the imperial almanac as formerly in the royal almanac.

But they are only with him nominally and in the almanac. Except
certain individuals, M. de las Cases and M. Philippe de Segur, who gave
themselves up body and soul, even to following him to Saint Helena, to
glorifying, admiring and loving him beyond the grave, the others are
submissive conscripts and who remain more or less refractory spirits. He
does nothing to win them over. His court is not, like the old court, a
conversational ball-room, but a hall of inspection, the most sumptuous
apartment in his vast barracks; the civil parade is a continuation of
the military parade; one finds one's self constrained, stiff, mute and
uncomfortable.[3140]

He does not know how to entertain as the head of his household, how
to welcome guests and be gracious or even polite to his pretended
courtiers; he himself declares that[3141] "they go two years without
speaking to him, and six months without seeing him; he does not like
them, their conversation displeases him." When he addresses them it is
to browbeat them; his familiarities with their wives are those of the
gendarme or the pedagogue, while the little attentions he inflicts upon
them are indecorous criticisms or compliments in bad taste. They know
that they are spied upon in their own homes and responsible for whatever
is said there; "the upper police is constantly hovering over all
drawing-rooms."[3142] For every word uttered in privacy, for any lack of
compliance, every individual, man or woman, runs the risk of exile or
of being relegated to the interior at a distance of forty leagues.[3143]
And the same with the resident gentry in the provinces; they are obliged
to pay court to the prefect, to be on good terms with him, or at least
attend his receptions; it is important that their cards should be seen
on his mantel piece.[3144] Otherwise, let them take heed, for it is he
who reports on their conduct to the minister Fouche or to Savary who
replaced him. In vain do they live circumspectly and confine themselves
to a private life; a refusal to accept an office is unpardonable; there
is a grudge against them if they do not employ their local influence in
behalf of the reign.[3145] Accordingly, they are, under the empire as
under the republic, in law as in fact, in the provinces as well as at
Paris, privileged persons the wrong way, a suspicious class under
a special surveillance" and subject to exceptional rigor.[3146] In