im to. This fussy female
intriguer suggested to Napoleon that if he would give her two million
francs she would write anything he wished. She was immediately packed
about her business.

Madame de Stael was not an important personage at all, but she had the
power of attracting people to her who, like herself, had grievances to
be discussed, and we may without doubt conclude that these gatherings
were composed of well-selected intriguers whom she had fixed in her
feline eye. Her great grievance was the First Consul's, and
subsequently the Emperor's, coldness towards her. He estimated her at
her true value. He treated her with the courtesy due to a French
citizen, but nothing more, and when she misbehaved in his presence, he
rebuked her with due consideration for her sex. When she caused people
to talk to him of her, he merely shrugged his shoulders as was his
habit, and smiled disdainfully; though occasionally he could not
resist the temptation of ridiculing her comic pretensions. But this
human curiosity had power for mischief.

She was not only an intriguer, but, subsequent to her failure in
love-making, she developed a literary tyrannicide. She condescended to
patronise the head of the State by causing it to be conveyed to him
that her hostility would cease under certain well-defined conditions.
When he became the real Governor of France, Napoleon put a stop to
religious persecution, and put the churches into use. He
re-established religion, and by doing so brought under his influence
one hundred million Catholics. This wise policy created strong
opposition from a section of the clergy. Madame de Stael and the
friends whom she had whipped up, many of them being the principal
generals, were mischievously opposed to it, and brought pressure to
bear so that he might be induced to establish the Protestant religion.
Napoleon ignored them all. He knew he was on the right ground, and
that the nation as a whole was with him. France was essentially a
Roman Catholic country, and the head of it gave back to her people
what was regarded as the true faith. The exile frequently referred to
these matters in conversation with one or other of his followers.
Napoleon's disdain for Madame de Stael was well merited, and he never
saw or heard of her that it did not set his nerves on edge. She was
the "death on man" sort of female who persisted in being, either
directly or indirectly, his political adviser. Dr. Max Lenz accuses
the Emper