[Madame Murat one day said to Madame Campan:  “I am astonished that you are not more awed in our presence; you speak to us with as much familiarity as when we were your pupils!”—­“The best thing you can do,” replied Madame Campan, “is to forget your titles when you are with me, for I can never be afraid of queens whom I have held under the rod.”]

Madame Campan dined at the Tuileries in company with the Pope’s nuncio, at the period when the Concordat was in agitation.  During dinner the First Consul astonished her by the able manner in which he conversed on the subject under discussion.  She said he argued so logically that his talent quite amazed her.  During the consulate Napoleon one day said to her, “If ever I establish a republic of women, I shall make you First Consul.”

Napoleon’s views as to “woman’s mission” are now well known.  Madame Campan said that she heard from him that when he founded the convent of the Sisters of la Charite he was urgently solicited to permit perpetual vows.  He, however, refused to do so, on the ground that tastes may change, and that he did not see the necessity of excluding from the world women who might some time or other return to it, and become useful members of society.  “Nunneries,” he added, “assail the very roots of population.  It is impossible to calculate the loss which a nation sustains in having ten thousand women shut up in cloisters.  War does but little mischief; for the number of males is at least one-twenty-fifth greater than that of females.  Women may, if they please, be allowed to make perpetual vows at fifty years of age; for then their task is fulfilled.”

Napoleon once said to Madame Campan, “The old systems of education were good for nothing; what do young women stand in need of, to be well brought up in France?”—­“Of mothers,” answered Madame Campan.  “It is well said,” replied Napoleon.  “Well, madame, let the French be indebted to you for bringing up mothers for their children.”—­“Napoleon one day interrupted Madame de Stael in the midst of a profound political argument to ask her whether she had nursed her children.”

Never had the establishment at St. Germain been in a more flourishing condition than in 1802-3.  What more could Madame Campan wish?  For ten years absolute in her own house, she seemed also safe from the caprice of power.  But the man who then disposed of the fate of France and Europe was soon to determine otherwise.

After the battle of Austerlitz the State undertook to bring up, at the public expense, the sisters, daughters, or nieces of those who were decorated with the Cross of Honour.  The children of the warriors killed or wounded in glorious battle were to find paternal care in the ancient abodes of the Montmorencys and the Condes.  Accustomed to concentrate around him all superior talents, fearless himself of superiority, Napoleon sought for a person qualified by experience and abilities to conduct the institution of Ecouen; he selected Madame Campan.