Empress she exclaimed, "My God!
Bourrienne, such ambition is far from my thoughts. That I may always
continue the wife of the First Consul is all I desire. Say to him all
that you have said to me. Try and prevent him from making himself
King."--"Madame," I replied, "times are greatly altered. The wisest men,
the strongest minds, have resolutely and courageously opposed his
tendency to the hereditary system. But advice is now useless. He would
not listen to me. In all discussions on the subject he adheres
inflexibly to the view he has taken. If he be seriously opposed his
anger knows no bounds; his language is harsh and abrupt, his tone
imperious, and his authority bears down all before him."--"Yet,
Bourrienne, he has so much confidence in you that of you should try once
more!"--"Madame, I assure you he will not listen to me. Besides, what
could I add to the remarks I made upon his receiving the letters of Louis
XVIII., when I fearlessly represented to him that heing without children
he would have no one to whom to bequeath the throne--that, doubtless,
from the opinion which he entertained of his brothers, he could not
desire to erect it for them?" Here Josephine again interrupted me by
exclaiming, "My kind friend, when you spoke of children did he say
anything to you? Did he talk of a divorce?"--"Not a word, Madame, I
assure you."--"If they do not urge him to it, I do not believe he will
resolve to do such a thing. You know how he likes Eugene, and Eugene
behaves so well to him. How different is Lucien. It is that wretch
Lucien, to whom Bonaparte listens too much, and of whom, however, he
always speaks ill to me."--"I do not know, Madame, what Lucien says to
his brother except when he chooses to tell me, because Lucien always
avoids having a witness of his interviews with your husband, but I can
assure you that for two years I have not heard the word 'divorce' from
the General's mouth."--"I always reckon on you, my dear Bourrienne; to
turn him away from it; as you did at that time."--"I do not believe he is
thinking of it, but if it recurs to him, consider, Madame, that it will
be now from very different motives: He is now entirely given up to the
interests of his policy and his ambition, which dominate every other
feeling in him. There will not now be any question of scandal, or of a
trial before a court, but of an act of authority which complaisant laws
will justify and which the Church perhaps will sanction."--"That's