The reader is aware that his father was one of the victims of the Revolution. After the Marquis de Beauharnais perished on the scaffolds, his widow, whose property had been confiscated, finding herself reduced to a condition bordering on poverty, and fearing lest her son, although still very young, might also be prosecuted on account of his noble birth, placed him in a carpenter's shop on the rue de l'Echelle. A lady of my acquaintance, who lived on that street, has often seen him pass by carrying a board on his shoulder. It was a good ways from there to the command of the regiment of consular guides, and above all to the vice-royalty of Italy. I learned, by hearing Eugène himself relate it, the singular circumstance by which he occasioned the first interview of his mother with his stepfather.

Eugène, being at the time only fourteen or fifteen years old, having been informed that General Bonaparte had become possessor of the sword of the Marquis de Beauharnais, ventured to call on him, a proceeding that obtained complete success. The General received him graciously, and Eugène said he came to ask whether he would not be so kind as to return to him his father's sword. His face, his manner, his frank request, were all pleasing to Bonaparte, who instantly restored the sword he asked for. Hardly had he taken it in his hands than he covered it with tears and kisses, and that with so natural an air that Bonaparte was enchanted. On learning how the General had received her son, Madame de Beauharnais thought it her duty to call and thank him. Josephine having greatly pleased Bonaparte at this first interview, he returned her visit. They frequently saw each other, and everybody knows how, by one thing after another, she became the first Empress of the French; and I can affirm, in conformity with many proofs which I afterwards obtained of the fact, that Bonaparte never ceased to love Eugène as much as he could have loved his own son.

Eugène's qualities were both amiable and solid. His features were not handsome, and yet his countenance prepossessed one in his favor. His figure was well-shaped, and yet his appearance was not distinguished, on account of a habit of slouching in his gait. He was about five feet and three or four inches tall. He was kind, gay, amiable, full of spirit, lively, and generous; and one may say that his open, candid physiognomy was truly the mirror of his soul. How many services did he not render during the course of his life, and that, too, at the period when he was obliged to impose privations on himself in order to do so!

We shall see presently why I passed only one month with Eugene; but I remember that during this brief period, while scrupulously fulfilling his duties toward his mother and his stepfather, he was very much addicted to the pleasures so natural to his age and in his position. One of the things which pleased him most was to give breakfasts to his friends; hence he gave them very often; and that, for my part, amused me greatly, on account of the comical scenes of which I was a spectator. In addition to the young military men belonging to Bonaparte's staff, who were his most punctual guests, he had among other habitual visitors Thiémet, the ventriloquist, Dazincourt and Michau of the Théâtre Français, and several other persons whose names just now escape me. As may be easily believed, these reunions were extremely gay; the young officers especially, who had returned like Eugène from Egypt, sought for nothing but how to compensate themselves for the recent privations they had had to endure. At this epoch hoaxes were all the fashion in Paris; their practitioners were brought to reunions, and Thiémet held a very distinguished rank among them. I recollect that one day at a breakfast of Eugène's, Thiémet called several of those present by their names, by imitating the voices of their servants, as if these voices came from outside; while he remained quietly in his place, and seemed never to move his lips except for the purpose of eating and drinking, two functions which he fulfilled very well. Each of the officers called in this way, went downstairs and found nobody. Then Thiémet, assuming a feigned politeness, went down with them under presence of assisting in their search, and prolonged their embarrassment by making them continue to hear voices they knew. Most of them laughed heartily at a pleasantry of which they were the victims; but there was one who, being rather duller than his comrades, took the thing seriously and was going to be angry, when Eugène avowed that he had headed the conspiracy.

I recall another amusing scene the two heroes of which were this same Thiémet of whom I have just spoken, and Dugazon. Several foreigners were assembled in Eugène's apartment, the rôles were distributed and learned in advance, and the two victims designated. When they were all seated at table, Dugazon, pretending to be a stutterer, addressed some remark to Thiémet, who, having a similar rôle, replied by stuttering also. Then each of the two pretended to believe that the other was mocking at him, and there ensued a quarrel of stutterers who, the angrier they grew, the harder they found it to express themselves. Thiémet, who besides playing the stutterer had also assumed the character of a deaf man, turned to his neighbor, his ear-trumpet at his ear, and asked: "Wh-wh-what i-i-is he s-s-saying?" "Nothing," responded the officious neighbor, who wanted to prevent a quarrel and take his stutterer's side. "Y-y-yes he i-i-s m-m-mock-mock-ing at me." Then the quarrel grew more lively; they were about to come to blows, and each of the two stutterers had seized a carafe to throw at his antagonist's head, when a copious immersion from the water contained in the carafes made their officious neighbors comprehend the danger of attempts at conciliation. The two stutterers, however, continued shouting like deaf men until the last drop of water was spilled; and I remember that Eugène, who was the author of this plot, was in fits of laughter all the time it lasted. People dried themselves, and all was presently arranged, glasses in hand. Eugène, whenever he got up a joke of this kind, never failed to relate it to his mother, and sometimes even to his stepfather, who were greatly amused by it, Josephine especially.

