XXX. JOSEPHINE AND BONAPAKTE. WE get much light upon Josephine, and upon Napo- leon's general brutality towards women from the Memoirs of Madame de Re*musat, which the people of Paris have been reading lately with so much inter- est. This lady was a member of the household of the Empress Josephine for several years, and she gives us an inside view of Napoleon's court which is highly edifying. A particularly interesting chapter is that in which the coronation of Bonaparte and Josephine is related ; a scene which Thiers has described with extra- ordinary splendor and graphic power. Thiers gives us the outside of the wondrous show ; Madame de R£musat the inside. It was November, 1804. The new emperor and empress were at the palace of Saint-Cloud, with the ladies and gentlemen of their " households," a great company of noted persons, all looking forward with intensest interest to the coming spectacle. The brothers and sisters of Napoleon were there with their families and retinue. A great preliminary question agitated the circle, respecting the position of Josephine in the ceremony of the corona- tion. Should she be a spectator or a participant ? Al] in a word : Was she about to be crowned or divorced ? Bonaparte himself passionately desired an heir to his new throne, which Josephine could never give him. In his address to the Senate, formally accepting the throne, he used such language as this : (372)
