " into duchies and fiefs of 
 the Empire, and we bestow them on our Grand Chamberlain 
 Talleyrand, and on our cousin Marshal Bernadotte, to reward 
 them for services rendered to the country. They will bear 
 the titles of these duchies, they will take an oath to serve us 
 as faithful and loyal subjects, and, if their issue should fail, 
 we reserve to ourselves the right of disposing of those prin- 
 cipalities." Bonaparte had no great liking for Marshal Ber- 
 nadotte ; he probably felt bound to promote him because he 
 had married the sister of Joseph Bonaparte's wife, and it 
 seemed fitting that the sister of a Queen should be at least 
 a Princess. 
 
 It is unnecessary for me to add that the Senate approved 
 of all these proceedings. 
 
 On the day following the ceremonial which introduced 
 another King into Bonaparte's family circle, we were at 
 breakfast with the Empress, when her husband entered the 
 room, looking extremely pleased, and holding little Napoleon 
 by the hand. He addressed us all in these terms : " Mes- 
 dames, here is a little boy who is going to recite to you one 
 of La Fontaine's fables. I made him learn it this morning, 
 and you shall hear how well he knows it." On this the 
 child began to repeat the fable of the frogs who asked f9r a 
 king, and the Emperor laughed loudly at each allusion that 
 seemed applicable to the circumstances. He stood behind 
 Mme. Louis's arm-chair she was seated at table opposite her 
 mother and pinched her ears as he asked her over and over 
 again, " What do you say to that, Hortense ? " No one said 
 much in reply. I was smiling to myself as I ate my break- 
 
438 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 fast, and the Emperor, in high good humor, said to me, 
 laughing also, " I see that Mme. de Remusat thinks I am 
 giving Napoleon a good education." 
 
 Louis's acquisition of a kingdom revealed to his brother 
 the deplorable state of his domestic affairs. Mme. Louis 
 could not contemplate her accession to a throne without bit- 
 ter weeping. The ungenial climate to which she was about 
 to remove, which must needs aggravate the wretched state 
 of her health ; the dread she felt of living alone with her 
 tyrannical husband ; his increasing dislike of her, which did 
 not lessen his jealousy, although it deprived it of rational 
 excuse all these things made her resolve to open her heart 
 to the Emperor. She confided her sorrows to him, and pre- 
 pared him for the fresh troubles that no doubt awaited her. 
 She entreated his protection in the future, and exacted from 
 him" a promise never to judge her unheard. She went so far 
 as to tell him that, foreseeing the persecution she would have 
 to endure in the isolation to which she would be subjected, 
 her mind was made up that when she should have endured 
 up to a certain point she would leave the world and retire 
 to a convent, relinquishing a crown of which she could al- 
 ready feel the thorns. 
 
 The Emperor entreated her to have courage and patience ; 
 he promised to protect her, and directed her to advise with 
 him before taking any decisive step. 
 
 I can bear witness that this unhappy lady ascended the 
 throne in the spirit of a victim resigning herself to sacrifice. 
 
CHAPTEE XXI. 
 
 (1806.) 
 
 I go to Cauterets The King of Holland Factitious Tranquillity of France M. de 
 Metternich The New Catechism The Germanic Confederation Poland 
 Death of Mr. Fox War is declared Departure of the Emperor M. Pasquier 
 and M. Mote Session of the Senate The Opening of Hostilities The Court 
 Eeception of Cardinal Maury. 
 
 IN the June of this year I went to take the waters at 
 Cauterets, and remained away three months. I was in very 
 delicate health, and needed a respite from Court life and 
 from the daily anxieties which were wearing alike to mind 
 and body. My family that is to say, my husband, my 
 mother, and my children were settled at Auteuil, whence 
 M. de Kemusat could easily get to Saint Cloud, and there 
 they passed a happy and peaceful summer. Our Court was 
 then in solitude ; the sovereigns of Holland had taken their 
 departure, and the members of Bonaparte's family had sepa- 
 rate establishments. The Emperor was engrossed by the 
 gathering clouds in Europe, and was constantly at work ; his 
 wife employed her leisure in beautifying her estate of Mal- 
 maison. 
 
 The " Moniteur " contained glowing accounts of the tri- 
 umphal entries of the princes created by Bonaparte into their 
 respective states. Enthusiasm was said to be at the highest 
 at Naples, at Berg, at Baden, and in Holland, and the popu- 
 lace was delighted everywhere. The speeches of the new 
 kings or princes, in which they treated their subjects to a 
 pompous panegyric of the great man whose envoys they 
 
440 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 were, were published for our edification. It is certain that, 
 at first, Louis Bonaparte found favor with the Dutch. His 
 wife shared his popularity in it, and displayed such affability 
 that very soon, as I heard from some French people who ac- 
 companied them, her strange husband became jealous of the 
 affection she inspired. 
 
 Like his brother, Louis was intolerant of the least inde- 
 pendence in others. After exacting that the Queen should 
 hold a brilliant Court, he suddenly changed his mind, and 
 reduced her by degrees to a very solitary life, thus isolating 
 her from the people over whom she too had been appointed 
 to reign. If I may believe the accounts I have received from 
 persons who coiild have had no motive for inventing them, 
 he resumed his distrustful jealousy and his system of spying, 
 and the Queen was constantly subjected to insult. The poor 
 young creature, in a state of chronic ill health and profound 
 melancholy, perceived that it was not her husband's pleasure 
 that she should share the affection he hoped to inspire in his 
 Dutch subjects. Sorrow had made her indifferent to such 
 things ; she withdrew into the solitude of her palace, where 
 she lived almost as a prisoner, devoting herself to the arts 
 she loved, and indulging her excessive affection for her eldest 
 boy. The child, who was forward for his age, greatly loved 
 his mother, to the extreme jealousy of Louis. The latter 
 would sometimes try to obtain his preference by indulgence 
 carried to excess ; sometimes he would alarm him by out- 
 breaks of passion, and the boy clung the more to her, who 
 always loved and never frightened him. Men were found 
 and such as are always to be found in courts who, for hire, 
 undertook to watch the Queen and report her every action. 
 The letters she wrote were opened, lest they might contain 
 any allusion to events in her husband's dominions. She has 
 assured me that more than once she found her desk open and 
 her papers upset, and that, if she had chosen, she might have 
 detected the King's spies in the act of carrying out his in- 
 structions. It was soon perceived at the Dutch Court that 
 
THE KING OF HOLLAND. 441 
 
 to appear to be influenced in any way by the Queen was to 
 lose one's own chances of favor, and on this she was imme- 
 diately forsaken. Any unfortunate person addressing himself 
 to her, in order to solicit a favor, would be immediately sus- 
 pected ; any minister conversing with her on the most trifling 
 matter would fall under the King's displeasure. The damp 
 climate of Holland aggravated her ailments ; she fell into a 
 state of atrophy perceptible to every one, but which the King 
 did not choose at first to notice. She has told me that her 
 life at this time was so hard and seemed so hopeless, that fre- 
 quently, when residing at one of her country-houses not far 
 from the sea, and gazing at the ocean stretched out before 
 her, and English vessels blockading the harbors, she ardently 
 wished that some chance would bring one of them to the 
 coast, and that some partial invasion might be attempted, in 
 which she would have been made a prisoner. At last her 
 physicians ordered her to Aix-la-Chapelle, and the King him- 
 self, who was out of health, resolved on taking the waters 
 there with her. 
 
 From this time Holland began to suffer from the pro- 
 hibitive system which the Emperor imposed on everything 
 appertaining to the Empire. It must be conceded to Louis 
 Bonaparte that he promptly defended the interests of the 
 people confided to him, and opposed the tyrannical measures 
 forced on him by the Imperial policy as strongly as was in 
 his power. He bore with firmness the Emperor's reproaches 
 on the subject, and resisted him in such a manner as to gain 
 the affection of the Dutch. In this they did him justice. 
 
 Switzerland also was compelled to decline all trade with 
 England, and English goods were seized everywhere. These 
 measures served to strengthen the party in London who were 
 anxious to force France into fresh European wars at any 
 price. Mr. Fox, who was then Prime Minister, seemed, 
 however, to lean toward peace, and to be willing to receive 
 overtures of negotiation. During the summer he was at- 
 tacked by the illness which subsequently proved fatal to him, 
 
44:2 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 and his influence declined. The Kussians were still contend- 
 ing with our troops for the possession of certain parts of 
 Dalmatia. The Grand Army showed no sign of returning 
 to France ; the promised fetes were constantly deferred. 
 
 The King of Prussia was inclined to peace, but his young 
 and lovely consort, as well as Prince Louis of Prussia and a 
 part of the Court, did all they could to incite him to war. 
 They pointed out to him that the future had in store the 
 liberation of Poland, the aggrandizement of Saxony, the 
 danger of the Confederation of the Khine being organized ; 
 and it must be admitted that the Emperor's line of conduct 
 was a justification for the disquiet of Europe. 
 
 English policy was by degrees regaining its influence over 
 the Emperor of Russia. Count Woronzoff had been sent to 
 London, and he fell so completely under the influence ex- 
 erted over him that the Continent was again disturbed. The 
 Czar had sent Baron d'Oubril to Paris, to negotiate with us, 
 and a treaty of peace was in fact signed by him and M. de 
 Talleyrand on the 20th of July, but, as will be seen hereafter, 
 it was never ratified at St. Petersburg. 
 
 About this time General Junot was made Governor of 
 Paris. 
 
 France was in a state of profound tranquillity. Day by 
 day the Emperor met with less opposition. A firm, equable, 
 and strict administration, which was just, inasmuch as it was 
 equal for all, regulated both the exercise of authority and 
 the mode of supporting it. Conscription was rigorously en- 
 forced, but as yet the murmurs of the people were but faint ; 
 the French had not then exhaused the sentiment of glory, as 
 they have done since that time, and, moreover, the brilliant 
 possibilities of a military career fascinated the youth of 
 France, and they all espoused the cause of Bonaparte. Even 
 in the families of the nobility, who were, on principle or 
 from habit, in opposition, the political creed of the fathers 
 was less firmly held by the children, and parents were per- 
 haps, in their secret heart, not sorry to relax somewhat of 
 
FACTITIOUS TRANQUILLITY OF FRANCE. 443 
 
 their severity on the plea of paternal concession. Nor was 
 any opportunity overlooked of indicating that the nation 
 had returned to the natural course and order of things. 
 
 The feast of the 15th of August having become that of 
 St. Napoleon, the Minister of the Interior wrote a circular 
 letter to all the prefects, recommending them to combine in 
 the solemnization of the fete rejoicings for both the birthday 
 of the Emperor and the reestablishment of religion. " No 
 holiday," said the letter, " can inspire deeper feelings than 
 that in which a great people, in the pride of victory and the 
 consciousness of happiness, celebrates the birthday of the 
 sovereign to whom all its felicity and glory are to be as- 
 cribed." 
 
 It ought to be constantly repeated, as well for the sake 
 of nations to come as for the sake of those who are called to 
 reign over them, that both peoples and kings who allow 
 themselves to be deceived by an appearance of calm, after 
 the storm of a revolution, are in the wrong. If this time of 
 peace has not called into existence an order of things in- 
 dicated by national needs, then it is fallacious calm, a respite 
 resulting from circumstances of which a clever man will 
 indeed avail himself, but which he will not really utilize un- 
 less he prudently regulates the advance of those who have 
 trusted him. Far from so acting, Bonaparte, powerful and 
 headstrong, opened, as it were, a long parenthesis in the 
 French Revolution. He always had a conviction that this 
 parenthesis would be closed at his death, which to him 
 seemed the only possible limit to his fortune. 
 
 He seized the reins of France when Frenchmen were 
 wandering bewildered in every direction, and were fearful 
 that they should never reach the goal to which they aspired. 
 Their energies, which were vague because they no longer 
 ventured to undertake any kind of enterprise boldly, were 
 then turned into military ardor, which is the most dangerous 
 of any, because the most opposed to the true citizen spirit. 
 For a long while Bonaparte reaped the advantage of this, 
 
444 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 but he did not foresee that, in order to rule after his fashion 
 a nation which for a time had become distrustful of its own 
 strength, and which yet felt the need of a great restoration, 
 it was imperative that victory should always follow on war, 
 and that reverses must inevitably make man reflect in a 
 direction dangerous for himself. 
 
 He was, I believe, hurried along by the force of circum- 
 stances, resulting from the events of every day. But he was 
 determined to check the growth of liberty at any cost, and 
 to this end he directed all his efforts. It has been frequently 
 said, both during tjie Empire and after his fall, that he un- 
 derstood the science of governing better than any other man. 
 This is the case, doubtless, if it be only understood as the 
 knowledge of means whereby to enforce obedience ; but if 
 the word " science " includes " the clear and certain knowl- 
 edge of a thing, founded on principles either self-evident or 
 proved to demonstration," * then it is certain that in Bona- 
 parte's system of government there was no place for those 
 elements which manifest the esteem of the sovereign for his 
 subjects. He by no means recognized the concession of cer- 
 tain rights which every man who intends to rule other men 
 for any length of time must begin by making to them, lest, 
 weary of their mental inaction, they should one day claim 
 these rights for themselves. He did not know how to stir 
 generous passion, or to appreciate and evoke moral virtues, 
 and thus to elevate himself in proportion as he aggrandized 
 human nature. 
 
 Singular in every respect, he believed himself to be vast- 
 ly superior to the rest of the world, and nevertheless he was 
 afraid of superiority in others. Is there one among those 
 who knew him well who has not heard him say that he pre- 
 ferred men of second-rate abilities ? Is there one who has 
 not remarked that when he made use of a man of talent, of 
 whatever kind, he would, before he felt he could trust him, 
 find out his weak point, and in most cases hasten to divulge 
 * This definition is given in the Encyclopedia. 
 
COUNT METTERNICH. 445 
 
 it ? Did lie not always depreciate, and often falsely, those 
 whose services he employed? The truth is, Bonaparte's 
 gifts, whether to the world, to nations, or to individuals, 
 were all bargains. These bargains, which were enforced 
 rather than offered, flattered the vanity of human nature, 
 and thus for a long time beguiled men's minds, so that it is 
 now hard to reduce them to bounds of possibility and rea- 
 son. Such a policy as this may certainly avail to purchase 
 service of every kind, but it follows that it must be based on 
 unvarying success. Are we to conclude from this that the 
 French were unpardonably guilty, because they fell into the 
 power of such a man? Will posterity condemn them for 
 their imprudent trust in him ? I think not. 
 
 Bonaparte, who employed good or evil things indiffer- 
 ently, according as they served his purpose, understood thor- 
 oughly that no secure foundations can be laid in times of 
 trouble. He therefore began by restoring order, and it was 
 thus he won us, poor tired wayfarers that we were, battered 
 by many a storm ! That which he created for his own profit 
 only we accepted gratefully ; the social order which was re- 
 stored by him, that it might become the groundwork of his 
 despotic sway, we regarded as the greatest of his gifts, and 
 as the pledge of other benefits. We believed that the man 
 who reestablished public morality, religion, and civilization, 
 who patronized art and literature, and who undertook to re- 
 duce society to order, must have a soul capable of true great- 
 ness ; and perhaps, after all, our error, which was deplorable 
 because it served his purposes so long, proves the generosity 
 of our sentiments rather than our imprudence. 
 
 Until Prussia declared war, no event of any importance 
 took place. In the course of the summer Count Metternich, 
 the Austrian Ambassador, arrived in Paris. He occupied an 
 important position in Europe, took part in events of the 
 highest importance, and finally made an enormous fortune ; 
 but his abilities did not rise above the schemes of a second- 
 rate policy. At the period of which I am speaking he was 
 
446 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 young, good-looking, and popular with women. A little 
 later he formed an attachment to Mme. Murat, and he 
 retained a feeling toward her which for a long time 
 aided to keep her husband on the throne of Naples, and 
 which probably is still of service to her in her retire- 
 ment.* 
 
 In the month of August a decree which settled the new 
 catechism of the Gallican Church was promulgated. It was 
 entitled " Bossuet's Catechism," and it contained, together 
 with doctrines taken from the works of the Bishop of Meaux, 
 some remarkable utterances on the duties of French people 
 toward their Emperor. 
 
 Page 55 : " Question. "What are the duties of Christians 
 toward their rulers ; and what, in particular, are our duties 
 toward Napoleon I., our Emperor ? 
 
 "Answer. Christians owe to the princes who govern 
 them, and we, in particular, owe to Napoleon I., our Em- 
 peror, love, respect, obedience, fidelity, military service, and 
 the tributes ordained for the preservation and defense of the 
 Empire and of his throne. To honor and serve our Emperor 
 is, therefore, to honor and to serve God. 
 
 " Q. Are there any special reasons which should more 
 strongly attach us to our Emperor Napoleon I. ? 
 
 " A. Yes ; for it is he whom God raised up in difficult 
 circumstances to restore the public profession of the holy 
 religion of our forefathers, and to be its protector. He has 
 restored public order by his profound and active wisdom ; 
 he defends the state by his powerful arm, and he has be- 
 come the anointed of the Lord through the consecration 
 of the Sovereign Pontiff, the Head of the Universal 
 Church. 
 
 " Q- What ought we to think of such persons as may fail 
 in their duties toward our Emperor ? 
 
 "A. According to the Apostle St. Paul, they would 
 
 * At the present date (1819) she is living in the states of the Emperor of 
 Austria. (She died at Florence on the 18th of May, 1839. P. R.) 
 
THE GERMANIC CONFEDERATION. 447 
 
 thereby be resisting the orders of God Himself, and would 
 become worthy of eternal damnation." * 
 
 During Mr. Fox's tenure of office, Bonaparte, either from 
 private information, or because he perceived the policy of 
 the Prime Minister to be opposed to that of his predecessor, 
 flattered himself that he should be able to conclude a treaty 
 of peace with England. Besides the advantages to be gained 
 from this, his pride was always singularly mortified that the 
 English Government did not acknowledge him as a sovereign. 
 The title of " General," which the English newspapers gave 
 him, always annoyed him extremely. Notwithstanding his 
 greatness, he had some of the weaknesses of a parvenu. 
 When Fox fell ill, the " Moniteur " announced that there was 
 reason to fear that the gravity of his malady might throw Eng- 
 lish policy back once more into its ordinary complications. 
 
 Meanwhile, the design of the Confederation of the Rhine 
 was suddenly disclosed. In the Emperor's grand feudal plan 
 this was comprised : it would increase the number of the 
 feudatories of the French Empire, and spread the European 
 revolution. But if it be true that the old institutions of the 
 Continent have reached a point at which their decrepitude 
 gives irresistible warning of the necessity of their fall, it is 
 also true that the time has come when their fall is not to be 
 for the advantage of despotism. Bonaparte never ceased 
 trying to make a counter-revolution, solely in his own inter- 
 ests, against those ideas which emerged into the light of day 
 thirty years ago. Such an undertaking is, happily, beyond 
 the power of man ; and we owe it to him, at least, that his 
 failure to accomplish that reaction settled for ever this im- 
 portant question. 
 
 * "Were we then to believe," asks Mme. de Stael, "that Bonaparte could 
 award hell in the next world, because he gave the idea of it in this ? " There is 
 some exaggeration in this remark ; but the following seems to me to be extreme- 
 ly accurate : " Nations have sincere piety only in those countries where one may 
 love God and the Christian religion with one's whole soul without losing, and 
 especially without obtaining, any worldly advantage by the manifestation of that 
 sentiment." 
 
 34 
 
448 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 The grand duchies of Germany were therefore separated 
 from the Germanic Empire, and the Emperor of France was 
 declared to be their protector. The contracting parties 
 that is to say, the Empire and the confederated states en- 
 gaged to take up arms in the case of war being declared on 
 one or the other. The contingent of the Confederation was 
 named at 63,000 men, that of France at 200,000. The Elec- 
 tor Arch-Chancellor of the Germanic Empire became Prince 
 Primate of the Confederation; on his death the Emperor 
 was to nominate his successor. Moreover, the Emperor re- 
 newed the declaration by which he bound himself not to 
 extend the frontiers of France above the Rhine ; but, at the 
 same time, he declared that he would use every means to 
 procure the freedom of the seas. This appeared in the 
 "Moniteur" of the 25th of July. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand had a large share in the honor of form- 
 ing this Confederation. He was in very high repute at this 
 time. He seemed destined to reduce the wide and ambitious 
 projects of the Emperor to a definite system; but, at the 
 same time, he did not neglect the increase to his own fortune 
 which was to be got out of them. The German princes paid, 
 as a matter of course, for slight advantages obtained by them 
 in the arrangement ; and the name of M. de Talleyrand, being 
 always connected with such important negotiations, became 
 more and more renowned throughout Europe. 
 
 One of his favorite theories, and it is one which has al- 
 ways seemed just and reasonable, is that the policy of France 
 ought to tend to the release of Poland from a foreign yoke, 
 and to the use of that country as a barrier against Russia and 
 a counterpoise to Austria. He always exerted his influence 
 in this direction. I have often heard him say that the repose 
 of all Europe depended on Poland. It would appear that 
 the Emperor was of the same opinion, but that he did not 
 persevere sufficiently in endeavoring to realize this project. 
 Accidental circumstances also interfered with it. He often 
 complained of the passionate, yet shallow, character of the 
 
POLAND. 449 
 
 Poles. " It was impossible," he said, " to guide them on any 
 system." They required special and exclusive attention, and 
 Bonaparte could only think of Poland occasionally. More- 
 over, as it was the Emperor Alexander's interest to obstruct 
 French policy in this particular, he would not have remained 
 a quiet spectator of efforts in any such direction ; and so it 
 happened that only a half-hearted course was taken with re- 
 spect to Poland, and all the advantages that might have been 
 gained were lost. However, after some slight differences 
 between the Russians and ourselves about the cession of the 
 mouths of the Cattaro, the two Emperors apparently came 
 to terms, and Baron d'Oubril was sent to Paris from St. Pe- 
 tersburg to sign a treaty of peace. 
 
 Although the return of our army was constantly an- 
 nounced to us, yet it did not take place, either because 
 Bonaparte had already become aware of the difficulty of 
 keeping so large a number of soldiers in France, a burden 
 upon the citizens, or that he foresaw fresh disturbances in 
 Europe, and that the peace would be of no long duration. 
 A kind of bazaar for the exhibition of French industrial 
 produce was opened on the Place des Invalides; but the 
 fetes promised to the Grand Army were no longer spoken 
 of. This exhibition took place, and profitably occupied the 
 minds of the people. 
 
 In the beginning of September Jerome Bonaparte ar- 
 rived in Paris. Every attempt which had been made on 
 the colonies had failed, and the Emperor gave up naval 
 enterprise for ever. He began to plan a marriage for his 
 young brother with one of the European princesses, having 
 insisted that his first marriage should be regarded as null 
 and void. 
 
 On creating the Confederation of the Ehine, Bonaparte 
 had declared that the Hanseatic towns should retain their 
 liberty ; but, whenever there was a question of liberty, it was 
 natural enough to believe that the Emperor's gift of it was 
 in reality but a temporary loan, and his resolutions on the 
 
450 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 subject caused great agitation in Prussian politics. The 
 Queen and the nobility urged the King of Prussia to war. 
 Consequently, during the campaign which was very shortly 
 begun, the former was made an object of vituperation in 
 the bulletins, frequently of a coarse kind. At first she was 
 compared to Armida, who, torch in hand, tried to raise up 
 enemies against us. As a contrast to this poetical compari- 
 son, a few lines farther on we find a phrase in an utterly 
 different style : " What a pity ! for they say that the King 
 of Prussia is a very well-meaning man."* Bonaparte fre- 
 quently said that there is but one step from the sublime to 
 the ridiculous ; this is true, both of actions and words, when 
 true art is neglected, and it must be owned that he made 
 little account of it. 
 
 Mr. Fox died in September, and the war party resumed 
 power. The Russian Ministry was changed ; a national move- 
 ment was set on foot among the Russian nobility ; the peo- 
 ple were beginning to respond; the storm was gathering, 
 and it suddenly burst when the Czar refused to ratify the 
 treaty signed in Paris by his plenipotentiary, Baron d'Oubril. 
 From that moment war was inevitable. ISTo official intima- 
 tion was made, but the matter was openly discussed. 
 
 At the beginning of the month I returned from Caute- 
 rets, and I was enjoying the happiness of my home circle 
 when M. de Hemusat received a sudden order to proceed to 
 Mayence, whither the Emperor was going a few days later. 
 I was deeply grieved by this fresh separation. As I enjoyed 
 
 * The Emperor often expresses this opinion in letters written during the 
 campaign. Thus, he writes to his wife on the 13th of October : " To-day I am at 
 Gera ; all is going on well, and according to my hopes. With the help of God, 
 in a few days the state of things will be terrible for the poor King of Prussia, 
 whom personally I pity, for he is a good man. The Queen is with him at Erfurt. 
 She will have the cruel pleasure of seeing a battle, if she wishes it. I am in per- 
 fect health, and have already grown stouter since I left Paris ; yet every day I 
 cover twenty to twenty-five leagues of ground, riding, driving in every kind of 
 way, in fact. I lie down at eight, and, when I get up again at midnight, I remem- 
 ber that you have not yet retired for the night. Ever yours." P. R. 
 
WAR IS DECLARED. 451 
 
 none of those honors which offer compensation to some wo- 
 men even for the sufferings of a soldier's wife, I found it 
 hard to resign myself to these constantly recurring separa- 
 tions. I remember the Emperor asking me, after M. de 
 Remusat was gone, why I looked so sad, and, when I an- 
 swered that it was because my husband had left me, he 
 laughed at me. " Sire," I added, " I know nothing of the 
 delights of heroism, and I always meant to take out my 
 share of glory in happiness." He laughed again. " Happi- 
 ness ? " he said. " Ah, yes ! much we think of happiness in 
 this age." 
 
 Before the departure for Mayence I again met M. de 
 Talleyrand, who was very friendly. He assured me that 
 nothing could be better for our prospects than that M. de 
 Remusat should be in attendance on the Emperor in all his 
 journeys ; but, as he saw tears in my eyes, he spoke seriously, 
 and I was grateful to him for not jesting on a subject which 
 to me only was a real grief, but which certainly must have 
 appeared of slight consequence to the many wives and moth- 
 ers whose husbands and sons were leaving them for real 
 scenes of danger. M. de Talleyrand's natural tact and his 
 admirable good taste lead him to adapt his tone perfectly to 
 those whom he addresses ; this is one of his most attractive 
 characteristics. 
 
 The Emperor went away suddenly on the 25th of Sep- 
 tember, without sending any message to the Senate in ex- 
 planation of his absence.* The Empress, who always parted 
 
 * These journeys and long absences of the Emperor were more frequent than 
 we can now realize. Never has a sovereign dwelt less in his own capital. There 
 is a curious work entitled " Itineraire general de Napoleon, Chronologie du Con- 
 sulat et de 1'Empire, indiquant jour par jour pendant toute sa vie, le lieu ou 
 etait Napoleon ce qu'il y a fait, et les Evenements les plus remarquables qui 
 s'attachent & son Histoire, etc., par A. M. Perrot. Paris, Bistor, 1845." From 
 this book, which is very correct, especially with regard to the period of Impe- 
 rial grandeur, we learn that from the time of his accession to the throne until 
 his abdication in 1814, Napoleon spent only 965 days in Paris, i. e., less than 
 three years, during a reign of ten. He was traveling, if not out of France, yet 
 at a considerable distance from Paris, and from his palaces of Saint Cloud, Mai- 
 
452 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 with him unwillingly, had not been able at first to obtain 
 permission to accompany him, though she hoped to rejoin 
 him later. She, however, used such persuasion, during the 
 last day of his stay at Saint Cloud, that toward midnight he 
 yielded, and she entered his traveling carriage with him and 
 only one attendant. The Imperial suite did not join her 
 until a few days later. I was no longer included in these 
 journeys ; my health forbade. I may affirm that the Em- 
 press, who had become accustomed to the gratification to her 
 vanity afforded her by ladies of a higher rank than mine 
 seeking to join her Court, had returned in her heart to her 
 former friendship, and now felt real regret at my absence. 
 As for the Emperor, I counted for little in his eyes, and he 
 was right. At his Court a woman was nothing, and a woman 
 in ill health less than nothing. 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte told me that her husband entered upon 
 this Prussian campaign with some reluctance. Luxury and 
 ease had had their natural effect upon him, and the hardships 
 of camp-life now affected his imagination unpleasantly. Nor 
 was he devoid of solicitude. The Prussian troops were re- 
 nowned; their cavalry was recognized as first-rate, while 
 ours as yet inspired no confidence, and our military men ex- 
 pected a formidable resistance. 
 
 The prompt and unparalleled result of the battle of Jena 
 is one of those miracles which upset all human calculations. 
 That victory astonished and confounded all Europe, proved 
 the good fortune as well as the genius of Bonaparte, and 
 bore witness to French valor. 
 
 He did not remain long at Mayence ; the Prussians had 
 marched into Saxony, and it was imperative to follow them. 
 At the opening of this campaign the Emperor formed two 
 new companies of gendarmes; the command of one was 
 given to the Yicomte de Montmorency. This was an appeal 
 
 maison, Compiegne, Rambouillet, and Fontainebleau, for more than 1,600 days, 
 that is, for more than four years, and was frequently absent for six months at 
 a time. P. R. 
 
DEPARTURE OF THE EMPEROR. 4.53 
 
 to the nobility to take their share of glory, to nibble at the 
 bait of a semblance of privilege ; and, in fact, a few gentle- 
 men did join that regiment. 
 
 During the preparations for the important coming events, 
 it was decided that the Empress, with those members of the 
 Court who had accompanied her, should remain at Mayence. 
 M. de Remusat was in waiting, having the superintendence 
 of her entire household, and M. de Talleyrand was also to 
 remain until further orders. 
 
 Just before the Emperor's departure, my husband was 
 present at a scene which made a great impression on him. 
 M. de Talleyrand was in the Emperor's cabinet, where M. de 
 Eemusat was receiving final instructions; it was evening, 
 and the traveling-carriages were waiting. The Emperor sent 
 my husband to summon the Empress ; he returned with her 
 in a few moments. She was weeping. Agitated by her 
 tears, the Emperor held her for a long time in his arms, and 
 seemed almost unable to bid her farewell. He was strongly 
 moved, and M. de Talleyrand was also much affected. The 
 Emperor, still holding his wife to his heart, approached M. 
 de Talleyrand with outstretched hand ; then, throwing his 
 arms round both at once, he said to M. de Kemusat, " It is 
 very hard to leave the two persons one loves best." As he 
 uttered these words, he was overcome by a sort of nervous 
 emotion, which increased to such a degree that he wept un- 
 controllably, and almost immediately an attack of convulsions 
 ensued, which brought on vomiting. He was placed in a 
 chair, and drank some orange-flower water, but continued to 
 weep for fully a quarter of an hour. At length he mastered 
 himself, and, rising suddenly, shook M. de Talleyrand by the 
 hand, gave a last embrace to his wife, and said to M. de 
 Eemusat : " Are the carriages ready 2 Call the suite, and let 
 us go." 
 
 When, on his return, my husband described this scene to 
 me, it made me feel glad. The fact that natural feeling had 
 got the mastery over Bonaparte always seemed to me a vie- 
 
MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RlZMUSAT. 
 
 tory in which we were all interested. He left Mayence on 
 the 22d of October, at 9 P. M. 
 
 No announcement had as yet been made to the Senate, 
 but every one expected a formidable war. It was a national 
 war on the part of the Prussians, for in declaring it the King 
 had yielded to the ardent desire of all the nobility and a 
 majority of the people. 
 
 Moreover, the rumors regarding the foundation of a king- 
 dom of Poland were disquieting to reigning sovereigns. A 
 Northern League was in contemplation, which was to em- 
 brace all the states not comprised in the Confederation of 
 the Rhine. 
 
 The young Queen had much influence with her husband, 
 and great confidence in Prince Louis of Prussia, who longed 
 for an opportunity to distinguish himself. He was brave, 
 amiable, had great taste for the fine arts, and had fired the 
 youthful nobility with his own ardor. The Prussian army, 
 full of life and spirit, inspired complete confidence in the 
 new coalition ; its cavalry was considered the finest in Eu- 
 rope. When we remember how easily all this was dispersed, 
 we must believe that the leaders were very incompetent, and 
 that the old Prince of Brunswick must once more have mis- 
 directed the courageous soldiers confided to him. 
 
 Even at the opening of this campaign, it was easy to see 
 that France was weary of the uncertainty which war brought 
 into both public and private affairs. Discontent was visible 
 in the expression of men's countenances, and it was evident 
 that the Emperor must indeed do wonders to rekindle feel- 
 ings that were beginning to chill. In vain did the news- 
 papers contain articles describing the zeal with which the 
 new conscripts came to be enrolled in all the departments ; 
 no one was deceived by these accounts no one even tried 
 to appear to be deceived. Paris fell into the gloomy condi- 
 tion which war always produces in capital cities while it 
 lasts. The progress of our industrial pursuits was admired 
 at the Exhibition of which I have spoken, but curiosity 
 
BONAPARTE'S MYSTERIOUS CONDUCT. 455 
 
 alone will not stir the heart of a nation ; and, when citizens 
 may not take the least part in their own government, they 
 regard the improvements in civilization which are due to 
 that government merely as a spectacle. We began to feel in 
 France that there was something mysterious in Bonaparte's 
 conduct toward us. We perceived that it was not for us 
 that he lived and acted ; that what he wanted from us was 
 an appearance of prosperity, brilliant rather than solid, which 
 should surround him with fresh luster. I recollect writing 
 to my husband during the campaign in the following terms : 
 " The situation is greatly changed ; so are men's minds : the 
 military miracles of this year do not produce half the effect 
 of former ones. The enthusiasm excited by the battle of 
 Austerlitz is not to be aroused now." * The Emperor him- 
 
 * My grandmother's correspondence bears witness to the great change which 
 had taken place in public opinion on the subject of the military success of the 
 Emperor. I believe the publication of these letters would be of interest, even 
 though they did not contain any political revelations. I intend shortly to pub- 
 lish them, but I could quote numerous passages in support of what is here 
 stated, or has been stated in previous chapters, notwithstanding the reserve 
 made necessary by the insecurity of the post-office. For instance, during this 
 Prussian campaign, two months after the battle of Jena, and before that of 
 Eylau, Madame de Remusat writes on the 12th of -December, 1806 : "We ought 
 to be very cautious in our correspondence, and, if I may say so, I think you are 
 imprudent, and there are sometimes philosophic phrases in your letters which 
 might be taken in bad part. It is an additional trial that we may not even 
 write freely when separated by so great a distance ; but we must resign our- 
 selves to every sacrifice, and hope that by this one we may obtain a long peace. 
 Peace ! People scarcely hope for it here. Depression and discontent prevail 
 everywhere ; there are both suffering and open complaint. This campaign does 
 not produce one quarter of the effect of the last. There is no admiration, and 
 even no astonishment ; we have become used to miracles. The bulletins are all 
 received without applause at the theatres ; in fact, a generally painful feeling 
 prevails. This feeling is, no doubt, unjust ; for, after all, there are cases in 
 which even men of the strongest mind are carried along by circumstances far- 
 ther than they wish, and I can not believe that a great mind will seek for glory 
 in war. Add to this the conscription, and the new decrees respecting commerce. 
 Enmity makes use of everything, and is not guided by reason. People pretend 
 that these measures are passed from motives of anger only. I am far from 
 passing judgment on them, for, in spite of all I hear, I must admire and trust 
 
4:56 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 self perceived it ; for, when lie liad returned to Paris after 
 the treaty of Tilsit, he said : " Military glory soon palls upon 
 modern nations. Fifty battles produce little more sensation 
 than five or six. To the French I shall always be the man 
 of Marengo, rather than of Jena or Friedland." 
 
 As the Emperor's designs on Europe increased in magni- 
 tude, it became more and more needful for him to centralize 
 his administration, in order that his commands, all emanating 
 from the same point, might be rapidly transmitted to the 
 proper quarters. The submission of the Senate might be 
 taken for granted ; the importance of the Corps Legislatif 
 was lessening every day. Bonaparte had doubtless resolved 
 on seizing the first pretext for ridding himself of the Trib- 
 unate, and he extended the powers of the Council of State, 
 which consisted of men of ability, on whom he exercised a 
 direct pressure. By a new decree he now appointed a Com- 
 mittee for Petitions in the Council of State, which consisted 
 of councilors, masters of requests, and auditors. They met 
 three times a week, and reported to Bonaparte. MM. Mole 
 and Pasquier, both of them " Masters of Requests," were 
 members of this committee. They had entered public life 
 at the same period ; both, although widely differing in age,* 
 bore names well known in the magistracy; they had the 
 same social connections, equal zeal, and similar ambition, and 
 they were beginning to make themselves felt in the new 
 Government. Meanwhile, the Emperor already displayed a 
 
 the power which rules the fate of all I hold dear." This letter, evidently, was 
 not intrusted to the post, but conveyed by some friendly hand. But, even in 
 their correspondence carried on by the ordinary means, the writers expressed 
 their feelings, their distrust, almost amounting to horror, of the then state of 
 things. Prudence, however, sometimes had the upper hand ; and in a letter 
 preceding this one my grandmother excuses herself for not forwarding to her 
 husband a letter from her son Charles, then a boy of nine years old, on the 
 ground of its lack of prudence. The young scholar, in quoting the line from 
 Phaedrus, Humiles laborant ubi potentes dissident, had ventured to express the 
 following sentiment : " I dislike Philip because he has too much ambition." 
 P. R. 
 
 * M. Mole was then twenty-six years of age, and M. Pasquier about forty. 
 
SESSION OF THE SENATE. 457 
 
 preference for M. Mole. He exercised an ascendancy over 
 this young man, who, although naturally of a grave disposi- 
 tion, was yet capable of enthusiasm. He thought -he could 
 mold his opinions in his own way, and he partly succeeded, 
 while he made use of the parliamentary tendencies of M. 
 Pasquier. "I use one," he said sometimes, "but I create 
 the other." I quote these words of his to show how he was 
 accustomed to analyze his own conduct toward every one. 
 
 Horse-races, which had been decreed by the Emperor 
 himself when he was as yet only First Consul, took place in 
 Paris in the autumn of this year. In fact, France had come 
 to resemble a great audience at a theatre, before whom per- 
 formances of all kinds were given on the sole condition that 
 hands should be raised only to applaud. 
 
 On the 4th of October the Senate was convoked. The 
 Arch-Chancellor, as he had done in the past, and as he was 
 to do in the future, announced the war in an insignificant 
 and pompous speech. After this, he read a letter from the 
 Emperor, dated from headquarters, in which he stated that 
 the King of Prussia was the aggressor, and deplored the evil 
 influence that constantly disturbed the repose of France, 
 while he announced that the invasion of Saxony had obliged 
 him to march rapidly forward. This letter was accompanied 
 by the official report of the Minister of Foreign Affairs. He 
 could discover no valid cause for war ; he expressed surprise 
 that the freedom granted to the Hanseatic towns could have 
 given umbrage to the Prussian Government, and quoted a 
 note from M. de Knobelsdorff, the new envoy from Prussia. 
 
 A rumor arose that, some time previously, M. de Luc- 
 chesini, who was devoted, it was said, to England, had 
 alarmed the Court by unfounded reports of a universal 
 monarchy planned by the French Government. On being 
 informed of this, the Emperor had requested that M. de 
 Lucchesini should be recalled. M. de Knobelsdorff suc- 
 ceeded him, but no good result ensued. The coolness be- 
 tween the two Cabinets increased. The Emperor departed. 
 
458 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 a 
 
 The Prussian Minister received a final note from his sover- 
 eign, demanding the immediate evacuation of the whole of 
 Germany by the French troops, and requiring that the ratifi- 
 cation of this demand should be sent to the King of Prussia's 
 headquarters by the 8th of October. M. de Knobelsdorff 
 dispatched this note to M. de Talleyrand, then at Mayence, 
 and it was forwarded by him to the Emperor, who had al- 
 ready reached Bamberg. 
 
 The first bulletin on the opening of the campaign gives 
 the following account of what had taken place : " On the 7th 
 the Emperor received dispatches from Mayence, consisting 
 of M. de Knobelsdorff's note and a letter from the King of 
 Prussia, twenty pages long a pamphlet, in fact, in the style 
 of those written to order for the English Government, by 
 authors hired for 500 a year. The Emperor did not read 
 it through, and remarked to the persons about him : * I am 
 sorry for my brother, the King of Prussia ; he does not un- 
 derstand French. He has certainly not read this rhapsody.' 
 Then he turned to Marshal Berthier : ' Marshal, they give us 
 a rendezvous for the 8th ; never has a Frenchman failed to 
 keep such an appointment. But, as it seems that a lovely 
 Queen wishes to be a spectator at our contest, let us be cour- 
 teous, and march without delay toward Saxony.' " 
 
 And, in fact, hostilities began on the 8th of October, 1806. 
 
 The Emperor's proclamation to his soldiers was, like the 
 former ones, in a style peculiar to himself and belonging to 
 no particular epoch. 
 
 " Let us march," he said, " since our moderation has failed 
 to cure them of their astounding folly. Let the Prussian 
 army meet the same fate as that which befell it fourteen 
 years ago. Let them learn that if it is easy to acquire an 
 increase of territory and of power by means of the friendship 
 of a great nation, so its enmity, which can only be incurred 
 by forsaking all wisdom and reason, is more terrible than the 
 storms of ocean." 
 
 At the same time, the King of Holland returned to the 
 
THE EMPRESS AT MATENGE. 459 
 
 Hague, in order to assemble the States, and to ask them to 
 pass a law enacting the payment in advance of one year's 
 land-tax. Having obtained this, he moved his headquarters 
 to the frontier. Thus, the Dutch, to whom a long continua- 
 tion of prosperity, in return for the surrender of their liberty, 
 had been promised, were from the very first threatened with 
 war, and had to endure a double taxation and a blockade of 
 the continent, which destroyed their trade. 
 
 Mme. Louis Bonaparte joined her brother at Mayence, 
 and seemed to breathe freely when once more among her 
 own people. The young Princess of Baden also came to 
 Mayence ; there was still, at this time, a great coolness be- 
 tween her husband and herself. The Empress received a 
 visit from the Prince Primate and from some of the sover- 
 eigns belonging to the Confederation. Her life at Mayence 
 was very bright and stirring; many distinguished person- 
 ages came thither to pay their respects to her. She would 
 have preferred to follow the Emperor, but, when she wrote 
 asking leave to join him, he answered : " I am not able to 
 send for you here. I am the slave of the nature of things 
 and the force of circumstances; we must wait until they 
 decide."* 
 
 The Empress, who was very anxious now that her hus- 
 band was about to incur fresh risks, had no friend among 
 
 * This letter is not included in Napoleon's general correspondence published 
 under the Second Empire ; but the letters belonging to this period which are 
 comprised in this publication are very similar both in style and matter. More- 
 over, this was the usual subject of the Emperor's letters to Josephine in all his 
 campaigns. He writes to her from Warsaw a few months later, on the 23d of 
 January, 1807 : " I have your letter of January 15th. I could not allow ladies to 
 undertake such a journey as this ; bad roads, unsafe and dirty. Go back to 
 Paris, be bright and gay ; perhaps I shall be there soon. I was amused at your 
 saying you took a husband in order to have him with you ; I fancied in my 
 ignorance that the wife was made for the husband, and the husband for the 
 country, the family, and glory. Forgive my ignorance ; there is always something 
 to be learned from beautiful women. Farewell, my dearest. Believe me, it 
 costs me something not to send for you. Say to yourself, It is a proof how 
 precious I am to him." P. R. 
 
4:60 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 her court circle to sympathize affectionately with her. In 
 her suite were several ladies who belonged by their very 
 names to memories which they claimed a right to retain at 
 the new Court ; and they took leave to disapprove of the 
 war, and especially to express an interest which was natural 
 enough in the beautiful Queen. She soon became an object 
 of attack in each successive bulletin. The death of Prince 
 Louis of Prussia, with whom some of the ladies-in-waiting 
 during the time of their emigration had been acquainted, 
 was also much lamented by them, and a sort of disdainful 
 opposition formed itself around our Empress, of which Mme. 
 de la Rochefoucauld took the lead. 
 
 M. de Remusat, who had the superintendence of this 
 miniature Court, became the recipient of the complaints of 
 the Empress, who, having nothing serious to occupy her, 
 was annoyed by foolish and vain speeches which she ought 
 to have despised. He advised her to pay no attention to 
 these vexations, and by no means to mention them to the 
 Emperor, who would make them of more importance than 
 was at all desirable. Mme. Bonaparte, however, wrote all 
 the history to her husband, and subsequently M. de Talley- 
 rand, who was present during these little storms which might 
 have been so easily dispersed, thought to amuse the Emperor 
 with a description of them. Bonaparte did not regard the 
 matter in a harmless light. I have dwelt on this in order, 
 later on, to explain what came of it to ourselves personally. 
 
 Meanwhile, a life so trivial and so empty was wearisome 
 to my husband. He amused himself by learning German, 
 in order, as he wrote to me, " at least to occupy a portion of 
 each day usefully." He took increasing pleasure in the so- 
 ciety of M. de Talleyrand, who treated him with confidence 
 and warm friendship. Whenever the slightest appearance 
 of feeling is attributed to M. de Talleyrand, one is obliged 
 to put the statement with strong affirmation, because it will 
 inevitably be received with doubt. The world judges him 
 with severity, or at least too sweepingly. I know him to be 
 
RECEPTION OF CARDINAL MAURT. 
 
 capable of affection, and I venture to say that, had he been 
 altogether deceitful, I could not have become so sincerely 
 attached to him. 
 
 During this time I was living very quietly in Paris with 
 my mother, my sister, and my children. Some distinguished 
 people came to my house ; also a number of literary men, 
 who were attracted thither by my husband's authority over 
 the theatres. Princess Caroline only (Duchess of Berg) re- 
 quired any court to be paid to her. She lived at the Elysee 
 with a certain amount of state ; people waited on her as they 
 did on the Arch-Chancellor Cambaceres. Occasional visits 
 had to be paid to the ministers, but the remainder of one's 
 time was one's own. News from the seat of war was re- 
 ceived without enthusiasm, but not without interest, because 
 every family was more or less connected with the army. 
 
 The knowledge that every drawing-room was watched 
 by the police prevented all serious conversation ; every one 
 was engrossed by secret anxieties, and a sort of isolation, 
 which was just what the Emperor wished, was the result. 
 
 Nevertheless, a little incident happened during the cam- 
 paign which amused all Paris for several weeks. On the 
 23d of October Cardinal Maury was chosen by that class 
 of the Institute which has received the name of the French 
 Academy to succeed M. Target. When the day for his re- 
 ception drew near, some one raised the question whether he 
 should be addressed as Monseigneur, and a great commotion 
 ensued. Before the Revolution a similar discussion had oc- 
 curred on the same subject. D'Alembert and the three 
 members of the Academy had pleaded for the rights of 
 equality in the sanctuary of letters ; but the Academy, hav- 
 ing in 1806 become " the Eight," was disposed to grant the 
 title of Mbnseigneur, in opposition to the party headed by 
 Kegnault de St. Jean d'Angely, his brother-in-law Arnault, 
 Chenier, etc. The discussion ran so high, the Cardinal de- 
 clared so positively that he would not present himself unless 
 he were .to be addressed according to his rank, the difficulty 
 
462 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 of arriving with due freedom at any decision was so great, 
 that it was determined to refer the matter to the Emperor 
 himself, and this foolish dispute was actually brought before 
 him on the battle-field. Meanwhile, whenever the Cardinal 
 met any of the members of the Institute who were hostile 
 to him, he attacked them. On one occasion he met M. Re- 
 gnault dining at Mme. Murat's, and an amusing passage-at- 
 arms, at which I was present, took place between them. 
 Almost at the very beginning of the conversation, the Car- 
 dinal requested M. Regnault to go into another room, to 
 which M. Regnault consented, provided that some of the 
 other guests would accompany him. The Cardinal, who was 
 annoyed, began to get excited.* " You do not recollect, 
 then, sir," he said, " that at the Constituent Assembly I 
 called you little ~boy" " That is no reason," replied M. Re- 
 gnault, " why we should give you a token of respect at the 
 present day." " If my name were Montmorency," returned 
 the Cardinal, " I could afford to laugh at you ; but I owe to 
 my abilities only my elevation to the Academy, and, if I 
 yielded the point of Monseigneur, the next day you would 
 treat me as an equal." M. Regnault reminded us that once 
 only had the French Academy consented to use the title of 
 Monseigneur, and that then it was in favor of Cardinal Du- 
 bois, who was received by Fontenelle. " But," he added, 
 " times are greatly changed." I must own that, looking at 
 Cardinal Maury, I ventured to think men were not so much 
 altered. Finally the discussion became hot ; it was reported 
 to the Emperor, who sent orders to the academicians to ad- 
 dress the Cardinal as Monseigneur. On this everybody im- 
 mediately submitted, and we heard no more about it. 
 
 * He was a very hot-tempered man. 
 
CHAPTEE XXII. 
 
 (1806-1807.) 
 
 Death of Prince Louis of Prussia Battle of Jena The Queen of Prussia and the 
 Emperor Alexander The Emperor and the Be volution Court Life at Mayence 
 Life in Paris Marshal Brune Taking of Lubeck The Princess of Hatzfeld 
 The Auditors of the State Council Sufferings of the Army The King of 
 Saxony Battle of Eylau. 
 
 THE Emperor had left Bamberg, and was hastening to 
 the assistance of the King of Saxony. Our armies, which 
 had been gathered together with the surprising rapidity that 
 always defeated the plans of the enemy, were marching on- 
 ward. The first skirmishes took place at Saalfeld, between 
 Marshal Lannes and the vanguard of Prince Hohenlohe, 
 commanded by Prince Louis of Prussia. The latter, who 
 was brave to rashness, fought in the ranks until, coming to a 
 hand-to-hand conflict with a quartermaster and refusing to 
 surrender, he fell covered with wounds. His death disheart- 
 ened the Prussians, while it increased the ardor of our troops. 
 "If," says the Imperial bulletin, "his last moments were 
 those of a bad citizen, his death was glorious and deserv- 
 ing of regret. He died as every good soldier must wish to 
 die." * 
 
 I am ignorant whether, in Prussia, Prince Louis was con- 
 
 * It appears certain that he lost his life in endeavoring to save that of a 
 friend. Those who were intimate with him say he had but one fault a jealousy 
 of any kind of success in others. This is a weakness very common among 
 princes : the very abilities which are devoted to their service seem to require 
 their forgiveness. Prince Louis was nephew to the King of Prussia. 
 35 
 
464 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 sidered to have preferred his own glory to the interests of 
 his country by promoting the war. It may have been im- 
 prudent to commence it when he did ; doubtless the right 
 moment for declaring would have been at the formation of 
 the coalition in the preceding year ; yet the feelings of the 
 Prince were, even at this time, shared by a great number of 
 his countrymen. 
 
 For some days the bulletins gave accounts of several par- 
 tial engagements which were but the prelude to the great 
 battle of the 14th of October. The Prussian Court was 
 described as being in great confusion, and despotic advice 
 was given to those princes who are led into hesitation by 
 consulting the multitude on great political interests above its 
 comprehension ! As if nations, having reached their present 
 degree of enlightenment, could continue to intrust the money 
 taken from their coffers, and the men levied from among 
 their ranks, to their rulers, without ascertaining the uses to 
 which the gold and the soldiers are to be put ! 
 
 On the 14th of October the two armies met at Jena, and 
 and in a few hours this important battle decided the fate of 
 the King of Prussia. The renowned Prussian cavalry could 
 not resist our infantry ; confused orders caused confusion in 
 the ranks ; a great number of Prussians were killed or taken 
 prisoners ; * several general officers lay dead on the field of 
 battle ; the Prince of Brunswick was severely wounded, and 
 the King was forced to fly. In fact, the rout was complete. 
 Our bulletins were full of the praises of Marshal Davoust, 
 who had in truth greatly contributed to the success of the 
 
 * The Emperor gives the following account of Jena in a letter to the Em- 
 press, written on the battle-field on the 15th of October, 1806 : "My dearest, I 
 have had great success against the Prussians. Yesterday I gained a great vic- 
 tory. They numbered a hundred and fifty thousand men. I have taken twenty 
 thousand prisoners, a hundred of their guns, and some flags. I was very near 
 the King of Prussia, and only just missed taking him, as well as the Queen. I 
 have been bivouacking the last two days. I am in capital health. Adieu, my 
 dearest ; keep yourself well, and think of me. If Hortense is at Mayence, kiss 
 her for me, as well as Napoleon and the little fellow." P. R. 
 
BATTLE OF JENA. 465 
 
 day, and the Emperor willingly acknowledged this. He 
 was not usually so ready to render justice to his generals. 
 When the Empress questioned him on his return about the 
 eulogiums he had allowed to be lavished on Davoust on this 
 occasion, he answered her, laughing : " I can heap upon him 
 as much glory as I please ; he will never be strong enough to 
 carry it." 
 
 On the evening of the battle a whimsical adventure hap- 
 pened to M. Eugene de Montesquieu.* He was an orderly 
 officer, and was sent by the Emperor to the King of Prussia 
 with a letter, to which I shall presently allude. He was 
 detained all day at the Prussian headquarters, where the de- 
 feat of the French was considered certain, and they wished 
 him to witness it. He remained, therefore, an agitated but 
 inactive spectator of the course of events. The generals, and 
 Bliicher f in particular, affected to give alarming orders in 
 his presence. Toward evening the young man, involved in 
 the flight of the Prussians, was endeavoring to rejoin our 
 camp. On his way he met with two Frenchmen, who joined 
 him, and the three together contrived to get hold of eighteen 
 disbanded Prussians, whom they brought in triumph to the 
 Emperor. This capture greatly diverted him. 
 
 The battle of Jena was followed by one of the rapid 
 marches which Bonaparte was wont to impose on his army 
 in the hour of victory. ~No one ever knew better how to 
 profit by victory than he ; he bewildered the enemy, leaving 
 him not a moment's repose. 
 
 The town of Erfurt capitulated on the 16th. The King 
 of Saxony was slightly reprimanded for having yielded to 
 the King of Prussia, by giving him the entry of his states 
 and taking part in the beginning of the war, but his prison- 
 ers were restored to him. General Clarke was made Gov- 
 ernor of Erfurt. 
 
 * The eldest son of the Chamberlain. He was afterward killed in Spain, 
 f Whom, twice since then, we have seen entering Paris at the head of his 
 army. 
 
466 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K&MUSAT. 
 
 The bulletins of this period are especially remarkable. 
 Bonaparte was angry at having been deceived by the Emper- 
 or Alexander. He had calculated on the unchanging neu- 
 trality of Prussia ; he was mortified at English influence on 
 the Continent ; and his ill humor was perceptible in every 
 word dictated by him. He attacked in turn the English 
 Government, the Prussian nobility, whom he wished to de- 
 nounce to the people, the young Queen, women, etc. Grand 
 and noble expressions, often of a poetical nature, were strange- 
 ly contrasted with abusive terms. He gratified his resent- 
 ment and anger, but he lowered himself by giving such ex- 
 pression to his own feelings, and, above all, he sinned against 
 Parisian good taste. We were beginning to grow accustomed 
 to military wonders, and the form in which intelligence of 
 them was transmitted to us was freely criticised. After all, 
 the attention that nations pay to the words of kings is not 
 so foolish as it may appear. The words of sovereigns, even 
 more than their actions, reveal their dispositions, and the dis- 
 position of their ruler is of primary importance to subjects. 
 The King of Prussia, who was now pushed to extremity, 
 asked for an armistice : it was refused, and Leipsic was taken. 
 
 The French marched across the battle-field of Rossbach, 
 and the column erected there in commemoration of our 
 former defeat was removed and sent to Paris. 
 
 On the 22d of October M. de Lucchesini came to our 
 headquarters. He brought a letter from the King of Prus- 
 sia, the publication of which, said the " Moniteur," * was 
 forbidden by the secrecy necessary in diplomatic affairs. 
 " But," it continued, " the Emperor's reply was considered 
 so admirable that a few copies of it have been made ; we 
 have procured one, and we hasten to lay the letter before 
 our readers." 
 
 Every determination taken by the Emperor, from the 
 
 * " Moniteur " of the 30th. Putting aside the more or less imperative cir- 
 cumstances which determined the King of Prussia to declare war, Bonaparte's 
 letter is remarkable. 
 
THE QUEEN OF PRUSSIA. 467 
 
 greatest to the least, seems partly founded on the lion's rea- 
 son in La Fontaine's fable " Because my name is Lign" 
 
 " The Prussians are surprised at the briskness of our pur- 
 suit ; they are probably accustomed to the manoauvres of the 
 Seven Years' War." And when they asked for three days' 
 truce, in order to bury their dead " Think of the living," 
 replied the Emperor, " and leave to us the care of burying 
 the dead. That needs no truce." * 
 
 The Emperor reached Potsdam on the 24th of October. 
 As may be supposed, he visited Sans-Souci, and reminiscences 
 of Frederick the Great are to be found in the bulletins. 
 " The handsome Emperor (the Czar) and the lovely Queen" f 
 received fresh insults in these documents, from which we 
 gathered that a war with Russia would follow the Prussian 
 war. Paris was thrown into consternation ; the news from 
 the seat of war was read publicly at the theatres, but the 
 only applause that greeted it was hired. " War, nothing but 
 war, is all that is left to us." Such words as these, uttered 
 with more or less of wrath or grief, struck ominously on the 
 ear of the adherents of the Emperor, yet they could not con- 
 tradict them. 
 
 On the same day, the 25th of October, the fortress of 
 Spandau capitulated. 
 
 To all these accounts of the war was added a letter sup- 
 posed to be written by a private soldier from a town in the 
 duchy of Brunswick. It contained enthusiastic praise of 
 
 * M. Daru, Intendant of the Emperor's household, was at this period made 
 Intendant of the army. His severity in raising the war contributions is remem- 
 bered to this day in Prussia. He left a terrible reputation behind him, and yet 
 those who knew him well will attest that he was a man of moderate opinions, 
 with a taste for literature, and liked by his friends. But at that time obedience 
 was the first duty. The Emperor required it, both in manner and matter. The 
 qualities or the vices of masters are reflected in those who serve them. 
 
 f Bulletin of the 17th of October: "The Queen is a handsome woman, but 
 she has little intelligence," etc. And later : " It is said in Berlin, * The Queen 
 was so good, so gentle ! ' But since that fatal interview with the handsome Em- 
 peror, how changed she is ! " 
 
468 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 French valor, which it attributed to the military system 
 adopted in our army. "It is also certain," continues the 
 writer, " that any soldier who can say to himself, ' It is not 
 impossible for me to become a Marshal of the Empire, a 
 Prince, or a Duke, as it has happened to others,' must be 
 greatly encouraged by that thought. It was quite another 
 thing at Rossbach. The French army was commanded then 
 by gentlemen who owed their military rank only to their 
 birth, or to the patronage of a Pompadour ; and the troops 
 were of so-called soldiers, on whose track, after their defeat, 
 were found nothing but pigtails and powdering-bags." 
 
