I also gathered from his conversation that his marriage with the young widow would probably assist him in gaining the objects of his ambition.  His constantly-increasing influence with her had already brought him into contact with the most influential persons of that epoch.  He remained in Paris only ten days after his marriage, which took place on the 9th of March 1796.  It was a union in which great harmony prevailed, notwithstanding occasional slight disagreements.  Bonaparte never, to my knowledge, caused annoyance to his wife.  Madame Bonaparte possessed personal graces and many good qualities.

—­["Eugene was not more than fourteen years of age when he ventured to introduce himself to General Bonaparte, for the purpose of soliciting his father’s sword, of which he understood the General had become possessed.  The countenance, air, and frank manner of Eugene pleased Bonaparte, and he immediately granted him the boon he sought.  As soon as the sword was placed in the boy’s hands he burst into tears, and kissed it.  This feeling of affection for his father’s memory, and the natural manner in which it was evinced, increased the interest of Bonaparte in his young visitor.  Madame de Beauharnais, on learning the kind reception which the General had given her son, thought it her duty to call and thank him.  Bonaparte was much pleased with Josephine on this first interview, and he returned her visit.  The acquaintance thus commenced speedily led to their marriage.”—­Constant]—­

   —­[Bonaparte himself, at St. Helena, says that he first met
   Josephine at Barras’ (see Iung’s Bonaparte, tome iii. p. 116).]—­

   —­["Neither of his wives had ever anything to complain of from
   Napoleon’s personal manners” (Metternich, vol. 1 p. 279).]—­

—­[Madame de Remusat, who, to paraphrase Thiers’ saying on Bourrienne himself, is a trustworthy witness, for if she received benefits from Napoleon they did not weigh on her, says, “However, Napoleon had some affection for his first wife; and, in fact, if he has at any time been touched, no doubt it has been only for her and by her” (tome i. p. 113).  “Bonaparte was young when he first knew Madame de Beauharnais.  In the circle where he met her she had a great superiority by the name she bore and by the extreme elegance of her manners. . . .  In marrying Madame de Beauharnais, Bonaparte believed he was allying himself to a very grand lady; thus this was one more conquest” (p. 114).  But in speaking of Josephine’s complaints to Napoleon of his love affairs, Madame de Remusat says, “Her husband sometimes answered by violences, the excesses of which I do not dare to detail, until the moment when, his new fancy having suddenly passed, he felt his tenderness for his wife again renewed.  Then he was touched by her sufferings, replaced his insults by caresses which were hardly more measured than his violences and, as she was gentle and untenacious,