Napoleon first speaks to the Austrian Ambassador and next to the Russian Ambassador with a constrained air, forcing himself to be polite, in which he cannot persist.

"Treating with I do not know what unknown personage, he interrogated him, reprimanded him, threatened him, and kept him for a sufficiently long time in a state of painful dismay.

Those who stood near by and who could not help feeling a dismayed, stated later that there had been nothing to provoke such fury, that the Emperor had only sought an opportunity to vent his ill-humor; that he did it purposely on some poor devil so as to inspire fear in others and to put down in advance any tendency to opposition.Cf.Beugnot, "Memoires," I., 380, 386, 387 .-- This mixture of anger and calculation likewise explains his conduct at Sainte Helena with Sir Hudson Lowe, his unbridled diatribes and insults bestowed on the governor like so many slaps in the face.

(W.
Forsyth, "History of the Captivity of Napoleon at Saint Helena, from the letters and journals of Sir Hudson Lowe," III., 306.)] [Footnote 1206: Madame de Remusat, II., 46.] [Footnote 1207: "Les Cahiers de Coignat." 191.

"At Posen, already, I saw him mount his horse in such a fury as to land on the other side and then give his groom a cut of the whip."] [Footnote 1208: Madame de Remusat, I., 222.] [Footnote 1209: Especially the letters addressed to Cardinal Consalvi and to the Prefet of Montenotte (I am indebted to M.d'Haussonville for this information) .-- Besides, he is lavish of the same expressions in conversation.