Napoleon And Blucher Part 66

"Ah, it is true, your imperial highness directs your court to take their meals at other houses," exclaimed the emperor, with a sarcastic smile. "You are paying board-money to the chamberlain, the valet de chambre, and the footman, so that it is unnecessary for you to feed them. But where is your waiting-lady, madame? Did I not issue orders that etiquette should be observed at my mother's palace, and that your imperial highness should always have your lady of honor with you?"

"The d.u.c.h.ess d'Abrantes was suddenly taken sick this morning, and had to return to her house."

"In that case the second lady of honor ought to have taken her place."

"Yesterday I gave permission to the Countess de Castries to go to a family-festival to be celebrated at Versailles, and she went early this morning."

"Every thing, then, is here just as it ought to be!" cried the emperor, indignantly, thrusting the basket with his foot. "It is in strict accordance with my wishes that your house is empty, that you are so occupied, that you are alone, and that there was no one to announce my visit?"

"But Cordelia certainly was there, and quite ready to attend to this."

"Yes, she was," cried the emperor, "and it is true she wished to do me that honor. But I would not allow her, and preferred coming to you without being announced. In truth, it would be too ludicrous if the old Sibyl had served the emperor as mistress of ceremonies."

"She formerly did him far greater and more difficult service," said Madame Let.i.tia, in a firm and calm voice, for she had fully recovered her presence of mind, and, rising from her easy-chair, proudly bridled herself up and turned toward the emperor her face, which now had resumed its expression of n.o.ble dignity and composure.

"When I first saw your countenance," she said, calmly, "I was frightened, and greeted you in my terror as the emperor. Pardon me for it! I ought to have remembered that when the emperor crosses the threshold of this house, he ceases to be emperor, and is simply Napoleon Bonaparte, who, as it behooves a son, comes to pay his respects to his mother. Hence, I ought to have greeted you at once as my son, and if I did not, it was because I was frightened, for I am not accustomed to see anyone enter here without being announced.

Now, I have overcome my terror, I bid you welcome with all my heart, my dear son!" She offered her hand to Napoleon so proudly that the emperor, scarcely aware of what he did, pressed the small white hand of his mother to his lips.

A gentle smile lit up the beautiful face of Madame Let.i.tia. "I forgive you also your vehement words, my son," she said; "and how could I be angry with you for forgetting for a moment that you are here only my son, when I myself remembered only that you are the emperor? Let us, therefore, make peace again. Napoleon, my son, I bid you welcome once more with all my heart."

"Even, my mother, if I should come to ask my dinner of you?"

inquired the emperor, smiling.

Madame Let.i.tia was silent for a moment. "Even then!" she said, after a pause. "My son will be content with what I am able to give, and he will pardon an old woman, who attaches little value to the pleasures of the table, if she has, on account of her health, but a very plain dinner."

"That is to say, we shall have the national dish of Corsica--rice dumplings baked in oil!" exclaimed the emperor, laughing.

"So it is," said madame, merrily. "Ah, I see my son has not forgotten his native Corsica; then he will also have a kind look for poor old Cordelia, who, both in good and evil days, has been the most faithful and honest servant of our house, who frequently carried Napoleon Bonaparte for whole days in her arms, and when he was sick sat at his bedside and nursed him with the tenderness of a mother. I will tell Cordelia to take this basket away, and inform the cook that we have a guest." She rang the bell; the door of the adjoining room opened immediately, and old Cordelia entered. She stood still at the door, and cast mournful glances, now on Madame Let.i.tia, now on the emperor.

"Well, Cordelia, do you not greet my son?" asked madame. "He is not the emperor to-day, but comes incognito as my son to ask dinner of me."

"And listen, dear Delia," said the emperor, speaking to her in the voice of a child--"listen, dear old Cordelia; afterward let us go and play, and gather sh.e.l.ls on the sea-sh.o.r.e. Shall we do so, 'Lia?"

An air of unutterable happiness illuminated the face of old Cordelia when Napoleon repeated to her, in the voice of his childhood, the words which he had so often addressed to her. She rushed toward him, and, sinking down before him, seized both his hands and pressed them to her lips. "Now do with me what you like, Napoleon," she cried, in the language of her native country, while the tears were rolling down her cheeks, "I belong to you again, with every drop of my heart's blood. Trample me under foot, strike me, kick me, as you often did during your childhood--I shall never murmur. I am as a faithful dog, who allows himself to be beaten, and yet loves his master to the last!"

"Yes, she is as constant as the sea that washes the sh.o.r.es of our native country," said madame, with a tear in her eye. "You may count on both of us, Napoleon, and if there is power in our prayers you will always be victorious."

The emperor's face--darkened. He had forgotten every thing for a moment; but he soon recollected himself. In order to be victorious and prosperous he needed not only soldiers but money, and he had come for the purpose of obtaining this from his mother. He disengaged his hands from those of old Cordelia, and motioned her to rise. She obeyed in silence, quietly took up the clothes, and carried them off in the basket.

