Yesterday, at the Council of State, I took occasion to ask Count Portalis whether he had seen a libel by the Pope now circulating here inciting to rebellion. After hesitating, this Councillor of State admitted that he had, whereupon I dismissed him from my Council, deprived him of is offices, and exiled him forty leagues from Paris.

February 28th. (To Alexander, Emperor of Russia.) I have commissioned Prince Tschernitchef to present my compliments to Your Majesty. My sentiments have not changed, although I realize that Your Majesty is no longer my friend, our alliance is already broken in the eyes of England and of Europe; even if it still subsisted in Your Majesty's mind, as it does in mine, this widespread opinion would do the greatest harm. I remain in my old position, but I am struck by these obvious facts, and by the opinion that as soon as an opportunity presents itself Your Majesty is ready to come to an understanding with England, which is equivalent to beginning war between our two Empires.

March 9th. (To the Prince of Neuchâtel.) Please write a personal letter to General Suchet expressing my satisfaction with his conduct in the recent campaign, and stating that I expect much from him in pushing the siege of Tarragona briskly. It is in Tarragona he will find his baton of Marshal of France.

19th. At seven in the afternoon the Empress sent for me. I found her on the sofa, feeling the first pains. She went to bed at eight, and from that moment felt rather acute pains, but that brought the event no nearer. The doctors thought it might be another twenty-four hours, so I dismissed the Court and informed the members of the Senate, the municipality, and the Chapter of Paris, who were all assembled, that they could retire.

20th. This morning at eight Dubois ran in, he was pale as death and very agitated; I shouted to him: - Well, is she dead? If she is dead, we will have a funeral! - because I am accustomed to great events, and it is not when I am brought face to face with them that they affect me; it's only afterwards. Whatever news might be brought to me I should show nothing. It is only an hour later that I feel any bad effects.

Dubois answered no, but that the child presented itself sideways. It was most unfortunate, because that's a thing that doesn't happen once in two thousand times. I ran down quickly to the Empress' apartments. She was screaming horribly. I am not soft-hearted, and yet to see her suffering as she was moved me. Dubois, who had lost his head, decided to wait for Corvisart, who put new courage into him.. The Duchess of Montebello stood around like a fool. Ivan and Corvisart held the Empress. . . .

The King of Rome was at least a minute before he uttered a sound; as I came in he was lying on the carpet as though dead. Mme. de Montebello wanted to adhere to etiquette. Corvisart sent her about her business. At last, after considerable friction, the child came to; he had only been scratched on the head by the irons. The Empress had thought it was all over with her; she was convinced that she would be sacrificed for the child; and yet I had said that the opposite should be done.

21st. The child is perfectly well; the Empress as well as can be expected; she has already slept a little and taken, a little nourishment.

22d. Monge, Berthollet, Laplace, are thoroughgoing atheists. My belief is that man sprang from earth heated by the sun and combined with electric fluids.

April 2d. The Emperor Alexander is already far from the ideas of Tilsit; every suggestion of war has its origin in Russia. Unless the Emperor turns the current back very promptly, it will certainly carry him away next year in spite of himself, in spite of the interests of France, and of those of Russia; I have so often watched the process that my experience of the past unfolds the future to me. It is all an opera setting with the English pulling the wires.

13th. I have appointed the 2d of June next for the baptism of the King of Rome, which will be celebrated at Notre Dame, where the Empress and I will proceed in state to render thanks to God for his birth. After the ceremony I shall dine at the Hôtel de Ville of my good city of Paris, and will attend the illuminations. On the same day a Te Deum will be sung throughout the Empire.

May 27th, Caen:
I cannot appoint a commander-in-chief for all my armies in Spain, because I can find no one fit for the job.

June 23d, Saint Cloud:
So many horses have been bought up for Spain and for army remounts, that France has been drained of horses.

July 5th. (To Marshal Davout.) Colonial produce coming from Sweden and from Prussia must be confiscated, because it comes from England; all colonial produce must be confiscated, wherever it comes from, because it all comes from England. Issue orders and see to it that all colonial produce is confiscated wherever it comes from.

15th, Trianon:
(To Maret.) There are no American ships; all the socalled American ships are English, or chartered on English account; if the American minister maintains the contrary, he doesn't know what he is talking about.

August 18th, Paris:
Gentlemen, deputies of the department of the Lippe. the city of Münster belonged to an ecclesiastical prince: deplorable result of ignorance, and superstition! You had no fatherland. Providence, that has enabled me to restore the throne of Charlemagne, has by a natural course brought you back, together with Holland and the Hanseatic cities, within the fold of the Empire. From the moment when you became Frenchmen, my heart made no difference between you and the other parts of my dominions. As soon as circumstances permit I shall feel a keen satisfaction in visiting your country.

September 25th, on board the Charlemagne off Flushing:
We have been thirty-six hours without communication with the land because a storm sprang up. It did not prevent my eating and sleeping well. The sea was rough, but the anchorage is a good one. As the weather is moderating, I expect to put the fleet through evolutions to-morrow.

30th, Antwerp:
I arrived to-day at one in the morning, very pleased with my fleet, with its appearance, its morale, and its manœuvring power.

November 1st, Wesel:
The Empress Maria Louisa has only 500,000 francs; she settles her accounts every week; she goes without dresses and accepts all sorts of deprivations so as not to get into debt.

3d, Dusseldorf:
To-morrow I shall review several regiments of cuirassiers at Cologne. After that I go straight to Paris.

6th, Cologne:
If Russia will disarm I am perfectly willing to do the same; it would quiet Prussia and reassure the world; but she must not show us displeasure, a thing which, as between great Powers, always implies war.

December 2d, Paris:
(To Davout.) I reply to one of your last letters. The Germans complain that at Rostock you declared that you would know how to prevent Germany becoming a second Spain; that so long as you were in command, no one would venture to stir. There is no parallel between Spain and the provinces of Germany. Spain would long since have been conquered without her 60,000 English and her 1000 leagues of coastline, and without the 100 millions she has drawn from America. But as in Germany we have no America, no sea, no great number of fortresses, no 60,000 English, there is nothing to fear.

I don't know why Rapp interferes in what does not concern him. Why does he talk about what is going on in Hungary, of the state of opinion in the Confederation, when he is at a distance from those countries? Let him look after his own government and attend to his own business, and confine his reports to Dantzig and its neighbourhood. I must ask you not to place such rhapsodies before me again; my time is too valuable to spend it over such rubbish. Do you propose to post me on affairs in Hungary and Austria by reports from Dantzig, especially coming from Rapp, a weak man of whom I have little enough opinion, save when he is actually on the battlefield? It all results merely in wasting my time and fouling my imagination with absurd pictures and suppositions.

13th. (To Count Decrès.) I have received your letter, and I do not agree with your views. I think too much of your services to grant your request. Remain in the position in which Providence and my will have placed you; you are in strong enough health to serve me another ten years.

16th. The Princes of the Confederation must be notified as to the necessity for remounting their cavalry and preparing their contingents.

The Guard must be got ready for active service.

17th. (To General Savary.) The Tuscan newspapers give in great detail all the doings of the Grand Duchess. The Paris newspapers, as might be expected, reproduce them too frequently. I read in one article that some French crews shouted "Vive Eliza! Vive l'Empereur!" The thing is too ridiculous!

19th. His Majesty wants the most detailed accounts we have in French of the campaign of Charles XII in Poland and in Russia.

(If you surfed directly to this page, please go to the Napoleonic Literature Home Page to see the wealth of information that's available on this website.)