I had been leading a rather joyous life for a month with Eugène, when Lefebvre, the valet whom he had left ill at Cairo, came back cured, and asked to have his place again. Eugène, whom I suited better, on account of my youth and activity, proposed that he should enter his mother's household, calling his attention to the fact that he would be much more tranquil there. But Lefebvre, who was extremely attached to his master, went to find Madame Bonaparte and displayed all his chagrin at Eugène's resolution. Josephine promised to take his part; she consoled him, assured him that she would talk to her son, said she would see that he returned to his former post, and that it would be I that she would take into her service. Josephine did, in fact, speak to her son, as she had promised Lefebvre to do; and, one morning, Eugène announced to me, in the kindest terms, my change of domicile. "Constant," said he, "I am very sorry for the circumstance which obliges us to part; but, as you know, Lefebvre followed me to Egypt; he is an old servant; I cannot avoid taking him back. Moreover, you are not going to become a stranger to me; you are going to my mother's house, where you will be very well off; and there we shall often see each other. Go there from me, this very morning; I have spoken to her about you; it is an understood thing; she expects you."

As may be believed, I lost no time in presenting myself at Madame Bonaparte's house. Knowing that she was at Malmaison, I went there at once, and was received by Madame Bonaparte with a kindness that filled me with gratitude, not knowing that she showed this kindness to everybody, and that it was as inseparable from her character as grace was from her person. I had very little to do; my time was almost entirely at my own disposal, and I profited by it to make frequent excursions to Paris. Hence the life I led was very pleasant for a young man, who could not yet suspect that, some time afterwards, it would become as constrained as it was then free.

Before quitting a service which I had found so agreeable, I will relate some facts belonging to that period which my position near the stepson of General Bonaparte allowed me to become acquainted with.

M. de Bourrienne has perfectly recounted the events of the 18th Brumaire in his Memoirs. The account he has given of that famous day is as exact as it is interesting, and all who are curious to know the secret causes which bring about political changes will find them faithfully exposed in the narrative of the Minister of State. I am very far from pretending to excite an interest of this nature; but the reading of M. de Bourrienne's work has set me also on the track of my souvenirs. There are circumstances he may not have known, or may even have omitted voluntarily as being of small importance; and what he has let fall upon the road I esteem myself fortunate to be able to gather up.

I was still with M. Eugène de Beauharnais when General Bonaparte overthrew the Directory; but I was just as much in the way of learning all that passed as if I had been in the service of Madame Bonaparte or of the General himself; for my master, although very young, had the full confidence of his stepfather, and above all that of his mother, who consulted him on every occasion.

Several days before the 18th Brumaire, M. Eugène ordered me to busy myself with the preparations for a breakfast he was to give on that very day to his friends. The number of the guests, who were all military men, was much larger than usual. The repast was made very lively by an officer who undertook to caricature the manners and deportment of the directors and some of their trusty adherents. To personate Director Barras, he draped himself à la grecque with the tablecloth, took off his black cravat, turned down his shirt collar, and advanced with many airs and graces, resting his left arm on the shoulder of the youngest of his comrades and pretending to chuck him under the chin with his right hand. There was not a soul present who did not comprehend the meaning of this sort of charade, and it was greeted with shouts of laughter that seemed as if they would never end.

Afterwards he personated the Abbé Sieyès, by passing an enormous rabbi 1 of paper through his necktie, elongating indefinitely a pallid visage, and then prancing several times around the room astride on his chair, ending at last in a grand somersault, as if his horse had thrown him. To comprehend the meaning of this pantomime, it must be known that the Abbé Sieyès had been taking riding lessons for some time in the Luxembourg garden, to the great amusement of the promenaders, who assembled in crowds to enjoy the stiff and awkward appearance of the new horseman.

When breakfast was over, M. Eugène repaired to General Bonaparte, whose aide-de-camp he was, and his friends rejoined their several corps. I followed them out; for certain remarks that had just been made in the rooms of my young master made me suspect that something serious and interesting was about to happen. M. Eugène had agreed to meet his comrades at the Pont-Tournant; I went there, and found a considerable assemblage of mounted officers in uniform, all in readiness to follow General Bonaparte to Saint-Cloud.

