or of developing a despotism that caused him to drive a woman
like Madame de Stael from land to land, "and trampled under foot every
manifestation of independence."

Really, the good doctor lays himself open to the charge of not making
himself better informed of the doings of this sinister person, who was
steeped in treason, and who refused to accept the laws of life with
proper submission. It is merely farcical to assume that Madame de
Stael was kept well under discipline because of a whimsical despotism
on the part of the man who had fixed a settled government on France,
and who was kept well informed of the attempts of the Baroness and her
anarchist associates to undermine and destroy the Constitution it had
cost France and its ruler so much to reconstruct and consolidate. "Let
her be judged as a man," said Napoleon, and in truth he was right in
deciding in this way, as her whole attitude aped the masculine. He was
right, too, in showing how wholly objectionable she had made herself
to him. He had been led to adopt a sort of "For God's sake, what does
she want?" idea of her during the early years of his rule, though he
never at any time showed weakness in his actual dealings with her. He
disliked women who asserted themselves as men, and he disliked the
amorous offspring of Necker more because he loathed women who threw
themselves into the arms of men; she had surfeited him with her
persistent attempts at making love to him. In one of her letters to
him she says it was evidently an egregious error, an entire
misunderstanding of human nature, that the quiet and timid Josephine
had bound up her fate with that of a tempestuous temper like his. She
and Napoleon seemed born for each other, and it appeared as if nature
had only gifted her with so enthusiastic a disposition in order to
enable her to admire such a hero as he was. Napoleon in his fury tore
this precious letter up and exclaimed, "This manufacturer of
sentiments dares to compare herself with Josephine!"

The letters were not answered, though this had no deterrent effect on
Madame de Stael. She continued to pour out in profusion adoration. He
was "a god who had descended on earth." She addressed him as such, and
his callous reception of her madness drove her into despair and
vindictiveness which brought salutary punishment to herself. Her
weapons of wit and sarcasm availed nothing. He looked upon her as a
sort of gifted lunatic that had got the idea of seducing