Many persons had doubted Marie Louise’s pregnancy.  Some believed it assumed, and I never could comprehend the foolish reasons given by these persons on this subject which malevolence tried to ‘gular’ fact which carries its great number of these evil-thinking, suspicious persons, one part accused the Emperor of being a libertine, supposing him the father of many natural children, and the other thought him incapable of obtaining children even by a young princess only nineteen years of age, their hatred thus blinding their judgment.  If Napoleon had natural children, why could he not have legitimate ones, especially with a young wife who was known to be in most flourishing health.  Besides, it was not the first, as it was not the last, shaft of malice aimed at Napoleon; for his position was too high, his glory too brilliant, not to inspire exaggerated sentiments whether of joy or hatred.

There were also some ill-wishers who took pleasure in saying that Napoleon was incapable of tender sentiments, and that the happiness of being a father could not penetrate this heart so filled with ambition as to exclude all else.  I can cite, among many others in my knowledge, a little anecdote which touched me exceedingly, and which I take much pleasure in relating, since, while it triumphantly answers the calumnies of which I have spoken, it also proves the special consideration with which his Majesty honored me, and consequently, both as a father and a faithful servant, I experience a mild satisfaction in placing it in these Memoirs.  Napoleon was very fond of children; and having one day asked me to bring mine to him, I went to seek him.  Meanwhile Talleyrand was announced to the Emperor; and as the interview lasted a long time, my child grew weary of waiting, and I carried him back to his mother.  A short time after he was taken with croup, which cruel disease, concerning which his Majesty had made a special appeal to the faculty of Paris, [on the occasion of the death from croup in 1807 of his heir presumptive, the young son of the King of Holland].  It snatched many children from their families.  Mine died at Paris.  We were then at the chateau of Compiegne, and I received the sad news just as I was preparing to go to the toilet.  I was too much overcome by my loss to perform my duties; and when the Emperor asked what prevented my coming, and was told that I had just heard of the death of my son, said kindly, “Poor Constant! what a terrible sorrow!  We fathers alone can know what it is!”

A short time after, my wife went to see the Empress Josephine at Malmaison; and this lovely princess deigned to receive her alone in the little room in front of her bedroom.  There she seated herself beside her, and tried in touching words of sympathy to console her, saying that this stroke did not reach us alone, and that her grandson, too, had died of the same disease.  As she said this she began to weep; for this remembrance reopened in her soul recent griefs, and my wife bathed