e battles in which
he wears a mask of bronze, apart from the official ceremonies in which
he assumes a necessarily dignified air, impression and expression with
him are almost always confounded, the inward overflowing in the outward,
the action, like a blow, getting the better of him. At Saint Cloud,
caught by Josephine in the arms of another woman, he runs after
the unlucky interrupter in such a way that "she barely has time to
escape";[1206] and again, that evening, keeping up his fury so as to
put her down completely, "he treats her in the most outrageous manner,
smashing every piece of furniture that comes in his way." A little
before the Empire, Talleyrand, a great mystifier, tells Berthier that
the First Consul wanted to assume the title of king. Berthier, in eager
haste, crosses the drawing-room full of company, accosts the master of
the house and, with a beaming smile, "congratulates him."[1207] At the
word king, Bonaparte's eyes flash. Grasping Berthier by the throat, he
pushes him back against the wall, exclaiming, "You fool! who told you
to come here and stir up my bile in this way? Another time don't come
on such errands."--Such is the first impulse, the instinctive action,
to pounce on people and seize them by the throat; we divine under each
sentence, and on every page he writes, out-bursts and assaults of this
description, the physiognomy and intonation of a man who rushes forward
and knocks people down. Accordingly, when dictating in his cabinet, "he
strides up and down the room," and, "if excited," which is often the
case, "his language consists of violent imprecations, and even of oaths,
which are suppressed in what is written."[1208] But these are not
always suppressed, for those who have seen the original minutes of his
correspondence on ecclesiastical affairs find dozens of them, the b...,
the p... and the swearwords of the coarsest kind.[1209]

Never was there such impatient touchiness. "When dressing himself,[1210]
he throws on the floor or into the fire any part of his attire which
does not suit him.... On gala-days and on grand ceremonial occasions
his valets are obliged to agree together when they shall seize the
right moment to put some thing on him... He tears off or breaks whatever
causes him the slightest discomfort, while the poor valet who has been
the means of it meets with a violent and positive proof of his anger. No
thought was ever more carried away by its own speed. "His handwriting,