The commanders of all arms had been requested by General Bonaparte to give breakfasts to their official corps, and they had done the same thing as my young master. And yet not all the officers, not even the generals, were in the secret; and General Murat himself, who rushed into the hall of the Cinq-Cents, at the head of his grenadiers, thought the only matter in dispute was a dispensation as to age which General Bonaparte was about to ask, in order to obtain a place as Director.

I have learned, from a sure source, that at the moment when General Jubé, who was devoted to General Bonaparte, was assembling in the court of the Luxembourg the Directory's guard, of which he was the commander, the worthy M. Gohier, president of the Directory, put his head out of the window and shouted to Jubé: "Citizen-general, what are you doing there?"—"Citizen-president, you see well enough what I am doing; I am assembling the guard."—"No doubt I see that very well, Citizen-general; but what are you assembling them for?" "Citizen-president, I am going to make an inspection of them, and to command a great manœuvre. Forward, march!" And the Citizen-general started at the head of his troops to go and rejoin General Bonaparte at Saint-Cloud, while the latter was expected at the house of the Citizen-president, who waited for him in vain at the breakfast to which he had invited him.

General Marmont also had breakfasted the officers of the arm he commanded (I think it was the artillery). At the end of the repast he had made a few remarks, persuading them not to separate their cause from that of the conqueror of Italy, and to accompany him to Saint-Cloud. "But how do you want us to follow him?" exclaimed one of the guests; "we have no horses." "If that is all that hinders you," said the General, "you will find some in the court of this hotel. I have kept all those of the national riding-school. Let us go down and mount." All the officers present accepted this invitation, excepting General Allix, who declared that he would not be mixed up in any squabble.

I was at Saint-Cloud on the 18th and 19th Brumaire. I saw General Bonaparte harangue the soldiers and read them the decree appointing him commander-in-chief of all the troops in Paris and throughout the whole extent of the seventeenth military division. I saw him in the first place come out very much agitated from the council of the Anciens, and afterwards from the assembly of the Cinq-Cents. I saw M. Lucien led out of the hall where this assembly was sitting by some grenadiers sent to protect him from the violence of his colleagues. Pale and furious, he sprang upon a horse and galloped straight to the troops to harangue them. At the moment when he turned his sword toward the breast of the General his brother, saying that he would be the first to immolate him if he dared to make an assault on liberty, cries of Long live Bonaparte! Down with the lawyers! broke out on all sides, and the soldiers, led by General Murat, rushed into the hall of the Cinq-Cents. Everybody knows what happened there, and I will not enter into details which have been recounted so many times.

The General, on becoming First Consul, installed himself at the Luxembourg. At this time he also inhabited Malmaison; but he was often on the road, and so was Josephine; for their journeys to Paris, when they occupied this residence, were very frequent, not simply for government affairs, which often necessitated the presence of the First Consul, but also to go to the play, which General Bonaparte was very fond of, always giving the preference to the Théâtre Francis and the Italian opera. This is a passing observation merely, as I intend to reserve until later on the facts I have collected concerning the tastes and familiar habits of the Emperor.

Malmaison, at the time of which I am speaking, was a place of delights where no one was ever seen to arrive without an expression of satisfaction; and everywhere I went, I also heard blessings invoked on the First Consul and Madame Bonaparte. In Madame Bonaparte's salon there was not as yet the shadow of that rigid etiquette which it was afterward necessary to observe at Saint-Cloud, the Tuileries, and all the palaces where the Emperor might find himself. Society there displayed a simple elegance alike removed from republican grossness and the luxury of the Empire. M. de Talleyrand was at this period one of the most assiduous visitors at Malmaison. He sometimes dined there, but it was more usual for him to come in the evening, between eight and nine o'clock, and return at one or two, and occasionally at three in the morning. Everybody was admitted at the house of Madame Bonaparte on a footing of equality which pleased her much. Murat, Duroc, Berthier, and all the persons who have since figured as great dignitaries, and sometimes with crowns, in the annals of the Empire, came there familiarly. General Bonaparte's family was likewise very attentive, but we knew very well amongst ourselves that they did not like Madame Bonaparte, I acquired proofs of this afterward. Mademoiselle Hortense never quitted her mother, and they loved each other very much. Besides the men distinguished by their functions in the government and the army, there came also some who were not less so by their personal merit, and who had been so by their birth before the Revolution. It was a veritable magic lantern in which we could see the personages defiling before our eyes, and this spectacle, without recalling the gaiety of Eugène's breakfasts, was far from devoid of attractions. Among the persons whom we saw most frequently, I must mention: M. de Volney, M. Denon, M. Lemercier, Prince de Poix, MM. de Laigle, M. Charles, M. Baudin, General Beurnonville, M. Isabey, and a large number of other men celebrated in science, literature, and art; in fine, the majority of those who formed the society of Madame de Montesson.

