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BO>'APA-RT35- 
 
NAPOLEON, 
 
 LOVER AND HUSBAND 
 
 BY 
 
 FREDERIC MASSON 
 
 TRANSLATED FROM THE FRENCH BY 
 
 J. M. HOWELL 
 
 ^^^;î^n^?:^, 
 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 THE MERRIAM COMPANY 
 
 (>-] Fifth Avenue. 
 
 AH 
 

 Copyright, 1894, 
 
 BY 
 
 THE MERRIAM COMPANY 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. Youth 5 
 
 II. Thoughts of Marriage 19 
 
 III. Josephine de Beauharnais 32 
 
 IV. Citizeness Bonaparte 45 
 
 V. Madame Fourès 61 
 
 VI. Reconciliation 74 
 
 VII. La Grassini 87 
 
 VIII. Foothght Beauties 101 
 
 IX. Readers 116 
 
 X. Josephine's Coronation 131 
 
 XI. Madame - * * * 144 
 
 XII. Stéphanie de Beauharnais 157 
 
 XIII. Eléonore 171 
 
 XIV. Hortense 181 
 
 XV. Madame Walewska 192 
 
 XVI. The Divorce 237 
 
 XVII. Marie-Louise 252 
 
 XVm. Elba 280 
 
 XIX. The Hundred Days 298 
 
 XX. Summary 310 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 YOUTH. 
 
 "Paris, Thursday, 22d, 1787, 
 
 " Hotel de Cherbourg, 
 
 " Eue du Four-Saint-Honoré. 
 
 " After leaving the Opera I wandered about in 
 the garden of the Palais-Royal. Strongly impressed 
 by the scenes which I had just witnessed, my mind 
 in ebullition, exhilarated by the music, I was at 
 first insensible of the cold ; but, as the scenes which 
 I had beheld faded, I became conscious of the wintry 
 air and turned to seek shelter under the colonnade. 
 I was upon the threshold of the iron gates when my 
 glance fell upon a woman, and I stopped to look at 
 her. The hour, her extreme youth, and general 
 appearance left no doubt as to her social status, yet 
 she looked modest, and when she stopped and con- 
 fronted me it was not boldly but in a manner per- 
 
6 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 f ectly in accord with her appearance. Her diffidence 
 encouraged me and I spoke to her ; I, who have 
 always been so impressed with the odiousness of 
 such a calling as hers, have always shunned such 
 women and considered myself contaminated by so 
 much as a look from one of her class, now voluntarily 
 addressed one ; but this girl's pale face, delicate 
 appearance, and sweet voice effaced all my old prej- 
 udices, and I said to myself : ^ Here is a person 
 whom it would be wise to study, as I desire to know 
 something of this class of women. ' 
 
 '^^You look cold,' I said to her. /How can you 
 wander about on such a chilly night ? ' 
 
 ^''The cold exhilarates me, and then — it is my 
 life ; I must seek acquaintances.' 
 
 '' The indifferent and business-like tone of her an- 
 swer pleased me, and I walked on beside her. ^ You 
 look delicate,' I said. ^I don't understand how you 
 can endure such a life as yours must be.' 
 
 ' ' ' Dame ! I must do something. I know no other 
 way of earning a livelihood and I don't wish to 
 starve ! ' 
 
 "" ' But could you not find some other occupation 
 — something less wearing physically ? ' I asked. 
 
 ^' ' Not now, it is too late.' 
 
 ^'I was delighted with her frankness, never hav- 
 ing elicited such replies in my previous experiences. 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 7 
 
 ^ You must come from the North, ' I said, ^ since you 
 do not mind the cold.' 
 
 ^' 'Yes, I come from Nantes, in Brittany.' 
 
 " ' I know that part of the country well. Made- 
 moiselle, I wish you would tell me the story of your 
 downfall.' 
 
 '^ ' It was an officer, like yourself, who caused it.' 
 
 '' ' Do you regret it ? ' 
 
 '^ 'I do indeed ! ' she answered, in a voice whose 
 depth of feeling surprised me. ' I assure you I do ; 
 my sister is happily settled, and you cannot imagine 
 how I wish that I too had a home.' 
 
 '^ ' How did you happen to come to Paris ? ' 
 
 '' 'I was abandoned by the officer who seduced me 
 and obliged to flee from my mother's anger ; having 
 made the acquaintance of another officer I accom- 
 panied him to Paris ; then, he too left me, and a 
 third, with whom I have lived for three years, suc- 
 ceeded him ; although a Frenchman he was called 
 by business to London and is still there, so I am 
 obliged to shift for myself. Let us go to your 
 rooms.' 
 
 «^ ^ Why should we go there ? " 
 
 '^ ' Don't be a silly ! We will warm ourselves 
 and then — perhaps you will be glad to have me 
 there.' 
 
 *' I was far from scrupulous and had piqued her 
 
8 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 
 
 only that she should not run away from the sermon 
 I was mentally preparing, and the modesty I in- 
 tended to parade — before proving to her that it was 
 a virtue I did not possess." 
 
 At the time when this was written Bonaparte 
 was aged eighteen years and three months, having 
 been born on the 15th of August, 1769. We have 
 the right to suppose that this was the first woman 
 with whom he had any connection, and reviewing 
 rapidly the history of his youth we shall find suflS- 
 cient reasons to confirm this opinion. Napoleon 
 himself made a note, with dates, of such love-affairs 
 as left an impression upon his memory ; those which 
 I have been able to investigate I have found to be 
 absolutely correct. 
 
 He left Ajaccio for France on the 15th of Decem- 
 ber, 1778, when he was but nine and a half years of 
 age. The feminine memories which he carried with 
 him from his island were those of his nurse, Camilla 
 Carbone, who was the widow Ilari, and of a little 
 schoolmate, ' ' La Giacominetta, " of whom he often 
 spoke in the sad days at Saint Helena. Later in life 
 he showered benefits upon his nurse, her daughter, 
 Mme. Tavera, and her granddaughter, Mme. Poli, 
 whom he had himself christened Faustina ; he 
 was unable to do anything for his foster-brother, 
 
NAPOLEOK, LOVER AKD HUSBAND. 9 
 
 Ignatio Ilari, because when very young Ilari had 
 espoused the cause of the EngHsh party and enlisted 
 in the EngHsh navy. 
 
 Of the nurses who had charge of Napoleon's in- 
 fancy and childhood one, Minana Saveria, remained 
 until her death with Mme. Bonaparte ; the other, 
 Mammuccia Caterina, died before the Empire was 
 established, as did also little Giacominetta, for whose 
 sake, when a lad, Bonaparte had borne much teasing. 
 
 At the college of Autun, where he was a pupil 
 from the 1st of January to the 12th of May, 17Y9 ; 
 at the college of Brienne, where he was from May, 
 1779, to October llrth, 1784, at the military school in 
 Paris where he spent the year from October 22d, 
 1784, to October 30th, 1785, no woman entered his life. 
 Even admitting the statement advanced by Mme. 
 D'Abrantès that, contrary to the strict rules of the 
 Ecole Militaire, Bonaparte, under the pretext of a 
 sprain, spent eight days in the apartment of M. 
 Permon, No. 5 Place Conti, I see no reason to change 
 my belief, for at that time he was but a stripling of 
 sixteen. 
 
 Napoleon went to Valence on the 30th of October, 
 1785, and left that place to pass his vacation in Cor- 
 sica on the 16th of September, 1786, after a sojourn 
 of less than a year ; he did not return from the 
 island until the 12th of September, 1787, and it was 
 
10 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 then that he made his journey to the capital; there- 
 fore an adventure, prior to that of the 22d of 
 November, 1787, could hardly have taken place be- 
 tween his leaving the Ecole Militaire and his return 
 to Paris. 
 
 He did not engage in any gallantries while in Cor- 
 sica, nor yet in Valence ; indeed, during his sojourn 
 in the latter place he appeared to be timid, rather 
 melancholy, absorbed in his studies and desirous only 
 of standing well in his classes and being well re- 
 ceived socially. He had carried to Valence a letter 
 of introduction to Mgr. de Tardivon, Abbé de Saint- 
 Rufï, from the Marbeufs, and to this ecclesiastical 
 dignitary, who, crossed and mitred, gave tone to 
 the town, he owed his entrée into the best houses of 
 the city, to Mme. Grégoire du Colombier's, Mme. 
 Lauberie de Saint Germain's and Mme. de Lau- 
 rencin's. 
 
 These ladies, particularly the latter two, held the 
 best positions in the province, belonged to the lesser 
 nobility and lived handsomely. They were preju- 
 diced against the lives of the officers whom they 
 admitted to their houses, and never permitted any 
 intimacy between their daughters and young men 
 whose conduct they did not consider irreproach- 
 able. 
 
 Bonaparte may have entertained some vague 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND, 11 
 
 ideas of marriage with Caroline du Colombier, who 
 was permitted by her mother rather more liberty 
 than other girls enjoyed. He was barely seventeen 
 at that time, and she was considerably his senior ; if 
 he admired her, the attentions which he paid her 
 were chaste, deferential and boyish : à la Eousseau. 
 It was not long, however, before Mile, du Colombier 
 married an officer, M. Garempel de Bressieux, and 
 left Valence and went to live in an old château in 
 the country. 
 
 Nearly twenty years later, when Napoleon was in 
 camp at Boulogne, he received a letter from her 
 recommending her brother to his notice, and al- 
 though he had not seen the object of his boyish ad- 
 miration since her marriage, he answered by return 
 of post, assuring her that he would seize the first 
 occasion to be useful to M. du Colombier and 
 saying: 
 
 ''The memory of your mother and yourself has 
 always been dear to me. I see by your letter that 
 you live near Lyons, and I must reproach you for 
 not calling while I was there, as it would have given 
 me great pleasure to have seen you." 
 
 This advice was not lost, and when, on April 12th, 
 1806, Napoleon passed through Lyons on his way 
 to the coronation at Milan, Mme. de Bressieux was 
 among the first to request an interview. She was 
 
12 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 terribly changed, aged, and no longer the pretty 
 Caroline of bygone days, nevertheless she obtained 
 all she asked for : the erasure of certain names on 
 the list of émig7^ês, a position for her husband, and 
 a lieutenancy for her brother. On New Year's day 
 of 1807 Mme. de Bressieux recalled herself to the 
 Emperor's memory by a letter asking for news of his 
 health. Napoleon responded promptly, and in 1808 
 he made her lady-in-waiting upon Madame Mère, 
 called her husband to preside over the electoral 
 college of Isière, and in 1810 created him a baron of 
 the Empire. 
 
 Such was the grateful memory Napoleon cherished 
 for all who had been kind to him in his youth ; 
 there were none whose fortunes he did not assure, 
 as there were none whom he forgot to mention 
 during his captivity ; women, if possible, received 
 the greater share of his gratitude, and even when 
 he had reason to feel some bitterness towards them 
 it was enough that they should once have shown 
 him kindness. Thus Mile, de Lauberie de Saint- 
 Germain, like Mile, du Colombier, had preferred 
 another to him and i^arried her cousin, M. Bachas- 
 son de Montalivet ; but Napoleon harbored no re- 
 sentment, and it is well known that he made M. 
 de Montalivet's fortune, creating him successively 
 préfet de la Manche and of Seine-et-Oise, director 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 13 
 
 general for bridges and public roads, minister of 
 the Interior and count of the Empire with an en- 
 dowment of eighty thousand francs. Mme. de 
 Montalivet, of whom he once said, ''Of old I loved 
 both her virtues and her beauty," he named a lady 
 of the Empress's household in 1806. 
 
 Mme. de Montalivet, however, did not accept this 
 honor unconditionally, saying to the Emperor : 
 ''Your Majesty knows my belief regarding a 
 woman's duty in this world ; the favor which you 
 have had the goodness to accord me, and which 
 many will envy, would seem to me a misfortune if 
 it prevented me from attending my husband when 
 he has the gout, or nursing my children when Prov- 
 idence gives me any. " 
 
 The Emperor at first frowned at Mme. de Monta- 
 livet's frankness, but after a moment said graciously : 
 " Ah, madame, you wish to dictate terms ; I am un- 
 accustomed to that, but on this occasion I submit. 
 Accept the position, and all shall be so arranged that 
 your duties as wife and mother shall" not be inter- 
 fered with." 
 
 Mme. de Mont ali vet's position remained a nominal 
 one, but that did not prevent Napoleon from showing 
 her particular attention ; he was fond of the whole 
 family and said of them : "The family integrity is 
 indubitable ; it is composed of lovable people and 
 
14 >'APOLEO>'. LOVEP. A^'D HrSBA^^D. 
 
 I believe firmly in the disinterestedness of their 
 affection. ^ 
 
 Such were the recollections which Xapoleon had 
 of Valence. They were dear to his heart, and of a 
 kind which those young girls might well be proud 
 of inspiring. He had no other intimacies that we 
 know of. and in his private journal no others are 
 mentioned ; like Hippohte, he appears to have been 
 more in love with glory in those days, than with 
 women : in confirmation of this witness this extract 
 from a letter written at that time : 
 
 **If I had to compare the days of Sparta and 
 Eome with our modern times I would say here 
 reigns love, there reigned love of country. Judging 
 by the opposite effects which these passions produce 
 one seems authoidzed in believing them incompara- 
 ble. One thing is certain: people who abandon them- 
 selves to gallantry lose the abihty to even conceive 
 of the existence of a patriot, and we have reached 
 that point to-day." 
 
 It is almost with a sense of certitude that we con- 
 clude that the girl he met in the Palais-Eoyal was 
 his first mistress. The adventure, vulgar though 
 it was, does not the less reveal his character ; there 
 is his misogyny, his critical spirit, brusque speech, 
 and the habit of interrogation which he never re- 
 nounced : his good memoiy. also, is noticeable in his 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 15 
 
 account of it, for he reproduced in striking fashion 
 the girl's manner of speech, even to the exclama- 
 tion, i>a?>^e / which proved her Breton origin. 
 
 It is doubtful if Napoleon ever saw this girl 
 again, for although among his papers, dated during 
 that sojourn in Paris, there is a dissertation on 
 patriotism which is addressed to a young lady, it is 
 hardly a topic upon which one would write to a 
 woman of her class. 
 
 After this sojourn in Paris, which lasted from 
 October to December of 1787, Bonaparte again re- 
 turned to Corsica, where he arrived on the 1st of 
 January, 1788. He spent six months on the island, 
 rejoining his regiment at Auxonne on the 1st of 
 June ; no trace of any love-affair at that place 
 remains to us. 
 
 In the early part of 1789 he was sent to Seurre 
 with a detachment, and is accredited with holding 
 
 relations there, first, with a Mme. L z, née 
 
 N s, the wife of the collector at the salt depot, 
 
 later with a farmer's wife, Mme. G 1, to whose 
 
 house he went to drink milk, and, lastly, with the 
 daughter of the house wherein he lodged. This 
 seems crowding a good deal into twenty-five days, 
 during which time his books are silent witnesses 
 to his assiduous study ; nevertheless, when, fourteen 
 years later, on the 6th of April, 1805, Napoleon 
 
16 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 passed through Seurre on his way to Milan, it is 
 claimed that M. de Thiard, who was at that time 
 his chamberlain, introduced into his presence the 
 boarding-house young woman, and that he presented 
 her with a scholarship in a government school for 
 her son, a lad of twelve. The stated age of this 
 child precludes the idea that Napoleon believed him 
 to be his son ; moreover, had the Emperor enter- 
 tained the least doubt upon the subject he would 
 have done far more for the boy, and that without 
 its being asked of him. 
 
 In Corsica, where he spent the entire year of 1790, 
 at Auxonne, at Valence, again in Corsica, then, in 
 the middle of 1792, at Paris, there were no love- 
 affairs ; we hear of none during the first campaign 
 in the South against the Federalists, of none at 
 Toulon. 
 
 We must deliberately skip over a period of four 
 years, during which the young lieutenant became a 
 general of brigade and was placed in command of 
 the artillery in Italy, where, in 1794, the Convention 
 sent one of its influential members, the Citizen 
 Louis Turreau, on a mission to the army. 
 
 Representative Turreau was accompanied on his 
 journey by his bride, who was the daughter of a 
 surgeon at Versailles and a remarkably pretty 
 woman ; he arrived at Cairo, in Piedmont, where 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND„ lï 
 
 Bonaparte was stationed, on the 21st of September, 
 and, finding the young officer congenial, cultivated 
 his acquaintance ; while Mme. Turreau and the 
 artillery-man soon arrived at an understanding, 
 Bonaparte's intimacy with Mme. Turreau never 
 assumed the proportions of a liaison^ for she was 
 too fickle to remain long constant, and, evidently, it 
 never aroused the husband's jealousy, for he retained 
 a high opinion of the young officer's ability, and 
 when the Convention was in danger it was he, as 
 well as Barras, who urged confiding the command 
 of the troops to Bonaparte and, with the Corsican 
 deputies, became his surety. 
 
 Bonaparte did not forget this service, and when 
 placed in command of the army in Italy he took 
 Turreau, who had not been re-elected, with him as 
 commissary- general. Mme. Turreau again ac- 
 companied her husband, and, in default of the gen- 
 eral-in-chief, made the best of such lovers as courted 
 her ; her conduct gave rise to continual scenes of 
 jealousy, and Turreau, so it is said, died of a broken 
 heart. The widow returned to Versailles, and in the 
 early days of the Empire was dragging out a dreary 
 existence there, when, one day, the Emperor chanced 
 to mention her before Berthier, who was also a 
 native of the town. The general had known Mme. 
 Turreau from childhood, but for years had carefully 
 
18 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 shunned lier ; however, when he saw that the Em- 
 peror took an interest in his old schoolfellow, he re- 
 newed the acquaintanceship and espoused her cause, 
 while Napoleon, never forgetful of a kindness, made 
 haste to extricate madame from her financial em- 
 barrassment, granted all her requests and assured 
 for her the realization of her rosiest dreams. 
 
 With the exception of Mme. Turreau^ who threw 
 herself at his head, women paid but scant attention 
 to the little, pale, thin officer who was always badly 
 dressed and regardless of his appearance, and Napo- 
 leon's early loves resolved themselves into trivial 
 flirtations or * vulgar adventures. He himself 
 thought but little about women, being absorbed 
 by his ambitious projects, and there was another, 
 and valid reason for his chastity, he was poor. Pov- 
 erty, however, did for him what it has done for 
 many another man — forced him to consider matri- 
 mony that he might be the sole recipient of a 
 woman's caresses. 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 19 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 
 THOUGHTS OF MAERIAGE. 
 
 While at Marseilles Napoleon played at love with 
 Mme. Joseph Bonaparte's sister, Désirée-Eugénie 
 Clary, then a pretty girl of sixteen ; she helieved his 
 attentions to be serious. Her girlishness vanished 
 and she developed a woman's affection for him. 
 Sixty-five years later the rough drafts of her letters to 
 Napoleon were found among her effects ; they were 
 all signed '' Eugenie," for after the fashion of the 
 time the young girl, whom her family called Désirée, 
 had wished to be called by her lover by a name not 
 used by others ; these letters, which are the spon- 
 taneous outpouring of a pure affection, breathe the 
 spirit of the period following upon the Eeign of Ter- 
 ror, when women made love a religion ; indeed, it 
 was the only religion which existed on the ruins of 
 society. 
 
 ^' Oh, my friend," Mile. Clary wrote in one of her 
 letters, ^'take care of yourself for my sake, fori 
 could not live without you , guard as sacredly as I 
 
20 NAPOLEOK, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 shall the promise which binds us, for were it broken 
 I should die." 
 
 Napoleon's acquaintance with Mile. Clary dated 
 from January or February, 1795, and the engage- 
 ment, if there was a formal one, must have taken 
 place on the 21st of April, when Bonaparte passed 
 through Marseilles on his way to Paris. There was 
 no opposition to the marriage from the Clary family, 
 for Joseph and his wife had long desired it, and 
 Désirée's father, who is reported to have said 'Hhat 
 one Bonaparte in the family was quite enough for 
 him," had died on the 20th of January, 1794, and the 
 remaining members of the family, Mme. Clary and 
 her son, readily yielded to the young girl's wishes ; 
 her youth was no obstacle to the marriage, for at 
 that time girls were usually wed in their eighteenth 
 year, and the First Civil Code had just fixed the 
 thirteenth year as the legal age for a female to 
 marry. Désirée Clary afterwards claimed, and offi- 
 cially stated, that at this time she was between 
 thirteen and fourteen years of age, but she must 
 have been nearer seventeen, as she was born on the 
 9th of November, 1777. 
 
 Bonaparte arrived in Paris in May ; he was out of 
 favor, out of funds, and his only hope lay in this 
 marriage, failing in which nothing remained for him 
 but to take service in Turkey, or, like many others, 
 
NAPOLEOK, LOVER AKD HUSBAND. 21 
 
 to speculate in national securities. Even when, by 
 degrees, his position improved, and he was employed 
 by the Committee on Public Welfare on plans for 
 the campaign, his position was precarious, and realiz- 
 ing its instability, believing that his sole salvation 
 lay in this marriage, he urged Joseph to have a date 
 fixed for the wedding, and in every letter which he 
 wrote his brother at that time messages for Désirée 
 appeared. 
 
 For a while Mile. Clary was a faithful correspond- 
 ent, but while at Genoa with her sister and brother 
 in-law she neglected her lover, and in one of Napo 
 Icon's letters he said, "The road to Genoa leads 
 through the waters of Lethe," called her the " silent 
 one, " and constantly reproached her for not writing. 
 Finally, becoming impatient, he determined that a 
 definite understanding should be arrived at, and 
 wrote to Joseph that he must interview Désirée's 
 brother and bring the matter to a head, and the 
 following day, without giving his first letter 
 time to reach Joseph, he wrote again saying : 
 ''This affair must either be concluded or broken 
 off. I await an answer with the greatest impa- 
 tience." Then a month passed, and save for 
 friendly messages there was no correspondence be- 
 tween the pair. 
 
 The truth is, that Paris, the unknown, fascinating 
 
22 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 city which he had entered with a worn uniform, 
 leaky boots, and a suite composed of a couple of 
 hungry aides-de-camps had interposed itself and its 
 captivating women between Napoleon and the little 
 Marseillaise. What a contrast there must have 
 been between the immature girl and the elegant 
 and worldly women of the capital ! Désirée could 
 hardly have been beautiful, though there must have 
 been a certain charm about her soft eyes with their 
 penciled brows, retrousse nose, laughing mouth and 
 reserved yet tender manner ; but between the young 
 provincial and the elegant, graceful, well-dressed 
 and beautiful, if artificial, Parisian women, there 
 was the same difference as lies between hothouse 
 fruit and that which ripens in the open air. The 
 Parisians, created for a life of gaiety and excitement, 
 highly refined in manner and adepts in the art of 
 pleasing, were like hothouse fruit, which, carefully 
 tended, reaches the highest state of perfection, and 
 when exhibited to the best advantage by the fruit- 
 erer appears, with its fine color and bloom, which 
 the winds of heaven have never visited too roughly, 
 much more appetizing than the fruit of the orchard 
 which, kissed by the sun, whipped by the breeze, 
 and not quite ripe, leaves in the mouth a fresh but 
 somewhat tart taste. 
 
 " In Paris alone," wrote Napoleon, ^^ live women 
 
23 
 
 capable of holding the helm. A woman should live 
 six months in Paris to learn what is her just due, 
 and where her rightful domain." A few days later 
 he wrote : ^' The women here, who are certainly the 
 most beautiful in the world, play a great rôle in all 
 the affairs in life." 
 
 The women who figured conspicuously in the 
 society of that day certainly were beautiful and 
 possessed of even a greater charm, a perfect knowl- 
 edge of the amenities of life ; better versed in the 
 art of inspiring affection than able to give it, they 
 completely fascinated the young officer, and, having 
 nothing save his hand to offer, he proffered that 
 freely, laying his heart and hand first at the feet of 
 Mme. de Permon, then proposing to Mme. de la 
 Bouchardie, later to Mme. de Lesparda and finally 
 to Mme. de Beauharnais who took him at his word. 
 
 During all this time he never wrote to Désirée, 
 and at last she lifted her voiCe in complaint, but so 
 gently, so sweetly, that it sounds in one's ears like 
 the sad strains of an ^olian harp. ^^You have 
 broken my heart," she wrote him, '^ yet I am weak 
 enough to forgive you everything. You are mar- 
 ried and I have no longer the right to love and think 
 of you ; the only consolation which remains for 
 me is to be assured of your belief in my constancy, 
 then I long for death, for life is a burden, now that 
 
24 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 
 
 I may not consecrate it to you. I cannot accustom 
 myself to the thought that you are married — it is 
 too hardj too cruel ! I will prove to you that I am 
 more faithful to my engagement than you to yours, 
 and, though you have broken the chain which united 
 us, I shall hold it binding ; I shall never marry. I 
 wish you every happiness and all prosperity in your 
 marriage, and I hope that the woman you have 
 chosen will make you as happy as I had meant to 
 do, and as you deserve ; but in the midst of your 
 happiness remember poor Eugénie and pity her sad 
 fate." 
 
 Forgetfulness was foreign to Bonaparte's nature, 
 and the memory of this love which he had inspired 
 was always a tender point with him ; from a flirta- 
 tion he had insensibly drifted into an entanglement 
 which had ambition for its basis, and which had 
 resulted in the breaking of a heart, and throughout 
 his life he strove to undo the wrong and win for- 
 giveness. While at Milan, in 1797, he planned a 
 brilliant marriage for Désirée, who was in Eome 
 with her sister and brother-in-law, Joseph being 
 then ambassador at the court of Pius VI. and gave 
 a warm letter of recommendation to General 
 Duphot in which he spoke of him as ^^ a fine man 
 and distinguished officer ; " and in a personal letter 
 to Joseph he said, that an alliance with General 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 25 
 
 Duphot would be a desirable one. Duphot made a 
 favorable impression upon Mlle. Clary, and their 
 marriage contract was about to be signed when the 
 terrible scene of December 28th took place and 
 Désirée's dress was stained with the blood of her 
 betrothed. 
 
 After refusing several offers, Désirée finally con- 
 sented, while Napoleon was in Egypt, to marry 
 General Bernadotte. It was considered a fine 
 match, but he was a most insupportable Jacobite, 
 narrow-minded and opinionated ; a Béarnais by 
 birth, he yet had none of the Gascon's sprightliness 
 or readiness of speech, but possessed all their 
 shrewdness and hid under apparent frankness a 
 scheming brain. He held Mme. de Staël to be the 
 cleverest of her sex because she was the most 
 pedantic, and he spent the honeymoon in laying 
 down the law to his young wife. 
 
 The news of this marriage reached Bonaparte at 
 Cairo, and although Bernadotte was his enemy, and 
 the union displeased him, he wrote most kindly to 
 Désirée, wishing her all happiness. 
 
 When Napoleon returned from Egypt the first 
 person to solicit a favor was Mme. Bernadotte, who 
 asked him to stand godfather to her infant son. 
 Intuitively she knew that a son was the one thing 
 lacking to complete Napoleon's happiness, and, as if 
 
26 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 to spite Josephine, whom she hated, and whom she 
 always spoke of as the ^^ old woman," Désirée boasted 
 of her maternity. Bonaparte kindly consented to 
 stand for the child, and with Ossian's martial ballads 
 in mind named the baby Oscar. Years later Napo- 
 leon said : ^' Bernadotte's becoming a marshal of 
 France, prince of Pontecorvo and king of Sweden 
 was all owing to his marriage with my first sweet- 
 heart," and it was for her sake that Napoleon par- 
 doned all Bernadotte's disloyalty during the Empire. 
 From the very first Bernadotte manifested his 
 ojDposition to Bonaparte ; nevertheless, he was called 
 to a seat in the Council of State, then named 
 general- in- chief of the arm}" in the West, v^here he 
 not only opposed, but openly conspired against the 
 First Consul, aspiring to gain command of the army. 
 For this he received no punishment. Bonaparte 
 simply, in order to get rid of him, appointed him 
 minister plenipotentiary to the United States, a 
 post which Bernadotte expressed himself as per- 
 fectly willing to accept, playing his game so well, 
 however, that the frigate which was to bear him 
 to his destination was never ready to sail. 
 
 . The following year saw the conspiracy in which 
 Moreau was implicated, and Bernadotte again 
 escaped unpunished, because Napoleon so willed it, 
 Désirée's welfare being always in his mind ; he did 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 27 
 
 still more for her, for, redeeming Moreau's estate, 
 his property at Grosbois, and his hotel in the rue 
 d'Anjou, for which he paid four hundred thousand 
 francs, he presented it to Bernadotte. The Empire 
 established. Napoleon, for Eugenie's sake, created 
 her husband a marshal of the empire, chief of the 
 eighth corps of the Legion of Honor, president of the 
 electoral college of Yaucluse and Chevalier de 
 V Aigle Noir ; for Désirée's sake he gave the couple 
 an income of three hundred thousand francs, a lump 
 sum of two hundred thousand francs and the sover- 
 eignty of the principality of Pontecorvo. For the love 
 of her Napoleon forgave Bernadotte after Auer- 
 staedt,Wagram, and Walcheren, condoned two mili- 
 tary blunders, which were probably something more 
 serious than blunders, coming as they did on top of 
 a flagrant conspiracy in which Bernadotte, Pouché 
 and Talleyrand, in complicity with the royalists, 
 brought into play the same tactics by which, in 1814, 
 the return of Louis le Désirée was effected. 
 
 Thus, over her husband's shoulders. Napoleon's 
 one-time sweetheart received attentions and favors 
 which would be surprising did we not know that he 
 was ever actuated by the desire to atone for the sor- 
 row and mortification he had once caused her. Two 
 days after the battle of Spandau, in which Berna- 
 dotte was wounded, Napoleon wrote to him, saying : 
 
28 :S-APOLEOX. LOVEE A^T) HTSBA^T). 
 
 ^'I am glad to learn that Mme. Bernadotte is 
 with you ; pray give her my affectionate regards and 
 add that I have one little thing to reproach her 
 with. She might have written me a line giving me 
 the news of Paris, but I will have it out with her 
 when we meet." 
 
 Although Mme. Bernadotte never appeared at 
 court, for she detested Josephine and the entire 
 Beauharnais family and was at no pains to conceal 
 her dishke, Xapoleon showered gifts upon her. He 
 presented her with priceless Sèvres vases and Gobelin 
 tapestries, it was for her that he reserved one of the 
 three magnificent fur pelisses which the emperor of 
 Eussia presented to him after Erfurt : yet. appear- 
 ances to the contrary, his friendship was entirely 
 disinterested. TTas it not of Désirée's aggrandize- 
 ment that he was thinking, when, after VTalcheren, 
 he meditated sending Bernadotte to Eome as gov- 
 ernor-general to represent the court of France at 
 the Quirinal, thus creating him a high imperial 
 dignitary with an emolument of three million francs, 
 and putting him upon an equality with Borghèse 
 who was at Turin. Elias at Florence, and almost 
 with Eugène who was at Milan i 
 
 When the sovereignty of Sweden was offered to 
 Eugène de Beauharnais he declined the honor, not 
 wishing to become an apostate, and it was due to 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 29 
 
 the good-natured neutrality of Napoleon that Berna- 
 dotte was elected hereditary prince of that country. 
 If Napoleon's political moves at this period are 
 incomprehensible to some historians, it is because 
 they failed to take into account the part which his 
 heart played in the affairs of state ; he was seduced 
 by the pleasure of seeing the woman in whom he 
 took so warm an interest become a queen, his god- 
 son heir apparent to a throne. He regulated mi- 
 nutely the details of Désirée's presentation and leave- 
 taking as princess of Sweden, and, unprecedented 
 favor, he invited her to one of the family's Sun- 
 day dinners. He conferred upon the newly-elected 
 prince of Sweden a purse of a million francs from 
 the public treasury, repurchased the property with 
 which he had originally presented him, negotiated 
 with him the return of Pontecorvo and gave a title 
 and sum of money to Bernadotte's brother ; certainly 
 Napoleon was justified in writing to Désirée, ^' You 
 must long since have been convinced of the interest 
 I take in your family." 
 
 Four months after the receipt of all this kindness 
 Bernadotte combined with Eussia against Napoleon ; 
 less than a year afterv/ards everything indicated 
 that a rupture between France and Sweden was im- 
 minent, and Désirée, who had most reluctantly 
 consented to take a short journey to Stockholm, 
 
30 NAPOLEON. LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 
 
 then made haste to return to her hotel in the rue 
 d'Anjou. 
 
 Then, exercising the greatest caution, Xapoleon 
 wrote to the minister of Foreign Affairs requesting 
 that he speak to the Swedish ambassador regarding 
 Désirée's presence in France, and state, as dehcately 
 as possible, that he was sorry to see that the Princess 
 Eoyal had come into the country without permis- 
 sion, which was not customary, and that he regTetted 
 her leaving her husband under the existing circum- 
 stances. Désirée paid no attention to the ambas- 
 sador's admonitions, but proceeded to install herself, 
 and in Xovember, when war was about to be declared, 
 the Emperor wrote a second time and sent Cam- 
 bacérès to the queen of Spain (Julie Clary) saying 
 that he wished the princess to leave Paris and return 
 to Sweden as it was not proper that she should be in 
 France at that time. 
 
 His wishes availed nothing, and Désirée remained 
 in Paris, continued to order her dresses from Leroy, 
 to receive her friends and hold her receptions ; she 
 went to the baths with her sister and returned to 
 Paris as though nothing unusual was taking place ; 
 she even considered it singular that the Frenchmen 
 whom she received should blame the former marshal 
 of the Empire who had then assumed command of 
 the allied forces in the north of Germany. If one 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 31 
 
 can believe those who claim to be well informed, 
 Désirée was both ungrateful and a traitor, and while 
 conveying to her husband Napoleon's adjurations, 
 acted between Bernadotte, Fouché and Talleyrand 
 as an intermediary. 
 
 If demonstrated that Désirée profited by the Em- 
 peror's weakness for her to become a link in an in- 
 trigue between conspirators who knew each other of 
 old, one must think badly of her character, and it is 
 pleasanter to believe that she remained in Paris 
 because of her love for the city, that she might not 
 leave her sister, nieces and friends, or be obliged to 
 alter the habits of a lifetime. 
 
 She was in Paris in 1814, and took part, with other 
 people of rank, in the visit of Alexander of Eussia ; 
 she was still there in 1815, during the hundred days, 
 and on the I7th of June, the eve of Waterloo, she 
 ordered a nankin riding-habit and a percale dressing- 
 gown trimmed with Valenciennes from Leroy ; her 
 lack of interest in Napoleon's success in the stupen- 
 dous game he was playing, with all Europe for his 
 adversaries, clearly proves that hers was the forget- 
 ful spirit. 
 
32 NAPOLEON, LOVEU AND HUSBAND. 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 JOSEPHINE DE BEAUHARNAIS. 
 
 Towards the end of October, 1795, hazard brought 
 together the Vicomtesse de Beauharnais and General 
 Bonaparte. The latter had sprung suddenly from 
 obscurity to publicity, and his name, but recently so 
 little known that Barras had written it '' Buona- 
 Parta,^^ had been spoken in thunderous tones to the 
 whole of France by the cannon which crushed the 
 rebel sections of the Convention. 
 
 Second in command of the army of the Interior, 
 soon to be commander-in-chief, Bonaparte had or- 
 dered the disarmament of the Parisians. A youth 
 came to his quarters begging permission to keep his 
 father's sword ; Napoleon saw the boy and, being at- 
 tracted by him, granted his request, and the mother 
 then called to express her thanks. She was a great 
 lady, a ci-devant vicomtesse, the widow of a 
 president of the Constituency, of a courtier, of the 
 commander-in-chief of the army of the Ehine, and 
 she was a revelation to Bonaparte ; her title, birth 
 
aUO^IElPIHIIMlEo 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 33 
 
 and education, the easy, graceful manner in which 
 she expressed her thanks, all charmed him. For the 
 first time in his twenty-six years of life the young 
 provincial, to whom no woman of quality had ever 
 paid the slightest attention, found himself in the 
 presence of one of those elegant, accomplished and 
 desirable creatures whom he had seen and admired 
 from afar. He was in a position which gratified his 
 pride, that of a protector, and this rôle which he 
 played for the first time suited him marvellously ; 
 while Mme. Beauharnais, who was reduced to all 
 sorts of expediencies, discerned at once what manner 
 of man she had to deal with. 
 
 A Creole, native of the island of Martinique, she 
 had been married at the age of sixteen to the Vicomte 
 de Beauharnais ; a marriage arranged by her aunt, 
 who lived openly with the Marquis de Beauharnais, 
 the bridegroom's father. From the time she first 
 came to Paris, in 1YY9, Josephine Tascher de la Pa- 
 gerie, Mme. de Beauharnais, led a wretched exist- 
 ence ; deceived and abandoned by her husband, and 
 finally separated from him, through no fault of hers, 
 she had no social distractions ; she was never pre- 
 sented at court, for she lived with her aunt whose 
 position was equivocal, but it is claimed that after 
 her separation from her husband she made use of 
 
 her liberty. Eeturning to Martinique she remained 
 3 
 
34 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 there until her safety was threatened by the insur- 
 rection, when she escaped to France, and becoming 
 reconciled with M. de Beauharnais, who was then 
 deputy of the Etats- Généraux, president of the Con- 
 stituency and general-in-chief of the army of the 
 Rhine, she enjoyed a brief period of happiness ; her 
 salon was then frequented by men of note and letters, 
 and for the first time she tasted the sweets of social 
 position. Then came the Eeign of Terror ; Beau- 
 harnais was imprisoned and guillotined and she 
 escaped only by a miracle. 
 
 When released from prison Josephine de Beau- 
 harnais was thirty years of age, the mother of two 
 children and penniless. Aided by some feminine 
 connections which she had formed in prison, for she 
 had none elsewhere, she launched herself into 
 society. With the money which she received from 
 Martinique, loans which she made wherever possible, 
 debts which she contracted in every direction, she 
 managed to keep up an appearance. She left her 
 apartment in the rue de l'Université and rented 
 from Louise- Julie Carreau, the wife of Talma, for 
 the sum of four thousand pounds a year in cash, or 
 ten thousand in notes, a small hotel, No. 6, rue 
 Chantereine, where she installed herself in October, 
 1Y94. 
 
 A year passed, debts accumulated, and nothing 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 3Ô 
 
 came in ; probably with créole insouciance Josephine 
 failed to give proper consideration to her financial 
 affairs, or hoped that some miracle might extricate 
 her from her difficulties, and, while showing herself 
 everywhere where the society of that day amused 
 itself, she picked up acquaintances who were in- 
 strumental in the restoration of some of her 
 husband's property, but she ran through it as fast 
 as it came into her possession. She possessed 
 nothing, neither capital nor fixed income. At her 
 marriage she had received a dot of one hundred 
 thousand francs from which she was to receive a 
 yearly interest at the rate of five per cent. ; but her 
 father was dead, her mother very poor, and 
 the island blockaded by the English. Her aunt, 
 Mme. Renaudin, had given her some unimproved 
 real estate, but it had long since been disposed of ; 
 moreover, no one can squeeze an income out of un- 
 improved property, and of credit she had none. 
 Mme. Renaudin helped her a little by loans, and 
 there were one or two obliging bankers who accepted 
 drafts on Martinique, who even advised her going 
 to Hamburg where she could receive her remittances 
 with less trouble ; but she was in a desperate posi- 
 tion, credit exhausted and age creeping on ; it was 
 at this critical moment that General Bonaparte 
 rang the bell of the house in the rue Chantereine 
 
36 NAPOLEOX, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 and returned the visit of Mme. la Vicomtesse de 
 Beanharnais. 
 
 Napoleon did not know that the house, which was 
 rather imposing in appearance, was the property of 
 Citizeness Talma, who, when she was Mile. Julie, had 
 received it as a price of her favors to a lover ; nor 
 did he know that this property, in an out-of-the-way 
 corner of Paris, within a stone's-throw of the rue 
 Saint-Lazare, on which its garden, in almost its 
 original extent, touches to this day, was worth only 
 fifty thousand francs. A man-servant responded 
 to the bell and ushered the general through a long- 
 open passage, on one side of which, in a sort of 
 pavilion, the stable was situated, its open door 
 revealing two black horses and a red cow ; the 
 carriage-house, which contained a shabby carriage, 
 was carefully closed. 
 
 The passage gave into a garden in the centre of 
 which stood the house, a modest structure of one 
 story and basement surmounted by a mansard ; 
 four high windows pierced its façade and a low 
 porch, with a simple balustrade in the style of a 
 terrace, ran across it. Bonaparte mounted the steps, 
 entered an antechamber, scantily furnished by a 
 brass fountain, the lower half of an oak wardrobe 
 and a pine settee, from whence the servant in- 
 troduced him into the dining-room, where he was 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 37 
 
 free to choose between a seat on one of the four 
 black haircloth-covered chairs which surrounded 
 the mahogany table, or to wander about and look 
 at the engravings which, framed in black and gold, 
 decorated the walls. The room was not luxurious, 
 but here and there serving tables, of mahogany or 
 of the yellow wood of Guadaloupe with marble tops 
 and gilded trimmings, bore witness to former opu- 
 lence ; while behind the glass doors of two cabinets 
 a collection of table accessories, and a tea-service of 
 English plate made a fine showing ; of silver, in the 
 proper sense of the word, there was none. 
 
 Josephine, all tricked out by her maid, the 
 Citizeness Louise Compoint, hastened to the dining- 
 room to greet her guest ; she could not receive him 
 elsewhere as the first floor of the house comprised 
 only that apartment, her bed-chamber and a small 
 apartment which served as a dressing-room. 
 
 Josephine's bedroom, though simple, was tasteful 
 and pretty, the furniture was of mahogany and the 
 yellow wood of Guadaloupe ; there was a gay toilet 
 set of blue nankin with decorations of red and 
 yellow coxcombs, the low double bed was daintily 
 draped, and the room was ornamented by a harp 
 of Eenaud's make and a little marble bust of 
 Socrates ; the dressing-room, with the exception 
 of a Renaud piano, was chiefly furnished with look- 
 
38 XAPOLEON, LOVER a:n^d btusbaxd. 
 
 ing glasses ; there was one on the toilet- table, another 
 on the chest of drawers, one on the night stand, and 
 over the chimney hung a double pier-glass. 
 
 Such were the surroundings of this high-bred 
 woman. Except on festive occasions, when she 
 brought out a small service of blue and white por- 
 celain, she ate off earthen- ware ; the table linen was 
 composed of eight tableclothes, of which four were 
 of bird's-eye, and all so worn, that when the inven- 
 tory was taken the entire supply of household linen 
 was estimated at a value of four pounds. Bonaparte 
 was ignorant of all this ; he did not know that the 
 elegant and charming woman who stood before him, 
 whose tasteful toilet pleased his eye, whose infinite 
 grace troubled his senses, possessed scarcely enough 
 underwear to clothe her decently ; he saw only a 
 charming and elegant woman, a woman to arouse 
 desire. 
 
 Josephine's hair was brown, of a fine quality but 
 not over luxurious ; however, in those days, blonde 
 wigs and a suspicion of powder were in vogue ; her 
 complexion was rather dark and already somewhat 
 faded, but art concealed the ravages of time ; her 
 teeth were poor, but were never displayed, and she 
 had a dear little mouth which was always curved 
 in a slight smile, the sweetness of which accorded 
 with the exceeding softness of her eyes, with her 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 39 
 
 gentle expression and the touching quaHty of her 
 voice, to catch a sound of which the servants, in 
 later years, loitered in the corridors of the Tuileries. 
 Her nose was small, with sensitive, quivering nostrils, 
 and slightly inclined to be retrousse. 
 
 Her head, however, was not to be compared with 
 her tall, supple body, which terminated in slender, 
 arched feet, whose beauty may yet be divined by a 
 glance at the shoes she once wore. Her form was 
 unfettered, she did not even wear a girdle to support 
 the bosom, which was, however, very small. General 
 effect is everything, and this woman possessed a 
 charm and grace peculiarly her own ; long practice 
 had rendered her every movement graceful and 
 refined ; she never lost an advantage, was constantly 
 on her guard, leaving nothing to chance, and she 
 had that indefinable nonchalance of the créole which 
 is so attractive, while about her floated like a per- 
 fume that sensuality which makes the créole woman 
 essentially feminine and is so intoxicating to man. 
 Napoleon, younger and more inexperienced than the 
 majority of men, was peculiarly susceptible to it ; 
 it was that about the woman which had appealed 
 to him at their first meeting, even while she dazzled 
 him by her imposing manner, which he spoke of as 
 being ' ' that calm and dignified demeanor which 
 belongs to the old régime.^^ 
 
40 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 Mme. de Beauharnais saw that the young officer 
 was completely captivated, and when he called the 
 following day, and the day after, and so on day 
 after day, she understood that her empire over him 
 was absolute. Seeing Mme. de Beauharnais sur- 
 rounded by men of the old court who were his 
 superiors by rank and birth, Segur, Montesquieu, 
 Caulaincourt, all of whom treated him with a cer- 
 tain degree of familiarity. Napoleon failed to 
 perceive that these men, who, in his estimation, had 
 lost nothing of their former prestige, came to her 
 house as bachelors, to divine that their wives would 
 not visit there. Coming from the Jacobin circle in 
 which he had always lived, and which at Vaucluse, 
 Toulon, Nice, and Paris had advanced his interest, 
 he took infinite delight in the company in which he 
 found himself. The luxuries of the lady, like her 
 nobility and social position, were all delusions, but 
 his senses aiding, were accepted by Napoleon as 
 realities. 
 
 A fortnight after his first visit they were lovers. 
 Judging from writings they were still only friends, 
 but a witness of the times tells us that transitions 
 were rapid, that fine distinctions were not made, and 
 the world moved fast. 
 
 They loved passionately. Such love was natural 
 enough on his part ; on hers — well, possibly it was 
 
41 
 
 equally so, for Bonaparte was a new toy, a savage 
 to be tamed, and the lion of the day. 
 
 To a woman like Josephine, no longer in her first 
 youth, such ardor, such intense passion, burning 
 kisses and constant craving for her presence, was 
 the most flattering of tributes, for it proved that 
 she was still beautiful and able to please. All this 
 made Napoleon attractive as a lover, but hardly rec- 
 ommended him for a husband ; however, when he 
 offered himself, he was accepted, for she was in a 
 desperate situation and had nothing to lose by the 
 marriage, while it offered a chance of betterment. 
 Bonaparte was young and ambitious, was general- 
 in- chief of the army of the Interior, the Directory 
 had not forgotten that it was he who arranged the 
 plans for the last Italian campaign, and Carnot 
 proposed creating him commander-in-chief in the 
 approaching campaign ; such a marriage, therefore, 
 might be her salvation and committed her to noth- 
 ing, for divorces were easily obtained in those days 
 when there was no longer any question of priests 
 and religious ceremonies, and it was simply a con- 
 tract which endured as long as both parties desired 
 to observe it, but which meant nothing either to the 
 woman's conscience or to society. 
 
 Bonaparte was a man capable of great things, and 
 Josephine argued that if she played her part well 
 
42 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBANDc 
 
 she would share any honors accruing to him, while 
 if he was killed she was sure of a pension as his 
 widow. Nevertheless, she took some precautions ; 
 in the first place she dissimulated about her age, for 
 she did not wish either her young lover, or any one, 
 to know that she had passed her thirty-second year. 
 Accompanied by Calmelet, her confidential adviser 
 and one of the guardians of her children, and by a 
 person of the name of Lesourd, she went to a notary's 
 where those two certified: ''That Marie Josephine 
 Tascher, widow of Citizen Beauharnais, was well 
 known to them, that she was a native of the island 
 of Martinique, and that as the island was at that 
 moment occupied by the English it was impossible 
 for her to secure a certificate of her birth ; " armed 
 with this legal document Josephine was able to 
 declare to the civil officer that she was born on the 
 23d of June, 1767, whereas she was born on June 
 23d, 1763. 
 
 Josephine also deceived Napoleon regarding her 
 fortune, which one would suppose was a difficult 
 thing to accomplish, but Napoleon accepted all her 
 statements, and there was drawn up privately, 
 with only the general's aide-de-camp, Lemarrois, 
 as witness, the strangest marriage contract which 
 had ever come under the notary's observation. 
 There was no property in common of any sort, com- 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 43 
 
 plete authority was given by the prospective bride- 
 groom to the prospective bride, the guardianship of 
 her children by her first marriage remained entirely 
 with her, and a dowry of fifteen hundred pounds 
 of rent was bequeathed her in the event of his death, 
 and in that event all property belonging to her 
 previous to this marriage was to be restored. 
 
