When Napoleon arrived at the Tuileries at nine o’clock on the evening of the first day of January 1808, Joséphine threw herself into his arms and tenderly wished him a Happy New Year. Since the visit to Fontainebleau the Empress had known little peace of mind; she lived in the constant apprehension of a renewal of the projects for a divorce. She no longer treated Napoleon with the familiarity of other days, but addressed him as a sovereign rather than as a husband.

The winter season at Paris was never more brilliant. Every evening there were concerts, balls, formal dinners. The Court of the Empress was as well attended as formerly: in outward appearances nothing had changed. Joséphine, who did the honors of the Tuileries with her usual grace, was as much admired as ever. The Emperor, still undecided, vacillated between the voice of his heart and the demands of State policy. He said to Talleyrand: “If I separate from my wife I shall renounce at once all the charm she brings to my private life. I must study the tastes and habits of a new and young wife. This one adapts herself in every way and knows me perfectly. Finally, I shall repay with ingratitude all that she has done for me; for me she is a tie with many people.”

One evening when there was a reception at the Château, the Emperor failed to appear, and it was announced that he was indisposed. After dining with the Emperor as usual at six o’clock, Joséphine had gone to her room to change her dress for the evening. When she was ready for the reception a chamberlain came to tell her that the Emperor was ill, and she rushed to his side. She found Napoleon in a state of great nervous excitement. He wept, and pressed her in his arms, without any regard for her elegant toilette, crying: “No, my poor Joséphine, I can never leave thee!” Instead of joining her guests, Joséphine was compelled to pass the night with her husband, and it was not until morning that he recovered his equanimity. “What a devil of a man!” said Talleyrand in disgust, when the astonished assembly was curtly dismissed, “what a devil of a man, to give way continually to his first impulse, and never to know what he wants to do!”

On the first of February, at the hôtel of Queen Hortense, Rue Cerutti, was celebrated the marriage of Prince d’Arenberg and Mlle. Stéphanie de Tascher, Joséphine’s cousin and goddaughter, who had been created an Imperial princesse by the Emperor on the occasion of the signing of the contract. During the Consulate her hand had been asked in marriage by General Rapp, one of the favorite aides de camp of Napoleon, but Joséphine, who retained many of the prejudices of the Ancien Régime, refused her consent. This Arenberg marriage was not a success; the princesse could not endure her husband and refused to live with him. At a later date the marriage was annulled and she espoused Comte de Guitry.

In the midst of his domestic preoccupations the Emperor had not ceased to follow closely the course of events in Spain. The Spanish Bourbons were descended from a grandson of Louis the Fourteenth, Philip of Anjou, who became King of Spain in 1700 under the title of Philip the Fifth. At the beginning of 1808 the royal family of Spain comprised the King, Charles the Fourth, a man of sixty; his wife, Marie-Louise, who was three years younger, and their son, Ferdinand, Prince of the Asturias, a boy of twenty. To this interesting group must be added the Queen’s lover, Godoy, Prince of the Peace. Ferdinand had formed a plan of seizing the government, but the plot was betrayed to the King, and he was put under arrest.

Portugal had refused to accept the Berlin Decree of Napoleon, prohibiting the importation of English goods, and Napoleon had arranged with the Czar at Tilsit for the occupation and dismemberment of that country. While the above events were happening at Madrid, Junot, at the head of a French army of 25,000 men, had advanced to the gates of Lisbon. Before his arrival, the royal family embarked on the fleet and sailed for Brazil.

On the 20 February 1808 the Emperor appointed Murat his lieutenant to command the French troops in Spain, and a week later he announced to the Court of Madrid his intention to annex to the French Empire all of Spain north of the Ebro, giving the Spanish Crown, by way of compensation, all of Portugal. Alarmed at this proposition Charles made preparations to flee the country, but the news became known, there was a popular uprising, and he abdicated the throne in favor of his son.

In the meantime the French army under Murat was advancing on Madrid, and on the 23 March it entered the city. Charles now wrote the Emperor that his abdication had been forced upon him, and asked to be reinstated upon his throne. Ferdinand also presented his claims at the same time, and Napoleon invited all of the interested parties to meet him at Bayonne for a conference.

On the second day of April the Emperor quietly left Saint-Cloud, ostensibly for a visit to the South of France. He was not accompanied by Joséphine, but it was arranged that she was to follow him a few days later. Napoleon reached Bordeaux on the fourth, and Joséphine on the tenth. On the 13 April the Emperor proceeded to Bayonne. Two days after his arrival he inspected the château of Marrac, located about a league from the city, which he arranged to purchase for his residence. It was only an ordinary country mansion, and altogether too small to lodge comfortably the Emperor and his suite.

During his sojourn at Bayonne the Emperor held frequent reviews of his troops, passing through on their way to Spain, as many as a hundred thousand men defiling under his eyes. He went out daily and loved the promenades upon the Adour towards Boucau. He never announced in advance either the hour or the course of these excursions, often changing the direction and returning to the château from the point where he was least expected. Often he directed his steps towards a dove-cote in the form of a small tower, which was located at the extremity of the outer wall of the park. From there he descended to the banks of the Nive, and went nearly every day, sometimes on foot, and sometimes in a boat, to visit his sister Caroline, who was living at Lauga.