 When the Emperor made his entry into Berlin on the 
 26th of October, in the midst of acclamations, he vented his 
 displeasure on those among the Prussian nobles who were 
 presented to him. " My brother the King of Prussia," he 
 said, " ceased to be King from the day on which he failed to 
 have Prince Louis hanged, when he dared to go and break 
 his Minister's windows." * And to Count Nesch he said 
 roughly, " I will bring the nobles of this Court down so low 
 that they shall be obliged to beg their bread." 
 
 By violent speeches of this kind, which were published, 
 the Emperor not only gratified his anger against the instiga- 
 tors of the war, but imagined that he fulfilled obligations 
 toward our Revolution. Although he was a determined 
 counter-revolutionist, he was obliged from time to time to 
 render some homage to the ideas which, by a fatal deviation, 
 had produced his own accession. A mistaken longing for 
 equality, a noble desire for liberty, were the causes of our 
 civil discord ; but in his thirst for power he gave us no en- 
 couragement toward that freedom which, if we succeed in 
 obtaining it, will be the most glorious conquest of our times, 
 but limited himself, in his bargain with the age, to advancing 
 equality only. The love of liberty is an unselfish sentiment, 
 which a generous ruler ought at the present day to foster in 
 
 * The young Prince had perpetrated this garrison prank on M. Haugwitz's 
 windows, when the latter, having returned from France, was advising peace. 
 
THE EMPEROR AND THE REVOLUTION. 469 
 
 his people ; but Bonaparte only sought to aggrandize his own 
 power. Sometimes, with entire f orgetfulness of his own ori- 
 gin, he spoke and acted as if he were a king by the grace 
 of God, and then every word of his became, as it were, feu- 
 dal ; while at other times he affected a sort of Jacobinism, 
 and then he would abuse legitimate royalty, treat our old 
 memories with disdain, and denounce the nobility to the ple- 
 beians of every country. Never did he seek to establish the 
 true rights of nations ; and the unostentatious aristocracy of 
 letters and of a noble civilization was far more displeasing to 
 him, in reality, than that of titles and privileges, which he 
 could make use of as he pleased. 
 
 On the 29th of October M. de Talleyrand left Mayence 
 to join the Emperor, who had sent for him. M. de Remu- 
 sat felt much regret at his departure. He had found his 
 society a great resource ; the somewhat solemn idleness of 
 court life made them necessary to each other. M. de Talley- 
 rand, having recognized both the trustworthiness and the 
 superior abilities of my husband, would throw aside his 
 habitual reserve in his company, and would confide to him 
 his views on passing events and his opinion of their common 
 master. An aristocrat by taste, by conviction, and by birth, 
 M. de Talleyrand approved of Bonaparte's repression of what 
 he regarded as the excesses of the Revolution ; but he would 
 have wished that a headstrong temper and a determined will 
 had not led the Emperor aside from a course in which his 
 own prudent counsels might have guided him aright. He 
 was thoroughly conversant with the European political situa- 
 tion, and better versed in the law of nations than in their 
 true rights, and he propounded with accuracy the diplomatic 
 course that he would have had the Emperor follow. He was 
 alarmed at the possible preponderance of Russia in Europe, 
 and was in favor of founding an independent power between 
 us and the Russians. For this reason he encouraged the ar- 
 dent, though vague, desires of the Poles. " A kingdom of 
 Poland," he used to say, " ought to be established. It would 
 
470 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 be the bulwark of our independence ; but it ought not to be 
 done by halves." With his head full of this plan, he started 
 to join the Emperor, resolved on advising him to turn his 
 brilliant success to good account. 
 
 After M. de Talleyrand's departure, M. de Kemusat wrote 
 me that the dullness of his life was extreme. The Court at 
 Mayence was monotonously regular. There, as elsewhere 
 and in all places, the Empress was gentle, quiet, idle, and 
 averse to take anything on herself, because, whether far or 
 near, she dreaded the displeasure of her husband. Her 
 daughter, who was delighted to escape from her wretched 
 home, spent her time in diversions of a nature somewhat too 
 childish for her rank and position.* Hortense rejoiced with 
 her mother over the promising qualities of her little son, then 
 full of life and beauty, and very forward for his years. 
 
 The German princes came to pay their court at Mayence ; 
 great banquets were given ; elegant costumes were worn ; 
 there was much walking and driving about, and great eager- 
 ness for news. The Court wanted to return to Paris ; the 
 Empress wanted to go to Berlin ; and there, as elsewhere, all 
 was dependent on the will of one man. 
 
 In Paris life was dull, but tranquil. The absence of the 
 Emperor was always a relief : if people did not speak more 
 freely, they seemed better able to breathe, and this sense of 
 alleviation was especially to be observed in persons connected 
 with his Government. The impression produced by the Em- 
 peror's victories became weaker every day ; and a tangible 
 proof was thus afforded to the world that lasting national 
 enthusiasm could no longer be kindled by success in war. 
 
 Prince Eugene's army was marching onward in Albania, 
 
 * It is evident that Queen Hortense and her Court amused themselves like 
 school-girls. This was a result of their intimacy while at Mme. Campan's 
 school. Napoleon III. seemed to have inherited his mother's tastes in this re- 
 spect. Even when long past youth, he liked children's games, blind-man's-buff 
 and others. Only on these occasions did he clear his brow and seem happy, 
 and even amiable ; which was by no means the case in his intercourse with the 
 world, social or political, for his manner was extremely cold. P. R. 
 
TAKING OF LUBECK. 471 
 
 and Marshal Marmont was holding in check the Russians, 
 who were moving on that side. A fresh proclamation was 
 issued by the Emperor to his soldiers : it announced a rup- 
 ture with Russia and an onward march, promised fresh tri- 
 umphs, and alluded to the " love " of Bonaparte for his army. 
 Marshal Brune,* commanding the reserves stationed at Bou- 
 logne, issued on this occasion a curious order of the day, 
 which was published by command in the " Moniteur " : 
 
 " SOLDIEES : You will read at mess, every day for a fort- 
 night, the sublime proclamation of his Majesty the Emperor 
 and King to the Grand Army. You will learn it by heart ; 
 each one of you will shed tears of courage, and will be filled 
 with the irresistible enthusiasm inspired by heroism." 
 
 In Paris, no one was moved to tears, and the prolongation 
 of the war filled us with dismay. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Emperor remained at Berlin, where he 
 had established his headquarters. He announced in his bul- 
 letins that the great Prussian army had vanished like an 
 autumnal mist, and he ordered his lieutenants to complete 
 the conquest of all the Prussian states. At the same time a 
 war-tax of one hundred and fifty millions was raised ; the 
 towns surrendered one by one Kiistrin and Stettin first, 
 Magdeburg a little later. Liibeck, which had offered resist- 
 ance, was stormed and horribly pillaged; there was fighting 
 in every street ; and I remember that Prince Borghese, who 
 took part in the assault, gave us some particulars of the cru- 
 elty practiced by the soldiers in that unfortunate town. 
 " What I then saw," he told us, " gave me an idea of the 
 bloodthirsty intoxication which resistance at first, and victory 
 afterward, can produce in soldiers." He added: "At such 
 a moment every officer is a mere soldier. I was beyond all 
 self-control ; I felt, like everybody else, a sort of passionate 
 
 * He was massacred at Avignon in 1816. [In M. Jules Claretie's "Camille 
 Desmoulins," an interesting account of the early career of Brune is to be found. 
 It is to his pencil that we owe the only existing portrait of Camille's wife, Lu- 
 cille. TRANSLATORS.] 
 
472 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 longing to exert my strength against people and things. I 
 should be ashamed to recall some absurdly horrible acts 
 which I committed. In the midst of imminent danger, when 
 one must cut one's way with the sword, with everything 
 around in flames, when the thunder of cannon or the rattle 
 of musketry mingles with the cries of a dense crowd, in 
 which are people pressing in every direction, either seeking 
 others or trying to escape from them, and all this in the nar- 
 row space of a street, then a man loses his head completely. 
 There is no act of atrocity or of folly that he will not com- 
 mit. He will wantonly destroy without profit to anybody, 
 and will give himself up to an uncontrollable delirium of 
 evil passions." 
 
 After the fall of Liibeck, Marshal Bernadotte remained 
 there some time as governor of the town, and it was then 
 that he began to lay the foundation of his future greatness. 
 He behaved with perfect equity, and did his best to assuage 
 the evils that had been caused by war. Strict discipline was 
 maintained among his troops ; the gentleness of his bearing 
 attracted and consoled, and he won the admiration and sin- 
 cere affection of the people. 
 
 During the Emperor's stay at Berlin, the Prince of Hatz- 
 feld, who had remained there, and who, said the bulletins, 
 " had accepted the post of governor," kept up a secret corre- 
 spondence with the King of Prussia, in which he gave full 
 accounts of the movements of our army. One of his letters 
 was intercepted, and the Emperor gave orders for his arrest 
 and trial before a military court. His wife, who was with 
 child, was in despair ; she obtained an audience of the Em- 
 peror, and threw herself at his feet. He showed her the 
 Prince's letter, and when the poor young wife gave way to 
 her sorrow, the Emperor, moved with pity, bade her rise, 
 and said to her: "You have the original document, on 
 which your husband may be condemned, in your own hand. 
 Take my advice ; profit by this moment to burn it, and then 
 there will be no evidence to condemn him." The Princess, 
 
CONGRATULATIONS. 473 
 
 without a moment's delay, threw the paper into the fire, and 
 bathed the Emperor's hands with her tears. This anecdote 
 made a greater impression on Paris than all our victories.* 
 
 Our Senate sent a deputation to Berlin with congratula- 
 tions on so triumphant a campaign. The Emperor intrusted 
 the envoys, on their return to Paris, with the sword of Fred- 
 erick the Great, the ribbon of the Black Eagle worn by him, 
 and several flags, among which, says the " Moniteur," " there 
 are several embroidered by the hands of that fair Queen 
 whose beauty has been as fatal to the people of Prussia as 
 was the beauty of Helen to the Trojans." 
 
 Every day our generals invaded some new district. The 
 King of Holland had advanced into Hanover, which was 
 again being attacked by us ; but all at once we heard that he 
 had returned to his own states, either because he disliked 
 acting merely as one of his brother's lieutenants, or because 
 Bonaparte preferred that his conquests should be made by 
 his own generals. Marshal Mortier took possession of the 
 
 * The Emperor describes this scene to the Empress in the following terms : 
 " I have received your letter. You seem vexed at my speaking ill of women. 
 It is true that I hate a scheming woman beyond everything. I am accustomed 
 to good, gentle, and conciliating women ; and such women I love. If I am 
 spoiled by them, it is not my fault, but yours. But you will see I have been very 
 kind to one good and kindly woman Mme. de Hatzfeld. When I showed her 
 her husband's letter, she said, sobbing and with deep feeling, but so innocently, 
 * Oh, yes, that is indeed his handwriting ! ' As she read it the tone of her voice 
 went to my heart. I felt sorry for her, and I said, ' Well, madame, throw the 
 letter in the fire, and I shall not be able to punish your husband.' She burned 
 the letter and seemed very happy. Since then her husband has kept himself 
 quiet. Two hours later, and he was a lost man. So, you see, I like women who 
 are kind and simple and gentle, but it is because they only are like you. Ber- 
 lin, November 6, 1806, 9 p. M." These stories concide. It was said, however, 
 at the time, that the Emperor, who had made up his mind to be severely just, 
 perceived that the incriminating letter was of an anterior date to that at which, 
 according to the usages of war, it could have been considered as an act of es- 
 pial, and that the whole scene was then arranged for dramatic effect. Another 
 account was that Mme. de Hatzfeld herself, on glancing over the letter, pointed 
 out the date to the Emperor, who immediately exclaimed, " Oh, then burn it ! " 
 P. R. 
 
474 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 city of Hamburg on the 19th of November, and an enor- 
 mous quantity of English merchandise was confiscated. A 
 number of auditors belonging to the Council of State were 
 sent from Paris ; among them were M. d'Houdetot and M. 
 de Tournon.* These auditors were made Intendants of 
 Berlin, Bayreuth, and other towns. By these young and 
 active proconsuls the conquered states were governed in the 
 interests of the conqueror, and victory was immediately fol- 
 lowed by an administration which turned it to the best ad- 
 vantage. 
 
 The Emperor gained the affections of the young of every 
 rank, by giving them opportunities for action, for self-asser- 
 tion, and for exercising an absolute authority. Thus, he 
 often said, " There is no conquest I could not undertake, for 
 with the help of my soldiers and my auditors I could con- 
 quer and rule the whole world." We may suppose that the 
 habits and the despotic notions that these young men brought 
 back into their own country were rather perilous when the 
 government of French provinces was confided to them. 
 Most of them found it difficult not to rule those provinces 
 like a conquered country. These young men, who were 
 raised early in life to such important posts, are at the present 
 time idle and without prospects, owing to the straitening of 
 our territory. They fret under their enforced idleness, and 
 form one of the most serious difficulties with which the 
 King's Government is confronted. 
 
 The conquest of Prussia was completed, and our troops 
 marched into Poland. The season was far advanced ; they 
 had not seen the Kussians, but it was known that they were 
 approaching; a severe and difficult campaign was antici- 
 pated. The cold was not severe, but the march of our sol- 
 diers was impeded by the marshy soil, in which men, guns, 
 and carriages were continually sinking. The accounts of 
 the sufferings endured by the army are terrible. Whole 
 
 * M. d'Houdetot became a peer of France under the Restoration, and M. de 
 Tournon Prefect of the Gironde. P. R. 
 
A FAMOUS DECREE. 475 
 
 squadrons often sank up to the middle of the men's bodies 
 in the marsh, and it was impossible to save them from a lin- 
 gering death. Although the Emperor was determined to 
 make the most of his victories, he felt the necessity of giv- 
 ing some repose to his troops, and he eagerly accepted the 
 King of Prussia's offer of a suspension of hostilities, during 
 which he was to remain on one bank of the Yistula, and the 
 Prussians on the other. But it is probable that the condi- 
 tions he annexed to this armistice were too severe, or per- 
 haps it was only proposed by Prussia in order to gain time 
 and effect a junction with the Russians ; for the negotiations 
 dragged slowly along, and the Emperor, on learning the 
 movements of the Russian general, Benningsen, suddenly 
 left Berlin on the 25th of November. He announced fresh 
 danger and fresh success to his troops by the following 
 spirited words, with which he closed his proclamation: 
 "How should the Russians overthrow such designs? Are 
 not they and we alike the soldiers of Austerlitz ? " 
 
 A famous decree, dated from Berlin and preceded by a 
 lengthy preamble, appeared at the same time, in which sun- 
 dry grievances were set forth. This decree proclaimed the 
 British Isles to be in a state of blockade, and it was only a 
 reprisal on the usage of England, who, when she enters upon 
 a war, declares a universal blockade, and in virtue thereof 
 authorizes her ships to take possession of all other vessels in 
 whatsoever seas. The Berlin decree divided the empire of 
 the world in two, opposing the power of the Continent to 
 the power of the seas. Every Englishman who should be 
 found either in France or in any state occupied by us, or 
 under our influence, was to become a prisoner of war, and 
 this hard enactment was notified to all our sovereign allies. 
 Thenceforth it was manifest that the struggle which was 
 beginning, between despotic power in all its ramifications 
 and the strength of such a constitution as that which rules 
 and vivifies the English nation, could end only by the com- 
 plete destruction of one of the assailants. Despotism has 
 
476 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 fallen, and, notwithstanding the terrible cost to ourselves, 
 we ought to be grateful to Providence for the salvation of 
 nations and the lessons taught to posterity. 
 
 On the 28th of November Murat made his entry into 
 Warsaw. The French were enthusiastically received by 
 those among the Poles who hoped that the liberty of their 
 country would result from our conquests. In the bulletin 
 which announced the entry these words occur : " Will the 
 kingdom of Poland be restored ? God alone, who holds in 
 His hand the direction of events, can be the arbiter of this 
 great political problem." Thenceforth Bonaparte's family 
 began to covet the throne of Poland. His brother Jerome 
 had some hopes of obtaining it. Murat, who had displayed 
 brilliant valor throughout all the campaign, was the first to 
 be sent to Warsaw, and made his appearance there in the 
 theatrical costume that he affected plumed bonnet, colored 
 boots, and richly laced cloak. His dress resembled that of 
 the Polish nobles, and he flattered himself that one day that 
 great country would be committed to his rule. His wife 
 received many congratulations in Paris, and this, perhaps, 
 made the Emperor, who disliked to be forestalled on any 
 point, change his mind. I know that the Empress also had 
 hopes of the Polish crown for her son. When the Emperor, 
 at a later date, became father of a natural son, of whose fate 
 I am at present uninformed, the Poles fixed their hopes on 
 that child. 
 
 Writers better acquainted with the secrets of diplomacy 
 than I may explain why Bonaparte did not carry out, but 
 merely sketched, his plans for Poland, notwithstanding his 
 own personal proclivities and M. de Talleyrand's influence 
 and opinions on the subject. It may be that events suc- 
 ceeded each other with such rapidity, and clashed so rudely, 
 that due care could not be bestowed on the projected enter- 
 prise. Subsequently to the Prussian campaign and the treaty 
 of Tilsit, the Emperor often regretted that he had not pushed 
 his innovations in Europe to the extent of changing every 
 
A CITIZEN KING. 4.77 
 
 existing dynasty. " There is nothing to be gained," he used 
 to say, " by leaving any power in the hands of people whom 
 we have made discontented. There is no use in half mea- 
 sures ; old works will not drive new machines. I ought to 
 have made all other kings accessory to my own greatness, 
 and, so that they should owe everything to me, they ought 
 not to have had any greatness in the past to point to. Not 
 that in my eyes this was of much value certainly not of 
 value equal to that of founding a new race ; but nevertheless 
 it has a certain influence over mankind. My sympathy with 
 certain sovereigns, my compassion toward suffering nations, 
 my fear, I know not why, of causing an utter overthrow of 
 all things, withheld me. I have been greatly in the wrong, 
 and perhaps I may have to pay for it dearly." 
 
 When the Emperor spoke in this sense, he took pains to 
 dwell on the necessity imposed by the Revolution of the 
 renewal of all things. But, as I have already said, he in his 
 secret heart thought he had done enough for the Revolution 
 in changing the frontiers of states and the sovereigns who 
 ruled them. A citizen King, chosen either from among his 
 own kinsfolk, or from the ranks of the army, ought, he con- 
 sidered, to satisfy all the citizen classes of modern society by 
 his sudden elevation ; and, provided the depotism of the new 
 sovereign could be turned to the advantage of his own pro- 
 jects, he should not be interfered with. It must be owned, 
 however, that if " the spirit of the age," as Bonaparte called 
 it, had resulted only in nations being governed by men whom 
 a lucky chance had drawn from their native obscurity, it was 
 scarcely worth while to make such a fuss about it. If we are 
 to be ruled by a despot, surely the despot who can point to 
 the greatness of his ancestors, and who exercises his author- 
 ity in virtue of ancient rights made sacred by ancient glory, 
 or even in virtue of rights whose origin is lost in the obscu- 
 rity of ages, is the least mortifying to human pride. 
 
 At the close of the war Poland found that she was free 
 only in that portion of the country which had been seized 
 
478 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 by Prussia. His treaties with the Emperor of Russia, the 
 temporary need of repose, the fear of displeasing Austria by 
 interfering with her possessions, cramped Bonaparte's plans. 
 It may be that they could not have been carried out ; but, 
 being only half attempted, they bore within them the ele- 
 ments of their own destruction. 
 
 The advantages and disadvantages of the continental 
 policy with regard to the English nation have often been 
 discussed. I am not competent either to state the objections 
 raised to this system or the reasons for which many disinter- 
 ested persons approve of it; still less would I venture to 
 draw hasty conclusions. The system in question imposed 
 conditions on the allies of France which were too much in 
 opposition to their interests to be long endured by them ; 
 for, although it encouraged continental industry, it interfered 
 with the luxuries of life, and with some few of its daily ne- 
 cessaries. It was also felt to be an act of tyranny. More- 
 over, it caused every Englishman to share the aversion of 
 the British Government toward Bonaparte, because an at- 
 tack upon trade is an attack on the fountain-head of every 
 Englishman's existence. Thus the war with us became a 
 national one for our enemies, and from that time was vigor- 
 ously carried on by the English. 
 
 Meanwhile I have heard it said by well-informed persons 
 that the consequence of this rigorous policy would in the 
 end strike a fatal blow at the English Constitution, and that 
 on this account especially it was advantageous to pursue it. 
 The English Government was obliged, in order to act with 
 the same rapidity as the enemy, to encroach little by little 
 on the rights of the people. The people made no opposition, 
 because they felt the necessity of resistance. Parliament, 
 less jealous of its liberties, would not venture on any opposi- 
 tion ; and by degrees the English were becoming a military 
 people. The national debt was increased, in order to afford 
 supplies to the coalition and the army ; the executive was 
 becoming accustomed to encroachments which had been tol- 
 
APPOINTMENTS AND DECREES. 479 
 
 erated in the beginning, and it would willingly have main- 
 tained them as an acquired right. Thus, the strained situa- 
 tion into which every Government was forced by the Em- 
 peror was changing the Constitution of Great Britain, and 
 possibly, had the continental system lasted for a length of 
 time, the English could only have recovered their liberties 
 through violence or sedition. This was the Emperor's secret 
 hope. He fomented rebellion in Ireland ; supported as he 
 was by every absolute sovereign on the Continent, he helped 
 and protected the Opposition in England by all the means 
 in his power, while the London newspapers in his pay stirred 
 up the people to claim their liberties. 
 
 At a later period I heard M. de Talleyrand, who was 
 greatly alarmed at this contest, express himself with more 
 warmth than he usually displays in stating his opinions. 
 " Tremble, foolish people that you are," said he, " at the 
 Emperor's success over the English ; for, if the English Con- 
 stitution is destroyed, understand clearly that the civilization 
 of the world will be shaken to its very foundations." 
 
 Before leaving Berlin the Emperor issued several decrees, 
 dated thence, showing that, although he was at the camp, he 
 had both leisure and will to attend to other pursuits besides 
 those of war. Such were the appointment of certain pre- 
 fects, a decree for the organization of the Naval Office, and 
 one designating the site of the Madeleine, on the Boule- 
 vard, for the monument to be erected to the glory of the 
 French army. Competition for designs for this monument 
 was invited by circulars from the Minister of the Interior, 
 which were distributed in every direction. Numerous pro- 
 motions were made in the army, and there was a general dis- 
 tribution of crosses. 
 
 On the 25th of November the Emperor departed for 
 Posen. The bad state of the roads obliged him to exchange 
 his traveling-carriage for a country wagon. The Grand Mar- 
 shal of the Palace was overturned in his caleche, and dislo- 
 cated his collar bone. The same accident happened to M. de 
 36 
 
4:80 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 Talleyrand's carriage, but he escaped without hurt ; on ac- 
 count of his lameness, he had to remain four and twenty 
 hours on the road in his overturned carriage, until means 
 could be found to enable him to continue his journey. About 
 this time he took occasion to answer a letter I had written to 
 him. "I reply to your letter," he writes, "in the midst of 
 the mud of Poland ; next year, perhaps, I may address you 
 from the sandy deserts of I know not what country. I beg 
 you to remember me in your prayers." The Emperor was 
 only too much inclined to despise the obstacles that destroyed 
 part of his army. Moreover, it was imperative to march on- 
 ward. The Russians were advancing, and he did not choose 
 to await them in Prussia. 
 
 On the 2d of December the Senate was convoked in 
 Paris. The Arch-Chancellor read a letter from the Emper- 
 or, giving an account of his victories, promising others in 
 the future, and requesting a senatus consultum which should 
 order an immediate levy of the conscripts of 1807. This 
 levy, in ordinary times, was made in September only. A 
 commission was appointed for form's sake. This commis- 
 sion sat in consultation upon the request for one morning 
 only, and the next day but one that is, on the 4th the 
 senatus consultum was reported. 
 
 It was also about this epoch that the dispute between the 
 Academy and Cardinal Maury was settled. The Emperor de- 
 cided the question, and a long article appeared anonymously 
 in the " Moniteur," which ended with these words : " The 
 Academy, doubtless, has no wish to deprive a man, whose 
 great abilities were conspicuous during a time of civil dis- 
 cord, of a right which custom confers upon him. His ad- 
 mission to the Academy was another step toward the entire 
 oblivion of past events which can alone insure the duration 
 of the tranquillity that has been restored to us. This is a 
 long article on a subject which is apparently of very small 
 importance; nevertheless, the light in which some persons 
 have endeavored to place it gives rise to serious considera- 
 
THE KING OF SAXONY. 481 
 
 tion. We perceive to what fluctuations we should once 
 more be exposed, into what uncertainty we should again be 
 thrown, only that fortunately for us the helm of the state is in 
 the hands of a pilot whose arm is strong, whose steering is 
 steady, and who has but one aim in view the happiness of 
 the country." * 
 
 While Bonaparte forced his soldiers to endure terrible 
 hardships of all kinds in the prosecution of the war, he lost 
 no opportunity of proving that nothing interfered with the 
 interest he, in the midst of camps, took in the progress of 
 civilization. 
 
 An order of the day, dated from headquarters of the 
 Grand Army, is as follows : " In the name of the Emperor. 
 The University of Jena, its professors, teachers, and students, 
 its possessions, revenues, and other prerogatives whatsoever, 
 are placed under the special protection of the commanders 
 of the French and allied troops. The course of study will 
 be continued. Students are consequently authorized to re- 
 turn to Jena, and it is the Emperor's intention to favor that 
 town as much as possible." 
 
 The King of Saxony, subdued by the power of the con- 
 queror, broke off his alliance with Prussia and concluded a 
 treaty with the Emperor. During a long reign this prince 
 had enjoyed the blessings of peace and order. Yenerated 
 by his subjects, and occupied solely with their welfare, no- 
 thing but the hurricane of Bonaparte's success could have 
 brought the horrors of war among the peaceful valleys of 
 his kingdom. He was too weak to resist the shock ; he sub- 
 mitted, and tried to save his people by accepting the victor's 
 terms. But his fidelity to treaties could not save him, be- 
 cause Saxony subsequently became of necessity the battle- 
 
 * I was under the impression that the grave dispute between Cardinal Maury 
 and the Institute was finally decided against the claims of the former. At any 
 rate, many years later, M. de Salvandy, in receiving the Bishop of Orleans into 
 the Academy, addressed him as Monsieur. He was guided probably by prece- 
 dent, and no question was raised on the subject. P. R. 
 
482 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 field on which the neighboring sovereigns contended more 
 than once for victory. 
 
 Meanwhile, Paris and its inhabitants became every day 
 more gloomy. The bulletins contained only vague accounts 
 of bloody conflicts, with small results. It was easy to infer, 
 from occasional allusions to the severity of the season and the 
 ruggedness of the country, that our soldiers had great obsta- 
 cles to surmount and much suffering to bear. Private letters, 
 although cautiously written, or they would not have reached 
 their destination, betrayed general anxiety and distress. The 
 least movements of our army were represented as victories, 
 but the Emperor's very triumphs involved him in difficulty. 
 
 The distinct advantage with which the campaign had 
 opened made the Parisians hard to please as the war went on. 
 Much trouble was taken to keep up the enthusiasm. The 
 bulletins were solemnly read at the theatres ; guns were fired 
 from the Invalides immediately on receipt of news from the 
 army ; poets were paid for hastily written odes, chants of 
 victory, and interludes, which were splendidly represented 
 at the Opera,* and on the following day articles written to 
 order commented on the heartiness of the applause.f 
 
 * The Emperor frequently rebukes the haste of those who were commissioned 
 to sound his praises at the Paris theatres. He writes to Cambaeeres from Ber- 
 lin, on the 21st of November, 1806 : " If the army tries its best to do honor to 
 the nation, it must be owned that literary men do much to discredit it. I read 
 yesterday the wretched verses that were sung at the Opera. Really they are 
 quite a mockery. How can you allow impromptus to be sung at the Opera ? 
 They are only fit for vaudevilles. Express my displeaaure to M. de Lusay. He 
 and the Minister of the Interior could surely get something passable composed ; 
 but, to insure this, it must not be represented earlier than three months after it 
 is ordered. People complain that we have no literature ; that is the fault of the 
 Minister of the Interior. It is absurd to order an eclogue as you might order a 
 gown." He meant, apparently, that the victories of Jena and Eylau should have 
 been foreseen three months beforehand. M. de Lu9ay, a Chamberlain, had 
 charge of the theatres in the absence of the superintendent, the First Chamber- 
 lain, who was detained, as we have seen, at Mayence. P. R. 
 
 f Quotation from the " Moniteur " : " Last night the following words were 
 read at the Opera House : * The Emperor is in the enjoyment of perfect health.' 
 It is impossible to conceive the enthusiasm produced by these words." 
 
BATTLE OF EYLATT. 483 
 
 The Empress, who was restless, idle, and tired of May- 
 ence, wrote continually, begging to be allowed to go to Ber- 
 lin. The Emperor was on the point of yielding to her, and 
 I learned from M. de Remusat with fresh sorrow that in all 
 probability his absence would be prolonged. But the arrival 
 of the Eussians, and the obligation he was under of march- 
 ing into Poland, made Bonaparte change his mind. More- 
 over, he was informed that Paris was dull, and that the 
 tradespeople were complaining of the harm done them by 
 the general uneasiness. He sent orders to his wife to return 
 to the Tuileries, there to keep up the accustomed splendor 
 of her Court, and we all received commands to amuse our- 
 selves ostentatiously.* 
 
 Meanwhile, after a few partial engagements, the Emper- 
 or determined on going into winter quarters ; but the Rus- 
 sians, who were better used to the severity of the climate and 
 the rudeness of the country, would not allow of this, and after 
 measuring their strength in some bloody encounters, where 
 our success was dearly bought, the two armies met face to 
 face near the village of Preussisch Eylau, which has given its 
 name to a sanguinary battle. One shudders even now at the 
 description of that terrible day. The cold was piercing, 
 and the snow f ailing fast ; but the opposition of the elements 
 only increased the ferocity of both armies. For twelve hours 
 they fought, without either side being able to claim the vic- 
 tory. The loss of men was immense. Toward evening the 
 Russians retreated in good order, leaving a considerable num- 
 ber of their wounded on the field of battle. Both sovereigns, 
 Russian and French, ordered the Te Deum to be sung. The 
 fact is, this horrible butchery was to no purpose, and the 
 Emperor afterward said that, if the Russian army had at- 
 tacked him on the following day, it is probable he would 
 have been beaten. But this w r as an additional reason for 
 him to exult over the victory loudly. He wrote to the bish- 
 
 * On this occasion M. de Talleyrand said : " Ladies, this is no laughing mat- 
 ter ; the Emperor insists on your amusing yourselves." 
 
484 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 ops, informed the Senate of his alleged success, contradicted 
 in his own journals the foreign versions of the event, and 
 concealed as much as possible the losses that we had sus- 
 tained. It is said that he visited the battle-field, and that 
 the awful spectacle made a great impression on him. This 
 would seem to be true, because the bulletin in which the fact 
 is stated is written in a very simple style, unlike that of the 
 others, in which he generally figures in a theatrical atti- 
 tude. 
 
 On his return, he ordered a very fine painting from Gros 
 the artist, in which he is represented among the dead and 
 dying, lifting his eyes to heaven, as if praying for resigna- 
 tion. The expression given to him by the painter is ex- 
 tremely beautiful. I have often gazed at the picture with 
 emotion, hoping with all my heart for it still desired to 
 cling to him that such had really been the expression of 
 his countenance on that occasion.* 
 
 M. Denon, Director of the Museum, and one of the most 
 obsequious servants of the Emperor, always followed him in 
 his campaigns, in order to select objects of value in every 
 conquered city, to add to the treasures of that magnificent 
 collection. He fulfilled his task with exactness, which, 
 people said, resembled rapacity, and he was accused of ap- 
 propriating a share of the plunder. Our soldiers knew him 
 only by the name of " The Auctioneer." After the battle 
 of Eylau, and while at Warsaw, he received orders to have 
 a monument erefcted in commemoration of the day. The 
 more doubtful it was, the more the Emperor insisted on its 
 being held to be a victory. Denon sent to Paris a poetical 
 account of the Emperor's visit to the wounded. Many per- 
 sons have declared that the painting by Gros represented a 
 fiction, like that of the visit to the pest-stricken at Jaffa. 
 But why should it be denied that Bonaparte could sometimes 
 feel? 
 
 * In a bulletin of the -time we read as follows : " Such a spectacle is calcu- 
 lated to inspire princes with a love of peace and a horror of war," 
 
BATTLE OF EYLAU. 485 
 
 The subject was open to competition among our principal 
 painters. A considerable number of sketches were sent in. 
 Gros obtained every vote, and the choice fell upon him. 
 
 The battle of Eylau was fought on the 10th of February, 
 
 1807. 
 
CHAPTEE XXIII. 
 
 (1807.) 
 
 The Return of the Empress to Paris The Imperial Family Junot Fouch6 The 
 Queen of Holland Levy of the Conscripts of 1808 Theatricals at Court Let- 
 ter from the Emperor Siege of Dantzic Death of the Empress of Austria- 
 Death of Queen Hortense's Son M. Decazes The Emperor's Want of Feeling.. 
 
 AFTER the battle of Eylau, both armies were forced to 
 come to a halt, in consequence of the confusion produced by 
 a thaw, and both went into winter quarters. Our troops 
 were in cantonments near Marienwerder, and the Emperor 
 established himself in a country-house near Osterode.* 
 
 The Empress had returned to Paris at the end of Janu- 
 ary. She was out of spirits, vaguely anxious, and not over- 
 pleased with those members of the Court who had accom- 
 panied her to Mayence. Besides this, she was in a state of 
 nervousness, as she always was during the Emperor's absence, 
 for she dreaded his disapproval of her actions. She was most 
 gracious, and showed all her former friendship for me. It 
 was said by some members of the Court that her low spirits 
 were partly caused by tender feelings which she entertained 
 toward a certain young equerry, then absent with the Em- 
 peror. I never inquired into the truth of this story, nor did 
 she ever mention it to me ; but, on the contrary, she was dis- 
 tressed by the stories she was told by some Polish ladies then 
 in Paris, concerning the Emperor and a young countrywoman 
 
 * The Emperor took up his residence at Osterode, or in the neighborhood, on 
 the 22d of February, 1807. P. R. 
 
THE RETURN OF THE EMPRESS TO PARIS. 487 
 
 of theirs. Her affection for her husband was always dashed, 
 with the dread of divorce ; and, of all her feelings, this was, 
 I believe, the strongest. She would occasionally introduce 
 a few words on the subject in her letters to Bonaparte, but 
 he never made the least reply to them.* 
 
 She tried to conform to the Emperor's wishes. She gave 
 and accepted invitations, and could at any time find relief 
 from her cares in the delight of displaying a magnificent 
 dress. She behaved to her sisters-in-law coldly, but with 
 prudence ; she received a great number of persons, and al- 
 ways graciously, and she never said a word that was not 
 studiously insignificant. 
 
 I once suggested to her that she might divert her mind 
 by going to the theatre ; but she told me that she did not 
 derive enough amusement from the plays to go incognito, 
 and that she could not venture to go publicly. " Why, ma- 
 dame?" I asked her. "I think the applause you would 
 receive would be pleasing to the Emperor." " You do not 
 know him, then," was her reply. " If I was received with 
 much cordiality, I am sure he would be jealous of any little 
 triumph which he would not have shared. "When I am ap- 
 plauded he likes to take part in my success ; and I should 
 only mortify him by seeking any when he can not be present." 
 
 The uneasiness of the Empress Josephine was increased 
 by any appearance of mutual understanding between several 
 persons about her ; she always imagined they were conspir- 
 ing to injure her. Bonaparte had infected her with his habit- 
 ual suspicion. She felt no fear of Mme. Joseph Bonaparte, 
 
 * The Emperor's Correspondence, published in the reign of Napoleon III., 
 reveals some replies which Josephine did not confide to her friend. For in- 
 stance, in a letter of the 31st of December, 1806, he says : " I laughed heartily 
 over your last letters. Polish ladies are not so lovely as you imagine. I re- 
 ceived your letter in a wretched barn, in the midst of storm and wind, and 
 where straw was my only bed." A few days later he writes from Warsaw, 
 January 19, 1807 : " My dearest, I am grieved at the tone of your letters, and 
 at what I hear about you. I forbid tears, sadness, and anxiety ; you must be 
 gay, bright, and happy." P. R. 
 
488 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 who, although at that time Queen of Naples, was residing 
 quietly at the Luxembourg Palace, being reluctant to exchange 
 her peaceful life for that of a sovereign. The two Princes 
 one the Arch-Chancellor, the other the Arch-Treasurer of 
 the Empire were timorous and reserved ; they paid her an 
 assiduous court, and inspired her with no distrust. 
 
 Princess Borghese, who combined constant ill health with 
 a life of intrigue, joined in no political schemes, excepting 
 such as were common to the whole family. But the Grand 
 Duchess of Berg caused her sister-in-law constant jealousy 
 and apprehension. She lived in great splendor at the Elysee- 
 Bourbon Palace. Her beauty was set off by the most exqui- 
 site dress ; her pretensions were great, her manners affable 
 when she thought it prudent, and more than affable to men 
 whom she wished to fascinate. She was unscrupulous when 
 intent on injuring, and she hated the Empress, yet never lost 
 her self-control. Of such a woman Josephine might well be 
 afraid. At this time, as I have said, Caroline was desirous 
 of obtaining the crown of Poland, and she endeavored to 
 make friends among the influential members of the Govern- 
 ment who might be useful to her. General Junot, Govern- 
 or of Paris, became one of her ardent admirers, and, either 
 from a reciprocal feeling or from interested motives, she con- 
 trived to make his tender sentiments serve her purpose ; so 
 that the Governor of Paris, in his reports to the Emperor a 
 certain branch of police being in his charge always gave 
 favorable accounts of the Grand Duchess of Berg. 
 
 Another intimacy, in which there was no question of love, 
 but which was of great use to her, was that between Fouche 
 and herself. Fouche was on bad terms with M. de Talley- 
 rand, who was no favorite of Mme. Murat's. She wanted to 
 secure her present position, and especially to elevate her hus- 
 band in spite of himself. She hinted to the Minister of Po- 
 lice that M. de Talleyrand would contrive to have him re- 
 moved, and she tried to gain his affection by a number of 
 other little confidential communications. This intimacy gave 
 
THE QUEEN OF HOLLAND. 489 
 
 daily recurring distress to the poor frightened Empress, who 
 narrowly watched all her words and actions. Parisian soci- 
 ety concerned itself little with these Court secrets, and took 
 no interest in the members of the Court circle. We had the 
 appearance of being, and we were in fact, merely a living 
 puppet-show, set up to surround the Emperor with what 
 seemed to him necessary state. The conviction that no one 
 had any influence over him led people to concern themselves 
 little with his surroundings. Every one knew beforehand 
 that his will only would finally determine all things. 
 
 Meanwhile, the sovereigns who were either related or 
 allied to the Emperor sent deputations to Poland, to con- 
 gratulate him on his victories. From Naples, Amsterdam, 
 and Milan came envoys to Warsaw, offering homage from 
 the various states. The kingdom of Naples was disquieted 
 by disturbances in Calabria only, but this was enough to keep 
 it in agitation. The new King, a lover of pleasure, did not 
 carry out with sufficient firmness the plan which the Em- 
 peror had laid down for the kingdoms he had called into 
 existence. The Emperor also found fault with his brother 
 Louis ; but those reproaches did honor to the latter. 
 
 Louis's domestic affairs became every day more deplora- 
 ble. Mme. Louis, who had enjoyed some liberty at Mayence, 
 no doubt found it hard to return to the dreary bondage in 
 which she was held by her husband ; and the depression, 
 which she did not sufficiently conceal, embittered him, per- 
 haps, still more. The division between them increased until 
 they lived apart in the palace she in retirement with two 
 or three of her ladies, and he immersed in affairs, and making 
 no secret of his dissatisfaction with his wife. He would not 
 allow the Dutch to impute all the blame of the notorious 
 domestic troubles to him. Who can say to what such a 
 position of affairs might have led, but for the common 
 misfortune which shortly fell upon the unhappy pair, and 
 which drew them together in a common sorrow ? 
 
 Toward the end of the winter an order from the Em- 
 
4:90 MEMOIRS OF MADAME LE R&MUSAT. 
 
 peror reached Paris, to the effect that the newspapers were 
 to remind persons distinguished either in art or science 
 that the decree, dated from Aix-la-Chapelle, 24th Fructidor, 
 year 12,* concerning the decennial prizes, was to come into 
 effect at the expiration of one year and eight months from 
 the then date. This decree promised considerable rewards 
 to every author of an important work, of any kind whatsoever. 
 The prizes were to be assigned at intervals of ten years, 
 dating from the 18th Brumaire, and the jury which was to 
 allot them was to consist of members of the Institute. This 
 project has real greatness in it ; we shall see, hereafter, how 
 it fell to pieces in consequence of a fit of ill humor on the 
 part of the Emperor. 
 
 In March the Yice-Queen of Italy gave birth to a daugh- 
 ter, and the Empress was much pleased at being grand- 
 mother to a little princess related to all the greatest powers 
 in Europe. 
 
 During the suspension of war on both sides, from the 
 inclemency of the season, the Emperor took every means to 
 insure that in the spring his army should be more formidable 
 than ever. The kingdoms of Italy and Naples had to furnish 
 further contingents. Men born under the smiling skies of 
 those beautiful lands were suddenly transported to the wild 
 banks of the Vistula ; and they might wonder at the change, 
 until others were seen marching from Cadiz, to perish be- 
 neath the walls of Moscow, thus affording a proof of the 
 courage and strength of which men are capable, and also of 
 what can be done by the strength of the human will. The 
 army was reorganized ; our newspapers were filled with col- 
 umns of promotions, and it is curious, among these military 
 decrees, to come upon one dated, like the rest, from Osterode, 
 appointing bishops to vacant sees both in France and in Italy. 
 
 But, notwithstanding our victories, or perhaps because of 
 them, our army had suffered considerable loss. The extreme 
 humidity of the climate caused sickness among the troops. 
 
 * September 11, 1804. P. R. 
 
LEVY OF THE CONSCRIPTS OF 1808. 491 
 
 Russia was evidently about to make an immense effort. The 
 Emperor felt that this campaign must be decisive ; and, not 
 feeling satisfied that the numerous troops furnished to him 
 were sufficient to insure victory, he put his own power and 
 our submission to the test. After having, at the end of De- 
 cember, 1806, levied the conscription for 1807, he demanded 
 from the Senate in April the levy for 1808. The Prince of 
 ISTeufchatel's report, which was published in the " Moniteur," 
 announced that during the year the army had been augmented 
 by one hundred and sixty thousand men, levied by the con- 
 scriptions of 1806 and 1807; sixteen thousand men were 
 non-combatants either from sickness or superannuation, and, 
 without troubling himself with calculations, which it was too 
 certain no one would venture to make, because it was our 
 system to conceal our losses, he put down the " casualties " 
 of the campaign at fourteen thousand men. As our army 
 had been increased by only a hundred and thirty thousand 
 efficient soldiers, prudence required that the eighty thousand 
 men of the conscription of 1808 should be raised, and drilled, 
 each in his own department. " Were this delayed," said the 
 report, " the men would have to march at once to the seat 
 of war ; but, by making the levy six months in advance, they 
 will acquire strength and knowledge, and will be better able 
 to defend themselves." 
 
 State Councilor Regnault de St. Jean d' Angely, who was 
 the bearer of the Imperial message to the Senate, paused 
 when he came to this portion of the report, and called the 
 attention of the Senators to the paternal goodness of the Em- 
 peror, who would not allow the new conscripts to brave the 
 dangers of war without some previous preparation. The 
 Emperor's letter announced that the whole of Europe was 
 again in arms that two hundred thousand recruits had been 
 raised in England ; and declared his own desire for peace, on 
 condition that the English were not prompted by passion to 
 seek their own prosperity in our abasement. 
 
 The Senate passed the required decree, and voted an ad- 
 
492 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 dress of congratulation and thanks to the Emperor. He must 
 have smiled on receiving it. 
 
 The minds of men who wield absolute power need to be 
 very generous, in order to resist the temptation to despise 
 the human species a temptation which is only too well jus- 
 tified by the submission that is accorded to them. When 
 Bonaparte beheld a whole nation giving him its life-blood 
 and its treasure in order to satisfy his insatiable ambition, 
 when educated men of that nation consented to veil his acts 
 of invasion on the human will in plausible phrases, how could 
 he fail to regard the whole world as a vast field, open to the 
 first person who would undertake to occupy and till it? 
 Heroic greatness of soul alone could have discerned that the 
 adulatory words and the blind obedience of the citizens who 
 were isolated by the tyranny of his institutions, and then 
 decimated at his command, were dictated by constraint only. 
 
 And yet, although Bonaparte had none of those generous 
 feelings, reasonable observation might have shown him that 
 the alert obedience with which the French marched to the 
 battle-field was but a misdirection of that national spirit 
 which a great Revolution had aroused in a great people. 
 The cry of liberty had awakened generous enthusiasm, but 
 the confusion that ensued had rendered men afraid to com- 
 plete their work. The Emperor skillfully seized on this mo- 
 ment of hesitation, and turned it to his own advantage. For 
 the last thirty years the French character has been so de- 
 veloped that the bulk of our citizens of every class have 
 been possessed by the desire to live, or, if to live were im- 
 possible, by the desire to die, for some particular object. 
 Bonaparte did not, however, invariably mistake the bent of 
 the genius of the people whom he had undertaken to rule, 
 but he felt within himself the strength to control it, and he 
 directed it, or rather misdirected it, to his own advantage. 
 
 It was becoming hard to serve him; feelings which 
 seemed instinctively to warn us of what was to come were 
 not to be repressed. Many were the sad reflections of my 
 
SAD REFLECTIONS. 493 
 
 husband and myself I remember them well in the midst 
 of the splendor and luxury of a position for which we were 
 no doubt envied. As I have said, our means were small 
 when we joined the First Consul's Court. His gifts, which 
 were sold rather than freely bestowed, had surrounded us 
 with luxury on which he insisted. I was still young, and I 
 found myself enabled to gratify the tastes of youth and to 
 enjoy the pleasures of a brilliant position. I had a beautiful 
 house ; I had fine diamonds ; every day I might vary my 
 elegant dress ; a chosen circle of friends dined at my table ; 
 every theatre was open to me ; there was no fete given in 
 Paris to which I was not invited ; and yet even then an in- 
 explicable cloud hung over me. Often on our return from 
 a splendid entertainment at the Tuileries, and while still 
 wearing our garb of state or shall I say, of servitude ? my 
 husband and I would seriously discuss all that was passing 
 around us. A secret anxiety as to the future, an ever-grow- 
 ing distrust of our master, oppressed us both. Without dis- 
 tinctly knowing what we dreaded, we were aware that there 
 was something to dread. " I am unfitted," my husband used 
 to say, " for the narrow and idle life of a Court." " I can 
 not admire," I would say to him, " that which costs so much 
 blood and misery." We were weary of military glory, and 
 shocked at the fierce severity it often inspires in those who 
 have gained it ; and perhaps the repugnance we felt for it 
 was a presentiment of the price which Bonaparte was to 
 make France pay for the greatness that he forced upon her. 
 
 To these painful feelings was added the fear of being 
 unable to feel any affection for him whom we must still con- 
 tinue to serve. This was one of my secret troubles. I clung 
 with the enthusiasm of youth and imagination to the admi- 
 ration for the Emperor that I desired to retain ; I sincerely 
 tried to deceive myself with regard to him ; I eagerly re- 
 called cases when he had acted up to my hopes. The strug- 
 gle was painful and vain, but I suffered more after I had 
 relinquished it. In 1814 numbers of people wondered at my 
 
494: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 ardent desire for the fall of the founder of our fortune, and 
 for the return of those who would ruin it ; they accused us 
 of ingratitude in so promptly forsaking the cause of the Em- 
 peror, and honored us with their surprise because of the pa- 
 tience with which we endured our heavy loss. They were 
 unable to read our hearts ; they were ignorant of the impres- 
 sions that had been made on us long before. The return of 
 the King ruined us, but it set our hearts and minds at lib- 
 erty. It promised a future in which our child might freely 
 yield to the noble inspirations of his youth. " My son," said 
 his father, " will perhaps be poor, but he will not be shackled 
 and hampered as we have been." It is not sufficiently 
 known in the world that is, in the regulated and factitious 
 society of a great city that there is happiness in a position 
 which allows of the complete development of one's feelings 
 and of freedom in all one's thoughts. 
 
 On the feast of St. Joseph,* Princess Borghese and Prin- 
 cess Caroline f gave a little fete in honor of the Empress. A 
 large party was invited. A comedy or vaudeville was acted, 
 full of verses in honor of the Emperor and in praise of Jose- 
 phine. The two Princesses represented shepherdesses, and 
 looked exquisitely lovely. General Junot took the part of a 
 soldier just returned from the army, and in love with one of 
 the young girls. The position seemed to suit them perfectly, 
 whether on the stage or elsewhere. But Bonaparte's two 
 sisters, although Princesses, sang out of tune ; and, as each 
 could detect this in the other, she ridiculed her sister's per- 
 formance. Both my sister and I took part in the piece. I 
 was greatly amused at the rehearsals by the mutual spiteful- 
 ness of the two sisters, who had little love for each other, 
 and the vexation of the author and the composer. Both 
 thought a good deal of the production ; they were annoyed 
 at hearing their verses and songs badly rendered ; they dared 
 not complain, and, when they ventured on timid remon- 
 strance, every one hastened to silence them. 
 
 * March 19, 1807. P. R. f Mme. Murat, Grand Duchess of Berg. 
 
SIEGE OF DANTZIC. 495 
 
 The play was ill performed. The Empress cared little 
 for the insincere homage of her sisters-in-law, and remem- 
 bered that on this same stage, a few years before, she had 
 seen her own children, young, gay, and loving, touch even 
 Bonaparte's heart by offering him flowers. She told me that 
 during the whole evening this recollection had been present 
 with her. She was now away from her husband, anxious 
 about him, uneasy about herself, far from her son and daugh- 
 ter. Ever since the day she ascended the throne she had 
 regretted her happier past. 
 
 On the occasion of her fete-day the Emperor wrote af- 
 fectionately to her : " I dislike very much being so far away 
 from you. The chill of the climate seems to lay hold of 
 my heart. We are all longing for Paris, that Paris which 
 one regrets in every place, and for whose sake we are always 
 in pursuit of glory, and after all, Josephine, only that we 
 may be applauded on our return by the crowd at the Opera. 
 "When spring comes, I hope to beat the Russians thoroughly, 
 and then, mesdames, we will go home, and you shall crown 
 us with laurel." 
 
 During the winter the siege of Dantzic was begun. Bo- 
 naparte took it into his head to give some glory (as he called 
 it) to Savary. The military reputation of the latter did not 
 stand very high with the army ; but he was useful to the 
 Emperor in other ways, and covetous of reward. The Em- 
 peror foresaw that some day he would be obliged to give 
 him a decoration, in order to be able to use him as occasion 
 might arise ; so he chose to say that Savary had obtained an 
 advantage of some kind over the Russians, and bestowed on 
 him the grand cordon of the Legion of Honor. Military 
 men disapproved, but Bonaparte cared as little for them as 
 for others, and to bestow reward independently of merit or 
 desert was a favorite exercise of his independence. 
 
 He seldom left his headquarters at Osterode,* except for 
 the purpose of inspecting the various cantonments. He 
 * He resided in Finckestein Castle, near Osterode. 
 
 37 
 
496 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 issued decrees on a great number of subjects. He wrote * 
 a letter to M. de Champagny, the Minister of the Interior, 
 which was mentioned in the " Moniteur," ordering him to 
 announce to the Institute that a statue would be presented 
 to it in honor of D'Alembert, the French mathematician, 
 who, more than any other, had contributed to the advance- 
 ment of scienee.f 
 
 The bulletins contained statements of the position of the 
 army only, and of the Emperor's health, which continued to 
 be excellent. He often rode forty leagues in a day. He 
 continued to make numerous promotions in his army, which 
 were published in the " Moniteur " indiscriminately, and un- 
 der the same date with the appointment of certain bishops. 
 
 The Empress of Austria's death occurred at this time. 
 She was only thirty-four years of age. She left four sons 
 and five daughters. The Princes of Bavaria and Baden, and 
 some others belonging to the Confederation of the Khine, 
 were staying with the army and paying court to the Em- 
 peror. When the day's work was over, he attended concerts, 
 given for him by Paer the musician, whom he had met at 
 Berlin, and whom he engaged in his service and brought 
 back with him to Paris. M. de Talleyrand's society was no 
 doubt a great resource to the Emperor, but he frequently left 
 him, in order to pass some days in great state at "Warsaw, 
 where he conversed with the nobles, and kept up the hopes 
 which it was thought desirable they should not abandon. It 
 
 * That is, a letter was written by his orders. Bonaparte writes very badly ; 
 he never takes the trouble to form even one letter in a word correctly. 
 
 f This is the Emperor's letter : 
 
 " M. CHAMPAGNY : Being desirous of placing in the Salle des Stances of the 
 Institute the statue of D'Alembert, as that of the French mathematician who, 
 in the last century, contributed most to the advancement of this, the chief of 
 all sciences, we request you to make our decision known to the first class of the 
 Institute. We thus convey to it a proof of our esteem, and of our constant 
 intention to grant reward and encouragement to the labors of that society, 
 which is so important to the prosperity and the welfare of our people. 
 
 "Osterode, 18th March, 1807." P. R. 
 
DEATH OF QUEEN HORTENSE'S SON. 97 
 
 was at "Warsaw that M. de Talleyrand negotiated on the Em- 
 peror's behalf with ambassadors from the Porte and from 
 Persia. Bonaparte permitted them to witness some ma- 
 noeuvres by a part of his army. At Warsaw also a suspen- 
 sion of arms between France and Sweden was signed. 
 
 The difficulty about the Monseigneur having been set- 
 tled, Cardinal Maury was admitted to the Institute, and de- 
 livered a panegyric on the Abbe de Radovilliers as the usual 
 reception speech. An immense crowd was present, but the 
 Cardinal disappointed public expectation. His discourse was 
 long and tedious, and it was justly inferred that his abilities 
 were absolutely worn out. His pastorals and some Lenten 
 sermons which he preached subsequently confirm that im- 
 pression. 
 
 The death of her little grandson, Napoleon, on the 5th of 
 May, was a severe blow to the Empress. The child, after a 
 few days' illness, died of croup. The despair of the Queen 
 of Holland surpassed description. She clung to the body of 
 her son, and had to be removed by force. Louis Bonaparte, 
 who was terrified as well as grieved at the state of his wife, 
 treated her with great tenderness, and their loss brought 
 about a sincere, though only temporary, reconciliation be- 
 tween them. At intervals the Queen became completely 
 delirious, shrieking, calling on her son, and invoking death ; 
 and she was unable to recognize those who approached her. 
 When reason partly returned, she remained buried in pro- 
 found silence, and was indifferent to all around. At times, 
 however, she would gently thank her husband for his care, 
 in a manner which showed her deep regret that such a mis- 
 fortune had been needed to change their mutual feelings. 
 On one of these occasions, Louis, true to his strange and jeal- 
 ous temper, while standing beside his wife's bed, and prom- 
 ising her that in future he would do all he could to make her 
 happy, insisted on her confessing the faults he imagined she 
 had committed. " Confide your errors to me," he said ; " I 
 will forgive them all. We are about to begin a new life 
 
498 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 which will for ever efface the past." With all the solemnity 
 of grief, and in the hope of death, the Queen assured him 
 that, ready as she was to appear before the throne of God, 
 she had not even the semblance of a guilty thought of which 
 to accuse herself. The King, still unconvinced, asked her to 
 swear this ; but, even after she had taken an oath of her truth, 
 he could not believe her, but recommenced his importunities, 
 until his wife, exhausted by her grief, by the answers she 
 had made, and by this dreadful persecution, felt herself about 
 to faint, and said : " Leave me in peace ; I shall not escape 
 from you. We will resume the subject to-morrow." And 
 with these words she again lost consciousness.* 
 
 When the young Prince's death was made known in 
 Paris, a courier was dispatched to the Emperor, Mme. Murat 
 started for the Hague, and a few days later the Empress went 
 to Brussels, whither Louis himself brought his wife and their 
 surviving little son, in order to place them under the care of 
 the Empress. He seemed to be in great grief, and to be 
 very anxious about Queen Hortense, who remained in a state 
 approaching delirium. It was settled that, after a few days' 
 repose at Malmaison, she was to pass several months in the 
 Pyrenees, where her husband would subsequently join her. 
 After staying one day at the palace of Lacken, near Brussels, 
 the King returned to Holland, and the Empress, her daugh- 
 ter, the latter's second son, thenceforth of necessity called 
 Napoleon, and the Grand Duchess of Berg, who was ill cal- 
 culated to console two persons whom she so greatly disliked, 
 came back to Paris. M. de Remusat, who was in attendance 
 on the Empress on this melancholy journey, told me on his 
 return of the attention with which Louis had treated his 
 wife, and that he had observed that Mme. Murat was dis- 
 pleased by it. 
 
 Mme. Louis Bonaparte remained at Malmaison for a fort- 
 night in profound retirement and deep dejection. Toward 
 the end of May she left for Cauterets. She was indifferent 
 * It is from the Queen herself that I heard these facts. 
 
