LIBRARY 
 
 OF THE " 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA. 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 Class 
 
LIFE OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 
 
(Frontispiece.) NAPOLEON, EMPEBOE OF THE FRENCH. 
 
LIFE OF 
 
 NAPOLEON BONAPARTE 
 
 BY 
 
 CHARLES MACFARLANE 
 
 WITH 
 
 FIFTY-NINE ILLUSTRATIONS BY HORACE VERNET 9 
 RAFFET, AND OTHERS 
 
 GEORGE ROUTLEDGE AND SONS/ 
 
 LONDON} BROADWAY, LUDGATE HILL. 
 
 NEW YORK 
 9 LAFAYETTE PLACE. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 THE Publishers believe that in adding the " Life of Napo- 
 'eon Bonaparte" to their biographical series, they are 
 supplying a want that has long been felt by the public. 
 Although several works have issued from the English 
 press, in which the extraordinary career of Napoleon has 
 been treated at great length, and although many disputed 
 passages in his history have received the most minute and 
 searching investigation, the Publishers are not acquainted 
 with any volume which within a moderate compass and at 
 a small price contains the essence of the researches of late 
 years, and gives a fair and complete account of the life of 
 the French soldier and statesman. The present work is 
 intended to supply the deficiency. The re-establishment 
 of the Napoleon dynasty in France served to increase the 
 interest in the life and fortunes of the founder of this 
 wonderful family. In these pages, it is hoped that a fitting 
 memorial will be found of that hero who was once the 
 terror of the nations, and whose deeds have since attracted 
 the attention of the world. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 BOOK L 
 
 17691797. 
 
 Birth and descent of Napoleon Bonaparte The early portion of his career He joins the 
 army Literary attempts Service in Sardinia and Corsica Commands the artillery at 
 the Siege of Toulon, and is wounded there Intrigues at Paris Is entrusted with the 
 defence of the Convention Marriage with Josephine Receives from the Directors the /"^ 
 appointment of Commander-in-Chief of the Army of Italy His successes Lodi Arcole 
 Treaty of Leoben Jealousy of the Directory at the rising fame of Napoleon Capture 
 of Venice and Genoa Increased anxiety of the Directors Splendour of Napoleon's style 
 of living at Montebello He forms a Court there, and assumes the importance of an 
 irresponsible monarch Negotiations for peace Discussions between Napoleon and the 
 Directory Plan of the latter for forming Republics everywhere Treaty of Campo 
 Formio (Review of Napoleon's first campaign in I talyV Spoliation and peculation by 
 the French in Italy Napoleon's aspirations . i 112 
 
 BOOK IL 
 
 X797I799- 
 
 Napoleon at the Congress of Rastadt His return to Paris The Directors give him a 
 splendid public festival Goes on a tour of inspection along the coast of the British 
 Channel Is appointed to the command of the Army of the East Embarkation Perils 
 of the voyage Arrival in Ejgypt Battle of the Pyramids Insurrection at Cairo 
 Syrian Expedition Capture of El Arish, Gaza, and Jaffa Massacre of the prisoners- 
 Napoleon baffled before Acre by Sir Sidney Smith Disastrous retreat Return to Egypt 
 
viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. 
 
 Battle of Aboukir Intelligence of tlie state of affairs in Paris induces Napoleon to 
 quit the army in Egypt Appoints Kfeber as his successor Revolution in Paris Over- 
 throw ot the Directory Critical position of Napoleon Sieyes, Ducos and Bonaparte 
 appointed Consuls 113 161 
 
 BOOK III. 
 17991805. 
 
 Constitution of the year Eight Napoleon made First Consul, with Cambaceres and 
 Lebrun as his associates-TNapoleon assumes the command of the Army of Tfaly^- Pas- 
 sage of the Alps Battle of Marengo Fall of Italy Napoleon returns to Paris Plots 
 The Infernal Machine Peace of Luneville The English in Egypt Napoleon's 
 ideas on Religion Communications with the Pope The Concordat Negotiations 
 with England terminated by the treaty of^jjyens Expedition to St. Domingo Na- 
 poleon assumes the title of President of the Cisalpine Republic His aggressions 
 Made Consul for life Hjsjfcejj^fld? The Legion of Honour Rupture with England 
 Conspiracies Arrest of Pichegru, Georges, and General Moreau Murder of the 
 Duke d'Enghein Mysterious death of Captain Wright New Reign of Terror Napo- 
 leon made Emperor State Trials Executions Banishment of General Moreau. 
 
 162243 
 
 :o: 
 
 BOOK IV. 
 18051821. 
 
 Coronation of Napoleon Europe in arms-\Napoleon invades Germany^Battle of Auster- 
 litz Makes his brother Joseph King of Sicily and Naples, and Louis King of Holland 
 Battle of Jena- The Berlin Decree Battle of Pultush, Eylau, and Friedland 
 Treaty of Tilsit Isolation of England Napoleon departs for the Peninsula I? 
 recalled by the menacing attitude of Austria Battles of Eckmuhl, Aspern anft 
 Wagram War in the Tyrol Napoleon is divorced from Josephine, and marries 
 the_Archduchess Maria J.oinsa Quarrel with the Pope Immense extent of the 
 French Empire at this period Birth of the King of Rome-^-Russian Expe- 
 dition of i8i24-Perils of the advance Battle of Borodino Occupation of 
 Moscow The retreat its horrors The escape of a few fugitives out of 
 the thousands that had invaded Russia Napoleon at Paris Formation of 
 
TABLE OF CONTEA 
 
 ix 
 
 the Grand Alliance against him The Campaign of 1813 in Germany The great Battle 
 of Leipsic Napoleon's disastrous retreat The French are driven across the Rhine 
 Invasion of France by the Allies Capture of Paris Napoleon's abdication His arrival 
 and residence at Elba His departure thence The Hundred Days Waterloo Final 
 abdication Surrender Is sent to St. Helena by the English Government Last years 
 of his life His death Character ....,,,. 244368 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 Page 
 
 Birthplace of Napoleon ....... i 
 
 Studying Geography ....... 9 
 
 Napoleon the Pamphleteer ....... 14 
 
 Napoleon soliciting employment ...... 29 
 
 Bonaparte leading the attack ....... 26 
 
 The National Guard ....... 35 
 
 Napoleon in the Gallery of the Convention ..... 37 
 
 The Bridge of Lodi ....... 48 
 
 Napoleon's entry into Milan ....... 58 
 
 Battle of Tagliamento ....... 67 
 
 Napoleon and the Marquis del Gallo . . . . 7* 
 
 Delivery of Napoleon's letter to the Doge .... 75 
 
 Farewell to Italy ........ m 
 
 At Home in Paris ........ 112 
 
 Bonaparte receiving the Knights of Malta . . .118 
 
 At the Pyramids . ,..... 121 
 
 In the Desert . ..... 127 
 
 Entry into Cairo .... 139 
 
 Bonaparte departs for France . . . . . . . 147 
 
 Scene in the Council-Chamber .. 159 
 
 The First Consul going to the Luxembourg . . . . .161 
 
 The Three Consuls . . . . . . . 162 
 
 Napoleon descending the Alps ...... 169 
 
 Battle of Marengo . . . . . . . . 173 
 
 At a Conspirators' Rendezvous ..... 183 
 
 High Mass at Notre Dame ...... 199 
 
 Voting for the Life Consulship . . . . . . . 214 
 
 The First Consul's Court ....... 223 
 
 Arrest of Georges Cadoudal ....... 929 
 
LIST OF ILL USTRA TIONS. x i 
 
 An Imperial Ball at St. Cloud ...... 244 
 
 The Emperor visiting the Bivouacs ...... 949 
 
 Meeting of the Emperors ....... 251 
 
 Meeting of the Emperors on the Niemen ..... 261 
 
 Napoleon addressing the Tribunate . * . . . 264 
 
 Execution of Stapz . . . ; . . 279 
 
 First Meeting of the Emperor and Maria Louisa ... 281 
 
 Kidnapping the Pope ........ 287 
 
 Napoleon at the Niemen ....... 299 
 
 Battle of Smolensko . . . . . . . . 303 
 
 First sight of Moscow .,.... 307 
 
 Commencement of the Retreat . . . . . * .311 
 
 Crossing the Beresina ....... 315 
 
 Defeat of the Allies ........ 324 
 
 Napoleon at the Battle of Leipsic ...... 329 
 
 Napoleon receives tidings of the Capitulation of Paris . . .341 
 
 At Elba ......... 345 
 
 * 4 Vive 1'Empereur !** ........ 348 
 
 Farewell to France . . . . . . . . 361 
 
 Longwood, Napoleon's Residence at St. Helena .... 363 
 
 Napoleon's Grave at St. Helena . . , . 368 
 
Birthplace of Napoleon. 
 
 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 BOOK I. 
 
 IVTAPOLEON BONAPARTE by descent, both paternal and 
 * maternal, and by birth, was a Corsican. 
 
 The mountainous but not unfruitful island of Corsica, which for 
 some time previously had be'en subjected and occupied by the 
 Saracens, or Arabs, from the neighbouring coasts of Barbary, was 
 conquered by the great and warlike Republic of Genoa in the early 
 part of the eleventh century, or about fifty years before the conquest 
 of England by the Normans. The Mussulmans were exterminated 
 
2 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 or expelled ; the rude native islanders, originally settlers from the 
 coast of Italy, were somewhat civilized ; churches were erected ; a 
 Christian bishop was sent from Rome to reside among them ; and, 
 although turbulent by nature, the Corsicans rather quietly submitted 
 to the Genoese for more than 500 years. The island received an 
 Italian civilization, long the highest and best in Europe ; but this 
 did not penetrate into the interior, which remained, down to our 
 own days, in a semi -barbarous condition. Towards the close of the 
 sixteenth century the greatness of Genoa began rapidly to decline, 
 and from that period the Corsicans were never tranquil. One rebel- 
 lion or insurrection succeeded another, the object of all being to 
 expel the Genoese, and turn the island into an independent state. 
 In 1736 the Corsicans in arms elected for their king the noted Theo- 
 dore, a poor German adventurer, who finished his career as a prisoner 
 for debt in the King's Bench, London. Theodore's reign was very 
 short (he had to fly for his life from those who had voted him a 
 srown), but the war against the Genoese continued with great fierce- 
 ness and cruelty on both sides ; and when it was terminated, in the 
 year 1740, it was through the powerful aid given by the French to 
 the Genoese. From this time the French were more masters of the 
 island than were those who had applied to them for assistance ; but 
 their authority was almost confined within the narrow limits of the 
 coasts, and the forts, towers, and castles, which had been built by 
 the old Italian Republic. In the mountains, and in the forests of the 
 interior, the native population held out for independence ; every 
 man was armed, the women often fought like men, and the French 
 sustained not a few surprises and reverses. It was as savage a war 
 as ever raged in the mountains of Catalonia, Calabria, or Albania. 
 As a general rule, no quarter was allowed to the Genoese. In the 
 year 1755, the Corsicans elected to the supreme command of their 
 forces the celebrated Pascal Paoli, afterwards the intimate associate 
 and friend of Dr. Johnson, Oliver Goldsmith, Sir Joshua Reynolds, 
 and all that constellation of ability and genius which shed a lustre 
 over England in the early part of the reign of George III. Though 
 only a private citizen, Paoli might have been king by name, as he 
 was for a considerable time in fact. Under him the islanders gained 
 
1769.] DATE OF HIS BIRTH. $ 
 
 many triumphs in the field, and almost rooted out the last remnant 
 of the power of Genoa. But at the end of the year 1764 France sent 
 over six French battalions, under the command of the Count de Mar- 
 bceuf, an able, amiable, and experienced veteran, who was destined to 
 exercise a great influence over the fortunes of the Bonaparte family. 
 In 1768, nearly four years after the arrival of the Count de Marbceuf, 
 the Republic of Genoa, finding that she could do nothing with the 
 island herself, made a formal sale of Corsica to the Crown of France. 
 For a short time the war of independence lingered on in the interior ; 
 but then Paoli was compelled to abandon his native country, and 
 to seek an asylum in England. 
 
 It was during the last heavings of this tempest that Napoleon saw 
 the light. He was born at Ajaccio, on the i$th of August, 1769. 
 
 An old dispute as to the date of his birth has been recently re- 
 vived and discussed with great and unnecessary heat. The register 
 of Napoleon's first marriage with Josephine Beauharnais, preserved 
 in the mairie of the second arrondissement or quarter of Paris, 
 where he was married in 1796, fixes the date of his birth on the 
 5th of February, 1768; and many persons, relying on this docu- 
 ment, still maintain that this is the exact date.. Yet, many years 
 ago, M. Eckard, a painstaking Swiss, and a writer of some emi- 
 nence, who very carefully examined the question, was convinced by 
 an extract from the Registres de 1'Etat Civil of Ajaccio, which was 
 copied for him on the spot, that Napoleon was really born in that 
 city on the i$th of August, 1769. A short time before his own 
 death, M. Eckard gave his proofs in a short essay entitled, " Bona- 
 parte est-il n Frangais ? " (Was Bonaparte born a French sub- 
 ject ?) Bourrienne, who had known Napoleon from the age of nine 
 years, was decidedly of opinion that he was born on the 1 5th of 
 August, 1769, a few months after the union of Corsica with France. 
 M. Michaud, jun., who contributed a very full, and, on the whole, 
 very good memoir of the great man to the " Biographic Universelle," 
 found this date confirmed by the register of Napoleon's military 
 services, preserved in the archives of the War Office at Paris ; and 
 writing with these documents before him, he could not doubt that 
 the true date was August I5th, 1769, the day which Napoleon, when 
 
4 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 he had attained to greatness, caused to be kept as his birthday. 
 But how shall we account for the date indisputably inserted in the 
 marriage register ? Josephine was his senior by several years. Was 
 it out of a feeling of gallantry towards her that he then made him- 
 self more than eighteen months older than he really was ? Yet, at 
 that period, when he had his fortune to make, and indeed afterwards, 
 when his fortune was more than made, one must think he would 
 have had a strong and evident motive for proving that he was by 
 birth a subject of France by law a Frenchman. But whatever 
 may have induced this extraordinary man to anticipate his birth at 
 the time of his wedding, there seems no longer any reason to doubt 
 that his anniversary is now celebrated on the right day. 
 
 The Bonaparte family was of the class styled "famiglte di 
 cittadini? or notables of Corsica, a sort of native gentry, for the 
 Genoese did not recognize in Corsica any nobles or patricians ex- 
 cept those who were inscribed in the Golden Book at Genoa. The 
 ancestors of Napoleon appear to have emigrated from Genoa to 
 Ajaccio about the end of* the fifteenth century. Another family, or 
 distant branch of the same family, bearing the name of Buonaparte, 
 was already settled in the town of San Miniato, in Tuscany, and 
 since that period it has produced several men of learning. A Niccolo 
 Buonaparte, in the sixteenth century, published a comedy, entitled, 
 " La Vedova," or " The Widow." There was also a Jacopo Buona- 
 parte, the reputed author of a narrative of the storming and pillage 
 of Rome by the imperial troops in 1527 ; but his title to the author- 
 ship of the work has been disputed. One Ranieri Buonaparte was 
 professor in the University of Pisa, in Tuscany, in the early part of 
 the eighteenth century.* These few facts seem to comprise all that 
 is really known of the race. 
 
 But other accounts speak of the Buonapartes as a distinguished 
 family as early as the twelfth century, and describe them as having 
 taken part in those factions and wars of the Guelphs and Ghibel- 
 
 * Andre Vieusseux, "Napoleon Bonaparte, his Sayings and his Deeds," an admirable 
 compendium, written by one thoroughly well versed in Italian history, and in the history 
 of the whole of continental Europe, from the year 1790, and the outbreak of the great 
 French Revolution, 
 
PARENTS OF NAPOLEON. 
 
 lines which so long devastated Italy. According to these relations, 
 which we do not pretend to deny, although they are unsupported 
 by any existing or accessible evidence, they were Ghibellines, like 
 Dante, and, like that immortal poet, were persecuted and exiled 
 from Tuscany by the victorious Guelphs. They were afterwards 
 settled at Bologna, Sarzana, Treviso, and other places, where their 
 armorial bearings, sculptured in stone, were to be seen in the facade 
 of houses. For a long time Napoleon is said to have prided him- 
 self not a little on the advantages of gentle birth and the antiquity 
 of his family ; and if at a later period he affected to despise such 
 matters, his sincerity may be doubted, as, at the same time, he gave 
 a friendly reception to genealogists who traced his descent from the 
 most ancient House of Brunswick, to the Greek emperors of the 
 House of Comnenus, and even to Attila the Hun ! In his first 
 Italian campaigns he received as friends the magistrates of Treviso, 
 who hastened to assure him that his noble ancestors had once 
 governed their Republic ; but fifteen years after this, when his father- 
 in-law, the Emperor of Austria, paid him a similar compliment, he 
 replied that his patent of nobility dated from the battle of Monte 
 Notte (the first victory which he gained over the Austrians), and 
 that he preferred being the founder, the Rudolph of Hapsburg, ot 
 his dynasty. 
 
 His father, Charles Bonaparte, exercised the profession of a lawyer 
 at Ajaccio, as the fortunes of the family had declined. He had 
 previously studied in the University of Pisa. It is frequently said 
 that Charles had there taken the degree of Doctor of Civil Law ; but 
 the short time he stayed at Pisa, and his very early marriage, seem 
 to cast some doubt on this assertion. He was a remarkably hand- 
 some man, and said to be very eloquent, as Corsicans very frequently 
 are. He was the bosom friend, and, according to some, a relative 
 of Pascal de Paoli. When scarcely nineteen years old he married 
 Letitia Ramolini, who had not completed her sixteenth year, and 
 who was celebrated in Corsica as the most beautiful young woman 
 of her day. The family of Ramolini, said to be descended from an 
 ancient noble house of Naples, appears to have been in about the 
 same condition and circumstances as that of Bonaparte. Both in- 
 
6 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 disputably belonged to the gentry of the island, and would have 
 been classed among the nobility in almost any parts of Italy. The 
 proud Genoese, with their Golden Book and their exclusions, in- 
 censed families of this class, and made in Corsica insurgents and 
 patriots of many who otherwise would have lived quietly under their 
 government. When Paoli, who had often beaten the Genoese, at- 
 tempted to oppose the power of the French, who had purchased the 
 island, Carlo Bonaparte took the field with him, and although he 
 was scarcely more than twenty years old, he acted as Paoli's aide- 
 de-camp and secretary. His young wife, who had already been 
 delivered of her son Joseph, and who was then pregnant with Napo- 
 leon, accompanied her husband, sharing in the hardships and 
 dangers of a partisan warfare, over the rugged mountains of that 
 difficult island, until the defeat of the Corsicans at Ponte Novo 
 obliged Paoli to give up the unequal contest, and to emigrate to 
 England. It has been remarked that some physiologists ascribe to 
 these circumstances the restless disposition of Napoleon for war ; 
 he is reported to have said himself that he never felt so happy and 
 so well as during a campaign, when riding sixty miles in a day, and 
 that his health generally declined in peace and repose.* 
 
 In the latter years of his own life, Napoleon was heard to regret 
 the defection of his father. " Paoli," said he, " was a great man : 
 he ought to have followed his fortunes, and to have fallen with him!" 
 He, however, was not consistent in the views he took of this case. 
 For us, it is curious to remark that, if Carlo Bonaparte had accom- 
 panied Paoli in his flight, his son Napoleon would have received an 
 English education, and would have become, in all probability, an 
 officer in our army, like the late Count Rivarola, and many others 
 of his Corsican countrymen. Nay, it might even have happened 
 that the birth of Napoleon should have occurred in England. But, 
 upon the final submission of Corsica to France, about the middle of 
 June, 1769, Carlo Bonaparte, making terms with Count Marbceuf, 
 retired to his native town, and about two months after, Napoleon, 
 his second child, was born there. In his baptismal register at 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. Boumenne. . 
 
1778-1783-] MILITARY SCHOOL AT BRIENNE. 7 
 
 Ajaccio, his family name is spelt both Buonaparte and Bonaparte ; 
 the former being more in accordance with the correct or Tuscan 
 orthography, but the second agreeing better with the common pro- 
 nunciation of most Italians, who, in speaking, say Bono, Instead of 
 Buono. His father, and other members of his family, signed Buona- 
 parte ; but Napoleon himself, from the date of his first Italian cam- 
 paigns, adopted the signature of Bonaparte, probably because it was 
 shorter and better adapted to French pronunciation : he became 
 known to the world as Bonaparte, and his own spelling, as registered 
 in his own despatches, proclamations, and other documents, ought 
 now to be universally adopted.* 
 
 Carlo Bonaparte had two uncles : Napoleon, who was a magis- 
 trate, and died at Corte, in Corsica, in Paoli's time ; and Luciano* 
 who was a priest and Archdeacon of Ajaccio. Both these members 
 of the family appear to have been much respected by their country- 
 men. Carlo Bonaparte transferred to Count Marbceuf the devotion 
 he had previously professed to Paoli, and the Count became the 
 friend and protector of the lawyer and his wife and children. When 
 in the year 1770 the Count, as Governor of Corsica, "convoked the 
 three Estates of that island, the family of Bonaparte was registered 
 in the order of the nobility, and Carlo, as its representative, attended 
 the Assembly. Shortly afterwards he was appointed Counsellor and 
 King's Assessor to the Judicial Court, for the city and province of 
 Ajaccio. In 1777, after the accession of the amiable and well-in- 
 tentioned Louis XVI., Carlo, with other deputies of the nobility of 
 Corsica, was sent to Paris and the Court of Versailles. While in 
 the French capital, through the patronage of Count Marbceuf, Carlo 
 obtained a bourse, or gratuitous admission, to the College of Autun 
 for his eldest son Joseph ; and another in the Military School of 
 Brienne for Napoleon. He afterwards obtained, through the same 
 recommendation, a pensioner's place for his eldest daughter Mari- 
 anne in the Royal Institution of St. Louis de St. Cyr. Three children 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. Napoleon's amiable brother Louis, late King of Holland, &c., was 
 very angry with Sir Walter Scott for spelling the name in the true Italian manner with the 
 Better u. The text will explain what very little reason there was for such anger. 
 
8 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 were thus provided for. At the time the family was in straitened 
 circumstances, owing to certain lawsuits which Carlo had to sustain 
 about a disputed inheritance, and also concerning a marshy tract of 
 land called " Le Saline," which, under the encouragement of the local 
 administration, he had undertaken to drain and bring into cultiva- 
 tion. 
 
 The infant Napoleon was nursed by a Corsican paesana, or coun- 
 trywoman, whose memory he cherished, and who, with her children 
 and grandchildren was remembered in his last will.* This good 
 woman paid him a visit at the palace of the Tuileries, when he was 
 at the height of his splendour, and returned to Corsica loaded with 
 his gifts.f Napoleon first left Corsica for the Military School at 
 Brienne in 1778, when he was about nine years old. There was 
 nothing very striking in his boyhood ; he has said himself that he 
 was only a stubborn and inquisitive child. He was essentially Italian. 
 At Brienne, where he spent not quite six years, he learned to speak 
 French, and became distinguished by his aptitude for mathematics, 
 but made little progress in Latin and general literature. Pichegru 
 was for a time his monitor in the mathematical class. Bourrienne 
 (afterwards his private secretary), who was his school companion 
 and his only friend at Brienne, says that at this time Napoleon was 
 noticeable chiefly for his Italian complexion, the keenness of his eye, 
 and a certain abrupt and bitter tone in his conversation. He was 
 poor and proud. His more mercurial and more affluent school- 
 fellows looked upon him as a needy foreigner, and he keenly felt 
 their jibes and sneers. Countries may be annexed and politically 
 incorporated, but the character, language, and habits of a people are 
 not to be changed quite so soon. In France a Corsican is still a 
 foreigner, and in that Italian island a Frenchman is still more alien. 
 One day, in a pet, young Napoleon told Bourrienne that he did not 
 like his countrymen, and that he would live to do them mischief. 
 Bourrienne states that he studied history assiduously, especially 
 classical history. This he must have done in French translations 
 and epitomes, without undergoing the sobering process of construing 
 
 * Montholon, " Memoires," &c. t "Biographic Univer-elle." 
 
CONDUCT A T SCHOOL. 
 
 Studying Geography 
 
 Latin and interpreting Greek. It has been conjectured that he might 
 have derived from Greek and Roman history those notions of glory 
 and conquest which afterwards urged him on. There is a report made 
 to his Majesty Louis XVI. by M. de Keralis, Inspector- General of 
 the Military Schools of France in 1783, in which young Bonaparte 
 was described as of excellent constitution, obedient, polite and 
 grateful, and very regular in his conduct. " Very forward in the 
 mathematical studies, tolerably well acquainted with history and 
 geography, has made but little progress in Latin, belles lettres, and 
 other accomplishments, bears a good character, would make a good 
 sea officer, deserves to be transferred to the Military School at 
 Paris." In consequence of this report he was transferred to Paris 
 
10 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 in October, 1783, to continue his studies until he should attain the 
 age for entering the army as an officer of the French monarch. 
 
 The pecuniary difficulties of his father continued. The establish- 
 ment of the Paris school, and the manner of living of the pupils, 
 were upon a footing of expensive indulgence which ill agreed with 
 young Bonaparte's finances, and whkh shocked his notions of regu- 
 larity and economy. In a very remarkable letter addressed to 
 Father Berton, his late superior at Brienne, he exposed such a 
 system of education, saying truly that it was a bad preparation for 
 the hardships attendant upon the military profession. Bourrienne 
 has given a copy of this letter. In the regulations which he after- 
 wards drew up for his own military school of Fontainebleau, Napo- 
 leon enforced the principles which he had thus early expressed. 
 Both the letter and the regulations merit the attention of those who 
 would now remodel our own military schools at Woolwich and 
 Sandhurst 
 
 Young reformers are very seldom popular among those with whom 
 they are associated. Napoleon's spirit of observation, criticism, and 
 censure, and his active, restless disposition, appear to have attracted 
 the attention of his superiors at the Paris school, who hastened the 
 period of his examination, as if anxious to get rid of a troublesome 
 guest* While there he manifested a strong taste for military evolu- 
 tions and combinations. One of his teachers said, " He is Corsican 
 by birth and disposition. He will become a great man if circum- 
 stances favour him." Having passed his examination by the cele- 
 brated Laplace in a satisfactory manner, he was appointed second 
 lieutenant in the Artillery Regiment de la Fere, and joined his regi- 
 ment at Valence, a town pleasantly situated on the banks of the 
 Rhone, between Lyons and Avignon. His father Carlo Bonaparte 
 had just died at Montpelier, in the south of France, of an ulcer in 
 the stomach, in the thirty-ninth year of his age, leaving a family of 
 five sons, Joseph, Napoleon, Lucien, Louis, and Jerome ; and three 
 daughters, Marianne (afterwards Elise Baciocchi), Annunziata (after- 
 wards Pauline Borghese), and Carletta (afterwards Caroline Murat). 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. 
 
BONAPARTE, LIEUTENANT OF ARTILLERY. 
 
1785.] FIRST COMMISSION. II 
 
 In all Madame Letitia had borne her husband thirteen children, 
 and yet, at the time of her husband's death, she was still a hand- 
 some woman. In her old age, when we ourselves frequently saw 
 her at Rome, she was a dignified and graceful matron, with con- 
 siderable remains of classical beauty both in her person and in her 
 face. She certainly looked one proper to be a mother of kings and 
 queens. We were young at that period, but we believe such to have 
 been the impression produced by the personal appearance of 
 "Madame Mere" on older and far more experienced observers. 
 Napoleon always spoke of her with respect and admiration. " She 
 had," he used to say, " the head of a man on the shoulders of a 
 woman." Left without a guide and protector, she was compelled 
 to take upon herself the direction of family affairs ; and the burden 
 was not too much for her strength. She administered everything 
 with a degree of sagacity not to be expected from her age and sex. 
 She soon had to contend with extreme difficulties, and even with 
 absolute pecuniary distress. Under these severe trials she became 
 acutely sensible to the evils of poverty and to the value of money. 
 The habit did not forsake her in after life, when strict economy 
 seemed^no longer necessary. She was even accused of avarice, but 
 she appears to have been only economical. A homely adage was 
 often in her mouth, " It is well to provide for the rainy day ! " and 
 she continued to apply the proverb when her son was Emperor and 
 master of the resources of one-half of Europe. They varied in dis- 
 positions, abilities, and appearance, and various opinions may be 
 entertained of the merits of each and all of them ; but it will remain 
 an indisputable fact that this Corsican dame was the mother of a 
 well-favoured, distinguished family. 
 
 At Valence, where Napoleon first joined the army, he remained 
 between two and three years, during which he diligently improved 
 himself in military studies. Some complained that he was apt to 
 be morose and testy, but on the whole he appears to have been 
 rather a favourite with his French brother-officers. At this time 
 he was more at ease in money matters, as, in addition to his pay, 
 he received a small yearly allowance from Corsica, furnished, most 
 probably, by his father's uncle, the archdeacon. 
 
12 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 In 1788, his regiment was removed to Lyons, and shortly after- 
 wards to Auxonne, in Burgundy. During these changes of quarters 
 he obtained leave to visit Paris, which was then beginning to be a 
 focus of political agitation ; for the financial embarrassments of the 
 Government had induced Louis XVI. to convoke the States General, 
 and reform and mutation were the order of the day. In fact, the 
 great Revolution, which was to sweep everything before it, and to 
 uproot with that which was bad nearly all that was morally and 
 politically good, had already commenced in the stormy capital of 
 France. The young artillery officer may well be excused for having 
 caught the prevailing fever of political excitement. It had trans- 
 ported out of their senses thousands of older and wiser heads. 
 Doing as others did, Napoleon overlooked his duties as a soldier, 
 and took up his pen to write for the public press. He could not 
 spell French correctly, but that was of small moment, for there were 
 born Frenchmen, now writing and publishing, who spelled scarcely 
 betterthan he, and the printers could well correct the proofs. Of 
 political science he knew nothing, but even here he could be scarcely 
 more ignorant than the majority of his competitors for literary fame. 
 Of the sincerity of his convictions if convictions they may be 
 called we have not the slightest doubt. He was, for a very short 
 time, a thorough believer in the perfectibilian dogmas of the day. 
 Those provincial academies which had first tempted Jean Jacques 
 Rousseau into the field of literature,* continued to offer prizes for the 
 best essays on subjects fixed by themselves. Being subjected fro 
 the prevalent influence, the Academy of Lyons now proposed this 
 question " Which are the most important truths and feelings to be 
 inculcated in order to render mankind happy?" Our young artil- 
 lerist became a candidate for the prize. At the close of his life he 
 is said to have declared that the gold medal was awarded to him, 
 and a romantic story is told by Montholon and others, detailing 
 how Talleyrand recovered the original manuscript for its author, 
 
 . * Rousseau's first production was an essay for a prize proposed by the Academy of 
 Dijon, on the question, " Have the Arts and Sciences contributed to the corruption or 
 purification of morals ? " 
 
1789-90.] LITERARY EFFORTS. *$ 
 
 and how the Emperor Napoleon thrust it into the fire to destroy 
 such evidence of his youthful folly. We confess that in this matter, 
 as in hundreds of others, we suspect rather the veracity of his 
 Boswells than that of Napoleon himself. It is now proved posi- 
 tively that M. Daounou was declared to be the victor, although, on 
 account of the summary suppression of the academies by the Revo- 
 lution, he never received the medal.* 
 
 Napoleon had commenced writing a history of Corsica. With 
 his manuscript he introduced himself to the free-thinking, very 
 popular Abbe* Raynal, author of " Philosophical and Political 
 History of the Establishments and Commerce of Europeans in 
 the Two Indies," and of other widely diffused works, which all, 
 more or less, partook of the revolutionary, subversive spirit. It 
 appears that Raynal gave the handsome young soldier a kind re- 
 ception, listened with pleasure to his talk about his native country, 
 and encouraged him to go on with its history. About the close of 
 the year 1789, Napoleon went to visit his mother at Ajaccio, and it 
 was from Corsica that he sent the MS. of the first volume of his 
 history to the Abbe* Raynal, with a letter, the autograph of which 
 has been preserved, and is remarkable for its faults of French ortho- 
 graphy a slovenly habit of which, throughout life, Bonaparte never 
 entirely got rid.t The work was never finished, and the first 
 volume was not printed, which Napoleon said, long after, that he 
 was very glad of, as that volume was, like the essay sent to the 
 Academy at Lyons, "written in the spirit of the day, stuffed full of 
 republican maxims, with nothing but liberty from beginning to end, 
 and a great deal too much of that sort of thing ! " It was believed 
 that the original MS. had perished, but it was reported, eight years 
 ago, that a well-known Italian bibliographer announced that a copy 
 was discovered, and that it was going to be printed with other 
 youthful works of the late Emperor. It will well become his 
 
 * " Biographic Universelle." Here the writer, M. Michaud, jun., cites as his authority 
 M. Pericaud, librarian of Lyons, in his "Melanges Biographiques et Litteraires," pub- 
 lished in 1828. 
 
 t A. Vieusseux. This early letter has been often printed. It will be found in a foot* 
 note to M. Michaud's " Biography " 
 
MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 Napoleon the Pamphleteer. 
 
 nephew, Louis Napoleon, to suppress such juvenilia, seeing that 
 their author himself would not allow them to appear. 
 
 Napoleon was still in Corsica in 1790, when De Paoli, the emi- 
 grant patriot, having been recalled by a decree of the National 
 Assembly from his place of refuge in England, was invested by 
 Louis XVI. with the governorship of his native island, as the person 
 best qualified to keep that island tranquil. The now aged chief 
 accepted the appointment upon honourable conditions and with 
 praiseworthy views. He hoped that a constitutional form of govern- 
 ment, like that under which he had so long lived in England, was 
 about to be established in France, whence it would extend its happy 
 influence to his native country ; he had his commission from the 
 King, who had sworn to the Constitution, and whom he could not 
 expect to see carried to the scaffold by his people. A deputation 
 
1790.] JOINS HIS CORPS. IS 
 
 of Corsicans repaired to Paris to grace the return of their veteran 
 leader, and escort him home, and Joseph Bonaparte, Napoleon's 
 elder brother, was one of these deputies. Young Napoleon was 
 introduced to Paoli, who well remembered his father, and who now 
 treated the son as a family acquaintance. When talking of these 
 times in after life, Napoleon was accustomed to say that Paoli was 
 a man of Plutarch's " Lives " a man cast in the antique mould. 
 It is affirmed by many, that on the first return of the veteran he 
 bound himself to his service, and looked up to him for advancement 
 and fortune. 
 
 Towards the end of 1790, Bonaparte rejoined his artillery corps 
 at Auxonne, where he lived in the barracks with his youngei 
 brother, Louis, whom he was instructing in mathematics, in the 
 expectation that he also would obtain a commission in the army. 
 While thus engaged, he wrote a violent invective, in the shape of a 
 letter, against one of his own countrymen, Matteo Buttafuoco, then 
 a Deputy from Corsica to the National Assembly, whom he charged 
 with political dishonesty and want of patriotism charges which, 
 however ill founded, were now putting in jeopardy the liberty and 
 even the lives of those against whom they were produced. Matteo 
 Buttafuoco has been described as one of the most honourable men 
 in the Assembly. However this may be, the attack of the young 
 artillerist was libellous, gross, declamatory, and turgid was a pro- 
 duction to please the low Jacobin clubs of that mad period, but to 
 be regretted and deplored by its author afterwards. Napoleon 
 printed it at his own expense, which must have been no trifling tax 
 to one so very poor. As there were no printers in Auxonne, he 
 carried his MS. to the neighbouring town of Dole, whither he used 
 to walk on foot from Auxonne to correct the proofs. The distance 
 from one town to the other is about twelve miles. As hotels were 
 expensive, he returned to his barracks at Auxonne in the evening. 
 He was a diligent and enthusiastic reader of Rousseau, whose 
 writings, perhaps even more than those of Voltaire, contributed to 
 tear up society by its roots, and to give to the French Revolution its 
 unwise and fatal direction. We have seen an autograph letter 
 which he wrote at this time, earnestly requesting his correspondent 
 
1 6 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 to send him the " Memoirs of Madame de Warens," which formed 
 a supplement (or so he said) to the " Confessions " of Rousseau.* 
 
 We believe that these memoirs were supposititious. 
 
 In the month of April, 1791, he was transferred, as first lieutenant, 
 to the 4th Regiment of Artillery, stationed in his old quarters at 
 Valence. His patriotic diatribe against Buttafuoco, copies of which 
 he had distributed among the clubs, gained him some notoriety. 
 The Jacobin clubs were now indoctrinating the army, and winning 
 over to their cause vast numbers of soldiers and non-commissioned 
 officers, of whom we may pretty safely say that nine of every ten 
 expected to be colonels or generals under the "liberty and equality" 
 system. Party spirit inevitably began to run high in the various 
 regiments. Most of the commissioned officers were men of birth 
 and Royalist ; Bonaparte, who professed the new ideas, had frequent 
 altercations with them, and thus obtained the reputation of being 
 an enthusiastic Jacobin. Although in heart he was always an 
 aristocrat, this gained him popular favour and consideration ; and 
 in brief time the Royalist officers followed the tide of emigration to 
 the banks of the Rhine, and, by so doing, left open the field to 
 Bonaparte, and such as he, who very soon gained the posts they 
 had left vacant. In February, 1792, before he was twenty- three 
 years old, Bonaparte was made a captain of artillery ; so rapidly 
 in these days of whirlwind did promotion run in favour of those 
 who did not take the losing side. But degradation often followed 
 promotion with equally rapid strides. The fate of the officers of 
 the army,, as that of all other classes or interests, was then in the 
 hands of those who ruled the clubs at Paris. Thither the young 
 captain repaired without leave granted or asked, in order to solicit 
 active employment. Although military discipline was greatly re- 
 laxed, his absence from his corps was noticed, and he was super- 
 seded. He remained unemployed in the capital for several months, 
 
 * This letter was preserved as a great curiosity, by a bookseller at Geneva. It is many 
 years since we saw it, but we think we can distinctly remember that it consisted only of 
 lour short lines, and that in those lines there were two errors of French orthography. W 
 mention these trifles merely as evidence of haste and negligence. In this hurry he always 
 wrote. His dictation was so rapid that very few could follow it. 
 
1782.] OUTBREAK OF THE REVOLUTION. 17 
 
 living chiefly with his Brienne schoolfellow, Bourrienne, who was 
 about as poor and as friendless as himself. He witnessed the in- 
 surrection of the 2oth of June, 1792, when the Parisian mob, for 
 the first time, forced their way into the Tuileries. He strongly ex- 
 pressed to Bourrienne his indignation both at the conduct of the 
 populace and the pusillanimity or indecision of the Court saying 
 that with a few pieces of cannon he could have swept away all that 
 rabble ; and when he saw the King standing near an open window 
 with a red cap on his head, he exclaimed, " This is the way to lose 
 a kingdom ! " He was obliged to conceal the feeling for four or five 
 years, but from this day he ever retained a loathing of the scene he 
 had witnessed, and a strong dislike to armed mobs, and to all people 
 in arms who were not regular soldiers. On the loth August, 1792, 
 he was a spectator of the second attack of the Parisian mob upon 
 the Tuileries, which led to the bloody massacre of the faithful 
 Swiss Guard, and to the imprisonment of Louis XVI. and his family 
 in the tower of the Temple. He looked on with a calm calculating 
 eye, criticising the manner in which the palace was attacked, and 
 the way in which it was defended. All this was of use to him 
 afterwards, when he was called upon to defend the Tuileries, as the 
 seat of the Convention, against a similar attack. He is said to 
 have declared at a much later period, that if he had been, at this 
 momentous crisis, a general officer, he would have fought for the 
 King ;* but, being only a poor subaltern of artillery, he took part 
 with the Republic, which promised quick advancement, though he 
 did not approve of its excesses. Meanwhile he was soliciting to 
 be actively employed. From being invaded, the French had become 
 invaders : with one army, under Dunjgpjier, they were overrunning 
 Belgium, and with another, under Cusine, they were menacing 
 Germany ; but Bonaparte could not yet be appointed to either of 
 these forces. At last, towards the close of this stormy month of 
 August, 1792, he received a commission to serve in the expedition of 
 Admiral Truget, which was to scour the Mediterranean, and act more 
 
 * The day after the captivity of the King he wrote to one of his uncles : " Do not be 
 uneasy about your nephews ; they will be able to find some place for themselves." 
 
 2 
 
l8 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 especially against Sardinia and Naples. As England had not yet 
 been forced into the war, there was nothing at sea capable of oppo- 
 sing the Republicans. Bonaparte was to go to Corsica and join the 
 expedition there. He was embarrassed at the moment by a family 
 incident. The Assembly, which was now effacing everything that 
 bore the royal impress, had just abolished the Royal Institution of 
 St. Louis de St. Cyr, and the young ladies who had been placed 
 there for education were now preparing to return home. Ill pro- 
 vided with money, Bonaparte hastened to St. Cyr, to look after his 
 eldest sister, Marianne, who had been put upon the establishment 
 through the influence of the Count de Marbceuf ; and he wrote to 
 the administrators of the district of Versailles, in which the school 
 was situated, to ask for his sister the travelling allowance of one 
 livre (tenpence) per league, in order that she might return to Corsica 
 under his care. 
 
 The administrators of Versailles referred the matter to the maire 
 and municipal council of St. Cyr, who acceded to the petition, and 
 made out an order for 352 livres, as the travelling money of Demoi- 
 selle Marianne Bonaparte, to return to Corsica.* That very same 
 day Napoleon removed his sister to Paris, and the following day 
 both set out for the south. At the time of their departure the streets 
 of Paris might literally be said to be running with blood. It was 
 Sunday, the 2nd of September, memorable for the massacre of 
 priests and political prisoners, who were dragged out of their dun- 
 geons and slaughtered in heaps by the mob. From the capital 
 these horrible practices extended into the provinces, yet the brother 
 and sister, who had contrived to pass the barriers of Paris just before 
 they were closed preparatory to the butchery, travelled through these 
 frightful scenes without let or hindrance. It was a time to make 
 professions of an ardent Jacobinism, and no doubt such profes- 
 sions were made both by the young officer and the young lady. A 
 suspicion of aristocracy was then death. Under the circumstances 
 
 * Michaud, " Biographic Universelle." In this work Napoleon's letter, with a postscript 
 written by his sister, is given at full length from the original text. The demoiselle's French 
 orthography is quite as defective as her brother's 'JChe letter or petition is dated Septem- 
 ber ist, 1792. 
 
CORSICA. 
 
 Napoleon soliciting employment. 
 
 almost any other man than Bonaparte would have waited till the 
 end of this sanguinary crisis, but he would not delay one moment, 
 or diverge a mile fram his route. 
 
 On his arrival in Corsica, Bonaparte reported himself to Paoli, 
 who was yet Governor, and to the military authorities, by whom he 
 was immediately appointed to the local rank of chief of a battalion. 
 He occupied himself i-n surveying the coast, especially towards the 
 south, whence an invasion of the contiguous island of Sardinia was 
 projected. Here the acquirements he had made in the military 
 schools were of great practical use to him. Young as he was, he is 
 said to have surveyed a country, for military purposes, better than 
 any other officer. In January, 1793, Admiral Truget appeared with 
 his fleet and' some land troops before Cagliari, the little Sardinian 
 capital ; and about the same time Bonaparte was employed with a 
 
 2 2 
 
20 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 body of soldiers and sailors in making a diversion from Bonifacio, 
 by attacking the islets in the narrow strait which divides Corsica 
 from Sardinia. He anchored off the island of La Madalena, he 
 took possession of the little island of Santa Stefano, but failed com- 
 pletely in the attack of the larger island, with the loss both of artil- 
 lery and men. This small and unfortunate affair was the first en- 
 gagement of Napoleon Bonaparte. According to local tradition, he 
 had never been under fire before, and he directed his own guns and 
 the throwing of the bombs with rare skill. The Sards of La Mada- 
 lena kept for many years a bomb which fell upon one of their 
 churches, and which they said had been thrown by Bonaparte's own 
 hand. In the same church they preserved some silver chandeliers 
 and a silver crucifix, which had been presented to them by our great 
 Nelson, who, in 1794, made Corsica the scene of some of his most 
 brilliant and romantic exploits.* It has been reasonably conjectured 
 that this failure was owing quite as much to the indiscipline of his 
 own people as to the resistance he experienced from the islanders. 
 On the eve of the expedition to La Madalena, it is said that he ran 
 a narrow chance of being torn to pieces by the French sailors, who 
 were all demagogues, and were committing bloody excesses at 
 Ajaccio. These Jacobin sailors got into a quarrel with some Corsi- 
 can soldiers (or so goes the local story) ; Bonaparte, as an officer, 
 ran to restore order ; the seamen called him an aristocrat, sang/ 
 (a ira to him, fell upon him, and were about proceeding to extre- 
 mities, when the mayor, municipals, and inhabitants of the town 
 of Bonifacio ran to the rescue, and saved him. 
 
 Truget likewise failed completely in his attack upon Cagliari, for 
 the native population would not fraternize, and the King of Sardinia's 
 artillery, firing red-hot shot, burned one of his ships, sank two others, 
 and damaged all the rest. A few weeks after this catastrophe Corsica 
 itself took up arms against France. De Paoli, indignant at the de- 
 
 * Valery, "Voyages en Corse, a 1'Ile d'Elbe et en Sardaigne." Nelson's silver chande- 
 liers and crucifix remain, and are much prized ; but in 1832 the islanders sold the reputed 
 Bonaparte bomb to a Glasgow merchant for thirty dollars, which money was to be spent 
 in buying a clock for the church. 
 
1 794-1 SERVICE IN SARDINIA AND CORSICA. 21 
 
 position and monstrous execution of King Louis, who had given him 
 his commission, and whom he believed to be animated by an eage r 
 desire to render his country happy, refused to acknowledge the 
 Republic which had been proclaimed at Paris ; most of his country- 
 men shared in his sentiments, rallied round him, applied for English 
 assistance (for at last we were at war), and drove the French and 
 their partisans away from Ajaccio, Corte, and other towns. 
 
 The old and most intimate union and sympathy with Paoli were 
 now disregarded. The Bonaparte family remained attached to the 
 union with France, in which the young members of it had placed all 
 their expectations and hopes ; and as partisans they were obliged to 
 fly from Ajaccio, and to seek a refuge in the other Corsican town of 
 Bastia, which was held by a French garrison, until Nelson knocked 
 the place about their ears, and the commandant capitulated on the 
 2 ist of May, 1794. The house of the Bonapartes at Ajaccio was 
 plundered, and the little property they had was confiscated. Napo- 
 leon himself is said to have escaped in disguise. He was at Bastia 
 when the Commissioners of the Convention, La Combe St. Michel 
 and the Corsican Saliceti, arrived from Toulon with reinforcements, 
 and with a decree of outlawry against Paoli. Two frigates were sent 
 to retake Ajaccio, and Bonaparte embarked with some troops in one 
 of them. He landed at his native town, and had some skirmishes 
 with De Paoli's men ; but the enthusiastic peasantry rushed down 
 from the mountains in such numbers that he beat a retreat, and was 
 glad to return on board the frigate. Thus, even in his second affair 
 of arms, this great soldier was unfortunate. It was soon after this 
 that the English first landed in Corsica. By the loth of August, 
 1794, Calvi was reduced by Nelson, and then the French were en- 
 tirely expelled from Corsica. Napoleon and the rest of his family 
 emigrated to Nice ; and from Nice they soon proceeded to Mar- 
 seilles, where his mother, with her three daughters, and Louis and 
 Jerome, her two youngest sons, lived for a time in great penury upon 
 the wretched allowance which the French Republic made to political 
 refugees of their own party. Family letters of the period have been 
 preserved, which strongly exhibit the extreme distress to which they 
 were occasionally reduced. Not many years ago there were people 
 
22 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 living in Marseilles who remembered seeing the youngest daughter, 
 afterwards Madame Murat, Grand Duchess of Berg, and Queen of 
 Naples, performing at home the offices of a housemaid.* Young 
 Lucien obtained a situation in the commissariat of St. Maximin, 
 near Marseilles, and Joseph, the eldest, found employment as a clerk 
 in an office, until he married, a year or two after this season of clouds 
 and adverse winds (in August, 1794), Julia Clari, the daughter of 
 one of the richest merchants in Marseilles, who brought him some 
 ready money with the future hope of a good fortune.f As for Napo- 
 leon, after seeing his family settled at Marseilles, he went to Paris 
 to seek once more for active employment. He never more returned 
 to Corsica, nor does he appear to have retained any great affection 
 for the country of his birth. After arriving at supreme power, he 
 bestowed one small fountain on Ajaccio, and succeeded, by the death 
 of a relative, to a pretty olive-grove near that town. In the sequel of 
 his history the name of Corsica scarcely recurs.^ By dint of solicita- 
 tions at head-quarters, he obtained the confirmation of his local rank 
 vichefde batatllon, and in September, 1793, when Robespierre and 
 the Jacobins ruled France in a reign of terror, he was appointed to 
 serve in the artillery at the siege of Toulon, which town, fortress, 
 and arsenal had been given up by the persecuted desperate French 
 Royalists to the combined forces of Great Britain and Spain. 
 
 About this time he published another political pamphlet, entitled, 
 u The Supper of Beaucaire," being an imaginary dialogue between 
 men of different parties in the south of France, which was then dis- 
 tracted and desolated by a civil war of the very worst kind. One of 
 the interlocutors, a military man, supposed to speak the sentiments 
 of the author, recommends union and patriotism, and obedience to 
 the laws and decrees of the Convention (which assuredly was the 
 
 * On their first arrival from Corsica, the family received rations of bread from the Re- 
 publican Government. 
 
 t It should appear that by this time Joseph was appointed a commissary of war. Both 
 the appointment and the marriage were no doubt promoted by the distinction which Na- 
 poleon had by this time acquired at the siege of Toulon. But Joseph, when young, had 
 some of the personal good looks and pleasing manners of the family 
 
 t Lockhart, "History of Napoleon Bonaparte. 
 
SIEGE OF TOULON. 23 
 
 very worst Government that France or any other country in modern 
 Europe had been acquainted with). The spirit of the composition 
 is sternly republican, but its logic and style are superior to those of 
 his former declamatory pamphlet. If not aided by others, he had 
 much improved as a writer within the last two years. Still, those 
 have not consulted the author's reputation who have copiously 
 quoted from, or reproduced in toto, this piece de cir Constance. When 
 Montholon praised it, he was simply mad. The pamphlet was dis- 
 tributed among the Jacobins, who then monopolized political power 
 and all official stations; and it no doubt produced to Bonaparte 
 some of the benefits which he desired, and for which alone he had 
 written it. 
 
 When he arrived before Toulon, the French besieging army had 
 made little or no progress in its operations against the place, and 
 had been repeatedly worsted and thrown into confusion, by sorties 
 made by the English troops. It was commanded by one Cartaux, 
 a rough illiterate fellow, who had been a private of dragoons before 
 the Revolution. The man was extremely ignorant of military matters, 
 but, like so many others, he had made his way by affecting repub- 
 lican fanaticism, and by using the coarse revolutionary jargon then 
 in fashion. Bonaparte has given an amusing account of his reception 
 at Cartaux's head-quarters, and of the gross ignorance and absurd 
 vanity of this sans-culotte general. He had great difficulty in making 
 him understand the simplest notion concerning a battery. On a 
 trial of one of his guns, the shot was found to reach not one-third of 
 the distance ; yet Cartaux had been blazing away the ball and powder 
 of the Republic ! To conciliate his good-will, Bonaparte adopted his 
 shibboleth and jargon. Cartaux was taken in. Not so Madame his 
 wife, who was accustomed to say, " Cartaux, you are a fool to take 
 the gentleman for a Jacobin ! That young man has too much good 
 sense to be a Jacobin ! No, no ! That young officer's manners are 
 too good for him to be a real Jacobin." Fortunately Gasparin, a 
 commissioner of the Convention, arrived at the camp. He was a 
 man of education and of some military experience, and was thus 
 able to understand Bonaparte, and to make some new friends for 
 him. Cartaux was recalled, but his immediate successor was not 
 
24 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 worth more than he.* This was Doppet, a Savoyard doctor, now 
 transformed into a general, who understood making pills better than 
 directing cannon-balls. In a few days, however, he was superseded 
 by the veteran General Dugommier, who had served in both hemi- 
 spheres, and who placed entire confidence in Bonaparte, forthwith 
 giving him the command of the whole artillery for the siege. The 
 French were now reinforced to more than 30,000 men, while the allies 
 did not exceed n,ooo, consisting of the soldiers of four or five dif- 
 ferent nations, some of whom, the Spaniards, proved very lukewarm 
 in the cause, while others, the Neapolitans, were exceedingly defi- 
 cient in organization and discipline. On the whole, our allies at 
 Toulon were quite as bad as Bonaparte's two first generals. Nor 
 can it be said that at this time there was much military science on 
 the part of our commanding officers, to make up for the want of 
 numbers and other deficiencies. Our generals had not even an 
 e*tat major, or the elements for forming one. Such elements did not 
 exist in our army until nearly seven years later, when Sir Ralph 
 Abercrombie landed in Egypt, to encounter the French there. The 
 science we wanted, Napoleon possessed. A council of war was held 
 in the camp of the besiegers. The executive at Paris had sent a 
 plan of attack to General Dugommier a plan probably drawn up 
 by Carnot, who was one of the governing party. Dugommier thought, 
 and they all thought, that the plan was a good one ; but young Bona- 
 parte suggested better. " All that you want," said he, " is to force 
 the English to evacuate Toulon. Instead of attacking them in the 
 town, which must involve a long series of operations, try and esta- 
 blish batteries, which shall sweep the harbour and the roadstead. 
 If you can only drive away the ships, the troops will not remain." 
 He pointed out the rocky promontory of La Grasse, which stands 
 nearly opposite to the town, and commands both the inner and the 
 outer harbour, and said, " Take La Grasse, and in two days Toulon 
 will be yours I" If Cartaux had made the attempt two months 
 
 * Poor Cartaux went through many vicissitudes. At one time he was a lottery-office 
 keeper in Paris ; at another he was employed at a small Government office in Tuscany 
 He .died about 1808, leaving his wife, who had shrewdly discovered the non-Jacobinism 
 of Napoleon, in the lowest depths of poverty. 
 
"BATTERIE DF.S HOMMES SANS PEUB." 
 
I794-] SIEGE OF TOULOtf. *S 
 
 earlier nothing could have been so easy of execution ; but in that 
 interval the English had thrown up three redoubts on that promon- 
 tory, and had strengthened Fort 1'Aiguillette and Fort Balaguier, 
 which stood on the two seaward points of the promontory of La 
 Grasse ; and since the arrival of the troops from Gibraltar, these 
 works, though with little to justify the comparison, had gone by the 
 name of " Little Gibraltar." These two forts, which had been origi- 
 nally constructed, like all the important works at Toulon, merely as 
 sea defences, were weak on the land side, and, however much they 
 had been improved, they were still commanded by the higher ground 
 at the back of them, so that their security depended entirely upon 
 the three redoubts, and the abattis which the English had erected 
 across the promontory. 
 
