The Marquis de Clermont, to prove to her what confidence he reposed in her, and what consideration the King of France entertained for the first consul and his adored wife, communicated to her a letter from the Count de Lille to him, which was in itself a masterpiece, well calculated to move the heart of Josephine.

The Count de Lille portrayed in this letter first the dangers which would threaten Bonaparte if he should allow himself to be drawn into the inconsiderate and criminal step of placing the crown of France on his own head, and then continued: 

“Sitting upon a volcano, Bonaparte would sooner or later be destroyed by it if he hastens not in due time to close the crater.  Sitting upon the first step of the throne restored by his own hand, he would be the object of a monarch’s gratitude; he would receive from France the highest regards, the more pure since they would be the result of his administration and of public esteem.  No one can convince him of these truths better than she whose fortune is bound up with his, who can be happy only in his happiness and honored only in his reputation.  I consider it a great point gained if you can come into some relation with her.  I know her sentiments from days of old.  The Count de Vermeuil, ex-governor of the Antilles, whose judgment as you know is most excellent, has told me more than once that in Martinique he had often noticed how her fealty to the crown deepened nearly to distraction; and the protection which she grants to my faithful subjects who appeal to her, entitles her justly to the name you give her, ‘an angel of goodness.’  Let my sentiments be known to Madame Bonaparte.  You will not surprise her, but I flatter myself that her soul will rejoice to know them.” [Footnote:  Thibaudeau, “Histoire de la France, et de Napoleon Bonaparte,” vol. ii., p. 202.]

The Count de Lille was not deceived.  Josephine’s heart was filled with joy at this confidence of the “King of France;” she was pleased that the Marquis de Clermont had fulfilled his wishes, and that he should with this letter have sent her a present.  She read it with a countenance full of enthusiasm, and with a tremulous voice, to her daughter Hortense, whom she had educated to be as good a royalist as herself; and both mother and daughter besieged, with earnest petitions, with tears and prayers, and every expression of love, the first consul to realize the hopes of the Count de Lille, and to recall the exiled prince to his kingdom.

Bonaparte usually replied to all these requests with a silent smile; sometimes also, when they were too violent and pressing, he repelled them with unwilling vehemence.

“These women belong entirely to the devil!” said he, in his anger to Bourrienne, “they are mad for royalty.  The Faubourg St. Germain has turned their heads, they are made the protecting genii of the royalists; but they do not trouble me, and I am not displeased with them.”