QUEEN HORTENSE'S DESPAIR. 499 
 
 to all things, tearless, sleepless, speechless. She would press 
 the hand of any one who spoke to her, and every day, at 
 the hour of her son's death, she had a violent hysterical 
 attack. I never beheld grief so painful to witness. She 
 was pale, motionless, her eyes rigidly fixed one could 
 not but weep on approaching her; then she would utter 
 these few words : " Why do you weep ? He is dead I 
 know it well ; but I do not suffer. I assure you I feel no- 
 thing." * 
 
 During her journey to the south, a tremendous storm 
 roused her from this state of lethargy. There had been a 
 storm on the day that her son died. When the thunder 
 roared this time, she listened to it attentively ; as it increased 
 in violence, she was seized with a terrible nervous attack, 
 
 * This description of Hortense's despair is by no means exaggerated. My 
 grandfather writes as follows to his wife, from Brussels, whither he had accom- 
 panied the Empress: "May 16, 1807. The King and Queen arrived here yes- 
 terday. The interview with the Empress was painful to her only, and how could 
 it be otherwise ? Picture to yourself that the Queen, whose health in other re- 
 spects is fairly good, is exactly in the state in which Nina is represented on the 
 stage. She has but one idea that of her loss ; she speaks but on one subject 
 it is of him. Not a single tear, calm and cold, her eyes almost fixed, an 
 almost absolute silence, which she only breaks to rend the heart of her hearers, 
 If she meets any one whom she had formerly seen with her son, she looks at 
 him with kindness and interest, and says in a very low voice, ' You know he is 
 dead.' When she saw her mother, she said to her: * He was here with me not 
 long ago; I held him on my knee.' Perceiving me a few moments after- 
 ward, she beckoned to me to draw near. ' You recollect Mayence ? He acted 
 there with us.' When ten o'clock struck, she turned to one of her ladies. 
 ' You know,' she said, ' that it was ten o'clock when he died.' In this manner 
 only she breaks her almost continual silence. Withal she is kind, sensible, and 
 reasonable. She is perfectly aware of her state ; she even speaks of it. She is 
 fortunate, she says, * in being unable to feel. She would have suffered too much 
 otherwise.' She was asked whether seeing her mother had not caused her emo- 
 tion. * No,' she answered ; * but I am very glad to have seen her. 1 On being 
 told how much Josephine was hurt by the little feeling she evinced on seeing 
 her again, ' Oh, she must not vex herself,' she answered ; * that is my nature.' To 
 everything addressed to her on other subjects, she answers : ' I do not care ; let 
 it be as you like.' She imagines she wants to be alone with her grief; she will 
 not, however, visit spots which recall the memory of her eon." P. R. 
 
500 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 followed by a flood of tears ; and from that instant she re- 
 gained the power of feeling and of suffering, and gave her- 
 self up to a profound grief which never completely subsided. 
 Although I can not continue her history without anticipating 
 dates, I will nevertheless conclude this episode in her life at 
 once. She took up her abode among the mountains with a 
 small suite, and tried to escape from herself by continually 
 walking, so as to exhaust her strength. In a state of con- 
 stant painful excitement, she wandered through the valleys 
 of the Pyrenees, or climbed the rocks, attempting the most 
 difficult ascents, and seemed, I have been told by others, as 
 if only bent on wearing herself out. 
 
 At Cauterets she met by chance with M. Decazes, who 
 was then young, unknown to fame, and, like the Queen, in 
 deep grief. He had lost his young wife,* and was in bad 
 health. These two met and understood each other's grief. 
 It is extremely probable that Mme. Louis, who was too un- 
 happy to restrict herself to the conventionalities of her rank, 
 and refused to receive unsympathetic persons, was more ac- 
 cessible to a man suffering from a sorrow like her own. M. 
 Decazes was young and handsome ; the idle sojourners at a 
 watering-place and the inconsiderate tongue of scandal pre- 
 tended there was something more than friendship in this. 
 The Queen was too much absorbed in her sorrow to take 
 notice of anything that was going on around her. Her only 
 companions were young friends devoted to her, anxious 
 about her health, and eager to procure her the least allevia- 
 tion. Meanwhile letters were written to Paris full of gossip 
 about the Queen and M. Decazes. 
 
 At the end of the summer King Louis rejoined his wife 
 in the south of France. It would seem that tlae sight of the 
 sorrowing mother and of his only surviving son softened his 
 heart. The interview was affectionate on both sides, and 
 the married pair, who for long had lived in estrangement, 
 
 * A daughter of M. Marrois, President of the Court of Cassation. 
 
A RECONCILIATION. 501 
 
 were once more reconciled.* Had Louis returned immedi- 
 diately to the Hague, it is probable that the reconciliation 
 would have been lasting ; but he accompanied his wife to 
 Paris, and their domestic union displeased Mme. Murat. I 
 was told by the Empress that at first, on their return to 
 Paris, her daughter was deeply touched by the grief of her 
 husband, and said that, through suffering, a new bond had 
 been formed between them, and that she felt she could for- 
 give the past. But Mme. Murat or so the Empress be- 
 lieved on what appeared to be good grounds began once 
 more to disturb her brother's mind. She related to him, 
 without appearing to believe them herself, the stories told of 
 the Queen's meetings with M. Decazes. Less than this would 
 have sufficed to rekindle Louis's jealousy and suspicion.f I 
 can not now remember whether he had himself met M. De- 
 cazes in the Pyrenees, or whether he had merely heard him 
 spoken of by his wife ; for, as she attached not the least im- 
 portance to her acquaintance with him, she often said, before 
 other persons, how much she had been touched by the simi- 
 larity of their sorrows, and how deeply she felt, in her own 
 grief, for the desolation of the bereaved husband. 
 
 The Empress, who was alarmed at the emaciated condi- 
 tion of her daughter, and who feared for her the fatigue of 
 another journey, as well as the climate of Holland, entreated 
 the Emperor, who had then returned to Paris, to persuade 
 Louis to allow his wife to remain in Paris for her confine- 
 ment. The Emperor obtained permission for her by com- 
 manding Louis to grant it. The latter, who was angry, em- 
 bittered, and no doubt ill pleased at being forced to return 
 alone to the gloomy mists of his kingdom, and who was beset 
 
 * Their third son, afterward Napoleon III., was born on the 3d of April, 
 1808. 
 
 f Louis Bonaparte himself procured for M. Decazes an unimportant post in 
 the household of Mme. Bonaparte, his mother. He never appeared at Court 
 nor in society. Who would have believed then that, a few years later, he would 
 be a peer of France and the favorite of Louis XVIII. ? 
 
502 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 by his own bad temper, resumed his suspicions and his ill 
 humor, and once more vented both on his wife. At first she 
 could hardly believe him to be in earnest ; but, when she 
 found herself again insulted, when she began to understand 
 that even in her sorrow she was not respected, and that she 
 had been thought capable of an intrigue at a time when she 
 had been only longing for death, she fell into a state of utter 
 dejection. Indifferent to the present, to the future, to every 
 tie, she felt contempt for her husband, which perhaps she 
 allowed to be too plainly perceptible, and she thought only 
 of how she might contrive to live apart from him. All this 
 took place in the autumn of 1807, "When I shall have 
 reached that date, I may have more to say about this un- 
 happy woman. 
 
 The Empress shed many tears over the death of her 
 grandson. Besides the ardent affection she had cherished 
 for this child, who was of a lovable disposition, her own posi- 
 tion was, she felt, endangered by his death. She had hoped 
 that Louis's children would make up to the Emperor for her 
 lack of offspring, and the terrible divorce, which cost her so 
 often such agonizing dread, seemed after this sad loss once 
 more to threaten her. She spoke to me at the time of her 
 secret fears, and I had much difficulty in soothing her. 
 
 Even at the present day the impression produced by M. 
 de Fontanes's fine speech on this misfortune, into which he 
 contrived to introduce a remarkable description of Bona- 
 parte's prosperity, is not yet forgotten. The Emperor had 
 ordered that the colors taken from the enemy in this last 
 campaign and the sword of Frederick the Great should be 
 borne in state to the Invalides. A Te Deum was to be sung, 
 and an oration delivered in the presence of the great digni- 
 taries, the Ministers, the Senate, and the pensioners them- 
 selves. The ceremony, which took place on the lYth of 
 May, 180Y, was very imposing, and the speech of M. de Fon- 
 tanes will perpetuate for us the remembrance of those sacred 
 spoils, which have since been restored to their former owners. 
 
FAMILY LIFE OF KING OF HOLLAND. 503 
 
 The orator was admired for aggrandizing his hero, and yet 
 for refraining from insult to the vanquished, and for reserv- 
 ing his praise for what was really heroic. It was added that, 
 strictly speaking, his praise might be taken for advice ; and 
 such was the state of submission and fear in those days 
 that M. de Fontanes was held to have displayed remarkable 
 courage. 
 
 In his peroration he described his hero surrounded with 
 the pomp of victory, but turning from it to weep over a 
 child.* But the hero did not weep. He was at first pain- 
 
 * This incident is alluded to in the Introduction to this work, when the Court 
 of Napoleon is mentioned. I have allowed the repetition to stand, as the fur- 
 ther details given here are interesting. I add to these, in order better to depict 
 the family life of the King and Queen of Holland, the following letter, written 
 to the King by his brother, and dated Finckestein, April 4, 1807, about a month 
 before the child's death : " Your quarrels with the Queen are becoming public 
 property. Do show in your own home the paternal and effeminate character 
 that you show in your government, and evince in matters of business the severity 
 you display at home. You manage your young wife as you would a regiment. 
 . . . You have the best and most virtuous of wives, and you make her wretched. 
 Let her dance as much as she likes ; it is natural at her age. My wife is forty, 
 but from the battle-field I write, telling her to go to balls. And you want a girl 
 of twenty, who sees her life passing away, who retains all its illusions, to live 
 like a nun, or like a nurse, always washing her baby ! You interfere too much 
 in your home, and not enough in your government. I would not tell you all this, 
 only for the interest I bear you. Make the mother of your children happy ; 
 there is but one way it is to show her great esteem and confidence. Unfortu- 
 nately your wife is too good ; were you married to a coquette, she would lead 
 you by the nose. But your wife is proud, and she is shocked and grieved at the 
 mere idea that you can think ill of her. You should have had a wife like some 
 I know of in Paris. She would have played you tricks, and would have tied you 
 to her apron-string. It is not my fault ; I have often told your wife so." In 
 this sensible letter, full of the sagacity and vulgarity with which Napoleon 
 looked at the ordinary events of life, the identity of his opinions with those of 
 the author of these Memoirs, as to the cause and character of the conjugal dis- 
 cord of which they are treating, is remarkable. King Louis is too stiff, too 
 austere, too jealous. His wife has tastes natural to youth and to imagination. 
 Her husband misjudges, humbles, depresses, and offends her. Then comes the 
 death of the young Prince, and this affliction, equally felt by both parents, draws 
 them together in a common sorrow, lasting on the part of the Queen, and for a 
 time her one only thought, and not hers only, but her mother's as well. In 
 Napoleon's published letters he appears to be grieved at first, but afterward 
 
504: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K&MUSAT. 
 
 fully affected by the boy's death, then shook off the feeling 
 as soon as possible. M. de Talleyrand told me afterward 
 that the very next day after hearing the news the Emperor 
 was conversing freely and just as usual with those around 
 him, and that when he was about to grant an audience to 
 some of the great nobles from the Court of Warsaw, who 
 came to offer their condolence, he (M. de Talleyrand) thought 
 himself obliged to remind him to assume a serious expression, 
 and ventured to offer a remark on his apparent indifference, 
 to which the Emperor replied that " he had no time to amuse 
 himself with feelings and regrets like other men." 
 
 weary of their continual sadness. There is a curious mixture of kindness and 
 imperious egotism in his manner of comforting them, or of commanding them 
 to be comforted. I have quoted some of these letters. Here is another, dated 
 Friedland, June 16, 1807 : " My daughter, I have received your letter dated from 
 Orleans. I am grieved at your sorrow, but I should like you to be more coura- 
 geous. To live is to suffer, and a brave man always struggles to be master of 
 himself. I don't like to see you unjust toward little Napoleon Louis and toward 
 all your friends. Your mother and I thought we were dearer to you than it 
 seems we are. I won a great victory on the 14th of June. I am in good health, 
 and send you my love." It will be seen how greatly the Emperor and Josephine's 
 Lady-in-Waiting differ in their estimate of Queen Hortense from the general 
 opinion of her character, which yet does not appear to have been altogether un- 
 founded. It is probable that both were swayed by their unfavorable opinion of 
 the Emperor's brothers. This was certainly deserved, especially by Louis, who 
 had no redeeming quality to atone for his defects. P. R. 
 
CHAPTER XXIY. 
 
 (1807.) 
 
 The Duke of Dantzic Fouche"'s Police Battle of Friedland M. de Lameth 
 Treaty of Tilsit Eeturn of the Emperor M. de Talleyrand The Ministers 
 The Bishops. 
 
 MEANWHILE the severity of winter gradually lessened in 
 Poland, and everything indicated a renewal of hostilities. 
 The bulletin of the 16th of May informed us that the Em- 
 peror of Russia had rejoined his army ; and the temperate 
 language in which the sovereigns were spoken of, together 
 with the epithet of " brave soldiers " applied to the Rus- 
 sians, made us understand that a vigorous resistance was ex- 
 pected. The siege of Dantzic was intrusted to Marshal Le- 
 febvre ; some skirmishing took place, and finally, on the 24th 
 of May, Dantzic capitulated. The Emperor immediately re- 
 moved thither. To reward the Marshal, he made him Duke 
 of Dantzic, and, together with the title, granted him a con- 
 siderable sum of money. This was the first creation of the 
 kind. He pointed out its advantages, in his own way, in a 
 letter which he wrote to the Senate on the occasion ; and he 
 endeavored to lay particular stress on those reasons for this 
 step which would be least unwelcome to lovers of equality, 
 whose opinions he was always careful to respect. I have 
 often heard him speak of the motives which led him to create 
 an intermediate caste, as he called it, between himself and 
 the vast democracy of France. His reasons were, the neces- 
 sity of rewarding important services in a way not onerous to 
 
506 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 the state, and of contenting French vanity,* and also that he 
 might have a court about him, like the other sovereigns of 
 Europe. " Liberty," he used to say, " is needed by a small 
 and privileged class, who are gifted by nature with abilities 
 greater than those of the bulk of mankind. It can therefore 
 be restricted with impunity. Equality, on the other hand, 
 delights the multitude. I do not hurt that principle by giv- 
 ing titles to certain men, without respect of birth, which is 
 now an exploded notion. I act monarchically in creating 
 hereditary rank, but I remain within the principles of the 
 Revolution, because my nobility is not exclusive. The titles 
 I bestow are a kind of civic crown ; they may be won by 
 good actions. Besides, it is a sign of ability when rulers 
 communicate to those they govern the same impulses they 
 have themselves. Now, 'I move by ascending, and the na- 
 tion must rise in the same way." 
 
 On one occasion, after laying down this system in his 
 wife's presence and mine, he suddenly paused he had been 
 walking up and down the room, as was his habit and said : 
 " It is not that I do not perceive that all these nobles whom 
 I create, and especially the dukes whom I endow with enor- 
 mous sums of money, will become partially independent of 
 me. Their honors and riches will tempt them to get loose, 
 and they will acquire probably what they will call the spirit 
 of their class" On this he resumed his walk and was silent 
 for a few minutes ; then, turning to us abruptly, he added, 
 with a smile of which I can not attempt to analyze the ex- 
 pression, " Ah, but they won't run so fast but that I shall be 
 able to catch them ! " 
 
 Although Lefebvre's military services were a sufficient 
 reason for the gifts which the Emperor assigned to him from 
 the battle-field, yet the mocking humor of the Parisians, un- 
 
 * " You will say, perhaps," said the Emperor, " that I shall be creating a 
 court nobility, but these nobles will have won their rank by their swords." 
 " By their swords ? " said my grandmother ; " you mean their bayonets." The 
 Empress laughed. P. K. 
 
FOUCHE'S POLICE. 507 
 
 affected by even justly won glory, exercised itself upon the 
 dignity of the new Duke. There was something of the bar- 
 rack-room about him which partly encouraged this, and his 
 wife, who was old and excessively homely in her manners, 
 became the object of general ridicule. She openly expressed 
 her preference for the pecuniary part of the Emperor's gifts, 
 and when she made this admission in the drawing-room at 
 Saint Cloud, and the simplicity of the speech made some of 
 us laugh, she reddened with anger and said to the Empress, 
 " Madame, I beg you to make your young hussies hold their 
 tongues." It may be imagined that such a sally did not 
 lessen our mirth.* 
 
 The Emperor would willingly have put a stop to jesting 
 on these points, but that was beyond his power ; and, as it 
 was known that he was sensitive on the subject, this was a 
 favorite way of retaliating upon him for his tyranny. 
 
 Witty sayings and calembourgs were current in Paris, and 
 written off to the army. The Emperor, in his vexation, 
 rebuked the Minister of Police for his carelessness. The 
 latter, affecting a certain disdainful liberality, replied that he 
 thought he might as well leave idle people amusement of 
 this kind. However, on learning that contemptuous or ill- 
 natured remarks had been made in any Paris drawing-room, 
 the Minister would send for the master or mistress of the 
 house, advise them to keep a better watch over their guests, 
 and dismiss them full of an undefined suspicion of their 
 social circle. 
 
 Afterward the Emperor contrived to reconcile the old to 
 the new nobility, by offering the former a share in his gifts ; 
 
 * Certain sayings of the Marshal Duke of Dantzic have a soldier-like ring. 
 He was lamenting to my grandfather the misconduct of a son. " You see," he 
 said, " I am afraid he may not die well." Once, when he was vexed by the tone 
 of envy and unkindness with which a companion of his childhood, on meeting 
 him again in his prosperity, spoke of his riches, titles, and luxury, he answered 
 him : " Well, now, you shall have it all, but at cost price. We will go down 
 into the garden ; I will fire at you sixty times, and then, if you are not killed, 
 everything shall be yours." P. R. 
 
508 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K&MUSAT. 
 
 and they, feeling that every concession, however small in 
 itself, was a recognition of their privileges, did not disdain 
 favors which replaced them in their former position. 
 
 Meanwhile, the army was strongly reenforced. All our 
 allies contributed to it. Spaniards hurried across France in 
 order to fight against Eussians on the Vistula ; not a sover- 
 eign ventured to disobey the orders he received. The bul- 
 letin of the 12th of June announced that hostilities had re- 
 commenced ; it also contained an account of the efforts that 
 had been made to bring about a peace. M. de Talleyrand 
 anxiously desired this ; perhaps the Emperor himself was not 
 averse to it : but the English Government refused to con- 
 sent ; the young Czar flattered himself that Austerlitz would 
 be forgotten ; Prussia was weary of us and wishing for the 
 return of her King ; Bonaparte, as conqueror, imposed severe 
 conditions, and war broke out again. Some partial engage- 
 ments were to our advantage, and our usual activity was re- 
 sumed. The two armies met at Friedland, and we gained 
 another great and hardly contested victory. Yet, notwith- 
 standing our success, the Emperor felt assured that, when- 
 ever he should be pitted against the Russians, he must be 
 prepared for a severe struggle, and that on himself and 
 Alexander depended the fate of the Continent. 
 
 A considerable number of our general officers were 
 wounded at Friedland. M. de Nansouty, my brother-in-law, 
 behaved most gallantly : in order to support the movements 
 of the army, he endured the enemy's fire for several hours at 
 the head of his division of heavy cavalry, maintaining his 
 men, by his own example, in a state of very trying inaction, 
 which may be said to have been as sanguinary as the thick of 
 the fight. Prince Borghese was sent from the battle-field to 
 Saint Cloud to convey the news of victory to the Empress ; 
 he held out at the same time the hope of an early peace, and 
 the rumor, which was soon spread, was no little enhancement 
 of the victory. 
 
 The battle of Friedland was followed by a rapid march 
 
M. DE LAMETH. 509 
 
 of our troops. The Emperor reached the village of Tilsit, 
 on the banks of the "Niemen. The river separated the two 
 armies. An armistice was proposed by the Kussian com- 
 mander and accepted by us ; negotiations were begun. 
 
 While these events were taking place, I had gone to Aix- 
 la-Chapelle, where I was leading a quiet life, and waiting, 
 like the rest of Europe, for the end of this terrible war. I 
 met there M. Alexandre de Lameth, who was Prefect of the 
 department. After taking a conspicuous part at the begin- 
 ning of the Revolution, he had emigrated, and, after long 
 years in an Austrian prison, had eventually returned to 
 France at the same time as M. de la Fayette. Entering the 
 Emperor's service, he attained the post of Prefect of the 
 department of the Roer, as it was called, and managed it 
 extremely well. The education I had received, the opinions 
 I had heard expressed by my mother and her friends, had 
 prejudiced me strongly against all who had aided the Revo- 
 lution in 1789. I looted upon M. de Lameth as simply fac- 
 tious and ungrateful toward the Court, and as having thrown 
 himself into opposition as a means of obtaining a celebrity 
 flattering to his ambition. I was still more inclined to hold 
 this opinion, because I found that he was a great admirer of 
 Bonaparte, who certainly did not govern France on a system 
 which emanated from the Constituent Assembly. But it 
 may be that, like the majority of Frenchmen, our anarchy 
 had sickened him of liberty so dearly bought, and that he 
 sincerely welcomed a despotism which restored order to the 
 country. 
 
 My acquaintance with him gave me the opportunity of 
 hearing him discourse upon the rights of citizens, the balance 
 of power, and liberty in a restricted sense. M. de Lameth 
 defended the intentions of the Constituent Assembly, and I 
 had no inclination to dispute the point with him ; it seemed 
 of little importance at the date we had then reached. He 
 attempted to justify the conduct of the deputies in 1789 ; 
 and, though I was unequal to arguing with him, I felt con- 
 
510 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 fusedly that he was wrong, and that the Constituent Assem- 
 bly had not fulfilled its mission with due impartiality and 
 conscientiousness. But I was struck with the utility to a na- 
 tion of less ephemeral institutions, and the ardent words to 
 which I listened, together with the depression produced in 
 me by our endless wars, sowed in my mind the seeds of 
 wholesome and generous thought, which subsequent events 
 have developed in full. But, whatever our ideas may have 
 been at that time, our reason or our instinct was forced to 
 bend before the triumphant fortune which was then raising 
 Napoleon to the zenith of his fame. He could no longer be 
 judged by ordinary rule ; fortune was so constantly at his 
 side that, in rushing onward to the most brilliant as well as 
 the most deplorable excesses, he seemed to be obeying des- 
 tiny.* 
 
 * It appears probable, and is indeed made manifest in these pages, that M. 
 de Lameth's conversation contributed to the political and liberal education of 
 their author. It will perhaps be found amusing to contrast the influence these 
 conversations had over her with her prejudices against him, and her somewhat 
 severe judgments when they first met. It must not be forgotten that my grand- 
 mother was only twenty-six when she met M. de Lameth at Aix-la-Chapelle, and 
 that she had left her mother's quiet, simple, and saddened home for the Court 
 of the First Consul. It is not surprising that it took some years to form her 
 judgment, and that she did not all at once attain to constitutional truth. The 
 gradual progress of this remarkable mind is precisely one of the charms of her 
 letters and of these Memoirs. She writes to her husband from Aix-la-Chapelle, 
 on the 4th of July, 1807, in the following terms : " The Prefect is very nice, but 
 he is no longer the elegant and distinguished man you describe to me. He does 
 not look young, has an eruption on his face, can only talk about his department, 
 and is always at work at it. He does not know a word of anything out of Aix- 
 la-Chapelle, never opens a book, and only attends to business. He seems pop- 
 ular here, and lives with great simplicity." A few days later, on the 17th of 
 July, she writes : " I could like the Prefect well enough ; his manners are fine, 
 but he is too much of a Prefect ; he talks of nothing but his department, and 
 seems to think of nothing but his administration. You see that he is not the 
 Lameth of former times, except in certain constituent opinions which he likes 
 to put forward. But it is remarkable that he always leads the conversation to 
 the scenes of the past, and takes pleasure in recalling his connection with the 
 former Court, and the favor in which he was held. When he talks in this way, 
 one can but look at him and say nothing ; he does not, however, seem to take 
 one's silence at all amiss. I think the Prefect more agreeable now ; he comes 
 
LETTER TO THE BISHOPS. 511 
 
 In the mean time the important political circumstances 
 gave rise, at Aix-la-Chapelle as well as in Paris, to rumors 
 of every kind. The kingdom of Poland was to be founded, 
 and given to Jerome Bonaparte, who was to marry a daugh- 
 ter of the Emperor of Austria, and our Emperor was to 
 carry out the old project of the divorce. The public mind 
 was excited by the gigantic proportions of actual events, and 
 became more and more possessed by that longing for the 
 extraordinary which the Emperor so ably turned to advan- 
 tage. And, indeed, why should not the country, seeing what 
 was happening, expect that anything might happen ? Mme. 
 d'Houdetot, who was then living, said of Bonaparte, " He 
 diminishes history and enlarges imagination." * 
 
 After the battle of Friedland the Emperor wrote a really 
 fine letter to the bishops. The following phrase occurs in it : 
 " This victory has commemorated the anniversary of the bat- 
 tle of Marengo of that day when, still covered with the dust 
 of the battle-field, our first thought, our first care, were for 
 the reestablishment of order and peace in the Church of 
 
 to see me sometimes in the morning, and after a few minutes he contrives to 
 turn the conversation on the outbreak of the Revolution, on the Constituent 
 Assembly, and its ideas of regeneration and hopes of reform. He puts all this 
 after his own fashion, and tells stories which I affect to believe, and which I do 
 not in reality altogether reject, because I partake of the disposition, natural in 
 this age, to excuse a good many of the political errors of the past. Yesterday 
 I made him tell me the whole story of his captivity, and, although I think the 
 King of Prussia did right in arresting this trio, I also think that they were hard- 
 ly treated. I must say I pitied them, especially poor Mme. Lameth, their mother, 
 who in the later da'ys shared her son's prison, and had to climb six hundred steps 
 to the cell. He tells the story very well. I was particularly struck by the obli- 
 gation which he imposed upon himself to dance by way of taking exercise. For 
 thirty-nine months, every day at the same hour, he danced to his own singing ; 
 and he confessed to me that he often found tears running down his cheeks dur- 
 ing the melancholy performance. It was on concluding this solitary dance one 
 day that he determined to cut his throat with a razor, and was prevented by a 
 servant." P. R. 
 
 * At this period M. de Chateaubriand had returned from the journey to the 
 Holy Land, which he had undertaken in order to make studies for the work 
 (" Les Martyrs ") which he was then contemplating. 
 38 
 
512 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 France." In Paris the Te Deum was sung and the city was 
 illuminated. 
 
 On the 25th of June the two Emperors, having embarked 
 one on each bank of the Niemen, in presence of a portion of 
 the two armies, set foot at the same moment in the pavil- 
 ion that had been erected for them on a raft in the middle 
 of the river. They embraced on meeting, and remained to- 
 gether for two hours. The Emperor Napoleon was accom- 
 panied by Dumas, his Grand Marshal, and Caulaincourt, his 
 Grand Equerry ; the Czar, by his brother Constantine and 
 two great personages of his Court. In that interview the 
 peace was definitely settled. Bonaparte consented to restore 
 a portion of his states to the King of Prussia, although 
 his own inclination was toward a complete change of the 
 form of the conquered countries, because an entire trans- 
 formation would better suit his policy, which had universal 
 dominion for its basis. He was, however, obliged to sacrifice 
 some part of his projects during this final treaty. The Czar 
 might still be a formidable enemy, and Napoleon knew that 
 France was growing weary of the war and demanded his 
 presence. A longer campaign would have led the army into 
 enterprises of which none could foresee the issue. It was, 
 therefore, necessary to postpone a portion of the great plan, 
 and once more to call a halt. The Poles, who had reckoned 
 upon complete liberation, beheld the portion of Poland that 
 had belonged to Prussia turned into the duchy of Warsaw, 
 and given to the King of Saxony as in pledge. Dantzic be- 
 came a free town, and the King of Prussia 'undertook to 
 close his ports to the English. The Emperor of Russia 
 offered to mediate with England for peace ; and Napoleon 
 imagined that the great importance of the mediator would 
 terminate the quarrel. His vanity was deeply concerned in 
 bringing our insular neighbors to recognize his royalty.* 
 
 * When the Emperor learned, shortly afterward, that the English Govern- 
 ment refused to make peace, he exclaimed : " Very well, then ! The war shall 
 recommence, and it shall be to the death for one of the two states." 
 
TREATY OF TILSIT. 513 
 
 He frequently said afterward that he felt at Tilsit that the 
 question of continental empire would one day be decided 
 between the Czar and himself; and that the magnanimity 
 which Alexander displayed,* the young Prince's admira- 
 tion of him, and the genuine enthusiasm with which he 
 had been inspired in his presence, had captivated him, 
 and led him to desire that, instead of a total rupture, 
 a firm and lasting alliance should take place, which might 
 lead to the division of the continent between two great 
 sovereigns. 
 
 On the 26th the King of Prussia joined the illustrious 
 party on the raft, and after the conference the three sov- 
 ereigns repaired to Tilsit, where they remained while the 
 negotiations lasted, exchanging visits every day, dining 
 together, holding reviews, and appearing to be on the best 
 possible terms. Bonaparte employed all the resources of 
 his mind on this occasion, and kept a close watch over him- 
 self. He flattered the young Emperor, and completely cap- 
 tivated him. M. de Talleyrand completed the conquest by 
 the skill and grace with which he sustained and colored his 
 master's policy ; so that Alexander conceived a great friend- 
 ship for him, and trusted him entirely. The Queen of 
 Prussia came to Tilsit, and Bonaparte did all he could to 
 efface the impression of his bulletins, by treating her with 
 the utmost attention.f Neither the Queen nor her husband 
 could complain. They, the two dispossessed, were forced 
 to receive what was restored to them of their states with 
 gratitude. These illustrious conquered ones concealed their 
 pain, and the Emperor believed that he had gained them to 
 his cause by reestablishing them in the parceled-out king- 
 dom from which he was unable to drive them altogether. 
 
 * Alexander was then thirty years old, yery handsome, and of fine manners. 
 
 f The Emperor wrote to the Empress: "Tilsit, June 8, 1807. The Queen 
 of Prussia has been really charming, and full of coquetry toward me. But 
 don't be jealous : I am a waxed cloth off which all that slides. It would cost 
 me too dear to play the gallant." P. R. 
 
514 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 He secured to himself in his treaty means of constant super- 
 vision, by leaving French garrisons in the states of certain 
 second-rate princes ; for instance, in Saxony, Coburg, Olden- 
 burg, and Mecklenburg-Schwerin. A portion of his army 
 still remained on the northern coast, because it appeared that 
 the King of Sweden would not enter into the treaty. And, 
 lastly, this war gave birth to a new kingdom, composed of 
 Westphalia and a portion of the Prussian states. Jerome 
 Bonaparte was adorned with this new kingship, and his 
 marriage with the Princess Catherine was arranged. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand and Prince Kourakine signed this 
 treaty on the 9th of July, 1807, and the Emperor, wearing 
 the decoration of the Russian Order of St. Andrew, immedi- 
 ately visited the Czar. He asked to see the Russian soldier 
 who had conducted himself best during the campaign, and 
 gave him the cross of the Legion with his own hand. The 
 two sovereigns embraced anew, and parted, after having 
 promised each other an eternal friendship. Decorations 
 were distributed on both sides. Farewells were exchanged 
 with great pomp between Bonaparte and the King of Prus- 
 sia, and the Continent was once more pacified. 
 
 It was impossible to withhold admiration from glory 
 such as this, but it is certain that the country took much 
 less part in it than formerly. People began to perceive that 
 it was of the nature of a yoke for us, though a brilliant one ; 
 and, as they were coming to know and distrust Bonaparte, 
 they feared the consequences of the intoxication which his 
 power might produce in him. Lastly, the predominance of 
 the military element was exciting uneasiness ; the foreseen 
 vanities of the sword wounded individual pride. A secret 
 trouble mingled with the general admiration, and the gloom 
 which it produced was chiefly observable among those whose 
 places or whose rank must bring them again into contact 
 with Napoleon. We wondered whether the rude despotism 
 of his manners would not be more than ever apparent in all 
 his daily actions. We were still smaller than before in his 
 
RETURN OF THE EMPEROR. 515 
 
 eight, by all the difference of his added greatness, and we 
 foresaw that he would make us feel this. Each of us made 
 his examination of conscience with scrupulous care, seeking 
 to discover on what point our hard master would manifest 
 his displeasure on his return. Wife, family, great dignita- 
 ries, Ministers, the whole Court in fact, everybody suffered 
 from this apprehension ; and the Empress, who knew him 
 better than anybody else, expressed her uneasiness in the 
 simplest way, saying, " The Emperor is so lucky that he will 
 be sure to scold a great deal." The magnanimity of kings 
 consists in elevating those around them by pouring out upon 
 them a portion of their own moral greatness ; but Bonaparte, 
 who was naturally jealous, always isolated himself, and 
 dreaded anything like sharing. His gifts were immense 
 after this campaign, but it was perceived that he paid for 
 services in order that he might hear no more of them ; and 
 his recompenses were so evidently the closing of an account 
 that they excited no gratitude, while they did, on the con- 
 trary, revive claims. 
 
 While the momentous interviews of Tilsit were taking 
 place, nothing happened at Paris except the removal of 
 the body of the young Napoleon from Saint Leu, in the 
 valley of Montmorency (the residence of Prince Louis), to 
 Notre Dame. The Arch-Chancellor received the coffin at 
 the church, and it was committed to the care of the Car- 
 dinal Archbishop of Paris (De Belloy) until the termina- 
 tion of the repairs of Saint Denis, when it was to be placed 
 in the ancient abbey. The vaults which had contained the 
 ashes of our kings were then in course of reconstruction. 
 The scattered remains, which had been outraged during the 
 Reign of Terror, were now collected together, and the Em- 
 peror had given orders for the erection of expiatory altars 
 in reparation of the sacrilege that had been perpetrated upon 
 the illustrious dead. This fine and princely idea did him 
 great honor, and was fitly extolled by some of the poets of 
 the period. 
 
516 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MU8AT. 
 
 When the Emperor returned to France, his wife was 
 living at Saint Cloud with all possible precaution and the 
 strictest prudence. His mother was living quietly in Paris ; 
 her brother, Cardinal Fesch, resided with her. Mme. Murat 
 inhabited the Elysee, and was skillfully conducting a number 
 of small schemes. The Princess Borghese was leading the 
 only kind of life she understood or cared for. Louis and his 
 wife were in the Pyrenees ; they had left their child with 
 the Empress. Joseph Bonaparte was reigning at Naples, 
 benevolently but feebly, disputing Calabria with the rebels, 
 and his ports with the English. Lucien was living at Rome, 
 devoting himself to leisure and the fine arts. Jerome brought 
 back a crown ; Murat, a strong desire to obtain one, and a 
 deeply cherished animosity against M. de Talleyrand, whom 
 he regarded as his enemy. He had formed an intimacy with 
 Maret, the Secretary of State, who was secretly jealous of 
 the Secretary for Foreign Affairs, and he highly approved 
 of his wife's friendship with Fouche. These four persons 
 were well aware that the Emperor had conceived, and was 
 cherishing, the project of a divorce and an illustrious alli- 
 ance ; and they endeavored by every means to destroy the 
 last links which still bound Josephine to Bonaparte, so that 
 they might please the Emperor by aiding him to carry out 
 this idea, and might also foil the Beauharnais and prevent 
 M. de Talleyrand from acquiring a fresh claim to the con- 
 fidence of his master. They wanted to have the direction 
 of this affair in their own hands only. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand had been laboring for several years to 
 acquire a European reputation, which, on the whole, he well 
 deserved. No doubt he had more than once approached the 
 subject of the divorce, but he was especially anxious that 
 this step should lead to the Emperor's contracting a great 
 alliance, of which he (M. de Talleyrand) should have the 
 negotiation. So that, so long as he did not feel certain of 
 succeeding in his objects, he contrived to restrain the Em- 
 peror in this matter by representing to him that it was 
 
M. DE TALLEYRAND'S NEW DIGNITY. 517 
 
 of the utmost importance to select the fitting moment for 
 action. When he returned from this campaign, the Emperor 
 seemed to place more confidence than ever in M. de Talley- 
 rand, who had been very useful to him in Poland and in 
 each of his treaties. His new dignity gave M. de Talleyrand 
 the right to replace Prince Joseph wherever the rank of 
 Grand Elector called him ; but it also obliged him to relin- 
 quish the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which was beneath 
 his present rank. He was, however, entirely in Napoleon's 
 confidence with respect to foreign affairs, and was consulted 
 by him in preference to the real" 4 Minister. Some would-be 
 wise persons claimed afterward to have foreseen that M. de 
 Talleyrand was exchanging a secure post for a brilliant but 
 precarious position; and Bonaparte himself let it appear 
 sometimes that he had not returned from Tilsit without feel- 
 ing some displeasure at the preponderance of his Minister in 
 Europe, and that he was annoyed at the generally prevalent 
 belief that M. de Talleyrand was necessary to him. By 
 changing his office, and availing himself of his services in 
 consultation only, he made use of him just as he wished, 
 while reserving the power of setting him aside or of not 
 following his guidance whenever either course should suit 
 him. I remember an anecdote which illustrates this position 
 of affairs. M. de Champagny, a clever but narrow-minded 
 man, was transferred from the Ministry of the Interior to 
 that of Foreign Affairs, and M. de Talleyrand, on presenting 
 to him the various persons who were to be under his author- 
 ity, said : " Here, sir, are many highly commendable persons. 
 They will give you every satisfaction. You will find them 
 capable, punctual, exact, and trustworthy, but, thanks to my 
 training, not at all zealous." At these words M. de Cham- 
 pagny expressed some surprise. "Yes," continued M. de 
 Talleyrand, affecting the utmost seriousness ; " with the ex- 
 ception of a few dispatching clerks, who fold up their covers 
 with undue precipitation, every one here observes the great- 
 est calmness, and all are totally unused to haste. When you 
 
518 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K&MUSAT. 
 
 have had to transact the business of the interests of Europe 
 with the Emperor for a little while, you will see how im- 
 portant it is not to be in any hurry to seal and send of? his 
 decisions." M. de Talleyrand amused the Emperor by re- 
 lating this incident, and describing the crestfallen and as- 
 tonished air with w r hich his successor received the useful 
 hint. It will not be inappropriate to place here a statement 
 of the cumulative income of which M. de Talleyrand was at 
 this time in the receipt : 
 
 Francs. 
 
 As Grand Elector '. 330,000 
 
 . As Grand Chamberlain 40,000 
 
 From the Principality of Benevento 120,000 
 
 As Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor 5,000 
 
 Total 495,000 
 
 Certain endowments were afterward added to this sum. His 
 personal fortune was estimated at three hundred thousand 
 louis per annum ; I never knew whether this was correct. 
 The various treaties brought him immense sums of money 
 and presents of enormous value. He lived in great style, 
 and made very handsome allowances to his brothers. He 
 bought the fine estate of Yalencay, and furnished the house 
 most luxuriously. At the time of which I am now speak- 
 ing he had a fancy for books, and his library was superb. 
 That year the Emperor ordered him to make a sumptuous 
 display, and to purchase a house suitable to his dignity as a 
 prince, promising that he himself would pay for it. M. de 
 Talleyrand bought the Hotel de Monaco, Eue de Yarenne, 
 enlarged it, and decorated it extensively. The Emperor, 
 having quarreled with him, did not keep his word, but threw 
 him into considerable embarrassment by obliging him to pay 
 for this palace himself. 
 
 In concluding my sketch of the position of the Imperial 
 family, I must add that Prince Eugene was then governing 
 his fair realm of Italy with wisdom and prudence, happy in 
 
THE MINISTERS. 519 
 
 the affection of his wife, and rejoicing in the birth of their 
 little daughter.* 
 
 The Arch-Chancellor Cambaceres, who was cautious both 
 by nature and training, remained in Paris, maintaining a cer- 
 tain state assigned to him by the Emperor, and which de- 
 lighted his childish vanity. With equal prudence he pre- 
 sided over the State Council, conducting the debates with 
 method and discernment, and contriving that the prescribed 
 limits should never be exceeded, f Le Bran, the Arch- 
 Treasurer, interfered little with affairs ; he kept up a certain 
 state, and managed his own revenues, giving no cause of 
 offense and exerting no influence. 
 
 The Ministers confined themselves to their respective 
 duties, preserving the attitude of attentive and docile clerks, 
 and conducting the affairs with which they were intrusted on 
 a uniform system, which had for its basis the will and the 
 interests of their master.:): Each one's orders were the same : 
 "Promptitude and submission" The Minister of Police 
 allowed himself a greater liberty of speech than the others. 
 He was careful to keep on good terms with the Jacobins, for 
 whose good behavior he made himself responsible to the Em- 
 peror. On this very account he was a little more indepen- 
 dent, for he was at the head of a party. He had the direc- 
 tion of the various branches of police set over France, and 
 was master of the details. Bonaparte and he may have often 
 
 * Doubtless the Princess had not followed the advice which the Emperor 
 gave her in a letter written in August, 1806 : "My daughter, your letter of the 
 10th of August gave me great pleasure. I thank you for all your kind expres- 
 sions. You are right to trust fully to me. Take great care of your health just 
 now, and try not to present us with a girl. I could give you a prescription, but 
 you would not believe in it ; it is to take a little pure wine every day." P. R. 
 
 f In his capacity as a great dignitary of state he received a salary of three 
 hundred and thirty thousand francs, or one third of the million which was as- 
 signed to a French prince ; and the Emperor added to this the six hundred thou- 
 sand francs which he received as Consul. Le Brun, the Arch-Treasurer, had a 
 salary of five hundred thousand francs. 
 
 \ Generally speaking, the Ministers received salaries of two hundred and 
 ten thousand francs. The Minister of Foreign Affairs received more than this. 
 
520 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 told each other falsehoods in their interviews, but probably 
 neither of them was deceived. 
 
 M. de Champagny, subsequently Due de Cadore, who 
 had been Minister of the Interior, was placed at the head of 
 foreign affairs, and was succeeded in his former post by State 
 Councilor Cretet, who had been at first Director-General of 
 Public Works (Fonts et Chaussees). He was not a clever 
 man, but hard-working and assiduous, and that was all that 
 the Emperor required. 
 
 Requier, the Chief Judge, subsequently Due de Massa, 
 of whom I have already spoken, administered justice with 
 persevering mediocrity. The Emperor was anxious that nei- 
 ther the authority nor the independence of the law should 
 increase. 
 
 The Prince de Neufch&tel made an able "War Minister. 
 General Dejean was at the head of the Commissariat De- 
 partment. Both were under the personal superintendence 
 of the Emperor. 
 
 M. Gaudin, the wise Minister of Finance, observed an 
 order and regularity in the management of taxes and receipts 
 which rendered him valuable to the Emperor. This was his 
 sole employment. Afterward he was created Due de Gaeta. 
 
 The Minister of the Treasury, M. Mollien, subsequently 
 created a count, showed more talent and much financial 
 sagacity. 
 
 M. Portalis, the Minister of Public Worship, was a man 
 of talent and ability, and had maintained harmony between 
 the clergy and the Government. It must be stated that the 
 clergy, out of gratitude for the security and consideration 
 which they owed to Bonaparte, submitted to him very will- 
 ingly, and were partisans of a despotic authority conducive 
 to universal order. When he demanded the levy of the con- 
 scripts of 1808, of which I have already spoken, he ordered 
 the bishops, according to his usual custom, to exhort the 
 peasantry to submit to the conscription. Their pastoral let- 
 ters were very remarkable. In that of the Bishop of Quim- 
 
DEATH OF M. PORTALIS. 521 
 
 per were these words : " "What French heart will not ardently 
 bless Divine Providence for having bestowed on this mag- 
 nificent empire, when it was on the point of being for ever 
 crushed beneath blood-stained ruins, the only man who, as 
 Emperor and King, could repair its misfortunes and throw a 
 veil of glory over the period of its dishonor ? " 
 
 The death of M. Portalis occurred during this year, and 
 he was succeeded by an excellent though less able man, M. 
 Bigot de Pre*ameneu, Councilor of State, who was subse- 
 quently made a count. 
 
 In conclusion, the Naval Minister had little occupation 
 from the time that Bonaparte, giving up the hope of subdu- 
 ing England at sea, and vexed with the failure of all his 
 maritime undertakings, had ceased to interest himself in 
 naval affairs. M. Decres, a man of real ability, was alto- 
 gether pleasing to his master. His manners were rather 
 rough, but he flattered Bonaparte after an unusual fashion. 
 He cared little for public esteem, and was willing to bear the 
 odium of the injustice with which the Emperor treated the 
 French navy, so that it never appeared to emanate from 
 Bonaparte himself. With unfaltering devotion, M. Decres 
 incurred and endured the resentment of all his former com- 
 panions and friends. The Emperor afterward made him a 
 duke.* 
 
 At the time of which I am writing the Court atmosphere 
 was cold and silent. There, especially, we were all impressed 
 with the conviction that our privileges depended solely on 
 the will of the master ; and, as that will was apt to be capri- 
 cious, the difficulty of providing against it led each individual 
 to avoid taking needless action, and to restrict himself to the 
 more or less narrow circle of the duties of his office. The 
 ladies of the Court were still more cautious, and did not 
 attempt anything beyond winning admiration either by their 
 
 * Admiral D6cres was born in 1761, and was murdered in Paris on the 7th 
 of December, 1820. He was Naval Minister from 1801 to 1814, and again dur- 
 ing the Hundred Days. P. R. 
 
522 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 beauty or their attire. In Paris itself people were becoming 
 more and more indifferent to the working of a mechanism of 
 which they could see the results and feel the power, but in 
 whose action they knew they could have no share. Social 
 life was not wanting in attractions. French people, if they 
 are but at peace, will immediately seek for pleasure. But 
 credit was restricted, interest in national affairs was languid, 
 and all the higher and nobler sentiments of public life were 
 wellnigh paralyzed. Thoughtful minds were disturbed, and 
 true citizens must have felt that they were leading useless 
 lives. As a sort of compensation, they accepted the plea- 
 sures of an agreeable and varied social existence. Civiliza- 
 tion was increased by luxury, which, while enervating the 
 mind, makes social relations pleasanter. It procures for peo- 
 ple of the world a number of little interests, which are al- 
 most always sufficient for them, and with which they do not 
 feel ashamed of being satisfied, -when for a length of time 
 they have been suffering from the greater political disorders. 
 The recollection of the latter was still fresh in our memory, 
 and it made us prize this period of brilliant slavery and ele- 
 gant idleness. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 (1807.) 
 
 Vexations at Court Friendship with M. de Talleyrand General Eapp General 
 Clarke Session of the Legislative Bodies The Emperor's Speech Fetes of the 
 15th of August Marriage of Je"r6me Bonaparte Death of Le Brun The Abbe 
 Delille M. de Chateaubriand Dissolution of the Tribunate The Court re- 
 moves to Fontainebleau. 
 
 WHEN the Emperor reached Paris on the 27th of July, 
 1807, I was still at Aix-la--Chapelle, and was beginning to 
 feel anxious as to the temper in which he had returned. I 
 have already said that this was a prevailing uneasiness at 
 Court whenever he was expected. I could make no inquiries, 
 for none dared to write openly to their correspondents ; thus 
 it was only when I myself returned that I could learn any 
 particulars. 
 
 The Emperor came back elated at his inconceivable good 
 fortune, and it soon became evident that his imagination ex- 
 aggerated the distance between himself and every other per- 
 son. He showed, moreover, increased indignation at what 
 he called the "gossip of the Faubourg Saint Germain." 
 The first time that he saw M. de Kemusat, he rebuked him 
 for not having given information respecting the persons in 
 society in Paris, in some letters he wrote to Duroc, Grand 
 Marshal of the Palace. " You are in a position," said he, 
 " to know what is said in a number of drawing-rooms, and 
 it is your duty to keep me informed. I can not accept the 
 slight excuses on which you have withheld information from 
 me." To this M. de Eemusat replied that there was very 
 
524 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 little to withhold, because people were naturally careful as 
 to what they said before him, and that he would have been 
 loath to attach any importance to idle words, which might 
 have caused serious consequences to those who had uttered 
 them, often without any really hostile feeling. On such an 
 answer being made to him, the Emperor would shrug his 
 shoulders, turn on his heel, and say to Duroc or to Savary : 
 " I am very sorry, but Ke'musat will not get on ; he is not 
 devoted to me as I understand devotion." 
 
 It may be thought, at least, that a man of honor, who 
 was determined rather to mar his prospects than to purchase 
 fortune by a sacrifice of his self-respect, would have been 
 placed by that very resolution out of danger of those quarrels 
 which result from what, alike in city and Court, is called 
 tittle-tattle. But such was not the case ; Bonaparte liked 
 nobody to be at peace, and he knew admirably well how to 
 compromise or embroil those who most desired to live in 
 quiet. 
 
 It will be remembered that, during the stay of the Em- 
 press at Mayence, some ladies of the Court, of whom Mme. 
 de la Kochefoucauld was the chief, had ventured to criticise 
 the Prussian war with some severity, and to compassionate 
 Prince Louis, and still more the beautiful and cruelly insulted 
 Queen. The Empress, displeased by their freedom, had 
 written full accounts to her husband of this movement of 
 sympathy, begging him never to let it be known that she 
 had mentioned the matter to him. That she had done so 
 she confided to M. de Remusat, who expressed his disap- 
 proval, but kept her secret. When M. de Talleyrand joined 
 the Emperor, he too related what had been taking place at 
 Mayence, but more with the intention of amusing Napoleon 
 than from any hostility toward the Lady of Honor, whom he 
 neither liked nor disliked. Bonaparte was, however, greatly 
 displeased with her, and the first time they met he reproached 
 her with his usual violence for her opinions and her utter- 
 ances. Mme. de la Eochefoucauld was taken by surprise, 
 
VEXATIONS AT COURT. 525 
 
 and, for want of a better excuse, denied everything. The 
 Emperor rejoined by a positive reiteration, and, when she in- 
 quired who had made this tine report about her, he instantly 
 named M. de Remusat. On hearing this, Mme. de la Roche- 
 f oucauld was astounded. She was friendly to my husband 
 and to me ; and, believing rightly that she might rely on our 
 discretion,' she had often confided her most secret thoughts 
 to us. She felt, therefore, extreme surprise and anger, the 
 more so that she herself was a sincere person, and incapable 
 of such baseness as that attributed to my husband. 
 
 Being thus prejudiced against him, she avoided any op- 
 portunity of explanation, but was cold and constrained in her 
 demeanor. For a long time he could not understand the 
 reason of the estrangement ; but, a few months afterward, 
 some circumstances connected with the divorce rendered cer- 
 tain interviews and conversations between Mme. de la Roche- 
 foucauld and ourselves necessary, and she questioned my hus- 
 band on the matter which I have just related, and then learned 
 the whole truth. She had made an opportunity of speaking 
 freely to the Empress, who did not undeceive her, but al- 
 lowed suspicion still to rest on M. de Remusat, adding only 
 that M. de Talleyrand had probably said more than he. 
 Mme. de la Rochefoucauld was an intimate friend of M. de 
 Segur, Grand Master of Ceremonies, and she confided her 
 feelings to him. For a time this caused a coolness between 
 him and us ; it also set him against M. de Talleyrand, the 
 sharpness and occasional bitterness of whose satire leagued 
 all commonplace people together against him, and he amused 
 himself mercilessly at their expense. They took their re- 
 venge when and how they could. The Emperor did not 
 confine his reproaches to persons of the Court ; he complained 
 likewise of high society in Paris. He rebuked M. Fouche 
 for the imperfection of his supervision ; he sent certain ladies 
 into exile, threatened some persons of distinction, and im- 
 plied that, to avoid the effects of his displeasure, former acts 
 of indiscretion must be repaired by steps which would show 
 
526 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 that his authority was recognized. Many persons felt them- 
 selves in consequence obliged to be presented at Court ; some 
 few made their own safety a pretext for this, and the splen- 
 dor of his Court was increased. 
 
 As he always took care to make his presence felt by dis- 
 turbing everybody, he did not spare his own family. He 
 severely, though very ineffectually, scolded his sister Pau- 
 line for her lightness of conduct, which Prince Borghese 
 beheld with real or affected indifference. Nor did he hide 
 from his sister Caroline that he was aware of her secret and 
 ambitious projects. She bent before the inevitable storm 
 with her usual suppleness, and brought him by degrees to 
 own that, with such blood running in her veins, she was not 
 very guilty in desiring a superior rank, while she took care 
 to make her defense with all her usual charm. "When he 
 had thus, to use his own expression, roused up everybody 
 all round, he felt satisfied with the terror he had excited, 
 and, appearing to forget what had passed, resumed his cus- 
 tomary way of life. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand, whose return occurred -a little later, 
 expressed great pleasure at meeting M. de Remusat. He 
 now took up a habit of frequently coming to see me, and 
 our intimacy became closer. I recollect that, at first, not- 
 withstanding the gratitude with which his kindness inspired 
 me, and the great pleasure I felt in his conversation, I was 
 for a long time ill at ease in his company. M. de Talleyrand 
 was justly reckoned as a very clever man; he was a very 
 important personage ; but he was said to be hard to please 
 and of a sarcastic disposition. His manners, although highly 
 polished, seem to place the person whom he is addressing in 
 a relatively inferior position. Nevertheless, as the customs 
 of society in France always accord to women a certain im- 
 portance and liberty, they could, if they chose, hold their 
 own with M. de Talleyrand, who likes women and is not 
 afraid of them. Yet few of them chose to do so ; the desire 
 of pleasing restrained them. They hold themselves in a 
 
FRIENDSHIP WITH M. DE TALLEYRAND. 527 
 
 sort of bondage to him, and, in fact, to use a common ex- 
 pression, they have spoiled him. Lastly, as he is reserved, 
 blase on a multitude of subjects, indifferent on many others, 
 and with feelings difficult to touch, a woman who designs to 
 conquer or retain him, or even only to amuse him, under- 
 takes a hard task. 
 
 All that I knew about him, all that I discovered in be- 
 coming more intimate with him, made me constrained in his 
 presence. I was gratified by his friendliness, but I did not 
 venture to tell him so ; I was afraid of disclosing my habit- 
 ual thoughts and anxieties, because I imagined they would 
 excite his sarcasm. I asked him no questions either about 
 himself or on public affairs, for fear he might think me 
 curious. My mind was strained in his presence, so that I 
 sometimes experienced actual fatigue. I listened to him 
 with the greatest attention, in order that, even if I could 
 not always reply fittingly, at least I should have procured 
 him the pleasure of an attentive auditor; for I own that 
 pride was flattered by his preference for me. "When I think 
 it all over now, I am amused at the mingled distress and 
 pleasure^ which I experienced when my folding-doors were 
 opened (on both sides) and the Prince of Benevento was an- 
 nounced. Large drops sometimes stood on my forehead 
 from the efforts I made to express myself wittily, and there 
 is no doubt that I was in consequence less agreeable than 
 had I behaved more naturally, when, at any rate, I should 
 have had the advantage of sincerity and of harmony in my 
 whole deportment. Although naturally grave and inclined 
 to deep feeling, I tried to emulate the lightness with which 
 he could pass from one subject to another. I was kind- 
 hearted by nature, and averse to malicious talk, and yet I 
 was always ready to smile at his jests. At the beginning, 
 then, he exerted over me the influence which was customary 
 to him ; and, had our intimacy continued on the same foot- 
 ing, I should have seemed to him but one woman the more 
 to swell the ranks of those worshipers who rivaled each 
 39 
 
528 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 other in applauding his defects and encouraging the worst 
 points of his character. He would probably have ended by 
 breaking with me, for I should have ill sustained a role for 
 which I was so little suited. I will presently relate the 
 painful circumstances which made me resume my natural 
 character, and which caused me to conceive a sincere affec- 
 tion for him, which has never wavered. 
 
 Our new-formed intimacy was soon remarked at Court, 
 and the Emperor did not at first seem displeased. M. de 
 Talleyrand was not without influence over him ; the opinions 
 he pronounced in speaking of M. de Remusat were of service 
 to us ; a few words let us perceive that we were held in in- 
 creased esteem. The Empress, who found in most things a 
 subject for fear, showed me great kindness, thinking I might 
 serve her cause with M. de Talleyrand. His enemies at 
 Court watched us, but, as he was powerful, we were treated 
 with great consideration. His numerous circle of acquaint- 
 ance began to look with curious eyes on a quiet, straightfor- 
 ward, and taciturn man, who never flattered and was incapa- 
 ble of intrigue, yet whose abilities were praised, and whose 
 society was courted by M. de Talleyrand. I myself, a little 
 person of twenty-seven years of age, ordinary-looking, cold 
 and reserved, in nowise remarkable, devoted to the duties of 
 a pure and virtuous life, thus distinguished by the notice of 
 so eminent a personage, also became an object of attention ! 
 It was probable that M. de Talleyrand, being just then in 
 want of amusement, found something novel and attractive in 
 gaining the affection of two persons completely outside his 
 own sphere of ideas, so that, when wearied by the constraint 
 of his existence, he turned sometimes with relief to a com- 
 panionship which he knew he could trust ; while our attach- 
 ment to him, openly professed at a time when his disgrace 
 shook our own position, caused a solid friendship to succeed 
 to mutual liking. 
 
 It was then that, visiting oftener at his house, which we 
 had not before this been in the habit of frequenting, I be- 
 
FRIENDSHIP WITH M. DE TALLEYRAND. 529 
 
 came acquainted with a section of society hitherto almost 
 unknown to me. There were always a number of people at 
 M. de Talleyrand's foreigners who paid him obsequious at- 
 tention, great nobles of the former order of things, and men 
 of the new, all wondering at finding themselves under the 
 same roof all remarkable for some reason or other, but 
 whose character was not always equal to their celebrity. 
 Well-known women were there also, of whom it must be 
 said he had in general been rather the lover than the friend, 
 and who were on the kind of terms with him that he pre- 
 ferred. 
 
 His wife must be named first among the persons to whom 
 I allude. Her beauty was* daily waning on account of her 
 increasing size. She was always handsomely dressed, and 
 occupied by right the place of honor, but was unacquainted 
 with most of the company. M. de Talleyrand never seemed 
 to perceive that she was present ; he never spoke to her, still 
 less did he listen to what she said, and I believe he suffered 
 acutely, but with resignation, for the error which had forced 
 him into this extraordinary marriage. His wife seldom went 
 to Court : the Emperor treated her coldly, and she received 
 no consideration there. It never occurred to M. de Talley- 
 rand to complain of this, nor yet of the compensation she 
 was said to seek in the attentions of certain strangers. Bona- 
 parte would sometimes jest on this subject with M. de Tal- 
 leyrand, who would answer with indifference and let the 
 matter drop. Mme. de Talleyrand habitually disliked all 
 her husband's friends, whether men or women. It is prob- 
 able that she made no exception in my favor, but I always 
 behaved to her with such ceremonious civility, I held myself 
 so totally aloof from her private affairs, that we scarcely came 
 into contact. 
 
