The Josephine B. Trilogy (143 page)
Originally published in hardcover by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1995.
First trade paperback edition 1996.
Tales of Passion, Tales of Woe
Originally published in hardcover by HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 1998.
First published in trade paperback by Harper Perennial Canada, 1999.
The Last Great Dance on Earth
Originally published in hardcover by Harper Flamingo Canada, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers Ltd, 2000.
First published in trade paperback by Harper Perennial Canada 2001.
These three books were first published together in this omnibus edition in 2006.
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Library and Archives Canada Cataloguing in Publication
Gulland, Sandra
The Josephine B. trilogy / Sandra Gulland.
Contents: The many lives and secret sorrows of Josephine B.—Tales of passion, tales of woe—The last great dance on Earth.
1. Joséphine, Empress, consort of Napoléon I, Emperor of the French.
1763-1814—Fiction. I. Title.
PS8563.U643J67 2006 C813’.54
C2005-905570-7
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*
The family home was destroyed by a hurricane in 1766. They moved into the sucrerie, the building used to boil down sugar syrup.
*
The belief that a menstruating woman could spoil a ham was maintained into the nineteenth century. Doctors published papers in medical journals theorizing that when a woman was menstruating her skin became moist, preventing the pork from taking in salt.
*
From
The Social Contract
by Jean-Jacques Rousseau.
*
A narrow line of green that can occasionally be seen as the sun sets or rises. It is believed to bring luck to those who see it.
**
France was unofficially supporting the American War of Independence against England by providing supplies to the American troops from Fort-Royal, so British ships blockaded the port.
*
Like all the other members of her family, Rose had terrible teeth.
*
The once-prosperous neighbourhood was now quite poor, situated close to the entrance of the “cour des miracles”—a haven for beggars and thieves made famous in Victor Hugo’s
Hunchback of Notre-Dame,
written in 1831.
*
Breeches were difficult to run in so footmen wore skirts. They also wore bright colours so that they could be more easily seen in the dark.
*
Jean-Jacques Bacon de la Chevalerie (1731–1821) was a celebrated Freemason. In 1773 he’d been Grand Orateur of the Grand Orient of France.
*
Men who intended to dance wore a hat to a soirée. However, it was considered inappropriate for an elderly man to dance, much less to declare his intention to do so. It was acceptable, however, for an elderly man to be spontaneously recruited—to dance hatless.
*
To be presented at Court, one had to prove noble blood back to 1400. Alexandre’s nobility was relatively new and made less impressive by the fact that the government was selling titles by the thousands in order to raise money.
*
The Comtesse de Lingiville d’Autricourt ran what some considered the most brilliant salon in Paris, surrounding herself with Angora cats, each with a bright silk ribbon.
*
At Versailles, the public was allowed to watch members of the royal family eat. Crowds would race from one part of the palace to another in order to observe various courses being consumed by the different members of the royal family.
*
Monsieur Joron’s father described Rose in the following way to his wife: “a fascinating young person, a lady of distinction and elegance, with perfect style, a multitude of graces and the most beautiful of speaking voices.”
*
She is referring to Genesis, “Let there be light.”
*
The separation agreement stipulated that Alexandre would pay Rose an annual allowance of five thousand livres plus an additional one thousand livres for Hortense’s expenses up to the age of seven, fifteen hundred livres thereafter. (Unfortunately, this was rarely paid.) As for Eugène, the agreement stipulated that Alexandre would take custody when the boy turned five.
*
Joseph acted as manager of all the Beauharnais properties in the Caribbean. Unfortunately, he was not a good one.
**
Approximately forty thousand babies were abandoned a year.
*
In June, Marie-Adélaïde (Adèle) was born. Monsieur and Madame d’Antigny became her foster parents. Rose contributed to the child’s upkeep. In 1804, Rose—as Empress—arranged Adèle’s marriage to a Captain Lecomte, and provided her with a farm as a dowry and a trousseau.
*
France was bankrupt in part because of its support of the American Revolution.
*
Fanny is plagiarizing, something she was known to do with regularity. The statement about the destroying angel was in fact made by the great economist Mirabeau.
*
Marie-Josephine Benaguette, “Fifine,” born March 17, 1786, to Marie-Louise Benaguette. Eventually Rose’s mother took the girl into her own home and in 1806 Rose, as Empress, provided her with a dowry of sixty thousand livres.
*
This delegate was hanged when he returned to Saint-Domingue.
**
Stephanie Beauharnais was later to be adopted by Napoleon and wed to the Grand Duke of Baden, which made her a Grand Duchess of the Court of Würtemberg.
*
France took the American Bill of Rights one step further. Where Americans proclaimed men free and equal in
their
country, the French proclaimed men free and equal
everywhere.
*
Claude de Beauharnais, the Marquis’s brother and Fanny’s ex-husband, died December 25, 1784.
*
Captain Scipion du Roure-Brison was on the crew of the
Sensible,
the boat that returned Rose and Hortense to France. He is thought by some historians (lack of evidence notwithstanding) to have been Rose’s lover.
*
Now the Palace of the Legion of Honour.
*
“The Friends of the Constitution”—formerly the Breton Club, and soon to become known as the radical and powerful Jacobin Club. In the interests of clarity, all references have been changed to the “Jacobin Club.”
*
After the nobility lost their feudal rights (a decree Alexandre supported), it was no longer appropriate to indicate heritage in a name: hence Alexandre
de
(of) Beauharnais became, simply, Alexandre Beauharnais, a man without lineage. Some individuals got around this by incorporating the “de” into their last name—“de Moulins” becoming “Demoulins,” for example.
*
Although Alexandre’s term of office would be for only two weeks—the position of president rotated—this was a prestigious honour.
*
Before the Revolution, all of the officers had been aristocrats. When the Revolution came, most fled. There were few men left in France who had been trained to lead an army, fewer still with any experience.
*
The Commune was the municipal government of the city of Paris. Conflicts arose because the city government, which tended to be radical (urban-based), felt that the conservative (rural-based) national government was not doing enough to protect Paris. The Commune, therefore, felt justified in taking control.
*
Decapitation, formerly the privilege of the aristocratic class, was made available to all social classes by means of the guillotine. It was created by Dr. Guillotin, who died of grief over the abuse to which his humanitarian invention had been put.
*
Two weeks earlier (August 18, 1792), all religious institutions had been closed by the state. This included most of the schools, which had been run by the Church.
*
Anne-Julie de Béthisy was the cousin of the Abbesse de Penthémont. Rose had been introduced to the girl’s aunt, Marquise de Moulins (or Demoulins), in Fontainebleau.
*
On November 2, secret correspondence between the King and the Austrians was discovered in a locked iron chest hidden behind a wooden wall panel in the Tuileries Palace.
*
In fact, Tallien uses the term “Convention.” During the Revolution, the name of the elected body was changed several times: on June 17, 1789, the
Estates General
became the
National Assembly,
which in turn became the
Constituent Assembly
in the fall of that same year. With the adoption of the new constitution, on October 1, 1791, the elected body became the
National Legislative Assembly,
which on September 22, 1792, became the
National Convention.
In the interests of making the text less confusing for the reader, the word “Assembly” has been used throughout.