Memoirs of the Empress Josephine, Vol. 1 of 2

by Madame de Rémusat

This interview had lasted a long time; and the Empress, who grew tired of waiting in the Bois de Boulogne, had sent a mounted servant to discover what was detaining her husband. She was informed that he was alone with me. Her uneasiness became very great; she returned to the Tuileries, and, finding I was no longer there, she sent Mme. de Talhouet to my house to learn all that had taken place. In obedience to the Emperor’s commands, I replied that the conversation had been restricted to certain matters relative to M. de Rémusat.

In the evening there was a dance at General Savary’s, at which the Emperor had promised to be present. During the winter he took every opportunity of appearing in society; he was in good spirits, and would even dance, rather awkwardly. I arrived at Mme. Savary’s before the Court party. The Grand Marshal (Duroc) came forward to meet me, and offered his arm to conduct me to my place; and our host was full of attentions. My long audience of that morning had given rise to conjectures; I was treated with respect, as though I were in high favor, or had received confidential communications. I could not help smiling at the simple cunning of these courtiers.

Presently the Emperor and Empress arrived. In making his progress round the room, Bonaparte stopped and spoke to me in a friendly manner. The Empress was watching us, full of anxiety. Mme. Murat looked astonished and Mme. de X—— nervous. All this amused me; I did not foresee the consequences. The next day the Empress pressed me with questions which I took care not to answer; she became offended, and declared that I was sacrificing her to the Emperor, that I chose the safe side, and that I no more than others cared for her. Her reproaches grieved me deeply.

I confided all my troubles to my dear mother. I was acquiring a bitter experience, and was still young enough to shed tears over it. My mother comforted me, and advised me to hold myself a little aloof, which I did; but this did not help me. The Emperor obliged me to speak to him, and, when he reproached his wife for her indiscreet behavior, pretended he was repeating my opinions. The Empress treated me with coldness; I saw that she avoided speaking to me, and, for my part, I did not consider myself bound to seek her confidence.

The Emperor, who enjoyed sowing dissension between us, perceived the coolness, and paid me, in consequence, all the more attention; but Mme. de X——, who had been taught to dislike me, and was uneasy at the favor in which I was held, and who also perhaps did me the honor of feeling a little jealous, tried in every way to injure me. As everything in this world works together for evil purposes only too readily, she found an opportunity in which she was perfectly successful.

On the other hand, Eugène Beauharnais and the Princess Louis were convinced that I had betrayed their mother, in order to further the ambition of M. de Rémusat, who preferred the favor of the master to that of the mistress. M. de Rémusat held himself entirely aloof from all these matters; but, where ambition is concerned, the probable is always the true in the belief of dwellers in a court. Eugène, who had been friendly to my husband, now kept aloof from him. As courtiers, our position was not an unfavorable one; but, as we were merely honorable people and would not reap any disgraceful advantage from it, we were both greatly distressed.

I have still to relate how Mme. de X—— contrived to strike the final blow. Among my mother’s friends and mine was Mme. Charles de Damas, whose daughter, the wife of the Count de Vogué, was the intimate friend of my sister, and was also intimate, though in a less degree, with myself. Mme. de Damas was an ardent Royalist, and in the habit of expressing her opinions with some imprudence. She had even been accused, after the affair of the 3d Nivôse (the infernal machine), of having concealed certain Chouans who were implicated. In the autumn of 1804 Mme. de Damas was exiled to a distance of forty leagues from Paris, on account of some foolish speeches. The act of severity sorely distressed both the mother and the daughter: the latter was near her confinement, and I, having witnessed their tears and shared their grief, went for consolation to the Empress. She spoke to her husband, and he was good enough to listen to my petition, and to grant me the revocation of the sentence.

Mme. de Damas, in her impulsive and affectionate way, published abroad the service I had rendered her, and, bound by feelings of gratitude to the Empress, as well as alarmed at the risk she had run, she became thenceforth more careful of her words. She never mentioned politics to me, but respected my position as I respected her feelings.

It happened, however, that in the Marquise de C——, a lady who had formerly been celebrated at Court and in society for her brilliancy of repartee, Mme. de Damas had an enemy. Mme. de C—— was on friendly terms with Mme. de X——, and, having discovered her liaison with the Emperor, she extorted an avowal of the facts from Mme. de X——. Then, being of an active and scheming disposition, she undertook to advise her friend in her capacity of mistress to the sovereign. They had some conversation about me, and Mme. de C——, who always imagined the intrigues of Versailles in the incidents of the Emperor’s Court, concluded, with some show of probability, that it was my intention to supplant the new favorite. As I was reputed to possess some talent, and as my reputation on this point owed a great deal to my mother’s, it was supposed that I must be fond of intrigue. Mme. de C——, intending to do a bad turn to Mme. de Damas, and at the same time to injure me, mentioned her to Mme. de X—— as a woman more devoted than ever to her Royalist opinions, ready to enter into any secret correspondence, and to abuse the indulgence with which she had been treated, by acting against the Emperor whenever she could. My friendship with her was described as more intimate than it really was; and this, being reported to the Emperor, served to prejudice him against me. He no longer summoned me to join him at the card-table, nor conversed with me; I was not invited to Malmaison or to the hunting-parties; in short, I found myself in disgrace without being able to guess at the cause, for, on account of my failing health, I was living in comparative solitude and retirement. My husband and I were too closely united for disgrace to fall on one without including the other, and neither of us could understand why we were thus treated.

As the Emperor’s friendship for me cooled, I regained the confidence of his wife, who took me back into favor as lightly as she had given me up, and without a word of explanation. By this time I knew her sufficiently to understand that explanations would be useless. She enlightened me respecting the Emperor’s displeasure. She had learned from him that Mme. de C—— and Mme. de X—— had informed against me. He had gone so far as to acknowledge to his wife that he was in love, and gave her to understand that he must not be thwarted; adding, in order to console her, that it was a passing fancy, which would only be increased by opposition, but would soon pass away if it were not balked.