Note 250 — Chapter XXXV
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"I remained at the door of the Emperor's cabinet to prevent any person from being announced before the princess. Duroc soon came out and immediately introduced her. She knew not why her husband had been arrested; and, in the simplicity of her nature, demanded justice for the wrong which she supposed was done to him. When she had finished, the Emperor handed to her the letter written by her husband; when she had run it over, she seemed motionless, and looked as if she had lost sensation. She stared with haggard eyes at the Emperor; but articulated not a word. He said to her, 'Well, madam, is this a calumny—an unjust charge?' The princess, more dead than alive, was going to answer only with her tears, when the Emperor took the letter from her, and said, 'Madam, were it not for this letter there would be no proof against your husband.'—'That is very true,' she replied, 'but I cannot deny that it is his writing.'—'Well,' said the Emperor, 'there is nothing to be done but to burn it;' and he threw the letter into the fire."—Savary, tom. ii., p. 206.
The following is Napoleon's own account of what passed, in a letter to Josephine, dated 6th November, nine o'clock evening:—"I received thy letter; in which thou seemest angry with me for speaking ill of women." In the letter here referred to, Josephine had expressed her regret at the disrespectful terms in which the Queen of Prussia was spoken of in the Bulletins of the Grand Army. "It is true I utterly abominate intriguing females. I am accustomed to those who are amiable, gentle, and conciliating; and such I love. If they have spoiled me it is not my fault, but thine. But at least thou wilt see I have been very good to one, who showed herself a feeling, amiable woman—Madame Hatzfeld. When I showed her her husband's letter, she replied to me, weeping bitterly, with heartfelt sensibility and naïveté: Alas! it is but too surely his writing. When she read it, her accent went to my soul—her situation distressed me. I said, Well, then, madame, throw that letter into the fire; I shall then no longer possess the means of punishing your husband. She burnt the letter, and was happy. Her husband is restored to tranquillity: Two hours later, and he would have been a lost man. Thus thou seest, that I esteem women that are good, and ingenuous, and amiable: but this is because such alone resemble thee."—Lettres de Napoleon à Josephine, tom. i., p. 195.