BONAPARTE
My dear colleague, it would not be reestablished for the benefit of the Bourbons.
CAMBACÉRÈS
Heaven preserve us from a return of the Bourbons, with all of their prejudices, favorites, and their priests. They would immediately make themselves as hated as before.
BONAPARTE
Yet they dream of nothing but returning to their throne. The pretender who sometimes call himself the Count of Lille and sometimes Louis the Eighteenth sent me a letter, begging me to save the French from themselves and returning to them their king, such that future nations would bless my memory.
CAMBACÉRÈS
As if you needed to restore the Bourbon yoke to be celebrated by those who will come after you!
BONAPARTE
My response to him consisted of five lines, essentially informing him that he should not dream of returning to this country. He would first have to walk across a hundred-thousand dead bodies. I will never play the role of Monk. I do not want to play it and I do not want others to play it. None of us has any interest in seeing the Bourbons return.
CAMBACÉRÈS
You especially, Citizen First Consul.
BONAPARTE
Nor you, Citizen Second Consul. You should even be more afraid than me at the thought of their restoration. As I remember you voted in favor of the death of the king.
CAMBACÉRÈS
With reservations. With reservations!
BONAPARTE
Your reservations won’t count for much in their eyes. My poor Cambacérès, I’m afraid it’s abundantly clear that should the Bourbons ever return, it would be the end of you. There would be nothing I could do about it.
CAMBACÉRÈS
Then may they stay where they are! To rid them of any hope of a return — and, since you put it that way, to give me some sense of peace — I am ready to help in the establishment of any royal line other than theirs.
BONAPARTE
I’m going to surprise you, Cambacérès, but I do not want a royalty that the last Bourbons had shrunk to such an extent that now it matches their size. The other day, one of a throng of courtesans addressed me in language designed for a king. I informed him that I was First Consul of the Republic, and that using or acceding to feudal forms of address was a crime.
CAMBACÉRÈS
But if you do not want to be king, what will become of us?
BONAPARTE
I understand you, Cambacérès. No longer is it a matter of saving principles but of saving people. The era of opinions has been replaced by that of interests. You can be sure that I am perfectly able to defend both people and interests.
CAMBACÉRÈS
You have already proved as much.
BONAPARTE
I will prove it again. Nevertheless I will never be content merely to substitute one elite for another. After the monarchic heredity and Jacobin egalitarian leveling, I have found a third way — that of merit. “To each according to his birth and his rank” and “Equality or death” will be replaced by “To each according to his talents.” I don’t repent the Revolution, but I always detested its crimes. I want to complete the Revolution in both senses of the word — both to fulfill it and to bring it to a conclusion.
I erased the memories of January 21, and August 10, and 9 Thermidor. I forbade debauchery and public exposure. I reinstituted Sundays, Carnival, and New Year’s, ladies in waiting, livery, etiquette, breeches, and silk stockings. All the great names — the Périgords, Brissacs, Rochefoucaulds, Montesquious, Maillys, Ségurs, and the Narbonnes — are my equals. But Murat, my brother-in-law, was the son of an innkeeper. Ney is the son of a cooper, Augerau was a mason, Lanne was a stable-boy, Lefebre was a cabinet-maker, and his wife was a washerwoman. I want us all to start on a new footing. I want the world to live in peace. But, and I’m not jesting, I would like people to have fun. I will chase from the Tuileries the first man or woman who feels they can make a scene or simply raise their voice. Those who are displeased by some people and who come here each night to express their displeasure have no business here. I have a republican imagination and a monarchic instinct. I want to establish a republican monarchy. And the Republic that is mine is Roman, military, warrior-like, and all-conquering. My model isn’t Versailles, My model is Rome. My model is not the Bourbons. My model is Caesar.
CAMBACÉRÈS
Caesar! The name has been uttered. Like him you set a term to the Republic. And like him you refuse the royal crown.
BONAPARTE
I refuse the royal crown. Talleyrand wants to make me king. I don’t want to be. I am not refusing all crowns. I have become accustomed to the laurel wreath that the French people gave me after Rivoli, Marengo, and my other victories. They want to return to a monarchy? If they express their desire with enough force behind it, I will assume a title that will strike France and Europe as more solemn, more imposing, more august than that of king. It will be a new title with ancient roots — that of the Roman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire.
CAMBACÉRÈS
Emperor?
BONAPARTE
Why not? The Republic would be confided to an emperor. After all, Monsieur Cambacérès, it is only to royalty that we have all sworn our hatred.
CAMBACÉRÈS
That is true. We have never said a word against the empire.
BONAPARTE
The title of emperor will not shock republicans and fully satisfy those inclined to a monarchy. I believe that it would be the best thing to replace what we currently have. I would renounce without any regret the royalty of Hugues Capet and his successors, and I will reconstitute Charlemagne’s empire. Rather than succeed to Philippe August, or Henry the Fourth, or Louis the Fourteenth, I will succeed Charlemagne. I will reattach myself to the Holy Roman Empire. I would be Caesar lifted above the king, call myself the supreme leader of the Italy of which I am already President. I would have supremacy over the crowned heads and the protectorate over Germany, and I would reassume the rights attached to the Western Empire.
CAMBACÉRÈS
It is an idea with powerful appeal. Yet in adopting the forms of Charlemagne’s empire and that of Rome, what will you do with those forms of the Roman Republic already in place, such as the Senate, the tribunals, the quaestors, and the prefects? I have to be honest and say that I perceive a difficulty and feel a sense of unease.
BONAPARTE
Difficulty? Unease?
CAMBACÉRÈS
France would accord you the title of emperor, I am sure of it, and with the same enthusiasm that I myself feel. But if you become emperor, Citizen First Consul, would you retain the two other consuls, one in charge of finances, meaning Lebrun, and the other running the bureaucracy, meaning, well, me?
BONAPARTE
The real difficulty, and actually the scandal of it all, was the existence of three consuls of which I was without doubt the first but only the first. The title of Consul today is nearly as absurd today as Director was yesterday. It will disappear.
CAMBACÉRÈS