'
Talleyrand shrugged his rounded shoulders. 'Intellect in a woman is not
always an advantage, Sire. A clever woman compromises her husband.
A stupid woman only compromises herself.'
'The cleverest woman,' said Napoleon, 'is the woman who is clever enough
to conceal her cleverness. The women in France have always been a
danger, for they are cleverer than the men. They cannot understand that
it is their hearts and not their heads that we want. When they have had
influence upon a monarch, they have invariably ruined his career. Look
at Henry the Fourth and Louis the Fourteenth. They are all ideologists,
dreamers, sentimentalists, full of emotion and energy, but without logic
or foresight. Look at that accursed Madame de Stael! Look at the
Salons of the Quartier St. Germain! Their eternal clack, clack, clack
give me more trouble than the fleet of England. Why cannot they look
after their babies and their needlework? I suppose you think that these
are very dreadful opinions, Monsieur de Laval?'
It was not an easy question to answer, so I was silent.
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