Circumstances the most extraordinary have long kept me near the most
extraordinary man that ever existed. Admiration made me follow him,
without knowing him, and when I did know him, love alone would have
fixed me for ever near his person. The world is full of his glory, his
deeds, and his monuments; but no one knows the true shades of his
character, his private qualities, or the natural disposition of his
soul. This great void I undertake to fill up, and for such a task I
possess advantages unexampled in history.
I collected and recorded, day by day, all that I saw of Napoleon, all
that I heard him say, during the period of eighteen months in which I
was constantly about his person. In these conversations, which were full
of confidence, and which seemed to pass, as it were, in another world,
he could not fail to be portrayed by himself as if in a mirror, in every
point of view, and under every aspect. Henceforth the world may freely
study him: there can be no error in the materials.