Napoleonic Literature
Memoirs of Constant - Vol. I
Chapter XV
The awakening of the First Consul, March 21, 1804— Silence of the First Consul— Josephine's arrival in the chamber of the Eirst Consul— Chagrin of Josephine and pallor of the First Consul— The wretches have been too quick— News of the death of the Due d'Enghien— The First Consul's emotion— Preludes of the Empire— The First Consul Emperor— The Senate at Saint-Cloud— Cambacérès the first to salute the Emperor by the name of Sire— The senators present their homage to the Empress— Joy in the château— Everybody promoted— The salon and the antechamber— Embarrassment of all the attendants— The first awakening of the Emperor— The French princes— M. Lucien and Madame Jouberton— The marshals of the Empire— Awkwardness of the first courtiers— The chamberlains and the grand officers— Lessons given by the men of the former court— Contempt of the Emperor for the anniversaries of the Revolution— The Emperor's first fête and the first imperial cortege— The Temple of Mars and the grand master of ceremonies— Cardinal du Belloy and the grand chancellor of the Legion of Honor— The man of the people and the imperial accolade— Departure from Paris for the camp of Boulogne— The only holiday the Emperor gave me— My arrival at Boulogne— Details of my service near the Emperor— M. de Rémusat, MM. Boyer and Yvan— The Emperors habits— M. de Bourrienne and the tip of the ear— Mania for giving little blows— Vivacity of the Emperor against his equerry— M. de Caulaincourt, grand equerry— Reparation— A generous gratuity.

THE year 1804, which was so glorious for the Emperor, was also, with the exception of 1814 and 1815, that which brought him the most vexations. It does not belong to me to judge of such grave events, nor to examine what part the Emperor took in them, nor who are those who surrounded and counselled him. I ought not and cannot recount anything but what I saw and heard. March 21 of that year, I entered the First Consul's chamber very early. I found him awake, his elbow leaning on his pillow; he looked sombre and fatigued. On seeing me come in, he sat up, passed his hand several times across his forehead, and said: "Constant, I have a headache.'' Then jerking off the bedclothes, he added: "I have slept badly." He could not have seemed more preoccupied and absorbed; he even had a sad and suffering air which surprised and affected me. While I was dressing him he did not say a word to me, a thing that never happened except when some thought disturbed and tormented him. There was nobody in his chamber with him but Roustan and me. At the moment when, his toilet being finished, I was handing hint his snuff-box, handkerchief, and bonbonnière, the door suddenly opened and we saw the wife of the First Consul appear in her morning gown, her features drawn and her face covered with tears. This sudden apparition astonished and even alarmed us, that is, Roustan and me, because there was only one extraordinary circumstance which could induce Madame Bonaparte to leave her room in this costume, and before having taken all necessary precautions to disguise the ravages usually hidden by the toilet. She entered, or rather she rushed into the chamber, crying: "The Due d'Enghien is dead! Ah ! my friend, what have you done?" Then she fell sobbing into the First Consul's arms. He became as pale as death, and said with extraordinary emotion: "The wretches have been too quick!" Then he went out, supporting Madame Bonaparte, who could scarcely walk and continued to weep. The news of the Prince's death spread consternation throughout the château. The First Consul remarked this universal grief, and yet he reproached nobody. The fact is that the greatest chagrin which this fatal catastrophe caused to his servitors, who for the most part were attached to him still more by affection than by duty, sprang from the thought that it could not fail to detract from the glory and tranquillity of their master. The First Consul probably knew how to interpret our sentiments. However that may be, this is all I saw and all I heard in private of this deplorable event. I do not pretend to know what passed in the interior of the cabinet. The First Consul's emotion seemed to me sincere and not affected. He remained sad and silent for several days, speaking very little at his toilet and only when necessity required.

