Recollections of Napoleon at St. Helena/Chapter 8
CHAPTER VIII.
OUR FIRST DINNER WITH THE EMPEROR.—THE CREAMS.—NEW YEAR'S DAY; PRESENT FROM THE EMPEROR.—GENERAL GOURGAUD'S SKETCH OF MISS ———.—NΑΡΟLEON'S OPINION OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPΗΙΝΕ.—ACCOUNT OF COUNT PIOUTKOWSKI.—THE EMPEROR'S IDEAS OF ENGLISHMEN'S DEVOTION TO WINE, AND BADINAGE IN ACCUSING MY COUNTRYWOMEN OF THE SAME PROPENSITY.
THE emperor having returned from seeing his visitor, and his dinner hour approaching, he invited us to dine with him. We told him we had already dined. "Then come and see me cat," he added, and when his dinner was announced by Cipriani, we accompanied him to his marquee. When at table, he desired Navarre to bring in some creams for me. I declined them, as I had dined, but I had, unfortunately, told him once before, that I was very fond of creams, and though I begged in vain to be excused, repeating a thousand times that I had dined and could eat no more, he pressed and insisted so strongly, that I was at last obliged to comply, and with some difficulty managed to eat half a cream. But although I was satisfied, Napoleon was not; and when I left off eating, he commenced feeding me like a baby, calling me his little bambina, and laughing violently at my woful countenance. At last I could bear it no longer, and scampered out of the tent, the emperor calling after me, "Stop, Miss Betsee; do stay and eat another cream, you know you told me you liked them. The next day he sent in a quantity of bon-bons by Marchand, with some creams, desiring his compliments to Mademoiselle Betsee, and intimating that the creams were for her.
The emperor possessed among his suite the most accomplished confiseur in the world. M. Piron daily supplied his table with the most elaborate, and really sometimes the most elegant designs in pâtisserie—spun sugar, and triumphal arches, and amber palaces glittering with prismatic tints, that looked as if they had been built for the queen of the fairies, after her majesty's own designs. Napoleon often sent us in some of the prettiest of these architectural delicacies, and I shall always continue to think the bon-bons from the atelier of Monsieur Piron more exquisite than any thing I ever tasted. But I suppose I must grant, with a sigh, that early youth threw its couleur de rose tints over Piron's bon-bons, as well as over the more intellectual joys of that happy period. The emperor sometimes added sugared words, to make these sweet things sweeter.
On New Year's Day a deputation, consisting of the son of General Bertrand, Henri, and Tristram, Madame Montholon's little boy, arrived with a selection of bon-bons for us, and Napoleon observed that he had sent his Cupidous to the Graces. The bon-bons were placed in crystal baskets, covered with white satin napkins, on Sevres plates. The plates I kept till lately, when I presented them to a lady who had shewn my mother and myself many very kind attentions; and they were some of the last presents I possessed of Napoleon's many little gifts to me, with the exception of a lock of his hair, which I still retain, and which might be mistaken for the hair of an infant, from its extreme softness and silkiness. Napoleon delighted in sending these little presents to ladies, and was generally courteous and attentive in his demeanour towards them. He always gave me the impression of being fond of ladies' society, and as Mr. O'Meara remarks, when alluding to my sister and myself, dining one day with him, "his conversation was the perfection of causerie, and very entertaining." He was, perhaps, rather too fond of using direct compliments, but this was very pardonable in one of his rank and country. He remarked once, that he had heard a great deal of the beauty and elegance of the Governor's daughter, and asked me who I thought the most beautiful woman in the island. I told him I thought Madame Bertrand superior, beyond all comparison to any one I had ever before seen. My father had been greatly struck with her majestic appearance on board the Northumberland, and I always thought every one else sank into insignificance when she appeared; and yet her features were not regular, and she had no strict pretensions to beauty, but the expression of her face was very intellectual, and her bearing queen-like and dignified.
Napoleon asked me if I did not consider Madame Montholon pretty. I said, "No." He then desired Marchand to bring down a snuff-box, on the lid of which was a miniature of Madame Montholon. It certainly was like her, and very beautiful. He told me it was what she had been, when young. He then recurred to Miss ———, and said Gourgaud spoke in raptures of her, and had sketched her portrait from memory. He produced the drawing, and wished to know if I thought it a good likeness. I told him she was infinitely more lovely, and that it bore no trace of resemblance to her. I mentioned also that she was very clever and amiable. Napoleon said I was very enthusiastic in her favour, and had made him quite long to see her.
