Note 18 — MEMOIRS OF THE LIFE, EXILE, AND CONVERSATIONS, OF THE EMPEROR NAPOLEON. (continued 4)
Reading edition
A man of great understanding and information, who had enjoyed much of the Emperor’s confidence, and had had a great deal to do with the Emperor directly, said to me, after the first abdication, with the appearance of intimate conviction, that Napoleon’s plan had been to abandon Paris, after he should have completed his conquests, and to make Rome the capital of the Empire. I had, at that time, so little knowledge of the Emperor that this intelligence staggered me; but now I cannot help inquiring where my informant could have got this idea?