Hindsight is 20/20 and from our perspective is it very obvious that Napoleon should not have trusted Charles de Montholon, who had the stepfather that radicalized his brother Lucien through secret society activity.
When this couple seemed fine with Albine behaving in a seductive manner, when they seemed so money hungry, Napoleon should’ve been more careful but it’s difficult to imagine how depressed he was. Napoleon was fairly depressed even during the best of times.
It is a case that I’ve been making that he was a very romantic guy who was deeply in love with his stepdaughter and sister in law Hortense - a lot of his not so great behavior with women seems to arise out of this terrible frustration that he couldn’t quell.
Now in the Montholon letters, we are finally hearing from Countess Albine. She hardly reciprocates her husband’s over the top lovey dovey language. She opens with the death of her baby who was said (by Mme. Bertrand) to resemble Napoleon.
Then Albine gets down to business and doesn’t seem genuinely impacted at all about this death. Money is really what’s on her mind according to this letter.
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XII. - FROM THE COUNTESS TO THE COUNT OF MONTHOLON
Brussels, October 4, 1819.
A great misfortune struck me, my good Charles. My poor little Josephine (born January 28, 1818) was taken from me in eight days (Thursday, September 30th).
Doctors said her illness was a dangerous fever with inflammation of the lower abdomen.
From the first moment, they had little hope of saving her: the little one was very tired from the trip and the change of climate, her stomach was often upset, and her pale and dejected face announced a state of languor and some suffering, no doctor could decide anything to do for her, seeing, they said, only fatigue and distress at the change of climate: she would recover by herself.
I arrived in Brussels around September 18, she got a cold on the way, and it was around the 22nd that fever and bad diarrhea started; she did not leave the bed, but she spoke, asked for everything up to two days before her death, and always took and swallowed everything that was given to her.
I will blame myself all my life for having made her travel and change her climate so young.
I am convinced that I would not have lost her had
I stayed in Saint Helena.
And then, this French medicine, which I hate! There is no English doctor here, and I will no longer be able to get used to our sit and wait method.
I told you in my first letters (2) that Baring did not pay (3).
He wrote to me a second time, and tells me that he cannot accept the drafts of Count Bertrand, because, having no power of attorney to sell his funds, he cannot dispose of them.
Fortunately, I did not count on it to eat, I would have been in a pretty position!
We don't tamper with business like that.
1. This preference for English medicine was shared by Mrs Bertrand who, even after the arrival of Antommarchi, continued to have recourse to Dr. Verling, then to Dr Henry (Forsyth, III, 179).
2. We don't have them.
3. See letter of July 3, 1819.
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It is pitiful, especially after the beautiful speech he gave me: he deserves to be remembered.
I saw Las Cases; he came to see me and it was perfect; he is in a horrible state of headache, which makes him unable to think and write. He can no longer write to Count Bertrand, he handed me the pen so I could do the writing.
Will you believe that we were not ashamed, for the modest sum he had lent (a large one for him), so as could offer him the interest? What do you think about this? However, he took back his funds.
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Le recul est de 20/20 et de notre point de vue, il est très évident que Napoléon n'aurait pas dû faire confiance à Charles de Montholon, qui avait le beau-père qui a radicalisé son frère Lucien par le biais d'activités de la société secrète.
Quand ce couple semblait bien avec Albine se comportant de manière séduisante, quand ils semblaient si affamés d'argent, Napoléon aurait dû être plus prudent mais il est difficile d'imaginer à quel point il était déprimé.
Napoléon était assez déprimé même dans le meilleur des cas. C'est un cas que j'ai fait valoir qu'il était un gars très romantique qui était profondément amoureux de sa belle-fille et de sa belle-sœur Hortense - une grande partie de son comportement pas si grand avec les femmes semble résulter de cette terrible frustration qui il ne pouvait pas réprimer.
Maintenant, dans les lettres de Montholon, nous entendons enfin la comtesse Albine.
Elle échange à peine la langue d'amour de son mari. Elle ouvre avec la mort de son bébé qui, selon Mme. Bertrand, ressemblait à Napoléon.
Puis Albine se met au travail et ne semble pas du tout véritablement touchée par cette mort. L'argent est vraiment ce qu'elle pense selon cette lettre.
Below is from the Las Cases memoirs where Napoleon says that Charles Montholon’s stepfather, M. de Sémonville got Napoleon’s brother Lucien into the “revolutionary clubs”.
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Ci-dessous, des mémoires de Las Cases où Napoléon dit que le beau-père de Charles Montholon, M. de Sémonville a fait entrer le frère de Napoléon Lucien dans les «clubs révolutionnaires».