 Personal property there was none ; all that the 
 future wife possessed belonged to the estate of her- 
 self and the late M. de Beauharnais, and no inven- 
 tory of it existed ; it was therefore impossible for her 
 to decide whether she would keep it for her personal 
 use or share it with Bonaparte. Such an inventory 
 was taken two years later and Josephine refused all 
 claim to the property. In those two years she had 
 bettered herself. Napoleon frankly avowed his lack 
 of fortune, declaring himself possessed of no real 
 estate and no worldly possessions other than his 
 wardrobe and military equipments which were 
 valued by him at a nominal sum suggested by the 
 notary. He was really, as the notary said to Mme. 
 de Beauharnais, ^^as poor as a church mouse." 
 Bonaparte himself thought the declaration of his 
 worldly possessions ridiculous, and simply erased 
 that paragraph from the marriage contract. 
 
 The contract was dated March 8th, 1796, and the 
 following day the marriage was celebrated by a 
 
44 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HtJSBAND. 
 
 civil officer, who was gracious enough to register 
 the groom's age as twenty-eight, and the bride's as 
 twenty-nine instead of thirty-three ; Barras, Lemar- 
 rois (who was not then of age), Talhen and the in- 
 evitable Calmelet were the witnesses. There is no 
 mention of the parents of either party having sanc- 
 tioned the marriage, and probably they were not 
 consulted. 
 
 Two days afterwards General Bonaparte left to 
 join the army in Italy, while Mme. Bonaparte re- 
 mained at her home in the rue Chantereine. 
 
JSAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 45 
 
 CHAPTEK lY. 
 
 CITIZENESS BONAPARTE. 
 
 Napoleon was ten days on the road between Paris 
 and Nice, and from every posthouse where he 
 stopped for relays, he dispatched a letter to the 
 '^ Citizeness Bonaparte, in care of Citizeness Beau- 
 harnais." - ' 
 
 In these letters there is naught save love ; ambi- 
 tion finds no place ; there is no reference to his plans, 
 no incertitude expressed regarding the future ; he 
 was so sure of himself, that he felt no need of a 
 confidant, or of discussing his intentions and the 
 likelihood of his success. He was like a prince of 
 bygone days sallying forth to an assured victory, 
 and his letters to his bride breathed only passionate 
 love. 
 
 From the moment that he arrived at Nice, even 
 while speaking a few brief words to the demoralized 
 troops which constituted his army, words which 
 encouraged their hopes and roused their enthusiasm, 
 even while enforcing obedience from the revolting 
 
46 NAPOLEOIS^, LOYER AKD HUSBAND. 
 
 generals, while organizing, equipping and provid- 
 ing for the nourishment of the disorganized forces 
 which he was to lead across the Alps, he found time 
 to write letter after letter to Josephine. ^'When 
 tempted to curse my fate," he wrote, ''I lay my 
 hand over my heart, and, feeling your picture there, 
 love renders me supremely happy, and all of life 
 seems bright, save the time which I must spend 
 away from you." Napoleon never parted from the 
 miniature to which he referred, showed it to every 
 one and prayed to it at night, and when by accident 
 the glass was broken, he was terribly distressed, 
 fancying it presaged death. 
 
 Bonaparte's love for Josephine was like the ador- 
 ation of the faithful, the exaltation of the be- 
 liever ; if the soldiers J^new of his infatuation they 
 did not make sport of it, for the majority were of 
 his age and race, and extravagant dreams filled 
 their brains as well as his. 
 
 In spite of his youth. Napoleon was just the man 
 to lead such a strangely assorted army ; his thin, 
 pale, immobile face, framed by long locks, which he 
 wore slightly powdered, impressed the soldiers by 
 its inscrutability, his piercing eyes seemed to read 
 their very souls, his glance cowed them. Below 
 him in command, were such men as Augereau, a 
 deserter from half the armies of Europe, a familiar 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBANDo 47 
 
 old fellow and a bully, and Massena, one-time 
 smuggler and pirate, as fond of women as he was 
 of money, and indifferent to the means of securing 
 both. These men would gladly have overthrown 
 the young upstart who was in command of them, 
 but he looked them straight in the eye, and, like 
 wild beasts before the tamer, they growled, but 
 grovelled. The mass of officers and soldiers, for 
 there were not many such ruffians as Landrieux, did 
 not need to be cowed, for their hearts were Napo- 
 leon's from the first ; the greater part of the men 
 had been in the Egyptian army and had served an 
 apprenticeship of abnegation ; each had in his soul 
 something of the spirit of La Tour D'Auvergne, and 
 was animated by patriotism and love of glory. 
 
 In this war, officers refused advancement as an 
 insult, corporals turned the tide of battle, common 
 soldiers improvised themselves into generals and 
 devised strategic movements ; an electric current of 
 genius circulated in the ranks ; men disdained death 
 and were gay in the face of it with joyous stoicism. 
 In all these respects Napoleon was a worthy com- 
 mander ; to vanquish, to conquer the enemies of 
 France, were the means by which he would be 
 enabled to see his beloved and have her at his side, 
 and with this desire urging him on, he won, in April, 
 1796, six battles, took twenty -one flags and forced 
 
48 XAPOLEOX, LOVER AND HUSBAN^D. 
 
 Piedmont to capitulate. " My brave boys," he said 
 to his troops, '^I appreciate and am grateful for 
 your gallant conduct ! " and doubtless he was thor- 
 oughly sincere, for, thanks to their gallantry, Jose- 
 phine could join him. 
 
 Napoleon despatched Junot to Paris with the hard- 
 won trophies and with orders to bring Mme. Bona- 
 parte back with him, and to his wife he had written, 
 '^ Hasten, for I warn you that if you linger you will 
 find me ill ; fatigue and your absence combined are 
 more than I can bear." It was no lie to draw her 
 to his side, for he was consumed by a continual fever 
 and exhausted by a persistent cough ; the itch, from 
 which he had suffered at Toulon, had reappeared and 
 affected his stomach, making him almost consump- 
 tive, while his incessant craving for Josephine also 
 wore upon his health. He wrote to her, ^' You are 
 coming, are you not, my darling ? You will soon 
 be here at my side and I can hold you in my arms, 
 close to my heart which beats only for you. Oh, 
 take wings, beloved, and fly to me !" 
 
 No other woman had the least attraction for him. 
 At Cairo, a prisoner of war, the mistress of a Pied- 
 montese officer was brought to his tent ; she was 
 young and beautiful and at sight of her his eye 
 gleamed for a moment, then he greeted the captive 
 with calm and gentle dignity, and keeping his 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEU AND HUSBAND. 49 
 
 officers with him, arranged for her transportation 
 to the outposts and return to her lover. 
 
 In this case he may possibly have been actuated 
 by motives of policy, but at Milan, when Grassini 
 made every effort to seduce him, singing for him so 
 exquisitely that the whole army were enthralled, 
 he paid the singer but repulsed the woman. There 
 was only one woman in the world for him then, and 
 the voluptuous happiness he found in her arms satis- 
 fied all his desires, he longed only for her caresses 
 and was impatient for her arrival. 
 
 Following the fortunes of war was not to 
 Josephine's taste ; she found it far more agreeable 
 to remain in Paris and enjoy the fruits of her hus- 
 band's success, which had made her one of the most 
 courted women of the capital, than to share his 
 fortunes in camp. No one refused credit to the wife 
 of the general-in-chief of the French forces in Italy ; 
 moreover, Bonaparte had sent her power of attorney, 
 so that she was able to indulge her extravagant 
 tastes ; she was at every fete and ball, at all the 
 receptions at the Luxembourg, which under Barras 
 had recovered their princely splendor, and where, 
 next to Mme. Tallien, who was the social leader, 
 Josephine was the most important of the ladies. 
 
 She was the cynosure of all eyes when, after Junot 
 
 had presented the Directory with the trophies of her 
 4 
 
50 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 husband's battles, she left the hall leanmg on 
 his arm, and she gloried in the adulation which 
 her husband's victories had brought her. When 
 she entered her box at the theatre the parquet 
 rose as one man and cheered ; at official fêtes, at 
 the celebration of the victories, it almost seemed to 
 Josephine that the honor was hers, so great was the 
 attention paid her. Paris, too, enchained her ; the 
 city had taken such a hold on her that the idea of 
 living elsewhere was intolerable, and ever after- 
 wards that feeling predominated ; she strove to the 
 end of her days to remain in Paris. 
 
 Napoleon awaited her arrival in a state bordering 
 on frenzy ; he was both anxious and tormented by 
 jealousy, and wrote letter after letter, sent courier 
 after courier to hasten her coming. ' ' What are 
 you doing ? " he wrote her, " why do you not come ? 
 If it is a lover that detains you, beware of Othello's 
 dagger ! " 
 
 Josephine found it necessary to invent excuses for 
 her delay, as Joseph Bonaparte had been sent to 
 hasten her departure, and Junot, in spite of the 
 pleasure he took in exhibiting himself in his hussar 
 uniform, was about to rejoin the army, so, unless 
 she could hit upon a really good excuse for remain- 
 ing in Paris, she knew she must accompany him. 
 After Cherasco had followed Lodi, and the army 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 51 
 
 was at that moment at Milan, therefore it was no 
 longer a bivouac but a palace which awaited her. 
 
 Poor health was an old story, but an illness oc- 
 casioned by the beginning of pregnancy she thought 
 would be an excellent excuse, and, indeed, when that 
 news reached Bonaparte he was delighted. In one 
 of his letters he says to her, " I have wronged you 
 greatly, and I do not know how I shall ever expiate 
 my fault ; I reproached you for remaining in Paris 
 when you were suffering. Forgive me, darling, for 
 the love with which you have inspired me has de- 
 prived me of my common sense ; I shall never regain 
 it ; I am incurable. I am filled with gloomy fore- 
 bodings ; I fear for your safety ; could I but hold 
 you in my arms I should be happy ; but the distance 
 which separates us fills me with misgivings. A 
 child, as adorable as yourself, will soon lie in your 
 arms ! . . . It seems to me that could I but see 
 you once, hold you for an instant in my arms, I 
 should be content, but, unfortunate man that I am, 
 I cannot go to you even for a moment." 
 On that same day he wrote to Joseph : 
 "My friend, lam in despair, for my wife, the 
 only creature in the world whom I love, is ill, and I 
 am oppressed with the most gloomy forebodings 
 because of her condition. I beseech you to tell me 
 exactly how she is, and by the tie of blood and the 
 
52 Î^APOLEON, LOVER AND HTTSBA:ND. 
 
 tender friendship which unites us, beg that you will 
 give her the tender care which it would be my 
 greatest joy to give her. You cannot love her as I 
 do, but you are the only person on earth who can, 
 even in a measure, take. my place ; you are the only 
 man on earth for whom I have always entertained a 
 warm and constant affection, you and my Josephine 
 are the only beings in whom I feel any interest. 
 Eeassure me ; tell me the truth. You know my 
 ardent nature, that I have never loved before, that 
 Josephine is the first woman I have ever truly cared 
 for, and you can understand that her illness drives 
 me distracted. I am alone, given OA^er to fears and 
 ill health, nobody writes to me and I feel deserted 
 by all, even by you. If my wife is able to stand the 
 journey I desire that she should come to me, for I 
 need her. I love her to distraction and I can no 
 longer endure this separation. If she has ceased to 
 love me my mission on earth is finished. I leave 
 myself in your hands, my best of friends, and I 
 beseech you to so arrange matters that my courier 
 will not be obliged to remain in Paris more than six 
 hours, to hasten his return with the news which 
 will give me new life." 
 
 Napoleon had become really desperate and threat- 
 ened, if his wife did not join him, to send in his 
 resignation, abandon everything and return to 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 53 
 
 Paris. Josephine realized that further excuses were 
 futile ; she could not deceive Joseph by pretending 
 illness, for he saw that she was able to go to every 
 entertainment and bore the fatigues of pleasure 
 remarkably well ; while as for her last and best ex- 
 cuse, that which had touched her husband so deeply, 
 it was too evidently a fiction for her to insist longer 
 upon it. So at last she was obliged to prepare for 
 the hated journey, and after a farewell supper at 
 the Luxembourg, in the lowest of spirits, blinded 
 by tears, she stepped into a travelling carriage and, 
 in company with Joseph Bonaparte, Junot, Citizen 
 Hippolyte Charles, the assistant of Adjutant-General 
 Leclerc, her maid Louise Compoint and her dog 
 Fortune, she started for Milan. 
 
 Louise Compoint, nicknamed the officious, ate at 
 the same table with her mistress, was almost as well 
 dressed, and had little of the menial about her. 
 Her room in the rue Chantereine in nowise resem- 
 bled a servant's, but with its curtains and portières 
 of Siamese stuff, alabaster and gilt candelabrum. 
 Sèvres statuettes and jardinières and handsome 
 brass-trimmed furniture was really better appointed 
 than Mme. Bonaparte's. Louise Compoint's relations 
 to Josephine were doubtless those of a confidante 
 whom it was desirable to conciliate, for, although 
 they afterwards disagreed, she paid the girl a pen- 
 
54 NAPOLEOÎT, LOYER AKD HUSBAND. 
 
 sion up to 1805. During the journey, which was 
 slow and seems to have been designedly prolonged, 
 Junot managed to ingratiate himself into Mile. 
 Louise's good graces, and although Josephine sub- 
 sequently showed herself far from indifferent to 
 the admiration of M. Charles, she was for the 
 moment furious because Junot preferred her maid 
 to herself. 
 
 Although the travellers left Paris at the end of 
 June they had not reached Milan on the 8th of July, 
 and Bonaparte, who was obliged to leave there and 
 go to face Wurmser's army, sent a courier begging 
 his wife to join him at Yerona. '^I need you," he 
 wrote, '' for I feel that I am on the eve of a severe 
 illness. " Josephine, however, preferred to await his 
 return to Milan, whither he rushed the moment he 
 could leave the field, and they spent two days to- 
 gether, then he was obliged to face the crisis at 
 Castiglione. 
 
 Never was there a graver situation, danger more 
 imminent, it was not simply a question of avoiding 
 defeat, but of annihilation ; yet during the terrible 
 mental strain which followed, when he was massing 
 his divisions and manoeuvring to prevent disaster, 
 at the moment when his destiny was at stake and 
 his star seemed to waver, when, for the first time, he 
 was assailed with doubts of himself. Napoleon still 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 55 
 
 found time for a daily love-letter. ^^Show me some 
 of your faults/' he wrote, ^^be less beautiful, less 
 gracious, tender and good, above all never be jeal- 
 ous and never weep, for your tears drive me crazy, 
 they fire my blood. . . . Rejoin me as soon as you 
 possibly can, that ere death can part us we may have 
 more happy days together." 
 
 Throughout their entire separation the same wild 
 passion was daily expressed ; in order that Josephine 
 should rejoin him, so that he might sometimes 
 spend a day or an hour in her society, he entreated, 
 implored, and finally was forced to command ; and 
 she, grown a little more submissive in the face of 
 conquered Italy and that fantastic army, feeling 
 vaguely that her husband belonged to the race of 
 chiefs whom one must obey, made the effort to join 
 him. 
 
 It was a strange journey which Josephine made 
 across a country torn by war ; sometimes she was 
 forced to flee before the Austrian forces, sometimes 
 she made a triumphal passage through the towns of 
 new Italy, where she was welcomed like a sovereign ; 
 it was made through armies sometimes victorious, 
 sometimes disbanded ; she travelled in carriages, 
 which were continually being upset, and on horse- 
 back ; and in the brief intervals of her perilous jour- 
 ney Bonaparte made ardent love within the sound 
 
Ob XAPOLEOX, LOVEE A>T) HrSBA^T3. 
 
 of drums beating a charge, under fire, and by the 
 light of bombarded cities. 
 
 When Josephine was with him Bonaparte spent 
 the entire time at her side in an attitude of devo- 
 tion ; when absent, he sent courier after courier 
 bearing* messages of affection ; from every one of 
 those unknown towns, whose names he rendered 
 immortal, he dispatched letters in which passionate 
 declarations of tenderness, of confidence and even 
 of gratitude are mingled with jealous imprecations. 
 It was a constant cry from a hungTy heart, from a 
 man who had hved chastely, towards the mistress 
 older, more worldly, more sophisticated than him- 
 self, who satisfied his heart and senses. 
 
 Unintentionally, Bonaparte borrowed his episto- 
 lary style from Eousseau, not that he was insincere 
 or that his love was a pretext for hterary efforts, but 
 because he was imbued with that style ; he did not 
 know, and never learned how to speak of love in 
 any other fashion ; he was a disciple of Jean-Jacques 
 to the end of his days. Josephine was neither of the 
 same nationality, education or temperament, and 
 his perpetual elation and continuous demands upon 
 her affection wearied and bored her. It was pleas- 
 ant to hold the first place in the heart of so extraor- 
 dinary a man, and his youthful fervor interested 
 her at fii^t, but there was a brutality in the exprès- 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 57 
 
 sion of his love which shocked, rather than appealed 
 to her jaded senses, and of ten rendered her husband's 
 caresses repugnant. 
 
 She was recompensed in a measure for the un- 
 pleasant experiences of her sojourn in Italy by the 
 offerings from cities, princes, generals and mer- 
 chants which poured in upon her ; but although she 
 received and spent a great deal of money, she was 
 not a mercenary woman. As prodigal as short- 
 sighted, easily tempted and yielding, Josephine ac- 
 cepted willingly and gave capriciously, seeing no 
 wrong in either course, and simply obeying her in- 
 stincts ; nevertheless she managed that Bonaparte 
 remained in ignorance of her doings, knowing that 
 he entertained scruples which were incomprehensi- 
 ble to her. Among the first presents offered her in 
 Italy was a box of rare medals, d propos of which 
 Bonaparte had so strongly expressed his disapproval 
 that she had felt obliged to return them ; after that 
 experience she took good care to keep him in igno- 
 rance, and whenever he questioned her as to how 
 jewels, valuable pictures and priceless antiquities 
 came into her possession she accounted for them by 
 clever inventions, in which proceeding she was ably 
 seconded by her accomplices. 
 
 There were many things of which Bonaparte was 
 ignorant, among them the existence of General 
 
58 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 Leclerc's assistant, M. Charles, who had remained 
 in Milan, and paraded the streets, foppishly arrayed 
 in a cavalry uniform, invariably appearing at the 
 Palace Serbelloni during its master's absence. M. 
 Charles was a well-built, active young man, gay, 
 witty and possessed of the most imperturbable assur- 
 ance. Josephine claimed that their friendship was 
 purely platonic, that the young man was merely a 
 pleasant companion who helped her to while away 
 the time, but it is certain that he was also the go- 
 between between the créole, who was always in 
 need of something, and the shopkeepers who fan- 
 cied that the general's wife could be useful to them, 
 and he was a lavish contractor, levying gaily ujDon 
 whatever was needed with the jolly inconsequence 
 of a soldier foraging. 
 
 Bonaparte finally became suspicious of M. Charles, 
 as he had of Murat, and upon some pretext the 
 young man was arrested ; upon his release he left 
 the army and returned to Paris, where Josephine 
 secured him a position with the Compagnie Bodin, 
 and he made a large fortune in the provision busi- 
 ness. 
 
 M. Charles had been a companion to Josephine's 
 taste, some one from her beloved Paris, gay, noisy, 
 amusing Paris which she missed so much, and she 
 needed some one of his calibre to help her bear the 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 59 
 
 intolerable ennui to which she was a victim. ^^ I 
 am bored to death," she wrote her aunt, and indeed 
 she was ; she was bored by the demonstrative affec- 
 tion of her young husband, bored at Milan and 
 Genoa where she was received like a queen, bored 
 at Florence where the Grand Duke welcomed her as 
 "My Cousin," at Montebello where she held her 
 court, at Passeriano and Venice, bored everywhere 
 outside of Paris, yet, when Bonaparte finally turned 
 his face homeward, she did not accompany him ; 
 she had taken a fancy, so she said, to see Rome, and 
 she did not reach the rue Chantereine until her hus- 
 band had been a week settled in the house whereon, 
 at her orders, one hundred and twenty-five thousand 
 francs had been expended in furniture and decora- 
 tions. 
 
 Thus, for a caprice, Josephine renounced the 
 triumphant journey across Switzerland and Italy, 
 during which Bonaparte was everywhere greeted 
 with shouts of acclamation, the victorious return to 
 France by the side of the man with whose praises 
 the whole country was ringing, the man whose 
 glorified name she bore. 
 
 Although at that time Napoleon's ardor had 
 somewhat abated, his wife was still the only woman 
 whom he loved, and he made a public confession of 
 his affection, saying to Mme. de Staël, "I adore 
 
60 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 my wife," he never left her, and was not displeased 
 by the report that he was extremely jealous. Jose- 
 phine was no longer pretty, she was nearing forty, 
 and showed her age, but in Bonaparte's sight she 
 had not changed, and, his first passion passed, there 
 remained so sweet and tender a memory of his first 
 love that throughout his life she exercised over his 
 heart and senses an immutable influence. 
 
 NOTE. 
 
 A chronicler, whom I only cite because in such matters it is 
 wisest to take note of all that is said, affirms that on the morning 
 when Bonaparte received the oaths of the civic guard, he had in 
 his apartment an actress, who was a mistress of a Piedmontese 
 general, and whom he had ordered brought there for his amuse- 
 ment, and that, the ceremony terminated, he went on foot to the 
 Passage des Figini, where he purchased from Manini the jeweller, 
 feminine ornaments valued at a hundred and twenty-eight pounds. 
 Another account, that previous to the taking of Milan he had for 
 a mistress the Marquise de Blanchi, a woman of remarkable 
 beauty, who had called upon him to reclaim twenty-five horses 
 belonging to her husband which the French had stolen. After 
 the marquise he is accredited with having entertained an opera 
 singer named Ricardi, to whom he presented a carriage and six 
 horses ; after that, a youthful dancer of seventeen, Mademoiselle 
 Thérèse Campini, and, lastly, the daughter of a furrier. That 
 makes five, and none of the adventures, and I have carefully 
 investigated t^ie subject, appear to be authentic. 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 61 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 MADAME FOURES. 
 
 Bonaparte stood on the deck of the transport 
 rOcean as she sailed out of the harbor of Toulon on 
 the 29th of April, 1798, and watched Josephine until 
 distance hid her from his sight. He still loved her 
 fondly, if not with the burning ardor of the first 
 days of their married life, and admired her as the 
 incarnation of grace and elegance, of all that was 
 sweet and feminine, and as the first woman who 
 had been completely his own and rendered him 
 supremely happy. 
 
 It had been settled between them that as soon as 
 Egypt was conquered (and he did not doubt that he 
 should conquer) he should send a frigate for her and 
 she should join him, in the meanwhile she was to 
 go to the baths ; but if Josephine was sincere when 
 she promised to go to Egypt, the idea of making 
 such a journey, of going into an unknown land, soon 
 became a bugbear to her, the old Parisian life recon- 
 quered her, society and the world resumed their 
 
62 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 sway, the attachment she had formed at Milan was 
 hard to break, and she lingered in France. 
 
 Eeports of her indiscretions reaching Napoleon on 
 the passage between Malta and Alexandria, his old 
 suspicions were awakened, and he felt he must know 
 the truth ; so he called aside those whom he judged 
 to be his sincerest friends and least likely to deceive 
 him, and, determined to learn what had been said of 
 his wife in Italy, pressed them with questions. Men 
 were blunt in those days and he was soon fully in- 
 formed. 
 
 Josephine's life before he married her did not 
 interest him and he asked no questions about it. 
 When he had written her from Milan : ^' Every- 
 thing pleases me, even your errors aDd the trying 
 scene which preceded our marriage by about a fort- 
 night," he gave the keynote to his character and 
 explained his comprehension of love. In his opin- 
 ion the right a man has over his wife dated from 
 the day they are wed, and from the day when Jose- 
 phine de Beauharnais had bound herself to him by 
 an oath, accepted his love and professed to share it, 
 she belonged wholly to him ; if she had deceived 
 him he was done with her. 
 
 The idea of divorce germinated in the hour when 
 his eyes were unsealed and the illusion under which 
 he had lived was dispelled. Had Bonaparte remained 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEE, AND HUSBAND. 63 
 
 in ignorance of Josephine's infidelities he would 
 doubtless have been as faithful in Egypt as he was 
 in Italy, but under the circumstances he felt under 
 no obligation to restrain himself, and saw no reason 
 why he should not lighten the tedium of the hours 
 by the distractions, which, a few months previous, 
 would have seemed to him like treachery to his wife, 
 but which under the existing conditions appeared 
 but natural to a man of his years. 
 
 He had a fancy to taste of the far-famed charms 
 of Oriental women, as so many other Europeans 
 had done, and a number were introduced to him, 
 but their obesity was repugnant, for no one was 
 ever more easily disgusted, more sensible to odors, 
 or more impressionable than Bonaparte. 
 
 He was more fortunate at the Egyptian Tivoli, a 
 garden constructed on the model of the Tivoli at 
 Paris and managed by a member of the old body- 
 guard, once a schoolmate of Bonaparte's at Brienne, 
 who had obtained permission to follow the army. 
 Like its prototype, the Egyptian Tivoli had a club 
 with all kinds of games, swings, jugglers, snake- 
 charmers and dancers, and its habitués could take 
 an ice while listening to the strains of a military 
 band. The place would have been pleasant if fre- 
 quented by the feminine habitués of similar European 
 resorts, but of European women there were few, the 
 
64 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 
 
 only ones who frequented, the TivoH having come 
 with the army to Egypt ; for, in spite of the order 
 that officer's wives were to remain behind, a few, 
 disguised in male attire, managed to evade the scru- 
 tiny of the sentinels and make the passage in the 
 holds of the transports ; they were mostly bold, auda- 
 cious creatures, old campaigners accustomed to a life 
 of adventure, and, like the wife of General Verdier, 
 able to handle a gun as well as their husband. 
 
 The prettiest among these women was a little 
 blonde with dazzling complexion and white teeth, 
 by name, Marguerite-Pauline Bellisle. She would 
 have been attractive anywhere ; in Egypt she was 
 simply adorable. Apprenticed to a milliner at Car- 
 cassonne, she had succeeded in marrying her em- 
 ployer's nephew, Lieutenant Fourès, a good-looking 
 young fellow in the 22d chasseurs. In the midst 
 of their honeymoon came the order to embark for 
 Egypt ^ the bride arrayed herself in cavalry uniform 
 and sneaked aboard the same vessel which carried 
 the groom ; arrived at Cairo she resumed her femi- 
 nine habiliments and devoted herself so exclusively 
 to her husband that the union was cited as a model 
 one. 
 
 During a fête, given at Esbekieh after a review 
 of the troops, Bonaparte's young aides-de- camps, 
 Merlin and Eugène de Beauharnais, caught sight 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 65 
 
 of Mme. Fourès and admired her so vehemently 
 that his attention was directed to her, and he 
 inquired who she was ; that evening he saw her 
 again at the Tivoli, was introduced and paid her 
 marked attention. Afterwards, intermediaries, who 
 are to be found everywhere, undertook to smooth 
 the way for him. 
 
 Whether from calculation or virtue, it was some 
 time before the little woman yielded ; it required 
 protestations, letters and rich gifts to overcome her 
 scruples, but at last she succumbed. On the 17th 
 of December Lieutenant Fourès received an order 
 to embark, alone this time, on the Chasseur com- 
 manded by Captain Laurens, with orders to make 
 the coast of Italy and carry dispatches to the 
 Directory ; at Paris he was to see Lucien and 
 Joseph Bonaparte, and, after receiving such letters 
 as they desired to send, to return to Damiette. 
 He returned sooner than was expected. 
 
 The day after the lieutenant's departure Bonaparte 
 gave a dinner at which Mme. Fourès occupied the 
 seat of honor. The host was most attentive, but to- 
 wards the end of the repast, with apparent awk- 
 wardness he upset a carafe of ice-water over her, and 
 rising, with many apologies, led the way into an- 
 other room, under pretext of assisting her to re- 
 arrange her disordered toilet. A chronicler of the 
 5 
 
66 
 
 times tells us that ^'they paid some regard to ap- 
 pearances, but unfortunately their absence was so 
 prolonged that the guests who remained at table 
 entertained grave doubts as to the genuineness of 
 the accident." They had still more cause for doubt 
 when a house adjoining the palace Elfi-Bey, the 
 general's residence, was hastily furnished, and the 
 fair Marguerite stalled therein. 
 
 Madame Fourès was scarcely settled in her new 
 abode when her husband returned. The Chas- 
 seur sailed from France on the ISth of Decem- 
 ber, and the following day fell a prisoner to the 
 English man-of-war Lion ; the English, who were 
 pretty accurately informed regarding what was 
 going on in the French army, were malicious 
 enough to send Fourès back to Cairo on his parole 
 not to serve against them during the war. The 
 lieutenant, who Marmont vainly essayed to detain 
 at Alexandria, arrived in a furious temper, and 
 cruelly did his wife expiate her faithlessness ; to 
 escape his rage she petitioned for a divorce, which 
 was pronounced by a military justice, and on the 
 return of the Syrian expedition Lieutenant Fourès 
 was again ordered to return to France, and an ex- 
 press order to expedite his journey was addressed 
 to the naval commander. 
 
 After her divorce, Mme. Fourès, who had resumed 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 67 
 
 her maiden name of Bellisle, paraded herself as Bona- 
 parte's favorite. Richly apparelled, living in most 
 luxurious fashion, entertaining generals and doing 
 the honors of the palace to some army women, she 
 was to be seen everywhere ; sometimes driving with 
 Bonaparte, while the aide-de-camp on duty trotted 
 by the side of the carriage — Eugène de Beauharnais 
 like the rest, — sometimes galloping about in a 
 general's uniform, a cocked hat perched on her 
 head, and mounted on an Arab horse which had 
 been especially broken for her use. '^ Here comes 
 our general ! " said the soldiers, while those ad- 
 dicted to flowery language nicknamed her, ^^Cleo- 
 patra." 
 
 About her neck she habitually wore a long chain 
 to which hung her lover's miniature ; it was a 
 public liaison at which no one manifested any 
 astonishment. 
 
 From the year 1792 young women in masculine 
 apparel were to be found at all the headquarters of 
 the Army of the Republic, sometimes acting as 
 aides-de-camp, as did the demoiselles de Fernig, but 
 more frequently in another capacity, like Illyrine 
 de Morency, Ida Saint-Elme and many others. At 
 that epoch a man's costume was to be found in the 
 wardrobe of every woman of easy morals, the 
 generals' custom of taking their mistresses, and 
 
6S XAPOLEOX, LOVER AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 even their wives, on military exiDeditions was so 
 deep-rooted that during the campaigns in Spain, 
 and up to the fall of the Empire, hardly one failed 
 to follow it : for example, witness Massena in ISIO 
 and IS 11. Nevertheless Eugène de Beauharnais re- 
 belled against his duties as escort to his stepfather's 
 mistress, and was excused from that service, though 
 he was still retained as aide-de-camp. 
 
 So deeply enamored was Bonaparte of Mar- 
 guerite Belhsle, that he did not conceal from her 
 his intention of repudiating Josephine ; and even 
 meditated marrying her should she bear him a 
 child, but as he laughingly remarked : ' ' The little 
 idiot does not know enough to have a baby,'- which 
 being repeated to her drew forth the retort : "' TVho 
 knows if I am the idiot i '' 
 
 During the Syrian expedition Marguerite remained 
 at Cairo, and Bonaparte wrote her the tenderest 
 letters, and when, after Aboukir, the general em- 
 barked on the Miirion to return to France, he left 
 orders that the ci-devant Mme. Fourès was to re- 
 join him as soon as possible, and that she should 
 sail by the first armed vessel. 
 
 Greneral Kléber, however, did not take that view of 
 the situation. He had succeeded Bonaparte in com- 
 mand, and doubtless he regarded La Bellilote as 
 one of the perquisites of the position ; at all events 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 69 
 
 he threw obstacle after obstacle in the way of her 
 departure, and it was owing to Desgenettes that she 
 finally embarked on a neutral vessel, the America, 
 in company with Junot and some of the savants 
 of the Egyptian expedition, Rigel, Lallemand and 
 Corancez, Jr. Unfortunately the America fell into 
 the hands of the English, and Mme. Fourès was not 
 released from captivity and able to return to France 
 until too late. 
 
 When she reached her native land the reconcilia- 
 tion between Bonaparte and Josephine was an ac- 
 complished fact, and her lover metamorphosed into 
 the First Consul of the Eepublic, a position which 
 rendered it incumbent upon him to set the country 
 an example of a dignified and upright life. It is 
 claimed that Bonaparte forbade Mme. Fourès coming 
 to Paris ; if so, his injunctions were disregarded, 
 for she came and showed herself in company with 
 her friends at ^^Les Français" and other theatres; 
 the Consul, however, firmly refused to see her, but 
 gave her as much money as she demanded. On the 
 11th of March, 1811, he presented her with sixty 
 thousand francs out of the appropriation for theatres, 
 he bought a château for her in the suburbs of Paris, 
 and arranged a marriage between her and M. Henri 
 de Ranchoup, an émigré, an ex-infantry officer, and 
 the scion of a good Auvergne family ; the marriage 
 
70 NAPOLEO^^, LOVEE AND HUSBAXD. 
 
 took place at Bellevile in 1800, and the husband 
 received as a wedding-present the vice-consulship of 
 Santander, from which he was promoted, in 1810, 
 to the consulate of Gothenburg. 
 
 In spite of her husband's duties, Mme. de Ran- 
 choup appears to have been seldom absent from 
 Paris ; she was there in 1811, and still there in 1813. 
 In 1814 she was well known in society and visited 
 the Baroness Girard, the Countess de Lucy, and the 
 Baroness Brayer ; she went in for literary work, and 
 had published by Delaunay a two-volumed novel en- 
 titled " Lord Wentworth." The romance of her life, 
 however, is far more interesting. She painted also, 
 and was not without talent if one can judge by the 
 charming portrait she made of herself, wherein she 
 appears pulling the leaves from a daisy ; it was a 
 singular idea to thus represent herself essaying to 
 read her fate by the aid of a flower. Alas, for her ! 
 while searching for ''^ passionately " she found " not 
 at all." The portrait represents a charming woman 
 with a vivacious face under a mass of short, babyish 
 curls, slight, graceful figure and really beautiful 
 arms, and it atones in gracefulness for what it lacks 
 in technique. 
 
 Towards 1816 Mme. de Eanchoup came to an 
 open rupture with her husband, sold her furniture, 
 which was valuable, and departed for Brazil in 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEU AND HUSBAND. 71 
 
 company with an ex-officer of the Guard, Jean- 
 August e Bellard. It was rumored in Paris that, 
 having realized on her property, she proposed to re- 
 new her relations with Napoleon and aid him to 
 escape from St. Helena. She was not thinking of 
 such a thing, having grown to detest the Emperor, 
 and to affect royalistic opinions. When Mme. 
 d'Abrantès published her memoirs she mentioned 
 this rumor, praising Mme. de Eanchoup highly for 
 her loyalty and devotion ; hut the latter protested, 
 as such a statement rendered her a suspicious char- 
 acter in the eye of the police, who, knowing her 
 to he an old friend of Bonaparte's, were inclined 
 to keep an eye upon her and who watched her 
 narrowly when she returned from Brazil with 
 Bellard in 1825. 
 
 In reality her journeys between Brazil and France 
 were taken simply to secure to herself a compe- 
 tency ; she took out merchandise, which she ex- 
 changed for rosewood and mahogany, these she 
 brought back and sold in France, returning again to 
 South America with furniture ; oscillating in this 
 fashion between the Old World and the New until 
 1837, when she settled in Paris. She continued writ- 
 ing, and published another novel, '' Une Châtelaine 
 du XII. Siècle," and installed in a modest little 
 apartment in the rue de la Ville-l'Evêque, surrounded 
 
72 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 by monkeys and birds, she led a cheerful, contented 
 existence until the 18th of March^ 1869, when she 
 died at the age of 92 years. She retained all her 
 faculties unimpaired to the last ; she wrote, played on 
 the harp, and painted ; she bought pictures, kept up 
 her friendships with the women she had known in 
 other days and even made new friends, among 
 others, Mile. Rosa Bonheur. 
 
 Mme. de Ranchoup's taste in art is discerned by 
 the numerous pictures with which she endowed 
 the museum at Blois (to which city she was at- 
 tracted by her friend the Baroness de Wimpffen). 
 Many of these pictures which claim to be Raphael's, 
 Titian's, Leonard's, and Boucher's, are really only 
 copies ; some canvases are attributed to Prud'hon, 
 others to Reynolds, Terburg, Jean Meel, Carlo 
 Maratti, Jeaurat, and there are also two modern 
 pictures, one a Rosa Bonheur, the other a Compte- 
 Calix ; infant Jesus', Bohemians, Yenuses, Cupids, 
 Psyches and Hermits, abound ; but not one recalls 
 the days in Egypt, the palace of Elfi-Bey, and the 
 man who played the most important rôle in her life. 
 Before she died, Mme. de Ranchoup, or the Countess 
 de Ranchoup, as she preferred to be called, burnt 
 every letter which had been written her by Bonaparte. 
 It appears as though she wished to annihilate every 
 memory of the love to which she owes her place in 
 
NAPOLEOK, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 73 
 
 history ; that youthful, sensual love which had, 
 nevertheless, an ingenuous side, and in which, above 
 all, we see how imperious was Napoleon's desire for 
 a child ; a child of his Qwn, to whom he could trans- 
 mit his name and his glory. 
 
74 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 CHAPTEK VI. 
 
 RECONCILIATION. 
 
 Josephine was dining at the Luxemburg, a 
 guest of Gohier, president of the Directory, when 
 the news that Bonaparte had landed at Fréjus was 
 announced : it was totally unexpected and almost 
 overwhelmed her, for she had well-nigh forgotten 
 that he existed, had seemingly overlooked the possi- 
 bility of his return, and arranged her life to please 
 herself, her conduct closely resembling that of a 
 widow no longer inconsolable. 
 
 While in Egypt the husband meditated a divorce, 
 in France the wife was making her repudiation 
 imperative ; having broken off her relations with 
 Barras, whose influence was declining and whose 
 power was weakening, she did everything to ingrati- 
 ate herself with the Gohiers, husband and wife, 
 from the moment he held an important government 
 position. 
 
 Gohier was a native of Rennes, belonged to the 
 middle-class, and had been the minister of Justice 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. To 
 
 during the Reign of Terror ; he it was who drew up 
 the legal formulas which Fouquier-Tinville enforced ; 
 he was the casuiste of the guillotine. Nothing 
 gives an air of austerity like the hunt after judicial 
 expediencies, it is the indispensable mask which 
 hides the law's prevarications, and Gohier affected 
 a Spartan-like integrity and sternness. 
 
 Because of his austerity he was elected a member 
 of the Directory, and because of it also he made a 
 recruit of Josephine, who confided to him her pas- 
 sion for M. Charles, and was counselled by him to 
 apply for a divorce in order to espouse her lover. 
 
 Josephine, though tempted, hesitated ; but in the 
 meantime, because of M. Charles, she quarrelled 
 with her brothers-in-law, Joseph and Lucien, who 
 were the most violent adversaries of the Gohier 
 party, and inspired their life-long enmity. 
 
 On the Bonaparte side were all Napoleon's friends, 
 those who waited, hoped and counted upon his re- 
 turn to re-organize France, while the Gohier party 
 comprised his bitterest enemies, Bernadotte, Cham- 
 pionnet, Jourdin, Moulin, all the political generals. 
 The Jacobins had pushed forward Gohier, who was 
 a republican and a civilian, solely that they might 
 encompass the downfall of the conqueror. The 
 more hostile Gohier was to Bonaparte, the better it 
 suited Josephine, and, in order to secure to herself 
 
76 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HTJSBAND. 
 
 the protection and support of the Gohier family, she 
 schemed to marry her daughter Hortense to their 
 son ; planning to sacrifice the poor child (whose 
 happiness was always a secondary consideration) if 
 it proved to her interest to do so. 
 
 This scheme was progressing finely, and they 
 were dining en famille, when the startling news 
 that Bonaparte had disembarked and was on the 
 way to Paris came upon them like a thunderbolt. 
 
 It was clear that he would not have come in so 
 secret and unheralded a fashion save for grave 
 reasons ; Gohier realized that a crisis was at hand, 
 and Josephine that she had not a moment to lose if 
 she would save herself, for, seeing a struggle for 
 supremacy, she meant to be on the winning side. 
 Gohier might yet be a useful friend, but the most 
 important thing was to regain her empire over 
 Bonaparte. With this end in view, she instantly 
 determined to go to meet him, and announced that 
 determination to Gohier. ^^Do not fear. President," 
 she said, as she took leave of him, ''that Bonaparte 
 comes with designs fatal to liberty, but it is wiser 
 to prevent traitors from gaining his ear." 
 
 She hurriedly ordered post-horses and set out ; 
 this time without Louise Compoint, or Fortuné ; 
 and, unincumbered by baggage, flew to meet her hus- 
 band. Her plan was to throw herself into his 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 77 
 
 arms, rekindle his burnt-out passion, and win him 
 back, and by thus avoiding all explanations return 
 with him to Paris, and be at his side to receive the 
 chagrined Bonapartes who would again hesitate to 
 speak, or, if they dared, would find they spoke to 
 deaf ears. 
 
 While Josephine was urging on her postilions, 
 and eagerly scanning the horizon for the travelling- 
 carriage she so wished to meet, Bonaparte arrived 
 in Paris by the Bourbonnais route ; learning this 
 she hastily retraced her steps, but she had lost three 
 days, during which Bonaparte had interrogated his 
 brothers, sisters and mother, who confirmed the 
 gossip he had heard in Egypt, and cemented his 
 determination to obtain a divorce. There was no 
 longer any doubt as to what Josephine's conduct 
 had been in Milan, or of the life she had led dur- 
 ing the past seventeen months. It seems that the 
 Bonapartes, either out of regard for her or their 
 brother, did not tell all they knew, possibly they 
 did not know everything ; however, what they said 
 sufficed ; Napoleon's decision was taken, and the 
 whole family approved it. 
 
 In vain did the friends, to whom he recounted his 
 troubles, remonstrate and point out to him that the 
 acclamations with which the people had greeted his 
 return proved that they looked to him for their 
 
78 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 
 
 salvation, that they did not expect a scandal, that 
 he must wait until he had done his duty to his 
 country before he dismissed his wife, that to adver- 
 tise his domestic troubles was to lay himself open 
 to ridicule, and that in France ridicule kills ; to all 
 Bonaparte turned a deaf ear. 
 
 '^ She must go,"' he said, '' no matter what people 
 say ; they will gossip for a day or two, then all will 
 be forgotten." No consideration could soften or 
 touch him, no interests were great enough to over- 
 throw his just indignation. To avoid a meeting 
 wherein he feared he might be moved to pity — for 
 he realized the hold Josephine had over his senses, 
 and would not trust himself to meet her — he de- 
 posited with the concierge her jewels and effects; 
 he then made an appointment with his brothers for 
 the following morning, intending to settle the last 
 formalities, and alone m his room on the first floor 
 of the house, awaited their arrival. 
 
 Josephine, half frantic, at last reached the rue 
 Chantereine ; it was a desperate game she was about 
 to play, and her chance of success was poor, for her 
 cause was already half lost. 
 
 During her journey, for perhaps the first time in 
 her Hf e, Josephine had reflected upon her position and 
 the horror of it had burst upon her, forcing her to 
 see that if she did not succeed in seeing, and re-con- 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 79 
 
 quering her husband^ she had nowhere to go. Men 
 hke M. Charles' were well enough for a pasthne, but 
 how could she have been so stupid as to permit her 
 relations with him to have become a scandal and 
 for his sake to jeopardize her best interests ? That, 
 the affair with Barras and others, the Bonapartes 
 antagonized, debts everywhere — what was to be- 
 come of her ? Her head was in a whirl. Not realiz- 
 ing the value of money, she had bought continually 
 on credit, fancying that all her bills were settled 
 when she had only paid something on account, and 
 she dragged after her then, as she did during the Em- 
 pire and up to her last hour, a train of creditors who 
 always gave her fresh occasion for expense and whose 
 bills she increased without a thought of the day of 
 reckoning. When payment became due she wept 
 and sobbed, lost her head, resorted to every possible 
 expedient, called on God and the devil to help her, 
 and, when she succeeded in gaining a little time, 
 thought herself saved. This was how she stood at 
 that moment ; to her tradespeople alone, it is said, she 
 owed twelve hundred thousand francs, and it is not 
 unlikely, for that was the usual sum of her indebted- 
 ness. She had purchased in the canton of Glabbaix, 
 in the department of Dyle, national bonds to the 
 amount of one million, one hundred and ninety- 
 five thousand francs, and still owed two-thirds on 
 
80 
 
 it ; the other third was to have been furnished 
 by her aunt, Mme. Renaudin, then become Mme. de 
 Beauharnais, but she had not a penny and could not 
 fulfill her promise. She had bought of citizen 
 Lecoulteux the lands and demesne of Malmaison 
 for two hundred and twenty-five thousand francs ; 
 thirty-seven thousand, ûve hundred and sixteen 
 francs for furniture, utensils and provisions, and 
 nine thousand, one hundred and ten francs for 
 rights and privileges ; on this she had paid for the 
 furniture with ^^ the price of diamonds and jewels 
 belonging to her : " but the rest was demandable, 
 and who was to pay it ? 
 
 Josephine knew she might claim that the general, 
 who had visited Malmaison before his departure 
 for Egypt, had offered two hundred and fifty 
 thousand francs for the property, and that that 
 was about the sum which she had agreed to pay 
 for it ; but after having seen Malmaison Bona- 
 parte had seen Ris, and had favorably considered its 
 purchase, and finally his choice had fallen upon a 
 place in Bourgogne ; moreover, he had not given 
 her power of attorney. His brother Joseph was his 
 business manager ; it was through him that Jose- 
 phine received her annual allowance of forty thou- 
 sand francs, and to Joseph alone had Napoleon com- 
 municated his projects. The latter had advanced 
 
 i 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 81 
 
 fifteen thousand francs on account to Lecoulteux ; 
 the receipt, however, which bore the date of lYth 
 Messidor, year VII., was in the general's name, and 
 Josephine therefore still owed fifteen thousand 
 francs, because she had stipulated at marriage for 
 the separation of property. 
 
 Nothing belonged to her ; not even the hotel in 
 the rue de la Victoire, for it had been bought and 
 paid for by Bonaparte ; all that she owned were the 
 spoils of her Italian campaign, which she was pleased 
 to display, and which one of her contemporaries tells 
 us was worthy to have figured in ^^ A Thousand and 
 One Nights." She still possessed pictures, statues 
 and antiques, but what were they against what she 
 owed ; and what did they amount to in comparison 
 to what she was losing ? 
 
 Thus Josephine was again in desperate straits and 
 no longer at an age when she could hope to repair 
 her fortunes by a lucky marriage. The years had 
 left their traces, her figure remained supple and 
 graceful, but her face had faded ; a créole, married 
 at sixteen, matured at twelve (for Tercier claims to 
 have courted her in 1776) she was much older than 
 a northern woman at the same period of life, and, 
 looking the situation in the face, she clung to the 
 hope that her husband would see her and be touched. 
 
 She went to the rue Chantereine, forced her way 
 
bZ XAPOLEOX, LOVEE AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 into the house and to the door of the room in which 
 Bonaparte had intrenched himself ; but she knocked 
 and implored vainly ; finally she threw herself upon 
 her knees, and the sounds of her sobs and lamenta- 
 tions rang through the house. She remained there 
 for hours endeavoring to make him open the door ; 
 at last, utterly discouraged and exhausted, she was 
 about to depart when her maid, Agathe Eible, 
 thought of an expedient and begging her mistress 
 to stop where she was, rushed for Eugène and Hor- 
 tense, and returning with them had them kneel be- 
 side their mother and join their supplications with 
 hers ; at last the door opened, Bonaparte appeared, 
 and without uttering a word held out his arms to 
 his wife ; his eyes were suffused with tears, and his 
 face bore evidence of the terrible strain he had 
 undergone. 
 
 It was no half pardon which was extended 
 to Josephine, but forgiveness, utter and complete. 
 Bonaparte had the wonderful faculty of forgetful- 
 ness, and once he had forgiven a fault and renewed 
 his confidence, was able to erase from the tablets of 
 his mind the faults or crimes which it had pleased 
 him to condone, so that it was as though they had 
 never been committed ; not only did he forgive his 
 wife, but, more wonderful, he ignored her accom- 
 plices ; he never deprived one of them of life or 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 83 
 
 liberty, did nothing to impede their success ; never- 
 theless, when, by chance, he encountered certain of 
 them he became suddenly extremely pale. He ar- 
 gued that those men were not to blame, but that the 
 fault was his, for he had not taken good care of his 
 wife, that she had not been properly guarded, but 
 left too long alone and unprotected, and so another 
 had been able to penetrate into his harem. It was 
 natural, the necessity of sex ordered that man should 
 be insistent, that woman should succumb ; it was 
 the law of nature. Bonaparte reasoned that if the 
 erring wife was no longer beloved, she should be re- 
 pudiated ; if she was still dear, the only thing to do 
 was to take her back ; reproaches were senseless. 
 Before an accomplished fact Bonaparte yielded, he 
 accepted things as they were and people as he found 
 them, and he did not exact of women a virginity 
 which they did not possess. This is less French than 
 Oriental in his nature, but so it was. Knowing, or 
 fancying that he did, what to believe regarding 
 the morality and virtue of women, convinced that 
 marital security could be ensured only by watchful- 
 ness, he determined to take his precautions and to 
 make it a rule that no man, under whatever pretext, 
 was to remain alone with his wife, and to keep her 
 constantly under surveillance. If this rule was not 
 strictly adhered to with Josephine it was because he 
 
84 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 no longer hoped for offspring, and we shall see later 
 how he managed with his second wife. 
 
