308 ANECDOTES OF NArOT.T'O.V. 



will espouse Eugenia !' " But if her aunt wrote to your masters, that 

 might hurt you much." " Once more, Dangeais, observe, I never 

 hazard any thing without foreseeing and providing for the conse- 

 quences. Prudence and precaution are the strength of tlie weak. 

 The misfortune you have a glimpse of cannot reach me. Before 

 forgetting myself in the arms of Eugenia, I trained her to my 

 interests, my will. Her wishes, her sensations, her chagrins, her 

 pleasures, her sighs, her joys or tears, take their source in my com- 

 mandsalone ; she is less herself than she is me. If thy aunt, I have 

 said to her, asks thee who is thy destined husband, and the father of 

 thy child, reply to her. He is a man of honour. As to his name, he 

 only at the altar's foot will inform you of it. Eugenia, add not an- 

 other syllable ! Such was the order I imposed upon her. Not all 

 the powers on earth would induce her to infringe it. Besides, had 

 she not proved herself entirely mine, I had never loved her. I have 

 said within myself whoever would attach himself to me must utterly 

 renounce himself, or he is nothing to me." 



We were at the beginning of 1784, when both he and I were fixed 

 upon to be admitted to the military school of Paris. If this news 

 caused great pleasure to Napoleon, it reduced his mistress to despair. 

 This unfortunate was the more to be pitied, as she was constrained to 

 hide her tears, which her lover would have condemned as inimical to 

 his interest and advancement. 



Eugenia was only sixteen, and was really love in miniature ; so slight 

 and beautiful did she look. The lungs of all the females of her family 

 had been diseased, and they had died very young. I have thought 

 these observations requisite because it has been publicly asserted that 

 Buonaparte poisoned his first mistress. I know not what could have 

 occasioned this imputation, which falls to the ground before the phy- 

 sician who attended the invalid to the last moment. I pretend not to 

 justify Buonaparte, but let us not attribute to him imaginary crimes ; 

 there are enough of real ones to lay to his account. 



When Buonaparte received the order to prepare himself for the 

 capital, M. de Marbeuf was dangerously ill, which circumstance 

 prevented the young student from corresponding with his patron, 

 and obtaining from him the pecuniary assistance which he needed 

 for his removal. He had written concerning it to his father, who 

 did not answer him. Embarrassment and discontent were visible in 

 his smallest actions. I thought I had penetrated the cause of his 

 chagrin. " If you have occasion for a few louis,'' said I, " I can pre- 

 vail on my uncle to lend them to you." "Who told you I was in 

 want of money ?" replied he angrily, then walking a few paces with 

 his hand on his forehead. " Dangeais, your pardon. Yes, I want 

 money ; my family neglects rae. Would I were dead. But this will 

 not last long, I am going to write to them. What can you lend me? 

 I will give you my note. I will not see your uncle. If you are not 

 paid within a month, I will give you my watch, a part of my linen, 

 forty or fifty volumes which belong to me ; I will fly, I will throw 

 myself on board the first vessel, no matter of what kind, that is 

 leaving Europe, and bid an eternal farewell to my ungrateful 

 relatives." 



