enemtes speak of pride, contempt for human beings, neurasthenia,
nervous anxiety and indecision, and it is true that he had all these
qualities. But to offset them he had a prodigious memory, a lucid mind
and an intellect of awesome range. Most of all, he was one of history's
great workaholics and regularly put in an eighteen-hour day.
The normal starting point would be a 6 a.m. breakfast, a rapid perusal
of the newspapers and police reports brought to him by Duroc, an
examination of household bills and any other domestic administration, a
quick review of the day's business, then interviews with important
officials or foreign visitors. Next he would enter his office to begin the
day's work proper. As he sat at his desk and sifted through documents, he
would scrawl brief minutes in the margin, dictate answers to a secretary
or fling the papers to the floor if he thought them unworthy of his
attention. More dictation and interviews followed, and by IO.a.m. the
new letters and dispatches were ready for his signature - the famous 'N'
scrawled at the bottom; a few very ticklish documents he would put aside
to sleep on. The peacetime routine found him attending sessions of the
Council of State, the Council of Ministers or some administrative body.
Dinner was officially at 6 p.m. but often would not begin until 7 p.m. or
be switched back to 5 p.m.
The wartime routine would follow the same pattern until midday.
Usually he would then set off on horseback and visit a unit or corps
headquarters. He never neglected the army and realized the vital
importance of the common touch in building up and sustaining the
Napoleonic legend. The famous 'common touch' he used with the
rankers was spurious, theatrical but very effective. He knew how to
inspire and also how to give the sort of dressing down that would not
produce undying hatred but merely a determination to do better next
time. Even greater ingenuity was exercised in the manipulation of his
officers: he believed in keeping them guessing, maintaining them in
suspense, uncertain whether they would be the recipients of smiles and
jokes or the dreaded rages- which, as a great actor, he could summon at
will. He liked to keep his officers on tenterhooks by issuing sudden orders
which required instant execution; he would brook no delays, prevarica
tion or excuses.
After his military tour he would return to his headquarters to read the
latest bulletins, sign more orders, give more interviews, dictate more
correspondence. He liked to go to bed at around 9 p.m. for fo ur or five
hours, with the faithful Roustam outside the door. But he was liable to
wake at any hour and call out for an aide or a secretary; if they were not
on hand, the consequences were steep. Many were the stories of nervous
marcin
(Marcin)
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