 Fort TAiguillette was the better one of the two ; but both were 
 absolutely under the guns of whatever party should secure the higher 
 ground of the little promontory, which presented no precipices or 
 obstructions to the French on the land side, being joined on tb the 
 continent by an easy slope. Under the direction of Bonaparte, bat- 
 teries were erected opposite the English redoubts, and other batteries 
 were thrown up near Fort Malbousquet, on the opposite side of the 
 inner harbour. None of these advances had been allowed without 
 a sharp contest, and in many instances the Republicans had been 
 obliged to relinquish, with great loss, the ground they had gained. 
 On the 1 5th of November they had lost in one affair some six hun- 
 dred men. On the 3Oth, General O'Hara, perceiving that their 
 works near Malbousquet might annoy the town and the arsenal, 
 and Fort TAiguillette, made a sally in great force, drove them from 
 the hill and from their redoubt, and was in the act of spiking their 
 guns, when Bonaparte in person, observing that the greater part of 
 the English troops were descending the opposite side of the hill and 
 pursuing the French impetuously and without order, threw himself 
 with an entire battalion into a hollow which was screened by wil- 
 low-trees and -bushes, and which led round to the gorge of the re- 
 doubt. O'Hara, who did not discover this force until it was close 
 upon him, and who then mistook it for a detachment of his allies, 
 advanced to the hedge to give orders. He was saluted with a vol- 
 
26 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 Bonaparte leading the attack. 
 
 ley, and wounded in the arm. He attempted to return to the redoubt, 
 supported by two soldiers, but the anguish of the wound made him 
 grow faint : he ordered the men to seek their own safety in flight, 
 and immediately after he was made prisoner by the enemy. Before 
 the rash men who had been pursuing the French could get back to 
 their comrades at the redoubt, Dugommier beat to arms all through 
 his encampments, and, while some of the Republicans marched 
 rapidly towards the hill, others threw themselves between the hill 
 and the English lines to cut off their retreat to their works. A des- 
 
THE ARMY OF ITAL Y. 27 
 
 perate struggle ensued, in the course of which Bonaparte received 
 a bayonet wound, and was carried off the field fainting in the arms 
 of Muiron, a young officer of artillery. Fighting their way through, 
 O 'Hara's people reached their lines, but not without serious loss 
 a loss the besieged could ill bear, as by this time they had two or 
 three thousand men in hospital from the effects of wounds, disease, 
 or excessive fatigue. 
 
 The allied fleet sailed away at last, having taken on board about 
 14,000 of the unfortunate inhabitants. The Republican troops, joined 
 by the Jacobins of Toulon and its neighbourhood, butchered all whom 
 they met, and committed every imaginable species of atrocity. After- 
 wards the slaughter was conducted in a systematic manner by the 
 Commissioners from Paris, namely, Barras, Freron, Fouche*, and 
 the younger Robespierre. Bonaparte has often been accused of 
 participation in the bloody deeds. He had nothing to do with them, 
 nor had the artillery with which he served, or any part of the regular 
 troops. They were executed by what was called the " revolutionary 
 army," a set of undisciplined wretches from Paris and other great 
 towns, who followed in the wake of the guillotine, closing the march 
 of the armies as volunteers and plunderers. For a long time every 
 army of soldiers had this army of canaille in its rear. 
 
 Dugommier recommended Bonaparte for promotion, and em- 
 ployed him in the meantime to inspect and fortify the coast of Pro- 
 vence. Here he ran another risk of assassination, some fanatical 
 Jacobins taking it into their heads that he was erecting new bastilles 
 to enslave the people. In February, 1794, when Danton and his 
 party gave the law to France, Napoleon received his commission of 
 brigadier-general, and joined the "Army of Italy," at Nice. The 
 Commander-in-chief of this force, which had long been collecting 
 for the invasion of the rich and beautiful country beyond the Alps, 
 was General Dumorbion, who had with him that daring soldier 
 Massena, a Savoyard subject and deserter, who, from the condition 
 of a common soldier to the King of Sardinia, had already risen to be 
 a general of the French Republic. It is said that Bonaparte's plans 
 and suggestions were of great use to the French in the campaign of 
 this year, in which they conquered Saorgio, Oneglia, and all the 
 
 
a8 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 summits of the Alps which lay nearest to them. Napoleon was not 
 the first to carry the tricoloured flag upon Italian soil. This feat was 
 now performed by Massena, who descended the reverse of the Alps 
 and pushed on as far as Ormea in Piedmont, in the valley of the 
 Tanaro. In order to surprise and circumvent the allied troops of 
 the Emperor and the King of Sardinia, and to turn the Austrian and 
 Piedmontese positions, the French had openly violated the neutral 
 territory of Genoa. Before this they had clearly announced their 
 determination to respect no neutrality whatsoever. Their new law 
 of nations was this : Every state that is not for us is against us. If 
 a country be strong enough to defend herself, well ; if not, she must 
 allow passage to our troops, and furnish us with food and all that 
 we may want. As we, and we only, are in the right combating for 
 liberty and the rights of man it is high treason against all mankind 
 to oppose us ! Moreover, their way was made easy by the pro- 
 pagandists and the bribe-money they employed. Genoa swarmed 
 with their partisans, and so did Piedmont and Lombardy, and other 
 parts of Italy. From the foot of the Alps to the banks of the Tiber 
 there was not a town but contained its secret clubs and impatient 
 democrats, all ready to welcome and to aid the French for the sake 
 of liberty, equality, and fraternity. But, over the whole of that ex- 
 tensive range of country, the rural population was loyal, devout, and 
 strongly opposed to the new French doctrines. 
 
 Augustine Robespierre, the younger brother of the terrible Dic- 
 tator, had become acquainted with Bonaparte and with other mem- 
 bers of the family at the taking of Toulon. We do not for one 
 single moment believe that Napoleon, in his heart, approved of the 
 horrible massacres perpetrated at the bidding of the Robespierres, 
 but the fact is indisputable that he contracted an intimacy, having 
 all the appearance of a warm friendship, with Augustine, who was 
 to the full as fanatical and as pitiless as his elder brother. His own 
 employment in the army, the subsistence of his mother, sisters, and 
 brothers, and perhaps the lives of all of them, might be pleaded as 
 the necessity of his standing well with that government of terror ; 
 but Napoleon himself, in speaking of Augustine Robespierre long 
 after this date, declared that he liked the man. It is probable 
 
FALL OF ROBESPIERRE. 29 
 
 that Augustine's recommendation of Bonaparte for promotion had 
 carried more weight at Paris than the recommendation sent thither 
 by General Dugommier. This younger Robespierre, as Commis- 
 sioner of the Convention, met Napoleon again at the head-quarters 
 of this Army of Italy, and their intimacy was renewed. Augustine, 
 himself quite a young man, mentioned the young brigadier-general 
 to his powerful brother at Paris as an officer of great daring and 
 ability. Napoleon's brother Lucien states in his " Memoirs " that 
 Robespierre thought of giving Bonaparte the post of Commandant 
 of Paris, as he was not satisfied with Henriot, whose incapacity, 
 only a few weeks afterwards, caused the overthrow of that party. 
 A good decided soldier might certainly have averted the sudden 
 catastrophe. Had Napoleon been really nominated, he might have 
 performed for Robespierre on the loth Thermidor that which he 
 afterwards did for the Convention or Directory on the I3th Vende"- 
 miaire. 
 
 Meantime, the younger Robespierre entrusted the hero of our 
 history with a secret and not very honourable mission to the city of 
 Genoa, where he was to explore the fortifications, the artillery, and 
 the other means of defence. But the work of the propagandist was 
 added to that of the spy : he was to put himself in communication 
 with the democratic faction in Genoa, to collect every possible 
 information concerning the political feelings of the people and of the 
 Government, to make friends where he could, and to pry into the 
 conduct of the French minister, M. Tilly, who had received large 
 sums of money from Paris for organizing a conspiracy, and who was 
 suspected by the Robespierres and their colleagues, St. Just and 
 Couthon, of having appropriated or misapplied the funds, and of 
 having played a double part. Whilst Bonaparte was at Genoa on 
 this mission, the revolution of the Qth Thermidor (27th of July, 
 1794) took place ; Robespierre and his friends, including his 
 brother, who had gone from the army to Paris just before the 
 crisis, were guillotined, and a new party (but scarcely a better one) 
 assumed the executive government of France. Returning from 
 Genoa to head-quarters, Bonaparte found there a new set of Com- 
 missioners from the Convention, namely, Albitti, Saliceti, and 
 
3d MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 Laporte, who seized his papers, placed him under arrest, and sus- 
 pended him from his rank, declaring, in the most public manner, 
 by an order of the day, that General Bonaparte had forfeited their 
 confidence through his suspicious conduct, his intimacy with the 
 brother of the late tyrant, Robespierre, and above all, his mysterious 
 journey to Genoa, and that, therefore, he was to be sent to Paris to 
 the bar of the Committee of Public Safety, which, in those times, 
 was tantamount to an almost certain sentence of death. This order 
 was signed by the three Commissioners, and countersigned by 
 General Dumorbion. The moment was critical. But Bonaparte 
 did not lose his presence of mind, and in the most influential of the 
 Commissioners he had a countryman and a friend. Saliceti, whom 
 he afterwards raised to posts of great emolument, if not of much 
 honour, had been intimate with him and with his family in Corsica. 
 Napoleon instantly wrote a pithy remonstrance, which was addressed 
 to the three Commissioners, but put into the hands of the Corsican. 
 We have been assured that Saliceti, in great privacy, assisted him 
 to write the letter. He complained of having his character traduced 
 before he was tried, and he appealed to his pamphlets and his 
 known republicanism, his hatred of all tyrants, and his public ser- 
 vices. Bad in taste, style, feeling, and everything else, as were his 
 brochures, it was no doubt well for him at this moment that he had 
 written and published them. It is said that during his short con- 
 finement he spent the greater part of his time in minutely studying 
 a map of the north of Italy, on which were laid down all the passes 
 of the Alps, and all the roads and cross-roads of Piedmont. After 
 a fortnight, the Commissioners having, as they said, fully investi- 
 gated the matter, issued a counter order, dated Nice, 2oth of August, 
 in which they stated that Citizen Bonaparte had been arrested in 
 pursuance of measures of general safety, resulting from the over- 
 throw of the traitor Robespierre ; but that now the Commissioners, 
 having examined his conduct previous to his journey to Genoa, 
 and also his report of that mission, had not discovered any positive 
 confirmation of their suspicions concerning his actions and prin- 
 ciples ; and that, " considering, moreover, the advantages which 
 might be derived from his military information and knowledge of 
 
JACOBINISM. 31 
 
 localities for the service of the Republic, they, the Commissioners, 
 order Citizen Bonaparte to be restored provisionally to liberty, and 
 to remain at head-quarters until further instructions from the Com- 
 mittee of Public Safety." He was now at liberty, but his intimacy 
 with Augustine Robespierre still stood in his way. He was not 
 restored to his employment in the artillery of the Army of Italy, 
 and soon afterwards he left head-quarters, and rejoined his family 
 at Marseilles. 
 
 Various attempts have been made to disguise or deny the fact of 
 the early Jacobinism of Joseph, Napoleon, and Lucien Bonaparte 
 (Louis and Jerome were mere children) ; but Lucien himself, in 
 attempting to palliate, clearly admits the fact in his own memoirs.* 
 When Napoleon gained his first promotion in the artillery, his elder 
 brother Joseph (as we have seen) was appointed a commissary of 
 war, and Lucien was made a sort of clerk of the commissariat, being 
 placed in the bureau or office of military subsistence at St. Maximin, 
 a small town near Marseilles. Lucien had figured at the tribune or 
 spouting-place of the Jacobin society at Marseilles before this ; but 
 at St. Maximin, as he tells us himself in his memoirs, " the popular 
 favour carried him rapidly from the presidential chair of the Jacobin 
 club of that town to the presidency of the Revolutionary Committee? 
 It was in these local committees that nearly all the mischief and 
 horrors were brewed that desolated the departments. In his me- 
 moirs, published forty-two years after those bloody doings, Lucien 
 speaks of the atrocities with becoming reprobation ; but we cannot 
 perceive that he gave way to these feelings at the time when Jaco- 
 binism was triumphant. Lucien also tells us he went by the name 
 of Brutus, and that in a few days he acquired a little dictatorship ; 
 that his spontaneous Jacobin zeal kept the prisons of St. Maximin 
 well filled with suspects; but he takes credit to himself for having 
 prevented an emissary of the Committee of Public Safety removing 
 these unfortunate victims to Orange, where he knew they would all 
 be murdered. On the downfall of Robespierre, one of these suspects 
 (at St. Maximin, as elsewhere, all persons of respectability or pro- 
 
 * "Memoires de Lucien Bonaparte, Prince de Canino, ecrits par luimeme," London, 1836. 
 
32 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 perty were included in this category) denounced M. Lucien as a 
 Robespierrist and Terrorist, and the Corsican Brutus, with other 
 Terrorists of the town, was in his turn thrown into prison. The 
 excuse which Lucien pleads for others he might well have pleaded 
 for himself and his two elder brothers they were poor and depen- 
 dent ; employment was to be obtained only by and through the 
 Jacobins ; when once employed, the slightest suspicion of aristo- 
 cratism or moderation, the least symptom of lukewarmness, might 
 have sent them to the guillotine ; the terrible and inexorable En 
 avant / en avant / Forward ! forward ! forward ! of the fierce 
 democracy must have resounded incessantly behind them, as it did 
 behind others. And on several occasions they may have been re- 
 duced very nearly to what Lucien calls " the infernal alternative of 
 kill or die > 
 
 With Lucien the case was somewhat different, but Napoleon 
 appears really to have been ashamed of his boyish ultra-repub- 
 licanism as soon as he ceased to be a boy. Madame Cartaux, at 
 this time, was quite right in her estimation of his Jacobinism ; that 
 it was a mere mask put on for the occasion, with the determination 
 to cast it off and trample it in the dirt as soon as that might be done 
 with safety. We believe the intensity of hatred which the great 
 man afterwards nourished against all Jacobinism arose, in a great 
 measure, out of resentment for the forced compliances and the 
 submissiveness of his early life, when he and his family depended 
 for their bread on a set of vulgar ruffians. 
 
 During his stay at Marseilles, Napoleon courted one of the 
 daughters of the merchant, Clari, whose sister had recently married 
 his brother Joseph. The young lady was amiable as well as rich, 
 but never distinguished by personal beauty. One day he said to 
 her, " Perhaps I am destined to shine only as a meteor. But I will 
 ensure you a brilliant existence." His addresses, however, were 
 declined, and the lady afterwards married Bernadotte, and, as the 
 wife of that soldier of fortune, became Queen of Sweden. M. Clari, 
 the father, is reported to have said, that he then thought one 
 Bonaparte in the family quite enough. 
 
 Disappointed as a matrimonial suitor, Napoleon went to Paris, 
 
POVERTY OF NAPOLEON. 33 
 
 to hunt salons and antechambers in pursuit of active employment. 
 Aubry, a captain of artillery at the commencement of the Revolution, 
 but now President of the Military Committee, with nearly all the 
 powers of a minister- at- war and commander-in-chief, received him 
 very coldly, being evidently under the impression that he was a 
 real Robespierrist. He said he was too young to command as a 
 general officer. Aubry, however, soon afterwards offered him the 
 command of a brigade of infantry in the army of La Vende*e, in 
 which enthusiastically Royalist country one of the fiercest and most 
 sanguinary of civil wars was in progress. This appointment was 
 wisely declined. Thus Bonaparte remained unemployed on the 
 pave of Paris during the greater part of the year 1795. His name 
 was struck off the list of general officers, and he received no pay, 
 half-pay, or allowance whatever. Aubry, who was afterwards 
 accused of counter-revolutionism, and who died an unhappy exile 
 in the West Indies, was very soon charged with dismissing General 
 Bonaparte and other patriotic officers, in order to fill up their places 
 with Royalists and ci-devant aristocrats. At this distressed period 
 of his fortunes, Napoleon sometimes knew what it was tn g n without 
 a dinner. It was Bourrienne, his schoolfellow, and Saliceti, the 
 Corsican, who supplied his most pressing wants. He was often 
 heard to say, what a happy fellow he would be if he had only money 
 enough to live in Paris and keep a cabriolet ! This might suggest 
 to our thoughtful friend, Thomas Carlyle,a new chapter on gigs and 
 respectability. At one time Bonaparte, who had always to a con- 
 siderable extent what Byron afterwards called an Oriental twist of 
 the imagination, seriously entertained the idea of going to Constan- 
 tinople, to offer himself to the unfortunate Sultan Selim as an 
 instructor of his troops and artillery ; and Bourrienne gives a copy 
 of a paper which Napoleon presented to the War Office at Paris, 
 showing the advantages that would result to France from a greater 
 intimacy and closer alliance with the Ottoman Porte. This paper, 
 however, remained unanswered. Its writer must have thought of 
 it with curiously mixed feelings, when, not four years afterwards, 
 he invaded Egypt and made war against the same Sultan Selim. 
 At lafct, however, Napoleon obtained temporary employment, with 
 
 3 
 
34 KfEMOlR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 very moderate pay, in the Bureau Topographique a department 
 in the War Office in which the plans of field operations and fortifi- 
 cations were drawn. 
 
 Meanwhile, another crisis in the internal affairs of France was 
 coming on with whirlwind speed the pace at which all things now 
 moved in that country. The National Convention, which had ruled 
 France for three years, had now adopted more humane and prac- 
 ticable views of government ; and, principally under the inspiration 
 of that active constitution-maker, the Abbe Sieves, had framed a 
 new Constitution, with two legislative councils instead of one ; a 
 property qualification for voters at elections, instead of universal 
 suffrage ; and an executive, consisting of five Directors, to be vested 
 with joint powers and very ample faculties. It was clear to most 
 men that the Convention could no longer go on as it was. But 
 previously to its own dissolution, the Convention passed a resolution 
 to the effect that two-thirds of the members of the two new legisla- 
 tive councils should be taken from its own actual sitting members, 
 so that the electors should have to fill up only the other third. In 
 other words, for one new member to be elected and returned, two 
 old members were to retain their seats without any fresh election. 
 This new Constitution, known by the name of the Constitution of 
 the Year Three, was the third constitution which had been pro- 
 claimed and solemnly sworn to in France since the beginning of the 
 Revolution in 1790. It was laid before the primary assemblies all 
 over France, in September, 1795, to receive their sanction; and 
 every kind of influence, legal and illegal, was employed to insure 
 success. In many of the departments the Constitution and its rider 
 were readily submitted to, as people were wearied of terrorism and 
 anarchy, and wished and hoped for a more regular form of govern- 
 ment. They cared little about details, and saw no harm in the 
 arrangement by which two-thirds of the legislative councils were to 
 be composed of men who had the advantage of political and par- 
 liamentary experience. But in Paris, the great crater of the revolu- 
 tionary volcano, the proposal met with a strong opposition from 
 various parties, Jacobins, Royalists, Constitutional-Monarchists, and 
 their varying shades and fractions, each and all of whom wei$ ready 
 
1795 1 CONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR THREE. 35* 
 
 The National Guard. 
 
 to unite for one given purpose to make a fresh revolution in 
 which each might have at least a chance of establishing its own 
 scheme of government. These men exclaimed, " The Convention, 
 after having deluged France with blood, wishes to perpetuate its 
 tyrannical power under a new name ! The election must be not 
 for a third, but for the whole ! The Convention ists must retire from 
 a field which they have occupied too long ! Down with the Con- 
 vention ! " The electors of the sections or districts of Paris protested 
 against the rider, or supplementary clause, formed a central com- 
 mittee to organize resistance, and called upon the National Guard 
 of Paris to support the rights of the people. From 40,000 to 50,000 
 of those civic troops answered to the call. These were chiefly from 
 the fauxbourgs, the more respectable sections of the capital either 
 remaining quiet, or preparing to take the other side. 
 
 On the 1 2th Vende*miaire (or 4th of October) the Convention, 
 which sat in the Palace of the Tuileries, ordered General Menou, 
 the Commandant of Paris, who had under him about 5,000 regular 
 troops, to march and disperse the insurgents before they should 
 have time to reach the palace. Menou, who afterwards displayed 
 his incompetency in Egypt and elsewhere, went about his present 
 
 ^ 2 
 
36 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 work \\vthout any spirit, and without any military skill or fore- 
 thought. He marched with a considerable force, and was joined 
 by volunteers of the respectable classes ; but he was brought to a 
 dead halt in the Rue Vivienne by seeing the muzzles of muskets 
 protruding from every door, gateway, and window, and by hearing 
 a terrible chorus of most resolute shouts ; and after hesitating for 
 a few minutes, during which a good many of his volunteers skulked 
 away, he returned speedily to the Convention, who deprived him 
 of his command, and ordered him under arrest as a traitor. Next 
 they named Barras as a proper man to take the command of the 
 troops and put down the insurrection. Barras had acted in this 
 capacity before, and particularly on the critical night when Robes- 
 pierre was extinguished in the Hotel de Ville ; but Barras, though 
 he had served under the old rtgime, was no soldier, and had a 
 very decided aversion to exposing his person ; and this time most 
 people thought there would be some hard fighting. Some Deputies 
 very opportunely thought of Napoleon Bonaparte, the young officer 
 who had contributed so materially to the taking of Toulon, &c. At 
 the critical moment, on the night of this I2th Vendemiaire, when 
 Menou was dismissed, Bonaparte was sitting in the gallery of the 
 House. He was well known to Carnot, Tallien,and other members 
 of the Convention, as a man of head and of action but it is added, 
 that either Carnot or Barras himself said, " I have the very man we 
 want for this business : it is that little Corsican officer, who will not 
 stand upon ceremony ! " The young brigadier was instantly called 
 before the Committee of Cinq Cents ; and, after some hesitation 
 and considerable embarrassment, he consented to accept the com- 
 mand under Barras, and to do all the needful work. There was 
 no time to lose : he sent Adjutant Murat to secure and bring up all 
 the artillery which had been removed from the Tuileries to the 
 camp of Sablons. Murat, with such men as he could speedily 
 collect, made a rush for the spot ; Section Lepelletier, with the same 
 intention, was already in motion for the camp ; but the brave and 
 rapid son of the innkeeper and postmaster of Cahcrs got there 
 first, and made sure of the guns. These were only guarded by 
 some twenty men ! a few minutes, and Murat would have been 
 too late ! 
 
THE fjTff VENDEMIAIRE. 
 
 37 
 
 Napoleon in the Gallery of the Convention. 
 
 While the Convention sat in permanent session through the 
 night, Bonaparte quickly drew his lines of defence round the 
 Tuileries, and along the adjoining quays on the north bank of the 
 Seine. He had about 5,000 regular troops under arms, and the 
 1,500 or i, 800 patriots of '80, ; but his main reliance was upon 
 
3^ MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 the cannon, which he loaded with grape-shot, and placed at the 
 head of the various avenues through which the insurgents must 
 advance. He sent 800 muskets with ball cartridge into the Con- 
 vention, with the hope that the honourable members would make 
 good use of them in case of extremity a proposition which is said 
 to have made the honourable members look very grave. 
 
 Betimes in the morning of the I3th Vende'miaire the 5th of 
 October, and the anniversary of the march of the Parisian rnob to 
 Versailles the sectioners were in motion ; but many of the National 
 Guards did not answer the call to arms ; several of the sections were 
 altogether backward, and long delays ensued. At length, about the 
 hour of noon, Section Lepelletier seized the church of St. Roch, and 
 drove in some picquets near the Pont Neuf. Then there was another 
 pause, which lasted till near four o'clock in the afternoon ; Bonaparte 
 wisely waiting to be attacked, and his adversaries hesitating as to 
 how it was to be done, or waiting for more force. Having been 
 anticipated by Murat at the camp of Sablons, they had no artillery, 
 apparently not so much as a single gun ; the number of their 
 National Guardsmen is variously stated at 20,000, 30,000, or 40,000 ; 
 but it is doubtful whether half of the smallest of these numbers ever 
 debouched and came into action : it may be that half of the largest 
 of these numbers would not be an overstatement, if there were taken 
 into the account battalions that lay in the cross streets, out of the 
 fire of the artillery, and others that meant to join in the conflict 
 when the certainty of success should be demonstrated. They were 
 commanded, or at least headed, by General Danican, a brave officer 
 of noble birth ; General Duhoux, the Count Maulevrier, and Lafond- 
 de-Soule, who had belonged to the Garde-du-corps of Louis XVI. 
 It is scarcely possible to believe that even a third part of the sections 
 would follow such 'leaders. General Danican, after driving in 400 
 or 500 men stationed at the Pont Neuf, sent a flag of truce to 
 summon the Convention to withdraw their troops and disarm the 
 terrorists, that is, the 1,500 or 1,800 ultra-Jacobins whom the legis- 
 lature had taken into their pay under the more attractive name of 
 patriots of y 8g. 
 
 The bearer of this flag of truce was blindfolded, and conducted 
 
DEFEAT OF THE INSURGENTS. 39 
 
 into the hall of the Convention. His message threw the house 
 into great doubt and trepidation ; for, notwithstanding the mono- 
 poly of guns and grape-shot, and the reported genius of the young 
 artillery officer in command of them, victory, to the majority, seemed 
 anything rather than certain. Several members recommended con- 
 ciliatory measures a negotiation, a treaty with the insurgents. 
 Boissy d'Anglas was of opinion that a conference ought to be 
 opened with Danican. Gamman recommended a proclamation, in 
 which the Convention should engage the citizens to retire, promis- 
 ing them the immediate disarming and dismissal of the battalion of 
 '89. Lanjuinois supported Gamman's motion, dwelling upon the 
 dangers and horrors of civil war ; but Chenier said there was nothing 
 for the Convention but victory or death ; and, on the motion of Fer- 
 mond, the House passed to the order of the day. They continued, 
 however, in a state of hesitation till about half-past four o'clock, 
 when a heavy firing announced that the battle had begun. The 
 muskets were then brought into the hall, and the honourable De- 
 puties armed themselves. 
 
 When Section Lepelletier first came in sight of the Conventional 
 troops they waved their hats, and intimated by other signs and 
 words that t|jey wished to fraternize. Women, with dishevelled 
 hair, ran between the two armies, crying, " Peace, peace ! " But 
 none of these appeals made the smallest impression on the men 
 that manned the guns ; for things were not now as they were on 
 the loth of August, 1792, when the cannoneers stationed to defend 
 the Tuileries turned at the first call of the insurgent people the 
 mouths of their guns against the palace. /I part of the sections 
 began to move in several columns along the quays and the Rue St. 
 Honord As soon as they were within musket-shot they were 
 ordered to disperse in the name of the law ; they answered by dis- 
 charging cheir muskets, and thereupon Bonaparte's gunners opened 
 a murderous fire of grape-shot and canister. The effect was instan- 
 taneous and decisive ; for although some desperate men returned 
 to the charge once or twice, and attempted to carry the guns, the 
 mass of those who had come into action ran from the open ground 
 under cover of the houses and churches, and into the side street.% 
 

 40 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 where the cannon-shot could not reach them. The party which had 
 occupied the church of St. Roch attempted to maintain themselves 
 there, although their position lay exposed to the fire of the artillery; 
 it was here that the greatest number of lives were lost ; but when 
 about two hundred had fallen the post was evacuated. A few 
 hun.dreds that clustered about the Theatre de la Republique were 
 dislodged by a few shells. According to Bonaparte's own account, 
 the fighting, which had not properly begun till half-past four, was 
 all over by six. Faint attempts to erect barricades in the streets 
 were defeated by rapid movements ; and the scattered and panic- 
 stricken insurgents, being followed into their several sections, were 
 disarmed during the night. 
 
 The victory was complete : the ill-combined sectioners, who would 
 soon have turned their arms against each other if success had at- 
 tended them, could never rise again. 
 
 Tallien and some other Conventionalists would have annulled the 
 elections of the third, or of all the new Deputies returned in virtue 
 o.f the Constitution and the supplementary decree, and would have 
 suspended the new Constitution itself before it came well into 
 action, setting it aside as they had formerly shelved Herault de 
 Sechelles 7 masterpiece, or the Democratic Constitution of 1793 ; but 
 the majority, after some ferocious debating, negatived both these 
 propositions. The House then formed into an " Electoral National 
 Assembly," to complete in its own bosom the two-thirds that is, to 
 name themselves the members that were to remain, and the mem- 
 bers whose retirement was to make room for the third who had been 
 elected by the people, or by their electoral colleges. Next, they 
 divided themselves, according to their several ages, into Council of 
 Ancients and Council of Five Hundred ; and all this being done, 
 they proceeded to elect out of their own body or bodies the five 
 Directors. 
 
 The Directors thus chosen were Sieyes, La Reveillere-Lepeaux, 
 Rewbell, Letourneur, and Barras. They were to preside turn and 
 turn about, each for three months at a time ; and he who presided 
 was to keep the great seals, and sign for the whole Directory. Every 
 year one-fifth of this Directory was to be renewed that is. one 
 
1 795-1 THE DIRECTORY. 4* 
 
 Director was to retire annually and make room for a new one. By 
 this rapid rotation all the leading members of the Convention might 
 hope to be Directors in their turns. 
 
 A military guard and a sort of civil list were conferred upon them, 
 and the palace of the Luxembourg was appointed for their residence. 
 Sieves, out of antipathy and hatred to his colleague Rewbell, or 
 through calculation, or perhaps out of a vain desire to show that, if 
 his perfect Constitution did not work quite so well as its admirers 
 had anticipated, it was because those entrusted with its execution 
 did not perform their duty ably or honestly, very soon resigned, and 
 was succeeded by Carnot. 
 
 Except La Reveillere-Lepeaux, all these first Directors had been 
 Montagnards and ultra-Jacobins. They published an amnesty for 
 political offences, changed the name of the Place de la Revolution 
 into that of the Place de la Concorde, and they intimated, in sundry 
 speeches and diplomatic papers, that the French Republic, all-con- 
 quering as it was, was not averse to peace upon fair and honourable 
 terms. Yet, on the 3oth of September, when the Convention had 
 organized the new Constitution, and was sliding into it new names 
 and appointed forms, it had been decreed that the Austrian Nether- 
 lands were for ever incorporated with the Republic ; and the instant 
 that Carnot became Director, all his attention was directed to plans 
 of conquest for Germany and Italy. 
 
 Bonaparte retained the command of Paris during the winter ol 
 1795-6. He reorganized the National Guard (a measure of such 
 very frequent and necessary occurrence in France) ; he formed the 
 Guards of the Directory and of the Legislative Councils ; appointed 
 the officers, and maintained the peace of the capital during a season 
 of excitement, scarcity, and commercial distress. He mixed much 
 with the inhabitants of all ranks, talking and reasoning with them 
 in his short, pithy manner. He was now well paid, and had ample 
 means of employing and paying other men : he frequented the salons 
 of the Directors, and, most of all, the society of Barras, a man of 
 birth and a man of pleasure, who lived in a style of splendour and 
 profusion, and who entertained in his house gentlemen, and still 
 more, ladies of all parties, including even some of the old nobility, 
 
42 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 who had been so long proscribed and persecuted by the " equality 
 and fraternity" Republicans. In fact, the Republic no longer existed, 
 except in name : the Directors were kings, and were soon popularly 
 called, from the palace in which they resided, the " Five Kings of 
 the Luxembourg." Barras, the chief of the five, was as splendid, 
 gallant, and voluptuous as a Louis XIV. Among the ladies who 
 most frequented his society was the widow of the Viscount Beau- 
 harnais, who had been guillotined in Robespierre's time. She was 
 the daughter of a French planter, M. Tascher de la Fagerie, and 
 was born in the island of Martinique ; she was known to possess 
 some influence over his Majesty Barras, and was intimate with 
 Madame Tallien, the beautiful wife of another influential member 
 of the ruling party. She was graceful, charming, the best dressing 
 and most fashionable woman the Revolution had left in Paris. A 
 short time after becoming acquainted with her in the salons of the 
 great Director, it was rumoured that Bonaparte was going to marry 
 Josephine.* An old Parisian notary, a friend of her family, to whom 
 Josephine was obliged to reveal her intention, in order that the 
 marriage papers might be prepared, said to her," Can you really be 
 so mad as to marry a young fellow who has nothing but his cloak 
 and his sword?" Napoleon did not forget these words. Eight 
 years after this date, on the morning of their coronation day as 
 Emperor and Empress, when Josephine was glittering with diamonds 
 and dressed in imperial robes, he desired that notary Raquideau 
 might be seat for ; and when the notary appeared, he said to him, 
 " Well, Raquideau, have I nothing but my cloak and sword now ? "f 
 They were married at Paris, on the Qth of March, 1236. Barras 
 and Tallien were witnesses to the marriage, which (more Republicand) 
 
 * It was certainly chez Barras that this acquaintance commenced. The story of Josephine's 
 son, Eugene Beauharnais, then a boy of ten years, waiting upon Napoleon to claim the 
 sword of his unfortunate father, and of this incident hading to the first introduction to 
 Josephine, is though repeated in seven successive editions by a grave and solemn Scotch 
 historian a fable and an invention, and nothing more. It bears romance on the very face 
 of it. 
 
 f Bourrienne assures us that this characteristic anecdote was related to him by 
 Josephine herself. 
 
1796.] HIS MARRIAGE. 43 
 
 was contracted before the municipal authorities, without the inter- 
 vention of clergy. Josephine was about four, or, as some say, six 
 years older than Bonaparte ; she had, by her former marriage, a son 
 and a daughter Eugene, afterwards Viceroy of Italy, and Hortense 
 (the mother of the present Emperor), who became for a time, as 
 the wife of Napoleon's younger brother Louis, Queen of Holland.* 
 From the evidence of his own private letters, it should appear that, 
 at least for some years, Bonaparte was fondly and even passionately 
 attached to his charming wife, whose gentleness, humanity, gene- 
 rosity, and amiable disposition, well merited such affection. 
 
 Some days before the marriage took place, Bonaparte had obtained 
 from the Directors a most important appointment, and twelve days 
 after the marriage he set out for the Alps as Commander-in- Chief 
 of the Army of Italy. At this time he had not completed his twenty- 
 sixth year. He was rather short, of a very spare habit, and capable 
 of bearing almost any amount of fatigue. Nor, although wanting the 
 advantage of stature, was he one to be passed unnoticed in a crowd : 
 his frame was elegantly put together, he had very small feet, and 
 beautiful small hands ; his head and face were like his mother's ; 
 his eye was quick and searching, but capable of great softness of 
 expression ; and when, elated by hopes which he had never measured, 
 he put himself at the head of the army, he looked like one born to 
 command. 
 
 For more than three years the French had been hammering at 
 the barrier of the Alps ; they had fought a score of battles ; they 
 had sustained, as well as inflicted, tremendous losses, as the united 
 forces of the Emperor and the King of Sardinia had fought sternly 
 and well campaign after campaign ; but, by this time, the French 
 had established themselves along the frontiers of Italy, from the 
 Alpine pass of Mont Cenis to the pass of the Bocchetta, behind 
 
 * There are a good many disputes about the age of Josephine. A widow's age is 
 always a ticklish question. It appears that she fixed the date of her birth on the 24th of 
 June, 1768. This, as we have conjectured, may have induced Napoleon to antedate, and 
 to put his own birthday in February, 1768, which would make him four months older than 
 his wife. It appears, however, certain that Josephine was three or four years older than 
 she gave out. 
 
44 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 Genoa; and active emissaries were proselytizing and doing the 
 work of the Republic in Piedmont and in Lombardy. The Italians 
 very reasonably considered Bonaparte as their countryman, and 
 such of them as had imbibed what were called liberal principles, 
 expected a happy congeries of federated republics, and all manner 
 of blessings and advantages, from the young Corsican Commander- 
 in-Chief. 
 
 Napoleon arrived at head-quarters on the 2oth of March ; he 
 found the disposable forces amounting to about 50,000 men, but 
 badly provided, and in a wretched state of indiscipline. The Direc- 
 tory was not paying them more regularly than the Convention had 
 done ; the men were in want of clothes, shoes, and all other things, 
 except arms and ammunition. He told them that Italy was a land 
 of plenty, and that they would be able to provide for themselves, 
 when their valour should give them a good footing in it. Marshal 
 Marmont has observed, that Bonaparte, as an artillery officer, was 
 unaccustomed to manoeuvre masses of infantry and cavalry, but 
 that he made up by his skill in strategy for what may have been 
 his deficiency in field tactics, which he had excellent generals of 
 division to execute for him. He had studied the country which was 
 to be the scene of his campaigns, far better than it had ever been 
 studied before for military and strategical purposes, and he knew 
 that wherever he might advance, he would find those who would 
 aid him with their local knowledge, and report to him every move- 
 ment of his enemies. 
 
 The combined army of the Austnans and Piedmontese amounted 
 to 50,000 men in Bonaparte's reckoning to 75,000 and was now 
 under the command of Beaulieu, a gallant veteran. It was stretched 
 along the ridge of the Apennines, at the foot of which the French, 
 as in the preceding campaign, were advancing. Bonaparte had 
 more than the usual advantages which attend the attacking party. 
 There were many points by which he might cross the mountains, 
 and Beaulieu, being of course unable to judge what route he might 
 choose, was obliged to watch all the passes. Hence the combined 
 armies of the Emperor and King were scattered over a very long 
 line, intersected by rivers and mountainous tracts. 
 
BATTLE OF MON7ENOTTE. 45 
 
 The Austrian head-quarters were at Acqui, on the river Bormida, 
 and the Piedmontese at Ceva, on the Tanaro, more than thirty 
 miles apart Bonaparte's plan was to force his way between the 
 two, and to fight them separately, one after the other. Leaving 
 General Surrurier on his left to attack the Piedmontese, by the 
 road leading from Oneglia, over the mountains, into the valley of 
 the Tanaro, he pushed on his right along the coast as far as Voltri, 
 ten miles from Genoa, as if to threaten that city, as well as the high 
 road leading towards the plains of Lombardy ; whilst he, with the 
 main body, took a position at the foot of the mountains, above 
 Savona, on the by-roads leading over the Apennines, by Montenotte, 
 into the valley of the Erro, and by the Col, or pass of Altare, into 
 the valley of the Bormida. This latter pass is the lowest of the 
 whole Apennine ridge, being only 1,400 feet above the sea. Bona- 
 parte fortified the pass of Montenotte with redoubts. All this was 
 done about the beginning of April.* On the 9th of that month the 
 Austrian General Beaulieu marched with his left upon ^Voltri, near 
 Genoa, repulsed the French, and drove them from their position 
 with great loss. The French there appear to have been saved from 
 total destruction by the setting in of a dark night Beaulieu, several 
 days previously, had ordered his subordinate general, Mercy Argen- 
 teau, who was stationed at Sassello, to attack on this same day (the 
 9th) the central position of the French at Montenotte, to break that 
 centre, to push on between Bonaparte's dislocated army, to descend 
 the southern face of the mountains, and to establish himself at Sa- 
 vona, thus keeping the Republican army split into two. Had success 
 attended the plan of Beaulieu as it very nearly did the history 
 of the campaign would have been the very reverse of that which 
 it is. 
 
 Strategically, the plan of the veteran was quite as good as the 
 young general's. But Argenteau lost a whole day, and instead of 
 making his attack at Montenotte on the morning of the 9th, he 
 
 * It is said that it was through the advice of Massena that the pass of Montenotte was 
 fortified. Carlo Botto, " Storia d'ltalia." It appears that there were three redoubts, the 
 principal one being an old work, which the French only repaired. 
 
46 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 did not make it until a late hour on the loth.* The Austrians 
 gallantly assaulted the works, carried two of the redoubts, and 
 seemed to be on the point of opening the road to Savona. But 
 Colonel Rampon, who had posted himself with 1,500 French in 
 the third redoubt, determined to defend himself to the last, and 
 heroically repulsed all the attacks of the enemy. 
 
 The fate of the campaign, the fate of Bonaparte, lay within that 
 old patched-up redoubt. Argeruteau attacked it three several times 
 with all his infantry ; but, although his men fell fast around him, 
 the brave and staunch Rampon, the real hero of this long fight, 
 maintained the post. This gave time to Bonaparte to march round 
 by night by an unguarded road to Argenteau's rear ; and, before 
 Beaulieu, who was on the left of General Colli, who was on the 
 right, could possibly come up to his support, he was defeated, after 
 a terrific struggle, and driven in disorderly retreat to Degp, having 
 lost about 4,000 men, in killed and prisoners. Argenteau was 
 greatly blamed for his conduct in the affair, and was dismissed the 
 service. 
 
 The young Republican general had now pushed into the valley 
 of the Bormida, between the two disjointed armies of the allies. 
 Beaulieu and Colli hastened to repair this disaster by re-establish- 
 ing their communications ; but Bonaparte was too quick for them, 
 and by two attacks, one at Millesimo on the I3th of April, the other 
 at Dego on the Hth, Colli and the Piedmontese army were com- 
 pletely separately from the Austrians ; and Provera, with an Austrian 
 division of 2,000 men, was obliged to lay down his arms. On the 
 1 5th, a mistake committed by Wukassowich nearly retrieved the 
 fortunes of the allies : that general, with 5,000 Austrians, came 
 suddenly from Voltri, where Beaulieu had been victorious over -the 
 French, ran upon Dego, where he expected to find his countrymen, 
 but where, instead, he found Massena, with a division of the French 
 army, little prepared for any attack. Wukassowich made a brilliant 
 charge, and scattered the French division ; but General Laharpe 
 
 * Botta says that the fighting did not begin at Voltri until the xoth, but this is clearly 
 an error. 
 
ITALIAN TREACHERY. 4? 
 
 came down with reinforcements, and Bonaparte himself, dreading 
 the fatal consequences of a defeat in his rear, hastened to the spot 
 with still more troops. Then, after the most heroic conduct, Wu- 
 kassowich was obliged to retire. As the Republicans debouched 
 through the valley of the Bormida into the rich plains of Piedmont, 
 Beaulieu retreated in good order to the Po, to defend the Emperor's 
 Milanese territories, leaving Colli and the Piedmontese army to 
 shift for themselves. Bonaparte instantly turned against Colli, who 
 had taken post on the western declivities of the Apennines at Ceva, 
 drove him from that post, followed him to Mondovi, dislodged him 
 there, and pursued him beyond Cherasco. Betrayed by a part ot 
 his army who had been proselytized, and now badly served by the 
 rest, pressed by a superior force, and looking in vain for aid from 
 Beaulieu, Colli at length retreated to Carignan, about eighteen miles 
 from Turin. 
 
 On the 25th April, the commandant of Cherasco, a fortified place 
 with a garrison of 2,000 men, and immense stores of ammunition and 
 provisions, basely surrendered at the first appearance of Bonaparte's 
 aide-de-camp, Marmont, who had been sent merely to reconnoitre. 
 There was treachery here, there was treachery everywhere, and 
 in Court and council, as well as in the camp and in the fortresses ! 
 
 By this time all the provinces of Piedmont south of the Po were 
 open to the Republican invaders ; the capital itself was almost at 
 their mercy ; and the resources of the country were consumed. 
 Victor Amadeo sued for a truce, which Bonaparte granted, in con- 
 sideration of having the key fortresses of Cuneo Ceva and Tortona 
 put into his hands, rThe Directory soon afterwards extended the 
 truce into a treaty ot peace, which his Sardinian Majesty paid for 
 by delivering up all the other Piedmontese fortresses and all the 
 passes of the Alps, and by ceding to the French Republic for ever 
 Savoy, Nice, and some Alpine tracts of countryX The poor old King 
 did not long survive this ruinous peace, dying broken-hearted on the 
 i6th of October. He had made a fatal mistake in agreeing to the 
 armistice, but a panic had seized one part of the Court of Turin, and 
 another portion of it had become partisans of the French Repub- 
 licans. Bonaparte said, that if the King had held out only a fortnight 
 
 ftJNIVERSi: 
 
48 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 longer, he and the French army would, in all probability, have been 
 compelled to retrace their steps across the mountains. 
 
 Everything depended on rapidity of movement. Immediately 
 after concluding the truce, Bonaparte marched against Beaulieu, 
 drove him from the Po, beat him in a sharp battle at Fonabio, be- 
 tween Piacenza and Milan, and made him fall back upon the river 
 Adda ; but his movement was one of retreat, and his intention not 
 to defend the line of the Adda, bu-t merely to delay the passage of the 
 
 The Bridge of Lodi. 
 
 French across that river. Thus, a great deal too much has been 
 made of the so-called battle of the bridge of Lodi. It was only an 
 affair with Beaulieu's rear-guard, which he had left at the head of the 
 bridge with some artillery. Had the Austrian general's intention 
 been to defend the Adda, the bridge would have been blown up. 
 While he moved off with the mass of his forces, his artillery at the 
 bridge kept up a tremendous fire, and caused the French a very 
 considerable loss. 
 
 It was on the loth of May that the bridge was carried by the 
 French, but while they had been performing the exploit, the Aus- 
 trians had made good their retreat. Bonaparte was afterwards ac- 
 customed to say, long after this period, that it was at Lodi, that the 
 
STATE OF ITALY. 49 
 
 idea first flashed across his mind that he might become a great 
 actor in the world's drama. 
 
 On the 1 5th of May he made a triumphant entrance into Milan, 
 where the French had many converts and partisans. That city soon 
 became the rallying-point of conspirators and desperate emigrants 
 from other parts of Italy. They formed patriotic clubs, made 
 speeches, wrote extravagant poems, and published newspapers, in 
 which they lauded the French and Napoleon to the skies. Neither 
 his interest, nor his duty to the revolutionary Government which 
 employed him, could induce the fortunate young general altogether 
 to conceal his want of sympathy with these people, or his aversion 
 to democracy ; but, while he assumed a distant and supercilious de- 
 meanour towards them, many of his officers and soldiers fraternized 
 with the Italian republicans, who were constantly telling them how 
 easy it would be to revolutionize the entire Peninsula, and overset 
 every old government in it. "Certainly," says an Italian writer, 
 " the Italian Government of that period were not perfect, but they 
 were at least supportable by force of habit ; and before this inva- 
 sion they were every day improving and being reformed, as well by 
 the rulers as by the people. And who will maintain that a lawless 
 military dominion was better than these old governments ? There 
 were some who said, and still say, that out of evil good was to come. 
 But I am well aware that men do not wait patiently for an uncertain 
 result ; and, assuredly, the patience of that generation was severely 
 tried ! " * But several of these Italian states might be said to be 
 exceedingly well governed when this tempest of foreign war burst 
 over them. 
 
 The Milanese, a naturally fertile country, which had belonged 
 for ages to the house of Austria, was rich and thriving rich even 
 in intellectual wealth, to a degree which it has not since attained 
 and the Austrian administration, in the recent reigns of Maria 
 Theresa and Joseph II., had effected many useful reforms, with an 
 enlightened policy and truly liberal spirit. Tuscany was, perhaps, 
 the best administered, the most contented, and the happiest country 
 
 * Carlo Botta. 
 
50 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 to be found on the continent of Europe; and here, too, govern- 
 mental reforms, and reforms in the laws, had long been and were 
 still in progress. The kingdom of Naples, though somewhat back- 
 ward in civilization, had made immense strides in the right direction 
 since the accession of Charles III. in 1734, and the changes intro- 
 duced by the Marquis of Tannuci, originally a jurisconsult and 
 professor at Pisa. And here also there was an amount of learning, 
 ingenuity, and genius, which those regions have not possessed since 
 that storm overtook them. 
 
 Immense and almost incessant pains have been taken to show 
 what some parts of Italy gained by the French Revolution, the 
 invasion of the Republicans, and the established regal dominion of 
 Napoleon. But few or none have paused to speculate on what 
 might have been the condition of Italy if she had been left to herself 
 to pursue her own paths of reform and political reorganization. 
 
 Even the zealots of Milan or such of them as were not gainers 
 ir- the scramble for power and plunder soon found out the true 
 signification of French fraternity. The governing powers at Paris, 
 without money and without credit, had adopted the resolution that 
 war must support war la guerre doit nourrir la guerre that is to 
 say, the countries overrun by French armies were to feed, clothe, 
 lodge, and pay the troops, and also to remit large contributions to 
 France. This was the basis of all the instructions given by the 
 Five Kings at the Luxembourg to Bonaparte and to all their gene- 
 rals. For much of the mischief that was done Napoleon was 
 scarcely accountable. 
 
 Piedmont had been pitilessly plundered, in a regular manner, by 
 the commissaries of the army and the commissioners of the Direc- 
 tory, and in an irregular manner by the soldiery and camp followers, 
 among whom there were now many Italians, refugees from other 
 states, men of desperate fortunes, and of no honour or morality. 
 As a good part of Lombardy seemed to receive the Republicans as 
 friends and deliverers, Bonaparte endeavoured to stop the irregular 
 plunder here, but the regular plunder which he ordered himself 
 was enormous. He imposed, at once, a contribution of 20,000,000 
 of francs, which fell chiefly on the nobility and clergy ; he autho- 
 
EXACTIONS IN ITAL K 51 
 
 rized his commissaries to seize whatsoever provisions, stores, 
 waggons, horses, &c., the army might want, merely giving cheques 
 (which, for the most part, were never paid at all), to be paid out of 
 the contributions. The horses and carriages of the nobility were 
 seized, because they belonged to aristocrats ; a great deal of pro- 
 perty which belonged to the late Viceroy and the Austrian Govern- 
 ment, and a great deal which did not belong to them, was seques- 
 trated as public property ; and, to finish the accursed climax, the 
 Monte di Pieta was broken open by express orders from Bonaparte 
 and his countryman, Saliceti, and all the property in it that was 
 worth sending was sent to Genoa to be converted into money for 
 the benefit of the Directory. In passing through Piacenza, Bona- 
 parte and Saliceti (that most rapacious and terrible of com- 
 missioners) had already treated the Monte di Pieta there in the 
 same manner ; and it afterwards became a rule to plunder all these 
 charitable institutions. 
 
 The five Directors at the Luxembourg were incessantly calling 
 on the general for money money more money; and Bonaparte 
 himself says that, besides clothing and feeding and abundantly 
 paying his army, he remitted to them 50,000,000 of francs during 
 his firsjjtalian campaign. The petty principalities, into which so 
 much of the beautiful cdtmtry was so unhappily divided, had never 
 made war, but they were all obliged to purchase what was called 
 a peace, at prices which might have saved Italy from this invasion, 
 if they had been collectively poured into the treasury of the keeper 
 of the keys of the Alps, the King of Sardinia. Thus the Duke of 
 Parma was made to pay 1,500,000 francs to furnish clothing fop the 
 army, and to surrender twenty of his best pictures. The Duke of 
 Modena was made to pay 6,000,000 francs in cash, 2,000,000 more 
 in provisions, cattle, horses, &c., and to deliver up fifteen of his 
 choice paintings ; and, as he could not feed the voracity of the 
 republicans fast enough, they took his whole duchy from him a few 
 months later. Until the Emperor should send another army, there 
 was absolutely nothing in Italy to offer any valid resistance to these 
 insatiable plunderers. 
 
 In these and other similar discreditable transactions, which be- 
 
 42 
 
5 * MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPAR TE. 
 
 came of common occurrence in every part of Italy occupied by the 
 French for the next three years, the military commanders, com- 
 missaries, and other agents, were assisted by many Italians, who 
 had embraced their part in order to glean in such a harvest. They 
 pointed out where valuable objects were to be found, and they went 
 to find them out and deliver them into the hands of the French. It 
 is remarked by a French writer, in the Supplement to the " Bio- 
 graphic Universelle," that the acknowledgments given for the valu- 
 ables taken away from churches and other public establishments 
 are signed by Italians, and that not a French name appears on 
 them. Many of these, however, belong to a later period, after 
 Bonaparte had left Italy. A collection of these original documents, 
 or proces-verbaux, as the French style them, has been made by a 
 French gentleman, M. Villenave ; they are all dated the year vi. 
 (1797-8), and entitled, " In the name of the French Republic," bear- 
 ing the legend of " Liberty and Equality." Some of them are re- 
 markable for the miscellaneous nature of the plunder. Qneproch- 
 verbal states the delivery of a golden chalice weighing six and a half 
 pounds, nine other chalices, seven silver lamps, sixteen silver candle- 
 sticks, eight flower-vases, censers, statues, basins, saucers, coffee- 
 spoons, trays, hand-bells, &c., all of silver. Another mentions a 
 sack containing several packets of silver utensils of the province of 
 Perugia, without specifying either the objects or the weight. These 
 acknowledgments are signed by men calling themselves agents of 
 finance, and are countersigned by the superiors of the churches thus 
 plundered. Under General Bonaparte things were done with more, 
 regularity ; but still many irregularities and violences were com- 
 mitted which he did not know or could not prevent, as he himself 
 acknowledged. 
 
 The spoliation of the Monte di Pietk, and the violences perpe- 
 trated in the country, gave rise to popular insurrections in various 
 parts of Lombardy. The inhabitants of Beinasco, a large village 
 between Milan and Pavia, rose in arms and killed several French, 
 and partisans of the French whom the people stigmatized as Jaco- 
 bins. The insurrection spread rapidly in that quarter, the bells 
 rang to alarm, and a multitude of country people ran to Pavia, 
 
REVOLT AT PAVIA. 53 
 
 where they were joined by the lower orders in that city, for it must 
 be observed that in Italy it was the peasantry and the working classes 
 in general that were most inimical to the French. 
 
 On the 23rd of May, Pavia^a large city with about 30,000 inhabi- 
 tants, was in open revolt. The French soldiers that were in the 
 town shut themselves up in the castle ; those who were found about 
 the streets were seized and ill used ; some were killed ; the rest had 
 their lives saved by the interference of the municipal magistrates, 
 who protected them at the risk of their own. General Haguin, who 
 happened to pass at the time on his way to head-quarters, was 
 assailed by a frantic mob and wounded, but was saved by the 
 magistrates, and concealed in the town house. In all this tumult 
 the country people were the chief actors. Bonaparte was at Lodi, 
 on the point of following up Beaulieu, when the news of the insur- 
 rection in his rear reached him. He hastened back to Milan, and 
 induced the Archbishop Visconti to proceed to Pavia in order to 
 persuade the people to lay down their arms. Meantime he sent 
 Lannes with a strong column against Beinasco, which was stormed 
 and set on fire. All people taken with arms in their hands were 
 put to death. Bonaparte himself advanced against Pavia. The 
 archbishop, who preceded him, harangued the multitude from the 
 balcony of the town house, explaning to them their danger, their 
 inability to resist the French regular troops ; and exhorted them 
 to lay down their arms and disperse quietly. But the ignorant and 
 deluded people would not listen to his advice, and some even cried 
 out that the archbishop was become a Jacobin. Meantime the 
 French arrived, and broke open one of the gates by means of cannon. 
 The cavalry rushed into the streets and sabred all they met. Most 
 of the country people ran out at the other gates, and the citizens 
 returned to their houses. An order of Bonaparte required the in- 
 habitants to give up their arms of every discription immediately, 
 which was obeyed. Then came a second order, by which the city 
 of Pavia was given up to pillage for twenty-four hours. During the 
 rest of that day, the 2$th of May, and the whole of the following 
 night, the soldiers rioted in plunder, violence, and debauch, in the 
 bouses of the unfortunate Pavese. Murder, however, was not added 
 
54 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 to pillage and rapes, and it is recorded that several of the French 
 officers and soldiers spared the honour and property of those who 
 were at their mercy, and screened them at the risk of their lives 
 from their more brutal companions. Next day, the 26th, at twelve 
 o'clock, the pillage ceased ; but Pavia felt for a long time after the 
 effect of this cruel treatment. It is not true, as some have stated, 
 that the municipal councillors were shot ; General Haguin inter- 
 ceded for them, stating how kindly they had behaved to him, and 
 they were only sent for a time as hostages to France. Three or four 
 of the leaders of the insurrection were publicly executed, and about 
 one hundred more had been killed in the first irruption of the 
 French. The university, and the houses of the professors, among 
 whom was the celebrated Spallanzani, were spared from pillage by 
 an express order of Bonaparte. 
 
 Such scenes are of common occurrence in a town taken by storm ; 
 and the excuse is, that it is impossible to prevent soldiers rushing 
 in with arms in their hands from doing what they pleased. But 
 Pavia was not so situated. The defence was contemptible, and the 
 people had given up their arms. The pillage, therefore, was not 
 tolerated, but authorized. It was meant as a punishment. 
 
