prizes, and the
tragedy of 'Carion de Nisas', and a novel by Madame de Stael, which he
had just read, but which I had not seen, and was therefore rather
embarrassed in replying to him. Respecting Madame de Stael and her
Delphine, he said some remarkable things. 'I do not like women,' he
observed, 'who make men of themselves, any more than I like effeminate
men. There is a proper part for every one to play in the world. What
does all this flight of imagination mean? What is the result of it?
Nothing. It is all sentimental metaphysics and disorder of the mind. I
cannot endure that woman; for one reason, that I cannot bear women who
make a set at me, and God knows how often she has tried to cajole me!'"

The words of Lauriston brought to my recollection the conversations I had
often had with Bonaparte respecting Madame de Stael, of whose advances
made to the First Consul, and even to the General of the Army of Italy,
I had frequently been witness. Bonaparte knew nothing at first of Madame
de Stael but that she was the daughter of M. Necker, a man for whom, as I
have already shown, he had very little esteem. Madame de Stael had not
been introduced to him, and knew nothing more of him than what fame had
published respecting the young conqueror of Italy, when she addressed to
him letters full of enthusiasm. Bonaparte read some passages of them to
me, and, laughing, said, "What do you think, Bourrienne, of these
extravagances. This woman is mad." I recollect that in one of her
letters Madame de Stael, among other things, told him that they certainly
were created for each other--that it was in consequence of an error in
human institutions that the quiet and gentle Josephine was united to his
fate--that nature seemed to have destined for the adoration of a hero
such as he, a soul of fire like her own. These extravagances disgusted
Bonaparte to a degree which I cannot describe. When he had finished
reading these fine epistles he used to throw them into the fire, or tear
them with marked ill-humour, and would say, "Well, here is a woman who
pretends to genius--a maker of sentiments, and she presumes to compare
herself to Josephine! Bourrienne, I shall not reply to such letters."

I had, however, the opportunity of seeing what the perseverance of a
woman of talent can effect. Notwithstanding Bonaparte's prejudices
against Madame de Stael, which he never abandoned, she succeeded in
getting herself introduced to him; and if anything