On the return from Ghent he was made a Minister of State without portfolio, and also became one of the Council.

The ruin of his finances drove him out of France, but he eventually died in a madhouse at Caen.
When the Memoirs first appeared in 1829 they made a great sensation.
Till then in most writings Napoleon had been treated as either a demon or as a demi-god.

The real facts of the case were not suited to the tastes of either his enemies or his admirers.

While the monarchs of Europe had been disputing among themselves about the division of the spoils to be obtained from France and from the unsettlement of the Continent, there had arisen an extraordinarily clever and unscrupulous man who, by alternately bribing and overthrowing the great monarchies, had soon made himself master of the mainland.

His admirers were unwilling to admit the part played in his success by the jealousy of his foes of each other's share in the booty, and they delighted to invest him with every great quality which man could possess.