NAPOLEON’S RELIGIOUS NOTIONS.
At half-past one he sent for Vignali.—“Abbé,” said he, “do you know what a chambre-ardente[[47]] is?”—“Yes, Sire.”—“Have you ever officiated in one?”—“Never, Sire.”—“Well, you shall officiate in mine.”—He then entered into the most minute detail on that subject, and gave the priest his instructions, at considerable length. His face was animated and convulsive, and I was following with uneasiness the contraction of his features, when he observed in mine I know not what expression which displeased him.—“You are above those weaknesses,” said he, “but what is to be done? I am neither a philosopher nor a physician. I believe in God, and am of the religion of my father. It is not every body who can be an Atheist.” Then turning again to the priest—“I was born a Catholic, and will fulfil the duties prescribed by the Catholic religion, and receive the assistance it administers. You will say mass every day in the chapel, and will expose the holy sacrament during forty hours. After my death, you will place your altar at my head in the room in which I shall lie in state; you will continue to say mass, and perform all the customary ceremonies, and will not cease to do so until I am under ground.”
The Abbé withdrew, and I remained alone with Napoleon, who censured my supposed incredulity. “How can you carry it so far?” said he. “Can you not believe in God, whose existence every thing proclaims, and in whom the greatest minds have believed?”—“But, Sire, I have never doubted it. I was following the pulsations of the fever, and your Majesty thought you perceived in my features an expression which they had not.”—“You[“You] are a physician,” replied he laughing, and then added, in an under-tone, “Those people have only to do with matter; they never will believe any thing.”