NAPOLEON DESCRIBED BY HIS VALET.

Mataura Ensign, Issue 717, 29 March 1900, Page 4

NAPOLEON DESCRIBED BY HIS VALET.

" No man," says the proverb, " is a hero to his valet," but this, says a writer in ' Temple Bar,' like every other rule is proved by the exception. Napoleon had a, Belgian valet, who, for fifteen years 'was in constant attendance upon him, and who admired him to the end. This man wrote, or professed to write, memoirs of his master, six octavo volumes of about three hundred pages each, which appeared in IS3O. The work has sunk into oblivion. While not lifting a finger to dress himself, Napoleon dispensed with assistance in undressing, but he flung his garments all over the room, his watch sometimes missing the table or bed at which it was aimed, and falling broken on the floor.. t As. -to dress he despised dandies, never wore rings and abominated scents, except eau-de-Cologne, with which he was often rubbed, and which was his . specific for bruises. When coat-tails became shorter he stuck to the old fashion, until Constant got the tailor to shorten them by imperceptible graduations. He disliked tightly-fit-ing clothes, found a new hat uncomfortable, though lined with silk and wadding, and stuck to an old hat as long as possible. He put on every morning a clean white waisteoast with knee- ' breeches to match. He never wore trousers ; but, as he habitually wiped his pen on his breeches, after three or

-four-'. washings ; ""tbey : we're ' ddncTwitß. Constant denies, however the common story of his keeping snuff loose in his waistcoat pocket ; he always used a snuff-box, and though he; frequently took a pinch, he simply held it f<> his nose, and then dropped all or noarly all on the floor. His snuff injured the carpet, not his waistcoat. Smoking he never tried but once. A pinch of snuff was not the sole kind of pinch in which Napoleon indulged. He was addicted to pinching playfully people's ears, not merely the lobe, as commonly stated, but the whole ear, and sometimes both ears at once. The better the humor he was in the harder the grip. He also administered friendly slaps on the cheek, hard enough sometimes to cause the effect of a blush. As to demonstrations of anger, Constant never but once saw him strike. An under-groorn had put on the wrong saddle, and Napoleon had no sooner mounted than the horse reared and threw him. The head-groom coming up at the moment, the Emperor gave him a lash in the face wich his whip ; but presently being told that the poor man greatly felt the humiliation he sent for and soothed him, presenting him a few days afterwards with three thousand francs. He was not a graceful rider, and every horse he rode had to undergo a special training, that it might not resent lashes on the head and ears, fidgeting in the saddle, or being pulled up sharp while at full gallop. He once attempted driving, but had a mischance like Cromwell's in Hyde^ark. Putting the coachman behind as footman, he took the reins of his carriage, drawn by four horses which had just been presented to him by Antwerp. Josephine and his fellow-consul Cambaceres were in the carriage. The horses became ungovernable, and, on reaching the park gates at St. Cloud, the carriage was dashed against a post. Josephine and Cambaceres escaped with slight bruises; but Napoleon was thrown on his face and fainted, though he recovered consciousness when picked up. In the evening he laughed at the mishap and especially at Cambacere's fright, but he confidently acknowledged that he had never thought himself so near death. He ended by saying — or is this embellishment — "Bender uuto C<csar" — this was the coachman's name — •' The things which are C;esar's. Let him keep his whip and let everybody stick to his trade ! "