All property had changed hands; all ranks found themselves confusedly jumbled by the shock of the Revolution: the grand seigneur dined at the table of the opulent contractor; and the witty and elegant marquise was present at the ball by the side of the clumsy peasant lately grown rich.

In the absence of the ancient distinctions, elegant manners and polished language now formed a kind of aristocracy.

The house of St.Germain, conducted by a lady who possessed the deportment and the habits of the best society, was not only a school of knowledge, but a school of the world.
"A friend of Madame de Beauharnais," continues Madame Campan, "brought me her daughter Hortense de Beauharnais, and her niece Emilie de Beauharnais.
Six months afterwards she came to inform me of her marriage with a Corsican gentleman, who had been brought up in the military school, and was then a general.

I was requested to communicate this information to her daughter, who long lamented her mother's change of name.

I was also desired to watch over the education of little Eugene de Beauharnais, who was placed at St.Germain, in the same school with my son.
"A great intimacy sprang up between my nieces and these young people.
Madame de Beauharnaias set out for Italy, and left her children with me.
On her return, after the conquests of Bonaparte, that general, much pleased with the improvement of his stepdaughter, invited me to dine at Malmaison, and attended two representations of 'Esther' at my school." He also showed his appreciation of her talents by sending his sister Caroline to St.Germain.