regard him as impassible; but, apart from the battles in which he
wears a mask of bronze, apart from the official ceremonies in which he
assumes a necessarily dignified air, impression and expression with
him are almost always confounded, the inward overflowing in the
outward, the action, like a blow, getting the better of him. At Saint
Cloud, caught by Josephine in the arms of another woman, he runs after
the unlucky interrupter in such a way that "she barely has time to
escape";[6] and again, that evening, keeping up his fury so as to put
her down completely, "he treats her in the most outrageous manner,
smashing every piece of furniture that comes in his way." A little
before the Empire, Talleyrand, a great mystifier, tells Berthier that
the First Consul wanted to assume the title of king. Berthier, in
eager haste, crosses the drawing-room full of company, accosts the
master of the house and, with a beaming smile, "congratulates him."[7]
At the word king, Bonaparte's eyes flash. Grasping Berthier by the
throat, he pushes him back against the wall, exclaiming, "You fool!
who told you to come here and stir up my bile in this way? Another
time don't come on such errands." - Such is the first impulse, the
instinctive action, to pounce on people and seize them by the throat;
we divine under each sentence, and on every page he writes, out-bursts
and assaults of this description, the physiognomy and intonation of a
man who rushes forward and knocks people down. Accordingly, when
dictating in his cabinet, "he strides up and down the room," and, " if
excited," which is often the case, " his language consists of violent
imprecations, and even of oaths, which are suppressed in what is
written."[8] But these are not always suppressed, for those who have
seen the original minutes of his correspondence on ecclesiastical
affairs find dozens of them, the b..., the p... and the swearwords of
the coarsest kind.[9]