THE EMPEROR SLEEPING.—MORAL REFLECTIONS.
20th.—Mr. Balcombe had intimated to me that he was appointed to supply us with what we wanted at the expense of the English Government; but I wrote to inform him that, as my own pecuniary circumstances enabled me to dispense with this favour, I was resolved not to avail myself of it. I therefore begged that he would obtain permission from the Governor, to receive from me a bill drawn on some person in England, which could not be transmitted without special permission. I wished to remain free from all obligations, so that nothing might impede me in freely exercising the just and sad privilege of venting my reproaches and imprecations.
The Emperor rode out in the calash very early. On his return, about three o’clock, he desired me to follow him to his chamber. “I am low-spirited, unwell, and fatigued,” said he, “sit down in that arm-chair, and bear me company.” He then threw himself on his couch and fell asleep, while I watched beside him. I sat within a few paces of him. His head was uncovered, and I gazed on his brow,—that brow on which were inscribed Marengo, Austerlitz, and a hundred other immortal victories. What were my thoughts and sensations at that moment? They may be imagined; but I cannot attempt to describe them!
In about three quarters of an hour, the Emperor awoke. He took a few turns in his chamber, and he then took a fancy to visit the apartments of all the individuals of his suite. When he had minutely considered all the inconveniences of mine, he said with a smile of indignation:—"Well, I do not think that any christian on earth can be worse lodged than you are."
After dinner, the Emperor attempted to read a part of the Caravansêrail de Sarrazin. After glancing over a few of the tales, and reading a page from one of them, he said:—"The moral of this story doubtless is that men never change. This is not true; they change both for better and worse. A thousand other maxims which authors attempt to establish are all equally false. They affirm that men are ungrateful; but no, they are not so ungrateful as is supposed: and if ingratitude be frequently a subject of complaint, it is because the benefactor requires more than he gives.
"It is also said that when you know a man’s character, you have a key to his whole conduct. This is a mistaken notion. A man may commit a bad action, though he be fundamentally good; he may be led into an act of wickedness, without being himself wicked. This is because man is usually actuated not by the natural bent of his character, but by a secret momentary passion, which has lain dormant and concealed in the inmost recesses of his heart. Another error is to suppose that the face is the mirror of the mind. The truth is that it is very difficult to know a man’s character. To avoid being deceived on this point, it is necessary to judge a person by his actions only; and it must be by his actions of the moment, and merely for that moment.
“In truth, men have their virtues and their vices, their heroism and their perversity; men are neither generally good nor generally bad; but they possess and practise all that is good and bad in this world. This is the principle: natural disposition, education and accidental circumstances produce the applications. I have always been guided by this opinion, and I have generally found it correct. However, I was deceived in 1814, when I believed that France, at the sight of her dangers, would make common cause with me; but I was not deceived in 1815, on my return from Waterloo.”
The Emperor felt unwell, and retired very early.
THE GOVERNOR ARRESTS ONE OF OUR SERVANTS.—THE
BIBLE.
21st.—The Emperor continued indisposed; we nevertheless took our usual airing in the calash. On our return, we were informed that the Governor had been to Longwood and had himself arrested one of our domestics, who had recently quitted the service of Deputy-Governor Skelton, and who had a few days since been engaged by General Montholon. On hearing this, the Emperor exclaimed: “What turpitude! what meanness! A Governor ... an English Lieutenant-General himself to arrest a servant! Really this conduct is too disgusting!”
The Grand Marshal joined us, and announced the arrival of a store ship, which had left England on the 8th of March.
After dinner, the Emperor asked what we would read, and we all decided for the Bible. “This is certainly very edifying,” said the Emperor; “it would never be guessed in Europe.” He read to us the book of Joshua, observing at almost every town or village that he named: “I encamped there; I carried that place by assault; I gave battle here, &c.”
INSTANCES OF THE CAPRICE OF AUTHORITY—PRINCESS
STEPHANIE OF BADEN, &C.
