Napoleon Outsmarted by a Songstress

Napoleon liked to bend everything to his will—politics, people, even the arts. After hearing the star soprano Madame Catalani, he decided she wasn’t leaving Paris. He summoned her to the Tuileries, asked where she was going, and when she answered “London,” he cut her off: she would stay, on a salary of 100,000 francs a year, with two months’ vacation. “Consider it settled. Bon jour.”

Catalani was too intimidated to argue about her commitments abroad. A few days later the written terms were delivered to her home, as if her life were an imperial appointment. She refused to be bought—even with golden chains. So she vanished.

Disguised as a nun, she hurried to the coast, found a ship that was exchanging prisoners, and quietly bribed the captain for silence and help. When the vessel sailed, the “nun” was on board and France was behind her. Napoleon might have chased the runaway diva—but military troubles were brewing, and he had heavier business than hunting opera singers.