



Produced by Anne Soulard, Charles Aldarondo, Keren Vergon,
Shawn Wheeler, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed
Proofreading Team












THE COURT OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE

BY

IMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND

TRANSLATED BY THOMAS SERGEANT PERRY

ILLUSTRATED

1900







CONTENTS.


CHAPTER

    I.  THE BEGINNING OF THE EMPIRE

   II.  THE JOURNEY TO THE BANKS OF THE RHINE

  III.  THE POPE'S ARRIVAL AT FONTAINEBLEAU

   IV.  THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE CORONATION

    V.  THE CORONATION

   VI.  THE DISTRIBUTION OF FLAGS

  VII.  THE FESTIVITIES

 VIII.  THE ETIQUETTE OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE

   IX.  THE HOUSEHOLD OF THE EMPRESS

    X.  NAPOLEON'S GALLANTRIES

   XI.  THE POPE AT THE TUILERIES

  XII.  THE JOURNEY IN ITALY

 XIII.  THE CORONATION AT MILAN

  XIV.  THE FESTIVITIES AT GENOA

   XV.  DURING THE CAMPAIGN OF AUSTERLITZ

  XVI.  THE MARRIAGE OF PRINCE EUGENE

 XVII.  PARIS IN THE BEGINNING OF 1806

XVIII.  THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF BADEN

  XIX.  THE NEW QUEEN OF HOLLAND

   XX.  THE EMPRESS AT MAYENCE

  XXI.  THE RETURN OF THE EMPRESS TO PARIS

 XXII.  THE DEATH OF THE YOUNG NAPOLEON

XXIII.  THE END OF THE WAR

 XXIV.  THE EMPEROR'S RETURN

  XXV.  THE COURT AT FONTAINEBLEAU

 XXVI.  THE END OF THE YEAR 1807





I.

THE BEGINNING OF THE EMPIRE.


"Two-thirds of my life is passed, why should I so distress myself about
what remains? The most brilliant fortune does not deserve all the trouble
I take, the pettiness I detect in myself, or the humiliations and shame I
endure; thirty years will destroy those giants of power which can be seen
only by raising the head; we shall disappear, I who am so petty, and those
whom I regard so eagerly, from whom I expected all my greatness. The most
desirable of all blessings is repose, seclusion, a little spot we can call
our own." When La Bruyere expressed himself so bitterly, when he spoke of
the court "which satisfies no one," but "prevents one from being satisfied
anywhere else," of the court, "that country where the joys are visible but
false, and the sorrows hidden, but real," he had before him the brilliant
Palace of Versailles, the unrivalled glory of the Sun King, a monarchy
which thought itself immovable and eternal. What would he say in this
century when dynasties fail like autumn leaves, and it takes much less
than thirty years to destroy the giants of power; when the exile of to-day
repeats to the exile of the morrow the motto of the churchyard: _Hodie
mihi, eras tibi?_ What would this Christian philosopher say at a time when
royal and imperial palaces have been like caravansaries through which
sovereigns have passed like travellers, when their brief resting-places
have been consumed by the blaze of petroleum and are now but a heap of
ashes?

The study of any court is sure to teach wisdom and indifference to human
glories. In our France of the nineteenth century, fickle as it has been,
inconstant, fertile in revolutions, recantations, and changes of every
sort, this lesson is more impressive than it has been at any period of our
history. Never has Providence shown more clearly the nothingness of this
world's grandeur and magnificence. Never has the saying of Ecclesiastes
been more exactly verified: "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!" We have
before us the task of describing one of the most sumptuous courts that has
ever existed, and of reviewing splendors all the more brilliant for their
brevity. To this court of Napoleon and Josephine, to this majestic court,
resplendent with glory, wealth, and fame, may well be applied Corneille's
lines:--

 "All your happiness
  Subject to instability
  In a moment falls to the ground,
  And as it has the brilliancy of glass
  It also has its fragility."

We shall evoke the memory of the dead to revive this vanished court, and
we shall consult, one after another, the persons who were eye-witnesses of
these short-lived wonders. A prefect of the palace, M. de Bausset, wrote:
"When I recall the memorable times of which I have just given a faint
idea, I feel, after so many years, as if I had been