Jean d'Ormesson: The Conversation

CAMBACÉRÈS

Does nothing unexpected ever happen to you?

BONAPARTE

Politics is our modern form of tragedy, replacing the theatre for enacting classical fatality. The future belongs to no man. Still, I am trying to bend it to my will. I have a guiding star, and so long as it does not abandon me I am called to change the face of the world.

CAMBACÉRÈS

You have already changed France, and you will change it yet more. You will change Europe.

BONAPARTE

I want peace, but if war is forced upon me I will meet it and win battle after battle. I have already taken Milan, Venice, and Cairo. Italy is mine. Spain, Portugal, and Holland will obey me. The pope will be my vassal and I will conquer Sicily and Dalmatia. I will make myself the master of the Mediterranean. I will take Vienna, Berlin, Warsaw, and Moscow. I will invade England.

CAMBACÉRÈS

Your eagles will fly across Europe, on which you will leave your mark.

BONAPARTE

My dreams go further than the borders of Europe. I will return to the East, marching on Damascaus and Aleppo. I will liberate Syria. I will chase the English from the Levant, and threaten them in India. I will overturn the Turk Empire and take Constantinople and, before returning to France by Adrianople or Vienna, I will level the House of Austria in the Orient and found a great new empire that will secure my place in history.

CAMBACÉRÈS

You are a great magician, conquering not merely by military genius but by the power of your words. I listen to you and grow dizzy. You are the author of your own life, set above all other heroes in history.

BONAPARTE

I do love grandeur, and I leave nothing to chance. I always do what I say I will do, or die trying. I know how to talk to men.

CAMBACÉRÈS

I was ever a believer in a government by assembly. You have converted me to believe in a government of one. I was attached to the Republic and you have rallied me to the empire. This proves that by the power of your words France, which once seemed so great in scale to me, seems small in comparison to Europe, and Europe itself is insignificant in a world dominated by your genius. You are an alchemist who can turn the lower metal of our indecisiveness and uncertainties into pure gold.

BONAPARTE

It could not be better phrased, Cambacérès. You have grasped it all, and I congratulate you. The gold will flow in waves upon my dreams and upon on those who serve France in my name.

CAMBACÉRÈS

I see a new system rising up out of the ruins of the monarchy and the Republic. I salute you, Emperor of the French.

BONAPARTE

Here is the first time that I have been addressed by this title, and I accede to it. I am happy that it comes from you, Jean-Jacques Régis de Cambacérès. I name you, my cousin, Prince Archchancellor of the Empire, Most Serene Highness, and future Duke of Parma.

CAMBACÉRÈS

(Bending down on one knee). Sire, permit me to offer at the feet of Your Imperial Majesty the homage of my gratitude and my admiration.