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CHAPTER XI.
NAPOLEON AND TALLEYRAND.
Napoleon was rapidly pacing his cabinet. His face was pale and gloomy;
his lips firmly compressed, as they always were when he was angry, and
his eyes flashed with rage. He held two papers in his hand: one of them
was in writing, the other contained printed matter; and, whenever his
eyes glanced at them, he clinched his small hand, adorned with diamonds,
and crumpled the papers.
The emperor's anger, which filled with trembling and dismay every one
who had to approach him in such moments, had no effect, however, on the
man who stood in the middle of the room supporting one of his hands on
the table covered with maps and papers, and with the other playing with
the lace frill protruding from his velvet waistcoat. His small,
twinkling eyes followed calmly and coldly every motion Napoleon made.
Whenever his anger seemed to increase, a scarcely perceptible,
contemptuous smile played on the lips of this man, and a flash of
hatred, and, withal, of scorn burst from his eyes. But this never
lasted longer than a moment; his pale and sickly face immediately
resumed its impenetrable aspect, and the smile of a polite courtier
reappeared on his lips. This was Talleyrand, first minister of the
emperor--Talleyrand, who had originally served the Church as a priest,
then the republic as a minister--who had deserted and betrayed both to
become minister of the empire, and to combat and deny all the principles
he had formerly advocated and declared to be necessary for the welfare
of France.
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