and that gossip such as that which had been repeated to him was only the amusement of idle persons; and deserved the contempt of strong minds.  I spoke of his glory.  “My glory!” cried he.  “I know not what I would not give if that which Junot has told me should be untrue; so much do I love Josephine!  If she be really guilty a divorce must separate us for ever.  I will not submit to be a laughing-stock for all the imbeciles in Paris.  I will write to Joseph; he will get the divorce declared.”

Although his agitation continued long, intervals occurred in which he was less excited.  I seized one of these moments of comparative calm to combat this idea of divorce which seemed to possess his mind.  I represented to him especially that it would be imprudent to write to his brother with reference to a communication which was probably false.  “The letter might be intercepted; it would betray the feelings of irritation which dictated it.  As to a divorce, it would be time to think of that hereafter, but advisedly.”

These last words produced an effect on him which I could not have ventured to hope for so speedily.  He became tranquil, listened to me as if he had suddenly felt the justice of my observations, dropped the subject, and never returned to it; except that about a fortnight after, when we were before St. Jean d’Acre, he expressed himself greatly dissatisfied with Junot, and complained of the injury he had done him by his indiscreet disclosures, which he began to regard as the inventions of malignity.  I perceived afterwards that he never pardoned Junot for this indiscretion; and I can state, almost with certainty, that this was one of the reasons why Junot was not created a marshal of France, like many of, his comrades whom Bonaparte had loved less.  It may be supposed that Josephine, who was afterwards informed by Bonaparte of Junot’s conversation, did not feel particularly interested in his favour.  He died insane on the 27th of July 1813.

—­[However indiscreet Junot might on this occasion have shown himself in interfering in so delicate a matter, it is pretty certain that his suspicions were breathed to no other ear than that of Bonaparte himself.  Madame Junot, in speaking of the ill-suppressed enmity between her husband and Madame Bonaparte, says that he never uttered a word even to her of the subject of his conversation with, the General-in-Chief to Egypt.  That Junot’s testimony, however, notwithstanding the countenance it obtained from Bonaparte’s relations, ought to be cautiously received, the following passage from the Memoirs of the Duchesse d’Abrantes, vol. i. p. 250, demonstrative of the feelings of irritation between the parties, will show: 

“Junot escorted Madame Bonaparte when she went to join the General- in-Chief in Italy.  I am surprised that M. de Bourrienne has omitted mentioning this circumstance in his Memoirs.  He must have known it, since he was well acquainted