Napoleon: A Biography

Had he known the full extent of her treachery, Napoleon would have
been even more angry. She told Barras that she found his letters from
Egypt either odd or droll and, while sending him tepid notes, would be
composing passionate and lubricious ones to Charles. According to
Barras, her verbal indiscretion was notorious. In a masterpiece of
projection she described her husband thus: 'He is a man who has never
loved anyone but himself; he is the most ingrained and ferocious egotist
the Earth has ever seen. He has never known anything but his own
interest and ambition.'
Unaware of these dark currents, Napoleon contented himself with a
policy of humiliation. Though urged by his family to move to the rue du
Rocher, Napoleon stayed put and decided to lock Josephine out. He
cleared the house of her enormous wardrobe of clothes and sent them
down to the porter's lodge, with instructions to the porter that he was on
no account to admit her. Napoleon assumed she was with her lover, but
the truth was more singular. Alerted by letters from her son Eugene and
by confidential advice from Fouche, with whom she was developing a
kind of business relationship, she hastened south to meet her husband,
hoping to get her version of events in bef ore Joseph and Lucien arrived
with the truth. But when she arrived in Lyons, expecting to meet him on
the Burgundy road at any time, she learned that Napoleon had already
gone north by a different route, via Bourbonnais. She turned round and
headed for Paris. Forty-eight hours after Napoleon got to the rue de Ia
Victoire, a despairing Josephine arrived with her daughter Hortense after
a long and tiring journey, the latter stages through thick fog.
It was I I p.m. The porter told her he had orders not to let her in, but
Josephine softened him with tears or browbeat her way to her husband's
door (the account varies). When Napoleon refused to admit her, she
camped outside the door on the last spiral of a narrow staircase, from
where she directed sustained and piteous pleas through the wooden
threshold. Eugene and Hortense arrived to add their lachrymose pleas to
those of their mother. At last Napoleon relented sufficiently to allow
Eugene and Hortense to enter. Tearfully they pleaded her case, adding
that her heart was broken. Finally Napoleon admitted Josephine herself.
An initial angry explosion and bitter reproaches were followed by a
cooling-off period, then by sexual overtures. When Lucien called next
morning he found Napoleon and Josephine in bed, beaming with seraphic
expressions. The entire Bonaparte family was scandalized and furious at
this unexpected outcome, but even Letizia dared say nothing. None
the less, the balance of power in the marriage had decisively shifted and
from this point on Napoleon had the psychological advantage.