r to be dated "Saturday,"
such a day of "Messidor." "See," said he one day, "was there ever such
an inconsistency? We shall be laughed at! But I will do away with the
Messidor. I will efface all the inventions of the Jacobins."

The clergy did not disappoint the expectations of the First Consul. They
owed him much already, and hoped for still more from him. The letter to
the Bishops, etc., was the signal for a number of circulars full of
eulogies on Bonaparte.

These compliments were far from displeasing to the First Consul, who had
no objection to flattery though he despised those who meanly made
themselves the medium of conveying it to him. Duroc once told me that
they had all great difficulty in preserving their gravity when the cure
of a parish in Abbeville addressed Bonaparte one day while he was on his
journey to the coast. "Religion," said the worthy cure, with pompous
solemnity, "owes to you all that it is, we owe to you all that we are;
and I, too, owe to you all that I am."

--[Not so fulsome as some of the terms used a year later when
Napoleon was made Emperor. "I am what I am," was placed over a seat
prepared for the Emperor. One phrase, "God made Napoleon and then
rested," drew from Narbonne the sneer that it would have been better
if the Deity had rested sooner. "Bonaparte," says Joseph de
Maistre, "has had himself described in his papers as the 'Messenger
of God.' Nothing more true. Bonaparte comes straight from heaven,
like a thunderbolt." (Saints-Benve, Caureries, tome iv. p. 203.)]

CHAPTER XX.

1803.

Presentation of Prince Borghese to Bonaparte--Departure for Belgium
Revival of a royal custom--The swans of Amiens--Change of formula
in the acts of Government--Company of performers in Bonaparte's
suite--Revival of old customs--Division of the institute into four
classes--Science and literature--Bonaparte's hatred of literary men
--Ducis--Bernardin de Saint-Pierre--Chenier and Lemercier--
Explanation of Bonaparte's aversion to literature--Lalande and his
dictionary--Education in the hands of Government--M. de Roquelaure,
Archbishop of Malines.

In the month of April 1803 Prince Borghese, who was destined one day to
become Bonaparte's brother-in-law by marrying the widow of Leclerc, was
introduced to the First Consul by Cardinal Caprara.

About the end of June Bonaparte proceeded, with Josephine, on his journey
to Belgium and the seaboard