The Wife of the First Consul (Paperback)

Book may have numerous typos, missing text, images, or index. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. 1890. Not illustrated. Excerpt: ... THE LAST DAYS OF THE CONSULATE. THERE is no city in the world where memories are shorter than in Paris. The impression made by the death of the Duke of Enghien was brief as it was deep. As M. Paul de Re'musat has said in the preface of his grandmother's Memoirs, "Even in the Royalists, who were absolutely hostile to the government, this event called forth more grief than indignation, so confused were men's ideas upon questions of political justice and statecraft." Yet on the day after the event the First Consul had been struck by the altered faces of those he met. But far from being alarmed, he was anxious to show himself in public as usual, and he went with his wife to the opera, although some people advised him to wait a little. Madame de Re'musat tells us that she accompanied Madame Bonaparte, whose carriage followed close behind that of the First Consul. Usually he did not wait for his wife, but went straight up the staircase to his box; but this time he waited in the little room behind, giving Josephine time to join him. "She was trembling," Madame de Re'musat goes on to say, "and he was very pale. He looked at us all, and seemed to be trying to read from our faces what we thought his reception would be. At last he went forward as if he were charging a battery. He was greeted as usual, whether it was that the sight of him produced its usual effect -- for the multitude does not change its habits in a moment -- or that the police had taken precautionary measures. I had been much afraid that he would not be cheered, and when I perceived that he was, I gave a sigh of relief." March 27, a week after the death of the Duke of Enghien, the Senate, in response to a communication concerning the criminal correspondence of the English emissaries in Germany, said to Bonapar...