from the same period shows clearly the source of his anxiety: Josephine
did not write to him, and it was clear that she had no intention of joining
him. 'Ah! this evening if I do not get a letter from you, I shall be
desperate. Think of me, or tell me with contempt that you do not love
me, and then perhaps I shall find some peace of min d.'
To get Josephine to come down to Italy, and find out what was
detaining her, Napoleon sent back three important envoys. First was
Joseph, despatched on 24 April with letters for the Directory and with a
letter of introduction for Josephine. Joseph and his female namesake met
but did not get on; the elder Bonaparte was no more impressed by the
'fading Creole' than Lucien had been. Then on 25 April Napoleon sent
the faithful Junot to Paris with captured standards, instructing him to
take the longer route to Paris via the Riviera; he bore an explicit
command to Josephine to join her husband. Finally, on 26 April he
sent Murat via Piedmont and the Mont-Cenis with letters for Carnot
and Barras and a detailed itinerary for Josephine to follow on her travel
south.
Both men reached Paris on 6 May, but Murat was first at the rue
Chantereine. Napoleon's letter proved to be one of his wilder screeds:
' ... A kiss on your lips and on your heart ... There's no one else, no one
but me, is there? ... And another on your breast. Lucky Murat! ... little
hand!' A few hours later Junot arrived, with another besotted message:
'You must return with Junot, do you hear, my adorable one, he will see
you, he will breathe the air of your shrine. Perhaps you will even allow
him the unique favour of a kiss on your cheek ... A kiss on your heart,
and then another a little lower, much much lower.' The last two words had
been so emphatically underlined that the pen sliced through the paper.
Josephine had no intention of going to Italy. Soon after Napoleon left,
she took a new lover, named Hippolyte Charles. A lieutenant of Hussars
but only 5'2" tall, Charles was a noted gambler, rake and man-about
town, part of a hard-drinking, loose-living Army set. From Josephine's
point of view he had two valuable assets: he could make her laugh, as
Napoleon never could, and he was an accomplished lover who took his
time and was able to bring her to climax.
Josephine bluntly told Junot she could not leave Paris, so he remained
in Paris awaiting further orders. Her way with Murat was more subtle.
Sensing that he was attracted to her, she invited him to a champagne
breakfast, then spent the day with him on the Champs-Elysees, lunching
and dining. Murat later boasted he had bedded her and provided many
circumstantial details in the officers' mess. Josephine's biographers
usually affect to doubt this on the grounds of her romance with
marcin
(Marcin)
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