 Josephine, triumphed over the Bonapartes, who 
 having deplored the marriage, had desired, schemed 
 for, and almost achieved a rupture. She made Xa- 
 poleon contribute to her triumph, for on the follow- 
 ing morning, when Lucien, the most ardent advo- 
 cate of the divorce, called at an early hour in obedi- 
 ence to his brother's summons, he was ushered into 
 JosejDhine's bed-chamber, where Xapoleon was still 
 in bed. The family realized that, having pardoned 
 so much, Bonaparte would not wrangle over a ques- 
 tion of money, and that it was useless to talk of his 
 wife's debts, so for a time they subsided. 
 
 On the 21st of Xovember he paid the one million, 
 one hundred and ninety-five thousand francs due on 
 the national bonds of the department of Dyle, later 
 they served as a dowry for Marie- Adélaïde, com- 
 monly called Adèle, the natural daughter of M. 
 de Beauharnais, for whom Josephine arranged a 
 marriage with François-Michel-Auguste Lecomte, 
 captain of infantry, and appointed collector at 
 Sari at immediately after the marriage. XajDoleon 
 also paid what was still owing on Malmaison, a 
 bagatelle of two hundred and twenty-five thousand 
 francs, and settled the tradespeople's accounts, 
 amounting to one million, two hundred thousand 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBANDo 85 
 
 francs ; these he took the trouble to investigate, and 
 it repaid him, for by deducting charges for goods 
 which had never been delivered and righting over- 
 charges he reduced the sum exactly one-half. 
 
 Josephine had cause for reflection ; a husband who 
 would thus pay debts to the amount of two million 
 francs was a protector such as is not often found, 
 and certainly one for whom a woman could well 
 afford to make some sacrifices ; she did so, and her 
 apparent conduct up to the moment of her divorce 
 gave her enemies no cause for gossip ; she herself 
 said that she was too afraid of -losing her position 
 to be indiscreet. She proved her gratitude to the 
 Gohiers, for on the evening of the 17th of Novem- 
 ber she sent them an invitation to breakfast with 
 the First Consul and herself on the following day, 
 and, Gohier declining, she urged his wife to press 
 upon him the acceptance of an important position 
 under the new government. Gohier, always austere, 
 indignantly refused ; but when, after pouting for 
 two years, he solicited the First Consul's favor, it 
 was Josephine who obtained for him the position of 
 commissary- general at Amsterdam, where he was 
 so well contented that he remained for ten years, 
 and would doubtless have passed the rest of his life 
 if, in 1810, the post had not been abolished ; it is 
 said that then he refused to go to New York, but 
 
86 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AKD HUSBAND. 
 
 he later accepted a pension which was paid him 
 during the restoration ; nevertheless, he was a good 
 republican to the end of his days and stipulated for 
 a civil interment. 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 87 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 LA GRASSINI. 
 
 Bonaparte had been able to forgive and forget, but 
 he could not, in 1Y99, rekindle the passion he had felt 
 for Josephine in his early manhood when, inexpe- 
 rienced in love or life, he had been intoxicated by the 
 possession of a woman of rank. With Mme. Fourès 
 he had tasted the charm and freshness of budding 
 womanhood, and the comparison forced itself upon 
 his memory ; he had enjoyed the change, and had 
 no longer either the desire, or the will to remain a 
 faithful husband. 
 
 The relations which he wished Josephine to bear 
 him in the future were rather those of a friend and 
 confidante than a wife ; he wished for a wise friend 
 to whom, when in an expansive mood, he could tell 
 some of the thoughts which agitated him, from 
 whom he could seek advice regarding a society which 
 he had had no time to study, and for a tender nurse 
 who, should illness befall him, would give him 
 almost maternal care, who would listen to, condole 
 
/ 
 
 88 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 with, and coddle him ; upon whose bosom he could 
 lay his aching head and be comforted as if he were 
 a child. He wished her to be mistress as well as 
 friend, a mistress with whom he need be under no 
 restraint, who without apparent ennui would accept 
 all his moods, cheer his melancholy or share his 
 pleasures ; one who would always be ready for a 
 journey, who would wait for but never keep him 
 waiting, who, while not sharing his feverish activity 
 would sympathize with all his undertakings ; who 
 would drive with him behind the four horses he 
 delighted to handle, follow his hunting expeditions, 
 accompany him to the theatre, have a smile always 
 on her lips and a gentle answer at her tongue's 
 end. 
 
 For Josephine he reserved a special place in his 
 political plans ; France, which he planned to reor- 
 ganize, lacked, according to him, two of its primary 
 elements, the nobility and the clergy ; he believed 
 that he could rally the latter, and counted upon his 
 wife to draw the former. Not taking into account 
 the mysterious hierarchy to which the old society of 
 France had submitted, the invisible lines which had 
 divided it into diverse coteries, and the impassable 
 gulf which separated them, he viewed it as a whole. 
 Josephine, he thought, had been of it, and could 
 draw it back to him ; she would be one with the 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 89 
 
 émigrés, with the people of the old court and the 
 nobility, with all those who belonged to the old 
 régime, a natural intermediary between himself and 
 them. Josephine could dispense benefits, distribute 
 favors, repair injustices ; little by little she could 
 draw from the camp of the enemy those whom 
 he wished to see re-enter the country ; later she 
 would serve as a link between what remained 
 of the old régime and the new one he was build- 
 ing up. 
 
 Certainly, it was a fine and cleverly conceived rôle, 
 and Josephine was apparently well qualified to play 
 it ; she had the necessary ease, elegance and grace 
 of manner, possessed the happy faculty of speaking 
 the right word in the right place, was exceptionally 
 graceful and tactful in proffering a gift, and had a 
 charming fashion of receiving people ; she was pos- 
 sessed also of wonderful tact in address, which en- 
 abled her to approach people of all ranks and appear 
 at ease in all company ; what she lacked were those 
 relations with the nobility upon which Bonaparte 
 counted ; those she had formed since the revolution 
 would not serve his purpose, but would indeed have 
 been injurious to the new government had not the 
 First Consul from the first signified his intention of 
 sundering them. 
 
 In the beginning Josephine found herself isolated, 
 
90 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 but, in proportion as Bonaparte rose, obstacles fell 
 away, social distinctions melted before him, and 
 ambitions woke. In foreign lands and in France 
 alike people set their wits about to discover, if by 
 any lucky chance, they were even distantly connected 
 with either the Beauharnais or Tascher families ; 
 they inquired into remote alliances and distant kin- 
 ships until then unacknowledged, had recourse to 
 inferiors and old family servants for information, 
 and ere long a current set in which swept all the old 
 titled, office-seeking, soliciting sycophants either 
 towards the yellow salon of the Tuileries or the 
 stucco drawing-room at Malmaison. 
 
 It must not be supposed that this state of affairs 
 was due to Josephine, that it manifested itself 
 because she was born a Tascher and married a Beau- 
 harnais ; it existed solely because she was Mme. 
 Bonaparte ; people flocked around her because she 
 was close to the master, the satellite of the planet 
 from which they hoped for light, and they would 
 have swarmed to toady her just the same no matter 
 what her name, origin or past had been. Never- 
 theless, Josephine, perhaps sincerely, believed herself 
 an important factor in the movement, and strove to 
 impress Bonaparte with the invaluable service she 
 rendered him, and, strange to relate, she succeeded 
 in convincing him ; as he firmly believed that he 
 
NAPOLEON, LO^^R AND HUSBAND. 91 
 
 had conquered the clergy, he could easily believe 
 that his wife had won the nobility. 
 
 What woman w^ould not be proud to be raised to 
 such a position, who would not have been satisfied 
 with missions so diverse and so great ? Had not the 
 Consul the right to think that Josephine, with the 
 memory of her infidelities and of all that had been 
 forgiven her before her eyes, realizing the disparity 
 in their ages and remembering the weaknesses to 
 which she herself had yielded, would let pass amours 
 wliich could neither detract from her position nor 
 from her husband's affection, and that from fear 
 lest Bonaparte be involved in a scandal and realizing 
 what was due their position, she would always be 
 extremely complaisant ? 
 
 Josephine, unfortunately, failed to see matters in 
 this light ; not because she had become enamored of 
 her husband's physical charms, nor because gratitude 
 and admiration of his character had roused in her 
 a love so profound that it rendered her jealous, but 
 because she thought of her own interests, of her 
 position. She reasoned that if Bonaparte detached 
 himself from her physically he would end by divorc- 
 ing her, and she lived in a state of perpetual appre- 
 hension ; she watched him, and debased herself to 
 set hired spies upon his track ; she bored him with 
 scenes, tears and hysterics, made a confidant of 
 
92 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 every one who would listen to her, and, in default of 
 realities, imagined events which she recounted as 
 facts, related incidents she would assert she had 
 seen, and to the truth of which she would swear if 
 needful. 
 
 The Consul's first gallantries, however, were not 
 very serious. A day or two after his triumphal en- 
 try into Milan, the 14th or 15th Prairial, a concert was 
 improvised, where, for his benefit, Italy's greatest 
 artists, Marchesi and Grassini, sang. The latter was 
 twenty-seven years of age (for she was born at 
 Varèse in 1773), and she was no longer in appearance 
 what she had been two years previous when, enthu- 
 siastically infatuated by Bonaparte, she had essayed 
 to attract his attention and win him from Josephine. 
 She was still handsome, but it was a style of beauty 
 commonly seen in the streets of Italy ; her figure 
 was already over-developed, her face with its large 
 features and black eyebrows, framed in thick black 
 hair, looked a trifie heavy ; her dark flashing eyes 
 and swarthy skin gave her the appearance of a 
 woman of amorous temperament, which, it appears, 
 was deceptive. She had no end of lovers, not from 
 sordid motives, for she was not mercenary, but 
 resulting from mutual contempt and weariness ; 
 there was not one of them whom she had not pro- 
 claimed an angel at the beginning of the intimacy, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 93 
 
 but her honeymoons waned ere they had passed the 
 first quarter. 
 
 Although Grassini's physical beauty was already 
 on the decline, her artistic career was at its height ; 
 she was not a great musician, nor deeply versed in 
 the principles of her art, but she was art itself ; her 
 contralto voice, always the most sympathetic of 
 voices, was pure and smooth throughout its entire 
 register. Hearing her, one listened not only to a 
 great singer but a muse ; no one phrased as she did, 
 no one interpreted so understandingly grand opera 
 (in opera bouffe she was wretched), no one deployed 
 such amplitude of voice, such depth of expression 
 in tragic rôles, or could so sway an audience. 
 
 Music was the only one of all the arts — above all, 
 vocal music — for which Bonaparte had a particular 
 taste ; the rest he protected from policy, because he 
 considered it incumbent upon his position and wished 
 his name handed down to posterity as a patron of 
 the arts ; music alone he thoroughly appreciated, 
 enjoyed and loved for itself and the pleasurable sen- 
 sations it evoked ; music calmed his nerves, charmed 
 away melancholy, warmed his heart and set him 
 a- dreaming. It matters little that he sung false, did 
 not know a note and could not carry an air, he was 
 so moved by music that he was carried out of him- 
 self, and that proves a higher appreciation of it 
 
94 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 than is felt by many claiming to be musicians. He 
 valued fine singing so highly that he decorated 
 the soprano Crescentini with the order of the Iron 
 Crown. 
 
 In Grassini, it was less the woman than the song- 
 stress that captivated him. For two years Bona- 
 parte had dwelt in her thoughts and her resistance 
 was naturally not protracted. The day after the 
 concert she breakfasted at the Consul's apartment, 
 Berthier making a third, and it was settled that she 
 should precede Bonaparte to Paris, where she should 
 fill an engagement at the " Théâtre de la Répub- 
 lique et des Arts," and this arrangement was re- 
 counted in the fourth bulletin of the army in Italy ; 
 doubtless with the view of disarming Josephine's 
 umbrage at the prima-donna's arrival. 
 
 The article read as follows : ^' The First Consul and 
 the commander-in-chief (Berthier) attended a con- 
 cert on the 15th Prairial, which, though improvised, 
 proved very agreeable : Italian music has ever new 
 charms. The celebrated Billington, Grassini and 
 Marchesi are expected in Milan, and we are informed 
 that they are shortly going to Paris to give concerts 
 there." 
 
 This notice was printed for Josephine's benefit. 
 Bonaparte dissimulated his infidelity behind a 
 change of dates, and masked behind the name of 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 95 
 
 Billington, the only person in Avhom he took any 
 interest. 
 
 At Milan, during the days which preceded Ma- 
 rengo, he spent every hour which he could spare in 
 listening to Grassini. He was possessed by her 
 marvellous voice, and held it to be the finest trophy 
 of the campaign, and he wished that she should cel- 
 ebrate his triumphant return to France and sing 
 his victories. He desired Grassini to be in Paris by 
 the 14th of July for the fête of ^^ La Concorde " and 
 that she and the tenor Bianchi should sing an Ital- 
 ian duet. With this object in view he despatched 
 an order to the minister of the Interior, desiring the 
 composition of a song celebrating ^^The deliverance 
 of the Cisalpine and the glory of our arms, a fine 
 poem in Italian," insisted the Consul, '^set to good 
 music. 
 
 Twenty- three days later, in the church of Les In- 
 valides, the Temple of Mars, which was magnifi- 
 cently decorated, official France assembled in solemn 
 state to celebrate the nation's victories, and when 
 the First Consul had taken his seat upon the plat- 
 form, Grassini and Bianchi sang their duets, for 
 there were two Italian numbers sung in successiou. 
 ^'Who could better," inquired the Moniteur, "cel- 
 ebrate the victory of Marengo than those to whom 
 it assured peace and prosperity ? " 
 
96 >'APOLEOX. LOVEE A^T) H^SBA^'D. 
 
 It was audacious of Bonaparte to have his mis- 
 tress sing at an official fête, and had the world sus- 
 pected their relations there would certainly have 
 been a clamor raised, but it seems their connection 
 was then unknown, even Josephine being unsus- 
 picious, for she placed rehance in the article in the 
 army bulletin : moreover, the caprice, the physical 
 caprice at least, was not of long duration. Before 
 leaving Milan, Grassini, intoxicated by a success 
 long and vainly desired, imagined that she was 
 going to play a great rôle, not only in the theatre 
 but in politics : she fancied that she had a great in- 
 fluence over her lover, and, being naturally good- 
 natured, she left Italy laden with petitions from her 
 compatriots. 
 
 Bonaparte was not a man who permitted any one 
 to talk business when he desired to talk love, and 
 Grassini bored him ; moreover, he exacted that she 
 should not show herself anywhere, but should live 
 like a recluse in a little house in the rue Chante- 
 reine ; this did not suit the lady at all, for she had 
 dreamed of quite a different existence, of a liaison 
 à r italienne, which would have advertised at once 
 her name, her person and her talent, and as fidelity 
 was not her forte she was bored to death ; there 
 was not even a theatre open to her. for her terrible 
 jargon closed the door of the opera, and at that 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 97 
 
 time there was no Italian Opera in Paris, so she 
 took to herself a lover in the person of Rode, the 
 violinist. Bonaparte learned of her infidelity and 
 severed his relations with her, but whatever fear 
 Eode may have felt for his subsequent artistic 
 career, neither he nor Grassini were made to suffer ; 
 twice even the Consul accorded them the Theatre de 
 la Eepublique for their concerts, the second of which 
 was particularly brilliant, the box-receipts amount- 
 ing to thirteen thousand eight hundred and sixty- 
 eight francs and seventy-five centimes, and the ac- 
 count given of it by Suard in the Moniteur being 
 almost lyric. 
 
 Later Griuseppina Grassini returned to the wander- 
 ing life of a star, and came and went between Ber- 
 lin, London, Milan, Genoa and Paris ; she was feted 
 and flattered everywhere, and made engagements 
 for three thousand pounds sterling for five months ; 
 nevertheless, when she passed through Paris and 
 knocked at the door of the private apartment of the 
 Tuileries it was always opened to her. The inter- 
 views led to nothing, but they distressed Josephine 
 greatly. ^' I have learned," she wrote to one of her 
 confidantes, ^Hhat Grassini has been ten days in 
 Paris, and it seems that it is she who causes my 
 present sufferings. I assure you, my dear, that if 
 I were in the least to blame I would frankly admit 
 
98 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 it ; you would do well to send Julie (her friend's 
 maid) to watch and see if Grassini calls, try also to 
 find out where the woman lives." 
 
 The whole nature of Josephine is revealed in 
 this letter. What could Grassini matter to her ? 
 Did she not understand that there was no serious 
 tie between the Italian and Bonaparte ; that it was 
 only one of those meetings wherein memory plays 
 a greater part than desire ? No, she had to pry and 
 spy and address her complaints and her lamentations 
 to a woman whom the Consul disliked and whom 
 he had almost turned out of the Tuileries : such was 
 Josephine. 
 
 She seems, however, to have calmed down in 1807, 
 for when they were organizing the ' ^ chamber 
 music," Napoleon recalled Grassini to Paris and 
 offered the prima-donna, uniquely to the Prima - 
 donna, a fixed salary of thirty-six thousand francs, 
 fifteen thousand francs of annual gratuities, with- 
 out counting gifts, and fifteen thousand francs 
 pension on her retirement ; besides which she was to 
 have the use of the Opera or Les Italiens once 
 each winter in which to give herself a benefit ; and 
 was to use her vacations, if she chose, in travelling 
 from city to city, advertising herself with her 
 sonorous title as '' Prima-donna to his Majesty the 
 Emperor." 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 99 
 
 This title, however, did not serve to defend 
 Grassini from the bandits who swarmed on the roads, 
 and on the nineteenth of October, 1807, nearRouvrai 
 on the confines of Yonne and the Côte d'Or, her 
 travelhng carriage was attacked by four deserters 
 from a Swiss regiment and the poor creature was 
 outraged, stripped and maltreated ; but two days 
 afterwards justice befell the aggressors and the 
 Emperor admitted to the Legion of Honor M. 
 Durand eau, commander of the national guard at 
 Yiteaux, who had slain two of the bandits and 
 arrested a third. It is said that Grassini implored 
 the bandits, who had taken a miniature of Bonaparte 
 set in diamonds, to keep the jewels, but to return 
 the miniature. It is recounted that, in a drawing- 
 room where great indignation was expressed over 
 Crescentini being decorated with the Iron Crown, 
 Grassini exclaimed: ''Ah, but you forget her 
 wound ! " (referring to the former's chagrin at 
 her own appointment as first prima-donna to his 
 Majesty.) A man of the world of that time tells us 
 that La Grassini was clever and witty, spoke slangy 
 French with a strong Italian accent, and that her 
 habitual outspokenness gave her a reputation for 
 sincerity and honesty. 
 
 Such was the situation from 1807 to 1814. Grassini 
 received from the Emperor alone seventy thousand 
 
100 Î^APOLEON, LOVEE AXD HUSBAND. 
 
 francs a year, which was more than she received from 
 the publiCj for the latter became less enthusiastic 
 with time^ as was plainly shown at Les Italiens in 
 November of 1813 when, with great ado, Horace et 
 les Curiaces of Cimarosa was produced ; but she 
 always achieved a success at the ^^ Theatre de la 
 Cour," and received the same consideration from the 
 Emperor. 
 
 Grratitude was not one of La Grassini's virtues, 
 nor were memory and affection characteristics of 
 hers, for, after Napoleon's banishment to Saint 
 Helena, she attached herself to his conqueror the 
 Duke of Wellington and deployed her charms of 
 voice and person for his benefit. 
 
 The "Iron Duke" had a fancy for that which 
 Napoleon had praised, and it is related that he asked 
 David to paint his portrait, to which request the 
 artist replied ' ' that he only painted historical sub- 
 jects." 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 101 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 FOOTLIGHT BEAUTIES. 
 
 Bonaparte's infatuation for Grassini was transi- 
 torVj and Josephine's jealousy of brief duration ; 
 and although other actresses visited the Consul's 
 private apartments in the Tuileries, their visits need 
 not have caused her any great anxiety, for they 
 were persons of mediocre virtue to whom Bonaparte 
 could not become seriously attached, and of whom 
 he simply required that they be pretty and com- 
 plaisant during the few hours he passed in their com- 
 pany; but it sufficed that such callers came to the 
 Tuileries, and the wife prowled about the staircases 
 and corridors, candle in hand, with the hope of 
 surprising them and enacting some scene which 
 would put her husband plainly in the wrong. 
 
 Had it not been for Josephine, these passing fancies 
 of the great conqueror would never have come to 
 light ; it was she who discovered and told of them ; 
 but, commonplace as these brief romances were, 
 there is sufficient reason for reviewing them as 
 
102 NAPOLEOX, LOVER AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 they reveal certain phases of his character which 
 might be vainly searched for elsewhere. 
 
 Aside from Grassini, and perhaps Mme. Branchu, 
 who was so homely that to accuse him of a weakness 
 for her would seem absurd were it not possible that 
 the dilettante in him might have rendered her attrac- 
 tive because of the wonderful talent she displayed 
 in tragic opera ; he never affected the queens of 
 the lyric stage. 
 
 No dancers visited the Tuileries, although it was 
 the moment when dancers were in vogue ; when 
 Clotide was supported by Prince Pignatelli, who 
 allowed her one hundred thousand francs a month, 
 and was outbid by Admiral Mazaredo, who offered 
 her four hundred thousand ; when Bigottini was 
 showered with favors from all sides, and thereby 
 accumulated a fortune for her numerous progeny, 
 for whom in later years she arranged advantageous 
 marriages. No comédiennes, neither Mile. Mars, 
 who was not at all pretty when she made her début, 
 nor Mile. Devienne, the incomparable soubrette 
 whose bright face betrayed her cleverness and wit, 
 but who was unable to utter a word in answer to 
 the flattering speech the Emperor once made her 
 when en route for a hunt, nor Mile. Mézeray, 
 who was greatly interested in Lucien Bonaparte, 
 nor yet Mile. Gros, who made Joseph happy, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 103 
 
 ever went in at the famous '^little door" of the 
 Tuileries. 
 
 In 1808, Bonaparte may have been interested in 
 Mme. Leverd, for after a single performance at 
 Saint-Cloud she was admitted to the Société Fran- 
 çaise, and it would scarcely have been at the in- 
 stigation of M. Rémusat the manager, for later, 
 despite the Emperor's wishes and orders, he posi- 
 tively persecuted her. Mme. Leverd was an excep- 
 tionally graceful and charming woman, so sprightly, 
 coquettish and bewitching that her lack of real 
 talent was generally condoned ; but if Napoleon 
 had a fancy for her — which is not certain — she was 
 the sole comédienne who appealed to him, for by 
 nature, temperament and choice he was drawn to 
 tragedians. 
 
 That was the most glorious period in the history 
 of tragedy and the Théâtre Français, the time, 
 when, before a highly-cultivated audience who 
 would not permit the slightest inaccuracy to pass 
 unnoticed ; before soldiers who were in accord with 
 noble and generous sentiments, a marvellous com- 
 pany kept alive the traditions of epic literature. 
 While Bonaparte favored the actors with his pro- 
 tection, and was not sparing with money, he was 
 severely critical ; he held that the lines which they 
 spoke were precepts for the nation and were of less 
 
104 XAPOLEON, LOYER AXD HrSBAXD. 
 
 importance for its literary education than for the 
 formation of its morals. He once said to Goethe : 
 '^ Tragedy should be the school of kings and people, 
 it is the highest point a poet can attain." One 
 evening on retiring he said : ' * Tragedy warms the 
 heart and elevates the mind ; it does, and should, 
 create heroes,'' and it was then that he added : ^* If 
 Corneille was alive I would make him a king." 
 
 Bonaparte did not care for melodrama, which he 
 claimed had no proper place in dramatic literature, 
 and had little taste for comedy, considering, like 
 Molière and Beaumarchais, that it was unreal, 
 agreeing with Le Sage that it was repulsive, and 
 with Fabre d'Eglantine that it was pitifully un- 
 natural ; farce was utterly incomprehensible, and 
 failed to distract him. Jokes, witticisms and 
 cleverly turned phrases, even when they touched 
 upon the main subject, but which were not, as he 
 said, ^' the spirit of the thing, " pretty phrases and 
 graceful couplets all escaped him ; he despised and 
 disdained, or, rather, he ignored them. Tragedy 
 seemed to him strong, serious, noble ; his equals 
 spoke in the kings, heroes and gods of tragedy, in 
 their words he imagined he heard his own voice, for 
 it was in such fashion that he wished to be repre- 
 sented to posterity, when, with the lapse of time, 
 his life should be depicted on the stage. 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 105 
 
 Having this passion for tragedy Napoleon was 
 naturally drawn in his hours of leisure to seek those 
 who interpreted it ; the pretty faces of the sou- 
 brettes, the affected innocence of the ingneues, and 
 the airs of the great coquettes could all be met at 
 his court, the whole company of the social comedy 
 were at his beck and call ; but the women who im- 
 personated Phedra, Andromache, Iphigenia and 
 Hermione, were no longer courtesans but beings 
 idealized by the characters they assumed, and view- 
 ing them at the play it was not the actress he 
 desired, but the Heroine she represented, and the 
 artist's actual presence did not detract from this 
 impression, the satisfaction of a purely sensual 
 desire being hid from his eyes behind the shadow 
 of poetry. 
 
 Eecalled to reality by the press of business, hav 
 ing but a moment to give to the creatures of hi& 
 fancy, unfamiliar with courteous phrases and un- 
 able to dissimulate the scorn he felt for those who, 
 at a message from a valet, would rush to pamper 
 his senses, Napoleon manifested, in both speech and 
 action, a brutality which in another would have 
 been pure cynicism : actually no one was less a 
 cynic than he. ^' To everything pertaining to sen- 
 suality," says one of his intimate servitors, '^'^he 
 gave a poetic color and name ; " even his brusque- 
 
106 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 ness of speech dissimulated a certain embarrassment 
 which he always felt in the presence of women. He 
 professed a viciousness which he did not possess ; 
 thus^ in conversation at Saint Helena, he wished to 
 appear more familiar with sensations than senti- 
 ments, while in reality no one was more sentimental 
 than he. 
 
 Desire in him did not have its rise in sensuality, 
 but from an over-excited imagination, and it hap- 
 pened not infrequently, that by the time the fair 
 one was at hand the current of his thoughts had 
 changed, that he was occupied with affairs of state 
 and anything which distracted him was a bore. A 
 tap at the door was the signal that the expected 
 guest had arrived: ''Bid her wait," the Consul 
 would exclaim. Upon a second, and impatient tap : 
 " Bid her disrobe," the harassed Consul would com- 
 mand. At the third tap he lost all patience and 
 would cry: "Send her away!" and then would 
 return to his work. 
 
 Such was the experience, so we are informed, of 
 Mile. Duchesnois, but she was accustomed to such 
 adventures. At the beginning of the consulate a 
 young elegant, who had just inherited a fortune, 
 invited some of his friends to celebrate his good 
 luck at a country house in the environs of Saint 
 Denis ; they breakfasted, sang and played cards, then 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 107 
 
 they began to feel bored, and the host sent to a 
 well-known house in the Chaussée d'Antin for some 
 of the gentler sex to enliven his guests. One of the 
 young women remained without a gallant, being too 
 plain to be attractive, although possessed of fine eyes, 
 a svelt figure, an air of amiability and an expres- 
 sion of sadness which rendered her interesting ; the 
 party played at hide-and-seek in the park, and this 
 girl, who was Mile. Duchesnois, ran like a fawn, all 
 her movements being graceful and supple, while her 
 musical voice and clever conversation made her 
 appear more intellectual and cultivated than her 
 companions. Among the company was a young 
 man who took pity upon her, conversed with her, 
 and, finding her clever, cultivated her society and 
 finally spoke of her to Legouvé who was curious to 
 meet her, and who, on hearing her read some verses, 
 was astonished at her talent. 
 
 Legouvé gave Mile. Duchesnois advice and in- 
 troduced her at Mme. de Montesson's where she met 
 General Valence ; he in turn became interested in 
 her and promised to interest Mme. Bonaparte in her 
 behalf and arranged for her début. She made her 
 first appearance in Phedra, and it was not until a 
 year or two later that her adventure at the Tuile- 
 ries took place. Women have certain memories 
 which nothing can obliterate, and Mile. Duchesnois 
 
108 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 guarded throughout her Hfe the apprehension that 
 the words so often heard in her early youth and in 
 the days of servitude, ^^ she is too ugly," would 
 again ring in her ears. 
 
 Thérèse Bourgoin was also dismissed in the same 
 unceremonious manner, but she who so insolently 
 answered : ' ' Neither seen nor heard of, " in response 
 to a letter of inquiry from a duchess of the Empire 
 and wife of a marshal of France regarding a lost 
 parrot, was not likely to accept such treatment in 
 a spirit of humility, particularly when the affront 
 to her vanity was augmented by a personal loss — 
 that of a rich lover, the minister of the Interior, 
 Chaptal. After Thérèse Bourgoin's second ap- 
 pearance, in which she had been greatly harassed, 
 Chaptal secured an engagement for her at the 
 Théâtre Français, and to confirm this favor he 
 wrote a public and official letter to Mile. Dumesnil, 
 announcing the bestowal of a ministerial gratuity 
 and thanking her for having profitably used the 
 leisure of her retirement in the formation of such 
 a pupil. Mile. Dumesnil, at his request, gave the 
 débutante some worldly advice, and Chaptal and 
 the young actress were to be seen, everywhere 
 together ; he placed the newspapers at her orders, 
 and gave Paris food for scandal. Mile. Bourgoin 
 was just suited to a man of fifty ; she had an in- 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 109 
 
 genuous air and roguish smile, clear, infantile eyes, 
 which gave her an appearance of innocence, a ring- 
 ing voice and spiciness of speech, which, combined, 
 gained for her the appellation of 'Hhe goddess of 
 joy and pleasure." 
 
 Chaptal's great mistake lay in disregarding ap- 
 pearances and so compromising himself ; blinded by 
 Mile. Bourgoin's specious manner, he believed im- 
 plicitly in her fidelity ; . a belief of which Napoleon 
 was malicious enough to disabuse him. One even- 
 ing, when he had a business engagement with the 
 minister, he also made an appointment with Mile. 
 Bourgoin, and the actress was announced within 
 Chaptal's hearing ; Napoleon sent word that she 
 must wait, and a little later excused himself entirely, 
 but Chaptal, on hearing his mistress announced, had 
 gathered up his papers and departed, and he sent in 
 his resignation that same night. The young woman 
 on her side openly declared war, and at St. Peters- 
 burg, where she went after the peace of Tilsit, she 
 regaled her adorers with all the epigrams and 
 lampoons regarding the Emperor which were 
 amusing Paris. 
 
 At Erfurt the Emperor took his revenge and 
 entertained the Czar with epigrams on Mile. 
 Bourgoin, warning him against her over- generosity 
 in affairs of the heart, which naturally militated 
 
110 NAPOLEON, LOVEE, AND HUSBAND. 
 
 against her success. At the restoration she espoused 
 the royalist cause^ all the more intensely because she 
 had been presented to the king by the Duke de Berry 
 and had good reasons for clinging to the Bourbons. 
 During the hundred days she did not hesitate to 
 array herself in their colors, for which no one inter- 
 fered with her, but as the Duke de Berry failed to 
 renew their relations on his return, her enthusiasm 
 died a natural death. 
 
 Although Napoleon's relations with Mesdames 
 Duchesnois and Bourgoin were unimportant, it was 
 not the same with Mile. George. Napoleon was 
 installed at Saint-Cloud when Mile. George visited 
 him for the first time ; she was received in the 
 small apartment opening into the orangery, and it 
 " is claimed that it was on this occasion that he stung 
 her pride by saying : ^' You must have hideous feet 
 for you keep your stockings on. " Her animal beauty 
 was so perfect in every other respect that this defect 
 struck Napoleon's eye and so impressed him that 
 the remark escaped involuntarily. 
 
 No one was more keenly alive to the beauty of 
 well-modelled feet and hands than Bonaparte ; it was 
 one of the first things that he looked at in a woman, 
 and when they were ill- formed he used to say : 
 '^ Her extremities are common." Such was the case 
 with Mile. George, who, at seventeen, was superbly 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. Ill 
 
 handsome, whose head, shoulders, arms and body 
 were fit for a painter's model, but whose extremities, 
 particularly the feet, were very ugly ; doubtless the 
 coarse, ill-made shoes which she had worn when 
 sweeping her father's doorsteps at Amiens had 
 helped to deform them. The father was manager of 
 a theatre and led its orchestra. 
 
 Napoleon passed nearly the whole of that winter 
 at Saint-Cloud, and Mile. George was frequently 
 his guest ; aside from admiring her beauty, he was 
 entertained by her cleverness and aptness at repartee ; 
 she recounted to him all the stories, and imitated 
 for him the actions of the habitués of the Théâtre 
 Français, and in those days there were lots of good 
 stories going about. Her visits were continued 
 after he returned to Paris, where he received her in 
 an apartment of the entresol at the Tuileries ; he 
 never went to her house, and so never encountered 
 Coster de Saint-Yictor, or any other of her lovers. 
 Mile. George claimed that her intimacy with Napo- 
 leon endured for two years, and that during all 
 that time she was absolutely faithful : it was more 
 than was expected of her. 
 
 Josephine soon learned of this affair, was unusu- 
 ally disquieted by it, and treated her husband to 
 innumerable scenes. ' ' She worries a great deal more 
 than is called for, " wrote Bonaparte ; ^' she is always 
 
112 NAPOLEON, Ï.OVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 fearful that I may fall seriously in love ; can she 
 not understand that love is not for me ? Love is a 
 passion which makes one willing to abandon every- 
 thing for the sake of the beloved person ; certainly 
 I am not of a nature to give myself up so completely, 
 and what can it then matter to Josephine that I 
 amuse myself with women for whom I feel no such 
 sentiment ? " 
 
 No one could reason better, but reason went for 
 nothing with Josephine. She was obliged to ac- 
 knowledge, however, that Napoleon was very 
 discreet ; there was no scandal, no favors shown 
 Mile. George as an actress, for when she failed to 
 keep her engagement she was rudely enough men- 
 aced with imprisonment and knew that the threat 
 was not an idle one ; when she played at court 
 she received the same fee as her comrades, and 
 it is said that when she made bold enough to ask 
 Napoleon for his portrait he handed her a double 
 Napoleon, saying : ' ' Here it is, and said to be a 
 good likeness." 
 
 Probably he gave her money, for on the books of 
 the privy purse the item, ''handed to His Majesty 
 the Emperor," is frequently repeated, designating 
 sums of from ten to twenty thousand francs, al- 
 though nothing indicates the uses for which they 
 were destined ; on one occasion only, the 16th of 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 113 
 
 August, 1807, does Mlle. George's name appear on 
 
 these books, against a gift of ten thousand francs, 
 
 but three years had then elapsed since the cessation 
 
 of her visits to the Tuileries, and this present was 
 
 doubtless simply a memento presented on her 
 
 saint's day. Less than a year later, on the 11th of 
 
 May, 1808, Mile. George left Paris surreptitiously in 
 
 company with Duport, an opera dancer, who, fearing 
 
 to be arrested at the barriers, had disguised himself 
 
 as a woman. Ignoring alike her engagement at the 
 
 Théâtre Français and her creditors, she fled to Russia 
 
 to rejoin a lover, who, they say, had promised to 
 
 marry her ; this lover was Benckendorff, brother of 
 
 the Countess d'Liéven, who came to Paris in the 
 
 suite of the ambassador Tolstoi ; he had just been 
 
 recalled and purposed to show off his mistress in St. 
 
 Petersburg, and abovejall before the Czar. 
 
 Underlying all this there was quite an intrigue, 
 
 the object of which was to win the Czar from Mme. 
 
 Narishkine, by a brief liaison with the French 
 
 actress, from which, it was thought, he could be 
 
 easily lead back to the Empress. Mile. George most 
 
 assuredly suspected nothing of these fine schemes, 
 
 and in letters to her mother she expatiated upon 
 
 the charms of her '' good Benckendorff," and signed 
 
 herself, in August of 1808, '' George Benckendorff." 
 
 She was presented to the Emperor Alexander who 
 8 
 
114 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 gave her a handsome diamond ornament and had 
 her called to Peterhoff, but she was never asked the 
 second time ; she claimed that the grand duke, 
 who, after a performance of Phedra, said : ^^ Your 
 Mile. George is not worth as much in her way as my 
 charger in his," visited her daily and ^' loved her as 
 a sister." 
 
 According to her, the Eussian nobility and gentry 
 alike were her adorers, but this was not the end the 
 conspirators had in view when they encouraged her 
 going to St. Petersburg, nor was it what Napoleon 
 had permitted them to plan when the plot had been 
 revealed to him ; nevertheless, when, in IS 12, Mile. 
 George desired to return to France and rushed to 
 rejoin the principal actors of the Société Française 
 who had been summoned to Dresden during the 
 armistice, the Emperor not only had her reinstated 
 in the society, but ordered that she should receive a 
 salary for the six years of absence ; her comrades 
 never forgave that. 
 
 During the hundred days Mile. George sent word 
 to Napoleon that she could give him papers which 
 would compromise the Duke d'Otrante, and Napo- 
 leon sent a trusted messenger to her ; on his return 
 he asked : ^' Did not mademoiselle tell you that her 
 affairs were very much embarrassed ?" '^ No, sire, " 
 replied the messenger, ' ' she only spoke of her desire 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 115 
 
 to hand those papers personally to your Majesty." 
 ''I already know what they refer to, Caulaincourt 
 has mentioned them," returned the Emperor, ''and 
 he told me also that Mile. George was in straitened 
 circumstances ; you are to give her twenty thousand 
 francs from my private purse." 
 
 Mile. George at least was grateful, and undoubt- 
 edly the sentiments which she frankly avowed mili- 
 tated against her, and caused her brutal expulsion 
 from the Théâtre Français. Even in her old age, 
 when nothing remained either in face or figure of 
 the one time triumphant beauty, her voice trembled 
 when she spoke of Napoleon, and she manifested 
 such unfeigned emotion that she deeply impressed 
 the young men who listened to her, and it was not 
 the lover whom she lauded, but the Emperor. This 
 woman, not from the prudery of old age, for she 
 spoke freely enough of other lovers, but from a sort 
 of awe, seemed to forget that Napoleon had ever 
 found her beautiful and sought her love, and she 
 spoke not of the man he had been for her, but of 
 the man he had been for France. Mile. George re- 
 minds one of one of those nymphs whom the gods 
 honored by a brief caress, and who, blinded by the 
 heavenly effulgence, failed to see the face of the 
 deity. 
 
116 NAPOLEON, LOVEE, AND HCJSBAND. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 READERS. 
 
 Tragedians alone climbed the dark staircase, 
 and under the guidance of Constant or Eoustam 
 traversed a gloomy corridor, lighted night and day 
 by argand lamps, and finally reached a room in the 
 entresol from which a secret staircase led to Bona- 
 parte's private apartments. Every morning Mme. 
 Bernard, the imperial florist, placed a bouquet in 
 this room, there was an appropriation of six hun- 
 dred francs a year for that express purpose, but the 
 flowers, which were renewed daily, died less quickly 
 than the sentiment which inspired the visitors. 
 
 As Bonaparte rose in power these visitors — the 
 solicitous, the ambitious, the intriguants — became so 
 numerous that it would be impossible to keep count 
 of them all. Every man who fills a position of 
 power finds himself solicited by like callers, who 
 await only a sign to give themselves to him, and, 
 keeping themselves constantly in view, beg for a 
 glance, seeking a profitable dishonor. Napoleon 
 

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NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 117 
 
 was thirty in 1800, thus, up to 1810, he was in the 
 prime of life, and in vigorous health ; he neither 
 sought nor shunned amours, but, aside from Jose- 
 phine, only two women ever inspired him with deep 
 affection ; he thought but moderately well of the 
 sex, none of them ever interfered with his work, 
 distracted his thoughts, retarded his progress or 
 caused a modification of his plans ; and these little 
 episodes were not unlike the supper which was 
 nightly set out for him upon one end of his writing- 
 table : he would not have taken a step to procure 
 food, but, finding it at hand, very naturally par- 
 took of it, and at once returned to his work. The 
 important fact is not that a few veiled women 
 stole by night into the Emperor's secret apartment, 
 but that no woman, wife or mistress, habitually 
 frequented the study and the ministerial cabinet. 
 
 If Napoleon were not the person in question, if 
 certain of his liaisons had not been recounted with 
 details invented at pleasure, and if some of his 
 favorites had not become authors, either for the 
 pecuniary profit accruable from their memoirs, or 
 for the pleasure of appearing before the public in a 
 rôle they had never played, it would hardly be 
 worth while to take note of these transitory love- 
 affairs, but the calumnies have been too widely 
 spread to render the truth unimportant. 
 
118 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 One of the women who have become best known 
 as a writer, and who received innumerable favors 
 from both Consul and Emperor, must still escape 
 censure ; for circumstantial evidence, no matter 
 how convincing, should not replace positive proof, 
 and the study of characters analogous to hers will 
 place her in the rank she should occupy. 
 
 Another, much less celebrated, but who up to the 
 present time has done good service to pamphleteers, 
 is a certain Mme. de Vaudey, who, when the Em- 
 pire was proclaimed, was named lady-in-waiting on 
 the strong recommendation of M. Lecoulteux de 
 Canteleu. She was well-born, being the daughter 
 of that remarkable soldier, Michaud d'Arçon, who 
 invented the floating batteries used at the siege of 
 Gibraltar, furnished the plans for the campaign in 
 Holland in 1793, took Bréda without striking a 
 blow, and was one of the most prominent senators 
 of the council ; she was well connected, also, for 
 her husband, M. de Barberot de Vellexon, Lord of 
 Yaudey and captain in the royal Bourgundians, was 
 descended from an old Alsatian family, residents of 
 Gray since the fifteenth century ; moreover, she 
 was an extremely pretty person, sparkling with wit 
 and unusually clever, sang exquisitely, and wrote 
 even better. Mme. de Vaudey was appointed lady- 
 in-waiting in 1814, and as the Empress was about 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 119 
 
 starting to take the waters at Aix-la-Chapelle, she 
 accompanied her ; and when Napoleon, early in 
 September, rejoined Josephine at Aix, for the tri- 
 umphal journey on the Ehine, Mme. de Vaudey 
 accompanied them everywhere, and employed her 
 time in amusing His Majesty. On her return to 
 Paris she thought herself in a position to brave the 
 Empress, whose jealousy was aroused, and to set 
 up housekeeping on the footing of a favorite in a 
 pretty little château near Auteuil where she enter- 
 tained largely, gave fêtes, lived like a princess, and, 
 following her imperial mistress' example, ran deeply 
 into debt. Once, after a prolonged audience, she 
 laid the state of her finances before the Emperor, 
 and her debts were paid ; a second disclosure of her 
 pecuniary embarrassment met with the same suc- 
 cess ; but when she petitioned for a third audience, 
 Napoleon refused downright to see her. ^^ I have 
 not," he said to Duroc, ^^ either sufficient money 
 nor good-nature to pay such a price for what I can 
 get so cheaply ; thank Madame de Vaudey for the 
 kindness she has shown me, and never mention 
 her to me again. " 
 
 On the receipt of this message Mme. de Vaudey 
 wrote a pathetic letter, declaring that she would 
 poison herself if her debts — debts of honor ! — were 
 not paid in twenty- four hours. The aide-de-camp 
 
120 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 on duty was hastily dispatched to Auteuil, and found 
 the lady disposed for anything — except suicide ; — it 
 was immediately requested that she send in her 
 resignation as lady-in-waiting, and that is why her 
 name does not appear on the imperial almanac. 
 
 Some years later, after her mind had become un- 
 balanced, Mme. de Vaudey called upon M. de Po- 
 lignac and offered to assassinate Napoleon ; later 
 still, reduced to destitution, almost blind and with 
 a paralyzed arm she peddled her Souvenirs du Di- 
 rectoire et de VEmpire as a pretext for asking as- 
 sistance, and it was she who furnished Ladvocat, 
 the librarian, with the greater part of his Mé- 
 moires dhme dame du Palais ; but she was in want 
 and mentally unbalanced, others had not the same 
 excuse. It was Josephine who, on the solicitation 
 of Lecoulteux, had introduced Mme. de Yaudey at 
 court, and she had numberless protégés of the 
 same, and of an inferior order, none of whom 
 merited her patronage and who appear to have had 
 no other reason for being at court than their will- 
 ingness to cater to Napoleon's fancies. 
 
 This state of affairs was not premeditated by 
 Josephine, but her créole nature had need of com- 
 panionship and distraction ; she liked to surround 
 herself with agreeable and compliant people who 
 were neither her equals nor yet servants, whose 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 121 
 
 pretty faces pleased her eye, whose conversation 
 amused, and whose accomplishments helped to dis- 
 tract her, who, in short, peopled pleasantly the 
 palace wherein she claimed she lived in sad and 
 solitary state ; she engaged them without making 
 many inquiries, sometimes touched by a sad story, 
 sometimes attracted by a pretty face or an unex- 
 pectedly bright response. These young women, 
 from some of whom the bloom of innocence had 
 already been rubbed by friction with the world, 
 were all hoping for conquests ; poor and not edu- 
 cated to entertain conscientious scruples, they were 
 thrown suddenly into the midst of a court which 
 was one of the most splendid in history, and in the 
 long idle days which they spent in the Empress' 
 private apartments they had nothing to do but ac- 
 cept the attentions of the officers with whom they 
 constantly came in contact and to angle for hus- 
 bands. Naturally they aspired to find husbands 
 among the officers who thronged the palace, as so 
 many women no better than themselves had done ; 
 women who were then wives of marshals of the 
 Empire ; they saw constantly and familiarly him 
 from whom emanated all favors, who at a sign 
 could make or destroy one's fortune, and put them- 
 selves in his way, ambitious for that sign, ready to 
 risk anything in order to obtain it ; they were com- 
 
122 yAPOLEOX, LOVEE AXD HUSBA^T). 
 
 plaisant, presented themselves only when desired, 
 and exerted themselves to please, and as the subal- 
 terns kept a sharp lookout to see if the Emperor 
 admired any of them, arrangements were speedily 
 concluded and affairs followed their natural course 
 without the slightest attempt at seduction on one 
 side, or the least love on the other. But, no matter 
 how carefully concealed the intrigiie, Josephine 
 always discovered it ; then there was a scene, and 
 the young person was discharged ; however, she 
 had usually received a, good dot and was apt to 
 crown her career by marriage with some gentleman 
 who was not over-scrupulous, and thtis become the 
 progenitor of people of some importance. 
 
 A typical case was that of Féhcité Longory, 
 daughter of a petty officer of the cabinet, whom 
 Josephine had called to fill the position of lady 
 usher. As such she was stationed in the salon into 
 which the private apartments opened, and her duties 
 consisted simply of throwing open the double doors 
 for the passage of the Emperor or Empress : for this 
 service she received three thousand, six hundred 
 francs a year, which sum Josephine supplemented 
 by six hundred francs in 1S06. Féhcité was a per- 
 sonage of no importance, almost a servant, yet she 
 succeeded in attracting the attention of the Emperor, 
 and, the inevitable scene with the Empress ensu- 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 123 
 
 ing, was naturally discharged, and later married 
 well. 
 
 Mile. Lacoste stood a little higher on the social 
 plane. She was a slight and pretty hlonde, an 
 orphan without fortune, who had been brought up 
 by an aunt who was said to be a schemer, and who 
 managed her niece's presentation to Josephine. The 
 Empress, touched by the girl's forlorn state, gave her 
 an ambiguous position, vaguely entitled a reader. 
 Mile. Lacoste certainly did not find her duties 
 fatiguing, for hardly had she assumed the position 
 when the court departed for Milan where the corona- 
 tion was to take place, and she followed the court, 
 without being of it, for she had no clearly defined 
 position. As reader, Mile. Lacoste was denied access 
 to the drawing-room of the ladies-in-waiting; and, too 
 well-bred to associate with the ladies' maids, near to 
 whom, however, she was lodged, she felt isolated and 
 forlorn in her new surroundings. At Stupinitz the 
 Emperor caught sight of her and remarked her pretty 
 face ; at Milan he spoke to her and an understanding 
 was arrived at. Josephine, however, soon became 
 aware of it and there was a terrible scene ; the reader 
 was ordered to leave and her aunt summoned from 
 Paris to escort her home ; but before her departure 
 the Emperor insisted that she should appear once at 
 least among the Empress' retinue. This created 
 
124 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 a great scandai, for a reader was not supposed to 
 appear outside the private apartments. On return- 
 ing to Paris Xapoleon undertook to find a husband 
 for Mile. Lacoste, and married her to a rich finan- 
 cier ; she made an honest wife and devoted mother, 
 and never reappeared at the Tuileries. 
 
