THE EMPEROR’S COURT AT THE TUILERIES.—THE PRESENTATION OF THE LADIES.—ON WOMEN’S AGES.—MANUSCRIPT OF THE ISLAND OF ELBA.
8th.—The Emperor sent for me very early: he was just finishing his toilet. He had had no sleep during the night, and he seemed much fatigued. The weather had become somewhat tolerable, and he desired to have his breakfast under the tent. While it was preparing, he took a few turns about the garden, and resumed the conversation he had had with me on the preceding night.
He invited Madame de Montholon to breakfast, and afterwards we took a drive in the calash, of which the Emperor had made no use for a considerable time. He had scarcely breathed the fresh air for several days.
The conversation once more turned on the subject of the Emperor’s Court at the Tuileries, the multitude of persons composing it, the spirit and address with which Napoleon went through the ceremony of the presentations, &c. I pass over many of the observations that were made, for the sake of avoiding repetition.
“It is more difficult than is generally supposed,” said the Emperor, “to speak to every body in a crowded assemblage, and yet say nothing to any one; to seem to know a multitude of people, nine-tenths of whom are total strangers to one.”
Again, when alluding to the period when he was in the plentitude of his power, he observed that it was at once easy and difficult to approach him, to communicate with him, and to be appreciated by him; and that it depended on the merest chance in the world whether his courtiers made or missed their fortune. “Now that I am myself entirely out of the question,” said he, “now that I am a mere private individual, and can reflect philosophically on the time when I was called to execute the designs of Providence, without, however, ceasing to be a man, I see how much the fate of those I governed really depended upon chance; and how often favour and credit were purely accidental. Intrigue is so dexterous, and merit often so awkward, and these extremes approximate so closely to each other that, with the best intentions in the world, I find that my benefits were distributed like prizes in a lottery. And yet could I have done better? “Was I faulty in my intentions, or remiss in my exertions? Have other sovereigns done better than I did? It is only thus that I can be judged. The fault was in the nature of my situation, and in the force of things.”
We then spoke of the presentation of the ladies at Court, their embarrassment, and the plans, views, and hopes that were formed by some of them. Madame de Montholon revealed the secrets of several of her acquaintance, by which it appeared that if in the saloons of Paris some were heard to exclaim against the Emperor’s coarseness of manners, harshness of expression, and ugliness of person, others, who were better disposed, better informed, and differently affected, extolled the sweetness of his voice, the grace of his manners, the delicacy of his smile, and above all, his famous hand, which was said to be ridiculously handsome.
These advantages, it was observed, combined with great power and still greater glory, were naturally calculated to excite and to give rise to certain romantic stories. Thus at the Tuileries how many endeavoured to render themselves pleasing to the sovereign! How many sought to inspire a sentiment which it is probable they themselves really felt!
The Emperor smiled at our remarks and conjectures; and he confessed that, notwithstanding the mass of business and the cloud of flattery in which he was enveloped, he had oftener than once observed the sentiments to which we alluded. A few of the least timid among his admirers had, he said, even solicited and obtained interviews. We now laughed in our turn, and said that, at the time, these stories had been the subject of a great deal of mirth. But the Emperor seriously protested that they were void of foundation. In a more private conversation at the Briars, during one of our walks by moonlight, the Emperor, as I have stated in a former part of my Journal, made the same assertion, and contradicted every report of this nature, except one.
Our next subject of conversation was the repugnance of women to let their age be known. The Emperor made some very lively and entertaining remarks. An instance was mentioned of a woman who preferred losing an important law-suit to confessing her age. The case would have been decided in her favour, had she produced the register of her baptism, but this she could not be prevailed on to do.