t no one is a hero to his valet de chambre. I beg
leave to dissent from this. The Emperor, as near as I was to him, was
always a hero; and it was a great advantage also to see the man as he
was. At a distance you were sensible only of the prestige of his glory
and his power; but on getting closer to him you enjoyed, besides, the
surprising charm of his conversation, the entire simplicity of his family
life, and I do not hesitate to say, the habitual kindliness of his
character.

The reader, if curious to learn beforehand in what spirit these Memoirs
are written, will perhaps read with interest this passage of a letter
that I wrote to my publisher:

"Bourrienne had, perhaps, reason for treating Napoleon, as a public
man, with severity. But we view him from different standpoints, and
I speak only of the hero in undress. He was then almost always
kind, patient, and rarely unjust. He was much attached to those
about him, and received with kindness and good nature the services
of those whom he liked. He was a man of habit. It is as a devoted
servant that I wish to speak of the Emperor, and in no wise as a
critic. It is not, however, an apotheosis in several volumes that I
wish to write: for I am on this point somewhat like fathers who
recognize the faults of their children, and reprove them earnestly,
while at the same time they are ready to make excuses for their
errors."

I trust that I shall be pardoned the familiarity, or, if you will, the
inappropriateness of this comparison, for the sake of the feeling which
dictates it. Besides, I do not propose either to praise or blame, but
simply to relate that which fell within my knowledge, without trying to
prejudice the opinion of any one.

I cannot close this introduction without a few words as to myself, in
reply to the calumnies which have not spared, even in his retirement, a
man who should have no enemies, if, to be protected from malice, it were
sufficient to have done a little good, and no harm to any one. I am
reproached with having abandoned my master after his fall, and not having
shared his exile. I will show that, if I did not follow the Emperor, it
was because I lacked not the will but the power to do so. God knows that
I do not wish to undervalue the devotion of the faithful servants who
followed the fortunes of the Emperor to the end. However, it is not
improper to say that, however terrible the fall of the Emperor was for