 During this same journey to Italy, in the midst 
 of the fêtes given at Genoa in celebration of the 
 union of France and the Ligurian Ee^Dublic, a 
 lady by name of G-azzani or Gazzana (her name has 
 been written both ways), crossed Xapoleon's path ; 
 she was the daughter of a Mme. Bertani, a dancer, 
 or, according to some historians, a singer connected 
 with the Grand-Théâtre. 
 
 Out of compliment to Josephine a number of 
 Italian ladies had gone to Milan, and it had been 
 arranged that La Gazzani should accompany them ; 
 it was a strangely assorted party, comprising ladies 
 of the Xegrone. Brignole. Doria and Eemedi fam- 
 ilies, and women like Mme. Gazzani and Bianchina 
 La Flèche, who was destined to such a brilliant 
 career in Westphalia. 
 
 Carlotta Gazzani was tall, rather too slight per- 
 haps, but with a most graceful and elegant car- 
 riage ; her hands and feet were not remarkable for 
 their beauty, indeed she invariably wore gloves, but 
 her features were of the purest tj'pe of Italian 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 125 
 
 beauty and her eyes large, dark and very brilliant. 
 Even women praised La Gazzani's beauty, which 
 is positive proof that it was great, but also, that she 
 lacked that peculiar and indescribable charm which 
 renders some women so captivating and the envy 
 of all their sex. Mme. Eémusat admitted that 
 it w^as her husband, then first chamberlain, who 
 charged himself with the Italian beauty's introduc- 
 tion at court, and who persuaded the Emperor to 
 nominate her reader to Josephine ; evidently it was 
 not Talleyrand alone who, as Napoleon once said, 
 " always had his pocket full of mistresses." 
 
 Mme. Gazzani, then called Mme. Gazzani Brentano, 
 and who long afterwards assumed the title of Bar- 
 oness de Brentano, replaced Mile. Lacoste, at a salary 
 of five hundred francs a month ; from 1805 to 1807 
 little was heard of her, for during that period which 
 comprised the battle of Austerlitz and the campaign 
 in Prussia and Poland the Emperor was little in 
 France, but on his return to Paris and later at 
 Fontainebleau she saw her opportunity and seized 
 it. She was so lodged that she could easily reach 
 the Emperor at all hours, and when summoned by 
 him immediately hastened to obey. She nev^er at- 
 tempted to pose as a favorite, but accepted with 
 modesty her rôle of occasional mistress, and the 
 Empress, at first inclined to be jealous, was quickly 
 
126 
 
 reassured by Napoleon's making her his confidante. 
 The Italian retained a respectful and submissive 
 attitude towards the Empress, and remained unpre- 
 tentiously in her place. She was accorded the entrée 
 of the drawing-room reserved for the ladies-in-wait- 
 ing, but, that favor bestowed, Napoleon did not pub- 
 licly interest himself in her and permitted the ladies 
 of the palace to treat her as they pleased and shun 
 her if they chose ; their hostility, however, was of 
 a short duration, and soon several of them, and not 
 the least haughty, relented sufficiently to admit her 
 into their circle. Mme. Gazzani obtained something 
 more substantial, however, from her relations with 
 the Emperor than the flatteries of the court, as she 
 secured the general receivership at Évreau for her 
 husband. 
 
 After the imperial divorce Mme. Gazzani re- 
 joined her lord, and being close to Navarre, where 
 Josephine was residing, she became an intimate of 
 the household to which she was strongly attracted 
 by a liaison with M. de Pourtalès, a groom of the 
 Empress' household. Her intimacy with the Em- 
 peror terminated at Fontainebleau, after that he 
 only saw her by chance. He never loved her and 
 appears never to have talked of her, but she was 
 consoled for his forgetfulness by the success in life 
 of her daughter, Charlotte- Josephine-Eugenie-Claire, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 127 
 
 self-styled Baroness de Brentano, who made a brill, 
 iant match and married M. Alfred Mosselman, by 
 whom she had a daughter who married M. Eugène 
 Le Hon. 
 
 Although oblivious of Mme. Gazzani, Napoleon 
 often spoke of a certain Mile. Guillebeau, the 
 daughter of a bankrupt banker, who was, in 1808, 
 appointed to assist Mme. G-azzani as reader. Mile. 
 Guillebeau's mother was Irish by birth, and had 
 three daughters, two of whom were grown and con- 
 tributed to the family income by dancing and play- 
 ing the tambourine in the drawing-rooms of the 
 nobility. The eldest compassed an introduction to 
 the Princess Elisa, who assisted her to make a good 
 marriage, and the younger, who the gossips affirmed 
 had not been cruel either to Murat or Junot, was 
 clever enough to secure the protection of Queen 
 Hortense, who was taken with her pretty face and 
 clever dancing. At a masquerade ball, given by 
 Caroline at the Elysée, Hortense, who was to lead a 
 costumed quadrille, took a fancy to dress Mile. 
 Guillebeau as Folly, and to have her, tambourine 
 in hand, lead the procession of her maidens into the 
 ball-room. Caroline had double reasons for jeal- 
 ousy, and as soon as she perceived Mile. Guillebeau 
 she rushed to Hortense's side and a lively scene 
 ensued, which resulted in Folly's dismissal from the 
 
128 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE A^'D HESBAXD. 
 
 * 
 
 ball-room. This was an episode in the continual 
 warfare which raged between the Bonapartes and 
 the Beauharnais, and to avenge both herself and 
 her favorite, Hortense presented Mile. GuiUebeau 
 to her mother, who, to annoy Caroline, attached the 
 girl to herself in the position of reader. 
 
 This incident occurred just previous to the journey 
 to Bayonne, and when the imperial household was 
 installed at Marrac, Mile. GuiUebeau found herself 
 in an isolated position ; court etiquette closed the 
 door of the drawing-room against her during the 
 day, and she only entered it occasionally of an even- 
 ing in order to entertain the comi^any with her 
 music and c i^cing, and was therefore reduced to 
 passing most of the time in her bedroom, which was 
 in reality nothing better than a garret, for the 
 château of Marrac was small, and had not been con- 
 structed with a view to lodging an imperial house- 
 hold. Being a great coquette, the girl was fearfully 
 bored, and was well content when a servant — a 
 Mamaluke — tapped at her ^door and announced an 
 imperial visit. MaTters were prog^essJn^^qnite., to 
 her taste when Lavallette, wl^q, by j-ight of his i)o- 
 sition of postmaster-general, watched the corre- 
 spondence of the household, sent Napoleon a letter 
 written to Mile. GuiUebeau by her mother, in which 
 she had clearly traced the rôle her daughter had to 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 129 
 
 plciy, and recommended her to lose no occasion to 
 make herself agreeable to His Majesty, and to 
 strengthen his fancy for her to the utmost ; point- 
 ing out to the girl how greatly to her interest it 
 was to follow this course, and how she could profit 
 by the imperial weakness. Napoleon was so dis- 
 gusted with the lowness of the intrigue, in which he 
 afterwards discovered that Prince de Bénévant was 
 implicated, that he immediately commanded a post- 
 chaise for mademoiselle, and she was packed off to 
 Paris escorted only by a valet. 
 
 Mile. Guillebeau met and married a M. Sourdeau 
 who, thanks to the Emperor, was given a receiver- 
 ship, but he appropriated the fu 3 and prison 
 stared him in the face when the restoration occurred 
 and proved his salvation. Mme. Sourdeau was 
 clever enough to secure an introduction to the Duke 
 de Berry, who found her '^ charming and possessed 
 of the most beautiful eyes in the world," and as a 
 recompense for favors received appointed her hus- 
 band consul at Tangier. 
 
 In the life of Napoleon, these passing fancies 
 count for little ; they barely appealed to his senses, 
 never touched his heart ; they give us no insight to 
 the active side of his nature, but demonstrate his 
 hatred of intrigue, his generosity and certain of his 
 habits. It would be easy to relate many adven- 
 
130 XAPOLEOX, LOYER AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 tures of the same kind, but none more interesting ; 
 tales of garrison adventures for which, as Emperor, 
 he paid two hundred napoleons where one of his 
 captains would have paid twenty francs ; he was 
 not constituted differently than his marshals and 
 his soldiers ; he was a man, but he was not a man 
 whose senses were so imperious that he was always 
 forced to yield to them. 
 
 At Vienna he observed a young girl, who, on her 
 side, was apparently infatuated with him ; he had 
 her followed, and invited her to visit him in the 
 evening at Schoenbrunn : she accepted, and as she 
 spoke only Italian and German they conversed in 
 the former language. Xapoleon discovered almost 
 immediately that the girl belonged to a most re- 
 si^ectable family and did not comprehend in the least 
 what the invitation to meet him implied, and that 
 while she felt a passionate admiration for him it 
 was ingenuous and innocent ; he ordered that she 
 should be immediately reconducted to her home, and 
 provided for her future, giving her a dot of twenty 
 thousand florins. 
 
 This act was far from being unique in Napoleon's 
 history, it was repeated three times at least in his 
 life ; on the last occasion at Saint Helena. 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 131 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 In the idleness and disquietude of her daily life, 
 which resembled closely that of an aged sultana, 
 Josephine had ample leisure for reflection, and the 
 outgrowth of her continual agitation, anxiety and 
 jealousy was the knowledge that by one thing only 
 could her position be secured — the birth of a child. 
 Without understanding Napoleon's ambitious pro- 
 jects, she yet knew that he had a consuming desire 
 for male issue, and, as his fortunes rose, gradually 
 comprehended why he so desired an heir, and 
 realized that for her maternity should no longer 
 be a pretext for obtaining favors in the shape of 
 journeys which gave her relaxation from the monot- 
 onous life at the Tuileries — but an aim ; that the 
 throne of which her husband was slowly climbing 
 the steps should have an assured heir. 
 
 To Bonaparte, chief of a republic, Bonaparte re- 
 establishing the Bourbons and content with a life- 
 long place of honor under the restored monarchy, a 
 
132 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE A^'D HUSBAXD. 
 
 son was not indispensable^ but, unfortunately for 
 Joséphine, the contingent glory of a rôle à la Monk 
 did not tempt him, nor the disinterestedness of a 
 life like Washington's satisfy him. A great flood 
 of opinion, one of those popular currents which 
 nothing stems, swept all obstacles from his path and 
 raised him first to a consulate which was republican, 
 later to one which was autocratic and differed from 
 a monarchy only in name, and above all in the in- 
 solvable question of heredity. 
 
 Around this question of heredity surged the 
 ambitions of some and the projects of others. Jose- 
 phine saw that Bonaparte's brothers already aspired 
 to the succession ; that the sisters debated whether 
 their husbands, too, might not have a chance, 
 and that the nation itself desired, after so much 
 turbulence, a government that would endure more 
 than a lifetime ; but if a monarchal form of govern- 
 ment was established, who was to succeed Napoleon ? 
 There were the Consul's brothers, but by what right 
 could they be called to the throne ? An hereditary 
 monarchy in its Christian form is a derivative of 
 the Hebrew form of government, and is supposedly 
 a divine institution, but it applies exclusively to the 
 chief of a dynasty and his descendants, however far 
 removed, ^^rovided that they are male and descended 
 in direct line from him. In order that Napoleon's 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 133 
 
 brothers should succeed him it would have been 
 necessary to have recourse to an expedient, ccmmon 
 enough with the ancients, and proclaim that the 
 late Charles de Buonaparte had been emperor of 
 France, but it was unlikely that the country would 
 accept such a fiction. 
 
 Another expedient was to abandon the Hebraic 
 law of succession and institute the Eoman law of 
 adoption ; under that régime the Consul would be 
 free to choose as his successor whomsoever he judged 
 best fitted to fill his place ; but it was a question 
 whether the nation would overcome its prejudice in 
 favor of the old monarchal system and accept such 
 a solution of the problem. The simplest, most 
 natural solution, which would both annihilate the 
 ambitions and please the populace, was the birth of 
 a son to Napoleon. 
 
 In her anxiety to give to her husband the heir 
 so ardently desired Josephine visited innumerable 
 mineral springs whose waters were supposed to cure 
 sterility, consulted various physicians and submitted 
 heroically to any treatment recommended, made 
 pilgrimages, and even had recourse to sorcerers ; 
 whenever she had the least ground for believing 
 herself with child she immediately made Bonaparte 
 a sharer in her joyous hopes, and he in turn confided 
 his happiness to his intimates ; as each hope died 
 
lo4: XAPOLEO^', LOVEE AXD HrSBA2sT). 
 
 Xapoleon became more and more morose, and 
 indulged in hard and bitter speeches which attested 
 his disappointment. Once at Mahnaison, he decided 
 to get up a hunt in the park, when Mme. Bonaparte 
 came to him weeping and said: ^^How can you 
 think of hunting in the park when all our animals 
 are with young i *" at which he retorted in a loud 
 voice : ' ' TTell, then. I suppose it must be abandoned; 
 everything here seems to be prolific except the mis- 
 tress ? '"' 
 
 Pubhcly he threw all the blame for their child- 
 lessness upon his wife ; but recalhng Mme. Fourès 
 and many others, none of whom had borne him 
 children, he entertained secret doubts of the justice 
 of the aspersion he cast upon her ; doubts which 
 Josephine stimulated by talking incessantly of her 
 children, and by forcing Eugène and Hortense con- 
 stantly upon his notice ; she harped so much upon 
 the subject that Mme. Bacciochi lost all patience, 
 and one day silenced her by remarking : ''There 
 may be something in what you say, but remember, 
 sister, when those children saw the light you were 
 much younger than you are now ! " 
 
 The majority of the family, however, were pre- 
 vailed upon to accept her view of the situation, and 
 Xapoleon himself did not combat it vigorously. 
 On several occasions he said to his brother Joseph : 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 135 
 
 ^^ I am childless, you all think me impotent, and 
 Josephine, despite her anxiety, is not likely to bear 
 children now ; so after me the deluge ! " 
 
 When, on his return from Spain, Lucien preached 
 divorce, and suggested the advisability of a marriage 
 with an Infanta, Napoleon rejected the proposition ; 
 undoubtedly he had diverse motives for so doing, 
 but possibly the strongest of all was of a personal 
 and private nature ; he may have reasoned that 
 while a union with a Bourbon princess would un- 
 questionably further his ambitious schemes, it was 
 foolish to struggle for a throne if unable to transmit 
 his name and glory to a son. 
 
 The Spanish union was nevertheless urged by 
 Lucien, for whom Josephine had but scant affection, 
 remembering that he had been the first advocate of 
 a divorce, and from that time she made no further 
 effort to conciliate her husband's brothers, but did 
 not hesitate to report any story which might injure 
 them, however false, nor to embellish the truth ; and 
 she was not sorry when a rupture finally occurred. 
 Napoleon often said of Josephine that ^^she bears 
 no more malice than a pigeon," but this was true 
 only when her personal interests were not at stake. 
 
 Although the doubt which she had inspired in 
 Napoleon served to avert a divorce in 1801, Josephine 
 knew herself to be at the mercy of chance ; it was 
 
136 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 
 
 neither the actresses whose company he frequented, 
 nor the ladies of the court whom she feared, for if 
 one of them happened to bear a child she reasoned 
 that Napoleon could not be assured of his father- 
 hood unless a striking physical resemblance proved 
 it ; what she dreaded was a liaison similar to the 
 one with Mme. Fourès, for a child born under such 
 conditions meant the shipwreck of all her hopes and 
 ambitions, as Bonaparte had reached a point where 
 he felt himself upon a level with the old dynasties, 
 and knew that a union with him would not be dis- 
 dained by the purest blood of France, while there 
 was no lack of men like Talleyrand, " the accursed 
 limper," ready to tempt him, suggest advantageous 
 marriages and act as intermediary. 
 
 In default of a child, which alone, as Napoleon 
 himself said, ^' could insure Josephine's peace of 
 mind and put a stop to her unceasing jealousy," 
 how could she attach herself to her husband so 
 firmly that he would not dream of breaking the 
 chain ? For years associated with him in his public 
 life, received everywhere as a sovereign, holding her 
 salon at the Tuileries or at Saint-Cloud, obliged by 
 Napoleon himself to take precedence over all other 
 women, even above his mother at family and infor- 
 mal gatherings, presented to the country and to 
 Europe as the first lady in France, she could not be 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 187 
 
 repudiated without a scandal, and such a proceed- 
 ing would certainly be badly received by the public. 
 She had been the medium for the distribution of 
 too many favors, had exercised her influence to ob- 
 tain too many pardons, not to have warm and faith- 
 ful adherents ; but, as Napoleon's popularity grew 
 and his power increased, the worldly prestige of his 
 wife diminished, and she realized more and more 
 that no tie could bind him to her save a living token 
 of their union. 
 
 Josephine finally conceived a most ingenious plan, 
 namely, to constitute a heredity by persuading Napo- 
 leon to adopt his nephew and her grandson, the child 
 of Louis Bonaparte and Hortense de Beauharnais ; 
 such a procedure would conciliate all factions, sat- 
 isfy the Bonapartes, because the heir-presumptive 
 would be one of their name, and assure her own 
 future, and the question of succession would then 
 be settled. She convinced Napoleon of the wisdom 
 of this law and he spoke of it to Louis ; but Louis 
 indignantly refused invoking the rights of his brother 
 Joseph and himself, and before these imaginary and 
 baseless claims, which were without precedent in 
 history and totally at variance with the monarchal 
 doctrine, Napoleon gave way and renounced the sole 
 expedient which would have enabled him to establish 
 an heredity without having recourse to divorce. 
 
138 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE A^'D HT:SBA^~D. 
 
 Failing to achieve the adoption of her grandson, 
 Josephine saw no other means of consoHdating the 
 tie which linked her to Xapoleon and his fortunes, 
 and while suffering the greatest disquietude she was 
 obliged to accept the situation with such fortitude 
 as she could summon to her aid. 
 
 The First Consul being proclaimed Emperor, she 
 naturally became Empress, received the homage of 
 the ministers of state and was addressed as ''Your 
 Majesty,'* and after the triumphal journey from Aix. 
 la-Chapelle to Mayence, after the cannons of the 
 Invalides had announced her return to the Parisians 
 and the authorities had defiled before her throne, 
 her position seemed assured, and a divorce highly 
 improbable ; but her own jealousy nearly occasioned 
 the dreaded calamity. 
 
 At Saint -Cloud she observed that a lady who had 
 called to pay her respects, left the apartment sooner 
 than was strictly in accordance with court etiquette, 
 and having long suspected an undue intimacy be- 
 tween this lady and the Emperor, she herself left 
 the drawing-room and mounted the secret stairway 
 leading to the private apartment in the entresol 
 where he was in the habit of receiving fair visitors, 
 and, recognizing the lady's voice, she insisted upon 
 being admitted and made a scene which provoked 
 îs'apoleon to violent anger. As a result he declared 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 139 
 
 himself weary of such espionage and determined to 
 end it, and saying that he should follow the counsels 
 of his friends and secure a divorce, he sent for Eu- 
 gene to arrange the details. Eugène arrived, but 
 both for his mother and himself he declined all 
 favors or any pecuniary assistance ; thus several 
 days passed, Eugène remained unapproachable, 
 while Josephine did not recriminate, but wept un- 
 ceasingly, and Napoleon's resolution weakened be- 
 fore her tears ; moreover, he knew himself to be in 
 the wrong, and that it was not thus so grave an act 
 should be accomplished, and a final conversation 
 took place between them. ^ ' I have not the courage, " 
 said he at its close, ^' to carry my threat into execu- 
 tion, and if you will only be affectionate and obe- 
 dient I shall never oblige you to leave me, but I will 
 admit that I wish that you yourself would relieve 
 me from the embarrassment of our present rela- 
 tions." 
 
 Josephine, however, had no taste for self-sacrifice, 
 and did not propose to decide her fate. Napoleon 
 must be the arbiter ; she was ready to obey, but she 
 intended to await his order to descend the steps of 
 the throne to which he had raised her. Influenced 
 by his habits, political uncertainty, the hope of a 
 possible paternity, affection for his stepchildren, the 
 necessity of ruining the life which he had linked 
 
140 yAPOLEO>', LOTEP. A^'D HUSEA^D. 
 
 with his, of renouncing forever the woman whom 
 he still loved, touched by the resignation of the 
 Beauhamais family, and provoked at the joy mani- 
 fested by Josephine's enemies, Xapoleon once more 
 abandoned the idea of divorce, and. as though to pre- 
 vent its return, commanded his wife to give serious 
 attention to the preparations for his coronation, in 
 which she should be associated. 
 
 Certainly Josephme should have been content : 
 her most ambitious dreams could never have 
 reached this height : she. the créole, who had been 
 brought to France owing to the caprice of a courtesan, 
 was to realize the ambitious dreams of past queens 
 of France.be crowned by the PojDe. and participate 
 in the triumphs of the new Charlemagne. 
 
 She was. however, desirous of forging still another 
 link in the chain which bound Xai)oleon to her. 
 For eight years she had been perfectly content with 
 the civil ceremony which alone cemented their 
 union, but it now occurred to her that the benison 
 of the Church would lend additional strength to 
 her jxDsition. She did not ignore the fact that she 
 would have great obstacles to surmount before over- 
 coming Xapoleon's objections to such a step ; she 
 knew he would argue that, as the ceremony had not 
 already taken place, it was useless to call public 
 attention to its omission, that the greater number 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 141 
 
 of the men who surrounded him were in the same 
 position as himself, and that by setting them such 
 an example he would cause numerous acts of re- 
 habilitation, which would appear to be in opposition 
 to extant civil laws, and would seemingly indicate 
 that the head of the government did not acknowl- 
 edge the validity of the only mode of marriage 
 which the state recognized, that he would find no 
 lack of reasons to advance for his refusal, any of 
 which might mask a furtive one. Napoleon knew 
 that the Church is accommodating, when she has to 
 deal with the powerful ones of earth, and that when 
 it is advisable she will cut a knot which she had 
 tied, but he felt that if later he was constrained 
 to sunder his marriage relations he would prefer 
 being free to act for himself and not be under obliga- 
 tions to the Holy See. 
 
 Josephine divined all this, and was fully alive to 
 the fact that she had nothing to gain by appealing 
 to Napoleon, and had no valid reasons to advance 
 for the religious solemnization of their union ; she 
 knew, too, that to assign conscientious scruples as 
 her motive would give not only Napoleon, but the 
 whole court, cause for mirth : but the Pope would 
 not laugh at her. 
 
 For several years she had been in correspondence 
 with Pius VIL and quietly paving the way for a 
 
142 îs'APOLEOX. LOVEE A^'D H^SBA^~D. 
 
 religious marriage, so when the Pope called on her 
 at Fontainebleau, she confessed that her union with 
 Bonaparte had not received the sanction of the 
 Church, and the Holy Father, after felicitating her 
 upon her commendable desire to obey the laws of 
 the Church, promised to insist upon the Sacrament. 
 Thus Xapoleon's hand was forced, for the Pope was 
 quite capable of postponing the coronation if he 
 postponed the marriage ; to refuse to anoint the 
 Emperor, if Xapoleon refused to obey the canons of 
 the Church. The ceremony had already been thrice 
 adjourned, and each postponement entailed immense 
 expenditures, gave rise to discontent among the 
 people, and provoked distrust. Paris was filled to 
 overflowing with civil and military deputations, it 
 would have created an awful scandal if the Pope, 
 who had come to Paris solely to anoint and crown 
 the Emperor, returned to Eome without having 
 performed the ceremony : it was absolutely neces- 
 sary to yield, and on the morning of the 9th 
 December, Cardinal Fesch pronounced the nuptial 
 benediction. 
 
 If ever a marriage was forced that one was, and 
 later Xapoleon could truthfully affirm that undue 
 influence had been brought to bear upon him, that 
 his consent having been unfairly obtained the mar- 
 riage was, according to the canons of the Church, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 145 
 
 null and void ; but this Josephine could not foresee, 
 and married by a Cardinal, anointed by a Pope and 
 crowned by the Emperor, she fondly believed her 
 position unassailable. 
 
144 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND, 
 
 CHAPTEE XI. 
 
 MADAIVIE ****. 
 
 Napoleon would not have been the man he was 
 had he never felt the need of a love not purely ani- 
 mal, of a friendship which should satisfy the senti- 
 mental and intellectual side of his nature as well as 
 the physical, and as he advanced in years and his 
 position isolated him more and more from ordinary 
 mortals, the longing for sympathetic companion- 
 ship grew upon him. 
 
 During the early days of the consulate this long- 
 ing was but faintly felt, but as the fires of youth 
 burned down his intellectual nature assumed the 
 ascendency, and we find ourselves in the presence of 
 a new Napoleon, a man prone to periods of melan- 
 choly, possessed by a feverish desire to be under- 
 stood, and as apt to indulge in dreams of an ideal 
 affection as in ambitious ones, a man delicately 
 tender, who found for the expression of his senti- 
 ments language suitable for a hero of romance. 
 As Napoleon has not previously been presented to 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 145 
 
 the world in this light one feels some hesitancy in 
 so doing, but the proofs that his character did thus 
 change, though covering a somewhat later period 
 of his life, are still sufficiently authentic to warrant 
 the assertion. 
 
 The women to whom Napoleon addressed himself 
 at this time were no longer actresses and adven- 
 turesses, who made capital out of their relations with 
 him, but women of the world who had husbands to 
 deceive and reputations to consider, who were cau- 
 tious in their indiscretions, destroyed all proof of 
 their relations with the Emperor, and whose descend- 
 ants carefully guarded the secret, while those who 
 were indiscreet enough to gossip about these ladies 
 took good care to disguise their names ; even at 
 this late day he who lifts the light veil which con- 
 ceals their identity would be most discourteous ; 
 moreover, one cannot hQ positive that the veil screens 
 but one woman. Naturally one can identify certain 
 traits of person and character, particularly when 
 retaining from childhood a strong and clear impres- 
 sion of a certain face, but such proofs are not doc- 
 umentary, and even at the risk of being obscure and 
 leaving some points unexplained, one must proceed 
 with the greatest caution. There was at the con- 
 sular court a young woman of twenty, wedded to a 
 
 man thirty years her senior. The husband was a 
 10 
 
146 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 most respectable person^ a great worker, and left 
 the best of reputations behind him ; he was one of 
 those faithful servants of the state of whom the old 
 régime made head clerks, and the new. general 
 directors ; he possessed wonderful ability as a finan- 
 cier, and it was he who organized and directed a 
 financial institution which is conducted to-day upon 
 the same lines that he laid down. The wife was 
 charming, graceful and amiable ; her features were 
 irregular, but her face was rendered remarkable by 
 an extremely winning smile and the thoughtful 
 expression of her dark blue eyes — eyes which, it must 
 be admitted, were somewhat deceptive, as they ex- 
 pressed whatever their mistress willed ; her hands 
 and feet were marvellously small and beautiful, she 
 danced like a fairy, sang like an artist, played the 
 harp like a virtuoso, was an excellent listener, and 
 did not display unduly her most remarkable intel- 
 ligence. This lady lacked neither a strong will, 
 worldly wisdom, ambition nor unscrupulousness, 
 but she concealed her real hardness by a suave 
 manner which enhanced her beauty, and, though of 
 bourgeoise origin, she understood the art of polite- 
 ness better than many a high-born dame, and in- 
 stinctively comprehended the requirements of good 
 society (a knowledge which must be innate and 
 cannot be acquired) ; and she carried herself with 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 147 
 
 as haughty and disdainful an air as if she had been 
 born in the purple rather than of middle-class 
 provincials. According to certain authorities it 
 was in November, 1803, that Napoleon fell in love 
 with Mme. '=^^'^^-; but the affair with the woman 
 whom Josephine surprised in the orangery at Saint- 
 Cloud seems to destroy this hypothesis, and it is 
 more likely that Napoleon paid his first addresses 
 to Mme. ^ " * ^, about nine months later, in August, 
 ISOl. The child which was born to Mme. -^ ^ ^ * dur- 
 ing that year resembled Bonaparte neither in mind 
 nor feature, a fact which, though it inspired Napo- 
 leon with some doubt as to its parentage, was a 
 safeguard to the wife and confirmed her husband's 
 faith in her. It is not uncommon, however, for 
 features as characteristic as those of the Bonapartes 
 to skip one generation and appear, strongly devel- 
 oped, in a second, and it was such a manifestation, 
 occurring a generation later in this family, which 
 revealed a connection which up to that moment 
 had been kept fairly secret. Was the lady at Saint- 
 Cloud the person who, towards the end of the con- 
 sulate, frequented a little house in the Allée des 
 Veuves where Napoleon also went secretly ? Was 
 she the same woman whom Napoleon, disguised 
 and aloiie, visited by night at her own house in 
 Paris ? It is impossible to say. The adventure at 
 
148 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 Saint- Cloud seems to have been one of those transi- 
 tory amours which endure but a day ; nocturnal 
 and secret excursions on the part of a man who 
 was ordinarily such a stay-at-home as Napoleon, 
 demonstrate however, an irresistible attraction 
 of which there are few instances in his career. 
 There is some uncertainty regarding the identity of 
 several of the women who played a part in Napo- 
 leon's life about that time which, for the moment, 
 it is not advisable to clear up, and about which, 
 memorialists and their editors have been careful 
 not to enlighten us, out of consideration for the 
 woman about whose memory they surge, and above 
 all, for her descendants ; nevertheless, there are cer- 
 tain facts regarding which all witnesses agree, and 
 which, though not positive proof, are the strongest 
 sort of circumstantial evidence and permit us to 
 fathom the mystery with which these ladies sur- 
 round themselves and to divine their names. 
 
 A few days before the arrival of the Pope for the 
 coronation. Napoleon, with his whole court, pro- 
 ceeded to Fontainebleau, and his retinue were not 
 slow to perceive that he appeared unusually serene 
 and approachable. One evening, after the Pope 
 had retired to his apartments, the Emperor re- 
 mained with the Empress, chatting with her ladies- 
 in-waiting ; this proceeding did not strike Jose- 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 149 
 
 phine as natural ; her jealousy was awakened, and 
 she began to search for proof of a new mtrigue ; 
 not knowing exactly whom to suspect, she pounced 
 upon Mme. Ney, who denied emphatically to Hor- 
 tense, her old schoolfellow at Mme. Campan's, that 
 the Emperor was in any way interested in her, but 
 asserted that he was simply curious about one of 
 the ladies of the court whom Eugène de Beauhar- 
 nais found quite to his taste. Eugène was but a 
 screen ; the lady accepted his attentions and appeared 
 to take pleasure in his society solely to avert sus- 
 picion ; she was intimate with Caroline Murat, who 
 lent her assistance to the intrigue in order to spite 
 Josephine, as she did in many other instances. 
 
 No definite understanding had been arrived at 
 when the court returned to Paris, but Napoleon was 
 captivated by the lady's charms ; he was loath to 
 leave the Empress' apartments when she was on 
 duty, and was always ready to join Josephine 
 at the theatre if that lady accompanied her ; and, 
 though ordinarily he objected to his wife's going to 
 the play except in state, he was then ready to 
 organize little theatre parties, provided always that 
 Madame ^'^^^ was of the company. Josephine 
 grew more and more uneasy and attempted to 
 remonstrate, but her remonstrances were so ill re- 
 ceived that she dared not insist, and although pub- 
 
150 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE AXD HrSBAXD. 
 
 licly Napoleon seemed more affable and frank than 
 ever before, in reality, unless a certain lady was 
 present, his temper was irritable and uncertain. 
 ^' Bonaparte makes me a daily and reasonless 
 scene," Josephine wrote a friend about that time ; 
 '^^ he is unbearable." 
 
 About that time [N'apoleon was seized with a vio- 
 lent fancy for playing cards in the evening, and in- 
 variably called his sister Carohne and two ladies of 
 the palace, one of whom was the object of his affec- 
 tion, to be his partners. He played badly, gi^dng 
 but scant attention to the game, which indeed 
 served only as an excuse for remaining in the society 
 of the woman he so admired, and procured him an 
 opportunity to gaze upon her and to ponder over 
 the charms of an ideal and platonic love ; without 
 mentioning names he frequently indulged upon 
 these occasions in long and vehement tirades against 
 jealousy and jealous women : and poor Josephine, 
 drearily playing whist with court dignitaries, was 
 forced to listen to the invectives which, uttered in 
 his sonorous voice, rang out in the respectful 
 silence of the room and were plainly audible to all. 
 
 At a fête given by the minister of war, in honor 
 of the coronation, the women, in accordance with 
 the usage of the day, were alone seated at supper, 
 the Empress with several of her ladies and the 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 151 
 
 wives of state dignitaries occupying the table of 
 honor. Napoleon refused to seat himself but walked 
 about, chatting with various ladies in an unusually 
 gracious and affable manner ; he was assiduous in 
 his attentions to Josephine, and taking a plate from 
 the hands of a page served her himself. When he 
 fancied that he had manoeuvred enough and had 
 been sufficiently polite to the company in general, 
 he approached Madame ^ ^ ^ ^ and engaged in con- 
 versation with her neighbor, gradually including 
 his charmer, and, perceiving that she wished some 
 olives which were set upon the table at a little 
 distance, he fetched them to her, saying : '^ You do 
 wrong to eat olives at night, they will make you 
 ill," then, turning to the other lady, he added, " and 
 you, madame, do well not to eat them, above all you 
 are wise not to imitate Madame ^'^^"^ for in all 
 things she is inimitable." 
 
 The Emperor's stratagem did not impose upon 
 Josephine, whom nothing escaped, and who, in the 
 middle of the winter, had been obliged to yield to a 
 sudden fancy of his and go to Malmaison, a journey 
 which had upset all her plans and made every one 
 excessively uncomfortable, for the visit had been so 
 suddenly undertaken that there had been no time to 
 light the fires, and the first night was spent in a 
 veritable icehouse ; the cold, however, had mattered 
 
152 XAPOLEOX. LOVEE AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 very little to Xapoleon who made a nocturnal visit 
 which he flattered himself had been unobserved, 
 httle suspecting that Josephine, after a long station 
 behind a glass door, had learned his secret. 
 
 After the ministerial fête, the court returned to 
 ^lalmaison, and the following morning the Empress 
 summoned to her presence the lady who had not 
 partaken of olives, and after an aimless conversa- 
 tion, abruptly asked what the Emperor had said to 
 her on the previous evening, then, what he had 
 said to Madame - - * *. The lady answered that His 
 Majesty advised Madame ^ ^ - ^ not to eat ohves ; 
 '' Ah," exclaimed the Empress, ^' while he was giving 
 her such good advice he might have told her that it is 
 ridiculous for a woman with such a long nose to essay 
 the rôle of Roxelane ; " then, taking a book from 
 the chimney-piece, she added: "Here is the book 
 which is turning the heads of all the blonde and thin 
 young women." The voltune in question was Mme. 
 de Genlis' novel, '*la Duchesse de La Vallière," and 
 the Empress' sarcasm was not idle, for the romance 
 was to be foimd in the room of every lady-in-wait- 
 ing ; the book had the enormous sale of ten editions, 
 and doubtless the fact that many aspired to a posi- 
 tion similar to La Vallière's had not been detrimen- 
 tal to its success. 
 
 The Emperor had no intention of installing a 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 153 
 
 favorite. ^^Ido not wish women to govern in my 
 court," he said upon one occasion, '^ their influence 
 was harmful to Henri IV and Louis XIV, my mis- 
 sion is more important tlian theirs was, and the 
 French have become too serious to pardon scanda- 
 lous liaisons of their sovereigns. " His real mistress, 
 as he often said, was power, and he had worked too 
 hard to attain it, to permit of its being stolen or even 
 coveted. Madame '^ -^ ^ ^ who was both very astute 
 and very intelligently advised, asked nothing for her- 
 self, indeed, she was not able to accept many favors, 
 as they might have roused the suspicions of her 
 husband, who was far from being indifferent to his 
 wife's good name and conduct ; the most that she 
 was able to secure individually was a position as 
 lady-in-waiting, an appointment which was war- 
 ranted neither by her position, birth or anything in 
 the past which had endeared her to Bonaparte, and 
 which caused some gossip and many malicious 
 smiles ; but little as her relations advantaged her 
 personally, she profited by them to advance the in- 
 terests of others and her one time protectors became 
 her protégés. 
 
 Murat, already marshal of the Empire, was pro- 
 moted to the dignity of a prince and made admiral- 
 in-chief, which classed him, after Cambacérès and 
 Lebrun, among the serene highnesses ; but at the 
 
154 XAPOLEOX, LOVER AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 same time and of his own accord the Emperor 
 named Eugène de Beauharnais prince and arch-chan- 
 cellor of state, thus placing him upon the same 
 level as Murat, and establishing the balance be- 
 tween the Bonapartes and the Beauharnais, inclining 
 it even in favor of the Beauharnais. There was a 
 marked difference in the terms which he employed 
 in announcing both decisions to the Senate, and he 
 made the positions which his brother-in-law and his 
 stepson held in his affections most evident ; on the 
 one hand it was clear that he yielded to outside 
 pressure and the solicitations of the family, on the 
 other, that he gave freely, actuated by the dictates 
 of his own heart : ' * In the midst of the anxieties 
 and the bitterness inseparable from the high rank 
 where we are placed, our heart has felt the need of 
 affection and sincere friendship, and its wants have 
 
 been gratified by this child of our adoption 
 
 our paternal benediction will accompan}^ this young 
 prince throughout his career and, seconded by Provi- 
 dence, he will one day be deserving the approbation 
 of posterity. " Such was the speech which announced 
 Eugene de Beauharnais' aggrandizement to the 
 senate ; and he had asked for nothing, expressed no 
 dissatisfaction with the position of grand officer of 
 the Empire and colonel of chasseurs which had pre- 
 viously been conferred upon him, as he was on the 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 155 
 
 way to Milan at the head of the mounted guards. 
 It was in truth a fine command, and it was a strange 
 error on the part of Mme. de Eémusat, to represent 
 in the light of a disgrace the greatest favor which 
 the Emperor could bestow upon a general of twenty 
 three years. 
 
 At all events this disgrace, which, according to 
 her, was occasioned by an access of jealousy against 
 Eugène, was of singularly short duration, for he 
 left Paris on the 16th of January in obedience to an 
 order dated on the 14th and which was prompted by 
 the necessity for the appearance of the guards at the 
 coronation at Milan, and it was but fifteen days later 
 that he received a personal letter from the Emperor 
 with a copy of the message to the senate and his 
 nomination as prince and arch-chancellor of state. 
 
 Nothing could prove more clearly that Napoleon 
 was drawn closer to Josephine, that he did not pro- 
 pose to be led by any one, and that the affection 
 inspired by Madame '^ ^' ''^ ^' was already on the wane : 
 satiety comes soon when there is no restraint. It was 
 at Malmaison in the heart of winter that the in- 
 trigue culminated, and at Malmaison, ere spring- 
 flowers had blossomed, that the chains were broken. 
 
 It was while the court was enjoying a fortnight's 
 sojourn at Malmaison, during which Napoleon en- 
 joyed perfect freedom, and could walk, talk and 
 
156 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 enjoy the society of Madame - ^ - - to his heart's 
 content^ while Josephine mourned and pined in the 
 seclusion of her chamber, that the final rupture 
 occurred. One morning the Emperor went to his 
 wife's apartments and returning to his old confiden- 
 tial manner, admitted that he had been very much 
 in love but was disillusioned, and finished by asking 
 Josephine to aid him to sunder his relations with 
 Madame ^ ^ ^ ^ The Empress took the matter in hand 
 and summoned the lady, who, perfectly mistress 
 of herself, did not manifest the slightest emotion 
 and opposed to the Empress' remarks a mute disdain 
 and a face as impassive as marble. 
 
 Although the Emperor never renewed his alle- 
 giance, Madame - ^ ^ - always remained tenderly at- 
 tached to him, while he invariably manifested for her 
 the greatest consideration, according her every favor 
 compatible with her husband's position, and desig- 
 nating her among the first for court honors and 
 favors. During his hours of trial she was one of 
 his most faithful adherents, she enhanced the fêtes 
 of the hundred days with her beauty, and when, 
 after Waterloo, the vanquished hero was about to 
 leave his country forever, Madame ^ - - * was one of 
 the last to visit Malmaison and offer to the dethroned 
 Emperor the tribute of her respectful attachment 
 and unalterable devotion. 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 167 
 
 CHAPTEE XII. 
 
 STEPHANIE DE BEAUHARNAIS. 
 
 Prior even to Austerlitz, Napoleon resolved to 
 establish family relations between his house and 
 the sovereign houses of Europe which would serve 
 to consolidate political alliances ; he was of the opin- 
 ion that his government would never be firmly 
 established in Europe until the blood of the Napo- 
 leons mingled with that of older reigning families, 
 and not believing himself marriageable, he mobilized 
 around him all who were, boys and girls, with the 
 view of strengthening the only bond to which he 
 attached any valuO;, because he did not think it sub- 
 ject to political hazards. From his point of view 
 nothing was more binding, even to princes, than 
 ties of blood. 
 
 His first step, on returning from the campaign, 
 was to arrange a marriage between Eugène de 
 Beauharnais and the Princess Augusta of Bavaria ; 
 she was betrothed to the Prince of Baden, but that 
 was of no importance, Napoleon finding another 
 
158 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 wife for the discarded lover in the person of Stepha- 
 nie-Louise-Adrienne de Beauharnais, the daughter 
 of Claude deBeauharnais, Count of Eoches-Baritaud, 
 and of Adrienne de Lezay-Marnésia his first wife, 
 and cousin, sixteen degrees removed, to Hortense 
 and Eugène. 
 
 Stéphanie de Beauharnais was born at Paris on 
 the 26th of August, 1789, and, losing her mother at 
 the age of four years, spent some time in the convent 
 of Panthemont; a certain Lady de Bath, an old friend 
 of her mother's, then took the young girl under her 
 protection and^ when the convents were closed, con- 
 fided her ward to two of the sisters, Mmes. de Tré- 
 lissac and de Sabatier, who took Stéphanie with them, 
 first to Castelsarrasin, then to Périgueux and later 
 to Montauhan. Her paternal grandmother, Fanny 
 de Beauharnais, occupied herself at Cubières with 
 poetry and flirtations, her father was an émigré, 
 and her grandfather, Marquis de Marnésia, was 
 travelling in America, so that, save for the kindness 
 of Lady de Bath, the child would have been left to 
 public charity. One day, in the beginning of the 
 consulate, Josephine happened to speak of her little 
 cousin before her husband, and Bonaparte, who 
 thought so much of ties of blood, was indignant at 
 his wife for leaving one of her name to the care of 
 a stranger and an Englishwoman. He immediately 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 159 
 
 sent for the child, but the nuns refused to dehver 
 her to the messenger, whereupon he sent a courier 
 armed with legal authority to take Stéphanie de 
 Beauharnais, and the sisters were forced to obey, 
 though not without tears and grave misgivings. 
 Upon her arrival in Paris the child was placed with 
 Mme. Campan, and thenceforth she was one of the 
 little group of young girls who came to Malmaison 
 each décadi (the republican day of rest), and whose 
 white-robed forms and cheery laughter enlivened 
 the park as they flitted about under the shade of 
 the great chestnut trees. Both Josephine and Hor- 
 tense were extremely kind to Stéphanie, but she did 
 not appear on gala days, had no rank, was of no 
 importance, and seemed destined to such a marriage 
 as had been arranged for her cousin Emilie de Beau- 
 harnais, Mme. Lavallette ; the little lady, however, 
 did not take that view of the situation, but assumed 
 the airs of a princess and treated those of her relations 
 who were not honored with a lodging in the imperial 
 palace very haughtily. 
 
 Such was the situation when Eugène married and 
 it became necessary to provide a wife for the Prince 
 of Baden ; Napoleon first thought of another ward 
 of Josephine's, her niece, Stéphanie Tascher, but 
 afterwards decided upon Stéphanie de Beauharnais, 
 and the arrangements for the marriage were defi- 
 
160 XAPOLEOX, LOVER A^D H^SBA^^D. 
 
 nitely concluded by him while on his way to Carls- 
 ruhe, on the 20th of January, 1S06, and were con- 
 firmed by an agreement signed at Paris on the 17th 
 of February. 
 
 Stéphanie was at that time seventeen years of 
 age. was clever, bright and gay, with a certain child- 
 ishness of manner which was very taking ; she had 
 rather a pretty face, a fine complexion, sparkling 
 blue eyes and beautiful blonde hair. Upon the Em- 
 peror's return to Paris she was taken from her 
 boarding-school to the Tuileries and installed in an 
 apartment near that of the Empress and became at 
 once the life of the palace ; gay, piquant and agree- 
 able, she enlivened tlie dreary salons, and not being 
 in the least embarrassed by the Emperor she indulged 
 her mischievousness as freely in his presence as else- 
 where, which greatly pleased and amused him ; she 
 was not long in perceiving this and increased her 
 efforts to divert him, and they were soon engaged in 
 a lively flirtation. Possibly Xapoleon hoped for 
 something more, but Mile, de Beauharnais was not so 
 incUned ; she only wished for distraction and to make 
 the most of Napoleon's friendship and admiration 
 without compromising herself ; she was well aware 
 that it was not because she was Mile, de Beauharnais 
 that she was to espouse the Prince of Baden, but 
 because she was a Xapoleonite, that the manner of 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 161 
 
 her reception by the prince's family depended en- 
 tirely upon the Emperor, and that it was therefore 
 prudent to find out how much he would do for her. 
 
 Stephanie's struggle was not with the Empress, 
 but with the sisters of Napoleon, who had no inten- 
 tion of yielding her precedence, and who, Caroline 
 Murat particularly, snubbed her mercilessly, but 
 little Stéphanie made light of their rudeness and 
 laughed gayly at everything until Caroline, exas- 
 perated, became insolent. One evening, while they 
 were waiting for the Emperor, Stéphanie seated 
 herself on a folding chair, upon which the Princess 
 Caroline ordered her to rise, saying, that it was not 
 customary for young persons to remain seated in 
 the presence of the Emperor's sisters ; Stéphanie 
 rose immediately, but she no longer laughed, on the 
 contrary, she wept bitterly ; the Emperor, entering 
 at that moment, perceived her tears, and inquired 
 their source. ^' Is that all ! " he exclaimed when 
 Stéphanie told her grievance, '^well, come and sit 
 on my knee, and you won't incommode anybody ! '•' 
 
 This anecdote is lent an appearance of authen- 
 ticity by a note which is found upon the register of 
 the master of ceremonies : " Our will is, that the 
 Princess Stephanie-Napoleon, our daughter, shall in 
 all circles enjoy all the privileges due her rank, and 
 
 that at fêtes and at table she shall be seated at our 
 11 
 
162 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 side, and in case we are not present that she shall 
 be placed at the Empress' right hand." This gave 
 Stéphanie precedence over the Emperor's sisters, 
 sisters-in-law, Hortense, and even over the Princess 
 Augusta of Bavaria. 
 
 On the following day a message announced to 
 the senate the adoption of Stephanie de Beauharnais 
 and her approaching marriage with the Prince of 
 Baden, and ordered the State to send a deputation 
 to pay her respects, in which ceremony M. Claude 
 de Beauharnais, the princess's own father, figured 
 conspicuously. 
 
 M. de Beauharnais, on his return from exile, had 
 entered the senate, and was then a member of some 
 years' standing, with a salary of twenty-five thousand 
 francs a year, and he was about to enjoy the bene- 
 fits accruing from the parentage of a charming 
 daughter. Napoleon appointed him to the senator- 
 ship of Amiens, which brought him an income of 
 twenty-five thousand francs ; in 1807 endowed him 
 with twenty-five thousand eight hundred and eighty- 
 two francs, and in 1810 made him chevalier d' 
 honneur to Marie-Louise, a position which com- 
 manded a salary of thirty thousand francs, and on 
 the 22d of September, 1807, made him a personal 
 present of two hundred thousand francs ; but all 
 this was a mere bagatelle in comparison with what 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 163 
 
 the Emperor did for Stéphanie. He took a personal 
 interest in her trousseau, ordering for her a tulle 
 dress covered with an embroidery of gold thread 
 and interwoven with precious stones, the cost of 
 which was twenty- four thousand francs ; from Le- 
 normand he commanded twelve dresses, at prices 
 ranging from nineteen hundred to twelve hundred 
 francs ; from Leroy he commanded forty-five 
 thousand, one hundred and seventy-eight francs and 
 ninety-six centimes' worth of millinery and trinkets, 
 and from Roux-Montagnat, two thousand, five 
 hundred and seventy-four francs' worth of artificial 
 flowers ; in addition to all this he gave her a dot of 
 fifteen hundred thousand francs, a superb parure 
 of diamonds, and presented her with a thousand 
 louis from his private purse. 
 
