grand seigneur of his district, even though he had a grandson of twenty
five! Marie herself had been strictly brought up, in the fu ll piety of Polish
Catholicism, and educated by a tutor who later became famous as the
father of Frederic Chopin.
Napoleon made plain to the Polish nationalists his desire fo r a liaison
with Marie and told them bluntly he would not be attending the ball they
were giving in his honour unless the young countess was there. Count
Walewski, despite his age, did not take kindly to the prospect of being a
cuckold and at first refused to procure his wife for the French Emperor,
even though Prince Poniatowski argued that it would eventually redound
to his prestige. But he was eventually browbeaten by a junta of leading
Polish nationalists, who argued that Paris was always worth a mass.
Marie, however, was not prepared to accept her husband's bidding in this
matter and at first adamantly refused. She was appalled at what was being
asked of her and thought it too high a price to pay fo r Poland; after all
what were the male 'patriots' giving up fo r the cause? She later told how a
deputation of patriots harangued her outside her bedroom door, then,
when her husband admitted them to her boudoir, exhorted her to make
this supreme sacrifice for the sake of Polish independence. After all, had
not the biblical heroine Esther given herself to the Persian king
Ahasuerus (Xerxes) to win liberty fo r her nation?
Marie responded with a kind of work to rule. She went to the ball
dressed more like a nun than a great lady, swathed in tulle, wearing no
jewellery and with her ball dress deliberately high-necked. Napoleon said
to her: 'White on white is no way to dress, Madame,' an enigmatic
statement sometimes read as the Emperor's customary derogatory remark
when a woman was wearing clothes that displeased him, and sometimes
taken to mean that he had penetrated her motives in appearing thus. But
the fact that he spoke to her at all alerted a court sensitive to the slightest
nuance. Clearly this was the coming woman. Marie was surrounded by
fawning flatterers. She refused to dance, but two officers who flirted with
her incurred the Emperor's displeasure and were dispatched to distant
wintry outposts.
After the ball, Napoleon began the siege of her affections. He began
with a letter: 'I saw only you, I admired only you, I desired only you. A
prompt answer to calm the impatient ardour of N.' Marie was
unimpressed and told the waiting courier: 'There is no answer.' Napoleon
continued to press his suit and wrote passionate letters daily which she
ignored. He also sent her jewels in a red leather box which she threw on
the floor contemptuously, exclaiming that the Emperor must take her for
a whore. He continued to bombard her with letters, including one which
marcin
(Marcin)
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