rinces, of considering his most cringing courtiers as his most
devoted subjects.

He would also form an establishment for the Empress, and re-appointed
Mesdames de Bassano, de Vicenza, de Rovigo, Duchatel, and Marmier,
ladies of the bedchamber. The Duchess of M*** was not recalled. He
heard from Prince Joseph, that after the events of Fontainbleau, she
had abused the confidence of the Empress, and betrayed the secret of
her correspondence.

It was said, but falsely, that the gracefulness and beauty of the
Duchess had formerly obtained the homage of Napoleon; and her disgrace
did not fail to be urged as a fresh proof of the inconstancy of men;
but I have assigned the true and only cause.

The corruption of courts often sanctions a number of lying
suppositions, against which few reputations can stand. This justice
however must be done Napoleon; no prince was ever a man of purer
manners, or took so much pains to avoid and even check scandal: he was
never seen, to be followed to the army by his mistresses, like Louis
XIV.; or disguised in the dress of a porter, or of a small-coal man,
like Henry IV., to carry disgrace and despair into the houses of his
most faithful servants.

As a pretty remarkable contrast, Napoleon, at the moment when he
resumed with delight his own upper servants, sent about their business
without pity the lacqueys, who had served Louis XVIII. and the
princes.

"De tout tems les petits ont paye pour les grands."[74]

[Footnote 74: "In all ages the poor have suffered
for the faults of the great."]

These poor people were left destitute. It has been said and repeated a
hundred times, that Napoleon ill-treated and struck all those who came
near him, right or wrong. Nothing can be more false. He had his
moments of impatience and warmth; and what honest citizen has not? But
in general, the officers and even subalterns of his household were in
easy circumstances with him, and he was more frequently in a gay than
in a serious humour. He very easily became attached to a person; and
when he liked any one, he could not do without him; and treated him
with a kindness, that frequently degenerated into weakness. It is
true, it would have been very difficult for him to find servants more
able, or more devotedly attached to him: every one of them had made it
his particular study, to become, not what he did wish, but what he
might wish.

Tacitus has observed, that v