nominal value.' Just as the notary of Madame de Beauharnais had said, his 'cape and sword' were his fortune. But the General found the declaration superfluous, and in the contract he purely and simply had the paragraph scratched out.
"The contract is dated 18 Ventôse, An IV. (March 8, 1796). The next day the marriage took place before the Civil officer, who complaisantly gave to the husband twenty-eight years instead of twenty-six, and to the wife twenty-nine instead of thirty-two. This mayor seems to have a passion for equalising. Barras, Lemarrois, who is not a major, Tallien and Calmelot, the inevitable Calmelot, are witnesses. There is no mention of the consent of the parents; they were not consulted.
"Two days after, General Bonaparte goes alone to join the army in Italy; Madame Bonaparte remains at the Rue Chantereine."
There is something weird, is there not, in this revivification of the past, even to the numbering of the articles of underclothing in poor Josephine's wardrobe. The details may seem squalid, but somehow or other they do not so impress me. There is something in their accumulation that adds so much to the reality and familiarity of the picture, and nothing that thus brings us face to face with the daily life of so portentous a figure as Napoleon, can ever cease to interest mankind.
