Claude François de Méneval ( April 2 , 1778- Paris ✝ June 18 , 1850- Paris , buried in the cemetery of Montmartre ), private secretary of Napoleon I er and his closest collaborator 1802 to 1813 , was a memoir of the xix th century Claude François Menneval was born in Paris , at 19, rue des Marais Saint-Germain . In the hands of an English governess , Menneval learned the language of Shakespeare well enough, that he could, during the negotiations of the Treaty of Amiens , translate what was said and later write the letters by which the Empress Josephine asked British botanists to send seeds of rare plants to his garden of Malmaison . He studied at Mazarin College until it closed at the beginning of the French Revolution . Less