 In these reception-rooms I also met some old friends of 
 M. de Talleyrand, who began to regard me with curiosity, 
 much to my amusement. Among these were the Duchesse 
 de Luynes and the Princesse de Yaudemont, both of them 
 
530 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 excellent women. They were sincerely attached and true to 
 him, and very kind to me because they saw that my regard 
 for him was sincere, straightforward, and without any ulte- 
 rior design. The Vicorntesse de Laval was less well pleased, 
 and, being rather ill-natured, she judged me with some se- 
 verity. The Princesse de Lieskiewitz, sister of Prince Ponia- 
 towski, had lately made the acquaintance of M. de Talleyrand 
 at "Warsaw, and had followed him to Paris. This poor lady, 
 notwithstanding her forty-five years and her glass eye, was 
 unfortunately passionately in love with him ; and her attach- 
 ment, of which he was manifestly weary, made her alive to 
 the least preference shown by him. It is possible she may 
 have honored me with a little jealousy. The Princesse de 
 
 X yielded to the same infirmity, for it was truly an 
 
 infirmity to "love" M. de Talleyrand. I also met the 
 Duchesse de Fleury,* a very clever woman, who had ob- 
 tained a divorce from her husband, M. de Montrond ; f 
 Mesdames de Bellegarde, whose only claim to importance in 
 
 society was their extreme license of speech ; Mme. de K , 
 
 to whom M. de Talleyrand paid attention, in order to keep 
 on good terms with the Grand Equerry ; Mme. de Brignoli, 
 one of the Ladies-in- Waiting a very agreeable and elegant 
 Genoese ; and Mme. de Souza, formerly Mme. de Flahaut 
 a talented woman, who had been in her early youth a friend 
 of M. de Talleyrand, and for whom he still retained much 
 regard. She had written several pretty tales, and was, at 
 the time of which I speak, the wife of M. de Souza, who 
 had been ambassador to Portugal. Lastly, I met the am- 
 
 * The Duchesse de Fleury resumed her maiden name, calling herself the 
 Comtesse Aimee de Coigny. Andre Chenier's ode, "A la Jeune Captive," was 
 written for her. 
 
 f Montrond is a professional gambler and a well-known wit. He amused 
 M. de Talleyrand, to whose reputation his intimacy with this person was hurt- 
 ful ; he was always in opposition to the Government, was exiled by the Emper- 
 or, and was defended by M. de Talleyrand with an obstinacy worthy of a better 
 cause. 
 
FRIENDSHIP WITH M. DE TALLEYRAND. 531 
 
 bassadresses, the foreign princesses then in Paris, and a great 
 number of all the distinguished people in Europe. 
 
 I was entertained by this social magic lantern; but, 
 warned by an instinctive feeling to make no friendships 
 among the crowd, I always stood on the strictest ceremony, 
 and much preferred receiving M. de Talleyrand at my own 
 fireside. My own circle felt some surprise at his so frequent- 
 ly joining us some of my friends were even alarmed ; for 
 he inspired a general apprehension lest, immersed in impor- 
 tant affairs as he was, he might find himself in a dangerous 
 position and drag us down in his fall. "We did not share 
 the alarm of these friends, as perhaps we ought to have done. 
 M. de Remusat's office as First Chamberlain brought us into 
 contact with M. de Talleyrand, and it was pleasanter that 
 our intercourse should be friendly ; we held aloof from all 
 serious affairs, and had no thought of benefiting by his influ- 
 ence. Disinterested persons are apt to deceive themselves 
 on this head ; they imagine that others must know, or at any 
 rate must perceive, what their real motives are, and as they 
 act with simple sincereity they do not apprehend that they 
 will be suspected of double-dealing. It was a great blunder, 
 at that time, to expect to be estimated at one's real worth. 
 
 The Emperor saw Louis's second son when he went to 
 Saint Cloud, and treated him affectionately, so that, the Em- 
 press began to hope he would think of this child as his heir, 
 as he had formerly thought of the elder boy. Bonaparte had 
 been impressed by the extreme rapidity of the progress of 
 the disease that had so suddenly carried off the elder brother, 
 and he offered a competitive prize of twelve thousand francs 
 for essays upon the malady called croup. Some valuable 
 works were published in consequence. 
 
 The pacification of Europe did not at once bring back the 
 whole army to France. In the first place, the King of 
 Sweden, prevailed on by the English Government, and in 
 spite of the opposition of his people, announced the rupture 
 of his armistice with us. Thirteen days after the signature 
 
532 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 of peace at Tilsit, a partial war broke out in Pomerania. 
 Marshal Mortier was at the head of this expedition ; he en- 
 tered Stralsund, and obliged the King of Sweden to take ship 
 and escape. On this the English sent a considerable fleet to 
 the Baltic, and, having attacked Denmark, laid siege to Co- 
 penhagen, of which they soon obtained possession. These va- 
 rious events were chronicled in the " Moniteur," accompanied 
 with notes attacking the English as usual, while the aberration 
 of mind of the King of Sweden was proclaimed to Europe.* 
 
 Speaking of the subsidy which the English Government 
 allowed the Swedes for carrying on the war, the Emperor 
 expressed himself as follows in the " Moniteur " : " Gallant 
 and unfortunate Swedes, this subsidy costs you dear! If 
 England could only repair the harm she does to your trade 
 and to your honor, or could replace the blood she has already 
 cost and still costs you ! But you must feel that you are to 
 be pitied for having lost all your privileges and all consid- 
 eration, and for being, thus defenseless and disorganized, sub- 
 ject to the caprices of an invalid King." 
 
 General Rapp f remained at Dantzic as governor, with a 
 garrison. He was a brave and honest man rather rough 
 in his ways, faithful, frank, careless of what went on about 
 him, and of everything except the orders he received. He 
 served his master with great fidelity, more than once nearly 
 losing his life for him, without having ever made the least 
 inquiry into the qualities or the vices of his character. 
 
 The Emperor also considered 'himself bound to support 
 the new constitution established in Poland by the King of 
 Saxony, and sent a considerable garrison thither to be added 
 to the Polish garrison. Marshal Davoust had the command 
 of this cantonment. By thus dispersing his troops through 
 Europe, Bonaparte secured his influence over his allies, kept 
 
 * It would appear that, in fact, his mind was not very sound. We are 
 speaking of Gustavus IV., who was dethroned in 1809. P. R. 
 
 f Aide-de-camp to Bonaparte. He waa made a peer of France by the last 
 decree passed in the year 1819. 
 
GENERAL CLARKE. 533 
 
 his soldiers in practice, and relieved France from the burden 
 of supporting so many armed men. His aggressive policy 
 obliged him to be always in readiness; and, moreover, to 
 insure the entire devotion of his army, it was necessary to 
 keep the men far from their homes. He succeeded in so 
 completely altering the nature of his troops that they be- 
 came unreservedly devoted to his service ; they lost all na- 
 tional sentiment, and cared only for their chief, for victory, 
 and for plunder, which in the eyes of a soldier is a great 
 embellishment of danger. They drew down by degrees on 
 the fatherland which they had forgotten those feelings of 
 hatred and revenge which resulted in the European crusade 
 against us in 1813 and 1814. 
 
 Fresh adulation awaited the Emperor on his return. 
 Language was exhausted for formulas of praise, to which he 
 listened with disdainful composure. There is little doubt, 
 however, that his indifference was feigned; for he loved 
 praise from no matter what lips, and more than once he was 
 duped by it. There were men who had influence over him 
 only because their compliments were inexhaustible. Unfail- 
 ing admiration, even though somewhat foolishly expressed, 
 never failed to please him. 
 
 On the 10th of August he sent a message to the Senate, 
 announcing the elevation of M. de Talleyrand to the dignity 
 of Vice-Grand Elector, and that of Marshal Berthier to the 
 rank of Vice-Grand Constable. General Clarke succeeded 
 to the latter as Minister of War, and found opportunities for 
 displaying the devoted admiration to which I have alluded, 
 even more fully than before. The Emperor's habitual at- 
 tention to all war matters, the high intelligence of Berthier, 
 Major-General of the army, and the careful administration 
 of General Dejean, the chief of the Commissariat, made any 
 great abilities in General Clarke unnecessary. Punctual, 
 upright, and submissive, he fulfilled all the requirements of 
 his position. MM. Champagny and Cretet obtained the two 
 ministerial posts of which I have spoken, and State Coun 
 
534 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 cillor Eegnault was made State Secretary to the Imperial 
 Family. 
 
 Meanwhile we read every day of fresh military promo- 
 tions, of the distribution of rewards, of the creation of offi- 
 cial posts in fact, of everything that tends to keep ambi- 
 tion, covetousness, and vanity on the alert. Then the Corps 
 Legislatif opened its session. M. de Fontanes, who, as usual, 
 was named President, made, as usual, a fine speech on the 
 truly brilliant position of France. A very great number of 
 laws appertaining to rule and order were brought before the 
 Assembly for its sanction, as was likewise a budget which 
 proclaimed our finances to be in a flourishing condition ; and, 
 lastly, an account of the public works of all kinds in contem- 
 plation, or begun, or already terminated, in all parts of the 
 Empire. The cost of all these was defrayed by the contri- 
 butions exacted throughout Europe, and all France might 
 witness improvements which nevertheless did not augment a 
 single tax. The Emperor, in addressing the legislative bod- 
 ies, spoke to the whole French nation ; gave them an account 
 of his victories ; mentioned the 5,179 officers and the 123,000 
 subalterns and privates taken prisoners in this war ; spoke of 
 the complete conquest of Prussia, of his soldiers encamped 
 -on the banks of the Vistula, of the fall of the power of Eng- 
 land, which, he said, must be the result of so many victories ; 
 and ended by an expression of satisfaction with the nation, 
 which had so faithfully served him in gaining for him such 
 triumphant success. "Frenchmen," he said, "I am well 
 pleased with you ; you are a good and a great people." 
 
 The opening of the Corps Legislatif was an imposing 
 ceremony. The hall had been lavishly decorated ; the dress 
 of the deputies was handsome, that of the courtiers sur- 
 rounding the Emperor was magnificent, and he himself was 
 resplendent in gold and diamonds on that day. Although 
 in every ceremonial he was too precipitate, the great pomp 
 he insisted upon took the place of that dignity which was 
 wanting. When Bonaparte, in the course of any ceremony, 
 
BONAPARTE'S INCORRECT PRONUNCIATION. 535 
 
 had to walk toward the throne prepared for him, he always 
 seemed to rush at it. One could not but feel, on observing 
 him, that this was no legitimate sovereign taking peaceful 
 possession of the royal seat bequeathed to him by his ances- 
 tors ; but an all-powerful master, who, each time that he wore 
 the crown, seemed to reiterate the words he had once uttered 
 at Milan, " Guai a chi la tocchera." 
 
 On these state occasions Bonaparte's incorrect pronuncia- 
 tion was a great drawback. In general he had his speech 
 drawn up for him. M. Maret, I believe, most frequently un- 
 dertook that task, but sometimes it fell to M. Yignaud, or 
 even to M. de Fontanes ; and he would try to learn it by 
 heart, but with little success ; for the least constraint was in- 
 supportable to him. He always ended by resolving to read 
 his speech, and it was copied out for him in a large hand ; 
 for he was little accustomed to read writing, and could 
 have made nothing out of his own. Then he would be in- 
 structed in the proper pronounciation of the words; but 
 when he came to speak he forgot his lesson, and in a muf- 
 fled voice, with lips scarcely parted, would read the speech 
 in an accent more strange even than it was foreign, most 
 unpleasant, and indeed vulgar. I have heard numbers of 
 persons say that they always felt a painful sensation on hear- 
 ing him speak in public. The indisputable testimony of his 
 accent to the fact that he was a foreigner struck painfully 
 on the ear and the mind alike. I have myself sometimes 
 experienced this involuntary sensation. 
 
 The fetes of the 15th of August were splendid. The 
 whole Court, glittering with precious stones, was present at a 
 concert in the palace, and at the ballet which followed it. 
 The reception-rooms of the Tuileries were thronged with a 
 brilliant and gorgeous company; there were ambassadors, 
 the greatest nobles of all Europe, princes, and many kings 
 who, although new-made, appeared in becoming state. There, 
 too, were lovely women, magnificently attired, who, together 
 with the first musicians in the world, and all that the opera- 
 
536 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 ballets could lend of grace and elegance, combined to form a 
 scene of Oriental splendor. 
 
 Public games and rejoicings were given to the city of 
 Paris. The Parisians, who are naturally gay when gathered 
 together, and eager to join any crowd, hurried into the 
 streets to see the illuminations and the fireworks, and showed 
 the delight they felt in scenes of pleasure and in the beauty 
 of the season. But there were no acclamations in honor of 
 the Emperor. There seemed to be no thought of him, as 
 the people enjoyed the amusements he had provided for 
 them ; but every one diverted himself according to his own 
 character and taste, and these, perhaps, make the French the 
 least serious people in the world, but the most pleasant. 
 
 English people who were present at these rejoicings were 
 quite astonished at the good order, the frank gayety, and the 
 harmony which reign on such occasions throughout all classes 
 of society. Every one enjoys himself, and does not think of 
 interfering with his neighbor's enjoyment ; there is no quar- 
 reling nor ill humor, no revolting and dangerous drunkenness. 
 Women and children may mix with impunity in the crowd, 
 and are protected. People who are strangers to each other 
 take their pleasure together ; they sing and laugh in chorus, 
 though they have never met before. On such occasions an 
 unobservant sovereign might easily be misled. This consti- 
 tutional hilarity, temporarily called forth by extraneous cir- 
 cumstances, may be mistaken for the expression of the feel- 
 ings of a contented and loyal people. But, if the sovereigns 
 who are destined to reign over Frenchmen do not want to 
 be deceived, they will interrogate their own conscience 
 rather than the popular cry, if they would learn whether 
 they inspire affection and give happiness to their people. 
 
 In this respect the flattery of a Court is really* astonish- 
 ing ; numbers of courtiers, in describing the behavior of the 
 Parisian public, endeavored to represent it to the Emperor 
 as a proof of the people's gratitude toward him ! I will not 
 affirm that he was never deceived by this, but for the most 
 
MARRIAGE OF jRME BONAPARTE. 53? 
 
 part lie remained stolidly unmoved. Bonaparte seldom lis- 
 tened to others, and joyousness was foreign to his nature. 
 
 During the month of August several of the German 
 princes arrived in Paris some in order to visit the Emperor, 
 others to solicit some favor, or some liberty in behalf of 
 their petty states. 
 
 The Prince Primate of the Confederation of the Rhine 
 came at about this time, to celebrate the marriage of Prin- 
 cess Catherine of Wiirtemberg, who herself arrived on the 
 21st of August. She was, I think, about twenty years of age, 
 and was a nice-looking girl ; her figure was already rather 
 stout, and seemed to indicate that she would take after her 
 father, whose size was so enormous that he could only sit on 
 chairs specially constructed for him, and had to dine at a 
 table which had been hollowed out in a semicircle to make 
 room for his unwieldy figure. 
 
 This King of Wiirtemberg was a very able man, but had 
 the reputation of being the most worthless prince in Europe. 
 He was hated by his subjects, who, it is said, more than once 
 tried to rid themselves of him. He is now dead. 
 
 The marriage of Princess Catherine and the King of 
 "Westphalia * took place at the Tuileries with great splendor. 
 The civil ceremony was performed in the Gallery of Diana, 
 as in the case of the Princess of Baden's wedding ; and on 
 Sunday, the 23d, at eight in the morning, the religious mar- 
 riage was solemnized at the Tuileries, in presence of the 
 whole Court. 
 
 The Prince and Princess of Baden had also come to Paris. 
 She was prettier than ever. The Emperor did not appear to 
 notice her particularly. I will speak of her again presently. 
 
 The King and Queen of Holland arrived at the end of 
 August. They seemed to be on good terms, but still de- 
 pressed on account of their loss. The Queen was thin, and 
 suffering all the malaise of an early stage of pregnancy. She 
 had been a very short time in Paris when seeds of the old 
 * Jerome Bonaparte. 
 
538 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 distrust and disquiet were once more sown in the mind of 
 her husband. Evil tongues insinuated falsehoods respecting 
 the life that the unhappy woman had led at the Pyrenean 
 watering-place. Her grief, the tears that were still flowing, 
 her downcast air, her too evident ill health, failed to disarm 
 her enemies. She talked of the excursions she had made 
 among the mountains, and of the soothing effect of the 
 mountain scenery. She told how she had met M. Decazes, 
 and pitied the profound grief into which his wife's death had 
 plunged him. All this she related in the most frank and 
 simple manner, but calumny laid hold of it, and the sus- 
 picions of Louis were reawakened. He wished, naturally 
 but selfishly, to take his wife and son back to Holland. 
 Mme. Louis was as submissive as he could require her to be ; 
 but the Empress, alarmed by the declining state of her 
 daughter, insisted on a consultation of physicians being held. 
 The doctors were unanimous in pronouncing the climate of 
 Holland unfit for a woman in the Queen's situation, whose 
 chest was already delicate ; and the Emperor settled the ques- 
 tion by announcing that he intended to keep his step-daugh- 
 ter and her child with himself for the present. The King 
 submitted sullenly, and bitterly resented to his wife a deci- 
 sion which she had not solicited, but which, I believe, was in 
 accordance with her wishes. Discord once more reigned in 
 that wretched household ; and Queen Hortense, profoundly 
 offended this time by the jealous suspicions of her husband, 
 lost for ever the interest which she had recently felt in him, 
 and conceived a positive aversion toward him. " From that 
 time forth," she has often said to me, " I was fully aware 
 that my unhappiness must always be irremediable. I re- 
 garded my hopes as entirely and irrevocably ruined. All 
 grandeur inspired me with horror. As for the throne, and 
 what so many people called my f luck,' I cursed them many 
 a time. I was a stranger to every enjoyment of life. All 
 my dreams had vanished ; I was wellnigh dead to all that 
 was passing around me." 
 
M. DE CHATEAUBRIAND. 539 
 
 About this time the Academy lost two of its most dis- 
 tinguished members : Le Brun the poet, who has left some 
 beautiful odes and the reputation of great poetical talent, and 
 M. Dureau de la Malle, the esteemed translator of Tacitus 
 and the intimate friend of Delille. 
 
 M. Delille lived peacefully in the enjoyment of a mod- 
 erate fortune, surrounded by friends, popular in society, left 
 to his repose and his freedom by the Emperor, who had 
 given up the idea of conquering him. He published certain 
 works from time to time, and reaped the reward of his natu- 
 ral amiability in the favor with which they were received. 
 His life was indeed a peaceful one, untroubled by any bitter 
 thoughts or hostile opinions. M. Delille was a professor at 
 the College of France, and received the salary of a chair of 
 literature, but Le Gouve did its work for him. This was 
 the only boon which he consented to accept from Bonaparte. 
 He prided himself on preserving a faithful remembrance of 
 Queen Marie Antoinette, whom h called his benefactress. 
 It was known that he was composing a poem in honor of 
 her, the King, and the emigres, but no one resented this to 
 him. A Government which was always anxious to efface 
 such memoirs respected them in Delille, and would not have 
 ventured to incur the odium of persecuting the amiable, 
 grateful, and generally beloved old man. 
 
 The two vacant seats in the Academy were much dis- 
 cussed in the salons of Paris. M. de Chateaubriand was 
 mentioned for one of them. The Emperor was angry with 
 him, and the young writer who was pursuing a course 
 which gained him celebrity, procured him the support of a 
 party, and nevertheless did not expose him to any real dan- 
 ger kept up an opposition which gained strength from the 
 fact that it excited the Emperor's anger. The French 
 Academy, imbued at that time with the revolutionary and 
 would-be philosophical incredulity that had come into fash- 
 ion in the last century, opposed the choice of a man who had 
 hoisted religious colors as the banner of his genius. It was 
 
540 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 said, by those who most frequented M. de Chateaubriand's 
 society, that the habits of his life were by no means in har- 
 mony with the precepts that adorned his compositions. Ex- 
 cessive pride was imputed to him. Women, captivated by 
 his talents, his peculiar manner, his handsome face, and his 
 reputation, vied with each other in admiring and petting 
 him, and he showed himself by no means insensible to their 
 advances. His extreme vanity, the exalted opinion of him- 
 self which he entertained, made us all believe that, if the 
 Emperor had only coaxed him a little, he would have suc- 
 ceeded in gaining him over to his side, although, of course, 
 he would have had to pay the high price at which M. de 
 Chateaubriand himself would have rated his partisanship.* 
 
 The silent labors of the Corps Legislatif were continued. 
 It ratified all the laws that emanated from the Council of 
 State, and the administrative organization of the power of the 
 Emperor was completed without opposition. It was now cer- 
 tain that he could rule France, by the strength of his own ge- 
 nius and by the proved ability of the members of this Council 
 of State, with an appearance of legality which reduced the 
 country to silence and pleased his orderly mind ; and, regard- 
 ing the remains of the Tribunate as merely a center of oppo- 
 sition, which, however feeble, might be troublesome to him, 
 he resolved to make an end of it. The Tribunate had been 
 considerably lessened in number under the Consulate.f By 
 a senatus consultum the tribunes were transferred to the 
 Corps Legislatif, and the session was immediately closed. 
 The speeches delivered at the last sitting of the Tribunate 
 are remarkable. It is surprising that men should mutually 
 
 * He continued to publish fragments of the " Itine'raire " of his journey in 
 the newspapers, and they were eagerly read. This was as much a matter of 
 party spirit as of taste. A small war was thus waged against Bonaparte, and 
 he resented it, as he resented opposition of every sort. 
 
 f The Tribunate instituted by the Constitution in the year 8 was installed on 
 the 1st of January, 1800. The number of its members had been reduced on the 
 4th of August, 1802; and on the 19th of August, 1810, it was entirely sup- 
 pressed. P. R. 
 
DISSOLUTION OF THE TRIBUNATE. 541 
 
 consent to act such a farce, and yet we had become so much 
 accustomed to that sort of thing, that nobody noticed it par- 
 ticularly at the time. 
 
 First, M. Beranger, Councilor of State, appeared with 
 certain of his colleagues, and, after having recapitulated the 
 services which the Tribunate had rendered to France, he 
 went on to say that the new decree was about to confer on 
 the Corps Legislatif a plenitude of importance which guar- 
 anteed national rights. The President replied, on behalf of 
 the entire Tribunate, that this resolution was received with 
 respect and confidence by them all, and that they appreci- 
 ated its positive advantages. Then a tribune (M. Carrion- 
 Nisas) moved that an address should be presented to the 
 Emperor thanking him for the evidence of esteem and re- 
 gard which he had deigned to offer to the Tribunate ; and 
 the speaker added that he believed himself to be the inter- 
 preter of the feelings of each of his colleagues, in proposing 
 to lay at the foot of the throne, as the last act of an honor- 
 able existence, an address which should impress the people 
 with the idea that the tribunes, whose attachment to the 
 monarchy was unalterable, had received the act of the Sen- 
 ate without regret, and without solicitude for the country. 
 This proposition was adopted with unanimity. The Presi- 
 dent of the Tribunate, Fabre de FAude, was named Senator. 
 
 At this time the Emperor organized the Cour des Comp- 
 tes, and, his displeasure with M. Barbe-Marbois having passed 
 away, he recalled him and made him President of that 
 Court. 
 
 In September the Emperor of Austria married for the 
 second time. His bride was his first cousin, the daughter 
 of the old Archduke Ferdinand of Milan. Shortly after- 
 ward his brother, the Grand Duke of Wiirzburg, who is 
 now Grand Duke of Tuscany, came to Paris. 
 
 The Court was increased from time to time by the ar- 
 rival of a number of great personages. Toward the end of 
 September a sojourn at Fontainebleau was announced. On 
 
542 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 this occasion the greatest magnificence was to be displayed ; 
 fetes were to take place in honor of the Queen of West- 
 phalia ; the elite of the actors and musicians of Paris were to 
 be brought down to the palace, and the Court received or- 
 ders to appear in the utmost splendor. The Princes and 
 Princesses of the Imperial family brought a portion of their 
 households, and they, as well as the great dignitaries and the 
 Ministers who were to accompany the Emperor, were to have 
 separate tables. 
 
 On the 21st of September Bonaparte left Paris with the 
 Empress, and during the following days the Queen of Hol- 
 land, the Queen of Naples, the King and Queen of West- 
 phalia, the Grand Duke and Grand Duchess of Berg, the 
 Princess Pauline, Madame Mere, the Grand Duke and 
 Grand Duchess of Baden, the Prince Primate, the Grand 
 Duke of Wiirzburg, the Princes of Mecklenburg and Saxe- 
 Gotha, M. de Talleyrand, the Prince de 1ST eufchdtel, Maret 
 (Secretary of State), the great officers of the Imperial houses, 
 several Ministers of the kingdom of Italy, and a number of 
 Marshals, arrived at Fontainebleau. M. de Kemusat, several 
 Chamberlains, the Ladies of Honor, the Ladies-in-Waiting, 
 and the Women of the Bedchamber were included in the 
 traveling party. We were all summoned by a letter from 
 the Grand Marshal Duroc, which announced to each that 
 she had been selected by the Emperor. I had just come 
 from Aix-la-Chapelle, and, being comprised in the list, I re- 
 joined the Court and my husband at Fontainebleau, after 
 the delay of a few days in Paris with my mother and my 
 children. 
 
 Marshal Lannes had been nominated Colonel-General of 
 the Swiss Guard on the 20th of September. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 (1807.) 
 
 The Power of the Emperor Resistance of the English The Emperor's Life at 
 Fontainebleau Plays Talma King Je"rome The Princess of Baden The 
 Grand Duchess of Berg Princess Borghese Cambace'res Foreign Princes 
 Spanish Affairs Previsions of M. de Talleyrand M. de Ke"musat is made 
 Superintendent of Theatres The Fortunes and the Difficulties of the Marshals. 
 
 LET us suppose an individual, ignorant of all antecedent 
 events, and suddenly introduced to the life of the palace at 
 Fontainebleau at the time of which I am speaking. That 
 individual, dazzled by the magnificence of this royal dwell- 
 ing, and struck by the authoritative air of the master and 
 the obsequious reverence of the great personages who sur- 
 rounded him, would undoubtedly have believed that he be- 
 held a sovereign peacefully seated upon the greatest throne 
 in the world, in virtue of the joint rights of power and legiti- 
 macy.* 
 
 * This sojourn at Fontainebleau, which lasted nearly two months, is one of 
 the most interesting episodes of Court life under the Empire. The Emperor 
 never devoted, I think, so long a period to that life. In its pleasures and its 
 brilliance, the Empire possessed for the first time a real Court. Everywhere 
 else, that which was called so was only a pretense, a parade, in which uniforms 
 meant more than persons ; but here, as in the Courts of Louis XIV. or Louis 
 XV., people lived together, met each other, accosted each other, and talked. 
 There was an obligatory intercourse between all these human beings, and, not- 
 withstanding the restraint of etiquette and the dread of the master, nature did 
 occasionally come to the surface and reveal itself. Interests, passions, in- 
 trigues, weakness, and treasons came into play here ; in a word, the Court was 
 real. 
 
 It would not become me to pronounce upon the ability with which the au- 
 thor has described these shades of society, and my duty as an editor is restricted 
 40 
 
5M MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K&MUSAT. 
 
 Bonaparte was then king in the eyes of all and in his 
 own eyes ; he forgot the past, he did not fear the future. 
 He walked with a firm step, foreseeing no obstacles, or at 
 least certain that he could easily overthrow any which might 
 arise. It appeared to him, it appeared to us, that he could 
 not fall except by an event so unforeseen, so strange, and 
 which would produce so universal a catastrophe, that all the 
 interests of order and tranquillity were solemnly pledged to 
 his support. He was either the master or the friend of all 
 the continental kings. He was allied to several of them 
 either by foreign treaties or by foreign marriages. He had 
 made sure of Europe by the partitions which he had effected. 
 He had strong garrisons upon its most distant frontiers to 
 insure the execution of his will, and all the resources of 
 France were placed absolutely in his hands. He possessed 
 an immense treasury ; he was in the prime of life, admired, 
 
 to writing notes which shall be rather explanatory than laudatory. The public 
 has, however, so amply proved the esteem in which it holds these Memoirs, 
 that I shall be excused for saying that my father had anticipated the verdict 
 of public opinion, and did not hesitate to compare his ^ mother's writings with 
 those of the standard authors. He has thus recorded his opinion of her de- 
 scription of the Court at Fontainebleau : 
 
 "This chapter, which does not contain any incident, is one of the most 
 remarkable in the whole work. In the last seven or eight chapters there is too 
 much reflection, and the writer repeats herself. If my mother could have re- 
 vised her work, she would have curtailed and suppressed a great deal of it ; 
 nevertheless, I am convinced that the text ought to remain as it is, and that in 
 the author's conversations with herself, by the reawakening of her remembrances, 
 her readers will learn to know and to esteem her. But this chapter on Fon- 
 tainebleau is worthy of Saint-Simon. In it we find close study and accurate por- 
 traiture of persons and things, of manners, forms, and demeanor. It lays hold on 
 the mind ; it causes the reader to live in the world which it reproduces for him. 
 I know nothing in Saint-Simon superior to the picture of the Court at the death 
 of the Grand Dauphin. That is the recital of one single night at Versailles, 
 and it fills one quarter of a volume. Well, it seems to me that in this chapter 
 on Fontainebleau there is the same sort of charm ; and, although the sojourn 
 there of Napoleon's Court was not marked by any distinctive event which may 
 be regarded as a crisis, such as the death of the Dauphin, the vivacity of the 
 writer's imagination and the fidelity of her narrative lend all the effect of that 
 realistic prototype to her picture of the Emperor's Court." P. K. 
 
RESISTANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 545 
 
 feared, and scrupulously obeyed. Had lie not then sur- 
 mounted every obstacle ? * 
 
 For all this, a worm was gnawing at the vitals of his 
 glory. The French Revolution was not a process by which 
 the public mind was to be led to submit to arbitrary power ; 
 the illumination of the age, the progress of sound principles, 
 the spread of liberty, were all against him, and they were 
 destined to overthrow this brilliant edifice of authority, 
 founded in opposition to the march of the human intellect. 
 The sacred flame of liberty was burning in England. Hap- 
 pily for the welfare of nations, that sanctuary was defended 
 by a barrier which the armies of Bonaparte could not break 
 down. A few leagues of sea protected the civilization of the 
 world, and saved it from being forced to abandon the field 
 of battle to one who might not perhaps have utterly beaten 
 it, but who would have stifled it for the space of a whole 
 generation. 
 
 The English Government, jealous of so colossal a power, 
 and, notwithstanding the ill success of so many enterprises, 
 though always conquered, never discouraged, found an un- 
 failing resource against the Emperor in the national senti- 
 ments. The pride and industry of England, attacked both 
 in its position and its interests, were equally irritated, and 
 the people consented eagerly to every sacrifice which was de- 
 manded of them. Large sums were voted for the augmen- 
 tation of a naval service which, should secure the blockade of 
 the entire continent of Europe. 
 
 The kings who were afraid of our artillery submitted to 
 the prohibitive system which we exacted of them, but their 
 people suffered. The luxuries of life, the necessities created 
 by prosperity, the innumerable wants which are the result 
 of high civilization, all fought the battle of the English. 
 
 * The Emperor was born on the 15th of August, 1769, and was then thirty- 
 eight years old. We are so dazzled by his success that we forget his age ; we 
 ought, however, to remember when we read his history that he was a man, and 
 at that time a young man. P. R. 
 
546 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 Murmurs arose at St. Petersburg, on the Baltic, in Holland, 
 in all the French ports ; and the discontent which dared not 
 express itself took all the deeper root in the public mind that 
 it might be long before it could find a voice. 
 
 The threats or reproaches which we were suddenly made 
 aware our Government was addressing to its allies were, 
 however, indications of the true state of things. We in 
 France were in complete ignorance of all that was passing 
 outside of us, without communications (at least of an intel- 
 lectual kind) with other nations, incredulous of the truth of 
 the articles written to order in our dull journals ; but, never- 
 theless, we were led by the line taken in the " Moniteur " to 
 the conclusion that the Imperial will was balked by the ne- 
 cessities of the nation. The Emperor had bitterly reproached 
 his brother Louis with a too feeble execution of his orders in 
 Holland. He now sent him back to his kingdom with a 
 positive injunction that his will was to be scrupulously 
 obeyed. 
 
 " Holland," said the "Moniteur," "since the new mea- 
 sures taken there, will no longer correspond with England. 
 English commerce must find the whole continent closed to 
 it, and these enemies of the nations must be outlawed. There 
 are peoples who know not how to do anything but complain ; 
 they must learn to suffer with fortitude, to take every means 
 of injuring the common enemy and obliging him to recog- 
 nize the principles which actuate all the continental nations. 
 If Holland had taken her measures from the commencement 
 of the blockade, perhaps England would have already made 
 peace." 
 
 At another time every effort was made to stigmatize what 
 was called the invasion of continental liberties. The English 
 Government was compared, in its policy, to Marat. "What 
 did he ever do that was more atrocious ? " was asked. " The 
 spectacle of a perpetual war is presented to the world. The 
 oligarchical ringleaders who direct English policy will end, 
 as all exaggerated and infuriated men do end, by earning the 
 
RESISTANCE OF THE ENGLISH. 547 
 
 opprobrium of their own country and the hatred of other 
 nations." 
 
 The Emperor, when dictating this and similar tirades 
 against oligarchical governments, was using for his own pur- 
 poses the democratic idea which he well knew existed in 
 the nation. When he employed some of the revolutionary 
 phrases, he believed that he was carrying out the principles 
 of the Eevolution. "Equality" nothing but "Equality" 
 was the rallying-cry between the Revolution and him. 
 He did not fear its consequences for himself ; he knew that 
 he had excited those desires which pervert the most generous 
 dispositions ; he turned liberty aside, as I have often said, 
 he bewildered all parties, he falsified all meanings, he out- 
 raged reason. The power which his sword conferred upon 
 him he sustained by sophistry, and proved that it was from 
 motives of sound wisdom that he deviated from the path of 
 progress and set aside the spirit of the time. He called the 
 power of speech to his aid, and perverted language to lead 
 us astray. 
 
 That which makes Bonaparte one of the most remark- 
 able of human beings, which places him apart, and at the 
 head of all those powerful men who have been called to rule 
 over their fellows, is that he perfectly knew and always con- 
 tended with his epoch. Of his own free will he chose a 
 course which was at once difficult and contrary to the spirit 
 of his time. He did not disguise this from himself; he 
 frequently said that he alone had checked the Revolution, 
 and that after him it would resume its course. He allied 
 himself with the Revolution to oppress it ; but he presumed 
 too far upon his strength, and in the end the Revolution re- 
 covered its advantage, conquered and repulsed him. 
 
 The English Government, alarmed by the fervor with 
 which the Czar, who was rather fascinated than convinced, 
 had embraced the policy of the Emperor, closely attentive to 
 the troubles which were beginning to manifest themselves 
 in Sweden, uneasy at the sentiments which Denmark mani- 
 
548 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE B&MUSAT. 
 
 fested toward us, and which must lead to the closing of the 
 Sound against themselves, increased their armament, and 
 assembled their forces for the blockade of Copenhagen. 
 They succeeded in taking that city ; but the Prince Koyal, 
 fortified by the love of his people, defended himself bravely, 
 and fought even after he had lost his capital, so that the 
 English found themselves obliged to evacuate Copenhagen, 
 and to content themselves, there as elsewhere, with the gen- 
 eral blockade. 
 
 The Opposition declared against the expedition, and the 
 Emperor, in his ignorance of the British Constitution, flat- 
 tered himself that the Parliamentary debates on this point 
 would be useful to him. Little accustomed to opposition, 
 he estimated that of a political party in England by the 
 effect which would have been produced in France had the 
 same violence of opinion which he remarked in the London 
 journals been manifested here, and he believed the English 
 Government was lost on the evidence of the diatribes of the 
 " Morning Chronicle." These articles were a welcome ali- 
 ment to his own impatience, but his hopes always proved 
 vain. The Opposition declaimed, but its remonstrances 
 came to nothing, and the Government always found means 
 to carry on the necessary struggle. 
 
 Nothing could exceed the Emperor's anger when he 
 read the debates in the English Parliament, and the violent 
 attacks upon himself in which the free English press in- 
 dulged. He took advantage, on his own part, of the liberty 
 of the press in England to hire writers in London, who might 
 print what he wanted with impunity. These duels of the 
 pen served no purpose. The abuse which he dictated was 
 answered by abuse of him which reached Paris. All these 
 articles had to be translated and shown to him. Those 
 whose duty it was to bring them under his notice trembled 
 as they did so, so terrible was his anger, whether silent or 
 displayed in violent passion ; and ill indeed was the fortune 
 of any one whose position in the household brought him in 
 
THE EMPERORS LIFE AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 549 
 
 contact with the Emperor immediately after he had read the 
 English newspapers. We were always made aware of the 
 state of his temper on those occasions. The officials whose 
 business it was to provide for his amusements were much to 
 be pitied. At this time what I must really call the " tor- 
 ture " of M. de Remusat commenced. I shall have more to 
 say of this subject when I have to describe our Court life at 
 Fontainebleau. 
 
 All those persons who were to accompany their Majesties 
 were assembled, and informed of the rules which they would 
 have to observe. The different evenings of the week were 
 to be passed in the respective apartments of the great per- 
 sonages. On one evening the Emperor would receive ; there 
 would be music, and afterward cards. On two other even- 
 ings there would be a play on one, followed by a ball in 
 the apartment of the Grand Duchess of Berg, and, on the 
 other, by a ball in the apartment of the Princess Borghese. 
 On the fifth, there would be a reception and cards in the 
 apartment of the Empress. The Princes and Ministers were 
 to give dinners, and to invite all the members of the Court 
 in turn. The Grand Marshal was to do the same ; twenty- 
 five covers were to be laid at his table every day. The Lady 
 of Honor was likewise to entertain. And, lastly, there was 
 to be a table for all those who had not received a special 
 invitation elsewhere. Princes and Kings were to dine with 
 the Emperor only when invited. He reserved to himself 
 the liberty of his tete-a-tete dinner with his wife, and chose 
 whom he pleased when he thought fit to depart from that 
 rule. 
 
 Hunting took place on fixed days, and the guests were 
 invited to accompany the hunt, either on horseback or in 
 elegant caleches. 
 
 The Emperor took it into his head that the ladies should 
 have a hunting costume, and to that the Empress agreed 
 very willingly. The famous costumer Leroy was consulted, 
 and a very brilliant uniform was arranged. Each Princess 
 
550 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 selected a different color for herself and her household. The 
 costume of the Empress was amaranth velvet, embroidered 
 in gold, with a toque also embroidered in gold, and a plume 
 of white feathers. All the Ladies-in-Waiting wore amaranth. 
 Queen Hortense chose blue and silver ; Mme. Murat, pink 
 and silver ; Princess Borghese, lilac and silver. The dress 
 was a sort of tunic, or short redingote, in velvet, worn over 
 a gown of embroidered white satin ; velvet boots to match 
 the dress, and a toque with a white plume. The Emperor 
 and all the gentlemen wore green coats, with gold or silver 
 lace. These brilliant costumes, worn either on horseback or 
 in carriages, and by a numerous assemblage, had a charming 
 effect in the beautiful forest of Fontainebleau. 
 
 The Emperor liked hunting rather for the exercise which 
 it forced him to take than for the pleasure of the chase itself. 
 He did not follow the deer very carefully, but, setting off at a 
 gallop, would take the first road that lay before him. Some- 
 times he forgot the object of the hunt altogether, and fol- 
 lowed the winding paths of the forest, or seemed to abandon 
 himself to the fancy of his horse, being plunged the while in 
 deep reverie. He rode well, but ungracefully. He preferred 
 Arab horses, because they are so trained that they stop on 
 the instant. Horses of this kind were very carefully broken 
 for him, as, from his habit of starting at full gallop with a 
 loose rein, he would have been in danger of falling had not 
 great precaution been taken. He would go down steep hills 
 at full speed, to the great risk of those who had to follow him 
 at the same pace. He had a few severe falls, but they were 
 never alluded to. He would not have liked any mention 
 of them. 
 
 He took up for a while a fancy for driving a caleche or a 
 buggy, and he was a very unsafe coachman, for he took no 
 precaution in turning corners or to avoid difficult roads. 
 He was determined always to conquer every obstacle, and 
 would retreat before none. One day, at Saint Cloud, he 
 undertook to drive four-in-hand, and turned the horses, 
 
THE EMPERORS LIFE AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 551 
 
 which he could not manage, so awkwardly through a gate- 
 way, that the carriage was upset. The Empress and some 
 other persons were in the vehicle and were all thrown out ; 
 but, fortunately, no serious accident occurred, and he himself 
 escaped with a sprained wrist. After that he gave up driv- 
 ing, remarking, with a laugh, that " in even the smallest 
 things every man should stick to his own business." 
 
 Although he took no great interest in the success of a 
 hunt, he would scold violently if the deer were not taken, 
 and be very angry if it were represented to him that he had, 
 by changing the course, misled the dogs. He was surprised 
 and impatient at the slightest non-success. 
 
 He worked very hard at Fontainebleau, as, indeed, he did 
 everywhere. He rose at seven, held his lever, breakfasted 
 alone, and, on the days when there was no hunt, remained 
 in his cabinet or held councils until five or six o'clock. The 
 Ministers and Councilors of State came from Paris as if we 
 had been at Saint Cloud. He never considered distances, 
 and carried this to such an extent that, having expressed an 
 intention to " receive " on Sunday, after Mass, as he did at 
 Saint Cloud, people had to leave Paris in the night in order 
 to reach Fontainebleau at the prescribed hour. The persons 
 who had made this journey would be placed in one of the 
 galleries of the chateau, through which he would walk, some- 
 times without taking the trouble of rewarding them by a 
 word or a look for the fatigue and inconvenience they had 
 undergone. 
 
 While he remained all the morning in his cabinet, the 
 Empress, elegantly dressed, breakfasted with her daughter 
 and her ladies, and afterward went into her drawing-room 
 and received visits from persons living in the chateau. Such 
 of us as cared to do so might occupy ourselves with needle- 
 work, and this was a great relief to the fatigue of idle and 
 trifling conversation. Mme. Bonaparte did not like to be 
 alone, but she had no taste for any kind of occupation. At 
 four o'clock we left her ; she then gave herself up to the 
 
552 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 business of her toilet, we to the business of ours, and this was 
 a momentous affair. A number of Parisian shopkeepers had 
 brought their very best merchandise to Fontainebleau, and they 
 easily disposed of it by presenting themselves at our rooms. 
 
 Between five and six o'clock the Emperor would go down 
 to his wife's apartment, and then go out in a carriage alone 
 with her for a drive before dinner. At six o'clock we dined, 
 and afterward we met in the theatre or at the apartment of 
 the person who was charged with providing the especial 
 amusement of the particular evening. 
 
 The princes, marshals, great officers, or chamberlains who 
 had the entree, might present themselves at the Empress's 
 apartment. They knocked at the door, the chamberlain on 
 duty announced them, and the Emperor said, "Let them 
 come in." Ladies would sit down in silence; gentlemen 
 would remain standing against the wall in the order in which 
 they entered the room. The Emperor would generally be 
 walking backward and forward, sometimes silently and deep 
 in thought, without taking any notice of those around ; at 
 others, he would make an opportunity of talking, but almost 
 without interruption, for it was always difficult to reply to 
 him, and had become more so than ever. He neither knew 
 how to put people at their ease nor cared to do so ; for he 
 dreaded the slightest appearance of familiarity, and he in- 
 spired "all who were in his presence with the apprehension 
 that some disparaging or unkind word would be said to him 
 or her before witnesses. 
 
 The receptions did not differ much from these more pri- 
 vate and privileged occasions. All about him suffered from 
 ennui ; he did so himself, and frequently complained of the 
 fact, resenting to others the dull and constrained silence 
 which was in reality imposed by him. I have heard him say : 
 " It is a singular thing : I have brought together a lot of peo- 
 ple at Fontainebleau ; I wanted them to amuse themselves ; I 
 arranged every sort of pleasure for them ; and here they are 
 with long faces, all looking dull and tired." 
 
PLATS. 553 
 
 " That," replied M. de Talleyrand, " is because pleasure 
 can not be summoned by beat of drum, and here, just as 
 when you are with the army, you always seem to say to us 
 all, < Come, ladies and gentlemen, forward ! march ! ' " The 
 Emperor was not annoyed by this speech ; he was in a very 
 good humor at this time. M. de Talleyrand passed long 
 hours alone with him, and was then free to say anything he 
 chose ; but, in a great room and among forty other persons, 
 M. de Talleyrand was just as silent as the rest. 
 
 Of the whole Court, the person who was most oppressed 
 by the care of the Emperor's pleasures was, beyond all com- 
 parison, M. de Remusat. The fetes and the plays were in 
 the department of the Grand Chamberlain, and M. de Re- 
 musat, in his capacity as First Chamberlain, had all the re- 
 sponsibility and labor. That word is perfectly appropriate, 
 for the imperious and harassing will of Bonaparte rendered 
 this sort of business exceedingly troublesome. It always 
 was, as M. de Talleyrand said, a case of " amusing the Una- 
 musable." 
 
 The Emperor chose to have two plays in the week, and 
 that they should always be different. Only the actors of the 
 Comedie Franchise performed in these plays, which alter- 
 nated with representations of Italian operas. Nothing but 
 tragedy was played Corneille frequently, a few of Racine's 
 pieces, and Voltaire, whose dramatic works Bonaparte did not 
 like, very rarely. 
 
 The Emperor approved the entire repertory for Fontaine- 
 bleau, positively insisted that the best actors of the company 
 must perform there, and commanded that the representations 
 in Paris should undergo no interruption; all the arrange- 
 ments were made accordingly. Then, all of a sudden, he 
 would upset the whole arrangement, demand another play or 
 another actor, and that on the morning of the day on which 
 the piece, as previously set down, was to be acted. He 
 would not listen to any observation on the subject, and some- 
 times would be quite angry about it ; and the best that was 
 
554: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 to be hoped for was that he would say, with a smile : " Bah ! 
 take a little trouble, and you will succeed. I wish it to be so ; 
 it is your business to find the means." 
 
 When the Emperor uttered that irrevocable Je le veux, 
 the words echoed through the whole palace. Duroc, and es- 
 pecially Savary, pronounced them in the same tone as him- 
 self, and M. de Bemusat was obliged to repeat them to the 
 unfortunate actors, who were bewildered and overtaxed by 
 the sudden efforts of memory, or the entire disarrangement 
 of their studies, to which they were subjected. Then mes- 
 sengers would be dispatched at full speed to seek the neces- 
 sary persons and " properties." The day passed in a whirl 
 of petty agitation in the fear that an accident, or an illness, 
 or some unforeseen circumstance might prevent the execution 
 of the order ; and my husband, who occasionally came to my 
 room for a moment's rest, would sigh at the thought that a 
 reasonable man should be forced to exhaust his patience and 
 all the efforts of his intellect in such trifles, which, however, 
 were of real importance because of the consequences to which 
 they might lead. 
 
 One would need to have lived in courts to realize how 
 small things can become grave matters, and how hard to 
 bear is the displeasure of the master, even when its cause is 
 utterly insignificant. Kings are in the habit of displaying 
 their displeasure before everybody, and it is unbearable to 
 receive a complaint or a rebuff in the presence of a number 
 of people who look on it as if they were at a play. Bona- 
 parte, the most arbitrary of sovereigns, never hesitated to 
 " scold " in the harshest way, frequently without the slight- 
 est reason, and would humiliate or threaten anybody at the 
 prompting of a whim. The fear which he excited was in- 
 fectious, and his harsh words resounded long and far. 
 
 "When with very great trouble one had succeeded in sat- 
 isfying him, it is not to be supposed that he would testify 
 that satisfaction. Silence was the best one had to expect. 
 He would go to the play preoccupied, irritated by reading 
 
TALMA. 555 
 
 some English journal, or, perhaps, only fatigued with the 
 day's hunting, and he would either fall into reverie or go to 
 sleep. No applause was permitted in his presence, and the 
 silent representation was exceedingly dull and cold. The 
 Court grew intolerably weary of these eternal tragedies. 
 The younger ladies simply slept through them ; every one 
 went away depressed and dissatisfied. The Emperor per- 
 ceived this, was angry at it, attacked his First Chamberlain, 
 blamed the actors, insisted on others being found, although 
 he had the best, and would command different pieces for the 
 ensuing days, which were received in precisely the same 
 manner. It rarely happened otherwise, and our theatrical 
 experiences were, it must be confessed, eminently unpleas- 
 ant. Those days at Fontainebleau were a constantly recur- 
 ring source of misery to me ; the frivolity of the thing itself, 
 and the importance of its consequences, rendered it a great 
 trial. 
 
 The Emperor admired Talma's acting ; he persuaded 
 himself that he liked it very much, but I think he rather 
 knew than felt that Talma was a great actor. He had not 
 in himself that which enables one to take pleasure in the 
 representation of a fiction on the stage ; he was deficient in 
 education, and his mind was too rarely disengaged, he was 
 too entirely occupied by his own actual circumstances, to be 
 able to give his attention to the development of a feigned 
 passion. He occasionally appeared moved by a scene, or 
 even by a word pronounced with great effect ; but that emo- 
 tion detracted from his pleasure as a whole, because he wanted 
 it to be prolonged in all its strength, and he never took those 
 secondary impressions into account, which are produced by 
 the -beauty of the verse or the harmony which a great actor 
 lends to his entire rdle. In general, he thought our French 
 drama cold, our actors too measured, and he resented to 
 others that he found it impossible to be pleased with what 
 the multitude accepted as a diversion. 
 
 It was the same with regard to music. He had little 
 
556 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 feeling for the arts, but lie had an intellectual appreciation 
 of them, and, demanding from them more than they could 
 give him, he complained of not having felt what his nature 
 did not permit him to experience. 
 
 The first singers in Italy had been attracted to the Em- 
 peror's Court. He paid them largely ; his vanity was grati- 
 fied by the power of taking them away from other sovereigns ; 
 but he listened to their strains moodily, and seldom with any 
 interest. M. de Remusat bethought himself of enlivening 
 the concerts by a sort of representation of the pieces of 
 music that were executed in the Emperor's presence. These 
 concerts were sometimes given on the stage, and they in- 
 cluded the finest scenes from the Italian operas. The singers 
 wore the appropriate costumes, and really acted ; the decora- 
 tions represented the scene in which the action of the song 
 was supposed to pass. All this was arranged and mounted 
 with the greatest care, but, like everything else, failed in its 
 effect. And yet not completely ; for it must be said that, if 
 so much attention and pains were labor lost so far as his 
 pleasure was concerned, the pomp of all these various spec- 
 tacles and entertainments pleased Bonaparte, for it consorted 
 with his policy, and he liked to display a superiority which 
 extended to everything before the crowd of foreigners who 
 surrounded him. 
 
 This same moody and discontented temper, which was 
 inseparable from him, cast a cloud over the balls and recep- 
 tions at Fontainebleau. At eight o'clock in the evening, 
 the Court, all in splendid attire, would assemble in the apart- 
 ment of the Princess whose turn it was to receive company. 
 We placed ourselves in a circle, and looked at each other 
 without speaking. Thus we awaited the arrival of their 
 
 JL O 
 
 Majesties. The Empress came in first, made the tour of the 
 reception-room with her unfailing grace, and then took her 
 place and kept silence like the rest, until the Emperor at 
 length appeared. He would seat himself by her side, and 
 look on at the dancing with a countenance so little encourag- 
 
TEE COURT AT FONTAINEBLEAU. 557 
 
 ing to gayety, that enjoyment was out of the question on 
 these occasions. Sometimes, during a pause in the dancing, 
 he would walk about the room, addressing some trifling re- 
 marks to the ladies. These observations were, for the most 
 part, jests about their attire, of anything but a delicate kind. 
 He withdrew very soon, and shortly afterward the party 
 would break up. 
 
 During the sojourn of the Court at Fontainebleau, a 
 very pretty woman made her appearance, and attracted the 
 attention of the Emperor. She was an Italian. . . . M. de 
 Talleyrand had seen her in Italy, and persuaded the Emper- 
 or to appoint her " Reader " to the Empress. Her husband 
 was made Receiver-General. The Empress was at first in- 
 dignant at the appearance of this fair lady on the scenes ; 
 but she promptly made up her mind to lend herself with 
 complacency to what she was powerless to oppose, and this 
 time she shut her eyes to the state of affairs. The lady was 
 a quiet person, acquiescent rather than elated ; she yielded 
 to her master from a sort of conviction that she ought not 
 to resist him. But she made no display, she gave herself no 
 airs in consequence of her success, and she contrived to com- 
 bine a real attachment to Mme. Bonaparte with submission 
 to Bonaparte's fancy for her. The result was that the affair 
 was conducted without any scandal or disturbance. This 
 lady was certainly the handsomest woman in the Court, 
 which boasted a number of beauties. I have never seen 
 more beautiful eyes, finer features, or a more exquisitely 
 harmonious face. She was tall, and had an elegant figure, 
 but she was a little too slight. The Emperor never cared 
 very much for her ; he told his wife all about the affair at 
 once, and made her mind quite easy by his unreserved confi- 
 dence respecting this brief and unsentimental liaison. The 
 lady was lodged in the palace of Fontainebleau in such a 
 manner as to be within call whenever he desired her pres- 
 ence. It was whispered about that she came down in the 
 evening to his apartment, or he went to hers ; but in the or- 
 
558 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 dinary circle he did not talk to her more than to any other 
 lady, and the Court paid no great attention to this affair, be- 
 cause it was plainly unlikely to lead to any change. M. de 
 Talleyrand, who had in the first instance persuaded Bona- 
 parte to select this Italian as a mistress, received his confi- 
 dences concerning her, and that was all. 
 
 If I were asked whether the idleness of our Court life at 
 Fontainebleau led to the formation of liaisons of a similar 
 kind on the part of the courtiers, I should hardly know how 
 to answer that question. The Emperor's service demanded 
 such entire subjection, and involved such close though tri- 
 fling occupation, that the men had not time for gallantry, 
 and the women were too much afraid of what Bonaparte 
 might say of them to yield without very great precaution. 
 In so cold, constrained, and conventional a society, in which 
 no one would venture on a word or a movement more than 
 the others, no coquetry was ever displayed, and every ar- 
 rangement was made in silence, and with a promptitude 
 which eluded observation. Another peculiarity of the time 
 which acted as a safeguard to women was that men took no 
 pains to please : they merely asserted the pretensions of vic- 
 tory without wasting time in the preliminaries of love. Thus, 
 among the Emperor's surroundings, only passing intrigues, 
 whose denoument both parties seemed anxious to hasten as 
 much as possible, took place. Besides, Bonaparte desired 
 that his Court should be grave, and he would not have per- 
 mitted women to assume the slightest ascendancy in it. To 
 himself alone he reserved the right to every kind of liberty. 
 He tolerated the misconduct of certain members of his own 
 family, because he knew that he was powerless to restrain 
 them, and that the attempt to do so only gave the facts ad- 
 ditional publicity. For the same reason, he would have dis- 
 sembled the anger he might have felt had his wife allowed 
 herself any " distractions " ; but at this period she no longer 
 seemed disposed to do so. I am absolutely unacquainted 
 with the secrets of her private life, and I always saw her ex- 
 
KING JEROME IN LOVE. 559 
 
 cluswely occupied with the difficulties of her own position, 
 and tremblingly apprehensive of displeasing her husband. 
 She was entirely devoid of coquetry ; her manner was per- 
 fectly modest and reserved ; she never spoke to men, except 
 to find out what was going on ; and her grand subject of 
 care and dread was the divorce which was always hanging 
 over her head. Lastly, the women of that Court had great 
 need to be on their guard and to take care what they did ; for, 
 whenever the Emperor was informed of anything and he 
 always was informed he would invariably make the husband 
 acquainted with the facts of the case. It is true that he in- 
 terdicted any complaint or action in consequence. Thus, we 
 all know that he had made S aware of certain adven- 
 tures of his wife's, and so imperiously ordered him to dis- 
 play no anger that S , who was always entirely submis- 
 sive to him, consented to allow himself to be deceived, and 
 ended, partly through this weak compliance, and partly 
 through his desire to think his wife innocent, by not believ- 
 ing facts which were of public notoriety. 
 
 Mme. de X was at Fontainebleau, but the Emperor 
 
 never paid her any attention ; and, if the rumor that the 
 former liaison between them was temporarily renewed had 
 any truth at all in it, the revived intimacy must have been 
 very transitory, and it did not restore any of her vanished 
 importance to the lady. 
 
 "We had, however, during our stay at Fontainebleau, the 
 spectacle of one really ardent love-affair. Jerome, as I have 
 already said, had recently married the Princess Catherine, 
 and his young wife became deeply attached to him, but very 
 shortly after their marriage he gave her cause for jealousy. 
 The young Princess of Baden was at this time a very fasci- 
 nating person, and on very bad terms with her husband. 
 She was coquettish, frivolous, gay, and clever, and she had 
 a great success in society. Jerome fell in love with her, and 
 his passion seemed to afford her considerable amusement. 
 
 She danced with him at all the balls. The Princess Cathe- 
 41 
 
560 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE REMITS AT. 
 
 rine, who was even then too fat, did not dance, and she 
 would remain seated, sadly contemplating the gayety of the 
 two young people, who passed and repassed before her, quite 
 indifferent to the pain they were inflicting on her. At length, 
 one evening, in the midst of a fete, the good understanding 
 between them being too plain to be mistaken, the young 
 Queen of Westphalia was observed to turn deadly pale, and 
 burst into tears ; in another minute she had slid from her 
 chair and swooned completely away. The ball was inter- 
 rupted ; she was carried into another room, the Empress and 
 some of the ladies hastened to her aid, and we heard the Em- 
 peror address a severe rebuke to his brother, after which he 
 retired. Jerome, greatly frightened, went at once to his 
 wife, took her upon his knee, and endeavored to restore her 
 to consciousness by his caresses. The Princess, on coming 
 to herself, wept bitterly, and seemed to be unaware that a 
 number of persons surrounded her. I looked on at this 
 scene in silence, deeply impressed by its strangeness, by the 
 sight of this Jerome whom a succession of circumstances, 
 all entirely independent of any merit of his own, had raised 
 to a throne figuring as the object of the passionate love of 
 a real Princess, with the right to her love, and also a right 
 to neglect her. I can not describe what I felt at seeing her 
 sitting upon his knees, her head upon his shoulder, and re- 
 ceiving his kisses, while he called her by her name, " Cathe- 
 rine," over and over again, entreating her to calm herself, 
 and using the familiar tutoiement. A few minutes later the 
 young couple retired to their own apartment. 
 
 On the following day Bonaparte ordered his wife to 
 speak strongly to her young niece, and I also was instructed 
 to make her listen to reason. She received me very well, 
 and listened to me with attention. I represented to her that 
 she was compromising her future, and urged upon her that 
 her duty and her interest alike bound her to live on proper 
 terms with the Prince of Baden ; that she was destined to 
 live in other countries than France ; that levity which might 
 
TEE PRINCESS OF BADEN. 561 
 
 be tolerated in Paris would probably be resented in Ger- 
 many ; and that she ought most carefully to avoid giving 
 any excuse for the spread of calumny against her. She ac- 
 knowledged that she had more than once reproached herself 
 for the imprudence of her behavior, but that there really was 
 nothing in it except the desire to amuse herself; and she 
 added that she was quite aware that all her present impor- 
 tance was due to her being Princess of Baden, for she was no 
 longer treated at the French Court as she had been in times 
 past. This was, in fact, quite true ; for the Emperor, who 
 had outlived his fancy for her, had changed the whole cere- 
 monial with respect to her, and, paying no attention to the 
 rules which he had himself laid down at the time of her 
 marriage, no longer treated her as his adopted daughter, but 
 accorded her merely the precedence of a Princess of the 
 Confederation of the Rhine, which came very far after that 
 of the Queens and Princesses of the Imperial family. Lastly, 
 she knew that she was a cause of disturbance, and the young 
 Prince, who did not venture to express his displeasure, mani- 
 fested it only by his extreme dejection. Our conversation 
 lasted for a long time, and she was much impressed by it 
 and by her own reflections. When she dismissed me, it was 
 with an embrace, and saying, " You shall see that you will 
 be pleased with me." 
 
