ed for publicity. This circumstance
would seem to indicate that he considered Republican designations
incompatible with the forms due to the clergy: the clergy were especially
interested in the restoration of monarchy. It may, perhaps, be thought
that I dwell too much on trifles; but I lived long enough in Bonaparte's
confidence to know the importance he attached to trifles. The First
Consul restored the old names of the days of the week, while he allowed
the names of the months, as set down in the Republican calendar, to
remain. He commenced by ordering the Moniteur to be dated "Saturday,"
such a day of "Messidor." "See," said he one day, "was there ever such
an inconsistency? We shall be laughed at! But I will do away with the
Messidor. I will efface all the inventions of the Jacobins."

The clergy did not disappoint the expectations of the First Consul. They
owed him much already, and hoped for still more from him. The letter to
the Bishops, etc., was the signal for a number of circulars full of
eulogies on Bonaparte.

These compliments were far from displeasing to the First Consul, who had
no objection to flattery though he despised those who meanly made
themselves the medium of conveying it to him. Duroc once told me that
they had all great difficulty in preserving their gravity when the cure
of a parish in Abbeville addressed Bonaparte one day while he was on his
journey to the coast. "Religion," said the worthy cure, with pompous
solemnity, "owes to you all that it is, we owe to you all that we are;
and I, too, owe to you all that I am."

--[Not so fulsome as some of the terms used a year later when
Napoleon was made Emperor. "I am what I am," was placed over a seat
prepared for the Emperor. One phrase, "God made Napoleon and then
rested," drew from Narbonne the sneer that it would have been better
if the Deity had rested sooner. "Bonaparte," says Joseph de
Maistre, "has had himself described in his papers as the 'Messenger
of God.' Nothing more true. Bonaparte comes straight from heaven,
like a thunderbolt." (Saints-Benve, Caureries, tome iv. p. 203.)]

CHAPTER XX.

1803.

Presentation of Prince Borghese to Bonaparte--Departure for Belgium
Revival of a royal custom--The swans of Amiens--Change of formula
in the acts of Government--Company of performers in Bonaparte's
suite--Revival of old customs--Division of the institute into four
classes--Science and literat