Tobago lay just across from Trinidad. If the British were smuggling goods out of Trinidad, Tobago could hardly have failed to notice.
Spain was France's ally, and the Netherlands was under French control. Bonaparte could therefore do almost as he pleased in the Gulf of Mexico, which also gave him control over smuggling in the Spanish West Indies.
Napoleon and his ministers often met until five in the morning. He was young, but an older man like Chaptal grew exhausted during meetings that lasted all night. Napoleon had even done away with coffee, leaving the attendees drowsy and slow-witted, nowhere near as energetic as he was.
The spies of various nations were just as energetic. Lately, they had often seen a short man leave the Tuileries Palace after dark and slink toward the Burgundy Residence.
His ministers, meanwhile, got off work and went home to sleep like normal people. Not everyone was Leonardo da Vinci or Napoleon, able to restore his energy with a bath.
The Corsican Monster had earned his name. Sometimes it was hard to tell whether he was putting on a brave face in public or feigning weakness before that British woman. The Council of State covered everything. Its agenda for June 17 alone included examinations for surgeons, an organization for chemists, the appointment of mayors in key districts, the state of the harvest, Maltese refugees, a draft law concerning the National Guard, responsibility for road repairs, the management of quartermasters, pawnbroking, the accounts of larger communes, gamekeepers, chambers of commerce, a law allowing exiles to return to Saint-Germain, electoral law, the merger of Corsica's two departments, and the administrative boundaries of the departments on the Rhine River's left bank.
That was only one day's agenda. Napoleon worked like a bee. Apart from women, his greatest weakness