I have grown fat, my energy is gone, the bow is unstrung.”  Antommarchi did not try to combat an opinion but too well-founded, but diverted the conversation to another subject.  “I resign myself,” said Napoleon, “to your direction.  Let medicine give the order, I submit to its decisions.  I entrust my health to your care.  I owe you the detail of the habits I have acquired, of the affections to which I am subject.

“The hours at which I obey the injunctions of nature are in general extremely irregular.  I sleep, I eat according to circumstances or the situation in which I am placed; my sleep is ordinarily sound and tranquil.  If pain or any accident interrupt it I jump out of bed, call for a light, walk, set to work, and fix my attention on some subject; sometimes I remain in the dark, change my apartment, lie down in another bed, or stretch myself on the sofa.  I rise at two, three, or four in the morning; I call for some one to keep me company, amuse myself with recollections or business, and wait for the return of day.  I go out as soon as dawn appears, take a stroll, and when the sun shows itself I reenter and go to bed again, where I remain a longer or shorter time, according as the day promises to turn out.  If it is bad, and I feel irritation and uneasiness, I have recourse to the method I have just mentioned.  I change my posture, pass from my bed to the sofa, from the sofa to the bed, seek and find a degree of freshness.  I do not describe to you my morning costume; it has nothing to do with the sufferings I endure, and besides, I do not wish to deprive you of the pleasure of your surprise when you see it.  These ingenious contrivances carry me on to nine or ten o’clock, sometimes later.  I then order the breakfast to be brought, which I take from time to time in my bath, but most frequently in the garden.  Either Bertrand or Montholon keep me company, often both of them.  Physicians have the right of regulating the table; it is proper that I should give you an account of mine.  Well, then, a basin of soup, two plates of meat, one of vegetables, a salad when I can take it, compose the whole service; half a bottle of claret; which I dilute with a good deal of water, serves me for drink; I drink a little of it pure towards the end of the repast.  Sometimes, when I feel fatigued, I substitute champagne for claret, it is a certain means of giving a fillip to the stomach.”

The doctor having expressed his surprise at Napoleon’s temperance, he replied, “In my marches with the army of Italy I never failed to put into the bow of my saddle a bottle of wine, some bread, and a cold fowl.  This provision sufficed for the wants of the day,—­I may even say that I often shared it with others.  I thus gained time.  I eat fast, masticate little, my meals do not consume my hours.  This is not what you will approve the most, but in my present situation what signifies it?  I am attacked with a liver complaint, a malady which is general in this horrible climate.”