CAMBACÉRÈS
To her very great credit.
BONAPARTE
It didn’t end there. It wasn’t the Armenian but Caroline who was out of her mind. She dreamed of the shawl. She happened to run into my stepdaughter Hortense and went on and on about it. Hortense immediately went to Joséphine, her mother, and told her about this Wonder of the East. Joséphine was immediately seized with the desire to possess it. She moved heaven and earth to find the Armenian merchant and first offered him twelve thousand, then thirteen, and finally bought the shawl for fifteen-thousand francs.
CAMBACÉRÈS
Did you reproach her?
BONAPARTE
I reproach her nothing. But the story still isn’t finished. A few days later my sister Élisa went to have dinner with my wife. The minute Élisa arrived she saw that her sister-in-law was wearing the famous shawl. She had never seen it herself but Caroline had described it with such emotion in her voice that she recognized it immediately. The very next day she had nothing better to do than to hurry over and inform her sister that she had lost the shawl forever. Caroline was furious. She told her husband Murat that Joséphine had only bought it to spite her and that she would never speak to her again.
CAMBACÉRÈS
Good heavens. I can see how painful this would be for any family, but for yours. .
BONAPARTE
My mother and Joseph’s wife, who is a good person, went to Joséphine and asked whether she would be willing to give the shawl to Caroline, putting an end to this discord. Joséphine replied that it was hers and that she intended to keep it. Voices were raised. Tears flowed. Caroline demanded that her sister-in-law give her the shawl for what she paid for it. My wife replied that she would burn it first. My mother, Murat, my brother Joseph, Élisa, and Hortense were involved in the battle. The Tuileries became a hell.
CAMBACÉRÈS
Where did you come down on it all?
BONAPARTE
Weary of all the fuss and tears and pouting, I decided that Joséphine could keep the shawl but that she could not wear it. And I gave Caroline a very fine string of pearls.
CAMBACÉRÈS
A decision worthy of Solomon.
BONAPARTE
One that took more painful effort than a two week military campaign or than negotiating for peace with the Austrians or the English.
CAMBACÉRÈS
All families have their squabbles. Dazzled by the greatness that you shine on all corners, yours is more demanding than others. But may I be permitted to offer you a word of advice?
BONAPARTE
Of course, of course.
CAMBACÉRÈS
Don’t let yourself get caught up in them.
BONAPARTE
My heart is no less soft than that of other men. I am generous with my family. But I also respond to their demands and pleas by means of the Eternal Me. Make no mistake. I know perfectly well that I have a destiny, and I will not let myself be distracted from it by squabbles and whining.
CAMBACÉRÈS
Thank heaven for that. That is the leader the Republic needs.
BONAPARTE
I will tell you something I have told no one else. I have never had a master plan for my life. I have always been governed by circumstances. But I have always taken advantage of these circumstances and been their master. Nothing has happened that I did not foresee and seek out, and therefore I am the only one not to be surprised by what I have accomplished. I can even foresee the future and will get to where I plan to go. When my political wagon has begun to move nothing will stop it, and woe to him who falls under its wheels.
CAMBACÉRÈS
And this wagon, which is also the wagon of the French Republic, where is it headed?
BONAPARTE
It’s about that that I wanted to speak with you, my dear colleague. For the first time in ages, power in France is being wielded by a man who understands the country’s needs and who matches what the people want: order, glory, peace, respect for religion, the national good. I am that man. Anyone can see what I have accomplished in Italy, in the East, in France. Do you believe that all this is purely for the glory of gossips and lawyers? Death means nothing. Living without glory means dying each and every day. I am telling you, Cambacérès, I can no longer simply obey. I have tasted command and cannot now give it up.
CAMBACÉRÈS
Three-and-a-half million Frenchman against eight thousand three hundred have chosen to make you Consul for Life, with the right to freely choose your successor. In the Vendée — the Vendée! Counter-Revolutionary capital of France — there were six no’s and seventeen thousand yes’s. All power now resides with you. What more can you hope for?
BONAPARTE
I have not forgotten the role you played in the passage of the vote to make me Consul for Life, and I am grateful to you. You are an invaluable man. Still, what would happen if I disappeared? That is the question.
CAMBACÉRÈS
Why would you disappear? You are thirty-four years old.
BONAPARTE
Yes, of course. The bullet that will kill me has not yet been forged. But there have already been several attempts on my life. There will be others, perpetrated either by the Jacobins or the Royalists. It is rumored that the Count d’Artois maintains sixty assassins in Paris. Enghien is plotting in Baden. And the madmen of the Terror have not been disarmed. In the eyes of many, on either side, I am a kind of dog and whoever gets to me first can bludgeon me with impunity. Three years ago, on Christmas evening, on Rue Saint-Nicaise, just a few steps from your home, I was nearly killed. Had I been killed it would have taken guts to restore order and pick up the reins of power, and you’re a little wobbly in the stirrups. I like you a great deal, Cambacérès, but you know as well as I that everything rides on me. I founded a new era and now I must make it stick. Dramatic change means nothing unless it lasts. Do you not think that we should rise above a regime in which I am only the first magistrate of a republic that is still vulnerable and threatened?
CAMBACÉRÈS
I knew from the beginning of this conversation that behind it was the end of the Republic. Like you, I’ve seen for some time, and with justification, that things are tending toward that.
BONAPARTE
I never doubted it, my dear friend. You are a man of discernment.
CAMBACÉRÈS
The key is to know when the pear is ripe. If it is, you must not hesitate to pick it. The only question I would ask is this: do you think that the French are still attached to the idea of a republic, at least in name?
BONAPARTE
I know the French and their flightiness, the ease with which they can change their minds. The Republic is a chimera with which they are infatuated, but the infatuation will pass, just as others have. I am persuaded that in the country’s heart lies the willingness for a return to the ways of monarchy.
CAMBACÉRÈS
The word still strikes fear.