Jean d'Ormesson: The Conversation

I erased the memories of January 21, and August 10, and 9 Thermidor. I forbade debauchery and public exposure. I reinstituted Sundays, Carnival, and New Year’s, ladies in waiting, livery, etiquette, breeches, and silk stockings. All the great names — the Périgords, Brissacs, Rochefoucaulds, Montesquious, Maillys, Ségurs, and the Narbonnes — are my equals. But Murat, my brother-in-law, was the son of an innkeeper. Ney is the son of a cooper, Augerau was a mason, Lanne was a stable-boy, Lefebre was a cabinet-maker, and his wife was a washerwoman. I want us all to start on a new footing. I want the world to live in peace. But, and I’m not jesting, I would like people to have fun. I will chase from the Tuileries the first man or woman who feels they can make a scene or simply raise their voice. Those who are displeased by some people and who come here each night to express their displeasure have no business here. I have a republican imagination and a monarchic instinct. I want to establish a republican monarchy. And the Republic that is mine is Roman, military, warrior-like, and all-conquering. My model isn’t Versailles, My model is Rome. My model is not the Bourbons. My model is Caesar.

CAMBACÉRÈS

Caesar! The name has been uttered. Like him you set a term to the Republic. And like him you refuse the royal crown.

BONAPARTE

I refuse the royal crown. Talleyrand wants to make me king. I don’t want to be. I am not refusing all crowns. I have become accustomed to the laurel wreath that the French people gave me after Rivoli, Marengo, and my other victories. They want to return to a monarchy? If they express their desire with enough force behind it, I will assume a title that will strike France and Europe as more solemn, more imposing, more august than that of king. It will be a new title with ancient roots — that of the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire.

CAMBACÉRÈS

Emperor?

BONAPARTE

Why not? The Republic would be confided to an emperor. After all, Monsieur Cambacérès, it is only to royalty that we have all sworn our hatred.

CAMBACÉRÈS

That is true. We have never said a word against the empire.

BONAPARTE

The title of emperor will not shock republicans and fully satisfy those inclined to a monarchy. I believe that it would be the best thing to replace what we currently have. I would renounce without any regret the royalty of Hugues Capet and his successors, and I will reconstitute Charlemagne’s empire. Rather than succeed to Philippe August, or Henry the Fourth, or Louis the Fourteenth, I will succeed Charlemagne. I will reattach myself to the Holy Roman Empire. I would be Caesar lifted above the king, call myself the supreme leader of the Italy of which I am already President. I would have supremacy over the crowned heads and the protectorate over Germany, and I would reassume the rights attached to the Western Empire.

CAMBACÉRÈS

It is an idea with powerful appeal. Yet in adopting the forms of Charlemagne’s empire and that of Rome, what will you do with those forms of the Roman Republic already in place, such as the Senate, the tribunals, the quaestors, and the prefects? I have to be honest and say that I perceive a difficulty and feel a sense of unease.

BONAPARTE

Difficulty? Unease?

CAMBACÉRÈS

France would accord you the title of emperor, I am sure of it, and with the same enthusiasm that I myself feel. But if you become emperor, Citizen First Consul, would you retain the two other consuls, one in charge of finances, meaning Lebrun, and the other running the bureaucracy, meaning, well, me?

BONAPARTE

The real difficulty, and actually the scandal of it all, was the existence of three consuls of which I was without doubt the first but only the first. The title of Consul today is nearly as absurd today as Director was yesterday. It will disappear.

CAMBACÉRÈS

Disappear.

BONAPARTE

Yes, disappear. For you as for me the real glory consists of putting oneself above one’s state. In peace as in war, I was always above my state. By becoming emperor, I would once more put myself above my state. By fulfilling the prediction made once upon a time by a magician in Martinique that she would someday be more than queen, I would put Joséphine above the state. You as well, I would put above yours. I am a soldier who has made it and who will help you make it. I have planned for everything. The title of Prince Archtreasurer would go to Lebrun, and that of Prince Archchancellor of the Empire to you, replacing resoundingly the consul titles.

CAMBACÉRÈS

Archchancellor. Talleyrand will make fun of me.

BONAPARTE

No one will make fun of you. Nor of me. The French will find it charming to have their own emperor surrounded by princes. They may laugh the first day, less so the second, and by the third they will be used to it all. Talleyrand will make a few witty remarks. He will say “Look! the Archchancellor is archriding around his archwagon.” As with Fouché and the others, I will make him a prince or a duke of something, with a hundred-thousand francs per year, and that will take care of it. Let me win a few more battles and I will take care of everything.

CAMBACÉRÈS

Even the Jacobins?

BONAPARTE

What caused the Revolution? Vanity. What will bring it to an end? Vanity again. It is with rattles that one draws men. I would never say that before a tribunal, but between us it can be said. Ten years of revolution have not changed the French. They still want glory, distinctions, and rewards. The Jacobins will be given the titles of barons or counts and go to mass right behind me. Fouché and Talleyrand set an example last year. All of them, even the most rabid among them, will follow suit. There are still twelve or fifteen metaphysicians who need to be tossed into the water, vermin caught up in my clothes, and it has sometimes been necessary to shoot or deport them. I have always known how to rid myself of these. I am not going to allow myself to be attacked like Louis the Sixteenth. I am a soldier, a child of the Revolution, and as I come from the people I will not permit anyone to insult me like a king.

CAMBACÉRÈS

And the royalists?

BONAPARTE

The royalists are my problem. They will throng around this new Caesar, this Charlemagne reborn, only too happy to retain their old privileges and their new allocations. There will be some foot-draggers, some among them who are fearful and ashamed. Sooner or later they will all come around. Many of them are already looking on admiringly, and the distance from admiration to submission is short. The nobility would have been content with the Directory or the Consulate. It is hard to imagine that an empire won’t satisfy them. If they prove skittish and it proves necessary to smite them, good and hard, then so be it. I will smite them. I will always be careful to balance the Jacobins and the royalists.

CAMBACÉRÈS

What about the Army?

BONAPARTE

Berthier, Murat, Masséna, Soult, Lannes, Mortier, Ney, Davout — even Bernadotte, whom I do not trust — and several others shall be made marshals of the empire. Some among them will be made princes. Murat — if only to appease Caroline — may climb higher still.

CAMBACÉRÈS

The Church?

BONAPARTE

The Church will always choose a monarchy over a republic, and with good reason. In a republic it is necessary to please so many and to deceive so many others that the pain exceeds profit. With a monarchy, the only person it needs to charm in order to remain in power is the leader. The Church has only ever revolted against weak princes. I shall not be weak. Moreover, I will pay the clergy well and include them in the honors lists, just as I will give entitlements and honors to anyone who wishes to serve me — and first of all to you, Cambacérès. You will remain the second-most-powerful figure in the empire, just as you have been in the Consulate.