Josephine, in spite of her thirty-four years, or possibly because of them (that enchanting1 age when woman hovers2 between her passing youth and her corning age), Josephine, always beautiful, more graceful3 than ever, was still the charming woman we all know. An imprudent remark of Junot’s, at the time of her husband’s return, had produced a slight coolness between them. But three days had sufficed to restore to the enchantress her full power over the victor of Rivoli and the Pyramids.
She was doing the honors of her salon4, when Roland entered the room. Always incapable5, like the true Creole she was, of controlling her emotions, she gave a cry of joy, and held out her hand to him. She knew that Roland was devoted6 to her husband; she knew his reckless bravery, knew that if the young man had twenty lives he would willingly have given them all for Bonaparte. Roland eagerly took the hand she offered him, and kissed it respectfully. Josephine had known Roland’s mother in Martinique; and she never failed, whenever she saw Roland, to speak to him of his maternal7 grandfather, M. de la Clémencière, in whose magnificent garden as a child she was wont8 to gather those wonderful fruits which are unknown in our colder climates.
A subject of conversation was therefore ready at hand. She inquired tenderly after Madame de Montrevel’s health, and that of her daughter and little Edouard. Then, the information given, she said: “My dear Roland, I must now pay attention to my other guests; but try to remain after the other guests, or else let me see you alone to-morrow. I want to talk to you about him” (she glanced at Bonaparte) “and have a thousand things to tell you.” Then, pressing the young man’s hand with a sigh, she added, “No matter what happens, you will never leave him, will you?”
“What do you mean?” asked Roland, amazed.
“I know what I mean,” said Josephine, “and when you have talked ten minutes with Bonaparte you will, I am sure, understand me. In the meantime watch, and listen, and keep silence.”
Roland bowed and drew aside, resolved, as Josephine had advised, to play the part of observer.
But what was there to observe? Three principal groups occupied the salon. The first, gathered around Madame Bonaparte, the only woman present, was more a flux9 and reflux than a group. The second, surrounding Talma, was composed of Arnault, Parseval-Grandmaison, Monge, Berthollet, and two or three other members of the Institute. The third, which Bonaparte had just joined, counted in its circle Talleyrand, Barras, Lucien, Admiral Bruix, [Footnote: AUTHOR’S NOTE.—Not to be confounded with Rear-Admiral de Brueys, who was killed at Aboukir, August 1, 1798. Admiral Bruix, the negotiator with Talleyrand of the 18th Brumaire, did not die until 1805.] Roederer, Regnaud de Saint-Jean-d’Angely, Fouché, Réal, and two or three generals, among whom was Lefebvre.
In the first group they talked of fashions, music, the theatre; in the second, literature, science, dramatic art; in the third, they talked of everything except that which was uppermost in their minds. Doubtless this reserve was not in keeping with Bonaparte’s own feeling at the moment; for after sharing in this commonplace conversation for a short time, he took the former bishop10 of Autun by the arm and led him into the embrasure of the window.
“Well?” he asked.
Talleyrand looked at Bonaparte with that air which belonged to no one but him.
“What did I tell you of Sièyes, general?”
“You told me to secure the support of those who regarded the friends of the Republic as Jacobins, and to rely, upon it that Sièyes was at their head.”
“I was not mistaken.”
“Then he will yield?”
“Better, he has yielded.”
“The man who wanted to shoot me at Fréjus for having landed without being quarantined!”
“Oh, no; not for that.”
“But what then?”
“For not having looked at him or spoken to him at Gohier’s dinner.”
“I must confess that I did it on purpose. I cannot endure that unfrocked monk11.”
Bonaparte perceived, too late, that the speech he had just made was like the sword of the archangel, double-edged; if Sièyes was unfrocked, Talleyrand was unmitred. He cast a rapid glance at his companion’s face; the ex-bishop of Autun was smiling his sweetest smile.
“Then I can count upon him?”
“I will answer for him.”
“And Cambacérès and Lebrun, have you seen them?”
“I took Sièyes in hand as the most recalcitrant12. Bruix saw the other two.”
The admiral, from the midst of the group, had never taken his eyes off of the general and the diplomatist. He suspected that their conversation had a special importance. Bonaparte made him a sign to join them. A less able man would have done so at once, but Bruix avoided such a mistake. He walked about the room with affected13 indifference14, and then, as if he had just perceived Talleyrand and Bonaparte talking together, he went up to them.
“Bruix is a very able man!” said Bonaparte, who judged men as much by little as by great things.
“And above all very cautious, general!” said Talleyrand.
“Yes. We will need a corkscrew to pull anything out of him.”
“Oh, no; on the contrary, now that he has joined us, he, will broach15 the question frankly16.”
And, indeed, no sooner had Bruix joined them than he began in words as clear as they were concise17: “I have seen them; they waver!”
“They waver! Cambacérès and Lebrun waver? Lebrun I can understand—a sort of man of letters, a moderate, a Puritan; but Cambacérès—”
“But it is so.”
“But didn’t you tell them that I intended to make them each a consul18?”
“I didn’t get as far as that,” replied Bruix, laughing.
“And why not?” inquired Bonaparte.
“Because this is the first word you have told me about your intentions, Citizen General.”
“True,” said Bonaparte, biting his lips.
“Am I to repair the omission19?” asked Bruix.
“No, no,” exclaimed Bonaparte hastily; “they might think I needed them. I won’t have any quibbling. They must decide to-day without any other conditions than those you have offered them; to-morrow it will be too late. I feel strong enough to stand alone; and I now have Sièyes and Barras.”
“Barras?” repeated the two negotiators astonished.
“Yes, Barras, who treated me like a little corporal, and wouldn’t send me back to Italy, because, he said, I had made my fortune there, and it was useless to return. Well, Barras—”
“Barras?”
“Nothing.” Then, changing his mind, “Faith! I may as well tell you. Do you know what Barras said at dinner yesterday before me? That it was impossible to go on any longer with the Constitu............