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 importance; for, as he said to Admiral Malcolm at St. Helena:  “In France trifles are great things:  reason is nothing."[179] Besides, genius so commanding as his little needed the external trappings wherewith ordinary mortals hide their nullity.  If his attire was simple, it but set off the better the play of his mobile features, and the rich, unfailing flow of his conversation.  Perhaps no clearer and more pleasing account of his appearance and his conduct at a reception has ever been given to the world than this sketch of the great man in one of his gentler moods by John Leslie Foster, who visited Paris shortly after the Peace of Amiens: 

“He is about five feet seven inches high, delicately and gracefully made; his hair a dark brown crop, thin and lank; his complexion smooth, pale, and sallow; his eyes gray, but very animated; his eye-brows light brown, thin and projecting.  All his features, particularly his mouth and nose, fine, sharp, defined, and expressive beyond description; expressive of what?  Not of anything_perce_ as the prints expressed him, still less of anything mechant; nor has he anything of that eye whose bend doth awe the world.  The true expression of his countenance is a pleasing melancholy, which, whenever he speaks, relaxes into the most agreeable and gracious smile you can conceive.  To this you must add the appearance of deep and intense thought, but above all the predominating expression a look of calm and tranquil resolution and intrepidity which nothing human could discompose.  His address is the finest I have ever seen, and said by those who have travelled to exceed not only every Prince and Potentate now in being, but even all those whose memory has come down to us.  He has more unaffected dignity than I could conceive in man.  His address is the gentlest and most prepossessing you can conceive, which is seconded by the greatest fund of levee conversation that I suppose any person ever possessed.  He speaks deliberately, but very fluently, with particular emphasis, and in a rather low tone of voice.  While he speaks, his features are still more expressive than his words."[180]

In contrast with this intellectual power and becoming simplicity of attire, how stupid and tawdry were the bevies of soulless women and the dumb groups of half-tamed soldiers!  How vapid also the rules of etiquette