Madame Cochelet was Hortense Bonaparte’s reader. She brings a really different perspective to her memoirs. She has heart, she loves Hortense fiercely but she’s a lot lighter than Hortense and Napoleon who were so intense. In this excerpt, Madame Cochelet talks about the good Hortense and Napoleon tried to do and the upcoming foreign invasion of France.
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[the Queen was asked to help] M. de Charrette. He had withdrawn, I believe, from the service of the guards of honor, or else had mingled with those who had taken prisoner M. Philippe de Segur, their chief.
He was arrested, there was everything to fear for his life if he were to be put on trial. The Queen undertook to save him and succeeded.
The Duke of Rovigo behaved wonderfully in this circumstance; without his support, the young man was undoubtedly to be shot.
It reminds me of the intercession that M. de Laval-Montmorency had come to claim near me for Mme. de Gesvres, whom Minister Fouché had exiled from Paris in 1806.
The Queen, after having received and listened to M. de Laval, immediately went to Saint-Cloud to represent to the Emperor the extreme rigor involved in hunting an old woman of eighty years of age, who was the last descendant of Duguesclin.
The Emperor, astonished, had replied to the Queen: "Instantly write to M. de Montmorency that not only Mme. de Gesvres is going to return to Paris, but that, as the only descendant of the famous Duguesclin, I grant her from my account a 6,000 francs pension.”
CHAPTER III
The Emperor has no spare shirt.
The King of Rome wants to see Papa's soldiers.
“In great circumstances, women alone have courage.”
The supper of kings.
The pigeon's wings of the Duke of Gaëte.
In the first days of January, we learned that foreigners had invaded French soil. For the first time, we trembled over the fate of our ever victorious ones!
For my part, I was not trembling; I heard nothing about politics. Until now I had hardly been concerned with it except to search the newspapers for the names of those who interested me concerning the promotions they received following each victory, or to dream of the brilliant dresses and coiffures that Te Deums and public ceremonies require - those that the joys of our conquests brought each time.
I had no doubt that strangers were soon to be repelled, and I kept on cheering at the expense of those who, more farsighted or timid than me, were afraid of the future.
On January 25, 1814, the Emperor left for the army.
The day before, the Queen had gone to dinner at the Tuileries to say goodbye; she had spent the evening with the Emperor -
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Madame Cochelet était la lectrice d'Hortense Bonaparte. Elle apporte une perspective vraiment différente à ses mémoires.
Elle a du cœur, elle aime farouchement Hortense mais elle est beaucoup plus légère que Hortense et Napoléon qui étaient si intenses.
Dans cet extrait, Madame Cochelet parle du bon Hortense et de Napoléon qui ont tenté de faire et de la prochaine invasion étrangère de la France.
