He has presided over the Legislative Council until they were fainting at their desks.

As to me, he will be the death of me, just as he wore out de Bourrienne; but I will die at my post without a murmur, for if he is hard upon us he is hard upon himself also.' 'He was the man for France,' said de Caulaincourt.

'He is the very genius of system and of order, and of discipline.

When one renumbers the chaos in which our poor country found itself after the Revolution, when no one would be governed and everyone wanted to govern someone else, you will understand that only Napoleon could have saved us.
We were all longing for something fixed to secure ourselves to, and then we came upon this iron pillar of a man.

And what a man he was in those days, Monsieur de Laval! You see him now when he has got all that he can want.