Array Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne - The Collected Works of Napoleon Bonaparte

My Dear ,—Yesterday I saw Eugène, who told me that you gave a reception to the kings. I was at the concert till eight o'clock, and only dined, quite alone, at that hour.

I long to see you. If I do not come to-day, I will come after mass.

Adieu, dear. I hope to find you sensible and in good health. This weather should indeed make you put on flesh.

Napoleon.

January 9.—The clergy of Paris annul the religious marriage of Napoleon with Josephine (so Biographie Universelle , Michaud; Montgaillard gives January 18). Confirmed by the Metropolitan Officialité, January 12 (Pasquier).

No. 14.

To the Empress, at Malmaison.

Trianon, January 17, 1810.

My Dear ,—D'Audenarde, whom I sent to you this morning, tells me that since you have been at Malmaison you have no longer any courage. Yet that place is full of our happy memories, which can and ought never to change, at least on my side.

I want badly to see you, but I must have some assurance that you are strong and not weak; I too am rather like you, and it makes me frightfully wretched.

Adieu, Josephine; good-night. If you doubted me, you would be very ungrateful.

Napoleon.

No. 15.

To the Empress, at Malmaison.

January 20, 1810.

My Dear ,—I send you the box that I promised you the day before yesterday—representing the Island of Lobau. I was rather tired yesterday. I work much, and do not go out.

Adieu, dear.

Napoleon.

No. 16.

To the Empress, at Malmaison.

Noon, Tuesday, 1810.

I hear that you are making yourself miserable; this is too bad. You have no confidence in me, and all the rumours that are being spread strike you; this is not knowing me, Josephine. I am much annoyed, and if I do not find you cheerful and contented, I shall scold you right well.

Adieu, dear.

Napoleon.

No. 17.

To the Empress, at Malmaison.

Sunday , 9 P.M., 1810.

My Dear ,—I was very glad to see you the day before yesterday.

I hope to go to Malmaison during the week. I have had all your affairs looked after here, and ordered that everything be brought to the Elysée-Napoléon.

Please take care of yourself.

Adieu, dear.

Napoleon.

No. 18.

To the Empress, at Malmaison.

January 30, 1810.

My Dear ,—Your letter to hand. I hope the walk you had yesterday, in order to show people your conservatories, has done you good.

I will gladly see you at the Elysée, and shall be very glad to see you oftener, for you know how I love you.

Napoleon.

No. 19.

To the Empress, at Malmaison.

Saturday , 6 P.M., 1810.

I told Eugène that you would rather give ear to the vulgar gossip of a great city than to what I told you; yet people should not be allowed to invent fictions to make you miserable.

I have had all your effects moved to the Elysée. You shall come to Paris at once; but be at ease and contented, and have full confidence in me.

Napoleon.

February 2. —Soult occupies Seville. The Junta takes refuge at Cadiz.

February 6. —Guadeloupe surrenders to the English.

February 7.—Convention of marriage between the Emperor Napoleon and the Archduchess Marie Louise.

No. 20.

To the Empress, at the Elysée-Napoleon.

February 19, 1810.

My Dear ,—I have received your letter. I long to see you, but the reflections that you make may be true. It is, perhaps, not desirable that we should be under the same roof for the first year. Yet Bessières' country-house is too far off to go and return in one day; moreover I have rather a cold, and am not sure of being able to go there.

Adieu, dear.

Napoleon.

No. 21.

To the Empress, at the Elysée-Napoleon.

Friday , 6 P.M., 1810.

Savary, as soon as he arrived, brought me your letter; I am sorry to see you are unhappy. I am very glad that you saw nothing of the fire.

I had fine weather at Rambouillet.

Hortense told me that you had some idea of coming to a dinner at Bessières, and of returning to Paris to sleep. I am sorry that you have not been able to manage it.

Adieu, dear. Be cheerful, and consider how much you please me thereby.

Napoleon.

No. 22.

To the Empress, at Malmaison.

March 12, 1810.

My Dear ,—I trust that you will be pleased with what I have done for Navarre. You must see from that how anxious I am to make myself agreeable to you.

Get ready to take possession of Navarre; you will go there on March 25, to pass the month of April.

Adieu, dear.

Napoleon.

April 1.—Civil marriage of Napoleon and Marie Louise. ( Religious marriage, April 2. )

Table of Contents

1810

April 2nd—December 31st

( after the Marriage with Marie Louise ).

"Bella gerant alii, tu, felix Austria! nube."

No. 1.

Letter of the Empress Josephine to the Emperor Napoleon.

Navarre, April 19, 1810.

Sire ,-I have received, by my son, the assurance that your Majesty consents to my return to Malmaison, and grants to me the advances asked for in order to make the château of Navarre habitable. This double favour, Sire, dispels to a great extent the uneasiness, nay, even the fears which your Majesty's long silence had inspired. I was afraid that I might be entirely banished from your memory; I see that I am not. I am therefore less wretched to-day, and even as happy as henceforward it will be possible for me to be.

I shall go at the end of the month to Malmaison, since your Majesty sees no objection to it. But I ought to tell you, Sire, that I should not so soon have taken advantage of the latitude which your Majesty left me in this respect had the house of Navarre not required, for my health's sake and for that of my household, repairs which are urgent. My idea is to stay at Malmaison a very short time; I shall soon leave it in order to go to the waters. But while I am at Malmaison, your Majesty may be sure that I shall live there as if I were a thousand leagues from Paris. I have made a great sacrifice, Sire, and every day I realise more its full extent. Yet that sacrifice will be, as it ought to be, a complete one on my part. Your Highness, amid your happiness, shall be troubled by no expression of my regret.

I shall pray unceasingly for your Majesty's happiness, perhaps even I shall pray that I may see you again; but your Majesty may be assured that I shall always respect our new relationship. I shall respect it in silence, relying on the attachment that you had to me formerly; I shall call for no new proof; I shall trust to everything from your justice and your heart.

I limit myself to asking from you one favour: it is, that you will deign to find a way of sometimes convincing both myself and my entourage that I have still a small place in your memory and a great place in your esteem and friendship. By this means, whatever happens, my sorrows will be mitigated without, as it seems to me, compromising that which is of permanent importance to me, the happiness of your Majesty.

Josephine.

No. 1a.

( Reply of the Emperor Napoleon to the preceding. )

To the Empress Josephine, at Navarre.

Compiègne, April 21, 1810.

My Dear ,—I have yours of April 18th; it is written in a bad style. I am always the same; people like me do not change. I know not what Eugène has told you. I have not written to you because you have not written to me, and my sole desire is to fulfil your slightest inclination.

I see with pleasure that you are going to Malmaison and that you are contented; as for me, I shall be so likewise on hearing news from you and in giving you mine. I say no more about it until you have compared this letter with yours, and after that I will leave you to judge which of us two is the better friend.