Joséphine finally reached Paris upon the second day of January. She took nearly six weeks for the journey, and did not seem to be in as great haste as she claimed in her letters, to leave that tiresome Italy, and see her beloved daughter again. After a visit to Turin, she crossed Mont-Cenis in terrible weather, and stopped several days at Lyon. The fête to Bonaparte, planned by Talleyrand, had to be put off from day to day, as the general wished his wife to be present.

Aside from the necessary calls on the Directors and ministers, during the month after his return Napoleon made only a few appearances in public. On the 10 December he attended the fête given in his honor by the Directors at the Luxembourg. Another evening he was present during one act of a play at the Français. The rest of the time he deliberately stayed at home and refused to receive the applause of the people which greeted him on every appearance.

The day after the arrival of Joséphine it was necessary for him to issue from his retirement to attend the fête arranged by Talleyrand. The Minister of Foreign Affairs then occupied the luxurious Hôtel Gallifet, in the Rue du Bac, which had been splendidly decorated for the occasion. At half past ten Bonaparte appeared, in civilian costume, accompanied by his wife, who wore a Greek tunique, with cameos in her hair. Somewhat embarrassed by the ovation he received, Napoleon took the arm of Arnault and made the tour of the salons. It was during this promenade that Madame de Staël forced herself upon his attention, and received, in answer to her impertinent questions, the celebrated reply which was to make of her his life-long enemy.

“General,” she said, as soon as she had met him, “what woman do you love best?”

“My wife.”

“Naturally; but whom do you esteem most?”

“That one who is the best housekeeper.”

“Very true; but who do you think is the first among women?”

“Madame, the one who bears the most children.”

There is little wonder that the conceited Madame de Staël did not love Napoleon after this brief passage at arms.

During the supper Bonaparte was seated beside his wife, to whom he was most attentive. At one o’clock they left the ball.

On her return from Italy Joséphine had settled again in her little hôtel of the Rue de la Victoire, upon which she had ordered extensive alterations made, at a cost of over one hundred thousand francs, although at the time she still had only a lease. However, on the last day of March Bonaparte purchased the property for the sum of 52,000 francs. The house was soon full to overflowing with the many rare paintings and objets d’art which Joséphine had shipped from Italy. This was the beginning of the immense collection which later entirely filled her château of Malmaison.

In October, before his return from Italy, Bonaparte had been appointed general-in-chief of the Army of England. On the 4 February he left Paris for a twelve days’ tour of inspection of the Channel ports from Calais to Ostende. On his return he reported to the Directory that the proposed invasion of England was a most dangerous and difficult undertaking, and, as an alternative plan, suggested an eastern expedition which would menace the British trade with the Indies. He had little difficulty in obtaining the consent of the Directory to the new plan, and on the 4 March the Government formally approved of the expedition to Egypt.

All the familiars of Joséphine stood in the greatest awe of Napoleon, but the moment he was absent the house was filled with the friends of the mistress of the mansion. As soon as Bonaparte left for his tour of the Channel ports, Joséphine seems to have renewed her intimacy with Barras. There is certainly ground for suspicion in the note she hastily scribbled to the secretary of the Director on the unexpected return of her husband: “Bonaparte arrived to-night. I beg you, my dear Bottot, to assure Barras of my regret that I cannot go to dinner with him. Tell him not to forget me. You know better than any one my position.”

It was a notorious fact that most of the generals of the Republic had not returned to Paris with empty hands, but Bonaparte pretended that he was different from the others. Later, at Saint Helena, he claimed that on his return from Italy his fortune did not exceed three hundred thousand francs, but it seems probable that he had nearer three millions. In addition, he had his salary of forty thousand francs as general-in-chief, and seven thousand francs a month while head of the French legation at Rastadt. During his absence in the East he left his funds in the hands of Joseph, as a common purse for the family, and it is well known that the Bonapartes did not suffer for lack of money while he was away. It is very possible that in his recollections Napoleon omitted a zero from his calculations.

