“Sire,” observed I, “the reasonable portion of the emigrants well knew that the few generous and liberal ideas that were cherished with respect to them originated only with you; they were aware that all who surrounded you wished for their destruction. They knew that the very idea of nobility was hateful to them; and they gave you credit for not being of that opinion. Would you believe it, their self-love occasionally found a certain degree of consolation in the reflection that you were one of their own class?”
The Emperor then asked me what was the opinion of the emigrants respecting his birth, the incidents of his life, &c. I replied that we beheld him for the first time at the head of the army of Italy; and that we were totally ignorant of all his previous history. We never could call him de Buonaparte. At this the Emperor laughed. The turn of our conversation then led him to observe that he had frequently reflected on the singular concurrence of secondary circumstances which had brought about his wonderful career.
1st, “If,” said he, “my father, who died before he attained the age of forty, had survived some time longer, he would have been appointed deputy from the Corsican nobility to the Constituent Assembly. He was much attached to the nobility and the aristocracy; on the other hand, he was a warm partisan of generous and liberal ideas. He would, therefore, either have been entirely on the right side, or at least in the minority of the nobility. At any rate, whatever might have been my own personal opinions, I should have followed my father’s footsteps, and thus my career would have been entirely deranged and lost.
2ndly, “If I had been older at the time of the revolution, I should perhaps myself have been appointed deputy. Being of an enthusiastic disposition, I should infallibly have adopted some opinion, and ardently followed it up. But at all events I should have shut myself out from the military service, and thus again my career would have been changed.
3rdly, “Had my family been better known, more wealthy, or more distinguished, my rank of nobility, even though I had followed the course of the revolution, would have made a cipher of me and proscribed me. I could never have obtained confidence; I could never have commanded an army; or, if I had attained such a command, I could not have ventured to do all that I did. Had my family circumstances been different from what they actually were, I could not, with all my success, have followed the bent of my liberal ideas with regard to the priests and nobles, and I should never have arrived at the head of the Government.
4thly, “The number of my sisters and brothers is also a circumstance which proved of great use to me, by multiplying my connections and means of influence.
5thly, “My marriage with Madame de Beauharnois brought me in contact with a party, whose aid was necessary in my system of amalgamations, which was one of the chief principles of my government, and that by which it was especially characterized. But for my wife, I should not have obtained any natural connection with this party.
6thly, “Even my foreign origin, though in France an endeavour was made to raise an outcry against it, was not unattended by advantage. The Italians regarded me as their countryman, and this circumstance greatly facilitated my success in Italy. This success being once obtained, inquiries were set on foot respecting our family history, which had long been buried in obscurity. My family was acknowledged by the Italians to have acted a distinguished part in the events of their country. It was viewed by them as an Italian family. Thus when the question of my sister Pauline’s marriage with the Prince Borghese was agitated, there was but one voice in Rome and Tuscany among the members of that family and their adherents: ‘Well,’ said they, ‘the union is among ourselves; they are our own connections.’ Subsequently, when it was proposed that the Emperor should be crowned by the Pope at Paris, great obstacles were, as circumstances have since proved, thrown in the way of that important event. The Austrian party in the conclave violently opposed the measure; but the Italian party decided in its favour, by adding to political considerations a little consideration of national self-love. ‘We[‘We] are placing,’ said they, ‘an[placing,’ said they, ‘an] Italian family on the throne, to govern these barbarians: we shall thus be revenged on the Gauls.’”[Gauls.’”]
These remarks naturally led the Emperor to speak of the Pope, who he said was rather favourably disposed towards him. The Pope did not accuse Napoleon of having ordered his removal to France. He was very indignant at reading in certain publications that the Emperor treated him with disrespect. He had received at Fontainebleau every mark of consideration that he could wish. When he learned the Emperor’s return from Elba to France, he said to Lucien, in a tone expressive of his confidence and impartiality, ’E sbarcato e arrivato (he has landed, he has arrived.) He afterwards said: “You are going to Paris; make my peace with him. I am in Rome; no cause of difference shall arise between us.”
“It is certain,” said the Emperor, “that Rome will afford a natural and favourable asylum for my family: there they may find themselves at home. Finally,” added he, smiling, “even my name, Napoleon, which in Italy is uncommon, poetic, and sonorous, contributed its share in the great circumstances of my life.”