used it. [He seemed to hear it now for the first time as conveying an imperial sugges tion.] Joseph and I were both wrong—I in thinking the First Consul would not dare to sell Louisiana without parliamentary author, ization; he in thinking that the General would so dare, and fearing the disasters that would result to the family through the wrath of the nation."

CHAPTER V

NAPOLEON AND JOSEPH BONAPARTE QUARREL

OVER LOUISIANA

LUCIEN continues: "It was growing late. The project of going to the play was abandoned, the clock striking midnight. Pedro brought us chocolate, a Spanish custom I had adopted during my embassy. Joseph for this time kept me company, and we separated after agreeing that I should go next morning to pay a visit to the First Consul, who thus far continued to receive us familiarly. Joseph was to follow soon without its appearing that we had planned it so. I was to break the ice as to the Louisiana matter, though not until the First Consul himself had led the way to it. Should I be asked if Joseph had broached the subject to me, I was to admit it, and might even say that Joseph had shown alarm. I was to follow my own judgment in replying

to the suggestions the First Consul might throw out."

[During the night Lucien brooded over the matter, feeling more strongly the impolicy of alienating Louisiana the more he thought about it, but holding himself to be as insig nificant as the fly on the coach-wheel as to any influence he could exert upon his powerful brother. Next morning, April 7th, Thursday:]

"I went to the Tuileries, where I was with

out delay led to the First Consul's apartments, who was at the moment taking a bath. I found him in excellent humor, straightway launching out into a description of the performance of the previous evening, which he had attended. He was surprised and sorry that we had not joined him, because Talma, of whom we all were very fond, had shown great power. Then he added with much bonhomie: 'You might have seen, too, that the Parisians always like to see me. In fact, I scarcely flattered myself they would ever become so sympathetic when I had to shoot them down that October day in 1795.* Ah,

*The day when Napoleon, commanding for the Directory, first showed his quality.

that Cul-de-sac Dauphin! Since then I have battle-fields of different dimensions,

seen many

God knows. But that one in the midst of Paris where the dead were all Frenchmen, sometimes gives me bad dreams. But to speak of pleasanter things, do you know what the street-wits said? It's droll but true. That the Cul-de-sac Dauphin was not a close at all, since it led straight to the Tuileries.' 'You proved it, my dear brother,' said Lucien, 'by going that way to install yourself there.' 'That's what I meant, you may well believe. Ah, those queer fellows, so light and forgetful! But it's better so.' 'Yes,' I added, 'good and ill are forgotten almost in the same degree. One might think that the waters of the Seine were like those of Lethe.' 'Ha! ha! you are always inclined to poetry. Well, I like that. I should be sorry to see you give that up entirely for politics.' 'I do not think,' said I, 'that one stands in the way of the other. Not to speak of David and Solomon, who were undoubtedly poets, you your. self, Citizen Consul, had not poetry begun to charm you? Was it not, so to speak, the first glow that escaped from the flame of your

genius? Almost all statesmen, financiers excepted, have begun by being poets. I was reading only the other day that the famous economist Turgot boasted of his fondness for novels.' For some unknown reason, as I remember with surprise, this reference to Turgot did not please him. 'Bah!' he exclaimed contemptuously. "Turgot-Turgot!' and he mouthed the name so scornfully that I hastened to say what was true, that if the Citizen Consul had been willing to take up poetry, he might have shone in it as in everything else he had undertaken. 'Well, yes,' said the First Consul, pleased, and rolling the bit of flattery under his tongue. 'Do you really remember, my dear Lucien, my first efforts?' 'I well remember them,' was the reply. 'Your story of our Curé de Gualdo charmed the whole family; so, too, the wits in all the country round, as our uncle Archdeacon Lucien told us. How many times have I read it myself with delight and pride, for I was younger than all of them !'

"Then we talked a little about Corsica, for which I noticed my brother cared less than I, France having absorbed him. He