 We know that an insurrection in the rear of an army is a most 
 dangerous contingency; and that, by the laws of war, which are 
 founded upon self-preservation, it must be severely punished. But 
 then the degree and measure of the punishment are left to the dis- 
 cretion of the commanding officer and his is a heavy responsibility 
 indeed. In the present case, Bonaparte wanted to prevent a repeti- 
 tion of an attempt which might have proved most disastrous to his 
 army. He wished to terrify the people of Lombardy ; but he knew 
 that it was the country people, and not the respectable, quiet citizens 
 of Pavia, who had risen. And yet it was upon those very citizens 
 that the punishment chiefly fell. And what punishment ! To have 
 the domestic privacy of their Vxmses invaded by an infuriated and 
 lustful soldiery ; their wives and daughters literally violated under 
 their own eyes ; and their property carried away, or wantonly de- 
 stroyed ! There was the brutality of the deed. Had Bonaparte 
 ordered all the real insurgents taken with arms in their hands to 
 
PUNISHMENT OF PA VIA. 5 5 
 
 be tried by military law, and executed had he even levied a severe 
 contribution on the town for not having opposed the insurgents no 
 one, certainly no military man, could have blamed him ; but the 
 cold-blooded pillage and rape were totally inexcusable. Much of the 
 property of the inhabitants was destroyed : it ruined them, and did 
 no good to the soldiers. It was no fit of passion or revenge that 
 influenced Bonaparte on this occasion, for he was himself cool and 
 temperate. It was a matter of cold-blooded calculation, in order to 
 strike terror for the future. The means, however, were ill chosen. 
 The disgraceful usage of the women of Pavia could not have had 
 any great effect on the minds of the country people ; for the town 
 and country population were quite distinct, if not alien, from each 
 other in feelings in those times. It was also a dangerous precedent 
 for a soldiery already but too much inclined to lawless acts ; and it 
 could not but demoralize the army still more. The burning of 
 Blenasco, a country village which had begun the revolt, was not half 
 so horrible as the coolly calculated enormities of Pavia.* 
 
 This was Bonaparte's own deed conceived and executed without 
 any order from Paris. But in many instances the five Directors 
 instructed him to carry out the work of terror, revenge, and devas- 
 tation ; and, to the credit both of his heart and intellect, he refused 
 to do their bidding. We have, under our eye, a terrible letter written 
 by Carnot, as one of the Directors, on the first entrance of the army 
 into Milan. Here the General was ordered to treat the whole 
 Milanese territory with the utmost rigour ; to impose upon it heavy 
 contributions in cash^ to be paid immediately during the first terror 
 caused by the arrival of the invaders ; and not to leave the canals, 
 which give fertility and wealth to the country, or the other great 
 public works, altogether exempt from the contingencies of war. " Let 
 the troops of the Republic," continued this Director, who managed 
 the war department, " that are stationed in that fertile country live 
 upon its resources : the harvest is near at hand. The Army of Italy 
 must not draw anything from France." 
 
 Now, Bonaparte would not inflict any injury on the canals ; and, 
 
 * Andr^ Vieusseux. 
 
56 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 instead of damaging the other public works, he took a laudable care 
 to preserve them, and to protect them from the ruder part of his 
 soldiery, and from the more destructive vengeance of the native 
 Italian democrats and levellers. If, in the refectory of a monastery 
 situated within the walls of Milan, that glorious fresco painting, the 
 Last Supper, by Leonardo da Vinci, was brutally damaged, it was 
 certainly not owing to, but in spite of, the young Commander- in- 
 Chief. The Directory continued the practice adopted by the Con- 
 vention, of sending commissioners to head-quarters, vested with 
 extraordinary powers. These men, who were nearly all civilians, 
 were far more rapacious, and infinitely more vindictive, than the 
 military ; and they very often assumed the right of giving orders to 
 the Commander-in-Chief, and even of directing his military move- 
 ments. Bonaparte soon told them that they were no longer masters ; 
 that they were only servants of the Government ; that it was he 
 who commanded in Italy; and that, instead of taking their orders, 
 he would expect to be obeyed by them. 
 
 In spite of the Directory, who had told him their commissioners 
 were the proper authorities for all diplomatic negotiations on the 
 spot, he presently took the whole business of diplomacy into his 
 own hands, and negotiated truces and treaties as he himself thought 
 best under circumstances of which he could best judge. 
 
 The Five Kings at the Luxembourg (or the five lawyers, as the sol- 
 diers often called them) could not but conceive a jealousy of their 
 aspiring and decided commander. This feeling betrayed itself even 
 in their congratulations on his victories. But how was his ambition 
 to be curbed ? The Directors thought that the best way would be 
 to divide the military authority in the country beyond the Alps into 
 two ; and they ordered Bonaparte to marc.h forward into Central 
 Italy, with one corps d'armee, and to leave General Kellermann in 
 Lombardy with the other. Bonaparte promptly and plainly told them 
 that such a division of authority would occasion the loss of all the 
 conquests the army had made, and that he would never submit to 
 such an arrangement. " Kellermann," he said, " may do as well as I, 
 especially as I am convinced that our victories are mainly due to 
 the courage of the army ; but to place Kellermann with me in Italy 
 
OPINION ON DIVIDED COMMAND. 57 
 
 would be to spoil everything. I cannot serve willingly with a man 
 who thinks himself the first general in Europe. Besides, I am of 
 opinion that it is better to have one bad general than two good 
 
 ones I have hitherto carried on the campaign without 
 
 taking anybody's advice, and I should not have done any good had 
 I been obliged to conciliate the opinions of others. My actions have 
 been as quick as my thoughts. If I were to be hampered in my 
 operations by the commissioners of the Government if the com- 
 missioners should have the power of altering my plans, and chang- 
 ing the disposition of the divisions of the army you must expect no 
 good result. Divide your forces in Italy, take away the unity of 
 military direction, and you will lose the first opportunity of dictating 
 the law to your enemies. The present position of our affairs in 
 Italy requires one general possessed of your entire confidence ; if I 
 am not to be that general, I shall not complain, and I will endea- 
 vour to win your esteem in any other capacity. Every commander 
 has his own method for making war. General Kellermann has more 
 experience than I have, and may do better than I can, but he and 
 I together, we shall spoil the business." The Directors found them- 
 selves obliged to succumb, and Bonaparte was allowed to go on in 
 his own way. General Kellermann was left with the Army of the 
 Alps, which served as a reserve to that of the Army of Italy. 
 
 It may be well, here, to remind the reader that there were two 
 Kellermanns, father and son. The father, who is now in question, 
 and who was subsequently Duke of Valmi, Marshal of France, &c., 
 entered the army as a common hussar as early as 1752, and had 
 fought in many battles before Bonaparte was born. Even under 
 the old regime, his courage and his abilities had raised him from 
 a common soldier to the rank of a colonel. The son was Keller- 
 mann, Count of Valmi, Lieutenant-General, Inspector General of 
 Cavalry, &c., who fought nobly in this first Italian campaign, and 
 afterwards at the battle of Marengo, and who measured swords with 
 the English in Portugal and Spain. 
 
 From the bridge of Lodi, the Austrian General Beaulieu fell back 
 in perfect order upon the Mincio. Without the army of Piedmont he 
 was numerically too weak to defend that line. In fact, having only 
 
MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 24,000 men, his movement had been one of retreat ever since the 
 armistice of Turin had been concluded. Now, therefere, having 
 reinforced the Austrian garrison in Mantua, and thrown some sup- 
 plies into that place, he withdrew behind the Adige into the Tyrol, 
 there to await the arrival of fresh Imperial troops. Thus, all Lom- 
 bardy was at the feet of the conqueror, except Mantua, and that for- 
 tress was soon blockaded by the French. 
 
 Napoleon's entry into Milan. 
 
 Milan was the scene of great gaiety and festivity. The Com- 
 mander-in-Chief already lived like a king, ia a splendid palace, with 
 a Court of Italians around him. Every day he received addresses 
 and deputations got up by malcontents in various and even distant 
 parts of the Peninsula. These patriots, as they styled themselves, 
 did all in their power to facilitate to the French the invasion and 
 conquest of their native country. In some respects their services 
 were of inestimable value : they acted as secret emissaries all over 
 Italy, and especially at Venice and other places in the rear of the 
 Austrian army ; and they were always as ready to dupe and mis- 
 direct the generals of the Emperor as to convey correct information 
 to the French head-quarters. 
 
 And in addition to these revolutionary bands, who did their work 
 
WURMSER. 59 
 
 without pay or fee, there were others composed of Italians, who 
 took money for what they did. Not a few ladies, extravagant in 
 their habits and needy in their circumstances, became purveyors of 
 secret intelligence, and even managers of espials and plots. These 
 Italians were all paid by Italian money and Italian spoils ; and as 
 coin flowed plentifully into the military chest from the contributions 
 paid by the different states, the French general, although remitting 
 large sums to the Government at Paris, had the means of being 
 liberal at Milan. 
 
 Bonaparte was recalled from this easy and profitable work by in- 
 telligence that Wurmser was coming against him with part of the 
 Imperial army, which had retreated before Moreau. The German 
 veteran descended from the valley u Trento with from 50,000 to 
 60,000 men, consisting of some divisions he had brought with him 
 from the Rhine, the remains of Beaulicu's troops which he had col- 
 lected in the Tyrol, and some Tyrolese levies. 
 
 Bonaparte, who stated his own forces in the field at 44,000, wrote 
 from Verona on the 24th of July, that Wurmser was moving down 
 large columns by the valleys of the Adige end the Brenta. " We 
 are in observation, ready at the first opportunity to cross the Adige 
 and resume the offensive. Woe to either of us who makes a blunder 
 in his calculations ! " 
 
 Blind as ever to the fatal consequences of dividing his forces, 
 Wurmser split his army into two, moving himself with the larger 
 half along the eastern shore of tho Lake of Guarda, and sending 
 Quosdanowich with the other division along the western bank. 
 Bonaparte, who Liad raised his blockade of Mantua and concentrated 
 his forces, instantly threw their^entire weight upon Quosdanowich, 
 crushed him at Lonato, drove him back into the mountains, and 
 then, turning quickly round, faced old Wurmser with a force now 
 nearly double that of the Austrians; and in two bloody battles 
 fought near Castiglione, on the 3rd and 5th of August, the dull but 
 brave old man was defeated, and driven back into the Tyrol with 
 the loss of his artillery and of several thousand men. Bonaparte 
 followed him up the lower valley of the Tyrol, defeated an Austrian 
 division on the 4th of September, and entered as a conqueror into 
 
60 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 the city of Trento. Wurmser then suddenly struck away across the 
 mountains to the east of Trento, and descending the valley of the 
 Brenta, again entered Ital> and advanced to Bassano, where he was 
 joined by some reinforcements from Carinthia. But his active young 
 opponent followed close upon his rear, and all that the veteran could 
 do was to throw himself into the important fortress of Mantua with 
 some 18,000 men, the wretched remnant of his army. 
 
 It was on the I4th of September when Wurmser got within the 
 walls of the Virgilian city. By the end of October, as the snows 
 were beginning to whiten the ridges of those Alps, two fresh Austrian 
 armies were descending into Italy. The British Government had 
 supplied the Court of Vienna with some more money ; the Emperor 
 had made a solemn appeal to his hereditary subjects, and to the 
 bold Hungarians ; and, misuse them as she would, the warlike re- 
 sources of Austria were immense, and the loyalty and firmness of 
 the people untouched. But again these two armies, instead of being 
 united in the mountains, out of the reach of the enemy, and then 
 poured down on the plain as one torrent, were allowed to come 
 dribbling in different directions, and to get into the presence of the 
 French divided and far apart. Marshal Alvinzi descended from 
 Carinthia upon Belluno with 30,000 men, while Davidowich, with 
 20,000 men, moved down from the Tyrol. The two armies united 
 would lhardly have been a match for Bonaparte, who could bring at 
 the least 45,000 men into action ; but as it was arranged, they had 
 between them to traverse nearly one-half of the breadth of Italy, 
 before Alvinzi and Dax'idowich could join at the appointed spot be- 
 tween Pc3chiera and Verona, v/hence they were to march together 
 to Mantua, where Wurmser was to be released ; and the general 
 with the Sclavonic name moved at c snail's pace. With the mass 
 of his forces Bonaparte rushed to meet Alvinzi, and gave him battle 
 at Le Nove on the 6th of November; but instead of defeating him, 
 he himself sustained a terrible repulse, and retreated next day to- 
 wards Verona to pick up the shattered columns of Vaubois, who was 
 retreating before Davidowich. Contrary to what might reasonably 
 have been expected, Alvinzi, overcoming every obstacle, reached 
 the heights of Caldiero, in front of Verona. But instead of finding 
 
ARC OLE. 6*1 
 
 Davidowich there, he learned that the sluggard and blockhead, or 
 arch-traitor, had been reposing himself for ten blessed days at Ro- 
 veredo, between Trento and the Lago di Guarda, and was still there 
 or far away in that neighbourhood. Davidowich, as we have seen, 
 had driven in Vaubois, who had been stationed by Bonaparte be- 
 tween Trento and Roveredo to block up that narrow pass into Italy ; 
 and if he had only followed up his success, he might have pushed 
 on to the right bank of the Adige near Verona, and thus have placed 
 Bonaparte in a most critical position, with Alvinzi in front himself, 
 Davidowich on his left flank, and Mantua in his rear, within which 
 fortress Wurmser had at that moment 1 8,000 men at the very least. 
 
 Thus left to himself, Alvinzi was attacked on the I2th of Novem- 
 ber by Bonaparte, who attempted to dislodge from him Caldiero. 
 This effort proved fruitless ; the Austrians stood on those heights 
 like rocks, and, after considerable loss, the French were compelled 
 to retreat again into Verona. For the moment the young Corsican's 
 heart failed him, and he wrote a desponding letter to the Directors. 
 He forcibly expressed his dread of being surrounded as he ought 
 to have been, and must have been, if Davidowich had but done his 
 duty, he recapitulated the great losses he had sustained, affirming 
 that his best officers were either killed or wounded, and his men 
 completely exhausted by their hard fighting, their rapid marches 
 and counter-marches. He drew so dark a picture of his situation, 
 that, a day or two after the receipt of this letter, the Directory could 
 not have been much astonished if they had received intelligence that 
 his army had been utterly destroyed or reduced to capitulate. But 
 Bonaparte soon roused himself, and marching quietly out of Verona 
 in the night of the J3th of November, and moving rapidly by a cross- 
 road that ran through a marshy country, he got close to Villanova, 
 in the rear of Alvinzi. The Alpone, a mountain stream, almost dry 
 in some seasons of the year, ran between the French and Villanova, 
 and was traversed only by the narrow stone bridge of Arcole. 
 
 Bonaparte made a rush at the bridge, and found it defended by 
 two battalions of Croats and Hungarians, with some artillery. Three 
 times the French columns attempted to storm it, amidst a shower 
 of grape-shot and musketry ; and three times reeled back with 
 
62 MEMOIR Of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 terrific loss. Many of the men ran away along the narrow cause- 
 way which led up to the bridge, and plunged into the marshes for 
 safety. Bonaparte himself was thrown from the causeway into a 
 marsh, and was very near being taken ; for the Croats and Hun- 
 garians rushed across the bridge and swept everything before them. 
 A charge of French grenadiers drove back the enemy, and extri- 
 cated their general when he was up to his middle in mud and 
 water, and almost surrounded. By this time Alvinzi had changed 
 his front, and advanced from the heights of Caldiero ; upon which 
 the battle became general. It lasted for three days, and was by far 
 the hardest fought in all these Italian campaigns. 
 
 " Never," wrote Bonaparte to Carnot, " was a field of battle so 
 obstinately contested. The enemy was numerous and determined. 
 I have hardly any general officers left." In fact, they were nearly 
 all killed, wounded, or prisoners. His own escape from hurt was 
 almost miraculous ; for he exposed himself in the very foremost 
 rank, and was under the thickest of the fire at the end of the bridge, 
 where it was most murderous. It is said to have been at Arcole 
 that the soldiers first bestowed on him, as a term of endearment, 
 the name of " our brave little corporal." 
 
 If Davidowich had been at hand with only half of his 20,000 men ; 
 or if old Wurmser, leaving Mantua to take care of itself, had come 
 up while Bonaparte was sacrificing his best men in obstinate and 
 fruitless efforts to carry the bridge of Arcole ; or when the French 
 army was divided one part on one side of the Alpone, and the 
 rest on the other side there would have been an end as perfect as 
 could have been desired : the invaders must have been extermi- 
 nated. But so bright a hypothesis was not to be realized by 
 Austrian generals, or by any ojther generals, for many a year to 
 come. ^Intimidated by these terrible Croats and Hungarians and 
 the well-served guns on the bridge, the French detached General 
 Guyeux with 2,000 men, to cross the Adige lower down, at the ferry 
 of Albaredo, which is below the confluence of the Alpone, and 
 thence to march by the left bank of the Alpone, where the ground 
 was firmer, to the village of Arcole. All this Guyeux did success- 
 fully ; but in the evening the Austrians in that quarter, being re- 
 
A CSTRIAN BLUNDERS. 63 
 
 inforced, fell upon him, and drove him out of the village. Next 
 day (the i6th) Bonaparte obstinately renewed his attacks upon 
 the fatal bridge, which he did not carry after all, and every attack 
 on which cost him many officers and heaps of men. On the I7th 
 he did what he ought to have done at first : he threw a bridge over 
 the Alpone, just above its confluence ; and, sending Augereaux 
 across, to advance along the left bank with a strong column, to \ 
 take the defenders of the bridge in flank and in rear, and then push 
 forward for the village of Arcole, he himself charged with another 
 strong column along that unhappy causeway, flanked by marshes, j 
 on which he had been so long detained. ^/Bonaparte's column was 
 met in the teeth by such a fire, that men or fiends could not stand 
 it ; and again they reeled back. ) But Augereau, after a sharp con- 
 test, succeeded in his objects, and gamed possession of the village. 
 Alvinzi then made his retreat upon Vicenza and Bassano, where he 
 took up his winter quarters. The French estimate his loss at 4,000 
 in killed and wounded, and as many in prisoners ; they do not 
 state their own loss, but it must necessarily have been immense. 
 On the same day that Alvinzi began his retreat from the left bank 
 of the Adige, Davidowich, as if waking from a drunken sleep, came 
 blundering down by Ala to the right bank of that river, and entered 
 the Italian plains between Peschiera and Verona ; but Bonaparte, 
 who had now nothing else to do, turned against him with his 
 superior and victorious forces, and presently drove him back to 
 Ala, to Roveredo, and the steep hills that overhang the Tyrol pass. 
 Thus ended what was not incorrectly called the third Italian cam- 
 paign of the year 1796 ; and thus Bonaparte had beaten successively 
 BeaulieUy Wurmser, and Alvinzj. Of the future campaigns we shall 
 say little or nothing, having already said enough to explain how these 
 matters were managed by or for the Austrians, and there having 
 been for a long time no change of system no wisdom taught by a 
 fatal experience and an accumulation of disgrace. 
 
 In order to strengthen the armies in Italy, the victorious Arch- 
 duke Charles had been left weak on the Rhine. He recovered Fort 
 Kehl at the beginning of the year ; but Moreau, strongly reinforced, 
 again reduced that important fortress, and defeated the Austrians 
 
64 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 in a graat battle in the month of April. Nearly at the same moment, 
 Hoche, who commanded on the Lower Rhine, defeated General 
 Krey ; and other French divisions were again advancing into the 
 heart of Germany, when their march was suspended by the intelli- 
 gence that the Emperor was negotiating for a peace with Bonaparte. 
 
 Both the young republican general and the old Austrian marshal 
 had received reinforcements during the winter. Alvinzi, as early as 
 the month of January, took the field with 50,000 men, intending not 
 merely to relieve Wurmser, but also to drive the French from the 
 whole line of the Adige ; but he again divided his forces, was 
 defeated at Rivoli on the Hth of January, 1797, and, after General 
 Provera, who had surrendered with 2,000 men the year before, had 
 surrendered with a division of 5,000 men, old Wurmser, being 
 reduced to extremities for want of provisions, was obliged to 
 capitulate in Mantua. 
 
 To his honour, Bonaparte would not witness the surrender of his 
 aged antagonist, but kept at a distance as Wurmser and his staff 
 came out of the fortress. " Wurmser," he said, " had done all that 
 a brave officer could do : after his defeat at Bassano, he marched 
 for five days in the midst of hostile columns, crossed the Adige, 
 overcame all opposition, reached Mantua, and resolutely threw 
 himself into it. He had since made repeated sorties, fighting 
 always valiantly, though always unsuccessfully ; he had held out in 
 the fortress for neaily six months, and now with a garrison fearfully 
 reduced by famine and pestilence, he had obtained an honourable 
 capitulation. 7 ' 
 
 The Pope was unable to pay the enormous contributions de- 
 manded from him. After the surrender of Mantua the French 
 overran the greater part of the Papal States, scattered with a few 
 shots some 6,000 or 8,000 very unwarlike troops in the Pope's pay, 
 took possession of the city and port of Ancona, and at Tolentino 
 dictated new and still harsher conditions of peace to the helpless 
 head of the Catholic Church. The poor Roman prelates, who were 
 the negotiators at Tolentino, had been quite bewildered by Bona- 
 parte's rapidity. They said, " These French armies do not march, 
 they run !" The conqueror had announced himself as the friend 
 
1 797-1 THE ARCHDUKE CHARLES. 65 
 
 and defender, and not the enemy, of the Pope. As further proofs 
 of this friendship, Bonaparte exacted the formal cession of the rich 
 papal provinces of Bologna and Ferrara, and the possession of 
 Ancona by the French, till the conclusion of a general peace ; and, 
 besides the payment by the Pope of 30,000,000 of livres, he put the 
 sculpture and picture galleries, and the libraries, books, and manu- 
 scripts of Rome under heavy requisition. The treasures of the 
 Santa Casa, or Holy House of Loretto, had been for the most part 
 removed before the invaders entered that city; but many of the 
 diamonds, gems, and other precious articles found their way, never- 
 theless, to Paris ; and the philosophism of the French commanders 
 did not prevent their carrying off from Loretto the miraculous image 
 of the Madonna. According to Montholon, and the other writers 
 of memoirs or eulogiums of the same school, Napoleon's mind was 
 filled and his imagination excited by images of ancient Roman 
 grandeur and recollections of the imperial and classical ages. But, 
 though so near to Rome, he did not proceed thither, nor did he ever 
 in his life visit the Eternal City. 
 
 With the charms of the capital of Tuscany the Athens of modern 
 Italy he was much struck ; and Florence had been the home of at 
 least some of his ancestors. When they took him into that wonder- 
 ful square, and showed him the cathedral and the contiguous 
 baptistry, he is said to have exclaimed, " They are so beautiful 
 that they ought to be kept under a glass case ! " While in that 
 neighbourhood, he visited the small town of San Miniato, and there 
 found an old canon of his name and race, who received the victo- 
 rious general as a relative. Before leaving the old priest Bonaparte 
 inquired if he could oblige him in anything. The canon, with 
 disinterested simplicity, asked him to use his influence with the 
 Pope to obtain the canonization of a long-deceased member of the 
 family, one Bonaventura Bonaparte, who had lived a holy life, and 
 died in odour of sanctity. 
 
 By this time Austria had poured another army to the frontiers of 
 Italy, and had given the command of it to the Archduke Charles. 
 But this last Austrian army was composed almost entirely of raw 
 recruits, and of the disheartened fragments of the forces of Beaulieu, 
 
 5 
 
66 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 Wurmser, Davidowich, and Alvinzi ; and the Archduke, instead of 
 being left to his own genius and ready resources, was checked and 
 embarrassed by the Aulic Council at Vienna. On the other side, 
 the French, already superior in numbers, were flushed with victory ; 
 <jid General Bernadotte, who had quitted the Army of the Rhine, 
 joined Bonaparte with 20,000 men. After sustaining some terrible 
 defeats, in the month of March, on the Tagliamento, the Archduke 
 retreated, slowly and in admirable order, towards Vienna, in the 
 hope of receiving reinforcements from that capital and from Hun- 
 gary, and of drawing the French into the hereditary states, where 
 a population, enthusiastically devoted to the Emperor, would be 
 sure to rise en masse, and attack them on their flanks and rear. The 
 campaign was not hopeless ; the Archduke was full of hope and 
 ardour. The French, who had violated the continental territories 
 of the Republic of Venice, were apprehensive of an attack on their 
 rear from that quarter. General Landon was pouring through the 
 valley of the Tyrol with another Austrian division, was driving back 
 the French detachments on the Upper Adige, and was almost on 
 the edge of the plains of Lombardy. Bonaparte was full of anxiety ; 
 but disguising his feelings, and suddenly pretending to deplore the 
 horrors of war, and to be anxious, merely for humanity's sake, for a 
 peace, he wrote a very flattering letter to the Archduke, calling him 
 the saviour of Germany, and representing England as the only 
 power in Europe that had an interest in continuing the war. The 
 Archduke referred him for an answer to Vienna. 
 
 Bonaparte was now at Judenburg, in Upper Styria, about eight 
 days 7 march from Vienna ; but, notwithstanding the successes of 
 Moreau and Hoche, there was no Republican army in the valley of 
 the Danube to co-operate with him ; he had many streams to pass, 
 and several dangerous defiles before him and behind him ; the 
 Lombard Venetians, though without any aid from their timid, con- 
 temptible Government, were actually rising in insurrection, it being 
 reported among the people, who had many wrongs to avenge, that 
 the French army had got enclosed in the mountain-passes of 
 Carniola and Styria, and would inevitably be compelled to lay 
 down their arms. But there was a party at Vienna overcome bv 
 
SUSPENSION OF HOSTILITIES. 
 
 67 
 
 Battle of Tagliamento. 
 
 their fears, and ready to purchase peace at almost any price ; and 
 the Archduke was ordered to a^ree to a suspension of hostilities. 
 Generals Bellegarde and Meerfeldt arrived at Judenburg on the 7th 
 of April, had a conference with Bonaparte, and demanded an 
 armistice, which was agreed upon till the I3th. Bonaparte moved 
 his head-quarters to Leoben, and Massena, with the advanced guard, 
 posted himself at Bruck, near the Semmering Pass, the last defile 
 of the Noric Alps on the side of Vienna. It is to be remembered 
 that Bonaparte, many months before, had laid before the Directory 
 a plan of combined operations by the armies of Italy and the Rhine, 
 the result of which was that they should dictate peace on the heights 
 of the Semmering. He now accomplished that object with his own 
 army alone. From his first entrance into the hereditary states of 
 the Emperor, he had ordered a severe discipline to be maintained, 
 and everything required by the army to be punctually paid for, and 
 he had assured the inhabitants of Carinthia that they should not 
 suffer from the operations of the war. He had strong reasons for 
 adopting this line of conduct. The people of Carinthia, as those 
 of Tyrol and all the hereditary states, were loyal, and devotedly 
 
 5* 
 
68 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 attached to the House of Austria ; he could not hope to find here, 
 as he had done in Italy, sympathizers and active partisans ; and 
 these populations, being far more warlike than the Italians, were 
 proportionately more likely to resent in a formidable manner any 
 plunder, injury, or insult. Bonaparte's object was now to obtain a 
 peace. Only a few weeks before, he had told his soldiers at Bassano 
 that they would free the brave Hungarians from the yoke of Austria, 
 and reduce that proud Court to the rank of a secondary state. But 
 these were words got up for the sake of excitement : the Hungarians 
 were at that period as much devoted to their sovereign as the 
 Carinthians and Tyrolese, and the conqueror had not, for the pre- 
 sent, the most distant idea of entering Hungary. 
 
 The intrigues at Vienna, and all the circumstances and influences 
 which led to the preliminaries of Leofogn. scarcely belong to bio- 
 graphy, and offer no characteristic traits of Bonaparte. The Emperor 
 Francis, like his brother the Archduke Charles, was inclined for a 
 protracted struggle, and could not support the idea of losing the 
 Duchy of Milan. Thugut, his Prime Minister, although no favourer 
 of France, cast his views beyond the mere Italian question; he 
 looked to Germany, and there he clearly saw that Prussia was en- 
 deavouring to extend its influence at the expense of Austria, under 
 the shield of its assumed neutrality. The Minister of Prussia at 
 Vienna (Lucchesini) had made, in the preceding month of February, 
 a suspicious journey into Italy, where he had conferred with the young 
 conqueror. The secret policy of Prussia at that time, and for years 
 after, greatly favoured the views of France, for which at last she was 
 so fitly rewarded by Napoleon on the bloody field of Jena. 
 
 There was another influence at Vienna in favour of peace, and it 
 was that of Queen Caroline of Naples, the aunt and stepmother of 
 the Emperor Francis. The presence oi the victorious French army 
 in Italy kept her Majesty in perpetual alarm for the safety of her 
 own kingdom, which contained no inconsiderable number of Jacobin 
 republicans and would-be revolutionists. She, therefore, instructed 
 her ambassador at Vienna, the Marquis del Gallo, to use his in- 
 fluence, which was great, with the Empress, whom he (the Marquis) 
 id escorted from Naples at the time of her marriage. By the 
 
TREA TY OF CAMPO FORMIO. 69 
 
 credit of the Empress and of Thugut, Del Gallo was ultimately fixed 
 upon as the negotiator with Bonaparte an appointment which gave 
 offence to many in Vienna. 
 
 On the other side, the French Directors were but little inclined 
 to entrust General Bonaparte with the sole management of such an 
 important negotiation as that of peace with the Emperor ; and they 
 sent him General Clarke (afterwards Due de Feltre) as a coadjutor, 
 or rather as a check. But the fortunate soldier would no more divide 
 his diplomacy than his command of the army ; and through his own 
 determined character and astuteness, and the submissiveness of the 
 colleague imposed upon him, he soon got rid of this impediment. 
 Clarke was a very cunning and a very unscrupulous man, and, like 
 others much less acute, he probably saw already that Bonaparte 
 would soon be the supreme head of the French Government ; and 
 when he was told that he had much better go to Turin, to dictate a 
 treaty of alliance to the prostrate, helpless King of Sardinia, Clarke 
 went. 
 
 On the 1 5th of April, the Marquis del Gallo arrived from Vienna, 
 at Bonaparte's head-quarters at Leoben. The Marquis was well 
 advanced in years, not devoid of a certain diplomatic tact, but timid 
 and irresolute. Bonaparte, assuming a cool, distant air, began by 
 observing that his name did not sound like German. Gallo said 
 that he was the Neapolitan Ambassador at the Imperial Court 
 " But," said the young soldier, looking at him with his keen eyes, 
 " we have no pending negotiations with Naples, or the Court of the 
 Two Sicilies, that I know of. We are at peace. Has the Emperor 
 no negotiator of his own no diplomatist of the true Austrian school? 
 Is the old aristocracy of Vienna extinct ?" This first address quite 
 bewildered the old courtier, who could never before have heard such 
 a diplomatic prelude, and who was jealous of his interest at Vienna. 
 Gallo became supple and obsequious; and we believe through 
 weakness, and not out of any dishonesty he came to a thorough 
 understanding with the Commander-in-Chief of the French Repub- 
 lican Army of Italy. From the beginning, Bonaparte acquired a 
 superiority over him as he did, for a long time, over nearly every 
 man with whom he came in contact. A quarter of a century after 
 
70 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPAR7E. 
 
 these scenes at Leoben, we have heard the Marquis declare with 
 his own lips that there was no resisting or opposing the young con- 
 queror; that all who surrounded him were as if under a spell ; that 
 some were browbeaten and terrified ; and others won over by a 
 fascination of manners ; but that all seemed disposed to succumb 
 or obey. General Meerfeldt, who was associated with Gallo, was 
 kept completely in the background. Thus, by a concourse of cir- 
 cumstances, which appeared purposely arranged, two Italians 
 Bonaparte, a Corsican; and Gallo, a Neapolitan were left to settle 
 the destinies of two principal continental states, and of the fairest 
 part of Europe. Their conferences were close, and while they lasted 
 quite secret. When the business was all over, Bonaparte sent for 
 Clarke to join him at Leoben, just in time for being too late. While 
 Clarke was far off in his travelling-carriage, the preliminaries of 
 peace were signed on the i8th of April, 1797. Months, however, 
 elapsed ere these preliminaries at Leoben were transformed into the 
 Peace of Campo Formio. 
 
 The day after signing, Bonaparte wrote to the Directory " Our 
 military situation was not safe ; the Court was leaving Vienna ; the 
 Archduke, being reinforced, would have made a stand before that 
 capital ; the Hungarians were ready to fall upon our right flank ; 
 and Landon and the Tyrolese, supported by the Venetian insurrec- 
 tion, were threatening our rear. As soon as I foresaw that the 
 negotiations were assuming a serious turn, I sent for Clarke, who 
 had your full instructions ; but after waiting ten days, / thought it 
 best to sign the preliminaries myself. I had your full powers over 
 all the military operations ; and, in my position, the preliminaries 
 themselves were a military operation. Calumny will impute to me 
 ambitious views; but my career, both civil and military, has ever been 
 straightforward. Now, however, I feel that I ought to leave Italy; 
 and I beg you to send me, with your ratification of the preliminaries, 
 the necessary directions concerning the Italian affairs, together with 
 my leave of absence to return to France." This pretended tender 
 of his resignation frightened and embarrassed the Directors, who 
 were beginning to feel that they could do neither with him nor with- 
 out him. With his hand on his sword to lead them, the soldiers of 
 
TREA TV OF LEOBEN. 
 
 Napoleon and the Marquis del Gallo. 
 
 the Army of Italy would at this moment have followed their little 
 corporal to the ends of the earth, or have done whatever he chose 
 to command. During the halts on the heights of Semmering and 
 negotiations at Leoben, the republican army in other quarters had 
 obtained successes. General Hoche had crossed the line, defeated 
 the Austrian General Kray, and advanced to the Main; and General 
 Moreau had entered Suabia, when they were stopped by a message 
 from Bonaparte, informing them that he had settled the prelimi- 
 naries of peace. Both Hoche and Moreau felt the bitterness of 
 disappointment, for they had promised themselves laurels as green 
 and bright as those which the young Corsican had gathered in Italy. 
 The Directors, afraid of Bonaparte's celebrity, now certainly strove 
 to oppose to it the military fame of Hoche, Moreau, and other 
 
7* MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 generals of the first years of the Republic ; and hence, and from 
 the bearing of those generals, arose a jealousy and a hatred which 
 the First Consul, and Emperor afterwards, made very fatal to some 
 of them. 
 
 The. Directors, in sending their ratification of the preliminaries, 
 inserted a sort of half-expressed regret at being precluded by his 
 arrangements from taking greater advantage of the recent " successes 
 that have immortalized the French armies which occupy Germany." 
 To him this was wormwood. They, however, praised Bonaparte as 
 " a general who will bear a great name in the history of the war of 
 liberty/' They could not, they said, listen to his wishes for retire- 
 ment ; his presence in Italy being still necessary to consolidate the 
 Lombard Republic, and to dispose of the affairs of Venice. 
 
 He gradually withdrew his army from Styria and Carinthia, and 
 quartered them in the Friuli and the other Italian continental terri- 
 tories of the Venetian Republic. That unfortunate state, situated 
 between the two contending parties (Ferrara and Austria), had pre- 
 pared its own ruin by adhering to an unarmed neutrality. Quoting 
 Frederic of Prussia, Bonaparte had long been saying, " Where war 
 is there are no neutrals." This war had, in fact, been carried on 
 chiefly within the frontiers of the Republic, and on Venetian ground. 
 By stratagem, or threats, or force, Bonaparte had placed garrisons 
 in all its fortified towns Verona, Peschiera, Legnago, Bergamo, 
 Brescia, and Palmanova ; he had made the Government of Venice 
 supply his army for nearly a year with all and more than was re- 
 quired for its sustenance and habiliments ; he had applied to his 
 own use the Venetian artillery and ammunition found in the for- 
 tresses ; and he had treated the officers of the Venetian Senate, and 
 some of the Senators themselves who came to remonstrate with him, 
 with much less than common courtesy. The Venetians could not 
 have suffered more by an unsuccessful war : if, instead of remaining 
 neutral, they had joined their land forces, which were considerable, 
 to the Austrians, and their fleet to the English, the Italian campaigns 
 of Bonaparte might have had a very different issue. But they re- 
 mained unarmed, and met the fate reserved for those who will not 
 help themselves. On their very first advance into the Venetian 
 
T&& VSNETIAtf REPUBLIC. 
 
 dominions, and many months before any popular insurrection 
 against them was heard of, the French had made up their minds to 
 overthrow that aristocratic Government, to appropriate all its terri- 
 tories on the continent, together with the city of Venice itself, and 
 to keep all this as an affiliated or dependent Republic, or to barter 
 it away (after having well plundered it) for territory elsewhere, and 
 other advantages to France.* 
 
 The partisans and agents of Bonaparte got up political clubs, 
 plots, and conspiracies without number, while he himself affected 
 TO be ignorant of their existence. Everywhere the disaffected sub- 
 jects of Venice were encouraged to rise and join the French as libe- 
 rators. Brescia and Bergamo were completely revolutionized, and 
 the patriots were joined by bands of desperate Poles and hungry 
 Frenchmen the very refuse of Bonaparte's camp-followers. Yet 
 he told the Venetian envoys that the Directory had not forgotten 
 that their Republic was the old ally of France; that he was desirous 
 of protecting Venice, that he wished to avoid the shedding of blood, 
 that he only requested that they would not consider it as a crime 
 " if some Venetian citizens were better inclined towards the French 
 than towards the Austrians," and, finally, that he would not inter- 
 meddle between Venice and its revolted subjects. The envoys 
 asked him if he could not at least help in checking the fearful ex- 
 cesses committed in Bergamo and Brescia, under the very eyes of 
 strong French garrisons which he had thrown into those places. 
 " No," said he; " the enthusiasm of democratic opinions has been of 
 great use to me ! it has aided the progress of my arms in Italy; 
 and therefore I cannot consistently or prudently turn round against 
 those who profess French republicanism ! " "Then," replied the 
 envoys, "let us ourselves restore order in those our own cities." 
 "You see," said Bonaparte, "there are French garrisons there!" 
 The insurgents in the rural districts were for their old Government, 
 those in the cities were for the French. But all the cities were not like 
 Bergamo and Brescia, and even there the Jacobinized parties could 
 
 *The correspondence of Bonaparte, published by Panckoucke, fully establishes this 
 fact, which is further proved by a mass of other evidence, equally incontrovertible. 
 
74 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 not have kept their ground a single day without the protection of 
 the French. The local authorities at Verona- had exerted them- 
 selves to save that important city from the democrats and levellers 
 of Brescia who were advancing against him. There was no disaffec- 
 tion at Verona : the people of all classes were strongly attached to 
 Venice ; the country people offered themselves as volunteers by 
 thousands. The deputies of the different districts consulted with 
 the Venetian Provveditore, or Governor, and the other authorities, 
 and it was agreed to form several strong detachments of country 
 militia, mixed with some regulars, and place them on the principal 
 avenues along which Verona might be approached by the mad de- 
 mocrats from Brescia, who threatened nothing less than the plunder 
 of this city. 
 
 The commanders, who were chosen by acclamation, were Counts 
 Maffei, Emily, Valenza, and Verita, all noblemen of influence in the 
 country. Meantime, the Venetian garrison within the town of Ve- 
 rona was reinforced by one or two battalions of Sclavonian regulars 
 sent from Padua. But the castles, and even the town gates, were 
 in possession of the French ; and the Venetian troops furnished 
 only the internal guards and posts a strange and critical position 
 for a neutral city ! Some collision was inevitable. The French 
 mistrusted the Venetians, the Venetians the French, and frequent 
 disputes took place in the streets, which the Venetian authorities 
 sedulously endeavoured to compose. 
 
 In the country matters were still worse. The armed peasantry, 
 irritated at the overbearing conduct of the French military, their 
 exactions, and other violences, and being less under the eyes of the 
 Venetian authorities, would forbear no longer ; and, considering 
 themselves the lawful defenders of their old Government, they set 
 up the once terrible Venetian war-cry "St. Mark for ever!" 
 resisted the French detachments which wanted to make their way 
 through their position, and killed some Frenchmen, especially strag- 
 glers. General Balland, who commanded for Bonaparte at Verona, 
 now gathered his men within the castle, pointed his batteries against 
 the town, and told the Provveditore that, at the first hostile move- 
 ment, he would batter Verona to ruins. The Provveditore replied 
 
THE REPUBLIC OF VENICE. 
 
 75 
 
 Delivery of Napoleon's Letter to the Doge. 
 
 that he had had nothing to do with the movement of the peasantry, 
 and that according to his orders he was most anxious to maintain 
 peace between the French and Venetian Republics. 
 
 All this did not happen until the middle of April, a clear proof 
 that the Venetian Government had neither directed nor planned 
 the popular outbreak. Had it occurred only fifteen or twenty days 
 earlier, Bonaparte would not have gone on to the Semmering 
 
>6 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARf. 
 
 Pass, and the truce with Austria would not have been concluded 
 either so soon as it was or so easily. But now the fortunate general, 
 having signed the armistice of Judenburg, had nothing to fear in 
 his front, and thus could reinforce the corps he had left in Verona 
 and other places in his rear. He wrote a most furious letter to the 
 Doge of Venice, accusing him and the Senate of treachery in arm- 
 ing the country people, who (he said) were shouting death to the 
 French, and had already killed many hundreds of his brave soldiers. 
 This has well been called " a declamatory exaggeration," a rheto- 
 rical figure to which Napoleon was much addicted from the begin- 
 ning of his career to the end thereof. Recurring to that miscel- 
 laneous, undigested historical learning which he had picked up from 
 partial French writers, he gravely lectured the poor, weak, timid 
 Doge, telling him that they were no longer in the times of Charles 
 VIII. (when the power and policy of Venice had driven the French 
 invaders out of Italy with disgrace and a fearful loss). He con- 
 cluded by requiring the immediate disbanding of the army-militia, 
 the recalling of all the regular forces to Venice, and the giving up 
 into his hands the authors of the assassination committed on the 
 French soldiers, as well as a number of Poles, and a few French 
 prisoners taken in an affair at Salo a town on the banks of the 
 Lake of Garda. The alternative to the trembling Doge was an 
 immediate declaration of war against Venice. Well would it have 
 been for that old Republic if such a declaration had been made by 
 Bonaparte a year ago ! 
 
 Before receiving this letter, the Doge had liberated the prisoners 
 of Salo, as well as several disaffected Venetian subjects who had 
 been in confinement under suspicion, or rather under clear and 
 manifold proof, of aiding the French and plotting against their own 
 Government. Now a fresh deputation was appointed to wait upon 
 the conqueror at his head-quarters. But, nearly at the same mo- 
 ment, tragical occurrences took place at Verona, and these added 
 to the assumed wrath of Bonaparte. These occurrences have been 
 widely misrepresented, not only by the French, but also by nearly 
 every writer (whatever his nation) who has treated of them in an 
 historical form. The real facts, as collected with much labour, and 
 
INSURRECTION' A T VERONA. 77 
 
 most critically sifted, are these: " On the I7th of April, without 
 any previous notice, the French began to fire from the castles 
 against the town of Verona, injuring the town palace and other 
 buildings, and wounding several of the inhabitants. The people 
 became enraged and tolled the alarm-bell. Count Emily, who was 
 at Castelnovo to watch the insurgents from Brescia, hearing the 
 cannon, hastened to Verona, overcame the French guard at the 
 gate San Zene, and entered the town. Nogarola, at the head ot 
 another party, took possession of the gate S. Giorgio. The people, 
 meantime, killed all the French they met with in the streets. The 
 Provveditore, and other Venetian authorities, exerted themselves to 
 quell the fury of the people, but they were unheeded. They, how- 
 ever, succeeded in protecting the French hospital, and in saving 
 many scattered French soldiers, by conducting them to the town 
 palace. They then hoisted a white flag on the tower. General 
 Beaupoil, second in command, came out of the castle with two 
 aides-de-camp. Without waiting for the escort of regular soldiers 
 which had been sent to protect him, he came down into the town 
 amidst the tumultuous multitude, who fell upon him, and would have 
 killed him but for the Provveditore and other magistrates, who 
 protected him at the risk of their own persons, and conducted him 
 to the palace. Being asked there, why the castle batteries had 
 fired upon the town, he said that General Balland thought that 
 he was going to be attacked, especially when he saw a Venetian 
 detachment fighting in the street with a patrol of the Italian or 
 Cispadane Legion, which was auxiliary to the French. These Italian 
 auxiliaries, composed of hot-headed young men and of desperate 
 characters from the towns of Lombardy, were among the principal 
 actors in the tragedy of Venice ; they were the scouts and the 
 forlorn hope of the French army. Beaupoil, however, agreed to a 
 convention, by which a full amnesty should be granted for all that 
 was past, and the previous friendly relations to be restored between 
 the French and the Venetian authorities. Beaupoil signed the 
 convention, and returned to the castle for the sanction of his supe- 
 rior, Balland ; who, however, refused and dictated another conven- 
 tion, demanding, among other things, that all the population be 
 
7& MEMOIR Ofr NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 disarmed within three hours. In vain the Venetian authorities 
 remonstrated that the thing was impossible in so short a time. At 
 the expiration of the three hours he began to fire again upon the 
 town. The fury of the people increased, and they resolved to storm 
 the castles, threatening the Venetian authorities to consider them 
 as traitors if they did not order the regular troops to join them in 
 the assault. In this dilemma the Provveditore Giovannelli and his 
 colleagues, not wishing to commit their Government to open hosti- 
 lities against France, resolved to leave the town, thus disavowing 
 the acts of the people, which they could no longer control. They 
 withdrew to Vicenza. The people took the guns from the ramparts 
 and pointed them at the castles. The garrison of one of the castles 
 hoisted a flag of truce, but when a number of the people advanced to 
 the gate, a discharge of grape-shot strewed the street with mangled 
 bodies. The principal castle, meantime, was firing upon the town 
 with red-hot balls and with shells. Erizzo, Provveditore of Vicenza, 
 urged his colleagues to return to Verona, and not despair of their 
 country. They did so, and proposed an armistice, which Balland 
 accepted. But the conditions of the French commandant were so 
 harsh that the deputies of the people would not listen to them, and 
 the firing began anew. The Provveditore Erizzo then came from 
 Vicenza with a reinforcement of regulars, with artillery and ammu- 
 nition, accompanied by General Stratico, of the Venetian service. 
 He was received with acclamation by the whole population, which 
 was now unanimous against the French. 
 
 " Meantime it was announced that three French columns were 
 marching against Verona, threatening to put it to fire and sword. 
 General Stratico, having examined the fortifications as well as the 
 position of the castles occupied by the French, declared that he 
 could not resist the combined attacks from the outside and from 
 within for more than twenty-four hours. The fighting and firing 
 from the castles had lasted five days. Negotiations were again 
 entered into ; but the French General Kilmaine, having arrived in 
 sight of Verona, demanded a surrender at discretion. The three 
 deputies that went to the castle to arrange a capitulation were 
 arrested as hostages. The Provveditori Giovannelli, Erizzo, and 
 
RESULTS OF THE INSURRECTION. 79 
 
 Contarini, seeing that all was lost, then left Verona, and hastened 
 to Venice to give the dismal news. The citizens, abandoned to 
 themselves, sent Count Verita, one of their leaders, to General 
 Kilmaine, who, after some demur, agreed to respect lives and pro- 
 perty. But even this condition was not kept. The French did not 
 murder the inhabitants, but the town, though not given up to in- 
 discriminate pillage, was systematically plundered. Counts Emily, 
 Valenza, and Verita. three leaders of the people, were tried by court- 
 martial, and shot. The Venetian regular troops were made prisoners 
 of war." * 
 
 This was one of the earliest of those atrocious courts-martial 
 which the French established to condemn the subjects of other 
 nations men who owed their Republic no allegiance, and over 
 whom no French law had properly any control whatsoever. These 
 three Venetian nobles were murdered. Other men, sentenced by 
 the same illegal, monstrous court, perished with them. Among the 
 victims was an eloquent, courageous Capuchin friar, who had 
 preached a loyal and patriotic sermon to the people, and who, be- 
 fore the French court-martial and at the place of execution, behaved 
 like a hero. We regret, with Carlo Botta, that history has not pre- 
 served the name of this brave Italian monk. The most detestable 
 actors in this sanguinary drama were native Italians of a different 
 sort. These performers were Jacobins, or, as they would now term 
 themselves, liberali. With the words of liberty and independence 
 on their lips, they diligently employed themselves in seconding the 
 fury of the French, and in pointing out to them, or in discovering 
 for them, the unfortunate gentlemen of Verona who had aided in 
 the popular resistance. It was they who discovered the brave 
 Capuchin, and the MS. of the sermon he had preached, and it was 
 they who consigned him to prison and to the bloody and lawless 
 tribunal. Others they hunted down for motives of private ven- 
 geance. They could seal the doom of any respectable inhabitant 
 of Verona, merely by denouncing him as an aristocrat and zealous 
 adherent of the old Venetian Government. The French generals 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. " Napoleon Bonaparte, his Sayings and Doings." 
 
8o MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 and officers on the spot were not so ignorant of facts as afterwards 
 (for the sake of appearances) they pretended to be ; they knew the 
 unscrupulous character of these Italian partisans, but, like Bonaparte 
 himself, they thought it inexpedient to curb the spirit of Jacobinized 
 democracy, which had served them so well ; and General Beaupoil 
 now said, and frequently repeated in public, that all were enemies 
 to the French who were friendly to the old Government, that the 
 Republic of Venice, with her 1,400 years of existence, had lived 
 long enough, and that people must adapt themselves to present 
 circumstances. 
 
 " Such," says an indignant Italian historian, " was the issue of 
 the Veronese insurrection. People called it the Veronese Easter, 
 as if to compare it with the memorable massacre which goes by the 
 name of the Sicilian Vespers ; but if the effects of the two were 
 equally cruel, the causes here were much worse, as at Verona the 
 French added perfidy to tyranny." * 
 
 Bonaparte, even before he knew of the occurrences at Verona, 
 had ordered General Kilmaine to take possession of Padua, disarm 
 the Venetian troops, arrest the officers and the Governor, and send 
 them prisoners to Milan ; to do the same at Treviso, Bassano, and 
 Verona; and to send moveable columns to chastise the peasants 
 who dwelt among.the hills and mountains. " In this war," said he, 
 "you must dissolve all meetings of people by threatening their 
 villages. Fall suddenly upon some village where the people are 
 not strong, and burn it. But in the towns you will organize a 
 municipality of the principal citizens, and a guard of the best 
 democrats. You will arrest all the Venetian nobles, and all indi- 
 viduals most attached to the Senate, and let their heads answer 
 for what may happen at Venice." Next he addressed a procla- 
 mation to the inhabitants of the Venetian towns and territories on 
 terra firma, telling them that they must be free and independent, 
 and that he would liberate them entirely from the dominion of 
 Venice. A few months afterwards he consigned most of these 
 people to the then new and strange dominion of Austria ! 
 
 * Carlo Botta. 
 
INTERVIEW WITH VENETIAN DEPUTIES. 8l 
 
 The Deputies of the Venetian Senate, appointed previously to the 
 five days' firing and fighting in Verona, found Bonaparte at Gratz, 
 in Styria, on the 25th of April. He had then signed the prelimi- 
 naries of Leoben, and, with his hands perfectly free, he was on his 
 way back to Italy. The two Deputies, Donato and Giustiniani, 
 endeavoured to convince the General that what had happened could 
 not be ascribed to the Venetian Government ; that the French local 
 commanders had everywhere been the assailants ; that the Venetian 
 Government had done all that it could to keep the people quiet, and 
 that it was neither they, nor even the poor people, who had first 
 broken the neutrality. They then went on to speak of the future, 
 and of the means of preventing the recurrence of such sad mis- 
 understandings, supposing that the French Government continued 
 in the sentiments which it had all along professed, of wishing to be 
 at peace with Venice. Instead of replying to them, Bonaparte cried 
 out in his brusque, intimidating manner, " Well, are the prisoners 
 liberated ? " " The French, the Poles, and some from Brescia are 
 free." u No, I will have all free all those arrested for opinions, 
 for being favourable to France ; I will come myself and break open 
 the piombi; I will have no state Inquisition ; opinions must be 
 free." [He had soon ; even within the limits of France, state prisons 
 and state inquisitions of his own.] " Yes, but free equally for all, 
 which could not be if a few turbulent men were to be allowed to 
 overawe by force the opinion of a whole population which is 
 attached to its ancient Government." " I will have all those iree 
 who are arrested for opinions, and I have a list of them." " But 
 your list, perhaps, does not explain whether they are arrested for 
 mere opinions, or whether for treason, and other crimes ; those of 
 Brescia, for instance, whom you have mentioned, were seized in 
 the act of fighting against the loyal people of Salo, who were 
 defending their town against rebels." " But," returned Bonaparte, 
 changing the subject, " my own soldiers who have been murdered ! 
 you caused them to be murdered. It is true that the proclamation 
 of Battaglia was not written by him, but it was printed at Verona, 
 by order of the Senate." Now, this sham proclamation, calling 
 upon the people to arm, &c., was, in reality, written by a French 
 
 6 
 
82 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 partisan, and not by Battaglia, a faithful Venetian, and it was pub- 
 lished by the French themselves, in order to be produced as a 
 ground of accusation against the Senate. The whole transaction 
 was that which it has been called, "a mystery of iniquity." The 
 truth is, that this apocryphal proclamation was first printed, not at 
 Verona, but at Milan, in a newspaper called // Termometro Poli- 
 tico, which was edited by Salvatori, a native of Lombardy, who had 
 been a notorious emissary of the French Directory, and who is 
 mentioned with contempt, as those men generally are after they 
 have served the purpose of the moment, by Delacroix, French 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs, in his letter to General Clarke, dated 
 3oth December, 1796. Salvatori, however, continued to make him- 
 self busy, for the purpose of revolutionizing Italy, and he composed 
 the proclamation which he ascribed to Battaglia, in order to bring 
 matters to an issue between Venice and France. The paper ap- 
 peared on the 5th of April, but the proclamation was ante-dated the 
 2oth of March. Salvatori went on acting as a scout to the French, 
 until Bonaparte, having become Emperor, cast off such ignoble in- 
 struments, when Salvatori, being reduced to extreme distress, threw 
 himself into the Seine at Paris. 
 
