very moment debauched by a profusion of gambling-hells and
houses of prostitution, all licensed at an enormous figure by Fouche
and producing great revenues for the secret police. The gorgeous state
uniforms of the marshals, the rich and elegant costumes of the ladies,
the bespangled and begilt coats of the household, dancing,
theatricals, concerts, and excursions--all these elements should have
combined to create brilliancy and gaiety in the imperial circle, but
they did not.

There was something seriously amiss with the central figure. He was
often sullen and morose, often violent and even hysterical. To calm
his nervous agitation the court physician ordered warm baths, which he
spent hours in taking. Then again he was irregular in his habits,
being often somnolent during the daytime, but as frequently breaking
his rest at midnight to set the pens of his secretaries scampering to
keep pace with the flow of his speech. With old friends he was coarse
and severe: even the brutal Vandamme confessed that he trembled before
that "devil of a man," while Lannes was the only human being who still
dared to use the familiar "thou" in addressing his old comrade. To the
face of his generals the Emperor was merely cold: behind their backs
he sneered--saying, for instance, of Davout that he might give him
never so much renown, he would not be able to carry it; of Ney that he
was disposed to ingratitude and turbulence; of Bessieres, Oudinot, and
Victor that they were mere mediocrities. Among all these dazzling
stars he himself moved in simple uniform and in a cocked hat
ornamented with his favorite cheap little cockade. It was a
well-calculated vanity, for with increasing corpulence plainness of
dress called less attention to his waddling gait and growing
awkwardness of gesture.

The summer of 1807 saw the social triumph of the Bonaparte family, the
sometime Jacobins, but now emperor and kings. Jerome Napoleon was
married on August twenty-second to the Princess Catherine of
Wuertemberg. The Emperor had already spoken at Tilsit with the Czar
about unions for himself and family suitable to their rank, but the
hint of an alliance with the Romanoffs was coldly received. In the
Emperor's opinion this, however, was a really splendid match. The
Rhine princes and subsidiary monarchs hastened to Paris, and one of
them showed his want of perspicacity by marked attentions to
Josephine, which he hoped would secure her husband's favor. When men