 Both the civil and religious marriages were 
 celebrated with the utmost pomp and magnificence ; 
 Napoleon could not have done more for his own 
 child, and the festivities were not confined to the 
 palace, but overflowed into the city, which was il- 
 luminated by flreworks set off on the Place de la 
 Concorde. When the last spark had died, the last 
 note of the band had sounded, and the guests had 
 departed, the Emperor and Empress, according to 
 usage, conducted the bride and groom to the bridal 
 chamber, but it was found impossible to induce 
 
164 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 
 
 Stéphanie to occupy it ; she wej)t and sobhed, and 
 insisted that her school-fellow, Mile. Nelly Bour- 
 jolly, should sleep with her. The court went to 
 Malmaison on the following dav, but Stéphanie, in 
 spite of all the arguments brought to bear upon her, 
 still remained obdurate. Some one told the prince 
 that his wife's repugnance arose from the manner 
 in which he dressed his hair, as she detested a cue, 
 thereupon he had his hair cut short ; but as soon as 
 Stéphanie perceived him she burst out laughing and 
 declared that he was uglier than before. Xight 
 after night the prince went to her door, supplicat- 
 ing and praying for admittance, and at last ex- 
 hausted threw himself upon a couch in the ante- 
 chamber and fell asleep : in the morning he went 
 and complained to the Empress, while Xapoleon 
 smilingly watched the couple who naturally were 
 the talk of the château. 
 
 That this state of affairs gave the Emperor a 
 certain amount of satisfaction, that he bore 
 Stéphanie no ill-will was proved by the superb fête 
 which he gave at the Tuileries in honor of her 
 marriage : the first great ball to which not only 
 the court but the gentry of the city were bidden. 
 Nothing equalling the two quadrilles — one in the 
 gallery of Diana conducted by the Princess 
 Louise, the other in the SciUe des Maréchaux^ con- 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 165 
 
 ducted by the Princess Caroline — had ever been 
 seen, while the lavishness of the refreshments set 
 all the world talking : there were sixty entrees, 
 sixty roasts and two hundred desserts ; one thousand 
 bottles of Beaune, one hundred of Champagne, one 
 hundred of Bordeaux and one hundred of sweet 
 wines were consumed ; but the festivities did not 
 soften Stephanie's heart. 
 
 Political reasons intervening, Napoleon saw him- 
 self obliged to interfere. Mile, de Beauharnais' co- 
 queteries had amused him and supplied a pretext 
 for teasing his wife, but he had permitted himself 
 rather too much latitude in according to the young 
 girl a rank disproportionate to her birth and fortune 
 and in celebrating her marriage in princely style ; 
 he now saw that the patience of the ruler of Baden 
 was nearly exhausted, and, as a war with Prussia 
 was imminent, felt it expedient to conciliate all the 
 German princes who might become auxiliaries, or at 
 lea^t give valuable information. 
 
 Having respected Stéphanie previous to her mar- 
 riage, he did not afterwards meditate making her 
 his mistress, and the flirtation which was suitable 
 neither to his dignity, his age nor his temperament, 
 grew wearisome, and it was becoming embarrassing 
 to have her longer at Paris, while she might be of 
 service at Carlsruhe, if only in counterbalancing 
 
166 NAPOLEON, LOVEE, AXD HUSEAIH). 
 
 the hostile infiiieuce of Markgraf Louis and the 
 ht tie G-erman court. 
 
 Napoleon hardly took time to investigate the little 
 stories contained in certain intercepted letters, which 
 proved only too plainly what an hihospitable recep- 
 tion awaited his adojDted daughter, but hastened 
 her departure. Stéphanie left France despairing ; 
 she took with her three of her school-friends : Miles, 
 de Mackau, BourjoU}" and Gruau, and as soon as 
 she arrived in her father-in-law's principality, she 
 wrote to the Emperor : ^' Sire, each day when I am 
 at liberty I think of you and the Empress, of all 
 who are dearest to me ; in imagination, I am in 
 France and near you, and I find a certain pleasure in 
 my sadness." Napoleon responded rather severely, 
 without making use of any paternal or tender ex- 
 pressions. " Carlsruhe," he wrote, " is a charming 
 place of residence. Make yourself agreeable to the 
 Elector, who is now your father, and love your hus- 
 band, who merits your affection by the tenderness 
 he lavishes upon you. " When she had answered in 
 a manner which pleased him, saying that she was 
 contented at Carlsruhe, Napoleon wrote more 
 kindly, calling her daughter, but recommending the 
 same line of conduct ; and he did not become thor- 
 oughly amiable until the hereditary grand duke 
 asked him to make the campaign with him, and in 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. " 167 
 
 the same letter announced that Stéphanie was about 
 to become a mother ; then he wrote, saying : '^I 
 only hear good news of you and hope you will con- 
 tinue to be kind and gentle to all who surround 
 you ; " he then authorized her to rejoin the Empress 
 and Hortense at Mayence, and to remain with them 
 while her husband was with the army, and there- 
 after, to all his letters to Josephine he added a 
 kindly message for Stéphanie. In 1 807, Stéphanie 
 and her husband were invited to Paris on the oc- 
 casion of the marriage of Jérôme Bonaparte with 
 Catherine of Wurtemberg, and she hastened to 
 accept ; but if she retained any illusion concerning 
 the Emperor's affection and the exceptional rank 
 which only a year previous he had bestowed upon 
 her, she must have been cruelly disappointed, for 
 the place assigned her was the very last among the 
 princesses, and it was only by courtesy that she took 
 a place in the Imperial family ; by favor that she 
 was given a folding-chair when the family were 
 seated. She had become a princess of the German 
 confederation, and had there been any of the reign- 
 ing German princesses present, they would have 
 taken precedence over her. At first Stéphanie did 
 not seem to perceive her downfall, and took pleas- 
 ure in flirting with Jérôme, the new King of West- 
 phalia, but her aunt remarking upon her conduct, 
 
168 XAPOLEOX, LOVER AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 the situation became clear, and realizing that she 
 could only hold her position through her husband, 
 she managed to inspire him with so much affection 
 that he became unsupportably jealous. 
 
 Did the prince stand by Stéphanie in 1814, when, 
 after the Emperor's downfall, he was urged to re- 
 pudiate her and turn out of the palace of Zaehrin- 
 gen this unwelcome witness to broken oaths, whose 
 presence constantly recalled favors whose authors 
 the reigning house of Baden desired to forget ? 
 Was it because of his fidelity that at the age of 
 thirty-two, this man, previously in the most vigor- 
 ous health, fell suddenly ill, and after dragging for 
 a year died of a strange malady in ISIS ? Stéphanie, 
 although the mother of numerous children, was un- 
 able to preserve one son ; when she lost the second, 
 or believed him dead, she wrote broken-heartedly to 
 the Emperor : '^ I was so happy to tell your Majesty 
 that I had a son and to beseech your protection for 
 him. A son made me forget my griefs and was 
 necessary to my position which is often a difficult 
 one — now I have lost my only hope ! " She grieved 
 unceasingly over the fatality which followed her sons 
 and took from her race, stricken because of her 
 with political sterility, the heredity of the throne of 
 Baden. 
 
 Ten years after the death of the grand duke, be- 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 169 
 
 tween four and five o'clock on the morning of the 
 26th of May, 1S2S, a bourgeois met a young man of 
 seventeen, who muttered only one or two phrases 
 in low German in the Tallow Market of Nuremberg ; 
 the youth had never walked, his eyes had never 
 seen the sun's light, his stomach was unable to sup- 
 port animal food, but he would never have been 
 thus deformed had he not since babyhood been 
 sequestered in solitude and obscurity. Stéphanie 
 was the first to ponder, calculate, and be convinced 
 that the mysterious and unknown youth at Nuren- 
 berg, who was called Kaspar Hauser, was her own 
 son — her child, in whose place a dead baby had 
 been substituted, and who, a victim to the hatred 
 of Markgraf Louis, and the ambition of Countess 
 Hochberg, had for nearly sixteen years expiated in 
 darkness and solitude the sin of having a Napoleon- 
 ite for his mother. Poor Stéphanie was unable to 
 do anything, for her enemies were triumphant and 
 powerful ; one reigned upon the throne of Baden, 
 and she could tremble for Kaspar Hauser, and weep 
 over his sad fate, when, after escaping three ambus- 
 cades, he was finally assassinated. 
 
 Was hers one of those illusions with which a 
 mother loves to comfort her heart, or one of those 
 revelations, which, better than all the investigations 
 of justice, sometimes throw light upon a great 
 
170 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 crime ? However this may be, Stéphanie firmly 
 beUeved to her last hour (she died on the 29th of 
 January, 1860), that Kaspar Hauser was her lost 
 son, and to the few friends whom she received in 
 the tumble-down palace of Mannheim, she asserted 
 that her son did not die in 1812, but that he had 
 been stolen from her, designating the authors and 
 accomplices in the crime. Some Grerman authors 
 have attempted to demonstrate that the poor 
 mother deceived herself ; for the credit of the reign- 
 ing house of Baden, it is to be hoped she did. 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 171 
 
 CHAPTEE XIII. 
 
 ELEONORE. 
 
 Towards the close of the revolution, Mme. Cam- 
 pan, once a confidential member of Marie Antoi- 
 nette's household, established a school for young- 
 ladies at Saint-Germain-en-Laye ; Josephine became 
 the patroness of the institution, and there her 
 daughter and nieces were educated. This group of 
 young girls, so closely allied to the imperial family, 
 drew around them the daughters of those who had, 
 or sought for, some appointment under the Con- 
 sulate, and Mme. Campan's nieces making excel- 
 lent marriages, thanks to their intimacy with Hor- 
 tense, the school was still further augmented by 
 the daughters of intriguing parents who hoped 
 their children might also profit by the acquaintance 
 of their royal school-fellows. 
 
 Mme. Campan was supposedly an influential per- 
 son, having obtained positions for numerous people, 
 pardons for exiles and the restitution of confiscated 
 property ; her school was the fashionable one of the 
 
172 NAPOLEON, LOVER AXD HtJSBAND. 
 
 clay, and on the list of pupils can be seen, side by 
 side with names of people who had recently at- 
 tained eminence, the old historical ones of Noailles, 
 Talon, Lally-ToUendal, and Eochemond. 
 
 After the Consulate, the reputation of the school 
 diminished somewhat, and among the scholars there 
 was a young girl of whose origin Mme. Campan 
 was somewhat in ignorance, and who could prob- 
 ably never have been a pupil had the principal 
 then been as strict regarding the parentage of those 
 whom she admitted as she was in the days of the 
 school's great popularity. This young lady was 
 Mile. Louise-Catherine-Eléonore Dénuelle de La 
 Plaigne. The father claimed to be a man of wealth, 
 but his business ventures were not always success- 
 ful ; the mother, who was still very pretty, was 
 rather gay, and the family lived in a sumptuous 
 apartment on the Boulevard des Italiens, received a 
 great deal of rather mixed company, and managed 
 as best they could from day to day, awaiting the 
 time when their daughter should make a rich mar- 
 riage. 
 
 Time passed, Mme. Dénuelle aged, the father ran 
 into debt, the quarterly tuition was hard to pay, 
 and, moreover, since the departure of the Beauhar- 
 nais from Mme. Campan's, the chances of meeting 
 a desirable partie in that establishment, had greatly 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 173 
 
 diminished ; so, as Mme. Dénuelle had not access to 
 salons where her daughter might have made such 
 acquaintances, she determined to show her at the 
 theatres. One evening at the Gaîté, a good-looking 
 officer entered the box where Mme Dénuelle and 
 her daughter occupied seats, and took the vacant 
 place ; the ladies were not haughty, the officer was 
 gallant, and an acquaintance grew apace. 
 
 Mme. Dénuelle invited the young man to visit 
 them and he did not fail to do so ; he soon became 
 so enamored of Eléonore as to ask her hand in mar- 
 riage, and the wedding took place on the fifteenth 
 of January, 1805, at Saint-Grermain. 
 
 This officer, Jean-Honoré-François Revel, who 
 claimed to be a captain of the 15th regiment of 
 dragoons and the aide-de-camp of General d' Avrange 
 d'Haugeranville, was a knave. He had resigned 
 from the regiment of which he was once quarter- 
 master, and claimed that he expected to get a con- 
 tract for supplying the army with provisions; in the 
 meanwhile he lived on credit. He appears to have 
 counted more upon the beauty of his young wife to 
 extricate him from his embarrassment than upon 
 any efforts of his own, and two months after the 
 wedding he was arrested and imprisoned for at- 
 tempting to pass a forged check. 
 
 Eléonore then bethought herself that the Princess 
 
174 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 Caroline Murât had been her school- fellow, and, 
 warmly recommended by Mme. Campan, solicited 
 her highness' protection. The princess first placed 
 her in a sort of asylum at Chantilly, where unfor- 
 tunate women like herself were received ; later, in 
 despite of Mme. Campan's advice, she yielded to 
 Eléonore's solicitations and installed her in her own 
 household. 
 
 Mme. Revel was an extremely handsome brunette, 
 tall and graceful, with large, dark eyes and a lively, 
 coquettish manner ; she had not been educated to 
 entertain scruples, and she certainly had not ac- 
 quired any in the two months she spent with Bevel. 
 At first her duty was to announce the princess' 
 guests, later she was promoted to the dignity of 
 reader, and when, after the Emperor's return from 
 Austerlitz towards the end of January, 1806, he 
 came to visit his sister, Mme. Eléonore deftly 
 managed to make herself noticeable and as soon as 
 propositions were made to her accepted with en- 
 thusiasm, and allowed herself to be conducted to 
 the Tuileries ; from thenceforth she went there 
 habitually, spending two or three hours in the 
 Emperor's society. 
 
 Revel had been condemned by the criminal court 
 to two years' imprisonment, and on the 13th of 
 April his wife asked for a divorce, which was 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 175 
 
 granted on the 29th of April, 1806 ; it was high 
 time, for on the 13th of December, 1806, at No. 29 
 rue de la Victoire, she was delivered of a male child 
 who was registered as ^^Léon, son of Mile. Dénuelle, 
 property-holder, aged twenty, and of an absent 
 father." 
 
 There was no doubt as to the child's parentage ; 
 Eléonore who in her prayer for divorce had stated 
 that she was ^' attached to the person of Mme. la 
 Princess Caroline," had, from the time she returned 
 from Chantilly, lived in a small house in the rue de 
 Provence, which she never left save for her visits 
 to the Tuileries — visits of which Caroline knew the 
 secret — moreover, the child's resemblance to Napo- 
 leon was so striking as to confute doubt. Thus the 
 event which Josephine so dreaded came to pass ; 
 the charm was broken, for henceforth the Emperor 
 entertained no doubts regarding his ability to pro- 
 vide an heir to the throne. 
 
 The Emperor was at Pulstuck, when, on the 31st 
 of December, the news of Eléonore's accouchement 
 reached him, and doubtless the birth of this illegiti- 
 mate son was strongly instrumental in the forma- 
 tion of plans which two years later he carried into 
 execution. 
 
 The child Léon was at first confided to the care of 
 Mme. Loir, foster-mother of Achille Murat ; later, 
 
176 XAPOLEOX, LOVER AND HUSBA^^3. 
 
 in ISI'2, M. Mathieu de Mauvières, mayor of the 
 commune of Saint-Forget, baron of the Empire and 
 father-in-law of Méneval, the Emperor's private 
 secretary, was appointed guardian to the boy, and 
 an independent fortune was settled upon him by his 
 imperial father. ^Xot content with this, in January, 
 1S14, when about to leave Paris to join the army, 
 Napoleon authorized the Duke de Bassano to add 
 twelve thousand pounds income, and to this, on the 
 21st of June, 1S15, was added canal stock valued at 
 one hundred thousand francs, and finally, actuated 
 by conscience, the Emperor added a codicil to his 
 will in which he bequeathed to Léon three hundred 
 and twenty thousand francs for the purchase of a 
 country seat, and as long as he hved interested 
 himself in his son's welfare. The thirty-seventh 
 paragraph of his testamentary instructions to his 
 executors. jDroves that the lad was never forgotten : 
 ''If his taste runs in that direction," wrote Napo- 
 leon, '* I should be pleased to have little Léon enter 
 the magistracy.'' 
 
 To avoid a rupture with Josephine, to whom he 
 was still sincerely attached, and at the same time 
 to comply with the law of heredity in a manner 
 which seemed to him both satisfactory and natural. 
 Napoleon conceived the idea of adopting his natural 
 son, spoke of it to the Empress, sounded many of 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 177 
 
 his confidants on the subject, and invoked precedents 
 to justify his inchnation. That he did not carry 
 these plans into execution is probably due to the 
 fact that he realized that the days of Louis XIV. 
 were past, and that the country would not permit 
 him to follow the example given by that monarch, 
 who had designated the Duke de Maine and the 
 Comte de Toulouse as his heirs to the throne. 
 
 Napoleon became very much attached to this 
 child, and frequently had him brought either to the 
 Elysée or to his sister Caroline's, sometimes re- 
 ceived him even at the Tuileries while dressing or 
 at breakfast ; he played with him, gave him dainties 
 to eat and was amused by Leon's childish chatter. 
 As time passed Napoleon was necessarily unable to 
 bestow the same personal attention upon Léon, but 
 in 1815 he recommended the boy to the care of his 
 mother and Cardinal Fesch. Mme. Bonaparte was 
 already interested in the boy and seemed disposed 
 to do a great deal for him, but unfortunately Leon's 
 was not a character to inspire warm affection. 
 
 In 1832 — he was then twenty-five — Dénuelle was 
 already nearly ruined, owing to his passion for 
 gambling, and applied for assistance to Cardinal 
 Fesch, swearing that he would never again lose 
 forty-five thousand francs at a sitting. It was a 
 gambler's oath, for a year later he was as badly off 
 
178 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 as ever, attempting to brazen ont his affairs, mixing 
 with visionary politicians and engaging right and 
 left in duels, for he was brave and somewhat of a 
 bully. In 1834, by trading on the name of the 
 grand man to whom he owed his existence, he was 
 elected chief of the communal battalion of the 
 national guards of Saint-Denis ; he was soon sus- 
 pended for disobedience to orders, but afterwards 
 reinstated, and attempted to justify himself by the 
 publication of a number of pamphlets, which are, 
 however, so hazy that they could hardly have served 
 to clear his character before the public. In 1840 he 
 was one of the official cortege on the return from 
 Cendres, and, being absolutely ruined, began a series 
 of lawsuits against his mother with the intention 
 of wringing money from her, she having preserved 
 her fortune intact. 
 
 The Emperor had never renewed his relations 
 with Leon's mother, had, indeed, refused to receive 
 her when, in 1807, she presented herself at Fontaine- 
 bleau, but he acquitted his debt to her by giving her 
 a house in the rue de la Victoire, and a dot of twenty- 
 two thousand pounds, which was not transferable. 
 She married, in 1808, a lieutenant of infantry, M. 
 Pierre-Philippe Augier, who took her to Spain with 
 him, and who died in captivity after the Russian 
 campaign. Eléonore was not inconsolable, for at 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HTJSBAND. 179 
 
 Seckenheim^ on the 25th of May, 1814, she was mar- 
 ried for the third time to M. Charles-Auguste-Emile, 
 Count de Luxbourg, and a major in the service of 
 the king of Bavaria. Returning to Paris with her 
 third husband she was obHged to combat the first, 
 for Eevel, profiting by the fall of Napoleon, posed 
 as a victim and essayed to blackmail his ex-wife ; 
 Mme. de Luxbourg resisted, and Revel, to avenge 
 himself and to make a few pennies, published in- 
 numerable pamphlets whose titles were startling, 
 and admirably combined to attract attention and 
 create a scandal, but he was defeated in everything 
 he attempted against his former wife. Léon was 
 somewhat more fortunate in his suits against his 
 mother, for, although he lost a suit wherein he 
 charged her with swindling and attempted to force 
 her to render an account of her income, he succeeded 
 in having himself acknowledged as her natural son, 
 and on the second of July, 1816, he obtained a lump 
 sum of four thousand francs instead of the yearly 
 allowance which he had sued for. In 1818 he seems 
 to have been somewhat better off financially, for he 
 meditated persenting himself as a candidate for the 
 presidency of the Republic in competition with the 
 Prince Louis Napoleon, with whom, eight years 
 previous, in March, 1810, he had been ambitious to 
 fight a duel. Leon's conduct in this respect was so 
 
180 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 singular that it can only be explained by the sup- 
 position that he was mentally deranged. In 1848 
 he put forth his claims in a manifesto beginning : 
 ^^ Citizen Léon, ex-count Léon, son of the Emperor 
 Napoleon, director of the Pacific Society, to the 
 French people." 
 
 The empire re-installed, Dénuelle obtained from 
 Napoleon III. a pension of six thousand francs, and 
 the payment of Napoleon's first legacy to him of two 
 hundred and twenty-five thousand, three hundred 
 and nineteen francs, but that did not content him, 
 and in 1853 he reclaimed five hundred and seventy- 
 two thousand, six hundred and seventy francs in 
 virtue of some visionary decree, and in 1857 sued the 
 minister of Public Works for the sum of five hundred 
 thousand francs, which he claimed was due him for 
 draughts made by him for the chemin de fer du 
 Nord. Not a year passed that he did not bring for- 
 ward some claim or petition, and the civil list paid 
 his debts five or six times ; but he was irrepressible 
 and his brain was in a state of perpetual evolution 
 up to the time of his death, which occurred at Pon- 
 toise on the 15th of April, 1881. 
 
 ( 
 
HCDRTIEMglEc 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 181 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 HORTE NSE . 
 
 The year 1807 was a decisive one in the life of 
 Napoleon ; the month of January being marked by 
 the birth of Léon, which gave to him the certitude 
 that he could have a direct heir, and May by the 
 death of Napoleon-Charles, eldest son of Louis and 
 Hortense. With him died Napoleon's dream of 
 creating an heredity by adoption, and the child's 
 death was also a sad blow to his affections. Napo- 
 leon-Charles had been doubly dear to the Emperor, 
 being the son of the girl, who, from the moment he 
 met her, had taken such a hold upon his heart that 
 he had accorded to her tears the pardon refused her 
 mother, and to whom he had been both father and 
 guardian. Napoleon-Charles was the child also of 
 his best-loved brother, ^Hhe little brother" who 
 had been to him almost as a son, whom he had 
 lodged, fed and educated when he had but a lieu- 
 tenant's scanty pay ; whom he had made his aide-de- 
 camp and the witness of his victories, whom he had 
 
182 îs^APOLEOX, LOVER AXD HITSBAXD. 
 
 ennobled as he himself rose in rank, until he stood 
 close to the throne. In his nephew Napoleon saw 
 all the characteristics of the Bonapartes, nndis- 
 fignred by Louis' blobber-lip and ugly nose, and un- 
 beautified by the slender grace of his mother's 
 family, but a Bonaparte through and through, 
 idealized only by an aureole of golden hair. To this 
 child, the first male of his generation, Napoleon had 
 given his father's name, and he had shown such a 
 lively affection for the boy that gossips had begun 
 by insinuating, and had finally asserted, that he was 
 the child's real father, that his step-daughter had 
 been his mistress before becoming Louis' wife. 
 
 Hortense's marriage-contract was signed on the 
 3d of January, 1S02, the marriage celebrated on 
 the -ith, and her son was born on the 10th of October, 
 1S02, therefore she was certainly not enceinte when 
 she married, since there were two hundred and 
 eighty days between the time she was wed and the 
 birth of her child. 
 
 Louis Bonaparte was the most jealous and sus- 
 picious of husbands; he tyrannized over his wife 
 from the hour of their marriage ; he never left her, 
 had her constantly under surveillance, and forbade 
 her to pass even one night at Saint-Cloud. Suffer- 
 ing from an illness due to youthful indiscretions, he 
 at first essa^^ed to effect a cure by taking tripe baths, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 183 
 
 the stench of which infected the old orangery which 
 stood at the end of the Terrasse des Feuillant ; later, 
 to draw out the humor, he slept in the night-gown 
 and sheets which had previously served a hospital 
 patient afflicted with the itch, and he obliged his 
 wife to sleep on a little bed in the same room with 
 him. Ever}^ maid who showed the slightest affec- 
 tion for Hortense was pitilessly discharged ; his 
 mother-in-law was a target for the gravest accusa- 
 tions, yet Louis had never the slightest doubt of his 
 wife's virtue. In his '^ Documents Historiques sur 
 la Hollande,^^ he affirms that he was the father of the 
 three children whom his wife and he ^^ loved with 
 equal tenderness ; " this affirmation he repeated both 
 in prose and in verse, for he thought himself a poet ; 
 and when, on the Emperor's proposal to adopt 
 Napoleon-Charles, Louis alluded to the current 
 reports regarding the boy's paternity, it was not be- 
 cause he attached the slightest importance to them, 
 but because they served as a pretext for not yielding 
 to his brother's wishes. Louis-Napoleon had an un- 
 fortunately melancholy and peculiar disposition, but 
 he loved his son as much as he could love any one, 
 and the child's death was a severe trial ; after this 
 loss he was for a time reconciled to Hortense, with 
 whom he previously lived so unhappily that his 
 imperial brother had more than once seen fit to 
 
184 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE AXD HTSBAXD. 
 
 remonstrate with him, and he wrote kind and affec- 
 tionate letters to Josephine, whom ordinarily he 
 detested. Shortly after the death of her son, Hor- 
 tense, who was in poor health, went to Cauterets 
 accompanied by her husband, and it was there, 
 under circumstances the details of which are well- 
 known, that she became enceinte with her third son, 
 Charles-Louis-Napoleon, afterwards known as Na- 
 poleon III. ; thus Louis Bonaparte never believed 
 for an instant that Hortense had been his brother's 
 mistress, and not only did he bear witness to his 
 faith in her virtue, but his conduct was an afl&rma- 
 tion of his convictions ; as for Hortense, until 1809, 
 she remained ignorant that such gossip was afloat. 
 
 Josephine's marriage with General Bonaparte had 
 wounded her daughter to the quick, for she felt it 
 to be almost a crime for her mother to wed one who 
 was a soldier under the Eepublic, a man whose 
 political principles were similar to those entertained 
 by the men who had caused her father's execution. 
 Previous to her mother's marriage, Hortense lived 
 at Saint-Germain-en-Laye, near her grandfather, 
 the Marquis de Beauharnais and her aunt, Mme. 
 Eénaudin, whom he had recently married. At 
 the beginning of the Consulate she was entered 
 at Mme. Campan's, and she did not go to live at the 
 Tuileries until about the time when the Consul left 
 
KAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 18C 
 
 France for Marengo ; thus it was not until Bona- 
 parte returned from Italy that Hortense saw him 
 continually and familiarly. 
 
 Napoleon always entertained a tender and pa- 
 ternal affection for his wife's daughter, which she 
 returned only with timid respect ; she trembled when 
 addressing him, dared ask nothing of him, and 
 when obliged to make a request employed inter- 
 mediaries. ^' The little goose," Napoleon frequently 
 said, ^^ why don't she speak to me ; why is the child 
 so afraid of me ? " He did not interfere when 
 Josephine arranged the marriage between her 
 daughter and Louis BonajDarte, because he hoped 
 that this marriage might unite his own family and 
 that of his wife, and foresaw that it might be 
 politically judicious, and he also felt a delicacy in 
 interfering with any of Josephine's plans for her 
 children ; but whenever he thought it necessary he 
 did not hesitate to counsel Louis as to his conduct 
 towards Hortense, and with the most admirable 
 tact and delicacy strove to calm his jealous fears 
 and point out to him wherein his conduct was faulty. 
 He pitied his step-daughter, venerated her, and 
 guarded his speech in her presence ; on more than 
 one occasion he said: ^'Hortense obliges me to 
 believe in virtue." 
 
 Napoleon was not ignorant of the rumors which 
 
186 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBA'ND. 
 
 were afloat regarding his relations with his step- 
 daughter, rumors which some of those who were 
 very near to him were assiduous in spreading and 
 which were amplified by the English papers. In 
 order to put a stop to the calumnies he bethought 
 himself of a plan which does greater credit to his 
 knightly intentions than to his discrimination ; he 
 commanded a ball to be given at Malmaison, and 
 that Hortense, although then in her seventh month, 
 should assist at it ; he invited her to dance, but 
 Hortense declined, alleging that she was weary, 
 although in reality her refusal arose from her 
 knowledge of her stepfather's dislike of seeing 
 women who were enceinte upon the floor of a ball- 
 room, above all, when, as was the fashion of the 
 time, they were clothed in such clinging garments 
 that the outlines of the figure were plainly discern- 
 ible. The Emperor, however, insisted, asking simply 
 for a contredance, and, after persisting for some time 
 in her refusal, she finally yielded. The following 
 morning a newspaper published some gallant verses 
 upon the subject, and Hortense, furious, complained 
 to the Emperor, but received no satisfaction ; the 
 truth being that the ball had been given solely to 
 furnish occasion for the verses, and so force the 
 public to acknowledge that she was not so far ad- 
 vanced in pregnancy as was currently reported ; 
 
187 
 
 it was with this view also that the Moniteur, which 
 up to that time had never spoken of the Consul's 
 family, inserted in its edition of October 12th, 
 1802, the following announcement : ^^On the 10th 
 inst., at 9 o'clock in the evening, a son was born to 
 Monsieur and Madame Louis Bonaparte." 
 
 Napoleon did all in his power to crush the cal- 
 umny, but his efforts proved unavailing ; so he grad- 
 ually accustomed himself to look upon the report 
 from a political standpoint and cogitated how he 
 might turn it to account. He felt an almost pa- 
 ternal affection for Napoleon-Charles, and some of 
 the happiest hours of his life were spent in play 
 with him ; it delighted him to hear the child cry : 
 '^ Long live Nanon the soldier ! " when he saw a 
 grenadier pass, and he frequently had the little 
 fellow sit by his side while he dined, being highly 
 amused by the child's desire to touch everything 
 and by the agility with which he seized and upset 
 everything within reach of his baby hands. The 
 Emperor frequently took Napoleon- Charles to the 
 garden to feed tobacco to the gazelles, and, seating 
 him astride one of them, would roar with laughter 
 at the baby's antics ; he often sent for the child 
 when in his dressing-room, and, after caressing him 
 and making the most extraordinary grimaces for 
 his amusement, would end by sitting down upon 
 
188 KAPOLEOX, LOVEE A.SD HrSBAXD. 
 
 the floor, the better to play with him. Xapoleon 
 loved the little nephew, whom the people claimed 
 was his own son, as though he were verily bone of 
 his bone and flesh of his flesh, and therefore the 
 idea of adopting him as his heir was not repugnant, 
 even if by so doing the people were convinced of the 
 truth of their suppositions. In this lad he believed 
 they would find impersonated the characteristics of 
 his race and his own genius, and that they could 
 not claim that the line which he had founded was 
 built upon a fiction. It must be admitted that this 
 plan was contrary to all established ideas, but Napo- 
 leon had no prejudices and believed that his excep- 
 tional destiny placed him above humanity at large, 
 that the nation would not judge him according to 
 accepted moral formulas, and that the people's de- 
 sire to assure the stability of his government would 
 cause them to overlook the unconventionality of the 
 proceeding, the more easily as they could not confirm 
 the existing suspicion. 
 
 It must not be supposed that it is upon simple 
 supposition only that we accredit the Emperor with 
 these ideas and projects ; we base our statements 
 upon a conversation which he had with Hortense, 
 two years after the death of her son, and which is 
 related at length in her unpublished mémoires. He 
 then spoke freely to his step-daughter regarding the 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 189 
 
 consequences attendant upon the death of Napoleon- 
 Charles, who, as he said, was thought to be his 
 son as well as hers. ^' You know," Napoleon said, 
 ^' how absurd such a supposition is, but you could 
 not convince all Europe that the child was not 
 mine," he stopped a moment, arrested by a move- 
 ment of surprise from Hortense, then continued : 
 ^' Your reputation does not suffer on this account, 
 as you are generally esteemed ; nevertheless, the 
 idea receives credence everywhere ; it was perhaps 
 best that it was so, and for that reason I regard his 
 death as a great misfortune." '^ I was so surprised," 
 wrote Hortense, 'Hhat I was unable to utter a 
 word, I no longer heard what he said. That reflec- 
 tion, ' it ivas perhaps best that it tuas believed, ' tore 
 a veil from before my eyes and pierced me to the 
 heart ; was it possible that he who had been so kind 
 and generous, in whom I seemed to find my own 
 lost father, had been actuated throughout by po- 
 litical motives and not by affection ! " 
 
 Hortense was mistaken, for if Napoleon had been 
 actuated by policy he also was moved by affection, 
 but her indignation was quite natural, considering 
 that she looked upon the situation from a woman's 
 point of view, and was unable to conceive of the 
 profound subtlety of Napoleon's reasoning. If he 
 had showered kindnesses and attentions upon Hor- 
 
190 XAPOLEOX. LOVEE AXD HUSBAXB. 
 
 tense it had not been in order to confirm the story 
 that Napoleon- Charles was his son, on the contrary 
 he had made every effort to refute it ; bnt the gossip 
 persisting and a conviction of its truth being firmly 
 established in the public mind he had sought to 
 utilize it for his own interests and the consolidation 
 of his dynasty ; it was a battlefield inspiration 
 which he had had, for one of his most remarkable 
 faculties was the ability to look situations clearly in 
 the face, to discern at a glance precisely where he 
 stood, make the best of affairs, and act promptly 
 upon his intuitions. 
 
 It was owing to his belief in a jDhilosophical ac- 
 ceptance of all situations, that, while he felt 
 keenly the loss of Xapoleon-Charles. he accepted 
 the inevitable with calmness. The remark, "'I 
 have not time to indulge in sentimental regrets 
 hke other men," has been accredited him ; it might 
 better be admitted that the death of his poor lit- 
 tle nephew was a grief to him, for he wrote to all 
 his correspondents, at least twenty times to Jose- 
 phine, six or seven to Hortense, and severally to 
 Joseph, Jérôme, Fouché and Monge, expressing his 
 sorrow, but adding, '" that it was destiny." It was 
 not in Napoleon's nature, nor in accordance with the 
 philosophical formula which the continual spectacle 
 of war and death in all its most terrible forms had 
 
NAPOLEOK, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 191 
 
 imposed upon his spirit, to yield to idle tears when 
 a destiny was accomplished. 
 
 Napoleon-Charles was one of the ties which at- 
 tached Bonaparte to Josephine, and this tie broken 
 there only remained between 'Aiem. those bonds of 
 tenderness which were woven by ten years of 
 wedded life ; years broken by long absences, marred 
 by frequent quarrels and strange misunderstand- 
 ings. Gould these bonds resist such a strain as 
 they were subjected to in 1805 by his liaison with 
 Madame -^^ * * -^ ? 
 
192 NAPOLEOÎv^, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 MADAIHE WALEWSKA. 
 
 On the 1st of January, 1807, the Emperor, on his 
 way from Pulstuck to Warsaw, stojDped to change 
 post-horses at the httle town of Bronie ; a noisy and 
 enthusiastic crowd awaited the hberator of Poland, 
 and rushed to surround the imperial carriage as 
 soon as it came in sight. As the carriage stopped 
 before the post-house. General Duroc descended and 
 cleared an entrance ; he was about to pass the door 
 when he heard a cry of entreaty, saw hands lifted 
 in supplication, and a voice addressing him in 
 French, said : ^^ Oh, sir, pray get us out of this 
 crowd, and arrange so that I may obtain even a 
 glimpse of His Majesty ! " Duroc paused and look- 
 ing about saw that the demand came from two 
 ladies, who seemed sadly out of place in the multi- 
 tude of peasants and workmen ; the one who spoke 
 to him seemed almost a child, she was very fair and 
 fragile, with great, blue, innocent-looking eyes which 
 at that moment glowed with patriotic enthusiasm ; 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 193 
 
 her skin, of the texture and freshness of a tea-rose, 
 was flushed with embarrassment, and her slender 
 yet supple and graceful form trembled with excite- 
 ment ; she was dressed very simply, and wore a dark 
 hat wound about with a black veil. 
 
 Duroc took in the situation at a glance, and extri- 
 cating the two ladies from the crowd gave his 
 hand to the blonde and led her to the carriage door. 
 ^' Sire," he said to Napoleon, '^ deign to greet these 
 ladies, who braved the dangers of the crowd to see 
 you." 
 
 The Emperor lifted his hat and leaning towards 
 the lady began to talk to her, but she, as she 
 afterwards recounted, was so excited by the emo- 
 tions which agitated her that she did not permit 
 him to finish his sentence. '^Welcome, Sire," she 
 exclaimed, ' ^ a thousand times welcome to Poland ! 
 Nothing which we can do can sufficiently demon- 
 strate the affection we bear you, nor the pleasure 
 we Poles feel in having you step upon this land 
 which looks to you for deliverance. " 
 
 While the lady spoke, Napoleon watched her 
 
 closely, and when she ceased, took a bouquet from 
 
 the carriage, presented it to her and said : ^^Keep 
 
 this as a guarantee of my good intentions, we shall 
 
 meet at Warsaw, I hope, and I shall reclaim a 
 
 reward from your fair lips." Duroc then took his 
 13 
 
194 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 seat beside the Emperor, and the carriage drove 
 rapidly off, while Napoleon waved a parting salute 
 to the young woman. 
 
 The person who had made such an effort to see 
 the Emperor, and welcome him to Polish soil, was 
 Marie Walewska, née Laczinska. She was the off- 
 spring of a very old but poor and numerous family. 
 M. Laczinski died when Marie was a baby, leaving 
 six children, and the widow, who was absorbed 
 in making the best of the small domain which 
 constituted their fortune, sent her daughters to 
 boarding-school, where they learned to dance, 
 acquired a smattering of French and German, and 
 a slight knowledge of music. Between fifteen and 
 sixteen years of age Marie returned home, with but 
 a mediocre education, but with a pure heart, which 
 knew but two passions— religion and country — her 
 love for her God was balanced by her love for 
 Poland ; those were the pivots upon which her 
 nature turned, and to arouse her from her usually 
 gentle sweetness it sufficed to say that she would 
 marry a Russian or a Prussian, her country's ene- 
 mies, a Protestant or schismatic. She had hardly 
 returned to her home, when, by a singular chance, she 
 had two excellent opportunities for marriage, and 
 Mme. Laczinski permitted her daughter to choose 
 between the aspirants for her hand. One was a 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 195 
 
 charming young man who seemed to have every- 
 thing in his favor, and who had pleased her from 
 the first ; he was very rich, well-horn and remark- 
 ably handsome — but he was a Kussian, and a son of 
 one of those generals who had cruelly oppressed 
 Poland. Marie could not consent to become his 
 wife, so her choice fell upon the other suitor, old 
 Anastase Colonna de Walewice- Walewska, who was 
 seventy years of age, a widower for the second time, 
 and" whose oldest grandchild was nine years her 
 senior, but he was very rich, the Seigneur of the 
 province which the Laczinskas inhabited, owned 
 most of the land, laid down the laws, inhabited the 
 chateau of the neighborhood, and was the only per- 
 son who invited his poor neighbors to dinner. He 
 had been the late king's chamberlain, and on im.- 
 portant occasions decorated his coat with the order 
 of the White Eagle ; he was the head of one of 
 the most illustrious families of Poland, who were 
 authentically connected with the Colonnas of Eome 
 and bore the same coat-of-arms, and he was of more 
 ancient lineage than any other family in the 
 kingdom. It was not strange that Mme. Laczinska 
 was enchanted at the prospect of having so illustri- 
 ous a son-in-law, and Marie made little resistance, 
 for her first appeal to her mother was met with 
 an unanswerable argument ; she fell ill, however, 
 
196 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 of an inflammatory fever, and for four months 
 hovered between Hfe and death. When barely con- 
 valescent she was led to the altar, and the miserable 
 young woman spent three years in the dreary cha- 
 teau of Walewice, finding her only consolation in 
 her religion. At last she gave birth to a son and a 
 desire for life re-awoke in her. She determined to 
 live for her child, who had a right to the happiness 
 which she had missed, but she did not wish that he 
 should live upon annexed land which was no longer 
 a country, that he should be, like her, in servitude, or 
 that, like his father, he should beg of the conqueror 
 his property and title ; she wished her son to be a 
 free man and a Pole, and to attain that end it was 
 necessary that his country should rise and free her- 
 self. 
 
 Napoleon had already vanquished Austria, meas- 
 ured his strength against Eussia at Austerlitz, and 
 was about to strike at Prussia and her allies ; he 
 was a providential adversary of her country's ene- 
 mies and seemed destined to save Poland. 
 
 When the campaign of 1806 opened and Napo- 
 leon's forces marched with incredible rapidity across 
 France and Germany to Berlin, the Prussians melt- 
 ing like phantoms before them, Mme. Walewska 
 reached such a state of feverish enthusiasm that she 
 could no longer remain at Walewice, to which re-^ 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 197 
 
 mote spot news penetrated but slowly, and her hus- 
 band being as great a patriot as herself, they went 
 to Warsaw, where they established themselves as 
 became their rank. 
 
 Mme. Walewska, conscious of her lack of education 
 and worldly knowledge, fearing to blunder when 
 she spoke French, unsupported by family or friends, 
 dreaded to go into society, and above all to appear 
 at La Blacha, the palace of Prince Joseph Poniatow- 
 ski, and the rally in g-place of Warsaw's best society, 
 and though in obedience to her husband's command, 
 she made a few formal and obligatory visits, she 
 held aloof from the gaieties of the capital, thus re- 
 maining, despite her loveliness, almost unknown. 
 
 The whole city was in a tumult of excitement 
 over the approaching arrival of the Emperor, all 
 being desirous that his reception at Warsaw should 
 outdo the welcome given him at Posen ; the city was 
 turned topsy-turvy by the citizens in their deter- 
 mination to give Napoleon a royal welcome, for 
 they felt that the fate of Poland lay in his hands. 
 Mme. Walewska longed to be the first to greet him, 
 and, without weighing the importance of the step 
 she was taking, persuaded one of her cousins to 
 accompany her and rushed to Bronie. 
 
 After the meeting which we described in the 
 
198 NAPOLEOK, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 beginning of the chapter she stood gazing after the 
 imperial carriage until it was lost to view ; then, 
 carefully enveloping the bouquet which the Emperor 
 had given her, she stepped into her carriage and 
 returned to Warsaw. 
 
 Her intention was to keep her journey a secret, 
 to shun all the fêtes and thus avoid a presentation 
 to Napoleon ; but her companion, though sworn to 
 secrecy, was far too elated over the adventure to 
 keep the story to herself, and one morning Prince 
 Joseph Poniatowski sent to inquire at what hour 
 Mme. Walewska could receive him, and, calling in 
 the afternoon, invited her to a ball he was about to 
 give in honor of the Emperor, saying that Napoleon 
 wished particularly to meet her a second time. As 
 she blushingly refused to understand his reference 
 to her first meeting with His Majesty, the prince, 
 laughing heartily over the matter, explained his 
 knowledge of the affair. It appeared that at one 
 of the dinners given in the Emperor's honor, he had 
 been observed to look attentively at the Princess 
 Lubomirska, and she was immediately presented, 
 but after meeting her. Napoleon paid but scant 
 attention to the lady ; this indifference surprised 
 Prince Joseph, but was explained by Duroc, who re- 
 lated the episode of Bronie, and explained that his 
 royal master had fancied that in the princess he 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 199 
 
 had discovered the charming unknown. Duroc gave 
 all the details of the meeting at Bronie, describing 
 minutely the face, figure and toilet of the mysteri- 
 ous lady, but Poniatowski was unable to divine 
 who it could have been, and was about to give up 
 his search in despair, when the indiscreet chatter of 
 Mme. Walewska's companion enlightened him, and, 
 knowing the Emperor's desire to cultivate the 
 acquaintance, he determined that she should come 
 to the ball. 
 
 Mme. Walewska refused absolutely to go, and 
 remained unmoved even by his argument that under 
 Heaven she might perhaps be an instrument towards 
 the rehabilitation of her country. Hardly had the 
 prince departed when the principal representatives 
 of Poland were announced ; they were statesmen, 
 whose authority was based upon public esteem and 
 consideration and the deference due to their irre- 
 proachable conduct and wisdom ; all of these men 
 foresaw what benefit might accrue to Poland from 
 Napoleon's admiration for one of its daughters and 
 they joined in urging her acceptance of the prince's 
 invitation ; their arguments, however, failed to 
 move her and she was still firm in her determination 
 to remain at home, when her husband arrived and 
 came to their rescue. M. Walewska was igno- 
 rant of the adventure at Bronie, and saw in the in- 
 
200 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AXD HUSBANB. 
 
 sistence of these gentlemen nothing save the con- 
 sideration due his rank and the services he had 
 rendered his country, and promptly accepted for his 
 wife. Marie pleaded, almost with tears, to remain at 
 home, but her husband insisted, ridiculed her fears, 
 and finally commanded that she should go. She 
 made one condition, however, which was, that, as al- 
 most all the other ladies had already been presented, 
 care should be taken that her presentation should 
 not be conspicuous. 
 
 The great day came, and her husband hurried 
 her toilet, fearing that they would be late and 
 reach the ball-room after the Emperor had departed. 
 M. Walewski would have liked to see his wife 
 magnificently apparelled, and he found great fault 
 with the severely simple dress of white satin which 
 she had selected to wear and with the garland of 
 leaves which was her only ornament ; others, how- 
 ever, were not of his opinion, for a murmur of 
 admiration greeted her entrance into the ball-room. 
 She was installed between two ladies, with whom 
 she was, unacquainted and was feeling strange and 
 uncomfortable, when Prince Poniatowski stationed 
 himself behind her. ''Your arrival has been im- 
 patiently awaited, madame," he murmured, "and 
 your entrance to the ball-room greeted with pleasure ; 
 your name has been repeated until it must be known 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 201 
 
 by heart, and after scrutinizing your husband some- 
 one said, shrugging his shoulders : ' Poor Httle 
 victim ; ' and I am commanded to invite you to 
 dance. " 
 
 '^I do not dance," she answered, '^and have no 
 incHnation towards that form of amusement." 
 
 Tlie prince explained that his invitation, being at 
 the instigation of the Emperor, was paramount to 
 an order, that His Majesty was watching them and 
 that if she refused he should be considered at fault, 
 and also that the success of the ball largely depended 
 upon her ; but persuasion and explanation were 
 alike wasted. Mme. Walewska positively refused 
 to dance, and the prince had but one resource : to 
 find Duroc, who received his confidences and repeated 
 them to Napoleon. 
 
 Mme. Walewska was soon the centre of a bril- 
 liant circle of staff- officers who were charmed by her 
 beauty and unaffected manners, for her presence, 
 which was an open secret to the Poles, was not un- 
 derstood by the French. Napoleon, however, was 
 not long in effecting the removal of his unconscious 
 rivals ; Louis de Péri go rd seemed the most devoted 
 of her admirers, so the Emperor made a sign to 
 Berthier and ordered him to send the aide-de-camp 
 at once to the sixth corps on the Passarge, and the 
 next in order was Bertrand, who, on a second sign, 
 
202 XAPOLEOX, LOVZE AXD HTSBA^T). 
 
 was ordered to rejDort to Priiice Jérôme before 
 Breslau. 
 
 The Emperor wandered about the ball-room with 
 the mtention of raakmg hhnself generally agreeable, 
 but his preoccupation led him to make singularly 
 mal à propos speeches ; he asked a young girl how 
 many children she had. a homely old maid, if her 
 husband was jealous of her beauty, and inquired of 
 a lady who was enormously stout if she was very fond 
 of dancing. When he arrived before Mme. Walewska 
 her neighbors nudged her as a sign that she should 
 rise, and standing, her eyes fixed on the ground, 
 strangely pale, she awaited the Emperor's pleasure. 
 '^ White upon white is not becoming, madame," he 
 said aloud, then added in a low tone, ' * This is scarcely 
 
 the reception I expected " He paused and looked 
 
 at her attentively, but as she made no response he 
 passed on. and a few moments afterwards left the 
 ball-room. 
 
 His departure was the signal for greater liberty 
 of action, each recotmting to her neighbor what the 
 Emperor had said to her. and all anxious to learn 
 what he said to Mme. Walewska, and to what he re- 
 ferred when saying that he had expected a different 
 greeting, for those nearest had caught his remarks, 
 and the wildest curiosity prevailed regarding it, 
 some daring spirits even going so far as to question 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEU AND HUSBAND. 203 
 
 Marie herself. As soon as possible she made her 
 escape, but on the way home her husband also 
 catechised her, and, receiving unsatisfactory replies, 
 announced that he had accepted an invitation for 
 a dinner at which the Emperor was to be present, 
 and requested her to order a more elegant costume 
 for that occasion. Marie was on the point of telling 
 him of her imprudent trip to Bronie, of its conse- 
 quences up to date and her disquietude ; but he left 
 her brusquely at the door of her room, which she 
 had hardly entered, before her maid handed her a 
 note which she had some difficulty in deciphering : 
 
 "I HAVE SEEN, ADMIRED AND DESIRED BUT YOV 
 THIS EVENING. A KIND AND PROMPT ANSWER ALONE 
 CAN CALM THE IMPATIENT ARDOR OF 
 
 " N." 
 
