PORTO FERRAJO, December 25, 1814 [22]

At eight o’clock in the evening yesterday I went to the Palace according to appointment to see Napoleon.  After waiting some minutes in the ante-room I was introduced by Count Drouet and found him standing alone in a small room.  He was drest in a green coat with a hat in his hand very much as he is painted, but excepting this resemblance of dress, I had a very mistaken idea of him from his portrait.  He appears very short, which is partly owing to his being very fat, his hands and legs being quite swollen and unwieldy; this makes him appear awkward and not unlike the whole length figures of Gibbon, the historian.  Besides this, instead of the bold marked countenance that I expected, he has fat cheeks and rather a turn-up nose, which, to bring in another historian, made the shape of his face resemble the portraits of Hume.  He has a dusky grey eye, which would be called a vicious eye in a horse, and the shape of his mouth expresses contempt and derision—­his manner is very good-natured, and seems studied to put one at one’s ease by its familiarity; his smile and laugh are very agreeable—­he asks a number of questions without object, and often repeats them, a habit he has no doubt acquired during fifteen years of supreme command—­to this I should also attribute the ignorance he seems to show at times of the most common facts.  When anything that he likes is said, he puts his head forward and listens with great pleasure, repeating what is said, but when he does not like what he hears, he looks away as if unconcerned and changes the Subject.  From this one might conclude that he was open to flattery and violent in his temper.

    He began asking me about my family, the allowance my father gave
    me, if I ran into debt, drank, played, etc.

He asked me if I had been in Spain, and if I was not imprisoned by the Inquisition.  I told him that I had seen the abolition of the Inquisition voted, and of the injudicious manner in which it was done.

He mentioned Infantado, and said, “II n’a point de caractere.”  Ferdinand he said was in the hands of the priests—­afterwards he said, “Italy is a fine country; Spain too is a fine country—­Andalusia and Seville particularly.”

    F.  R. Yes, but uncultivated.

    N. Agriculture is neglected because the land is in the hands
    of the Church.

    F.  R. And of the Grandees.

    N. Yes, who have privileges contrary to the public
    prosperity.

    F.  R. Yet it would be difficult to remedy the evil.

    N. It might be remedied by dividing property and abolishing
    hurtful privileges, as was done in France.

    F.  R. Yes, but the people must be industrious—­even if the
    land was given to the people in Spain, they would not make use of
    it.