During the course of this month and the next one, I noticed the continual goings and comings, and the frequent interviews with the First Consul of different persons who were said to be members of the Council of State, tribunes or senators. For a long time the army and the majority of the citizens, who idolized the hero of Italy and Egypt, had openly manifested their desire to see him wear a title worthy of his renown and the grandeur of France. It was known, moreover, that it was he that did all that was done in the State, and that his pretended colleagues were really his inferiors. People thought it just that he should become supreme chief in name, since he was already so in fact. Since his fall I have often heard His Majesty called by the name of usurper; and the only effect it has ever produced upon me has been to make me laugh with pity. If the Emperor usurped the throne, he had more accomplices than all the tyrants of tragedy and melodrama; for three-fourths of the French people were in the plot. It is known that it was May 18 when the Empire was proclaimed, and that the First Consul (I shall call him the Emperor hereafter) received the Senate at Saint-Cloud, led by Consul Cambacérès, who was arch-chancellor of the Empire a few hours later. It was from his mouth that the Emperor heard himself for the first time saluted by the name of Sire. On issuing from this audience, the Senate went to present its homage to the Empress Josephine. The remainder of the day was passed in receptions, presentations, interviews, and felicitations. Everybody in the château was intoxicated with joy, every one produced the effect of having received a sudden promotion. They embraced, they congratulated each other, they mutually communicated their hopes and plans for the future: there was not even the mealiest subaltern who was not seized with ambition; in a word, the antechamber, saving the difference of personages, offered the exact repetition of what was passing in the salon.

Nothing could be funnier than the embarrassment of all the attendants when it was a question of how to respond to the interrogations of His Majesty. They began by making mistakes; then they would correct themselves and do worse still; they repeated ten times in a minute, sire, general, your majesty, citizen, first consul. Entering the Emperor's chamber next morning as usual, I replied to his customary questions, What time is it? How is the weather? "Sire, seven o'clock, fine weather." Having approached his bed, he pulled my ear, struck me on the cheek, and called me monsieur le drôle; it was his favorite word for me when he was particularly pleased with my service. His Majesty had sat up and worked far into the night. He looked serious and occupied, but contented. What a difference between this waking and that of the preceding March 21.

That same day His Majesty went to hold his first grand levee at the Tuileries, where all the civil and military authorities were presented. The brothers and sisters of the Emperor were made princes and princesses, with the exception of M. Lucien, who had quarrelled with His Majesty on the occasion of his marriage with Madame Jouberton. Eighteen generals were elevated to the dignity of marshals of the Empire. Everything surrounding Their Majesties put on a semblance of court and of royal power from this first day. A great deal has been said of the awkwardness of their first courtiers, who were very little accustomed to the service imposed on them by their new appointments, and to the ceremonies of etiquette; but this has been exaggerated like everything else. There might well be in the commencement something of that embarrassment which those in the Emperor's private service experienced, as I have said above. Still that lasted only a short time, and the chamberlains and great officers remodelled themselves almost as quickly as we valets de chambre. Moreover, there presented themselves to give them lessons, a swarm of men of the former court, who had obtained from the kindness of the Emperor the favor of being struck from the list of émigrés, and who eagerly solicited appointments in the budding imperial court for themselves and their wives.

His Majesty did not like the anniversary fêtes of the Republic; some of them had always seemed to him odious and cruel, and the others ridiculous. I have seen him grow indignant that they should have dared to make an annual fête of the 21st of January, and smile with pity at the remembrance of what he called the masquerades of the theophilanthropists, " who," said he, ''would have none of Jesus Christ, and made saints of Fénelon and Las-Casas, Catholic prelates." M. de Bourrienne says in his Memoirs, that "it was not one of the least oddities of Napoleon's policy that he should have kept for the first year of his reign the fête of July 14."

Concerning this passage I will permit myself to call attention to the fact that, if His Majesty profited by the epoch of an annual solemnity to appear in pomp in public, on the other hand he so changed the object of the fête that it would have been difficult to recognize in it the anniversary of the taking of the Bastille and of the first federation. I do not know whether there was a word said of either of these events in the whole ceremony; and to disconcert still more the souvenirs of the Republicans, the Emperor ordered that the fête should not be celebrated until the 15th, because that was a Sunday, and hence there would be no loss of time for the inhabitants of the capital. Besides, there was no question at all of celebrating the conquerors of the Bastille, but solely of a great distribution of crosses of the Legion of Honor.