 That same evening there was a ball, and the Princess ap- 
 proached her husband, and spoke to him in an affectionate 
 manner, while toward all others she adopted a reserved de- 
 meanor, which everybody observed. During the evening 
 she came to me, and asked me, in the sweetest and most 
 graceful way, whether I was pleased with her; and from 
 that moment, until the end of the sojourn of the Court at 
 Fontainebleau, not a single disparaging observation could 
 possibly be made respecting her. She showed no reluctance 
 to return to Baden ; when there, she conducted herself well. 
 She has since had children by the Prince, and lived happily 
 with him ; she also won the affection of his subjects. She is 
 
 sSS 
 
562 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 now a widow, and has only two daughters left ; but she is 
 held in high consideration by her brother-in-law, the Emper- 
 or of Russia,* who has on several occasions evinced a great 
 interest in her. 
 
 As for Jerome, he went shortly afterward to take posses- 
 sion of his kingdom of Westphalia, where his conduct must 
 have given the Princess Catherine cause more than once to 
 shed tears : this, however, did not cure her of her love for 
 him, for since the Revolution of 1814 she has never ceased 
 to share his exile, f 
 
 While pleasure, and especially etiquette, reigned at Fon- 
 tainebleau, the poor Queen of Holland lived in the chateau, 
 as much apart as she could from all ; suffering much from 
 her condition, grieving incessantly for her son, spitting blood 
 at the least exertion, quite disconsolate, and unable even to 
 wish for anything except rest. At this time she often said 
 to me, with tears in her eyes : " I hold by life for my broth- 
 er's sake v only. When I think of him, I take pleasure in 
 our greatness ; but to myself it is a torment." The Emperor 
 displayed invariable esteem and affection for his step-daugh- 
 ter ; it was always to her that he intrusted the task of con- 
 veying to her mother such hints as he thought necessary. 
 Mme. Bonaparte and her daughter were good friends, but 
 they were too dissimilar to understand each other, and the 
 former was conscious of a certain inferiority, which affected 
 her to some extent. And, then, Hortense had experienced 
 such great trials that she could not deeply compassionate 
 cares which seemed to her so light in comparison with the 
 burden that she herself had to carry. When the Empress 
 would tell her of a quarrel with Bonaparte about some fool- 
 ish expense or some passing fit of jealousy, or would talk of 
 her fear of divorce, her daughter would say, with a melan- 
 
 * The Princess Stephanie of Baden died in I860. P. R. 
 
 f The Princess Catherine of Wiirtemberg, mother of Prince Napoleon Je- 
 r6me and Princess Mathilde, died at Lausanne on the 23d of November, 1835. 
 P. R. 
 
THE POOR QUEEN OF HOLLAND. 563 
 
 choly smile, "Are these things misfortunes?" The two 
 undoubtedly loved, but I do not think they ever understood, 
 each other. 
 
 The Emperor, who had, I believe, a much greater regard 
 for Mme. Louis than for his brother, but who was, neverthe- 
 less, swayed to a certain extent by the spirit of the family, 
 interfered in their domestic affairs with reluctance and cau- 
 tion. He had consented to keep his step-daughter with him 
 until after her confinement, but he always spoke in the sense 
 of wishing that she should ultimately return to Holland. 
 She told him repeatedly that she would not go back to a 
 country in which her child had died, and where misery- 
 awaited her. "My reputation is blasted," said she; "my 
 health is destroyed ; I expect no more happiness in this life. 
 Banish me from your Court, if you will ; place me in a con- 
 vent : I want neither throne nor fortune. Give my mother 
 peace, and Eugene the eclat which he deserves, but let me 
 live quietly and in solitude." When she spoke thus, she 
 succeeded in touching the Emperor's f eelings ; he consoled 
 and encouraged her, promising her his aid and support, and 
 advising her to trust to time, but he utterly scouted the idea 
 of a divorce between her and Louis. He was, no doubt, 
 thinking of his own, and felt that a repetition of the same 
 incident in the family would bring them into ridicule. Mme. 
 Louis submitted, and let time pass by ; but she was privately 
 quite resolved that nothing should induce her to renew a 
 union, at the thought of which she shuddered. It did not 
 seem that the King wished for her return ; on the contrary, 
 he was embittered against his wife, loved her no better than 
 she loved him, and in Holland, where he wanted to pass for 
 a victim, openly accused her. Many people believed his 
 story: kings easily find credulous ears. One thing is cer- 
 tain : the husband and wife were most unhappy, but my be- 
 lief is that, with his disposition, Louis would have made 
 troubles for himself anywhere, under any circumstances ; 
 whereas Hortense was eminently calculated for a calm and 
 
564- MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K&MUSAT. 
 
 happy domestic life. She did not seem to know the mean- 
 ing of passion ; her mind and f eelings were disposed toward 
 profound quiet. 
 
 The Grand Duchess of Berg applied herself to being ex- 
 tremely agreeable to us all at Fontainebleau. She could be 
 very gay and pleasant when she was in the humor, and she 
 could even assume an air of bonhomie. She lived in the 
 ch&teau at her own expense, very luxuriously, and kept a 
 sumptuous table. She always used gilt plate, in this out- 
 doing the Emperor, whose silver-gilt services were used on 
 state occasions only. She invited all the dwellers in the 
 palace by turns, receiving them most graciously, even those 
 whom she did not like, and appeared to be thinking of no- 
 thing but pleasure ; but, nevertheless, she was not wasting 
 her time. She frequently saw Count Metternich, the Aus- 
 trian Ambassador. He was young and handsome, and he 
 appeared to admire the sister of the Emperor. From that 
 time forth, whether from a spirit of coquetry or from a far- 
 sighted ambition which prompted such a measure of precau- 
 tion, she began to accept the homage of the Minister with 
 readiness. He was said to be held in high consideration and 
 to have great influence at his Court, and he might be placed, 
 by the course of events, in a position to serve her. Whether 
 she had this idea beforehand or not, events justified it, and 
 Metternich never failed her. 
 
 In addition to this, she took the influence of M. de Tal- 
 leyrand into consideration, and did her best to cultivate him 
 while keeping up as secretly as possible her relations with 
 Fouche, who visited her with extreme precaution, in conse- 
 quence of the displeasure with which the Emperor regarded 
 any intimacy of the kind. We observed her making up to 
 M. de Talleyrand in the drawing-room at Fontainebleau, 
 talking to him, laughing at his Ions mots, looking at him 
 when she said anything remarkable, and even addressing 
 such observations to him. M. de Talleyrand showed no re- 
 luctance, but met her advances, and then their interviews 
 
CONJUGAL SCENES. 565 
 
 became more serious. Mme. Murat did not conceal from 
 him that the spectacle of her brothers seated on thrones 
 inspired her with envy, as she felt herself quite capable of 
 wielding a scepter, and she reproached him with opposing 
 this. M. de Talleyrand objected that Murat's abilities were 
 not brilliant, and made some jokes at his expense, which were 
 not resented very strongly. The Princess delivered up her 
 husband to M. de Talleyrand's sarcasms readily enough, but 
 she urged that she would not leave the whole charge of rul- 
 ing in Murat's hands ; and she gradually, by certain seductive 
 methods, led M. de Talleyrand to be less opposed to her 
 wishes. At the same time she also flattered and cultivated 
 M. Maret, who, in his heavy way, repeatedly praised the 
 intelligence and ability of the Emperor's sister to her all- 
 powerful brother. 
 
 Bonaparte himself had a great opinion of her, and he 
 found it supported by a variety of testimony which he 
 knew was not concerted. He began to treat his sister with 
 greater consideration, whereat Murat, who lost something by 
 what she gained, thought proper to take offense and com- 
 plain. Thence ensued conjugal " scenes," in which the hus- 
 band insisted on resuming his right and his rank. He bul- 
 lied the Princess, and she was a good deal frightened ; but, 
 partly by adroitness, partly by threats by being now caress- 
 ing, and again haughty and distant, by acting on some occa- 
 sions the submissive wife, and on others the sister of the 
 master of all she bewildered her husband, resumed her 
 ascendancy, and proved to him that she was serving his in- 
 terests in all she was doing. It seems that quarrels of the 
 same kind occurred when she was at Naples, that Murat's 
 vanity took umbrage, and that he was deeply hurt ; but 
 every one agrees that, if he made mistakes, it was always 
 when he ceased to follow her advice. 
 
 I have said that the sojourn of the Court at Fontaine- 
 bleau was marked by a brilliant succession of foreign visitors. 
 With the Prince Primate we had very agreeable con versa- 
 
566 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 tions ; lie was witty, had fine manners, delighted in recalling 
 the days of his youth, when he had been acquainted in Paris 
 with all the men of letters of the epoch. The Grand Duke 
 of Wiirzburg, who remained all the time at Fontainebleau, 
 was very good-natured, and put every one at ease with him. 
 He was passionately fond of music, and had a voice like that 
 of a precentor; but he enjoyed himself so much when he 
 was allowed to take a part in a' piece of concerted music 
 that no one had the heart to spoil his harmless pleasure by 
 smiling at his performance. 
 
 Next to the two whom I have just mentioned, the Princes 
 of Mecklenburg were objects of special attention. They 
 were both young, and very polite indeed, even obliging 
 to everybody. They were in some awe of the Emperor; 
 the magnificence of his Court dazzled them, and so im- 
 pressed were they by his power and the splendor amid which 
 it was displayed that they were in a state of perpetual ad- 
 miration, and paid court even to the chamberlains. 
 
 The Prince of Mecklenburg - Strelitz, brother to the 
 Queen of Prussia, was rather deaf, and found it difficult to 
 communicate his ideas; but the Prince of Mecklenburg- 
 Schwerin, who was also young and very good-looking, was 
 extremely affable. His object in coming was to endeavor to 
 obtain the removal of the French garrisons from his states. 
 The Emperor kept him amused by fair promises ; he ex- 
 plained his wishes to the Empress, and she listened to him 
 with gracious patience. The unfailing kindness that distin- 
 guished Josephine, her sweet face, her lovely figure, the 
 suave elegance of her person, were not without their effect 
 on the Prince. "We saw, or believed we saw, that he was 
 captivated ; she laughed, and was amused. Bonaparte also 
 laughed, but he afterward took the matter ill. This change 
 of his humor occurred on his return from a journey to Italy, 
 which he made at the end of the autumn. The two Princes 
 were treated with less cordiality toward the close of their 
 stay in Paris. 
 
FOREIGN PRINCES. 567 
 
 I do not think Bonaparte felt any real annoyance, but he 
 did not choose to be the subject of any kind of jest. The 
 Prince, no doubt, retained some sort of feeling for the Em- 
 press ; for she told me that, on the occasion of the divorce, 
 the Emperor suggested to her that, if she wished to marry 
 again, she should select the Prince of Mecklenburg as her 
 husband, and she declined. I am not quite sure whether 
 she did not tell me that the Prince had written to ask for her 
 hand. 
 
 Such of the Princes as were not invited to the Emperor's 
 table dined with the Queens, the Ministers, the Grand Mar- 
 shal, or the Lady of Honor. Mme. de la Rochefoucauld had 
 a fine suite of rooms, where the foreigners were accustomed 
 to assemble. She received them with much grace and cor- 
 diality, and time passed there pleasantly. 
 
 How curious a spectacle is a Court ! There we see the 
 most illustrious personages of the time, men of the highest 
 social rank; each one of them is supposed to be occupied 
 with important interests ; but the silence enforced by pru- 
 dence and custom reduces all conversation to complete insig- 
 nificance, and it frequently happens that princes and other 
 great men, not daring to act like men under such circum- 
 stances, assume the behavior of mere children. This reflec- 
 tion was forced upon my mind even more strongly at Fon- 
 tainebleau than elsewhere. All these foreigners were aware 
 that they were drawn thither by force. All were more or 
 less vanquished or dispossessed ; they had come to entreat 
 either favor or justice ; they knew that in a corner of the 
 chateau their fate was being decided ; and all of them, as- 
 suming a similar appearance of good spirits and entire free- 
 dom of mind, followed the chase, and acquiesced in every- 
 thing required of them. These requirements included dan- 
 cing, playing at blind-man's-buff, and other games, so that, 
 being thus employed, no one need either listen or reply to 
 them. How often have I sat at Mme. de la Rochefoucauld's 
 piano, playing, at her request, those Italian dances which 
 
568 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 our lovely Italian inmate had brought into fashion ! Princes, 
 Electors, Marshals, and chamberlains, conquerors and con- 
 quered, nobles and plebeians, passed before me, dancing in- 
 discriminately together ; all the quarterings of Germany con- 
 trasting with the Revolutionary swords or the decorated uni- 
 forms of our " illustration " an " illustration " much more 
 real and weighty, at that period, than that of the ancient 
 title-deeds and patents which the smoke of our guns had 
 nearly obliterated. I often reflected very seriously on the 
 events then taking place before my eyes, but I took good 
 care not to confide these thoughts to any of my companions, 
 and would not have ventured for the world to smile at either 
 them or myself. " Herein is the wisdom of courtiers," says 
 Sully. " It is agreed that, though they all wear grotesque 
 masks, none shall ever be held to be ridiculous by the oth- 
 ers ! " 
 
 In another place he says : " A truly great man knows 
 how to be everything by turns and according to circum- 
 stances a master or an equal, a king or a citizen. He loses 
 nothing by thus accommodating himself in private, provided 
 that on other occasions he shows himself equally able in po- 
 litical and military affairs ; the courtier will never forget that 
 he is in the presence of his master." 
 
 But the Emperor was by no means disposed to adopt 
 these axioms, and, from design as well as from inclination, 
 he never relaxed his kingly state. And, indeed, a usurper 
 could, perhaps, hardly do so with impunity. 
 
 When the hour struck for us to leave our childish games 
 in order to present ourselves before him, the expression of 
 every face became constrained. Each of us wore a serious 
 countenance, as we proceeded slowly and ceremoniously to 
 the great apartments. Hand in hand, we entered the Em- 
 press's anteroom. A chamberlain announced the names. 
 Then, sooner or later, we were received sometimes only 
 those who had the entree, at other times everybody. We 
 silently fell into our places, as I have said before, and lis- 
 
BONAPARTE ANGRY. 569 
 
 tened to the few and vague phrases the Emperor addressed 
 to each. Wearied like us, he soon called for the card- 
 tables, to which we would sit down for appearance' sake, and 
 shortly after the Emperor would retire. Nearly every even- 
 ing he sent for M. de Talleyrand, with whom he sat up far 
 into the night. 
 
 The state of Europe at this time was, doubtless, the ordi- 
 nary subject of their conversations. The expedition of the 
 English into Denmark had greatly angered the Emperor. 
 He found himself totally unable to assist his ally, and this, 
 added to the destruction of the Danish fleet and the block- 
 ade established everywhere by English ships, made him 
 eagerly seek every opportunity of harming them. He ex- 
 acted with greater urgency than ever that his allies should 
 devote themselves to carrying out his vengeance. The Em- 
 peror of Russia, who had taken steps toward a general peace, 
 having been repulsed by the English Government, threw 
 himself thoroughly into the alliance with Bonaparte. On 
 the 26th of October he made a declaration, by which he an- 
 nounced that he had broken off all communication with Eng- 
 land up to the time when she should enter into a treaty of 
 peace with us. His ambassador, Count Tolstoi, arrived at 
 Fontainebleau shortly afterward ; he was received with great 
 honor, and included among the " members of the Journey," 
 as it was called. 
 
 At the beginning of the month a rupture took place be- 
 tween ourselves and Portugal. The Prince Regent of that 
 kingdom * gave no support to those continental prohibitions 
 which so harassed the people. Bonaparte grew angry ; vio- 
 lent paragraphs against the house of Braganza appeared in 
 the newspapers, the ambassadors were recalled, and our army 
 entered Spain in order to march on Lisbon. Junot was in 
 command. In November the Prince Regent, seeing he 
 could offer no resistance to such an invasion, resolved to 
 
 * The Queen, his mother, was still living, but she was insane. 
 
570 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 emigrate from Europe, and to go and reign in Brazil. He 
 embarked on the 29th of November. 
 
 The Spanish Government had taken good care not to op- 
 pose the passage of the French troops through its territories. 
 A great deal of scheming was going on at that time between 
 the Court of Madrid and that of France. For a long time 
 past there had been a close correspondence between the 
 Prince of the Peace and Murat. The Prince, absolute mas- 
 ter of his King's mind, and the implacable enemy of the In- 
 fante Don Ferdinand, heir to the throne, had devoted him- 
 self to Bonaparte and served him zealously. He repeatedly 
 promised Murat to satisfy him on every point, and the latter, 
 in return, was instructed to promise him a crown (the " king- 
 dom of the Algarves"), and efficient support from us. A 
 crowd of schemers, both French and Spanish, were mixed 
 up in all this. They deceived Bonaparte and Murat as to 
 the true spirit of Spain, and they most carefully concealed 
 that the Prince of the Peace was hated throughout the king- 
 dom. Having gained over this Minister, we fancied our- 
 selves masters of the country, and we fell willfully into 
 many errors for which we have since had to pay very dearly. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand was not always consulted or believed 
 on these points. Better informed than Murat, he often 
 spoke to the Emperor of the true state of the case, but he 
 was suspected of being jealous of Murat. The latter assert- 
 ed that it was to injure him that Talleyrand threw a doubt 
 upon the success for which the Prince of the Peace made 
 himself answerable, and Bonaparte allowed himself to be 
 deceived. It has been said that the Prince of the Peace 
 made enormous presents to Murat ; the latter flattered him- 
 self that, after betraying the Spanish Minister, and by his 
 means causing a rupture between the King of Spain and his 
 son, and finally bringing about the wished-for revolution, he 
 would have the throne of Spain as his reward ; and, dazzled 
 by this prospect, he would not permit himself to doubt the 
 truth of all the flattery that was lavished upon him. 
 
CONSPIRACY AGAINST THE KING OF SPAIN. 571 
 
 It happened that a conspiracy was suddenly formed at 
 Madrid against the King ; Prince Ferdinand was accused in 
 the reports that were made to King Charles, and whether 
 there was truth in the matter, or it was only a wretched in- 
 trigue against the life of the young Prince, the charge was 
 published widely. The Kong of Spain, having caused his 
 son to be put on his trial before a tribunal, suffered himself 
 to be disarmed by the letters which fear dictated to the In- 
 fante letters in which he acknowledged his crime, real or 
 pretended and the Court was in a deplorable state of tur- 
 moil. The King's weakness was extreme; he was infatu- 
 ated with his Minister, who ruled over the Queen with all 
 the authority of a master and former lover. The Queen de- 
 tested her son, to whom the Spanish nation was attached in 
 consequence of the hatred inspired by the Prince of the 
 Peace. There was in this situation sufficient to flatter the 
 Emperor's hopes. If we add the state of Spain itself, the 
 political incapacity of the effete nobility, the ignorance of 
 the people, the influence of the clergy, the prevalence of 
 superstition, the miserable state of the finances, the influ- 
 ence which the English Government was trying to gain, and 
 the occupation of Portugal by the French, it is plain that 
 such a condition of things threatened revolution. 
 
 I had often heard M. de Talleyrand talking to M. de Ke- 
 mnsat of the situation of Spain. Once, when he was con- 
 versing with us about the establishment of Bonaparte's dy- 
 nasty, he said, " A Prince of the house of Bourbon is but a 
 bad neighbor for him, and I do not think he will be able to 
 retain him." But at this date, in 1807, M. de Talleyrand, 
 thoroughly well informed as to the real disposition of Spain, 
 was of opinion that, far from intriguing by means of a man 
 of so little capacity and so ill esteemed as the Prince of the 
 Peace, the way to propitiate the nation was by procuring his 
 dismissal, and, if the King refused this, by declaring war, 
 taking part with the people against him, and, according to 
 events, either dethroning all the Bourbon family or making 
 
572 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 a compromise in Bonaparte's interest by marrying Prince 
 Ferdinand to a lady of the Imperial house. It was toward 
 this latter plan that M. de Talleyrand was most inclined, 
 and he predicted even then to the Emperor that any other 
 line of conduct would involve him in difficulties. 
 
 One of the greatest defects of Bonaparte I do not know 
 if I have already mentioned it was to jumble all men to- 
 gether on the level of his own views, ignoring the differ- 
 ences in character which manners and customs produce. He 
 looked upon the Spaniards as he looked upon any other na- 
 tion. He knew that in France the progress of skepticism 
 had led to indifference toward the priests, and he persuaded 
 himself that, by holding forth on the other side of the Pyre- 
 nees in the philosophic language which had preceded the 
 French Kevolution, he would induce the inhabitants of Spain 
 to join the movement which had carried away the French. 
 " When I come," said he, u with the words liberty, deliver- 
 ance from superstition, destruction of the nobility, inscribed 
 upon my banner, I shall be received as I was in Italy, and 
 all truly national classes will be with me. I shall rouse a 
 once generous people from their inertia; I shall develop 
 them in industry which will increase their wealth, and you 
 will see that I shall be looked upon as the liberator of Spain." 
 
 Murat carried some of this talk to the Prince of the 
 Peace, who did not fail to assure him that such results were, 
 in fact, highly probable. M. de Talleyrand's warnings were 
 vain ; they would not listen to him. This was the first check 
 to his influence, and it shook it at first imperceptibly, but 
 his enemies took advantage of it. M. Maret adopted the 
 tone of Murat, finding that it pleased the Emperor. The 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs, humiliated at being reduced to 
 functions of which M. de Talleyrand took the best part from 
 him, thought proper to adopt and hold a different opinion 
 from his. The Emperor, thus circumvented, allowed him- 
 self to be deceived, and a few months later embarked in this 
 perfidious and deplorable enterprise. 
 
M. DE TALLEYRAND. 573 
 
 While we were at Fontainebleau, I saw a great deal of 
 M. de Talleyrand. He often came to my apartment, and 
 seemed to be amused by my observations about our Court ; 
 he also gave me his own opinions, which were entertaining. 
 Sometimes, indeed, our conversations took a serious turn. 
 He would come in wearied or even displeased with the Em- 
 peror, and would then dwell upon the more or less hidden 
 vices of his character ; and, thus enlightening me with truly 
 funereal gleams, he fixed my as yet unsettled opinions, and 
 caused me much sincere concern. 
 
 One evening, when more communicative than usual, he 
 told me some of the anecdotes which I have related in these 
 pages ; and, as he was insisting strongly on what he called 
 the knavery of our master, representing him as incapable of 
 a single generous sentiment, he was astonished to observe 
 that, as I listened, I was weeping silently. " What is it ? " 
 he exclaimed. "What is the matter with you?" "The 
 matter is," I replied, " that you make me really wretched. 
 You politicians do not want to feel any affection for those 
 you serve. As for me, a poor woman, how do you suppose 
 I can endure the disgust your stories inspire, and what will 
 become of me if I must remain where I am without being 
 able to retain a single illusion ? " 
 
 " Child that you are," replied M. de Talleyrand, " must 
 you always want to put your heart into all you do ? Take 
 my advice : do not try to feel any affection for this man, but 
 rest assured that, with all his faults, he is at present necessary 
 to France. He knows how to uphold the country, and each 
 of us ought to do his best to aid him. However," added he, 
 " if he listens to the sage advice he is receiving at present, I 
 will not answer for anything. He is now embarked in a 
 pitiable intrigue. Murat wants to be King of Spain ; they 
 are cajoling the Prince of the Peace, and want to gain him 
 over, as if he had any importance in Spain ! It is fine policy 
 for the Emperor to arrive in a country with the reputation 
 of a close alliance with a detested minister ! I know well 
 
574 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 enough that he deceives that minister, and will throw him 
 over when he perceives that he counts for nothing ; but he 
 might have spared himself this despicable perfidy. 
 
 "The Emperor will not see that he was called by his 
 destiny to be everywhere and always the man of the nations, 
 the founder of useful and possible innovations. To restore 
 religion, morality, and order to France ; to applaud the civili- 
 zation of England while restraining her policy ; to strengthen 
 his frontiers by the Confederation of the Rhine ; to make 
 Italy a kingdom independent both of Austria and himself ; 
 to keep the Czar shut up at home, by creating the natural 
 barrier which Poland offers these are what ought to have 
 been the Emperor's designs, and it was to these that each of 
 my treaties was leading him. But ambition, anger, pride, 
 and the fools to whom he listens, often mislead him. He 
 suspects me whenever I speak to him of ' moderation ' ; and, 
 if ever he ceases to trust me, you will see he will compromise 
 both himself and us by imprudence and folly. Nevertheless, 
 I shall watch over him to the end. I have associated myself 
 with the creation of his Empire ; I should like it to hold to- 
 gether as my last work ; and, so long as I can see my way to 
 the success of my plan, I will not renounce it." 
 
 The confidence which M. de Talleyrand reposed in me 
 pleased me very much. He soon saw how well founded it 
 was, and that, both by taste and by habit, I brought perfect 
 trustworthiness to our friendly intercourse. With me he en- 
 joyed the rare pleasure of being able to speak freely, to give 
 vent to his feelings without any misgivings, and this just 
 when he felt inclined ; for I never sought his confidences, 
 and I always stopped where he pleased. As he was endowed 
 with great tact, he quickly discerned my reserve and discre- 
 tion, and they formed a new link between us. When his 
 business or our duties gave us a little leisure, he would come 
 to my rooms, where we three passed a good deal of time to- 
 gether. In proportion as M. de Talleyrand grew more friend- 
 ly toward me, I felt more at my ease with him. I resumed 
 
AN AGREEABLE PROSPECT. 575 
 
 the manners natural to my disposition, the little prejudice of 
 which I have spoken melted away, and I gave myself up to 
 a pleasure all the greater to me that it was to be found with- 
 in the walls of a palace where solicitude, fear, and mediocrity 
 hindered all real companionship between its inmates. 
 
 This intimacy, moreover, became very useful to us. M . 
 de Talleyrand, as I have said, talked to the Emperor about 
 us, and convinced him that we were well qualified to keep 
 a great house, and to entertain the foreigners who would 
 undoubtedly frequent Paris in great numbers thenceforth. 
 Upon this the Emperor determined to give us the means of 
 establishing ourselves in Paris in handsome style. He in- 
 creased M. de Remusat's salary on the condition that, on his 
 return to Paris, he should set up a house ; he appointed him 
 superintendent of the Imperial theatres. M. de Talleyrand 
 was commissioned to announce these favors to us, and I was 
 very happy to owe them to him. This moment was the cul- 
 minating point of our position, for it opened to us an agree- 
 able prospect of ease and many opportunities of amusement. 
 We received several congratulations, and we experienced the 
 greatest, the only pleasure of a life passed at Court I mean 
 that of becoming important. 
 
 In the midst of all these things the Emperor worked in- 
 cessantly, and issued decrees almost daily. Some of these- 
 were of great utility. For example, he improved the public 
 offices in the departments, increased the salaries of the cure's,, 
 and reestablished the Sisters of Charity. He caused a sena-- 
 tus consultum to declare the judges irremovable at the end of 
 five years. He also took care to encourage talent, especially 
 when his own glory was the aim of its efforts. The " Tri- 
 omphe de Trajan " was given at the Paris Opera. The poem 
 was by Esmenard, and both he and the composer received ; 
 presents. The work admitted of significant applications. 
 Trajan was represented burning papers that contained the 
 secret of a conspiracy with his own hand. This recalled 
 what Bonaparte had done at Berlin. The triumph of Trajan 
 
576 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 was represented with magnificent pomp. The decorations 
 were superb ; the conqueror appeared in a chariot drawn by 
 four white horses. All Paris flocked to the spectacle ; the 
 applause was unstinted, and charmed the Emperor. Soon 
 afterward "La Yestale," the libretto by Mme. Jouy, the 
 music by Spontini, was performed. This work, which is 
 good as a poem, and remarkable as a musical composition, 
 also included a " triumph," which, was much applauded, and 
 the authors received a liberal recompense. 
 
 About this time the Emperor appointed M. de Caulain- 
 court ambassador to St. Petersburg. He had great trouble 
 in inducing him to accept this mission ; M. de Caulaincourt 
 was very reluctant to part from a person whom he loved, and 
 he refused. Bonaparte at length, by dint of flattering and 
 affectionate persuasions, brought him to consent, promising 
 that his brilliant exile should not be prolonged beyond two 
 years. An immense sum was granted to the ambassador for 
 the expenses of his establishment, and his salary was fixed at 
 from seven to eight hundred thousand francs. The Em- 
 peror charged him to eclipse all the other ambassadors in 
 splendor. On his arrival at St. Petersburg, M. de Caulain- 
 court found himself at first in an embarrassing position. 
 The crime of the death of the Due d'Enghien had left a 
 stain upon him. The Empress-Mother would not see him ; 
 a great number of ladies refused to receive him. The Czar 
 received him graciously, and soon conceived a liking for him, 
 which grew into friendship ; and then the great world, fol- 
 lowing his example, treated the ambassador with less severity. 
 When the Emperor learned that a mere memory of this kind 
 had affected the position of his ambassador, he was aston- 
 ished. " What ! " said he, " do they remember that old 
 story ? " He made use of the same expression every time 
 he found that the circumstance was not forgotten, which in- 
 deed was frequently ; and he would add : " What childish- 
 ness ! Nevertheless, what is done, is done." 
 
 Prince Eugene was Arch-Chancellor of State. M. de 
 
DIFFICULTIES OF THE MARSHALS. 57? 
 
 Talleyrand had to replace the Prince in the discharge of the 
 functions attached to that post ; BO that the former united a 
 number of dignities in his own person. The Emperor also 
 began to settle great revenues on his marshals and generals, 
 and to found those fortunes which seemed immense, and 
 which were destined to disappear with himself. A man 
 would find himself endowed with a considerable revenue, 
 perhaps declared proprietor of a vast number of leagues of 
 territory in Poland, Hanover, or Westphalia. But there 
 were great difficulties about realizing the revenues. The 
 conquered countries gave them up reluctantly, and the agents 
 sent to collect them found themselves in an embarrassing po- 
 sition. Transactions and concessions became inevitable; a 
 portion of the promised sums only could be had. Neverthe- 
 less, the desire of pleasing the Emperor, the taste for luxury, 
 an imprudent confidence in the future, induced these men to 
 place their expenditure on the footing of the presumed in- 
 come which they expected to receive. Debts accumulated, 
 embarrassments cropped up, in the midst of this seeming 
 opulence; the public, beholding extreme luxury, took im- 
 mense fortunes for granted ; and yet nothing real, nothing 
 secure, was at the bottom of all this. 
 
 "We have seen most of the Marshals coming to the Em- 
 peror, when pressed by their creditors, to solicit aid, which 
 he granted according to his fancy, or the interests to be 
 served by binding certain persons to himself. These de- 
 mands became excessive, and perhaps the necessity for sat- 
 isfying them counted for much among the motives of the 
 subsequent wars. Marshal Ney bought a house; its pur- 
 chase and the sums expended upon it cost him more than a 
 million, and he has since complained bitterly of the difficul- 
 ties into which this purchase threw him. Marshal Davoust 
 was in the same case. The Emperor prescribed to each of 
 his marshals the purchase of a house, which involved a great 
 establishment and large expenditure in furniture. Kich 
 stuffs and precious objects of all kinds adorned these dwell- 
 
5T8 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 ings; splendid services of plate glittered on the Marshals' 
 tables. Their wives wore valuable jewels ; their equipages 
 and dress cost great sums. This display pleased Bonaparte, 
 satisfied the shopkeepers, dazzled everybody, and, by remov- 
 ing individuals from their proper sphere, augmented their 
 dependence on the Emperor in fact, perfectly carried out 
 his intentions. 
 
 During this time the old nobility of France lived sim- 
 ply, collecting its ruins together, finding itself under no 
 particular obligations, boasting of its poverty rather than 
 complaining, but in reality recovering its estates by de- 
 grees, and reamassing those fortunes which at the present 
 day it enjoys. The confiscations of the National Convention 
 were not always a misfortune for the French nobility, espe- 
 cially in cases where the lands were not sold. Before the 
 Revolution that class was heavily in debt, for extravagance 
 was one of the luxuries of our former grands seigneurs. 
 The emigration and the laws of 1T93, by depriving them of 
 their estates, set them free from their creditors, and from 
 a certain portion of the charges that weighed upon great 
 houses ; and, when they recovered their property, they prof- 
 ited by that liberation, which, in truth, they had bought at a 
 high price. I remember that M. Gaudin, Minister of Fi- 
 nance, related once before me how the Emperor had asked 
 him which was the most heavily taxed class in France, and 
 he had answered that it was still that of the old nobility. 
 Bonaparte seemed uneasy at this, and remarked, " But we 
 must take order with that." 
 
 Under the Empire a certain number of tolerably large 
 fortunes were made; several persons, military men espe- 
 cially, who had nothing formerly, found themselves in pos- 
 session of ten, fifteen, or twenty thousand livres per annum, 
 because, in proportion as they were remote from the observa- 
 tion of the Emperor, they could live according to their own 
 fancy, and expend their income with order and economy. 
 Of those immense fortunes with which the grandees of 
 
GENERAL NANSOUTY. 579 
 
 Bonaparte's Court were so gratuitously accredited, but little 
 remains ; and on this point, as on many others, the party 
 who, on the return of the King, thought that the state 
 might be enriched by seizing upon the treasures supposed to 
 be amassed under the Empire, advised an arbitrary and vex- 
 atious measure which led to no result. 
 
 At this period my family had a share in the gifts of the 
 Emperor. My brother-in-law, General Nansouty, was given 
 the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor. He had been 
 First Chamberlain to the Empress, and was made First 
 Equerry, replacing M. de Caulaincourt in his absence. He 
 received a grant of thirty thousand francs in Hanover, and 
 one hundred thousand francs for the purchase of a house, 
 which might, if he chose, be of greater value, but which 
 became inalienable by the fact of this grant. The amount 
 went toward its price. 
 
CHAPTEE XXVII. 
 
 (1807-1808.) 
 
 Projects of Divorce. 
 
 I THINK it well to devote a separate chapter to the events 
 which were taking place at Fontainebleau in connection 
 with the Emperor's divorce at this time. Although Bona- 
 parte had not spoken to his wife on the subject for some 
 years, except on occasions when he had some quarrel with 
 her, and those occasions had become exceedingly rare in 
 consequence of the amiability and self-control of the Em- 
 press, it is nevertheless probable that he never entirely lost 
 sight of the idea. The death of the eldest son of Louis had 
 deeply impressed him. His victories, while increasing his 
 power, had also expanded his ideas of greatness; and his 
 policy, as well as his vanity, was concerned in an alliance 
 with a European sovereign. The rumor was at first spread 
 that Napoleon had cast his eyes on the daughter of the King 
 of Saxony; but an alliance with that Princess would not 
 have procured him any valuable support for his continental 
 authority. The King of Saxony reigned only because France 
 authorized him to reign. Besides this, his daughter was now 
 at least thirty years of age, and by no means handsome. 
 Bonaparte, on his return from Tilsit, spoke of her to his 
 wife in a manner which set Josephine's mind completely at 
 
 e. 
 
 The conferences at Tilsit very reasonably inflated Napo- 
 
PROJECTS OF DIVORCE. 581 
 
 Icon's pride. The admiration which the young Czar felt for 
 him, the assent which he yielded to certain of his projects, 
 especially to the dismemberment of Spain, the complaisance 
 of his new ally with regard to his wishes, all combined to 
 lead Napoleon to form designs of a closer alliance. No 
 doubt he spoke openly of these to M. de Talleyrand, but I 
 do not think that anything was said about them to the Czar ; 
 the whole matter was ref erred to a future, more or less near, 
 according to circumstances. 
 
 The Emperor returned to France. On rejoining his wife, 
 he once more yielded to that sort of affection with which 
 she always inspired him, and which was sometimes a trouble 
 to him, because it rendered him uncomfortable when he had 
 deeply grieved her. 
 
 On one occasion, when he was talking with her about the 
 quarrels of the King of Holland and his wife, the death of 
 the young Napoleon, and the delicate health of the only 
 child remaining to the ill-assorted pair, he spoke of the obli- 
 gation which might one day be imposed upon himself of 
 taking a wife who should give him children. He approached 
 the subject with some emotion, and added : " If such a thing 
 should happen, Josephine, it will be for you to help me to 
 make the sacrifice. I shall count upon your love to save me 
 from all the odium of a forced rupture. You would take 
 the initiative, would you not ? You would enter into my 
 position, and you would have the courage to withdraw ? " 
 The Empress knew her husband's character too well to facili- 
 tate beforehand, by one imprudent word, the step which she 
 repelled as much as she could ; so that during this conversa- 
 tion, far from leading him to hope that she would contribute 
 to soften the effect of such a proceeding by her conduct, she 
 assured him that she would obey his orders, but that she 
 would never anticipate them. She made this reply in that 
 calm and dignified tone which she always did well to assume 
 toward Bonaparte, and it was not without effect. " Sire," 
 said she (it should be remarked that from the beginning of 
 
582 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 his reign slie always addressed him, even when they were 
 alone, with the forms of ceremonious respect), " you are the 
 master, and you shall decide my fate. If you should order 
 me to quit the Tuileries, I will obey on the instant ; but the 
 least you can do is to give me that order in a positive man- 
 ner. I am your wife ; I have been crowned by you in the 
 presence of the Pope. Such honors, at least, demand that 
 they should not be voluntarily renounced. If you divorce 
 me, all France shall know that it is you who send me away, 
 and shall be ignorant neither of my obedience nor of my 
 profound grief." This manner of replying, which was 
 always the same, did not annoy the Emperor, and even 
 seemed occasionally to touch him ; for, when on several oc- 
 casions he recurred to the subject, he frequently wept, and 
 was genuinely agitated by contending feelings. 
 
 Mme. Bonaparte, who retained her self-control so admi- 
 rably while in his presence, gave way to excessive emotion 
 on relating to me all that had passed. Sometimes she wept 
 bitterly ; at other moments she would dwell on the ingrati- 
 tude of such conduct. She recalled to mind that when she 
 married Bonaparte he had considered himself highly honored 
 by her alliance, and she asserted that it was an odious deed 
 to repudiate her in his greatness, after she had consented to 
 share his low fortunes. Sometimes she became so excited 
 that she even yielded to apprehensions concerning her per- 
 sonal safety. " I will never give in to him ; I will demean 
 myself entirely as his victim ; but, if I stand too resolutely 
 in his way, who can tell of what he would be capable, or 
 whether he would resist the necessity of getting rid of me ! " 
 When she spoke thus, I made every effort to calm her imagi- 
 nation, which no doubt led her too far. "Whatever I might 
 think of the facility with which Bonaparte yielded to politi- 
 cal necessity, I did not believe for a moment that he would 
 be capable of conceiving and executing the black designs 
 of which she then suspected him. But he had acted in such 
 a way on several occasions, and he had used such language, 
 
PROJECTS OF DIVORCE. 583 
 
 that it was not wonderful that misery such as hers should 
 inspire her with suspicions of the sort. And, although I 
 solemnly declare that in my conscience I did not believe he 
 had ever contemplated such a means of getting out of his 
 difficulty, I was unable to make any other reply to the Em- 
 press than, " Madame, be quite sure that he is not capable 
 of going so far." 
 
 For my own part, I was astonished that a woman so com- 
 pletely disenchanted concerning her husband, tortured by a 
 dreadful suspicion, detached from every affection, and indif- 
 ferent to fame, should hold so strongly to the enjoyment of 
 such a precarious royalty ; but, seeing that nothing availed 
 to disgust her with it, I contented myself with entreating 
 her, as I had always done, to keep silence, and to maintain 
 her calm, sorrowful, but determined attitude in the presence 
 of the Emperor, for I knew well that by these means only 
 could she turn aside or delay the storm. He knew that his 
 wife was generally beloved. Day by day public opinion 
 was becoming alienated from him, and he was afraid of in- 
 censing it. 
 
 When the Empress confided her sorrows to her daughter, 
 she did not, as I have already said, find her very capable of 
 understanding her. Since the death of her child, the sor- 
 rows of vanity had appeared more than ever inexplicable to 
 Queen Hortense, and her sole answer to her mother ajways 
 was, " How can any one regret a throne ? " 
 
 Mme. de la Eochefoucauld, to whom Mme. Bonaparte 
 also spoke, was, as I have said, somewhat frivolous, and 
 passed over everything as lightly as she could. The burden 
 of the Empress's confidence fell, therefore, upon me. The 
 Emperor was aware of the fact, but did not at that time 
 resent it to me. I know he even said to M. de Talleyrand, 
 " It must be acknowledged that the Empress is well advised." 
 When his passions gave his intellect a chance, he could esti- 
 mate fairly and wisely enough conduct which embarrassed 
 him, provided it only embarrassed him a little, because he 
 
584 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 always knew that when he chose he could surmount the light 
 obstacles that were opposed to him ; and he allowed one to 
 play one's own cards, because he knew that in the end he 
 should none the less surely win the game.* 
 
 * My father has often quoted this reflection, and many others of the same 
 kind which occur in these Memoirs, to prove that it was more possible than has 
 been supposed to oppose the Emperor successfully, and that he was sometimes 
 capable of enduring contradiction. The impossibility of opposing his plans, or 
 even of inducing him to hesitate, is his servants' best excuse for their own do- 
 cility. It is very probable that a more frequent opposition would have acted 
 upon him, and he was capable of understanding and accepting it at certain mo- 
 ments ; the difficulty was, doubtless, to discern these moments, and to avoid 
 rousing, if not his anger, at least his vanity. My father knew from those who 
 had often spoken with him that this could be done, and that persons who flat- 
 tered him in tete-d-tete conversation were unpardonable. His intellect, which 
 was in general penetrating and just, forced him to yield, at least temporarily, to 
 the truth. He was even capable of a certain impartiality which he liked to 
 parade. I knew two examples of this, which deserve to be recorded. 
 
 The first relates to a certain conversation between the Emperor and the son 
 of Mme. de Stael, just after his return from Italy on the 28th of December, 
 1807. Bourrienne has narrated with tolerable exactness in his Memoirs all 
 that passed. It was after this interview that the Emperor said, " How can the 
 Neck'er family be for the Bourbons, whose first duty, if they ever came back 
 into France, would be to hang them all ? " 
 
 My father learned the following details of this interview: "Auguste de 
 Stael told me that, after his mother had been exiled, he was obliged to appeal 
 to the Emperor himself about a claim to a sum of two millions, I think, which 
 Necker had left as security in the public treasury. Auguste was straightfor- 
 ward and upright, and had very exalted moral sentiments, and perfect rectitude 
 of intention and principle ; and, although he was very young, he did not hesi- 
 tate to acquit himself of a difficult commission at his mother's desire. He saw 
 the Emperor, explained his business to him, and was listened to with attention 
 and even with kindness, although, in fact, the demand never was acceded to 
 under the Emperor's reign. When he had concluded his statements and was 
 about to take leave, Napoleon said to him : * And you, young man what do 
 you do ? What do you intend to be ? One must be something in this 
 world : what are your plans ? ' ' Sire, I can be nothing in France ; I can not 
 serve a Government which persecutes my mother.' ' Quite right ; but then, as 
 by your birth you can be something out of France, why not go to England ? For, 
 you see, there are only two nations, France and England ; all the rest are no- 
 thing.' This saying struck Auguste de Stael most of all the Emperor's conver- 
 sation ; he regarded it as a great proof of impartiality of mind that the Em- 
 peror should give this high rank among nations to England, a country with 
 
PROJECTS OF DIVORCE. 585 
 
 Meanwhile we went to Fontainebleau, and the fetes, the 
 presence of foreign princes, and above all the drama which 
 Bonaparte was preparing for Spain, diverted his mind from 
 the question of the divorce, and at first everything went 
 smoothly enough. 
 
 My friendship with Talleyrand became confirmed, and 
 the Empress was rejoiced at this, because she hoped that 
 when occasion arose it would be useful, or at least conve- 
 nient, to herself. I have said that just then the sovereigns 
 of the duchy of Berg and Fouche the Minister of Police 
 were scheming in concert. Mme. Murat always contrived 
 to quarrel with anybody who was about the Empress, and 
 spared no pains for that end. Talleyrand and Fouche were 
 
 which he could not live in peace, and which he made his orators and his journals 
 insult every day." 
 
 Here is a second example of this impartiality of mind. " After the battle 
 of Torres Vedras," said my father, " General Foy was charged, by his principal 
 comrades of the Army of Portugal, to endeavor to see the Emperor on return- 
 ing to France, to make known to him the true state of things, and, lastly, to 
 explain that another general than Massena was necessary, age and infirmity 
 having rendered that illustrious warrior unequal to such a command. The 
 army wanted General Soult. Foy had the sentiments and the position which 
 Marmont describes in his Memoirs, and which he owed to the friendship of the 
 latter, who gave him shelter in his camp when he escaped after Moreau's trial. 
 He did not like the Emperor, and did not know him, and the Emperor neither 
 liked nor knew him ; nevertheless, he received him, and Foy acquitted himself of 
 his commission, making his statements and his reflections. The Emperor heard 
 him, questioned him, and talked to him. He discussed Massena and Soult, 
 criticising them as freely as if he had been speaking to a familiar confidant. 
 His opinions of the Marshals, in general, were those which we know. Some 
 were not to be relied upon ; others were stupid. I can not enter into the details, 
 as I might make a mistake, but once he said, suddenly, ' Ah ! tell me, my sol- 
 diers fight?' 'How, Sire? Of course they do.' 'But are they afraid of the 
 English soldiers ? ' Sire, they respect them, but they are not afraid of them/ 
 4 No, no ? And yet the English have always beaten them Cressy, Agincourt, 
 Malplaquet ' * It seems to me, Sire, that at the battle of Fontenoy ' * Ah ! 
 the battle of Fontenoy ; that was a day which prolonged the monarchy forty 
 years beyond the time it ought to have lasted.' The interview occupied three 
 hours. Foy recalled it with the greatest pleasure, and he added, * Ever since that 
 day I have not loved the Empire any better, but I have passionately admired 
 the Emperor.' "P. R. 
 
586 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE ItHSMUSAT. 
 
 jealous and distrustful of each other, and at this period the 
 great importance of the former gave umbrage to all. 
 
 About two or three weeks before the end of our sojourn 
 at Fontainebleau the Minister of Police arrived one morning. 
 He remained a long time in the Emperor's cabinet, and was 
 afterward invited to dine with him, an honor rarely accorded 
 to any one. During dinner Bonaparte was in high spirits. 
 Some sort of amusement, I forget what, filled up the evening. 
 Toward midnight, when every one had retired, one of the 
 Empress's attendants knocked at my door. My maid told 
 him I had gone to bed. The man replied that I need not 
 get up, but that the Empress begged my husband would 
 come to her at once. 
 
 M. de Remusat, who had not yet left my room, imme- 
 diately repaired to the Empress's apartment. He found her 
 half undressed, pale, and in great agitation. She sent away 
 her women, and, exclaiming that she was lost, placed in my 
 husband's hands a long letter, written upon large paper, and 
 signed by Fouche himself. In this letter Fouche began by 
 protesting that his former devotion to her was quite unal- 
 tered, and assuring her that it was in consequence of that 
 sentiment he ventured to ask her to consider her position 
 and the Emperor's. He represented the Emperor as all- 
 powerful, depicted him at the height of his glory, sovereign 
 master of France, but accountable to that same France for 
 the present and for the future which were confided to him. 
 "We must not disguise from ourselves, Madame," said he, 
 " that the political future of France is compromised by the 
 want of an heir to the Emperor. As Minister of Police, I 
 am placed in a position to judge of public opinion, and 
 I know that the succession to such an empire gives rise to 
 public uneasiness. Picture to yourself what would be the 
 strength of his Majesty's throne to-day, if it were supported 
 by the existence of a son." This advantage was dwelt upon 
 skillfully and at length, as indeed it might well be. Fouche 
 then spoke of the opposition between the conjugal affection 
 
PROJECTS OF DIVORCE. 587 
 
 of the Emperor and his policy. He foresaw that he would 
 never bring himself to prescribe so grievous a sacrifice, and 
 he therefore ventured to advise Mme. Bonaparte to make a 
 courageous effort on her own part, to resign herself, to im- 
 molate herself for France ; and he drew a very pathetic pic- 
 ture of the eclat which such an action would cast upon her 
 now and in the future. Lastly, the letter ended with a 
 declaration that the Emperor was quite ignorant of its hav- 
 ing been written, that the writer knew it would be displeas- 
 ing to him, and earnestly entreated the Empress to keep it a 
 profound secret. 
 
 "We may easily imagine all the oratorical phrases that 
 adorned this letter, which had every appearance of having 
 been written with care and reflection. The first thought of 
 M. de Kemusat was that Fouche had not attempted such a 
 proceeding without an understanding with the Emperor ; he, 
 however, took good care not to indicate this conviction to the 
 Empress, who was making visible efforts to repel the same 
 suspicion on her own part, while her tears and agitation 
 proved that she dared not count upon the Emperor on this 
 occasion. "What shall I do?" asked she. "How shall I 
 avert this storm ? " " Madame," said M. de Kemusat, " I 
 strongly advise you to go this instant to the Emperor's room, 
 if he has not yet retired, or, at all events, to go to him very 
 early to-morrow. Remember that you must seem to have 
 consulted nobody. Make him read that letter ; watch him 
 if you can, but at any rate show him that you are angry at 
 this side-winded advice, and declare to him anew that you 
 will only obey positive orders pronounced by himself." 
 
 The Empress adopted this advice. She begged my hus- 
 band to tell M. de Talleyrand all that had occurred, and to 
 report to her what he said ; then, as it was late, she put off 
 her conversation with the Emperor until the next morning. 
 "When she showed Bonaparte the letter, he affected to be ex- 
 tremely angry, and declared that he was totally ignorant of 
 this proceeding ; that Fouche had exhibited quite uncalled- 
 
588 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 for zeal, and that, if he had not set out for Paris, he should 
 have been severely reprimanded. The Emperor added that 
 he would punish the Minister of Police if the Empress 
 wished it, and would even go so far as to remove him from 
 the Ministry, should she exact such a reparation. He accom- 
 panied this declaration with many caresses ; but his manner 
 did not convince the Empress, who told me the same day 
 that she was aware he was greatly embarrassed during this 
 explanation. 
 
 In the mean time the matter was discussed between my 
 husband and myself. We saw very clearly that Fouche* had 
 been induced to take this step by a superior order, and we 
 said to each other that, if the Emperor were seriously think- 
 ing of divorce, it was exceedingly unlikely Talleyrand would 
 be opposed to the step. What was our surprise to find that 
 at this moment he was so ! Talleyrand listened to us very 
 attentively, and like a man who was totally unaware of what 
 had happened. He considered Fouche's letter improper and 
 ridiculous, and added that the idea of the divorce appeared 
 to him utterly mistaken. He took my view, and that vehe- 
 mently ; advised that the Empress should take a very high 
 tone with the Minister of Police, and should tell him that he 
 had no business to interfere in such a matter. He added 
 that, if the affair were ever arranged, it ought to be settled 
 without any go-between. The Empress was delighted with 
 this advice, and she and I together composed a cold and dig- 
 nified reply to Fouche's letter. Talleyrand read and ap- 
 proved of this, and desired us to show it to the Emperor, 
 who, he said, would not venture to find fault with it. He 
 was right; and Bonaparte, who had not yet made up his 
 mind, continued to play the same part, to exhibit increasing 
 anger, to indulge in violent threats, and to declare with so 
 much iteration that he would dismiss the Minister of Police if 
 she wished it, that the Empress, tranquillized by degrees and 
 deceived anew, ceased to feel any resentment toward Fouche, 
 whom she no longer feared, and refused the offered repara- 
 
PROJECTS OF DIVORCE. 589 
 
 tion, telling her husband that she would not on any account 
 have him deprive himself of the services of a man who was 
 useful to him, and that it would be enough if he " scolded 
 him well." 
 
 Fouche came back to Fontaiaebleau a few days afterward. 
 In Mme. Bonaparte's presence her husband treated him with 
 scrupulous coldness ; but the Minister did not seem to mind 
 that in the least, which confirmed me in my belief that the 
 whole thing had been arranged. He repeated to the Em- 
 press all that he had written. The Emperor told his wife 
 that he went over precisely the same ground with him. " It 
 is an excess of zeal," said he. " We must not be angry with 
 him for it ; it is quite enough that we are determined to 
 reject his advice, and you know well that I could not live 
 without you." * Bonaparte repeated these same words to his 
 wife day and night. He was much more with her than he 
 had recently been, was really agitated, would take her in his 
 arms and protest the most passionate love; and in these 
 scenes, which were at first, as I believe, acted for a purpose, 
 he involuntarily became quite carried away, and ended by 
 experiencing sincere emotion. 
 
 All that he said was confided to me, and I repeated it to 
 Talleyrand, who dictated the line of conduct to be observed. 
 His advice steadily tended to avert the divorce, and he guided 
 Mme. Bonaparte very well. I could not refrain from letting 
 him see that I was somewhat astonished he should oppose 
 a project which had certainly a reasonable political aspect, 
 and that he should take so much interest in the purely domes- 
 tic side of the affair. He replied that it was not altogether 
 so domestic as I imagined. " There is nobody," he said, " in 
 
 * The Emperor wrote to Fouche from Fontainebleau, on the 5th of Novem- 
 ber, 1807, the following letter: 
 
 " MONSIEUR FOUCHE : For a fortnight past I have been hearing of follies on 
 your part ; it is time that you should put an end to them, and that you should 
 cease to meddle, directly or indirectly, in a matter that can not possibly concern 
 you in any way. Such is my will." P. R. 
 
590 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 the palace who ought not to desire that this woman should 
 remain with Bonaparte. She is gentle and good, she has the 
 art of keeping him quiet, and she enters quite sufficiently 
 into everybody's position. She is a refuge for us on a thou- 
 sand occasions. If a Princess were to come here, we should 
 find the Emperor break with all the Court, and we should 
 all be crushed." 
 
 Giving me these reasons, Talleyrand convinced me that he 
 was speaking sincerely ; but yet he was not telling me all his 
 secret, for, while he repeated to me that we must all unite to 
 avert the divorce, he frequently asked me what would be- 
 come of me if by any chance the Emperor carried the plan 
 into effect. I replied that without hesitation I should share 
 the fate of my Empress. " But," said he, " do you love her 
 well enough to do that ? " " Certainly," I replied, " I am 
 attached to her ; nevertheless, as I know her well, as I know 
 her to be frivolous and hardly capable of a steady affection, 
 it would not be the dictates of my heart that I should follow 
 on this occasion, so much as those of propriety. I came to 
 this Court through Mme. Bonaparte's influence ; I have al- 
 ways passed in the eyes of the world as her intimate friend ; 
 I have had the burden and the confidence of that friendship ; 
 and, although she has been too much taken up with her own 
 position to care much about me, although she has thrown me 
 aside and taken me up again, as it suited her convenience, the 
 public, who can not enter into the secrets of our mutual rela- 
 tions, and to whom I shall not confide them, would, I am 
 sure, be astonished if I did not share her exile." " But," 
 said Talleyrand, "this would gratuitously put you into a 
 position which might be very unpleasant for yourself and 
 your husband, and would perhaps separate you. You would 
 have to encounter many small difficulties, for which assured- 
 ly she would not pay you." " I know that as well as you," 
 said I. " She is changeable and even whimsical. I can fore- 
 see that in such a case she would be at first very grateful for 
 my devotion, then she would get used to it, and finally she 
 
PROJECTS OF DIVORCE. 591 
 
 would think no more about it. But her character shall not 
 prevent me from acting in accordance with my own, and I 
 will do what seems to be my duty without expecting the 
 smallest reward." 
 
 In fact, when speaking, about this time, of the chances of 
 the divorce, I promised the Empress that I would leave the 
 Court if ever she left it. She seemed deeply touched by 
 this declaration, which I made with tears and sincere emo- 
 tion. Assuredly she ought to have resisted the suspicions 
 which she afterward conceived against me, and of which I 
 shall give an account in due time.* I placed only one re- 
 
 * The author indicates in this passage, and in another, that, at a later period, 
 and on the occasion of the divorce, the Empress conceived some unjust distrust 
 of her. I have absolutely no data upon this fact, which had apparently some 
 importance, because she promises to revert to it. It is, therefore, the more to 
 be regretted that she was not able to continue this work, at least down to the 
 epoch of the Emperor's divorce. These scenes, forerunners of the event, give 
 us a glimpse of the mixture of cunning and impulse, emotion and acting, weak- 
 ness and obstinacy, which characterized him in so many matters, but in none so 
 strongly as in his rupture with perhaps the only person whom he ever loved. 
 It would have been interesting to read the account of the whole, related by one 
 who had had such opportunities of observing the actors in the drama. As for 
 her, she preserved a constant fidelity to the Empress ; and, when the divorce 
 took place, did not hesitate as to what she should do, although Queen Hortense 
 herself begged her to reflect before she made up her mind to quit the Court. 
 The following is the letter in which she announced her resolution to my grand- 
 father, who had accompanied the Empress to Trianon : 
 
 *' MALMAISON, December, 1809. 
 
 " I had hoped for a moment that you would have accompanied the Emperor 
 yesterday, and that I should have seen you. Independently of the pleasure of 
 seeing you, I wanted to talk to you. I hope there will be some opportunity for 
 Trianon to-day, and I will keep my letter ready. 
 
 " I was received here with real aifection. All is very sad, as you may sup- 
 pose. The Empress, who has no more need of effort, is greatly cast down ; she 
 weeps incessantly, and it is really painful to see her. Her children are full of 
 courage. The Viceroy is come he keeps her up as well as possible ; and they 
 are of the greatest use to her. Yesterday I had a conversation with the Queen 
 [of Holland]. I will repeat it to you as succinctly as possible. ' The Empress/ 
 said she, ' has been deeply touched by the readiness which you have shown to 
 share her fate. I am not surprised at it, but, out of friendship to you, I beg of 
 you to reflect. Your husband is placed near the Emperor ; all your instincts 
 
 43 
 
592 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 striction upon the promise which I made : " I will not be 
 Lady-in-Waiting to another Empress. If you retire into 
 some country place, I will follow you, being always happy to 
 
 ought to be on that side. Will not your position be frequently false and embar- 
 rassing ? Can you bring yourself to renounce the advantages attached to the 
 service of a young and reigning Empress ? Think of it well ; I give you a 
 friend's advice, and you ought to reflect.' I thanked the Queen sincerely, but 
 replied that I could not perceive any objection to my taking this step, which 
 appeared the only one proper for me to take ; that, if the Empress foresaw any 
 difficulty in retaining in her service the wife of a man who was in the Emperor's, 
 then I would retire, but that, unless such was the case, I would greatly prefer 
 to remain with her ; that I thought there might be some advantages for persons 
 attached to the great Court, but that their loss was more than compensated to 
 me by the consciousness of fulfilling a duty, and of being useful to the Empress, 
 if rhe valued my services ; that I did not think the Emperor could be displeased 
 with ray conduct, etc., etc. ' There is only one consideration, Madame,' said I, 
 in addition, * which could induce me for one moment to regret the part I have 
 taken. I will tell you very frankly what that is. It is impossible that there 
 should not be, in the interior of this little Court here, some indiscretion, some 
 gossip, something or other which, being repeated to the Emperor, may bring 
 about a momentary annoyance. The Empress, good as she is, is sometimes 
 distrustful. I do not know whether the proof of devotion which I am now giv- 
 ing her will shelter me completely from a passing suspicion which would greatly 
 grieve me. I acknowledge that, if it should happen, even once, that my husband 
 or myself were suspected of meditating an indiscretion, on one side or the other, 
 I would immediately quit the Empress.' The Queen replied that I was quite 
 right, and that she hoped her mother would be prudent. She then embraced 
 me, and said that she knew that the Empress wished in her heart to have me 
 with her. I needed nothing more, in the mind in which, as you know, I am, to 
 decide me. 
 
