"Napoleon's family had never accepted Josephine. Her first husband, Viscount Beauharnais, had been a Don Juan sort of man, and was later sent to the guillotine during the French Revolution. Josephine was implicated by him and imprisoned alongside condemned prisoners. Some said she was released because of Jean-Lambert Tallien. That period of history could no longer be verified. How Josephine had managed, in the death cells, not only to keep her lovely head on her shoulders but also preserve her wealth and status was anyone's guess. After surviving, she became a celebrated figure in Parisian society through her beauty, intelligence, and superb social skills. For a beautiful woman who had just survived the stormy seas of the French Revolution, she needed money and powerful protection to raise her two children. A hurricane had destroyed her parents' estate, and another kind of hurricane had ruined her married life. What could you say about a woman like that? In 1795, Napoleon was so poor he had only a sword and a cloak. She was a woman of vision and calculation. Believe me, if she had not possessed those abilities, she would have died long ago like the other aristocratic women. It was only that she did not love enough then. The little general was one of the men at her feet, and she carefree sought pleasure until history abruptly changed color and the little general returned as France's hero."
"She made a mess of her life," Severus said.
"It wasn't her mess... I know people will spit on me for saying this, but he kept himself clean in matters between men and women. Even after becoming emperor, he did not keep countless mistresses like other French kings. Amid the filthy upper society of that era, he brought a different air. He focused