Napoleon. "He is the only one who has discretion and tact! The others have bad men about them and are very ill-advised. They do not like me; they will now be more furious than ever; there is good reason for it. I am arrived without striking a blow. They are now about to cry me down as ambitious; that is their eternal reproach: they have nothing else to say."
Rapp. "They are not the only persons who accuse you of ambition."
Napoleon. "How ... am I ambitious? When people are ambitious are they as fat as I am?" (He struck his stomach with both hands).
Rapp. "Your Majesty jokes."
Napoleon. "No: I have wished that France should be what she ought to be; but I have never been ambitious. Besides, what do these folks think of? It becomes them well to assume importance with the nation and the army. Is it their courage on which they pride themselves?"
Rapp. "They have occasionally shewn some—in the army of Condé for instance."
Napoleon. "What is that order that I see on you?"
Rapp. "The Legion of Honour."
Napoleon. "The Devil! They have had, however, the sense to make a handsome decoration of it. And these two crosses here?" (He touched them).
Rapp. "Saint Louis and the Lily." (He smiled).