“Sire!” answered De Segur, “it is not the want of numbers, but the difficulty of the choice among them.  I will never recommend a single individual upon whom I cannot depend; or who, on some future day, may expose me to the greatest of all evils, the displeasure of my Prince.”

“But,” continued Napoleon, “what is to be done to-day that I may augment the number of my suite, and by it impose upon the gaping multitude and the attending deputations?”—­“Command,” said De Segur, “all the officers of Your Majesty’s staff, and of the staff of the Governor of Paris, General Murat, to surround Your Majesty’s sacred person, and order them to accoutre themselves in the most shining and splendid manner possible.  The presence of so many military men will also, in a political point of view, be useful.  It will lessen the pretensions of the constituted authorities, by telling them indirectly, ’It is not to your Senatus Consultum, to your decrees, or to your votes, that I am indebted for my present Sovereignty; I owe it exclusively to my own merit and valour, and to the valour of my brave officers and men, to whose arms I trust more than to your counsels.’”

This advice obtained Napoleon’s entire approbation, and was followed.  De Segur was permitted to retire, but when Madame Remusat made a curtsey also to leave the room, she was stopped with his terrible ‘aux arrets’ and left under the care and responsibility of his aide-de-camp, Lebrun, who saw her safe into her room, at the door of which he placed two grenadiers.  Napoleon then went out, ordering his wife, at her peril, to be in time, ready and brilliantly dressed, for the drawing-room.

Dreading the consequences of her husband’s wrath, Madame Napoleon was not only punctual, but so elegantly and tastefully decorated with jewels and ornaments that even those of her enemies or rivals who refused her beauty, honour, and virtue, allowed her taste and dignity.  She thought that even in the regards of Napoleon she read a tacit approbation.  When all the troublesome bustle of the morning was gone through, and when Senators, legislators, tribunes, and prefects had complimented her as a model of female perfection, on a signal from her husband she accompanied him in silence through six different apartments before he came to her library, where he surlily ordered her to enter and to remain until further orders.

“What have I done, Sire! to deserve such treatment?” exclaimed Josephine, trembling.

“If,” answered Napoleon, “Madame Remusat, your favourite, has made a fool of you, this is only to teach you that you shall not make a fool of me:  Had not De Segur fortunately for him—­had the ingenuity to extricate us from the dilemma into which my confidence and dependence on you had brought me, I should have made a fine figure indeed on the first day of my emperorship.  Have patience, Madame; you have plenty of books to divert you, but you must remain where you are until I am inclined to release you.”  So saying, Napoleon locked the door and put the key in his pocket.