The Court of the Empress Josephine

The Court of the Empress Josephine (tr Thomas Sergeant Perry) [with accents]

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Title: The Court of the Empress Josephine
Author: Imbert de Saint-Amand
Release Date: February, 2006 [EBook #9831] [This file was first posted on October 22, 2003]
Edition: 10
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
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THE COURT OF THE EMPRESS JOSEPHINE
BY
IMBERT DE SAINT-AMAND
TRANSLATED BY THOMAS SERGEANT PERRY
ILLUSTRATED
1900

CONTENTS.
CHAPTER
I. THE BEGINNING OF THE EMPIRE
II. THE JOURNEY TO THE BANKS OF THE RHINE
III. THE POPE'S ARRIVAL AT FONTAINEBLEAU
IV. THE PREPARATIONS FOR THE CORONATION
V. THE CORONATION
VI. THE DISTRIBUTION OF FLAGS
VII. THE FESTIVITIES
VIII. THE ETIQUETTE OF THE IMPERIAL PALACE
IX. THE HOUSEHOLD OF THE EMPRESS
X. NAPOLEON'S GALLANTRIES
XI. THE POPE AT THE TUILERIES
XII. THE JOURNEY IN ITALY
XIII. THE CORONATION AT MILAN
XIV. THE FESTIVITIES AT GENOA
XV. DURING THE CAMPAIGN OF AUSTERLITZ
XVI. THE MARRIAGE OF PRINCE EUGENE
XVII. PARIS IN THE BEGINNING OF 1806
XVIII. THE MARRIAGE OF THE PRINCE OF BADEN
XIX. THE NEW QUEEN OF HOLLAND
XX. THE EMPRESS AT MAYENCE
XXI. THE RETURN OF THE EMPRESS TO PARIS
XXII. THE DEATH OF THE YOUNG NAPOLEON
XXIII. THE END OF THE WAR
XXIV. THE EMPEROR'S RETURN
XXV. THE COURT AT FONTAINEBLEAU
XXVI. THE END OF THE YEAR 1807

I.
THE BEGINNING OF THE EMPIRE.
"Two-thirds of my life is passed, why should I so distress myself about what remains? The most brilliant fortune does not deserve all the trouble I take, the pettiness I detect in myself, or the humiliations and shame I endure; thirty years will destroy those giants of power which can be seen only by raising the head; we shall disappear, I who am so petty, and those whom I regard so eagerly, from whom I expected all my greatness. The most desirable of all blessings is repose, seclusion, a little spot we can call our own." When La Bruy��re expressed himself so bitterly, when he spoke of the court "which satisfies no one," but "prevents one from being satisfied anywhere else," of the court, "that country where the joys are visible but false, and the sorrows hidden, but real," he had before him the brilliant Palace of Versailles, the unrivalled glory of the Sun King, a monarchy which thought itself immovable and eternal. What would he say in this century when dynasties fail like autumn leaves, and it takes much less than thirty years to destroy the giants of power; when the exile of to-day repeats to the exile of the morrow the motto of the churchyard: _Hodie mihi, eras tibi?_ What would this Christian philosopher say at a time when royal and imperial palaces have been like caravansaries through which sovereigns have passed like travellers, when their brief resting-places have been consumed by the blaze of petroleum and are now but a heap of ashes?
The study of any court is sure to teach wisdom and indifference to human glories. In our France of the nineteenth century, fickle as it has been, inconstant, fertile in revolutions, recantations, and changes of every sort, this lesson is more impressive than it has been at any period of our history. Never has Providence shown more clearly the nothingness of this world's grandeur and magnificence. Never has the saying of Ecclesiastes been more exactly verified: "Vanity of vanities; all is vanity!" We have before us the task of describing one of the most sumptuous courts that has ever existed, and of reviewing splendors all the more brilliant for their brevity. To this court of Napoleon and Josephine, to this majestic court, resplendent with glory, wealth, and fame, may well be applied Corneille's lines:--
"All your happiness Subject to instability In a moment falls to the ground, And as it has the brilliancy of glass It also has its fragility."
We shall evoke the memory of the dead to revive this vanished court, and we shall consult, one after another, the persons who were eye-witnesses of these