 " Now let me know what you think. I know that my position will often be 
 embarrassing, but with prudence and true attachment may not everything come 
 right ? Mme. de la Eochefoucauld seems to me to want to get away she has 
 even, I think, said something to the Emperor; but her position is different. 
 She will render the same services to the Empress, but without annuity or pen- 
 sion. In her position that may suit her, but I think I must act otherwise; 
 and, indeed, the more I question myself, the more I feel that my place is here. 
 Put all this together, reflect, and then decide ; and remember that I have time. 
 We are given to the 1st of January. 
 
 " One would need to be very happy to find this place pleasant in this season ; 
 there is an abominable wind, and it is always raining. That, however, has not 
 prevented a succession of visitors all day long. Each visitor renews her tears. 
 Nevertheless, it is no harm that all her impressions should be renewed thus in 
 
PROJECTS OF DIVORCE. 593 
 
 share your solitude ; and I will never leave you, except you 
 should quit France." 
 
 No one could tell what was really passing in the Emper- 
 
 succession ; afterward she will rest. I think that I shall remain at Malmaison 
 until Saturday ; I wish you could come then, because we really must meet and 
 be a little while together. This morning (19th December, 1809) I could not 
 find an opportunity of sending my letter ; I hope there will be one this evening. 
 The Empress has passed a deplorable day ; she receives visitors, which renews 
 her grief, and then every time anything reaches her from the Emperor she gets 
 into a terrible state. We must find means, either through the Grand Marshal 
 or the Prince de Neufchatel, to induce the Emperor to moderate the expression 
 of his regret and his affliction when he writes to her, because, when he dwells in 
 this way upon his grief, she falls into real despair, and seems to lose her head 
 completely. I do all in my power for her ; it gives me terrible pain to see her. 
 She is gentle, sad, and affectionate in fact, heart-rending. By affecting her so 
 deeply, the Emperor increases her sufferings. In the midst of all this she 
 never says a word too much, she never utters a bitter complaint ; she is really 
 like an angel. I induced her to take a walk this morning ; I wanted to try to 
 fatigue her body in order to rest her mind. She complied mechanically. I 
 talked to her, I questioned her, I did all I could ; she seconded my efforts, un- 
 derstanding my intentions, and seemed grateful to me in the midst of her sor- 
 rows. At the end of an hour I acknowledge that I was almost fainting with 
 the effort that I had made, and for a few minutes was as weak as herself. * It 
 seems to me sometimes,' said she, * that I am dead, and that there remains to 
 me only a sort of vague faculty of feeling that I am dead.' Try, if you can, to 
 make the Emperor understand that he ought to write to her encouragingly, and 
 not in the evening, for that gives her terrible nights. She does not know 
 how to bear his regrets ; no doubt she could still less bear his coldness, but 
 there is a medium in all this. I saw her yesterday in such a state, after the 
 Emperor's last letter, that I was on the point of writing myself to Trianon. 
 Adieu. 
 
 " I do not say much to you of my own health ; you know how feeble it is, 
 and all this tries it. After this week I shall want a little rest with you. To 
 find anything pleasant, I must get home." 
 
 My grandmother's letters are few at this time, unfortunately, and I can not 
 supply the missing chapters either by narrative or by quotations. I only know 
 that her fears were not realized, in so far as the indiscretions and gossip of the 
 Court were concerned ; but she and her husband were involved in the disgrace 
 of Talleyrand. It is true that my grandfather remained First Chamberlain even 
 after the Prince of Benevento had been deprived of his pensions as Grand 
 Chamberlain ; but he did not recover, nor did he seek, the good will of the 
 Court or the confidence of the Emperor. This will be more fully explained in 
 the Appendix. My grandmother went only once, I think, to the Tuileries, to be 
 
594: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 or's mind, and he had once said to his wife : " If you quit 
 me, I would not have you lose state or rank by it ; you shall 
 reign somewhere, perhaps even at Kome." It is to be re- 
 marked that when he was thus speaking the Pope was in 
 that same Rome, and that there was no reason to suppose he 
 would have to leave the city. But the most serious events 
 seemed perfectly simple to Napoleon; and from time to 
 time, if one listened attentively, a word dropped here and 
 there sufficed to indicate the succession of projects which he 
 was forming. 
 
 M. de Remusat thought with me respecting my proper 
 line of conduct. He was perfectly alive to the inconvenience 
 which might possibly result from it ; but that consideration 
 did not deter him, and he repeated to the Empress that she 
 might count upon my fidelity in her misfortunes, should 
 they ever fall upon her. "We shall see that she was after- 
 presented to the new Empress with great ceremony, and on another day to re- 
 ceive some injunctions from the Emperor. This latter circumstance deserves to 
 be related in detail. It was at the end of 1812, or the beginning of 1813. The 
 Due de Friuli came to see her, to the great astonishment of my grandparents, 
 for he never made visits. He was charged by the Emperor to order her to re- 
 quest an audience, as the Emperor wished to speak to her of the Empress Jo- 
 sephine. There were no means of disobeying this command, and no reasons for 
 wishing to do so ; she requested an audience, and was received. My father did 
 not know the details of this interview ; he only knew that the Emperor desired 
 her to induce the Empress to go to a distance from Paris. What were his mo- 
 tives ? Josephine's debts were among the number, and also things that were 
 said in her salon. I do not think that his complaints went any further, and the 
 Emperor exhibited no anger. As for the Lady-in- Waiting, the Emperor was 
 neither kind nor unkind to her ; but he did not encourage her by any word to 
 speak to him of herself, and she took good care not to do so. This was the last 
 time that she saw Napoleon. Afterward she had to fulfill his commission, and 
 this was a difficult task. She wrote a long letter to the Empress, who was then 
 staying, I believe, at Geneva. The matter was all the more difficult that the 
 Emperor had exacted that she should not name him, and that the advice should 
 'not seem to come from him. Although it seems that the Empress Josephine 
 could hardly have been deceived, my father believes that this letter was ill 
 received by her, and it was even printed in some Memoirs written under the 
 inspiration of Queen Hortense, with reflections more or less severe upon the 
 author. P. R. 
 
PROJECTS OF DIVORCE. 595 
 
 ward induced to place no reliance upon a promise which was 
 given with perfect sincerity. 
 
 It was at this period, and upon the subject of the di- 
 vorce, that we had certain conversations with Mme. de la 
 Rochefoucauld, which brought about the explanations to 
 which I have previously referred, and that M. de Remusat 
 became acquainted with what had passed respecting him on 
 his return from the Prussian campaign. These new lights 
 added considerably to the painful impression of our succes- 
 sive discoveries relating to the Emperor's character. 
 
 I will now tell what I learned of the motives which in- 
 duced Talleyrand and the Minister of Police to act in the 
 manner which I have just recorded. I have said that Fou- 
 che, who was fascinated by Mme. Murat, was forced in con- 
 sequence to break with what was called " the party of the 
 Beauharnais." I do not know whether he really wished to 
 do so ; but, when a man mixes himself up in certain intrigues 
 in which women play a part, he can not tell at what point he 
 may be able to stop, because there are so many little sayings, 
 little denunciations, and little treacheries, that in the end he 
 gets lost among them. Mme. Murat, who detested her sis- 
 ter-in-law, and did all in her power to drive her off the 
 throne, longed for an alliance with a European Princess for 
 her own pride's sake, and plied the Emperor with flattery on 
 this point. Fouche thought that it would be useful to the 
 new dynasty to be supported by a direct heir. He knew 
 Bonaparte too well not to foresee that, sooner or later, policy 
 would take precedence of every other consideration with 
 him. He was afraid that he himself might not be employed 
 in this affair, which seemed to be entirely in Talleyrand's 
 line, and he was anxious to deprive him of the honor and 
 the advantages of such a negotiation. With this intention 
 he broke the ice with the Emperor, and spoke to him on the 
 important point. Finding him disposed to entertain it, he 
 dwelt upon all the motives which were so easy to urge, and 
 ultimately succeeded in extracting from Bonaparte an order, 
 
596 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RJ&MUSAT. 
 
 or at least a proposal, that lie should play the part of media- 
 tor between the Emperor and the Empress in all negotiations 
 on the point. He went further; he made public opinion 
 declare itself ! With the assistance of the police, he got 
 speeches made on the subject of the divorce at several places 
 of general assembly in Paris. The people began to discuss 
 in the cafes the necessity of the Emperor's having an heir. 
 These utterances, which were prompted by Fouche, were 
 reported by him and the rest of the police, who gave an 
 exact account of all that took place ; and the Emperor be- 
 lieved that the public were far more occupied with this sub- 
 ject than they really were. 
 
 On his return from Fontainebleau, Fouche told the Em- 
 peror that there was great excitement in Paris, and that the 
 populace might possibly assemble under his windows and 
 ask him to contract another marriage. The Emperor was at 
 first taken with this idea, from which M. de Talleyrand 
 adroitly contrived to turn him aside. Not that the latter 
 had really any repugnance to the divorce, but he wanted it 
 to be effected in his own way, at his own time, and with 
 great utility and dignity. He was quick to perceive that the 
 zeal of Fouche tended to deprive him of the palm, and he 
 could not endure that any other scheme should take the place 
 of his on his own ground. 
 
 France had formed a close alliance with Russia, but M. 
 de Talleyrand, who was very able in the use he made of his 
 knowledge of the actual state of Europe, thought it necessary 
 to keep a close watch on Austria, and had already come to 
 the conclusion that another tie between us and that Power 
 would be the most useful move for us. Besides, he knew 
 that the Empress-Mother of Russia did not share the Czar's 
 admiration for Napoleon, -and that she would refuse to give 
 us one of her daughters for an Empress. Again, it was pos- 
 sible that a hurried divorce might not be quickly followed 
 by a marriage, and the Emperor would in that case be placed 
 in a disagreeable position. The contest which might break 
 
PROJECTS OF DIVOKCE. 597 
 
 out at any moment in Spain would rouse the attention of 
 Europe, and it was not a moment to engage ourselves in two 
 enterprises, both of which would demand grave deliberation. 
 
 These were, no doubt, the considerations which led M. de 
 Talleyrand to thwart Fouche, and to espouse the interests of 
 Mme. Bonaparte for the time being. Neither she nor I was 
 clever enough to see through his motives at the time, and it 
 was not until afterward that I became aware of them. M. 
 de Remusat had not so much confidence in M. de Talley- 
 rand's apparent acquiescence in what we desired, but he was 
 of opinion that we might turn it to account ; so that, with 
 various intentions, we were all pursuing the same course. 
 
 While the Emperor was in Paris, in the short interval 
 between his journey to Italy and his journey to Bayonne, 
 while Fouche was constantly plying him with what he stated 
 to be popular opinions, M. de Talleyrand seized an opportu- 
 nity of showing him that in this instance the Minister of 
 Police was misleading him.* " Fouche," he said to the Em- 
 peror, " is, and always will be, a revolutionist. Look well 
 to it, and you will see that he would lead you, by factious 
 means, to an act that should only be accomplished with the 
 parade and pomp befitting a monarch. He wishes that a 
 mob, collected by his orders, should come and vociferously 
 demand of you an heir, just as they forced concessions from 
 Louis XVI., who was never able to refuse them. When you 
 have accustomed the people to meddle with your affairs after 
 this fashion, how do you know that it will not occur to them 
 to do so again, and how can you tell what they may subse- 
 quently demand of you? And, after all, no one will be 
 duped by these gatherings, while you will be accused of hav- 
 ing got them up." The Emperor was impressed by these 
 observations, and imposed silence upon Fouche. 
 
 * The Emperor left Fontainebleau on the 16th of December, 1807, and ar- 
 rived at Milan on the 21st of the same month. He returned to Paris from Italy 
 on the 1st of January, and left again for Bayonne on the 2d of April, 1808. 
 P. R. 
 
598 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 From that moment the question of the divorce was no 
 longer discussed in the cafes, and the " national wish " re- 
 mained unexpressed. The effect on the Emperor of this si- 
 lence was favorable to his wife, and she felt somewhat reas- 
 sured. He continued, however, to show great agitation at 
 times, and their intercourse was constrained and often inter- 
 rupted by long fits of silence ; after which he would return 
 to the subject, dwelling upon the disadvantage of not having 
 a direct posterity on which to found his dynasty, and saying 
 that he did not know what to do. He suffered much from 
 conflicting feelings at this time. 
 
 He was particularly confidential with M. de Talleyrand, 
 who repeated to me a portion of their conversations. " In 
 separating myself from my wife," Bonaparte said, "I re- 
 nounce all the charm which her presence gives to my home- 
 life. I should have to study the tastes and habits of a 
 young wife. This one accommodates herself to everything ; 
 she understands me perfectly, and I should be making 
 her an ungrateful return for all she has done for me. The 
 people care little for me as it is, and then it would be much 
 worse. She is a link between me and them, and especially 
 between me and a certain party in Paris, which I should 
 have to give up." After regrets of this kind, he would 
 dwell upon the reasons which made it a state question ; and 
 M. de Talleyrand told my husband it was his conviction that 
 this creditable hesitation would one day give way before 
 political considerations that the divorce might be delayed, 
 but that it was vain to hope that it could be ultimately 
 avoided. He concluded by saying that we might rely upon 
 it he had no influence in the matter, and that the Empress 
 would do well to adhere to the course which she had 
 adopted. 
 
 M. de Eemusat and I agreed that we would say nothing 
 to the Empress about the first part of this statement, which 
 would have so much increased her apprehensions as perhaps 
 to betray her into some false step ; and we saw no use in 
 
PROJECTS OF DIVORCE. 599 
 
 inspiring her with distrust of M. de Talleyrand, who had at 
 that time no interest in injuring her, but who might have 
 had such an interest had she allowed an imprudent word to 
 escape her. For my part, I resolved to await the future 
 without trying to foresee it, and to be guided by the pru- 
 dence and dignity which should always distinguish those 
 who hold a prominent position, and who are surrounded 
 by a hundred eyes that watch, and a hundred mouths 
 ready to repeat all they say. It was at this period that the 
 Emperor said to M. de Talleyrand, "The Empress is well 
 advised." 
 
 Shortly before his departure for Bayonne, another expla- 
 nation on the subject of the divorce took place. This was 
 the last at this time, and it showed that the Emperor, willful 
 as he was, was yet capricious in his moods, and that he was 
 sometimes carried away by genuine feeling. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand, coming out of the Emperor's cabinet 
 one morning, met M. de Remusat, and said to him, as they 
 walked toward his carriage : " I think your wife will have to 
 meet the trial that she fears sooner than she anticipates. The 
 Emperor is again most eager on the subject of a divorce ; he 
 has spoken to me of it as of a thing almost decided upon, 
 and we shall all do well to take it as such, and not vainly 
 oppose it." My husband repeated these words to me ; they 
 caused me great pain. There was to be a reception at Court 
 that evening. I had just lost my mother, and did not go 
 into society.* M. de Remusat returned to the palace to 
 
 * At the beginning of the year 1808 Mme. de Vergennes, who had been ill 
 and suffering for a long time, became much worse. She was afflicted with pains 
 which she called rheumatic, and she died on the 17th of January, 1808, of gan- 
 grene of the throat. 
 
 This was a terrible sorrow to her daughter, and made a great change in the 
 lives of all her children. My father always preserved a lively recollection of 
 this clever and witty woman, although at the time of her death he was only 
 eleven years old. Mme. de Vergennes's position in society was sufficiently im- 
 portant to induce M. Suard to write an article about her in " La Publicists" 
 This kind of public eulogy was then much less usual than it is now. P. R. 
 
600 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 superintend the play that was to be performed. The apart- 
 ments were crowded. Princes, ambassadors, and courtiers 
 were all assembled, and at length the order was given to be- 
 gin the play, without waiting for their Majesties, who would 
 not appear. The fete went off badly, and the guests dis- 
 persed as soon as they could. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand and M. de Kemusat, before leaving the 
 palace, went to the private apartments of the Emperor, 
 where they were told that he had retired with his wife at 
 eight o'clock, that he had ordered the door to be closed, and 
 that he should not be disturbed until the next day. M. de 
 Talleyrand went away in dudgeon. "What a devil of a 
 man ! " said he. " How he yields to sudden impulses, as if 
 he did not really know what he wanted ! "Why can he not 
 come to some decision, and cease making us the puppets 
 of his moods, not knowing what attitude we are to assume 
 toward him ? " 
 
 The Empress received my husband the next day, and 
 told him that at six o'clock she had joined the Emperor at 
 dinner ; that he was then sad and silent ; that afterward she 
 had left him to dress for the evening, and while she was 
 preparing for the reception an attendant came to fetch her, 
 saying that the Emperor was ill. She found him suffering 
 from severe spasms, and in a highly nervous state. On 
 seeing her, he burst into tears, and, drawing her toward the 
 bed on which he had thrown himself, without taking heed 
 of her elegant attire, he folded her in his arms, repeating 
 again and again, " My poor Josephine, I can not leave you." 
 She added that his state inspired her with more compassion 
 than tenderness, and that she kept saying to him time after 
 time : " Sire, be calm ; make up your mind what you really 
 want to do, and let us have an end of these scenes." Her 
 words seemed only to add to his excitement, which became 
 so excessive that she advised him to give up the idea of 
 appearing in public, and to go to bed. He consented to this, 
 but only on condition that she would remain with him; and 
 
PROJECTS OF DIVORCE. 601 
 
 she was obliged at once to undress and to share that bed, 
 which, she said, he literally bathed with his tears, repeating 
 constantly, " They harass me, they torment me, they make 
 me miserable ! " and the night was thus passed in alternate 
 fits of tenderness and intervals of agitated sleep. After 
 this evening he gained command over himself, and never 
 again gave way to such vehement emotion. 
 
 The Empress alternated between hope and fear. She 
 placed no reliance on these pathetic scenes, and declared that 
 Bonaparte passed too quickly from tender protestations to 
 quarreling with her about flirtations of which he accused her, 
 or to other subjects of complaint ; that he wanted to break 
 down her resistance, to make her ill, or perhaps even worse 
 for, as I have already said, her imagination pictured every 
 extreme. Sometimes she would say that he was trying to 
 disgust her with him by incessantly tormenting her. It is 
 true that, either intentionally or because of his own agita- 
 tion, he kept her in a constant state of unrest, which affected 
 her health. 
 
 Fouche talked openly of the divorce, to the Empress, to 
 me, and to every one, saying that he might be dismissed, but 
 that he should not be prevented from offering good advice. 
 M. de Talleyrand listened to him in disdainful silence, and 
 consented to being considered by the public to be opposed 
 to the divorce. Bonaparte saw through all this, without 
 blaming the conduct of the one or the other, or, indeed, 
 that of any one.* 
 
 The Court observed even stricter silence than usual, for 
 
 * The Emperor, however, continued, when he thought it useful, to scold 
 Fouche about his indiscretions. He wrote to him from Venice on the 13th of 
 November, 1807: "I have already made known to you my opinion on the folly 
 of the measures which you have taken at Fontainebleau with reference to my 
 private affairs. After reading your bulletin of the 19th, and being well informed 
 of the opinions which you openly declare in Paris, I can but repeat to you that 
 your duty is to be guided by my will, and not by your own caprice. By behaving 
 otherwise, you lead the public astray, and you go off the track which should be 
 followed by every man of honor." 
 
602 MEMOIES OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 there was no positive indication as to which of these great 
 personages it would be prudent to side with. 
 
 In the midst of these troubles the tragic event in Spain 
 took place, and the divorce question was for a time laid 
 aside. 
 
CHAPTER XXYIH. 
 
 (1807-1808.) 
 
 Return from Fontainebleau The Emperor's Journey in Italy The Youth of M. de 
 Talleyrand Fetes at the Tuileries The Emperor and the Artists The Em- 
 peror's Opinion of the English Government The Marriage of Mile, de Tascher 
 Count Eomanzoff Marriage of Marshal Berthier The University Afiairs of 
 Spain. 
 
 AT or about this time M. Mole was nominated Prefect of 
 the Cote-d'Or. The Emperor, who had remarked his abili- 
 ties on many occasions, had to a certain extent adopted him, 
 and in his own mind decided on his promotion. He was 
 more and more pleased by his conversations with him, in 
 which he brought out all that was most remarkable in Mole's 
 mind, and Bonaparte knew how to attract the sympathies of 
 youth. M. Mole showed some dislike to the idea of leaving 
 Paris, where he was pleasantly settled with his family. " We 
 must not hurt people's feelings," the Emperor said to him, 
 " by sudden promotions. Besides, some experience in the 
 affairs of administration will be very useful to you. I will 
 only keep you one year at Dijon, and then you shall return, 
 and you will have reason to be pleased with me." He kept 
 his word to M. Mole. 
 
 The sojourn of the Court at Fontainebleau came to an 
 end toward the middle of November, at which there was 
 general satisfaction ; for every one was tired of the fetes, and 
 the restraint which they occasioned. Most of the foreign 
 princes returned to their homes, dazzled by our magnificence, 
 which had been " administered," if I may be permitted the 
 
604 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 expression, with the most perfect order ; for the Emperor 
 would not have allowed any other system in the management 
 of his private affairs. He was very much pleased when M. 
 de Kemusat asked of him only 150,000 francs for the ex- 
 penses incurred for the fetes and plays; and certainly, if 
 this sum be considered relatively to the results produced, it 
 is evident that minute attention must have been paid to 
 every detail of the expenditure. The Emperor, who wished 
 to be informed of all these details, referred on this occasion 
 to the sum that it formerly cost the Court of France to make 
 such journeys, and he drew the comparison with a compla- 
 cency justified by the facts. The household was strictly 
 administered by the Grand Marshal, and the accounts were 
 kept and paid with the utmost regularity. 
 
 Duroc acquitted himself remarkably well of this charge, 
 but with a harshness of manner which was doubtless inspired 
 by his master's severity. When the Emperor scolded, the 
 consequences were felt by every servant in the palace, in the 
 rude treatment to which they were subjected. Discipline 
 was strict, and punishments were severe ; vigilance was never 
 relaxed, so that each one was always to be found at his post, 
 and everything was done with silent regularity. Every abuse 
 was guarded against, and all wages were paid punctually and 
 in advance. In the offices, and in the kitchens, a plate of 
 soup or a glass of eau sucree was not given out without the 
 authorization of the Marshal, who was invariably informed 
 of all that happened in the palace. His discretion never 
 failed, and he repeated whatever occurred to the Emperor 
 only. 
 
 The Emperor left Fontainebleau to make a short tour in 
 Italy. He wished to visit Milan again, to show himself in 
 Yenice, and to communicate with his brother Joseph ; and I 
 believe he wished to arrive, above all, at a decision with 
 regard to the kingdom of Italy a decision by which he 
 hoped to reassure Europe. He also intended to signify to 
 the Queen of Etruria, daughter of the King of Spain, that 
 
A SHORT TOUR IN ITALY. 605 
 
 she must quit her kingdom. As lie was secretly preparing 
 to invade Spain, lie admitted that the idea of the union of 
 the crowns of France and Italy had alarmed Europe. In 
 naming Eugene as successor to the throne of Italy, he wished 
 it to be understood that this union was not to last for ever, 
 and believed that the concession which did not dispossess 
 him would be received, and the power of his successor be 
 thus limited. 
 
 Murat, who had every interest in keeping up daily com- 
 munication with his brother-in-law, obtained permission to 
 accompany him in this little tour, to the great annoyance of 
 M. de Talleyrand, who foresaw that advantage would be 
 taken of his absence to frustrate his plans. 
 
 The Emperor left Fontainebleau on the 10th of Novem- 
 ber, and the Empress returned to Paris. The Prince Pri- 
 mate remained there some time longer, as well as the Princes 
 of Mecklenburg. They came to the Tuileries every evening, 
 where they played or conversed, and listened to the music. 
 
 The Empress talked more with the Prince of MeckLen- 
 burg-Schwerin than with the others: this was remarked 
 upon, as I have mentioned before. Most people laughed, 
 and attached so little importance to it as even to joke with 
 the Empress herself about it. Others viewed the subject 
 more seriously, and wrote to the Emperor ; and on his return 
 he rebuked her severely. Although accustomed to gratify 
 all his own fancies, he was very severe on those of others. 
 
 During this journey, a vaudeville was represented at one 
 of the small theatres with such success that every one wished 
 to see it, Mme. Bonaparte as well as others. She requested 
 M. de Remusat to get her a box, and in a simple dress, and 
 in a carriage without arms, she went privately to the theatre, 
 accompanied by some ladies and the two Princes of Mecklen- 
 burg. This was immediately reported at Milan, and the 
 Emperor wrote a furious letter to his wife, and on his return 
 reproached her for a want of dignity. I even remember 
 that, in his annoyance, he reminded her that the last Queen 
 
606 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K&MUSAT. 
 
 of France had done herself the greatest harm by forgetting 
 what was due to her rank, and indulging in frivolities of a 
 similar kind. 
 
 During his absence the Imperial Guard made a triumphal 
 entry into Paris. The Prefect received them with a speech, 
 and many fetes were given in their honor. 
 
 As I have said elsewhere, the Sisters of Charity were re- 
 established. They assembled, by order of the Minister of 
 the Interior, in the apartments of Mme. Mere, where he dis- 
 tributed medals to them. "-The Emperor wished his mother 
 to be at the head of every charitable institution, but there 
 was nothing in her manner to make her popular, and she 
 acquitted herself of the task imposed on her without ability 
 or taste. 
 
 The Emperor appeared to be satisfied with the adminis- 
 tration of affairs in Italy, and traveled from one end of the 
 country to the other. He went to Yenice, where he was 
 joined by his brother Joseph, and by the King and Queen of 
 Bavaria. Mme. Bacciochi went to solicit an extension of her 
 estates. 
 
 During this time Russia broke completely with England. 
 A part of our army, still in the north of Germany, held the 
 King of Sweden in check. Bernadotte was at Hamburg in 
 communication with the malcontent Swedes, and he acquired 
 a personal reputation which he carefully maintained. He 
 expended large sums in bribes. It is not likely that he could 
 have had an idea at that time of what was afterward to hap- 
 pen ; but his ambition, as yet vague, led him to turn every 
 happy chance that befell him to account, and at that period 
 one might, in certain situations, undertake everything and 
 hope for anything. 
 
 The Prince of Brazil left Lisbon on the 29th of Novem- 
 ber, and General Junot entered that city a few days after- 
 ward with our army, declaring, according to custom, that we 
 came to free the Portuguese from the yoke of the English. 
 
 Toward the end of the month the Emperor, having as- 
 
MELANCHOLY DUTIES. 607 
 
 sembled the Corps Legislatif at Milan, declared that he 
 solemnly adopted Eugene, who became heir to the crown of 
 Italy should the Emperor have no male issue. At the same 
 time he endowed him with the title of Prince of Venice, 
 and he created the little princess, who was just born, Prin- 
 cess of Bologna. He then returned to Paris, where he 
 arrived on the 1st of January, 1808. 
 
 I was engrossed just then by melancholy duties. On my 
 return from Fontainebleau, I had found my mother ill. She 
 continued for some time in a languid state without actually 
 causing me anxiety. Notwithstanding her illness, she evinced 
 great satisfaction at the improvement that had taken place 
 in our position, and I began during the first days of her ill- 
 ness to put our establishment on the footing which the Em- 
 peror desired. Toward the end of December my mother's 
 state became so alarming, that we thought of nothing but 
 the care she needed, and our house was closed to visitors. 
 Three weeks afterward we had the misfortune to lose her, 
 and one of the most tender ties of my life, one of its dear- 
 est enjoyments, was lost to me for ever. My mother was in 
 every way a remarkable person. She was possessed of great 
 talent and judgment, which were much appreciated in socie- 
 ty. She was useful and agreeable to us at every moment of 
 the day. She was universally regretted, and her loss over- 
 whelmed us with grief. My husband wept for her like a 
 son ; we were pitied even at Court, because even there her 
 worth was appreciated. The Emperor expressed himself 
 kindly on hearing of our calamity, and spoke of it in suit- 
 able terms to M. de Remusat when he saw him ; but, as I 
 have already said, the life of retirement, into* which good 
 taste, as well as my sorrow, caused us to withdraw, was op- 
 posed to his views, and two or three months afterward he 
 deprived us of that increase to our income which he had' 
 granted us that we might entertain in good style, on the pre- 
 text that it was now useless to us. Thus we were left en- 
 cumbered with debts which he had obliged us to contract. 
 44 
 
608 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R$MUSAT. 
 
 1 passed that winter very sorrowfully. I wept bitterly 
 for my mother ; I was separated from my eldest son, whom 
 we had placed at college, so that he might cultivate those 
 talents for which he has since been remarkable, and which 
 were even then noticeable ; my health was bad, and my 
 spirits were depressed. My society could not have been very 
 amusing to M. de Talleyrand, yet he did not forsake me in 
 my sadness. He was, on the contrary, one of the most as- 
 siduous and attentive of our visitors. He had known my 
 mother formerly, and he liked to speak of her, and to listen 
 to all my recollections of her. In the depth of my sorrow 
 I lost all my little ambition to appear clever, and I did not 
 endeavor to check my tears in his presence. 
 
 When alone with my husband and me, he showed no im- 
 patience with my grief nor with the tenderness of M. de 
 Kemusat's efforts to console me. It seems to me now, on 
 thinking of it, that he observed us with curiosity. His own 
 life had been devoid of natural affections, and ours was a 
 novel spectacle to him, which touched him not a little. He 
 then learned for the first time what mutual love, united with 
 moral principle, can do to give comfort and courage amid the 
 trials of life. That which he witnessed in my house ap- 
 peared to rest him after what passed elsewhere, and colored 
 even his recollections, for more than once at this time he 
 spoke to me of himself with regret, and, I might almost say, 
 with disgust. "We responded to his affection with gratitude 
 which sprang from our hearts. He came to see us more and 
 more frequently, and he remained a long time at each visit. 
 We no longer jested at or ridiculed others. Restored to my 
 better self, I let him see to the depths of a sensitive nature, 
 which domestic happiness had rendered sympathetic. In my 
 sorrow and deep melancholy, and in my ignorance of all that 
 was taking place outside, I led him into regions until then 
 unknown to him ; their discovery seemed to give him plea- 
 sure, and by degrees I might say what I chose to him. He 
 even allowed me to censure and judge him severely, which I 
 
THE YOUTH OF M. DE TALLEYRAND. 609 
 
 occasionally did. He never grew angry at my sincerity ; and 
 from this time there existed between us a friendship very 
 precious to both. When I succeeded in awakening any emo- 
 tion in him, I was as much elated as if I had gained a vic- 
 tory ; and he was grateful to me for having stirred his soul, 
 which had fallen asleep from habit or through indifference. 
 
 On one occasion, when, impatient at his inconsistency, I 
 went so far as to say, " Good heavens ! what a pity it is that 
 you have taken such pains to spoil yourself, for I can not 
 help believing that the real you is better than you are," he 
 smiled and said : " Our entire life is influenced by the manner 
 in which we pass the early years of it ; and, were I to tell 
 you how my youth was spent, you would cease to wonder at 
 many things that now astonish you." 
 
 Then he told me that, being lame and the eldest of his 
 family, and having by this accident disappointed the hopes 
 and prevented the fulfillment of that custom which before 
 the Revolution destined the eldest son of every noble family 
 to a military career, he had been discarded from his home, 
 and sent to live with an old aunt in one of the provinces. 
 Without returning to his parents' roof, he had then been 
 placed in a seminary, and it was intimated to him that he 
 was to become an ecclesiastic a profession for which he had 
 not the slightest taste. During the years which he passed at 
 Saint Sulpice, he was almost always obliged to stay in his 
 room and alone, his infirmity rarely permitting him to remain 
 long standing, or to take part in the active amusements of 
 the young. He then fell into a deep melancholy, formed a 
 low opinion of social life, and revolted against the priestly 
 state, to which he had been condemned in spite of himself. 
 He held that he was not bound scrupulously to observe the 
 duties that had been imposed upon him without his consent. 
 He added that he felt a profound disgust to the world, and 
 anger at its prejudices, and that he only avoided falling into 
 despair by encouraging in himself complete indifference to- 
 ward all men and all things. When at length he returned 
 
610 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 to his parents, lie was received by them with the greatest 
 coldness, and as if he were displeasing in their sight, and he 
 never had a word* of consolation or kindness addressed to 
 him.* 
 
 "You see," he would say to me, "that I must either 
 have died of grief, or become callous to all that must ever 
 be wanting in my life. I chose the latter alternative, and I 
 am now willing to admit to you that I was wrong. It would 
 have been better to have resigned myself to suffer, and to 
 have kept alive the faculty of feeling with acuteness ; for 
 this cold-heartedness, with which you reproach me, has often 
 disgusted me with myself. I have not loved others enough, 
 but I have loved myself no better. I have never taken suffi- 
 cient interest in myself. 
 
 " On one occasion I was drawn out of this indifference 
 by my love for the Princess Charlotte de Montmorency. 
 She was much attached to me, and I rebelled more than 
 ever against the obstacle which prevented my marrying her. 
 
 " I made several efforts to get a dispensation from vows 
 that were odious to me. I think I should have succeeded 
 if the Revolution, which then broke out, had not prevented 
 the Pope from granting me what I wished. You will easily 
 
 * Among the anecdotes of the youth of M. de Talleyrand, I must not omit to 
 relate one which I heard from my father, who evidently heard it from his 
 mother. M. de Talleyrand was studying theology, when, coming out of the 
 church of Saint Sulpice, where he had been listening to a sermon, he observed 
 on the steps a pretty young woman, elegantly dressed. It was raining, and she 
 seemed embarrassed. He offered her his arm and one of those little umbrellas, 
 the very reverse of ours, that were then beginning to be fashionable. She 
 accepted his offer, and he accompanied her home. She invited him to call on 
 her, and they became acquainted. The lady was Mile. Luzy, who was studying 
 to join the Com6die Fra^aise. She told him that she was inclined to piety, 
 that she had no taste for the stage, and that, against her will, she was obliged 
 by her parents to adopt that profession. "That is just my own case," he 
 answered. " I have no inclination for the seminary or the Church ; my parents 
 are forcing me into it." They sympathized with each other on this subject, and 
 this mutual confidence respecting their mistaken vocations created a tie between 
 them, such as is easily formed at twenty years of age. P. R. 
 
M. DE TALLEYRAND 8 NATURE. 611 
 
 understand that, in the disposition of my mind, I hailed that 
 Revolution with eagerness. It attacked the principles and 
 the customs of which I had been a victim ; it seemed to me 
 just what I wanted to break my chains, and so in every way 
 it was pleasing to me. I espoused it readily, and, since then, 
 events have disposed of me." 
 
 When M. de Talleyrand spoke to me in this manner, I 
 pitied him with my whole heart, because I fully understood 
 the sad influence which his unhappy youth had exercised 
 over all the rest of his life ; but I felt persuaded, too, that a 
 more vigorous character might have avoided falling into 
 such errors, and I frankly deplored to him that he should 
 have so stained his life. 
 
 A most fatal indifference to good and evil, right and 
 wrong, formed the basis of M. de Talleyrand's nature ; but 
 we must do him the justice to admit that he never sought to 
 make a principle of what was immoral. He is aware of the 
 worth of high principle in others ; he praises it, holds it in 
 esteem, and never seeks to corrupt it. It appears to me that 
 he even dwells on it with pleasure. He has not, like Bona- 
 parte, the fatal idea that virtue has no existence, and that the 
 appearance of it is only a trick or an affectation the more. I 
 have often heard him praise actions which were a severe 
 criticism on his own. His conversation is never immoral or 
 irreligious; he respects good priests, and applauds them; 
 there is in his heart both goodness and justice ; but he does 
 not apply to himself the rule by which he judges others. 
 He regards himself as a being apart ; all things are different 
 for him. He has long been llase on every point, and he 
 seeks for excitement as a fastidious palate seeks pungent 
 food. All serious reflections applied to moral or natural 
 sentiments are distasteful to him, because they lead him into 
 a train of thought which he fears, and from which he tries 
 to escape by a jest or a sarcasm. A combination of circum- 
 stances has surrounded him with persons of light or depraved 
 character, who have encouraged him in a thousand follies. 
 
612 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE K&MUSAT. 
 
 These people are congenial to him, because they draw him 
 away from his own thoughts; but they can not save him 
 from profound weariness, and from that he seeks refuge in 
 great affairs. These affairs do not fatigue him, because he 
 rarely enters into them completely ; indeed, he seldom enters 
 heart and soul into anything. His intellect is lofty, and 
 often just ; he perceives correctly ; but he has a certain care- 
 lessness and desultoriness about him, which make him disap- 
 point one's hopes. He pleases much, but satisfies never, and 
 at last inspires one with a sort of pity, which leads, if one 
 sees much of him, to real affection. 
 
 I believe that our intimacy did him good while it lasted. 
 I succeeded in rousing in him feelings that had long slum- 
 bered, and in awakening him to more elevated thoughts ; I 
 interested him in many subjects that were new to him, or 
 which he had forgotten. To me he owed many fresh sym- 
 pathies ; he owned this, and was grateful for it. He often 
 sought my society, and I appreciated his doing so, because I 
 never flattered his weaknesses, but spoke to him in a style 
 that he had not been accustomed to. 
 
 He was at that time strongly opposed to the plots that 
 were being concocted against Spain. The truly diabolical 
 artifices employed by the Emperor, if they did not offend 
 his moral sense, were at least very displeasing to that good 
 taste which M. de Talleyrand displayed in political as well 
 as in social life. He foresaw the consequences, and prophe- 
 sied to me what they would be. " This ill-advised man," he 
 said, " will call his whole position in question again." He 
 was always anxious that war should be frankly declared 
 against the King of Spain, if he would not accede to what 
 was required of him ; that advantageous conditions should be 
 dictated to him ; that the Prince of the Peace (Godoy) should 
 be sent away, and an alliance by marriage effected with the 
 Infante Ferdinand. 
 
 But the Emperor conceived that additional security would 
 be guaranteed to him by the expulsion of the house of Bour- 
 
FtiTES AT THE TUILERIES. 613 
 
 bon, and was obstinate in his views, being once more the 
 dupe of the schemers by whom he was surrounded. Murat 
 and the Prince of the Peace flattered themselves with the hope 
 of gaining two thrones, but the Emperor had no notion of 
 giving them any such satisfaction. He deceived them, and 
 believed too easily in their readiness to facilitate his plans in 
 the hope of securing their own. Thus every one in this 
 affair overreached every one else, and was at the same time 
 deceived. 
 
 The winter passed brilliantly. The theatre in the Tuile- 
 ries was finished; on reception days theatrical representa- 
 tions were given, most frequently in Italian, and sometimes 
 in French. The Court attended in full dress, and tickets 
 for the upper galleries were distributed to the citizens. We, 
 too, formed a spectacle to them. Everybody was eager to 
 be present at these representations, where there was a great 
 display of splendor. 
 
 Full-dress and masked balls were given. These were 
 novelties to the Emperor, and he liked them. Some of his 
 Ministers, his sister, Murat, and the Prince de Neufchdtel, 
 received orders to invite a certain number of persons belong- 
 ing to the Court or to the city. The men wore dominoes, 
 the women elegant costumes, and the pleasure of being dis- 
 guised was almost the only one they enjoyed in these assem- 
 blies, where it was known that the Emperor was present, 
 and where the fear of meeting him made the guests silent 
 and circumspect. 
 
 He was closely masked, and yet easy to recognize by that 
 peculiar air and gait which he could not disguise, as he 
 walked through the rooms, generally leaning on the arm of 
 Duroc. He accosted the ladies freely, and was often very 
 unscrupulous in his remarks to them ; and, if he was an- 
 swered, and unable at once to recognize who it was that 
 spoke to him, he would pull off the speaker's mask, reveal- 
 ing himself by this rude act of power. He also took great 
 pleasure, under cover of his disguise, in seeking out certain 
 
614: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 husbands and tormenting them with anecdotes, true or false, 
 of their wives. If he learned afterward that these revelations 
 had been followed by unpleasant consequences, he became 
 very angry ; for he would not permit the displeasure which 
 he had himself excited to be independent of him. It must 
 be said, because it is the truth, that there is in Bonaparte a 
 natural badness, which makes him like to do evil in small as 
 well as in great things. 
 
 In the midst of all these amusements he worked hard, 
 and was much occupied by his personal strife with the Eng- 
 lish Government. He devised various methods for sustain- 
 ing his continental policy. He flattered himself that, by 
 articles in the newspapers, he could subdue the discontent 
 caused by the increase in the price of sugar and coffee, and 
 the scarcity of English merchandise. He encouraged every 
 new invention, and believed that the sugar extracted from 
 beet-root and other things would enable us to dispense with 
 the help of foreigners in certain productions, such as the 
 making of colors. He caused the Minister of the Interior to 
 address a public report to him, stating that he had obtained, 
 through the Prefects, letters from the Chambers of Com- 
 merce in approbation of the system, which, although it 
 might involve some temporary privations, must ultimately 
 secure the freedom of the seas. 
 
 The English were molested everywhere. They were 
 made prisoners at Yerdun ; their property was confiscated in 
 Portugal ; Prussia was forced into a league against them ; 
 and the King of Sweden was menaced because he obstinately 
 persisted in maintaining his alliance with them. 
 
 The cord was thus tightened at both ends and stretched 
 to its utmost. It became impossible not to see that only the 
 ruin of one or the other of the contending parties could ter- 
 minate the quarrel, and wise people became profoundly anx- 
 ious. As, however, we were always being deceived, we re- 
 garded the journals with constant distrust. We read them, 
 indeed, but without believing what they stated. 
 
THE EMPEROR'S RESPECT FOR ARTISTS. 615 
 
 The Emperor exhausted himself in writing, but he did 
 not convince us. He became deeply incensed at this want 
 of confidence, and each day his aversion to the Parisians in- 
 creased. It hurt his vanity to find that he was not believed, 
 and the exercise of his power was incomplete when its influ- 
 ence could not be extended to the very thoughts of the people. 
 In order to please him, one had to be credulous. " You like 
 Berthier," said M. de Talleyrand to Bonaparte, " because he 
 believes in you." 
 
 Occasionally, as a change from political articles, the 
 newspapers would relate the daily words and actions of the 
 Emperor. For example, we were told how he had gone to 
 see the picture of his coronation painted by David, and had 
 much admired it, and how he had surprised the painter by 
 his acute observations ; also, that when he was leaving the 
 studio he had taken off his hat and saluted David, in, proof 
 of " the sentiments of benevolence which he bestowed on all 
 artists" 
 
 This reminds me that he once found fault with M. de 
 Lucay, one of the Prefects of the Palace, who had the super- 
 intendence of the Opera, with being too distant in his man- 
 ner to the actors who went to him on business. " Are you 
 aware," he said, " that talent of any kind is positive power, 
 and that even I take off my hat when I receive Talma ? " 
 There was, no doubt, some exaggeration in this statement ; 
 but it is nevertheless true that he was very gracious to artists 
 of any distinction, that he encouraged them by his liberality 
 and his praise; provided, however, that they were always 
 willing to dedicate their art to his praises, or to the further- 
 ance of his projects ; for any great reputation acquired with- 
 out his concurrence seemed to offend him, and he had no 
 sympathy with glory that he had not bestowed. He perse- 
 cuted Mme. de Stael because she overstepped the line he 
 had laid down for her, and he neglected the Abbe Delille, 
 who lived in retirement far from him. 
 
 At this period two distinguished artists, Esmenard and 
 
616 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 Spontini, produced the opera entitled " La Yestale," which 
 had an immense success. The Emperor I know not for 
 what reason was determined to prefer the French music of 
 Lesueur, the author of " Les Bardes," and was greatly dis- 
 pleased with the Parisians for not thinking as he did in the 
 matter. He thenceforth cherished a prejudice against all 
 Italian music, and the influence of this was felt when the 
 distribution of the decennial prizes took place. 
 
 On the 21st of January, 1808, the assembled Senate 
 granted a levy of eighty thousand men on the conscription 
 of 1809. Kegnault, the Councilor of State, who was, as 
 usual, the speaker on the occasion, argued that even as the 
 preceding levies had served to secure the continental peace, 
 so this one would at length obtain for us the freedom of the 
 seas; and no one opposed this reasoning. We knew that 
 Senator Languenais and some others occasionally tried, dur- 
 ing the Emperor's reign, to make certain representations to 
 the Senate on the subject of these severe and numerous 
 levies ; but their observations dispersed themselves in the 
 air of the senatorial palace, and effected no change in deci- 
 sions which had been arrived at beforehand. The Senate 
 was timid and submissive ; it inspired no confidence in the 
 national mind, and had even come by degrees to be regarded 
 with a sort of contempt. Men are severe toward their fel- 
 lows ; they do not pardon each other's weaknesses, and they 
 applaud virtues of which they themselves are seldom ca- 
 pable. In short, whatever tyranny may be exercised, public 
 opinion is more or less avenged, because it is invariably 
 heard. No despot is ignorant of the feelings which he in- 
 spires and the condemnation which he excites. Bonaparte 
 knew perfectly well how he stood in the estimation of the 
 French nation, for good or evil, but he imagined that he 
 could override everything. 
 
 In the report made to him by his Minister of War, Gen- 
 eral Clarke, on the occasion of the fresh levies, we find 
 these words : " A vulgar policy would be a calamity for 
 
TEE EMPERORS OPINION OF ENGLAND. 617 
 
 France ; it would hinder those great results which you have 
 prepared." No one was duped by this formula. The ques- 
 tion in the comedy, " Qui est ce done qiCon trompe id f " 
 was appropriate to the occasion ; but everybody kept silence, 
 and that was enough for Napoleon. Shortly after, the towns 
 of Kehl, Cassel, Wesel, and Flushing were united to the 
 Empire, being regarded as keys which it was necessary we 
 should hold in our hands. At Antwerp great works were 
 carried on, and all was stir and activity. 
 
 When the English Parliament opened, the Emperor evi- 
 dently hoped for a disagreement between the English Gov- 
 ernment and the nation. There was a great deal of sharp 
 dissension, and the Opposition declaimed in its usual style. 
 The Emperor helped it with all his might. The tone of the 
 notes in the " Moniteur " was very violent ; certain English 
 journalists were subsidized, and there is no doubt Bonaparte 
 flattered himself that he would be able to bring about a 
 revolt. But the English Ministry was pursuing a course 
 which, though difficult, was honorable to the country, and it 
 had a majority at every vote. The Emperor was incensed, 
 and declared that he " could not understand that form of 
 liberal government in which the voice of the popular party 
 never had any weight." Sometimes he would say, with a 
 sort of paradoxical audacity : " In reality, there is more lib- 
 erty in France than in England, because nothing can be 
 worse for a nation than the power of expressing its will 
 without being listened to. "When all is said, that is the 
 merest farce, a vain semblance of liberty. As for me, it is 
 not the case that the true state of France is kept from me. 
 I know everything, for I have exact reports, and I would 
 not be so mad as to venture on doing anything in direct op- 
 position to French interests or to the French character. In- 
 telligence of all kinds comes to me as to a common center, 
 and I act in accordance with it ; whereas our neighbors 
 never depart from their national system, maintaining the 
 oligarchy at any price ; and in this age men are more ready 
 
618 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 to accept the authority of one able and absolute man than 
 the humiliating power of an effete nobility." 
 
 When Bonaparte talked thus, it was hard to know whether 
 he was trying to deceive others or to deceive himself. Was 
 it that his imagination, which was naturally lively, exerted 
 its influence over his intellect, which was generally mathe- 
 matical ? Did the lassitude and inaction of the nation de- 
 ceive him ? Was he trying to persuade himself that what 
 he desired was the case \ We have often thought that he 
 forced himself to do this, and that he sometimes succeeded. 
 
 Besides, as I have already said, Bonaparte always believed 
 that he was acting in conformity with the spirit of the Revo- 
 lution, by attacking what he called oligarchs. At every turn 
 he would insist upon equality, which in his mouth meant 
 leveling. Leveling is to equality exactly what despotism is 
 to liberty ; for it crushes those faculties and neutralizes those 
 situations to which equality opens a career. The aristocracy 
 of classes levels, in fact, all that exists outside those privi- 
 leged classes, by reducing strength to the condition of weak- 
 ness, and merit to the condition of mediocrity. True equal- 
 ity, on the contrary, by permitting each to be that which he 
 is, and to rise as high as he can, utilizes every faculty and 
 all legitimate influence. It also forms an aristocracy, not of 
 class, but of individuals an aristocracy which draws into it 
 all who deserve to form a portion of it. 
 
 The Emperor felt this distinction, and, notwithstanding 
 his nobles, his decorations, his senatorships, and all his fine 
 talk, his system tended solely to base his absolute power 
 upon a vast democracy, also of the leveling order, with 
 political rights which, although they had the appearance of 
 being accorded to all, were in reality within the reach of 
 none. 
 
 Toward the beginning of February the marriage of Mile, 
 de Tascher, Mme. Bonaparte's cousin, was solemnized. She 
 was raised to the rank of Princess, and her husband's rela- 
 tives were in the greatest delight, and remarkably obsequious 
 
COUNT ROMANZOFF. 619 
 
 on the occasion. They flattered themselves that they would 
 be exalted to a great position ; but the divorce undeceived 
 the D'Arenberg family, and they quarreled with the young 
 Princess, who had not brought them quite so much as they 
 expected. 
 
 At this time Count Komanzoff, the Eussian Minister of 
 Foreign Affairs, arrived in Paris. He was a man of knowl- 
 edge and of sense, and he came there full of admiration for 
 the Emperor, and affected by the genuine enthusiasm that 
 his own young sovereign felt for Napoleon. He was, however, 
 sufficiently master of himself to observe the Emperor with 
 close attention. He perceived the constraint of the Parisians, 
 who looked on at all the glory of the army without appropri- 
 ating it to themselves. He was struck with certain remark- 
 able disparities, and he formed a modified judgment which, 
 no doubt, had afterward some influence on the Czar. The 
 Emperor said to him on one occasion, " How do you consider 
 that I govern the French?" "Sire," he replied, "a little 
 too seriously." 
 
 Bonaparte, with the aid of a senatua consultum, created 
 a new " grand dignity of the Empire," under the title of 
 " Governor-General beyond the Alps " ; and he conferred this 
 dignity on Prince Borghese, who was sent to Turin with his 
 wife. The Prince was obliged to sell the finest statues in the 
 Yilla Borghese to the Emperor, and they were placed in our 
 Museum. This collection of all the masterpieces that Eu- 
 rope had possessed was superb. They were grouped in the 
 Louvre with the greatest care and elegance, and that was a 
 conquest of a kind which appealed eloquently to French 
 vanity and French taste. 
 
 Bonaparte had a report made to him, in a sitting of the 
 Council of State, upon the progress of science, letters, and 
 art since 1789, by a deputation, at the head of which was 
 M. de Bougainville. After the report had been read, he re- 
 plied in these terms : " I have heard you upon the progress 
 of the human mind in these latter days, in order that what 
 
MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 you say to me may be heard by all nations, and may silence 
 the detractors of our age, who are endeavoring to force the 
 human mind to retrograde, and who seem to aim at its ex- 
 tinction, I desired to know what remains for me to do for 
 the encouragement of your labors, in order to console myself 
 for being unable to contribute otherwise to their success. 
 The welfare of my people and the glory of my throne are 
 equally interested in the prosperity of the sciences. My 
 Minister of the Interior shall make me a report upon all 
 your demands ; you may confidently count upon my protec- 
 tion." Thus did the Emperor occupy himself with every- 
 thing at the same time, and thus ably did he associate all 
 that was illustrious with the eclat and the grandeur of his 
 reign. 
 
 I have already said that he was desirous of founding 
 families which should perpetuate the remembrance of the 
 dignities that he had accorded to those whom he favored. 
 He was greatly annoyed at the resistance he had met with from 
 M. de Caulaincourt, who had gone away to Kussia, declaring 
 
 very positively that, as he could not marry Mme. de , he 
 
 would never marry. 
 
 The Emperor did his best to overcome the opposition 
 which he also encountered from the man for whom he cared 
 most Marshal Berthier, Prince de Neufchdtel. Berthier 
 had been for many years deeply attached to an Italian lady, 
 who, although she was nearer fifty than forty, was still re- 
 markably beautiful. She exercised supreme influence over 
 him, even to the extent of making him pardon several acts 
 of levity which she did not hesitate to indulge in before his 
 eyes. These she represented in any colors which she chose, 
 and he forgave them. 
 
 Marshal Berthier, who was importuned on this point by 
 the Emperor, would often entreat his master to spare him 
 with respect to this cherished weakness, for the sake of his 
 fidelity ; and Bonaparte would laugh at him, get angry, re- 
 turn to the charge, but could never conquer his resistance. 
 
MARRIAGE OF MARSHAL BERTHIER. 621 
 
 This went on for years ; but at length, by dint of talking 
 and urgency, he carried his point, and Berthier, although he 
 shed bitter tears on the occasion, consented to marry a prin- 
 cess of the house of Bavaria.* The Princess Marie was 
 brought to Paris, and the marriage was solemnized in the 
 presence of the Emperor and Empress. Berthier's bride was 
 by no means handsome, or calculated to make her husband 
 forget the sentiments which he had cherished for so long ; 
 and, indeed, his passion for the Italian lady ended only with 
 his life. The Princess was an excellent person, but in no 
 way remarkable. She was liked at the French Court, and 
 she was always of the opinion that she had made a good 
 marriage. The Prince de Neuf chatel, who was largely en- 
 dowed with gifts by the Emperor, possessed an immense 
 revenue, and the household of three lived on the best possi- 
 ble terms. After the Restoration they lived in Paris. The 
 Marshal, who was ill with fever when Bonaparte returned 
 from Elba on the 20th of March, 1815, was so terrified by 
 that event that he lost his senses, and either threw himself 
 or fell out of a window, f and was killed. He left two sons. 
 The Princess remained in Paris, and the fair Italian keeps 
 up her former relations with her. J 
 
 At this time the Emperor showed more plainly than ever 
 what a monarchical turn his ideas were taking, by founding 
 the institution of the " Majorats." That institution was ap- 
 proved by many, blamed by others, envied by a certain class, 
 
 * The Princess Marie Elizabeth was a daughter of the Duke of Bavaria- 
 Birkenfeld. 
 
 f The King had made him captain of one of his companies of the body- 
 guard. Berthier had followed him to Ghent. 
 
 t The death of the Prince de Neufchatel is surrounded by tragic and myste- 
 rious circumstances. Some persons assert that he threw himself out of a win- 
 dow during an attack of fever ; others, that he was assassinated and thrown into 
 the street by a gang of masked men. He had been one of the first among the 
 Marshals to abandon the Emperor, and had recognized the new Government 
 even before the abdication at Fontainebleau. The Due de Rovigo accuses him 
 in his Memoirs of having formed a plot against the life of the Emperor. 
 
622 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 and readily adopted by many families, who welcomed this 
 opportunity of conferring importance on their eldest sons 
 and perpetuating their name. The Arch-Chancellor carried 
 the decree to the Senate, and represented in his speech that 
 hereditary distinctions were of the essence of monarchy, that 
 they kept alive what is in France called honor, and that our 
 national character should lead us to approve them. He then 
 proceeded to pacify the men of the Kevolution by adding 
 that all citizens would be none the less equal before the law, 
 and that distinctions impartially accorded to all who merited 
 them ought to stimulate the zeal of all without exciting the 
 jealousy of any. The Senate received all this with its ordi- 
 nary approbation, and - voted an address of thanks and admi- 
 ration to the Emperor. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand warmly praised this new institution. 
 He could not understand a monarchy without a nobility. A 
 council was created to superintend the administration of the 
 .laws by which the foundation of a Majorat was to be ob- 
 tained. M. de Pasquier, chief Master of Requests, was 
 named Procurator-General ; titles were granted to those who 
 held great offices in the state. This was at first ridiculed, 
 because certain names allied themselves oddly enough to the 
 title of Count or Baron ; but the public soon got accustomed 
 to it, and, as all hoped to arrive at some distinction, they tol- 
 erated and even approved the new system. 
 
 The Emperor was ingenious in his method of demonstrat- 
 ing to all parties how entirely they ought to approve of these 
 creations. " I am securing the Revolution," said he to one 
 party ; " this 'intermediate class which I am' founding is emi- 
 nently democratic, for everybody is called to it." " It will 
 support the throne," said he to the grands seigneurs. Then 
 he added, turning toward those who wanted a modified mon- 
 archy : " It will oppose itself to the encroachments of abso- 
 lute authority, because it will itself be a power in the state." 
 To genuine Jacobins he said, "You ought to rejoice, for 
 here is the old noblesse finally annihilated " ; and to that old 
 
THE UNIVERSITY. 623 
 
 noblesse he said, " By arraying yourselves in new dignities, 
 you resuscitate yourselves and perpetuate your ancient rights." 
 We listened to him ; we wished to believe him ; and, besides, 
 he did not give us much time to reflect he carried us away 
 in the whirlwind of contradictions of every kind. He even 
 imposed his benefits by force when it was necessary ; and 
 this was an adroitness the more, for there were people who 
 wanted to be forced to accept. 
 
 Another institution which seemed really grand and im- 
 posing succeeded this one. I allude to the University. Pub- 
 lic instruction was concentrated in a clear and comprehen- 
 sive system, and it was admitted that the decree was very 
 nobly conceived. 
 
 intimately, however, that which happened to everything 
 else happened to the University ; Bonaparte's own despotic 
 disposition took fright at the powers which he had accorded, 
 because they might possibly become obstacles to certain of 
 his desires. The Minister of the Interior, the Prefect, the 
 general administration that is to say, the absolute system 
 mixed itself up with the operations which the University 
 corps were attempting, contradicted them, and overruled 
 them when they indicated the very least traces of inde- 
 pendence. In this respect also we present the spectacle 
 rather of a fine facade than of a solid building. 
 
