Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Perigord came from one of the most ancient families in France. The neglect of an injury he had sustained when young had caused him to become permanently lame, and so unfitted to enter on a military career, with the result that his father had forced him, against his will, to go into the Church. Handsome, charming, witty, at the Court of Versailles he had seduced innumerable beautiful women, and became known as the Abbe de Coeur. When the Revolution erupted he was Bishop of Autun, but had strong liberal convictions, so he had abandoned the Church and played a leading part in opposing the continuance of an absolute Monarchy. The Terror had forced him to go into exile in America, but during the Directory he returned, and started his career as a great statesman by advising on foreign policy. He had been swift to recognize in young General Bonaparte a potential force for restoring France from the destitution and chaos into which she had fallen, and had planned the coup d'etat that had raised Bonaparte to First Consul.
For the eight years that followed, he had been using his great talents most successfully as Foreign Minister. He was venal, licentious and unscrupulous and had amassed a great fortune by taking bribes from foreign Ambassadors; but, above all, he was a patriot. As time went on he realised that Napoleon, having earlier restored France to order and prosperity, had begun to ruin her by his ceaseless wars; so, in 1807, he had resigned his portfolio in order to be free to work secretly for the Emperor's downfall. But, such was the fascination that he held for Napoleon that the Emperor still continued to consult him, although rarely now taking his advice. On his retirement he had been made Vice Grand Elector, one of the great dignities of the Empire, shared only by Napoleon's brothers, his brother-in-law Marshal Murat, now King of Naples, and Cambaceres, once Second Consul and now Arch-Chancellor.
He had always held the belief that there could be no lasting peace and prosperity in Europe until the two great protagonists, France and Britain, buried the hatchet once and for all. He had learned as far back as 1787 that Roger was in fact an Englishman, but kept his secret because their minds were as one, and he believed a time might come when Roger could prove a valuable link between their two countries.
Even way back in '96, when he had returned from America and Paris was still seething with ex-sans-culottes sworn to maintain the doctrines of the Revolution, he had boldly reassumed his status as a great noble, dressed fastidiously in the finest silks and lace ruffles, and wore his hair powdered.
Roger knew that it had long been Talleyrand's custom to give frequent lavish breakfasts at which he entertained the great men of the Empire; so it was no surprise when he arrived in the Rue du Bac to find half a dozen men holding high office, all of whom were known to him, assembled there. Leaning slightly on his diamond-studded Malacca, the elegant Talleyrand limped forward, welcomed Roger most amiably and insisted that he join them for breakfast.
Among the guests were Gaudin, Napoleon's brilliant Minister of Finance, who had miraculously lifted France out of her state of bankruptcy in 1800; Decres, the able Minister of Marine, who was engaged in a vast building programme to replace the French battle fleet, almost entirely destroyed at Trafalgar; and Marshal Bernadotte. To Roger the last was of most interest, as he knew him only slightly, although he had heard a lot about him.
Charles Jean Bernadotte was the son of a lawyer, and a Gascon of Gascons, He was a fine, tall, handsome man and, to the Emperor's annoyance, defied the prevailing fashion by continuing to wear his hair long. That was far from the only way in which he had annoyed Napoleon,
In '96, towards the end of Bonaparte's first great campaign, Augereau had been sent off to command the Army of the Rhine, and his division was replaced by that of Bernadotte. The soldiers of the Army of Italy were ragged sans-culottes; those of the Rhine old regulars who were, by comparison, gentlemen. The latter regarded the Revolution as over and, instead of addressing one another as 'citizen' had reverted to the use of 'monsieur'. This had resulted in much bad feeling and scores of duels, which had tended to hamper operations. Bonaparte had done his utmost to get Bernadotte recalled to Paris, but had failed.
That, however, was not the worst result of the exchange. The Army of Italy had fought its way magnificently up through the Carnic Alps and was within a hundred miles of Vienna. It needed only a strong thrust south-east by the Army of the Rhine to join up with Bonaparte, and Vienna would have fallen like a ripe plum into his hands. But Augereau was no strategist and he bungled matters. Winter was fast coming on; Bonaparte was hundreds of miles from his base, so dared advance no further on his own. Thus he was robbed of the finest spoils of victory and deprived of entering the Austrian capital in triumph until many years later.
When Napoleon was in Egypt and his Italian conquests had been overrun it was, after Massena, Bernadotte who had played the major role in saving France from invasion; so he had become a popular hero.
When peace with Austria was signed, he had been sent as Ambassador to Vienna, and there hung the Tricolour out from his Embassy. The sight of the Republican flag had so infuriated the pro-monarchist people that a riot had ensued; but Bernadotte had come out on to the steps of the Embassy, sword in hand, and later the Austrian Government had been forced to apologise.
As Minister of War at the time of Napoleon's unauthorized return from Egypt, sensing that the ambitious little Corsican might make trouble, Bernadotte had proposed that he should be arrested and court-martialled as a deserter. But Napoleon's exploits had already made him such a national idol that the Government had feared to take so dangerous a step and that had led to its own downfall. As a staunch Revolutionary, Bernadotte alone of all the senior Generals had refused to support Napoleon in the coup d'etat of 18th Brumaire which, it could be foreseen, would lead to his becoming a Dictator.
The Jacobin faction that stood for Government by the People, Atheism and Equality in its fullest sense, had then still been very powerful; so, for a time, Napoleon had had to proceed with caution. Moreau, Lannes, Jourdan, Augereau and Bernadotte were all Jacobins, and it would have been dangerous to quarrel with these paladins thrown up by the Revolution. It was largely for this reason that, in 1804, Napoleon included a number of them in his original creation of Marshals, and the cunning, inscrutable Bernadotte had been one of them.
In order to minimize opposition to his autocratic rule, Napoleon sent the Marshals he disliked and distrusted away from Paris. Bernadotte was made Governor of the important state of Hanover, and later other German territories were added to his Viceroyalty. He proved as able an administrator as he was a soldier, not only pacifying the considerable part of the new French Empire but bringing contentment and prosperity to its people.
He had thus made himself one of Napoleon's most valuable lieutenants. Moreover, he was almost one of the Imperial Family, because he had married Desiree, the younger daughter of a rich Marseilles silk merchant named Clary, and Julie, the elder daughter, had married Napoleon's eldest brother, Joseph. The tie was rendered even closer by the fact that, when a penniless young officer, Napoleon had been in love with and engaged to Desiree, and still had a strong affection for her.