five o’clock
If he was not inclined to talk , he reread the letters of the day before , or the pamphlets of the day , laughing at intervals with the hearty laugh of a great child . Then suddenly , as one awakening from a dream , he would spring to his feet and cry out : `` Write , Bourrienne ! '' Then he would sketch out the plan for some building to be erected , or dictate some one of those vast projects which have amazed -- let us say rather , terrified the world . At five o'clock he dined ; after dinner the First Consul ascended to Josephine 's apartments , where he usually received the visits of the ministers , and particularly that of the minister of foreign affairs , M. de Talleyrand . At midnight , sometimes earlier , but never later , he gave the signal for retiring by saying , brusquely : `` Let us go to bed . '' The next day , at seven in the morning , the same life began over again , varied only by unforeseen incidents . After these details of the personal habits of the great genius we are trying to depict under his first aspect , his personal portrait ought , we think , to come .