Napoleon and King Murat, a biography compiled from hitherto unknown and unpublished documents . uld wield the sceptre, she wdllingly resignedto her husband the picturesque concomitants of sover-eignty. While, white-plumed and white-sashed, Muratwas dazzling the populace with his gorgeous uniforms,or indulging in the pleasures of the chase resplendent inhis sixteenth-century hunting costume, his white-plumedbonnet d la Henri IV. and his yellow boots, ^ Caroline wasindustriously attending to the routine of government andgiving audiences to Ministers of State. From the day shearrived in Naples sh
Napoleon and King Murat, a biography compiled from hitherto unknown and unpublished documents . uld wield the sceptre, she wdllingly resignedto her husband the picturesque concomitants of sover-eignty. While, white-plumed and white-sashed, Muratwas dazzling the populace with his gorgeous uniforms,or indulging in the pleasures of the chase resplendent inhis sixteenth-century hunting costume, his white-plumedbonnet d la Henri IV. and his yellow boots, ^ Caroline wasindustriously attending to the routine of government andgiving audiences to Ministers of State. From the day shearrived in Naples she made up her mind to make herinfluence felt in the councils of the nation, and thisinfluence she hoped would swiftly become long it grew evident that she possessed the secretof making herself the centre of a party and of strengthen-ing the bonds between herself and her adherents. Firstand foremost among those whom she gathered to hersupport was her compatriot Saliceti, their commonambition furnishing, it may be, the grounds of a mutual ^ Archives des Affaires ^ dell. Clioiibanf. snilfl. JOACHIM MlRAl AMi MIS UIIK : HONAlARTIi, KINC AMI iilKKN (11- NAILKS THE PROMOTION 27 attraction. Whatever the reason that dictated it, herchoice could not have been more fortunately , the Minister of Police, owed his power andprestige not to the favour of the Emperor, but to theimmense popularity attaching to his name in Italy.^Whether the duties which he now assumed appealed tohis ambition or his dilettantism is impossible to determine,but, whatever his motives, Saliceti accepted the thanklessoffice with alacrity and became the confidential agent ofthe Queen. So rapidly did his credit at the Court increasethat, on the 30th November 1808, the French Ambassadorwas writing in the following strain : Monsieur SaHcetiis apparently obtaining great influence; there seemsindeed no one in the Kings party of suificient weight tocounte
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