On the 20 April the Emperor received Prince Ferdinand, who arrived that day, and entertained him at dinner. Six days later the Prince de la Paix appeared, and had a long conference with Napoleon. On the 27 April Joséphine came from Bordeaux. During this fortnight the Emperor sent Joséphine four letters:

To the Empress, at Bordeaux

The child referred to in the Emperor’s last letter was Louis-Napoleon, the future Napoleon the Third, Emperor of the French. He was born in Paris on the 20 April 1808 at the town-house of Queen Hortense, in Rue Cerutti, and not at the Tuileries, as erroneously stated by many historians. By the express orders of the Emperor, who sent Hortense a letter of congratulations, he was called Charles-Louis-Napoleon, in honor of his grandfather Bonaparte, his father, and his uncle.

Joséphine’s first letter to her daughter, written on the 23 April, begins in a jubilant tone: “I am at the summit of joy, my dear Hortense.... I know Napoleon is consoled at not having a sister and that he already loves his brother very much. Kiss them both for me.”

Two days later she wrote again: “I am just in receipt, my dear Hortense, of a letter from the Emperor...; he is perfectly delighted. At the same time he summons me to rejoin him at Bayonne. You can imagine, my dear daughter, that it is a great pleasure for me not to be away from the Emperor, so I set out early to-morrow morning. I am pleased at the news I receive of your health. I beg you always to take good care of yourself, and above all not to receive company these first few days. I cannot write you again for two or three days, but shall think of you every moment. I embrace you. Adieu, my dear Hortense.”

Joséphine had the great satisfaction of finding Napoleon in a most loving mood toward her. He spent all of his spare time with her and displayed unusual signs of good humor. One day, on the beach, undeterred by the presence of the escort, he chased her over the sands and pushed her into the water; another time, he picked up a shoe which fell off her foot as she got into a carriage, and flung it away, in great glee over the idea that she would have to go home without one.

On the last day of April the Spanish sovereigns arrived at the government palace at Bayonne; the Emperor immediately called on them, and that evening entertained them at dinner at Marrac.

On the 5 May, when the Emperor, after déjeuner, was riding with Savary, he received the news of the uprising at Madrid three days before. He immediately galloped to Bayonne, where he had a spirited interview with Charles and his son. To Ferdinand he said: “Prince, up to this moment I have taken no stand in the controversy which has brought you here, but the blood shed at Madrid ends my irresolution. I shall never recognize as King of Spain the person who, by ordering the murder of French soldiers, has been the first to break the alliance which has so long united our two countries.... I have no ties except with your father: I recognize him as King, and will escort him to Madrid if he so desires.”

The Prince made no reply, but Charles, with the visions of Charles the First and Louis the Sixteenth ever troubling his thoughts, had no desire to remount his precarious throne. That same evening, by a treaty signed for the Emperor by Duroc, and for the King by the Prince de la Paix, Charles ceded to Napoleon the crown of Spain and of the Indies in exchange for the use of the château and forest of Compiègne, the title in perpetuity to the château of Chambord, and a civil list of seven millions and a half to be paid by the French Government. By another convention, signed on the 10 May, Ferdinand also ceded his rights to the crown. He was accorded the title in France of Royal Highness; received for himself and his descendants the château of Navarre; and was given an allowance of a million francs. Such was the price of the magnificent heritage of Charles-Quint!

On the 4 June, by an official act, Napoleon ceded to his brother Joseph all of the rights acquired under the above treaties. Three days later the new King of Spain arrived at Bayonne, and that evening attended a grand dinner given by the Emperor at Marrac, at which were also present the members of the Grand Junta of Spain, who had been summoned by Napoleon two weeks before.

Napoleon had reached the turning point of his career. With easy confidence and a light heart he embarked on an enterprise which was to baffle him at every stage, to drain his resources, to cost him three hundred thousand valuable lives, and to end in absolute failure. At Saint Helena he said: “It was the Spanish ulcer which ruined me!”

The first week in July the Junta accepted the new constitution drawn up for Joseph under Napoleon’s orders, and a few days later the new king left for Madrid.

Napoleon started homeward again in company with Joséphine. It was arranged that they should travel together as far as Toulouse, whence the Emperor was to go to Bordeaux, and Joséphine to take the waters at Barèges. The Emperor reached Bordeaux on the 31 July, and there he learned, two days later, of the capitulation of Dupont at Baylen with an army of 20,000 men, and the flight of King Joseph from Madrid. It was the first serious disaster to the imperial arms, and Napoleon was wild with rage at this blow to his prestige.

The Emperor at once realized the necessity of his own presence in the Peninsula, but before going there he wished to organize a well-equipped army, and also to assure himself of the solidarity of his alliance with the Czar. This meant a return to Paris, and Joséphine received orders to abandon her trip to Barèges and rejoin the Emperor.

On his way home the Emperor visited Rochefort and La Rochelle, and then in company with Joséphine, who had rejoined him, he proceeded by way of Tours and Blois to Saint-Cloud, where he arrived on the eve of his fête.