salpingitis - an inflamed uterine tube -as a result of gonorrhea and
therefore constantly suffered pain, exhaustion and depression. More
salacious commentators allege that she had been damaged by the giant
member of her old lover Forbin. It is certain that her physician advised
her that sexual intercourse would exacerbate her problems and that she
ignored him.
The string of lovers accordingly continued. First there was the
musician Blangini then, in 1810, a twenty-year-old notorious military
stud named Captain Canouville. Napoleon, who had increased her official
allowance the year before to a million francs a year, took umbrage at the
Canouville liaison. The reason was that the Emperor had given to
Pauline, as a special mark of favour, a collection of the most expensive
furs, which Alexander I had given him at Tilsit; Pauline then passed
them on to her lover. An opera bouffe episode ensued when Napoleon
banished Canouville to Spain, whence he returned three times to Pauline
only to be rebanished on each occasion. Napoleon finally solved the
problem by sending Canouville to the Russian front in 1812.
The crimes, misdemeanours and peccadilloes of his siblings could be
dealt with, at least in principle. The issue of Josephine was always more
difficult, for Napoleon felt himself tugged two ways, towards a cosy,
sentimental domesticity which he as a private person preferred, and
towards the rupture with the Empress that his dynastic interests
required. The ambivalence was reflected in even more severe mood
swings which the imperial entourage came to dread. At balls or receptions
he liked to upbraid the women for their alleged shortcomings,
particularly over matters of dress.
At St-Cloud the greatest fear was that the Emperor would appear in
the Yellow Salon after dinner. Apprehension quickened on those
occasions when Napoleon took an early dinner then decided to play
billiards with his generals or favourites, for he was known to be a very
bad player but one who sulked when he lost. It was a source of
mortification to Napoleon that he, the commander of genius, was a bad
shot, a poor horseman, and an indifferent contestant in all ball or card
games. Sometimes the session in the Yell ow Salon would be followed by
some tender moments with Josephine, when he would ask her to read to
him, but more often he would go to bed or work in his study. Such was
his restlessness that he often got up at night, took a steaming hot bath -
one of his perennial obsessions - and then summoned Meneval for
further dictation.
But it was Josephine who bore the brunt of the wild oscillations in
mood that sometimes looked very like a manic-depressive cycle. There
marcin
(Marcin)
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