The Best of the Bureau/The_Best_of_the_Bureau_Bureau_Development_Inc._1992.iso/dp/0006/00065.txt

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$Unique_ID{bob00065}
$Pretitle{}
$Title{Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte And Life Of Josephine
Chapter IX}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Tarbell, Ida M.}
$Affiliation{}
$Subject{josephine
napoleon
emperor
malmaison
time
empress
happy
day
hortense
josephine's}
$Date{1906}
$Log{}
Title:       Life Of Napoleon Bonaparte And Life Of Josephine
Book:        Life Of Josephine
Author:      Tarbell, Ida M.
Date:        1906

Chapter IX

After The Divorce - Navarre - Josephine's Suspicions Of The Emperor - Her
Gradual Return To Happiness

     Although divorced, Josephine was still Empress of the French People, and
her income and her position were in keeping with her title.  By the decree of
the Senate, her income was fixed at 2,000,000 francs ($400,000), but the
Emperor found means of increasing this, by making her many splendid presents,
and by ordering that any unusual outlay, such as that for repairs at
Malmaison, be paid from the civil list.  She was to have three separate homes:
Malmaison, always her favorite residence, upon the chateau and grounds of
which she had for years lavished money, and in which she had carried out every
fantasy of building, decoration and gardening, that entered her head; the
Elysee Palace in Paris, at present the residence of the presidents of the
French Republic; and Navarre, a chateau near Evreux.

     Not only did Josephine receive money and property; Napoleon took care
that her suite was in keeping with her rank.  It was as large, indeed, as that
of many of the reigning sovereigns of Europe, and included some of the
cleverest and wittiest men and women of France.  To the Emperor's honor, the
persons chosen were all of them in sympathy with the Empress and loved by her.
More than one of those in Josephine's household, indeed, would have been
welcomed in the suite of Marie Louise; but being offered their choice,
remained with Josephine.  Mme. de Remusat was a notable example.  She stayed
with Josephine solely because of her affection and sense of loyalty and in
spite of the fact that her husband was the First Chamberlain of Napoleon.

     If Josephine had any idea that her divorce was going to separate her from
Paris and the society of her friends, she immediately found out her mistake.
The day after her arrival at Malmaison, in spite of a heavy shower, the road
from Paris was one long line of carriages of persons hastening to the chateau
to pay her their respects.  Those persons who did stay away because uncertain
whether the Emperor was sincere in his declaration that Josephine was to keep
her rank as Empress had to submit to severe reproofs.  "Have you been to see
the Empress Josephine?" he began to ask, after a day or two, and if the
courtier said no, the Emperor frowned and said, "You must go, sir!" And as a
result everybody did go, and continued to go.  Indeed, later in the winter,
when Josephine came to the Elysee for a short time, her house was a veritable
court.

     But Josephine had received a blow which wealth, rank, and friends could
not cure.  The man who once had wearied her by his passion and who had had to
beg and threaten to persuade her to pass a week with him in Italy, had in turn
become the object of as passionate affection as she was capable of feeling.
She had for years now regarded his slightest wish. In devoting herself to
Napoleon in order to save her position she had learned to love him.  Her pain
now was the greater because she could not believe that Napoleon meant it when
he said that he still should love and protect her and that he should honor her
for her sacrifice as never before.  She seemed to feel that, after she had
said good-by to him at the Tuileries, she would never see him again.  She gave
way utterly to her grief, weeping night and day.  Napoleon kept his word,
however.  Two days after her arrival at Malmaison he came to see her and
frequently in the days that followed, up to the time of his marriage with
Marie Louise, at the end of March, he made her little visits.  They were
always formal, in the presence of attendants, but they did much to persuade
the Empress that Napoleon intended to keep his promises to her.  After every
visit however, came paroxysms of weeping.  Napoleon kept himself informed of
Josephine's state, and wrote her frequent notes, chiding her for this
weakness, assuring her of his love, and begging her to have courage.

     "I found you weaker than you should have been," he wrote one day. "You
have shown some courage; you must find a way of keeping it up.  You must not
give up to melancholy, you must try to be contented, and above all, take care
of your health, which is so precious to me.  If you love me, you ought to try
to be strong and happy.  You must not doubt my constant and tender friendship.
You misunderstand entirely my feelings if you suppose that I can be happy when
you are not happy, and above all, when you are not contented."

     "Savary told me that you were weeping yesterday," he wrote another day.
"I hope that you have been able to go out to-day.  I am sending you the
results of my hunt yesterday.  I will come to see you just as soon as you will
promise me that you have regained your self-control and that your courage has
the upper hand.  Good-by, dear; I am sad to-day, too, for I have need of
knowing that you are satisfied and courageous."

     After returning to the Tuileries, he wrote her: - "Eugene told me that
you were sad yesterday.  That is not well, dear; it is contrary to what you
promised me.  It has been a sorrow to me to see the Tuileries again; the great
palace seems empty, and I am lost here."

     The visits, the gifts, the letters of the Emperor really made the Empress
worse rather than better; and finally Mme. de Remusat took the matter in hand.

     "The Empress passed a most unhappy morning," she wrote to her husband;
"she received a few visits which only increased her grief, and then every time
anything comes from the Emperor she goes off into a terrible paroxysm.  Some
way must be found to persuade the Emperor to moderate his expressions of
regret and affection, for whenever he gives a sign of his own sadness she
falls into despair, and really her head seems turned.  I take care of her as
well as I can, but she causes me the greatest sorrow.  She is sweet,
suffering, affectionate; in fact, everything that is calculated to tear one's
heart.  In showing his affection, the Emperor only makes her worse.  However
she suffers, there is never a complaint escapes her; she is really as gentle
as an angel. . . .  Try, if you can, to have the Emperor write to her so as to
encourage her, and let him never send anything in the evening, because that
gives her a terrible night.  She cannot endure his expressions of regret.
Doubtless, she could endure coldness still less, but there must be a medium
way.  She was in such a state yesterday after the last letter of the Emperor
that I was on the point of writing him myself at the Trianon."

     As time went on and Josephine found that she really had no reason to
suspect the Emperor of withdrawing the friendship he had promised, she began
to imagine that he meant to keep her always at Malmaison, never to allow her
to go again to Paris.  This alarm probably was due to gossip that reached her.
She no doubt would have preferred remaining at Malmaison if this fear had not
arisen.  She was so overcome by suspicion that she tested his sincerity by
asking permission to go to Paris.  She did this in spite of the fact that the
talk of the forthcoming marriage - not yet settled, but in full negotiation -
was in everybody's mouth.  The Emperor's reply to her request was kind.  "I
shall be glad to know that you are at the Elysee, and happy to see you
oftener, for you know how much I love you." In the course of this
correspondence about her coming he could not help scolding her a little,
however.  "I have just told Eugene that you would rather listen to the gossip
of the town than to what I tell you."

     And yet, even in this period of distress, Josephine was not i