breakdowns among staff, particularly in the later imperial period. Yet
there was never any rigid timetable. Sometimes he would linger after
dinner and glance through the most recent books recommended by his
librarian. Never retiring later than midnight, he would also never rise
later than 3 a.m.; if he retired early, at 8---9 p.m. he would get up at
midnight. After mulling over the most urgent affairs of state, he would
take one of his famous boiling hot baths, then go back to bed at 5 a.m. for
an hour.
With such a punishing regime, it was hardly surprising that Napoleon
rarely looked well. His sallow complexion was often remarked on. The
muleteer who guided him over the St Bernard pass in May r8oo said that
the whites of his eyes were as yellow as a lemon and his fa ce the same
colour. An English traveller who saw him review troops at the Tuileries
in r8oz reported that his complexion was dark yellow. At Brussels in
August r8o3 he coughed up blood, and a plaster was applied to his chest
to draw out 'a deep-seated humour'. Later medical observers have
attempted diagnoses as various as nervous ischuria, schistosomiasis,
stones in the bladder or venereal disease, but sheer overwork must have
had a lot to do with it.
Because we feel a moral repugnance for dictators we sometimes
underrate their intellectual powers. It must be stressed that only a man
superabundantly endowed with intellect could have achieved what
Napoleon did. The historian Gabriel Hanotaux spoke of 'the richest
natural gifts ever received by mortal man'. To maintain an iron grip on
domestic, foreign and military affairs year after year while subjecting
himself to such a regime denotes a mind of great stature. He combined
the great gifts of a clear, mathematical, concise, economical and lucid
mind with a fantastic memory for exact figures, the exact location of each
regiment, the names of its officers and the details of its equipment. He
also had perfect recall for faces and combinations. Yet since the cliched
picture of Napoleon as a man carrying within the seeds of his own
destruction contains much truth, we must also point to the deficiencies in
this formidable brain.
Napoleon's critics have alleged that his memory for detail and faces was
not that impressive, and that this too is part of the stage-managed
Bonaparte legend. It is true that he did not know the names and
background of every soldier in his army - no one could. On the other
hand he pretended that he had this degree of knowledge and before
reviewing a parade would get his staff to point out various individuals, so
that he could memorize their names and careers. That seems merely a