Mesdames Montholon and Bertrand, and the rest of his suite, often came to see him at the Briars, and remained there during the day. It was quite delightful to witness the deference and respect with which he was treated by them all. To them he was still "le grand empereur;" his every look was watched, and each wish anticipated, as if he had still been on the throne of Charlemagne.
On one of these occasions Madame Bertrand produced a miniature of the empress Josephine, which she shewed to Napoleon. He gazed at it with the greatest emotion for a considerable time without speaking. At last, he exclaimed it was the most perfect likeness he had ever seen of her, and told Madame Bertrand he would keep it, which he did, until his death. He has often looked at my mother for a length of time very earnestly, and then apologized, saying that she reminded him so much of Josephine. Her memory appeared to be idolized by him, and he was never weary of dwelling on her sweetness of disposition and the grace of her movements. He said she was the most truly feminine woman he had ever known. In speaking of the empress, he used to describe her as very subject to nervous affections when in the least degree indisposed or anxious; he often said she was the most amiable, elegant, charming, and affable woman in the world; and in the language of his native isle, asserted, "Era la dama la piu graziosa di Francia." She was the goddess of the toilet—all fashions originated with her, every thing she appeared in, seemed elegant, and, moreover, she was so humane, and was the best of women. Still, with all the veneration he felt for her, he could not bear that it should be supposed she exercised the sway over his public actions attributed to her, and observed, "Although the Bourbons and English allow that I did some good, yet they generally qualify it by saying it was chiefly through the instrumentality of Josephine; when the fact was, that she never interfered with polities. In alluding to his divorce, he observed, nothing would have induced him to listen to such a measure but political motives; no other reason could have persuaded him to separate himself from a wife whom he so tenderly loved. But he thanked God she had died in time to prevent her witnessing his last misfortune. She was the greatest patroness of the fine arts that had been known in France for a series of years; she had frequently little disputes with Denon, and even with himself, when she wanted to procure fine statues and pictures for her own gallery instead of the Museum. "But though I loved to attend to her whims, yet I always acted first to please the nation; and whenever I obtained a fine statue or valuable picture, I sent it there for the people's benefit. Josephine was grace personified; every thing she did was marked with it. She never acted inelegantly during the whole time we lived together. Her toilet was perfection, and she resisted the inroads of time, to all appearance, by the exquisite taste of her parure."
Napoleon afterwards spoke of the empress Marie Louise with great kindness and affection. He said she would have followed him to St. Helena if she had been allowed, and that she was an amiable creature, and a very good wife. He possessed several portraits of her. They were not very attractive, and were seen to disadvantage when contrasted, as they generally were, with his own handsome and intellectual looking family.
The emperor retired early this evening. He had been in low spirits since receiving his visitor, and after the portraits of the empress Josephine and Maria Louisa had been produced, he appeared absorbed in mournful reflection, and was still more melancholy and dejected for the rest of the evening.
His visitor proved to be a Count Pioutkowski, a Polish officer, who had formerly held a commission in "la grande armée," and bad landed in the morning, having with great difficulty obtained permission to follow his master into exile, "to share with him the vulture and the rock." He called at the Briars, and requesting an audience, information had been sent to the emperor of his arrival. A long interview took place between them, which apparently excited painful reminiscences in the mind of the exile. I asked him afterwards about his visitor; he seemed to have little personal recollection of him, but appeared gratified with his devotion, and observed, he had proved himself a faithful servant by following him into exile.
The emperor's English, of which he sometimes spoke a few words, was the oddest in the world. He had formed an exaggerated idea of the quantity of wine drunk by English gentlemen, and used always to ask me, after we had had a party, how many bottles of wine my father drank, and then laughing, and counting on his fingers, generally made the number five. One day, to annoy me, he said that my countrywomen drank gin and brandy; and then added, in English, "You laike veree mosh dreenk, Meess, sometimes brandee, geen." Though I could not help laughing at his way of saying this, I felt most indignant at the accusation, and assured him that the ladies of England had the utmost horror of drinking spirits, and that they were even fastidious in the refinement of their ideas and in their general habits. He seemed amused at my earnestness, and quoted the instance of a Mrs. B———y, who had, in fact, paid him a visit once in a state of intoxication. It was singular, indeed, that one of the few English ladies he had ever been presented to should have been addicted to this habit. At last he confessed, laughing, that he had made the accusation only to tease me. When I was going away, he repeated, "You like dreenk, Meess Betsee; dreenk! dreenk!"