Madame Bonaparte and Mademoiselle often went out into the country on horseback; the most constant equerries on these excursions were usually Prince de Poix and MM. de Laigle. One day, as one of these cavalcades was re-entering the court of Malmaison, Mademoiselle Hortense's horse became frightened and ran away. Mademoiselle Hortense, who sat a horse perfectly, and who was very agile, attempted to spring off on the grass beside the road, but the fastening which kept the bottom of her riding habit under her foot prevented her extricating herself quickly enough, so that she was upset and dragged along by her horse for several feet. Happily, the gentlemen who accompanied her, having seen her fall, had sprung off their horses and arrived in time to pick her up. By an extraordinary piece of good luck, she had received no contusion, and was the first to laugh at her mishap.

During the earliest period of my sojourn at Malmaison, the First Consul always occupied the same bed with his wife, like an honest citizen of Paris, and I never heard of a single gallant intrigue that took place in the château. This society, the majority of whose members were young, and who were often very numerous, frequently gave themselves up to exercises which reminded one of college recreations; indeed, one of the great diversions of the inhabitants of Malmaison was to play prisoner's base. It was after dinner, usually, that Bonaparte, MM. de Lauriston, Didelot, de Lucay, de Bourrienne, Eugène, Rapp, Isabey, Madame Bonaparte, and Mademoiselle Hortense divided themselves into two camps, where the prisoners made and exchanged reminded the First Consul of the great game to which he gave the preference.

The most agile runners in these games of prisoner's base were M. Eugène, M. Isabey, and Mademoiselle Hortense; as to General Bonaparte, he often fell down, but he picked himself up again with shouts of laughter.

General Bonaparte and his family seemed to enjoy an unusual happiness, especially while they were at Malmaison. This habitation, in spite of the pleasures enjoyed there, was far from resembling what it has been since. The property comprised a château which General Bonaparte found in a rather bad condition on his return from Egypt, a park which was already very pretty, and a farm the yearly income from which certainly did not exceed twelve thousand francs. Josephine herself superintended all the works executed there, and never has any woman been endowed with so much taste.

From the commencement they acted plays at Malmaison. This was a kind of recreation which the First Consul liked greatly, but he never took any part except that of spectator. All who formed part of the household were present at the representations, and I will not conceal the pleasure we enjoyed, more perhaps than any of the others, in seeing the persons in whose service we were thus travestied on the stage. The Malmaison troupe, if I may be permitted thus to designate actors of so exalted a social position, was composed principally of MM. Eugène, Jérôme, Lauriston, de Bourrienne, Isabey, de Leroy, Didelot, Mademoiselle Hortense, Madame Caroline Murat, and the Demoiselles Auguié, one of whom afterwards married Marshal Ney, and the other M. de Broc. All four were very young and charming, and few Parisian théâtres could have brought together such pretty actresses. Moreover, they were very graceful on the stage, and played their parts with real talent. They behaved there much as they did in the salon, where they had an air of exquisite delicacy. The repertory was not greatly varied at first, but it was usually very well selected. The first representation at which I was present was composed of the Barbier de Seville in which M. Isabey played the rôle of Figaro and Mademoiselle Hortense that of Rosine; and the Dépit armoureux. Another time I saw the Gageure imprévue and the Fausses Consultations presented. Mademoiselle Hortense and M. Eugène played perfectly in this latter piece, and I yet remember vividly how, in the part of Madame Leblanc, Mademoiselle Hortense seemed prettier than ever in her old woman's costume. M. Eugène represented M. Lenoir, and M. Lauriston the charlatan. The First Consul, as I have said, confined himself to the rôle of spectator, but he appeared to take the most lively pleasure in this private, and one might say family théâtre. He laughed, he applauded heartily, but also he often criticised. Madame Bonaparte was equally amused, and even if she had not been proud of the success of her children, the first subjects of the troupe, the fact that this was a relaxation agreeable to her husband would have been enough to make her seem pleased with it; for it was her constant study to contribute to the happiness of the great man who had united his destiny to hers.

When a day had been set for a representation, there was never a "no performance," but there was often a change of plays, not on account of indisposition or an actress's headache, as happens in Parisian théâtres, but for much more serious motives. It often happened that M. d'Etieulette would be ordered to his regiment; that an important mission would be entrusted to Count Almaviva; but Figaro and Rosine always remained faithful at their post, and the desire to please the First Consul was, moreover, so general among all who surrounded him, that the substitutes manifested the utmost good will in the absence of the principals in their department, and the play never failed through default of an actor. 2

2. Michau, of the Comédie Française, was the instructor of the troupe; whenever any of the actors lacked ardor, Michau would shout: "Chard! Chard! Chard!" Return to paragraph text.