Napoleonic Literature
Memoirs of Constant - Vol. I
Chapter VII
The King of Etruria— Madame de Montesson— The monarch not industrious— Conversation about him between the First and Second Consuls— A joke about the return of the Bourbons— Intelligence and conversation of Don Louis— Singular traits of economy— A present worth a hundred thousand écus and a royal gratuity of six francs— The severity of Don Louis toward his attendants— Hauteur towards a diplomat, and disgust for serious occupations— The King of Etruria installed by the future King of Naples— The Queen of Etruria— Her lack of taste in dress— Her good sense— Her kindness— Her fidelity in the fulfilment of her duties— Magnificent fétes at the house of M. de Talleyrand— At the house of Madame de Montesson — At that of the minister of the interior on the anniversary of the battle of Marengo— Departure of Their Majesties.

IN May, 1801, the Prince of Tuscany, Don Louis I., whom the First Consul had just made King of Etruria, arrived in Paris to go from there into his new kingdom. He travelled under the name of the Count of Leghorn, with his wife, the Infanta of Spain, Marie Louise, third daughter of Charles IV. Notwithstanding the incognito he seemed to wish to maintain, judging from the modest title he had assumed, possibly on account of the insignificant appearance of his little court, he was received and treated at the Tuileries in kingly style. This prince was in rather bad health and suffered, so they said, from epilepsy. He had been lodged at the hotel of the Spanish Embassy, formerly the hotel Montesson, and he had begged Madame de Montesson, who lived next door, to allow him to restore a way of communication long since closed up. He took great pleasure, as the Queen of Etruria did also, in the company of this lady, the widow of the Duke of Orleans, and spent several consecutive hours there almost every day. A Bourbon himself; he doubtless liked to hear all the details that could be given him by a person who had lived at their court and in the intimacy of their family, to which she belonged herself by ties which were none the less legitimate and avowed for being officially unrecognized. Madame de Montesson received at her house all the most distinguished people in Paris. She had reunited the remains of social circles formerly most sought after, and which the Revolution had dispersed. A friend of Madame Bonaparte, she was liked and venerated by the First Consul, who desired that people should think and speak well of him in the most noble and most elegant salon of the capital. Moreover, he relied on the souvenirs and the exquisite tone of this lady to establish in his own palace and society, of which he already dreamed of making a court, the usages and etiquette practiced in those of sovereigns.

The King of Etruria was not a great worker, and, in this respect, he did not greatly please the First Consul, who could not endure idleness. I heard him one day, in conversation with his colleague, M. Cambacérès, treat his royal protégé (absent, as there is no need to say) very severely. "There is a good prince," said he, "who does not concern himself much about his very dear and beloved subjects. He spends his time cackling with old women, to whom he says aloud a great many good things about me, while he grumbles in an undertone at having to owe his elevation to the head of this cursed French Republic. That fellow occupies himself with nothing but promenades, hunting, balls, and plays." "They say," observed M. Cambacérès, "that you intended to disgust the French with kings by showing them such a specimen, just as the Spartans disgusted their children with drunkenness by making them see a slave drunk."—"Not at all, not at all, my dear fellow," returned the First Consul; "I am not anxious to disgust them with royalty; but the sojourn of His Majesty the King of Etruria will dissatisfy that considerable number of worthy people who are laboring to revive the taste for the Bourbons."

Don Louis did not deserves perhaps, to be treated so severely, though, it must be owned, he was endowed with very little wit and still less charm. When he dined at the Tuileries he could not answer the simplest questions put to him by the First Consul without embarrassment; beyond rain and fine weather, horses, dogs, and other subjects of equal importance, there was nothing to which he could give a satisfactory response. The Queen, his wife, often made signs to put him on the right track, and even whispered to him what he ought to do or say; but that only made his absolute lack of presence of mind more shocking. People in general made a good deal of fun at his expense, but they took care, however, not to do it in the presence of the First Consul, who would not have suffered a failure in respect toward a guest to whom he himself showed much.

During his stay the First Consul sent him several times some magnificent presents, Savonnerie carpets, Lyons stuffs, Sèvres porcelains. On such occasions, His Majesty refused nothing, unless it were to give some trifling gratuity to the bearers of all these precious objects. One day they brought him a vase of the greatest value (it cost, I think, a hundred thousand écus); it took a dozen workmen to place it in the King's apartment. Their work finished, the men were waiting for His Majesty to testify to them his satisfaction, and flattered themselves on beholding him display a truly royal generosity. However, time slipped by and they did not see the hoped-for recompense arriving. At last they addressed themselves to one of the chamberlains, and begged him to lay their just claims before the King of Etruria. His Majesty, who was still in ecstasies over the beauty of the gift and the munificence of the First Consul, could not have been more surprised than he was at such a demand. This was a present; then what he had to do was to receive, not to give. It was only after a good deal of urging that the chamberlain obtained for each of these workmen an écu of six francs, which the good fellows refused.

