Not only the ghost of his early love, but his dislike of new associates and novel ways cried out against the change.

"In separating myself from my wife," Napoleon once said to Talleyrand, "I renounce much.

I should have to study the tastes and habits of a young woman.

Josephine accommodates herself to everything: she understands me perfectly."[221] But his boundless triumphs, his alliance with the Czar and total overthrow of the Bourbons and the Pope, had fed the fires of his ambition.

He aspired to give the _mot d'ordre_ to the universe; and he scrupled not to put aside a consort who could not help him to found a dynasty.