 The Venetian Deputies disclaimed all knowledge of the composi- 
 tion. " But," said Bonaparte, who, as usual, leaped from one sub- 
 ject to another, " your people don't like us ! your people hate the 
 French, because they are taught to do so by your nobility ! " The 
 Deputies observed, that perhaps the people did not like the French 
 because they had seen their fields, their gardens, their houses, and 
 their furniture destroyed during the operations of the war. '' Well," 
 cried he, ' unless you punish all those who have been guilty of 
 offences against the French, unless you disarm the people, liberate 
 all prisoners, and send the English Minister away from Venice, I 
 declare war against you. It is for this that I have made peace with 
 the Emperor, and have given up the idea of going to Vienna." [This 
 was false.] <fc I have now 8o,co men at my disposal ; I have twenty 
 gun-boats ; I will allow no more state Inquisition, no more Senate! 
 I will prove a new Attila to Venice ! " [Here he kept his word.] 
 "While I had 'he Archduke Charles before me I offered you tb* 
 
FALL OF VENICE. 83 
 
 alliance of France, which you declined, because you wanted to arm 
 the population and cut oft" my retreat. Now I will have no more 
 alliance, I will dictate the law. I know that as your Government 
 had not the means of defending its continental territory, and pre- 
 venting the belligerent powers from overrunning it, so it has not 
 now the means of disarming the people ; I will do that myself ! " 
 He then delivered a rambling discourse on the Venetian Govern- 
 ment, mixing up fable with history, old things with new, and dis- 
 missed the Deputies with these words" Your Government is old : 
 it must cease to exist" 
 
 Other ruses were resorted to, but we are already wearied of these 
 details, which are only given because the true story of the fall of 
 Venice cannot be told or understood without them. On the ist of 
 May Bonaparte declared war in form, and ordered troops to march 
 to the coast to blockade Venice on the land side. The Queen of 
 the Adriatic, surrounded by its lagoons, protected by a numerous 
 flotilla and formidable batteries, defended by 11,000 trusty Sclavo- 
 nian troops, and about 4,000 native soldiers, besides a still respect- 
 able navy of several ships of the line and smaller vessels, open by 
 sea to assistance from abroad, mistress of Dalmatia and Corfu, 
 Venice could have shown a bold front yet, and for months to come, 
 against Bonaparte's threatenings. She could have knocked his 
 gunboats and his other small vessels to pieces with far more ease 
 than his disciplined soldiers had subdued the poor peasants on the 
 continent. He could call up no French fleet to his aid, but a vic- 
 torious British fleet might have been brought to the aid of Venice 
 in a few weeks. But in the councils of Venice there were some 
 traitors sold to the French, and many vile cowards, who fancied that 
 by timely submission they might avert the doom. These men cir- 
 cumvented the timid Doge, who, instead of consulting the Senate, 
 as he was bound to do by the existing constitution of the Republic, 
 convoked a conference in his own apartments. Even here, however, 
 the discussion was warm. A few noble Venetians still retained some 
 of the spirit of their ancestors. Francesco Pesaro, Giuseppe Priuli, 
 and Nicolo Erizzo were for resistance. Bonaparte had told them, 
 with something plainer than words, that the Doge and Senate must 
 
 62 
 
84 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 resign ; and that the people must have a new constitution and form 
 of government. The heartless, cowardly majority recommended 
 compliance. "Never!" said Pesaro; "the moment is too critical 
 for that ! We cannot, without certain ruin, alter the fundamental 
 laws of the Republic. A revolutionized state will meet with no 
 sympathy from the great Powers of Europe, and would be sacri- 
 ficed in the end ; whilst our old Republic, with its recollections of a 
 thousand years, may still maintain its place on the political map of 
 Europe, in the next negotiations for a general peace, provided only 
 we keep free of internal revolution." "Who wants these organic 
 changes ? Who in Venice wants revolution?" said Priuli. " Where 
 are our democrats ? In Venice, who are they? A mere handful of 
 rogues and men of desperate fortunes ! The Venetians are well 
 affected. Let us not betray them by our timidity." But the cowards 
 prevailed; and it was resolved that the Doge himself should propose 
 to the Grand Council the expediency of immediately making an 
 organic change, and adopting a more democratic constitution. The 
 old Government, the Doge, the Senate, and the Grand Council, 
 nearly resigned their powers ; they sent away to Dalmatia their best 
 defenders, the Sclavonian troops ; and as the populace of Venice, 
 with the arsenal and dockyard men, threatened to defend their 
 Government in spite of its own members, the Venetian commander 
 of the lagoons sent his boats to carry over a French division into 
 Venice during the night. These troops being thus smuggled into 
 the city, and ships being placed at the disposal of the French, it 
 was easy to bring over more force, and thus trample out all opposi- 
 tion. A letter from the Polish officer Sulkowski to Bonaparte, of 
 the 1 7th of May, calmly relates these extraordinary transactions. In 
 all these deeds, as also in some of the very worst that were perpe- 
 trated in other parts of Italy, a body of Poles, who had been so 
 recently duped, betrayed, and then beaten out of their own country, 
 were conspicuous, active, and zealous actors. They were desperate 
 and thoroughly unscrupulous adventurers, with scarcely a single 
 virtue or good quality beyond that of animal courage. A few years 
 later, and Portugal and Spain had to weep, like Italy, over the 
 exploits of these interesting Poles, 
 
FALL OF VENICE. 85 
 
 The Venetian partisans of the revolution having asked the advice 
 of the French charge d'affaires as to the new form of government 
 which would be most acceptable to General Bonaparte, a provisional 
 municipal council was formed on democratic principles, to exist 
 until the people should elect their representatives. The French 
 took possession of the arsenal and docks, with all their stores, and 
 all the ships of war; disposed of the wealth and resources of the 
 city ; and marked out, for conveyance to Paris, the best books and 
 MSS. and the choicest works of art. The mad Venetian democrats 
 insulted their pusillanimous, degenerate nobles with impunity ; 
 burned the old honoured colours of the Republic ; sang the " Ca 
 Ira " with the French soldiery ; and danced round the tree of liberty 
 in the Square of St. Mark in an ecstacy, and down to the last moment 
 without any foreboding that they and their country were to be given 
 up to the Austrians. 
 
 All these things were done about the middle of May, 1797. The 
 disgraceful intrigues which led to this unexampled political suicide 
 are proved by numerous existing documents, and by Bonaparte's 
 own correspondence with the Directory and others. By the Gene- 
 ral's own showing, his was the quarrel of the wolf with the lamb ; 
 his was the secret resolution from the first to promise liberty and 
 equality to the Venetians, to plunder them, and then sell them to 
 the Emperor. " My objects," said he, " have been, first, to enter the 
 city without difficulty ; to get possession of the arsenal, and be 
 enabled to take from it all that suits us." In a subsequent letter, 
 dated the 26th of May, he told the Directors that Venice might be 
 given to the Emperor as a make-peace. " Venice," he says, " which 
 has been in a state of gradual decay ever since the discovery of the 
 passage round the Cape of Good Hope, and in consequence of the 
 rivalship of Trieste and Ancona, can hardly survive the blows we 
 have inflicted on it : its population is stupid and pusillanimous, and 
 not made for liberty. We shall take away the ships, strip the arsenal, 
 carry off all the cannon, ruin the bank, and keep the island of Corfu 
 for ourselves." It has been well said that Machiavelli himself could 
 not have given more crafty advice to the Medici and Borgias of his 
 time. The Directors demurred about giving up Venice tp Austria, 
 
86 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 and incurring the odium among all Republics, whether old or new, 
 of duplicity, treachery, and an abandonment of Republican prin- 
 ciples. But by this time it was sufficiently clear that Bonaparte 
 must have his way in the end ; and that, whatever crooked policy 
 he might adopt, he would still carry with him enthusiastic admirers 
 who would never allow him to be in the wrong so long as he was 
 powerful and successful. 
 
 It is inconsistent with our present object to insert such documents, 
 but we must give in full the vindictive order which Bonaparte issued 
 on the 6th of May, for the treatment of the unfortunate people of 
 Verona, as it is not only a striking record of the past, but as it is 
 also a present warning and lesson to those who would neglect our 
 own national defences, and expose us in our turn to the chances of 
 a visitation from an enemy who may prove equally rapacious and 
 vindictive. 
 
 "ART. I. The city of Verona shall pay a contribution of 120,000 
 sequins, which will serve to defray the expenses of the army. 
 
 " II. It shall pay, moreover, a contribution of 50,000 sequins, to 
 be distributed as an indemnity among the officers and soldiers of 
 the garrison, and of the column that has reconquered the town. 
 
 "III. All the pledges in the Monte di Pieta, above the value of 
 fifty livres, shall be confiscated. Those of an inferior value will be 
 restored to the owners. 
 
 " IV. The commissary-in-chief will make out a statement of the 
 losses sustained by individuals of the garrison and in the hospitals? 
 which will be indemnified by means of a third contribution, to be 
 levied on the town and territory of Verona. 
 
 " V. All the horses for riding or carriage within Verona shall be 
 seized for the use of the army. 
 
 "VI. Verona shall furnish to the army a contribution in kind of 
 40,000 pairs of shoes, 2,000 boots, cloth for 4,000 coats, and 1 2,000 
 trousers and gaiters ; linen for 12,000 shirts, besides 12,000 hats and 
 12,000 pairs of hose, for the use of the army. 
 
 "VII. All the gold and silver of the churches and public and 
 government establishments shall be confiscated. 
 
 "VIII, A military court shall assemble immediately to try fifty 
 
GEtfOA. 87 
 
 of the principal leaders of the insurrection against the French, who 
 shall be sent in chains to Toulon, and from thence to Guiana, and 
 all their property confiscated. If among them there should be any 
 Venetian nobles, they will be shot. 
 
 " IX. The whole province of Verona shall be disarmed, and who- 
 ever shall contravene this order shall be sent to hard work at Toulon 
 for six years. 
 
 " X. All the paintings, museums, collections, belonging either to 
 the town or to individuals, shall be confiscated : those among the 
 owners who may be ent tied to a compensation will receive it out of 
 the property of the persons condemned by the military court. 
 
 " XI. The general of division, Augereau, the chief of the staff and 
 commissary-in- chief, will see the present order executed. 
 
 " BONAPARTE." 
 
 Rough soldier as he was, Augereau was evidently shocked at these 
 orders, and at the misery he witnessed in Verona. He wrote to 
 Bonaparte on the Qth of May, telling him that everything had been 
 plundered before his arrival ; that the Monte di Pieta, in which 
 were deposited effects worth 50,000,000 of livres, had been broken 
 open and emptied without any formality ; that the same practice had 
 been adopted in the Venetian city of Vicenza, where there had been 
 no insurrection, and where the French troops had marched in with- 
 out any opposition ; that a French commissary had been arrested 
 on the charge of depredation, and that he believed that many officers 
 of rank were implicated in the robbery ; that arbitrary seizures had 
 been made in the warehouses, shops, and private houses ; that Verona 
 was a desert ; that the treasures of the churches had been seized to 
 pay the first contribution imposed by General Kilmaine ; that there 
 was hardly anything more to lay hands upon ; and that, consequently, 
 he could not see how the new contributions were to be levied. As 
 for the country, it had been given up to fire and plunder ; many vil- 
 lages were quite deserted, and the families were wandering about 
 houseless and famishing. 
 
 Such, with trifling exceptions, has been, is, and will be, the fate of 
 every country that cannot provide for its own security. 
 
88 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 About a month after the fall of Venice, the ancient Republic of 
 Genoa met her doom. Ever since the beginning of the Italian war 
 Genoa had been the subservient handmaiden of France. If sub- 
 mission could save, she ought to have been safe. It was through 
 the territories of Genoa that the French armies had penetrated into 
 Piedmont and Lombardy ; it was from the ports of Genoa that they 
 had been supplied with provisions. Genoa became the depot of the 
 plunder of Italy ; thi'.her were sent all the jewels and precious metals 
 seized in the Monte di Pieta, and in the palaces or churches or 
 delivered by the Dukes of Modena and Parma, as well as the English 
 goods seized in the neutral port of Leghorn ; and in Genoa the gold 
 and silver were melted down, the jewels picked out, and the whole 
 sold under the superintendence of M. Faipoult, the Directory's diplo- 
 matic envoy. Genoa had also paid, under the name of a loan, several 
 millions of livres to the military chest of Bonaparte. Its harbours 
 had afforded protection to French men-of-war and privateers, which 
 had landed troops, stores, and ammunition on its neittral coast, 
 under protection of its batteries ; and when our determined Nelson, 
 indignant at this barefaced connivance of the Genoese, had seized 
 some of the French craft close to the shore, a great outcry was raised 
 by the French about the law of nations and the violation of Genoese 
 neutrality ; and Bonaparte instantly demanded that the Senate 
 should expel the English and Austrian envoys a demand which 
 was complied with. All this the Senate of Genoa had done; and 
 now, as a grateful return, Bonaparte demanded the abdication of 
 that very Senate, because, as he said, it was an aristocracy. The 
 Republic of Genoa, ever since the early part of the sixteenth century, 
 and the time of the great and patriotic Doge Andrea Doria, had 
 been governed by the patricians ; but the patrician order was not 
 close and exclusive as at Venice, new families being admitted into 
 it from time to time. But, according to the law of nations and the 
 rules of neutrality, what right had the French to interfere with such 
 government, whether aristocratic, or democratic, or monarchical ? 
 
 No sooner was the devil of democracy broke loose in Gem a, by 
 his own command, than Bonaparte spurned it, reviled it, and crushed 
 it by force of arms. A club of Genoese democrats, joined by emi- 
 
GENOA. 89 
 
 grants and political refugees from other parts of Italy, among whom 
 a Neapolitan, named Vitaliani, made himself very remarkable by his 
 Jacobin fury, and secretly encouraged and directed by Faipoult, that 
 cunning Corsican, Saliceti, and other agents of the French Directory 
 or of Bonaparte, conspired against the Senate, liberated the crimi- 
 nals confined as galley-slaves and other prisoners, assumed the 
 French tricoloured cockade, shouted " Viva Bonaparte ! Viva il 
 popolo ! " (Long live the people !) broke into the arsenal, took pos- 
 session of the gates, and attacked the ducal palace, where, however, 
 they were repulsed by the regular guard. Meantime the working 
 classes, the porters, boatmen, and artisans of the docks rose against 
 the self-styled patriots at the cry of " Long live our prince, our reli- 
 gion, and the Virgin Mary ! " The ridiculous was mixed with the 
 horrible. A poor Turkish or Moorish slave, released from the 
 arsenal by the revolutionary party, was told by them that he must 
 join their column, and that if he only shouted " Viva il popolo ! " 
 all would go well with him. Not knowing one party from the other, 
 the Turk shouted " Viva il popolo ! " in the wrong place, for he had 
 lingered in the rear and had fallen among the porters and the 
 working people, who gave him a sound drubbing, and told him that 
 he must shout "Viva Maria!" The poor fellow did as he was 
 ordered ; but, shortly after, he fell again among the revolutionary 
 party, who gave him another beating, and told him that he must 
 not cry " Viva Maria ! " but " Viva il popolo ! " Half-killed in con- 
 sequence of his double mistake, and being utterly unable to com- 
 prehend why people of the same town were shooting, cutting, and 
 stabbing one another, the unlucky Mussulman, in search of a quiet 
 corner, went crying through the streets that the Christians had 
 become mad ; and in this, at least, he was right* 
 
 Those who invoked the Virgin Mary proved victorious ; they 
 re-took the arsenal, procured better arms, and drove the democrats 
 before them from post to post, and gave them a thorough beating 
 at the bridge called Ponte Reale. Many of the Jacobins were 
 killed, and a few Frenchmen among the rest ; for as they all wore 
 
 * Carlo Botta. 
 
d MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPA R TE. 
 
 the same tricoloured cockade, the people could make no distinction. 
 A strong detachment, however, was sent by the Doge to protect the 
 house of Faipoult, the French envoy, where several of the revolu- 
 tionists took shelter, and wherein the revolution itself had been 
 planned. That night was passed in the midst of grief, lamentation, 
 and death : the houses were illuminated, some for joy and some in 
 fear. The French and the defeated party said, in their usual form, 
 that their friends, who had begun the fight, had been basely assassi- 
 nated by a set of ruffians hired by the Doge and the monstrous 
 aristocracy. Yet, if ever there was a spontaneous movement on the 
 part of an indignant people, lit was this at Genoa. " But," says 
 Carlo Botta, " Bonaparte was not the man to lose this opportunity, 
 and now it was according to his will that states lived or died/ 
 
 Tranquillity being restored, the municipal bodies were assembled 
 to consult about the changes which it might be expedient to make 
 in the constitution of the Republic ; and the great majority voted 
 for maintaining the governing power as it was, in the order of the 
 nobility.* This was not what was wanted by the French. On 
 receiving these accounts, Bonaparte assumed his most angry tone, 
 and sent his aide-de-camp, Lavalette, with a threatening letter to the 
 Doge, demanding instant satisfaction for the French citizens who 
 had fallen, and a reform in the constitution. If, in twenty-four 
 hours, the liberals who had been imprisoned were not released, and 
 those who had fought against them thrown into prison in their stead 
 if that vile populace were not instantly disarmed, the Genoese 
 aristocracy might look upon itself as a thing that had been. Thus 
 did the conqueror speak of a Government venerable for its antiquity, 
 and of a courageous people who had but done their duty. 
 
 The Senate dispatched envoys to Bonaparte, who dictated the 
 conditions of a treaty by which Genoa was to pay four millions to 
 France ; to mould her constitution into a more popular form the 
 legislature to be composed of two elective councils, and the executive 
 to consist of twelve senators, presided over by the Doge. The ultra- 
 democrats of Genoa wished to exclude the nobles from the new 
 
 * Letter from Faipoult to Bonaparte. 
 
DEVOLUTION OF GENOA. 
 
 Government, but Bonaparte told them that this was not only unjust 
 but also imprudent, and that in a constitutional country all classes 
 had a right to be represented, and to share in the offices and duties 
 of the administration. * In other quarters he said that these demo- 
 crats, like all the rest he had found in Italy, were a canaille; that 
 the whole liberal faction was either inept and visionary, or corrupt 
 and utterly demoralized ; that they were worse than the Jacobins of 
 Murat and Robespierre ; that they would turn Genoa into a con- 
 dition worse than that of Paris during the Reign of Terror ; and that 
 there could be no prosperity where they ruled or predominated. 
 He directed who should compose the elective councils, and he 
 himself named the new senators and the new Doge. Long before 
 the crisis he had written to the Directory that his object was to 
 drive away the noble families who were ill affected towards France, 
 and to recall those families who were friendly to the French, in 
 order to form a government devoted heart and soul to France. 
 Upon the whole, his conduct towards Genoa was more moderate 
 than it had been towards Venice. The reasons for the difference 
 were obvious : the French, who had so very few partisans in the 
 Venetian territories, counted them by thousands in the city of Genoa ; 
 nearly all the Genoese of the middle classes, and a considerable 
 number of the nobles, had a strong French bias, as they have 
 continued to have from that time down to our own day. 
 
 In the troubles and revolutions of 1848-9, they would have called 
 in a French army, and if Louis Napoleon, the nephew and now 
 Imperial successor of Bonaparte, had been willing to incur the con- 
 sequences, he might have held Genoa (at least the city) as a depart- 
 ment of France. No doubt the uncle contemplated making it such 
 (instead of chaffering it away like Venice to the Austrians), when he 
 now regulated his line of conduct towards it. But here again the 
 country people disliked the French, and detested the innovations ; 
 they invoked the Virgin Mary, broke forth into insurrection, carried 
 alarm to the very gates of Genoa. They were put down and cruelly 
 treated by a mixed French and Genoese column, commanded by the 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. 
 
9* MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 French General Duphot, who soon afterwards was killed by the popu- 
 lace of Rome. Many were massacred, others being taken were tried 
 with the usual dispatch by courts-martial, and shot or sent to the 
 galleys at Toulon. While this was doing, Bonaparte sent a French 
 division under General Lannes, who, under pretext of restoring order, 
 seized and kept the triple fortifications and castles of Genoa the 
 Proud. 
 
 All these things were begun and finished merely in the names of 
 General Bonaparte and the French executive, without reference to, 
 or mention of, the French legislature. In fact, in many cases even 
 the executive had not been consulted, while in many others the 
 Directory had been disobeyed. Some murmers arose in the legis- 
 lative body. " How ! " said they : "ancient governments are over- 
 turned and remodelled, and we are not consulted ! We become 
 acquainted with these facts only through public report. A war, a 
 peace, and a treaty with Venice are all made without the necessary 
 sanction of our legislature !" Though Frenchmen, these poor speech- 
 makers were slow of comprehension, as they could not, or would not, 
 see that their constitutional rights were becoming a farce, and that 
 in a short time there would be no law or right except the will of the 
 fortunate soldier. General Bernadotte, who, though destined to be 
 a King, preserved for a long time his republicanism, had caught a 
 glimpse of the truth many months before this, on his first joining 
 Bonaparte in Italy. "I see here," said he, "a young general of 
 twenty-six, who does everything himself : who commands as a King, 
 and who is obeyed by everybody. I think this does not bode well 
 for the permanency of our republican institutions." 
 
 But by this time the summer of 1797 the young Corsican had 
 really assumed an almost royal state and style of living. He had 
 taken up his residence in the country palace of Montebello, near 
 Milan. Here he was joined by his wife Josephine, who had brought 
 a complete Court with her from Paris, and who, by her engaging 
 manners, soon formed another circle composed of the superior 
 French officers and their families, and of Italian nobles, who, either 
 through conviction or through expediency, called themselves friends 
 of the French and of liberal ideas. 
 
NEGOTIATIONS FOR PEACE. 93 
 
 "While Napoleon conducted his negotiations with as much firm- 
 ness and decision as had marked him in the field, it was her care 
 that nature and art should lend all their graces to what the Italians 
 soon learned to call the Court of Montebello. Whatever talent 
 Milan contained was pressed into her service. Music and dance, 
 and festival upon festival, seemed to occupy every hour. The beau- 
 tiful lakes of Lombardy were covered with gay flotillas ; and the 
 voluptuous retreats around their shores received in succession new 
 life and splendour from the presence of Napoleon, Josephine, and 
 the brilliant circle amidst whom they were rehearsing the imperial 
 parts that destiny had in reserve for them. Montebello was the 
 centre from which Bonaparte, during the greater part of the sum- 
 mer, negotiated with the Emperor, controlled all Italy, and overawed 
 the Luxembourg."* 
 
 Montholon, as a thorough Napoleonist, gives a still more glowing 
 picture of the temporary glories of the place : " Montebello is a 
 castle situated some leagues from Milan, upon a hill which com- 
 mands the whole plain of Lombardy. The French head-quarters 
 were there during the months of May and June. The assemblage 
 of the principal ladies of Milan, who came there daily to pay their 
 respects to Josephine ; the presence of the Ministers of Austria, of 
 the Pope, of the King of the Two Sicilies, and of the Republics of 
 Genoa and Venice ; those of the Duke of Parma, of the Swiss 
 cantons, and of several princes of Germany; the numerous authori- 
 ties of the Cisalpine Republic, and the deputies of cities ; the great 
 number of courtiers from Paris, from Rome, from Naples, Vienna, 
 Florence, Turin, Venice, Genoa, who came and went at all hours ; 
 in a word, the whole manner of life in this castle caused the Italians 
 to speak of it as the Court of Montebello ; and in fact it was a bril- 
 liant Court. The negotiations of peace with the Emperor, the politics 
 of Germany, the fate of the King of Sardinia, of Switzerland, of 
 Venice and Genoa, were settled there." f 
 
 The principal negotiator for the Emperor was again the Marquis 
 del Gallo that easy Neapolitan over whose mind Bonaparte had 
 
 * Lockhart. t " Memoirs of St Helena," &c. 
 
94 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 gained so much ascendency at Leoben. The conferences were 
 afterwards transferred from Montebello to Udine, in the Venetian 
 province of Friuli, whither Clarke, whom the Directory had asso- 
 ciated with Bonaparte, repaired as plenipotentiary of the French 
 Republic, as well as Count Meerfeldt on the part of Austria. Many 
 projects and counter-projects were exchanged, and, greatly to the 
 annoyance of the impatient conqueror, the negotiations were pro- 
 tracted. Alternately he tried cajolery and threats. The peace 
 party at Vienna hacf been exposed ; the Emperor was made aware 
 of his true position, and of the great resources of his empire, and 
 he raised his demands accordingly, being determined rather to 
 renew the war than submit to any very unfavourable terms of peace. 
 The Court of Vienna knew that discord was raging at Paris in the 
 legislative councils, and even in the Directory. A club of Royalists 
 in that capital had gained over many influential men of the Republic, 
 and General Pichegru among the rest, for the purpose of restoring 
 the Bourbons, and placing on the throne Louis XVIII., not as an 
 absolute but as a constitutional monarch. Pichegru had been in 
 correspondence with some members of the exiled Royal Family, 
 and evidence of the fact was found among the papers of a French 
 emigrant at Venice, the Count d'Entraigues, whose arrest was one 
 of the conditions exacted by Bonaparte and his agent at the epoch 
 of the democratic revolution of Venice. These papers were imme- 
 diately forwarded by Bonaparte to the Directory. Several writers 
 have bitterly censured the Venetian Senate for this deed ; but these 
 gentlemen have overlooked dates, and committed that not very 
 uncommon error in modern history, an anachronism. It was after 
 the virtual abdication of the Doge, and dissolution of the Senate, 
 that the Venetian democrats the traitors who sold their own 
 country gave up the emigrant Count and his papers.* 
 
 Prussia and Spain had long since made peace with the French 
 Republic, and as yet Russia was not prepared to go to war. Great 
 Britain and Austria were left alone in the struggle. Austria having 
 now entered into separate negotiations with France, the English 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. 
 
GENERAL AUGEREAU. 95 
 
 Cabinet was also induced to make pacific overtures. This was 
 about the beginning of June, 1797. Lord Malmesbury, who had 
 failed in an attempt made at Paris in 1796 to conclude peace in 
 concert with Austria, was appointed plenipotentiary for a separate 
 peace between England and France. His lordship repaired to 
 Lille, and was there met by Letourneur and Maret, the envoys of 
 the Directory. On the 8th of July his lordship delivered his first 
 diplomatic note in these terms : u England shall restore to France 
 all her colonies. As for the allies of France, namely, Spain and 
 Holland, England will also conclude peace with them on condition 
 of retaining possession of the Cape of Good Hope, the port of 
 Trincomalee in Ceylon, and the island of Trinidad in the West 
 Indies." 
 
 As England had always been victorious at sea, this proposal was 
 not unreasonable ; but the Directory replied, on the 1 5th of July, 
 that the French Government expected, as a preliminary condition 
 of the peace, that England would restore all the conquests she had 
 made from Holland and Spain, as well as from France. The nego- 
 tiations lingered on for several weeks, although it must have been 
 evident to our negotiator that the French were resolutely deter- 
 mined to prolong the war with us. In our opinion it was unwise 
 to make any attempt of the sort, or to subject ourselves to the 
 indignity of having our overtures rejected ; but it ought to be 
 remembered by those who are for ever censuring Mr. Pitt's war 
 policy, that that great minister twice made overtures, and took the 
 initiative in pacific negotiations. 
 
 Meantime, Bonaparte was addressing his soldiers on the internal 
 polity of France, and making harangues, in which there was no 
 attempt to disguise his own conviction that he and his Army of 
 Italy ought to be sole arbiters. He told them that, if necessary, 
 u they would recross the Alps with the rapidity of the eagle, in order 
 to put down the Royalists and defend the Constitution of the Year 
 Three." He was furious against the legislative councils for having 
 permitted their members to criticise his conduct at Venice and 
 Genoa ; and being urged by Barras and the majority of the Direc- 
 tors to support them against the councils, which had repeatedly 
 
g6 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 threatened to impeach them for their arbitrary usurpation of all the 
 powers of the state, he hurried off to Paris General Augereau a 
 violent republican, a bold and active officer, but a man of no capa- 
 city for politics, and therefore only fit to be an instrument. Augereau 
 reached the capital prepared to do whatever might be put upon him, 
 whether it were to mow down Ihe people with grape-shot (as Bona- 
 parte himself had done), or to seize, like a police agent, the ob- 
 noxious members of the legislature. This opposition party in the 
 councils was mixed ; some were sincere republicans, who meant 
 to retain the Constitution of the Year Three, but to restrain the im- 
 moderate and unprincipled abuse of authority by the executive, and 
 the scandalous venality of Barras and Rewbell ; others were really 
 Royalists, who disguised their intentions by associating themselves 
 with the republicans. Pichegru, the President of the Council of 
 Five Hundred, was at the head of the Royalist party. The majority 
 of the Directors Barras, Rewbell, and Rdveilliere Lepeaux, who 
 were called the Triumviri endeavoured to stigmatize the whole as 
 Royalists, who, in the language of the times, were sold to England 
 and in the pay of Mr. Pitt. Pichegru proposed to move on the I7th 
 Fructidor (3rd September), for a decree impeaching the Directory 
 for having violated the Constitution in attempting to overawe the 
 legislature by military force. The centre, or " Ventre," as it was 
 nicknamed the timid, cross-bench, middle-party, or no-party, of 
 the council being either afraid or gained over by the partisans of 
 the Directory, prevailed upon Pichegru to defer his motion till the 
 following day. The Directory, having already appointed Augereau 
 Commandant of Paris, took their measures accordingly. 
 
 The next morning, the 4th of September, as Pichegru was about 
 to launch his thunderbolt, the palace of the Tuileries was surrounded 
 with troops, and Augereau, with some of his grenadiers, entered the 
 hall of the council and arrested about sixty Deputies, who were 
 forthwith whisked away from their parliamentary seats to prison. 
 The documents from Venice, transmitted by Bonaparte, were made 
 the groundwork of the charges against the arrested Members, and, 
 without any very strict scrutiny, between forty and fifty members of 
 the Council of Five Hundred, and ten or twelve of the Council of 
 
THE i%TH FRUCTIDOR. 97 
 
 the Ancients, besides the two Directors, Carnot and Barthelemy, 
 and a number of newspaper editors and other individuals, were 
 sentenced to be transported to pestiferous Guiana, in South America. 
 Carnot, however, managed to escape. Merlin de Douai and Frangois 
 de Neufchateau (two nullities) were substituted as Directors in lieu 
 of Carnot and Barthelemy. Without any reference to the consti- 
 tuencies, the elections of no fewer than forty-nine departments of 
 France were thus annulled at one stroke ! But it is idle to talk of 
 illegality and unconstitutionally. From the beginning of the Revo- 
 lution French majorities had never respected troublesome mino- 
 rities ; they had always cast them out and set their heels upon them. 
 In the time of Robespierre they sent them to the guillotine ; in these 
 less ferocious days they transported them to a most unhealthy 
 climate, to die of the endemic fevers. The immediate result was 
 that Barras and his friends became all-powerful in France, and 
 arrogant in proportion. Barras exulted in the ruin which had over- 
 taken " the infamous journalists," and so did Bonaparte, who forgot 
 his own newspaper- writing, pamphleteering days, and could no 
 longer tolerate that any public journalist should make comments 
 on his conduct. At the same time Barras recalled Clarke, who had 
 been Carnot's friend, and entrusted the negotiations with Austria 
 solely to Bonaparte.* This was what Bonaparte had long wished. 
 The events of Frucljdor rendered the triumvirs of the Directory 
 more arrogant in their demands. At once they showed this dispo- 
 sition towards England. They recalled Maret and Letourneur from 
 Lille, and substituted two rough members of the late National Con- 
 vention two parliamentary colleagues of Danton and Robespierre 
 to take their places. These men were Treilhard and Bonnier, 
 who, on the i6th of September, abruptly asked Lord Malmesbury 
 if he had powers for restoring to the French Republic and its allies 
 
 * This Clarke, whose name so often occurs, was descended from an Irish family settled 
 in France. In his youth he had been a page to the Duke of Orleans (Philippe Egalite"), 
 and was a captain of dragoons when the Revolution broke out. He had been employed 
 in the War Office under Carnot, his warm protector. Under the Empire he became Duke 
 de Feltre, and obtained the reputation of being one of the greatest plunderers in Bona- 
 parte's army. 
 
 7 
 
98 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 all their colonies. His lordship replied that he had not the powers 
 for that. " Then go and fetch them," courteously rejoined the two 
 ex-Conventionalists, who were no doubt proud of the opportunity of 
 insulting a British nobleman.* And the next morning they sent him 
 his passport with orders to quit the French territory within twenty- 
 four hours. This, be it remembered, was the second time within a 
 twelvemonth that the French Directory had rudely broken off nego- 
 tiations with England, and this second time our demands were ex- 
 ceedingly moderate. France was to keep the extensive conquests 
 she had then made on the continent ; and England, a conqueror at 
 sea, was to retain only the Cape of Good Hope, a port in Ceylon, 
 and the island of Trinidad. So much for the arguments of those 
 who still contend, in the face of history and innumerable diplomatic 
 documents, that the prolongation of the war was owing to English 
 obstinacy, greed, and faithlessness. That the French should repeat 
 such fables is not so very extraordinary, but it certainly excites sur- 
 prise to see English writers chiming in with the same story. 
 
 The same Directors would have thrown fresh obstacles in the way 
 of a peace with Austria, if it had suited Bonaparte to allow them so 
 to do. Meerfeldt, who was negotiating at Udine, was now joined by 
 the Count Louis von Cobentzel, of a great Austrian family, an ex- 
 perienced diplomatist, and inclined for peace. Bonaparte went and 
 took up his head-quarters at Passeriano, in a country seat which had 
 belonged to the poor Doge of Venice, situated a few miles from the 
 town of Udine. On the 2/th of September, Bonaparte had his first 
 interview with Cobentzel ; and " after dinner, when the Germans are 
 disposed to talk," he conversed with him for three or four hours, 
 affecting an easy gossiping tone, in order to surprise the Count into 
 some disclosure of what would satisfy his master in compensation 
 for the loss of the Austrian Netherlands, the Milanese, &c. " I will 
 keep the offer of Venice to the very last moment," said Bonaparte.f 
 
 * Treilhard and Bonnier had gone the full lengths of Jacobinism. Both had voted for 
 the death of Louis XVI., &c. 
 
 t For all this, and for the allusion to the German habit of talking after dinner, see 
 Bonaparte's own letter to M. de Talleyrand, whom the Directory had now appointed their 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs. 
 
TENDERS HIS RESIGN A TION. 99 
 
 Meanwhile the Directors had appointed Augereau, for his services 
 of Fructidor, to the command of the Army of the Rhine, as they 
 had first appointed Bonaparte to the command of the Army of Italy 
 after his services of Vende'miaire. Augereau issued a turgid procla- 
 mation, threatening the Emperor, and boasting that he would go to 
 Vienna. Bonaparte thought he perceived that the Directory wanted 
 to give him a rival. Although he had taken a correct measure of 
 Augereau's political incapacity, he was greatly annoyed ; and these 
 feelings were aggravated by a letter he received from his aide-de- 
 camp Lavalette, who told him that the Directors and theii* friends 
 were very ungrateful, and that jealousy and calumny were busy with 
 his name and fame at Paris. 
 
 Bonaparte wrote a reproachful letter to the Directors, complaining 
 of spies being sent to his head-quarters, of Augereau's mischief- 
 making, &c.,and he begged them to accept his resignation. " No one," 
 said he, " shall make me continue in the service after this unexpected 
 mark of ingratitude on the part of the Government. My health is 
 greatly impaired, and I am in need of rest. 1 wish to mix again 
 with the mass of the citizens. I have had, for a long time, a great 
 power entrusted to me, and I have used it on all occasions for the 
 benefit of my country.* If those who do not believe in my virtue 
 suspect me now, so much the worse for them. My own conscience, 
 and the opinion of posterity, will be my reward." 
 
 This was the third time that Bonaparte had tendered his resig- 
 nation, knowing all the while, as his secretary Bourrienne says, that 
 it would not and could not be accepted. But his letter gave serious 
 alarm to the triumvirs. Rewbell, La ReVeillere, and Barras ex- 
 claimed against the young Corsican's ambition, which pretended to 
 dispose of peace and war at his will ; to destroy ancient Republics, 
 and give up their spoils to absolute monarchs; which seemed to 
 patronize kings and princes, and refused to revolutionize Piedmont 
 and Rome. " What does he mean by all this ?" they asked each 
 other a question which could be responded to only by other ques- 
 tions, "What can he mean? Does he aim at making himself a 
 
 * Of course, he no longer called Corsica his country, or ever thought of it as such. 
 
 73 
 
loo MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 King? What can we do to stop him?" Merlin and Neufchateau, 
 the two new Directors, spoke of the General's great power and 
 immense popular reputation, and suggested calmness and prudent 
 counsels. " With the Army of Italy at his back, and with the acclama- 
 tions of the admiring people of Lyons and Paris, and all the great 
 towns, he might pluck us out of our places, and upset the Constitution 
 and even the Republic itself," said they. At last it was resolved to 
 dispatch to Passeriano M. Bottot, Barras' private secretary, and a 
 man of shrewdness, in order to sound the real intentions of Bona- 
 parte, to whom the Directory wrote a long conciliatory letter, dis- 
 claiming all suspicions of his intentions, and explaining sundry points 
 in a way which they hoped would prove to his satisfaction. Bona- 
 parte cherished his inward spite against the triumvirs until the mo- 
 ment should come when he could gratify it by open act. Augereau, 
 on his side, though he afterwards served under him, never forgave 
 Bonaparte for the remarks he now made, and for the treaty of peace 
 which deprived him of all the honours and profits he anticipated 
 from his German campaign; and in 1814, when Napoleon was losing 
 his throne, and when he had lost it and was on his way to Elba, 
 Augereau had his revenge, and made him remember these events of 
 
 I797- 
 
 Bottot arrived at Passeriano early in October, and was at first 
 received coolly. In his private interviews he, however, brought 
 Bonaparte into a better temper. He had been instructed by the 
 Directory to insist upon revolutionizing Italy. " What am I to 
 understand by this ? " asked Bonaparte ; " am I to revolutionize the 
 whole of Italy?" Bottoms instructions on this point were vague. 
 Bonaparte shrugged up his shoulders, as he was wont to do, and 
 said that he must have more precise orders. He then hastened on 
 the negotiations for peace. 
 
 About this time, General Bernadotte, who had been at Paris, re- 
 turned to Italy, and privately conferred with the Commarider-in- 
 Chief. Bonaparte interrogated him concerning the intentions of the 
 Directory, public opinion in Paris, and the resources of France in 
 case of a new war, and also concerning the pending negotiations 
 with Austria. " Make peace by all means," replied Bernadotte. 
 
DISCUSSIONS A T PASSER! A NO. I o 1 
 
 " The Directory are offended at the little docility you show towards 
 them ; the armies of the Rhine are not friendly towards you ; the 
 Republicans are watching and mistrusting you ; the Royalists, had 
 it not been for the events of Fructidor, would have impeached you. 
 The people of Paris are still enthusiastic of your renown ; you are 
 the idol of that mass which would have sent you to the scaffold on 
 the days of Vende*miaire. I repeat to you, make peace, for if you 
 should meet with reverses, you cannot reckon upon assistance or 
 protection from any party." " But the Directory," asked Bonaparte, 
 " what are its wishes ? " " The Directory's advice is the reverse,of 
 mine : it insists upon not giving up Venice, on finding some pretext 
 for renewing hostilities, and establishing Republics everywhere." 
 " But if I begin the war afresh, will they furnish me with the means 
 for sustaining it ? " u You must not rely upon that : the nation at 
 large wishes for peace ; you have already obliged the head of the 
 Germanic empire to acknowledge the Republic ; and if now, instead 
 of placing its existence again at the mercy of the chances of a war 
 you consolidate it by peace, your glory will shine in its full splendour. 
 This, however, is not perhaps the wish of the Directory, which, 
 feeling its own weakness, sees no other means of protracting its 
 existence but by keeping the destinies of the Republic in a state oi 
 uncertainty. The public mind is too much agitated in France to 
 admit of carrying on a fresh war without resorting to a dictatorship ; 
 but then your own position would be one of danger ; for, whether 
 you proved victorious or not, you would be an object of suspicion 
 to the dictatorial power." 
 
 It was then that Bonaparte, raising himself, cried out, " Well, I 
 am decided : I shall make peace." * 
 
 After another conference with Cobentzel, Bonaparte, on the loth 
 of October, wrote to the Directory, giving categorically ten reasons 
 for coming to pacific terms. Two or three of these deserve men- 
 tion : 
 
 "5. The political nullity of the Italians. I have hardly 1,500 
 
 * This conversation is given in the " Life of Charles XIV, f King of Sweden " (Berna- 
 dotte), by Touchard Lafosse. 
 
102 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 Italians with my army, most of whom are the refuse of the large 
 towns. 
 
 " 6. The fresh rupture of the negotiations with England. 
 
 "8. The evident desire of the French nation for peace a desire 
 which manifests itself even among the soldiers. 
 
 " 9. Because it would -be imprudent to risk sure advantages and 
 French blood for people (the Italians) who have but little love for 
 liberty, and are little worthy of it ; and who, by habit, and character, 
 and tradition, hate us heartily. The city of Venice reckons perhaps 
 three hundred patriots ; but their interests shall be provided for, 
 and they will join the Cisalpine Republic. The aspirations of a few 
 hundred men are not worth the lives of 20,000 Frenchmen. 
 
 " 10. Lastly, the war with England, which will open to us a new 
 field for active operations, more vast and splend d. The English 
 people are worth much more than the Venetians ; and if we oblige 
 their Government to make peace, our commerce, and the advan- 
 tages which we shall obtain in both hemispheres, will be a great 
 step towards the public happiness." 
 
 And, in another place, he said that " the Austrians were slow and 
 parsimonious, and the French Republic had no reason to fear them 
 in its military projects ; whilst the English were generous, enter- 
 prising, and intriguing, and there could be no tranquillity for France 
 until the British monarchy was destroyed." The hatred of Bona- 
 parte against England was of early date, and was founded upon a 
 true though confused notion of the English power, and of the 
 English character, which he could not help respecting, although it 
 stood in his way. He felt that he could not despise England, and 
 he hated it the more for that.* 
 
 Before the letter could have reached Paris he did what Berna- 
 dotte had advised, and what he had long before decided to do. 
 Many current stories must be weeded out of the biography of this 
 wonderful man. One of them which has been generally believed is, 
 that Bonaparte, being impatient of the delays of the Austrian nego- 
 tiator, eyeing a valuable China tray which the Count had received 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. 
 
REASONS FOR PEA CE. 103 
 
 as a present from Catherine of Russia, asked Cobentzel whether the 
 possession of Mantua by the Emperor was a sine qua non of the 
 treaty ; and the Count having answered in the affirmative, Bona- 
 parte cried out, u Then war is declared ; but, mark me ! before the 
 end of the year I will shatter your monarchy to pieces like this piece 
 of clay;" and with that he dashed the tray to the ground, and broke 
 it into fragments. Bourrienne, who was with him at the time, denies 
 the story as a most improbable bit of stage heroics : " I certainly 
 know nothing of any such scene ; our manners at Passeriano were 
 not quite so bad." Bourrienne confirms the otherwise well-esta- 
 blished opinion that Bonaparte's determination to make peace pro- 
 ceeded from the mistrust which the Directors had of him, and he 
 of them. 
 
 On the 1 3th of October, at daybreak, the Alps of the Friuli, 
 owing to a sudden change in the weather, appeared covered with 
 snow. Bonaparte being told of this by Bourrienne, leaped from his 
 bed, ran to the window, and then quietly said, " What ! before the 
 middle of October ! What a country this is ! Well, we must make 
 peace." And he wrote to the Directory : " The summits of the 
 mountains are covered with snow ; I could not, according to the 
 terms agreed upon, recommence hostilities before twenty-five days, 
 and then we shall be buried in snow." The snow came very oppor- 
 tunely to back his already made-up determination of concluding 
 peace. He told Bourrienne, after carefully inspecting the returns 
 of the various divisions of his army, " They are nearly eighty thou- 
 sand effective men ; I feed, I pay them ; but I can bring only sixty 
 thousand into the field on a day of battle. I shall gain it, but after- 
 wards my force will be reduced perhaps twenty thousand, between 
 killed, wounded, prisoners, missing, detached, &c. Then, how can 
 I oppose the Austrian forces which will march to the defence o* 
 Vienna ? It would require a month before the armies of the Rhine 
 could support me, if even they were able to do so ; and in a fort- 
 night all the roads and passes will be deeply covered with snow. It 
 is settled ; I will make peace. Venice shall pay for the expenses 
 of the war and the boundary of the Rhine ; let the Directory and 
 the lawyers say what they like." 
 
104 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 The final treaty was signed in the night of the I7th of October, 
 1797 ; and, out of regard for diplomatic etiquette, was dated from 
 Campo Formio, an old ruinous castle half-way between Passeriano 
 and Udine. Hence it is called "the Treaty of Campo Formio." 
 Barras, through his secretary Bottot, hastened to sen3Tassurances 
 of cordial friendship to the peacemaker, and to say all that he 
 thought most fit to remove angry feelings out of the breast of Bona- 
 parte. "The revolution of all Italy is adjourned/ said the great 
 Director. Talleyrand wrote to tell the general that it was " a peace 
 worthy of Bonaparte." 
 
 The Emperor ceded to France all the Netherlands, and the left 
 bank of the Rhine, with Mayence, the great outpost and bulwark 
 of Germany ; he gave up, nominally to the natives, but virtually to 
 the French, all that he had held in Lombardy, acknowledging the 
 independence of the Milanese and Mantuan states, under their new 
 name of the " Cisalpine Republic ; " and he consented that the 
 French Republic should have the Ionian 'Islands, which then be- 
 longed to Venice, and the Venetian possessions in Albania. The 
 French Republic, on its part, consented (such was the word) that 
 the Emperor should take and keep Venice and its territory in Italy 
 as far as the Adige, together with I stria, at the head of that sea, and 
 all Venetian Dalmatia, on the opposite side of the Adriatic. The 
 Venetian provinces between the Adige and the Adda were to be in- 
 corporated with that political phantom, the Cisalpine Republic. 
 The Emperor, who, in the case of Venice, had admitted the prin- 
 ciple of taking neutral pr friendly states as compensations from an 
 enemy, was also to have an increase of territory in Germany at the 
 expense of Bavaria, and his feudatory and relative by marriage, the 
 Duke of Modena, was to have the Breisgau. Modena, Massa, Car- 
 rara, and all the Papal provinces of Bologna, Ferrara, Ravenna, 
 Faenza, and Rimini, as far as the Rubicon, were declared to be an- 
 nexed to the Cisalpine Republic aforesaid. Tuscany, Parma, Rome, 
 and Naples were left to their old governments and monarchic in- 
 stitutions ; but, except Naples, they were all in complete subjection 
 to France, and her liege vassals, the new Italian republicans, who 
 never ceased promoting plots and conspiracies against the said 
 
END OF THE VENETIAN REPUBLIC. log 
 
 established governments. From these manoeuvres Naples itself was 
 not exempted ; even now the road was paved for that entrance of 
 the French into the Neapolitan kingdom which took place in 
 
 I799- 
 
 To General Serrurier was confided the honourable task of finishing 
 the spoliation of Venice, and then delivering it over to the Austrians. 
 Having removed all their plunder, having stripped even the Bucen- 
 toro of its gold and ornaments, the French quitted Venice one day 
 and the Austrians entered it the next ; and not only was the new- 
 fangled tree of liberty in St. Mark's cut down, but an end was put 
 to a Republic which had flourished for fourteen hundred years. 
 
 The republicans murmured ; some of them complained in loud 
 and frantic tones. But cui bono? "The French Republic," said 
 Bonaparte, "does not make war for other people. We are under no 
 obligation to sacrifice French lives, against the interests of France, 
 in order to please a set of babbling maniacs, who have taken a fancy 
 to have a universal Republic over the world. The Venetian nation 
 exists no longer. The populations of Italy, and the Venetians in 
 particular, are little adapted for liberty ; if they choose they may 
 still defend themselves? "But/' said one of the despairing Italians, 
 " you are our countryman ; we have aided you and your army. You 
 
 came into Italy promising us liberty and independence, and " 
 
 " Fight for them yourselves," interrupted the Corsican. On twenty 
 different occasions, at the very least, he flew out against his miserable 
 dupes. "Their policy of the clubs," said he, "is vile, and will never 
 do any good. They can only make clubs and long frothy speeches. 
 They have no hold on the Italian people. Let no one exaggerate 
 to himself the influence of the pretended patriots of Genoa and 
 Lombardy : if we were to withdraw from them our political influence, 
 our troops, all these self-styled patriots would be massacred by the 
 people. The inhabitants of these countries are not fit for liberty. 
 They may, perhaps, get enlightened by degrees ; but this will require 
 time, and a very long time ! The soldiers furnished to me by this 
 Cisalpine Republic are the scum of the earth. Italy stands more 
 in need of drill- masters than of constitution-makers." 
 
 All this was not very flattering to the patriots or liberals, yet it 
 
io6 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 cannot be denied that a good deal of truth was contained in it. One 
 could never have expected to see Napoleon revived as the idol of 
 this political party or confusion of parties, or to hear the name of 
 the greatest liberticide of modern history evoked as that of the 
 patron saint of liberty. But so it is now, so it was (more especially 
 in Italy) in the revolutionary years of 1848-9, and so it has been 
 ever since the battle of Waterloo. We may safely repeat that these 
 Italians are little adapted for liberty, that these liberals have no 
 political enlightenment, and that it will yet take a long time to en- 
 lighten them. 
 
 In a military sense these first Italian campaigns of Bonaparte 
 form by far the most brilliant part of his career. The genius for 
 strategy, the rapidity of movement and combination which they 
 displayed, will always render these campaigns a subject of warm 
 admiration and attentive study to true soldiers. We would not 
 diminish by the weight of a grain or the breadth of a line the glory 
 of the young warrior ; but some tender consideration is due to the 
 brave old veterans with whom he contended in the passes of the 
 Apennines and the plains of Piedmont and Lombardy. 
 
 We have attempted to show (as clearly as might be, without going 
 into details unsuited to this biographical sketch) the numerous cir- 
 cumstances which favoured the progress of the French republican 
 arms. These circumstances were all most adverse to the Emperor. 
 A general suspicion of disloyalty and foul play recurs unavoidably 
 to the mind, whilst considering the astounding reverses of the 
 Austrian army in this war in Italy. " We know," says a writer who 
 has seen some good service under the Duke of Wellington, " that 
 the Austrian soldiers fought bravely, that their generals were officers 
 of tried ability and experience, that they generally had a superiority 
 of numbers over the French, that in several combats they obtained 
 the advantage ; and yet the result of each successive campaign was 
 most disastrous, and army after army was absolutely thrown away. 
 The thing does not appear natural. It has been partly accounted for 
 by the slowness of Austrian movements as contrasted with French 
 lightness and impetuosity, assisted as these were by their new system 
 of warfare, which discarded all incumbrances of stores, tents, bag- 
 
CAUSES OF FRENCH SUCCESS. 107 
 
 gage, and other customary appendages and comforts of European 
 armies. Much was owing to Bonaparte's able strategy, his eagle 
 eye, rapidity of conception, and equal rapidity of execution. Still, 
 these cannot account for all ; they cannot account for the mismanage- 
 ment at Montenotte and Dego, for the weak defence of the passes 
 of the Tyrol whilst Wurmser was making his flank movement upon 
 the Brenta, for the surprise of the head-quarters at Bassano, for the 
 fatal inaction of Davidowich at Roveredo, and for the other errors 
 in Alvinzi's campaign. There are no miracles in war, and yet the 
 good fortune of Bonaparte in that Italian war appears almost mira- 
 culous. The Austrian armies in Germany had been fighting for years 
 against the French with various success, but had not incurred such 
 sweeping disasters. The character of the two Austrian commanders 
 in Italy, Beaulieu and Wurmser, is above suspicion ; that of Alvinzi, 
 against whom insinuations were made at the time, was redeemed by 
 the confidence of his own sovereign, who gave him afterwards im- 
 portant commands, and bestowed honours upon his old age. But 
 some of the subordinate officers, especially of the staff, in that and 
 the subsequent wars, have not come off so clear. Names have been 
 mentioned, and charges distinctly made. In the 'Re'cit de la Cam- 
 pagne en Italic/ Bonaparte is reported to have said at Milan, after 
 the war was over, in allusion to an article in a German newspaper, 
 the Ratisbon Mercury, which insinuated that he had bribed the 
 Austrian generals : * It is true that I have spent much money, but 
 not to win over the generals. / thought it better Jor my purpose to 
 try the staff, and I have had no reason to regret it} One thing 
 certain is that he spent very large sums for secret service, whilst the 
 Austrians, who had not the plunder of Italy at their disposal, could 
 not afford to be so generous, and were generally ill supplied with 
 information." * 
 
 A considerable number of the staff officers of the Austrian ~my 
 were disaffected Italians, semi-revolutionists from the banks of the 
 Rhine, visionaries from other parts of Germany not included in the 
 Imperial dominions, and officers from other neighbouring states, 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. " Napoleon Bonaparte, his Sayings and Doings." 
 
1 oS MR MOlK. Of NAPOLEON BON A PAR TE. 
 
 who had no Austrian patriotism, and who never felt what all men 
 ought to feel on the field of battle that they were fighting for their 
 own country. Moreover, for a long time the Austrians respected 
 that neutrality which the French, in their new political philosophy, 
 held at nought ; and they frequently made a long detour in their 
 march rather than traverse without leave any neutral territory ; or 
 they, on the same principle, avoided seizing a town or position, 
 although well aware that the French would have no such scruples, 
 and that the same town, fort, or position, occupied by Bonaparte, 
 would have been of excessive detriment to their own campaign. 
 They, indeed, threw a garrison into the fortress of Pizzighittone, 
 in the neutral territory of the Venetian Republic, but not until it 
 was too late, and until long after the French had shown their 
 thorough determination to respect no neutral territory whatsoever 
 if it lay between them and the Austrians, or stood in their way in 
 any other manner. 
 
 Yet Sir Archibald Alison, folio wnig French authorities, as he 
 almost always does, without ever sifting or weighing them, expends 
 a deal of rhetorical censure on the Austrians for their breach of 
 neutrality in taking possession of Pizzighittone, which the Venetian 
 Senate had left with a few honeycombed guns, and scarcely the 
 shadow of a garrison, as if purposely to lay the fortress open to 
 Bonaparte. 
 
 Perhaps we have not said enough in the way of warning (in which 
 sense the information is now most important) as to the fate which 
 must be expected by an un warlike or an unprepared people, even 
 when they fraternize with their invaders. 
 
 Before opening the campaign against Alvinzi, Bonaparte had 
 directed a Congress to assemble at Modena, and had established a 
 Council of State at Milan for the administration of the Milanese 
 subject, of course, to the control of the French Commander-in-Chief. 
 The chief business of the Congress was to vote the formation of an 
 Italian Legion, as an auxiliary to the French army. At the same 
 period he burst out into bitter complaints of the robberies and 
 depredations of the commissaries and contractors who were with 
 the army, and some of whom were believed to be encouraged in 
 
SPOLIA T20N AND PECULA TION. 109 
 
 their evil course by some of the Directors, or their subordinate 
 ministers. He wrote to Paris" Since I have returned to Milan, 
 Citizen Directors, I am busy making war against the rascals, many 
 of whom I have had tried and punished ; but I must now denounce 
 others to you, at the risk of being slandered by a thousand tongues, 
 who, after saying two months since that I aimed at being Duke of 
 Milan, now say that I want to be King of Italy. You had probably 
 reckoned that our employes should pilfer a little, but that at the 
 same time they should do their duty, and keep within the bounds 
 of decency. But they rob in such a gross and impudent manner, 
 that, if I had a month's leisure, I might have them all convicted. 
 I have arrested many, and brought them to trial ; but they bribe the 
 judges. Everything here is bought and sold. One commissary, 
 charged with having levied a contribution of 18,000 livres on the 
 town of Salo for his own private account, has only been sentenced 
 to three months' imprisonment. The city of Cremona furnished 
 more than fifty thousand ells of linen for the use of our hospitals : 
 the villains have sold it ; they have even sold the mattresses and 
 bolsters ; they turn everything into money. It is impossible to 
 
 produce evidence : they all hold together Attempts are 
 
 being made to bribe my secretaries in my own anteroom : a com- 
 missary of war is charged with having sold a chest of bark, which 
 
 the King of Spain had sent for our medical stores 
 
 Four millions of English goods have been seized at Leghorn ; the 
 Duke of Modena had paid two millions more. Ferrara and 
 Bologna have made large payments ; and yet the soldiers are with- 
 out shoes, and in want of clothes, the chests are without money, 
 and the patients in the hospital are sleeping on. the ground." And 
 he goes on naming the different commissaries, contractors, and 
 other employe's, concluding, with very few exceptions, that " they 
 were all thieves/' He recommends the Directory to dismiss them, 
 and replace them by more honest men, or at least more discreet 
 ones : " If I had fifteen honest commissaries, you might make to 
 each of them a present of 100,000 crowns, and yet save fifteen 
 millions ... If I had a month's time to attend to these matters, 
 thera is hardly one of these fellows but I could cause to be shot; 
 
no MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BON A PAR TR. 
 
 but I must set off to-morrow for the army, which will give great joy 
 to the thieves." 
 
