But it would be anticipating events too far to concern ourselves about misfortunes which very few men dared yet forebode, even after the disasters of Moscow. Everybody knew that cold and a biting temperature had contributed more toward our reverses than the enemy whom we had sought even in the midst of his burning capital. France still afforded immense resources, and the Emperor was there to accelerate their employment and multiply their value. Besides, no defection had yet been manifested, and with the exception of Spain, Sweden, and Russia, the Emperor had none but allies in all the powers of the European continent. It is true that the moment was approaching when General Yorck would give the signal; for, as well as I can recollect, the first news of it reached the Emperor about the 10th of the following January, and it was easy to see that His Majesty was profoundly affected by it, for he plainly foresaw that Prussia would not fail to find imitators in the other corps of the allied army.

At Smorghoni, where the Emperor had left me, setting off himself, as I have said, with the Duc de Vicenza in the calash intended for me, little was thought of but how to get out of the frightful plight that we were in. Still, I remember that after some moments of regret because the Emperor was no longer in the midst of his lieutenants, the idea of knowing that he was out of all danger became the prevailing sentiment, such confidence had we in his genius! Moreover, in departing he had left the command to the King of Naples, whose valor was admired by the army, although I have been told that some of the marshals were secretly jealous of his royal crown. I learned afterwards that the Emperor reached Warsaw on the 10th, after having avoided passing through the city of Wilna, which he had gone around by way of the faubourgs, and that at last, after crossing Silesia, he arrived at Dresden, where the good and faithful King of Saxony, sick as he was, had had himself carried to the Emperor. From there, His Majesty followed the route of Nassau and Mayence.

I also took that route, but not with the same rapidity, although I lost no time. Everywhere, and especially in Poland, in all the places where I halted, I was amazed to find such security as I saw displayed. I constantly heard people saying that the Emperor was about to return at the head of an army of three hundred thousand men. Such surprising things had been seen from the Emperor that nothing seemed impossible, and I learned that he had himself spread these rumors as he passed by in order to rouse the courage of the populations. In several places I found difficulty in procuring horses: hence, in spite of my eagerness, I did not reach Paris until six or eight days after the Emperor.

Hardly had I left the carriage when the Emperor, having been informed of my arrival, summoned me. As I made the person whom he had sent observe that I was not in a state which permitted my presenting myself before His Majesty: "That is no matter," was replied; "the Emperor wishes you to come at once, just as you are." I obeyed to the minute, and went, or rather ran to the cabinet of the Emperor where he was with the Empress, Queen Hortense, and another person whom I do not remember positively enough to be able to name. The Emperor deigned to give me the most benevolent reception; and as the Empress seemed to pay no attention to me, he said with an accent of kindness which I shall never forget: "Louise, don't you recognize Constant?" "I perceived him." Such was the sole response of Her Majesty the Empress. But it was different with Queen Hortense, who welcomed me as her adorable mother had always done.

The Emperor was very cheerful and seemed to have forgotten all his fatigues. I was about respectfully to withdraw when His Majesty said to me: "No, Constant, stay a moment longer. Tell me what you saw along the road." Even had I had the intention of disguising a part of the truth from the Emperor, I was taken unawares and had no time to invent a courteous lie; therefore I told him that everywhere, as far as Silesia, my eyes had been smitten with a frightful spectacle, that in every place I had seen the dead and the dying, and unhappy wretches hopelessly contending against cold and famine. "It is well," said he; "go and rest yourself, my child; you must need it. To-morrow you will resume your service."

The next day I did, in fact, resume my duties about the Emperor, and found him absolutely the same as he had been before entering on campaign: one might have thought the past no longer existed for him, and that, living already in the future, he beheld victory ranging herself once more beneath his banners, and his enemies humiliated and overthrown. It is true that the language of the numerous addresses he received, and of the speeches delivered in his presence by the presidents of the Senate and the Council of State, were not less laudatory than in the past; but it was easy to discern in his replies that if he had been able to feign forgetfulness of the disasters experienced in Russia, he was much more keenly preoccupied with the ill-concerted scheme of General Mallet than with anything else. 1 For my part, I shall not disguise the painful sentiment I experienced the first time I went out in Paris, and when I frequented the public promenades in my hours of leisure, I was struck with the extraordinary number of people in mourning whom I met. They were the wives and sisters of our heroes, mown down in the plains of Russia; but I kept this painful observation to myself.

Some days after my return to Paris, Their Majesties were present at a representation at the Opéra, where the Jerusalem Delivered was rendered. I too went into a box lent me for that evening by Count de Rémusat, first chamberlain of the Emperor, and in charge of the theatres. I witnessed the reception given to the Emperor and Empress. Never had I seen more enthusiasm, and I must avow that I found the transition rather brusque between the recent crossing of the Beresina and this truly magical spectacle. It was a Sunday; I left the theatre a little before the end of the play, so as to be at the palace when the Emperor returned. I was in time to undress him, and I remember His Majesty spoke to me that evening of the quarrel which Talma had had a few days before his arrival with Geoffroy. The Emperor, although he was very fond of Talma, considered him altogether in the wrong. He repeated several times: "An old man! . . . An old man! . . . That was inexcusable! . . . Parbleu!" he added, smiling, "has nobody spoken ill of me? . . . Have I not also my critics, who seldom spare me? He ought not to be more susceptible than I am."