 Mme. Walewska crushed the note in her hand, 
 disgusted and revolted by its language. ''There 
 is no answer ? " she said to her maid, who departed 
 to convey her mistress's reply to the bearer of the 
 note ; but the messenger who waited in the street 
 was no other than Prince Poniatowski, who did not 
 propose to be so easily beaten, and, despite the 
 servant's remonstrances, entered the house and fol- 
 lowed her to her mistress's room with such prompti- 
 tude, that Mme. Walewska had barely time to lock 
 
204 îfAPOLEOK, LOVEE AXD HXJSBAXD. 
 
 tlie door. From behind the closed door she informed 
 the prince that her decision was immutable ; and at 
 the risk of a scandal the prince alternately implored 
 and menaced, but was at last obliged to depart, dis- 
 comfited and angry. She was scarcely awake on 
 the following morning, when her maid handed 
 her a second note, wdiich she did not open, but sealing 
 it up in an envelope with the first ordered that both 
 should be handed to the messenger. 
 
 Before noon her drawing-room was crowded, all 
 the personages of the nation, influential members 
 of the government, Prince Joseph and Grand Mar- 
 shal Duroc, being assembled there, but Marie, pre- 
 texting a sick headache, remained in her own room 
 stretched out upon a lounge. Her husband was 
 furious, and to prove that he was not jealous, as 
 was artfully insinuated, he conducted the prince 
 and his countrymen into his wife's apartment, and 
 in their presence insisted that she should allow her- 
 self to be presented and should attend the dinner, 
 to which she was bidden. To this the Poles agreed 
 in chorus, and one of their number, an old man, 
 who was highly respected, and whose advice was 
 deferentially listened to by the chiefs of the govern- 
 ment, fixed his eyes sharply upon her, and said in an 
 impressive manner : ^'I hope that between this and 
 the date set for the dinner your indisposition will 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 205 
 
 have disappeared, for you cannot refuse the invita- 
 tion without laying yourself open to the accusation 
 of lack of love for your country." 
 
 How could this inexperienced girl of eighteen, 
 alone, without a friend to counsel her, defend her- 
 self against so many ? — she did her best, but the 
 pressure was too great. She was obliged to rise, and, 
 obeying her husband's mandate, called upon Mme. 
 de Vauban, who was Prince Joseph's mistress, 
 solicited her advice as to the toilet she should wear, 
 and asked her to be initiated into the mysteries of 
 court etiquette ; thus she was delivered into the 
 hands of the enemy, for Mme. Vauban was deep in 
 the intrigue. 
 
 Née Pugot-Barbentane, Mme. de Vauban had lived 
 at Versailles and was familiar with the life of the 
 old court ; at the outbreak of the revolution she fled 
 to Warsaw, and there lived publicly with the prince, 
 who had previously been her lover. She thought 
 that to give a mistress to a sovereign, whether 
 he be Louis XV. or Napoleon, was the most im- 
 portant mission which a courtesan could fill, and 
 as for scruples, purity, duty, or conjugal fidelity — 
 it never occurred to her that a woman of the world 
 would balance such virtues against certain advan- 
 tages. Mme. de Vauban was clever enough to per- 
 ceive that the woman with whom she had now to 
 
206 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 
 
 deal could not be tempted by \Yorldly considera- 
 tions, that she must manoeuvre skilfully and make 
 use of weapons with which she was not familiar, 
 before she could overcome Mme. Walewska's 
 scruples, and, feeling unequal to the task, she con- 
 tented herself with paying her visitor numerous 
 compliments, advising as to her dress and conduct, 
 and protesting friendship ; then she turned Marie 
 over to a young woman who lived with her some- 
 what as a companion. This lady, Mme. Abramo- 
 wicz, was a divorcée without fortune, j^oung, gay, 
 and clever, and, being nearer Mme. Walewska's age, 
 possessed every requisite to attract her confidence, 
 even the most exalted sentiments of patriotism — 
 real or feigned. She insinuated herself into Mme. 
 Walewska's confidence and won the affections of the 
 lonely girl, who had never had an intimate friend, 
 and whose heart longed for a confidante. Mme. 
 Abramowicz ingratiated herself with the husband, 
 and was inseparable from the wife, and when she 
 thought that the time was ripe, she read to Mme. 
 Walewska a letter, signed by the most prominent 
 men of the nation, and members of the provisional 
 government : 
 
 '^ Madame : 
 
 '^ Slight causes sometimes produce great results, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 207 
 
 and women from time immemorial have exercised 
 great influence over the world's politics ; ancient 
 history, as well as modern, bears testimony to this 
 fact, and so long as men are dominated by passion 
 women can sway them. 
 
 ^ ^ Had you been a man, you would gladly have 
 given your life to your country ; as a woman you 
 cannot serve as her defender, but there are other 
 sacrifices which you can make for Poland, and 
 which you should gladly impose upon yourself, 
 however painful they may be. 
 
 ' ' Do you imagine that it was for love that Esther 
 gave herself to Ahasvérus ? Does not the fact that he 
 inspired her with such fear, that she swooned when 
 he looked upon her, prove that affection had no 
 part in that union ? She sacrificed herself for her 
 country, and, to her everlasting honor, she saved it. 
 May history record as much for your glory and our 
 happiness ! 
 
 ^^ Are you not daughter, sister, wife and mother 
 to zealous Poles who, with us, form the national 
 sheaf, the strength of which can be augmented only 
 by the number and union of those who compose it. 
 Eemember, madame, the words of a celebrated man, 
 a saint and pious ecclesiastic, Fénelon, who wrote : 
 ^ Men, in whom all public authority is vested, can 
 achieve no effective result from their deliberations, 
 
208 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 if women do not aid in the execution of their de- 
 signs. ' Heed his voice^ which unites with ours, that 
 you may promote the happiness of your country- 
 men, of twenty milhon souls." 
 
 Thus every spring was brought into play to pre- 
 cipitate the downfall of this young woman, who, in- 
 experienced and guileless, had neither a husband in 
 whom she could confide, nor parents to defend her, 
 nor friends anxious to save her ; the family, country 
 and religion were invoked to force her compliance, 
 all conspired against her, and to complete the work, 
 she was made to read the note from Napoleon, which 
 she had once refused to open. 
 
 *' I fear, madame," he wrote, ^Hhat I have dis- 
 pleased you ; yet I had a right to hope the contrary 
 — was I so mistaken ? Your enthusiasm has waned 
 while mine has augmented. You have banished 
 sleep from my pillow ! Ah, deign to give a little 
 joy to a poor heart which is ready to adore you. Do 
 you then find it so difficult to write to me ? You 
 owe me two letters. 
 
 Her husband, proud of the success of his wife, for 
 which he took all the credit, without understanding 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 209 
 
 the situation nor having the slightest suspicion of 
 what was expected of her — for he was an honest 
 gentleman — insisted upon her going to the much 
 discussed dinner. The poor girl herself understood 
 that the step was a decisive one and committed her ; 
 but all the world wished it, and she yielded. Her 
 drawing-room was constantly filled with visitors, 
 who mutely felicitated her, and in order that she 
 should not change her mind during the time pre- 
 ceding the dinner, Mme. Abramowicz kept her 
 company. 
 
 On her way to the dinner, Mme. Walewska com- 
 forted herself with the idea that as she did not love 
 Napoleon, she had nothing to fear, and on her arrival 
 the marked attentions of some of the guests, who 
 already had in view the solicitation of her protection, 
 completely disgusted her with her supposed conquest 
 and she was firmly resolved to remain unapproach- 
 able when the Emperor appeared. Napoleon was 
 more self-possessed that evening than at the ball, 
 and better prepared to be generally courteous ; when 
 Marie was presented he said simply : ' ^ I thought 
 madame was indisposed, has she quite recovered ? " 
 and this purposely simple speech overthrew her 
 suspicions and even struck her as being extremely 
 delicate. 
 
 At table she was placed next the grand marshal 
 14 
 
210 NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 
 
 and almost opposite the Emperor, who, when all 
 were seated, began in his curt fashion to question 
 his neighbors upon the history of Poland ; he ap- 
 peared to listen attentively and to take a deep in- 
 terest in the subject, but whether speaking or listen- 
 ing his eyes never left Mme. Walewska save to ex- 
 change a glance with Duroc, with whom he seemed 
 to have established a sort of optical telegraph. It 
 seemed as though the remarks which Duroc ad- 
 dressed to his neighbor were dictated by a glance or 
 gesture of the Emperor, who kept ujd all the time a 
 grave discussion upon European politics ; once he 
 lifted his hand to the left side of his coat, Duroc 
 hesitated for a moment, looked attentively at his 
 master, and at last, divining what was required of 
 him, heaved an '^ Ah ! " of satisfaction. It was the 
 bouquet of Bronie which was in question and Duroc 
 hastened to ask Mme. Walewska what had become 
 of it. 
 
 Marie responded that she religiously preserved the 
 flowers which the Emperor had given her for her 
 son. ' ^ Ah ! madame, " said the grand marshal, 
 ' ' you must permit us to offer you something more 
 worthy of you." Imagining that his speech had a 
 double meaning she retorted loudly, flushed with 
 anger: ''I care only for flowers!" Duroc was 
 dumfounded, but after a moment recovered his 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 211 
 
 presence of mind sufficiently to say: '^ Very well, 
 madame, we will pluck laurels from your native soil 
 for you ; " and observing that that touched her, 
 knew that his second speech had been a lucky one. 
 
 When the company rose from the table and re- 
 turned to the drawing-room, the Emperor took ad- 
 vantage of the confusion to approach her and fixing 
 upon her his strangely piercing eyes, the power of 
 which no human being had ever resisted, he took her 
 hand and pressing it, said in a low tone: '^With 
 eyes so sweet and tender, with such an expression of 
 goodness, it cannot possibly be a pleasure to torture 
 a man, or else appearances are deceitful and you are 
 the most coquettish of women, the most cruel of 
 your sex." 
 
 On the Emperor's departure the party broke up 
 and Mme. Walewska was persuaded to go to Mme. de 
 Vauban's where a number of the dinner guests and 
 those who were initiated into the intrigue, awaited 
 her coming ; upon entering the room she was im- 
 mediately surrounded by those who flattered her and 
 assured her that the Emperor had had eyes only for 
 her, that she alone could plead the nation's cause, 
 touch his heart and determine him to rehabilitate 
 Poland. Little by little, as if in obedience to some 
 secret understanding, the guests departed, leaving 
 Marie and Mme. Abramowicz alone ; almost im- 
 
212 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 mediately Duroc was announced and when the doors 
 were closed^ he seated himself at Mme. Walewska's 
 side and laid a letter on her knee, then taking her 
 hand, said in the gentlest possible manner : ^'Can 
 yon refuse the request of one who has never brooked 
 refusal ? His position, though glorious, is lonely and 
 sad, and it lies in your power to give him some hours, 
 at least, of happiness. " Duroc spoke at great length 
 but she made no answer and hiding her face in her 
 hands wept and sobbed like a child ; the other 
 woman, however, answered for her and guaranteed 
 that she would go to the rendezvous. When Marie 
 indignantly remonstrated, she shamed her with her 
 lack of patriotism, telling her, that she was a rene- 
 gade daughter of Poland, that they should all will- 
 ingly sacrifice anything for him who would be their 
 country's deliverer, and finally bowed the grand 
 marshal out, assuring him that Mme. Walewska 
 would finally comply with his master's wishes ; then 
 opening the note which he had brought, Mme. 
 Abramowicz read it aloud : 
 
 '' There are moments when the weight of my rank 
 seems more than I can bear, and I am now living 
 through such a period. How can I satisfy the de- 
 sires and needs of a hungry heart which longs to 
 throw itself at your feet and is arrested only by 
 weighty considerations which paralyze its most 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 213 
 
 ardent desires and deprive me of freedom of action ? 
 Oh, if you would but come to me ! You alone can 
 surmount the obstacles which separate us ; my friend 
 Doroc will arrange everything. 
 
 ' ^ Come to me, and all your desires shall be fulfilled, 
 and your country will be dearer to me when you 
 have taught me to love it. 
 
 Thus the fate of Poland lay in her little hands ; it 
 was not her countrymen alone who said so, but the 
 great conqueror himself, who affirmed it ; it de- 
 pended upon her, that her country should be reborn, 
 the shameful divisions abolished, the torn parts re- 
 united, and the White Eagle fly proudly over all. 
 It was no wonder that such a glorious dream almost 
 intoxicated her ; yet she still struggled, claiming 
 that she was not equal to playing such a rôle, to 
 which they answered, that she should not lack for 
 advisers, and had only to follow their counsel. Her 
 modesty revolting, she was told that the sentiments 
 she entertained were provincial, ridiculous and out 
 of date, that many another woman, quite as virtuous 
 as she, would willingly exchange places with her 
 and lend Poland the aid of their beauty were the 
 chance given them, — why, they asked, should she 
 doubt her ability to do good ? Though an Emperor, 
 
214 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 Napoleon was but a man — and a man in love ; she 
 would be able to wind liim around her finger and 
 achieve the realization of the patriot's brightest 
 dreams. Thus at last they wrung from her a reluc- 
 tant consent. She refused, however, to answer 
 Napoleon's letter, feeling physically incapable of 
 writing, and they left her alone to advise together, 
 taking the precaution, however, to lock her in, lest 
 she might change her mind and run away ; but she 
 was not thinking of such a thing, she reflected, or 
 rather, exhausted by the prolonged struggle, she 
 dreamed. 
 
 She wondered if she could not without losing her 
 self-esteem have an interview with Napoleon, inspire 
 him with friendship and respect and persuade him 
 to listen to the prayer of her people ; surely he would 
 not force his caresses upon her, knowing that she 
 had no love to give him, for she would tell him that 
 he inspired her only with sentiments of enthusiasm, 
 admiration and gratitude. There was nothing de- 
 praved in the imagination of this girl of eighteen, 
 whose only knowledge of love was derived from the 
 almost platonic affection of her septuagenarian hus- 
 band, and drifting into the world of dreams, where 
 the virtue of woman has nothing to fear from the 
 passions of man, where the senses are abolished and 
 souls speak and understand each other, she dreamed 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 215 
 
 of an ideal friendship, which should both comfort 
 Napoleon in his loneliness and benefit Poland. 
 
 The conspirators, having settled everything, re- 
 turned and Mme. Wale wska agreed to comply with all 
 their wishes, only stipulating that she should remain 
 where she was until those who were to conduct her 
 to Napoleon, should call ; she remained all the next 
 day, which dragged by slowly, alternately watching 
 the hands of the clock and the closed door by which 
 her executioner must enter. 
 
 At half-past ten in the evening some one knocked, 
 and Mme. Abramowicz, hastily arraying Marie in a 
 hat with a thick veil and a long cloak, which com- 
 pletely disguised her figure, led her like one in a 
 dream to a carriage which waited at the street 
 corner, and assisted her to enter it ; a man with a 
 long coat and a slouched hat, who had held the door 
 open, drew up the step and took a seat beside her. 
 Not a word was exchanged on the way, and when 
 the carriage drew up before a private entrance to 
 the grand palace, her silent companion assisted her 
 to leave the carriage and almost carried her to a 
 door which was opened impatiently from within, 
 and, quietly departing, left her alone with Napo- 
 leon. 
 
 Blinded by tears Mme. Walewska could not dis- 
 cern the features of the Emperor who knelt by her 
 
216 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 side, took her hand, and began speaking to her in a 
 caressing manner ; nor was she clearly conscious of 
 what he said until the words : ' ' Your old husband " 
 escaped him, when the full realization of the ignominy 
 burst upon her and with a cry of horror she sprang 
 to her feet and looked about for means to escape. 
 
 Napoleon was momentarily paralyzed with sur- 
 prise, not knowing what to make of this woman, 
 who after so many entreaties had yielded to his solic- 
 itations and granted him a nocturnal rendezvous, 
 yet who now manifested such unmistakable and un- 
 affected horror at her situation. Not holding the key 
 to her presence there, he questioned an instant if 
 she was not acting a part with the intent to increase 
 his desire, but her grief and dismay were too genuine, 
 and determined to solve the riddle of her conduct, he 
 drew her gently away from the door against which* 
 she was leaning, seated her in an arm-chair and began 
 to question her kindly regarding her history ; re- 
 solved not to alarm her, he sought to put his ques- 
 tions in a manner which would least wound and 
 shock her sensibilities, but in spite of his kind inten- 
 tions, his habitual masterfulness pierced the veil of 
 gentleness and he could only obtain brief and frag- 
 mentary answers from the trembling woman, but 
 even those he turned to weapons against herself. 
 *'Had she voluntarily given herself to the man 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 217 
 
 whose name she bore, was it for rank and wealth 
 that she had sacrificed her youth ? No ; — then who 
 forced her to unite her young life with an old and 
 decrepid man ? Her mother ; — then why had she 
 any remorse, since the marriage was not of her 
 chosing ? " Marie stammered between her sobs that 
 it was her duty to be faithful, that that which God 
 had joined together, man should not seek to sunder. 
 Napoleon could not control his mirth, and at the 
 sound of his laughter Mme. Walewska's tears fell all 
 the faster. 
 
 More and more mystified and correspondingly in- 
 terested by this woman, the like of whom he had 
 never before encountered, he was the more deter- 
 mined to discover the solution to her presence in his 
 apartments. Here was a woman who wished to be a 
 faithful wife, to hold fast to the principles of her 
 religion, a woman who was unquestionably pure and 
 virtuous, and yet, she was there in his apartments 
 at the dead of night, in compliance with his wishes. 
 Never had his curiosity been so aroused, and he 
 pressed his questions, asking about the education 
 she had received, the life she had led in the country 
 and the society she frequented, of her mother and 
 family, — he wished to know everything, even to the 
 name she had received at baptism : the sweet name 
 of Marie, by which he ever afterwards called her. 
 
218 XAPOLEOX, LOVER A^T) HUSBAND. 
 
 At two in the morning some one rapped at the 
 door. ^' What Î "' exclaimed Xapoleon, ^' so soon ? 
 Well, my gentle dove, dry your tears and go home 
 to rest ; you need never again fear the Eagie^ for 
 he will exert no other influence over you than that 
 of passionate love. You will end by loving him^ for 
 he will be everything to you — everything.'' He 
 assisted her to fasten her mantle, put on her veil, 
 and conducted her to the door, but before he let her 
 out he exacted a promise that she would return the 
 following night. She was reconducted to her home 
 and retired ahnost reassured, it seemed as if her 
 dream might be realized, for as XajDoleon had been 
 kind and tender and spared her that time, she 
 fancied it would be the same in the future. 
 
 At nine o'clock the following morning the confi- 
 dential friend was at her bedside, holding in her 
 hands a large package, which, after jDrudently lock- 
 ing the door, she carefully unwrapped, and drew 
 forth several jewel-cases in red morocco, a quantity 
 of hothouse flowers intermingled with branches of 
 laurel and a sealed letter ; but scarcely had she ex- 
 posed to view a magnificent brooch and spray of 
 diamonds than Mme. Walewska snatched them from 
 her hands and flung them to the end of the room, 
 furious that they should have been sent her. She 
 ordered that they should be immediately returned ; 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 219 
 
 she wished the Emperor to comprehend that she was 
 not for sale, and that if she gave herself to him it 
 would not be from a desire for jewels ; then, unseal- 
 ing the letter, she read : 
 
 '' Marie, my sweet Mane, my first thought is for 
 you, my greatest desire to see you again ; you will 
 keep your promise and return, will you not ? Other- 
 wise the Eagle will fly to you ! Our friend tells me 
 we shall meet at dinner, deign, therefore, to accept 
 this bouquet which shall establish between us a bond 
 by which we may communicate in the midst of the 
 crowd which will surround us, and even under the 
 gaze of others. When I lay my hand over my heart 
 you will know that it is filled with thoughts of you 
 and you can respond by touching your bouquet. 
 Love me, my precious Marie, and never take your 
 hand off your flowers. 
 
 The letter was all very flne, but it could not make 
 her accept his diamonds, nor even the flowers and 
 laurels. She had an excuse ready : One did not 
 wear flowers on one's dress save at balls, and it was 
 to a dinner she was going. She vainly essayed to 
 excuse herself from tliis dinner, but she was forced 
 to fulfill her engagement by those whose ambitions 
 
220 NAPOLEOX, LOYER AXD HUSBAND. 
 
 were roused and who firmly believed that, through 
 her, they would see their dearest wish fulfilled. 
 Her husband remained perfectly blind, he never sus- 
 pected for a moment the intrigue which was being 
 carried on about him, and urgently desired her to 
 accept all invitations. 
 
 On her arrival at the house where the dinner was 
 given, she was immediately surrounded by her ac- 
 quaintances and by those who were anxious to be 
 presented, and it seemed to the poor woman as if all 
 these strangers were cognizant of her adventure 
 of the night previous. The Emperor had already 
 arrived and appeared dissatisfied, he frowned and 
 regarded her with an angry expression, his eyes 
 seeming to read her very soul ; as he advanced 
 towards her she trembled, fearing that he was go- 
 ing to make a public scene, when suddenly recalling 
 the words of his letter, she laid her hand on the 
 place where his flowers should have been, and had 
 the satisfaction of seeing his contracted features re- 
 lax into a smile and his hand respond by a similar 
 sign. Before going to table he called Duroc aside 
 and spoke with him for an instant ; she had barely 
 taken her place at the table, where, as at the pre- 
 ceding dinner, she was seated next the grand mar- 
 shal, when he attacked her about tlie bouquet ; she 
 responded haughtily that she was insulted by the 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 221 
 
 diamonds, and wished it distinctly understood that 
 she would accept no presents of that kind, that the 
 only thing which could repay her devotion was hope 
 for the future of her country. ''Has the Emperor 
 not already given you the right to hope ? " retorted 
 Duroc ; then he recalled to her a number of acts 
 which proved his master's good faith, and through- 
 out the dinner he continued to talk of the Emperor's 
 affection for her, the loneliness of his high state, and 
 the need he had of a heart which would love and 
 understand him, and of the glory of the mission 
 which was hers, reminding her, too, of her promise 
 to return to the palace that night. 
 
 She was conducted to the palace with the same 
 precautions as on the previous evening, and found 
 Napoleon gloomy and thoughtful. ' ' You have come 
 at last," he said, " I had abandoned all hope of see- 
 ing you ! " He assisted her to lay aside her cloak 
 and hat, and when she was seated, stationed him- 
 self before her, and commanded her to explain her 
 conduct. Why did she go to Bronie ? Why had she 
 sought to inspire him with a sentiment which she 
 did not share ? Why had she refused his flowers 
 and even the laurels ? Why had she ever made a ren- 
 dezvous with him ? What were her intentions when 
 she came to the palace ? As she did not answer he 
 gave way to a paroxysm of anger and exclaimed : 
 
222 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 ^' You led me to hope for everything and you give 
 nothing ; you are a true Pole, and your actions con- 
 firm the opinion I have always held of your nation." 
 
 Moved and troubled by her reception, and anxious 
 to know what he thought of her people, she said : 
 ' ^ Ah, Sire, forgive me, and tell me what you think 
 of us Poles." 
 
 He informed her that he considered the Polish 
 race passionate and unstable, emotional and lacking 
 in system ; that their enthusiasm was impetuous and 
 genuine, but short dived, and that this portrait of 
 her race was her likeness. Had she not flown, like 
 one crazed with enthusiasm, to gain a glimpse of 
 him ? Had she not led him to believe by her earnest 
 and passionate expressions of esteem that she was 
 most kindly disposed towards him ? He had allowed 
 himself to be duped, but she must know that, when 
 anything was withheld from him, it became the 
 object he most coveted, and that nothing could daunt 
 him in the pursuit of it. Whether real or feigned, 
 the violence of his excitement grew apace and Mme. 
 Walewska shrank before him. " I want you to 
 understand," he thundered, ''' that I will force 3^ou 
 to love me ! I have already lifted the name of your 
 country from the dust, thanks to me that it has 
 not been wiped from the face of the earth ! I will do 
 more — but, remember, that even as I crush this 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 223 
 
 watch in my hand, so shall your country and all 
 your hopes be crushed if you push me to extremes, 
 repulse my love and refuse me yours." 
 
 Overcome by this violence, Mme. Walewska 
 fainted — when she recovered consciousness she no 
 longer belonged to herself. 
 
 Henceforth it was a liaison, if one can so desig- 
 nate the habit she acquired of going nightly to the 
 palace and passively submitting to caresses which 
 she hoped would some day bring her a great reward. 
 NajDoleon established a provisional government, the 
 embryo of an army and several companies of light 
 cavalry were attached to his guard ; but it was not 
 for so little that Mme. Walewska had sacrificed her 
 virtue, the only thing which could content her and 
 condone her conduct in her own eyes, was the re- 
 establishment of Poland as a nation and a state. 
 Incapable of feigning a sentiment which she did not 
 entertain, or a passion which she did not feel, she 
 had none of the requisites for the domination of a 
 lover, and was not even cunning enough to conceal 
 the motive which actuated her. Nightly she referred 
 to the one topic which interested her and was consoled 
 by promises and buoyed by hopes ; but the promises 
 were always for the future, in the present there was 
 only misery which seemed interminable. 
 
 She met with no censure in her own country ; 
 
224 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 aside from her husband, whom she had been obHged 
 to leave, all hastened to do her honor, not as a 
 favorite but as a victim, for none were in ignorance 
 of her sacrifice, and by all she was esteemed, re- 
 spected and pitied. Her husband's own sisters. 
 Princess Jablonowska and Countess Birginska, 
 constituted themselves her chaperones ; had she so 
 desired, she could have taken the first place in War- 
 saw's society and maintained almost regal state ; 
 but Mme. Walewska shunned society, lived unpre- 
 tentiously, and gave no cause for enmity ; there- 
 fore, though less flattered, she received greater sym- 
 pathy. 
 
 To a society which concealed oriental habits under 
 a veneer of French elegance and customs, which 
 still retained the moral code of Catherine the Great, 
 there was nothing shocking in Mme. Walewska's 
 position. There was no fine Polish gentleman of 
 the time who had not an authenticated mistress, of 
 whose existence his wife was well aware and to whom 
 she exhibited no animosity ; scarcely a noble did not 
 support, at some one of his country seats, one or 
 more Georgian favorites ; consequently, as he did 
 not travel with a harem in his train. Napoleon 
 appeared to the Poles as a singularly chaste sover- 
 eign ; when he established himself in Warsaw they 
 felt that he should have a female companion to 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 225 
 
 divert him, and but natural and right to secure for 
 him the society of the only woman in whom he 
 manifested the least interest. 
 
 Fortuitously, the Emperor admired a woman of 
 exceptional character and one who could be made 
 politically useful ; virtuous, unaffected, disinterested, 
 animated solely by love of country, incarnating in 
 her person the best traits of her nation, Marie 
 Walewska was capable of inspiring in the heart of 
 her royal lover a deep and lasting affection, and the 
 Poles reasoned that she would become like a second 
 wife to Napoleon, that, without sharing his imperial 
 state and splendor, she would fill a special place in 
 his life and be an ever-present ambassadress for 
 Poland. 
 
 Napoleon was alive to the fact that Mme. Walew- 
 ska did not love him for himself, that her country 
 held the first place in her heart, indeed, she never 
 essayed to make him think otherwise, but frankly 
 avowed that she had become his mistress in the 
 hope of softening his heart and awakening his sym- 
 pathies towards her unhappy land, and he, who 
 usually mistrusted any one whom he suspected of a 
 desire to make use of him, placed implicit confi- 
 dence in . this simple, sincere and earnest girl ; he 
 knew her to be so far above the ordinary ambitions 
 
 of women that he longed to content her, and keenly 
 15 
 
226 napoleons", loyer and husband. 
 
 regretted his inability to bestow the one boon she 
 coveted. 
 
 ^^ Eest assured," he frequently said to her, '^ that 
 my promises to you shall be fulfilled. I have already 
 forced Eussia to relinquish what she had usurped ; 
 time will do the rest, but you must be patient ; 
 politics is a cord which snaps if subjected to too 
 great a strain, and the time is not yet ripe for the 
 realization of your hopes. In the meanwhile, your 
 politicians must work, the country must be organ- 
 ized ; you are rich in patriots and can command 
 plenty of brave arms — honor and courage start 
 from every pore of you Poles — but that will not 
 suffice, there must be great unanimity." 
 
 It was strange how this man, who never discussed 
 politics with a woman, continually recurred to the 
 subject of Poland's future, and discussed with her 
 the best means for the amelioration of her country- 
 men, how to benefit all classes and insure a united 
 movement even if at the expense of the aristocracy. 
 
 ^^ You well know," he said, ^'that I love your 
 nation, that my wishes and my political views lead 
 me to desire its entire rehabilitation ; I am most 
 willing to second its efforts and uphold its rights, 
 and all that I can do without endangering the in- 
 terests of France, I will do ; but remember that the 
 distance that separates us is tremendous, that what 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEE, AND HUSBAND. 227 
 
 I establish here to-day may be annihilated to-mor- 
 row. My first duty is to France, I cannot shed 
 French blood for a cause which is not theirs, nor 
 arm my people and rush to your succor each time 
 that it may be necessary." 
 
 From these grave matters he would turn to social 
 gossip, current anecdotes and the tittle-tattle of the 
 drawing-room with a rapidity which amazed his 
 listener. He wanted her to inform him regarding 
 the private life of every personage whom he en- 
 countered, his curiosity was insatiable and went 
 into the minutest details ; it was his way of form- 
 ing an opinion upon the leading class wherever he 
 found himself, and here, where such great interests 
 were at stake, he made use of every means to in- 
 form himself. From the accumulated tales, which 
 engraved themselves upon his memory, bits of in- 
 formation regarding this one and that one, he drew 
 astute conclusions which astonished the woman 
 who listened and showed her that she had furnished 
 him with arms against herself ; she would protest 
 indignantly against the deductions he drew and 
 the judgments he pronounced ; the quarrel usually 
 ending with his giving her a slight tap on the 
 cheek and exclaiming : ^' Good little Marie, you are 
 worthy to be a Spartan and to have a country ! " 
 
 Napoleon would not have loved Mme. Walewska 
 
228 NAPOLEOK, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 
 
 as he did, had he not taken an interest in her toilet, 
 in which matter he considered himself an excellent 
 judge, having once written to Savary : '^ You know 
 that I am an authority upon woman's dress. " From 
 the time of the Consulate he had selected the pres- 
 ents sent to any queen, and the dress of the court 
 ladies did not escape his criticism ; even Josephine, 
 whose taste in dress was exquisite, was not exempt. 
 Above all he disliked sombre costumes, and Mme. 
 Walewska insisted upon dressing in the most simple 
 fashion and always in black, white or gray, which 
 displeased him extremely, and regarding which he 
 remonstrated with her, and she retorted, that '^a 
 Polish woman should wear mourning for her coun- 
 try ; when you resuscitate it I will wear nothing 
 but rose-color." 
 
 Thus in every way she brought him back to the 
 same subject, but without annoying him, so great 
 was his love for her. It did not suffice him to see 
 his mistress by appointment, he desired that she 
 should attend all the dinners and fêtes at which he 
 was obliged to be present, and as he wished to be 
 constantly in communication with her he initiated 
 her into the mysterious system by which he com- 
 municated with Duroc, and she became more expert 
 at it than the grand marshal himself, and at the 
 very instant when Napoleon seemed engrossed in 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 229 
 
 some serious subject he would tell her in his sign 
 language that his heart was filled with thoughts of 
 her. When she expressed her astonishment that so 
 great a general, so shrewd a politician, should con- 
 descend to such boyish means of communication, he 
 said : ' ' Keflect that I am obliged to fill with dignity 
 the post assigned to me, I have the honor to com- 
 mand nations. I was an acorn, I have become an 
 oak and I am watched on every side ; this situation 
 obliges me to play a rôle which is not always easy, 
 but which I am obliged to keep up in order to pre- 
 serve the character w4th which I am invested, and 
 while I must play the monarch for all the world, I 
 love to be your subject, and how can I manage to 
 tell you that I love you at a state dinner (which I 
 want to do every time I look at you), unless I employ 
 the sign language ? " 
 
 When he removed his headquarters to Fincken- 
 stein Marie was obliged to follow him, and the 
 melancholy existence she led there resembled closely 
 that which she had once led at Walewice with her 
 old husband. The long, quiet days were broken only 
 by the meals which she ate tête-à-tête with the Em- 
 peror, and which were served by a single valet, the 
 rest of the time was spent in reading and embroid- 
 ering, and her only distraction was watching the 
 parade from behind closed blinds. It was the life 
 
230 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 of a recluse subject to the will of a master, without 
 society, pleasure or distraction, and yet it satisfied 
 her better than the brilliant society which she had 
 left at Warsaw. Thus Mme. Walewska realized 
 the type of woman which he had hoped to find in 
 Josephine : sweet, complaisant, timid, attentive, 
 unambitious and seemingly without will, who lived 
 only for him and who, though she asked a favor of 
 him, asked so colossal a one that it became imper- 
 sonal and impossible of conception save by a soul 
 singularly pure and disinterested, and to hope to 
 receive it from the hands of a mortal, was to think 
 of him almost as a god ; all this appealed strongly 
 to Napoleon and augmented his Polish love's hold 
 on him. 
 
 When the Emperor was about to leave Poland, 
 without having realized the dream for whose sake 
 Mme. Walewska had given herself to him when, 
 despairing and disillusioned, Marie refused to follow 
 him to Paris and announced her intention to retire 
 into the heart of the country, there to await in sad- 
 ness and solitude the fulfilment of his vows, it 
 became his turn to supplicate : ^' I know,'' he said, 
 ^^ that you can live without me, that your heart is 
 not mine ; but you are good, kind and generous, can 
 you find it in your heart to deprive me of my only 
 happiness — of the few moments that I spend each 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 231 
 
 day with you ? You are my sole joy, the one being 
 who brightens my Hfe, and yet I am supposed to be 
 the most highly blessed of mortals." His tone was 
 so bitter, his smile so sad, that, overwhelmed by a 
 new sentiment of pity for this master of the world, 
 she promised to follow him to Paris, 
 
 Mme. Walewska reached Paris in the beginning 
 of the year 1808, and thenceforth this mysterious 
 liaison, to which Napoleon was sometimes unfaith- 
 ful, but which was nevertheless the grand passion 
 of his life, was established on so strange a footing 
 that, if one could not find its confirmation in isolated 
 details and dates which are authenticated by divers 
 witnesses, it vf ould be difficult to follow the chain of 
 events and one would not dare to affirm the con- 
 tinuity of facts which the best informed contempo- 
 raries ignored. 
 
 It is known that during the campaign of 1809 
 Mme. Walewska went to Vienna, where an elegant 
 establishment awaited her near the Palace of Schœn- 
 brunn, that she became enceinte, and after peace was 
 declared went to Walewice for her confinement, and 
 that there, on the 4th of May, 1810, Alexandre-Flo- 
 rlan -Joseph Colonna- Walewska, was born. Know- 
 ing so much, have we not a right to question 
 whether Napoleon's hesitation when treating with 
 Austria, his indecision regarding the fate of Poland 
 
282 NAPOLEON, lothe axd htsbaxd. 
 
 was not dne to the presence of her to whom he 
 had sole m n l y promised the rehabilitation of her 
 country ? 
 
 What contemporaries do not tell ns is that towards 
 the clos^ of 1810, Mme. Walewska, accompanied by 
 her sister-in-law the Princess Jablonowska, and her 
 infant son, returned to Paris, where she Hved first in 
 a pretty house on the Chaussée d'Antin, afterwards 
 at Xo. 2 me dn Honssaie and then at No. 4S me de la 
 Victoire. Every morning the Emperor sent to ask 
 her orders ; boxes in all the theatres were placed at 
 her disposal ; the doors of the museums opened to 
 her : Corvisart was charged to look- after her health 
 and Duroc to see that her every desire was satisfied 
 and her life made as agreeable and easy as possible. 
 The following anecdote gives an example of her 
 power : 
 
 At Spa, a young Englishman indulged in a joke 
 of doubtful taste at the expense of the Princess 
 Jablonowska. On her return to Paris the Princess 
 invited him to accompany !Mme. Walewska and her- 
 self to the museum of artillery ; in the gallery 
 where armor was displayed the party stopped before 
 the armor worn by Jeanne d'Arc, and while the young 
 man was looking at it the Maid of France opened 
 her arms and, seizing him, pressed him violently to 
 her heart ; suffocating, he struggled to escape, but it 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 283 
 
 was only upon the order of Mme. Walewska that 
 Jeanne d'Arc released him. Knowing the jealousy 
 with which Napoleon guarded his museums, is this 
 not a positive proof of her power ? 
 
 Whenever he could escape from the cares of state 
 the Emperor went to her, or had her come to the 
 château with her son, upon whom he had conferred 
 the title of count of the Empire. None in the com- 
 pany, with the exception of the Poles, suspected their 
 relations, and Mme. Walewska went little into 
 society and received only a few compatriots ; her 
 household was mounted upon a modest footing and 
 her conduct extremely circumspect. When she 
 went to take the waters at Spa her sister-in-law ac- 
 companied her, and it was at her sister-in-law's 
 home, a house at Mons-sur-Orge, called the château 
 de Brétigny, which was rented from the Duchesse 
 de Richelieu, that she passed the summer. They 
 essayed vainly to draw her into society, but her 
 greatest preoccupation was to hide from the world 
 the relations of which the majority of women would 
 have been proud. Her country home was situated 
 in a secluded spot and conducted in an extremely 
 simple style, but it was her universe, and she left it 
 as seldom as possible ; nevertheless, she was obliged 
 to accept Josephine's repeated invitations to go to 
 Malmaison with her son, whom the Empress loaded 
 
234 SJlF01^Y.0S. LOVEE A>Tj HrSBA>1>. 
 
 with presents and playthings, but it does not appear 
 tliat she mingled in court society before the year 
 1813, and it is only at that epoch that in her person- 
 al accounts two court-dresses are mentioned ; one 
 was a dress of black velvet with gold-spangled tulle, 
 the other of white tulle : however recherché her cos- 
 tumes may have appeared she was certainly not an 
 extravagant woman, for her annual bills at Leroy 's 
 never exceeded six thousand francs. 
 
 It was needless for her to appear at court in order 
 to recall herself to Xapoleon's memory, proof of 
 which lies in a letter written by liim from Xogent, 
 the 8th of February, IS 14 : in the midst of the terrible 
 strain incident to the French campaign, on the day 
 following the battle of Brienne, and on the eve of 
 that of Champaubert, he thought of Mme. Walewska 
 and endeavored to secure her future. He had 
 charged the treasurer-general, M. de La Bouillerie to 
 settle fifty thousand potmds upon the young Count 
 Walewska m such fashion that, in the event of his 
 death, his mother should be his heir, and the idea 
 that all the formalities had not been fulfilled caused 
 him to write this letter : 
 
 ^* I have received your letter relative to yotmg 
 Walewska, I give you carte blanche to do whatever 
 is proper ; but act at once. That which preoccupies 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYEU AND HUSBAND. 235 
 
 me most at present is first that boy and then his 
 mother. 
 
 Mme. Walewska knew nothing of all this, and 
 there never was a more disinterested heart than 
 hers. During the last days at Fontainebleau when 
 the Emperor, abandoned by all, had sought to find 
 in death a refuge which destiny refused him, she 
 hastened to his side and spent an entire night in an 
 antechamber awaiting his commands. Napoleon, ab- 
 sorbed in his gloomy reflections, exhausted by the 
 physical crisis through which he had passed, never 
 thought of asking for her until she had already been 
 gone an hour. " Poor woman," he said, ^^she will 
 believe herself forgotten." 
 
 He little understood her, for a few months later, 
 at the end of August, 1814, she landed at Elba, ac- 
 companied by her son, her sister and her brother. 
 Colonel Laczinski, and spent a day with the Emper- 
 or at the hermitage of Marciana. From the mo- 
 ment she learned of Napoleon's return to Paris in 
 1815 she was among the most devoted and assiduous 
 of the women who visited the Elysée and at Mal- 
 maison, faithful to the Emperor through his fall 
 and misfortunes. 
 
 But after he had gone to St. Helena she thought 
 
236 KAPOLÉOX, LOVEE AXt) HUSBAXD. 
 
 herself free, and M. Walewska having died in 1814, 
 she married at Liège in 1816, General Count 
 d'Ornano, who had been obliged to take refuge there 
 after the second return of the Bourbons. General 
 d'Ornano had been one of the bravest officers of the 
 Grand Army, and Mme. Walewska's union with him 
 was brief but happy, for she died within the year, 
 expiring in her home in the rue de la Victoire on the 
 15th of December, ISlT. 
 
 One of the Emperors companions at St. Helena 
 tells us, that the news of Mme. Walewska's marriage 
 affected His Majesty keenly, as he had preserved a 
 warm affection for her and could not reconcile him- 
 self to the thought that one whom he had loved 
 should care for another. In his will the Emperor 
 had expressed his desire that Alexandre Walewska 
 should enter the French army ; his career was a 
 brilliant one, and as soldier, writer, diplomat and 
 statesman his life is too intimately associated with 
 the history of his time to render it necessary for us 
 to dwell upon it here. 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 237 
 
 CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE DIVORCE. 
 
 The death of Napoleon-Charles destroyed Napo- 
 leon's dream of creating an heredity by adoption ; 
 the birth of Léon disabused his mind of all doubts 
 of his inability to create a direct line, and love for 
 Mme. Walewska completed the work by weakening 
 Josephine's influence. It is impossible that at Tilsifc 
 the Emperor directly negotiated an alliance with a 
 Russian grand -duchess, but certain that from the 
 moment of his return to France he began paving the 
 way for divorce ; his ordinary method of procedure 
 was to carry a project into operation as soon as it 
 was conceived, but he took two years for the execu- 
 tion of this one. 
 
 Mentally Napoleon was fully alive to the advan- 
 tages which would accrue to him from a divorce 
 and second marriage, but, though his brain was 
 willing, his heart's dictates were in opposition to 
 his political sagacity, and it was this war within 
 himself which kept him in a state of uncertainty 
 
238 NAPOLEOX, LOVER AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 from ISOT to 1809^ an uncertainty which causes his 
 actions to appear inexpHcable to the historian, can- 
 not be accounted for by poHtical reasons, and was 
 due solely to conscientious scruples. 
 
 Before Xapoleon could acquire the energy neces- 
 sary for the rupture of his marital relations with 
 the woman whom he had once passionately loved, 
 and raised to share the throne with him, who was 
 bound to him by ten years of close companionship, 
 and whom, with her children, he had preferred 
 above his own flesh and blood, it was essential that 
 the ties which bound him should break one by one, 
 and a divorce became a necessity. 
 
 Feeling that he was about to do her a great wrong. 
 Napoleon attributed to Josephine even more amiable 
 qualities than she possessed, and repeatedly said to 
 his advisers : '*' She will not be able to bear it, it will 
 kill her ! *' and possibly he was superstitious enough 
 to believe that his fortunes depended upon, her and 
 her star ; yet neither vain superstition, fear of the 
 criticism of his companions in arms nor of public 
 opinion, caused his hesitation, he simply paused for 
 a time, listening to the dictates of his heart. 
 
 Weary of the Emperor's vacillations some of those 
 who were ardent advocates of the divorce, such as 
 Fouché, essayed to hasten the rupture by adroit 
 insinuations to Josephine, with the view of determin- 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 239 
 
 ing her to take the initiative and voluntarily sacri- 
 fice herself. Napoleon understood that this excess 
 of zeal rose from the projects he had formed and 
 allowed to be divined, but the more he realized his 
 weakness the more it irritated him, and, indignant 
 that one of his ministers should fancy he could coerce 
 him, that this police spy should have dared to probe 
 into his domestic life and show his ugly face in the 
 conjugal chamber, he treated Fouché as he had 
 never treated any man before, and Josephine, 
 astutely advised by Talleyrand, who for some reason 
 or another wished to throw an obstacle in Fouché's 
 path, profited by her husband's momentary indigna- 
 tion and boldly accused him of intending to repu- 
 diate her. Napoleon shrinking from the scene which 
 was bound to follow an admission of his intention, 
 hesitated and was reconquered. 
 
 This renewal of affection for his wife did not 
 render him more faithful, for in the sentiment 
 which he entertained for Josephine, fidelity had no 
 part ; it was a kindly feeling, combined from 
 memory, pity and gratitude, but permitting of no 
 illusions regarding the youth and beauty of his wife, 
 and when he found himself in the society of younger 
 and prettier women he saw no reason why he should 
 not enjoy it without detriment to his marital rela- 
 tions. 
 
240 NAPOLEON. LOVER A2s'D HFSBAXD. 
 
 During the sojourn at Paris and Fontainebleau, 
 between August and October of ISO 7. Mme. G-azzani 
 exercised her influence over Napoleon, and it is said 
 that at Fontainebleau he also fell a victim to the 
 charms of Mme. de B. "^ ^ - ^^ who was a companion 
 to the Princess Pauline. This Mme. de B. - ^ ^ * 
 whose husband was distantly related to the Beau- 
 harnais and owed his place at court to his kinshiiD 
 with them, was one of the prettiest of women ; she 
 was very tall, and some claim that her head and 
 features were too small for her figiire, but she 
 was generally considered a remarkably handsome 
 woman ; she was extremely clever, poor, and morally 
 unprejudiced. The Emperor saw her at first at a 
 hunting-breakfast and signified his admiration for 
 her. going so far. it is said, as to write to her. Her 
 apartment was on the first floor of the château, and 
 gave into the garden of Diana, so it was conveniently 
 situated for nocturnal visitoi's, and His Majesty was 
 always welcome. Mme. de B. ^^^^ was well con- 
 tent with her position, and the husband, who was 
 aged and little troubled by scruples, rubbed his 
 hands over it. *"My wife." he said one day, in a 
 drawing-room, "' is a woman of wonderful re- 
 sources ; we are not rich, yet, thanks to her clever- 
 ness, we appear to be : she is a perfect treasure." 
 She worked so well that she made him a chamber- 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 241 
 
 lain to one of the Emperor's imperial brothers and a 
 baron of the Empire. This liaison, however, was 
 conducted with such secrecy that some have doubted 
 if it really existed, and as it was not continued after 
 the Emperor left Fontainebleau, the complaisant 
 husband's pleasure abated and he had some un- 
 pleasant experiences, for Mme. de B. * -^ * * quarrel- 
 ing with the princess because of a brilliant young 
 officer, was dismissed from the imperial household 
 and obliged to retire to her country-seat, while the 
 officer was sent to Spain, where he was grievously 
 wounded ; on his return, Mme. de B. ^ ^ ^ * secured 
 a divorce and they were married. 
 
 Although Bonaparte had allowed Josephine to 
 reassume her sway over him he was still haunted 
 by the thought of divorce, the wisdom of which his 
 counsellors never permitted him to forget, and it 
 was with this step in view that he went to Italy in 
 1807. One of Josephine's greatest disquietudes in 
 connection with the divorce was the effect it would 
 have upon her son, for although Napoleon had es- 
 tablished Eugène in Italy as viceroy in 1805, and 
 had married him, in 1806, to the Princess Augusta, 
 giving him the title of ^' Son of France," his 
 promises had not been sanctioned by legislative act ; 
 he wished, therefore, to reassure both his wife and 
 
 the House of Bavaria, and also to inform himself 
 16 
 
242 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 regarding a union which had been proposed to him, 
 namely, a marriage with the Princess Charlotte of 
 Bavaria, and it was doubtless with this alliance in 
 view that he arranged a meeting at Milan with the 
 Bavarian king, queen and princess. The young girl, 
 however, proved less prepossessing than he had an- 
 ticipated, and discarding the idea of that alliance 
 he left the princess to her strange destiny, and con- 
 sidered the advisability of a family alliance. 
 
 Although Lucien Bonaparte's first wife, Catherine 
 Boyer, was a woman of most humble origin, the un- 
 educated daughter of an innkeeper at Saint-Max- 
 imin de Vâr, Napoleon had loved her like a sister, 
 and her young daughter, Lolotte, having reached a 
 marriageable age he seriously considered the advisa- 
 bility of making her his wife. There was an es- 
 trangement between his brother Lucien and himself, 
 and the Emperor, who considered family unity es- 
 sential, was desirous of effecting a reconciliation, 
 and argued that this step might cement Lucien's 
 affection for him ; he reasoned that if the dissimi- 
 larity between Lolotte's age and his proved too 
 great and the young girl showed any repugnance 
 at the idea of becoming his wife, or if, on close ac- 
 quaintance with her, he should alter his intentions, 
 it would be easy to find her a suitable husband from 
 some of the royal houses of Europe. He thought 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 243 
 
 that, should the marriage take place, the succession 
 which he would establish in France would be more 
 purely Bonaparte, and hoped that the girl who had 
 been very fond of him as a little child w^ould find it 
 easy to renew the affection of her youth. Lolotte 
 was brought to Paris and placed under the protection 
 of her grandmother, Madame Mère, but she did not 
 remain long. She amused her father with her letters 
 about the doings of the French court, seemingly un- 
 suspicious that her correspondence was watched, 
 and it was soon clear to Napoleon that a union with 
 his niece was not feasible, whereupon he sent her 
 back to Italy. Lolotte Bonaparte never wore a crown, 
 but in 1815, she married the Prince Gabrielli, and 
 lived until 1866. 
 
