The Washington herald., 1914-04-05
A DAY AT MALMAIS0N

France ioyed in the consulate as the
glorious summer that followed her long
winter of discomfort
II was the wondrous healing time for
the wounds of the Revolution. While Ma
poleon welcomed home the long-proscrib-
ed aristocrats and priests, he dispelled
the fears of the republican masses by
confirming them forever in the possession
of the property which the Revolution had
taken from the aristocracy and the
church and sold to them. He abolished
the celebration of the anniversary of the
execution of Louis XVI as a national hol-
iday and changed the name of the Place
de la Revolution, the square Of the gull
lotine, to the Place de la Concorde.
The world was young again. Fortune
had shuffied the cards and fame was
dealing new hands all round.
Youth was in the saddle. The private
soldier and the stable boys of yesterday.
when they had hardly shirt and half
between them. suddenly found their peas
ant names glorified and eclipsing the lus-
ter of the dukes and marquises and
counts OF the ancient nobility.
Bernadotte black as a Moor. had served
in the ranks as a common soldier for a
dozen years. Augureau. with rings on
every finger. his uniform covered with
gold and decorated even with diamonds,
was the son of the keeper of a fruit stall.
and had been in the guard OF Frederick
the Great and a private in the Neapoli-
tan army until he was thirty, after which
he became a fencing master. Bessieres.
commander of the guard. had carried
musket. Murat was a tavern keeper S
lv~1R hW# NWl n hnFF n
he was a sergeant. Ney was cooper $
son. and Junot was only sergeant at
Toulon.
erals of France were welcomed like
princes in the courts of Europe. Well
might Napoleon exclaim in the DAYS
when he was making his marshals out
of mud the common clay OF French
Deasantry. that ''heredity is ridiculous.
He and the great Revolution had COW
cred with ridicuIe the old claims of long
hereditary asses on every hattlehe,d
and slapping the ounces cap on stupid
and supine kings
Old Friends Remembered.
No other hand than NapoIeon's ever
lifted so great legion of people out o.
obscurity into position, out of poverty
into afiuence. For this man. who faced
the world with a heart of ice, never
ceased 10 take a DONlSn pil lut piVoS
ure in sharing his fortunes with all who
had known him in his poorer days.
He hunted up the outcast friars OF the
overtnrown school at Brienne and con-
ferred oflces and pensions on them. He
bestowed a snug annuity on eTen his
writing teacher. who surely had small
claim to the gratitude of so wretched
penman. His teachers at the Ecole in
Paris also were generously remembered |
while a shower of favors fell upon his |
old neighbors in Corsica and upon all in |
Nalence and AuXOnne, who had bestowed
a friendly nod upon the straveling lieu |
tenant when he was stationed in those
towns. He appointed the mountalneer
who led the band of men that rescued
Mother LetiZia from the AJacclo mon,
Conservator of waters and forests. he |
pensoned Camilla Ilari, his old torter |
mother. the fisheTman's wife OF AJaccio- |
and would gladly have carried her son. |
his foster brother and playmate. along
with him. had the young man not ran
away and Joined the British navy he
brought his foster sister to Paris ana
introduced her in his court to show /
what beautiful girls Corsica raises; ne
married her off to her advantage and
stood godfather to her baby boy
caller from Valcnce was questioned /
about every one in the place and partlc- |
uIarly about the woman who kept the /
Three Pigeons in the Rue Perolierle
where Second Lieut.. Bonaparte used 10
eat his one meal a day. Learning she
was still living. Napoleon sent her $40
for fear. he said. that he might not have
paid her for all his cups of coffee.
One of the first debts OF gratitude ne |
discharged was in favor of the man who
had given him the desk in the war office
where he had the opportunity to draw
I'D his plan of campaign in 1tal-. When
the old official responded to the summons,
the First Consul said with smile that re-
fected his pleasure: You are Sena-
tor
No One Forgotten.
.T was at TouIon,'' was the magic pass
word at the palace door for army men,
and even Carteaux. the painter-general.
who had laughed at Capt. Bonaparte.
was placed on the pension rolls. An old
nobIenan who had lent the impecunious
father of the first consul $125 and, of
course. had never been repaid, was in
exile and poverty. "Bourrienne." Napol-
eon said. with real emotion, as he held in
his hand the appealing letter from the
creditor, this is sacred. Send the old
man ten times the amount of the debt
and have his name erased from the list
of the Vanished"
RaEuideau. Josephine's candid lawyer.
who rad advised her against marrying
man with nothing but sword and a
cloak. received a lucrative post.
Even the humble shopkeepers, who had
given him credit when he needed it, were
honored with patronage in preference to
more fashionable and prosperous trades
men. The obscure cobbler who made his
shoes when he was at the ECole, became
the proud bootmaker for the First Consul
of France. Des Mazis, his one intimate
among the pupils at the tEcole. the youth
who lent the penniless Corsican the non
ey to take him to his regiment at "a
Ience IS in exile as an aristocrat but
was r-saIled and received an important
Office.
The New Court.
The steadily increasing pageantry of
the consulate was outshining the 'ere-
monials of royalty, and a presentation to
Napoleon ard Josephine was more COW
eted than al introduction to the Haps-
burgs, the Hohenzollerns, or the Guelphs.
The new court was free from the scan
dals and stiffness of the old courts. Not ,
only was there opened under the consul
late career for every talent, but for
every grace as welt Beauty no less than /
ability had a fair field and no favor.
Although when Napoleon went to take {
up his residence in the Tuiieries. most l