"See that we soon have dinner," said madame to her. Cordelia turned and looked inquiringly at her mistress, who nodded to her; Cordelia nodded, too, and went out smiling.

A quarter of an hour afterward, the emperor conducted his loving mother to the dining-table, at which none other than themselves were to be seated. When they entered, the emperor's eyes glided with a strange, searching look along the paintings hanging on the walls, and rested for a moment on the landscape which, in a broad gilded frame, was directly opposite; then a faint smile flitted over his features, and he turned toward his mother to address a few pleasant words to her.

The dinner commenced, as the emperor antic.i.p.ated, with Corsican rice dumplings baked in oil. He partook of them with great relish, and this favorite dish of his childhood seemed to have restored his good humor. "I believe." he said, gayly, "I am still able to read as well in your face, mother, as I could when I was a boy, and took pains to discover whether or not I had deserved punishment for some naughty prank. I believe I have understood your mute dialogue with Cordelia.

Will you confess the truth to me if I tell you what Cordelia's glances and your nod signified?"

"Yes, if you guess it."

"Well, then, mother, did not Cordelia inquire by her glances whether she was to send to the baker for bread, and whether the remnant of yesterday's dinner should not be served again in honor of my presence? And did not your nod reply, 'Yes?' Was not that the meaning of it? Do I guess right?"

"Yes, my son," said madame, smiling; "I see that my haughty daughters Pauline and Eliza have made you familiar with the habits of my household."

"They have," exclaimed Napoleon. "They told me Madame Mere had every day only three loaves of white bread brought from the baker for herself and Cordelia."

"They told you the truth; all my officers and servants receive their board-money, and three loaves are sufficient for us two. Ah, my son, how happy would you have often been, when still a lieutenant, had you had only one of the three loaves every day!"

"Eliza told me still other things," said Napoleon, casting a glance toward the large oil painting. "She told me you had, like all honest bourgeoises, your water-carrier, who furnished every day six buckets of water."

"Eliza told you the truth again. It is still the same water-carrier whom we employed when we lived in the Faubourg St. Honore; he is a faithful and honest man; why, then should I withdraw this little patronage from him?"

"But you pay him no more for his water, now that you are the emperor's mother, than you did when you were a poor widow with nine children."

"G.o.d makes the water flow, and it is the same now as then. Why should I, then, pay more for it?"

"Eliza told me, also," added the emperor, dwelling with singular perseverance on the same subject, "that, instead of collecting a library, and buying the books you read, you have subscribed to the bookseller Renard's circulating library."

"There are very few books that deserve the honor of being bought,"

said madame, in a dignified tone.

"And is it true, too," asked the emperor, "that you have the books brought by the bookseller's clerk to you every week the year round, and that you have the same exchanged by your servants during only New-Year's week, in order thereby to avoid giving a New-Year's present to the clerk?"

"It is true," said madame, calmly. "This clerk is not poor, nor the father of a family; I avoid, therefore, giving him the money which I prefer giving to poor men."

"But, madame," cried Napoleon, angrily, "you really surpa.s.s Harpagon, and Moliere has cause to complain that he did not know you." [Footnote: Napoleon's words.--Vide Le Normand, vol. ii., p.

451.]

"Moliere has a.s.suredly cause to deplore that he did not live at the present time," said madame, quietly, "for if he lived now, he would have seen on the throne of France a prince who is even greater and more ill.u.s.trious than his own Louis XIV. And he would have certainly been glad to make my acquaintance, as I am the mother of this great man."

"The mother of an emperor, and yet living so parsimoniously that one might believe your son suffered you to starve! And still, if I am not mistaken, you receive a million francs a year for defraying the expenses of your court. Am I right, mother?"

"Yes, my son; I receive a million francs a year."

"Ah, madame," cried the emperor, "then you must, considering your economy, lay by riches every year?"

Madame Let.i.tia's face was serious; the emperor had touched a chord unpleasant to her ear.

"No," she said, abruptly, "I lay by no riches, for my expenses are heavy."

"But your income is larger," exclaimed Napoleon. "I am satisfied that you spend far less than you receive. Whom do you economize for, madame?"

"Whom?" asked madame, in an angry voice. "I might say for myself, for my future, for that is uncertain, and one is never able to know what may happen. But, in addition to myself, I have to take care of your brother Lucien, for your majesty knows well that he is poor,"

"Because he would not accept the kingdom which I offered to him."

"Because, as a king, he would not be a dependent va.s.sal, the mere lieutenant of his brother. What, sire! Would you accept a kingdom offered to you on condition that you should never have a will of your own, but always obey that of another?"

"I would not," said the emperor, smiling; "but I am the emperor."

"You are Lucien's brother, and he is no less proud than the emperor.