Marmont and Junot, he set off north in a post-chaise, travelling via
Avignon, Montelimar, Valence, Lyons and the Saone to the Marmont
family home in Burgundy. As the coach drove off, Desiree wrote: 'You
left half an hour ago ... Only the thought of knowing you forever faithful
... ' at which point the letter tailed off on a tear-splotched page.
That Napoleon, though possibly sexually besotted, was not in love in
any true sense became clear even before he reached Paris. At the
Marmont house he met a bright young woman named Victorine de
Chastenay, who fell under his spell at once, as she herself testifies. At
dinner Victorine sang a ballad and asked Napoleon if her pronunciation
was correct. He said 'No' rather boorishly and otherwise spoke to her
only in blunt monosyllables. But she was much taken with this very pale
and thin general with the long greasy hair, and set out to impress him.
Evidently she succeeded for the following day after dinner she spent four
hours alone with him, while he held forth as a literary critic: he told her
he loved Ossian, hated happy endings in the theatre, and thought
Shakespeare's plays were pathetic and unreadable. It is quite clear that
Victorine threw herself at him; whether the encounter ended with sexual
consummation is unclear.
Napoleon and his companions proceeded via Chalon, Chiitillon-sur
Seine and Semur and arrived in Paris on 25 May. Once in the capital
Napoleon went to the Ministry of War to protest his demotion from the
rank of artillery general. A stormy interview followed, after which it
looked likely that Napoleon would end up on a supernumerary list as an
unemployed general. The Minister reiterated that the artillery quotas
were full and that, as he was the last to be promoted, there was nothing
for it but he must command a brigade in the Vendee. Napoleon, as usual
in such an emergency, stalled by asking for three weeks' leave, intending
in the meantime to lobby his influential friends to get him off the hook.
He began collecting evidence of victimization and discovered that a
number of politicians, including the Minister of War himself, held the
rank and pay of a brigadier-general though not on active service.
When there was no resolution of the stand-off after the expiry of the
leave period, Napoleon found himself on half pay and reduced to living in
a cheap hotel, wearing a shabby uniform, muddy boots and no gloves, and
getting by on a pittance sent by Joseph. He was said to have been so poor
that when dining out he wrapped the money for his bill in a piece of
paper, to conceal how little he was spending. No longer able to maintain
Louis, he managed to find him a place in the artillery school at Chiilons.
Despondent and disillusioned, he cut a poor figure, as described by Laure
Permon, the future duchess d' Abrantes:
marcin
(Marcin)
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