had borne him no heir: and there seemed no prospect that a child of
his own would ever succeed to his glorious heritage. Family joys, it
seemed, were not for him. Suspicions and bickerings were his lot. His
brothers, in their feverish desire for the establishment of a
Bonapartist dynasty, ceaselessly urged that he should take means to
provide himself with a legitimate heir, in the last resort by
divorcing Josephine. With a consideration for her feelings which does
him credit, Napoleon refused to countenance such proceedings. Yet it
is certain that from this time onwards he kept in view the
desirability, on political grounds, of divorcing her, and made this
the excuse for indulgence in amours against which Josephine's tears
and reproaches were all in vain.

The consolidation of personal rule, the institution of the Legion of
Honour, and the return of very many of the emigrant nobles under the
terms of the recent amnesty, favoured the growth of luxury in the
capital and of Court etiquette at the Tuileries and St. Cloud. At
these palaces the pomp of the _ancien regime_ was laboriously copied.
General Duroc, stiff republican though he was, received the
appointment of Governor of the Palace; under him were chamberlains and
prefects of the palace, who enforced a ceremonial that struggled to be
monarchical. The gorgeous liveries and sumptuous garments of the reign
of Louis XV. speedily replaced the military dress which even civilians
had worn under the warlike Republic. High boots, sabres, and
regimental headgear gave way to buckled shoes, silk stockings, Court
rapiers, and light hats, the last generally held under the arm.
Tricolour cockades were discarded, along with the revolutionary jargon
which _thou'd_ and _citizen'd_ everyone; and men began to purge their
speech of some of the obscene terms which had haunted clubs and camps.

It was remarked, however, that the First Consul still clung to the use
of the term _citizen_, and that amidst the surprising combinations of
colours that flecked his Court, he generally wore only the uniform of
a colonel of grenadiers or of the light infantry of the consular
guard. This conduct resulted partly from his early dislike of luxury,
but partly, doubtless, from a conviction that republicans will forgive
much in a man who, like Vespasian, discards the grandeur which his
prowess has won, and shines by his very plainness. To trifling matters
such as these Napoleon always attached great im