After nightfall, the Tuileries Palace was often brightly lit.
Ordinary people put out their lamps before going to sleep, not only because people were used to sleeping in darkness, but also because it saved money on lamp oil.
Napoleon himself did not lack money for lamp oil and candles. No matter what, light gave people a sense of security.
Fear and profit were levers that drove people to act. Either could cause the brain to lose some of its function, making people act on instinct.
Having received word beforehand, Belzer was already waiting at the palace gates. Georgiana arrived in a light carriage, hiding her figure beneath a hooded cloak like those actresses summoned in the middle of the night.
Napoleon had many spies around him. They might investigate who she was. With her drawing attention, Lucien could enter through another gate. After all, publicly, he had already stormed off to Rome because of political disagreements with Napoleon.
This was Lucien's last attempt to help him. On the carriage ride back, she had spoken with Lucien about the stories Napoleon had told her, including the matter of Desaix at the Battle of Marengo. Lucien had laughed and told her that Desaix was not the sort of person who would say, "What a pity I will not live long enough to leave my name to posterity!" That sounded more like something Napoleon himself would say.
He was that kind of person. He wanted to leave behind some trace of himself, whether good or bad.
As for human rights and humanitarianism, even if he had once possessed such sentiments, seeing life and death so often on the battlefield had numbed him to them. A woman's tears would not move him to mercy. He was not cold-blooded, merely heartless. Sometimes, intervening in war