Word: napoleone
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Dates: during 1950-1959
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...himself calmly busied himself with the here and now. To supply the government with ready cash, and to sop up excess purchasing power, wispy Fi put on sale 3.5% tax-free government bonds, which as a hedge against inflation will be pegged to the market value of the gold napoleon (last week 3.600 francs). While De Gaulle appealed to patriotism in launching the loan. Pinay remembered the practical side. In the hope of attracting urgently needed foreign exchange, Pinay was even prepared to let Frenchmen buy the bond with previously undeclared - and hence illegal - foreign currency holdings. "That law," explained...
Second lieutenant or ensign bars were pinned on--when they were pinned on--by dates or mothers in most cases. One conquerer-like Marine affixed his own bars, muttering words about "how Napoleon would have done...
...Even Napoleon's amorous after-hours relaxation has been meticulously recorded, once because a reigning actress, Mlle George, was so frightened by what she described as Bonaparte's epileptic seizure that she brought the whole palace running to their bed. An endless procession of soubrettes glided through Napoleon's boudoir (and left with bodices stuffed with bank notes). Scholar Savant is ready to take the word of contemporaries that the procession included the Emperor's sisters and stepdaughter...
...Josephine's château at Malmaison, Napoleon (a very bad shot) delighted in shooting at the Empress' swans to torment her. When in good spirits, he would slap Josephine on the shoulders while she begged, "Do stop it, do stop it, Bonaparte." Josephine's maid, Mlle. Avrillon, recalled, "We could estimate the degree of his good humor by how much he hurt us. One day when he was obviously better pleased than usual, he pinched my cheek so hard I could not repress a scream...
...dressed plainly, had to be told by his sister to wear, suspenders because "your breeches always seem to be on the point of falling down." Léger, his tailor, reported indignantly turning down the Emperor's request to patch a pair of hunting breeches. And though Napoleon ennobled all his brothers, behind the scenes he ranted like any Corsican bourgeois, broke up one family council by musing aloud: "Suppose we sum up. Lucien is an ingrate. Joseph a Sardanapalus. Louis a paralytic. Jerome a scamp. As for you, ladies, you know what you are." Thanks to Author Jean...