Letter to Joséphine - April 1814
From the correspondence of Napoleon
Fontainebleau, April 16th, 1814
I wrote to you on the 8th of this month (it was Friday) and perhaps you did not receive my letter, there was still fighting, it is possible it was intercepted; now communications should be re-established. I have chosen my course, I do not doubt that this note will get to you.
I shall never repeat to you what I used to say; I complained then of my situation, today I welcome it, my head and my mind are rid of an enormous weight; my fall is great, but at least it is useful according to what they’re saying.
I will in my retirement substitute the feather to the sword. The history of my reign will be curious; they’ve only seen me from profile, I will show myself entirely. How many things do I not have to make known. How many men of whom we have a false opinion!… I showered with benefits millions of miserables! What have they done for me lately?
They betrayed me, yes, all of them; I exempt from that number that good Eugene1, so worthy of you and I. May he be happy under a king made to appreciate the sentiments of nature and honor!
Farewell, my dear Joséphine, resign yourself as I, and never lose the memory of the one who never forgot you and will never forget you.
—Napoleon
P.S.: I will wait for your news on the Island of Elba; I am not doing well.
Eugène de Beauharnais, still in Italy, where the population of Milan is on the verge of revolt.