taken by surprise, if he allowed himself to insult me, for that
would have been to show a want both of character and understanding;
and as no person could promise themselves not to be confused in the
presence of such a man, I prepared myself before hand to brave him.
Fortunately the precaution was unnecessary; he only addressed the
most common questions possible to me; and the same thing happened to
all of his opponents, to whom he attributed the possibility of
replying to him: at all times, however, he never attacks, but when
he feels himself much the strongest. During supper, the first consul
stood behind the chair of Madame Bonaparte, and balanced himself
sometimes on one leg, and sometimes on the other, in the manner of
the princes of the house of Bourbon. I made my neighbour remark this
vocation for royalty, already so decided.




CHAPTER 7.

Paris in 1801


The opposition in the tribunate still continued; that is to say,
about twenty members out of a hundred, tried to speak out against
the measures of every kind, with which tyranny was preparing. A
grand question arose, in the law which gave to the government the
fatal power of creating special tribunals to try persons accused of
state crimes; as if the handing over a man to these extraordinary
tribunals, was not already prejudging the question, that is to say,
if he is a criminal, and a criminal of state; and as if, of all