Meantime, however, monarchical institutions were rapidly advancing
under the shadow of the republic. A pretorian guard was organized:
the crown diamonds were made use of to ornament the sword of the
first consul, and there was observable in his dress, as well as in
the political situation of the day, a mixture of the old and new
regime: he had his dresses covered with gold, and his hair cropped,
a little body, and a large head, an indescribable air of awkwardness
and arrogance, of disdain and embarrassment, which altogether formed
a combination of the bad graces of a parvenu, with all the audacity
of a tyrant. His smile has been cried up as agreeable; my own
opinion is, that in any other person it would have been found
unpleasant; for this smile, breaking out from a confirmed serious
mood, rather resembled an involuntary twitch than a natural
movement, and the expression of his eyes was never in unison with
that of his mouth; but as his smile had the effect of encouraging
those who were about him, the relief which it gave them made it be
taken for a charm. I recollect once being told very gravely by a
member of the Institute, a counsellor of state, that Bonaparte's
nails were perfectly well made. Another time a courtier exclaimed,
"The first consul's hand is beautiful!" "Ah! for heaven's sake,
Sir," replied a young nobleman of the ancient noblesse, who was not
then a chamberlain, "don't let us talk politics." The same courtier,
speaking affectionately of the first consul, said, "He frequently
displays the most infantine sweetness." Certainly, in his own
family, he amused himself sometimes with innocent games; he has been
seen to dance with his generals; it is even said that at Munich, in
the palace of the king and queen of Bavaria, to whom no doubt this
gaiety appeared very odd, he assumed one evening the Spanish costume
of the Emperor Charles VII. and began dancing an old French country
dance, la Monaco.