 The Italian journey, then, was unproductive as 
 far as Napoleon's matrimonial projects were con- 
 cerned, but Fouchè continued to agitate and dissem- 
 inate the idea of divorce, thus exposing himself to 
 wrathful letters from the Emperor, which did not, 
 however, cause him to cease intriguing ; his ordi- 
 narily clear perception seemed obscured, his usual 
 sagacity at fault, for he failed to see that this was 
 not the moment to urge his plans. The perils of 
 Eylau, and the conspiracy which was hatched dur- 
 ing his absence had not made sufficient impression 
 upon the Emperor for him to deem it essential to 
 
244 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 leave a living representative in Paris when war 
 called him away, and in order to decide him to repu- 
 diate Josephine and wed another an extraordinarily 
 desirable alliance must be proposed : such a one 
 was not at hand, the idea of a Eussian alliance 
 having long been abandoned, and Austria having no 
 marriageable daughter to offer. 
 
 Almost immediately following Nax-)oleon's return 
 from Italy, Mme. AValewska arrived in Paris and 
 Xapoleon's heart was completely filled with her, 
 while his mind was occupied with affairs of state ; 
 the Si^anish question perplexed him greatly, and 
 claiming that that must be settled before he could 
 reopen with Alexander the conference begun at 
 Tilsit, he gave little thought to the question of di- 
 vorce. Talleyrand, however, began to urge the step, 
 and to insist that the Emperor should at least come 
 to some decision upon the subject. Under the j)ress- 
 ure brought to bear upon him Napoleon became so 
 excited and nervous that a serious illness seemed 
 inevitable ; he had frequent attacks of excruciating 
 stomach trouble, and when ill would draw his wife 
 down beside him on the bed and weeping sob out 
 that he could not leave her. 
 
 It seemed as if Josephine possessed some talisman 
 by which she held her husband's affection, and al- 
 though he sometimes said that she was old and ugly, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 245 
 
 during their sojourn at Marrac his conduct towards 
 her was Hke that of a youthful lover. In those days 
 he apparently forgot that a divorce had ever been 
 talked of ; they amused themselves like a couple of 
 children let loose from school ; frequently, in the 
 presence of the guard of light cavalry that escorted 
 them, he chased Josephine across the beach and 
 pushed her into the water, laughing like a boy, and 
 when the Empress, in her haste, lost her shoes, he 
 threw them out to sea and forced her to drive home 
 in her stockings, that he might the better see and 
 feel her feet, which he greatly admired. At this 
 period he was more alive to Josephine's worth than 
 ever before, indeed she never appeared to better ad- 
 vantage than upon this journey to Bayonne ; she 
 showed herself intelligent, adroit and full of tact 
 in the strange interview they were obliged to hold 
 with the Spanish sovereigns, and later during the 
 triumphal march across the south and west prov- 
 inces, when the temperature was so high that in 
 order to be at all comfortable they were obliged to 
 travel by night, when at each halting place they 
 were feted and entertained in exactly the same dull 
 manner, when Napoleon was bored in the extreme 
 by the ovations, Josephine, in spite of fatigue and 
 illness, was always punctual and ready with a 
 gracious smile and fitting word for all. It was 
 
246 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE AXD HUSBAND. 
 
 wonderful how she managed to appear interested in 
 everything, in household affairs and children, in all 
 which could best please the women ; how she man- 
 aged to temper Napoleon's dominant power by her 
 gracious smile and caressing manner and to win 
 love where he won admiration. She had wonderful 
 tact in giving a present, and a way of taking a jewel 
 from her own person and offering it to a matron or 
 maid which was simply captivating, and understood 
 how to make the presentation to an official of an 
 obligatory present appear like a token of personal 
 esteem. 
 
 Although for four months constantly under the 
 charm of Josephine's presence, the desire for divorce 
 again took hold of Napoleon ; doubtless it was the 
 incentive for the journey of Erfurt, to which place 
 he was accompanied by Talleyrand, whose mission it 
 was to insinuate to the Emperor Alexander that 
 Napoleon was ready to share his throne with one of 
 the grand duchesses ; but Talleyrand, instead of 
 serving his royal master, unscrupulously betrayed 
 him ; it was he who furnished the Eussian Emperor 
 with a plan for eluding Napoleon's proposal, sug- 
 gested the basis for a new coalition against France, 
 and paved the way for the war of 1S09. 
 
 From Erfurt, Napoleon was obliged to return at 
 once to Paris and the Spanish frontier. He relied 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBANDo 247 
 
 upon Alexander's good faith, and fancied that when 
 he had quelled the Spanish mutiny, nothing would 
 be easier to arrange than the proposed Russian 
 alliance. However, it was not a mutiny which 
 he had to subdue in Spain but an insurrec- 
 tion, and, instead of taking two months to put it 
 down, as he had anticipated, he was detained three 
 months, and finally achieved but a barren victory. 
 Then came news from Paris of plots in his own 
 family, who were figuring upon his death, that 
 Austria was again in arms, that the archdukes were 
 instigating revolt in Germany, and the sacred war 
 kept alive by secret societies. Leaving Benavente, 
 he spurred to Paris with incredible rapidity, and in 
 three months he unmasked traitors, put his affairs 
 in order, organized an army, and pushed on to the 
 Danube, Austria having attacked and Archduke 
 Charles invaded the territory of the confederation ; 
 but when at Schoenbrunn, after seventeen months of 
 indefatigable action, he had time for reflection, the 
 urgent necessity for divorce was made apparent ; 
 he not only realized clearly the obligation of assur- 
 ing an heredity, but the necessity of having a repre- 
 sentative in Paris during his absence, one around 
 whom his friends would rally in the case of an 
 English invasion or an uprising of the royalists. 
 Josephine was no longer at hand to confuse and 
 
248 XAPOLEOX, LOTZE AXD HrSBA^'D. 
 
 trouble him br appeals to his conscience, and the 
 memory of the years they had passed together, to 
 startle him by suggesting that, with the sttndering 
 of their lives, the star of his destiny would begin to 
 wane ; another woman, as agreeable, younger, and 
 more beautiful, next whose heart lay a child of his, 
 was at his side, and so the question, which for two 
 long years had vexed his spirit and wi^ung his heart, 
 was finally settled. So long as Xapoleon doubted if 
 he could have children he had schemed, planned and 
 invented every imaginable combination for the 
 foundation of an heredity, but now that he hneiv 
 that he could found a hne of kings, that his descend- 
 ants might sit upon the throne of France, it was 
 plain to him that a second marriage was the only 
 practical step, that a direct heir alone could enstire 
 the stability of the Empire. 
 
 In order to spare both Josephine and himself, and 
 avoid further painful scenes, he wrote from Vienna 
 ordering that the communicating doors between his 
 apartments and the Empress's at Fontainebleau 
 be walled up. and when Josephine joined him at the 
 château, he refused to grant her a private inteiwiew 
 and remained closeted with his ministers ; from that 
 time, he so arranged that they were never alone to- 
 gether, and thus avoided any explanations or private 
 convei'sation regarding his intentions. Zsapoleou 
 
KAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HFSBAND. 249 
 
 essayed to make Hortense announce his decision to 
 her mother, and, when she refused, summoned Eu- 
 gène from Italy for the purpose ; but when he knew 
 his stepson to be on the way, he mustered up his 
 courage and provoked the supreme conversation 
 wherein he must declare to his wife his irrevocable 
 determination to divorce her. 
 
 So at last fell the blow which Josephine had been 
 dreading for years, for the avoidance of which she 
 had deployed all her charms, the fear of which had 
 poisoned her life ; she knew that further effort was 
 futile, and although she wept and fainted when the 
 Emperor finally announced his decision, it was rather 
 with the view of making the best of the situation 
 for herself and children than from excess of feeling ; 
 she wished her son's position firmly established, her 
 own debts paid, and an ample income settled upon 
 her ; she desired to preserve the rank and prerog- 
 atives of an Empress, and above all that she should 
 not be forced to leave Paris. Napoleon granted all 
 that she asked, the Elysée was given her as a town 
 residence, the domain of Malmaison for a country 
 seat, and the château of Navarre as a hunting-lodge ; 
 and a yearly income of three millions, the title, the es- 
 cort, and the customary retinue of a reigning Em- 
 press were assured her ; thus he prepared for his 
 divorced wife a place in the state which was unpar- 
 
250 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE A^T3 HrSBAXD. 
 
 alleled in history, unless a like example could be 
 found anioDg the annals of Eonie and Byzantium. 
 
 But Xapoleon gave his divorced vife more than 
 money, palaces and titles, he gave her his sympathy 
 and his tears. He sent almost hourly for news of 
 her, desiring to know how she passed her time away 
 from him. and like the most faithful and tender of 
 lovers, wrote her letter after letter, and insisted that 
 all who surrounded her should visit him that he 
 might glean from them every item of interest re- 
 garding the daily life of the woman he had repu- 
 diated : there was no attention, kindness, or favor 
 that he did not lavish upon her. so conscious was he 
 of the wrong he had done : what he wished was that 
 she should accept the inevitable with fortitude, and, 
 making the best of her new situation, relieve him of 
 the pain of knowing her unhappy through his will. 
 
 Nevertheless, when he went to Malmaison to see 
 and console Josephine he never embraced her or 
 entered her private apartments, but so arranged 
 that his visits should have an air of formality, for 
 he wished that both she and the world should know 
 that all was ended. This conduct bears witness to 
 his respect for Josephine, showing that he would not 
 permit any one to think that the wife of yesterday 
 had become the mistress of to-day ; perhaps, too, he 
 doubted of his ability to maintain his distant de- 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 251 
 
 meanor save when supported by witnesses, and his 
 conduct shows how strong, powerful and tender 
 was his affection for this woman ; an affection 
 which had outhved youth and beauty, and, in spite 
 of all strains, remained to the last the great love 
 of his life. 
 
252 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 CHAPTEE XYTI. 
 
 MAEIE-LOnSE. 
 
 Up to this period all the women with whom Na- 
 poleon had been intimately connected had been con- 
 sidered by him as his inferiors, for, surrounded by 
 women of the noblest blood of France, Montmoren- 
 cies, Mortemarts and Lavais, he had learned to es- 
 timate the social worth of the Beauhamais family 
 correctly, and the influence which Josephine had 
 exercised over him through her supposed prestige 
 had long since vanished. None of his mistresses 
 had been sufficiently high-born to flatter his vanity 
 by her rank and worldly position : indeed, he does 
 not seem to have attempted conquests of that kind, 
 or, if he did, must have been early discouraged ; 
 moreover, in order to satisfy his egotism and ambi- 
 tion something more than a marriage with a uoble 
 famfly of France was necessary. Such an alliance 
 was made possible by the Emperor of Austria's prof- 
 fer of the hand of his eldest daughter Marie-Louise ; 
 this alliance Napoleon believed would assist him to 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 253 
 
 climb the last step towards equality with his prede- 
 cessors upon the French throne, and the Napoleonic 
 system which he had endeavored to establish and to 
 strengthen by intermarriages between the Bona- 
 partes and the various reigning families of Europe, 
 would, by his marriage, become amalgamated with 
 the house of Austria, even as the Bourbons had been 
 before him, his dynasty would lose its improvised 
 air, and on assuming the quartering of the house of 
 Austria gain the relationships which seemed to him 
 to constitute the only strong and durable political 
 tie. 
 
 In this alliance Napoleon's ambition found satis- 
 faction, but how could his dominant spirit accommo- 
 date itself to a wife who had from birth the con- 
 sciousness of her rank and worth, and the belief in 
 her own infallibility common to those born in the 
 purple. By a strange hazard the young girl who 
 was offered to him had been so educated as to have 
 no will save that of her father, to realize that her 
 interests were subordinate to those of her nation, 
 that she was destined to play a rôle in some political 
 combination, and that she must accept without a 
 murmur the marriage which the political interests 
 of her country imposed upon her ; it was with this 
 object in view that Marie-Louise's character had 
 been moulded from earliest infancy. She had been 
 
254 XAPOLEOX, LOYEE AXD HESBAXD. 
 
 taught all languages, German. English, French, 
 Italian, Spanish, Turkish, Bohemian and even Latin, 
 for it was impossible to foresee where her clestiny 
 woulcl lead her ; moreover, it was argued, that the 
 more extended her vocabulary, the gTeater the 
 number of words at her command for the expres- 
 sion of an idea, the less ideas she was likely to have. 
 Her talents for music and drawing had been en- 
 couraged and cultivated as those accomplishments 
 provided an innocent means of distraction for a 
 princess wherever she might find herself ; the teach- 
 ings of the Church had been given her literally, and 
 minute attention to all its forms inculcated, but all 
 questions of dogTua were avoided, for it was possible 
 that fate would give the Austrian princess a heretic 
 for a husband. Her education included a system of 
 morals which only the casuists of Spain could have 
 advised ; the archduchess was kept in ignorance 
 regarding the difference in sex, the barnyard was 
 peopled only by hens, she had no little dogs, only 
 bitches, her riding horse was a mare, her books 
 were pitilessly expurged, pages, lines, even words 
 being cut out, without its occurring to the censor 
 that the gulfs thus created would give the arch- 
 duchess food for thought. The princess was con- 
 tinually under the surveillance of a court lady, who 
 directed the management of her apartments, wr. 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 255 
 
 present at her lessons, invented her games, and 
 watched the servants and teachers ; this lady never 
 left her pupil, either by night or day, and, as politics 
 played an important part in the princess's destiny, 
 the incumbent of this position changed with each 
 new ministry, and Marie-Louise had five governesses 
 in eighteen years ; her education, however, was regu- 
 lated by such rigid laws that, despite all changes in 
 her suite, she remained the same. 
 
 Marie-Louise's amusements were such as are com- 
 mon to a conventual life ; she had flowers to culti- 
 vate, birds to take care of, and sometimes lunched 
 under the trees with her governess's daughter ; her 
 holidays were spent in the intimacy of the family in 
 pleasant but bourgeois fashion ; she never partici- 
 pated in the gaieties of the court, and had made but 
 one or two short journeys in order that she might 
 have change of air. The event which had made the 
 greatest impression upon her, and which had given 
 her the most distraction, were her flights before the 
 French invasions, when discipline had been relaxed 
 and tasks laid aside ; thus it was not a woman who 
 was offered to Napoleon but a child, accustomed to 
 live under such strict rules that any life would seem 
 sweet by comparison, and for whom the simplest 
 pleasures would possess a charm. 
 
 Marie-Louise's education was identical with that 
 
256 :^APOLEOX, LOVER AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 given to the daughters of Marie-Thérèse and the re- 
 sult of this method, as exemiDhfied by Marie- Antoi- 
 nette at Versailles, Marie- Caroline at Xaples and 
 Marie-Amélie at Parma, was not desirable — and it 
 was to be dreaded lest the nature of the young Aus- 
 trian princess which had been so rej^ressed would 
 expand in the same way as her aunt's ; Napoleon, 
 however, reasoned that husbands are responsible for 
 their wives' conduct, and laid his plans accordingly. 
 The school-girl who was to pass into his keeping 
 should simply leave the convents of Schoenbrunn 
 and Laxenburg for that of the Tuileries and Saint- 
 Cloud, she should live under the same inflexible 
 rules, the same rigorous surveillance, she should 
 have no freedom in the choice of friendships and 
 read no book which had not been previously scanned ; 
 no mascuhne visitors should be permitted, and her 
 governess should be replaced by a lady of honor and 
 four ladies-in-waiting who should be perpetually on 
 guard ; the only difference in her life should be the 
 presence of a husband. 
 
 Thus since the husband was obliged to teach his 
 wife all that her parents had taken pains to conceal 
 from her, he resolved to supplement the enlighten- 
 ment by great i)recautions, and determined that no 
 man, however high or low his position upon the 
 social ladder, should remain for one instant alone 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 257 
 
 with the Empress. He re-estabHshed the etiquette 
 of Louis XIV. 's time, the rigidity of which had been 
 relaxed through the indifference of Louis XV. and 
 the feebleness of Louis XVI. ; but where royalty 
 veiled its distrust under the disguise of traditional 
 honors, employing the highest ladies in the land to 
 watch the queen under the pretext of keeping her 
 company, Napoleon brought into play undisguised 
 military discipline ; he was not actuated by jealousy, 
 but simply by motives of prudence and precaution ; 
 he had once said at a state's council : ''Adultery is 
 the affair of a moment," and he was convinced, 
 perhaps by experience, that a tête-à-tête between a 
 man and a woman easily became criminal. With 
 such a distrust of woman Napoleon would doubtless 
 have found the Oriental system quite to his taste, 
 but as it was not customary among Europeans to 
 seclude their wives in a harem he was obliged to re- 
 place eunuchs by ladies-in-waiting, and iron bars by 
 etiquette, but, save for the name, the prison was 
 the same. The imprisonment accepted, he in- 
 tended to give to his wife every material pleasure 
 which she could desire ; but the pleasures which he 
 offered her were almost identical with those which 
 a Sultan gives to his favorite odalisque. 
 
 While at Vienna Marie-Louise ignored the pleas- 
 ure of elegant dresses, exquisite laces, rare shawls 
 
258 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 and dainty linen ; in Paris^ provided that no mer- 
 chant approached her and she made her selections 
 through the medium of a lady of the wardrobe, 
 she should have every beautiful thing which French 
 industry could produce, and Napoleon gave her a 
 foretaste of the luxuries which were to be hers in 
 the corbeille which he sent her, of which he inspected 
 each article and had it packed under his super- 
 vision. The corbeille included twelve dozen chemise 
 of the finest batiste, trimmed with embroidery and 
 Valenciennes, twenty-four dozen handkerchiefs, 
 twenty-four night-dresses, thirty-six skirts, and 
 twenty-four night-caps, at a cost of fifty-one 
 thousand, one hundred and fifty -six francs. 
 
 In addition the corbeille contained eighty-one 
 thousand, one hundred and ninety-nine francs' worth 
 of laces, exclusive of a point-d'Alençon shawl, 
 which was valued at three thousand two hundred 
 francs ; sixty-four dresses from Leroy costing one 
 hundred and twenty-six thousand, nine hundred 
 and seventy-six francs ; seventeen cashmere shawls 
 valued at thirty-nine thousand, eight hundred and 
 sixty francs ; twelve dozen stockings, ranging in 
 price from eighteen to seventy-two francs a pair, 
 and sixty pairs of shoes and slippers of all colors and 
 fabrics, which had been made according to measures 
 sent from Vienna, and were so small that Napoleon, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 259 
 
 as he examined them, remarked that it was a good 
 sign. Everything that Paris could produce that 
 was beautiful and rare was presented to her, and 
 yearly she might have almost as much. As for her 
 toilet alone, she was to have an allowance of thirty 
 thousand francs a month. 
 
 As a girl, Marie-Louise had owned but one or two 
 jewels, whose value was so insignificant that the 
 wife of a Paris shopkeeper would have disdained 
 them ; a couple of hair bracelets, a necklace of seed 
 pearls and another of green beads had comprised her 
 ornaments ; as Empress she was to have diamonds 
 of enormous value ; the thirteen stones which sur- 
 rounded the portrait which the Emperor sent her 
 alone cost six hundred thousand francs, a diamond 
 necklace costing nine hundred thousand francs, and 
 a pair of ear-rings costing four hundred thousand 
 francs, and a still finer parure composed of a diadem, 
 comb, ear-rings, necklace and belt contained two 
 thousand, two hundred and fifty-seven large stones 
 and three hundred and six rose diamonds. She was 
 to have a parure of emeralds and diamonds valued 
 at two hundred and eighty-nine thousand, eight 
 hundred and sixty-five francs ; one of opal and 
 diamonds costing two hundred and seventy-five 
 thousand, nine hundred and fifty-three francs ; one 
 of ruby and diamonds and another of turquoise and 
 
260 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 diamonds, all of immense value, without counting 
 the diamond ornaments furnished by the crown and 
 appraised at three milhon. three hundred and twenty- 
 five thousand, seven hundred and twenty-four 
 francs. 
 
 The apartments which she had inhabited in Aus- 
 tria had been furnished in the simplest manner, in 
 France magnificent rooms which had been re-deco- 
 rated and furnished under the Emperor's personal 
 supervision awaited her coming, and in order to 
 spare her any feeling of strangeness the Emperor 
 ordered that all toilet articles and small pieces of 
 furniture likely to be in daily use should be dupli- 
 cated ; thus, in whatever palace she went to reside, 
 the articles to which she was accustomed should be 
 at hand. When the work of the furnishing of the 
 apartments was complete the Emperor was so proud 
 of his success as a decorator that he invited all his 
 guests to view them, and at the Tuileries he himself 
 conducted the king and queen of Bavaria to inspect 
 the rooms, taking them by the way of a dark and 
 narrow staircase which led from his own dressing- 
 room to the Empress's bed-chamber ; the staircase 
 was so narrow that the king, who was extremely 
 corpulent, was obliged to descend sideways, and 
 when they arrived at the foot, the door leading into 
 the apartment destined for the Empress was found 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 261 
 
 to be locked and they were obliged to turn about in 
 the dark and narrow space and remount the stair- 
 case — a movement which was executed with great 
 difficulty because of his Bavarian Majesty's great 
 size. At Compiègne it was the Emperor also who 
 did the honors of the Empress's bathroom to the 
 Queen of Westphalia, displaying to her the marble 
 bath and furniture and hangings of India stuffs 
 which had cost four hundred thousand francs. 
 
 For the good of her stomach Marie-Louise's 
 governesses had forbidden all rich food, but the 
 Emperor, foreseeing that, like most Viennese, she 
 would have a taste for goodies, took upon himself 
 the ordering of her table, multiplying the deserts 
 with cakes and ices and bon-bons. 
 
 Marie-Louise had a generous nature, but up to the 
 time of her marriage had had nothing to give save 
 such samples of her own handicraft as she had been 
 taught to make ; as Empress she was enabled to 
 shower presents upon her family. Napoleon setting 
 her an example by sending handsome presents to 
 her people even before she arrived in France. It 
 was not iDossible to assert that she had a taste for 
 the theatre, as she had never seen a play, but Napo- 
 leon believed that she would not be of her country 
 and her time if she had not, and planned for her 
 amusement in that way, both when she accompanied 
 
262 XAPOLEOX, LOVER AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 him to the theatre or preferred to have the actors 
 play in the palace ; in short it was his intention that 
 she should have everything which would distract 
 and amuse her so long as it was in accordance with 
 the secluded life he had planned. It was not his in- 
 tention that she should leave her apartments save 
 for great civil and religious ceremonies, state balls, 
 the theatre, the hunt, and such journeys as might he 
 necessary, and upon these occasions she was to be 
 surrounded by her ladies of honor and officers, and, 
 arrayed in court costume, laden with jewels, she 
 was to remain in haughty isolation, to be wor- 
 shipped by all classes from afar like an idol. 
 
 Thus he essayed to gild the bars of the prison 
 which he had prepared for the Austrian princess, 
 dreaming to keep her a child, and imagining that 
 she would pass, without feeling the transition, from 
 captive archduchess to captive empress ; thus he 
 sought to assure himself of her fidelity and so to ar- 
 range her life that she should be, like Caesar's wife, 
 above suspicion. The woman whom he thus planned 
 to seclude had in his eyes a mission to fulfil, to be 
 the mother of his children ; she was the mould des- 
 tined to receive and develop the dynastic germ, and 
 it was in order to assure the legitimacy of his de- 
 scendants that he took so many precautions : he acted 
 not unwisely, for the doctrine of monarchical sue- 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 263 
 
 cession hinges upon the unquestionable legitimacy 
 of offspring. 
 
 Napoleon did not doubt that Marie-Louise-would 
 become a mother, having informed himself minute- 
 ly regarding her health and physical being, and 
 knowing her family to be prolific, her mother 
 having had thirteen children, her grandmother 
 seventeen, and her great grandmother twenty-six, 
 and he was impatient for her arrival that he might 
 insure the future of his race. 
 
 Napoleon had received Marie-Louise's portrait, 
 which represented a young woman with long, blonde 
 hair parted in heavy masses and brushed back on 
 each side from a high forehead, eyes of china blue, 
 a nose slightly indented at the base, thick lips, heavy 
 chin, white but rather prominent teeth and a com- 
 plexion marred by the ravages of smallpox ; the 
 shoulders were large and white, the bust remark- 
 abl}^ full, and the arms, which were long and thin, 
 terminated in small and pretty hands, while her 
 foot was charming. He had been told that she was 
 tall for a woman, and neither graceful nor supple, 
 but an easy carriage Napoleon thought could be 
 acquired, and what he most desired was that her 
 appearance should show the characteristics of her 
 race. 
 
 When Le jeune. General Berthier's aide-de-camp, 
 
264 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 arrived at Compiègne, preceding Marie-Louise by 
 several days, Napoleon had the portrait which he 
 had received from Vienna brought into the room 
 and proceeded to question the young officer as to 
 the likeness ; happily Lejeune was an artist as well 
 as a soldier, and was able to show the Emperor a 
 sketch in profile which he had himself made of the 
 archduchess. '^Ah," exclaimed Napoleon, ^'she 
 has the real Austrian lip !" and going to the table 
 upon which lay a number of medals with the heads 
 of various Austrian sovereigns thereon, he compared 
 the various profiles and recognized with pleasure 
 that his future Empress was a true Habsburg. 
 
 From the moment the negotiations were concluded, 
 that he knew his dream about to be fulfilled, 
 Napoleon burned with impatience for possession ; in 
 vain he essayed to distract his thoughts by hunting, 
 but the idea haunted him ; he spoke of it to every 
 one and he wished the preparations for the 
 reception finished before they had begun. On its 
 being represented to him that it would be difficult 
 to turn the grand salon of the Louvre into a 
 chapel because of the immense pictures which it was 
 difficult to dispose of, he responded : ^' Well, then, 
 burn them ! " 
 
 He was preoccupied with the impression which he 
 would make and he ordered from Léger, who was 
 
265 
 
 Murat's tailor, a court costume literally covered 
 with embroidery, but on trying it on found it so 
 uncomfortable that he was unable to wear it. He 
 ordered boots from a new shoemaker, in order to 
 have finer shoes than those he had hitherto worn 
 and took dancing-lessons, wishing to learn to waltz, 
 but he only succeeded in bringing on an attack of 
 heart trouble, which forced him to abandon the 
 lessons. As Catherine of Westphalia wrote to her 
 father : ' ^ Neither you nor I would ever have im- 
 agined Napoleon capable of such things." 
 
 In measure as the cortège from Vienna advanced 
 his impatience increased. At last he could wait no 
 longer. Marie-Louise slept at Vitry on the 26th of 
 March, on the 27th she was due at Soisson, and it 
 was not until the 28th that the Emperor was to join 
 her. The programme of the ceremonial was printed, 
 the pavilion where the meeting was to take place 
 was built and decorated, the troops were commanded 
 and the repast prepared, nevertheless, on the morn- 
 ing of the 2Tth, in a pouring rain. Napoleon left 
 Compiègne in company with Mur at, and without an 
 escort or suite, rode to Courcelles where he awaited 
 Marie-Louise's coming under the shelter of a church 
 porch. At last the coach with its eight horses 
 appeared and stopped for relays, Napoleon advanced 
 to the side of the carriage, the groom of the chambers 
 
266 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 announced him, his sister Caroline, who was con- 
 ducting the bride, presented him to Marie-Louise, 
 and dripping with rain he entered the carriage, 
 which drove rapidly off. They rushed past villages 
 where the mayors, address in hand, waited to receive 
 them, through cities en fête and at last, at nine 
 o'clock in the evening, without having broken the 
 day's fast, they arrived at Compiègne. The Emperor 
 cut short the addresses of welcome, presentations 
 and compliments, and, taking Marie-Louise by the 
 hand, conducted her to his private apartment ; there 
 the young girl had reason to remember the lesson 
 which her father had instilled — obedience to her 
 husband in all things. 
 
 The following noon the Emperor had his break- 
 fast served at the Empress's bedside by one of her 
 maids, and during the day he said to one of his 
 generals: ^^ My friend, marry a German, they are 
 thebest women in the world, good, amiable, innocent, 
 and fresh as a rose." Xapoleon appears to have 
 disreo-arded or disdained the criticisms which would 
 naturally foUow upon his action in assuming that 
 the marriage by proxy was all that was necessary, 
 and his consummation of it before the subsequent 
 ceremonials had taken place, and justified his con- 
 duct bv savins: : ^* Henrv IV. did the same." 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 267 
 
 MARIE-LOUISE. 
 
 PART II. 
 
 Three months after her marriage Marie-Louise 
 said to Metternich : ^^ I am not afraid of Napoleon, 
 but I begin to think he is of me. " Thus three months 
 had sufficed to banish the terrible fear which from 
 Vienna to Compiègne had caused her such mortal 
 terror that it had affected her physical well-being. 
 But how was it possible that Napoleon should have 
 become timid in the presence of this girl of eighteen ? 
 In taking this Austrian princess to wife he realized 
 the dream of years, and from a purely physical de- 
 sire for the possession of the high-born girl had grown 
 a desire to be the object of her affection, as well as 
 the husband assigned her by the political interests 
 of her country ; he wished to know that he possessed 
 her heart, and desired that she should proclaim her 
 happiness. 
 
 One morning when they were at the Tuileries the 
 Emperor sent for Metternich and closeted him with 
 the Empress ; at the end of an hour he rejoined them 
 
268 XAPOLEOX, LOVER AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 and said to the ambassador : '' TVell, have vod had 
 a good talk^ has the Empress laughed or cried, had 
 she many complaints to make ? '" Then, seeing that 
 the ambassador was embarrassed, he added : ^'Oh, 
 I do not expect you to give me a detailed account of 
 your conversation ; it is private matter between you 
 and the Empress ;" nevertheless, on the following- 
 day, he questioned Metternich minutely, and as 
 the latter was not inclined to enlighten him, he 
 exclaimed : ^^ The EmjDress has no complaints to 
 make, and I hope you will say so to your sovereign, 
 as he will rely implicitly upon what you say." In 
 reahty it was rather himself than the Austrian em- 
 peror whom he sought to reassure ; he wished to be- 
 lieve that his wife was devoted to him, that she was 
 contented with the life he forced her to lead, and 
 hid from him no lingering sentiment of distrust and 
 dislike. Aspiring to domestic peace and hai^piness, 
 he longed for the assurance of Marie-Louise's affec- 
 tion and the realization of his desires. 
 
 From childhood the Austrian princess had shared 
 the universal hatred of Bonaparte. When only six 
 years old her mother had told her that Monseigneur 
 Bonaparte, the Corsican, had fled from Eg}^3t, desert- 
 ing his army, and had become a Turk ; she believed 
 firmly that he had been in the habit of beating his 
 ministers, and had slain two of his generals with his 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 269 
 
 own hand, and the year preceding her marriage — ■ 
 the year which had seen Vienna bombarded, and 
 witnessed the battles of Eckmuhl, EssHng and 
 Wagram — she liad considered him one of the most 
 despicable of beings. After Znaïm Marie-Louise 
 wrote to a friend : ^ '^ I am consumed with fury 
 against Napoleon, yet I am obliged to sit at table 
 with one of his marshals ; " and when his divorce 
 was announced, and the question of a second mar- 
 riage began to be discussed she never admitted for 
 a moment that the French conqueror's choice might 
 fall upon her. "' My father," she said, '' is too kind 
 to coerce me in a matter of such importance." She 
 pitied Napoleon's possible choice, being sure that 
 it would not be she who would be the victim of polit- 
 ical expediency ; and when the project of her mar- 
 riage was discussed, she wrote to a friend of her 
 childhood : ^^ Pray for me, for, while I am ready to 
 sacrifice my personal happiness for the welfare of 
 my country, I am most unhappy." Though in 
 reality the Austrian princesses had no voice in the 
 disposal of their hands and no opinion save that of 
 their father, for form's sake, Marie-Louise's consent 
 to the marriage was asked, and she resigned herself 
 to the inevitable, while mentally regarding her 
 future husband as an ogre. When one considers 
 the situation her feeling was not unnatural ; four 
 
270 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 times the French conqueror had devastated her coun- 
 try, twice he had entered Vienna as a victor ; he had 
 forced her royal father to go to his camp, suing for 
 peace ; every sentiment of patriotism and fihal affec- 
 tion, the most sacred of human emotions, the most 
 sensitive chord in noble pride had been outraged 
 by him ; yet, strange as it may appear, Marie- 
 Louise once wed ,^ her repugnance was not apparent. 
 Whether this was due to the education which she 
 had received, or whether her natural temperament 
 was awakened and she enjoyed the good things 
 which Napoleon provided for her — luxuries to which 
 she was unaccustomed, — and found his person- 
 ality not displeasing, or whether her contentment 
 was feigned, it is impossible4o affirm ; but it is prob- 
 able that the first supposition is correct, and Napo- 
 leon did all in his power to prove to her that he was, 
 and would remain, a good husband. At the begin- 
 ning of the Consulate he had ceased to share his 
 chamber with Josephine, pretending that his work 
 and duties rendered it necessary, but in reality to 
 insure his own freedom ; he was prepared, however, 
 if Marie-Louise exacted it, to reassume the chain, 
 for he said : '^ It is a woman's rightful appanage ; " 
 but their temperaments were too dissimilar ; while 
 he, always chilly, wished a fire kept up all the year 
 round, she, accustomed to a cold climate and a 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 271 
 
 Spartan-like existence in the immense and glacial 
 palaces of the environs of Vienna, could not stand 
 heated rooms. Frequently, with the uxoriousness 
 of a young husband, he urged Marie-Louise to spend 
 the night with him, but she always responded that 
 he kept his rooms too warm ; while on going to her 
 apartments he would find the temperature too low 
 for him and order a fire lighted, but he invariably 
 deferred to Marie-Louise's contrary opinion with 
 the remark that ^'Her Majesty's will was law," 
 and, after shivering for a short period, would go 
 away. 
 
 This difference in their temperaments and indif- 
 ference on her part paved the way for infidelities, 
 but Napoleon does not appear to have thought of 
 such a thing, or, if he did, he hid his amours care- 
 fully and they were but passing. In 1811 he appears 
 to have paid some attention to the Princess Aldo- 
 brandini-Borghèse, 7iée Mlle, de Rochefaucauld, to 
 whom he had given a dowry of eight hundred 
 thousand francs and married to the brother-in-law 
 of Pauline Bonaparte, and whom he had just named 
 lady-in-waiting ; but it is probable that he simply 
 admired the manner and elegance of the young 
 woman, who is said to have been charming. There 
 was also some talk, and some gossip in private cor- 
 respondence, regarding the Duchess of Montebello, 
 
272 XAPOLEOX, LOVER AND HUSBAXD. 
 
 who was one of the Empress's ladies of honor, but 
 there is no proof of a liaison ; such adventures as he 
 did permit himself were obscure and carefully dis- 
 simulated, creating no gossip, simply because no one 
 knew anything about them. The first amour which 
 caused any gossip had its birth at Caen where the 
 Emperor met Mme. Pellapra of the Testa-Cubières 
 suit. jSTapoleon again met Mme. Pellapra at Lyons 
 on his return from Elba in 1S15, and then pam- 
 phleteers attacked " Mme. Yentreplat " to their 
 hearts' content. At Saint- Cloud there was a little 
 love-affair with a certain Lise B ^ " " - but it never 
 reached serious proportions ; beyond this his marital 
 behavior towards Marie-Louise was exemplary. 
 
 Bonaparte imagined that the young Empress felt 
 aggrieved at his visits to Josephine at Malmaison and 
 to Mme. Walewska in the rue de la Victoire, al- 
 though the former had become yearly less frequent 
 in proportion as Josephine's conduct became more 
 and more displeasing, and were made with great 
 privacy, while the latter were so secret that few 
 were cognizant of them. On the officers who com- 
 posed his suite when he visited Malmaison and on 
 those who were aware of his friendship with Mme. 
 AYalewska he imposed caution and secrecy, saying 
 on each occasion : ^'Knowledge of this visit would 
 cause my wife unnecessary pain." After his second 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 273 
 
 marriage his entire manner of life changed ; there 
 remained to him from his poor, sohtary and melan- 
 choly youth, which was devoid of the amusements 
 natural to his age, a taste for noisy and active sports 
 and in that respect he, with his forty-one years and 
 Marie-Louise with her eighteen, were well matched ; 
 if possible he was the bigger child of the two, and he 
 entered with zest into amusements suitable for a 
 collegian. The young Empress had proposed but one 
 amendment to the cloister-like existence mapped out 
 for her, she desired to ride horseback, which was an 
 exercise habitual with the princesses of Lorraine 
 as soon as they escaped the maternal rule ; Marie- 
 Antoinette had done the same, and there is a record 
 of Marie-Thérèse's objurgations. Napoleon himself 
 acted as riding-master to his young wife, and during 
 the first lessons ran at her horse's side, bridle in 
 hand, until she had acquired sufficient confidence to 
 ride alone, then daily the horses were ordered im- 
 mediately after breakfast, and, without taking time 
 to put on his boots, the Emperor would throw him- 
 self into the saddle, and in his stocking-feet gallop 
 up and down the Grande Allée after his wife, excit- 
 ing the horses to run and greatly amused by her 
 cries and laughter ; about every ten feet a groom 
 was stationed in order to avoid any accident to the 
 
 Empress, but it often happened that the Emperor 
 
 18 
 
274 NAPOLEOX, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 had the most falls. In the evening, in the intimacy 
 of the household, he organized all kinds of games, 
 such as blind-man's-huff , puss-in-the-corner, cushion- 
 and-keys and games of forfeits in which he took an 
 active part. Up to this time Marie-Louise's only 
 social accomplishment was the ability to move her 
 ear without moving a muscle of her face, but she 
 now learned to play billiards, for which game she 
 developed such a passion and so much talent, that 
 the Emperor was obliged to take lessons of one of his 
 chamberlains before he could meet her on equal 
 terms ; she also had a fancy for sketching his pro- 
 file and he was always ready to pose for her, although 
 he refused to sit for any painter ; he listened atten- 
 tively, when, seated at the piano, she played German 
 sonatas, although he had but little taste for that 
 style of music, and manifested a proper degree of 
 interest when she showed him the suspenders or sash 
 she was embroidering for him. He was always at 
 her side, devoted and attentive, endeavoring to 
 amuse and distract his ^^ good Marie-Louise," and 
 his bourgeois habit of addressing her in the second 
 person amazed the court, which had returned to the 
 rigid etiquette of Louis XIV. 's time. Such an exist- 
 ence and such manners did not shock Marie-Louise, 
 she soon accustomed herself to the new manner of 
 life and addressed her husband with the familiar 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 275 
 
 ' ' thou, " gave friendly nicknames to her sisters-in-law 
 and called Madame Mère " mamma " ; hut all this 
 affability rested upon a condition, that her husband 
 should never leave her, but should always be at her 
 disposition, and he who, up to that moment, had 
 regulated his days according to his occupations and 
 the demands of state, was now constrained to con- 
 ciliate his occupations — sometimes to sacrifice them 
 — to the tastes and caprices of his wife. 
 
 It had previously been the Emperor's habit to 
 breakfast alone and hurriedly, upon the corner of 
 his writing-table (when business permitted him to 
 breakfast at all), but he resigned himself to break- 
 fasting with his wife at a fixed hour, taking from 
 aft^airs of state the time for an elaborate repast which 
 was most distasteful to him. Between the years of 
 1810 and 1812 the royal pair took five long journeys, 
 visiting Normandy, Belgium, Holland, the Rhine 
 and Dresden, and it was not she who waited for the 
 Emperor as Josephine had done, it was the hus- 
 band's turn to cultivate his patience, for Marie- 
 Louise was never on time for any social function ; 
 he made all his personal tastes subservient to hers 
 and was not only a faithful but a loving and attentive 
 husband, never missing an occasion to give his wife 
 a pleasure. The magnificent present which he made 
 his wife of a parure of Brazilian rubies, costing 
 
276 NAPOLEOIT, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 four hundred thousand francs, when she had only 
 wished for one vahied at forty-six tliousand, and 
 tlie superb necklace, consisting of eight strings of 
 pearls, which cost five hundred thousand francs, 
 which he presented to her after her confinement and 
 which was stolen from Blois, were simply imperial. 
 The fact which shows the lover in the husband were 
 the manifold little presents which he gave her, such 
 as bracelets, bearing the date of some occasion which 
 had been particularly joyous, loving words or names 
 spelt out in precious stones, and was it not a procla- 
 mation of her affection when she had her own por- 
 trait framed in precious stones whose initial letters 
 formed the words ^' Louise, je faime,^^ and placed 
 it upon her husband's writing desk. 
 
 If Napoleon had not loved his young wife he would 
 not have taken umbrage at the slightest reference 
 to his affection in the newspaper or to a verse where- 
 in he was represented as a love- sick shepherd ; as it 
 was, the moment he saw the slightest reference to 
 his affection in print he felt as .though its sanctity 
 had been violated, and immediately wrote a furious 
 letter to the minister of police, wherein he did not 
 deny his love, but insisted that the newspapers should 
 not be permitted to comment upon it. Thinking to 
 strengthen his wife's affection, he showered valuable 
 presents of every description upon each member of 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 277 
 
 her family, and favors upon all the Austrians at his 
 court. 
 
 Despite time, the love which Marie-Louise mani- 
 fested, and the precautions for his marital security 
 which he had taken, and which were still carefully 
 ohserved, he continued to be suspicious, and when 
 the war with Russia called him from home he 
 arranged that a detailed account of his wife's daily 
 life and actions should be sent him by each courier ; 
 these letters were written by an illiterate person 
 upon the commonest of paper, and upon these 
 wretched scrawls he, who was usually so scrupulous 
 and critical, wrote questions and notes ; and yet in 
 spite of this continual surveillance he dared not 
 openly take his wife to task when anything dis- 
 pleased him, but strove to find an intermediary to 
 express his disapproval. 
 
 Upon one occasion the Empress, while walking in 
 the park at Saint-Cloud with Mme. de Montebello, 
 allowed the duchess to present one of her relations 
 and spoke with him for some moments ; the follow- 
 ing morning after the levee the Emperor detained 
 the Austrian ambassador and recounted the affair, 
 and upon Metternich's feigning not to comprehend 
 what was wanted of him. Napoleon frankly explained 
 that he wished the ambassador to speak to the Em- 
 press, and the Austrian refusing he insisted, saying : 
 
278 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HUSBAND. 
 
 '* The Empress is young and might misunderstand 
 my motives, attributing them to jealousy, while 
 what you would say to her would make quite a dif- 
 ferent impression." 
 
 Napoleon's best beloved mistress, she who had 
 most occupied his thoughts, was power, and this 
 power which he had refused to give to Josephine, of 
 which he had been so jealous that neither his two 
 oldest counsellors, his brothers, nor any living being 
 had he ever even given a shadow of authority, he 
 gave, in 1813, in that time which was most perilous 
 for his empire, to Marie-Louise ; making her regent 
 of the Empire. 
 
 Doubtless there was more shadow than substance 
 in this abandonment, and that no grave decision 
 could be taken without his consent ; it is probable 
 that a premonition of disaster assailed him even in 
 Eussia, and that by this act he intended to assure 
 the transmission of his crown, but in any case it en- 
 tailed a stripping of some of his dearly loved au- 
 thority, and he had not hesitated. Decrees were 
 signed in his name by the Empress, by her pardons 
 were accorded, nominations made and proclamations 
 issued ; the bulletins by which, since 1800, the master 
 announced his victories, distributed his glory and 
 gave the accounts of his conquests, were things 
 of the past, and it was : '^Her Imperial Majesty, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 279 
 
 Queen and Eegent, who had received from the army 
 information," and the conscripts for the unfortu- 
 nate army were called ' ' Marie-Louise men " by the 
 people. 
 
 From head to foot of the governmental ladder 
 weaknesses manifested themselves and treachery 
 succeeded. Napoleon was no longer there, even his 
 name had disappeared, while that of Marie-Louise 
 was feared- by none and meant nothing to the people ; 
 still, Napoleon would not alter his decree, applauded 
 the step he had taken, and believed that his wife 
 knew more than Can-bacérès or than all the Bona- 
 partes put together, and the nearer the catastrophe, 
 the more imminent the peril, the more tenaciously 
 he clung to the idea that she, she alone, would be 
 his salvation. 
 
 By chance — for she was not responsible for his 
 departure from Paris, the capitulation and all the 
 rest — Marie-Louise caused his final downfall. 
 Napoleon wrote her a letter, not in cipher, wherein 
 he indicated the movements which he intended to 
 attempt against the allied armies ; this letter fell 
 into the hands of Bluecher's courier, and General 
 Bluecher made haste to lay it, ivith the seal broken, 
 at the feet of the august daughter of his Imperial 
 Majesty the Emperor of Austria 
 
280 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 ELBA. 
 
 It is doubtful if Napoleon was actuated solely by 
 love in the pursuance of the course described in the 
 preceding chapter, and highly probable that his 
 actions were entirely due to motives of policy. He 
 probably argued that when the Austrian Emperor 
 found himself face to face with his daughter and 
 grandson as the representatives of France, he would 
 hesitate to strike the blow which would ruin them, 
 and that the sovereigns of Europe, not finding him- 
 self, but one of their own rank seated upon the 
 French throne, would hesitate to overthrow it, and, 
 believing themselves interested in the tranquillity of 
 France, would accept and confirm the substitution, 
 that though he himself might be forced to abdicate, 
 the dynasty which he had established would be 
 assured. 
 
 In order to admit the truth of this hypothesis one 
 must admit that, from the year 1813, before Lutzen, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 281 
 
 before the first campaign, wherein he constantly 
 manifested his confidence in his continued success, 
 Napoleon was at heart despairing ; that he had 
 latent doubts about Austria, and considered Marie- 
 Louise as a pledge of coalition, trusted in the bond 
 of paternity, and relied upon the good faith of 
 Francis II., the father. 
 
 To divine such a conspiracy as the aristocrats of 
 Europe had woven against him, to foresee that the 
 young girl who had been given him as wife was the 
 lure prepared by the allied oligarchies to entrap 
 him, would have required an insight into the depths 
 of royal unscrupulousness which even a Talleyrand 
 and a Fouché might be incapable of. 
 
 In order to conceive and carry oat such a design, 
 to coalesce around a nuptial bed the hate of all the 
 old dynasties, the profound corruption which is met 
 with solely in the highest circles was alone capable ; 
 in these circles education and tradition have rendered 
 men unscrupulous, they become accustomed to dis- 
 regard all laws, human or divine, which militate 
 against their interests and to carry their designs 
 into execution regardless of the means employed, 
 seeing therein no dishonor. In this instance it was 
 not a mistress but a wife which had to be furnished 
 to encompass their object, and what mattered it if 
 the wheels of their triumphant chariot, while crush- 
 
282 :îsapoleox, lover a^td HrsBA^s'D. 
 
 ing the impious being who had outraged the sacred 
 monarchical system, also rolled over the shuddering 
 form and blonde locks of an archduchess. Should 
 she survive the ordeal, means should be found to 
 console her, should she die — well, it could not be 
 helped, for the attainment of such an end something 
 must be risked and Marie-Louise was only a woman. 
 Xapoleon never suspected such a despicable con- 
 spiracy, never admitted that his wife was the 
 accompUce of his enemies ; nor was she, for care 
 had been taken to conceal from her the rôle she was 
 destined to play, and she enacted it the better because 
 of her innocence. It was not until much later, 
 at Saint Helena, that Xapoleon traced the continuity 
 between his second marriage and the disasters which 
 followed it ; even then he did not sound the plot to 
 its very depth, either because it displeased him to 
 elucidate the principal reason of his downfall, or 
 because it pained him to smirch the memoiy of his 
 wife by connecting her with so vile a scheme. He 
 frequently remarked : ^' My marriage was a flower- 
 covered pit which they dug for me ; " and instead of 
 harl)oring resentment against this woman who had 
 been the cause of his downfall, he showed her more 
 affection and greater confidence, as if to console her 
 for the pain and disillusion caused by the aggressive- 
 ness of her native land and the menacing attitude of 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 283 
 
 lier father, which he beHeved she could not fail to 
 regard as treacherous towards her and hers. 
 
