’You think I should desert you, Sire, if your enemies offered me more than you have given me?’

‘I am perfectly sure that you would.’

’Well, really I cannot answer for myself, Sire, until the offer has been made.  But it will have to be a very large one.  You see, apart from my very nice hotel in the Rue St. Florentin, and the two hundred thousand or so which you are pleased to allow me, there is my position as the first minister in Europe.  Really, Sire, unless they put me on the throne I cannot see how I can better my position.’

‘No, I think I have you pretty safe,’ said Napoleon, looking hard at him with thoughtful eyes.  ’By the way, Talleyrand, you must either marry Madame Grand or get rid of her, for I cannot have a scandal about the Court.’

I was astounded to hear so delicate and personal a matter discussed in this public way, but this also was characteristic of the rule of this extraordinary man, who proclaimed that he looked upon delicacy and good taste as two of the fetters with which mediocrity attempted to cripple genius.  There was no question of private life, from the choosing of a wife to the discarding of a mistress, that this young conqueror of thirty-six did not claim the right of discussing and of finally settling.  Talleyrand broke once more into his benevolent but inscrutable smile.

‘I suppose that it is from early association, Sire,’ said he, ’but my instincts are to avoid marriage.’

Napoleon began to laugh.

’I forget sometimes that it is really the Bishop of Autun to whom I am speaking,’ said he.  ’I think that perhaps I have interest enough with the Pope to ask him, in return for any little attention which we gave him at the Coronation, to show you some leniency in this matter.  She is a clever woman, this Madame Grand.  I have observed that she listens with attention.’

Talleyrand shrugged his rounded shoulders.  ’Intellect in a woman is not always an advantage, Sire.  A clever woman compromises her husband.  A stupid woman only compromises herself.’

‘The cleverest woman,’ said Napoleon, ’is the woman who is clever enough to conceal her cleverness.  The women in France have always been a danger, for they are cleverer than the men.  They cannot understand that it is their hearts and not their heads that we want.  When they have had influence upon a monarch, they have invariably ruined his career.  Look at Henry the Fourth and Louis the Fourteenth.  They are all ideologists, dreamers, sentimentalists, full of emotion and energy, but without logic or foresight.  Look at that accursed Madame de Stael!  Look at the Salons of the Quartier St. Germain!  Their eternal clack, clack, clack give me more trouble than the fleet of England.  Why cannot they look after their babies and their needlework?  I suppose you think that these are very dreadful opinions, Monsieur de Laval?’

It was not an easy question to answer, so I was silent.