On the 3 May 1798 Napoleon and Joséphine, after dining informally with Barras at the Luxembourg, went to the Théâtre-Français to see Talma in Macbeth. That evening the Conqueror of Italy was greeted with the same enthusiasm as during the first days of his return. After the play they went home, and at midnight set out for Toulon. Besides Joséphine, Napoleon had in the carriage with him his secretary, Bourrienne, and his aides de camp, Eugène, Duroc and Lavalette. To escape the vigilance of the English spies Napoleon had kept his plans entirely secret, and even forbade Joséphine to go to Saint-Germain to say adieu to Hortense.

Upon their arrival at Toulon, Bonaparte informed Joséphine for the first time that he did not intend to take her with him, as he did not wish to expose her to the dangers and fatigues of the voyage, and the severity of the climate. In vain she pleaded that the voyage had no terrors for her after three trips across the Atlantic, and that the heat of Egypt could not affect a Creole. To console her, Bonaparte finally promised that, as soon as he was well established in Egypt, at the end of two months, he would send for her the frigate Pomone, under the convoy of which she had made her first voyage from Martinique to France.

Bonaparte knew that there was no time to be lost in setting sail, but the expedition was detained ten days by contrary winds. Although he was not then aware of the fact, on the second day of May Nelson had been detached from the fleet that was blockading Cadiz, to go in search of information regarding the preparations at Toulon. He arrived off that port on the 17 May, but was driven back by an adverse wind, and was not able to return until ten days after the departure of the French expedition. Never was Fortune more favorable to Napoleon! If the French fleet had encountered Nelson at any time during the long voyage of six weeks it had not more than one chance in a hundred of escaping absolute destruction.

The adieux of Bonaparte and Joséphine were very tender. The signal for departure was given, and before a strong north-west wind the fleet moved out of the port. Bonaparte was on the Orient, a vessel of one hundred and twenty guns, and from a balcony Joséphine with a glass followed her husband as long as the ship was in sight.

After the departure of the expedition Joséphine did not return directly to Paris, but went to Plombières in the Vosges to take the waters. While there she met with a serious accident: a wooden balcony, upon which she was standing with several friends, gave way under them, and she fell fourteen feet to the pavement below. Fortunately no bones were broken, but she was painfully bruised. Hortense was sent for, at the school of Madame Campan, and nursed her mother during the convalescence. No sovereign was ever better cared for. Barras received the bulletins of her health drawn up by the resident physicians; all the authorities of the department called; musicians, brought from Epinal, gave her serenades; her rooms were filled with rare flowers.

At Plombières she received the first news of the expedition, from the capture of Malta to the occupation of Cairo. She also learned from Bonaparte’s letters that she must give up the idea of sailing to rejoin him. The fleet of Nelson was in full command of the Mediterranean, and all the French ports were closed. The frigate upon which she was to have sailed had been captured by an English cruiser in leaving Toulon.

The last of August Joséphine was back in Paris. At this time she arranged to purchase the estate of Malmaison. The price is generally stated to have been 160,000 francs, “paid in part with her dot, and in part with the resources of her husband.” As a matter of fact the deed which was passed before a notary of Paris the 21 April 1799 shows that the price agreed upon was 225,000 francs, with 37,500 francs additional for the furniture, and over 9000 francs for the recording fee. Joséphine only paid down in cash the amount of the furniture, 37,500 francs, with the avails of “diamonds and jewelry belonging to her.” The balance was left unsettled.

From the funds deposited by Napoleon with Joseph was drawn the money to pay for the princely estates bought about the same time by other members of the family. In Italy, Lucien purchased of a Roman princess an estate bringing in a revenue of 4000 francs a year; at Paris, a hôtel corner of the Rues du Mont-Blanc and de la Victoire; near Villers-Cotterets, a fine château, which with the farm of Soucy brought in over 17,000 francs a year. Joseph also acquired, at Paris, a new hôtel which cost him at the outset over 100,000 francs; and, near Senlis, the magnificent estate of Mortefontaine, with a vast park and one of the finest English gardens in Europe, for which he paid 258,000 francs. As the place had been much neglected during the Revolution, he was obliged to spend in its restoration another quarter of a million the first year. Truly, the modest three hundred thousand francs brought back from Italy by Napoleon went a long way!

