Napoleonic Literature
Memoirs of Constant - Vol. II
Chapter XIII
Results of success— General Beaumont— One hundred and forty flags taken from the enemy— General Savary, Marshal Mortier, Prince Murat— Departure from Berlin— Grand Marshal Duroc breaks a collar-bone— Stay of the Emperor at Warsaw— Cordiality of the Polish nobility— The Emperor sees Madame V—— for the first time— Portrait of this lady— The Emperor's agitation— Singular mission confided to a great personage— The Emperor's first advances rejected— Confusion of the ambassador— Preoccupation of His Majesty— Correspondence— Consent— First rendezvous— Sobs and tears— Madame V—— at the headquarters of Finkenstein— Affection of Madame V for the Emperor— Meals in private— Constant the only attendant— Conversation— Occupations of Madame V——  when not in the Emperor's presence— Sweetness and even temper of Madame V—— — Madame V—— at Schönbrunn with the Emperor— Mysterious employment with which Constant is entrusted— The rain and the ruts— Anxiety and advice of the Emperor— The carriage upset— A not dangerous fall— Constant supporting Madame V—— — The small house in the Chausstée-d'Antin— Voluntary solitude of Madame V—— — Birth of a son— Napoleon's joy— The new-born made a count— Madame V—— takes her son to the Emperor— The young count saved by Doctor Corvisart— The lock of hair, the ring, and the motto— The La Vallière of the Empire and the favorites of the victor of Austerlitz.

AT Berlin, each day and each hour of the day brought the Emperor news of some victory gained, some success obtained by his generals. General Beaumont presented him with eighty flags taken from the enemy by his division. Colonel Gérard brought him sixty more, taken from Blücher, at the battle of Wismar. Magdeburg had capitulated, and a garrison of sixteen thousand men had laid down their arms before General Savary. Marshal Mortier was  occupying Hanover in the name of France. Prince Murat was entering Warsaw after chasing the Russians out of it. It was against the latter that the was about to recommence, or rather continue; for the armies of Prussia might well be regarded as annihilated. The Emperor left Berlin to conduct his operations against the Russians in person.

We travelled in the little calashes of the country. As in all our journeys, the carriage of the grand marshal preceded that of the Emperor. The season and the passage of the artillery had made the roads frightful, and yet we went very fast. Between Kutow and Warsaw, the carriage of the grand marshal was upset, and his collar-bone broken. The Emperor came up soon after this unlucky accident, and personally supervised the marshal's removal to the nearest post-house. We always had a small medicine chest with us, so that the indispensable  requirements were promptly attended to. His Majesty remitted him to the care of his own surgeon, and did not leave him until he had seen the first bandages applied.

At Warsaw, where His Majesty spent the entire month of January, 1807, he inhabited the grand palace. The Polish nobility, eager to pay court to him, gave magnificent fétes and very brilliant balls, at which all the wealthiest and most distinguished people in the city were present. At one of these reunions the Emperor remarked a young Polish lady, Madame V——, twenty-two years of age, and recently married to an old noble of a severe temper and very austere manners, who was fonder of his titles than of his wife. 1 Still, he loved her much, but in return was respected rather than loved. The Emperor was attracted to this lady at the first glance. She was fair, with blue eyes and a dazzlingly white complexion. She was not tall, but she was perfectly well made, and had a charming figure. The Emperor approached and began a conversation in which she took her part with much grace and spirit, and in a way that showed she had received a brilliant education. A trace of melancholy that pervaded her whole person rendered her still more attractive. His Majesty fancied he saw in her a woman who had been sacrificed, whose family life was unhappy, and the interest inspired by this idea made him more enamoured, more impassioned, than he had ever been for any woman. She must have perceived it.

The day after the ball, the Emperor seemed to me in an unusual state of agitation. Be would rise, walk about, sit down, and rise again. I thought I should never finish dressing him that day. Directly after his breakfast, he commissioned a great personage, whom I will not name, to go on his behalf to pay a visit to Madame V—— and acquaint her with his sentiments and wishes. 2 She haughtily refused propositions which were, perhaps, too brusque, or which the coquetry natural to all women may have counselled her to reject. The hero himself had pleased her, the idea of a lover resplendent with power and glory doubtless greatly disturbed her mind, but never had she had a thought of yielding in this fashion without a struggle. The great personage returned in great confusion and much astonished at not having succeeded in his negotiation. The next day, at the levee of the Emperor, I found him still preoccupied. He did not say a word to me, although he usually did so. He had written several times to Madame V—— the day before, and she had not answered him. His self-love was extremely piqued by a resistance to which he was unaccustomed. At last he wrote so many and such touching letters, that Madame V—— yielded. She consented to come and see the Emperor between ten and eleven o'clock in the evening. The great personage, of whom I have already spoken, received orders to go with a carriage to meet her at a designated place. While awaiting her, the Emperor strode restlessly up and down, displaying as much emotion as impatience; every minute he was asking me the time. Madame V—— at last arrived, but in what a condition! pale, mute, and with eyes bathed in tears. As soon as she appeared she was brought into the Emperors chamber; she could hardly stand, and leaned, trembling, on my arm. When I had introduced her, I withdrew along with the personage who had brought her. During her tête-à-tête with the Emperor, Madame V—— wept and sobbed so, that, in spite of the distance, I could hear her moaning in a way that rent my heart. It is probable that in this first interview the Emperor obtained nothing from her. His Majesty summoned me about two o'clock in the morning. I made haste and saw Madame V—— coming out with her handkerchief over her eyes, and still shedding bitter tears. She was taken back to her own home by the same personage. I thought she would never return.