22nd.—In the course of this day a great deal was said about the sailors of the Northumberland, who had been given to us as domestics, and who, we now understood, were to be withdrawn from our service. They had, however, been engaged by a reciprocal contract, by which both parties were bound for the space of a year. But we are without the pale of ordinary law. The Governor affirmed that the Admiral wanted the men; and the Admiral said that he would allow them to remain with us if the Governor pleased. The sailors were taken away, and soldiers were sent in their stead; but these were also removed and sent back again, ordered away a second time and again sent back to us. We were unable to guess the meaning of all these changes.
While I was in the Emperor’s apartment, waiting for the announcement of dinner, the conversation fell on Madame Campan’s establishment, the young persons who had been educated in it, and the fortunes which the Emperor had conferred on some of them. He particularly alluded to Stephanie de Beauharnais, afterwards Princess of Baden, to whom he said he was much attached. He entered into many details respecting her.
Princess Stephanie of Baden lost her mother in her childhood. She was left in the care of an English lady, her mother’s intimate friend, who was very rich and without children, and who confided the education of her protegée to some old nuns in the south of France, I believe at Montauban.
Napoleon, during his Consulship, one day heard Josephine mention this circumstance, while alluding to her young relation Stephanie. “How can you permit this?” said he. “How can you suffer one of your name to be supported by a foreigner, an Englishwoman, who must at this moment be regarded as our enemy? Are you not afraid that your memory will one day suffer for this?” A courier, was immediately despatched to bring the young lady to the Tuileries; but the nuns refused to part with her. Napoleon, however, instituted the necessary legal forms, and a second courier was speedily sent to the Prefect of the district, with orders instantly to seize the person of the young lady in the name of the law.
Owing to the circumstances of the times, such was the influence of certain systems of education, and of the opinions which they inspired, that Stephanie’s removal was to herself a source of deep regret; and she beheld not without terror him who declared himself her relative, and who was about to become her benefactor. She was placed in the establishment of Madame Campan, at St. Germain; all sorts of masters were appointed to superintend her education, and, on her introduction to the world, her beauty, wit, accomplishments, and virtues, rendered her an object of universal admiration.
The Emperor adopted her as his daughter, and gave her in marriage to the hereditary Prince of Baden. This union was for several years far from being happy. In course of time, however, the causes of difference gradually vanished; the Prince and Princess became attached to each other, and from that moment they had only to regret the happiness of which they had deprived themselves during the early years of their marriage.
At the conferences of Erfurt, the Princess of Baden received the most marked attentions from her brother-in-law, the Emperor Alexander. During our disasters, in 1813, persons who were at the head of political affairs, dreading the result of an interview between Alexander and the Princess of Baden, at Manheim, succeeded in depriving the Princess of the regard of her august relative, by circulating false reports to the prejudice of her character. When therefore Alexander arrived at Manheim, on his triumphal march to Paris, he by no means treated Princess Stephanie with due respect. His conduct was calculated to wound her feelings; but it could not humble her pride. On this occasion, the conduct pursued by the Prince of Baden reflected true glory on his character. The most august personages surrounded him, and urged him to repudiate the wife whom he had received from the hands of Napoleon. But the Prince, with true nobleness of sentiment, rejected the idea, observing that he would never commit an act of baseness, which would be as repugnant to his affections as to his honour. This generous Prince, to whom we did not render sufficient justice in Paris, afterwards fell a victim to a tedious and painful illness. The Princess personally attended her husband throughout the whole of his sufferings, performing with her own hands all the minute services that his situation required: her devoted attachment gained for her the admiration of her relatives and subjects.
Princess Stephanie of Baden shed a lustre over her exalted station. She conferred honour on her character as a wife and a daughter. She at all times professed the highest veneration for him, who, when in the enjoyment of boundless power, had benevolently adopted her as his child.