The members of the Prince's suite claimed that to this exaggerated aversion to expense, he joined an extreme severity toward them. However, the first of these two dispositions probably induced the attendants of the King of Etruria to exaggerate the second. Masters who are much too economical never fail to be adjudged severe, and at the same time to be severely judged by their servants. It is perhaps (be it said in passing) on account of judgments of this nature that certain persons have credited the calumnious report which represented the Emperor as often inclined to thrash people; and yet the economy of the Emperor Napoleon was nothing but a love of the most perfect order in his household expenses. What is certain about the King of Etruria is that he did not really feel either all the enthusiasm or all the gratitude that he professed for the First Consul. The latter had more than one proof of this; so much for his sincerity. As for his talent for governing and reigning, the First Consul said on rising to M. Cambacérès, in the same interview of which I just now recounted a few words, that the Spanish ambassador complained of the haughtiness of the Prince towards him, of his complete ignorance, and of the disgust with which every sort of serious occupation inspired him. Such was the King who was to govern a part of Italy. It was General Murat who installed him in his kingdom, without suspecting, according to all appearance, that a throne was reserved for him also, within a few leagues of that on which he had just seated Don Louis.

The Queen of Etruria was, in the judgment of the First Consul, much better and more prudent than her August spouse. This princess shone neither by grace nor elegance; she had herself dressed in the morning for the whole day, and promenaded in the garden with a diadem, or flowers on her head, and in a robe with a train that swept the sand of the alleys. More often than not she carried in her arms one of her children still in swaddling-clothes and subject to all the inconveniences of such a baby. One can understand that by evening Her Majesty's toilet was somewhat in disorder. Besides, she was far from being pretty, and had not the manners befitting her rank. But, which certainly more than compensated for all this, she was very good, very much loved by her attendants, and fulfilled scrupulously all her duties as wife and mother; hence the First Consul, who esteemed the domestic virtues so highly, professed the highest and most sincere esteem for her.

There was a constant succession of fétes during the whole month that Their Majesties stayed in Paris. M. de Talleyrand offered them one at Neuilly of admirable opulence and splendor. I was on duty and I attended the First Consul there. The château and the park were illuminated by a brilliant profusion of colored glass. There was a concert in the first place, at the end of which the back of the hall was lifted like the curtain at a theatre, and displayed the principal place in Florence, the ducal palace, a fountain of gushing water, and the Tuscans indulging in the games and dances of their country and chanting couplets in honor of their sovereigns. M. de Talleyrand came to beg Their Majesties to deign to mingle with their subjects; and they had hardly set foot in the garden when they found themselves as it were in fairyland: luminous bombs, rockets, Bengal lights, went off in every direction and in every form; colonnades, triumphal arches, and flaming palaces rose, were eclipsed, and succeeded each other without a break. Several tables were laid in the apartments and in the gardens, and all the spectators were able to seat themselves in succession. Finally a magnificent ball worthily crowned this evening of enchantments; it was opened by the King of Etruria and Madame Leclerc (Pauline Borghese).

Madame de Montesson also offered Their Majesties a ball, at which all the family of the First Consul were present. But of all these diversions, that which I have remembered best is the truly marvellous soirée given by M. Chaptal, minister of the interior. The day he selected was the 14th of June, anniversary of the battle of Marengo. After the concert, the play, the ball, a new representation of the city and the inhabitants of Florence, a splendid supper was served in the garden, under military tents, decorated with flags, sheaves of arms, and trophies. Each lady was accompanied and served at table by an officer in uniform. When the King and Queen of Etruria came out of their tent a balloon was sent up, which carried into the air the name of MARENGO in letters of fire.

Their Majesties wished to visit the principal public establishments before departing. They went to the Conservatory, to a session of the Institute, where they looked as if they comprehended very little, and to the Mint, where a medal was struck in their honor. M. Chaptal received the thanks of the Queen for the manner in which he had received and treated the noble guests, as a savant of the Institute, as a minister in his own house, and in the visits they had made to the different establishments of the capital. The day before his departure, the King had a long secret interview with the First Consul. I do not know what took place; but neither of them looked satisfied on coming out of it. Nevertheless Their Majesties must, on the whole, have carried away with them the most favorable idea of the reception accorded them.

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