“Oh, sire, some town, some province, some kingdom.”
He laughed, looking at her slyly.
“And supposing you should lose?”
“Your Majesty is in funds and will perhaps deign to pay for me.”
The answer pleased. He loved bold talk, prompt replies, definite answers. Halting, uncertain, indefinite people he could never endure.
Answer quick and answer positively, and your reply, though untrue, might please him better than if you hesitatingly told him the truth.
The same lively writer gives another lifelike picture of Napoleon in one of his fits of ill temper.
One day at Warsaw he received information that General Victor, bearing important despatches, had been captured by the Prussians. This piece of news enraged the Emperor. It chanced that upon the same day a Dutch delegation arrived to congratulate him upon the victory of Jena. They were admitted to audience just before the Emperor’s regular reception.
“It was near ten o’clock, and we (those in the reception room) had been awaiting a long time ... when, the door being noisily thrown open, we saw the fat Dutchmen, in their scarlet robes, roll rather than walk in. The Emperor was prodding them, exclaiming in rather loud tones, ‘Go on! go on!’ The poor envoys lost their heads, and tumbled all over each other.”
Princess Potocka says that she felt like laughing; but when she looked at the Emperor’s face, she did not dare.