At the same time Joséphine had much difficulty in obtaining from Joseph the payment of the small allowance of forty thousand francs fixed by Napoleon, and was very indignant over the way in which he disbursed her husband’s money. With her magnificent jewels, her priceless paintings and objets d’art, she was actually short of money to meet her current bills.

In acting as he did, Joseph may have gone beyond his brother’s orders; but the conduct of Joséphine since her return from Plombières had been anything but exemplary. She was again on very intimate terms with Barras, and her liaison with Hippolyte Charles, which had begun at Milan, was a matter of public notoriety. At Malmaison this young officer ruled almost as lord and master. Did Joséphine think, like many others, that Bonaparte would never return from the Orient, or did she imagine that Egypt was so far away that he would never hear of her conduct? If so, she was mistaken in both suppositions: he was to return, to give her a very mauvais quart d’heure, and the reports were to reach him in Egypt, through an indiscretion on the part of Junot. Both Bourrienne and Madame Junot have given us a vivid picture of Napoleon’s rage and despair on this occasion. He cried: “I would give all the world to know that Junot’s tale is false, so much do I love Joséphine. But if she is really guilty, a divorce must separate us forever. I will not submit to be the laughing-stock of all the imbeciles of Paris. I will write Joseph to have the divorce declared.”

It is absurd to claim, as many historians have done, that Napoleon at the time of his marriage was ignorant of Joséphine’s past life. He certainly must have known of her relations with Barras, at least; but the past did not concern him: all that he asked for was fidelity in the future. The nobleness of his character, and his understanding of the situation, are clearly shown in the letter he wrote her from Milan 11 June 1796: “Everything pleased me, even the remembrance of your errors and of the afflicting scene which took place two weeks before our marriage.” His rights over her heart and mind only date from the hour that she accepted his love and freely gave him her hand: the past no longer counts. But from that moment she belongs to him, and if she deceives him, all is over. If Joséphine had been true to him, without doubt Napoleon would have remained faithful in Egypt as he had been in Italy.

At Cairo the favorite rendez-vous of the officers was a garden modelled upon the Tivoli at Paris, which was kept by an old school-friend of Bonaparte at Brienne. Here Napoleon met a very pretty young woman with blond hair, a dazzling complexion, and beautiful teeth. Her name was Marguerite-Pauline Bellisle, and she was an apprentice to a modiste at Carcassonne when she married a young lieutenant in the chasseurs à cheval named Fourès. In the midst of their honeymoon came the command to embark for Egypt, with stringent orders that no wives were to accompany the expedition. Like several other devoted wives, the young woman donned one of her husband’s uniforms and sailed on the same ship with him.

Either from virtue or calculation, Madame Fourès did not yield to the first attack. It required declarations, letters, handsome presents. Finally all was arranged.

The middle of December, Fourès received orders to leave for France, this time alone, as bearer of letters to the Directory. A mansion was hastily furnished, near the general’s palace, and the young lady installed there. Unfortunately for the peace of the new ménage the vessel upon which Fourès took passage was captured by the English, who were well informed regarding events at Cairo, and were malicious enough to send him back to Egypt. He rushed to Cairo, and made a scene with his wife, who promptly secured a divorce.

Napoleon seems to have become very much in love with the little Bellisle, or Bellilote as she became known, and went so far as to offer to marry her after divorcing Joséphine, provided she gave him a child. “Mais quoi! la petite sotte n’en sait pas avoir,” he said with humor. When he returned to France he arranged to have her follow him, but she in turn was captured by the English. When she finally reached Paris it was too late. Napoleon was reconciled with Joséphine, and the coup d’état of the 18 Brumaire had made him master of France. The Consul refused to see her, but made her a handsome allowance. She was afterwards married again, separated from her husband, and lived to the good old age of ninety-two years, dying in March 1869 during the last year of the Second Empire.