The affair passed off, however, without disagreeable consequences for Talma; for, I repeat, the Emperor liked him very much, and overwhelmed him with pensions and presents.

In this respect, Talma was one of the small number of privileged persons; for the chapter of presents was not His Majesty's strong point. We were then nearing the 1st of January, but we had no castles in Spain to build upon that epoch, because the Emperor never gave New Year's presents. We knew that we need count on nothing but our emoluments, and for me, in especial, it was most impossible to make any savings, since the Emperor wished my toilet to be extremely elaborate. Truly, it was a most extraordinary thing to see the master of the half of Europe not disdaining to occupy himself with the toilet of his valet de chambre: but he did so, and to such an extent that when he saw me in a new coat which pleased him, he never failed to compliment me on it, and to add: "You are very fine, M. Constant."

Even at the time of the marriage of the Emperor and Marie-Louise, and at that of the birth of the King of Rome, the persons in His Majesty's private service received no presents; the Emperor found that the expenses of these two ceremonies reached too high a figure. Once, however, but not because of any special circumstance, the Emperor said to me as I was finishing his toilet: "Constant, go and find M. Menneval, I have ordered him to buy you national bonds bearing eighteen hundred francs interest." 2 Now it happened that the bonds having risen during the interval between the order and the purchase, instead of eighteen hundred francs income I had only seventeen hundred, which I sold not long afterwards; and it was with the proceeds of this sale that I bought a modest property in the forest of Fontainebleau.

Sometimes the Emperor made presents to the princes and princesses of his family. I was nearly always charged with delivering them, and I can affirm that, with some two or three exceptions, the functions of porter were perfectly gratuitous ones — a circumstance which I recall here as a simple souvenir. Queen Hortense and Prince Eugène were never included, at least not to my knowledge, in the distribution of the imperial largesses; the Princess Pauline was the person most favored.

In spite of the numerous occupations of the Emperor, who, since his return from the army, spent a considerable portion of the days and a part of the nights in working in his cabinet, he showed himself more frequently in public than ever before. He would go out almost unattended. January 2, 1812, for example, I remember that he went, accompanied by Marshal Duroc only, to visit the basilica of Notre-Dame, the works of the archbishop's palace, and those of the central depot of wines; then, crossing the bridge of Austerlitz, the public granaries, the Elephant fountain, and finally the palace of the Bourse, which His Majesty frequently spoke of as the most beautiful monument which would exist in Europe. However, the passion for monuments, next to that for war, was the keenest that the Emperor had. The cold was severe enough during these almost solitary excursions of His Majesty; but, in truth, the cold of Paris was a very mild temperature for those who returned from Russia.

I noticed at this epoch, that is to say, at the close of 1812 and the commencement of 1813, that the Emperor had never hunted so frequently. Two or three times a week I would help him to put on his livery coat, which, like all the members of his suite, he wore in conformity with the renewed customs of the former monarchy. Several times the Empress accompanied him in an open carriage, although the cold was severe; but when he had said anything, there was no observation to be made. Knowing how irksome His Majesty usually found the pleasure of hunting, I was surprised at his new liking for it; but I soon learned that there was a political motive at the bottom of it. One day when Marshal Duroc was in his chamber as I was putting on his green coat with gilt lace, I heard the Emperor say to the Marshal "I must move about and the papers must talk about it, since those imbeciles of English journals are daily repeating that I am ill, that I cannot stir, that I am no longer good for anything. Patience! . . . I'll soon make them see that I am as sound in body as in mind." Moreover, I think that the exercise of hunting, taken in moderation, was very favorable to the Emperor's health; for I never saw him in better condition than when the English papers were amusing themselves by making him out a sick man, and possibly their lying announcements helped to make him better still.

"It is to ideology, to that gloomy metaphysics which, in subtly searching for first causes, wishes to establish the legislation of peoples on its fundamental principles, instead of adapting laws to the knowledge of the human heart and the lessons of history, that the misfortunes which our fair France has experienced must be attributed. These errors ought to, and actually have, brought on the regime of the men of blood. In fact, who has proclaimed the principle of insurrection as a duty? Who has flattered the people by ascribing to it a sovereignty it is incapable of exercising? Who has destroyed the sanctity and the respect due to laws, by making them depend not on the sacred principles of justice, the nature of things, and civil justice, but merely on the will of an assembly of men who know nothing about civil, criminal, political, or military law? When one is called to regenerate a state, it is the principles constantly opposed which one must follow." — Note by the editor.  Return to paragraph text.