 Although he had certainly obtained a fortune which might place 
 him and his family beyond the hard, and to them well-known, grip 
 of want or poverty, Bonaparte himself had taken only a moderate 
 share of the great harvest. Bourrienne says that he had at this time 
 in his possession about three millions of livres, or ,120,000, no very 
 exorbitant amount, it has been observed, for a victorious general, or 
 rather dictator, who had subdued seven or eight sovereign states, 
 which had paid into the hands of the army receivers nearly one 
 hundred millions of livres in cash, plate, jewels, and other precious 
 effects. According to other accounts, the money he carried away 
 with him across the Alps was less than ,50,000. He told Bourrienne 
 that the quicksilver-mines of Idria, in Carniola, which he seized in 
 his advance against the Archduke Charles, furnished the greater 
 part of what he possessed. He has said himself, that he remitted, 
 at various times, twenty millions of livres to the Directory. Much 
 was spent, no doubt, in secret service ; much was shared between 
 generals, commissaries, and paymasters ; and part of it went to shoe 
 and clothe the soldiers. But who can tell what became of the rest? 
 Regular accounts were not kept in those fraternity and equality days ; 
 and we have seen Bonaparte's emphatic confession, that he was sur- 
 rounded by thieves, whose depredations he could not repress. Italy 
 was plundered ; thousands of families were ruined ; the public credit 
 of its several states was annihilated ; and yet hardly one-fourth of 
 the capital that was wrung from her can be accounted for the 
 French national treasury was none the richer for it. 
 
 Such is generally the result of wholesale plunder and remorseless 
 spoliation ! The Peninsula was rich and prosperous when Bonaparte 
 entered it. Never again did the French find such a harvest in it. 
 We need not ask where was the liberty and independence which 
 had been promised. That question has been sufficiently answered 
 already. Yet even when Bonaparte was taking his departure, and 
 when all this evil had been inflicted on that beautiful country, there 
 were still liberalized Italian nobles who fed themselves on the hope 
 that he would unite all Italy under one government, and make him- 
 
A PROPHETIC DREAM. 
 
 Ill 
 
 self the President or the King of it in general, they did not care 
 which. A well-known Milanese lady of rank, to whom the conqueror 
 paid rather more attention than was agreeable to his wife Josephine, 
 said, in a half-jesting manner, " General, I dreamed last night that 
 you were King of all Italy." " Perhaps," whispered Bonaparte, " I 
 have sometimes had such idle visions myself. My blood is all 
 Italian. But, before being King of all Italy, I must be King and 
 master of all France. . . . Bah ! what are we talking about ? We 
 are in a Republic ! I am a republican ; we are all republicans ! " 
 " Yes, General, for the moment." "Pour toujours (For ever)," said 
 he ; and then he laughed, pinched the fair lady's cheek, and hummed 
 pan of an Italian opera air. 
 
At Home in Paris. 
 
 BOOK II. 
 
 TT was on the I7th of November, 1797, that Bonaparte quitted 
 Milan for Rastadt, where it had been agreed at Campo Formio 
 to hold a Congress, in order to settle various questions relating to 
 Germany. The Directory had appointed him to act as plenipoten- 
 tiary at this Congress. Of course, he left his victorious army be- 
 hind him in Italy, to keep what had been got, and to prevent a 
 counter-revolution, which inevitably would have followed the de- 
 parture of his troops. As he passed through Switzerland he found 
 an opportunity of insulting Berne and the other aristocratic cantons, 
 thus indicating that they, as a reward for their neutrality, were soon 
 to be democratized and plundered. The conferences at Rastadt, 
 which promised to be very slow and dilatory, did not suit his temper. 
 
CONGRESS A T RASTADT. 1 1 3 
 
 Except where he could dictate to princes and powers, he detested 
 all congresses. He therefore merely signed a military convention 
 for the delivery of Mayence on the Rhine by the Emperor against 
 the counter-delivery by the French of Venice and Palmanova to the 
 Austrians, which completed the conditions of the Treaty of Campo 
 Formio, and then he set off for Paris, where he alighted on the 5th 
 of December at his house, Rue Chante-Reine (Sing-Queen Street), 
 which name the Paris municipality, in compliment to him, changed 
 into that of Rue de la Victoire (Victory Street) ; here, for some time, 
 he lived very privately. He wished to pacify certain jealousies and 
 to avoid observation ; but it is evident that he had those who ex- 
 tolled his high qualities and who observed for him in every corner 
 of the capital. His agreeable manners (and no man could be more 
 agreeable than he) gained him many new friends or admirers, and 
 the fame of his victories won him still more. In the evening he 
 liked to put on an old coat and a worn hat, and to walk about the 
 streets and to enter into the shops, just to hear what people were 
 saying about General Bonaparte. The Directors gave him a splendid 
 public festival, and in their residence, the Luxembourg Palace, where 
 they set up statues of Liberty, Equality, and Peace, he delivered the 
 treaty of Campo Formio, and made a modest speech :- 
 
 " Citizen Directors, The French people, in struggling to obtain 
 their freedom, had to contend with kings in order to obtain a con- 
 stitution founded upon rational principles ; they were obliged to 
 overcome the prejudices of eighteen centuries, during which period 
 religion, feudality, and royalism have governed Europe in succession. 
 From the date of the peace which you have just concluded begins 
 the era of representative governments. You have effected the 
 organization of the great nation, whose vast territory is circum- 
 scribed by limits fixed by nature itself. When the happiness of the 
 French people shall be secured on the best organic laws, the rest 
 of Europe will then become free." 
 
 Director Barras, who must have already felt his Luxembourg 
 throne tottering under him, made in return a prolix rhetorical 
 speech, extolling General Bonaparte above all the heroes of an- 
 tiquity, whether Greek or Roman, and ended by inviting him to go 
 
 8 
 
114 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 and hoist the tricoloured flag of France on the Tower of London. 
 Bonaparte was appointed to the command of the army styled " of 
 England ; n and no doubt Barras would have been right glad to 
 see him embarked with that army, to run the chance of crossing 
 the channel under the eyes of the powerful and victorious navy of 
 Great Britain. 
 
 On the loth of February, 1798, he set off on a tour of inspection 
 .along the coast of the British Channel : he visited Boulogne, Calais, 
 Dunkirk, Ostend, Antwerp, and the Isle of Walcheren, collecting 
 information in every port ; but the whole journey lasted only one 
 week. It is quite certain that at this time no serious idea was 
 entertained of an invasion of England. On his return to Paris, he 
 said to Bourrienne, u It would be far too great a risk. I will not 
 run it I will not sport thus with the fate of France ! " In fact, he 
 was already busied in preparations for the expedition to the East, 
 which he had suggested to Talleyrand in the previous month of 
 August, while he was reposing on his Italian laurels in the palace 
 of Monte Bello. Perhaps Barras thought that Egypt might do as 
 well as England in disembarrassing him for ever of his former 
 prottgt) and present rival, and future master. It is clear that all 
 the Directors feared, and wished to be rid of, the ambitious and 
 censorious young General. It is said, in several quarters, that not- 
 withstanding his " Oriental twist/' Bonaparte would not have gone 
 to Egypt if he could have stepped at once into the Directory ; and 
 that he really offered himself as a candidate for the Directorship, 
 at the first periodical renewal of one of the members ; but that he 
 was opposed, as being too short of the age of forty, required by the 
 Constitution for that office. It is added, that it was after this dis- 
 appointment, which really appears to have occurred, that he fully 
 made up his mind to go to the East. " In a few months/' said he, 
 " France will feel that she wants me back. The lawyers will be- 
 come more and more unpopular with time. Austria is far more 
 powerful than is thought : she will try again the fortune of war, and 
 then the French army will ask for me; and at the head of that 
 army I may do something." Bourrienne asked him if he really 
 intended to quit France. " Yes," said he, peevishly. " I have tried 
 
1798.] PARIS. H5 
 
 everything else. They don't want me here. I ought to upset them, 
 and make myself king ; but that would not do just yet. The nobles 
 would never consent to it : I should find myself alone. I have tried 
 the ground. Everything wears out here ; no impression lasts at 
 Paris. My glory is already forgotten. I must go to the East, the 
 land of great empires and great revolutions. This stale old Europe 
 bores me ! n 
 
 In April, 1798, he was appointed General-in-Chief of the Army of 
 the East. He was allowed to make his own preparations, which 
 were all effected with great secresy, to organize the army, and to 
 collect the ships as best he could. These preparations were inter- 
 rupted for a moment by a serious incident at Vienna. General Ber- 
 nadotte, who had been sent as ambassador to that city, had conducted 
 himself in a very temperate and conciliatory manner; but the Direc- 
 tory, taking offence at this line of conduct, sent him peremptory 
 orders to hoist the tricoloured flag, the symbol of republicanism and 
 revolutionism, over the gate of his Vienna residence. The public mind 
 at Vienna, already very unfavourable to the French, was still more 
 exasperated by the unprincipled invasions and spoliations of Switzer- 
 land and Rome, effected by the Directory whilst the negotiations for 
 a general peace were pending at Rastadt. A mob gathered in front 
 of Bernadotte's residence, pulled down the flag, broke into the apart- 
 ments, and destroyed the furniture. Bernadotte quitted Vienna. 
 The Directory talked of war, and of giving the command of the army 
 to be sent against the Emperor to Citizen General Bonaparte. The 
 embarkation of the troops for Egypt was checked. Bonaparte, how- 
 ever, treated the occurrence at Vienna very slightly, and as a thing 
 which could and which ought to be made up ; and, without consulting 
 any one, he wrote to Cobentzel, with whom he had contracted a sort of 
 intimacy, if not friendship, requesting that diplomatist to meet him 
 at Rastadt, in order to come to some political arrangement which 
 might " solve the questions which the Treaty of Campo Forrnio had 
 left unsolved." The Directory gained information of this secret cor- 
 respondence, and became again suspicious. It is said that high 
 words passed between the Directors and Bonaparte at the Luxem- 
 bourg; that Bonaparte again tendered his resignation, upon which, 
 
 32 
 
1 16 MEMOTR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 Rewbell, one of the Directors, handed him a pen, saying, " Sign it, 
 General," but that the more prudent Merlin de Douai snatched away 
 the pen. " The pear is not yet ripe ! " said the General to his friend 
 and secretary Bourrienne, " but it will ripen ! ' Barras, wearing a 
 sullen countenance, took him aside, and said, " You had better go 
 to the East. We can no longer suffer delay. Set out instantly! 
 Believe me, it is good advice that J give you." "Partons (Let us go)," 
 said the General. 
 
 Some scandalous stories, which had better be buried in oblivion, 
 report the contrary, but it appears that his wife Josephine grieved 
 very sincerely at his departure, and at the great risk he must run in 
 crossing the sea, that stormy, faithless element, on which the English 
 were always and everywhere triumphant. Like most West Indian 
 Creoles, she was imaginative and somewhat superstitious. She was 
 a great dreamer of dreams, and a believer in them ; and one of her 
 visions was of her husband being a prisoner of war in England. 
 
 On the 4th of May, 1798, the very day after receiving Barras' 
 warning at the Luxembourg, Bonaparte set out for Toulon. The 
 army collected in that part was, in reality, destined for no less an 
 object than the conquest of Egypt, which country, it was calculated, 
 would not merely supply to France the loss of her West Indian 
 colonies, which England had taken, but also enable her, first to 
 annoy, and afterwards to invade, the British possessions and depen- 
 dencies in the East Indies. It was a wild scheme, and as unjust as 
 it was wild ; for, whatever might be the occasional contumacy of the 
 Mameluke Beys, Egypt was a country belonging to the Turks, the 
 ancient allies of the French, who were living in peace with the 
 Republic, and had done nothing to provoke an attack. But a very 
 extravagant estimate was formed of the wealth of Egypt itself : the 
 plunder of the land of the Pharaohs would, it was calculated, amply 
 pay all expenses of the expedition and enrich the army ; French- 
 men's heads were filled with high - sounding names of places and 
 dynasties, and with those always intoxicating comparisons with the 
 Greeks and Romans : Bonaparte's fame as the conqueror of Italy, 
 or rather of the Austrians in Italy, was an additional inducement, 
 and 30,000 men, chiefly from the Army of Italy, had assemble^ witfe 
 
EXPEDITION TO THE EAST. 
 
 wonderful enthusiasm at Toulon, to sail, whenever the opportunity 
 should offer, for Alexandria and the mouths of the Nile. In imita- 
 tion of the consuls and conquerors of ancient Rome, he promised 
 his soldiers farms and good estates in the exuberantly fertile regions 
 ying on the banks of the Nile. A few speeches of this sort blinded, 
 or the time, both men and officers to the peril of .the expedition, and 
 o the lack of prudence and wisdom with which the whole scheme 
 had been rather improvized than arranged. 
 
 " The expedition to Egypt," says a recent French writer of won- 
 derful impartiality, " is regarded as a memorable event. It is much 
 vaunted in France and elsewhere, and yet it led only to three some- 
 what unpoetical results. First, it sacrificed the French fleet, de- 
 stroyed by Nelson at the Nile; secondly, it gave Malta into the 
 hands of the English a conquest that made them masters of the 
 Mediterranean ; thirdly, it led directly and surely to the destruction 
 of all the allies of France in India. All things considered, the clear 
 profit resulting from the expedition consists in a well-rounded period 
 on the Pyramids, and the conquest of a host of hieroglyphics." * 
 
 The French fleet consisted of thirteen ships of the line, a number 
 of frigates and smaller vessels, and 400 transports, having on board 
 about 36,000 land forces, a select staff, about 10,000 sailors, and 100 
 artists and men of letters and science, who figured considerably 
 under the general name of savans : the expenses of this great ar- 
 mament were supplied by the treasures seized by the French at 
 Berne, in Switzerland, and by forced contributions levied at Genoa 
 and Rome. 
 
 The secret of the expedition was well kept from the enemies of 
 the Republic ; a continuance of violent winds drove the English 
 blockading fleet from those waters; and on the night of the iQth of 
 May, Bonaparte, with a vast fleet of men-of-war and transports, put 
 to sea and sailed up the Mediterranean. On the gth of June the 
 fleet arrived before Malta, the capture of which important island 
 was included in the plan adopted by the Directory. The Knights 
 of the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, who had held Malta ever 
 
 * Jules Maurel ? " JLe Due de Wellington," &c. 185^. 
 
1 1 8 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 Bonaparte receiving the Knights of Malta. 
 
 since the days of the Emperor Charles V., had not acknowledged 
 the French Republic ; but not a few of those noble knights enter- 
 tained French notions, or had sold themselves to French interests. 
 Hompesch, the Grand Master, a weak old man, was bullied and 
 terrified by these traitors, and, instead of manning the works of 
 La Valetta, which might have defied the whole French fleet and 
 army for months whereas every moment was precious to them, 
 and full of apprehension, for they knew that the British fleet would 
 soon be after them he returned a miserable answer to Bonaparte's 
 summons to surrender, and actually capitulated on the nth, the 
 date fixed by the Republican General ! 
 
 In fairness, it must, however, be mentioned that the Knights of 
 Malta were by this time very poor, and that Bonaparte had con- 
 tributed, by his conquests in Italy, to make them so. Their landed 
 property in France had disappeared in the Revolution. As soon as 
 he obtained Corfu from Venice, the conqueror fixed his eyes upon 
 
LANDING IN EG YPT. 1 1 9 
 
 Malta. In October, 1797, he wrote from Italy to Talleyrand 
 " Why should we not seize upon Malta ? The garrison of La Val- 
 letta consists of 400 knights, and one regiment of 500 men, at the 
 most. The native inhabitants, who number 100,000, are tired of the 
 knights, who are become very poor, and cannot support themselves. 
 It is with a view to this that I have confiscated the property of the 
 Order in Italy. With the island of S. Pietro, ceded to us by the 
 King of Sardinia, and with Malta and Corfu, we should be masters 
 of the whole Mediterranean." 
 
 Talleyrand, of course, saw no reasons why the French should not 
 and many reasons why they should seize upon Malta, and the island 
 was se'ized accordingly. This simple philosophy that those shall 
 take who can had become the guiding principle of French politics. 
 
 After plundering the churches and the alberghi, and other esta- 
 blishments of the Order, and thereby collecting no inconsiderable 
 quantity of gold and silver, Bonaparte re-embarked on the I9th for 
 Egypt, leaving General Vaubois and a garrison to take "care of 
 Malta. 
 
 "Thus, w says a French writer, "having taken Malta, after the 
 manner of Philip, he hastened to follow in the footsteps of Alexander, 
 to the conquest of the East, like the Macedonian hero whom he had 
 chosen for his model. But apprehensions as to the British fleet 
 greatly disquieted him ; and it was only by a combination of ex- 
 tremely lucky circumstances that he escaped it." * 
 
 As the French fleet sailed by the island of Candia it passed near 
 the English fleet, but without being seen by it ; for a thick haze 
 favoured the invaders, and prevented their utter annihilation, with 
 the destruction or captivity of all the troops, and of Bonaparte him- 
 self, by Nelson. On the 29th of June the French, in very calm 
 weather, came in sight of Alexandria. 
 
 On the 3oth the Admiral was told that thirteen English ships of 
 war had been seen in the neighbourhood. Bonaparte threw him- 
 self into a boat which pulled away for the shore, ordering that the 
 troops should follow him with all possible speed. At this moment 
 
 * M. Michaud. " Biographic Universelle." 
 
120 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 a strange sail was signalized. "O Fortune !" cried he, "will you 
 abandon me when so near my object ?" It was a friendly sail, and 
 not the leading ship of Nelson's fleet. All this, however, bears a 
 strong resemblance to a game of hazard, where genius or prudence 
 can do nothing which success may justify in the eyes of the multi- 
 tude, but which a wise man can never excuse. If Bonaparte had 
 failed and fallen he would have been regarded in history as the 
 rashest general that had ever commanded an army. And how great 
 was his chance of failure and destruction ! 
 
 On the following day the troops landed within three miles of Alex- 
 andria without any opposition, but with such haste and confusion, 
 produced by the dread lest Nelson should be upon them, that a con- 
 siderable number were drowned. The town of Alexandria was easily 
 taken. From its ancient walls Bonaparte issued a proclamation to 
 the inhabitants of Egypt, telling them that he came as the friend of 
 the Sultan, to deliver them from the oppression of the Mamelukes, 
 and that he and his soldiers had a particular respect for God, the 
 prophet of God, Mahomet, and the Koran. Having assembled the 
 Sherief, the Sheiks, and Imaums, he told them that the French were 
 in fact the best friends of Mussulmans and the Koran ; that they 
 had overthrown the Pope of Rome and the Knights of Malta, those 
 old enemies of the faithful ; and that the people ought to be told to 
 look upon the French as their allies and brethren. The poor Turks 
 and Arabs of the mosque knew that these Frenchmen had shown 
 their love by already slaying several hundreds of Turks, but they 
 prudently said nothing except " Mas-hallah" and " Baccalumf "God 
 is great!" " We shall see." 
 
 In an order of the day he told his soldiers that they were going to 
 strike a mortal blow against England, and, in the first place, to de- 
 stroy the Mameluke Beys, who exclusively favoured English com- 
 merce. " The people," said he, " amongst whom we are going to 
 live are Mahomedans. Do not contradict the dogmas of their faith. 
 Behave to them as you have behaved to the Jews and Italians. Ex- 
 tend to the Koran and the mosques the same toleration which you 
 showed to synagogues and churches to the religions of Moses and 
 of Jesus Christ I" Not a few of his officers (and General Menou 
 
IN THE DESERT. 
 
 121 
 
 At tne Pyramids. 
 
 was among them) soon professed that they were converts to the 
 Koran, and as good Mussulmans as any. 
 
 On the 7th of July he moved from Alexandria to Cairo, marching 
 over burning sands, where the French troops suffered greatly, and 
 murmured not a little. " Is it here," said they, as they kicked the 
 sand from their feet and tried to clear it from their aching eyes 
 u is it here that our General means to give us our acres ? " On the 
 2ist, on arriving in sight of the great pyramids, they saw objects 
 less peaceful than those stupendous memorials of the dead they 
 saw the whole Mameluke force, under Murad Bey, drawn up at Em- 
 babeh. "Soldiers!" said Bonaparte, "from the summit of those 
 pyramids thirty centuries look down upon you ! " It would be diffi- 
 cult to give any distinct meaning to the words, but they are said to 
 have produced a magical effect on the army. Battle was joined 
 
122 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEOtf BONAPARTE. 
 
 almost immediately. The Mameluke cavalry, 5,000 in number, was 
 splendid and brave ; but their Arab auxiliaries were not so well 
 armed ; and their infantry, composed chiefly of Egyptian fellahs, or 
 peasants, armed with matchlocks, was altogether contemptible ; and 
 they had no artillery. The " Battle of the Pyramids," as the affair 
 was called by the French, was easily won ; such of the Mamelukes 
 as escaped destruction retreated towards Upper Egypt ; and, two 
 days after, Bonaparte entered Cairo without resistance. Here he 
 assembled a divan, or council, of the principal Turks and Arab 
 chiefs, to whom he promised the civil administration of the country. 
 He also endeavoured to conciliate the Ulemas and the Imaums, 
 holding frequent conferences with those doctors and professors of 
 the Mahomedan faith, talking oracularly and orientally (by means 
 of interpreters) : he repeated their brief credo, that there is but one 
 God, and that Mahomet is His prophet, and at least hinted that he 
 and his army might some day undergo the initiatory rite of circum- 
 cision, and become converts to Islamism. 
 
 While he was thus engaged at Cairo, Nelson disturbed his visions 
 by destroying the fleet which he had left near Alexandria. The 
 British hero had returned up the Mediterranean without any in- 
 structions from his Government, and without any certain knowledge 
 of the French expedition. He was unfortunately without frigates 
 to scour that sea, and he was thus, as it were, compelled to grope 
 his way in the dark. The first news he got of Bonaparte's move- 
 ments was that he had surprised Malta. Instantly he bore away 
 for that island ; but, some days before he could reach it, the French 
 were gone, and he could find no one to tell him whither. Making, 
 however, a shrewd guess, he sailed for the mouths of the Nile, and 
 arrived off Alexandria on the 28th of June. But no French fleet 
 was there, and, although it was so near at hand, he could learn no- 
 thing of its whereabout. He then shaped his course to the north- 
 ward, for the coast of Caramania, and steered from thence along 
 the southern side of Candia. It was here he so nearly touched the 
 objects he was seeking. Baffled in his pursuit, he crossed the whole 
 Mediterranean, and returned to Sicily. He had sailed six hundred 
 leagues with an expedition almost incredible ; his flag-ship, the old 
 
NELSON IN PURSUIT. 
 
 Vanguard) was nearly strained to pieces ; but as soon as he could 
 i e-victual and take in fresh water, he turned his prow again to- 
 wards Egypt, still holding to his opinion that the French must 
 have been bound thither, but vowing that, if they were bound to 
 the Antipodes, or if they were anywhere above water, he would 
 find them out, and bring them to action. On the 28th of July he 
 entered the Gulf of Coron, in the Morea ; and here for the first 
 time he had certain intelligence that the French had been seen 
 about four weeks before steering between Candia and the coast of 
 Egypt. Then setting every sail that his ships could possibly carry, 
 he stood over once more for the mouths of the Nile, grieving for the 
 time which had been lost, and wishing it had only been his fate to 
 have tried Bonaparte upon a wind. Never did mortal man more 
 eagerly seek an enemy. 
 
 Between the evening of the ist of August and the morning of 
 the 2nd, with an inferior force, he annihilated the French fleet : 
 " Victory," said he, *' is not a name strong enough for such a scene !" 
 He called it a conquest. The intelligence of it threw Bonaparte 
 into utter dismay. Bourrienne ventured to observe that the mis- 
 fortune would have been much greater if Nelson had fallen in with 
 the fleet before the landing of the army. " It is true," said the sec- 
 retary, " that we are blockaded ; but we have provisions, we have 
 money ; let us wait to see what the Directory will do for us." " The 
 Directory ! " cried Bonaparte, " the Directory consists of a set of 
 scoundrels ! They envy and hate me, and will be glad to let me 
 perish here. Besides, you see how dissatisfied the army is : not a 
 man wishes to stay in this country." 
 
 At his desire, Bourrienne drew up a draft of a despatch for the 
 Directory. The secretary stated the facts plainly. " This will never 
 do," said Bonoparte ; " it is too tame, it is not pointed enough. 
 Besides, you would make it appear that Admiral Brueys was blame- 
 less. This will not do. You don't know the men you have to deal 
 with. I will tell you what to write." He threw the blame of the 
 loss of the fleet entirely on the unfortunate Admiral, who, having 
 been killed in the battle, could no longer contradict him. He said 
 he had ordered the Admiral to quit the coast, and make all sail 
 
124 MEMOIR Of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 for Corfu ; whereas, it is proved by his own letters that he had 
 weighty reasons for wishing to keep the fleet near at hand, and 
 that he had, in fact, induced Brueys to remain in a position of 
 danger. 
 
 " The whole truth," says Bourrienne, " never appeared in Bona- 
 parte's despatches, whenever it was in any way against him. He 
 knew how to disguise or to conceal facts whenever he thought it 
 necessary so to do." All this is proved by his own letters and des- 
 patches, and afterwards by his imperial bulletins, which ought to 
 be studied and carefully compared by all who wish to form a notion 
 of his real character. In many cases, it is only by such study that 
 we can arrive at the truth. 
 
 As the French advanced inland, and especially after the destruc- 
 tion of their fleet, they found all against them, Mamelukes, Arabs, 
 and fellahs ; no Frenchman was secure of his life if he happened 
 to stray half a mile from a town or the corps to which he belonged. 
 Their severity only brought on a fiercer retaliation. A firman 
 arrived from Constantinople, in which the Sultan denounced the 
 unprovoked invasion, and called the people to arms. All over the 
 country the signal of resistance appears to have been given from the 
 minarets of the mosques to which, five times in the course of the 
 twenty-four hours, the muezzins summoned the faithful to prayer. 
 On the 2 ist of October an insurrection broke out in Cairo. On the 
 following day the great mosque was forced open by French cannon, 
 and a number of people who had taken refuge in it were massacred. 
 It is said that, in all parts of the city, 5,000 Mussulmans were killed 
 on that day. On the third day the insurrection, which was simply 
 an ill-concerted popular outbreak, was at an end. Not so the ven- 
 geance of the invaders. Numerous prisoners were taken to the 
 citadel ; twelve were put to death (for some time) each successive 
 night, and by night their bodies were put into sacks and thrown 
 into the Nile. 
 
 Six days after the quelling of the insurrection Bonaparte wrote to 
 General Regnier, " Every night we cut off thirty heads as an ex- 
 ample." Bourrienne thinks that this is an exaggeration, and that 
 about twelve was the real number. It has been well said that 
 
INSURRECTION A T CAIRO. 1 2 5 
 
 Bonaparte was not cruel by temperament, but that in his political 
 calculations his nature was stern and unbending. 
 
 A tribe of Arabs surprised and cut to pieces a party of French 
 soldiers. Bonaparte ordered his aide-de-camp, Crosier, to surround 
 the tribe, destroy their huts, kill all the men, and drive the women 
 and children into Cairo. The bloody mission was successful. " Seve- 
 ral poor Arab women had been delivered on the road, and the infants 
 had perished. About five o'clock a troop of asses, laden with sacks, 
 arrived at the Place, or public square of Cairo. The sacks were 
 opened, and a number of heads rolled out before the assembled 
 populace. This butchery insured, for a considerable time, the safety 
 of the little caravans which were obliged to travel in all directions 
 for the service of the army." * 
 
 " All this, horrible as it appears to men of common humanity in 
 Europe, was nothing very uncommon for the Arabs and other Ori- 
 entals, who had been subject to that sort of discipline under the 
 Turks and other masters for ages. Had Bonaparte succeeded in 
 carving out for himself an empire in the East, which seems to have 
 been at the time a favourite vision of his, he might have made for a 
 time a very tolerable kind of an Eastern despot, a Sultan Kebir, 
 and have perhaps spared Europe all the calamities of the fifteen 
 years that followed. Bonaparte's temperament, and his notions of 
 government, were more suited for the Oriental than the European 
 condition of society. Such a man in the East might have been more 
 useful than mischievous, whilst in Europe, after his attainment of 
 the supreme power, he proved more mischievous than useful." f 
 
 Bonaparte now issued one of his characteristic proclamations. 
 He told the Egyptians that he was the man of destiny whose ap- 
 pearance was foretold in the Koran ; that resistance against him 
 was as impious as it was unavailing ; and that he could, if he chose, 
 call every one to account for his most secret thoughts, as nothing 
 was concealed from him. 
 
 In the month of December he went to Suez, and ordered some . 
 military works to be constructed there, as he was afraid that an 
 
 1 Bourrienne. t A Vieusseux. 
 
126 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 armament from British India might arrive in the Red Sea, and 
 advance upon Cairo as our armament did not very long after. He 
 crossed over the ford at low water to the Wells of Moses on the 
 Arabian coast, where he received deputations from the monks 01 
 Mount Sinai, and from some Arab chiefs of Tor. He returned to 
 Suez the same night; the tide of the Red Sea was coming up 
 rapidly, and the party was thrown into some confusion, but they 
 found their way through the rising water, and no accidents occurred. 
 The French had been laughing at the recitals in the Bible ; but 
 they had here practical proof how Pharaoh and his host might have 
 been overwhelmed. 
 
 On his return to Cairo he began to make arrangements for the 
 invasion of Syria, where Djezzar, or " the Butcher," Pasha of Acre, 
 had commenced hostilities by the Sultan's orders, and had seized 
 the fort of El Arish, on the Egyptian frontiers. Several of these 
 pashas, aiming at independence, had for a long time been very re- 
 fractory subjects of the Porte. Bonaparte thought that he might win 
 them over. While professing to be at peace with the Sublime Porte, 
 he had written both to Djezzar Pasha and to Ali Pasha, of Janina, 
 urging them to declare their independence and become his allies. 
 Ali Pasha was then fighting on the banks of the Danube against 
 Paswan Oglu, and did not or could not attend to the invitation ; and 
 old Djezzar, instead of listening to Bonaparte's advances, cut off 
 the head of his messenger, in a passion which was usual with that 
 pasha. Bonaparte's eulogists afterwards reproached the English 
 for having allied themselves with the cruel Djezzar an alliance 
 which, as well as that of the still more cruel Ali, he himself had 
 actually courted. 
 
 On the 25th of January, 1799, Bonaparte wrote to Tippoo Sultan, 
 who had taken up arms against us in India; but as that prince fell 
 at the storming of Seringapatam, no answer was received to this 
 epistle. 
 
 On the nth of February Bonaparte set out for Syria. The ex- 
 pedition, about 12,000 strong, entered the desert, following the coast 
 Of the Mediterranean. On the i;th it reached El Arish, which 
 surrendered the next day. On the 2$th Gaza also surrendered, and 
 
JAFFA. 
 
 127 
 
 In the Desert. 
 
 soon after the army entered the fertile valleys of Syria. On the I4th 
 of March they began the siege of Jaffa, in which there was a con- 
 siderable garrison. After three days the place was stormed, but the 
 garrison defended itself obstinately in the streets and houses, and 
 an indiscriminate massacre and pillage ensued. Part of the garrison, 
 consisting chiefly of Albanians, retired into a large square building 
 with a courtyard in the middle, being determined to sell their lives 
 dearly. Bonaparte sent two aides-de camp, one of whom was Eugene 
 Beauharnais, his wife's son by her first marriage, to restrain the car- 
 nage if possible, and to save the unarmed inhabitants. The Albanians 
 
128 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 cried out that they would surrender if their lives were spared, and 
 the aide-de-camp thought it best to stop the fighting by promising 
 them quarter. The prisoners then gave up their arms, and were 
 marched to the camp. According to Bourrienne they amounted in 
 all to 4,000 men, but others give the number at 2,000 or as low as 
 1,500. Bonaparte was walking with Bourrienne in front of his tent 
 when he saw this multitude approaching, and he said to his secre- 
 tary in a tone of vexation, " What would they have me do with these 
 men ? Have I provisions for them? Have I ships to convey them 
 to France, or even to Egypt?" Then he severely reprimanded the 
 aides-de-camp for taking them prisoners. " I told you to stop the 
 carnage as to women, children, and old men the peaceful inhabi- 
 tants ; but I did not tell you to respect armed soldiers. Now what 
 am I to do with these miserable wretches ?" 
 
 A fierce controversy on this painful subject has been waged for 
 more than fifty years, and the matter written and printed upon it 
 would, if collected, fill many volumes ; but the following brief passage 
 gives the correctest account of the dark transaction, and the best 
 reasonings upon the whole affair : 
 
 " The prisoners were ordered to sit down indiscriminately in front 
 of the tents, and their hands tied behind their backs. An expression 
 of gloomy restrained fury was depicted in their countenances. They 
 were allowed a small quantity of biscuit and bread, which the scanty 
 stores of the army could ill afford. A council of war was held on 
 the same day, to determine what was to be done with these men, but 
 no decision was come to. The daily reports of the generals of divi- 
 sion came in. They stated the scantiness of the rations, the mur- 
 murs of the soldiers at seeing their bread given to enemies who 
 ought to have perished by the sword according to the laws of war, 
 as Jaffa had been taken by storm. The report of General Bon's 
 division was the most alarming, as it spoke of symptoms of mutiny 
 among the soldiers. The council assembled again on the following 
 day, and was attended by all the generals of division, who discussed 
 at length the various measures which might be adopted concerning 
 the prisoners. Could they be sent to Egypt? It would require a 
 numerous escort, which would weaken the already weak French 
 
MASSACRE OF PRISONERS. 129 
 
 army. And how could provisions for their journey through the 
 desert be spared? Should they be embarked? There were no 
 ships not a single friendly sail was to be descried in the horizon. 
 Should the prisoners be set at liberty? They would either go and 
 reinforce the Pasha of Acre, or throw themselves into the mountains 
 on the right of the line of march, join the Naploosians, and annoy 
 the army in flank and rear. The Turkish soldiers, little accustomed 
 to give quarter, have no idea of parole or word of honour. Could 
 they be marched disarmed in the midst of the French columns ? 
 Besides the question of food, the evident danger of marching in such 
 a company through an enemy's country, and on the eve of a battle, 
 made this appear the worst of all resolves. The third day arrived 
 without any solution of the question. Bourrienne states that Bona- 
 parte was to the last wishing to save the men, and looking out for 
 the appearance of some friendly vessel. The murmurs in the camp 
 increased, danger became imminent. On the loth of March the 
 order was given, according to the unanimous opinion of the council, 
 to shoot the prisoners. There was no separation made of the 
 Egyptian from the other prisoners, as some have stated, for there 
 were no Egyptians among them. It is not true that the men of th$ 
 garrison of El Arish which had been set free were recognized among 
 the prisoners. This kind of justification has been set up in the 
 memoirs compiled at St. Helena, or from recollections of St. Helena, 
 which have been given out on the authority of Napoleon. The jus- 
 tification would be worse than the real reason for the act, which was 
 not revenge, but the stern policy of war. War has many unavoidable 
 horrors, and it is for this that it cannot be too much repeated that 
 war should not be entered upon on slight grounds, as all the re- 
 sponsibility falls upon the originators of the war. Once engaged in 
 it, the army must protect itself by every means in its power. In 
 this instance, the responsibility of the unjust and disastrous expedi- 
 tion to Egypt, in time of peace with the Porte, is shared equally 
 between Bonaparte who advised it, and the French Executive Direc- 
 tory who approved of it. Leaving apart, however, these general 
 grounds, and reverting to the frightful contingency of Jaffa, it does 
 not appear that a case of absolute necessity is made out, though it 
 
 9 
 
130 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 may have appeared to be made out in the hurried and anxious coun- 
 cils of the French generals, inured to scenes of blood. The danger 
 of two or three thousand unarmed men going to join the motley 
 multitudes of the Syrians and Turks who were rising in arms all 
 over the country against the French invaders, would not have been 
 so great as to outweigh in the scale the horrors and reproach of their 
 wholesale execution in cold blood. We find that a few days after, 
 at the engagement of Mount Tabor, the enemy is reckoned in 
 Berthier^ account, perhaps exaggerated, at 25,000 cavalry, and 
 multitudes of men on foot, who were utterly dispersed by one division 
 of the French army. Surely the 2,000 unarmed prisoners of Jaffa, 
 supposing they had all joined that rabble, would not have added 
 much to its efficiency." 
 
 The prisoners were marched out in parties to the sand-hills out- 
 side Jaffa, and there put to death in detached parties by volleys of 
 musketry, or finished by the bayonet. 
 
 " Many of the unfortunate creatures composing the smaller divi- 
 sion," says Bourrienne, " which was fired upon close to the sea-coast 
 at some distance from the other column, succeeded in swimming to 
 some reefs of rocks in the water, oat of the reach of musket-shot. 
 The soldiers rested their muskets on the sand, and, to induce the 
 fugitives to return, employed the Egyptian signs of reconciliation in 
 use in the country. They came back, but as they advanced they 
 were shot, and disappeared among the waves. This atrocious scene 
 still makes me shudder when I think of it, as it did on the day I 
 beheld it All the horrors imagination can conceive, re- 
 lative to this day of blood, would fall short of the reality ! . . . . 
 I have related the truth, the whole truth. I was present at all the 
 discussions, all the conferences, all the deliberations ; and although 
 I had not a deliberative voice, I am bound to declare that the situa- 
 tion of the army, the scarcity of food, our small numerical strength, 
 in the midst of a country where every individual was an enemy, 
 would have induced me to vote in the affirmative for the proposition 
 which was carried into effect, if I had had a vote to give. It was 
 necessary to be on the spot in order to understand the horrible ne- 
 cessity of the deed." Whatever be the excuse for it {he massacre 
 
SIEGE OF ACRE. 131 
 
 of Jaffa is an historical fact, which no one attempts now to deny. 
 Miot, in his " Memoirs of the Egyptian Campaign," gives some 
 harrowing particulars of the massacre. 
 
 If any further commentary were necessary, we might find them in 
 Bonaparte's Egyptian letters and orders of the day. Before coming 
 on to Jaffa, he wrote to General Dugua, " Shoot all the Mogribeens, 
 all the people of Mecca who came from Upper Egypt, and who have 
 borne arms against us. Shoot Abdallah and Achmet ; shoot all wfto 
 have behaved ill towards us, or who have incited the people to in- 
 surrection." After his retreat from Acre, he wrote "All those 
 charged with having spoken against the French shall be shot." 
 And again, a little later " You will shoot Hassan, Yussef, Ibrahim, 
 Salch, Mahomet, Bekir, Mustapha, all Mamelukes. You will cut 
 off the head of Abdallah Agha, formerly Governor of Jaffa," &c. 
 Against these men, who were fighting for their own soil and their 
 own property, he could have entertained no personal resentment. 
 It was only upon political calculation that he doomed them to death 
 in this wholesale manner. As he himself one day said, in politics 
 men ought to be considered only as so many ciphers ! And it can- 
 not be denied that this system of terror succeeded with these Oriental 
 peoples ; that it reduced them for a time to submission, and procured 
 h'm money and provisions. 
 
 On the I4th of March he broke up from Jaffa, leaving his hospitals 
 there. A few of his sick were already infected with the plague. On 
 the 1 8th the French appeared before Acre, and began opening the 
 trenches. He had told them that it was a miserable bicoque, which 
 must be taken in a few days. Djezzar Pasha, a cruel but very ener- 
 getic and resolute old man, had determined on defending himself to 
 the last, and he was supported by the gallant English commodore, 
 Sir Sidney Smith, with two ships of the line. Colonel Philippeaux, 
 an emigrant Royalist and an able officer of engineers, who had at 
 one time been Bonaparte's schoolfellow at the Military School of 
 Brienne, was on board with Sir Sidney Smith ; and he and the 
 commodore between them conducted the defence with rare skill 
 Bonaparte was expecting his heavy artillery from Egypt by sea, but 
 part of it was captured by the English, and the pieces were mounted 
 
 92 
 
132 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 within the walls of Acre. Bonaparte began to batter those walls 
 with twelve-pounders. He was so impatient, that his trenches were 
 never made deep enough to cover his men, and hence he lost great 
 numbers. "The siege," says Berthier, " was conducted as a field 
 operation : the easy capture of Jaffa had inspired the French with 
 overweening confidence ; the heavy ordnance had not yet arrived ; 
 and yet, on the breach being made on a tower at an angle of the 
 walls, the assault was ordered, and it failed miserably, costing the 
 lives of two adjutant-generals, and of a number of brave men." 
 This was on the 28th of March. The besieged made frequent sor- 
 ties, being accompanied by English sailors and marines. On the 
 4th of April the Englishmen explored a mine designed to blow up 
 the tower, but which was forthwith countermined. During the 
 month of April several attempts were made to storm the tower, but 
 each time the French were driven back with loss. Under the eye 
 of Sir Sidney Smith and his officers, the Turks and Arabs behaved 
 heroically. 
 
 Bonaparte now resolved upon effecting another breach in the cur- 
 tain. Meanwhile a large Turkish force assembled at Damascus, 
 crossed the river Jordan, and advanced to Nazareth to relieve Acre. 
 They were joined by the mountaineers of Samaria, who had seriously 
 annoyed the French on their advance. But these irregulars, with- 
 out any European guidance, could not stand, in the open country, 
 against the disciplined troops of France. On the 8th of April, 
 General Kleber, with a small division, encountered the numerous 
 cavalry of the Turks in the plain at the foot of Mount Tabor ; he 
 formed square, and maintained his ground till the afternoon, when 
 Bonaparte himself advanced to his rescue, and sent Murat with the 
 cavalry to fall upon the rear of the enemy. The Turks were com- 
 pletely routed, with the loss of several thousand men and all their 
 baggage. The hero of the day was Murat, who had some hand-to- 
 hand conflicts with the Eastern cavaliers, and had reason to con- 
 gratulate himself on being a good swordsman and a good rider, and 
 on being well mounted. 
 
 The safe arrival of some eighteen-pounders from Jaffa now en- 
 abled Bonaparte to carry on his operations against Acre with greater 
 
RETREA T FROM ACRF. 133 
 
 vigour. But, during his absence, the English and Turks had esta- 
 blished advanced posts and intrenchments outside of the town ; and 
 even out of these the French could never drive them, although they 
 made repeated efforts so to do. General Lannes, a rough soldier, 
 who always made a free use of his tongue, and who had uttered 
 many sarcasms on the conduct of the siege, said, u Your biccque is 
 the devil ! We are further from taking Acre than when we first set 
 down before it. A pretty bicoque you have brought us to ! " * 
 
 On the 7th of May, a Turkish fleet, with reinforcements from the 
 island of Rhodes, hove in sight, and Bonaparte determined on mak- 
 ing a last desperate effort to storm the place before the reinforce- 
 ments could be landed. On the night of the 7th of May an assault 
 was made upon the town, in which Colonel Boyer was killed ; but 
 the French effected a lodgment in it. The next day Lannes, with 
 his usual gallantry, led the assault up the breach in the curtain, and 
 entered it, but found himself stopped by an intrenchment which had 
 been made within, and which stopped all ingress into the town ; the 
 French were exposed to a murderous fire from the surrounding 
 buildings, Lannes was severely wounded, General Rambaud was 
 killed, and the storming party, after losing many men, were obliged 
 to relinquish .the attempt, and rush from the breached curtain. On 
 the next day (the loth of May) two more assaults were made, one 
 early in the morning, in which General Bon was mortally wounded, 
 and another in the afternoon, in which two colonels were killed, and 
 one of Bonaparte's aides-de-camp was badly wounded. This was the 
 eighth unsuccessful assault. By this time the trenches and the ditch 
 were filled with dead bodies ; the stench in that hot season was 
 dreadful, and disease was spreading fast in the French camp. 
 General Caffarelli was wounded in the trenches and died soon after. 
 Bonaparte's obstinacy at last gave way, and he made preparations 
 for a hasty retreat. He had received information that a Turkish 
 fleet was about to land troops in Egypt, where the Mamelukes con- 
 tinued to harass the French forces which had been left behind. In 
 the night of the 2ist of May, after sixty-four days of siege, the army 
 broke up its camp before Acre. 
 
 * The French apply the word bicoque to any weak, contemptible fortress. 
 
134 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 The sick, of whom there was a great number, many with the 
 plague, were removed first, and all the horses that could be spared 
 were pressed for the purpose ; the heavy artillery was spiked and 
 thrown into the sea ; Bonaparte and all his officers marched on 
 foot. He issued an order of the day to the soldiers, recapitulating 
 the successes obtained during a three months' campaign in the midst 
 of Syria against a host of enemies ; the guns they had taken, the 
 prisoners, the standards, the towns of Gaza, Jaffa, Caiffa, &c. " A 
 few days yet, and you might have taken the Pasha of Acre amidst 
 the ruins of his fort ; but the taking of a small fortress is not worth 
 the delay. The season for landing in Egypt recalls you thither to 
 defend that fine conquest of France." In his heart, however, he 
 bitterly felt the disappointment, as, in after life, he often acknow- 
 ledged. When in the island of St. Helena, he said that the fate of 
 the East lay within the narrow walls of Acre : " Once possessed of 
 Acre, the army would have gone to Damascus and the Euphrates ; 
 the Christians of Syria, the Druses, the Armenians, would have joined 
 us. The provinces of the Ottoman empire which speak Arabic 
 were ready for a change, and were only waiting for a man. . . . 
 With 100,000 men on the banks of the Euphrates, I might have 
 changed the face of the world. I should have founded an empire 
 in the East, and the destinies of France would have run in a diffe- 
 rent course ! " * 
 
 To us all this appears a vision, but it was a vision in which he 
 believed. Had he taken Acre, which but for Sir Sidney Smith he 
 certainly would have done, he might have marched upon and en- 
 tered Damascus, where he would have found a rich booty ; but it 
 is very uncertain whether he would have been able to keep even 
 that city and its fertile country with the small disciplined force at 
 his command. It appears to us a positive certainty that he never 
 could have reached the Euphrates, and that his army would have 
 perished, piecemeal, if he had attempted it. The Christians were 
 not disposed to join him, and, except the Druses of Mount Lebanon, 
 these people were very unwarlike, as well as totally undisciplined. 
 
 Las Cases. 
 
RETREA T FROM ACRE. 135 
 
 He could not ally the cross with the crescent. He had publicly 
 declared himself a semi- Mussulman. 
 
 He was particularly irritated against Sir Sidney Smith for the 
 part he had taken in the defence of Acre, and more especially for 
 some proclamations addressed to the Christians of Syria in the name 
 of the Sultan, in which the French and their leader were spoken of 
 as people who had abjured the religion of Christ. Some very angry 
 correspondence passed between the French head-quarters and our 
 brave commodore. This would scarcely merit any allusion, were 
 it not that the eulogists of Bonaparte continue, even at this day, to 
 repeat the aspersions cast, in moments of disappointment and vio- 
 lent passion, upon a generous-hearted and truly humane British 
 officer. Sir Sidney Smith had his eccentricities and failings, but 
 that he was as merciful and generous as he was brave, can be at- 
 tested by proofs mountains high. Without entering upon them, we 
 will say that the calumnies against him were unfounded and utterly 
 false. 
 
 The check at Acre, the destruction of his fleet by Nelson, and the 
 recollections of his former encounters with the English in Corsica 
 and at Toulon, no doubt added to that deep-rooted hostility to our 
 power which so much influenced Bonaparte's political conduct. He 
 complained that wherever he went he was sure of finding the English 
 in his way. And this was true. Sometimes he said, " Yet how easy 
 would it be for me and England to understand each other I " But 
 to come to such understanding, England must have yielded in every- 
 thing to his imperious will. He was afterwards accustomed to say, 
 " I want peace, and England will not let me have it ! " But England 
 could not obtain this peace without succumbing to him, and joining 
 in his projects against the independence of all the nations of Europe, 
 her own allies included. This is the real secret of the long duration 
 of the war ; and no cavilling, no sophistry, no transposition of dates 
 and misrepresentation of facts, can give a different reading to the 
 history of that war, or impose for one moment upon any man of 
 sense who has really studied the history. 
 
 On his march back to Jaffa, Bonaparte gave orders to his rear- 
 guard to set fire to the hamlets, the barns, and the harvests to 
 
136 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 leave nothing for the enemy who were following his retreating army. 
 The soldiers in the rear obeyed the orders with alacrity. "The 
 whole country in the rear is on fire ! " is the laconic expression of 
 General Berthier in one of his reports, The flames stopped only 
 at the desert, where there was nothing for them to feed upon. 
 " Truly," says a French writer, " this was a war of death, destruc- 
 tion, devastation ! There never was a more horrible war ! " On 
 the other side, the Turks of Djezzar Pasha, the Arabs, and the 
 mountaineers of Nabloos, or Samaria, who hovered on the flanks 
 of the French line of march, were sure to kill and mutilate every 
 unlucky straggler they met. There was a sad decay of discipline 
 among the men who had suffered so much at Acre, and who were 
 still suffering cruelly in a burning, hungry country. Parties of them 
 frequently broke away from the main body, cursing the little Corsican 
 who had brought them away from Europe, and promised them lands 
 in Egypt. One day, when almost alone, Bonaparte fell in with a 
 great number of these mutinous stragglers, who reproached him to 
 his face, and threatened him with personal violence. His presence 
 of mind, and a smart antithesis, saved him. " Comrades," said he, 
 " you are too few to frighten me, and too many to assassinate me ! " 
 The men let him pass ; and he soon rejoined his staff and a body 
 of troops who were in better humour. As they proceeded, matters 
 grew worse. The sick, who had no means of conveyance, unable 
 to keep up with the columns, dropped on the burning sand, and 
 there lay waiting for their doom, which was commonly sealed by a 
 sharp yataghan. All the French narratives, written by men who 
 were engaged in it, agree in representing this Syrian campaign as 
 having exhibited an accumulation of horrors seldom equalled in the 
 history of war. We have ourselves been personally acquainted with 
 several French veterans, who, more than twenty years after the 
 events, could not speak of this campaign without shuddering. 
 
 The army halted at Jaffa, in order to clear out the hospitals and 
 the magazines. Bonaparte exerted himself to the utmost to remove 
 the sick. There remained a small number of plague patients, who 
 were too far gone to be removed. The General did not like to leave 
 them behind at the mercy of the Turks and Arabs, who had known 
 
ALLEGED POISONING 01 THE SICK. 137 
 
 little mercy at the hands of the French. He, or some one else (the 
 question ought to be treated doubtingly), asked Desgenettes, the 
 head physician of the army, whether it would not be an act o 
 humanity to give finishing doses of opium to those plague patients. 
 Desgenettes gruffly replied that his business was to cure and not 
 to kill. It is affirmed that no order was given to administer the 
 opium, and that none was administered. Las Cases, whose zeal 
 always carried him too far, and whose broad affirmations and de- 
 nials always injure the cause he would defend, asserts that there 
 was no opium in the medicine-chests of the army. We may safely 
 say not only that this is in the highest degree improbable, but that 
 it must be untrue. Ever since their landing in Egypt, the French 
 troops had been very liable to attacks of dysentery. In these cases 
 opium was invariably administered. Opium was again adminis- 
 tered to those undergoing amputation or other painful operations, 
 and the surgeons would not have left their chests unprovided. The 
 drug, too, was cheap, and in very common use all over Egypt and 
 Syria, as in other parts of the Turkish empire. But to return to 
 the sad narrative, it is said that a rear-guard was left at Jaffa, and 
 before that guard left the place all the plague patients were dead, 
 except a very few who ultimately became prisoners of the English. 
 Some say that these survivors were six or seven, others that they 
 were only one or two. Some one, however, had heard of the 
 question put to Desgenettes, and the horrible report spread that 
 the General had poisoned his own sick ! 
 
 The tale was believed at the time, and has been believed by 
 many ever since. Bourrienne believed it, Bertrand believed it, Miot, 
 and other Frenchmen belonging to the Army of Egypt, believed it. 
 Bourrienne maintains that strong doses of opium were actually ad- 
 ministered, perhaps without Bonaparte's positive order. We know- 
 that there were always about him men ready to act upon his slightest 
 hint, and to anticipate momentary wishes of which he himself after- 
 wards repented. He himself afterwards said that if his own son 
 had been in the same plight, he would have thought it his duty to 
 poison him. Weighing the evidence on both sides, we doubt 
 whether the opium was administered at all. Had the case been 
 
138 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 made out, it would have been a proof of the General's irreligion, 
 but certainly not of his cruelty. This has been well and briefly 
 put by several candid writers, who had no disposition to exaggerate 
 faults or to mistake the truth. 
 
 " Bonaparte's suggestion to the physician, supposing him to have 
 made it, originated in a mere impulse of humanity, uncontrolled by 
 higher moral and religious principles. The charge, however, was 
 loudly proclaimed throughout Europe, especially by Sir Robert 
 Wilson, who believed it true, and this greatly annoyed Bonaparte 
 at the time and afterwards ; and as it was coupled with the true 
 charge of the previous massacre of the Turkish prisoners, Bona- 
 parte's agents boldly denied both, and abused Sir Robert Wilson 
 for having ' slandered/ as they called it, the French army and its 
 General. But when at St. Helena, Bonaparte, whilst simply denying 
 the poisoning, acknowledged the shooting of the prisoners, which 
 is, perhaps, the more horrible of the two deeds, but which at the 
 time had been almost thrown into the shade by the strange report 
 of a general poisoning his own sick, whom, if he really did not 
 know how to dispose of, he might have left behind at the mercy 
 of the Turks, without incurring any great obloquy for this, a com- 
 mon occurrence in a retreat." * 
 
 After blowing up the fortifications of Jaffa, the army continued its 
 march to Gaza. Again the columns had orders to burn the villages 
 and the standing crops ; and the flames spread far and wide over 
 the plains to the foot of the mountains. At Gaza the fort was blown 
 up, but the town was spared. The French then re-entered the desert, 
 provisioned their garrison at El Arish with part of the cattle plun- 
 dered in Syria, and marched on to Katieh, where Bonaparte left 
 another garrison. On their way through the desert they surprised 
 and burned the camp of a small Arab tribe, the only inhabitants of 
 that wilderness. They said that these Arabs had been " commit- 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. " Napoleon Bonaparte: His Sayings and his Deeds." Several French 
 writers of quite recent date have, however, persisted in maintaining that the plague patients, 
 to the number of fifty or sixty, were poisoned, and that after the refusal of Desgenettes, 
 the opium was administered by Royer, an apothecary in the army, who never left Egypt 
 but died in that country. 
 
RETURN TO EGYPT. 
 
 139 
 
 Entry into Cairo. 
 
 ting depredations ; " but what had they (the French) been doing ? 
 The camels and other cattle were carried off, and fire was set to the 
 scanty crops the Arabs had reared in a few patches of cultivatable 
 soil. This was Bonaparte's farewell to the East. According to Ber- 
 th ier's account, this Syrian campaign cost the army 500 in killed, 
 i ? 8oo in wounded, and 700 more who died of the plague. Here the 
 loss is underrated according to the common practice. Others state 
 that the killed alone amounted to 1,200, and that the siege of Acre, 
 by itself, cost between 2,000 and 3,000 men. 
 
 On the I4th of June Bonaparte re-entered Cairo with much solem= 
 nity at the head of his troops. On the same day he addressed one 
 of his Oriental proclamations to the inhabitants. He prided him- 
 self on this species of composition. 
 
140 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 " He is returned to Kahira the well-guarded, the chief of the 
 French army, General Bonaparte, who loves the religion of Ma- 
 homet ; he is returned well and sound, thanking God for the favour 
 which He lavishes upon him. He has entered Kahira on the loth 
 Moharrum, by the gate of victory ; this day is a glorious day, there 
 never was the like. All the inhabitants came out to meet him ; they 
 have seen and acknowledged that it is the same General Bonaparte 
 in his own person, and have become convinced that the stories told 
 of him during his absence were false. He has defeated Djezzar 
 and his motley bands, who gave out that they were going to invade 
 and conquer Egypt. He took El Arish, Gaza, and Jaffa; he granted 
 protection to the inhabitants of Gaza, but the misled inhabitants of 
 Jaffa would not submit ; they resisted for three days, and he in his 
 wrath doomed them all to pillage and death ; he destroyed their 
 ramparts, and all that were within. There were at Jaffa 5,000 
 soldiers of Djezzar ; he put them all to death. He then went to 
 
 Nabloos, and burned five towns in the mountains He 
 
 has destroyed Acre and the Serai of Djezzar ; has left not stone upon 
 
 stone He is now returned to Egypt for two reasons : 
 
 one, that he had promised to return in four months, and promises 
 must be kept ; the other was to punish the seditious Mamelukes 
 and Moghrebins who had stirred up revolt, but they are already 
 annihilated." 
 
