would not be a bad idea. You know a little of the East. You are
accustomed to the climate. You could assist Jaubert . . . . But. .
. . . No. daubert must be already far off-- I, fear you could not
overtake him. And besides you have a numerous family. You will be more
useful to me in Germany. All things considered, go to Hamburg--you know
the country, and, what is better you speak the language."

I could see that Bonaparte still had something to say to me. As we were
walking up and down the room he stopped; and looking at me with an
expression of sadness, he said, "Bourrienne, you must, before I proceed
to Italy, do me a service. You sometimes visit my wife, and it is right;
it is fit you should. You have been too long one of the family not to
continue your friendship with her. Go to her.

--[This employment of Bourrienne to remonstrate with Josephine is a
complete answer to the charge sometimes made that Napoleon, while
scolding, really encouraged the foolish expenses of his wife, as
keeping her under his control. Josephine was incorrigible. "On the
very day of her death," says Madame de Remusat "she wished to put on
a very pretty dressing-gown because she thought the Emperor of
Russia would perhaps come to see her. She died all covered with
ribbons and rose-colored satin." "One would not, sure, be frightful
when one's dead!" As for Josephine's great fault--her failure to
give Napoleon an heir--he did not always wish for one. In 1802, on
his brother Jerome jokingly advising Josephine to give the Consul a
little Caesar. Napoleon broke out, "Yea, that he may end in the
same manner as that of Alexander? Believe me, Messieurs, that at
the present time it is better not to have children: I mean when one
is condemned to role nations." The fate of the King of Rome shows
that the exclamation was only too true!]--