Well, the following words what Broers wrote, and he listed no source for that:

There were two guaranteed ways to make Napoleon quiver with something closer to anxiety than rage. One was to expose him to cats, which terrified him. The other was simply to mention Germaine de Staël.

PS: I just finished his part of Austerlitz, really terrifying:

Soult’s turn to face the enemy took a little longer. The Allied centre’s advance line, under the Austrian Langeron, had been too leisurely in leaving the Pratzen Heights to hit Zokolnitz, giving Davout time to reorganise and Soult to take position. Zokolnitz was bombarded by Allied artillery and momentarily taken, but at this point Davout unleashed his line regiments, who charged and drove the Russian troops back into Zokolnitz, and then caught them in the village, driving them from house to house, seizing several of their cannon and taking the first enemy standards of the day.
...
Lannes and Murat beat Bagration back, separating him from Lichtenstein’s cavalry, who fell back to join the Russian Imperial Guard, under Grand Duke Constantine. An attempt at a breakout led by a brave charge of Austrians lancers, the Uhlans, ended when they were cut down by artillery fire from the Zurlan and the Pratzen. The gap had been shut.
...
Grand Duke Constantine (the Tsar’s younger brother) was now isolated, with only Langeron and the reserves, but he had first tried to retake the Pratzen Heights with a frontal assault, and his elite troops, together with several Austrian battalions led by Ferdinand, had broken the first line of Bernadotte’s men easily, but they were soon halted.