 M. de Fontanes was nominated Grand Master of the Uni- 
 versity. This choice, which was also generally approved, suit- 
 ed the purpose of the master, who was so jealous of preserv- 
 ing his daily and hourly authority over men and things. M. 
 de Fontanes, whose noble intellect and reputation for perfect 
 taste had procured him a very distinguished position, injured 
 these qualities by carelessness and inertness, which rendered 
 him incapable of making a stand when it was necessary. I 
 must place him also, I fear, among the fine facades. 
 
 Nevertheless, something was gained by this creation ; or- 
 der was restored to education, the scope of study was extend- 
 ed, and young people were occupied. It has been said that 
 45 
 
624 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 under the Empire education at the Lycees was entirely mili- 
 tary, but that was not the case. Letters were carefully cul- 
 tivated, sound morals were inculcated, and strict surveillance 
 was practiced. The system of education was, however, nei- 
 ther sufficiently religious nor sufficiently national, and the 
 time had come when it was necessary that it should be both 
 one and the other. No effort was made to impart to young 
 people that moral and political knowledge which trains citi- 
 zens, and prepares them to take their part in the labors of 
 their Government. They were obliged to attend the schools, 
 but nobody spoke to them of their religion ; they heard much 
 more about the Emperor than they heard about the state, 
 and they were incited to a desire for military fame. Yet, 
 notwithstanding these drawbacks, and although the youth of 
 the French nation is not all that it ought to be, it has been 
 developed to a remarkable extent, and a great difference may 
 be discerned between those who have availed themselves of 
 the public education offered to all and those who have held 
 aloof from it. Mistrust, party spirit, and a sort of general 
 misgiving induced the old French nobility and a portion of 
 the wealthy class to keep their children with themselves, and 
 to rear them in a number of prejudices, for which they are 
 now suffering. The pupils of the Lycees acquired a superi- 
 ority by their public education, which it would now be vain 
 to dispute. 
 
 The decree which created the University, after having 
 regulated the functions of those who were to compose it, 
 fixed their salaries at high rates. The officials were given a 
 handsome costume and an imposing organisation. After the 
 Grand Master (the Bishop of Bazas) came M. de Yillaret as 
 Chancellor. M. Delambre, permanent secretary of the first 
 class of the Institute, who was held in high consideration, 
 both for his learning and character, was Treasurer. The 
 Council of the University was composed of distinguished 
 men ; the names of M. de Beausset, formerly Bishop of Alais, 
 and now Cardinal, of M. Cuvier, M. de Bonald, M. de Frays- 
 
THE EMPEROR AND THE PARISIANS. 625 
 
 sinous, Koyer-Collard, etc., were included in the number. 
 The professors were chosen with great care. In short, this 
 creation met with universal approbation ; but ensuing events 
 hindered its action in the first place, and afterward disorgan- 
 ized it like all the rest. 
 
 On the 23d of March, 1808, the Court went to Saint 
 Cloud. The Emperor always left Paris as soon as he could : 
 he disliked living at the Tuileries, because of the impossibil- 
 ity of walking about there freely ; and then, the greater his 
 power and splendor became, the more ill at ease he found 
 himself in the presence of the Parisians. He could not en- 
 dure any restraint, and he knew that in the city people were 
 aware of the language which he was in the habit of using, 
 and the violence to which he gave way. He excited curios- 
 ity, which annoyed him ; he was coldly received in public ; a 
 number of stories about him got into circulation ; in short, 
 he was obliged to put some constraint upon himself. Thus 
 his sojourns in Paris became more and more brief, and he 
 began to talk of inhabiting Versailles. The restoration of 
 the palace was decided upon, and Bonaparte observed more 
 than once that in reality he had no occasion to be in Paris, 
 except during the session of the Corps Legislatif. When 
 he rode or drove to any distance from the town, he used 
 to say, as he approached it on his return, " Here we are 
 again, in the great Babylon." He even formed plans for the 
 transplantation of the capital to Lyons. It was only in 
 imagination that he contemplated such a displacement, but 
 he took pleasure in the idea, and it was one of his favorite 
 dreams. 
 
 The Parisians were perfectly well aware that Bonaparte 
 did not like them, and they avenged themselves by sarcastic 
 jests and anecdotes, which were for the most part pure in- 
 ventions. They were submissive to him, but cold and satiri- 
 cal. His courtiers adopted the antipathy of their master, 
 and never spoke of Paris without some disparaging epithet. 
 More than once I have heard the Emperor say, moodily, 
 
626 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 " They have not yet pardoned me for pointing my guns 
 upon them on the 13th Yendemiaire." 
 
 ATI authentic collection of the observations that Bona- 
 parte made upon his own conduct would be a very useful 
 book to many sovereigns, and to their advisers. When at 
 the present time (I write in 1819) I hear people, who seem 
 to me to be mere novices in the art of governing men, affirm 
 that nothing is so easy as to impose one's will by force, and 
 that by trusting to the bayonet one may constrain a nation 
 to endure any regime which may be inflicted upon it, I recall 
 what the Emperor used to say about the difficulties which 
 had arisen from his first steps in his political career, the 
 complications produced by the employment of force against 
 the citizens, which beset him from the very day after that 
 on which he had been obliged to avail himself of so terrible 
 a resource. 
 
 I have heard his Ministers say that, when any violent 
 measure was proposed in the Council, he would put the 
 question, " Can you answer for it that the people will not 
 rise ? " and that the smallest popular movement always ap- 
 peared to him grave and ominous. I have seen him take 
 pleasure in describing, or in listening to a description of, the 
 various emotions that are experienced upon the field of battle, 
 and turn pale at a narrative of the excesses of a people in 
 revolt ; and, if, when riding through the streets of Paris on 
 horseback, a workman threw himself in his way to implore 
 some favor, Bonaparte's first movement was always to shud- 
 der and recoil. 
 
 The generals of the Guard had strict orders to prevent 
 contact between the people and the soldiery. " I could not," 
 said Bonaparte, " take the part of the latter." If any quar- 
 rel took place between soldiers and citizens, the soldiers were 
 invariably punished and sent away. It is true they after- 
 ward received compensation money, which quieted them. 
 
 All this time the north of Europe was in a state of agita- 
 tion. The King of Sweden was too faithful to the policy 
 
AN IMPENDING STORM. 627 
 
 imposed upon him by the English Government for the inter- 
 ests of his subjects. He excited increasing discontent among 
 the Swedes, and his conduct bore witness to the condition of 
 his brain. The Emperor of Russia having declared war 
 against him, and having at the same time commenced an 
 expedition to Finland, M. d'Alopeus, the Eussian ambassa- 
 dor at Stockholm, was placed under arrest in his own house, 
 contrary to all the rights of nations. 
 
 On this occasion the notes in the " Moniteur " were elo- 
 quent indeed. One of them was as follows : " Poor Swed- 
 ish nation, into what hands have you fallen ? Your Charles 
 XII. was, no doubt, a little mad, but he was brave ; and 
 your King, who went to play braggart in Pomerania while 
 the armistice existed, was the first to run away when the 
 same armistice, which he broke, had expired." Such lan- 
 guage as this could only announce an impending storm. 
 
 At the beginning of the month of March the King of 
 Denmark, Christian VII., died ; and his son, who had long 
 been Eegent, ascended the throne under the title of Fred- 
 erick V., in the fortieth year of his age. 
 
 It is remarkable that, at a period when the troubled na- 
 tions seemed to have need of sovereigns of more than ordi- 
 nary intelligence and wisdom, several of the thrones of Eu- 
 rope were filled by princes who had but little use of reason, 
 and in some instances had none at all. Among those unfor- 
 tunate sovereigns were the Kings of England, Sweden, and 
 Denmark, and the Queen of Portugal. 
 
 Popular discontent manifested itself on the occasion of 
 the arrest of the Russian ambassador at Stockholm. The 
 King left that city and retired to the Castle of Gripsholm, 
 from which he issued orders for war, either against the Rus- 
 sians or against the Danes. 
 
 All eyes were, however, soon turned away from what 
 was passing in the north, to fix themselves upon the drama 
 which was beginning in Spain. The Grand Duke of Berg 
 had been sent to take the command of our army on the 
 
628 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 banks of the Ebro. The King of Spain, who was feeble, 
 timid, and ruled by his Minister, made no opposition to the 
 passage of the foreign troops through his country, toward 
 Portugal as it was represented. The national party of the 
 Spaniards, at whose head was the Prince of the Asturias, 
 were incensed at this invasion, for they discerned its conse- 
 quences. They saw that they were sacrificed to the ambi- 
 tion of the Prince of the Peace. A revolt against that 
 Minister broke out ; the King and Queen were attacked, and 
 prepared to quit Spain. This was what the Emperor want- 
 ed, for he was bent upon dethroning the Prince of the Astu- 
 rias afterward, and believed that he should easily succeed in 
 doing so. I have already said that the Prince of the Peace, 
 won by the promises that had been made to him, had de- 
 voted himself to the policy of the Emperor, who began by 
 making the tremendous mistake of introducing French influ- 
 ence into Spain under the auspices of a detested Minister. 
 
 Meanwhile the people of Madrid flocked to Aranjuez, 
 and sacked the palace of the Minister, who was obliged to 
 hide himself to escape the fury of the mob. The King and 
 Queen, greatly alarmed at the danger of their favorite, and 
 almost equally grieved, were forced to demand that he 
 should resign ; and on the 16th of March, 1808, the King, 
 yielding to pressure from all sides, abdicated in favor of his 
 son, announcing that his health compelled him to seek a 
 better climate. This act of weakness checked the revolt. 
 The Prince of the Asturias took the name of Ferdinand 
 YIL, and his first act of authority was to confiscate the 
 property of the Prince of the Peace. But he had not suffi- 
 cient strength of character to profit fully by the new situa- 
 tion. He was frightened by his rupture with his father, and 
 hesitated at the moment when he ought to have acted. On 
 the other hand, the King and Queen played the game of the 
 Emperor by calling the French army to their aid. The 
 Grand Duke of Berg joined them at Aranjuez, and prom- 
 ised them his dangerous assistance. The vacillation of the 
 
AFFAIRS OF SPAIN. 629 
 
 authorities, the fear inspired by our arms, the intrigues of 
 the Prince of the Peace, the severe and imperious measures 
 of Murat, all combined to produce trouble and disorder in 
 Spain; and the unfortunate reigning family speedily per- 
 ceived that this disorganization was about to turn to the 
 advantage of the armed mediator, who assumed the posi- 
 tion of a judge. The " Moniteur " gave an account of these 
 events, deploring the misfortune of King Charles IY. ; and 
 a few days later the Emperor, accompanied by a brilliant 
 Court, left Saint Cloud, under the pretext of making a jour- 
 ney into the south of France. 
 
 I shall give the details of all these events when I reach 
 the fourth epoch of these Memoirs. We were in the dark 
 about them at the time of their occurrence. We asked our- 
 selves, what was the Emperor going to do ? Was this new 
 journey an invasion 2 All these secret intrigues, to which 
 we had no clew, excited our attention and curiosity, and the 
 public disquiet increased daily. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand, whom I saw frequently, was exceed- 
 ingly dissatisfied, and openly blamed all that was done and 
 was about to be done. He denounced Murat, declaring that 
 there was perfidy somewhere, but that he was not mixed up 
 with it, and repeating that had he been Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs he would never have lent his name to such devices. 
 The Emperor was exceedingly angry at this freely expressed 
 condemnation. He saw that approbation of a new kind was 
 felt for M. de Talleyrand ; he listened to denunciations of 
 his Minister, and their friendship was interrupted. He has 
 frequently asserted that M. de Talleyrand advised this Span- 
 ish affair, and only attempted to get out of it when he per- 
 ceived that it was a failure. I can bear witness to the fact 
 that M. de Talleyrand severely condemned it at the period 
 of which I am writing, and expressed himself with so much 
 vehemence against such a violation of all the rights of na- 
 tions that I had to advise him to moderate his language. 
 What he would have advised I can not say, because he never 
 
630 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 explained himself on that point, and I have now stated all 
 that I know. It is, however, certain that the public were 
 with him at this time, and declared for him because he did 
 not dissemble his dissatisfaction. "This," he said, "is a 
 base intrigue. It is an enterprise against a national aspira- 
 tion ; we declare ourselves thereby the enemy of the people ; 
 it is a blunder which will never be repaired." Events have 
 proved that M. de Talleyrand was right, and that from that 
 fatal event the moral decline of him who at that time made 
 all Europe tremble may be dated.* 
 
 About this time the mild and gentle Queen of Naples set 
 out to rejoin her husband in Spain, and to take her place 
 upon a throne from which she was destined to descend be- 
 fore very long. 
 
 * Talleyrand's opposition to the war with Spain has been often denied, and 
 by the Emperor himself. My grandmother's testimony leaves not the slightest 
 doubt of the fact, which does so much honor to the good sense and the perspi- 
 cacity of the Grand Chamberlain. M. Beugnot records an almost identical con- 
 versation in his Memoirs. " Victories," said the Prince to him, " can not efface 
 such deeds, because there is vileness in them, deceit and trickery. I can not 
 tell what will happen, but you will see this will never be forgotten by anybody." 
 
CHAPTEE XXIX. 
 
 (1808.) 
 
 The War with Spain The Prince of the Peace The Prince of the Asturias The 
 Abdication of King Charles IV. The Departure of the Emperor His Sojourn 
 at Bayonne Letter of the Emperor Arrival of the Princes in France Birth 
 of the Second Son of the Queen of Holland Abdication of the Prince of the 
 Asturias. 
 
 
 
 ON the 2d of July, 1808, the Emperor set out on the 
 pretext of visiting the southern provinces, but in reality to 
 watch what was going on in Spain. I will give an idea of 
 what that was as suc'cinctly as possible.* 
 
 The transactions of Charles IY. with the different Gov- 
 ernments of France were well known. After having vainly 
 attempted in 1793 to save the life of Louis XVL, at the 
 close of a war nobly undertaken but unskillfully conducted, 
 the Spaniards had to submit to the dictation of the conqueror, 
 and the French Government had always meddled more or less 
 in their affairs since that time. 
 
 * I have thought it right to publish this chapter, or rather this fragment of 
 a chapter, the last which my grandmother wrote, although it is quite unfinished, 
 and there is nothing in it except the historical narrative of events at Aranjuez 
 and Bayonne. She probably thought it necessary to preface by a statement of 
 facts the reflections which she would afterward have to make upon the moral 
 and political effect of these events, the rupture which they brought about be- 
 tween the Emperor and Talleyrand, and the influence of that rupture upon her 
 own position and that of her husband. Her narrative agrees perfectly with M. 
 Thiers's account of these incidents, nor does she paint the picture in darker 
 colors than those which he has used. The gravest point that is to say, Savary's 
 mission to the Prince of the Asturias is treated by the great historian in a 
 manner which confirms, and even goes beyond, the statements of these Me- 
 moirs. P. R. 
 
632 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RfiMUSAT. 
 
 At the head of the administration was Emamiel Godoy 
 a man of ordinary capacity, who had risen to the position 
 which he now held, and was governing the Spains, as the 
 result of the feelings with which he had inspired the Queen. 
 On him had been heaped all the dignities, honors, and trea- 
 sures which any favorite could possibly obtain. He was born 
 in 1768, of a noble family, and placed in the royal Body- 
 guard in 1787. The Queen took him into favor, and he rose 
 rapidly from rank to rank, becoming lieutenant-general, 
 Duke of Alcudia, and in 1792 Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
 In 1795 he was made Prince of the Peace. After the treaty 
 which he concluded with France in 1798, with so little honor 
 to himself, he ceased to be Minister ; but he still directed 
 affairs, and all his life he exercised complete empire over 
 King Charles IY., who strangely shared the infatuation of 
 the Queen his wife. The Prince of the Peace married a 
 niece of the King. 
 
 The good understanding which existed between France 
 and Spain appeared to be intact until the opening of the 
 Prussian campaign, when the Prince of the Peace, believing 
 that the war would injure the fortunes of the Emperor, pro- 
 posed to arm Spain, so that the country should be ready to 
 profit by events which might enable it to shake off the French 
 yoke. He issued a proclamation, inviting all Spaniards to 
 enroll themselves. This proclamation reached the Emperor 
 on the battle-field of Jena, and many persons have said that 
 from that moment he was resolved on the destruction of the 
 house of Bourbon in Spain. After his great victories he 
 distributed the Spanish troops over all points of Europe, and 
 the Prince of the Peace obtained his protection only at the 
 price of submitting to his policy. 
 
 Bonaparte often asserted in 1808 that at Tilsit the Czar 
 had approved his designs upon Spain ; and, in fact, the inter- 
 view of the two Emperors took place so amicably at Erfurt, 
 immediately after the overthrow of Charles IY., that it is 
 very likely they had mutually authorized each other to pursue 
 
THE PRINCE OF THE PEACE. 633 
 
 their projects, the one toward the north and the other toward 
 the south. But I can not tell to what extent Bonaparte de- 
 ceived the Emperor of Russia, nor whether he did not begin 
 by hinting to him the division of the states of King Charles 
 IY. which he was pretending to prepare, and the equivalent 
 in Italy which he feigned to intend to give him. Perhaps 
 he had not yet arranged his plan for entirely dispossessing 
 him, and it is quite certain that M. de Talleyrand was not in 
 the plot. 
 
 Murat, in his correspondence with the Prince of the 
 Peace, bribed him with the government of a portion of 
 Portugal, which, he said, should become the kingdom of the 
 Algarves. Another portion of Portugal was to belong to 
 the King of Etruria, and Etruria was thenceforth to become 
 the empire of King Charles IY., who was to keep the Amer- 
 ican colonies, and at the general peace to take the title of 
 Emperor of the Two Americas. 
 
 In 1807 a treaty on these bases was concluded at Fontaine- 
 bleau, without the knowledge of M. de Talleyrand, and the 
 passage of our troops through Spain for the conquest of 
 Portugal was granted by the Prince of the Peace. At Milan 
 the Emperor signified to the Queen of Etruria that she was 
 to return to her father. Meanwhile the Prince of the Peace 
 was becoming more and more odious to the Spanish nation, 
 and was especially hated by the Prince of the Asturias. The 
 latter, impelled by his own feelings and by the advice of 
 those who surrounded him, distressed by the increasing 
 alienation of his mother and the weakness of his father, 
 alarmed at the entry of our troops, which made him suspect 
 some fresh plot, and especially indignant that the Prince of 
 the Peace should endeavor to make him contract a marriage 
 with the sister of the Princess, wrote to Bonaparte to apprise 
 him of the grievances of the Spaniards against the favorite, 
 and to request his support and the hand of a lady of the 
 Bonaparte family. To this request, which was probably 
 inspired by the ambassador of France, the Emperor made 
 
634: MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 no immediate reply. Shortly afterward the Prince of the 
 Asturias was denounced as a conspirator and arrested, and his 
 friends were exiled. Several notes denunciatory of the exac- 
 tions of the Prince of the Peace were found among his papers, 
 and on this a charge of conspiracy was founded. The Queen 
 pursued her son with determined enmity, and the Prince of 
 the Asturias was about to be brought to trial when letters from 
 the Emperor, signifying that he would not permit a question 
 of the project of marriage to be raised, reached Madrid. As 
 it was upon this point that the accusation of conspiracy was 
 to bear, the charge had to be abandoned. The Prince of the 
 Peace wanted to take credit for indulgence, and pretended 
 that he had solicited and obtained pardon for the Prince of 
 the Asturias. King Charles IV. wrote to the Emperor, giving 
 him an account of the affair and of his own conduct ; and 
 Bonaparte became adviser and arbitrator in all these difficul- 
 ties, which so far were favorable to his own designs. These 
 events took place in October, 1807. 
 
 Meanwhile our troops were establishing themselves in 
 Spain. The Spaniards, surprised by this invasion, com- 
 plained bitterly of the weakness of their sovereign and the 
 treason of the favorite. It was asked why the Spanish 
 armies were sent to the frontiers of Portugal, far from the 
 center of the kingdom, which was thus delivered over with- 
 out defense. Murat was marching toward Madrid. The 
 Prince of the Peace sent a creature of his own, one Izquier- 
 do, to Fontainebleau for final instructions. This man had 
 an interview with M. de Talleyrand, in which the latter in- 
 formed him of the error into which the Prince of the Peace 
 had fallen, and showed him that the treaty just signed at 
 Fontainebleau involved the complete destruction of the 
 power of Spain. Izquierdo, thunderstruck at all he heard, 
 returned immediately to Madrid, and the Prince of the Peace 
 began to perceive how he had been tricked. But it was too 
 late. The troops were recalled, and a project of imitating 
 the conduct of the Prince of Brazil by abandoning the Con- 
 
THE ABDICATION OF CHARLES IV. 635 
 
 tinent was discussed. The Court was at Aranjuez ; its prep- 
 arations, however, could not be so secretly conducted but 
 that they transpired in Madrid. The excitement in the city 
 was increased by intelligence of the approach of Murat and 
 of the intended departure of the King, and soon broke out 
 into a revolt ; the people went in crowds to Aranjuez, the 
 King was detained as a prisoner in the palace, and the house 
 of the Prince of the Peace was sacked, while he himself 
 was thrown into prison, barely escaping from the fury of the 
 populace. Charles IV. was forced to disgrace his favorite 
 and banish him from Spain. On the following day the King, 
 either feeling himself too weak to rule over a country about 
 to become the scene of discord, or successfully coerced by 
 the opposite party, abdicated in favor of his son. 
 
 All this took place at a few leagues' distance from Madrid, 
 where Murat had established his headquarters. On the 19th 
 of March, 1808, Charles IY. wrote to the Emperor that, on 
 account of his health, he was unable to remain in Spain, and 
 that he had just abdicated in favor of his son. This occur- 
 rence upset all Bonaparte's plans. The fruit of the device 
 which he had been planning for six months was snatched 
 from him ; Spain was about to pass under the sway of a 
 young Prince who, judging by recent events, appeared ca- 
 pable of taking strong measures. The Spanish nation would, 
 no doubt, eagerly embrace the cause of a sovereign whose 
 aim would be the deliverance of his country. Our army was 
 coldly received at Madrid. Murat had already been obliged 
 to have recourse to severe measures for the maintenance of 
 order. A new plan was necessary, and it was needful, above 
 all, to be nearer the theatre of events, so as to estimate them 
 aright. 
 
 For these reasons the Emperor resolved on going to Ba- 
 yonne. He left Saint Cloud on the 2d of April, parting with 
 coolness from M. de Talleyrand, and abstaining from any dis- 
 closure of his plans. The " Moniteur " announced that the 
 Emperor was about to visit the southern departments, and 
 
636 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 not until the 8th of April, after meager accounts of what 
 was taking place in Spain, did we learn that his presence at 
 Madrid was not only desired, but expected. 
 
 The Empress, who was both fond of traveling and averse 
 to being separated from her husband, obtained permission to 
 make the journey after his departure, and she soon joined 
 him at Bordeaux. 
 
 M. de Talleyrand was uneasy and displeased at the Em- 
 peror's movements. I am inclined to think that for a long 
 time past, as much from his dislike to Murat as on account 
 of other projects of which I am ignorant, he had favored the 
 party by whom the Prince of the Asturias was guided. On 
 this occasion he found himself put aside, and realized for the 
 first time that Bonaparte was learning to do without him. 
 In Paris we were all mystified at what was going on. The 
 official articles in the " Moniteur " were extremely obscure ; 
 nothing that emanated from the Emperor could surprise us ; 
 but even curiosity was at last wearing out, and, moreover, no 
 great interest was felt in the royal house of Spain. There 
 was, therefore, very little excitement, and we waited for 
 time to enlighten us. France was growing used to expect 
 that Bonaparte would use her simply for his own personal 
 ends. 
 
 Meanwhile Murat, who was acquainted with some of the 
 Emperor's projects, and who saw that some of them must 
 fail through the abdication of Charles IY., acted with skillful 
 duplicity at Madrid. He contrived to avoid recognizing the 
 Prince of the Asturias, and all the evidence leads to the con- 
 clusion that he contributed to excite the old King's desire to 
 resume his crown. A dispatch from General Monthion, who 
 had been sent as envoy to Charles IY. at Aranjuez, was pub- 
 lished in the " Moniteur," and Europe was informed that the 
 King had made bitter complaints of his son, had declared 
 that his abdication was forced, and had placed himself in the 
 Emperor's hands, with a special request that the life of the 
 Prince of the Peace should be spared. The Queen, in still 
 
THE EMPERORS SOJOURN AT BAYONNE. 637 
 
 more passionate terms, accused her son, and seemed entirely 
 engrossed by anxiety for the fate of her favorite. 
 
 The Spaniards had accepted the abdication of their King, 
 and were rejoiced to be rid of the yoke of the Prince of the 
 Peace. They were impatient, especially at Madrid, of the 
 presence of the French, and of their reserved behavior 
 toward the young sovereign ; and Murat could repress the 
 growing excitement only by measures of severity, necessary 
 under the circumstances, but which completed the detesta- 
 tion in which we were held. 
 
 On the Emperor's arrival at Bayonne, he took up his 
 abode at the Chateau de Marrac, about a mile from the town. 
 He was uncertain as to what might come of his present un- 
 dertaking, and as a last resource was prepared to go to Ma- 
 drid ; but he was fully determined not to let the fruit of his 
 endeavors escape him. No one about him was in the secret : 
 he controlled the actions of all without confiding in any one. 
 In the Abbe de Pradt's "History of the Revolution in 
 Spain," there are some interesting notes and comments on 
 the force of character which enabled the Emperor to bear 
 quite alone the secret of his vast conceptions. The Abbe de 
 Pradt was at that time Bishop of Poitiers, and Bonaparte, 
 on passing through the city, attached him to his suite, be- 
 lieving he should be able to make use of his well-known tal- 
 ent and inclination for intrigue. 
 
 Several persons who accompanied the Emperor on this 
 journey told me that their sojourn at Marrac was dull, and 
 that they all wished for a climax to the events then taking 
 place, in order that they might return to Paris. 
 
 Savary was dispatched to Madrid, and in all probability 
 received orders to bring back the Prince of the Asturias at 
 any cost. He accomplished his mission with the exactitude 
 for which he was remarkable, and which forbade him from 
 criticising either the orders he received or the means neces- 
 sary to their fulfillment. On the Yth of April Savary pre- 
 sented himself to the Prince of the Asturias at Madrid. He 
 
638 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 announced the Emperor's journey into Spain as certain, as- 
 sumed the character of an ambassador coming to congratu- 
 late a new King, and bound himself, in the name of his 
 master, not to meddle with any Spanish affairs if the sover- 
 eign's dispositions were friendly toward the Emperor. He 
 next insinuated that negotiations would be greatly expedited 
 by the Prince's moving forward to meet the Emperor, who 
 intended very shortly to repair to Madrid ; and to the sur- 
 prise of every one, to the surprise of posterity also, he con- 
 trived to persuade the Prince of the Asturias and his Court 
 to undertake the journey. "We can hardly doubt that advice 
 on this occasion was backed by threats, and that the unfortu- 
 nate young Prince was caught in a multitude of snares, all 
 spread for him at once. He was, no doubt, given to under- 
 stand that this was the price at which his crown must be 
 purchased, and that, as the Emperor wished him to take this 
 step, no help would be afforded him unless he consented to 
 it ; the bait that the Emperor would meet him on the way 
 was also held out, and nothing was at first said about his 
 crossing the frontier. 
 
 The Prince of the Asturias found himself involved by 
 circumstances in an enterprise beyond his strength ; he was 
 more the puppet than the chief of the party who had placed 
 him on the throne, and he could not quite reconcile himself 
 to the position of a son in open rebellion against his father. 
 Moreover, he was intimidated by the presence of our troops, 
 and dared not answer to his people for the safety of their 
 country if he resisted us. His advisers were alarmed. Sa- 
 vary's counsels were mingled with threats, and the unhappy 
 Prince, who was influenced by the most generous sentiments, 
 consented to a step which was the proximate cause of his 
 ruin. I have heard Savary say that the orders he had re- 
 ceived were so positive that, when once he had him on the 
 road to Bayonne, he would not have suffered him to turn 
 back for any consideration in the world ; and, some faith- 
 ful adherents having conveyed a warning to the Prince, he 
 
LETTER OF THE EMPEROR. 639 
 
 watched Mm so closely that he felt assured no human power 
 could snatch him from his grasp. 
 
 To further this wicked and ably laid plot, the Emperor 
 wrote the following letter, which was subsequently published. 
 It was handed to the Prince of the Asturias at Yittoria, and 
 I transcribe it here, as it throws a light on the events which 
 followed : 
 
 " BAYONNE, April, 1808. 
 
 " MY BROTHER : I have received your Royal Highness's 
 letter. In the papers of the King, your father, you must 
 have seen proofs of the interest I have always felt in your 
 Royal Highness. You will permit me, under present cir- 
 cumstances, to address you loyally and frankly. 
 
 " I hoped, on reaching Madrid, to have persuaded my 
 illustrious friend to undertake some necessary reforms in his 
 states, and to satisfy in some measure the public opinion of 
 the country. The dismissal of the Prince of the Peace 
 seemed to me to be necessary both for his own happiness 
 and that of his subjects. Affairs in the north have delayed 
 my journey. Certain events have taken place at Aranjuez. 
 I pronounce no judgment on these, nor on the conduct of 
 the Prince of the Peace ; but I know this well, that it is 
 dangerous for kings to accustom their people to shed blood 
 and to administer justice to themselves. 1 pray God that 
 your Royal Highness may not learn this one day by your 
 own experience. It is not in the interest of Spain to injure 
 a Prince who is husband to a Princess of the blood royal, 
 and who has so long reigned over the kingdom. He has 
 now no friends, nor will your Highness have any if misfor- 
 tune overtake you. Men are always ready to make us suffer 
 for the honors they have paid us. Besides, how could pro- 
 ceedings be taken against the Prince of the Peace without 
 implicating the Queen and the King, your father ? Such a 
 lawsuit will encourage dissensions and faction, and the con- 
 sequences will be fatal to your crown. Your Royal High- 
 ness has no other claim to it than that conferred on you by 
 46 
 
640 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtilMUSAT. 
 
 your mother ; if the lawsuit reflects dishonor on her, your 
 Royal Highness's rights will be thereby destroyed. Close 
 your ears, therefore, to weak and perfidious counsel ; you 
 have no right to sit in judgment on the Prince of the Peace. 
 His crimes, if he is accused of any, are absorbed in the rights 
 of the throne. I have often expressed a desire that the 
 Prince of the Peace should be removed from the conduct of 
 affairs. The friendship of King Charles has often induced 
 me to keep silence, and to turn away my eyes from his weak 
 attachment. Wretched creatures that we all are ! our motto 
 should be, ' Weakness and Error. 5 But all may be arranged. 
 Let the Prince of the Peace be banished from Spain ; I will 
 offer him a refuge in France. 
 
 " As to the abdication of King Charles IY., he made it 
 at a time when my army was occupying Spain, and in the 
 eyes of Europe and of posterity I should appear to have sent 
 large numbers of troops thither merely in order to turn my 
 ally and my friend off his throne. As a neighboring sover- 
 eign, I may be allowed to wait for full and entire informa- 
 tion before recognizing this abdication. I say to your Royal 
 Highness, to all Spaniards, and to the whole world, if the 
 abdication of King Charles IY. is spontaneous, if it has not 
 been forced on him by the insurrection and the tumult at 
 Aranjuez, I will make no difficulty about recognizing it, and 
 will acknowledge your Royal Highness to be King of Spain. 
 I desire, therefore, to converse with you to this end. The 
 caution with which I have watched these things for the last 
 month should be a guarantee of the support I would afford 
 you if, in your turn, a factious spirit, of whatever kind, 
 should disturb you on your throne. When King Charles 
 informed me of the events of last October, I was painfully 
 impressed by them, and I may have contributed, by the sug- 
 gestions I then made, to the happy ending of the Escurial 
 affair. Your Royal Highness was greatly to blame: no 
 other proof of this is needed than the letter you addressed 
 to me, which I have persistently ignored. When, in your 
 
THE DEPARTURE OF THE YOUNG KING. 641 
 
 turn, yon are a King, you will know how sacred are the 
 rights of a throne. Any advances made to a foreign sover- 
 eign are criminal. Yonr Eoyal Highness must be on your 
 guard against outbursts of popular feeling. A few of my 
 soldiers might be murdered in isolated situations, but the 
 destruction of Spain would be the result. I already perceive 
 with regret that letters from the Captain-General of Cata- 
 lonia have been distributed about Madrid, and that every- 
 thing has been done to promote disturbance there. 
 
 " I have now fully explained myself to your Royal High- 
 ness; you perceive that I am hesitating between various 
 ideas, which require confirmation. You may be assured that, 
 in any case, I shall treat you as I would treat the King, your 
 father. I beg you to believe in my desire for conciliation, 
 and to grant me an opportunity of proving my good will and 
 high esteem." 
 
 "We see by this letter that the Emperor still reserved to 
 himself the right of judging of the validity of the abdication 
 of Charles IY. It appears, however, that Savary flattered 
 the young King into the belief of more positive approbation 
 than was actually contained in the letter, while Murat was 
 secretly urging King Charles to retract. By thus writing to 
 the Prince of the Asturias, the Emperor contrived a means 
 of saving the Prince of the Peace, if necessary, from taking 
 part with Charles IY., and finally of blaming the first symp- 
 tom of rebellion against his father on the part of the Prince 
 of the Asturias. It was known, however, at this period that 
 the ambassador of France had suggested to the Prince the 
 demand which he had made for the hand of a Princess of 
 the Imperial family in marriage. It was this demand which 
 had most deeply offended the favorite. 
 
 The Prince of the Asturias left Madrid on the 10th of 
 April. He received tokens of affection from his people on 
 his way, and great anxiety was everywhere displayed at his 
 approach to the frontier. Savary reiterated his assurances 
 
64:2 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 that by pushing on farther they must meet the Emperor, and 
 kept the Prince under strict guard. On reaching Burgos, 
 the Prince's council began to take alarm ; but they continued 
 their route to Yittoria, where the people unharnessed the 
 horses from the carriage, the guard had to force a passage, 
 and this was done almost against the will of the Prince, 
 whose hopes were fading. 
 
 " At Yittoria," Savary told me afterward, " I thought for 
 an instant that my prisoner was about to escape, but I took 
 care he should not. I frightened him." " But," I answered, 
 " do you mean that, if he had resisted, you would have killed 
 him?" "Oh no," he said; "but I protest that I would 
 never have let him go back." 
 
 The Prince's councilors, however, were reassured by the 
 reflection that a marriage would conciliate all parties, and, 
 being unable to understand the immensity of the Imperial 
 projects, they looked upon such an alliance, together with 
 the sacrifice of a few men and of the liberty of trade, as the 
 conclusion of a definitive treaty. They yielded, therefore, to 
 the soldierly arguments of Savary, and finally crossed the 
 frontier. 
 
 The royal party entered Bayonne on the 21st of April. 
 Those persons of the household who were then in attendance 
 on the Emperor discovered, by the change in his temper, 
 how important for the success of his projects was the arrival 
 of the Infantes. Until then he had seemed full of care, con- 
 fiding in no one, but dispatching courier after courier. He 
 dared not reckon on the success of his plan. He had invited 
 the old King to come to him, who, as well as the Queen and 
 the favorite, had just then nothing better to do; but it 
 seemed so likely that the new King would take advantage of 
 the revolt about to break out in Spain and would rouse the 
 new-born enthusiasm of all classes for the deliverance of 
 their country, that, until the actual moment when he was 
 informed that the Prince had crossed the Pyrenees, the Em- 
 peror must have looked on the event as wellnigh impossible. 
 
THE EMPEROR'S DOUBLE-DEALING. 643 
 
 He has since said that, dating from this blunder, he had no 
 longer a doubt of the incapacity of King Ferdinand. 
 
 On the 20th of April the Queen of Holland gave birth 
 to a son, who was named Louis.* 
 
 At this time the painter Kobert died. He was famous 
 for his artistic talent, his taste in architecture, and was, be- 
 sides, an excellent and very clever man.f 
 
 The Abbe de Pradt has narrated all the circumstances of 
 the arrival of the Princes ; and, as he witnessed it, I again 
 refer to his work, without feeling bound to quote from it 
 here. He says that the Emperor came from Marrac to Ba- 
 yonne; that he treated the Prince of the Asturias as an 
 equal ; that he invited him the same day to dinner, treating 
 him with royal honors ; and that it was not until the evening 
 of that day, when the Prince had returned to his dwelling, 
 that Savary again came to him, with orders to inform him 
 of Bonaparte's intentions. These intentions were to over- 
 throw the reigning dynasty, in order to put his own in its 
 place, and consequently the abdication of the whole family 
 was demanded. The Abbe" de Pradt is naturally astounded 
 at the part which the Emperor played during the day, and 
 one can hardly conceive why he gave himself the trouble to 
 act a character in the morning so contrary to that of the 
 evening. 
 
 Whatever were his motives, one can understand the 
 amazement of the Spanish Princes, and what must have 
 been their regret, having thus delivered themselves into the 
 hands of their inflexible enemy. From that time they made 
 
 * This child became the Emperor Napoleon III. The singular fate which 
 decreed his birth on the very day of the arrival of the Infantes at Bayonne, at 
 the time when the crime and the blunder of the Spanish war was being accom- 
 plished, may commend itself to fatalistic historians. P. R. 
 
 f This does not mean Leopold Robert, who is better known by this genera- 
 tion, but a Hubert Robert, born in 1733, made a member of the Academy in 
 1766, and known by pictures of ruins, in which the classical taste begins to be- 
 tray some modern, or, as they would have been called a little later, romantic 
 tendencies. 
 
644 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 efforts, not to fly f or they quickly perceived that flight was 
 impossible but to inform the Junta, sitting at Madrid, of 
 their captivity and of the intentions which would cause the 
 ruin of the last Bourbons. The greater number of their 
 messengers were stopped, but some few got away safely ; the 
 news they carried excited indignation in Madrid, and thence 
 throughout Spain. Some provinces protested; in several 
 towns the people rose in revolt ; in Madrid the safety of the 
 French army was endangered. Murat redoubled his sever- 
 ity, and became an object of hatred, as well as terror, to all 
 the inhabitants. 
 
 Every one knows now how greatly the Emperor deceived 
 himself as to the condition of Spain and the character of the 
 Spaniards. He was influenced in this odious undertaking 
 by those same defects of character and judgment which had 
 on other occasions led him into such grave errors : first, his 
 determination to prevail by sheer force, and his thirst for 
 instant submission, which made him neglect intermediaries, 
 who are not always to be despised with impunity ; and, sec- 
 ondly, an obstinate conviction that men are but very slight- 
 ly influenced by their mode of government, and that national 
 differences are so unimportant that the same policy will an- 
 swer equally well in the north or in the south, with Ger- 
 mans, Frenchmen, or Spaniards. He has since admitted 
 that he was greatly mistaken in this. "When he learned 
 that there existed in Spain a higher class, aware of the bad 
 government under which it lived, and anxious for some 
 changes in the constitution, he did not doubt but that the 
 people too would swallow the bait if a revolution like that 
 of France were offered to them. He believed that in Spain, 
 as elsewhere, men would be easily roused against the tempo- 
 ral power of the priesthood. His keen perception appre- 
 ciated the movement which had caused the revolt of Aran- 
 juez, and had placed the reins of power in the hands of a 
 weak Prince, too evidently lacking ability to make or con- 
 trol a revolution ; and he imagined, overleaping time and the 
 
SPAIN IN A STATE OF ANARCHY. 645 
 
 obstacles or circumstances which cause delay, that, the first 
 impulse of movement having been given to Spanish institu- 
 tions, a complete change would ensue. He believed himself 
 to be even rendering a service to .the nation in thus fore- 
 stalling events, in seizing on the Spanish revolution before- 
 hand, and in guiding it at once to the goal which he thought 
 it destined to reach. 
 
 But even were it possible to persuade a whole nation, and 
 to induce it to accept, as the outcome of a wise foresight, 
 those things which it can never understand except through 
 the teaching of facts and often of misfortune, the hateful- 
 ness of the means employed by the Emperor blasted him in 
 the eyes of those he wished to win, and whom he believed 
 he was serving ; "for the heart of Jehu was not uptight, nor 
 his hands clean" that Spain should receive him as the re- 
 former whom she needed. Moreover, a foreign yoke was 
 offensive to Spanish pride ; while secret machinations, the 
 imprisonment of the sovereigns, unconcealed contempt for 
 religious beliefs, the threats that were used, the executions 
 that followed on them, and, later, the exactions and cruelties 
 of war, all concurred to prevent any concord. The two con- 
 tending parties, each inflamed against the other, were soon 
 filled with a furious longing for mutual destruction. The 
 Emperor himself sacrificed everything rather than yield; he 
 was lavish of men and money only that he might prove him- 
 self the strongest, for he could not endure the shame of de- 
 feat before the eyes of Europe, and a bloody war, terrible 
 disasters, were the result of his wounded pride and his tyran- 
 nical will. All he did, therefore, was to throw Spain into a 
 state of anarchy. The people, finding themselves without 
 an army, believed that the defense of the soil devolved upon 
 them ; and Bonaparte, who took pride in being the elect of 
 the people, and who also felt that therein lay his security 
 Bonaparte, who, to be consistent in his theories, should never 
 have waged war except on kings found himself, after a few 
 years, cut adrift from that policy on which he had founded 
 
646 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 his power while he revealed to the whole world that he used 
 that power for his personal advantage only. 
 
 Although he was conscious of some of these future diffi- 
 culties, he continued to tread the devious path on which he 
 had entered. The Prince of the Asturias refused to sign 
 an act of abdication, and this caused him great perplexity. 
 Fearing that the Prince might escape him, he caused him to 
 be strictly watched ; he tried him by every kind of persua- 
 sion and threat, and all who surrounded the Emperor soon 
 became aware of the state of perturbation into which he had 
 again fallen. Duroc, Savary, and the Abbe de Pradt were 
 enjoined to bribe, to persuade, or to terrify the Prince's 
 councilors. But how is it possible to persuade people to 
 consent to their own fall from power ? If we abide by the 
 Emperor's opinion, that every member of the reigning family 
 was equally stupid and incapable, the wiser course would still 
 have been to have left them in possession of the throne ; for 
 the necessity of taking action in times that were becoming 
 so difficult must have led them into many faults, of which 
 their enemy might have taken advantage. But, by the out- 
 rageous insults put upon them, by the violation of every 
 human right in their regard, by the inaction to which they 
 were forced, by imposing on them the simple and pathetic 
 character of victims, their part was made so easy to play that 
 they became objects of interest without having to take the 
 smallest pains to excite that sentiment. With respect to the 
 Spanish Princes and the Pope, the Emperor committed the 
 same blunder and incurred the same penalty. 
 
 Meanwhile, he was determined to end this state of men- 
 tal anxiety, and he decided on sending for King Charles IY. 
 to Bayonne, and on openly espousing the cause of the de- 
 throned old monarch. He foresaw that this course of action 
 must be followed by war, but he nattered himself his vivid 
 imagination was always ready to natter him when he had 
 fully decided on any step that this war would resemble all 
 the others. "Yes," he said, "I feel that I am not doing 
 
ABDICATION OF THE PRINCE OF THE ASTURIAS. 64/T 
 
 right; but why do not they declare war on me?" And 
 when it was pointed out to him that he could scarcely expect 
 a declaration of war from persons removed from their own 
 territory and deprived of their liberty, he exclaimed : " But 
 why did they come, then ? They are inexperienced young 
 men, and have come here without passports. I consider this 
 enterprise as very important, for my navy is defective, and 
 it will cost me the six vessels I have now at Cadiz." On 
 another occasion he said : " If this were to cost me eighty 
 thousand men, I would not undertake it ; but I shall not 
 need twelve thousand. It is a mere trifle. The people here 
 don't know what a French brigade means. The Prussians 
 were just the same, and we know how they fared in con- 
 sequence. Depend upon it, this will soon be over. I do 
 not wish to harm any one, but, when my big political car is 
 started, it must go on its way. Woe to those who get under 
 the wheels!"* 
 
 Toward the end of April the Prince of the Peace arrived 
 at Bayonne. Murat had released him from the captivity in 
 which he was held at Madrid. The Junta, under the presi- 
 dency of Don Antonio, brother to Charles IY., gave him up 
 unwillingly, but the time for resistance was over. The fa- 
 vorite had lost any hope of future sovereignty, his life was 
 in danger in Spain, and the Emperor's protection was his 
 only resource ; therefore there was little doubt but that he 
 would agree to anything required of him. He was instruct- 
 ed to guide King Charles in the path the Emperor wished 
 him to follow, and he acquiesced without a word. 
 
 I can not refrain from transcribing some reflections of 
 the Abbe de Pradt, which seem to me to be very sensible 
 and appropriate here. 
 
 "At this period," he says, "that part of the scheme 
 which concerned the translation of Joseph to Madrid was 
 not as yet made public. It may have been discerned, but 
 
 " Memoires Historiques sur la Revolution en Espagne, par 1'auteur du Con- 
 grfcs de Vienne." Paris, 1816. P. R. 
 
64:8 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 Napoleon had not disclosed it. In the interviews with 
 Napoleon which the negotiation with M. Escoiquiz procured 
 for me he never made any allusion to 'it. He left to time 
 the task of unfolding each feature of a plan which he re- 
 vealed cautiously and by slow degrees, and after he had 
 cherished it for a long succession of days in his own mind, 
 without relieving himself of the burden by one indiscreet 
 word. This was sad misuse of moral strength, but it proves 
 how great is the self-mastery of a man who can thus control 
 his words, especially when naturally inclined to indiscretion, 
 as Napoleon was, particularly when he was angry." 
 
 King Charles IV. reached Bayonne on the 1st of May, 
 accompanied by his wife, their youngest son, the daughter 
 of the Prince of the Peace, and the Queen of Etruria and 
 her son. Shortly afterward Don Antonio arrived also ; he 
 had been obliged to leave the Junta and to join his relatives. 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 THE Memoirs of my grandmother come to an end here, 
 and general regret will, no doubt, be felt that she was pre- 
 vented by death from continuing them, at any rate so far as 
 the divorce from the Emperor, which, from the very begin- 
 ning, hangs threateningly over the head of the fascinating, 
 lovable, and yet somewhat uninteresting Josephine. No 
 one can supply what is wanting here ; even the correspond- 
 ence of the author affords little political information respect- 
 ing the succeeding period, and during the latter part of her 
 life she seldom spoke of what she had witnessed or endured. 
 My father entertained at times the idea of continuing her 
 narrative, by putting together what he had heard from his 
 parents, anecdotes or expressions of their opinions in the 
 last days of the Empire, and what he himself knew concern- 
 ing their lives. He did not carry out his plan in its entirety, 
 nor did he leave anything on the subject complete. His 
 notes, however, seem to me to be valuable, and give the 
 ending of the great drama which has been described in the 
 foregoing pages. It will be interesting to read them as a 
 continuation of the Memoirs, which they complete, although 
 he has recorded his opinions concerning the latter days of 
 the Empire, and the period when he himself entered politi- 
 cal life, in a more extensive work. His political views and 
 clear definition of the conduct of officials and of citizens in 
 
650 MEMOIRS OF MADAME .DE R^MUSAT. 
 
 times of difficulty deserve to be made known. I have added 
 this chapter to the Memoirs, and published the notes of 
 which I speak in their original unstudied form, confining my- 
 self to the slight modifications necessary to make the narra- 
 tive succinct and clear. 
 
 The Spanish sovereigns arrived at Bayonne in May, 1808. 
 The Emperor dispatched them to Fontainebleau, and sent 
 Ferdinand VII. to Valencay, an estate belonging to M. de 
 Talleyrand. Then he himself returned, after having trav- 
 eled through the southern and western departments, and 
 made a political journey into La Vendee, where his presence 
 produced a great effect. He reached Paris about the middle 
 of August. Count de Kemusat writes : 
 
 " My father, who was then First Chamberlain, was ap- 
 pointed to receive the Spanish Bourbons at Foutainebleau. 
 He accomplished his task with the attention and courtesy 
 habitual to him. Although on his return he gave us an ac- 
 count which conveyed no exalted idea of the King, the 
 Queen, or the Prince of the Peace, who accompanied them, 
 he had treated these dethroned Princes with the respect 
 due to rank and misfortune. It would seem that some of 
 the other Court officials had behaved in a different fashion, 
 rather from ignorance than from ill feeling. Charles IV. 
 noticed this, and said, < Kemusat, at any rate, knows that I 
 am a Bourbon.' 
 
 " M. de Talleyrand happened to be actually staying at 
 Valencay when the Emperor sent him orders to proceed 
 thither, with an evident intention of committing him to the 
 Spanish affair, to receive the three Infantes. He was not 
 altogether pleased with the task, nor on his return did he 
 refrain from sarcastic remarks concerning these strange de- 
 scendants of Louis XIV. He used to tell us that they bought 
 children's toys at all the booths at the neighboring fairs, and 
 when a poor person begged an alms of them they would give 
 him a doll. He afterward accused them of dilapidations at 
 Valencay, and cleverly mentioned the fact to Louis XVIIL, 
 
CONCLUSION. 651 
 
 who, being desirous to dismiss him from Court, while he had 
 not the courage to order him to go, took occasion to praise 
 the beauty and splendor of his seat at Valencay. < Yes, it 
 is pretty fair,' he said, < but the Spanish Princes entirely 
 spoiled it with the fireworks on St. Napoleon's Day.' 
 
 " Although M. de Talleyrand was aware that his position 
 with the Emperor was altered, yet he found Bonaparte 
 when he joined him well disposed and inclined to trust him. 
 There was no perceptible cloud between them. The Em- 
 peror had need of him for the conference at Erfurt, to which 
 they went together at the end of September. My father 
 was in attendance on the Emperor. The letters which he 
 doubtless wrote thence to my mother have not been found ; 
 but their correspondence was so strictly watched, and must 
 therefore have been so reserved, that its loss is, I fancy, of 
 little importance. My father's general letters referred to the 
 good understanding between the two Emperors, their mutual 
 finessing, and the fine manners of the Emperor Alexander. 
 
 " M. de Talleyrand composed a narrative of this Erfurt 
 conference, which he was in the habit of reading aloud. He 
 used to boast, on his return, that as the two Emperors en- 
 tered their respective carriages, each about to journey in a 
 different direction, he had said to Alexander, while attending 
 him, ' If you could only get into the wrong carriage ! ' He 
 had discerned some fine qualities in the Czar, and had en- 
 deavored to win favor, by which he profited in 1814 ; but, 
 at the time of which I am writing, he looked on a Rus- 
 sian alliance as a merely accidental necessity during a war 
 with England, and he persistently held that friendship with 
 Austria, which would eventually become a basis for an alli- 
 ance with England, was the true system for France in Eu- 
 rope. His conduct of political affairs, whether at the time 
 of Napoleon's marriage, or in 1814, in 1815, or, again, in the 
 reign of Louis Philippe, was always consistent with this 
 theory. He often spoke of it to my mother. 
 
 " My mother, in order to complete the history of the year 
 
652 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 1808, would have had to narrate, first, the Erfurt conference, 
 according to the narratives of M. de Talleyrand and of my 
 father ; and, secondly, the reaction of the Spanish affair on 
 the Court of the Tuileries and on Parisian society. The Koy- 
 alist section of the Court and society was deeply moved by the 
 presence of the ancient Bourbons at Fontainebleau. Here, I 
 think, she would have placed the disgrace and exile of Mme. 
 de Chevreuse. 
 
 " The Emperor came back from Erfurt in October, but 
 he merely passed through Paris, and started immediately for 
 Spain, whence he returned at the beginning of 1809, after 
 an indecisive campaign. 
 
 "Public opinion was far from favorable to his policy. 
 For the first time the possibility of his loss had occurred to 
 the minds of men, especially of his sudden death in the 
 course of a war in which a motive of patriotism might nerve 
 an assassin's hand. Various reports, partly loyal and partly 
 malicious, had made the progress of disapprobation and 
 discontent known to him. Talleyrand and Fouche had not 
 hesitated to confirm those reports. The former, especially, 
 was always bold, and even imprudent, as are all men who are 
 proud of their powers of conversation and believe in them 
 as in a force. Fouche, who was more reserved, or less often 
 quoted in society, probably went further in fact. After his 
 positive fashion, he had been practically considering the 
 hypothesis of the opening up of the Imperial succession, and 
 this consideration had brought him nearer to M. de Talley- 
 rand's opinions. 
 
 " The Emperor returned in an angry mood, and vented 
 his irritation on the Court, and especially at the Ministerial 
 Council, in the celebrated scene in which he dismissed M. de 
 Talleyrand * from his post of Grand Chamberlain, and put 
 M. de Montesquiou in his place. 
 
 " That important functionaries of the Empire, such as 
 Talleyrand and Fouche, as well as other less prominent per- 
 * Thiers's " Histoire du Consulat et de 1'Empire," vol. x., p. 17. 
 
CONCLUSION. 653 
 
 sons, should have behaved as they did on this occasion, has 
 been severely commented on. I am ready to admit that 
 vanity and talkativeness may have led Talleyrand and Fouche 
 to say more than was prudent ; but I maintain that, under 
 an absolute government, it is necessary that men holding im- 
 portant offices should, in the case of public danger, or on 
 perceiving that affairs are being badly directed, not be afraid 
 to encourage, by a prudent opposition, the moral resistance 
 which alone can slacken or even divert the mistaken course 
 of authority. Still more, if they foresee the possibility of 
 disaster, against which no preparations have been made, they 
 should take thought concerning what may yet be done. That 
 the pride of absolute power should be mortified, that en- 
 deavors should be made to overcome and to suppress that 
 resistance when it is too isolated to avail, I understand. But 
 it would be none the less a boon to the state and for the ruler, 
 if this opposition were sufficiently powerful to oblige him to 
 modify his plans and to reform his life. 
 
 " With regard to the case in point, let us suppose that, 
 instead of imputing the disapprobation of Talleyrand or of 
 Fouche to intrigue or treason, Napoleon had received re- 
 ports from Dubois, or others who had presented it as a proof 
 of the universal discontent ; that his Prefect of Police, him- 
 self sharing them, had pointed out to him that these senti- 
 ments were felt and expressed by Cambaceres, by Maret, by 
 Caulaincourt, by Murat, lastly by the Due de Gaeta, whom 
 Thiers quotes on this occasion in short, by every important 
 personage in the Court and the Government would the 
 service rendered to the Emperor have been an evil one? 
 And would not this unanimous opposition have been the 
 only means likely to enlighten him, to arrest his steps, to 
 turn him from the way of perdition at a period when it was 
 not yet too late ? 
 
 " As to the reproach addressed to Talleyrand or others, 
 that they censured the Government after having approved 
 and served it, that is a natural one in the mouth of Napo- 
 
654 MEMOIRS 0*F MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 leon, who, moreover, did not hesitate to exaggerate it by 
 falsehood. But in itself it is foolish ; otherwise all honest 
 men must hold themselves forbidden, because they have once 
 belonged to a certain government, because they have for- 
 merly supported, cloaked, or even justified its faults, either 
 in error or from weakness, to grow wiser as dangers thicken 
 and circumstances become developed. Unless we are re- 
 solved on unceasing opposition or on unlimited submission, 
 a time must come when we no longer approve what we 
 approved yesterday, when we feel bound to speak although 
 hitherto we have been silent, and when, drawbacks striking 
 us more forcibly than advantages, we recognize defects which 
 we had hitherto endeavored or pretended to ignore, and faults 
 which for a long time we have palliated ! After all, this is 
 what happened in France with regard to Napoleon, and the 
 change took place in the mind of officials and citizens alike, 
 except when the former were blinded by servility or cor- 
 rupted by a base ambition. 
 
 " In our own modest sphere we never had to decide 
 under the Empire, except upon the direction of our wishes 
 and feelings, for we never took any part in politics ; yet we 
 had to solve for ourselves that question which continually 
 recurs to me when I reperuse the Memoirs or the letters in 
 which my mother has preserved her impressions and her 
 thoughts. 
 
 " My mother would have had to allude, at any rate indi- 
 rectly, to this grave subject in narrating the disgrace of M. 
 de Talleyrand. She saw him, at that time, at least as often 
 as formerly; she heard his own statements. Nothing was 
 better known just then to the public than the cold silence 
 (equally far removed from weakness and from insolence) 
 with which, leaning against a console on account of his lame- 
 ness, he listened to the Emperor's philippic. As is the cus- 
 tom under absolute monarchy, he swallowed the affront, and 
 continued to present himself at Court with a coolness which 
 was not to be mistaken for humility ; and I have no recollec- 
 
CONCLUSION. 655 
 
 tion that his attitude under the Empire was ever accused of 
 weakness from that day forth. It must, of course, be under- 
 stood that the rules of the point of honor are not in this 
 case as they are understood in a free country, nor the philo- 
 sophic laws of moral dignity as they are understood outside 
 the world of courts and politics. 
 
 "My mother would, after this, have had to relate our 
 own little episode in the drama. I am not sure whether the 
 Emperor, on his arrival, felt or showed any displeasure toward 
 my father. I do not know whether it was not subsequent 
 reports which caused our disgrace. In any case, my father 
 did not become immediately aware of the truth, either be- 
 cause it was so far from his thoughts that he suspected no- 
 thing, or because the Emperor did not think of him at first, 
 He was a friend of M. de Talleyrand's, and in his confidence 
 up to a certain point : this in itself was a motive for suspicion 
 and a cause of disfavor. We had written no letter and taken 
 no step that could tell against us, and I remember that even 
 our speech was very guarded, and that, could the police spies 
 have witnessed the interviews with M. de Talleyrand in my 
 mother's little drawing-room, where my parents habitually 
 received him alone, they could have discovered nothing 
 whereon to found a police report. Such reports were made, 
 however ; my father felt no doubt about that, although the 
 Emperor never displayed his resentment by any outbreak, 
 nor did he even enter into any serious explanation. But he 
 acted toward him with a cold malevolence and harshness 
 which made his service intolerable. Thenceforth my parents 
 felt themselves in a painful position with the sovereign, 
 which might, perhaps, lead to their quitting the Court. 
 
 " There was no amelioration in this state of things when 
 Napoleon, who had gone to Germany in April, 1809, came 
 back to Fontainebleau on the 6th of October, the conqueror 
 of "Wagram, and proud of the peace just signed at Yienna. 
 Victories, however dearly bought, did not make him more 
 generous or kindly. He was still performing work impor- 
 47 
 
656 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE E^MUSAT. 
 
 tant enough to be vain of his power, and, if it had been 
 put to severe tests, that was a stronger reason why he desired 
 it to be respected. However, he found, in reverting to the 
 recent souvenir of the descent of the English upon Walche- 
 ren, a state of things in Spain quite unsatisfactory, a quarrel 
 with the Holy See pushed to its last extremities, and public 
 opinion more restless about his inclination for war than re- 
 assured by his victories defiant, sad, even critical, and be- 
 setting with its suspicions the man whom it had so long en- 
 vironed with its fallacies. 
 
