These complaints, so gently uttered by Josephine rendered less difficult the preparatory mission with which I commenced the exercise of my diplomatic functions.  I acquainted Madame Bonaparte with all that the Emperor had said to me.  I reminded her of the affair of the 1,200,000 francs which we had settled with half that sum.  I even dropped some allusions to the promises she had made.

“How can I help it?” Said she.  “Is it my fault?” Josephine uttered these words in a tone of sincerity which was at once affecting and ludicrous.  “All sorts of beautiful things are brought to me,” she continued; “they are praised up; I buy them—­I am not asked for the money, and all of a sudden, when I have got none, they come upon me with demands for payment.  This reaches Napoleon’s ears, and he gets angry.  When I have money, Bourrienne you know how I employ it.  I give it principally to the unfortunate who solicit my assistance, and to poor emigrants.  But I will try to be more economical in future.  Tell him so if you see him again, But is it not my duty to bestow as much in charity as I can?”—­“Yes, Madame; but permit me to say that nothing requires greater discernment than the distribution of charity.  If you had always sat upon a throne you might have always supposed that your bounty always fall into the hands of the deserving; but you cannot be ignorant that it oftener falls to the lot of intrigue than to the meritorious needy.  I cannot disguise from you that the Emperor was very earnest when he spoke on this subject; and he desired me to tell you so.”—­“Did he reproach me with nothing else?”—­“No Madame.  You know the influence you have over him with respect to everything but what relates to politics.  Allow a faithful and sincere friend to prevail upon you seriously not to vex him on this point.”—­“Bourrienne, I give you my word.  Adieu! my friend.”

In communicating to Josephine what the Emperor had said to me I took care not to touch a chord which would have awakened feelings far more painful to her than even the Emperor’s harsh reproof on account of her extravagance.  Poor Josephine! how I should have afflicted her had I uttered a word of Bonaparte’s regret at not having a child.  She always had a presentiment of the fate that one day awaited her.  Besides, Josephine told the truth in assuring me that it was not her fault that, she spent as she did; at least all the time I was with both of them, order and economy were no more compatible with her than moderation and—­patience with Napoleon.  The sight of the least waste put him beside himself, and that was a sensation his wife hardly ever spared him.  He saw with irritation the eagerness of his family to gain riches; the more he gave, the more insatiable they appeared, with the exception of Louis, whose inclinations were always upright, and his tastes moderate.  As for the other members of his family, they annoyed him so much by their importunity that one day he said, “Really to listen to them it would be thought that I had wasted the heritage of our father.”