I must with equal frankness confess that on this occasion I was soon
freed from all apprehension with respect to the consequences of the
difficulties he had to encounter in the Council and in the other
constituted orders of the State.

On the 4th of May 1801 lie brought forward, for the first time
officially, in the Council of State the question of the establishment of
the Legion of Honour, which on the 19th May 1802 was proclaimed a law of
the State. The opposition to this measure was very great, and all the
power of the First Consul, the force of his arguments, and the immense
influence of his position, could procure him no more than 14 votes out of
24. The same feeling was displayed at the Tribunate; where the measure
only passed by a vote of 56 to 38. The balance was about the same in the
Legislative Body, where the votes were 166 to 110. It follows, then,
that out of the 394 voters in those three separate bodies a majority only
of 78 was obtained. Surprised at so feeble a majority, the First Consul
said in the evening, "Ah! I see very clearly the prejudices are still
too strong. You were right; I should have waited. It was not a thing of
such urgency. But then, it must be owned, the speakers for the measure
defended it badly. The strong minority has not judged me fairly."--
"Be calm," rejoined I: "without doubt it would have been better to wait;
but the thing is done, and you will soon find that the taste for these
distinctions is not near gone by. It is a taste which belongs to the
nature of man. You may expect some extraordinary circumstances from this
creation--you will soon see them."

In April 1802 the First Consul left no stone unturned to get himself
declared Consul for life. It is perhaps at this epoch of his career that
he most brought into play those principles of duplicity and dissimulation
which are commonly called Machiavellian. Never were trickery, falsehood,