03.

CHAPTER XV

1802.

The intoxication of great men--Unlucky zeal--MM. Maret, Champagny,
and Savary--M. de Talleyrand's real services--Postponement of the
execution of orders--Fouche and the Revolution--The Royalist
committee--The charter first planned during the Consulate--Mission
to Coblentz--Influence of the Royalists upon Josephine--The statue
and the pedestal--Madame de Genlis' romance of Madame de la
Valliere--The Legion of Honour and the carnations--Influence of the
Faubourg St. Germain--Inconsiderate step taken by Bonaparte--Louis
XVIII's indignation--Prudent advice of the Abbe Andre--Letter from
Louis XVIII. to Bonaparte--Council held at Neuilly--The letter
delivered--Indifference of Bonaparte, and satisfaction of the
Royalists.

Perhaps one of the happiest ideas that ever were expressed was that of
the Athenian who said, "I appeal from Philip drunk to Philip sober."
The drunkenness here alluded to is not of that kind which degrades a man
to the level of a brute, but that intoxication which is occasioned by
success, and which produces in the heads of the ambitious a sort of
cerebral congestion. Ordinary men are not subject to this excitement,
and can scarcely form an idea of it. But it is nevertheless true that
the fumes of glory and ambition occasionally derange the strongest heads;
and Bonaparte, in all the vigour of his genius, was often subject to
aberrations of judgment; for though his imagination never failed him, his
judgment was frequently at fault.

This fact may serve to explain, and perhaps even to excuse the faults
with which the First Consul has been most seriously reproached. The
activity of his mind seldom admitted of an interval between the
conception and the execution of a design; but when he reflected coolly on
the first impulses of his imperious will, his judgment discarded what was
erroneous. Thus the blind obedience, which, like an epidemic disease,
infected almost all who surrounded Bonaparte, was productive of the most
fatal effects. The best way to serve the First Consul was never to
listen to the suggestions of his first ideas, except on the field of
battle, where his conceptions were as happy as they were rapid. Thus,
for example, MM. Maret, de Champagny, and Savary evinced a ready
obedience to Bonaparte's wishes, which often proved very unfortunate,
though doubtless dictated by the best intentions on their part. To this
fatal zeal may