Two or three days later, nevertheless, at nearly the same hour, Madame V—— returned to the palace; she appeared more tranquil. The keenest emotion was still depicted on her charming face; but her eyes, at least, were dry and her cheeks less pale. She went away at a rather early hour in the morning, and continued her visits until the moment of the Emperor's departure.

Two months later, the Emperor wrote to Madame V—— from his headquarters at Finkenstein, and she hastened to rejoin him. His Majesty had an apartment prepared for her which communicated with his own. Madam V—— installed herself there and no longer quitted the palace of Finkenstein, leaving at Warsaw her old husband who, wounded in his honor and his affections, would never again see the wife who had abandoned him. Madame V—— lived three weeks with the Emperor, until his departure, and afterwards returned to her own family. During all this time she never ceased to testify the tenderest, as well as the most disinterested affection for His Majesty. The Emperor, for his part, seemed to comprehend perfectly all that was interesting in this angelic woman whose gentle and self-sacrificing character has left an ineffaceable souvenir in my memory. They took all their meals together; I alone waited on them; hence I was in a position to enjoy their conversation, which, on the Emperor's part, was always amiable, ardent, and eager, and on hers, always tender, impassioned, and melancholy. When His Majesty was not with her, Madame V—— spent her time either in reading, or in watching through the Emperor's window-blinds the parades and evolutions he caused to be executed in the court of the château, and which he frequently commanded in person. Her manner of life, like her disposition, was always uniform. Her character delighted the Emperor and made him daily cherish her more tenderly.

After the battle of Wagram, in 1809, the Emperor went to live in the palace of Schönbrunn. He had Madame V—— come there also. He hired and furnished a charming house for her in one of the faubourgs of Vienna, not far from Schönbrunn. I went mysteriously to fetch her every evening in a closed carriage, without armorial bearings, and with a single unliveried servant. I brought her into the palace also by a private door, and introduced her into the Emperor's apartment. The road, though short, was not free from danger, especially when it rained, on account of the ruts and holes one encountered at every step. Hence the Emperor would say to me nearly every day: "Take care this evening, Constant, it has been raining, and the road must be bad. Are you sure of your driver? Is the carriage in good condition?" and other questions of the same sort, all of which proved his sincere and real attachment to Madame V——. For that matter, the Emperor had reason enough for urging me to be careful; for one evening, after we had started from her house a little later than usual, the coachman upset us. In trying to avoid a rut, he had thrown the carriage over the side of the road. I was on the right of Madame V——; the carriage fell to the right, so that I was the only sufferer from the fall, while Madame V——, tumbling on top of me, received no injury. I was satisfied to have saved her. I told her so, and she displayed her gratitude with a grace peculiarly her own. The hurt I felt at first was soon over. I was the first to laugh at it, and then Madame V—— , who described our accident to His Majesty as soon as we arrived.

It was at Schönbrunn that Madame V—— became pregnant. I shall not attempt to recount all the cares and attentions with which the Emperor surrounded her. He made her come to Paris, accompanied by her brother, a very distinguished officer, and a waiting-woman. He commissioned the grand-marshal to buy a fine house for her in the Chaussée-d'Antin. Madame V—— was happy; she often said to me: "All my thoughts, all my inspirations, come from him and return to him; he is all my good, my future, my life. "Hence she never left her house except when she came to the little apartments in the Tuileries. When this happiness was not permitted her, she never sought diversion at the theatre, the promenade, or in society. She remained at home, seeing very few persons, and writing to the Emperor every day. She was delivered of a son who bore a striking resemblance to His Majesty. This was a great joy for the Emperor. Hastening to her as soon as it was possible for him to get away from the château, he took the child in his arms, and embracing it as he had just embraced the mother, he said to him: "I will make thee a count." Later we shall see this son receiving a final mark of attachment from the Emperor at Fontainebleau.

Madame V—— brought up her son at home, and never quitted him; she often fetched him to the château, where I admitted her by the dark stairway. When either of them was ill, the Emperor sent M. Corvisart to them; this skilful physician once had the good fortune to save the young count from a dangerous malady.

Madame V—— had a gold ring made for the Emperor, around which she rolled some of her beautiful fair hair. On the inside this inscription was engraved: "When thou shalt cease to love me, forget not that I love thee." The Emperor never called her anything but Marie.

Perhaps I have given too much time to this liaison of the Emperor, but Madame V—— was totally different from the other women from whom His Majesty had obtained favors, and she deserved to be called the La Vallière of the Emperor, although he never was ungrateful to her, as Louis XIV. was to the only woman by whom he was beloved. Those who, like myself, have had the happiness of seeing and knowing her well, must have retained a recollection of her which will make them understand why, in my view, there is so great a distance between Madame V——, a tender and modest woman, bringing up in retirement the son she had given the Emperor, and the favorites of the conqueror of Austerlitz.


1.  The Countess Marie Walewska. [My footnote.]  Return to paragraph text.

2.  Marshal Caulaincourt, Duc de Vicenza, Napoleon's Master of the Horse. [My footnote.] Return to paragraph text.
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