Brumaire. Gifted with a strong vein of literary feeling and oratorical
fire he united in his person the obstinacy of a Bonaparte, the
headstrong feelings of a poet, and the dogmatism of a Corsican
republican. His presumptuous conduct had already embroiled him with
the First Consul, who deprived him of his Ministry and sent him as
ambassador to Madrid.[276] He further sinned, first by hurrying on
peace with Portugal--it is said for a handsome present from
Lisbon--and later by refusing to marry the widow of the King of
Etruria. In this he persisted, despite the urgent representations of
Napoleon and Joseph: "You know very well that I am a republican, and
that a queen is not what suits me, an ugly queen too!"--" What a pity
your answer was not cut short, it would have been quite Roman," sneered
Joseph at his younger brother, once the Brutus of the Jacobin clubs. But
Lucien was proof against all the splendours of the royal match; he was
madly in love with a Madame Jouberthon, the deserted wife of a Paris
stockbroker; and in order to checkmate all Napoleon's attempts to force
on a hated union, he had secretly married the lady of his choice at the
village of Plessis-Chamant, hard by his country house (October 26th,
1803).

The letter which divulged the news of this affair reached the First
Consul at St. Cloud on an interesting occasion.[277] It was during a
so-called family concert, to which only the choicest spirits had been
invited, whence also, to Josephine's chagrin, Napoleon had excluded
Madame Tallien and several other old friends, whose reputation would
have tainted the air of religion and morality now pervading the
Consular Court. While this select company was enjoying the strains of
the chamber music, and Napoleon alone was dozing, Lucien's missive was
handed in by the faithful if indiscreet Duroc. A change came over the
scene. At once Napoleon started up, called out "Stop the music: stop,"
and began with nervous strides and agitated gestures to pace the hall,
exclaiming "Treason! it is treason!" Round-eyed, open-mouthed
wonder seized on the disconcerted musicians, the company rose in
confusion, and Josephine, following her spouse, besought him to say
what had happened. "What has happened--why--Lucien has married
his--mistress."[278]

The secret cause for this climax of fashionable comedy is to be sought
in reasons of state. The establishment of hereditary power was then
being secretly and anxiously discussed. Nap