When he did appear, it was not the ball or _bon mot_ of the evening before, that he recalled:--he was still, wherever he went, the Buonaparte of Lodi, and Arcola, and Rivoli.

His military bluntness disdained to disguise itself amidst those circles where a meaner _parvenu_ would have been most ambitious to shine.

The celebrated daughter of Necker made many efforts to catch his fancy and enlist him among the votaries of her wit, which then gave law in Paris.

"Whom," said she, half wearied with his chillness, "do you consider as the greatest of women ?" "Her, madam," he answered, "who has borne the greatest number of children." From this hour he had Madame de Stael for his enemy; and yet, such are the inconsistencies of human nature, no man was more sensitive than he to the assaults of a species of enemy whom he thus scorned to conciliate.
Throughout his Italian campaigns--as consul--as emperor--and down to the last hour of the exile which terminated his life--Buonaparte suffered himself to be annoyed by sarcasms and pamphlets as keenly and constantly as if he had been a poetaster.
The haughtiness, for such it was considered, of his behaviour in the society of the capital, was of a piece with what he had already manifested in the camp.

In the course of his first campaigns, his officers, even of the highest rank, became sensible, by degrees, to a total change of demeanour.