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 Madame
d'Abrantes calls her the Venus of the Capitol; and Lucien Bonaparte
speaks of the court of the voluptuous Director, Barras, where the
beautiful Tallien was the veritable Calypso. The people, however,
could not forget her second husband, Tallien, from whom she was
divorced in 1802 (having had three children born while he was in
Egypt, 1798-1802); and whilst they called Josephine "Notre Dame des
Victoires," they called Madame Tallien "Notre Dame de Septembre."

The latter was, however, celebrated both for her beauty and her
intrigues;[60] and when, in 1799, Bonaparte seized supreme power the
fair lady[61] invaded Barras in his bath to inform him of it; but
found her indolent Ulysses only capable of ejaculating, "What can be
done? that man has taken us all in!" Napoleon probably remembered
this, and may refer to her rather than to the Queen of Prussia in the
next letter, where he makes severe strictures on intriguing women.
Moreover, Napoleon in his early campaigns had played a ridiculous part
in some of Gillray's most indecent cartoons, where Mmes. Tallien and
Josephine took with Barras the leading roles; and as Madame Tallien
was not considered respectable in 1796, she was hardly a fit friend
for the Empress of the French ten years later. In the interval this
lady, divorced a second time, had married the Prince de Chimay
(Caraman). Napoleon knew also that she had been the mistress of
Ouvrard, the banker, who in his Spanish speculations a few months
earlier had involved the Bank of France to the tune of four millions
sterling, and forced Napoleon to make a premature peace after
Austerlitz. The Emperor had returned at white heat to Paris, and
wished he could build a gallows for Ouvrard high enough for him to be
on view throughout France. Madame Tallien's own father, M. de
Cabarrus, was a French banker in Spain, and probably in close relation
with Ouvrard.

No. 10.

Written from Berlin.

_The bad things I say about women._--Napoleon looked upon this as a
woman's war, and his temper occasionally gets the mastery of him. No
war had ever been so distasteful to him or so personal. Prussia, whose
alliance he had been courting for nearly ten years, was now worthless
to him, and all because of petticoat government at Berlin. In the
Fifteenth Bulletin (dated Wittenburg, October 23rd) he states that
the Queen had accused her husband of cowardice in order to bring about
the war. But it is doubtless the Sixteenth Bulletin (dated Potsdam,
October 25th) to which Josephine refers, and which refers to the oath
of alliance of the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia in the
death chamber of Frederick the Great. "It is from this moment that the
Queen quitted the care of her domestic concerns and the serious
occupations of the toilet in order to meddle with the affairs of
State." He refers to a Berlin caricature of the scene which was at the
time in all the shops, "exciting even the laughter of clodhoppers."
The handsome Emperor of Russia was portrayed, by his side the Queen,
and on his other side the King of Prussia with his hand raised above
the tomb of the Great Frederick; the Queen herself, draped in a shawl
nearly as the London engravings represent Lady Hamilton, pressing her
hand on her heart, and apparently gazing upon the Emperor of Russia."
In the Eighteenth Bulletin (October 26th) it is said the Prussian
people did not want war, that a handful of women and young officers
had alone made this "tapage," and that the Queen, "formerly a timid
and modest woman looking after her domestic concerns," had become
turbulent and warlike, and had "conducted the monarchy within a few
days to the brink of the precipice."

As the Queen of Prussia was a beautiful woman, she has had nearly as
many partisans as Mary Stuart or Marie Antoinette, but with far less
cause. Napoleon, who was the incarnation of practical common sense,
saw in her the first cause of the war, and considered that so far as
verbal flagellation could punish her, she should have it. He had
neither time nor sympathy for the "Please you, do not hurt us"
attitude of a bellicose new woman, who, as Imogen or Ida, have played
with edged tools from the time of Shakespeare to that of Sullivan.

As an antidote, however, to his severe words against women he put,
perhaps somewhat ostentatiously, the Princess d'Hatzfeld episode in
his Twenty-second Bulletin (Berlin, October 29th). A year later
(November 26th, 1807), when his Old Guard return to Paris and free
performances are given at all the theatres, there is the "Triumph of
Trajan" at the Opera, where Trajan, burning with his own hand the
papers enclosing the secrets of a conspiracy, is a somewhat skilful
allusion to the present episode.

No. 11.

Magdeburg had surrendered on November 8th, with 20 generals, 800
officers and 22,000 men, 800 pieces of cannon, and immense stores.

_Lubeck._--This capitulation was that of Blucher, who had escaped
after Jena through a rather dishonourable ruse. It had taken three
army corps to hem him in.

No. 13.

Written from Berlin, but not included in the _Correspondence_.

_Madame L----_, _i.e._ Madame de la Rochefoucauld, a third or fourth
cousin (by her first marriage) of Josephine, and her chief lady of
honour. She was an incorrigible Royalist, and hated Napoleon; but as
she had been useful at the Tuileries in establishing the Court,
Napoleon, as usual, could not make up his mind to cause her dismissal.
In 1806, however, she made Josephine miserable and Mayence unbearable.
She foretold that the Prussians would win every battle, and even after
Jena she (to use an expression of M. Masson), "continued her music on
the sly" (_en sourdine_). See Letters 19 and 26 of this Series.

No. 17.

_December 2_, the anniversary of Austerlitz (1805) and of Napoleon's
coronation (1804). He now announces to his soldiers the Polish
campaign.

No. 18.

Not in the _Correspondence_.

_Jealousy._--If Josephine's letters and conduct had been a little more
worthy of her position, she might have saved herself. Madame Walewski,
who had not yet appeared on the scene.

No. 19.

_Desir de femme est un feu qui devore._--The quotation is given in
Jung's "Memoirs of Lucien" (vol. ii. 62). "Ce qu'une femme desire est
un feu qui consume, celui d'une reine un vulcan qui devore."

No. 23.

_I am dependent on events._--He says the same at St. Helena.
"Throughout my whole reign I was the keystone of an edifice entirely
new, and resting on the most slender foundations. Its duration
depended on the issue of my battles. I was never, in truth, master of
my own movements; I was never at my own disposal."

No. 26.

_The fair ones of Great Poland._--If Berthier and other regular
correspondents of Josephine were like Savary in their enthusiasm, no
wonder the Mayence coterie began to stir up jealousy. Here is the
description of the Duke of Rovigo (vol. ii. 17): "The stay at Warsaw
had for us something of witchery; even with regard to amusements it
was practically the same life as at Pari

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