 "This time Fouche" was the object of his thoughts. 
 Fouche had acted in his own way at the moment of the 
 descent of the English. He had assumed authority, he 
 had made an appeal to public sentiment, he had reorganized 
 the national guard, and employed Bernadotte on our side. 
 Everything in these proceedings, both the conception and 
 the details, had greatly displeased the Emperor. All his ill- 
 temper was concentrated upon Fouche ; and, besides, as he 
 had come back resolved upon the divorce, it was difficult to 
 hold M. de Talleyrand aloof from a deliberation in which 
 the knowledge of the condition of Europe should have a 
 decisive weight. In this must be still seen one of those 
 proofs, at that time less frequent each day, of the almost 
 impartial justice of his mind. He was sometimes heard to 
 say : ' It is Talleyrand alone who understands me ; it is only 
 Talleyrand with whom I can talk.' He consulted him, and 
 at other moments spoke of placing him at Yincennes. Thus 
 he did not fail to call him when he deliberated upon his 
 marriage. M. de Talleyrand strongly insisted that he should 
 unite himself to an Archduchess. He even thought that the 
 Emperor had sought an interview with him because his in- 
 tervention in this matter would contribute to decide Austria. 
 What is certain is the fact that he has always alluded to his 
 conduct in this instance as one of the guarantees he had. 
 given of his fundamental opinion in regard to the alliances 
 of France and the conditions of the independence of Europe. 
 
CONCLUSION. 657 
 
 " It is seen how, in all these matters the state of opinion 
 during the campaign of the Danube, the deliberations rela- 
 tive to the divorce, those which preceded the marriage with 
 Marie Louise the Memoirs of my mother would have been 
 instructive and interesting. It is unhappily impossible to 
 supply this last link. I am only able to recall that she said 
 that the Empress was wrong in doubting her fidelity on one 
 occasion, probably relative to the divorce. She has an- 
 nounced that this matter was explained. I can not explain 
 it in its place, and I have no recollection that she ever 
 spoke to me of it. At the moment of the divorce her devo- 
 tion was appreciated, and Queen Hortense went so far as to 
 consult with her in regard to it twice before enlisting her 
 irrevocably in favor of her mother.* I have no wish to 
 over-estimate the value of what she did in that matter ; the 
 most refined delicacy dictated her conduct; and, besides, 
 with her deplorable health, her forced inactivity, her former 
 relations to Josephine, and our new situation near the Em- 
 peror, she would have had in a renovated Court, near a new 
 Empress, a most awkward and painful position. It may be 
 conceived, indeed, that nothing in all that I am going to re- 
 call restored our credit at the Court, and my family remained 
 there irreparably lessened in its influence. The Emperor, 
 however, approved of my mother's remaining with the Em- 
 press Josephine. He even praised her for it ; this suited her. 
 He regarded her as a person on the retreat, with whom he 
 no longer need to concern himself. Having less to expect 
 from him, less to demand from him, he reproached us less in 
 his thought for omitting to do anything on our part to please 
 him. He left my father in the circle of his official duties, 
 to which his character and a certain mingling of discontent 
 and fear kept him closely enough confined. It was almost 
 established in the mind of Napoleon that he had nothing 
 more to do for us, and he no longer thought of us. 
 
 * I have given, in a note to Chapter XXVII., the letter which recounts this 
 conversation. P. R. 
 
658 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 " This new situation makes it evident that the Memoirs 
 of my mother would have lost their interest. She no longer 
 visited the Court, going once only to be presented to the 
 Empress Marie Louise ; then she had later an audience of 
 the Emperor, who wrote to her asking it.* She would, 
 therefore, have had nothing to relate of which she had been 
 a witness in the imperial palace. She was no longer placed 
 under obligations by any relations with the great personages 
 of the state at least she considered herself relieved of them ; 
 and yielding, perhaps too readily, to her tastes, to her suffer- 
 ings, she gradually isolated herself from everything that 
 would remind her of the Court and of the Government. 
 
 " However, as my father did not cease to frequent the 
 palace to the end, as the confidence in M. de Talleyrand 
 seemed not to diminish, and, finally, as the rapid and declin- 
 ing steps in the affairs of the Emperor more and more affect- 
 ed public opinion, and soon stirred up the restless attention 
 of the nation, my mother had still much with which to be- 
 come acquainted, and much to observe, and she would have 
 been able to give to the painting of the last five years of the 
 Empire a positive historic value. 
 
 " Some reflections on many events of those five years 
 will be taken, if it is desired, as a remembrance of what I 
 have heard, during this same time, from the lips of my 
 parents. 
 
 " Among the events of that year, 1809, one of the most 
 important, and which made the least noise, was the surprise 
 upon the Pope. The facts were not well understood while 
 they were transpiring, and, it is necessary to say, in the na- 
 tion that Louis XIII. put under the protection of the Holy 
 Yirgin no one thought of them. However, the Emperor 
 had begun by causing the Roman States to be occupied, then 
 went on by dismembering them, then by demanding from 
 the Pope that he should make war upon England, then by 
 
 * I have spoken in a note of this audience, and of the letter which fol- 
 lowed. P. R. 
 
CONCLUSION. 659 
 
 driving him from the city of Rome, then by depriving him 
 of all temporal power, then, finally, by causing him to be 
 arrested and guarded as a prisoner. How strange all this, 
 assuredly ! And yet it seemed that no government of Catho- 
 lic Europe seriously offered assistance to the common father 
 of the faithful. The Pope certainly, deliberating in 1804 
 whether he should crown Napoleon, had not objected on the 
 ground that it was he who, in that year, had caused the Duke 
 d'Enghien to be shot. The Emperor of Austria, deliberating 
 in 1809 whether he should give his daughter to Napoleon, 
 did not object on the ground that it was he who, in that 
 same year, had placed the Pope in prison. It is true that at 
 that time all the sovereigns of Europe had, in that which 
 relates to pontifical authority, entirely different ideas from 
 those ascribed to them, and from those attributed to them 
 to-day. The house of Austria, in particular, had for a tra- 
 ditional rule that political testament in which the Duke of 
 Lorraine, Charles V., recommends that the Pope should be 
 reduced to the single domain of the court of Borne, and 
 makes sport 'of the delusion of excommunications, when 
 the real point is that Jesus Christ never established the tem- 
 poral power of the Church, and that the latter can possess 
 nothing without contradicting his example and without com- 
 promising his Gospel.' 
 
 " In a letter of my mother she advised my father, in the 
 autumn of 1809, not to allow 'AthahV to be represented 
 at Court, at a moment when it might be said that there were 
 some allusions to papal affairs in that struggle of a queen and 
 a priest, and in presence of a prince so pious as the King of 
 Saxony, who was preparing to visit the Emperor. In this 
 incident was the maximum of evidence of the direction of 
 her thoughts excited by a tyrannic act of which so much 
 would now be heard, and in regard to which public opinion 
 would certainly be no more divided. I have not heard it 
 said that a single officer in this immense empire would have 
 separated himself from a government of which the head was 
 
660 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE 
 
 excommunicated, if not by name, at least impliedly, by the 
 bull launched against all the authors or abettors of the at- 
 tempts against pontifical authority. I can not refrain from 
 alluding to the Due de Cadore. He was a man not without 
 intelligence nor without honesty ; but, accepting as indispu- 
 table laws the intentions of the Emperor, after having em- 
 ployed his ministry in the spoliation of the Spanish dynasty, 
 he concurred with the same docility in that of the sovereign 
 Pontiff, and, himself excommunicated as a mandatory, abet- 
 tor ', and counselor, he maintained with great composure that 
 Napoleon could resume that which Charlemagne had given, 
 and that now France was in the presence of Eome by the 
 rights of the Gallic Church. 
 
 " The situation of the Empire at the end of 1809 is sum- 
 marized in these words by the great historian of the Empire : 
 6 The Emperor had made himself, at Yincennes, the rival of 
 the regicides ; at Bayonne, the peer of those who would de- 
 clare war on Europe to establish a universal republic ; at the 
 Quirinal, tfre peer certainly of those who had dethroned Pius 
 VI. to create the Eoman Eepublic.' 
 
 " I am not one of those who assist by declamation in in- 
 tensifying the odium of these acts. I do not regard them as 
 unheard-of monstrosities reserved to our century; I know 
 that history is full of examples with which it is not difficult 
 to compare them, and that analogous outrages can be found 
 in the life of sovereigns for whom posterity has preserved 
 some respect. It would not be difficult to find in the history 
 of the severities of the reign of Louis XIV. executions which 
 are not incomparable with the death of the Due d'Enghien. 
 The affair of the Man in the Iron Mask, especially if, as it is 
 difficult not to believe, this man was a brother of the King, 
 is nothing that the murder of Vincennes need be envious of ; 
 and power and deception are not less worthily arrayed in the 
 act by which Louis XIV. seized Lorraine in 1661 than in 
 the fraudulent dismemberment of Spain in 1808. I see in 
 the abduction of the Pope hardly more than its equivalent if 
 
CONCLUSION. 661 
 
 we revert to the middle ages. I will add that, even after 
 these acts, for ever to be condemned, it was still possible, by 
 the use of a little wisdom, to have assured the repose, the 
 prosperity, and the grandeur of France to the extent that no 
 name in history would have been more- honored than that 
 of Napoleon. But if any one imagines that this is what he 
 has not done ; that all the wars thereafter undertaken were 
 no more than the mad preparatory steps to the ruin of the 
 country ; and that thenceforward the character of the man 
 already loaded with such misdeeds was afflicted with a super- 
 ciliousness and a harshness which were discouraging to his 
 best servants, it is essential to clearly understand that, even 
 at Court, all those whom the servile complaisance of false 
 judgment had not led astray, sadly disabused, could rightly 
 serve without confidence, admire without affection, fear more 
 than hope, desire lessons of opposition to a terrible power, 
 in his successes to dread his intoxication, and in his misfor- 
 tunes to weep for France rather than him. 
 
 "Such, in fact, is the spirit in which these Memoirs 
 would have been continued, and it will even be found that, 
 by a kind of retroactive effect, this spirit is shown in the 
 recitals anterior to 1809. At the epoch in which history was 
 enacting, this spirit was slow in manifesting itself, as I have 
 now described it. Years glided away in sadness timid and 
 defiant, but without hate, and each time that a happy circum- 
 stance or a wise measure gave their light to them, the star 
 of hope resumed the ascendant, and one tried to believe that 
 the progress in the direction of evil would have an end. 
 
 " The years 1810 and 1811 are the two tranquil years of 
 the Empire. The marriage in the one and the birth of the 
 King of Eome in the other seemed pledges of peace and sta- 
 bility. The hope would have been without shadows, the se- 
 curity entire, if the torn veil through which the Emperor 
 could be seen had not revealed passions and errors, seeds 
 always productive of gratuitous mistakes and senseless at- 
 tempts. It was seen that the love of excess had taken pos- 
 session of him, and was carrying all before it. Besides the 
 
662 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE RtiMUSAT. 
 
 interminable duration of a war with. England, with no possi- 
 bility of gloriously conquering her, or of doing her any in- 
 jury that was not damaging to us, and the continuation of a 
 struggle in Spain difficult and unfortunate, were two trials 
 that the pride of the Emperor could not long endure in 
 peace. It was necessary that he should preserve his reputa- 
 tion at all cost, and that by some astounding successes he 
 should cause to be forgotten those obstinate checks to his 
 fortune. Sound- judgment pointed out that the Spanish 
 question was the one to end, I do not say by a return to 
 justice and by a generous concession the Bonapartes are 
 not among those to whom such measures suggest themselves 
 but by force. It can readily be believed that, had the 
 Emperor concentrated all the resources of his genius and of 
 his Empire upon the resistance of the Peninsula, he would 
 have conquered it. Unjust causes are not always destined to 
 fail in this world, and the Emperor ought to have seen that, 
 in humiliating Spain, he was preparing the occasion, so vain- 
 ly sought, for striking England, since that nation rendered 
 itself vulnerable by landing her armies on the Continent. 
 Such an occasion made it worth while that something should 
 be risked. Napoleon should have gone there in person, and 
 himself entered the lists with Arthur Wellesley. What 
 glory, on the other hand, and what fortune did he not re- 
 serve to himself and to his nation, in persistently adjourning 
 the struggle, and in confronting them both finally on the 
 mournful plains of Waterloo ! 
 
 " But the Emperor had no relish for the Spanish ques- 
 tion ; he was tired of it. It had never yielded a pleasant or 
 glorious moment. He half understood that he had begun it 
 unjustly and conducted it feebly ; that he had singularly 
 misconceived its difficulty and importance. He tried to have 
 a contempt for it, in order not to be humiliated by it ; he 
 neglected it, in order to avoid its anxieties. He had & child- 
 ish repugnance, if it was nothing worse, to risking himself 
 in a war which did not appeal to his imagination. Shall we 
 -dare say that he was not absolutely sure of doing the work 
 
CONCLUSION. 663 
 
 well, and that the dangers of reverses turned him from an 
 enterprise which, even well carried to its conclusion, would 
 have gone too slowly and with too many difficulties to have 
 increased his grandeur? A ready extemporizer, his plan 
 seemed to be to allow everything to die of old age that dis- 
 pleased him, and to build up his fortune and fame in some 
 new enterprise. These causes, joined to the logical develop- 
 ments of an absurd system, and to the developments natural 
 to an uncontrollable temper, annulled all the guarantees of 
 prudence and safety that the events of the years 1810 and 
 1811 seemed to have given, turned him from Spain to Rus- 
 sia, and brought about that campaign of 1812 which logically 
 drew him on to his destruction. 
 
 " Two years in which hope had the ascendancy of fear, 
 and three years in which fear left very little place for hope 
 here we have the division of the five last years of the reign 
 of Napoleon. 
 
 "In speaking of 1810 and 1811, my mother would have 
 had to show how the two events, which ought to have in- 
 spired in the Emperor the spirit of conservation and of wis- 
 dom, his marriage and the birth of his son, served in the 
 sequel only to exalt his pride. In the interval all the ob- 
 stacles between him and the execution of his will are seen to 
 be removed. For instance, since, long ago, he does not par- 
 don Fouche for having a will of his own. Fouche showed 
 that he desired peace. A violent scene occurs to recall that 
 of which Talleyrand had been the object, and the Due de 
 Rovigo becomes Minister of Police, a choice which beguiles, 
 without doubt, the hopes of the Emperor and the fears of 
 the public, but which seems, however, to expand still more 
 the area in which arbitrary power has sway. The existence 
 of Holland and the indocible character of its King are still 
 an obstacle, at least a limit. The King is compelled to abdi- 
 cate, and Holland is declared French. Rome itself becomes 
 the capital of a department, and the domain of St. Peter is 
 united, as formerly Dauphine was, to furnish a title for the 
 heir to the Empire. The clerical order, driven with a high 
 
664 MEMOIRS OF MADAME DE R&MUSAT. 
 
 hand, is violated in its customs and in its traditions. An ap- 
 pearance of a council is attempted and broken up, and prison 
 and exile impose silence on the Church. A councilor, sub- 
 missive but modest, executes the wishes of his master, but 
 does not glorify him ; he lacks enthusiasm in his servitude : 
 Champagny is set aside for Maret and the lion is let loose in 
 Europe, and no voice is heard which rouses it to madness. 
 And as, during this time, the fortune of the conqueror and 
 the liberty of the people have found the one its limit, the 
 other its bulwark in those immortally celebrated lines of 
 Torres- Yedras, it becomes essential that this restless and 
 maddened force should dash itself in pieces upon Moscow. 
 
 " This last period, so rich for the political historian in its 
 terrible pictures, has but little value to the simple observer 
 of the interior scenes of the government. The cloud became 
 dense around power, and France knew as little what was 
 done as if she had been lost by a throw of dice. Neverthe- 
 less, there was still the work of drawing the instructive pic- 
 ture of hearts and of minds ignorant and restless, indignant 
 and submissive, desolated, reassured, imposed upon, uncon- 
 cerned, depressed all that at intervals, and sometimes con- 
 centrated into an hour ; for despotism, which always feigns 
 to be happy, ill prepares the masses of the people for mis- 
 fortune, and believes in courage only when it has deceived it. 
 
 "It is, I think, to this description of public sentiments 
 that my mother would have been able to consecrate the end 
 of her Memoirs, for she knew something of what everybody 
 saw. M. Pasquier, whom she saw every day, observed, by 
 taste as well as by a sense of duty, the discretion prescribed 
 to his functions. Accustomed to conversations with the 
 class of persons whom he ruled without restraint, he was 
 during a great length of time careful to take political notes, 
 when all the world was free to talk politics. The Due de 
 Rovigo, less discreet, divulged his opinions rather than the 
 facts ; and the conversations of M. de Talleyrand, more frank 
 and more confident, were hardly more than the disclosure of 
 his judgments and of his predictions." 
 
POSTSOEIPT. 
 
 IN the first volume of these Memoirs I attempted to re- 
 trace the chief events of my grandmother's life, and I also 
 narrated the circumstances which induced her to rewrite the 
 manuscript unhappily destroyed in 1815. I considered it 
 necessary to a right comprehension and appreciation of her 
 views that the reader should learn how she had been brought 
 up, what were the position and circumstances of her parents, 
 for what reasons she accepted a place at Bonaparte's Court, 
 through what phases of enthusiasm, hope, and disenchant- 
 ment she passed, how by degrees liberal opinions gained a 
 hold upon her, and what influence her son, when he began 
 to make a figure both in society and in political life, exercised 
 over her. 
 
 However strong may be his confidence in the success of a 
 publication, it is the duty of an editor to avail himself of 
 every aid, and to make sure, or nearly so, that the author 
 shall in everything be understood. This was all the more 
 necessary in the present instance, because the editor, brought 
 up to entertain the same sentiments, and accustomed to hear 
 the same opinions and the same anecdotes repeated around 
 him, might well be afraid of deceiving himself respecting 
 the worth or the success of these reminiscences. Relatives 
 are seldom good judges either of the intellectual or physi- 
 cal attributes of their kin. Family beauties or prodigies, 
 admired by the fireside or in select coteries, are frequently 
 
666 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 found to be insignificant personages on a larger stage, and 
 when seen in broader daylight. I therefore thought it well 
 to relate all that might be needed for the instruction of the 
 reader, and, by introducing him into the private life of the 
 author, to account for a mixture of admiration and severity 
 in these Memoirs which sometimes appears contradictory. I 
 should have been excused for adding my own comments upon 
 the ability of the writer and the character of her hero ; in- 
 deed, such comments would have furnished the subject of a 
 preface, of the kind that we are told ought to precede every 
 work of serious importance. But I carefully avoided writing 
 any such preface, because I had one to offer which would 
 enhance the value of the book to the public, as it enhances it 
 to myself a preface written by my father more than twenty 
 years ago. I may print that preface now, for success has 
 justified his previsions and our hopes. 
 
 When my father wrote the pages that I am about to lay 
 before the reader, the Second Empire was still in existence, 
 and to all appearance secure. Nothing short of a persistent 
 trust in the undeviating principles of justice and liberty could 
 have led any one to believe that its fall was possible or prob- 
 able. Since then the fullness of time has come, and events 
 have marched with a rapidity which could not have been 
 foreseen. Similar errors have brought about similar re- 
 verses ; the moody and wavering mind of Napoleon III. has 
 led him to adopt the same course which ruined the brilliant 
 and resolute genius of the great Emperor. My father for the 
 third time beheld the foreigner in France, and vanquished 
 France seeking in liberty a consolation for defeat. He suf- 
 fered by our misfortunes, as he had suffered by them fifty 
 years earlier, and he had the melancholy honor of repairing 
 a portion of those misfortunes, of hastening the day of the 
 final deliverance of our soil. He contributed to the foun- 
 dation of a liberal and popular Government on a heap of 
 ruins. The last years of the Empire, the War, the Com- 
 mune, the difficult accession of the Eepublic through so 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 667 
 
 many perils, had no power to change his convictions; and 
 he would think to-day just what he wrote twenty-two years 
 ago of the vices of absolute power, of the necessity for 
 teaching nations what conquerors cost them, of the right 
 of his mother to set down her impressions, and of the duty 
 of his son to publish them. 
 
 PAUL DE KEMUSAT. 
 
 II. 
 
 " LAFFITTE, November, 1857. 
 
 " I HAVE once more taken up, after a long lapse of time, 
 the manuscript of these Memoirs, which my mother com- 
 posed nearly forty years ago ; and, having attentively re- 
 perused it, I now leave it to my sons and to their children, 
 with an injunction to publish it. I believe that it will prove 
 a useful historical testimony, and, combined with her corre- 
 spondence, will be a most interesting monument to the intel- 
 lect and the heart of a gifted and good woman. This work 
 will perpetuate the memory of my mother. 
 
 " At whatever epoch these Memoirs may appear, I fore- 
 see that they will not find the public ready to receive them 
 entirely without protest, and with satisfaction complete at all 
 points. Even should the Imperial restoration which we now 
 witness not be destined to a prolonged future should it not 
 be, as I hope it may not be, the final government of the 
 France of the Eevolution I suspect that, whether through 
 pride, weakness, or imagination, France, as a whole, will con- 
 tinue to entertain a tolerably exalted opinion of Napoleon, 
 which it will be reluctant to submit to the free examination 
 of politics and philosophy. He was one of those great men 
 who are placed from the beginning in the sphere of fancy 
 rather than in that of reason, and in his case poetry has taken 
 the lead of history. A somewhat puerile sympathy, a some- 
 what weak generosity, has almost always made the nation 
 
668 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 refuse to impute to Bonaparte those awful ills which he 
 brought down upon France. The nation has pitied him the 
 most for its own misfortunes, and thought of him as the 
 noblest victim of the calamities of which he was the author. 
 I know that the sentiments which have led France to make 
 this strange mistake are excusable and even praiseworthy ; 
 but I also know that national vanity, the lack of seriousness 
 of mind, levity which takes little heed of reason and justice, 
 are the sources of this patriotic error. Let us lay aside the 
 question of principle since the nation chooses to resolve 
 that question differently at different times, and glories in 
 despising liberty at intervals and let us speak only the lan- 
 guage of national independence. How can he be in the 
 eyes of the people the hero of that independence who twice 
 brought the foreign conqueror into the capital of France, 
 and whose government is the only one which, four five hun- 
 dred years, since the time of the mad King Charles VI., left 
 French territory smaller than it found it ? Even Louis XV. 
 and Charles X. did better than that. Nevertheless, I am 
 convinced the multitude will abide in its error, and non au- 
 feretur ab ea. 
 
 " It is, then, very unlikely that the spirit in which my 
 mother has written will ever be popular, or that all her read- 
 ers will be convinced. I am prepared for this, but I also 
 think that among thoughtful people the truth will make its 
 way. Infatuation will not have an endless duration, and, 
 notwithstanding certain obstinate prejudices, public opinion 
 especially if liberty be at length restored to us and remain 
 with us will be enlightened, and will never again sacrifice 
 the rights of reason and those of the public conscience to 
 glory. Will my mother appear sufficiently impartial to 
 these more impartial judges ? I believe she will, if they take 
 account of the time at which she wrote, and also of the sen- 
 timents and ideas which inspired her ; and so I have no hesi- 
 tation in delivering up her Memoirs to the judgment of the 
 world. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 669 
 
 " * The further I go,' wrote my mother to me, c the more 
 I am resolved that, until my death, you shall be my only 
 reader, and that is enough for me.' * And again : ' Your 
 father says he knows no one to whom I could show what I 
 am writing. He says nobody carries so far as I do " the tal- 
 ent of being true." That is his expression. Well, then, I 
 do write for no one, but one day you will find this among 
 my effects, and you may do with it what you will.' She was 
 not without some apprehensions. ' There is a thought which 
 sometimes troubles me. I say to myself, " If one day my 
 son should publish all this, what will be thought of me ! " 
 The idea that I may be supposed to be evil-minded, or, at 
 least, ill-natured, makes me uneasy. I exhaust myself with 
 the effort to find something to praise, but this man was such 
 an exterminator (assommateur) of worth, and we were brought 
 so low, that I grow utterly disheartened, and the cry of truth 
 utters itself irresistibly. I know no one but you to whom I 
 would intrust such confidences.' f 
 
 " I hold myself formally authorized by these passages to 
 bequeath the work which my mother confided to me to the 
 public. As for the opinions which it expresses, taking them 
 upon myself, I will explain myself freely respecting the 
 Emperor and the Empire, but not from the purely political 
 point of view. All that I might say on the subject of des- 
 potism (which I hate) would be without importance in this 
 case, since the question is, What would be a just judgment 
 of the Emperor and the Empire formed by one who had 
 witnessed the 18th Brumaire, and shared the confident readi- 
 ness of the nation to divest itself of the charge of its own 
 destinies, by placing them in the hands of one man ? I deal 
 with the moral, and not the political, aspect of the matter. 
 
 " Let us first consider the Emperor, and discuss him with 
 those only who, while finding much to admire in him, are 
 
 * Letter of April 24, 1819. I have already quoted this letter in the Intro- 
 duction. P. R. 
 
 f Letters of September 10 and October 8, 1818. P. R. 
 
670 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 willing to exercise their judgment upon what they admire. 
 It was commonly said, under his reign, that he despised 
 men. The motives by which he defended his policy in 
 his conversations were not taken from among the noble 
 qualities of the human heart, but from that which he thor- 
 oughly understood, the imagination of the people. Now, 
 imagination is naturally captivated by grand and beautiful 
 things, and the imagination of the Emperor, which was 
 vivid and daring, was accessible to this kind of charm. His 
 extraordinary faculties rendered him capable of great things, 
 and he employed them, with others, to captivate France, the 
 world, and posterity. Thence came what was thoroughly 
 admirable in his power and his life; and, if we were to con- 
 sider that only, we could not place him too high. Never- 
 theless, a close observer will discern that it was by that in- 
 telligence and imagination, rather than the purely moral sen- 
 timents of justice and of right, that all was done. Take, for 
 example, religion. It was not the truth of religion, it was 
 its influence and its prestige, which dictated what he did for 
 its cause ; and so with all the rest. In his contemptuous esti- 
 mate of humanity, he recognized only two springs of action 
 vanity and self-interest ; and to the masterly handling of 
 these he applied himself with remarkable ability. While by 
 the eclat of his acts, by the glory of his arms, by a perma- 
 nent embellishment of conservative social principles, he gave 
 to his government what was essential to prevent self-love 
 from blushing at the fact of its connection with it, he care- 
 fully manipulated, he caressed, he even exalted other senti- 
 ments more humble, which may oftentimes be harmless, but 
 which are not noble and virtuous principles. Love of re- 
 pose, fear of responsibility, preoccupation with the pleasures 
 of private life, the desire of personal comfort, the taste of 
 riches, as well in the individual as in the family ; finally, all 
 the weaknesses which usually accompany these sentiments 
 when they are exclusive, found in him a protector. It is 
 from this point of view that he was everywhere recognized 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 671 
 
 as essential to the preservation of order. But, when men 
 are governed by the springs I am about to call to mind, and 
 when the governor is not upheld or restrained by the senti- 
 ment of pure and true glory, by the instinct of a soul natu- 
 rally frank and generous, it is an easy step to the thought 
 that imagination, vanity, interest are paid with counterfeit 
 as well as good money; that abuses of power, appearances 
 of grandeur, success attained at all cost, tranquillity main- 
 tained by oppression, riches distributed by favor, prosperity 
 realized by force or made to seem to exist by falsehood 
 that, finally, all the triumphs of artifice or of violence, all 
 that despotism can wrest from credulity and fear, are things 
 which also prosper among men ; and that the world is often, 
 without serious objection, the plaything of the strongest and 
 most shrewd. But nothing in the nature of the Emperor 
 preserved him from the temptation of employing such means 
 for the advancement of his power. Not satisfied with merit- 
 ing power, he consented, when he could not merit it, to take 
 it by force or to steal it. He made no distinction between 
 prudence and cunning, or between true statesmanship and 
 Machiavelism. Finally, policy is always in the path of de- 
 ception, and Napoleon was always a deceiver. 
 
 " It is deception which, in my judgment, most degraded 
 the Emperor, and, unhappily, with him his empire. For 
 this reason, it is to be regretted that France yielded obedi- 
 ence to him, that men rendered him service, whatever glory 
 the nation has gained, whatever probity and whatever talent 
 the men have shown. One can not wholly ignore the mis- 
 fortune of having been the dupe or the accomplice, in all 
 cases the instrument, of a system in which a cunning decep- 
 tion plays as great a part as wisdom, and violence as genius ; 
 of a system in which cunning deception and violence must 
 lead on to the desperate extremes of an unwise policy. To 
 such a policy France will not consent, and it is only in the 
 interest of self-love that France exalts the glory of Napo- 
 leon. 
 
 48 
 
672 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 " As to his associates, they likewise ought certainly not 
 to have been humiliated by what they did or what they si- 
 lently sustained. They were right in not publicly denoun- 
 cing what the nation did not denounce, and in presenting 
 services loyally rendered, honesty, zeal, devotion, capacity, 
 the patriotism which they had displayed in the performance 
 of public duties, as an offset to the bitter denunciations of 
 their adversaries, to the trifling or corrupt parties, who had 
 done less or who had done worse. The recollections of the 
 Convention or those of the emigration could not be brought 
 against them to any advantage, and, after all, they did well 
 not to blush at their cause. Their justification is found in 
 the language of Tacitus, who, even under a despotism, thinks 
 that praise is due a capable and efficient officer, though he 
 may practice what he calls dbsequium et modestia.* 
 
 " These last words are applicable to persons of high char- 
 acter who, ]ike the members of my family, served the Em- 
 peror without mean selfishness and without special distinc- 
 tion. But still, when, under his reign itself, eyes were 
 opened to the character of his despotism when the wail of 
 the dying nation had been heard, when later, in reflecting 
 upon the fall of a dictatorial power and on the succession of 
 a constitutional power, that policy was brought up for con- 
 sideration which does not place government and liberty in 
 the hands of enemies, it was impossible not to revert with 
 some embarrassment, with some bitterness of heart, to those 
 days in which example, confidence, admiration, thoughtless- 
 ness, a justifiable ambition, had united to urge good citizens 
 to place themselves among the supporters of absolute power. 
 For he who does not seek to make himself blind, he who is 
 ready to be honest with himself, will find it impossible to 
 conceal the fact that dignity of mind and character is lost 
 under the pressure of a despotism even glorious and neces- 
 
 * " ' Agricola,' xlii. I remember that when I read these two words of Taci- 
 tus, I made them precisely applicable to the case of my father. They describe 
 him perfectly." 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 673 
 
 sary, and more completely under one that is harsh and main- 
 tained without reason. There is no cause of self-reproach 
 without doubt ; but neither can one praise his own acts, or 
 be satisfied with what he has done or what he has seen ; and 
 the more the soul is opened to the convictions of liberty, 
 the more one turns his eyes with grief to the days in which 
 liberty was shut out from it days of voluntary servitude, as 
 Boetius characterizes it. 
 
 " What it has not been either necessary or proper to say 
 of one's self to his contemporaries and of the latter to them- 
 selves, it is a duty to frankly avow when one writes for 
 himself and for the future. What conscience has felt and 
 revealed, what experience and reflection have taught, it is 
 necessary to delineate, or not write at all. Unbiased truth, 
 disinterested truth, is the controlling thought of the Memoirs. 
 This is the basis of those of my mother. 
 
 " She had suffered intensely during the years in which 
 her opinions were in opposition to her interests, and during 
 which the former could have triumphed over the latter only 
 per dbrupta, as Tacitus says, speaking of this same thing, 
 sed in nullum reipublicoB usum.* 'Attempts of this kind, 
 besides, never fall to the lot of a woman ; and, in a remark- 
 able letter that my mother wrote to one of her friends, f she 
 said to her that women at least had always the expedient of 
 saying in the palace of Caesar : 
 
 * Mais le coeur d'Emilie est hors de ton pouvoir.' | 
 
 And she declared to her that this line had been her secret 
 consolation. 
 
 " Her correspondence will reveal in its lightest shades, in 
 its deepest recesses, the sentiments of a pure and active soul. 
 It will there be seen how she united a generous kindness to 
 a penetrating observation of all those weaknesses, of all those 
 
 *"Agricola,"xlii. 
 
 f Madame de Barante. 
 
 j " But the heart of Emilia is out of your power." 
 
674 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 unhappy circumstances of our nature, which give opportunity 
 to the painters of morals to display their talents. It will 
 there also be seen how, after having caused her much suffer- 
 ing, Napoleon had kept a place in her thoughts ; how this 
 memory still moved her; and how, when the unhappiness 
 of his exile at St. Helena was described, she was deeply 
 affected. When, in the summer of 1821, the news of the 
 death of Napoleon was brought to Paris, I saw her melt 
 with tears, and she always became sad when uttering his 
 name. As to the men of her time, I will say only one thing : 
 she had learned to know them at Court. The recollection 
 she had preserved of it left her no pleasure. I have some- 
 where seen related a little circumstance that greatly inter- 
 ested those who witnessed it. It was the time when the 
 French imitation of Schiller's ' Marie Stuart ' was in fashion. 
 There was a scene in which Leicester repels, by pretending 
 not to know him, a devoted young man who, relying on 
 his secret thoughts, comes to him with a proposal to save 
 the Queen of Scotland. Talma represented admirably the 
 haughty cowardice of the courtier, who disavows his own 
 affection for fear of being compromised, and insolently repels 
 the man who makes him afraid : ' What do you want of 
 me ? I do not know you.' The act terminated, and in the 
 box in which we were seated the entire company was struck 
 with this scene, and my mother in her agitation suffered 
 some words to escape whose import was : ' That was it pre- 
 cisely ! I have seen the same thing ! ' When suddenly ap- 
 peared at the entrance of the box M. de B , to whom no 
 
 special application could assuredly have been made, but who 
 had been chamberlain of the Emperor, my mother could 
 no longer restrain herself. She said to Mme. de Catellan, 
 ( If you knew, madame! ' . . . and she wept! 
 
 " It may be said that this condition of her mind has in- 
 fluenced her in coloring her pictures. I do not think it so. 
 Saint-Simon has also painted a Court, and the despotism in 
 it was more becoming, more natural, and the characters, per- 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 675 
 
 haps, a little more strong in our days. "What does he do, 
 however, if not justify, in his truthful painting, what the 
 teachers of his time and the moralists of all times have said 
 of Courts in general ? The exaggeration of Saint-Simon is 
 in the language. Of a fault he makes a vice ; of a weakness, 
 a cowardice ; of a negligence, a treason ; and of a hesitation, 
 a crime. The expression is never strong enough for his 
 thought, and it is his style which is unjust rather than his 
 judgment. 
 
 " Let us mention a person of a less impulsive mind, more 
 reserved in her language, and who certainly had her reasons 
 for seeing with more indulgence than Saint-Simon the people 
 over whom Louis XIY. reigned. How did Mme. de Mainte- 
 non speak of the Court? 'As to your friends of the Court,' 
 she wrote to Mile, de Glapion, ' they are always with you, 
 and, if you could see what we see, you would find yourself 
 seeing (at Saint-Cyr) only irregularities, wayward conduct, 
 want of light; while we see murders, jealousies, hatreds, 
 treacheries, insatiable desires, degradations, which are covered 
 up by the name of grandeur, of courage, etc., for I fly into 
 a passion in merely permitting myself to think of them.' * 
 The judgments of my mother are not characterized by such 
 vivid expressions. But, like Saint-Simon, like Mme. de 
 Maintenon, she had good reason to think that a constant 
 personality, which betrays itself by fear, jealousy, complai- 
 sance, flattery, forgetfulness of others, contempt of justice, 
 and desire to injure others, reigns at the Court of absolute 
 kings, and that self-love and interest are the two keys of 
 every Court secret. My mother has said no more ; and her 
 diction, without being cold and tame, never exaggerates the 
 facts with which she deals, and allows, in almost everything 
 she has been compelled to relate, that excuse demanded by 
 human weakness in its struggle with bad example, with the 
 temptation of fortune, and with the seductions of a power 
 that does not find itself compelled to respect its promises. 
 * Letter 678, p. 426, tome ii, edition of 1857. 
 
676 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 It is not without reason that, when we speak of the Empire, 
 our eulogies are almost exclusively addressed to its armies, 
 because, at least, in the business of war, intrepid contempt of 
 death and of suffering is such a triumphant victory over the 
 selfishness of ordinary life, that it covers up whatever this 
 selfishness can suggest, even to the soldiers themselves, of 
 bitter sacrifices to pride, to envy, to cupidity, to ambition. 
 
 "Look through the centuries in which historians and 
 moralists endeavor to paint in its true colors every evil that 
 incessantly increases within the sphere of government, espe- 
 cially in the shadow, or, if Louis XIV. demands it, in the sun 
 of absolute power. It is strange, in fact, how that which 
 ought to bring into play only devotion, and to place the bene- 
 fit of all above personal interest I mean the service of the 
 state furnishes to human selfishness occasions to make mis- 
 takes and means of being satisfied by the art of concealing 
 itself. But it is apparent that this has not been said often 
 enough, for I have not discovered that the evil is soon to 
 end, or even become less conspicuous. Truth alone, inces- 
 santly presented to public opinion, can arm it against false- 
 hoods, of which party spirit and state government raise a 
 cloud concealing the misfortunes of the body politic. The 
 masses of the people can never know too well at what price 
 human insolence sells them the necessary service of a gov- 
 ernment. In times of revolution especially, misfortune some- 
 times renders it indulgent to the forms of government which 
 have fallen, and the system which triumphs covers with a 
 deceptive veil everything which makes its victory odious. 
 Truthful books must, some time or other, cause all masks to 
 fall, and leave to all our weaknesses the salutary fear of be- 
 ing some day revealed." 
 
NOTES. 
 
 Note 1, Preface, page xi. 
 
 " ON the sixth day of Thermidor, in the second year of the 
 French Republic, one and indivisible. 
 
 " By a sentence passed on the day aforesaid, in open court, 
 Sellier being Vice-President, and Foucault, Gamier, Launay, 
 and Barbier on the Bench, the minute of the verdict was signed 
 by them and by Tavernier, recording clerk. 
 
 " On the declaration of the jury, which sets forth that Jean 
 Gamier, surnamed Yergennes, the father, ex-count, aged seven- 
 ty-five years, born at Dijon, in the department of Cote-d'Or, 
 residing in Paris at No. 4 Rue Neuve-Eustache, and Charles 
 Gamier, otherwise Vergennes, aged forty-two years, ex-noble, 
 born at Dijon, in the department of Cote-d'Or, and others, are 
 convicted of having been the enemies of the people, and of 
 having conspired against the sovereignty of the people, by 
 holding communication and correspondence with the internal 
 and external enemies of the Republic, by supplying them with 
 men and money in order to contribute to the success of their 
 arms on French territory, by participating in the plots, con- 
 spiracies, and assassinations of the tyrant and his wife against 
 the French people, particularly on the days of the 28th of 
 February, 1791, and of the 10th of August, 1792, by conspir- 
 ing in the House of Detention, otherwise the St. Lazare, in 
 order to escape therefrom, and afterward, by means of the 
 murder and assassination of the people's representatives, and 
 especially of the members of the Committee of Public Safety 
 
678 NOTES. 
 
 and of General Security, to dissolve the Republican Govern- 
 ment and restore the royal family, and finally by endeavoring 
 to destroy the unity and indivisibility of the Republic. 
 
 " The Public Prosecutor having been heard on the applica- 
 tion of the law, it appears that the tribunal has condemned to 
 the penalty of death Jean Gamier, otherwise Vergennes, fa- 
 ther, and Charles Garnier, otherwise Vergennes, son, conform- 
 ably with articles 4, 5, and 7 of the law of 22d Prairial, and 
 has declared their possessions confiscated to the Republic. 
 
 "From the Act of Accusation, drawn up by the Public 
 Prosecutor on the 5th Thermidor, present month, against the 
 said Vergennes, father and son, and others, a literal extract has 
 been made as follows : 
 
 " That, on examination of papers in possession of the Pub- 
 lic Prosecutor, it is proved that Dillon, Roussin, Chaumette, 
 and Hebart had agents and accomplices in their conspiracies 
 and their perfidy in every House of Detention, in order to assist 
 them in their plots and to prepare the carrying out thereof. 
 Since the sword of Justice has fallen on the most guilty, their 
 agents, having in their turn become chiefs, have omitted no- 
 thing in order to attain their end and carry out their plots, de- 
 structive to liberty. 
 
 " The Vergennes, father and son, have always been servile 
 instruments of the tyrant and his Austrian Committee, and only 
 assumed a mask of patriotism in order, from the posts they thus 
 attained, to use the Revolution for the advantage of despotism 
 and tyranny. They had dealings, moreover, with Audriffet, an 
 accomplice in Lusignan's plot ; papers found in the dwelling of 
 the latter are a proof of their criminal and liberty-destroying 
 complicity. 
 
 " By conformable extracts handed in by the keeper of the 
 
 Records, undersigned 
 
 "DERBY (orARRY?)." 
 
 Note 2, Preface, page xv. 
 
 As I have already said in the preface, my grandmother was 
 very intimate with Mme. d'Houdetot, notwithstanding the dif- 
 ference of their ages, their feelings, and their position. The 
 
N01ES. 679 
 
 following, written to her husband, during her sojourn with a 
 lady rendered famous by the " Confessions " of Rousseau and 
 the Memoirs of Mme. d'Epinay, will not be without interest : 
 
 " SANNOIS, 25d Floreal, year 13 (May 12, 1805). 
 
 " This morning, when Charles's lessons were over, I went 
 to see Mme. d'Houdetot in her private room. She seemed to 
 think me worthy of little confidences of a sentimental nature, 
 which I received with the more sympathy because, my thoughts 
 being always with you and saddened by your absence, I am 
 ready to share in any heart-felt emotion. She showed me some 
 verses she had written on her former friend, M. de Saint-Lam- 
 bert, and three portraits of him, and she spoke of past joys, of 
 memories and regrets, with a sort of childishness and ignorance 
 of evil, if I may so express it, which seemed to make her ex- 
 cusable. I am convinced that her society would be dangerous 
 to a woman of weak character, or to one whose life was not 
 happy. Any woman who was hesitating between love and 
 virtue would do well to shun her ; she is a hundred times more 
 dangerous than an utterly corrupt person. She is so peaceful, 
 so happy, so free from anxiety as to the next life. It would 
 seem that she trusts to the words of the Gospel : ' Her sins, 
 which are many, are forgiven : for she loved much;' 
 
 " Do not fear, however, that the sight of this tranquil old 
 age, following on an erring youth, will upset my principles. 
 I do not pretend to be stronger than others, and I feel that 
 my virtue is secure because it is founded on happiness and 
 on love. I can be sure of myself, because I love you and 
 am beloved by you. The experience of twelve years has 
 sufficiently convinced me that my heart was destined for 
 you alone, but, at the risk of shocking you, let me say that 
 I should not have been so certain of myself had you not 
 been my husband." 
 
 Some years later, toward the end of January, 1813, Mme. 
 d'Houdetot expired, at the age of eighty-three, and my grand- 
 mother wrote the following description of her, which I have 
 found among her papers : 
 
 " Mme. d'Houdetot has just died, after a long and pros- 
 
680 NOTES. 
 
 perous career. In the midst of political storms, her old age 
 has been peaceful and her death quiet and calm. Is it from 
 the exercise of superior powers of reason, or from the courage 
 of a strong soul, or from fortuitous circumstances, that her life 
 has been so undisturbed and her death so touching and so 
 quiet ? Certainly not. Her disposition could not arm her 
 against the storms of life, but it shielded her from them. Like 
 certain happy children who instinctively avoid a stumbling- 
 block, without either having perceived it or being hurt by it, 
 she passed through the world with a confidence which is usu- 
 ally the attribute of youth only, and which we are accustomed 
 to respect, because we know that our warnings would be far 
 more likely to sadden than to enlighten such pathetic ignorance. 
 
 "Mme. d'Houdetot was born in the brilliant and palmy 
 days of our monarchy. The men of genius who had illumi- 
 nated the reign of Louis XIV. left behind them a long track 
 of light, which sufficed to brighten the paths of their succes- 
 sors. Cardinal Fleury's long and pacific government afforded 
 opportunity for the development of art and talent. Mme. d'Hou- 
 detot, from her youth upward, was in a position to gratify her 
 tastes and inclinations. She had been given in marriage accord- 
 ing to the custom of the day, and she began by holding a place 
 in society such as is generally held by young ladies. From 
 fifteen to twenty all women are very much alike. Brought up 
 with the same habits, fashioned by the same education, they all 
 present, more or less attractively, the same appearance of pos- 
 sessing those qualities which it is absolutely necessary a young 
 lady should possess. And, generally speaking, not only their 
 parents but they themselves are ignorant at the time of their 
 marriage of the qualities and defects which will regulate their 
 future conduct. 
 
 " Hence their first steps in the world are less the result of 
 their own tastes than that of the second education they receive 
 from society and from the husbands who have chosen them. 
 How many women have attained to knowledge of themselves 
 only after either conquering their feelings or weakly yielding 
 to them ? How many have remained in utter self -ignorance 
 from want of opportunities for the development of their incli- 
 
NOTES. 681 
 
 nations? A young wife who begins with good and strong 
 principles, who retains them even in her faults, who knows 
 how to return to them afterward such a one is, doubtless, of 
 a strong and unusual stamp. Mme. d'Houdetot, from whom 
 this digression is not so far removed as might at first be sup- 
 posed, can not certainly be comprised among such as these. 
 Nevertheless, the real sentiment which pervaded all her actions 
 seems to place her apart from the ordinary class of erring wo- 
 men. 
 
 "Mme. d'Houdetot was brought up like her contempora- 
 ries. Through particular circumstances she was placed in the 
 midst of a society professing opinions which fascinated, though 
 they did not mislead her. She was surrounded by literary men, 
 but, though admiring their wit and appreciating their talents, 
 she did not share in their passions. She was especially intimate 
 with men who were called at that time philosophers or acade- 
 micians, and her youthful and lively imagination was amused 
 at the sharp turn they gave to censure. Their world-wide 
 philanthropy, which we have often seen exercised at the ex- 
 pense of individual feelings, charmed her. She became attached 
 to the dogmas of a sect which preached the love of humanity, 
 and which either did not or would not foresee that the new 
 institutions they wished to found could only be built on the 
 ruins of the old, and that a time of social anarchy must neces- 
 sarily ensue which, indeed, is the only part of their plan that 
 has as yet come to pass. Friendly voices preached this new 
 doctrine to Mme. d'Houdetot, and embellished it with their 
 wit and talent. Eager to enjoy, she gave herself little time 
 for reflection. If one would hear the warnings of reason one 
 must sometimes consent to an interregnum of pleasure, and 
 Mme. d'Houdetot could not consent to that. Her various inti- 
 macies sometimes led her too far, but, if sincere friends have 
 deplored them, I doubt whether any ever attempted to advise 
 or warn her. The error was in her heart, and how is it pos- 
 sible to destroy such illusions ? 
 
 " No one could possess more I will not say goodness, but 
 more kindness than Mme. d'Houdetot. Goodness implies 
 the choice of good as against evil ; it perceives the evil and 
 
682 NOTES. 
 
 forgives it. Mme. d'Houdetot never perceived evil in any 
 one. We have seen her suffer real pain when the least blame 
 of any one was expressed in her presence. On such occasions 
 she would impose silence in a manner which never offended, 
 for she merely showed that we were inflicting suffering on her. 
 This tenderness of heart prolonged the feelings and tastes of 
 her youth. 
 
 " A habit of blaming others may, perhaps, sharpen the 
 mind more than it can expand it ; but it is certain that it con- 
 tracts the heart, and produces an anticipated dissatisfaction 
 which takes the charm away from life. Happy are those who 
 die in their illusions ! The light and transparent veil which 
 has never been taken from before their eyes gives to all sur- 
 rounding objects a freshness and a charm that old age does 
 not tarnish. Thus Mme. d'Houdetot would often say, 'The 
 pleasures of life have left me, but I can not accuse myself of 
 having become weary of any one of them.' This temper of 
 mind made her easy in the ordinary intercourse of life, and in- 
 dulgent toward young people. She liked them to enjoy plea- 
 sures she had herself appreciated, and the memory of which 
 was dear to her, for she felt a sort of gratitude toward every 
 period of her life. 
 
 " The same temperament gave her, at an early age, a great 
 love for the country. Eager to enjoy every pleasant thing, she 
 took care not to miss those pleasures which are produced by a 
 beautiful landscape or a smiling country. She would stand in 
 ecstasy before a beautiful view, and listen delightedly to the 
 songs of birds ; she loved to gaze at an exquisite flower ; and 
 all these tastes she retained to the last day of her life. When 
 young, she wished to love everything ; and the tastes she had 
 retained in the evening of life made her old age beautiful and 
 happy, just as they had contributed to embellish those halcyon 
 days when each sensation is a separate pleasure. 
 
 "Mme. d'Houdetot was passionately fond of poetry, and 
 herself wrote very pretty verses. Had she published them she 
 would easily have acquired a celebrity she was far from desir- 
 ing, for vanity of every kind was alien to her character. Her 
 talent for verse-making was an agreeable pastime. It was 
 
NOTES. 683 
 
 guided by her kind heart, and was another source of enjoy- 
 ment. 
 
 " In the autumn of life she was exposed, like every one else, 
 to the gloomy impressions produced by the political atmos- 
 phere. But her sweetness of disposition once more came to 
 her help in those fatal days. During the Reign of Terror she 
 lived in the country ; her place of retreat was respected, her 
 kinsfolk surrounded her with attentions. It is quite possible 
 that her only recollections of this time were those of the family 
 affection and intimacy, to which danger and anxiety gave a 
 value unsuspected in days of security and pleasure. 
 
 " On our troubles coming to an end, she returned to the 
 world with all her wonted sweetness, and began again to seek 
 for a happiness which should not be evanescent. The neces- 
 sity of loving, which was always her most imperious need, 
 made her supply the loss of former friends by new ones, young- 
 er than herself and selected with judgment, whose affection 
 helped her to forget what she had lost. She imagined that she 
 honored the memory of those she had formerly loved, and who 
 were now gone from her, by cherishing her susceptibilities in 
 her old age. She had not sufficient strength to live only on 
 memories, and did not think herself bound to cease loving be- 
 fore she ceased to live. A kind Providence still watched over 
 her, and preserved her old age from the isolation to which it is 
 usually condemned. Assiduous and delicate attentions adorned 
 her last days with some of the coloring that had brightened 
 her spring ; complacent friends consented to let their friend- 
 ship assume the guise which she had been accustomed to give 
 to her feelings. Austere Reason might sometimes smile at the 
 eternal youth of her heart, but the smile was not unkind; and, 
 at the close of her life, Mme. d'Houdetot still met with the 
 affectionate indulgence to which childhood only seems to have 
 a recognized right. 
 
 " Moreover, she proved by the courage and constancy of 
 her last moments that the prolonged indulgence of the feel- 
 ing of the heart does not diminish its strength. She felt she 
 was dying, and yet, when on the point of leaving so happy a 
 life, she uttered but one request, both tender and pathetic. 
 
684: NOTES. 
 
 t Do not forget me,' she said to her family and friends weeping 
 round her bed. * I should be braver if I had not to leave you ; 
 but at least let me live in your memory ! ' Thus, she stirred 
 the embers of a life on the point of extinction ; and those two 
 words, * I love ! ' were the last utterance which her soul in de- 
 parting breathed toward the Divinity." P. K. 
 
 Note 3, Preface, page xxxv. 
 
 My father's impressions will be described by himself in 
 another publication, so that it would be useless to dwell upon 
 them here. Nevertheless, I think it appropriate to let the 
 reader see in this place, as an illustration of what he then 
 thought and always continued to think, a song written by him, 
 and which, like several others of his composition, had a great 
 success in society. It was written when he was only eighteen 
 years old, and, though it is not his best, I have selected it be- 
 cause, as a political song of the early days of the Restoration, 
 it has all the interest of a source of information, an indication, 
 and a picture : 
 
 LA MAEQUISE OU L'ANCIEST KfiGIME. 
 
 Air : " Croyez-moi, buvons & longs traits." 
 
 " Vous n'avez pas vu le bon temps ; 
 Que je vous plains d'avoir vingt ans ! " 
 
 Ainsi parlait une marquise, 
 Tine marquise d'autref ois, 
 Qui fit sa premiere sottise 
 En mille sept cent cinquante-trois. 
 " Ah ! disait-elle, quand j'y pense, 
 Je voudrais m'y revoir en cor : 
 C'Stait vraiment le siecle d'or, 
 Moms le costume et 1'innocence. 
 
 " Croyez-moi, e'6tait le bon temps : 
 Que je vous plains d'avoir vingt ans I 
 
 " Mise au couvent selon 1'usage, 
 Grace aux lecons du tentateur, 
 
NOTES. 685 
 
 De mes questions avant 1'age 
 J'effrayais notre directeur. 
 Un f rere de eoeur Cunegonde, 
 Le marquis, venait au parloir. 
 II m'apprit ce qu'il faut savoir 
 Pour se presenter dans le inonde. 
 
 " Croyez-moi, c'etait le bon temps: 
 Que je vous plains d'avoir vingt ans 1 
 
 " II fit tant que, par convenance, 
 A m'Spouser il fut reduit. 
 Je n'ai pas garde" souvenance 
 D'avoir vu son bonnet de nuit. 
 C'etait un seigneur a la mode. 
 Pour lui je n'avais aucun gout, 
 Et lui ne m'aimait pas du tout .... 
 Je n'ai rien vu de si commode. 
 
 "Mes enfants, c'etait le bon temps : 
 Que je vous plains d'avoir vingt ans! 
 
 " Ce que j'ai vu ne peut se rendre. 
 Ah 1 les hommes sont bien tombe"s. 
 Tenez, je ne puis pas comprendre 
 Comment on se passe d'abbe"s. 
 Que j'ai vu d'ames bien conduites 
 Par leur galante piete" ! 
 Sans eux j'aurais bien regrette 
 Qu'on ait supprim6 les jesuites. 
 
 " Mes enfants, c'etait le bon temps : 
 Que je vous plains d'avoir vingt ans I 
 
 " C'est un sot metier, sur mon ame, 
 Que d'etre jolie aujourd'hui. 
 Je vois plus d'une jeune femme 
 Secher de sagesse et d'ennui. 
 Plus d'un grande mois aprds la noce, 
 J'ai vu, certes j'en ai bien ri, 
 J'ai vu ma niece et son mari 
 Tous deux dans le meme carrosse ! 
 
 " Vous n'avez pas vu le bon temps : 
 Que je vous plains d'avoir vingt ans ! 
 
686 NOTES. 
 
 " Helas ! des plaisirs domestiques 
 Ignorant la solidite, 
 Petits esprits democratiques, 
 Yous radotez de liberte. 
 Cette Iibert6 qu'on encense 
 N'est rien qu'un reve dangereux. 
 Ah! de mon temps, pour etre heureux 
 C'etait assez de la licence. 
 
 " Croyez-moi, c'etait le ton temps : 
 Que je vous plains d'avoir vingt ans ! 
 
 " Mais, sous un regne legitime, 
 Dedaignant de vaines clameurs, 
 Eeprenez & 1'ancien regime 
 Ses lois, afin d'avoir ses moeurs. 
 Alors, comme dans ma jeunesse, 
 Un chacun sera bon chretien. 
 Vous voyez, je m'amusais bien, 
 Et n'ai jamais manque la messe. 
 
 " Croyez-moi, c'etait le bon temps ! 
 Que je vous plains d'avoir vingt ans ! " 
 
 Note 4, pages 29 and Jfi. 
 
 The " erasures " alluded to by Mme. de Remusat were the 
 formal removal from the lists of the proscription of the names 
 of those persons who were relieved from their disabilities by 
 an act of grace. The French word is radiations, and M. 
 Littre does not consider it well employed. TEANSLATOES. 
 
 Note 5, page 272. 
 
 The indiscretions or the imprudence of M. Salembemi were 
 not the only causes of anxiety to my grandparents during this 
 sojourn in Italy. The following letter from my grandfather 
 throws a light on this matter : 
 
 " MILAN, 18th Prairial, year 13 (7th June, 1805). 
 " I can not allow Corvisart to leave Milan without intrust- 
 ing him with a letter for you. He, happier than myself, will 
 
NOTES. 687 
 
 see you in a week or ten days, while I can not reckon on that 
 pleasure for at least five weeks to come. Keep this news to 
 yourself, for the Emperor wishes it to be believed that he will 
 not be in Paris for two months ; but in reality he intends to 
 reach Fontainebleau on the 22d or 23d of next month, at latest. 
 I have another reason for writing by Corvisart, which is that 
 all our letters are read or liable to be read ; this hampers me 
 when I want to write confidentially. Salembemi owes his dis- 
 missal to a letter of his, inclosed with mine, that was read at 
 the post. Their knowledge of that letter has many times pre- 
 vented me from writing freely to you, and has often greatly 
 distressed me. For instance, I should have warned you that 
 you have again been maligned to the Emperor in reports re- 
 ceived from Paris, which accuse you of having joined in 
 Mme. de Damas's malicious stories about the journey in Italy 
 and the Emperor's brothers. His Majesty has not mentioned 
 the subject to me, but it has annoyed him, and he has spoken 
 of it several times to others. He seems to intend that you 
 should break off all acquaintance with that family. You may 
 imagine what answers I made to those persons who spoke as 
 from the Emperor, while I was not allowed to give my ex- 
 planation to himself. You understand, of course, that I do not 
 believe a word of this absurd calumny, and I offered to show 
 all your letters without exception. But I wanted to know who 
 had denounced you. I even gave my word that, if it were 
 Fouche, I would abstain altogether from reproaching him. To 
 
 this I received no reply, because I am sure M is the author ; 
 
 he is always intriguing, and always with the same purpose that 
 we knew of in the winter. Although you must not write on 
 the subject either to the Emperor or the Empress, you might 
 nevertheless call on Fouche, as a friend, and ask him to render 
 you the service of telling you candidly whether it is in his re- 
 ports that you have been accused. You might, perhaps, also 
 explain the circumstances openly to him, and he would find, I 
 have no doubt, means to serve us. If you write to the Em- 
 press and it would be well for you to do so, for you do not 
 write to her sufficiently often you might, without actually 
 approaching the subject, tell her something of your way of life. 
 49 
 
688 NOTES. 
 
 It occurs to me that, as your sister is more intimate than you 
 with the Damas family, a mistake of identity may have arisen. 
 Turn all this over in your mind with your usual wisdom, and 
 take advantage of what at last I am able safely to write to you; 
 for this has been going on a long time already. Do not think, 
 however, that the master is not treating me well ; he might be 
 kinder, but I have no reason to complain. As for the Empress, 
 she never talks of anything except of herself and her own con- 
 cerns. It is impossible to be more selfish than she has become. 
 Nevertheless she boasts of your letters, and always makes the 
 Emperor read them." P. R. 
 
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