 His despatches to the Directorv were scarcely more truthful than 
 this piece of bombast. From the camp of Acre he had told those 
 Five Kings of the Luxembourg that he was master of the principal 
 points of the ramparts, but that the enemy had constructed a second 
 line of defence supported by the palace of the Pasha. " We should 
 be obliged," continued he, " in order to take possession of the place, 
 to fight our way from house to house, and to lose more men than we 
 can spare. The season is too far advanced, and my presence is 
 required in Egypt. I am placing a new battery in order to batter 
 down the serai (palace) of Djezzar, and the principal building of the 
 town. I shall throw into it a thousand shells, which, in so contracted 
 a space, must occasion great havoc. After having reduced Acre to 
 a heap of stones, I will recross the desert of Egypt, and wait there 
 
EGYPT. 141 
 
 for any armament, whether Turkish or European, which may attempt 
 a landing." 
 
 And, again, when he was in full retreat from those well defended 
 walls, he told the Directors that he had entered Acre, but that while 
 the soldiers were fighting in the streets, he had learned that the 
 plague was making fearful ravages within the town, and that there- 
 fore he had ordered a retreat, " for the plague is an enemy more 
 destructive than all the armies in the world."* In writing these de- 
 spatches, and in enumerating the fabulous number of flags, stan- 
 dards, and pieces of artillery taken from the enemy, his secretary 
 felt the pen slipping from his hand in his astonishment. Bonaparte 
 smiled at Bourrienne's simplicity. "Bah!" said he, "you do not 
 understand this kind of business ! These bulletins will excite ad- 
 miration, and inspire historians and poets." 
 
 During his prolonged absence from Cairo, a rival had started up. 
 A fanatic, or impostor, had given himself out as an inspired person- 
 age as an avenging angel whose coming had been foretold in the 
 Koran. The Moghrebins and other Arabs had rallied round this 
 man, and had cut off a good many of the French ; but before Bona- 
 parte's return from Syria, General Lanusse had quenched this in- 
 surrection in blood. 
 
 For about a month the General had rest in Cairo. Now, as in 
 more busy and perilous times, he collected around him the French 
 artists and savants, who were formed into an Academy, or Institu- 
 tion (Institut d'Egypte), and who were sent in all directions to ex- 
 plore the country, the vestiges of antiquity, the quality and production 
 of the soil, and the local phenomena of nature. The greater part 
 of these savants were conceited and superficial very miserable 
 under the privations of the camp, and at being obliged to live far 
 away from Paris and its pleasures. They were a constant subject 
 of abuse or ridicule to the military. But among them were men of 
 indisputable and great merit, as Denon, Andreossi, Monge, and 
 Berihollet. As far, however, as Egypt and its antiquities are con- 
 cerned, it may be doubted whether England was not as well served 
 
 * The plague had broken out in his own army at Jaffa before ever he reached Acre. 
 
14* MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 shortly after by one single Englishman the much-respected and 
 now venerable Mr. William Hamilton* as France was by all the 
 members of this Ins ti tut. The French savants published a journal, 
 and had their meetings, at which the General-in-Chief presided ; and 
 Monge and Berthollet suggested the means of improving Egypt, 
 introducing powder-mills, the art of making muskets, bayonets, can- 
 nons, &c., and other more pacific manufactures. They had begun 
 with too much violence and too little regard to the rights of property ; 
 but if the French could have maintained themselves on the banks 
 of the Nile, there is no doubt that they would have greatly improved 
 the country. But this was not to be. Bonaparte continued ever 
 afterwards to show great favour to all these artists and men of 
 science, and they repaid him with gratitude and an entire devotion 
 to his will, and to the maintenance of his reputation. 
 
 At night Bonaparte liked to have his secretary read to him, to 
 compose his mind after the business of the day. " If I read poetry/' 
 says Bourrienne, "he would very soon fall fast asleep ; but if I read 
 anything historical about Oliver Cromwell, then there was little 
 chance of sleep for me that night." 
 
 About the middle of July, a large Turkish fleet, as Bonaparte had 
 expected, appeared before Alexandria, and landed a force on the 
 peninsula of Aboukir. The number of this army of the Sultan is 
 variously stated from 7,000 even up to 1 8,000. From inquiries made 
 at Constantinople, we are inclined to believe that it really fell below 
 10,000. The Turks easily took the fort of Aboukir, at the extremity 
 of the peninsula ; and they then set about making redoubts across 
 the isthmus, to fortify their camp. They were full of heart, but un- 
 disciplined ; and unfortunately they had with them none of their 
 excellent light cavalry, the only cavalry the Turks ever had, and 
 apparently the only species of cavalry that will ever be of great use 
 to any other people. 
 
 Bonaparte hastened from Cairo to Alexandria, assembling all the 
 forces he could collect, about 10,000 men, and immediately gave 
 orders to attack the Turks, whose object was evidently to gain time, 
 
 * Author of " Egyptiaca," &c. 
 
BATTLE OF ABOUK1R. . 143 
 
 and to wait in their position for the co-operation of the Mamelukes 
 from Upper Egypt, or of the Sultan's forces in Syria, in order to 
 attack Alexandria. Bonaparte, however, was not the man to allow 
 them time for that. He reconnoitred the Turkish position, which 
 was rather strong, extending from sea to sea, supported by a redoubt 
 on its right, and by gunboats on the left. Whilst looking at it, he 
 said, to Murat, " The forthcoming battle will decide the fate of the 
 worlcl," meaning, probably, his own future projects concerning France 
 and Europe. Murat, who did not penetrate his hidden meaning, 
 replied, "It will decide, at all events, the fate of the army ; but one 
 thing I know, our men are determined to do their duty. The Turks 
 have no cavalry, and if ever infantry were charged by cavalry, theirs 
 shall be to-morrow by mine." Next morning, the 25th of July, the 
 attack took place. A column of French infantry dislodged the 
 enemy from the redoubt, whilst Murat broke through their line and 
 cut off their retreat. 
 
 But the Turks had a second and stronger line in the narrower 
 part of the isthmus, strengthened in the centre by a long redoubt 
 studded with cannon. The French marched against both extremities 
 of the Turkish line ; the Turks stood the attack manfully, and fell 
 back slowly ; and the French, on reaching the redoubt, were obliged 
 to halt and fall back out of the reach of the batteries. Murat, who 
 had charged the Turkish left, found himself exposed to a cross-fire 
 from the gunboats and the redoubt. There was a moment's hesita- 
 tion in the French ranks ; but the Turks, in their eagerness for cut- 
 ting off the heads of the slain in hope of the reward allotted in such 
 cases by old custom, broke from their ranks, and rushed out of their 
 intrenchments, and gave Murat an opportunity to turn the redoubt 
 and fall upon their rear. This created a panic in the main body of 
 the Turks. Bonaparte, who was watching attentively, seized the 
 proper moment, brought forward his reserve, and stormed the 
 redoubt. - It was now no longer a fight, but a slaughter: the Turks, 
 pressed on all sides by the French, rushed towards the sea, and 
 thousands threw themselves into the shallow water, where they were 
 shot at leisurely by the French. Their fleet was anchored too far 
 off to afford them any assistance. The sea was covered with turbans. 
 
144 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 Murat charged the Turkish commander, Mustapha Pasha, in the 
 village of Aboukir, wounded him, and took him prisoner. Bonaparte 
 received the Pasha with civility, and praised him for nis bravery. 
 He said to him, "It has been your fate to lose the day; but I will 
 take care to inform the Sultan how well you have contested it." 
 " Spare yourself that trouble," replied the proud Turk, " my master 
 knows me better than thou dost I" In truth, the Pasha and the 
 Turks fought remarkably well on this occasion. The fort of Aboukir. 
 garrisoned by 1,200 men, defended itself for several days; at last 
 the men, unacquainted with the forms of capitulation, came out in 
 a mass, threw down their arms, and cried " amman," or quarter, which 
 was granted. 
 
 The results of this victory were most important. Egypt was 
 secured to the French for the present, and Bonaparte could boast 
 of a victory which retrieved the reverses he had sustained in Syria. 
 And he took care to make the most of it in his despatches, which he 
 sent before him on his return to France. 
 
 The conqueror returned to Cairo early in August, taking with him 
 Mustapha Pasha, his son, and his lieutenant, to grace his triumphal 
 entrance. Before setting out for the battle, he had said in a procla- 
 mation that he was going to kill all the Turks who would not lay 
 down their arms, and to bring the rest of them prisoners to Cairo. 
 He had kept his word. Was he not the man of destiny? Even the 
 Sheiks and Mollahs began to doubt. In the same proclamation he 
 had told the people of Cairo, that, with the Turkish fleet, there had 
 come some Russians, " men who detest those who believe in only 
 one God, because, according to their error, the Russians believe in 
 three gods, and therefore every Mussulman on board a vessel where 
 the cross was elevated was worse than an infidel, for he must every 
 day hear the name of the true and only God blasphemed." This 
 adroit appeal to the anti-Trinitarian furor of the men of Cairo might 
 have produced more effect if they had not previously discovered that 
 the French had no religion at all, and that truth was not to be looked 
 tor in their proclamations. The documents remain as remarkable 
 proofs and specimens of Bonaparte's ruses de guerre. According to 
 Montholon and some others of his biographers (in whom, however, 
 
NEWS FROM EUROPE. 14$ 
 
 we do not put implicit faith), it would have required very little to 
 induce him to ascend the minaret and repeat the set words of the 
 muezzin "There is no God but one, and Mahomet is His prophet." 
 At this time, if no earlier, Bonaparte made up his mind to leave 
 his army and return to France. He had been informed, by private 
 communications from his friends at Paris, as well as by the news- 
 papers which Sir Sidney Smith had sent him by a flag of truce, of 
 the terrible reverses of the French armies in Europe, of the loss of 
 Italy, of the general discontent in France at these reverses, and the 
 incapacity and corruption of the Directors, of the dissensions of the 
 Directors among themselves, of the renewed boldness of the Ven- 
 deans and other Royalists, and of all which really seemed to threaten 
 the Republic with dissolution. Bonaparte told Bourrienne that the 
 files of German papers he received from the English commodore 
 decided his resolve ; but there does not now remain a doubt that he 
 had received more confidential and authentic information from home. 
 His brothers, Joseph and Lucien, were both members of the Council 
 of the Five Hundred ; Lucien, moreover, was a friend of Sieyes, one 
 of the Directors who was plotting against the rest, and kept house 
 at Paris, of which his sister Marianne or Elise did the honours, and 
 in which many of the literary and political characters of the day were 
 accustomed to assemble. Joseph, also, had many friends and poli- 
 tical connections, who agreed with him that the tide of invasion 
 would soon be rolled back upon France unless Napoleon speedily 
 returned. The mother of the Bonaparte family a clever, stirring 
 woman, never at a loss in cases of emergency or difficulty where her 
 family was concerned had friends in Corsica and in half of the 
 seaports of Italy; and among them masters of vessels, who would 
 risk a great deal for a good pecuniary reward. There were coral 
 fishers, who annually crossed the Mediterranean in fast open boats, 
 and the master of one of these could have been induced, for no very 
 high sum, to run along the African coast from Tunis or Tripoli to 
 Egypt and the port of Alexandria. One letter which Lucien de- 
 spatched was intercepted by an English cruiser; but no doubt other 
 letters were more fortunate. As late as the year 1825, persons were 
 named as then living in Italy, who had laid the foundations of com- 
 
 10 
 
146 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 patent fortunes by conveying to Egypt the correspondence of Bona- 
 parte's family and friends. But, according to Miot,* the letter which 
 decided the return of Napoleon, written by his brother Joseph, was 
 carried across from Leghorn by a Greek, named Vwrvaki, the master 
 of a trading vessel, who received a reward of one thousand louts d'or. 
 
 Assuredly the moment had arrived for his playing Cromwell, and 
 something more, provided only he could reach France in safety. 
 The detention of a year, or even of six months, in England as a 
 prisoner of war would have spoiled his chance and ruined every- 
 thing. To use a favourite expression of his own, the destiny of the 
 world would have been different. 
 
 Two small frigates which lay in the harbour were secretly got 
 ready for sea. Leaving Cairo about the middle of August under 
 the pretext of making a tour of inspection through Lower Egypt, 
 Bonaparte reached the town of Alexandria on the 22nd, and there 
 met Berthier, Lannes, Murat, Marmont, some of the savants, and 
 a few other persons who had been privately warned to get ready. 
 General Kleber was waiting for him, by appointment, at Rosetta, 
 and left in entire ignorance as to his intention. On the very next 
 day, the 6th Fructidor in republican style, or in our vulgar calendar 
 the 23rd of August, the whole coast being clear of English ships, 
 the two frigates, under the command of Admiral Gantheaume, stole 
 out of the harbour, and sailed to the westward, hugging the coast 
 of Tripoli and Tunis. Great was the astonishment of Kleber and 
 the army when they learned that Bonaparte and his favourite lieu- 
 tenants had absconded. Although he had appointed Kleber to 
 succeed him in the chief command of the army, that rough soldier 
 of fortune was evidently both displeased and angry. In a letter to 
 the Directors, written a month afterwards, he said "The Com- 
 mander-in- Chief Bonaparte left this for France on the morning of 
 the 6th Fructidor, without telling any one of his intention. He had 
 appointed to meet me at Rosetta on the 7th, but I only found de- 
 spatches from him there." Most fortunately for Bonaparte, this 
 letter was intercepted and carried to England ; and a copy of it 
 
 * " Memoirs of the Syrian and Egyptian Campaigns. 
 
DEPARTS FOR FRANCE. 
 
 did not reach Paris until after he had effected that revolution which 
 he quitted Egypt to make. Had Kleber's original reached its des- 
 tination previously to the iQth Brumaire, it might have proved a 
 formidable weapon in the hands of Bonaparte's opponents. 
 
 Bonaparte departs for France. 
 
 Kleber found the Army of Egypt reduced to 20,000 men. Accord- 
 ing to Bonaparte's own showing, it was just 30,000 strong when it 
 first landed under him ; and after Nelson's great victory, it had been 
 joined by 3,600 men saved out of the fleet of Admiral Brueys. We 
 believe that 2,000 or 3,000 men had actually joined. Thus, in less 
 than fourteen months, some 1 5,000 of the French must have perished 
 by the sword, by sickness, and the fearful plague. From the first 
 moment Kleber, though a brave and good soldier, evidently doubted 
 whether he could maintain himself in Egypt with the army that was 
 
 10 2 
 
148 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 now left. In the letter which Bonaparte so adroitly sent to him at 
 Rosetta, he was told that the news of the loss of Italy had deter- 
 mined this clandestine return to Europe ; and he was desired to 
 send Generals Junot and Dessaix after the Commander-in- Chief as 
 soon as possible. Bonaparte flattered his successor with hopes' of 
 aid from France ; but if he should receive neither assistance nor 
 orders from the Government during the next nine months, or if the 
 plague should make ravages in the army, he told Kleber that he 
 would be justified in making peace with the Sultan, even at the 
 cost of giving up Egypt. Kleber, however, was warned to put off 
 the final evacuation of the country till the conclusion of a general 
 peace. Bonaparte said in the same letter, "You appreciate as 
 much as I do the importance of the possession of Egypt, and how 
 unfortunate it would be for France to let this fine country fall into 
 the hands of another European power in the approaching dismem- 
 berment of the Turkish Empire ! . . . . You know my views 
 concerning the internal policy of Egypt : whatever you do, the 
 Christian part of the population will continue our friends ; but we 
 must prevent them becoming insolent towards the Turks, whose 
 religious fanaticism we must soothe and lull asleep. We ought, 
 for this purpose, to cultivate the friendship of the great Sheikhs 
 of Cairo, who influence the opinion of the rest of Egypt. . . . 
 Endeavour to seize five or six hundred hostages from among the 
 Mamelukes and Arabs, and send them to France by the first oppor- 
 tunity. They will be detained one or two years in France, and will 
 become acquainted with our manners. I will try to send you a 
 company of theatrical players, which I consider an important ac- 
 cessory to the army, and for beginning to effect a change in the 
 habits of the country. I quit Egypt with great regret : the interests 
 and the glory of our country alone can induce me to it, but I shall 
 still be with you in mind and heart ; the army which I entrust to 
 you are all my children, as I have had full evidence of their attach- 
 ment to me." When the order of the day was made known, the 
 ' ' children " murmured loudly at being deserted by their putative 
 father. 
 Fearful insurrections soon broke out; the people were joined by 
 
HIS RELIGION. 149 
 
 the Mamelukes and by other troops ; and in the course of a few 
 months Kleber perished miserably at Cairo. Down to the day of 
 his death he complained that the cunning Corsican had played a 
 scurvy trick in leaving him behind in Egypt. 
 
 Many intercepted letters brought to England proved that the 
 army was almost mutinous at the departure of Bonaparte. Kleber, 
 at first, seems to have thought for a certainty that he would be cap- 
 tured by some of our many ships of war in the Mediterranean, but 
 the extraordinary fortune of the man stood by him. His apprehen- 
 sions and those of his companions were, however, very lively ; and 
 they appear all to have suffered the miseries of sea- sickness during 
 the greater part of that smooth summer voyage. Murat, who suf- 
 fered most, was continually saying, "It must be confessed that the 
 sea is not our element ! " When free from these sufferings, and from 
 the dread of being carried prisoners of war into Plymouth or Ports- 
 moutha feeling which took possession of them every time a strange 
 sail hove in sight they talked with the savants about arts and 
 antiquities, and upon all manner of philosophies. The savants, 
 who were avowed and confident atheists, were for referring the 
 creation of the universe to chance. " No," said Bonaparte ; " all 
 these wondrous systems all these worlds upon worlds can never 
 have proceeded from chance. There must have been a great first 
 cause ! " 
 
 It was a calm, beautiful night one of those nights in the Mediter- 
 ranean when the planet Venus casts a strong, definite shadow, and 
 when every star in the firmament shines out as round as a globe 
 and Bonaparte, as he spoke, was gazing on the sky and those lumi- 
 naries. He was a Deist. His gospel was Rousseau's profession of 
 faith ; that of the savants, d'Holbach's system of nature. The Italian 
 temperament was strong within him ; as he said himself, he was 
 never quite devoid of devotional feeling or religious sentiments. 
 
 From the African coast below Tunis, Admiral Gantheaume veered 
 to the northward, and passed to the west of Sardinia and Corsica. 
 On the soth of September the two frigates reached Napoleon's 
 birthplace, Ajaccio, where they remained two or three days. Bona- 
 parte was visited by friends and by relatives without end. "It 
 
MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 rained cousins !"* Having sailed again from Ajaccio, the two frigates 
 arrived, on the 8th of October, in sight of the French coast, when 
 Gantheaume suddenly spied out an English squadron. He was 
 about to tack and to run back for Corsica, but Bonaparte said, " No ! 
 that would lead us to London, and I want to go to Paris. Keep 
 your course." It is even reported that there was a talk of his taking 
 to the long boat, to secure himself from the calamity of an imprison- 
 ment in England. It appears, however, that the course was some- 
 what altered, and that Bonaparte was not landed at the port which 
 he had selected for that purpose. But here, again, he was lucky; 
 for the people of Frejus, where he was put on shore on the Qth of 
 Octobe r , were his enthusiastic admirers, and very indifferent to the 
 sanitary regulations and strict laws which imposed a long quarantine 
 on all persons coming from Egypt, or from any other part of the 
 plague-stricken Levant. To an imprisonment in a lazzaretto he had 
 looked forward with great disgust. Besides, a detention of even 
 fourteen days (an abridged quarantine) might have been fatal to his 
 projects in Paris. This dread was dissipated the moment he reached 
 the port of Frejus : the deck of his frigate was crowded with people 
 all shouting, " Better the plague among us than the Austrians ! " 
 And, at the moment, there really was a chance that the victorious 
 Austrians, advancing through the territories of Nice, would cross 
 the south-eastern frontier of France. His presence alone was con- 
 sidered as a pledge not only of safety, but also of further victory. 
 His progress from Frejus to Paris resembled a triumphal march. 
 The people were mad about Egypt and the Pyramids. Those bul- 
 letins, which had so perplexed Bourrienne, had produced the desired 
 effect. They had been put into popular songs, and every line in 
 them had been taken as indisputably true. The bulletin of his last 
 victory at Aboukir, which he now caused to be distributed in print 
 all over the country, added to the general enthusiasm. This was 
 again increased by the unpopularity and downright hatred or con- 
 tempt into which the Directorial Government had fallen. "We 
 want a man," cried the people ; " we want a brave soldier to drive 
 
 * Napoleon's own expression. 
 
ARRIVAL IN PARTS. 151 
 
 out those lawyers and thieves the Directors, and to set us all to 
 rights ! Vive la France ! Vive le General Bonaparte ! Vive le vain- 
 queur des Pyramides et d'Aboukir ! " His pear was ripe, for every- 
 thing in France was ripe for a change. On the i6th of October he 
 reached his own now elegant house in the Rue de la Victoire. 
 
 Bonaparte had been in Paris two days privately consulting with 
 chiefs of parties and officers of the army, before he condescended to 
 wait upon the Directors. When he went to the Luxembourg he told 
 them that, having been apprised that the French arms had met with 
 great reverses, and that the allies were threatening France, he was 
 come unbidden to defend her. The Directors, divided among them- 
 selves, affected to believe him, and took no notice of his having 
 abandoned the army of Egypt without leave, or of his having broken 
 the quarantine laws a breach punishable even with death. Si&yes, 
 one of the Directors, who was plotting with him, had just dismissed 
 Bernadotte from his office of War Minister, under the pretence of 
 giving him the command of an army. Though connected with it by 
 marriage, Bernadotte never entertained much friendship for the 
 Bonaparte family. On first learning Napoleon's landing at Frejus, 
 he advised the Directors to put him under arrest and bring him to 
 trial for desertion. "We are not strong enough for that? said Barras. 
 
 Roger Ducos, another of the Directors, for whom Bonaparte after- 
 wards made a good provision, joined Sieves. Other leading men, 
 seeing that a military revolution was inevitable, yielded to circum- 
 stances. Murat, Lannes, Sebastiani, with other generals and a host 
 of colonels of regiments, were ready to do whatever Napoleon might 
 suggest. Even Moreau and Lefebvre were talked over for the nonce. 
 " A great military nation like France is not to be led into ruin by a 
 few incapable and corrupt lawyers." Bernadotte alone could not be 
 gained, and he was exceedingly popular with part of the troops then 
 at Paris, who had served under him. In fact, he was at that moment 
 the man whom Bonaparte most feared. " We want no new convul- 
 sion," said Bernadotte ; " the condition of France is far from des- 
 perate : Massena has just defeated the Russians in Switzerland : 
 Brune has driven the Duke of York and the English from Holland. 
 We have had revolutions enough ; I cannot see that we want 
 
152 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 another." Joseph -Bonaparte and his wife, who was sister to the 
 wife of Bernadotte, were employed to watch him, and, if possible, to 
 soothe and "win him. Early one morning Joseph led him to the 
 busy mansion in the Rue de la Victoire, where he found Bonaparte 
 with a crowd of generals and field officers, and all the appearance of 
 a royal military leve'e. The bait of a separate command was held out 
 to him. "Go and put on your uniform and meet me at the Tuileries," 
 said Bonaparte. Bernadotte firmly declined the invitation. ''Ah! 
 I see ; you think that in the army a party will be made against me. 
 You reckon upon Moreau, Beurnonville, and a few other generals ; 
 but you are mistaken, you will see them all follow me ay, even 
 Moreau himselr. Bernadotte, you don't know men as I do ; they 
 always promise much more than they perform. Don't trust them ! 
 Trust me." " I will not join a rebellion," said Bernadotte, firmly ; 
 " I will not overthrow a Constitution which it has cost so many lives 
 to establish." " If so," said Bonaparte, "you will stay here until I 
 have received the decree of the Council of Ancients, for I am no- 
 body till then." " General," the other cried out, " I am a man whom 
 you may slay, but not detain against his will." "Give me then your 
 word that you will not act against me." " As a citizen I promise it 
 to you." " How as a citizen ! what do you mean ?" " I mean that 
 as a citizen, and of my own accord, I will not, either in the barracks 
 or in the streets, address the soldiers or the National Guard, nor the 
 people. But should the Directory send for me, or should the legis- 
 lative body give me the command of its guard, I will march against 
 those who shall attempt to overthrow illegally the existing order of 
 things." "Oh ! as for that," said Bonaparte, " I am quite secure on 
 that score ; I have taken my precautions, and you will not receive 
 any command. For the rest, believe me that I only want to save the 
 Republic. I ask nothing for myself; I will retire to Malmaison 
 amidst a circle of friends, and if you will be one of them, you shall 
 be welcome." "A friend ! that may be ; but I think that you would 
 be the most imperious of masters," said Bernadotte, taking his leave ; 
 and, as he passed through the crowd of officers in the outer apart- 
 ments, he perceived Moreau. 
 Augereau, who had fought by Bonaparte's side at Arcole, who. 
 
1 799.] ANOTHER REVOLUTION. 153 
 
 at his bidding, had surrounded the Tuileries with troops and ar- 
 tillery, and had purged out two former Directors, and all the re- 
 fractory members of the legislature, on the i8th Fructidor, 1797, 
 had been one of the first to wait upon him on his return to Egypt, 
 and was now ready to do whatever Bonaparte might suggest. Au- 
 gereau, however, had still a good deal of the Jacobin leaven, and 
 very little personal affection for Napoleon : he could not help show- 
 ing his humour during the progress of the drama, and it is believed 
 that he would not have mourned if the real catastrophe had been 
 the ruin and death of Bonaparte. Talleyrand, whose return from 
 exile had been facilitated by Madame de Stael, gave to the councils 
 the benefit of his craft and ability. Sieyes had conceived a mortal 
 hatred to his brother Director Barras, and was now duping himselt 
 into the absurd belief that Bonaparte would remain in allegiance 
 to him and to another perfect republican constitution which he had 
 already in his portfolio. Even Barras, the early patron of the 
 young Corsican officer, after listening in two or three private con- 
 ferences to the persuasive tongue of Talleyrand, and to splendid 
 offers of honours and riches, agreed to give up the last shred of his 
 pretended republicanism, and to remove, as far as he was concerned, 
 all opposition by sending in his resignation at the critical moment. 
 Roger Ducos, the third Director, was won already. The two Di- 
 rectors who remained to support the present Constitution and resist 
 a military dictatorship, were Gohier and Moulins a couple ot 
 blockheads, who had obtained their high places through their own 
 incapacity, which would allow their three associates to do with 
 them what they pleased. Cambace'res, Minister of Justice, and the 
 atrocious but very able Fouchd, now Minister of Police, went with 
 the strongest party, and powerfully seconded the views of Bona- 
 parte and Sieyes. The majority of the Council of Ancients were 
 easily persuaded of the necessity of a new Constitution ; but a great 
 majority of the Council of Five Hundred vowed that they would 
 die for the Constitution they had got. Lucien Bonaparte, however, 
 had just succeeded in obtaining the presidency of the Council ol 
 Five Hundred, and was thus in a position to render important ser- 
 vices to his brother. 
 
l$4 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 Bourrienne, who saw from a near point of view most of the scenes 
 he describes, says : " The short political crisis which preceded the 
 1 8th Brumaire was not marked by anything more dignified or noble 
 than were the incidents of our previous revolutionary movements. 
 All these plots were accompanied by so much trickery, that, for the 
 honour of human nature, it would be desirable to cover them with 
 a veil." 
 
 The decree which Napoleon wanted from the Council of Ancients, 
 or Elders, was soon obtained, in a packed house, and at so early an 
 hour in the morning that few of the Parisians were out of their beds. 
 It simply imported that the two councils constituting the legislative 
 body should be removed from Paris to St. Cloud ; that General 
 Bonaparte should carry the decree into effect, and take all measures 
 requisite for the security of the national representatives j that the 
 general commanding the military divisions of Paris, the National 
 Guards, and the troops of the line, should all be placed under his 
 orders ; and that all citizens should lend Citizen General Bonaparte 
 their support. 
 
 Cornet, President of the Council of Ancients, who had been won 
 over, and who subsequently became one of Bonaparte's senators, 
 went to the Rue de la Victoire and read the decree of Napoleon, 
 who was there in the midst of officers and troops. The drums beat, 
 the General rode to the Tuileries, where the Ancients expected him 
 to take an oath. Being introduced into their hall, he told them 
 that they represented the wisdom of the nation ; that they, by their 
 well-timed decree of that morning, had saved the Republic. "It 
 would be in vain/' continued he, " to look out for precedents to 
 guide us in moments like these. Nothing in history resembles the 
 end of the i8th century, and nothing in the end of the i8th century 
 resembles the present moment ! We wish for a Republic founded 
 on true liberty, and we shall have it. I swear in my name, and in 
 the names of my brethren in arms." This was all the oath he took. 
 Quitting the Hall of Ancients, he remounted his horse, and reviewed 
 the troops in the square in front of the palace. M. Bottol, a friend 
 of the fallen Directors, came up to say a few words in their favour. 
 Speaking from the midst of his brilliant staff, Bonaparte exclaimed, 
 
THE i87V7 B RUM A IRE. 155 
 
 in a loud and angry tone, " What have you done with this France 
 which I left to you prosperous and glorious ? I left her at peace, 
 and I find her at war. I left her victorious, and I find her sink- 
 ing under reverses. I left you the millions of Italy, and I find only 
 dilapidation, poverty, misery ! What have you done with the 
 hundred thousand Frenchmen, my companions in arms and in 
 glory ? . . . They are no more. This state of things must not 
 last ; in three years it would lead us to despotism. But we want 
 the Republic a Republic founded upon equality, morality, civil 
 liberty, and political tolerance. We, who have supported the Re- 
 public by our toils and our courage in the field, are not to be treated 
 as some factious men would treat us, as if we were the enemies of 
 the Republic. We will not allow any one to assume to be more 
 patriotic than the army than the brave men who have been 
 wounded and maimed in the service of their country ! " These 
 last sentences announced that henceforth the army was to be the 
 arbitress of France. But the fact had long been apparent ; and 
 there were abundant precedents to show that a revolution managed 
 like that of France must inevitably end in a military 
 
 In the meantime the silly, vapouring men in the Council of the 
 Five Hundred were shouting " The Republic for ever ! Long live 
 the Constitution of the Year Three ! " and were taking oaths to die 
 at their posts. Of course, not one of them kept his vow when the 
 General let loose his grenadiers upon them. 
 
 In the evening of this day Sieves, who was not a fighting man but 
 a renegade priest, and who was much afraid that blood might be 
 drawnoh THe morrow, recommended Bonaparte to arrest all the 
 most dangerous members of the Assembly. This was declined, but 
 the Corsican, Saliceti, who was playing an active part in the drama, 
 and who was a member of the Five Hundred, privately communi- 
 cated to his brother members the danger in which they had been, 
 and from which Bonaparte had saved them. The manoeuvre suc- 
 ceeded : a good many members, influenced by gratitude or fear, 
 went over to the stronger side, and others either kept away from St 
 Cloud, or remained silent when there. 
 
 On the following day, at one o'clock p.m., the igth Brumaire, or 
 
156 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 loth of November, 1799, tf 16 two councils were assembled in sepa- 
 rate halls of the Palace of St. Cloud, and the sitting of the Ancients 
 was opened. The republican minority made some warm remon- 
 strances on the hasty and irregular measures on the preceding day, 
 and then proposed to replace, according to the iorms of the Consti- 
 tution, Barras and the other Directors, whose resignations were pre- 
 sented. This was the moment of crisis. Bonaparte, in full uniform 
 and with his sword by his side, entered the hall with hasty steps, and 
 was followed by General Berthier, and his own private secretary, 
 Bourrienne. He was evidently confused and somewhat nervous. 
 He made a poor display of his oratory : all the speeches which have 
 been ascribed to him on this occasion differ from each other ; " and 
 well they may," says Bourrienne, " for he made no speech, but de- 
 livered a series of rambling, unconnected sentences, with confused 
 replies to the questions put to him by the president." He talked 
 of treading on volcanoes, of secret agitations, of plots, of being called 
 a new Caesar and a Cromwell, altho-, M he was acting in obedience 
 to the decree of the Council of Ancients. He frequently repeated 
 the words liberty and equality. " But the Constitution ?" asked one 
 of the members ; " do you forget the Constitution ? " The question 
 ought never to have been put, for it was quite true that the Consti- 
 tution of the Year Three had been torn into shreds long before this. 
 Bonaparte's pale countenance reddened : " The Constitution ! " 
 cried he ; " who talks of Constitution ? The Constitution ! You 
 have .dlled it ! You violated it on the i8th Fructidor, in Floreal, 
 in Prairial. Hypocrites, intriguers !.-... Shame ! We will 
 establish liberty and the Republic. I will abdicate the extraordinary 
 powers with which I am invested so soon as the dangers which 
 threaten the Republic shall have passed away." " What are these 
 dangers ?" asked the President ; " explain yourself, General." Bona- 
 parte then charged Barras and Moulins with having proposed to 
 him a counter-revolution. This most improbable charge excited a 
 great tumult. Some cried out for a general committee, others said, 
 " No committee ; let all France know the particulars of the con- 
 spiracy." Bonaparte became more and more embarrassed, and in- 
 stead of giving an explanation of his first charge, he made fresh 
 
SCENES AT ST. CLOUD. 157 
 
 charges against the Council of Five Hundred, who, he said, wished 
 to return to the Reign of Terror, the Revolutionary Committees, and 
 the guillotine. The murmurs now grew louder and more threaten- 
 ing, and Bonaparte became more incoherent in his talk. He ad- 
 dressed himself at one time to the Deputies, who gazed at him with 
 astonishment, and the next moment he appealed to the soldiers in 
 the courtyard, who could not hear him. He said he was going to 
 the Council of Five Hundred. " If any orator," added he, " paid by 
 foreigners, should attempt to put me out of the pale of the law, let 
 him beware ! I shall appeal to my brave companions ; I shall trust 
 to their courage and to my fortune." The President told him to 
 collect himself to reveal the particulars of the plot in which he said 
 that he had been urged to join. Bonaparte stammered out the same 
 vague, unconnected denunciations as before, repeating, " I have 
 nothing more to say," though in reality he had said nothing. The 
 President observed that there was nothing absolutely nothing 
 before the House upon which the House could deliberate. The 
 assembly became weary and impatient. Bourrienne pulled Bona- 
 parte gently by the skirt of his coat, whispering to him, " Let us ge, 
 General ; you don't know what you are saying." Berthier also mo- 
 tioned him to withdraw, and then, after stammering out a few more 
 unmeaning words, Bonaparte turned round, exclaiming, " Let those 
 who love me, follow me." The usher quietly drew aside the tapestry 
 curtains which concealed the door, the sentinels made no opposi- 
 tion, and Bonaparte, on reaching the courtyard, seemed to breathe 
 more freely. His countenance, however, was much ruffled. "You 
 have made a pretty business of it," said Augereau. " Things were 
 worse at Arcole," said the General. " Had the President," observes 
 Bourrienne, " on seeing the General move towards the door, cried 
 out, ' Grenadiers, let no one pass/ it is hard to say what might have 
 been the result." Bonaparte sprang to the saddle, waved his hand, 
 and was enthusiastically saluted by the military. 
 
 The Council of the Five Hundred was assembled in another wing 
 of the palace. They began by swearing fidelity to the existing 
 Constitution by acclamation, and they next drew up a message to 
 the Directory asking for explanations, when Lucien Bonaparte, who 
 
1 58 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 had been appointed President shortly before, partly as a compli- 
 ment to his brothef, and partly because he maintained the reputa- 
 tion of a staunch republican, read the letter of resignation which 
 Barras had addressed to the councils, and in which tRe ex-Director 
 told them that "the glory which accompanied the return of the 
 illustrious warrior to whom he had had the honour of opening the 
 path of glory, and the striking marks of confidence given him by 
 the legislative body, had convinced him (Barras) that to whatever 
 post he might hereafter be called, all danger to liberty would be 
 averted, and the interests of the army be insured." Questions arose 
 as to the validity of the resignation, and a member asked what 
 had become of the other Directors. Here Bonaparte suddenly en- 
 tered the hall, attended by a company of grenadiers, who stationed 
 themselves near the door. He was saluted by loud and indignant 
 vociferations, u No sabres here! No armed men! No dictator! 
 No soldiers in the sanctuary of the laws ! Down with the tyrant ! 
 Outlaw the new Cromwell ! " Some, in more order, told the General 
 to withdraw. He attempted to speak, but he could utter only dis- 
 jointed words, and his voice was drowned in the general tumult 
 
 All accounts agree that he made a much worse figure here than 
 he had done in the Council of Ancients. Several passionate mem- 
 bers crowded round him and jostled him ; but it is not true that 
 daggers were raised against him. Partly pushed, and partly of his 
 own accord, he made for the door, followed by a crowd, when the 
 grenadiers coming forward, placed him in their centre and escorted 
 him out. There was a sort of struggle between the soldiers and 
 some of the members, and one of the grenadiers, Thom by name, 
 had a piece of his coat torn off. This was the greatest extent of 
 the violence alleged to have been perpetrated. 
 
 His brother Lucien, as President of the Council, now endeavoured 
 to restore order in the assembly ; but calmness was not to be restored, 
 and he was interrupted at each sentence. " Bonaparte has sullied 
 his glory ! Bonaparte is a disgrace to the Republic ! He is worse 
 than Cromwell ! " &c. At least, nearly all the members rose, shout 
 ing, " Outlaw him ! Put to the vote the outlawry of General Bona 
 part ! " In the earlier days of the Republic such a vote, carried at 
 
THE DIRECTORY IS NO MORE! 
 
 159 
 
 Scene in the Council-Chamoer. 
 
 the moment and by acclamation, had sent many a man of mark to 
 the scaffold, but the times were changed. Lucien, who played his 
 difficult part well, exclaimed, " How! would you have me outlaw 
 my own brother?" and as the assembly persisted in having the 
 question put from the chair, Lucien left it, renounced the president- 
 ship, and threw off his robes. At this instant Bonaparte sent into 
 the hall a company of grenadiers, who, surrounding the President* 
 led him out into the spacious court. A man could do nothing in 
 these revolutionary crises unless he were on horseback. Lucien 
 mounted a horse, reined up by the side of his brother, and addressed 
 
l6o MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 the troops. " Citizen soldiers, the President of the Council of Five 
 Hundred declares to you that the majority of the Council is at present 
 intimidated by a few of its members, who are armed with daggers, 
 and who threaten their colleagues with death. These brigands, who 
 are no doubt in the pay of England, have rebelled againbt the Coun- 
 cil of Ancients, and are talking of outlawing the General who is 
 charged with the execution of the decrees of that Council. These 
 madmen by so doing have outlawed themselves. In the name of 
 the people I require you to rescue the majority of the Council of 
 Five Hundred. General, and you, soldiers and citizens, you will 
 acknowledge as legislators of France only those members who will 
 rally round me, their President. As for those who may attempt to 
 remain in that hall, let them be expelled by force. They are not 
 the representatives of the people, but the representatives of the 
 dagger. Long live the Republic ! " Some of the- soldiers, it was 
 thought, seemed still to hesitate. Lucien then drew a sword, and, 
 rising in his stirrups, exclaimed, " I swear that I will stab my own 
 brother to the heart, if he ever attempt anything against the liberty 
 of France ! " [most of the Bonaparte family had studied under Tal- 
 ma, the great French tragedian, whose Brutus was considered 
 perfect.] This dramatic stroke had immense success ; the soldiers 
 shouted, " Long live Bonaparte ! " and at a signal given by the Gene- 
 ral himself, Murat, at the head of a body of grenadiers, marched 
 into the hall, and ordered the soldiers to clear it in the name of the 
 President. As some of the members demurred, the grenadiers hurried 
 them out with their bayonets ; many jumped out of the windows, 
 which were low, and dispersed in the gardens, leaving behind them 
 . in the hall scarfs and other parts of their habiliments, and thus 
 ended for ever the famed Council of Five Hundred. 
 
 It was now night, and the Council of Ancients assembled in 
 another wing of the St. Cloud Palace, quietly waiting events. Lucien 
 collected a few of the members of the Five Hundred, who, being in 
 the secret and in the plot, had remained about the palace when 
 their colleagues fled from it. It is said that they were no more than 
 thirty ; but, assuming the name of their late Council, they voted a 
 decree, importing that the Directory " existed no longer, and that 
 
THE CONSULATE. loi 
 
 the individuals hereafter named (about sixty in number) were no 
 longer members of the national representation, on account of their 
 excesses and illegal acts, especially in the sitting of that morning/' 
 Another decree, passed with equal rapidity, instituted what was called 
 a Provisional Executive Commission, consisting of three persons who 
 should be styled Consuls, and nominated Sieves, Roger Ducos, and 
 General Bonaparte, as such. The Council of Ancients, from which 
 the stormy minority of the morning had taken their departure, sub- 
 missively and quietly passed a resolution to the same effect, and, at 
 about an hour after midnight, Bonaparte and his two colleagues 
 appeared before them and took the oath " to the sovereignty of the 
 people, to the Republic one and indivisible, to liberty and equality, 
 and to the representative system." The two Councils appointed a 
 commission of fifty .members, taken from both Councils, which was 
 to discuss Sieves new Constitution ; and they then adjourned them- 
 selves indefinitely. About three o'clock in the morning the General 
 left St. Cloud to return to Paris, where Josephine had been suffering 
 agonies of doubt and anxiety. As he entered his own drawing-room 
 in the Rue de la Victoire, he rubbed his hands and congratulated 
 himself on the business being over. " No doubt," said he, " I talked 
 a good deal of nonsense. I must have said many absurd things up 
 there at St. Cloud. I like to speak to soldiers, not to lawyers ; those 
 fellows put me out. I have not been used to public assemblies ; 
 perhaps I shall be, in time. Nous verrons we shall see. Remem- 
 ber, Bourrienne, we sleep at the Palace of the Luxembourg to-night." 
 
The Three Consuls. 
 
 BOOK III. 
 
 " TV/I" Y reign began from the day that I was made Consul." Bona- 
 parte used the expression many years afterwards, when he 
 was reviewing his own political history ; but the fact was understood 
 at the time by all clear sighted people. From the night of the loth 
 or morning of the nth of November, 1799, he really reigned, and 
 was a sovereign in everything but the mere name. 
 
 Avoiding the unpopular name of King, Sieves would have put him 
 upon a modest sort of throne under the title of Grand Elector, but 
 the priest and constitution-maker, in increasing his splendour would 
 have decreased his power. According to this scheme, the real ex- 
 ecutive power of the state was to be committed to two separate 
 Consuls, one for war and one for peace, nominally the inferiors of 
 the Elector, but in influence necessarily quite above him. " How," 
 said Bonaparte, " would they bribe me into a life of inaction with 
 
 162 
 
i8oa] THE CONSULATE. 163 
 
 their millions of livres a year ? Would they shut me up like a pig 
 to fatten (comme un cochon d Pengraisse) ? And your two acting 
 Consuls one leading churchmen, lawyers, and civilians the other 
 leading diplomatists and commanding soldiers on what footing 
 would be their intercourse ? How could they ever get on together? 
 The war Consul demanding money and recruits, the peace Consul 
 refusing the supplies ? And who would be your Grand Elector, that 
 might at any time be degraded by a vote of even one of your legis- 
 lative bodies ? Bah!" 
 
 The scheme, like many others which proceeded from the same 
 source, was whistled down the wind, as in every respect it merited to 
 be. The nation, too, after so many complicated political schemes 
 (every one of which was to have rendered them the most free, the 
 greatest, and the happiest people upon earth), was quite sick of 
 scheming, and wanted something simple, direct, strong, and likely to 
 last. Taking the people at large, the French no longer cared for 
 that nominal sovereignty of the people for which they had fought " 
 during ten years, and for which a million or two of lives had been 
 sacrificed. But they were eager for military glory, and who so 
 likely to lead them to it as Bonaparte ? Except the men and we 
 ought to add women who lost by the changes, there really appears 
 to have been none who regretted the downfall of the Directors. 
 Barras, who had retired to his splendid country seat of Gros Bois 
 the morning on which Bonaparte rode to St. Cloud, was utterly dis- 
 credited and quite sure to give no more trouble. He could only 
 silently regret that he had been the first man in France to put the 
 young Corsican officer of artillery on the high road of promotion and 
 greatness. 
 
 At the first sittings of the three Consuls, Roger Ducos said, " The 
 General takes the chair of course." Bonaparte seated himself in the 
 President's chair as though it had been a throne, and the throne of 
 an absolute monarchy to which he had succeeded in due course ot 
 inheritance. Si&yes was quite chapfallen, for he found he had placed 
 a master over his head. The daring, irreverent soldier, who had no 
 thought of confining himself to the military department, as the 
 civilians who had worked with him calculated he would do, treated 
 
 II 2 
 
164 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 the logician's last masterpiece with no more respect than he would 
 have treated an order of the day, or a despatch badly written out by 
 a blundering aide-de-camp ; and he clipped, cut, and hacked Sieves' 
 new Constitution, until it was no longer recognizable. Sieves had 
 strengthened the executive, though not half enough for Bonaparte ; 
 but both the original of the scheme, and the modification of it, 
 deprived the French people of every direct election of their repre- 
 sentatives, and set up a tripartite legislature which could only become 
 slavish and contemptible. As finally promulgated on the 24th of 
 December, this " Constitution of the Year Eight," as it is called, esta- 
 blished three Consuls or a Chief Consul, with two inferior ones who 
 were to have only a deliberative voice ; the first or Chief Consul 
 having the power of appointing to all public offices, and of proposing 
 all public measures, such as peace or war; while he also commanded 
 the forces, and superintended both the internal and foreign depart- 
 ments of the state. There were i. A Senate called Conservative, 
 composed of only eighty members, appointed for life, and enjoying 
 high salaries ; 2. A Legislative Body, of three hundred members, 
 one-fifth of whom were to be renewed annually ; 3. A Tribunate, of 
 one hundred members, of whom also one- fifth were to be renewed 
 every year. The Consuls chose the Senate, and the Senate chose, 
 out of lists of candidates presented by the electoral colleges, both 
 the Legislative Body and the Tribunate. The Consuls, or rather the 
 First Consul, had the initiative, or the sole right of proposing acts of 
 legislation ; the Senate was to sit privately with closed doors ; the 
 Legislative Body was to vote, but not debate or speak, all the 
 speaking being reserved for the Tribunate. The process was this : 
 the First Consul sent in his project of law to the Tribunate, who 
 debated it, but without voting upon it, for the voting was reserved 
 for the Legislative Body, who were not allowed to speak ; when the 
 Tribunate had debated the project, they left the business to the 
 Legislative Body, who silently voted by ballot, and then returned 
 the act to the quarter where it had originated, or to the Consul, who 
 made it law by putting his signiture to it, and promulgating it, 
 Bonaparte never pretended that this was a perfect Constitution, or 
 even a Constitution intended to last. He afterwards said, and with 
 
CONSTITUTION OF THE YEAR EIGHT. 165 
 
 a great deal of truth, that the Girondins and the Jacobins, who had 
 preceded him, had not left in France materials wherewith to form 
 a Constitution. "It was, at best, a temporary measure for a transi- 
 tory state. There was then in France a total absence of aristocracy. 
 It is difficult to establish a strong Republic without an aristocracy. 
 I saw that France could exist only as a monarchy. To frame a Con- 
 stitution in a country without an aristocracy is like attempting to 
 guide a balloon." 
 
 Left perfectly free to choose his own two satellites, Bonaparte 
 would have retained Sieves, but the ex-abbe preferred taking the 
 place of Senator, with the yearly salary of 25,000 francs, and the 
 royal domain of Crosne, in the park of Versailles. Cambac^r^s and 
 Lebrun, who had both been brought up to the law, were appointed 
 Second and Third Consuls. Roger Ducos was also put into the 
 Senate. The First Consul very soon removed from the Luxem- 
 bourg to the palace of the Tuileries, where he lived with royal state, 
 He now wrote to the King of England, as one sovereign writes to 
 another, expressing a wish for peace, but without stating any condi- 
 tions. George III., who could scarcely do otherwise, gave the epistle 
 to his Secretary for Foreign Affairs to answer it. Lord Grenville 
 addressed his reply, not to the First Consul, but to Talleyrand, now 
 the French Minister for Foreign Affairs. Talleyrand replied, Lord 
 Grenville rejoined, and there the matter ended. Our opposition 
 orators attached great importance to the overture, which was the 
 hollowest of all that had been made, for the First Consul was pre- 
 paring, at the moment, to recover Italy, and was determined to keep 
 Switzerland, Savoy, Nice, Belgium, Holland, and all the German 
 territories on the left bank of the Rhine. Bonaparte tells us him- 
 self that the answer from London rilled him with secret satisfaction, 
 as war was necessary to maintain union and energy in the state, 
 which was ill organized, as also to maintain his own influence over 
 the imagination of the French people. But, notwithstanding this 
 secret satisfaction, he, in public, pretended to be greatly grieved ; 
 and in a proclamation to the French he complained of the obstinate 
 hostility of the English, and called upon the French to furnish men 
 and money in order to acquire peace by force of arms. 
 
1 66 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BON A PAR TE. 
 
 His first scene of war was, of course, to be Italy, which had been 
 lost during his absence in Egypt, and in infinitely less time than 
 that which he had spent in winning it. The Austrian General 
 Mefe, having recovered Nice and all that coast, was pressing upon 
 the old frontier of France ; other strong Austrian corps were at 
 Mantua, on the Adda, and in the Tyrol, on the threshold of Lom- 
 bardy ; and the French General Massena was closely besieged in 
 Genoa by another Austrian army and by a British fleet under 
 Admiral Lord Keith. 
 
 Giving the command of the Army of the Rhine to Moreau, the ) 
 First Consul assumed the direction of the Army of Italy. Having / 
 made a demonstration of assembling an army at Dijon, in Burgundy, 
 where he never collected more than a few thousand men, mostly 
 raw recruits or old invalids, Bonaparte secretly directed a number I 
 of regiments from the interior of France to assemble in Switzerland, J 
 in the town of Lausanne and along the Lake of Geneva. The Aus- 
 trians, lulled into security, continued their operations against Genoa 
 and on the side of Nice, recovering the greater part of that mari- 
 time country, and still menacing the old French frontier beyond it. 
 On the 1 3th of May the First Consul himself appeared at Lausanne, 
 and prepared to march with about 36,000 men and 40 pieces of 
 cannon up the Great St. Bernard, which had till then been con- 
 sidered impracticable for the passage of an army with artillery. His 
 left wing, 15,000 strong, under Moncey, was ordered to cross the 
 Alps by the pass of St. Gothard ; while on his right, 5,000 men, 
 under Turreau, were to cross at Mont Cenis, and 5,000 more, under 
 Chabran, were to pass by the way of the Little St. Bernard. The 
 passage of the Great St. Bernard was attended with the greatest dif- 
 ficulty, lying for the best part of the way among rocks and precipices 
 and deep snows. The cannons were dismounted, put into the hol- 
 lowed trunks of trees, and dragged by the soldiers ; the carriages 
 were taken to pieces and carried on mules, or, slung upon poles, 
 were borne on men's shoulders. The powder and shot were packed 
 into boxes of fir-wood, which were carefully lashed on the backs of 
 mules. Every mule, nearly every sturdy peasant in those Alps, was 
 hired or pressed into the service ; so that as the artillery was not 
 
CROSSING THE ALPS. 167 
 
 heavy, the baggage, as usual, very light, and the command of labour 
 . immense, both the fatigue and the difficulty must be considerably 
 exaggerated in most of the French accounts of this enterprise. 
 
 On the 1 6th of May, Bonaparte's vanguard, under Lannes, de- 
 scended from the great Great St. Bernard into the beautiful Pied- 
 montese valley of Aosta, being closely followed by the other divi- 
 sions. On the 1 7th, Lannes drove in a detachment of Austrians, 
 who were as much astonished at the appearance of the French in 
 that quarter as if the enemy had descended from the clouds. Between 
 Aosta and Ivrea the fort of Bard commanded the direct road, the 
 deep and narrow pass which leads into the Piedmontese plains, and 
 which at that point is not above fifty yards wide, with rocks on 
 either hand, and the rapid river Dora running in the midst. The 
 French van in their haste came suddenly upon it, and, after making 
 a useless attempt to carry the fort, they fell into a panic. But Bona- 
 parte came up and ordered that Fort Bard should be turned ; and 
 this was done by climbing the heights of Albaredo. The guns, 
 however, had been remounted, and it was found impossible to pass 
 them and the stores and baggage by this new path. Without a few 
 guns with his main corps Bonaparte would not descend into the 
 Italian plain. He ordered 1,500 labourers to make this path by 
 Albaredo practicable for his very light four-pounders ; and this being 
 done, the cavalry, infantry, and light field-pieces proceeded. Mean- 
 while, the artillerymen made a bold attempt to pass one of their 
 heavy pieces under the very guns of Fort Bard; but the Austrians, 
 warned by the noise, threw fire-balls, which lighted up the road 
 and enabled them to pour upon it a shower of projectiles which 
 caused the attempt to fail. A very ingenious expedient was then 
 tried : the road was covered with straw and manure, tow was fas- 
 tened about the pieces so as to prevent the slightest sound ; this 
 contrivance completely succeeded, and in the darkness of night all 
 that heavy artillery, with many ammunition-waggons, was carried 
 through the defile. But if the Austrians had been sufficiently on 
 the alert this could never have been done. When all that powder 
 was crowded in the ravine beneath them, they might, by one dis- 
 charge, have blown it into the air, with all the troops in charge of 
 
1 68 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 it ; and this, in one moment, would have necessitated the hasty 
 retreat of Bonaparte, and have destroyed, beyond all hope of repair, 
 his strategical plan. He then pushed forward, driving several Aus- 
 trian divisions before him, for the Ticino, on the banks of which 
 river he was to be joined by Moncey, Chabran, and Turreau, who 
 had passed the barrier of the Alps by easier roads. On the 2nd of 
 June Bonaparte entered Milan without any opposition, and was 
 there joined by some of his divisions. 
 
 There are at least two passages of the Alps (to say nothing of 
 Hannibal's) which are far more remarkable than that of Napoleon. 
 Marshal Su war roff crossed the St. Gothard, though opposed at every 
 step by numerous and active enemies accustomed to mountain war- 
 fare : the French General Macdonald effected the passage of the 
 Splugen in the very depth of winter. Bonaparte was not opposed 
 like Suwarroff, for he never saw an enemy except in the small gar- 
 rison of Fort Bard ; and, instead of having to contend, like Mac- 
 donald, with the difficulties and horrors of winter, he crossed the 
 St. Bernard in beautiful spring weather. Yet v/e constantly hear 
 of his exploit, and hardly ever of the more surprising and far more 
 difficult exploits of Suwarroff and Macdonald. But, long before 
 any of these achievements, our own Colonel Fullarton had carried 
 an army with artillery and stores across a mountainous region, in 
 India, which was quite as difficult as any portion of the Alps. * But 
 who, on the continent of Europe, knows anything of Fullarton or 
 of his mountain march ? 
 
