This etext was produced by David Widger
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, or pointers, at the end of thefile for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making anentire meal of them. D.W.]
RECOLLECTIONS OF THE PRIVATE LIFE OF NAPOLEON, V6
By CONSTANT
PREMIER VALET DE CHAMBRE
TRANSLATED BY WALTER CLARK
1895
CHAPTER VII.
We arrived in Paris on the 1st of January at nine o'clock in the evening;and as the theater of the palace of the Tuileries was now completed, onthe Sunday following his Majesty's return the Griselda of M. Paer waspresented in this magnificent hall. Their Majesties' boxes were situatedin front of the curtain, opposite each other, and presented a charmingpicture, with their hangings of crimson silk draped above, and forming abackground to broad, movable mirrors, which reflected at will theaudience or the play. The Emperor, still impressed with therecollections of the theaters of Italy, criticised unsparingly that ofthe Tuileries, saying that it was inconvenient, badly planned, and muchtoo large for a palace theater; but notwithstanding all these criticisms,when the day of inauguration came, and the Emperor was convinced of thevery great ingenuity M. Fontaine had shown in distributing the boxes soas to make the splendid toilets appear to the utmost advantage, heappeared well satisfied, and charged the Duke of Frioul to present to M.Fontaine the congratulations he so well deserved.
A week after we saw the reverse of the medal. On that day Cinna waspresented, and a comedy, the name of which I have forgotten. It was suchextremely cold weather that we were obliged to leave the theaterimmediately after the tragedy, in consequence of which the Emperorexhausted himself in invectives against the hall, which according to himwas good for nothing but to be burnt. M. Fontaine [Born at Pontoise,1762; erected the arch of the Carrousel; died 1853] was summoned, andpromised to do everything in his power to remedy the inconveniencespointed out to him; and in fact, by means of new furnaces placed underthe theater, with pipes through the ceiling, and steps placed under thebenches of the second tier of boxes, in a week the hall was made warm andcomfortable.
For several weeks the Emperor occupied himself almost exclusively withbuildings and improvements. The arch of triumph of the Place duCarrousel, from which the scaffolding had been removed in order to allowthe Imperial Guard to pass beneath it on their return from Prussia, firstattracted his Majesty's attention. This monument was then almostcompleted, with the exception of a few bas-reliefs which were still to beput in position. The Emperor took a critical view of it from one of thepalace windows, and said, after knitting his brows two or three times,that this mass resembled much more a pavilion than a gate, and that hewould have much preferred one constructed in the style of the porteSaint-Denis.
After visiting in detail the various works begun or carried on since hisdeparture, his Majesty one morning sent for M. Fontaine, and havingdiscoursed at length on what he thought worthy of praise or blame in allthat he had seen, informed him of his intentions with regard to the planswhich the architect had furnished for joining the Tuileries to theLouvre. It was agreed by the Emperor and M. Fontaine that thesebuildings should be united by two wings, the first of which should befinished in five years, a million to be granted each year for thispurpose; and that a second wing should also be constructed on theopposite side,