[207] They were married in January, 1800, at the Palace of the Luxembourg.
[208] Las Cases, tom. iv., p. 357.
[209] M. de Talleyrand said of her, that "she had Cromwell's head on the shoulders of a pretty woman."
[210] Ferdinand having embarked for Sicily, Joseph Buonaparte, in February, 1806, made his public entry into Naples, alighting at the palace which the unfortunate monarch had just quitted. He was proclaimed King of Naples and the two Sicilies on the 30th of March. The city was illuminated on the occasion, "amidst every demonstration of joy, even more on the part of the nobles than of the lower orders."—Botta, Storia d'Italia, tom. iv., p. 264.
[211] "She was haughty, nervous, passionate, dissolute, and devoured by the two passions of love and ambition—influenced, as has been said, by the poet Fontanes, in whom she was wrapped up."—Fouché, tom. i., p. 240.
[212] It is said, that being asked by a lady how she could submit to such an exposure of her person, she conceived that the question only related to physical inconvenience, and answered it by assuring her friend that the apartment was properly aired.—S.
[213] Fouché, tom. ii., p. 33. The most ridiculous reports were also circulated, respecting an improper intercourse between Napoleon and his step-daughter Hortensia:—"Such a connexion," said he, "would have been wholly repugnant to my ideas; and those who knew any thing of the morality of the Tuileries, must be aware that I need not have been reduced to so unnatural and revolting a choice."—Las Cases, tom. iii., p. 307.
[214] "Stephanie Beauharnais lost her mother in childhood. She was left in the care of an English lady, who confided her protegée to some old nuns in the south of France. During the consulship, I had her placed in the establishment of Madame Campan, at St. Germain; all sorts of masters were appointed to superintend her education, and on her introduction into the world, her beauty, wit, accomplishments, and virtues, rendered her an object of universal admiration. I adopted her as my daughter, and gave her in marriage to the hereditary Prince of Baden. This union was, for several years, far from being happy. In course of time, however, they became attached to each other, and from that moment they had only to regret the happiness of which they had deprived themselves during the early years of their marriage."—Napoleon, Las Cases, tom. iii., p. 317.
[215] Speech on the King's Message, relating to Prussia, April 23, 1806; Hansard's Parliamentary Debates, vol. vi., p. 891.
[216] Las Cases, tom. vii., p. 77.