It is all over now with Napoleon.  He is never proof against tears, so sends for their mother, who falls into his arms and faints.  She is tenderly laid into his bed, saved from her woeful fate, and when Lucien Bonaparte arrived by command next morning, to take instructions for the impending divorce proceedings, that horror had disappeared from their outlook, and both Josephine and Napoleon were wrapped in a drowsy joy.

Josephine, gifted with irresistible subtlety and skilful in the art and use of hysteria, had rekindled the embers of infatuation that was never more to be totally quenched.  In all likelihood she would give a different explanation of her conduct to Napoleon than that given him by Lucien and other members of his family.  It is not an undue stretch of imagination to conclude that she assured him that her heart was shared with none other, though the assertion may be regarded as a daring fabrication.  She did not gauge calmly, but she gauged well, the supreme power she had over the man who had so abjectly shown her such inflammable love.  She knew, too, of his vanity, and hit him caressingly on the spot.  The cry of “he and none other,” combined with a beseeching wail that he should open his heart to an affectionate and faithful love, was more likely to conquer than any admission of wrong.  Could she forget the oft-repeated declaration that his ruling principle was that he would have no divided affection?  It must be all or none.  The hypothesis is therefore that she played on his vanity, and not on his confidence or judgment, the sequel being the complete surrender of Napoleon.

Josephine, whether from fear of the penalty or the purity of her motives, never again allowed herself to be placed in the same hazardous position.  She had been cured of unfaithfulness, and promised that Hippolyte Charles should never be allowed to lead her into such a scrape again.  He was put out of her life, and was never more heard of.  He was seen but once more by Napoleon, and the sight of his evil face nearly caused the Emperor the humiliation of a collapse.

Josephine’s matrimonial transgressions, whatever they may have been, were condoned with exuberant suddenness, and Napoleon rushed into domestic tranquillity.  The zealot of freedom forthwith concentrated his wondrous talents with aggressive righteousness on the task of destroying a decadence that was bearing France to her doom.  Josephine was enrolled as patron of deliverance from anarchy, and having all the essential attributes which make for success in such an enterprise, she daily filled her salon with men and women who had influence to aid her husband and his friends in upsetting the Government.  She had developed into an attractive, graceful hostess, and was endowed with the knack of cajoling which disarmed opposition and enthused supporters, and unquestionably she played the part given to her with unmeasured success, and Napoleon did the rest.