Gambling was a vice, as everyone knew. Yet during the French Revolution, with social order unstable and lives hanging by a thread, some people instead sought pleasure in gambling. It was much the same as those who chose revelry during the Black Death.
From 1791 to 1792, the authorities declared gambling illegal, but clandestine casinos multiplied instead. By 1796, the Directory had restored the "National Lottery." A special commissioner from the Paris Commune petitioned the Allergic Commune, demanding that all casinos and brothels be banned by law. Yet although those in power tried every means to give the people a new legal order, the collapse of faith and all the deaths of the past had loosened their moral and legal restraints. The wealthy upper classes wagered enormous sums, enough to leave some people penniless overnight.
High spending brought high entertainment. Famous actors sometimes performed in casinos, but Miss Desert Luo was not going to a casino to perform today. Wealthy families also hired actors for their banquets, and he had known Miss Desert Luo since the Directory period.
Barras had once said that Napoleon was a man who could use every kind of resource to secure a higher position for himself. He knew about Josephine's past but never mentioned it, because Josephine had washed away the name of Corsica for him. Through this marriage, Napoleon became a thorough Frenchman.
It was no secret. Many people had known it during the Directory period. Because of the recent troubles in Saint-Domingue, Josephine's Creole identity had been brought up again. Her uncle, Baron Tascher, was the port commander of Martinique. If the Swiss and Poles on the Saint-Domingue expedition truly had to retreat to Martinique, Baron Tascher would receive them as well.
When Josephine was sixteen, she was brought to France and married