Bourrienne's statements are in agreement with the facts and with the
accounts of other writers.

At the present time too much attention has been paid to the Memoirs of
Madame de Remusat. She, as also Madame Junot, was the wife of a man on
whom the full shower of imperial favours did not descend, and, womanlike,
she saw and thought only of the Court life of the great man who was never
less great than in his Court. She is equally astonished and indignant
that the Emperor, coming straight from long hours of work with his
ministers and with his secretary, could not find soft words for the
ladies of the Court, and that, a horrible thing in the eyes of a
Frenchwoman, when a mistress threw herself into his arms, he first
thought of what political knowledge he could obtain from her.
Bourrienne, on the other hand, shows us the other and the really
important side of Napoleon's character. He tells us of the long hours in
the Cabinet, of the never-resting activity of the Consul, of Napoleon's
dreams, no ignoble dreams and often realised, of great labours of peace
as well as of war. He is a witness, and the more valuable as a reluctant
one, to the marvellous powers of the man who, if not the greatest, was at
least the one most fully endowed with every great quality of mind and
body the world has ever seen.

R. W. P.






AUTHOR'S INTRODUCTION.