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146 M. Pasquier as we find him; here is his first mention of the great diplomat:

"This is the place to dwell once more on the strange position of this man, who always seemed to enjoy the greatest confidence, and this at the time when, in reality, he did not inspire any, and did not really obtain it; who, on his side, appeared animated with the most sincere zeal, when it was impossible for those who had any intercourse with him to have any doubt as to his discontent. I often saw him in those days at the house of one of my relations, a woman of intellect, who, for some months past, had become very intimate with him, and in whose salon he spent many of his evenings; her social circle was small, and consequently no restraint was put upon him. Owing to this kind of intimacy, his actual frame of mind was readily penetrated, and I easily observed that, consumed as he was with a desire for fault-finding, he considered himself but little bound by any engagements, the result of his former deeds and utterances."

was during the negotiations at Erfurt that Napoleon reached the very zenith of his glory and his power. How often must he have looked back on those golden moments! M. Pasquier