 On the 5th of June, after his soldiers had eaten their shoes and 
 the leather of their knapsacks, Massena gave up Genoa to the 
 Austrian General Ott and Admiral Lord Keith. More than a week 
 before this event, Melas, the commander-in-chief of the Austrian 
 army, advised of the descent of the First Consul into Italy by so 
 unexpected a route, retraced his steps through the Nissard country, 
 and the territories of the Genoese Republic, being followed by Suchet, 
 who had been contending, almost hopelessly, on the frontier line of 
 
 * See the advance upon Palagatcherry, in " An Account of the Military Operations in 
 the Southern Parts of the Indian Peninsula, during the Campaigns of 1782, 1783, and 
 1784," by William Fullarton, of Fullarton, M.P. 
 
SPIES. 
 
 169 
 
 Napoleon descending the Alps. 
 
 France. With considerable rapidity the old Austrian concentrated 
 his scattered forces at Alessandria, a well-fortified town in the open 
 plain of Piedmont. 
 Again, Bonaparte had the spies on his side, and obtained great 
 
1 70 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPAR TE. 
 
 advantages by their means. An old stager, who had served him 
 in his former Italian campaigns, now waited upon him at Milan. 
 " What ! you here again ! " said the General ; " not shot nor hanged 
 yet ? " " General," replied the spy, " when this war began I did a 
 little business for the Austrians, as you were then far away. I stick 
 to my trade ; but, to tell you the truth, I am getting tired of it 1 
 only want money enough to retire from business. General Melas 
 has sent me to your lines, and I can render you some service." The 
 service he rendered was so important that he received for it nearly 
 ; 1,000 of our money. 
 
 We must pass over the minor operations and combats to come to 
 the decisive affair. Marching to meet Melas, Bonaparte crossed the 
 Po at Piacenza, drove back Melas's advanced guard, and took up a 
 position in the plain of Majgngo, on the right bank of the insig- 
 nificant river Bormida, and close in front of Alessandria. On the 
 very next day, the I4th of June, Melas came out of Alessandria, 
 crossed the Bormida in three columns, and attacked the French. 
 When Bonaparte called in his detachments, the forces of the con- 
 tending armies were pretty equal, the Austrians having a superiority 
 in cavalry. That the First Consul was surprised is an assertion 
 almost as ridiculous as that of the Duke of Wellington being sur- 
 prised at Waterloo. He fully anticipated the attack, but he did 
 not call in the colums in his rear quite soon enough. The fighting 
 began a little after seven o'clock, and was particularly hot until 
 noon. The centre column of the Austrians marched straight upon 
 Marengo, drove the French before them, and carried that village. 
 The first line of the French was completely broken and thrown into 
 confusion ; their second line, under Lannes, maintained itself by 
 taking an oblique position. The Austrian left advanced to Ceriolo. 
 whilst the French were in full retreat upon S. Giuliano. The alarm 
 had spread from their front to their rear, and the French soldiers 
 were crying, " All is lost ! " " Let him escape who can ! n This 
 was near upon the hour of noon, when the First Consul, surrounded 
 by a very numerous staff, rode up and did all that could be done 
 to revive the spirits of his troops. They rallied at S. Giuliano, in 
 the rear of the artillery and infantry squares which Lannes had 
 
MARENGO. 
 
 obliqued ; but it was no easy matter to keep them there until the 
 reserve could have time to come up and form in order of battle. 
 This reserve was under the command of General Desaix, who had 
 come over from Egypt and joined Bonaparte only a day or two 
 before the battle. It was now about four in the afternoon, and the 
 Austrians appeared to be completely triumphant Bonaparte, meet- 
 ing Desaix in the middle of the plain, said, " Here is pretty work! 
 What do you think of all this ?" " I think," said Desaix, " that the 
 battle is lost, but that we are yet in time to gain another ! " If we 
 are not," said the Consul, "we have nothing for it but a retreat 
 across the Alps into Switzerland, and that will be ruin ! " 
 
 Unfortunately for the Austrians, the aged Melas, who had been 
 on horseback so many hours, and who had had two chargers killed 
 under him, was nearly exhausted by fatigue ; and seeing the French 
 in full retreat, and expecting no rally that day on their part, rode 
 back to Alessandria to rest himself, and left the command to General 
 Zach, with orders not to advance with the line beyond S. Giuliano, 
 but to send the whole Austrian cavalry in pursuit. General Zach, 
 contrary to his instructions, marched on with the centre column, 
 consisting of 5,000 Hungarian grenadiers, against Desaix. At the 
 same time Zach, deceived by an Italian spy, who told him that a 
 strong body of French was coming round by the Genoa road, sent 
 off his cavalry in that direction, leaving his splendid column 01 
 Hungarian infantry, unsupported, in the midst of the plain. Another 
 calamity occurred : Zach being short-sighted, and very badly served 
 by his staff, mistook a mass of French cavalry for his own, and was 
 made prisoner in a charge. The Hungarian column, however, was 
 still moving steadily on, when the younger Kellermann, at the 
 head of a few squadrons of French heavy cavalry, issuing irom a 
 vineyard, charged the column in flank, penetrated between its in- 
 terval, and cut that formidable body into two, whilst Desaix's ad- 
 vancing division came up to charge the head of the column, which 
 then gave way, but not until it delivered a crushing fire, a fire that 
 nearly drove the French horse and foot off the ground. General 
 Desaix was shot, and he fell dead without uttering a word : the 
 tamous sentence or dying speech attributed to him, was composed 
 
I?2 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEOh BONAPARTE. 
 
 after the event. It is universally stated that it was General Keller- 
 mann's brilliant charge, with a comparatively weak body of cavalry, 
 that turned French defeat into victory, and decided the fate of the 
 sternly contested field of Marengo. Leaving to this cavalry charge 
 all the honour which is its due, we very much doubt whether it 
 would have settled the day but for a combination of adverse un- 
 foreseen circumstances on the part of the Austrians. Even after 
 the charge, had the Austrian right and left closed upon Desaix's 
 division they might have obtained the victory ; but there was no 
 commander-in-chief in the field to give orders, old Melas was dis- 
 mounting in the town of Alessandria, seven of his generals were 
 killed or wounded, and Zach and his staff were prisoners ! It was 
 therefore not surprising that the Austrian right and left wings, 
 seeing the centre routed and in full retreat, should effect a corre- 
 sponding movement ; and this they did, in perfect order, withdraw- 
 ing across the Bormida, and leaving an advanced post on the right 
 bank, or on the French side of that little river. The loss in killed 
 and wounded was nearly equal in the two armies ; on either side 
 about 7,000. The French took about 3,000 prisoners. The Aus- 
 trians, in the early part of the day, took some 2,000 prisoners. 
 
 But, in the evening after the battle, old Melas was reinforced by 
 corps of 8,000 or 9,000 men, and he had other reinforcements within 
 call. Moreover, the position of the Austrians was strong, supported 
 by numerous fortresses, and the campaign was by no means decided. 
 In fact, there was still a good chance of driving the French to the 
 passes of the Alps, where they must have lost horses, artillery, bag- 
 gage, and everything that goes to constitute an army. But here 
 another of those accidents of fortune, which had already favoured 
 Bonaparte in the former war against Wurmser and Alvinzi, came 
 to his assistance. We have his own confession, that he was often 
 served by Austrian staff officers. One of these he had now taken 
 prisoner, and in him he found a man to his purpose. This officer 
 of the staff, who no doubt merited promotion to the gallows, was 
 sent into Alessandria to negotiate a military convention, to exagge- 
 rate the difficulties of the Austrian army, and to tell Melas the 
 French General knew that Alessandria was badly furnished with 
 
MARENGO. 
 
 173 
 
 Battle of Marengo. 
 
 provisions, and that he (Melas) must meet with the same fate as 
 Wurmser if he should attempt to hold out there. The Austrians 
 were alarmed for their communications, and afraid of losing their 
 enormous train and baggage if they attempted a flank movement 
 in presence of so quick-sighted an enemy as Bonaparte. The staff 
 officer had commenced his sinister predictions before the brave old 
 leader had had time to recover from his fatigue. 
 
 Neither during the battle nor in his preceding campaigns in Italy 
 
174 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 had old Melas shown any want of judgment or of firmness ; but 
 after his defeat, and when he came to negotiate, it seemed as if his 
 eighty-four years had indeed reduced him to a second childhood. 
 Perhaps, however, the Austrian and Italian diplomatists who now 
 gathered around him may be more answerable than he for the pusil- 
 lanimous, imbecile (or it may be treacherous) throwing up of a game 
 which was not yet lost of a great game, where the stake was little 
 less than the whole of Italy. Even after his serious reverse Melas 
 might have collected in the field from 40,000 to 50,000 men ; General 
 Ott had thrown a great force into Genoa, and most of the fortresses 
 were well garrisoned. Yet, by the armistice, concluded on the ith 
 June, the Austrians gave up Piedmont and the Genoese territory, 
 with all their fortresses, including Alessandria, which might have 
 stood a long siege, and the superb Genoa, which had only been taken 
 from the French eleven days before this disgraceful armistice, after 
 a very long siege and at an enormous expense. The French were 
 to keep all Lombardy as far as the river Oglio. In return for all 
 these immense sacrifices old Melas was allowed to withdraw his 
 troops to the line of Mantua and the Mincio. We have been as- 
 sured, both by French officers and by Italian gentlemen, who were 
 either in Bonaparte's camp or living near the scene of the battle, 
 that when the conditions of the armistice were first made known all 
 were astonished, and many could not believe them. 
 
 On his return to Milan from Marengo, the First Consul was re-|j 
 ceived in triumph, like a consul and conqueror of ancient Rome.| 
 The Milanese, who are rather distinguished by their honest simpli-1 
 city, called him the unique man, the extraordinary hero, the incom- 
 parable model of greatness, the liberator of Italy ; and exulted at 
 his coming to restore liberty to his beloved Cisalpine people. Bona- 
 parte in return gave back compliment for compliment, spoke a great 
 deal about letters, sciences, and arts ; about peace and its blessings ; 
 and even about religion. He ordered the University of Pavia to be 
 re-opened, and a liberal increase of salary to be paid to its pro- 
 fessors ; he appointed a number of new men for the-most part of 
 indisputable merit to fill chairs in that ancient seat of learning. 
 In Milan he created a consult a, or council with legislative power, 
 
MILAN FA TE OF 1TAL Y. 1 75 
 
 and a committee of government with the executive power; but over 
 all these Milanese or Lombards he put a Frenchman, who, nomi- 
 nally Minister Extraordinary from the French Republic, became 
 Prime Minister and President, or dictator of this provincial govern- / 
 ment. In all these matters Bonaparte proceeded according to his 
 own absolute will, and on his own single authority, not deigning to 
 inform his brother Consuls, or the Senate, or the Tribunes, or the 
 legislative body at Paris, either of what he was doing or of what 
 he intended to do in future. The Italian democrats and ultra-repub- ; 
 licans, with whom alone he, had sought friendship and alliance at 
 the time of his first invasion of Italy, were now spurned, reprobated, 
 and driven from the light of his presence as dangerous fanatics, or 
 selfish, rapacious, thoroughly immoral demagogues. The fools did 
 not dare to ask where was the perfect liberty and equality which he 
 had promised them in 1797 : among themselves they called him 
 an aristocrat, and even a tyrant, but in public they only spoke of 
 him as of a demigod. The men he called around him were all of 
 those classes which had passed for the aristocratic ; they were men 
 of family, name, and property, or men of learning and science, there 
 being among them even bishops. 
 
 In spite of his triumph, and his boundless power at Milan, the I 
 First Consul was rendered very uneasy by news received from Paris. Q 
 A commercial traveller, who had quitted the plain of Marengo at ' 
 the moment when Bonaparte's troops were flying, posted to Paris 
 with extraordinary speed, and announced that the First Consul's 
 army had been annihilated. This was on the 2oth. The repub- 
 lican party instantly set themselves in motion; they held confe- 
 rences, they proposed another revolution, they talked of naming J 
 Moreau, Bernadotte, and Carnot, Consuls, of making the Senate f 
 proclaim the deposition of Bonaparte, that "little Corsican" as they/ 
 called him, who had through his rash ambition again placed the/ 
 Republic in jeopardy. They made no doubt that Augereau who\ 
 commanded in Holland, Bernadotte who was with the army in the 
 Vende'e, Mcfreau with the Army of the Rhine, Jourdan, and others, 
 would support the movement. It is stated in the life of Charles 
 XIV of Sweden, that Bonaparte, when going to set off for Italy, 
 
176 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 told Bernadotte, whom he had just appointed to the command of 
 the Army of the West : " I am going to run again the chances of 
 battle. If I should fall, you will be at the head of 40,000 men, within 
 
 reach of Paris the fate of the Republic will be my our 
 
 hands. The Republicans of Paris, however, had not much time al- 
 lowed them for consultation. The next day, 2ist, the First Consul's 
 despatch arrived, announcing the victory. The conspirators slunk 
 back again into the shade. Bonaparte, however, had been made 
 acquainted. with their machinations by the police. There is a curious 
 letter from Lucien to Joseph, written after the news of the battle of 
 Marengo, by which it appears that the Royalists had been also in- 
 triguing at the same time as the republicans. 
 
 Bonaparte was almost as angry against General Kellermann as 
 against the republicans of Paris. He could not bear to hear the 
 victory of Marengo attributed to that cavalry officer. In the even- 
 ing after the battle he said to his secretary, " That little Kellermann 
 made a lucky charge : he struck in at the critical moment ; we owe 
 him a good deal. On what trivial events do affairs depend ! " To 
 Kellermann he said, in a cold freezing manner, " You made a good 
 charge." "I am glad you are pleased," said the young cavalry 
 leader : "that charge has placed the crown on your head," Kelier- 
 mann repeated the expression in a letter which was opened at the 
 post-office and conveyed to the First Consul, who felt that the ob- 
 ligation was too great to be forgiven. Kellermann was not promoted 
 like the other generals of Marengo, and he never afterwards enjoyed 
 much of his chiefs favour. The fact was indisputable the French 
 were beaten when the cavalry charge was made ; but Bonaparte 
 never liked to have it so stated. 
 
 After a few days spent at Milan, he set off on his return to France, 
 leaving to Massena the command of the Army of Italy. In passing 
 through Turin, he appointed a Provisional Government for Pied- 
 mont. Everything was to be provisional in Italy until the next 
 peace. He was greeted at Lyons with acclamations, and he laid 
 the first stone of a fine new square, Place de Bellacour. While 
 traversing the sunny hills of Burgundy he said to his secretary, 
 u Well, a few more campaigns like this, and my name will go down 
 
MARSHAL MASSENA. 
 
ENGLAND REFUSES A PROPOSED ARMISTICE. 177 
 
 to posterity ! " "I think," replied Bourrienne, " that you have al- 
 ready done enough to secure lasting fame." " True ! I have done 
 enough. In less than two years I have won Cairo, Paris, and Milan ; 
 but for all that, my dear fellow, were I to die to-morrow I should 
 not, at the end of ten centuries, occupy half a page of general his- 
 tory." Upon which Bourrienne remarks, " It is true that in an 
 historical summary a few pages are enough to relate all the con- 
 quests of Alexander and Cassar ;" and he adds, " Is it worth while 
 to desolate the world for so slight a memorial?" 
 
 During the brief Italian campaign, Moreau had obtained successes 
 in Germany, and had advanced to Ulm and Munich ; but, as the 
 armistice of Alessandria became extended to the armies of Ger- 
 many, all fighting was suspended. The Cabinet of Vienna sent to 
 Paris General St. Julien, who at the end of July signed with Talley- 
 rand the preliminaries of peace between Austria and France, on the 
 base of the former treaty of Campo Formio the first treaty ever 
 concluded by Bonaparte. Austria, however, was engaged by treaty 
 with England not to conclude a separate treaty. It was therefore 
 proposed that plenipotentiaries of the three Powers should meet at 
 some place to be appointed for the conclusion of a general peace. 
 But the First Consul observed that pending the negotiations, a 
 maritime armistice ought to be entered into between England and 
 France, that the blockade of the French ports should be raised, and 
 all export and import of provisions and ammunition be free, even 
 to Malta, which was then on the point of surrendering to the Eng- 
 lish, and to the French army in Egypt, which was then expecting 
 a joint attack from the British and Turkish forces. Such an armis 
 tice could only be imposed upon a Power defeated and obliged to 
 sue for terms, and England was far from being in that condition. 
 The first use Bonaparte would have made of the armistice would 
 have been to send reinforcements to Malta and Egypt, and thus 
 deprive England of the probability of having those two conquests 
 to offer as equivalents at the general peace. The British Govern- 
 ment, therefore, refused the proposal of the armistice, the Emperor 
 nobly refused to ratify St. Julien's preliminaries, and Austria pre- 
 pared for a renewal of hostilities. 
 
 12 
 
178 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 The Emp^)rJPauLoK^issia, whose army, under the intrepid and 
 rapid Suwarroff, had performed what may almost be called miracles 
 of war in Switzerland and Italy during Bonaparte's absence in Egypt, 
 and who had entered most heartily into the European coalition 
 against France, now veered about with the suddenness of insanity ; 
 and, because England would not put him in immediate possession 
 of the island of Malta, and remodel her maritime code, he dismissed 
 our minister, Lord Whitworth, and began to organize what was 
 called the Northern Maritime League. Russians, Danes, Swedes, 
 and Prussians were to arm, in order to maintain that England 
 should not search neutral vessels, although loaded with munitions 
 of war or carrying property belonging to her enemies, &c. ! In fact, 
 Paul, who was mad, put himself in a state of war against Great 
 Britain, and the Kings of Sweden and Denmark joined him. 
 
 This gave great joy to the First Consul ; but he was beset by 
 troubles at home. Both Royalists and republicans were conspiring 
 against him. A pamphlet, which appeared about September, 1800, 
 entitled " Parallel between Cromwell, Monk, and Bonaparte," and 
 which was intended to sound public opinion upon the subject of an 
 hereditary consulship, added to the exasperation of the republicans; 
 
 ^eji^D4iarj4rj;e, who was then Minister for the Home Depart- 
 ment, sent copies of the pamphlets to the prefects in the provinces. 
 Some of these officials, who had figured in the Jacobin Convention, 
 were startled ; and they inquired what was meant by the pamphlet 
 of Fouche', Minister of Police, who was connected with them by 
 former sympathies, having himself been a Jacobin of the deepest 
 dye, and one of the most bloodthirsty members of the Convention. 
 Fouchd hastened to the First Consul and remonstrated with him on 
 the bad effect which such a publication, coming from a ministerial 
 office, might produce upon the public mind. Bonaparte affected 
 astonishment, said it must have been some blunder of his brother 
 and told Fouch that he, as Police Minister, ought to have had the 
 author instantly arrested and sent to the Temple. As soon as Bona- 
 parte left the room, Fouchd said to Bourrienne, with a sardonic 
 smile, "An easy task for me to send the author to the T emple ! As 
 soon as I saw the pamphlet I ran to Lucien and represented tc him 
 
ASSASSTNA TION PLOTS. 179 
 
 the impropriety of it ; and then Lucien showed me the manuscript 
 of the work, with corrections and additions in the First Consul's 
 own hand ! " 
 
 Lucien was sent off as ambassador to Spain, with instructions to 
 force or bully Portugal into a renunciation of her alliance with 
 England. Carnot sent in his resignation as Minister of War, be- 
 cause he knew that he was suspected of countenancing the re- 
 publican party. 
 
 Plots continued ; but the police had its emissaries amongst the 
 conspirators. Juvenot, a former aide-de-camp of Henriot, Robes- 
 pierre's general, was found lurking about Bonaparte's country resi- 
 dence, La Malmaison, and was arrested by Pouche*. One Chevalier 
 was constructing an infernal machine; but it exploded before he 
 had finished it, and he and some of his accomplices were seized. 
 It is reported that other conspirators proposed to shoot the First 
 Consul in the streets. Two indifferent artists, Ceracchi, a sculptor 
 from Rome, and Topineau-Lebrun, a French painter, having their 
 heads full of the classic legends of Greece and Rome, conceived, 
 that as a new Caesar had arisen, a new Brutus was wanted to com- 
 plete the historical parallel, taking for granted that the aristocratic 
 Brutus, the assassin of Caesar, was a democrat. These modern 
 French republicans, who read ancient history without understanding 
 it, were constantly committing similar mistakes. Ceracchi and 
 Lebrun were joined by Guiseppe Arena, a Corsican and a retired 
 officer, brother of Bartolommeo Arena, a member of the Council of 
 Five Hundred, who had spoken vehemently against Bonaparte in 
 the days of Brumaire at St. Cloud ; by Damerville, formerly secre- 
 tary to the notorious Barrere in the sanguinary Committee of Public 
 Safety; by Diana, a turbulent emigrant from Rome; and by several 
 others, among whom was Harel, a reduced officer in very needy cir- 
 cumstances, who was determined to make money by the plot. Their 
 intention was to stab the First Consul at the opera-house, and then 
 shout, " So perish all Caesars and Cromwells ! Long live the Repub- 
 lic ! " It really appears that they had not made up their minds as 
 to time or as to anything else, and that the majority of them were 
 men rather to talk than to do. Harel, the starving officer, went with 
 
 12 a 
 
l8o MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 their wild plans, not to Fouche*, but to the First Consul himself who 
 desired Bourrienne to supply him with money. Being thus comfort- 
 ably provided for, and wearing the mask, Harel went on fomenting the 
 plot, buying daggers and pistols, and engaging to find four resolute 
 fellows to assist in doing the work, and meanwhile he reported at 
 the Tuileries all the movements of the conspirators. It was publicly 
 announced that the First Consul would attend the performance of 
 . a new opera on the i ith of October, and it was agreed that Ceracchi 
 Diana, and Harel, with his four resolute men, should repair to the 
 opera-house and there kill Bonaparte. On the previous day Harel 
 received his instructions from the police, as Fouche' was now in the 
 secret, and the police gave Harel four men to act the part of con- 
 spirators. On the evening of the i ith, the Consuls, under a strong 
 escort, went to the opera, where everything was nicely arranged by 
 Fouche'. 
 
 " He put on a great coat over his green uniform," says Bourrienne, 
 "and was accompanied by his aide-de-camp Duroc and myself. 
 He seated himself in the front of his box. When we had been in 
 the theatre about half an hour, the First Consul told me to go 
 and see what was going on in the lobby. I went out and heard a 
 great uproar, and I understood that several persons, whose names 
 I did not hear, had been arrested. I informed the First Consul of 
 it, and we immediately returned to the Tuileries." The fact was, 
 that the sculptor Ceracchi had been arrested, and a dagger, it is 
 said, had been found upon him ; his countryman, Diana, had been 
 also seized, but with no weapon on his person. This was the extent 
 of their actual attempt. They were taken to prison, and examined, 
 and in consequence of their depositions and those of Harel the 
 informer, Arena, Damerville, Topineau-Lebrun, and others, were 
 also arrested in their houses. They were not tried for several 
 months after.* 
 
 Meantime another and a more dangerous conspiracy was got up 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. There is an account of their plot by one of their friends, Angeloni, 
 a native of the Roman State, who died in London at a very advanced age in 1842, in his 
 reminiscences entitled "Esortazioni Patrie," London, 1832. We knew this old Angeloni, 
 who lived very many years in England, where he gained his livelihood as a teacher of 
 
1 
 
 RO YALIST CONSPIRA CIES. 1 8 1 
 
 by the Royalists. Bonaparte's fears were all directed towards the 
 Jacobins, because he knew that they were men of action, and that 
 they had no principle to stand in their way. He feared the Royalists 
 less because they were gentlemen and had scruples of honour ; but 
 here he made a mistake in confounding the courtier Royalists, the 
 Bourbon nobles, with the popular Royalists of La Vendee, the hardy 
 partisans of Britanny, the friends of Charette and Georges Cadoudal, 
 and other chiefs risen from the ranks of the people, as men of that 
 sort must rise in all civil wars, when the mass of the population is 
 appealed to and put in motion. These men, who have been pro- 
 perly called the democrats of Royalism, were attached to their old 
 institutions, their Church, and the customs of their ancestors, just 
 the same as the peasantry of South Italy, of Spain, of Portugal, and 
 of the Tyrol ; and this is what Bonaparte did not or would not 
 understand. He thought that he could move them all like pawns 
 on a chessboard, that they must consider their own good and his own 
 will as identical. Fouche*, who knew his own friends the Jacobins 
 pretty well, was not at all in the secret of the Royalists, and he was 
 obliged, in order to watch them, to trust to agents not always to be 
 depended upon. Unlike the Jacobins, the Royalists had money at 
 their disposal. It was known to the police that there was a Bourbon 
 committee at Paris, which secretly corresponded with the Count 
 d'Artois (afterwards Charies X.) in England, who acted indepen- 
 dently of his brother (Louis XVIII.), who was then in Russia. 
 This committee had been organized some time before the fall of 
 the Directory. Its object was to bring about a restoration of the 
 royal family by any practicable means ; its hope for some time was 
 that Bonaparte, instead of aspiring to sovereign power, would make 
 
 (good terms with the legitimate King Louis, whose good qualities he 
 had very often admitted. But now the Royalists had lost all hopes of 
 Bonaparte's acting the part of Monk. It has never been proved that 
 this committee at Paris or its French principals resident in England 
 
 Italian. He was a fair specimen of the class to which he belonged, being neither worse 
 nor better than the common run of Italian political refugees of the so-called Liberal 
 school. He never had but one political idea in his life, and that was a wrong one. Yet 
 age did not decrease his fervour. In his eightieth year he would have begun again. 
 
182 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 directed any plan for assassinating the First Consul. The Count 
 d'Artois was above all suspicion in this respect ; but there were in 
 Paris fanatical Royalists, Vende'ans, or Chouans, who were not very 
 scrupulous as to means, who abhorred Bonaparte as the offspring 
 and type of the Revolution, and who were in direct correspondence 
 with Georges Cadoudal, then in England. The death of Bonaparte 
 appeared to the excited imaginations of these men the certain pre- 
 lude to a restoration. What it would have immediately led to was 
 a frightful anarchy, unless Bernadotte had proved himself suf- 
 ficiently skilful to take the place of Bonaparte. It may safely be 
 said that neither Moreau nor any other French general would have 
 been equal to the crisis. Two countrymen of Georges Cadoudal, 
 namely St. Rdgent, a naval officer, and Picault de Limoelan who 
 had served with the Royalists in the war of La Vendee, followed by 
 a number of other Chouans, had found their way to Paris. There, 
 among the many thousands who had been ruined and rendered 
 desperate by the Revolution, were a few but very few who joined 
 in the plot. 
 
 St. Regent had become acquainted with the experiment of Cheva- 
 lier and his infernal machine, and he constructed another machine 
 upon an improved plan, consisting of a barrel filled with powder, 
 .balls, grape-shot, and grenades, which was to explode by means of 
 a long match at a given signal. On the evening of the 24th Decem- 
 ber, 1800, the barrel, placed in a one-horse cart, was drawn to the 
 corner of the Rue Nicaise on the way from the Tuileries to the Rue 
 Richelieu. The First Consul was going that evening to the opera. 
 Just as his carriage had cleared the iatal machine the explosion 
 took place. A number of persons were killed and wounded, and 
 the neighbouring houses and shops, in that densely inhabited dis- 
 trict, were extensively injured. Bonaparte's carriage was slightly 
 damaged. He ordered the coachman to drive on, entered his box 
 apparently calm, but his eye turned anxiously round ; he left soon 
 after and returned to the Tuileries, where the great hall on the 
 ground-floor was filled with functionaries waiting 'or his appear- 
 ance. 
 
 As soon as Bonaparte entered he exclaimed, with great bitter- 
 
INFERNAL MACHINES. 
 
 '83 
 
 A Conspirators' Rendezvous. 
 
 ness, " This is the work of the Jacobins : they have attempted my 
 
 life There are neither nobles, priests, nor Chouans in 
 
 this business. . . . . I know what I am about, and they must 
 not think of deceiving me. They are the cutthroats of September, 
 the assassins of Versailles, the brigands of the 3ist of May, the con- 
 spirators of Prairial, who have been and are in permanent revolt 
 against every succeeding government. It is scarce three months 
 since my life was attempted by Ceracchi, Arena, Topineau-Lebrun, 
 and the rest. Since these men cannot be restrained, they must be 
 crushed ; France must be purged of these ruffians." The next day 
 the Council of State was assembled, and proposed to create special 
 or extraordinary courts to try the guilty. Bonaparte said that the 
 proceedings of a special court were too slow for such atrocious guilt, 
 that the public vengeance ought to be as prompt as lightning. " We 
 must shoot fifteen or twenty men, and transport about two hundred 
 more, and avail ourselves of this opportunity to clear the country of 
 them. The head-quarters once dispersed, the followers, the journey- 
 men of the suburbs, will return to their work, and ten thousand in- 
 
184 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 dividuals who belong to the party will forsake it altogether. . . . 
 At the crisis of the conspiracy of Catiline, Cicero had the conspira- 
 tors put to death, and said that by doing so he had saved his country. 
 I should be unworthy of the great mission which I have assumed, 
 if I were not to show severity under such circumstances. France 
 and Europe would despise a government which, when a whole dis- 
 trict of Paris is blown up, should merely proceed by an ordinary 
 
 criminal trial for such a crime I am so convinced of 
 
 the necessity of making an example, that I am ready to summon 
 before me the villains, interrogate them, and sign their condemna- 
 tion. I am not speaking for myself. I have braved many other 
 dangers, and my good fortune has saved me ; but this is a question 
 of social order, of public morality, and of national reputation." In 
 the end, however, a military commission was preferred for passing 
 judgment on the accused. Chevalier and his accomplices in the 
 first infernal machine were so tried, and were executed. But as 
 some faint murmurs were heard, Ceracchi, Topineau-Lebrun, Arena, 
 Damerville, and Diana were sent not before a military commission, 
 but before the ordinary criminal court. Diana was acquitted, the 
 other four were condemned and guillotined. 
 
 Bonaparte was accustomed in his latter days to talk a good deal 
 about this infernal machine. Having laboured hard all that day, 
 he was overpowered with sleep after dinner, and Josephine had some 
 difficulty in rousing him and persuading him to go to the opera. " I 
 fell fast asleep again/' said he, " after I was in my carriage, and at 
 the moment when the explosion took place I was dreaming of the 
 danger I had run some years before in crossing the Tagliamento 
 during a flood at midnight by the light of torches." The noise and 
 the shock woke him, and he exclaimed to Lannes and Bessieres, 
 who were with him in the coach, " We are blown up ! " He had 
 escaped most narrowly. He added that the coachman, having 
 drunk more wine than usual, drove more rapidly than was his cus- 
 tom. According to some accounts the explosion killed twenty per- 
 sons and wounded fifty-three, among whom was St. Regent himself. 
 
 Assisted by Fouche', Bonaparte drew up a list of proscription, 
 containing the names of one hundred and thirty-three individuals 
 
MILITARY TRIBUNALS. 185 
 
 wiiO were to be transported beyond the seas without any trial at 
 all. Most of them had figured in the violent epochs of the Revolu- 
 tion, several of them were noted as leaders of the frightful mas- 
 sacres in Paris or elsewhere, and it may be safely said that all these 
 had merited punishment more severe than transportation ; but there 
 were also included in the list of proscription those members of the 
 Council of Five Hundred who had been most earnest in their oppo- 
 sition to Bonaparte's coup d'etat on the igth Brumaire. The indivi- 
 duals thus proscribed were seized and shipped off for the unhealthy 
 climate of French Guiana.* A declaration of the Senate, somewhat 
 pedantically called a Senatus Consultum (as such things continued 
 to be styled), under the date of January, 1801, sanctioned this arbi- 
 trary measure of the executive, on the plea " that it was required for 
 the preservation of the Constitution." 
 
 At last, on the 3ist of January, 1801, Fouchd having obtained 
 sufficient evidence of the guilt of St. Regent and the other Chouan 
 Royalists, made his report to Bonaparte, and then could no longer 
 deny that he had been mistaken in accusing the Jacobins of con- 
 structing the second infernal machine which had so nearly destroyed 
 him. St. Regent and his accomplices, being discovered by some oi 
 Fouchd's innumerable police agents, were publicly tried and executed. 
 They all met their fate like brave, determined men, impressed with 
 the belief that they had been in the way of their duty as Royalists 
 and friends to the Roman Church. 
 
 The First Consul, however, continued to be far more implacable 
 against the Jacobins than against the Royalists. He hated the word 
 liberty far more than the word king, even when the name Louis was 
 prefixed to it. He was sometimes merciful to the Royalist plotter, 
 but to the republican never. To say that Bonaparte utterly despised 
 
 * It is somewhat strange that in Mr. Lockhart's " Life of Bonaparte," and in various 
 other popular English works, it should continue to be stated that this arbitrary decree 
 was never put into execution. Tt was carried into execution, as we have stated in our 
 text, as is asserted in innumerable French works, and as may be proved by a heap of 
 official documents. That all the proscribed were not sent across the seas is true. Some 
 were kept on the French coast, close prisoners at Rochelle. Not one of them was ever 
 brought before a tribunal, either military or civil. 
 
1 86 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 the relics of that odious party (the Jacobins) is a capital historical 
 error : men do not hate what they despise ; and he hated if he did 
 not fear the Jacobins to the very last day of his political existence. 
 Utterly to discredit the party, he gave out that they were all in the 
 pay of Mr. Pitt, the Prime Minister of England. At the same time, 
 however, he loudly proclaimed that the Royalists were in the same 
 pay, and that the English, the Chouans, and the other partisans of 
 Louis XVIII., were equally engaged in these foul conspiracies to 
 murder him ! Our newspaper press retaliated, and falsehoods and 
 scandals against the First Consul, his family, and even their private 
 lives, which never ought to have seen the light, were published to 
 the world, and imposed on it for a time. It must, at the same time, be 
 confessed that the first provocation was great, and that it came from 
 Bonaparte. Nobody in England now believes the fables and exag- 
 gerations which were of home manufacture. Would that we could 
 say that there are none in France who credit the monstrous lie that 
 George III., Mr. Pitt, and his entire Cabinet, leagued themselves 
 with assassins. 
 
 Conferences between the diplomatists of France and Austria were t 
 held at Luneville. Soon growing impatient, the First Consul ordered 1 
 Moreau to resume hostilities in Germany, and sent Macdonald to / 
 cross the Splugen into Italy, and there make a diversion in favour jb 
 of Brune, who was to attack the Austrians on the Mincio. This > 
 most difficult passage of the Splugen is that to which we have ( 
 alluded. Moreau made a short and brilliant campaign : he had the 
 worst in an affair at Haag, but on the 3rd of December he com- 
 pletely defeated the Archduke John in the bloody battle of Hohen- 
 linden. He then crossed the Inn, and was marching upon Vienna, 
 when the Archduke Charles superseded his brother, and proposed 
 an armistice, which was concluded on the 2 5th of December. This 
 armistice led to the PejjCjyjfJLttBfliftile, which was signed on the Q 
 of February, 1801. The Treaty of Luneville restored peace to the 
 Continent, and was the subject of enthusiastic rejoicing at Paris. 
 But the military fame which Moreau had fairly won disquieted the 
 First Consul : he had never liked the man, and now he was jealous 
 of him. "Why so much talk about Moieau?" said he; "he only 
 
PEACE OF LUNEVILLE. 187 
 
 acted upon my orders. The strategy was mine, not his ! / drew 
 out the plan of campaign for him, for all of them." And this was 
 true. 
 
 England was thus once more left alone in the war. Her energy 
 did not desert her. She was determined to treat only on favourable 
 grounds, and to this end she struck at the Maritime League of the 
 North, and threw a gallant little army into Egypt. In March, 1801, 
 a large fleet sailed into the Baltic under Admiral Sir Hyde Parker, 
 with Nelson as his second in command. On the 2nd of April 
 Nelson disposed of the Danish fleet, and induced the Crown Prince 
 of Denmark to renounce the League. Our fleet then appeared before 
 Carlscrona, when the King of Sweden also gave in. Sir Hyde Par- 
 ker then appeared off Revel, where the Russian fleet lay, and there 
 he received the news of the death of the insane Emperor Paul, who 
 had been strangled by some of his own officers and nobles. At 
 the beginning of June, Paul's successor, the Emperor Alexander, re- 
 moved the embargo from our shipping, and liberated a number of 
 British subjects; and the I7th of that month friendly relations were 
 re-established between England and Russia. Bonaparte's disap- 
 pointment and irritation were excessive. He had hoped to join 
 the Danish fleet, which Nelson had destroyed, to the French fleet, 
 in order to attempt the invasion of England ; and he had counted 
 upon the unfortunate Paul as a devoted blind ally. His official 
 paper, the Moniteur, did not hesitate to affirm that Paul had been 
 murdered at the instigation of his own son Alexander, and of Eng- 
 land ! It set up and long maintained a terrible outcry against 
 England for having attacked a neutral state as if Bonaparte had 
 ever respected a neutrality that stood in his way. But, in sober 
 truth, Denmark was not neutral, but occupied a menacing position ; 
 and if Nelson had not destroyed her fleet, it would inevitably have 
 been united to the navy of France with or without the consent of 
 the Danish government would have been brought into the British 
 Channel, and have been directed against our coasts. The First Con- 
 sul was still haunted with visions of the East, and into one of the 
 wildest of these the unhappy Paul had warmly entered. A com- 
 bined French and Russian army were to march by land to the banks 
 
l88 MEMOIR Of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 of the Indus ! Bonaparte had even prepared a proclamation, in 
 which the Mohammedan people of India were told that they were 
 to be relieved " from the oppressions and despotism of the English 
 by the kind sympathy of Russia and France." 
 
 During this dream the English army, which landed in Egypt 
 under the command of Sir Ralph Abercrombie, was marching from 
 victory to victory. The brave and competent Kleber, to whom Bona- 
 parte had left the French army, was stabbed by a vindictive Arab, 
 and was succeeded in the command by the very incompetent Menou : 
 an Anglo-Indian army had come from Bombay to the Isthmus of 
 Suez, and the splendid Mameluke cavalry had reappeared on the 
 field. On the 2;th of June, 1801, General Belliard capitulated at 
 Cairo, on condition that his troops, with their arms, should be con- 
 veyed to France. About 13,000 of them reached their native country, 
 being all that was left of the Army of Egypt. The French garri- 
 son which Bonaparte had put in Malta was also obliged to capi- 
 tulate, and the English remained masters of that very important 
 island. 
 
 In February, 1802, M. Doublet, who had been French commissary 
 at Malta, called upon Bourrienne at the Tuileries, and complained 
 bitterly that a letter, which he had written from Malta to the First 
 Consul, in February, 1800, had been altered in the Moniteur. In 
 that letter, Doublet, after congratulating the First Consul on his new 
 dignity, acquainted him of the alarming state of the garrison of 
 Malta. " Hasten," said he, " to save Malta with men and provisions ; 
 no time is to be lost." The Moniteur printed the reverse. " Your 
 name inspires the brave defenders of Malta with fresh courage ; we 
 have men and provisions." Doublet said that this placed him in a 
 very disagreeable situation, for he had been accused of having " con- 
 cealed the real situation of the island, in which he was discharging 
 at the time a public function." Bourrienne stated the complaint to 
 Bonaparte, who shrugged up his shoulders, and, laughing, said, 
 " Take no notice of him, he is a fool." And Bourrienne adds, " I 
 very seldom saw letters or reports published as they were received : 
 and when the path of candour and good faith is once departed from, 
 any pretext can be put forward to justify bad conduct. What sort 
 
AN AMNESTY. 189 
 
 of a history would a man write, if he consulted only the pages of the 
 Moniteurf" 
 
 In consequence of the Peace of Luneville, the French armies of 
 Germany, Italy, and Switzerland returned home, and 150,000 men 
 were now to be distributed among the garrisons of France. It was 
 a question what to do with these men, accustomed to live in free 
 quarters at the expense of foreigners. Bonaparte sent the greater 
 part of them to encamp on the coast of the channel from Abbeville 
 to Antwerp. It was a demonstration against his remaining enemy, 
 England, and it was at the same time a pretence for keeping them 
 in exercise and in the practice of field manoeuvres. This was the 
 origin of the Camp of Boulogne ; intended, as it was stated, for the 
 invasion of England, a threat which at that epoch was meant to in- 
 fluence the British Government in favour of peace, of which Bona- 
 parte stood in need to consolidate his newly assumed power. He 
 collected in the harbour of Boulogne, St. Valery, Calais, Etaplas, &c., 
 a very numerous flotilla, which Nelson attacked repeatedly, but with 
 no very great effect, as the vessels were moored with strong invi- 
 sible iron chains, protected by tremendous land batteries, and sup- 
 ported by a numerous army. 
 
 At the commencement of the Consulate the exiled or fugitive 
 members of the Constituent Assembly were invited to return to 
 France. It was for their own sake, and to please the moderate 
 Royalists, that the First Consul recalled them ; but it was to please 
 the Jacobins that their return was subjected to restrictions and ex- 
 ceptions. At first the invitation to return to France extended only 
 to such of the members of the first legislature as had voted in favour 
 of the abolition of nobility, titles, c. About the same time the 
 general lists of emigrants were closed, and committees were ap- 
 pointed to investigate their claims to the privilege of returning and 
 obtaining repossession of their property. 
 
 In April, 1801, a general amnesty was granted to all emigrants 
 who chose to return to France, and take the oath of fidelity to the 
 present Government. About five hundred individuals were, how- 
 ever, excepted, including those who belonged to the households of 
 the Bourbon princes, those who had been at the head of armed 
 
i$o MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 bodies of Royalists, or who had held rank in foreign armies em- 
 ployed against their country, and all those who were held to be con- 
 victed of treason. The property of the returned emigrants which 
 had not been sold, or which had not been appropriated by the 
 State for public purposes, was to be restored to them. But no laws 
 were fixed to determine and regulate this restriction ; and the First 
 Consul restored or withheld, gave to one member of the emigrant 
 family or to another, just in proportion as he found the parties dis- 
 posed to enter his service and identify their interests with his. He 
 was, besides, by no means anxious to put an end to their state of 
 uncertainty or dependence. He rarely gave at once all that was in 
 his power to give, or all that the amnesty promised. To some of 
 the returned emigrants he would restore nothing ; to some few, who 
 at once devoted themselves to his cause or to their own interests, 
 he gave more than they or their progenitors had ever possessed ; 
 sometimes he restored the family property, or such a fragment of it 
 as he chose, not to the father, but to the son ; and if the younger 
 son promised to serve his purpose better than the elder, he gave it 
 to the younger ; and sometimes, acting upon the republican law, 
 which established an equal division of property, and which law he 
 was embodying in his own grand code, he divided the fragments of 
 an estate among all the children of a family. As a general rule, he 
 doled out the property piecemeal, giving now a house, now another, 
 now a farm or a wood, as the returned repentant emigrant rendered 
 him services or conciliated his good-will. 
 
 " The First Consul had, in fact, reserved to himself the faculty j 
 of disposing, under whatever pretexts might suit him, of the fortune I 
 and fate of all and everybody. This unheard-of state of depen- } 
 dence excuses in many respects the meanness of the nation. Can 
 any one expect a universal heroism ? And did it not require 
 heroism to expose oneself to ruin, to beggary, and a fresh banish- 
 ment, which might be brought about at any time by the applica- 
 tion of some revolutionary decree ? A unique concurrence of cir- 
 cumstances placed under the control of one man all the laws of 
 the Reign of Terror, and all the vast military force which had been 
 
THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION. 191 
 
 created by the republican enthusiasm. What an inheritance was 
 this for an able despot ! " * 
 
 Bonaparte calculated that, by fostering the Catholic religion and 
 entering into terms with the head of the Church of Rome, he should 
 detach the Pope from the coalition of sovereigns, and the priests of 
 France from the Royalists., " It is indispensable," said he, " to have 
 a religion for the people ; and equally so that that religion should 
 be directed by the Government. At present fifty bishops, in the 
 pay of England, direct the French clergy ; we must destroy that 
 influence ; we must declare the Catholic the established religion of 
 France, as it is the faith of the majority of the French people. We 
 must reorganize the constitution of the Church. The First Consul 
 will appoint the fifty * bishops ; the Pope will induct them; the 
 bishops will appoint the parish priests, and the people will pay 
 their salaries. They must all take the oath of fidelity ; the refrac- 
 tory must be transported. The Pope, in grateful return, will confirm 
 our sales of the Church property ; he will consecrate the revolution ; 
 the people will sing, ' God save the Gallican Church ! ' For this, 
 
 some will call me a Papist. I am no such thing I am 
 
 no believer in particular creeds ; but as to the idea of a God, look 
 to the heavens and say who made that ! " f 
 
 These were words uttered in council. In private he said, " I am 
 convinced that a good part of France would become Protestant, 
 especially if I were to favour that disposition. But I am also cer- 
 tain that a still greater portion of those who have any religion at all 
 would remain Catholic, and would oppose with the greatest zeal and 
 fervour the schism of their fellow- citizens. I dread these religious 
 quarrels, which have been so terrible in France I dread the family 
 dissensions and the public distractions which a change to Protes- 
 tantism would inevitably occasion. In reviving a religion which 
 has always been dominant in the country, and in giving the liberty 
 of exercising their worship to the minority, I shall satisfy every one. 
 Without establishing a Church separate from that of Rome, I will 
 be the head of the Church in France In every country 
 
 * Madame de Stael, " Considerations. " t Thibaudeau. 
 
192 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 religion is useful to the government, and those who govern ought to 
 avail themselves of it in order to maintain their influence over man- 
 kind. I was a Mohammedan in Egypt ; I am a Catholic in France. 
 With relation to the police of a state religion, it ought to be entirely 
 in the hands of the sovereign. Many persons urge me to found a 
 separate Gallican Church ; but before I can resolve on such a mea- 
 sure the old Pope must push matters to extremities ; but I believe 
 he will never do that." His secretary reminded him that Cardinal 
 Gonsalvi had said, " The Pope will do all the First Consul desires." 
 " This is the best course he can take," rejoined Bonaparte ; " he 
 must not suppose that he has to do with an idiot. What do you 
 think is the point his negotiations put most forward ? The immortal 
 salvation of my soul ! But with me immortality only means the re- 
 collection one leaves in the memory of man ! That idea prompts 
 me to great actions ! It would be better for a man never to have 
 lived, than to leave behind him no traces of his existence ! " * He,| 
 however, continued through life to declare that he was no materi- 
 alist ; that he believed at least in the existence of a God, or some \ 
 first great cause ; and wishing at this moment to appear to believe 
 more than he did, he was exceedingly wroth with Lalande, who, 
 while he was negotiating his concordat with the Pope, wished to 
 insert his name in a biographical dictionary of illustrious atheists.f 
 
 During these negotiations he endeavoured to elicit the sentiments 
 of several of the Councillors of State on the subject of religion and 
 a national Church. Thibaudeau reports a remarkable conversation 
 which he had with one of the councillors, most probably Thibau- 
 deau himself. 
 
 " On the 2nd Prairial, the Councillor of State N dined at Mal- 
 
 maison. After dinner the First Consul took him alone into the 
 grounds, and led the conversation to the subject of religion. He 
 spoke at length against the various systems of the philosophers, on 
 deism, on natural religion, &c. 'All that/ said he, * is nothing but 
 ideology.' He repeatedly called Garat the leader of the ideologists. 
 * Hear me/ said he : * I was walking about this solitary spot last 
 
 * Bourrienne. t Bourrienne. 
 
THE RELIGIOUS QUESTION. 193 
 
 Sunday evening, everything was silent, when the sound of the bell 
 of the village church of Ruel suddenly struck my ear. I felt deeply 
 affected, such is the power of early impressions and of education. 
 I then said to myself, how great an influence these things must have 
 upon simple and credulous men ! Let your philosophers, your ideo- 
 logists, answer that ! There must be a religion for the people, but 
 this religion must be in the hands of the Government. At present 
 fifty bishops, emigrants, and in the pay of England, lead the clergy 
 of France. We must destroy their influence, and for this the autho- 
 rity of the Pope is required. They must vacate their sees, or the 
 Pope will supersede them. We will declare that as the Catholic 
 religion is that of the majority of Frenchmen, the exercise and wor- 
 ship of it must be legally organized. The First Consul appoints 
 fifty new bishops, and the Pope gives them the canonical institu- 
 tion. The bishops appoint the parish incumbente, and the State 
 pays them. They must all take an oath of fidelity to the Govern- 
 ment ; those who refuse shall be transported. The Pope sanctions 
 the sale of the Church property, and thus he consecrates the Repub- 
 lic. They will sing in the churches Salvam fac Rempublicam. 
 People will say that I am a Papist : I was a Mohammedan in Egypt, 
 and I shall be a Catholic here, for the good of the people. I do not 
 
 believe in religion But the idea of a God/ .... 
 
 And then raising his hands towards the heavens, he exclaimad, 
 
 * Who, then, has made all this ? ' N now spoke in reply, after 
 
 having listened in perfect silence. 'To discuss the necessity of 
 religion/ said he, ' would be foreign to the present question. I will 
 even grant the utility of a public worship. A worship must have 
 priests ; but priests can exist without forming an embodied clergy, 
 without a hierarchy animated by one spirit, and ever aiming at one 
 end and the same object. A hierarchy is a power, and a colossal 
 power. Were the hierarchy to have for its head the chief of the 
 State, it would not be half so formidable ; but as long as it acknow- 
 ledges a foreign prince for its head it is a rival power. There never 
 was an opportunity so favourable as the present for effecting a great 
 religious change. You have the constitutional priests, the aposto- 
 lical vicars of the Pope, and the emigrant bishops of England, and 
 
 13 
 
194 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 many shades in each of the three sections. Citizens and priests 
 are all disunited, and the great body of the nation looks on all this 
 with perfect indifference.' ( You are mistaken/ said the First Con- 
 sul. 'The French peasant loves his parish priest provided he has not 
 to pay him. The clergy exists, and will exist so long as there is a 
 religious feeling. The feeling is inherent in the people. There 
 have been republics, democracies, but never a State without reli- 
 gion, without worship, without priests. Is it not better to organize 
 the public worship, and place the priests under proper discipline, 
 than to leave everything to go on at random ? The priests now 
 preach against the Republic : ought we to transport them to Guiana? 
 No ; let us bind them by proper regulations, let us win them to the 
 Republican Government/ * You will never win them over/ replied 
 
 N . i The Revolution has deprived them of their honours and 
 
 wealth ; you will never make them forget that ! The priests will 
 always be in a state of war against our new institutions. Scattered 
 as they are now, they will be less dangerous than when organized 
 and reunited.' l Shall I,' cried the First Consul, < shall I do the 
 
 very reverse of what Henri IV. did?'* ' For my part/ said N , 
 
 1 1 should prefer Protestantism. You have only to say a word, and 
 Popery is overthrown, and France becomes Protestant.' * Yes, one 
 half of it ; but the other half remains Catholic ; and we shall have 
 quarrels and contentions without end. Why provoke resistance on 
 the part of the clergy and the people ? Enlightened persons will 
 not rise against Catholicism, because they are indifferent. I there- 
 fore avoid much opposition at home, whilst abroad I may, by means 
 of the Pope . . . . ' but here he checked himself. ' Yes,' said 
 
 N , ' but at the cost of other sacrifices which will render you 
 
 dependent on him. You have to deal with a skilful antagonist, who 
 is always stronger against those who keep on terms with him than 
 against those who have broken with him altogether. Now every- 
 thing looks smooth and fair, but when you think that you have done 
 with the Pope, you will find yourself mistaken.' ( My dear friend/ 
 
 * The reader will remember that Henri IV., bred a Protestant, renounced his faith for 
 State purposes, or in order to secure the throne and tranquillize France. 
 
BONAPARTE AND THE POPE. 195 
 
 said Bonaparte, * there is neither sincerity nor belief amongst men. 
 .... There is nothing more to be taken away fron the clergy. 
 
 .... It is now a mere political question Things 
 
 are gone too far, and the course I have taken appears to me the 
 safest.'" 
 
 After a long correspondence, and the interchange of many mes- 
 sages and compliments, Pius VII. sent Gonsalvi, the Cardinal Sec- 
 retary of State, and Archbishop Spina, to Paris, Bonaparte not 
 deeming it delicate to leave the negotiations in the hands of that 
 stray son of the Church, Talleyrand, his present Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs and negotiator general, deputed his own brother Joseph to 
 treat with the Cardinal, giving him the theological assistance of the 
 Abb Bernier. As a great many of the constitutional clergy, or of 
 those priests who had swallowed the serment civique, and had sworn 
 to be true to whatsoever constitution had been made, had taken 
 wives unto themselves, Joseph Bonaparte proposed to do away with 
 the celibacy of the clergy ; but here Gonsalvi, who had come to 
 grant almost everything which might be demanded (it being felt 
 that compliance with the will of the Consul offered the only chance 
 of saving the States of the Church in Italy from being annexed to 
 the Cisalpine Republic, and of restoring something like a religion and 
 a decent worship in France), quoted the councils and unalterable 
 canons of the Romish Church, and declared his inability, and the 
 inability of the Pontiff himself, to entertain for a single moment 
 such a proposition. All that could be done, consistently with the 
 ancient discipline and ancient dogmas of the Church, was to secu- 
 larize and absolve from their vows such priests as had married, and 
 this the Cardinal engaged to do. 
 
 At last, in September, 1801, the concordat was concluded, the 
 Pope making several concessions which had never been granted by 
 any of his predecessors. He sanctioned the sale of Church pro- 
 perty, and thus brought new purchasers into that market ; for the 
 devout or believing part of the French had hitherto abstained from 
 buying the confiscated lands and property of the Church, as from 
 an impious sacrilegious transaction. He suppressed many bishop- 
 rics, which had certainly been too numerous in the old times ; he 
 
 132 
 
196 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 uperseded all bishops who refused the oath of fidelity to the Govern- 
 ment; and he agreed that the First Consul should appoint the 
 bishops, subject only to the approbation of the Vatican, which was 
 fto bestow upon them the canonical institution. The bishops, in 
 I concert and agreement with the Government, were to make a new 
 distribution of the parishes of their respective dioceses, and the 
 incumbents appointed by the bishops were to be approved by the 
 civil authorities. The bishops^ of course, as well as all canons, 
 cure's, parish priests, and clergymen whatsoever, were to take the 
 oath of fidelity to the present Government; but, not satisfied by the 
 general and comprehensive oath, Joseph, or his brother, the Consul, 
 introduced a clause binding them all to swear to reveal any plots 
 which they might hear of against the State. This clause was incon- 
 sistent with the canonical vow which binds a Catholic priest to con- 
 ceal whatever he may hear in the confessional ; but Gonsalvi was 
 obliged to admit it. The total abolition of convents was also con- 
 firmed, and various clauses were introduced as if to excuse or justify 
 the violence of the revolutionary suppression and the seizure of all 
 the property of the wealthy monastic orders. By pursuing this course 
 themselves, with respect to the great order of Jesuits, many years 
 before the French Revolution, the Popes and the absolute sovereigns 
 of Catholic Europe had established a precedent ; while the reform- 
 ing emperor, Joseph, who, at a period subsequent to the suppression 
 of the Jesuits, had laid his bold hands on the property of other 
 orders, had added precedent to precedent. As for compensation or 
 provision for the dispossessed monks, it was left by the concordat 
 much as it was before, the State paying or not paying, as circum- 
 stances might be, some pensions of the slenderest kind. Upon/ 
 these and other conditions, it was proclaimed on the part of the* 
 French Government that the Roman Catholic religion was that of the 
 majority of Frenchmen ; that its worship should be free, public, and 
 protected by the authorities, but under such regulations as the civil 
 power should think proper to prescribe ; that the active clergy, in- 
 stead of having tithes, domains, &c., should be paid and provided 
 for by the State ; and that the cathedrals and parish churches should 
 be restored to them. 
 
