At any rate he left me there to
stand and to watch the curious succession of points upon which he had to
give an opinion during a few hours. Nothing seemed to be either too
large or too small for that extraordinary mind. At one instant it was
the arrangements for the winter cantonments of two hundred thousand men,
at the next he was discussing with de Caulaincourt the curtailing of the
expenses of the household, and the possibility of suppressing some of
the carriages.
'It is my desire to be economical at home so as to make a good show
abroad,' said he. 'For myself, when I had the honour to be a
sub-lieutenant I found that I could live very well upon 1,200 francs a
year, and it would be no hardship to me to go back to it. This
extravagance of the palace must be stopped. For example, I see upon
your accounts that 155 cups of coffee are drunk a day, which with sugar
at 4 francs and coffee at 5 francs a pound come to 20 sous a cup.
It would be better to make an allowance for coffee. The stable bills
are also too high. At the present price of fodder seven or eight francs
a week should be enough for each horse in a stable of two hundred.
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