The fact that Cardinal Fesch maintained that the religious rite had been duly performed, thirteen of the Cardinals (not, however including Fesch) were so convinced of the legality of the marriage that they refused to appear at the ceremony of marriage with Marie Louise, thus drawing down the wrath of the Emperor, and becoming the “Cardinals Noirs,” from being forbidden; to wear their own robes, seems to leave no doubt that the religious rite had been performed.  The marriage was only pronounced to be invalid in 1809 by the local canonical bodies, not by the authority of the pope.]—­

It cannot be expected that I should enter into a detail of the ceremony which took place on the 2d of December.  The glitter of gold, the waving plumes, and richly-caparisoned horses of the Imperial procession; the mule which preceded the Pope’s cortege, and occasioned so much merriment. to the Parisians, have already been described over and over again.  I may, however, relate an anecdote connected with the Coronation, told me by Josephine, and which is exceedingly characteristic of Napoleon.

When Bonaparte was paying his addresses to Madame de beauharnais, neither the one nor the other kept a carriage; and therefore Bonaparte frequently accompanied her when she walked out.  One day they went together to the notary Raguideau, one of the shortest men I think I ever saw in my life, Madame de Beauharnais placed great confidence, in him, and went there on purpose to acquaint him of her intention to marry the young general of artillery,—­the protege of Barras.  Josephine went alone into, the notary’s cabinet, while Bonaparte waited for her in an adjoining room.  The door of Raguideau’s cabinet did not shut close, and Bonaparte plainly heard him dissuading Madame de Beauharnais from her projected marriage.  “You are going to take a very wrong step,” said he, “and you will be sorry for it, Can you be so mad as to marry a young man who has nothing but his cloak and his sword?” Bonaparte, Josephine told me, had never mentioned this to her, and she never supposed that he had heard what fell from Raguideau.  “Only think, Bourrienne,” continued she, “what was my astonishment when, dressed in the Imperial robes on the Coronation day, he desired that Raguideau might be sent for, saying that he wished to see him immediately; and when Raguidesu appeared; he said to him, ’Well, sir! have I nothing but my cloak and my sword now?’”

Though Bonaparte had related to me almost all the circumstances of his life, as they occurred to his memory, he never once mentioned this affair of Raguideau, which he only seemed to have suddenly recollected on his Coronation day.