There is a wide difference between Mme. Recamier and Josephine, the two women of the Napoleonic era who exerted so powerful an influence upon the social and political fortunes of France.  At the time of Napoleon’s first success, the former was only twenty-one, with Madonna-like charms and attractiveness; the latter, thirty-five, but with exquisite taste in dress and skill in beautifying.  Possessed of unstudied natural grace and elegance, and always attired in perfect harmony with her beauty of face and form, she could easily stand a comparison with the other beauties of the day, all of whom studied her air and manner and marked the aristocratic ease and poise of her real noblesse of the old regime.

“Josephine had a faded and brown complexion, which she remedied with rouge and powder; her small mouth concealed her bad teeth; her elegant figure and graceful movements, refined expression, gentle voice and dignity, all dexterously expressed with an air of coquetry, made her delightful.”  The happiest part of the life of Napoleon and Josephine was during their stay in Italy, when he was absolutely faithful to her.  As soon as Napoleon left for Egypt, Talleyrand secured the erasure of many noble names from the list of the proscribed exiles and soon gathered about him a large number of Royalists, who immediately began to pay court to Josephine.  Napoleon had enjoined her to keep her salon according to the means he provided and to entertain all influential people.  To this she was equal; and all men of elevated rank, the most distinguished artists, men of letters, orators, and musicians, found her salon an enjoyable retreat.  No greater galaxy of talent and genius ever assembled under the old regime than was found there,—­David, Lebrun, Lesueur, Gretry, Cherubini, Mehul, J. Chenier, Hoffman, Ducis, Desaugiers, Legouve, and others.

But her life was not without its difficulties.  She was always annoyed by the Bonaparte family, who were jealous of her influence over Bonaparte.  Exceedingly extravagant, in fact a spendthrift, she was always in need of money.  Her virtues, however, easily offset these defects.  Josephine never offended anyone, never argued politics; she made friends in all classes, thus conciliating Republicans and aristocrats; therefore, her greatest influence was as a mediator between two classes of society, by which she, more than any other woman, unconsciously contributed to the forming of a new social France.  Napoleon was wise enough to recognize such diplomacy, and encouraged her to intrigue like an experienced diplomat.  She was the most efficient aid and means to his future plans, and M. Saint-Amand says that without her he would possibly never have become emperor.  When he returned from Egypt and found her away,—­she had gone to meet him, but missed him,—­his suspicions were aroused as to her fidelity, as she had been accused of many misdeeds.  When the reconciliation finally took place, after a day of sobbing and pleading, she put to work all her tact and knowledge of Parisian society to help her husband to the coup d’etat.