 When the campaign of 1812 opened Napoleon 
 apparently entertained no doubts of his ultimate 
 success, it was his nature to hope even against hope, 
 and it was not until much later that he was forced 
 to admit the possibility of the enemies entering 
 Paris and carrying away the Empress and the 
 King of Rome. He believed that theirs would be 
 but a brief triumph, for the momentary occupation 
 of Paris did not alter his strategic plans, but he 
 could not suffer the thought that his wife and son 
 should be, even momentarily, hostages in the hands 
 of his adversaries, and it was to spare them such an 
 insult that he ordered Joseph to abandon Paris, thus 
 taking from it its statesmen and resisting elements 
 and compromising the entire edifice of his plans, for 
 Talleyrand knew how to avoid the injunction to 
 follow the court. His plans had long been laid, he 
 had ingratiated himself into the confidence of King 
 Joseph, the Empress, the prefecture of the Seine 
 and the police ; he had accomplices everywhere 
 over whom he exercised a strong and inexplicable 
 influence and who seemed bound to him by an 
 infernal pact ; and with them he accomplished, 
 in 1814, the treason which he began to plot at 
 Tilsit in 1807. But the overthrowal of Napoleon's 
 
284 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 government was but half the task the Prince of 
 Benevent had set himself, the whole would be ac- 
 complished only when he had succeeded in breaking 
 the bonds which he himself had helped to forge 
 between Napoleon and Marie-Louise. 
 
 The Emperor believed that whatever misfortunes 
 fate might have in store for him he should always 
 have the supreme consolation afforded by the 
 pleasures of home and the company of his wife and 
 son, and that he had not secured a formal promise 
 from the Empress to rejoin him at Fontainebleau 
 was because he still imagined that her tears might 
 move the Emperor Francis and her future con- 
 dition be ameliorated. He argued that a certain 
 so v^ereignty would always be hers by right of birth, 
 that she would be affectionate to him, who would 
 resign himself to the existence of a petty prince, and, 
 believing that she had loved in him rather the man 
 than the sovereign, thought that there might yet 
 be happiness in store for them and for the child 
 whose mental and physical development they would 
 watch over. 
 
 Marie-Louise was fond of her husband, disposed 
 to sympathize with his hopes and plans, and willing 
 to rejoin him when the occasion offered, but she was 
 surrounded by people whose influence was all in a 
 contrary direction, and accustomed from childhood 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 285 
 
 to have others think for her, to be guided and ruled, 
 it is not strange that she should have found it hard 
 to follow the dictates of her heart and conscience. 
 The love which she entertained for Napoleon was 
 strong enough to impel her to faithfulness, and it 
 was Talleyrand who took upon himself the task 
 of blighting it. With this object in view he had 
 placed near Marie-Louise a woman who was heart 
 and soul in his schemes, who was naturally an in- 
 triguant, and who, whenever she had been able to 
 introduce herself into a diplomatic project, had 
 been quite in her element ; utterly unscrupulous, 
 ignoring the virtue of gratitude, she was precisely 
 the tool whom he required. As lady-in-waiting this 
 woman had ready access to Marie-Louise's ear, and 
 when the other ladies abandoned their posts and 
 returned to their homes Mme. de Brignole remained 
 with the Empress, and, left almost alone with her, 
 seized the occasion to obey Talleyrand's instructions 
 and to instil the poison of doubt into Marie-Louise's 
 mind. Instigated by her master, Mme. de Brignole 
 first insinuated, then affirmed, that Napoleon had 
 never loved his wife, but had constantly deceived 
 her, and when the Empress refused to believe she 
 sent for two valets, who had just abandoned their 
 sovereign and benefactor at Fontainebleau, and had 
 them confirm all her lying tales. 
 
286 NAPOLEOÎs^, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 There was no one at hand to inspire with courage 
 and confidence the irresolute young girl who was 
 more wounded hy the accounts of her husband's in- 
 fidelities than prostrated by the fall of her throne ; 
 and as she had once allowed herself to be sacrificed, 
 like a modern Iphigenia, so now she acquiesced and 
 stood inertly by, while political expedience sundered 
 the domestic ties, which it had soldered. This coan- 
 pliance was not won in a day, for Marie-Louise strug- 
 gled nearly a year against overwhelming obstacles, 
 every sentiment was brought into play to alienate 
 her affection from her husband : pride, jealousy, 
 envy, vanity, all were employed, and Bonaparte's 
 enemies triumphed onJy when they had succeeded in 
 replacing his image in her heart by that of another, 
 when the chaste Emperor of Austria had forced his 
 daughter into a position which publicl}^ compromised 
 her : then monarchal Europe applauded, and the 
 adultress was recompensed by the sovereignty of 
 Parma and Placentia. 
 
 Napoleon never dreamt of such abjection ; from 
 each of the stopping-places where he rested upon his 
 sad journey he wrote a letter to his wife, as formerly 
 he had written when she was making her triumphal 
 journey towards Paris, greeted by the chiming of 
 bells, the cannon's thunder, and the military salute 
 of imperial marshals. The defeated Emperor, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 287 
 
 wending his way across Europe under the watchful 
 eyes of the military escort assigned by the allies, with 
 the populace's cries of hatred ringing in his ears, 
 never forgot his wife ; but of all the letters which he 
 wrote but two have been published ; they are ad- 
 dressed to "My good, my dear Louise." Forgetful 
 of his own sufferings he wrote to her of the pain she 
 must experience, made tender inquiries regarding 
 her health and urged her to be courageous and brave. 
 Care had been taken to inform Napoleon that Marie- 
 Louise's health rendered it imperative that she should 
 take a course of the waters at Aix ; it was a means 
 of retarding their reunion and, consciously or not, 
 Corvisart had lent his aid to the Emperor's enemies ; 
 but of this, as of all the rest. Napoleon was un- 
 suspicious, and, rejoicing in Corvisart's devotion, he 
 addressed him a letter from Ere jus which, if it was 
 merited, is the physician's greatest glory, and far 
 from opposing the journey to Aix the Emperor en- 
 couraged it. He thought that though Marie-Louise 
 might not be able to come immediately to Elba, she 
 would surely hasten to install herself at Parma, and, 
 in order that she should miss none of the accessories 
 of rank to which she was accustomed, he dispatched 
 a detachment of Polish light horse to that city to 
 await her arrival and sent a large supply of carriage 
 horses for her use. 
 
288 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 Hardly had Napoleon reached Porto-Ferrajo than 
 he began to arrange the Empress's apartments in the 
 palaces destined for his residence, hastening the 
 work with the idea that she might arrive at any 
 hour. He intended to celebrate her coming with 
 fireworks and a grand ball, awaited her arrival to 
 make various excursions to points of interest about 
 the island, and, although foreign to his nature to 
 give public expression to his sentiments, he ordered 
 the painter who was decorating the drawing-room 
 ceiling to depict there ^' two pigeons fastened to- 
 gether by a slip-knot which tightened as they sep- 
 arated." 
 
 It was on Marie-Louise's account that Napoleon 
 kept the visit of Mme. Walewska shrouded in 
 mystery. She had been to Naples to reclaim from 
 Murat the endowment which the Emperor had ac- 
 corded her from the property which he had reserved, 
 and which Murat had confiscated, and profiting 
 from the relaxed surveillance at Porto-Ferrajo she 
 had solicited an interview with the Emperor. 
 
 Bonaparte was then installed at the hermitage of 
 the Madonna de Marciana which was situated in the 
 heart of a forest of aged chestnuts, in whose shade 
 the intense heat of the Corsican summer was more 
 endurable. The Emperor occupied a small house 
 close to the chapel, and the hermits, whom he had 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 289 
 
 not wished to dispossess, were installed in the cellar, 
 while for the accommodation of his suite which con- 
 sisted of a captain of mounted police, named Paoli- 
 Bernotti, an officer of ordinance, several Mamalukes 
 and two valets de chamhre, Marchand and Saint 
 Denis, a large tent had been erected under the 
 chestnut trees and close to a little spring which lost 
 itself in a carpet of fresh moss besprinkled with 
 wild lilies of the valley and violets. Dinner was 
 never served at the hermitage, the Emperor descend- 
 ing every evening to Marciana and dining with his 
 mother, who was installed there. 
 
 On the receipt of Mme. Walewska's letter the 
 Emperor at once prepared for her visit, but the 
 orders regarding the arrangements for her reception 
 were so given that the name of the expected guest 
 was kept a profound secret. She disembarked at 
 Porto-Ferrajo during the night of September 1st, 
 and found awaiting her on the quay a carriage and 
 four, and three saddled horses in charge of Bernotti. 
 Accompanied by her sister and little son she entered 
 the carriage, while her brother. Colonel Laczinski, 
 mounted one of the horses, and in the bright moon- 
 light they set off for Marciana. The Emperor, ac- 
 companied by Paoli and two Mamalukes awaited 
 their coming at Procchio, and there Mme. Walewska 
 
 was also obliged to mount one of the horses as it 
 19 
 
290 XAPOLEOX, LOVEE AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 wa^ impossible for the carriage to go further ; Ber- 
 notti took charge of the little boy and the party 
 finally arrived at the summit of the mountain. Dis- 
 mounting before the hermitage the Emperor as- 
 sisted Mme. Walewska from her saddle, and, hat in 
 hand pointed to the house saying : *^ Madame, there 
 is my palace to which you are heartily welcome ; " 
 and abandoning the house to the ladies he himself 
 went to sleep in the tent which sheltered his suite 
 and servants. 
 
 The close of the night was stormy, and in the 
 early morning the Emperor, who had been unable 
 to sleep, called Marchand and questioned him as to 
 whether any gossip had been caused by the arrival 
 of his visitors ; he was informed by the valet that it 
 was rumored in Porto-Ferrajo that the mysterious 
 lady was none other than the Empress, and the child 
 the little King of Eome, and that, moved by this 
 rumor. Doctor Foureau had hastened to the hermit- 
 age to offer his services and was at that moment 
 awaiting the Emperor's command. 
 
 Napoleon dressed and left the tent. The morning 
 was bright and beautiful with no trace of the furi- 
 ous storm of the previous night, and on the mount- 
 ain side in the bright sunshine, the mysterious 
 child was playing happily. The Emperor called the 
 bo.y and seating himself in a chair which Marchand 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 291 
 
 brought, took him upon his knee ; he then sent the 
 valet in search of Dr. Foureau and when the latter 
 appeared said, pointing to the child: ''Well, Foureau, 
 what do you think of him ?" '' Sire," responded the 
 Doctor, ''the king has grown tremendously," at 
 which answer Napoleon laughed heartily, for young 
 Walewski was a year older than the King of Eome, 
 but his beautiful features and the blond curls which 
 fell in profusion over his shoulders caused him to 
 resemble his half-brother closely, or rather, to re- 
 semble Isabey's popular portrait of the King of 
 Kome. 
 
 Napoleon chatted for some moments with the 
 physician, then, thanking him for the friendship 
 manifested by the promj^t offer of his services, dis- 
 missed him and turned to greet Mme. Walewska 
 whom he espied about leaving the hermitage. 
 Breakfast, which had been ordered from Marciana, 
 was served under the chestnut trees ; the meal 
 passed off gaily, and the rest of the day was spent 
 by the Emperor and Mme. Walewska in walking 
 and talking together. 
 
 At dinner the Emperor desired that the boy, of 
 whom he had seen but little during the day, should 
 sit at his side, and when Mme. Walewska objected 
 on the score of the child's boisterous ways he in- 
 sisted, saying that he did not mind the child's 
 
292 NAPOLEOX, LO\ŒR AND HUSBAND. 
 
 roguishnesSj his own childhood having been a tur- 
 bulent one. When they were seated at table the 
 Emperor recounted anecdotes of his boyhood telling 
 how he used to beat his brother Joseph and force 
 him to do his bidding^ and how his mother had 
 punished him by giving him only dry bread to eat 
 — bread which he had given to the shepherd boys 
 in exchange for their chestnut bread, or else thrown 
 away and gone to his foster-mother's where he was 
 fed on the best the house afforded and caressed to 
 his heart's content. Young Walewska, who had at 
 first been overawed by the presence of so many 
 grown i)eople at table and had behaved in most ex- 
 emplary manner, was emboldened by the Emperor's 
 stories to give vent to his naturally high spirits, 
 whereupon Napoleon said : 
 
 '^ I see, my lad, that you don't fear the whip. . . . 
 well I advise you to ! I never got a beating but 
 once, but I've never forgotten it." He then went 
 on to relate how Pauline and himself had once made 
 sport of their mother and been soundly whipped by 
 her in consequence. The boy listened attentively, 
 and when the Emperor had finished speaking ex- 
 claimed with an air of conviction : '^I shall never 
 be whipped for that, I would not make fun of mij 
 mother," whereupon the Emperor embraced him 
 tenderly saying, ^^ That was well said." 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 293 
 
 At eight o'clock that evening the visitors returned 
 to Ponte-Ferrajo, and re-embarked for Naples ; in 
 indemnification for the confiscations of Murat, Mme. 
 Walewska carried with her a draft on the Emperor's 
 treasurer for sixty-one thousand francs. It is said 
 that her stay at Naples was so prolonged, that 
 March of 1815 still found her there. 
 
 In spite of all the precautions taken to keep Mme. 
 Walewska's visit to Elba a secret, it became known, 
 for there were too many people interested in the 
 Emperor's movements, too many spies about him, to 
 keep such a visit from being talked of. The islanders 
 insisted that the mysterious lady was Marie-Louise, 
 but the English and Bourbon spies were better in- 
 formed, and their employers believed that this visit 
 heralded the renewal of the Emperor's relations with 
 the Polish woman. In reality, Mme. Walewska's 
 journey to Elba was actuated rather by friendship 
 and sympathy than by love, and the presence of her 
 sister, Mile. Laczinska, at the Hermitage, proves 
 that the visit was a conventional one. 
 
 If Napoleon had any love-affair while at Elba, it 
 certainly was not with the so-called Countess de 
 Eohan, who Avas but a vulgar adventuress, and 
 went to the island to reclaim no one knows what, 
 from the Emperor, and to offer him her company in 
 his exile, but rather with a woman who has been 
 
294 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 much less discussed ; the same whom he had received 
 3everal times in his apartments in the orangery, 
 at Saint-Cloud, and who, unsolicited, repaired to 
 Ponte-Ferrajo. Whether this lady was married 
 to Colonel B ^ - "^ * when she went to Elba, or mar- 
 ried him there is not known, but, wed or not, her 
 devotion to the fallen Emperor was great, and it is 
 unfortunate that so little is known regarding the 
 details of her life. What we do know is, that, not 
 content with having followed Napoleon to Elba, she 
 went to Kambouillet in 1815 and besought his per- 
 mission to follow him to St. Helena, that she was 
 heart-broken at his refusal, and that with three 
 thousand francs which were given her, she went to 
 the United States, where she hoped to find him. 
 
 Little attention seems to have been attracted by 
 Napoleon's intimacy with this woman, while certain 
 letters, written by a miserable priest in the pay of 
 the Duke de Blacas, have been republished period- 
 ically ; these letters were written with the view of 
 accrediting calumnious reports which were then 
 afloat, and it is needless to dwell upon them here. 
 
 While at Elba, Napoleon passed through a moral 
 and political crisis which rendered the greatest re- 
 serve obligatory ; he knew that the slightest indis- 
 cretion would be related to Marie-Louise, and en- 
 larged upon by his enemies who surrounded her, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 295 
 
 and that she would be deeply wounded thereby. 
 He had sent Captain Hurault de Sorbée, the husband 
 of one of her ladies, to Aix-les-Bains, with instruc- 
 tions to essay to speak with the Empress, and deliver 
 his messages in person, and had received news which 
 led him to hope that a regular correspondence would 
 soon be established between them ; thus it was 
 scarcely the moment to become entangled in a 
 scandalous intrigue. Time passed, the month of 
 September dragged its weary length along without 
 bringing the Emperor a word from his wife or son, 
 and at length, worn out by anxiety and unfulfilled 
 hope, he determined to write to the Duke of Tuscany, 
 upon whose friendship he still relied and whom he 
 had designated to his wife as their natural inter- 
 mediary. The letter he sent the duke was not sup- 
 plicatory, from the manner in which he addressed, 
 as ^' My dear brother and uncle ; " it is evident that 
 Napoleon remembered the favors his highness had 
 received at his hands, and believed that the one-time 
 parasite of Compiègne must also bear them in mind. 
 '^ Having received no news of my wife since August 
 10th, nor of my son in six months," he writes, '^I 
 beg your royal highness to inform me if you will 
 permit me to send weekly letters to my wife in your 
 care, whether you will undertake to keep me in- 
 formed regarding her health, etc., and to forward 
 
296 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 letters from my son's governess, Mme. de Montes- 
 quiou. I flatter myself that, in spite of the events 
 which, have changed so many persons, your high^ 
 ness still entertains some friendship for me ; if you 
 assure me of this by granting my request, it will be 
 a great consolation and comfort, and, in that case, 
 I beg your highness to show yourself favorably 
 disposed towards this little canton which shares the 
 loyal sentiments of Tuscany for your person. I 
 trust your highness does not doubt the sincerity of 
 the sentiments I have always expressed, nor my 
 esteem and regard ; and I beg to be kindly remem- 
 bered to your highness's children. " 
 
 It was simply a question of a friendly service to be 
 rendered one who confessed himself unhappy and 
 admitted himself defeated, and who, to soften the 
 prince's heart, almost avowed himself his subject, 
 yet it was not a supplication, and the old equality, 
 nay, superiority of rank, pierces through the care- 
 fully-worded lines. There was no answer to this 
 letter, for the drama was ended, the imperial hous3 
 of Austria had succeeded in dishonoring its daughter, 
 and the Empress of France had fallen so low as to 
 become the mistress of her own chamberlain. 
 
 After such a letter, written to such a man, Napo- 
 leon would not take any further action ; his wife 
 and child had been stolen from him, the Bourbons 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 297 
 
 no longer paid the annual sum stipulated for at 
 Fontainebleau, and he saw that he should be forced 
 to disband his guard, and, unable to offer even a 
 semblance of resistance, be killed with his faithful 
 followers, should the allied sovereigns order his 
 transportation to some remote island, the Azores 
 for example, as Talleyrand had suggested on the 
 13th of October, because, as he then said : ^' They 
 were five hundred miles from any land." 
 
 The Emperor foresaw that he must either sulDmit 
 to being transported by the sovereigns, or assas- 
 sinated by the bandits in Brulart's pay ; and prefer- 
 ring to make a supreme effort and risk all for 
 France, determined upon his return. 
 
298 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 CHAPTEE XIX. 
 
 THE HUNDRED DAYS. 
 
 On New Year's day, 1815, Napoleon had received a 
 letter from the Empress, giving him news of their 
 son, telling what a handsome and charming child 
 he was, and that he would soon he ahle to write him- 
 self to his father. It is impossible to say why this 
 letter was written, possibly it was prompted by re- 
 morse, but whatever actuated Marie-Louise it served 
 to strengthen the tie between herself and Napoleon, 
 and confirmed his conviction that she had never 
 abandoned the intention of rejoining him, that her 
 silence was compulsory, and that, were she free to 
 do so, she would hasten to his side. 
 
 He was convinced that, had he a throne to offer, 
 Marie-Louise's jailors would set her at liberty, and 
 as soon as he felt assured of the success of his enter- 
 prise he hastened to inform her, writing from Lyons 
 on the 12th of March. Marie-Louise, however, did 
 with this letter, as she had done with all those she 
 had received from Elba, handed it over to her father 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVEE, AND HUSBAND. 299 
 
 who communicated its contents to the alHed pleni- 
 potentiaries, and Napoleon received no answer. 
 
 Immediately upon re-entering Paris the Emperor 
 ordered that the Empress's apartments should be put 
 in order and re-established her household upon its 
 old footing. Ten days later, upon the 1st of April, he 
 wrote an of&cial letter to the Austrian Emperor 
 wherein he reclaimed the '' objects of my tenderest 
 affection, my wife and son." ^^As," he wrote, 
 '^ the long separation necessitated by circumstances 
 has caused me the greatest sorrow I have ever ex- 
 perienced, I desire that my wife and child be speedily 
 restored to me, and am assured that our reunion is 
 as earnestly desired by the virtuous princess, whose 
 destiny Your Majesty united with mine, as by my- 
 self ; " and he terminated the letter by saying : ^' I 
 know too well Your Majesty's principles and the 
 value Your Highness places upon family- ties not to 
 feel assured that, despite the disposition of your 
 cabinet, or questions of political expediency. Your 
 Majesty will accelerate the reunion of a wife with 
 her husband, a son with his father," 
 
 Like the others this letter remained unanswered, 
 and the obstinate silence, opposed alike to official and 
 family letters, confirmed Napoleon's belief that it 
 was the political attitude of the house of Austria 
 and the pressure brought to bear upon her which 
 
ôOiJ XAPOLEOX, LOVEE AXD HrSBAXD. 
 
 paralyzed the natural desire of his wife and pre- 
 vented her rejoining him. he therefore determined 
 to employ secret means for communicating with her. 
 TTith this object he sent to Vienna carefully chosen 
 messengers, Flahaut and Montrond, men who could 
 be trusted and who possessed facilities for approach- 
 ing Marie-Louise. Montrond alone pierced the lines, 
 but when he was about to give to the Empress the 
 letter of which he was the bearer, Meneval inter- 
 posed. The ci-devant secretary of Napoleon, who 
 had become, in 1S13, the Empress's secretary and had 
 followed her to Austria, understood only too well 
 the relations existing between his royal mistress and 
 Count [Xeipperg, and he felt that in burning the 
 Emperor's tender letter which he had written to his 
 wife, he was rendering him a service. Nevertheless, 
 Meneval dared not write directly to Xapoleon in- 
 forming him of the real state of affairs, for he real- 
 ized what a terrible blow it would be to his master, 
 and he therefore determined to inform one in whose 
 unwavering fidelity he had implicit confidence of 
 the liaison, and wrote an anommious letter to La- 
 vallette ; Count de Lavallette, however, saw in this 
 anonymous communication only a political machina- 
 tion, and it is not strange that Napoleon shared his 
 views. 
 
 The}' were soon to be enlightened, however, for 
 
^[APOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 301 
 
 Ballouhey, secretary of expenses for the two Em- 
 presses and a man whose fideHty and honesty were 
 unquestionable, was en route from Vienna by way 
 of Munich, where he was to receive some instruc- 
 tions from Prince Eugène. The Emperor was so 
 impatient to see Ballouhey that he ordered his arrival 
 at Belfort to be telegraphed him, and stationed an 
 orderly at his house in Paris with instructions to 
 conduct the secretary to the Elysée the instant he 
 appeared. 
 
 Ballouhey reached Paris on the 28th of April and 
 was closeted for tw^o hours with the Emperor, but, 
 though Napoleon received a clear and concise state- 
 ment of Prince Eugene's ideas of the political situa- 
 tion, he failed to obtain definite information upon 
 the subject nearest his heart. Ballouhey was a 
 scrupulously exact accountant ; he had been deeply 
 attached both to Josephine and Marie-Louise ; but he 
 was a timorous man and dared not affirm the truth 
 of the scandalous liaison which was an open secret 
 in Vienna. 
 
 Meneval, expelled from Vienna, arrived a fort- 
 night later, and from him the whole truth was 
 learned. On taking leave of the Empress she had 
 charged him to say to his imperial master ^^that, 
 while she would take no step towards securing a 
 divorce, she believed he would offer no objection to 
 
6^)Z >'APOLEOX, LOVEP. AXD HTSEA^D. 
 
 an amicable separation.'' '•Such a separation," she 
 said, "was indispensable, but it would not impaii' 
 the sentiments of esteem and gratitude which she en- 
 tertained for him." and she added that *• her decision 
 to remain apart from Xapoleon was iiTevocable, and 
 not even her father had the right to obhge her to 
 retiu'n to France." It was Marie-Louise who. put- 
 ting herself under the protection of the allied pleni- 
 potentiaries in an official letter dated March 12th, 
 provoked the furious declaration which was signed 
 by them on the 13th. and in recompense for her act 
 Count Xeipperg was created court chamberlain ; and 
 it was with her consent that, on the 38th of March, 
 the little King of Rome was separated from his gov- 
 erness, !Mme. de Montesquiou. and deprived of all his 
 French seiwants. 
 
 Undoubtedlv, Meneval added other, and more 
 private details, for it was no longer right to conceal 
 the monstrous truth : ix)ssibly Marie-Louise was 
 then in the early stages of one of those pregnancies 
 which were to people the avenues of Burg with 
 adulterous bastards, entitled princes and highnesses 
 to the everlasting shame of the royal house of 
 Austria. 
 
 TThen. after the bu'th of the King of Eome, 
 Dubois, the accoucheur^ affirmed that a second 
 child would imperil Marie-Louise's life, Xapoleon, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 303 
 
 despite his desire for numerous offspring and a 
 second son to sit on the throne of Italy, had bowed 
 to the physician's decision : M. de Neipperg had no 
 such scruples and proved repeatedly that Baron 
 Dubois had been mistaken. Although the Emperor 
 could no longer doubt the unfaithfulness of Marie- 
 Louise, it was necessary to keep the truth from the 
 nation and essential that the people should conserve 
 their illusions regarding their Empress ; twelve 
 months previous he considered that nothing would 
 appeal more to the people than the thought of that 
 woman and child confided to France ; to-day the 
 captivity in which they were held, the separation 
 which violated all laws, human and divine, the 
 attempted violation of conjugal faith and paternal 
 love committed by the sovereigns inarms for the 
 re-establishment in France of a government like 
 their own, seemed to him of a nature to appeal to 
 every generous and honest instinct in the heart of 
 men and patriots. The grief which the Empress 
 felt when she was torn from the post which it was 
 her duty to fill, the thirty sleepless nights which 
 she had passed in 1814, the real imprisonment to 
 which she had been subjected, the treaty of Fon- 
 tainebleau, violated by the kings who had torn 
 from him his wife and son, the indignant cry of the 
 old Queen Marie-Caroline to her granddaughter : 
 
304 NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 '' Since you are prohibited from going out by the 
 door, escape by the window and fly to rejoin your 
 husband, " the King of Rome— then called the Prince 
 Imperial — separated from his mother, Mme. de 
 Montesquiou driven away and trembling for her 
 pupil's life, the Emperor wished Meneval to recount 
 it all and ordered a report to be prepared in case 
 the Chamber made a motion for the King of Eome. 
 The Chamber ! 
 
 Not once during the hundred days, not once during 
 the six years of agony at Saint Helena, did a word 
 of censure or bitterness against Marie-Louise escape 
 him ; he invariably spoke of her with affection and 
 kindly pity ; he thought of her only as she was when 
 she first came to France, young, fresh, loyal and 
 unsullied ; there is not one of his companions in 
 captivity who has not reported his conversations 
 regarding her almost in the same terms. If a 
 European ship dropped anchor in Jamestown Bay 
 Napoleon was sure that he was about to receive a 
 letter from the Empress, and nervous, anxious and 
 unable to work, would pass the whole day in expect- 
 ancy ; when one of his servants was taken from 
 him his first thought was to send a letter by that 
 sure hand to Marie-Louise, as for example the one 
 he confided to his surgeon in which he said : ' ' Should 
 the bearer of this see you, my good Louise, I beg 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 305 
 
 of you to permit him to kiss your hands." In his 
 will, which was dated the 5th of April, 1821, he 
 wrote this phrase : ' ' I never have had any fault to 
 find with my dear wife, the Empress Marie-Louise ; 
 to my last moment I shall retain for her the most 
 tender sentiments, and I beg her to watch over my 
 son and guard against the dangers which still sur- 
 round his childhood ; " and, as if this was not enough, 
 he bequeathed to her from the modest wardrobe 
 which now constituted his sole fortune, all his laces, 
 and on the 28th of April, a week before his death, 
 he instructed Antommarchi to take his heart from 
 his body and send it to her. " Preserve my heart 
 in alcohol," he said to the physician, '' and take it 
 yourself to Parma to my dear Marie-Louise ; tell her 
 that I love her tenderly and have never ceased to 
 love her, recount to her all that you have seen, all 
 that touches my situation and my death." 
 
 Truly Hudson Lowe did well in obliging Antom- 
 marchi to place the silver vase which contained 
 Napoleon's heart in his coffin : What would Count 
 Neipperg have done with it ? 
 
 In default of the perfidious Austrian, many other 
 women, from France, Ireland and Poland surrounded 
 the Emperor during the last glorious days of his 
 short reign of three months, encouraging his spirit 
 by their enthusiasm and devotion, pleasing his eye 
 
306 NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 
 
 by their beauty ; while even those who were least 
 fitted for political intrigues became his spies and 
 informants, and by instinct rather than reason, 
 frequently gave counsel which might well have 
 been followed ; for example, George regarding 
 Fouché ; Mme. Pellapra who hastened to return to 
 Paris from Lyons and warned him of the Duke 
 d'Otrante's intentions, and Mme. Walewska, who, 
 hastily returning from Naples, was immediately 
 received with her son at the Elysée, brought 
 messages from Murat. Mme. ^ ^ -^ -^ was among 
 the first to present herself to the Emperor, and as- 
 suming her title and rank as lady of the palace, 
 was among the faithful ones of the 20th of March, 
 and among those who, in the brilliantly illuminated 
 salon of the Tuileries, impatiently awaited the ar- 
 rival of the exile of Elba. There were many others, 
 Mme. Dulauloy, Mme. Lavallette, Mme. Ney, Mme. 
 Eegnauld de Saint- Jean-d'Angely, Mme. de Beauvau 
 and Mme. de Turenne, all of whom vied with each 
 other in the endeavor to encourage and please him. 
 At that time there breathed upon these women of 
 France that divine afflatus which creates heroines 
 and martyrs, inspires acts of supreme devotion and 
 courage, and strengthens souls to face courageously 
 the severest trials. 
 
 During that sinister period, which is justly called, 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 807 
 
 ^^the White Terror," a period of atrocities which 
 to-day we vainly seek to palliate, the women of the 
 Empire manifested, amidst the universal cowardli- 
 ness of mankind, a courage, energy and presence 
 of mind which immortalizes them ; at the Tuileries 
 during the hundred days, at Malmaison and after 
 Waterloo, they proved how well they knew how to 
 show their loyalty and honor misfortune. 
 
 It was not alone the well known and the cele- 
 brated, but the humble and the obscure who showed 
 their devotion ; as, for example, a woman, who, at 
 the review of the confederation, approached the 
 Emperor and handed him a petition, a roll of paper 
 carefully fastened, from which, when it was opened, 
 there fell twenty-five bank notes of a thousand 
 francs each ; and another who, on the 23d of June, 
 the eve of the day upon which Napoleon was to. 
 leave the Elysée for Malmaison, wrote to his valet 
 de chambre, requesting him to meet her at the 
 church of Saint- Philippe du Eoule to receive an 
 important communication. Marchand went to the 
 rendezvous, and found at the place indicated a 
 woman engaged in prayer ; she was veiled, but not 
 heavily enough to hide her features, which were 
 exceptionally beautiful ; Marchand approached and 
 asked in what way he could serve her. The mysteri- 
 ous lady hesitated for a moment, then, with extreme 
 
308 NAPOLEON, LOVEE AND HTTSBAND. 
 
 embarrassment, replied that the misfortunes of the 
 Emperor had touched her deeply, that she wished 
 to see, to console and love him. Napoleon, on hear- 
 ing of her desire, smiled and said : ' ' Hers is an ad- 
 miration which might lead to an intrigue ; it must 
 not be encouraged," but the naïve offer of this 
 heart, coming on such a day and at such an hour, 
 touched him profoundly, and later, upon several 
 occasions, he spoke of the mysterious lady of Saint- 
 Philippe du Eoule. 
 
 Did he find in captivity some woman who gave to 
 him the consolation which only a tender woman can 
 give to a man ? We know about his childish romps 
 with Miss Elizabeth Balcombe, during her sojourn 
 at Briars ; and we divine a familiarity with a 
 woman whose conduct during the Empire would 
 seemingly have forbidden her to approach him, and 
 who, twice divorced, dismissed from court, had, by 
 the simple fact of his marriage, brought disgrace 
 upon her third husband. But if the testamentary 
 liberality which the Emperor showed this person 
 gives some weight to the reports of the foreign 
 Commissioners, if her jDresence really occasioned 
 discord among the Emperor's companions, and her 
 departure was one of the painful experiences which 
 he was obliged to live through, one yet knows too 
 little regarding this portion of the drama of Saint 
 
NAPOLEON, LOYER AND HUSBAND. 309 
 
 Helena to expatiate upon it ; the woman plied her 
 rôle upon the island ; that is all that one can say. 
 
 Side hy side with this retired courtesan, whom 
 interest had taken to Eochefort, and whom interest 
 retained at Saint Helena, we find another woman, 
 who is really worthy of admiration. By hirth and 
 by her relationship with the Fitz-James family. 
 Countess Bertrand was entitled to one of the best 
 positions at Court, and, had she remained in Paris, 
 would doubtless have been one of the leaders of 
 society, but she voluntarily shared her husband's 
 devotion to his chief and followed him into exile ; 
 she lived in a cabin infested with rats, within reach 
 of the Emperor, but unable to succor or amuse him. 
 She remained until the end, compassionate, sensible 
 and dignified, guarding her honor like a Eoman 
 matron, and like a statue of grief she followed the 
 procession which conducted the captive conqueror 
 to his grave in the valley of Géranium, and she, an 
 Englishwoman by birth, was the only woman who 
 wept over the remains of him whom her country- 
 men had murdered. 
 
310 ^'APOLEOX. LOVEE AXD HUSBAXD. 
 
 CHAPTER XX. 
 
 SUMMAHY. 
 
 The sum of the preceding chapters only signified 
 that Napoleon was siihject to the same desires, pas- 
 sions and weaknesses as other men, and had taken 
 no TOWS of continence : that the amorous side of his 
 nature was twofold, on one side the physical alone 
 reigned, on the other physical and moral united . . . 
 the moral being in the ascendant. 
 
 We have hidden none of the adventures whei^ein 
 the animal part of his nature alone predominated ; 
 not because one can glean from them a special in- 
 sight into his character, but because to hide them 
 would give rise to the suspicion that they were 
 wholly unfavorable to his general character. Be- 
 cause he was Xapoleox all that he did was kno^vn, 
 and no matter how carefully he hid his amorous 
 intrigues the}' were sure to be discovered ; ladies-in- 
 waiting and ladies'-maids, aides-de-camp and valets 
 were ceaselessly on the watch, and no matter how 
 insignificant the events which transpired they were 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 811 
 
 all carefully noted. Everybody at the Tuileries 
 lived in the governmental zone, whether they were 
 soliciting favors or hunting for news, and all took 
 a lively interest in the doings of the Emperor, and 
 each made a note of any incident which came under 
 his observation. As everything, Napoleon did, has 
 an historical interest, as his lightest words, slightest 
 actions, even the trifling ailments which from time 
 to time afflicted him, have been of interest to the 
 public for a hundred years, and as many erroneous 
 tales have been accredited, the sole course for the 
 author of this book to pursue is to establish facts, 
 and relate such adventures as are authenticated by 
 the according narrations of various reliable persons ; 
 if any have been omitted, or simply referred to, it is 
 because they have been related by but one chronicler 
 and it has been impossible to discover documentary 
 proof of their authenticity, or sometimes because 
 they were of so commonplace a nature as to render 
 it useless to dwell upon them. 
 
 There were women always ready to gratify his 
 desires, whether expressed by himself or made 
 known by his messengers ; he accepted their will- 
 ingly-given caresses, sometimes from physical ne- 
 cessity, sometimes from voluptuousness ; but he 
 never experienced mental exhaustion or fatigue 
 from his adventures, nor did any woman distract 
 
312 TSAPOLEoy. L yrzz A^n:» hfsbaxd. 
 
 him from his work ; of all these women none was 
 seduced by him, for if there ^was a virgin among 
 their number she was oiir ~'-:> trafficked on her 
 Tirtue. 
 
 In order to judge the men of the Empire, above 
 all, Napoleon^ by the narrow and hypocritical stand- 
 ard of contemporaneous times one must place them 
 in siDiil: : eii-ir : mnents ; their lives were not the 
 humdrum, monotonous lives of the modem business 
 man. they were always in the saddle, death on the 
 crupper, galloping from one end of Europe to the 
 other amidst a rain of bullets, and if some of them, 
 unVn :~:i to the Emperor, trailed their mistresses 
 after them, the majority gave little thought to the 
 senses and remained chaste during the campaigns. 
 
 If, on their return from a long war, or when a 
 city was conquered and :iie: . was a lull in the strife, 
 brute passion gained the mastery, does it signify 
 that they were the most debauched of mankind f 
 To have followed the calling which they selected 
 from preference and clung to from ambition must 
 they not have been, by origin and nature, stronger, 
 more brutal, more like the primitive man, than the 
 men of this generation ? Did not their profession 
 develop, accentuate and foster all that was savage, 
 combative and animal in their natures t Had they 
 not the same tastes, desires and ^appetites as other 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 313 
 
 men ? Was it to be expected that they would 
 remain scrupulously faithful to wives whom they 
 rarely saw ? 
 
 Some few, indeed, were faithful, and there are 
 admirable examples of fidelity, tenderness and 
 delicacy given by those men of war, but for the 
 majority the distractions of the camp and garrison 
 intrigues were the rule, and they placed no impor- 
 tance upon them. 
 
 Side by side with these animal appetites they 
 entertained ingenuously sentimental ideas of con- 
 jugal tenderness, and nothing was too good or too 
 precious for the wife who had almost invariably 
 been married for love and from the most disinter- 
 ested motives ; to satisfy her tastes they pillaged 
 Europe, throwing their spoils at her feet ; to content 
 her caprices and ambitions they deployed an amount 
 of patience and diplomacy which would make one 
 smile were it not so touching. 
 
 In generosity, in the care for his wife, in letters, 
 presents, and in the wealth showered upon her, 
 Napoleon was not outdone by any of his warriors, 
 but his sentimentalism was of another origin and 
 essence than theirs. 
 
 The soldiers of the Empire, who had neither by 
 nature nor by education any scruples, fabricated a 
 code of honor for themselves, and although they 
 
ol4: VA^'ILZ ■:■>". LOVZ?. ANT» KT->7. A NT>. 
 
 fondly believed the sw: r i had made them the equals 
 of the men of gentle cirtb. wh<jse places they had 
 usurped, and whom thej hated, their ^'soldiers 
 code-' differed in many respects from that attii- 
 hnted by Montesqnien to gentlemen : hnt in their 
 davs theT conld hardlr search for the rules regTilat- 
 ing that code of honor, and they did not care to take 
 a Lauzun or a Tilly for their model : they still de- 
 tested those wL:zi rlr^ had replaced, and if they 
 laid claim to the title of "^^ gentlemen" it was be- 
 cause they considered themselves the equals of 
 men of noble ancestry. 
 
 From 1806 eTerything in France was modeled on 
 the troubadour style, novels, historical works^ pict- 
 ureSj dress and drama, but it T^as less a question of 
 the troubadour himself, than of him of whom he sang ; 
 the knight who professed the adoration of his lady, 
 who for his exploits in the Holy Land received a 
 scarf embroidered by her fair hands and considered 
 his deeds of valor well rewarded by a glance from her 
 dear eyes. The warriors of the Empire made every 
 effort to model themselves after these ideal cheva- 
 liers, and though they did not gird themselves with 
 the fair one's colors, many a man w^ore a sword-knot 
 embroidered by her, or wore the beloved one's por- 
 trait over his heart, and dec-orated himself with 
 some bauble of her giving upon state occasions. 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HFSBAND. 315 
 
 Napoleon yielded less to this current than his fol- 
 lowers, than Prince Eugène and certain of his mar- 
 shals, but the ambient atmosphere finally affected 
 him also, as certain incidents in his relations with 
 Marie-Louise prove conclusively ; but it was not, 
 however, until the close of the Empire that a senti- 
 ment, until then unexperienced, awoke in him and 
 effaced all others. 
 
 Up to that time Napoleon's sentimentalism was 
 in no degree influenced by the literature of the time, 
 but greatly by that of a previous era. Eousseau had 
 influenced him, as his letters to Josephine, Mme. 
 " " "^ " and Mme. Walewska show ; in all of them may 
 be found the same tone, the identical expressions 
 and words which were used by the young Lieutenant 
 Bonaparte when from Valence he complained of his 
 loneliness and poverty. 
 
 A pupil of Jean-Jacques, Napoleon was so thor- 
 oughly im^^regnated with the ideas of his master, 
 that he, w^ho had striven for and obtained, even 
 the impossible, in the order of events, encountered 
 only impotence, negation and disgust in the range 
 of sentiments. In Napoleon's continual search for 
 a woman who would love him for himself, whose 
 only thought would be for him, who would live but 
 for him, and with whom he could dwell in a constant 
 interchange of tenderness, he certainly acted in good 
 
316 NAPOLEON, LOVEK AND HUSBAND. 
 
 faith ; but who can tell up to what point he was in- 
 fluenced by his literary souvenirs, or how much he 
 forced himself in the effort to experience sensations 
 which he believed to be rare and strange. 
 
 That which gives us reason to think that he forced 
 his nature is that he soon wearied ; he received less 
 pleasure than he anticipated in the society of the 
 woman he wooed, and the real woman seemed invari- 
 ably inferior to the ideal creature of his imagination ; 
 the sentimentalism which was cultivated found itself 
 in opposition to the positivism which was natural, 
 and he ruptured the much-sought-f or relations ; but 
 only to run in search of a new sensation, a fresh 
 experience, as soon as the occasion offered. 
 
 In such a man his fidelity, not of the senses, but 
 of the heart, is surprising ; he had mistresses whom 
 he loved sincerely, and he divorced Josephine, yet 
 she held a place apart in his heart and he ever felt 
 a deep and tender affection for her, an affection so 
 strong that he pardoned all her faults and the 
 wrongs she had done him ; nay, more, he forgot 
 them. 
 
 Josephine's life, of which he did not fail to keep 
 himself informed, must have revolted him, but he 
 shut his eyes to it, and remembered only that the 
 woman whom he had raised to be the first lady in 
 France, who was associated with his destiny, was 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 317 
 
 grace itself and elegance personified ; he endowed 
 her with all the virtues and graces which a passion- 
 ate lover showers upon his mistress, and, although 
 he reproached her for her prodigality, he proved his 
 affection hy giving her the means to gratify all her 
 desires. 
 
 To the end of his days Napoleon ignored the true 
 Josephine, and threw over the love of his youth a 
 halo of imaginary charms and virtues which has 
 immortalized her ; if he thus deceived posterity it 
 was because he was himself deceived, and to the very 
 end he persisted in the illusions, holding before his 
 eyes, in his heart and senses, at Saint Helena, the 
 Josephine whom he had seen for the first time in 
 the rue Chantereine, the woman in whose arms he 
 first tasted the sweets of love. 
 
 Napoleon's love for Josephine was such as a man 
 gives to his mistress, a love without respect, w^hich 
 puts no restraint upon itself, exacts inst?mt satis- 
 faction and does not fear disagreements ; which vol- 
 untarily confesses its infidelities and relates risquée 
 anecdotes ; that such was Napoleon's affection for 
 Josephine is proved by the fact that at each evolu- 
 tion of his destiny he realized more forcibly that his 
 interests demanded he should break with her and 
 rupture the union which was not a marriage in his 
 eyes because it had not for eight years been sane- 
 
318 NAPOLEON, LOYEE AND HUSBAND. 
 
 tioned by the Church, and because, when it did re- 
 ceive the Church's blessing, he had appeared before 
 the priest by force. Had Josephine given him a 
 child he would have considered the contract valid, 
 but, being childless, he considered himself free, and 
 when he separated himself from her he treated her 
 like a mistress, consoling her by large sums of 
 money and arranging for her existence in an ojxilent 
 style. 
 
 One may question whether, in spite of the weak- 
 ness jSTapoleon had for Josephine, despite his shower- 
 ing favors and presents upon her, adopting her 
 children and elevating her relatives to po sts of honor. 
 Napoleon ever regarded her as of his family ; so 
 great was the difference between the sentiments he 
 entertained for her and those inspired by Marie- 
 Louise, particularly after Marie-Louise had borne 
 him a child. Then the conjugal spirit took posses- 
 sion of and dominated him ; undoubtedly he never 
 gave her the passionate love he had bestowed upon 
 his first wife, but he entertained for Marie-Louise a 
 respect which he never gave to Josephine. While 
 he had invariably refused all participation in affairs 
 of state to his first wife he voluntarily accorded it to 
 the second, discovering in her greater intelligence 
 than he accorded to his oldest councillors or even to 
 his brothers. With Josephine the sentimental side 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 319 
 
 of his nature as developed by Rousseau was domi- 
 nant, while with Marie-Louise his Corsican atavism 
 and the traditions of his native mountains resumed 
 their supremacy : Marie-Louise was sanctified in his 
 view by her motherhood. 
 
 Napoleon would never admit that his wife had 
 abandoned him and deceived him ; she was his wife, 
 the mother of his son, and that placed her above the 
 temptations and weakness common to her sex. So 
 dominant was the conjugal spirit in him that, to the 
 hour of his death, he ignored her treachery, and that 
 he, who was so jealous of the woman he had once 
 possessed that he complained bitterly of Mme. Walew- 
 ska's marriage, never uttered a complaint against 
 his wife. Was his silence occasioned by the desire 
 of securing for her the respect which a monarchal 
 lord requires paid to crowned heads, did it make him 
 happier to ignore her faults, did he find excuses for 
 them in the extraordinary circumstances surround- 
 ing her, or did he hope that the secret he refused to 
 reveal would be better guarded by history ? Possibly 
 he was actuated by all these motives, but his pre- 
 dominant thought was, that she was his wife, and 
 therefore could not fall. 
 
 Thus, separating the purely sensual liaisons^ which 
 were brief, from the deep attachments of his life, we 
 find in Napoleon as great a faculty for love as for 
 
320 
 
 thought and action, and are obliged to admit that 
 he was as astonishing a husband as he was a war- 
 rior and a statesman. 
 
 There remains but one point to be considered, 
 whether any of the women with whom Napoleon was 
 closely related ever swayed him sufficiently to affect 
 his political views and moves ; it does not appear 
 that any woman, either wife or mistress, directly in- 
 fluenced him, but doubtless the impressions received 
 from both, the ideas they advanced and the circum- 
 stances accompanying certain of his liaisons gave 
 rise to new ideas in his brain and modified old ones. 
 
 Dearly loved as Josephine was, she was not among 
 those who were the primary cause of certain politi- 
 cal moves. It has been affirmed that it was her in- 
 fluence which surrounded him with people of noble 
 birth and led him, at times, to sacrifice the spirit of 
 the revolution to the traditions of the old régime, 
 but that is an error ; Josephine sought to draw the 
 old nobility round Napoleon by his order, and it was 
 at his command that she protected them. An in- 
 sight into the various gradations of society under the 
 old régime, some false impressions, some informa- 
 tion, much of which was inexact, was about all he 
 gleaned from her. The birth of a son to Mile. Denu- 
 elle de la Plaegne doubtless first determined him to 
 divorce Josephine, and that of Mme. Walewska's 
 
NAPOLEON, LOVER AND HUSBAND. 321 
 
 cemented bis resolutioii, while his political attitude 
 towards Poland is explained if one remembers who 
 was his mistress and close companion from 1807 to 
 1809, even his long friendship for Bernadotte be- 
 comes comprehensible when one recalls his tender- 
 ness for Désirée. 
 
 When Napoleon married Marie-Louise and became, 
 through her, a member of the house of Austria, he 
 believed the relationship so formed was close and 
 binding, as the tie which bound him to his own 
 family, and his faith in the Austrian Emperor's 
 friendship, his confidence in his wife's fidelity and 
 discretion is due to his belief in the strength and in- 
 destructibility of ties of blood and his conviction 
 that they alone rendered a political alliance invio- 
 late. Marie-Louise, not because she was unusually 
 intelligent, but because of the rôle she played in his 
 political combinations and the prestige of her mother- 
 hood, exercised an unprecedented infiuence over him. 
 Xapoleon set a high value upon ties of blood and the 
 obligations entailed by kinship ; he was a true Cor- 
 sican in the strength of his attachment and his ad- 
 herence to family, and it appears as if the very value 
 he placed upon the ties which should be the strongest 
 and most sacred to humanity caused his fall. 
 
 If women had played no rôle in his life. Napoleon 
 would cease to be the amazing example of mascu- 
 
 lO 
 
322 ^'APOLEOX, LOYEE A^^) Hi:SBAXD. 
 
 line genius that he is, and would become a sexless 
 being without interest to humanity because not sub- 
 ject to the failings and passions of other men, unin- 
 fluenced by the traditions which sway them, pos- 
 sessed of no sentiment common to mankind. As it 
 was, this man, whose genius was astounding, who, 
 served by an unparalleled fortune, accomplished the 
 greatest task that mortal ever undertook, was pre- 
 cisely the man to whom no emotion was a stranger. 
 It is human to be influenced by, to believe in and 
 to love woman, to experience by her and for he^' 
 the sensations and emotions which she inspi-^ 
 in that respect, as in all others, Xapoleon w 
 to mankind. 
 
 THE EXD. 
 
Lb D ..i 
 
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