feminist busybody who did not know her place - a woman, in his eyes,
whose alleged beauty and brains were absurdly overrated. The ball was
held in the great Hotel Gallifet in the rue Grenelle, and the contumacious
Madame de Stael took it into her head to ambush the conqueror at the
foot of the great staircase. There she plied him with a series of quick-fire
questions on his attitudes to women, hoping for some gallant persiflage.
At first Napoleon tried to freeze her out but when Germaine refused to
take the hint and pressed on, he decided sterner measures were called for.
'Which woman do you love and esteem most?' she asked. 'My wife, of
course,' he replied coldly. 'And which woman in history, alive or dead, do
you most admire?' 'Whoever has borne the most children,' said the
conqueror, pushing past her and leaving her agape with stupefaction.
For a while Josephine played the dutiful wif e at small dinner parties in
the rue de la Victoire, always playing the useful role of transmission belt
to Barras. But once again her turbulent private life threatened to catch up
with her. First there was a crisis over the unreturned love letters from
Josephine to Hoche, which were highly incriminating. She implored
Hippolyte Charles to help her and he in turn enlisted the aid of Rousselin
de St-Albin, guardian to Hoche's nineteen-year-old niece and heiress.
Rousselin successfully retrieved the damning correspondence, but
Josephine proved herself an ingrate and won Rousselin's undying enmity.
The next and more serious crisis, involved Charles himself. Napoleon
learned from his spies, and a variety of other contacts including his
brother Joseph, that Josephine was seeing Charles again, at a house in the
Faubourg St-Honore belonging to aM. Bodin. By this time Charles had
resigned from the Army but was putting his military experience to good
personal use as a middleman, working on commission for the shady
merchant house of Louis Bodin of Lyons, who specialized in supplies and
provisions for the Army, invariably of a shoddy or sub-standard kind.
Charles knew the right contacts in the Ministry of War to set up lucrative
contracts, involving multiple sweeteners and kickbacks for the principals
involved. Because Josephine was a vital link in the chain, she too was on a
retainer from Bodin, and had additionally used the Bodin-Charles
network to smuggle diamonds looted in Italy into France, as part of a
transaction utterly distinct from the 'official' loot she had received from
her husband. The latest wheeze cooked up by Josephine and Charles was
a lucrative contract for supplying the entire Army of Italy through Bodin.
Apprised of what was afoot by his contacts, Napoleon confronted
Josephine with his findings. Was she seeing her lover again after she had
promised Napoleon faithfully not to do so after he had spared Charles's
life in Italy? And did she have her hand in the till in the manner
marcin
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