Thermidorien hero, himself an ex-noble, was fond of society, desirous of
enjoying it on an agreeable scale, and of washing away the dregs which
Jacobinism had mingled with all the dearest interests of life. He loved
show, too, and pleasure, and might now indulge both without the risk of
falling under the suspicion of incivism, which, in the Reign of Terror,
would have been incurred by any attempt to intermingle elegance with the
enjoyments of social intercourse. At the apartments which he occupied,
as one of the Directory, in the Luxemburg Palace, he gave its free
course to his natural taste, and assembled an agreeable society of both
sexes. Madame Tallien and her friend formed the soul of these
assemblies, and it was supposed that Barras was not insensible to the
charms of Madame Beauharnois,--a rumour which was likely to arise,
whether with or without foundation.

When Madame Beauharnois and General Bonaparte became intimate, the
latter assures us, and we see no reason to doubt him, that although the
lady was two or three years older than himself,[9] yet being still in
the full bloom of beauty, and extremely agreeable in her manners, he was
induced, solely by her personal charms, to make her an offer of his
hand, heart, and fortunes,--little supposing, of course, to what a pitch
the latter were to arise.

[9] Bonaparte was then in his twenty-sixth year. Josephine gave
herself in the marriage contract for twenty-eight.

Although he himself is said to have been a fatalist, believing in
destiny and in the influence of his star, he knew nothing, probably, of
the prediction of a negro sorceress, who, while Marie Joseph was but a
child, prophesied she should rise to a dignity greater than that of a
queen, yet fall from it before her death.[10] This was one of those