anniversary of Louis XVI's execution. Both for personal and political
reasons Napoleon did not want to be involved in such a controversial
project, but the Directors pressed him, alleging that his absence would be
construed as a snub to them. Napoleon solved the problem by agreeing to
appear at the ceremony on 20 January as a private person, part of a
delegation from the Institute. The incident anyway caused the Directors
embarrassment, for Napoleon was recognized as he entered the church of
St Sulpice, and the cry went up: 'Long live the General of the Army of
Italy.'
By 27 January 1798 Napoleon had had enough of the stifling boredom
of the daily sessions at the Luxembourg that inevitably went on until
dinner time. Joking but serious, he said to Barras that the way forward
would be his own appointment as Director followed by a fresh coup by
the two of them. Angered by Barras's frosty response to this overture, he
pointedly absented himself from further meetings at the Luxembourg.
Mindful of the potentially murderous inclinations of the Directors, as of
royalists and ultra-Jacobins, none of them with cause to love him, he took
careful precautions against an assassination attempt. Reubell recalled that
Bonaparte took his own plates and cutlery to public functions, had his
own private wine taster and for a time tried to live on boiled eggs alone.
Napoleon himself admitted to a daily fear of arrest, always had a horse
waiting already saddled in his stable and never removed his spurs during
the day.
In this tense atmosphere he scarcely needed anxiety from Josephine
also but, apart from keeping Barras ticking over calmly with her effusive
letters, she merely added to his burdens in this period. The fact that she
did not arrive in Paris until the New Year of 1798 considerably
embarrassed her husband. A fabulous display of sumptuous luxury and
patriotic triumphalism was planned in the shape of a grand ball on
Christmas Day, nominally to welcome home the hero's wife. When
Josephine did not appear, the ball was cancelled and a new date set for 28
December. When Josephine still did not appear, a final date of 3 January
was set. Fresh from the embraces of Hippolyte Charles the fading creole
beauty arrived in time for a quasi-royal evening, with Talleyrand as
master of ceremonies.
Napoleon's misogyny had already surfaced during his ro December
speech when the svelte Juliette Recamier had tried to upstage him. The
glacial anger he displayed on that occasion was surely in part
'transference' of his feelings towards Josephine. The anger Napoleon felt
towards Josephine for embarrassing him was also projected on to
Germaine de Stael, whom he already cordially disliked as an interfering
marcin
(Marcin)
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