Want of Provisions.—Gay Sophistry.—On Impossibilities.Impossibilities

16th.—In the morning, my servant came to tell me that there was neither coffee, sugar, milk, nor bread, for breakfast. Yesterday, some hours before dinner, feeling hungry, I asked for a mouthful of bread, and was told that there was none for me. Thus we are denied the very necessaries of life. This fact will scarcely be credited, and yet I have stated nothing but the truth.

The weather has now become fine. For some time the Emperor has been unable to walk out; but to-day he went into the garden, and he afterwards ordered the calash, with the intention of taking his usual drive, which had been so long suspended. As we were walking about, Madame de Montholon drove away a dog that had come near her.—“You do not like dogs, Madam?” said the Emperor,—“No, Sire.”—“If you do not like dogs, you do not like fidelity; you do not like those who are attached to you; and, therefore, you are not faithful.”—“But ... but....” said she—“But ... but....” repeated the Emperor, “where is the error of my logic? Refute my arguments if you can!”

One of the suite having a few days ago proposed making some chemical experiments, the Emperor enquired whether he had been successful. The other complained of not having the necessary apparatus. “A true child of the Seine,” said Napoleon, “an absolute Parisian cockney! Do you think you are still at the Tuileries? True industry does not consist in executing by known and given means; the proof of art and genius is to accomplish an object in spite of difficulties, and to find little or no impossibility. But what do you complain of? The want of a pestle, when the bar of any chair might answer your purpose? The want of a mortar? Any thing is a mortar that you choose to convert to that use; this table is a mortar; any pot or kettle is a mortar. Do you think you are still in the Rue Saint-Honoré, amidst all the shops in Paris?”

The Grand Marshal here remarked that this circumstance reminded him of something that had occurred the first time he had the honour of being presented to Napoleon, and of the first words he had received from him. When Bertrand was about to leave the army of Italy, to proceed on a mission to Constantinople, the young General, perceiving that he was an officer of engineers, gave him a commission relative to that department. “On my return,” said Bertrand, “I came up with you at a short distance from head quarters, and I informed you that I had found the thing impossible. On this your Majesty, whom I had addressed with great diffidence, said with the most familiar air—‘But let us see how you set to work, Sir: that which you found impossible may not be so to me.’ Accordingly,”Accordingly,” continued Bertrand, “when I mentioned the means by which I had proposed to execute what your Majesty wished, you immediately substituted others. In a few moments I was perfectly convinced of the superiority of your Majesty’s plans; and this circumstance furnished me with sentiments and recollections which have since proved very useful to me.”

The Emperor retired to rest early. We observed that he is very much altered in his looks, particularly since his last illness. He grows very weak, and feels fatigued after two turns round the garden.