At five o’clock dinner was served up.  When that was over the First Consul went upstairs to Josephine’s apartments, where he commonly received the visits of the Ministers.  He was always pleased to see among the number the Minister of Foreign Affairs, especially since the portfolio of that department had been entrusted to the hands of M. de Talleyrand.  At midnight, and often sooner, he gave the signal for retiring by saying in a hasty manner, “Allons nous coucher.”

It was at the Luxembourg, in the salons of which the adorable Josephine so well performed the honours, that the word ‘Madame’ came again into use.  This first return towards the old French politeness was startling to some susceptible Republicans; but things were soon carried farther at the Tuileries by the introduction of ‘Votre Altesse’ on occasions of state ceremony, and Monseigneur in the family circle.

If, on the one hand, Bonaparte did not like the men of the Revolution, on the other he dreaded still more the partisans of the Bourbons.  On the mere mention of the name of those princes he experienced a kind of inward alarm; and he often spoke of the necessity of raising a wall of brass between France and them.  To this feeling, no doubt, must be attributed certain nominations, and the spirit of some recommendations contained in the notes with which he was supplied on the characters of candidates, and which for ready reference were arranged alphabetically.  Some of the notes just mentioned were in the handwriting of Regnault de St. Jean d’Angely, and some in Lucien Bonaparte’s.

—­[Among them was the following, under the title of “General Observations”:  “In choosing among the men who were members of the Constituent Assembly it is necessary to be on guard against the Orleans’ party, which is not altogether a chimera, and may one day or other prove dangerous.

“There is no doubt that the partisans of that family are intriguing secretly; and among many other proofs of this fact the following is a striking one:  the journal called the ‘Aristargue’, which undisguisedly supports royalism, is conducted by a man of the name of Voidel, one of the hottest patriots of the Revolution.  He was for several months president of the committee of inquiry which caused the Marquis de Favras to be arrested and hanged, and gave so much uneasiness to the Court.  There was no one in the Constituent Assembly more hateful to the Court than Voidel, so much on account of his violence as for his connection with the Duke of Orleans, whose advocate and counsel he was.  When the Duke of Orleans was arrested, Voidel, braving the fury of the revolutionary tribunals, had the courage to defend him, and placarded all the walls of Paris with an apology for the Duke and his two sons.  This man, writing now in favour of royalism, can have no other object than to advance a member of the Orleans family to the throne.”—­Bourrienne.]—­