of undress. The sequel was more outrageous than any jealous scene
hitherto. Napoleon came storming back to the drawing-room, causing all
his guests to decamp for Paris in terror. He began by smashing up the
furniture in rage, then told Josephine to leave St-Cloud immediately, as
he was tired of being spied on by a jealous woman who could not give
him children. The story made the rounds of Paris. One wag remarked
that the Emperor had neglected the campaign against England in order to
smash Chinese vases in the Empress's bedroom.
As it happened, Josephine had panicked and overreacted, possibly even
giving the affair a new lease of life. Although the affair with Duchatel
dragged on fr om late 1803 to early 1806 - she was often a concurrent
mistress with several others - Duchatel was scarcely his kind of woman.
Despite being attractive and intelligent and able to play to perfection the
part of the coquette, Duchatel was at heart a cold and haughty woman,
who gradually revealed the frightening scale of her ambition. If Madame
de Remusat can be believed, matters actually reached the stage in the end
where Napoleon asked Josephine's advice on how to get rid of her. It was
a pleasing characteristic of Josephine's that she was never vindictive: once
she realized she had nothing to fear from her rival, she ceased to be angry
and even kept Adele on in her service. Duchatel herself always remained
loyal to Napoleon, even when fair-weather friends deserted him.
Napoleon, characteristically, repaid her loyalty with slights and insults,
cut her in public and refused to speak to her again: in short he behaved
like the classical cad.
Meanwhile, however, in the short term Josephine was in deep disgrace.
Too late she realized she had carried things too far. Faced with disgrace,
she implored Hortense to use her well-known influence on Napoleon on
her behalf, but Hortense cried off, on the grounds that Louis had
forbidden her ever to interfere in his brother's affairs. Eugene de
Beauharnais also refused to face the Emperor's wrath, though when
Napoleon told him he was thinking seriously of divorcing Josephine, he
elected to follow her into exile rather than accept dukedoms and fortunes
from his stepfather; the moral contrast with Jerome could hardly be
clearer. It seems that it was his family's gloating triumphalism over the
supposed imminent demise of Josephine that swung Napoleon back
towards forgiveness. After fu rther soul-searching he told Roederer he
intended to see her crowned. 'Yes, she will be crowned, even if it should
cost me two hundred thousand men!' he declared in a typically
melodramatic flourish.
So Napoleon made final plans for his coronation. It was important to
him that the Pope should come from Rome to officiate, for this would
marcin
(Marcin)
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