This was the first time that Their Majesties displayed themselves to the people in all the magnificence of their power. The procession passed through the grand avenue of the Tuileries on its way to the Hotel des Invalides, whose church, changed during the Revolution into a Temple of Mars, had been restored to the Catholic worship by the Emperor, and was to serve for the magnificent ceremonial of this day. It was also the first time that the Emperor used the privilege of passing through the garden of the Tuileries in a carriage. His cortege was superb; that of the Empress Josephine was not less brilliant. The rapt ecstasy of the people was at its height, and can not be described. By the Emperor's orders, I had mingled with the crowd, so as to observe in what spirit they took part in the fête; I did not hear a murmur; so great, whatever may have been said about it since, was the enthusiasm of all classes for His Majesty. The Emperor and the Empress were received at the door of the Invalides by the governor and by the Count de Ségur, grand master of ceremonies; and at the entrance of the church by Cardinal du Belloy, at the head of a large number of the clergy. After the Mass M. de Lacépède, grand chancellor of the Legion of Honor, pronounced a discourse which was followed by the roll-call of the grand officers of the Legion. Then the Emperor seated himself, put on his hat, and repeated in a loud voice the formula of the oath, at the end of which all the legionaries shouted: I swear it.' and at once a thousand-times repeated cries of Long live the Emperor! resounded through the church and beyond it. A singular circumstance enhanced the interest excited by the ceremony. While the knights of the new order were passing one after another in front of the Emperor who received them, a man of the people, wearing a round jacket, came and stood on the steps of the throne. His Majesty seemed somewhat astonished and paused for an instant. The man was questioned and showed his certificate. At once the Emperor showed eagerness to have him draw near, and gave him the decoration with a brisk accolade. On returning, the cortege followed the same road, passing again through the Tuileries garden.

July 18, three days after this ceremony, the Emperor left Saint-Cloud for the camp of Boulogne. I thought His Majesty would be willing to dispense with my presence for several days; and as it was a number of years since I had seen my family, that I would experience the very natural pleasure of seeing them again, and conversing with my relatives about the singular circumstances in which I had found myself since we parted. I would have felt, I confess, great joy in chatting with them about my present condition and my expectations, and I needed the expansion and the confidence of domestic intimacy to compensate for the constraint and annoyances which my service imposed on me. Therefore I asked permission to go and spend eight days at Perueltz. It was granted without difficulty, and I lost no time in starting. But what was my astonishment when, on the very day after my arrival, I received by courier a letter from Count Rémusat, who commanded me to rejoin the Emperor without delay, adding that His Majesty had need of me, and that I must occupy myself with nothing but getting there promptly! In spite of the disappointment I had experienced on receiving such orders, I nevertheless felt flattered at having become so necessary to the great man who had deigned to admit me to his service. Hence I bade farewell to my family without delay. His Majesty had scarcely arrived in Boulogne when he set off again on an excursion of several days to the departments of the North. I was at Boulogne before he returned, and I hastened to organize the service of His Majesty, who found everything ready on his arrival; which did not prevent his telling me that I had been absent a long time.

Since I am on that subject, I will set down here, although it will be to anticipate by years, one or two circumstances which will give the reader a chance to judge for himself of the rigorous assiduity to which I was obliged to restrict myself.

By reason of the fatigues incident to my continual journeys in the train of the Emperor, I had contracted a malady of the bladder from which I suffered horribly. For a long time I armed myself against my pains by patience and dieting: but the anguish having at length become totally insupportable, I requested His Majesty, in 1808, to give me a month to have myself treated. Doctor Boyer had told me that a month was the least time strictly necessary for my cure, and that, without it, my malady would become incurable. My request was granted, and I went to Saint-Cloud, to the family of my wife. M. Yvan, the Emperor's surgeon, came to see me every day. A week had hardly elapsed when he told me that His Majesty thought that I must be pretty well cured, and that he desired that I should resume my service. This desire was equivalent to an order; I felt it, and I returned to the Emperor, who, seeing me pale and suffering, deigned to say a thousand kind things to me, but not a word of a new leave of absence. These two absences are the only ones I took during sixteen years; hence, on my return from Moscow, and during the campaign of France, my illness had attained its extremest phase, and if I quitted the Emperor at Fontainebleau, it was because it was impossible, notwithstanding all my attachment for so good a master, for me to serve him any longer. After this separation which was so painful to me, a year hardly sufficed to cure me, and not entirely even then. But I shall have to speak of this sad epoch later on. I return to the recital of facts which prove that I could, with more justice than some others, have believed myself a great personage, since my humble services seemed to be indispensable to the master of Europe. A good many habitués of the Tuileries would have had more trouble than I should to demonstrate their utility. Is there too much vanity in what I have just said? and the chamberlains, will they not have reason to be vexed by it? I can't say about that, and I will go on with my story.

