Jimmie[_5_]
November 7th 07, 06:43 AM
Madame de Stael soon began to long ardently to return to France, which
she loved all the more for having been compelled to leave it. She
therefore used all the influence she possessed in Paris, to obtain from
Napoleon permission to return to her home, but the emperor remained
inexorable, even after having read Delphine.
"I love," said he, "women who make men of themselves just as little as I
love effeminate men. There is an appropriate _role_ for every one in the
world. Of what use is this vagabondizing of fantasy? What does it
accomplish? Nothing! All this is nothing but do rangement of mind and
feeling. I dislike women who throw themselves in my arms, and for this
reason, if for no other, I dislike this woman, who is certainly one of
that number."
Madame de Stael's petitions to be permitted to return to Paris were
therefore rejected, but she was as little disposed to abandon her
purpose now as she was at the time she sought to gain Bonaparte's
good-will. She continued to make attempts to achieve her aim, for it was
not only her country that she wished to reconquer, but also a million
francs which she wished to have paid to her out of the French treasury.
Her father, Minister Necker, had loaned his suffering country a million
francs, at a time of financial distress and famine, to buy bread for the
starving people, and Louis XVI. had guaranteed, in writing, that this
"national debt of France" should be returned.
But the revolution that shattered the throne of the unfortunate king,
also buried beneath the ruins of the olden time the promises and oaths
she loved all the more for having been compelled to leave it. She
therefore used all the influence she possessed in Paris, to obtain from
Napoleon permission to return to her home, but the emperor remained
inexorable, even after having read Delphine.
"I love," said he, "women who make men of themselves just as little as I
love effeminate men. There is an appropriate _role_ for every one in the
world. Of what use is this vagabondizing of fantasy? What does it
accomplish? Nothing! All this is nothing but do rangement of mind and
feeling. I dislike women who throw themselves in my arms, and for this
reason, if for no other, I dislike this woman, who is certainly one of
that number."
Madame de Stael's petitions to be permitted to return to Paris were
therefore rejected, but she was as little disposed to abandon her
purpose now as she was at the time she sought to gain Bonaparte's
good-will. She continued to make attempts to achieve her aim, for it was
not only her country that she wished to reconquer, but also a million
francs which she wished to have paid to her out of the French treasury.
Her father, Minister Necker, had loaned his suffering country a million
francs, at a time of financial distress and famine, to buy bread for the
starving people, and Louis XVI. had guaranteed, in writing, that this
"national debt of France" should be returned.
But the revolution that shattered the throne of the unfortunate king,
also buried beneath the ruins of the olden time the promises and oaths