Memoirs of the Empress Josephine, Vol. 1 of 2

by Madame de Rémusat

She would sometimes ask me to go to him and tell him of the harm which, as she said, this new entanglement was doing him in the eyes of the world; again, she wanted me to contrive that Mme. de X—— should be watched in her own house, whither she knew Bonaparte sometimes went of an evening; or else she would make me write, in her presence, anonymous letters full of reproaches. These I wrote in order to satisfy her, and to prevent her from getting other persons to write them; but I carefully burned them afterward, although I assured her that I had sent them.

Servants whom she could trust were employed to discover the proofs she sought for. The employees of her favorite tradespeople were taken into her confidence, and I suffered the more from her imprudent conduct, when I learned shortly afterward that Mme. Murat put down all the discoveries made by the Empress to my account, and accused me of a mean espionage of which I was incapable.

The Empress was the more distressed because her son was profoundly grieved by this affair. Mme. de X——, who, either from coquetry, inclination, or vanity, had at first listened favorably to him, avoided even the slightest appearance of friendship with him since her new and more brilliant conquest. She probably boasted to the Emperor of the passion with which she had inspired Eugène; certain it is that the latter was treated with coldness by his stepfather. The Empress showed her anger at this; the Princess Louis was also distressed, but she concealed her feelings; Eugène was sore at heart, but his outward composure laid him little open to attack.

In all this the undying hatred between the Bonapartes and the Beauharnais was displayed, and it was my fate to find myself entangled in it, notwithstanding all my moderation. I have discovered by experience that everything, or nearly everything, depends on chance at Court. Human prudence is not a sufficient safeguard, and I know no means of escaping from misconstruction, unless the sovereign himself be incapable of suspicion. Far from this, however, the Emperor welcomed all gossip, and believed everything that was ill-natured, on any subject. The surest way to please him was to carry every rumor to him, and to denounce everybody’s conduct; and therefore M. de Rémusat, who was placed so near him, never obtained his favor. He declined to tread such a path to success, although it was frequently pointed out to him by Duroc.

One evening the Emperor, who was quite out of patience, owing to a scene with his wife, in which, driven to desperation, she had declared she would forbid the entry of her apartments to Mme. de X——, addressed himself to M. de Rémusat, and complained that I did not use my influence over her to dissuade her from acts of imprudence. He concluded by telling him that he wished to speak to me in private, and that I was to ask for an audience. M. de Rémusat conveyed this order to me, and accordingly on the following day I asked for an audience, which was fixed for the next morning.

A hunting-party had been arranged for that day. The Empress started first with the foreign princes; she was to wait for the Emperor in the Bois de Boulogne. I arrived just as the Emperor was entering his carriage; his suite was assembled round him. He returned to his cabinet in order to receive me, to the great astonishment of the Court, to whom the merest trifle was an event.

He began by complaining bitterly of the discussions in his household, and launched out into invectives against women in general, and his own wife in particular. He reproached me with assisting her spies, and accused me of many actions of which I knew nothing whatever, but which had been reported to him. I recognized in all he said the ill offices of Mme. Murat, and, what hurt me more, I perceived that in several instances the Empress had used my name, and had attributed to me her own words or thoughts, in order to strengthen her case. This, together with the Emperor’s angry words, distressed me, and tears rose to my eyes. The Emperor noticed them, and rudely rebuked my emotion with a saying which he frequently used, and which I have already quoted: “Women have always two ways of producing an effect—paint and tears.” Just then these words, uttered in an ironical tone and with the intention of disconcerting me, had the opposite effect; they angered me, and gave me courage to answer: “No, Sire; but when I am unjustly accused, I can not but weep tears of indignation.”

I must render this testimony to the Emperor: he was seldom hard upon any one who displayed firmness; either because, meeting with it seldom, he was unprepared for it, or because his natural sense of justice responded to a feeling justly entertained.

He was not displeased with me. “Since you do not approve,” he said, “of the watch set over me by the Empress, how is it your influence is not sufficient to deter her? She humiliates both herself and me by surrounding me with spies; she only furnishes weapons to her enemies. Since you are in her confidence, you must answer for her, and I shall hold you responsible for all her faults.” He smiled slightly as he spoke these words. Then I represented to him that I was tenderly attached to the Empress; that I was incapable of advising her to an improper course of action; but that no one could gain much influence over a person of so passionate a nature. I told him that he showed no tact in dealing with her, and that, whether he was rightly or wrongly suspected, he was harsh and treated her too roughly. I durst not blame the Empress for that which was really blameworthy in her conduct, for I knew he would not fail to repeat my words to his wife. I ended by telling him that I should keep away from the palace for some time, and that he would see whether things went on any better in consequence.

He then said that he was not, and could not be, in love; that he thought no more of Mme. de X—— than of anybody else; that love was for men of a different disposition from his own; that he was altogether absorbed in politics; that he would have no women ruling in his Court; that they had injured Henry IV. and Louis XIV.: that his own business was a much more serious one than that of those kings, and that Frenchmen had become too grave to pardon their sovereign for recognized liaisons and official mistresses. He spoke of his wife’s past conduct, adding that she had not the right to be severe. I ventured to check him on this subject, and he was not angry with me. Finally, he questioned me as to the individuals who were employed as spies by the Empress. I could only answer that I knew none of them. Then he reproached me with want of attachment to himself. I maintained that I was more sincerely devoted than those who carried worthless gossip to him. This conversation ended better than it had begun; I could perceive that I had made a favorable impression.