The Emperor clung to his habits; he would, as has been seen, be served by me in preference to any one else; and yet I ought to say that these gentlemen of the chamber were all full of zeal and devotion; but I was the longest in service, and I never quitted him. One day the Emperor asked for some tea in the middle of the day. M. Sénéchal was on duty; he made it and presented it to His Majesty, who found it detestable. I was summoned; the Emperor complained to me that some one wanted to poison him. (That was his word when anything tasted bad.) Going back to the pantry, I poured, from the same teapot, a cup which I arranged and carried to His Majesty, with two silver-gilt teaspoons, according to custom, one to taste of it before the Emperor, the other for him. This time he found the tea excellent. He complimented me on it with the benevolent familiarity he sometimes used toward his attendants; and on giving me back the cup, he pulled my ears and said: "Now teach them how to make tea; they know nothing about it."

M. de Bourrienne, whose excellent Memoirs I have read with the greatest pleasure, says somewhere that the Emperor in his moments of good humor would pinch his intimates by the tip of the ear; I have my own experience that he pinched the whole of it, and often both ears at once; and that with a master hand. It is also said in the same Memoirs that he only gave his little friendly taps with two fingers; in that M. de Bourrienne is very modest, I can again attest thereupon that His Majesty, although his hand was not large, distributed his favors much more largely; but this species of caress, as well as the preceding, was given and received as a mark of special kindliness, and far from any one complaining of it then, I have heard more than one dignitary say with pride, like that sergeant of the comedy:

                                      "Master, try it again;
       The blow on my cheek is still too warm."

In his private life the Emperor was nearly always gay, amiable, chatting familiarly with his attendants, and questioning them about their family, their affairs, and even their pleasures. His toilet finished, his face suddenly changed; he was grave, thoughtful, he resumed his imperial air. It has been said that he often struck the domestics of his household; that is false. I never but once saw him yield to an impulse of that description; and certainly the circumstances which caused it and the reparation which followed it, may render it, if not excusable, at least easy to understand. This is the fact which I witnessed, and which occurred in the environs of Vienna, the day after the death of Marshal Lannes. The Emperor was profoundly affected; he had not spoken a word during his toilet. He was hardly dressed when he demanded his horse. An unlucky chance would have it that M. Jardin, his groom, was not in the stables at the time when it was saddled, and the stable-man did not put his usual bridle on the horse. His Majesty was barely mounted, when the animal backed, reared, and the rider fell heavily to the ground. M. Jardin came up just as the Emperor rose, irritated, and in this first transport of anger he received a cut of the whip across the face. M. Jardin went away in despair at an ill-usage to which His Majesty had not accustomed him, and a few hours afterward, M. de Caulaincourt, grand equerry, finding himself alone with His Majesty, described to him the chagrin of his head groom. The Emperor expressed keen regret for his vivacity, had M. Jardin summoned, talked to him with a kindness which effaced his injustice, and sent him, a few days later, a gratuity of three thousand francs. I have been told that a similar thing 1 happened to M. Vigogne senior, in Egypt. But even if that were true, ought two such facts in the whole life of the Emperor, coupled with circumstances so well calculated to make even the mildest man act out of character, to suffice to draw upon Napoleon the odious reproach of beating cruelly the persons who waited on him?


1. We arrived at Tentoura the 20th of May. It was very hot that day, which produced a general discouragement. All we had to rest upon were dry and burning sands; on our right was an unfriendly and deserted sea. Our loss in killed and wounded was already considerable since we had quitted Acre. There was nothing cheerful about the future. This truly afflicting state in which the remnant of the army corps which had been called triumphant found itself, made an impression upon the General which it was impossible not to feel. We had hardly reached Tentoura when he had his tent set up; he called me and dictated in a preoccupied way an order that everybody should walk, and the horses, mules, and camels be given to the wounded, the sick, and the plague-stricken who had been brought along, and who still showed any signs of life. "Take that to Berthier." The order was sent on the spot. Hardly had I got back to the tent, when Vigogne senior, equerry to the General-in-Chief, entered, and touching his hat, said: "General, what will you reserve for yourself?" In the first movement of anger excited by this question, the General-in-Chief struck the equerry a violent blow in the face with his whip, and then he added in a terrible voice: "Everybody is to go on foot, and I the first: don't you know the order? Get out." (Mémoires de M. de Bourrienne, tom. 2, chap. 16, p. 252.) . Return to paragraph text.
(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.)