set in motion; and what must have made the whole business the more exasperating for Napoleon was that just at that moment, when this wretched domestic complication came to disturb and preoccupy him, he was on the eve of the events which were to lead him—if he only had the nerve and the resource—to the loftiest pinnacle of human glory; which, with loss of nerve—by one slight mistake—might end in death on the scaffold.
Under these circumstances, Josephine adopted a desperate but a wise expedient. She used her two children as the intermediaries between her and her husband. The scene which followed is described by more than one contemporary, but the best accounts are those of Prince Eugène, who of course was present, and of Bourrienne, Napoleon's secretary. Prince Eugène says that Napoleon gave his mother a "cold reception." Bourrienne describes the reception as one of "calculated severity" and the "coldest indifference." But when Napoleon saw Josephine, her eyes streaming with tears, in despair, conducted to his presence by Hortense and Eugène, he broke down—"he opened his arms and forgave his wife."
It is hard to say what judgment we should pronounce on this episode. M. Lévy, of course, has no difficulty in seeing in it a sublime generosity; it may have been the cynical indifference which made Napoleon finally regard Josephine as merely a pretty woman—not to be cast off because
