Most of these (for there were some who were most honourably excepted, as the Prince de Beauveau, Messrs. de Turenne, de Montholon, de Lascases, Forbin de Janson, Perregaux, &c. &c.) had meanly renounced him in 1814, and become the common valets of the Bourbons; but he would not believe a word of it. He had the weakness, common to all princes, of considering his most cringing courtiers as his most devoted subjects.
He would also form an establishment for the Empress, and re-appointed Mesdames de Bassano, de Vicenza, de Rovigo, Duchâtel, and Marmier, ladies of the bedchamber. The Duchess of M*** was not recalled. He heard from Prince Joseph, that after the events of Fontainbleau, she had abused the confidence of the Empress, and betrayed the secret of her correspondence.
It was said, but falsely, that the gracefulness and beauty of the Duchess had formerly obtained the homage of Napoleon; and her disgrace did not fail to be urged as a fresh proof of the inconstancy of men; but I have assigned the true and only cause.
The corruption of courts often sanctions a number of lying suppositions, against which few reputations can stand. This justice however must be done Napoleon; no prince was ever a man of purer manners, or took so much pains to avoid and even check scandal: he was never seen, to be followed to the army by his mistresses, like Louis XIV.; or disguised in the dress of a porter, or of a small-coal man, like Henry IV., to carry disgrace and despair into the houses of his most faithful servants.
As a pretty remarkable contrast, Napoleon, at the moment when he resumed with delight his own upper servants, sent about their business without pity the lacqueys, who had served Louis XVIII. and the princes.
"De tout tems les petits ont payé pour les grands."[74]
[Footnote 74: "In all ages the poor have suffered for the faults of the great."]
These poor people were left destitute. It has been said and repeated a hundred times, that Napoleon ill-treated and struck all those who came near him, right or wrong. Nothing can be more false. He had his moments of impatience and warmth; and what honest citizen has not? But in general, the officers and even subalterns of his household were in easy circumstances with him, and he was more frequently in a gay than in a serious humour. He very easily became attached to a person; and when he liked any one, he could not do without him; and treated him with a kindness, that frequently degenerated into weakness. It is true, it would have been very difficult for him to find servants more able, or more devotedly attached to him: every one of them had made it his particular study, to become, not what he did wish, but what he might wish.