In 1801 Bolívar went to Paris, where he found Napoleon Bonaparte, as First Consul, undertaking his greatest labors of social reorganization after the long period of anarchy through which France had passed following the Revolution. Bonaparte was one of the most admired men at that time. He had come back from Egypt and Syria, had been victorious at Marengo and Hohenlinden, and had just signed the Peace of Lunéville. One does not wonder that Bolívar should admire him and that his letters should contain many expressions of enthusiasm about the great man of Europe.
In the same year he returned to Madrid and married María Teresa Toro, deciding to go back at once to Venezuela with his wife, to live peacefully, attending to his own personal business and property. But again fate dealt him a hard blow and shattered all the dreams and plans of the young man. His virtuous wife died in January, 1803, ten months after their arrival in Caracas. He had not yet reached his twenty-first year, and had already lost father, mother and wife. His nerves became steeled and his heart prepared for great works, for works requiring the concentration of mind which can be given only by men who have no intimate human connections or obligations. As a South American orator lately declared:[1] "Neither Washington nor Bolívar was destined to have children of his own, so that we Americans might call ourselves their children."
Bolívar decided immediately to leave for Europe. Nothing could keep him in his own country. He had loved his wife and his wife only could have led him to accept a life of ease and comfort. He decided never to marry again and, perhaps to assuage the pain in his heart, he decided to devote his time to the study of the great problems of his country, and to bend all his energies and strength to their solution. At the end of 1803, he was again in Madrid, giving his wife's father the sad news of their great loss.
[Footnote 1: Atilano Carnevali, on the occasion of placing a wreath before Washington's statue in Caracas, July 4, 1920.]
From Madrid, Bolívar went to Paris, and was in the city when the Empire was established. All the admiration the man of the Republic had won from Bolívar immediately crumbled to dust before the young American. "Since Napoleon has become a king," said Bolívar, "his glory to me seems like the brilliancy of hell." He did not attend the ceremony of Napoleon's coronation, and made him the object of bitter attacks when among his own friends. He never hesitated to speak of the liberty of America with all his acquaintances, who enjoyed his conversation in spite of the ideas that he supported.