it was afire; to hear him sow
dissension among families by coarse innuendo, and to see him crush
society that he might rule it. But such things would not have shocked
the masses of plain burgher Frenchmen at all. When the querulous lady
opened her troubles to the sympathetic Talleyrand, and bemoaned the
sad fate which kept her at the imperial court to gain a living, his
reply was not consoling. As time passed, the gulf between the ruler
and his venal but soft-spoken minister had been widening, and the
Prince of Benevento had oftentimes to hear taunts and reproaches in
scenes of such violence as were unsuspected even by the complaining
lady in waiting. But nevertheless Talleyrand replied to her that
Napoleon still stood for the unity of France, and it was both his and
her duty to endure and support their monarch.

No doubt the Emperor was perfectly aware of the situation. But he felt
that what was a new aristocracy in truth, though not yet so in name,
must be appeased as well as the people. He was furious at times with
the venality of his associates. Talleyrand once admitted that he had
taken sixty millions from various German princes. Massena, Augereau,
Brune, and Junot were not so colossal in their greed, but they were
equally ill-disposed, and very successful in lining their coffers.
With Talleyrand Napoleon never joked; but when he wished to give a
warning to the others he drew a bill for some enormous sum on one or
other of them, and deposited it with a banker. There is no evidence
that such a draft was ever dishonored. On one occasion Massena
disgorged two millions of francs in this way. Of the ancient nobility
the Emperor once said, with a sneer: "I offered them rank in my army,
they declined the service. I opened my antechambers to them, they
rushed in and filled them." To this sweeping statement there were many
noteworthy exceptions, but on the whole Napoleon never classed the
estate of the French nobles lower than they deserved. Still they had a
power which he recognized, and it was with a sort of grim humor that
he began to distribute honors and the sops of patronage among both the
old and the new aristocracy--a process which only made the latter
independent and failed to win the affections of the former.

It was in the hope of securing the good will of the ancient nobility
that he took two steps radical in their direct negation of
Revolutionary principles: the destruction of the tribunate and the
restoratio