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Chap. ix]
NAPOLEON CORRESPONDENCE
327

and articles for the 'Moniteur,' revising the details of the budgets, giving instructions to architects as to alterations to be made at the Tuileries and the Church of the Madeleine, throwing an occasional sarcasm at Madame de Staël and the Parisian journals, interfering to put down a squabble at the Grand Opéra, carrying on a correspondence with the Sultan of Turkey and the Shah of Persia, so that, while his body was at Finkenstein, his mind seemed to be working at a hundred different places in Paris, in Europe, and throughout the world.

We find him in one letter asking Ney if he has duly received the muskets which have been sent him; in another he gives directions to Prince Jerome as to the shirts, great-coats, clothes, shoes, shakos, and arms to be served out to the Wurtemburg regiments; again he presses Cambacérès to forward to the army a double stock of corn—"The ifs and the buts," said he, "are at present out of season, and above all it must be done with speed." Then he informs Daru that the army want shirts, and that they don't come to hand. To Massena he writes, "Let me know if your biscuit and bread arrangements are yet completed." To the Grand Duc de Berg he gives directions as to the accoutrements of the cuirassiers—" They complain that the men want sabres; send an officer to obtain them at Posen. It is also said they want helmets; order that they be made at Ebling. . . . It is not by sleeping that one can accomplish anything." Thus no point of detail was neglected, and the energies of all were stimulated into action with extraordinary power. Though many of the Emperor's days were occupied by inspection of