CONCORDAT WITH THE POPE. 197 
 
 On Easter Sunday, 1802, the concordat was published at Paris, 
 together with a decree of the Consular Government, containing regu-^ 
 lations upon matters of clerical discipline, which were artfully worded ( 
 so as to make them appear part of the text of the original concordat. 
 Nothing was done by Bonaparte without a trick in it ; there was a 
 trickiness or some double meaning even in the best of his doings. 
 The Pope afterwards remonstrated, but the First Consul turned a 
 deaf ear to ear to him. The concordat must have this rider, or there 
 must be no concordat at all : the will of Napoleon must be absolute 
 in regulating the discipline of the ministers of religion, or there should 
 be no religion in France. Regulations concerning the discipline of 
 the Protestant congregations in France were issued at the same 
 time ; and, that all might be dependent on the Government, the 
 Protestant ministers, like the Catholic priests, were to be paid by 
 the State. In no cases were these salaries very high. There was 
 no disposition to revive the splendour and the aristocracy of the old 
 Church ; there was to be a rigid equality in each grade of the hier- 
 archy, in rank and in pay. Ten archbishops were to have a salary 
 of 15,000 francs, or about ^600 a year each ; fifty bishops were to 
 have 16,000 francs, or about ^400 a year each ; the parish priests in 
 the larger parishes were to be paid about 60 a year each, and in 
 the smaller parishes about ^48. The number of curds and parish 
 priests of all kinds was fixed at 8,000. 
 
 To give proper solemnity to the promulgation of the concordat, 
 the First Consul resolved that it should be made in the cathedral 
 church, and that his Court and principal officers, with or against 
 y their wills, should attend him thither in high state. Here, too, 
 ymother trick was necessary, for the consular Court was in general 
 (extremely irreligious ; "nor could it be expected to be otherwise, being 
 ^composed of those who had assisted in the annihilation of all reli- 
 gious worship in France, and of men who, having passed their lives 
 in camps, had oftener entered a church in Italy to purloin a painting 
 than to hear tne Mass." * Some of the military chiefs too had been 
 bred in the Frotestant faith ; some of them, as Moreau, retained in 
 
 * Bourrienne. 
 
198 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 full force their republican predilections, and saw clearly Uat this 
 setting up of the altar was only the prelude to the setting up of a 
 throne : perhaps not one man in ten among them either believed 
 with Bonaparte in the existence of a Supreme Being, or had agreed 
 with Robespierre in believing the immortality of the soul. But to 
 Mass they must all go, for such was the absolute wilf of the First 
 Consul ; and therefore Berthier, the Minister at War mvited them 
 to a breakfast, and to attend the leve'e of the First Consul, who took 
 them unawares with him to Notre Dame. Rapp, Bonaparte's favou- 
 rite and confidential aide-de-camp, who had been brought up as a 
 Protestant, knew what was meant by Berthier's invitation, and posi- 
 tively refused to attend the ceremony, although requested by vhe 
 First Consul himself. " Provided," said Rapp, " you do not make 
 these priests your aides-de-camp or your cooks, you may do with 
 them what you like." But on the road from the Tuileries to the 
 cathedral, Lannes and Augereau wanted to alight from the carriage 
 as soon as they discovered that they were being driven to Mass, 
 and it required an express order from their General-in-Chief to pre- 
 vent their doing so. It is even said that Lannes at one moment 
 did get out of the coach, and that Augereau kept swearing in no low 
 whisper during the whole of the chanted Mass. It seems to be ad- 
 mitted on all sides, that, with the exception of some, who, without 
 having any religious convictions, possessed that good sense which 
 induces men to respect the belief of others, and who conducted 
 themselves with some regard to decency, the behaviour of all these 
 military chiefs, and of all the other aggrandized children of the Re- 
 volution, was to the last degree profane and indecorous. The First 
 Consul rode in the state carriage of the Bourbon kings, with the 
 same coachmen, and with running footmen by the coach doors. The 
 day chosen for the ceremony was the I5th of August, the festival of 
 the Assumption one of the most solemn of Catholicism, and des- 
 tined to be, after a few more tricks and turns, the anniversary of 
 St. Napoleon ; for there was in the calendar a St. Charlemagne, and 
 Bonaparte determined not to be left behind that great founder of 
 an empire. He had selected the Archbishop of Aix to officiate and 
 inaugurate the concordat, because that prelate had preached the 
 
1&02/J 
 
 SERVICE AT NOTRE DAME. 
 
 coronation sermon in the cathedral of Rheims on the day when 
 Louis XVI. was crowned. Both Mass and Te Deum were sung, 
 and the clergy, to the accompaniment of one hundred and one dis- 
 charges of artillery, struck up " God save the Republic arid the 
 Consuls ! " assuredly a proper termination to so stupendous a farce. 
 
 High Mass at Notre Dame. 
 
 On the next day Bonaparte asked one of the republican generals 
 what he thought of the ceremony. " Oh, it was all very fine," replied 
 the general ; " there was nothing wanting except the million of men 
 who have perished in the pulling down of that which you are setting 
 up again ! " The brow of the First Consul was clouded by this 
 bitter remark.* 
 
 The savans and the philosophers whom he had rallied round his 
 person, and some of whom, during the sojourn in the land of Egypt 
 and the tedious voyage from that country, had laboured, with all 
 
 * Bourrienne attributes the sharp repartee to Augereau : Thibeaudau and others, with 
 more probability, put it in the mouth of that staunch Jacobin republican, General Delmas, 
 who was a friend of Moreau, and exiled from Paris shortly after. 
 
200 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 the zeal of propagandists, to convert him to a sheer atheism like 
 their own, appear to have given him considerable trouble at this 
 time, and to have frequently made him blush at the degrading idea 
 of being taken for one who believed in the exploded absurdities of 
 Christianity. But while on the one side he told his new bishops 
 and cure's that he hoped this concordat would revive religious senti- 
 ments in France, and that, in his opinion, the Catholic religion, the 
 only one founded upon ancient traditions, was the most likely to 
 endure in the world, he said to that great luminary of the philo- 
 sophers and unbelievers, Cabanis, "Do you know what this concor- 
 dat really is ? It is the vaccination of religion : in fifty years there 
 will be no more religion in France than small-pox 1 "f 
 
 He resisted the endeavours which were made to persuade him to 
 perform in public the duties imposed by the Catholic religion. To 
 those who urged that his high example was required he said angrily, 
 * I have done enough already. I have been once to Notre Dame. 
 Ask me no more. You will never obtain your object : you shall never 
 make a hypocrite of me ! " 
 
 He was, however, a hypocrite vicariously, and that, too, by doing 
 criminal violence to the consciences of others ; for, on certain occa- 
 sions, he obliged his generals, his ministers, and his courtiers, to 
 attend publicly to the offices of the Catholic Church, and to affect 
 to be good Catholics for him. 
 
 At last he consented to hear Mass indoors, after the fashion of the 
 kings ; and St. Cloud was the place where this ancient usage was 
 first re-established. But (still another trick) he directed the cere- 
 mony to commence sooner than the time announced in order that 
 those who would only have scoffed at it might not arrive until it was 
 over. When he determined to hear 1Ax& publicly on Sundays in 
 the Tuileries, a small portable altar was prepared in a room into 
 
 f Madame de Stael, "Considerations." Vaccination had just been introduced in France, 
 or at least widely spread there, by M. Liancourt de Rouchefoucauld, one of the noble and 
 best members of the Constituent Assembly, who had recently been recalled from his long 
 exile by the decree of the Consular Government, which has been noticed in the text. 
 Bonaparte was enchanted with this great discovery in medicine, saying that it would save 
 more lives per annum than the bloodiest of wars would cost him. 
 
VICARIOUS HYPOCRJSY. 2OI 
 
 which his cabinet of business opened. " This room," says Bour- 
 rienne, " had been Anne of Austria's oratory. The small altar re- 
 stored it for the time to its original destination, but during all the 
 rest of the week this oratory was used as a bath-room. On Sunday 
 the door of communication was thrown wide open, and we heard 
 Mass sitting in our cabinet of business. The number of persons 
 there never exceeded three or four, and the First Consul seldom 
 failed to transact some business during the service, which never 
 lasted longer than twelve minutes. Next day all the papers had 
 the news that the First Consul had heard Mass in his apartment." 
 Fouche', a renegade priest, a distinguished member of " La Con- 
 grdgation de 1'Oratoire" when the Revolution began, but who had 
 declared himself an atheist, and had sought to overthrow Robes- 
 pierre by means of atheism, was now, as Minister of Police, charged 
 with the duty of settling the new clergy in their sees and livings. 
 He addressed a circular letter to the prefects of departments, com- 
 manding them to exercise a sharp surveillance over the priests, and 
 to draw a proper distinction between such as had been allowed to 
 return from their emigration or deportation, and such as had had 
 no need of pardon, namely, " the men, born of the Revolution, who 
 have always been faithful to it, who have united their fate to that 
 of the Republic, and who do not cease preaching to-day their love 
 and respect to the Government, both by their discourses and by 
 their example." * This invidious distinction was intended to ex- 
 clude altogether the priests who had resisted the revolutionary 
 torrent and refused the serment civique the only part of the clergy 
 who, down to the time of the concordat, could lay any claim to 
 orthodoxy. But without Fouch^'s and his master's restrictions, 
 many of these priests were determined not to return to France, 
 preferring to gain their livelihoods in foreign countries by teaching 
 their language, or to be supported by the charity of their co-re- 
 ligionists, to the recognizing of a concordat extorted from the Pope, 
 and to taking the oaths to a Government which they held to be 
 
 * Letter to the Prefects, in Capefigue, " L'Europe pendant le Consulat et 1'Empire de 
 Napoleon." 
 
202 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BON APARIE. 
 
 illegal, irreligious, impious. The most conscientious, the most high- 
 minded of the clergy, either remained in exile, or, returning, de- 
 clined joining the new establishment. Of seventeen bishops and 
 archbishops who were residing in England, only four submitted to 
 the will of the First Consul. Of the prelates residing in France, 
 eight resigned into the hands of the Pope's legate the sees they held 
 previously to the Revolution, rather than acknowledge the concordat 
 and take the oaths to the present Government. 
 
 Several pamphlets made their appearance even in Paris, com- 
 plaining of the wrongs done to the Church, of the violence offered 
 to the conscience of true believers, and of the degrading compromise 
 made between materialism and Catholicism ; and in the seminary 
 of St. Sulpice an opposition to some of the clauses of the concordat 
 was got up by the Abbe's Emmery and Fournier. To stop all dis- 
 cussion, Bonaparte set Fouchd and his police in motion : the pamph- 
 lets were seized and burned ; several measures were taken to prevent 
 the printing of such things in future ; the Abbd Fournier was seized 
 and thrown into a madhouse ; within a month after the promul- 
 gation of the concordat, 150 ecclesiastics were arrested in the single 
 diocese of Paris ; and under the least pretext of resistance, bishops, 
 abbe's, cure's, vicars were thrown into the Temple, the dungeons of 
 Vincennes, or some other of ^^fifty-seven new prisons in Paris. 
 
 On the other hand, nothing could well exceed the base flattery 
 and extravagant eulogiums of the leaders of that part of the clergy 
 which submitted. Not merely in State addresses, but in sermons 
 delivered from the pulpit, and in pastoral letters, charges, and 
 catechisms, distributed all over France, they called the Corsican 
 General the Envoy of God, the Instrument of His Decrees, the 
 Representative of Providence upon Earth ; they spontaneously sang 
 Te Deums for the bloodiest of his victories over the independence 
 of nations ; they proclaimed that words could not express the extent 
 of the services he was rendering to Almighty God and to themselves. 
 These were not things proper to revive religious sentiments among 
 a scoffing incredulous people. 
 
 n By this time the public both in France and in England were 
 j | getting tired of war. On this side of the Channel few statesmen 
 
NEGOTIATIONS WITH ENGLAND. 203 
 
 bc-lieved that Bonaparte would or could remain quiet for any length 
 of time ; but, however short it might be, it was resolved to try the 
 experiment of a peace. Nothing can be more unfair or unreasonable 
 than to impute to Mr. Pitt the origin or continuance of the war. 
 That great statesman had started as a peace minister, and as such 
 he would have continued if France had allowed ; against a dis- 
 honourable peace, or a peace which would turn out (like this of 
 Amiens) to be but an uneasy truce, he had many and reasonable 
 objections ; but Mr. Pitt was no longer in office he had resigned. 
 s In August, 1801, negotiations were opened between M. Otto, a 
 'French diplomatist, resident in England as commissary for the 
 French prisoners of war, and Lord Hawkesbury, Minister for Foreign 
 Affairs under the Addington Administration, which had succeeded 
 that of Mr. Pitt. England agreed to restore the French, Spanish, 
 and Dutch colonies, with the exception of Ceylon and Trinidad, and 
 to make other sacrifices, as if she too were a conquered or defeated 
 party. Hostilities were ordered to cease on the ist of October, 1801, 
 but the definitive treaty was not signed until nearly six months after 
 this period. 
 
 Meanwhile, Lucien P^n^part^ haH been negotiating at Madrid a[~ 
 treaty with Spain, or rather with Godoy, the all-powerful Court/ 
 favourite, and the cause of infinite mischief to his country. Spaby 
 agreed to restore to France her old American possessions of Louis-1 
 iana, with New Orleans, &c., and France as an equivalent engagedV 
 to assist Spain in conquering Portugal, and to give Tuscany, under \ 
 the classical name of the Kingdom of Etruria, to the son of the \ 
 Duke of Parma, a prince of the Spanish branch of Bourbons, who I 
 had recently married a daughter of the King of Spain, and whose 
 father the Duke of Parma now renounced for his heirs the sove- 
 reignty of Parma and Piacenza, which were to be left at the disposal / 
 of France. Forthwith the Court of Madrid declared war against Por- \ 
 tugal without a shadow of justice or of reason, except that Portugal, 
 using its rights as a neutral independent State, continued in its old i 
 friendly relations with England. Godoy, who had been promised by 
 a secret article of the treaty an independent principality in Portugal, 
 opened the campaign, and took Olivenga and some other border 
 
204 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 towns, whilst a corps of French troops crossed the Spanish frontiers 
 to support Godoy in case of need. Such was the iniquitous key 
 which first brought Bonaparte's columns into the Peninsula, and 
 exposed to the eyes of his agents the wretched state of the Court 
 of Madrid. Bitterly did Spain pay for this iniquity ! The Court 
 soon grew weary of the Portuguese war, which it had not the means 
 of supporting; and in June, 1801, a convention was concluded at 
 Badajoz for the immediate cessation of hostilities, Portugal engaging 
 to shut its ports to the English. This was previous to the long 
 negotiations with England. The First Consul appeared to be in 
 great wrath when he heard of the Badajoz treaty; and forthwith he 
 declared that a French army should prepare to march through Spain 
 against Portugal. The Courts of Lisbon and Madrid became equally 
 alarmed, iucien was urged to mediate with his brother, and under 
 his auspices the affair was hushed, and by a secret article, 20,000,000 
 of francs were placed by the Prince Regent of Portugal to be at the 
 disposal of the First Consul. Lucien, according to French historians* 
 received for himself a present of some millions of francs, chiefly in 
 diamonds and other precious stones, and Talleyrand and others were 
 not forgotten. The Spanish pear was not yet ripe, and a war for 
 the conquest of Portugal alone was not considered worth the trouble 
 and expense, now that she had closed her ports to her old ally. 
 V" From the time of the Directory," says Capefigue, " Portugal was 
 Jtooked upon as a golden fief of French diplomacy. The First Con- 
 sul was appeased ; he stood in need of many resources to organize 
 his new power. To some he gave office, to others rank, but money 
 he gave to all ; and when he wanted to enrich any particular person, 
 he gave him the embassy of Madrid or of Lisbon, countries which 
 had not yet been drained by French invasion, and where an envoy 
 was sure to make a fortune, as he had to do with weak people who 
 had in their hands the wealth of Mexico and of the Brazils." In 
 the definitive treaty with Portugal, published in September, 1801, a 
 part of Portuguese Guiana was ceded to France. 
 
 A convention was concluded between France and the United 
 States of America, which had been plundered by the Diiectory of 
 about 10,000,000 of dollars. This money the Consular Government 
 
DEFENCE OF NEGRO SLA VER Y. ^05 
 
 now undertook to rep^y. The First Consul also concluded a treaty/ 
 with the Emperor Alexander of Russia, and another with the SultanN 
 of Turkey. 
 
 As soon as the preliminaries of London were signed (the ist of 
 October, 1801), Bonaparte collected a great fleet from Brest, Roche- 
 fort, and Toulon, and to this he joined both Dutch and Spanish 
 ships of war. An army of 20,000 men was embarked in this fleet 
 and in the attendant transports for the West Indies. The expedi- 
 tion to St. Domingo not only formed an essential pait of Bonaparte's 
 colonial system, but also afforded him the opportunity of finding 
 employment in a time of peace for a portion of his immense army, 
 and of relegating many of his discontented officers and soldiers far 
 from France. Papers are said still to exist which show that thisf 
 expedition was for the First Consul a measure of military police ;J 
 that the drafting of the forces to be employed was most cunningly 
 arranged ; that the choice fell upon the demi-brigades of which he 
 was least sure, and upon the most ardent of the republicans ; that the 
 men devoted to Moreau, and the other sturdy republican generals 
 who would not bend the knee at the Tuileries, were all thrust into 
 this fatal expedition.* But to keep in control those discontented, 
 turbulent masses, the command-in-chief was given to General Le- 
 clerc, who had become Bonaparte's brother-in-law by marrying his 
 favourite sister Paulinej land to officers and men the most tempting 
 extravagant promises were given of estates and riches in the vast 
 and productive island to which they were going. 
 
 The negroes and mulattoes of St. Domingo, who had themselves 
 abolished their slavery by energetic, sanguinary, and terrible means, 
 were now settled down under an imitative temporary Republic, of 
 which Toussaint FOuverture, a black slave of distinguished courage 
 and ability, was the real head. Toussaint had fought like a Spar- 
 tacus only with better success for the liberation of his race ; but 
 notwithstanding his bravery and talent, he had little instruction, 
 and was, like all the negro race, essentially an imitator, who could 
 only follow and copy the ideas and systems of the whites. At first 
 
 * Capefigue. 
 
206 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 he made a Constitution for the negroes of St. Domingo, like that 
 which the Directory had made for France ; but when the revolution 
 of Brumaire established the Consulship, put the power of the State 
 in the hands of Bonaparte, and altered the Constitution, Toussaint 
 changed his Constitution also, proclaiming himself First Consul of 
 Hayti, the Bonaparte of St. Domingo ! These close imitations 
 irritated the First Consul of France, hurt his very susceptible pride, 
 and made him the more eager for the overthrow of the negro Re- 
 public. " This comedy of government," said he, " must cease ! 
 We must not permit military honours to be worn by apes and 
 monkeys ! " As for the abolition of negro slavery, Bonaparte con- 
 sidered it as one of the most glaring absurdities which had ever 
 been entertained by the ideologists and revolutionists of France : 
 he had had a near view of slavery in Egypt and Syria, and the sight 
 had not rendered it odious to him ; he doubted whether white men 
 could cultivate the plantations in the West Indies ; he knew that 
 the negroes could, but he thought that they would work only under 
 compulsion ; and therefore he considered negro slavery as an in- 
 dispensable necessity, without which such colonies would be useless. 
 To Truguet, a warm abolitionist, he said, in open council, " M. 
 Truguet, if you had come over to Egypt to preach the liberty of the 
 blacks and Arabs, we would have hanged you on the mast of your 
 ship ! Your friends of the blacks delivered all the whites in St. 
 Domingo up to the ferocity of the negroes ! I am for the whites, 
 because I am a white man ! This is reason enough. How could 
 Frenchmen dream of granting liberty to Africans, to men who had 
 no civilization, who did not even know what was a colony and what 
 a mother country ? At present nothing but self-conceit and hypo- 
 crisy can make people cling to those visionary principles of the 
 Jacobin Convention ! " 
 
 General Leclerc and his doomed demi-brigades found, almost as 
 soon as they landed in St. Domingo, that every negro on the island 
 was hostile to them, and that they were sent to engage in one of 
 the most difficult and destructive of warfares, in a country where 
 the climate and everything else were against them. Their first 
 successes only deceived them, led them into a false and dangerous 
 
ST. DOMINGO. 207 
 
 confidence, and rendered their subsequent failures more terrible to 
 themselves and more disappointing to those who had sent them 
 thither. Fort Dauphin was easily captured ; Cape Franc,ais was 
 evacuated by the negro Henri Christophe, who had once been a 
 skilful cook at a tavern, and who was now a general of the blacks, 
 and second only to Toussaint 1'Ouverture ; but, before quitting the 
 town, Christophe burned the greater part of it, and he succeeded 
 in drawing off 3,000 armed negroes, with whom he joined the black 
 First Consul. With nearly equal ease the French got possessioa 
 of Port-au-Prince and the chief seaports, and of the principal 
 military posts near the coast. This done, they advanced into the 
 interior of the island to encounter the black First Consul and the 
 yellow fever. Various loose actions were fought, in which the vic- 
 tory did not invariably declare itself for the whites, and in which 
 the black generals are said to have displayed both skill and courage. 
 But the white First Consul had instructed his brother-in law to 
 employ craft where force failed ; to sow jealousies and dissensions 
 among the negroes ; to dupe the black First Consul by treaties and 
 promises of amnesty, honours, and the viceroyalty of the island ; 
 and to adopt all means, foul or fair, to get possession of his person. 
 Though by no means devoid of cunning or unaccustomed to practise 
 treachery himself, the negro. chief fell into the snare, submitted to 
 Leclerc, and was presently loaded with chains and sent a prisoner 
 to France. But the successful treachery did not lead to the result 
 which Bonaparte confidently expected from it. With an unanimity, 
 with a fury doubled by the dark deed, the negroes flew to arms 
 under Henri Christophe and other leaders, fell upon the French 
 when weakened by the endemic fever, scattered them, drove them 
 back towards the coast, and tortured, mutilated, butchered them in 
 heaps wherever they obtained the mastery over them. Between the 
 blacks and the whites nearly all the plantations and the dwellings 
 of men were wasted by fire and the sword ; and devastations were 
 committed from which the island has never recovered, nor is likely 
 to recover under negro government. The French retaliated wher- 
 ever they were able, and the most atrocious of wars was prolonged 
 through many months. 
 
208 MEMOIR OF NA POLEON BONAPAR TE. 
 
 /Although these events did not all occur between the signing of 
 ^he preliminaries and the signing of the peace with England, we 
 had better not disconnect the St. Domingo story. In the autumn 
 of 1802, when the yellow fever and the blacks of St. Domingo had 
 reduced the fine French Army to a few hundreds of sickly, wounded, 
 despairing men, and when Leclerc himself was dying of the ende- 
 mic, Chribtophe, with the black chiefs Clervaux and Dessalines, 
 invested the town of Cape Frangais. Leclerc died on the 2nd of 
 November, and was succeeded in the chief command by General 
 Rochambeau, son of the old marshal of that name who had served 
 in America with Lafayette, and who had commanded the first great 
 revolutionary army in 1790. The arrival of fresh reinforcements 
 from France in all about 15,000 men enabled Rochambeau to 
 drive Christophe and his blacks from Cape Frangais, which they 
 were threatening with a regular siege. He then attempted to re- 
 cover the ground which Leclerc had lost, and to penetrate into the 
 south of the island ; but the troops, fresh from Europe, caught the 
 terrible diseases of the climate ; and after some marches, which mul- 
 tiplied the calamity, and some disastrous encounters with Christophe, 
 he was compelled to retreat to Cape Frangais with a force so dimin- 
 ished, sick, and disheartened, as to render any long defence of that 
 place an impracticability. As by this time the war with England 
 had been recommenced, Bonaparte could not venture to send out any 
 more ships and troops. Preferring a capitulation with the negroes 
 to a surrender to the English, Rochambeau treated with the black 
 chief Dessalines, agreed to deliver up the town to him, and evacu- 
 ated Cape Frangais on the ist of December, 1803. He and his 
 garrison were followed to their ships by a great number of white 
 families, who had returned to the island in the hope of recovering 
 their plantations and slaves, but who now dreaded the ferocity of 
 the free and triumphant negroes. The whole fleet or convoy, with 
 troops, civilians, and planters, was captured by our squadrons, and 
 Rochambeau was brought a prisoner of war to England. 
 
 A more fatal expedition is not to be found in the whole history of 
 this long war : between February, 1 802, and December, 1 803, from 
 40,000 to 50,000 men perished in the island of St. Domingo ; but, 
 
1803.] FATE OF TOUSSAINT VOUVERTURE. 209 
 
 assuredly, one of the objects of Bonaparte was obtained : the trouble- 
 some, obdurate republicans could trouble him no longer the dead, 
 and only the dead, never come back as Citizen Barrere had said in 
 the high republican days. The treatment which Toussaint FOuver- 
 ture met with in France was at least as atrocious as any part of this 
 horrible history. He was brought to Paris in the beginning of 
 August, 1802, and was sent in the first instance to the Temple, 
 which, as a State prison, was far more crowded than ever the Bas- 
 tille had been. He wrote a letter calculated to work upon the mag- 
 nanimity of the man who had the command of his destiny but in 
 this case Bonaparte was not disposed to be either magnanimous or 
 merciful. He ordered the negro chief to be conveyed to the castle 
 of Joux, situated in the most desolate, the loftiest, the coldest part 
 of the Jura Mountains, and to be there immured in a dungeon au 
 secret. And so perfect was the secresy observed, and so accustomed, 
 already, were Bonapart's agents to do his will mysteriously and 
 silently, that for a long time no research could discover, to the eager 
 curiosity of all Europe, the place where Toussaint was confined. 
 His imprisonment was rigorous in the extreme ; he had a litter of 
 straw for his bed, he was scarcely allowed food enough to support 
 life, his cell was damp, and for more than half the year the Jura 
 Mountains are swept by the btse, or cutting wind which blows from 
 the eternally snow-clad Mount Blanc and the other neighbouring 
 Alps. Neither the precise time nor the manner of his death is 
 known ; but the most credible account is, that one morning, in the 
 winter of 1805, Toussaint POuverture was found lying dead and cold 
 on his straw. Reports, however, were spread, and for a long time 
 believed by many, that he had been strangled or poisoned. About 
 the same time that he was first brought to France, Bonaparte pub- 
 lished an edict banishing all of the negro race from his European 
 dominions. In the time of the Directory, to prove his desire of re- 
 maining in friendship with France, and to give his children the 
 advantage of a European education, Toussaint had sent two of his 
 sons to Paris. His wife, and some other members of his family, 
 were, after his own seizure, brought over in another ship, and con- 
 signed to another State prison. After his death his family were 
 
 14 
 
210 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 confined at Brienne-en-Agen, where one of his sons died. The un- 
 happy survivors were not set at liberty until the restoration of the 
 Bourbons in 1814. His widow died in 1816 in the arms of her sons. 
 His virtues, his genius, and political foresight, seem all to have been 
 romantically exaggerated ; but, after every deduction, Toussaint 
 1'Ouverture will appear to have been by far the most extraordinary 
 man known to have been born of the unmixed negro race. 
 x^Bonaparte afterwards acknowledged that the expedition to St. 
 ^Domingo was an enormous blunder. " So," observes a candid critic 
 of his deeds, " was the expedition to Egypt and Syria, so was the 
 invasion of Spain, and last, though not least, the expedition to Russia ; 
 and it may be questioned, without presumption, whether a man who 
 committed so many and such gross political blunders within the 
 narrow compass of fifteen years, be fairly entitled in history to the 
 name of a great statesman." * 
 
 The conqueror had promised himself other advantages from the 
 peace of Amiens, besides the recovery of St. Domingo and the other 
 colonies which France had lost in the war. Some of these advan- 
 tages he effectually secured, though not without breaches of the 
 solemn treaties into which he had entered. By an article of the 
 Treaty of Luneville, Austria and France had guaranteed the indepen- 
 dence of the Dutch, Swiss, Cisalpine, and Genoese Republics, and 
 had engaged that their respective populations should be left free to 
 adopt such forms of government as they themselves might judge 
 proper. But Bonaparte, though making this agreement, had never 
 any intention of abiding by it. He was determined to model these 
 four Republics after his own fashion, and to make them the pale and 
 trembling satellites of France. He held in utter contempt (in too 
 many respects well merited) the political wisdom of the Genoese 
 and the other Italians, and the last thing he intended was that they 
 should be left to make constitutions and try other political expe- 
 riments. He set his heel on the democratic party which had frater- 
 nized with the French and rendered them such important services 
 in his own campaigns. His generals, governors, and ambassador^, 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. 
 
A GGRANDIZEMEKT IN ITAL Y. ail 
 
 who had been left beyond the Alps or sent thither since the peace, 
 lived in the Italian capitals in a princely style, caressed and courted 
 by the nobility, amidst festivals, banquets, and aristocratic splen- 
 dour. The only notice taken of the poor revolutionary democrats 
 was to hunt them from place to place. 
 
 Murat issued an edict at Florence, ordering all the Italian po- 
 litical refugees from other parts of Italy to quit Tuscany and re- 
 turn to their own countries. The same edict was issued at Turin? 
 in the name of the Cisalpine Republic. Now, most of these emi- 
 grants were Neapolitans or Romans, who, only three years before, 
 had been encouraged by the French to revolt against their sove- 
 reigns, who had been obliged to run away to save their lives when 
 the French were driven out of Italy in 1799, and who had lost their 
 property or means of support. To drive them back into the power 
 of the sovereigns to whom they had proved rebels and traitors, was 
 to expose them to the chances of death or imprisonment, starvation 
 or want. They met with the fate they deserved, and which will be 
 kept in store for all revolutionists who put their trust in foreign 
 invaders. Notwithstanding the independence assured to them by 
 the Treaty of Luneville, the two ricketty Italian Republics found that 
 they were entirely and arbitrarily ruled by the French, that French 
 commissioners taxed them as they chose, shearing the people to the 
 very quick, and that disorder and discontent were growing on every 
 side. The puppets whom he had set up as Italian legislators and 
 administrators sent to Paris such addresses, reclamations, and peti- 
 tions as he himself had suggested or dictated through his French 
 agents in Italy ; a little mock Congress was held at Lyon, and there 
 Bonaparte was requested to assume the administrative government 
 of the Cisalpine Republic, for a period sufficient to establish order 
 and unanimity in all its parts, and secure stability and future safety. 
 /The First Consul, therefore, assumed the title, and far more than the 
 I legitimate powers, of President of the Cisalpine Republic. Although 
 I this was done between the signing of the preliminaries and exchang- 
 \ ing the ratifications of peace, our negotiators had not allowed it to 
 stand in the way of the pacific experiment. It had, however, been 
 understood at Amiens, and an express promise and pledge to that 
 
 143 
 
212 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 effect had been given to the Emperor Alexander of Russia, who took 
 an active interest in the fate of the House of Savoy, that Piedmont 
 should never be united to the so-called Republic in Italy, nor incor- 
 porated with France, but be left, with some slight clipping, to the un- 
 fortunate King of Sardinia, who had nobly done his part in the war 
 against the French. It was equally understood that France should 
 remain content with what she had, nor attempt any new incorpora- 
 tions or annexations of territory, either beyond the Alps or elsewhere. 
 Yet, because the young Emperor Alexander refused to take up a 
 wild scheme for the conquest of British India, to be made jointly by 
 France and Russia, which had been entertained for a moment by 
 his insane father, the late Emperor Paul, and because he declined 
 concurring in other views hostile either to Great Britain or Austria, 
 Bonaparte, after sundry encroachments on the side of the Rhine, 
 very soon proceeded to annex and incorporate the whole of Pied- 
 mont with France. Vittorio Amadeo, the original member of the 
 coalition of sovereigns, had died broken-hearted in 1796; his suc- 
 cessor, Carlo Emanuele, had been compelled by the French, and the 
 democratic portion of his own subjects, to sign an act of abdication, 
 and retire with all his family to the rude island of Sardinia in 1798. 
 As soon as the sea (commanded by the English) was placed between 
 this sovereign and his oppressors, he put forth a simple and touch- 
 ing yet spirited protest. Shortly after this he voluntarily resigned 
 the crown to his younger brother, Vittorio Emanuele, who was now 
 ruling, not unwisely or unpatriotically, in Sardinia all that was left 
 of the dominions of his House, one of the most ancient of the dynas- 
 ties of Europe. Nearly at the same time the French Consul took 
 possession of the island of Elba, which belonged to Tuscany, and 
 seized upon the Duchy of Parma, which was to have been incorpo- 
 rated with France. 
 
 In Holland another revolution was effected, under French arms, 
 in imitation of the i8th Brumaire, and the new Constitution made 
 the First Consul, to all intents and purposes, arbiter of the country 
 and master of its resources. England was essentially interested in 
 keeping Holland independent ; but when our Cabinet demanded 
 explanations as to the meaning of these organic changes, Bonaparte 
 
THE AFFAIRS OF SWITZERLAND. 213 
 
 replied through his minister, M. Talleyrand, that Holland had a 
 right to organize herself as best suited her own interests, that the 
 Batavian Republic was perfectly free, that the late occurrences in 
 that country only denoted a progress towards the reconstruction of 
 society, agreeably to the views of order and justice entertained by 
 the First Consul. 
 
 The French troops had never been entirely withdrawn from 
 Switzerland, and only a few months after the settling of the Treaty 
 of Amiens a fresh army was marched into the Cantons. The Con- 
 stitution which had been there set up by the French Directory, and 
 the dissensions and feuds which French intrigue had promoted, had 
 thrown the whole of that tranquil and once happy country into a 
 most stormy and unhappy condition. The peasants were set against 
 the burghers, the burghers against the peasants; all old connexions 
 were uprooted, and even family ties were dissolved, the nearest rela- 
 tives often meeting in deadly hostility. At the same time the esta- 
 blished Provisional Government refused to sanction the dismember- 
 ment of the Canton of the Vallais, which Bonaparte wanted for his 
 projected military road over the Simplon, a project that was to do 
 away with the Alps, and unite Italy with France. Ney was dis- 
 spatched to Switzerland with a fresh army, and the Swiss Deputies 
 were compelled to submit to the terms imposed upon them, and wit- 
 ness, for the time, the total extinction of their national independence. 
 The Vallais was incorporated with France, as well as the city of 
 Geneva and the bishopric of Basle. 
 
 " All Europe," said the First Consul, " expects France to settle 
 the affairs of Switzerland, for it is now acknowledged by Europe 
 that Switzerland, as well as Italy and Holland, is entirely at the dis- 
 posal of France." But neither by England nor by Austria was the 
 acknowledgment of the fact of his pre- potency accompanied by any 
 recognition of its right, and this last pretension, openly advanced 
 to the Swiss Deputies themselves, and loudly proclaimed to the world, 
 was in itself quite sufficient to rend the Treaty of Amiens. But the 
 ambition of Bonaparte was not limited to control or absolute domi- 
 nion over Italy, Switzerland, and Holland. It already cherished 
 plans of aggrandizement on the side of Germany and in the Spanish 
 
214 
 
 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 peninsula. At the same time a fierce and systematized hostility 
 was displayed against the commerce of Great Britain, which, instead 
 of being allowed through the return of peace to flow in its old chan- 
 nels, was as much impeded and hampered in France, and in the 
 countries where the French held sway, as it had been during any 
 
 MAlttlG, 
 
 Voting for the Life Consulship. 
 
 period of the war. The fortunate warrior, however, enjoyed for a 
 season all the honours due to a pacificator, and the peace of Amiens 
 brought him still nearer to a throne. In May t 1802, the President f 
 of the Tribunate recommended that some splendid mark of the\ 
 national gratitude should be bestowed on the First Consul. On the 1 
 reading of this message in the Senate, one of the Senators proposed 1 
 to extend the period of the consulship to ten more years after the I 
 expiration of the first ten years. Another Senator suggested that 1 
 it would be much better to make him Consul for Life. The first of 
 the two motions was put to the vote and carried. But this was 
 not enough to satisfy Bonaparte ; he thanked the Senators, but said 
 he should not accept the prolongation of the period of his consul- 
 ship unless it were sanctioned by the votes of the people. 
 
CONSUL FOR LIFE. 215 
 
 A Council of State was then summoned ; Bonaparte did not attend 
 it, but the adroit Roederer gave the deliberations the turn desired 
 by the Consul. After a preamble, in which he stated that a mere . 
 prolongation of the consulship did not afford sufficient stability or 
 security to the Government and country, Roederer submitted this 
 question, " that the First Consul be confirmed for life, with the right 
 of appointing his successor." The motion was warmly supported, 
 especially by Portalis, who described Bonaparte as " a man on whom 
 the destinies of the world depended, and before whom the earth 
 stood in silent awe." Thej:^nsuJ^ipj^li.Ce_w^s^ 
 
 as there was considerable opposition to the 
 
 ^ 
 
 right of appointing the successor, that question was dropped for the 
 moment as premature. The French people were invited to inscribe 
 their votes in register-books which were opened all over the country, 
 and it was soon reported that more than three millions voted for 
 the consulship for life. A Senatus Consultum of the 4th of August, 
 1802, finished this part of the business. "Now," said Bonaparte, 
 " I am on a level with the other sovereigns, for, after all, they are 
 themselves kings for life only. They and their ministers will respect 
 me more when they see that my authority is no longer precarious." 
 Forthwith several essential changes were made in the Constitution,! 
 and the power of the Government was more and more centralized. \ 
 The authority of the Senate was greatly enlarged, and the Tribunate 
 was reduced to one-half of its preceding number. The power of the 
 Senate was in reality that of the Consul : it was authorized to annul 
 sentences of the Courts of Justice and to dissolve the legislative 
 body and the Tribunate, whenever it might see occasion. 
 ^TOe compilation of a new code of laws for France tvas an impor- 
 ftant undertaking of Bonaparte's consulship. In the year 1800, soon 
 after his accession to political power, he appointed a commission 
 composed of some distinguished civilians, under the presidency of 
 the Second Consul, Cambace'res (who had received a legal educa- 
 tion) to frame a civil code, which should be comprehensive and 
 clear, and suited to the changes which had taken place in France. 
 In the eighteenth century this country had possessed a number of 
 very eminent jurists, and the school was not quite extinct when the 
 
2l6 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 Revolution began. Tronchet, Bigot de Pre'smeneau, Portalis, and 
 Malleville, members of the present committee, had studied in it, and , 
 might be called distinguished French lawyers. They supplied the 
 knowledge in which the First Consul was deficient ; and it appears 
 that if they were at times aided by his great natural sagacity, they 
 were as often impeded by his wilfulness and obstinacy in error. 
 They framed the project of a code, which was printed early in 1801. 
 Copies were sent to the higher Law Courts of France, which were re- 
 quired to make their observations upon it. These observations and 
 suggestions being likewise printed, the whole was laid before the 
 section of legislation in the Council of State, composed of Boulay, 
 Roederer, Thibaudeau, Portalis, and three other civilians of name 
 and note. Bonaparte and Cambace*res attended most of the sittings 
 of the section in which the various heads of the projected code were 
 discussed. Occasionally Bonaparte took a very active part in" the 
 debate, not indeed on technicalities which he did not understand, 
 but on general principles, concerning which he went on discoursing 
 in his usual off hand way, sometimes expressing sensible and acute 
 remarks, and at other times wandering away from the subject for 
 the sake of illustrating it. He took an especial part in the discussion 
 concerning the law of divorce. After passing the Council of State, 
 the various titles of the civil code were laid before the Tribunate, 
 where some of the clauses met with a warm opposition. At lengtl 
 the whole code passed both the Tribunate and the Legislative bod) 
 and was promulgated in 1804 by the name of "Code Civil de 
 Francois." After the Consul became Emperor it was called " Code 
 Napoleon." The general object and arrangement of the code re- 
 semble those of the Institutions of Justinian, defining the civil rights 
 of citizens-, with their legal relations to each other, and it rather mi- 
 nutely prescribes laws concerning persons and laws concerning pro- 
 perty. Many volumes have been written with regard to the merits 
 or defects of this civil code, and many hundreds have been published 
 to explain that which (it was too confidently assumed) would need 
 no explanation, but be quite clear to the meanest capacities. In fact, 
 the French law library seems threatening to become as voluminous 
 and perplexing as our own. A " Code de Procedure Civile," denning 
 
CODES THE LEGION OF HONOUR. 2 1 7 
 
 the forms of civil process and the practice of the courts, was framed 
 likewise by a commission, and became law in 1807. Bonaparte took 
 little or no part in its discussion. The " Code d'Instruction Crimi- 
 nelle," or of proceedings in criminal cases, was promulgated in 1808. 
 While it was under discussion Bonaparte showed himself very un- 
 favourable to the institution of trial by jury. Two years after this 
 came the " (^de^JPdnaL" or laws defining crimes and punishments, 
 in which many of the provisions are certainly harsh and savour of 
 despotism. A commercial code, perhaps the best of these French 
 codes, completed the number. These are sometimes called the 
 '* Five Codes," as having been all published in Bonaparte's time. 
 He likewise produced a military code, in the construction of which 
 he was more at home. 
 
 The Consul bestowed no small degree of attention to the subject 
 of education, and revised various branches of public instruction. 
 He was anxious to promote the positive sciences, but he gave little 
 encouragement to classical, or indeed to any other kind of litera- 
 ture. He was a utilitarian before that now defunct sect had adopted 
 the name. He was continually sneering at speculative, moral phi- 
 losophy, calling its professors vain, fantastical idea-mongers des 
 Ideologues. The scientific men of France were at all times very sub- 
 servient to his will, and among the foremost of his flatterers : the 
 literary men were very far from being so unanimous or so submis- 
 sive, and he could tolerate only those who celebrated his greatness 
 or wrote as he wished. 
 
 As each of the old monarchies of Europe had its order or orders 
 of knighthood, and as, in France, all such distinctions had been 
 abolished by the Revolution, the Consul determined to create one of 
 his own. This was the noted Op^r pf th* Tf fpon of Honour. Some 
 of the more republican Councillors of State objected to the institu- 
 tion as being an organized body a new aristocracy. One of them 
 begged to remark that there was no such institution among the 
 Romans. Bonaparte is still evoked by liberals, who will never pro- 
 perly study his life and deeds, as the child and unvarying champion 
 of democracy. Let us listen to the words he now delivered : " It 
 is very strange," said he, "that in speaking against civil distinctions 
 
2l8 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 you should quote the history of the very people (the Romans) amongst 
 whom they were most marked. All their institutions, social, military, 
 political, and religious, were based upon distinctions. The Romans 
 had a patrician order, an equestrian order, citizens, and slaves. Each 
 of these classes had a different costume and different manners. The 
 Romans awarded honours and distinctions as rewards for services 
 rendered to the country ; they had mural crowns, ovations, triumphs. 
 When the distinctions between the classes gave way, when the aris- 
 tocracy, that fine patrician body, was overthrown, Rome was torn 
 to pieces ; the people were nothing but a vile populace ; and the 
 proscriptions of Marius, Sulla, and the Caesar followed in rapid suc- 
 cession. Frenchmen are for ever quoting Brutus as the enemy of 
 tyrants, and yet Brutus was nothing else than an aristocrat, who 
 killed Julius Caesar because Caesar wanted to curtail the authority 
 of the Senate, in order to add to the power of the people. But his- 
 tory is misquoted to serve party purposes. Where will you find a 
 Republic, in ancient or modern times, without its honours and dis- 
 tinctions ? " 
 
 To other sticklers for simplicity and plainness of attire he said, 
 "You call these ribbons and crosses toys, baubles ! But men are 
 fond of toys, and are led along by means of them. / don't think 
 that the French people care much about liberty and equality ; the 
 French have not been changed by ten years of revolution ; they are 
 still what the Gauls were, high-spirited and changeable. They have 
 one feeling, that of honour; we must, therefore, administer to that 
 feeling by giving them distinctions. See how they bow before the 
 orders worn by foreign diplomatists, how they seem struck by them ! 
 What have our revolutionary governments done ? They have de- 
 stroyed everything that had a hold upon men's minds, and substituted 
 nothing instead. They have left nothing to warm men's fancies. 
 Do you dream that we can rely upon the people ? The people will 
 cry out, ' The King for ever I ' or ' The League for ever ! ' just as it 
 now shouts ' Long live the Republic !" We must give them a direc- 
 tion : this Legion of Honour will be useful as a means." 
 
 Sit was soon made to appear that the limits of Europe were not 
 wide enough for Bonaparte ; he returned" to his object of annexing 
 
FRESH QTTjnwrtj^ WTTfT vvrr^tfft 2 1 9 
 
 Egypt and Syria to France ; and he contemplated the means of 
 obtaining possession of the islands of Candia, Cyprus, and Rhodes, 
 and of the Turkish regency of Tunis. He did not even satisfy him- 
 self with the Old World, but sought for territories in the New, where 
 the Government of the United States, for money and other consi- 
 derations, assented to the formal cession of Louisiana made to him 
 by the Court of Spain. \\fhile he was every day departing, if not 
 from the strict letter, from the spirit of the Treaty of Amiens, he 
 pretended to bind England to the strict observance of every article 
 in that treaty which was against her, and insisted on the immediate 
 evacuation of Malta, the Cape of Good Hope, and every place she 
 had agreed to restore. Had we withdrawn our troops from Malta 
 in one week he would have possessed himself of that important 
 island in the next. The wld Knights of Malta were ruined, scattered, 
 and absolutely discredited ; they had become a laughingstock in 
 Europe, and could never have been restored. If, according to the 
 treaty, two or three Neapolitan regiments had been sent to garrison 
 Malta, they could not have defended it a single day against a French 
 armament. 
 
 And while the Consul was exclaiming against the bad faith of the 
 British Government, he was employing his so-called consular agents 
 in England, and still more in Ireland, in examining all the weak 
 points, in making plans of our seaports, and in forming connections 
 with the disaffected portions of our Irish subjects. 
 ^*But if there be one historical fact clearer than another, it is that 
 [Bonaparte was resolved on renewing the war with Great Britain. 
 His one predominant idea was, that his political existence depended 
 on an extension of his conquests. " My power," he would say, 
 " depends on my glory, and my glory on my victories. My power 
 would fall if I did not support it by fresh glory and new victories. 
 Conquest has made me what I am, and conquest alone can maintain 
 me. A newly-born government, like mine, must dazzle and astonish. 
 When it ceases to do that, it falls ! " It was vain to look for rest 
 from a man who was restlessness himself. Even apart from calcu- 
 lation, war was his delight, his idol, and his greatest source of en- 
 joyment. Notwithstanding his activity of mind, and his almost 
 
220 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 incessant employment (for he insisted upon directing everything 
 himself, whether it were the making of a road or bridge, or the 
 framing of a code of laws or a system of education), he was always 
 observed to become moody and sad in a time of peace, and to utter 
 hypochondriacal complaints about his health and his tendency to 
 corpulence; whereas in the camp or in the field he was nearly 
 always gay and buoyant. 
 
 It is, however, to be particularly noted and remembered that, even 
 in his consulship, Bonaparte's complaints were not all attributable 
 to hypochondriasis. Before he was named Consul for life he had 
 strong symptoms of that hereditary complaint of which he died at 
 St. Helena. He would often lay his hand to his stomach and say, 
 " It is here ! I shall not live to be old ! I shall die like my father ! " 
 He had rather frequent attacks of illness, and though he concealed 
 these from the public as much as possible, his altered complexion 
 betrayed them. At other times he would murmur, " I shall not live 
 to be old, but I shall live to be fat. That is horrible I What shall 
 I do, then, on horseback, at the head of my army ? " An Italian 
 lady, who mistook obesity for a sign of health, complimented him 
 one day on his growing stout, reminding him how very thin he was 
 when he first went into Italy. He turned his back upon the poor 
 gossip, and quite terrified her, by uttering an Italian phrase which 
 which will not bear translating. 
 
 So long as the diplomatic deliberations were left to M. Talley- 
 rand, and our ambassador, Lord Whitworth, there might have been 
 some chance of a prolongation of the peace ; but this chance was 
 lost, and Bonaparte took the business into his own hands. The 
 First Consul adopted the same rude and violent tone which had 
 succeeded with the Austrian diplomatist at Campo Formio; but 
 England had not been humbled and crushed like Austria, and Lord 
 Whitworth was not Count Cobentzel. In his private cabinet the 
 Consul delivered a rapid uninterrupted harangue, which lasted two 
 hours, during which the ambassador was scarcely allowed to say , 
 one word. He declared that England must immediately evacuate | 
 Malta ; that of the two he would rather see us in the possession of 
 the faubourgs of Paris than of Malta. He complained of the abuse / 
 
LORD WHITWORTH. 221 
 
 of him in the English public prints, but most of certain French 
 papers which were published in London. For some time the news- 
 papers on both sides the channel had been very violent. Lord Whit- 
 worth had told Talleyrand that whatever was published in the En- 
 glish papers might be considered as a national retaliation to what 
 was put forth in the French papers ; that in France these attacks 
 were published officially, which was by no means the case in Eng- 
 land ; and that, although the French Government possessed a con- 
 trol over the press in France, the English Government neither had 
 nor could have such a control in their country. Nothing less would 
 have satisfied the First Consul than the suspension or abolition of 
 the liberty of our press. It is scarcely necessary to go into the cri- 
 minations and recriminations of this period. The First Consul said, 
 "Why does England pretend to be alarmed about Egypt? I can 
 conquer that country when I choose ; but I do not think it worth 
 the risk of a war, since, sooner or later, Egypt will belong to France, 
 either by the falling to pieces of the Turkish empire, or by some 
 arrangement with the Porte? He declared that, in case of a war, 
 he would most assuredly try an invasion. He would not pretend to 
 diminish the danger of invading England: he allowed that there 
 were a hundred chances to one against him ; but still he would 
 attempt it, and such was the disposition of his troops, that army 
 after army would be found for the enterprise. Perceiving that these 
 menaces did not disturb the equanimity of Lord Whitworth, the 
 First Consul altered his tone. If the British Government and his 
 could only agree and act together, what might they not do? Look 
 at the natural force of the two countries, France with an army of 
 480,000 men, and England with a fleet which made her the mistress 
 of the seas ! Two such countries, by a proper understanding, might 
 govern the world. If England would only come to this understand- 
 ing, there was nothing he would not do to gratify her. Lord Whit- 
 worth, when allowed to speak, calmly said that the King, his master, 
 had no wish to participate in the conquest and spoils of the Con- 
 tinent had no ambition to acquire more territory, but only to pre- 
 serve what he had. His lordship was going to speak of the recent 
 encroac* ments made by France, but Bonaparte interrupted him by 
 
222 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 saying, " I suppose you mean Piedmont and Switzerland : ce sont 
 des bagatelles these are trifles which must have been foreseen by 
 you while the negotiations at Amiens were pending ; you have no 
 right to speak of them now ! " He told Lord Whitworth that Eng- 
 land was unequal to a single-handed contest with France, and he 
 intimated that she could now find no allies on the Continent. 
 
 A few days after this curious interview in the private cabinet, 
 Lord Whitworth went to the Tuileries. It was Sunday, the 1 3th 
 of March, 1803, a day of levee, or grande reception; one Sunday 
 in each month being now devoted to this purpose ; and Madame 
 Bonaparte and the ladies of her Court were assembled in the great 
 state room, which was crowded with general officers, aides-de-camp, 
 and foreign ambassadors. It was against all rule to discuss State 
 matters on such a day, in such a company ; Lord Whitworth had 
 not the remotest notion of entering upon any business ; but his 
 lordship had scarcely taken his place in the circle, in the midst ot 
 the other foreign diplomatists, ere the First Consul went straight up 
 to him and addressed him, "evidently under very considerable 
 agitation." He began by asking him if he had any news from 
 England? Whitworth replied that he had received letters from 
 his Government two days ago. Bonaparte instantly rejoined, with 
 increased agitation, u And so you are determined to go to war ? " 
 " No," said his lordship, " we are too sensible of the advantages of 
 peace." " We have already made war for fifteen years," said the 
 Consul. Lord Whitworth answered, " That is already too long ! " 
 " But," rejoined Bonaparte, " you wish to make war for fifteen years 
 longer, and you force me to it ! " His lordship calmly said, " That 
 was very far from his Majesty's intentions." The First Consul then 
 proceeded to the Russian and Spanish ambassadors, who were 
 standing together at some little distance, and said to them, " The 
 English want war ; but if they are the first to draw the sword, I 
 shall be the last to sheathe it. They do not respect treaties ; they 
 must henceforward be covered with black crape 1 " In a few minutes 
 he resumed the conversation with Lord Whitworth. "Against whom 
 your precautionary measures ? I have not a single ship of the line 
 in the ports of France. But if you will arm, I will arm also ; if 
 
THE TUILERIES. 
 
 223 
 
 The First Consul's Court. 
 
 you will fight, I will fight. You may possibly be able to kill France, 
 but never to intimidate her ! " " We wish to do neither the one nor 
 the other, but to live on good terms with her," said his lordship. 
 " Then treaties must be respected ! Woe to those who do not 
 respect treaties ! They will be answerable for it to all Europe ! " 
 Lord Whitworth, calm and collected, replied not a word ; and the 
 First Consul rushed out of the apartment repeating his last phrase, 
 " Woe to those who do not respect treaties ! They will be respon- 
 sible for it to all Europe !" The alarmed Josephine followed her 
 husband, and in an instant the hall was cleared of its brilliant com- 
 pany. 
 
 Some languid attempts at renewing pacific negotiations were 
 made, after this, by Talleyrand, but it was merely in the view of 
 gaining time, in order to secure from our cruisers the French vessels 
 that were at sea. Lord Whitworth, perceiving the drift, demanded 
 
224 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEOM BONAPARTE. 
 
 his passports, and, on the I2th of May, left Paris. Some days after 
 an Order in Council was issued in London for an embargo on all 
 French and Dutch vessels, and about 200 such vessels were pre- 
 sently detained or captured. To retaliate for this customary pro- 
 cedure, the First Consul had recourse to a most novel and unpre- 
 cedented measure : by a decree dated the 22nd of May, he ordered 
 that all the English, of whatsoever condition, found on the territory 
 of France, should be detained prisoners of war on the pretence 
 that many of them belonged to the militia. There was still a great 
 number of English travellers in Paris, many of whom were merely 
 passing through that capital on their way homeward from Italy, 
 Switzerland, and other countries : whole families were seized to- 
 gether, as if the wives and daughters of the English aristocracy and 
 gentry could be militia officers ! Even the character and ancient 
 acknowledged rights of ambassadors were set at nought : Mr. Listen, 
 our ambassador to Holland, Lord Elgin, Mr. Talbot, the secretary 
 of our embassy at Paris, and other diplomatic persons, were made 
 prisoners ; and in most cases their letters and papers were seized. 
 These sweeping arrests were not confined to the English who were 
 actually on the territory of France ; they were extended to Italy 
 and every neighbouring country where the French had an armed 
 force, or where they could give the law. As no distinction had been 
 made as to sex, so none was made as to condition, profession, or 
 pursuits. Clergymen, men of letters or science, artists, all were 
 captured. About 10,000 British subjects, of nearly every class and 
 condition, remained in Bonaparte's clutches. A simultaneous and 
 universal burst of indignation and disgust was excited in the United 
 Kingdom. "If," wrote Romilly, "it had been Bonaparte's object 
 to give strength to the British Ministry, and to make the war uni- 
 versally popular in England, he could not have devised a better 
 expedient." 
 
 Before the English Government began to seize the French and 
 Dutch ships, a French army was collected on the frontiers of Holland-/ 
 to pounce upon the comparatively defenceless hereditary dominions 
 of the King ot England ; and so soon as the declaration of war was 
 issued, General Mortier advanced into the heart of Hanover and 
 
MORE CONSPIRACIES AND PLOTS. 225 
 
 took possession of all that electorate. The First Consul ordered a 
 conscription of 120,000 men for the current year, and resumed his 
 plan of a camp and flotilla at Boulogne, for the professed purpose 
 of invading England. The direction-posts all the way from Paris 
 to Boulogne bore the words " Road to London." He was destined 
 very soon to discover that England would not be left without allies 
 on the Continent. By his encroachments on the side of Italy and 
 on that of the Rhine, and by his dictatorial interference in the affairs 
 of all the weaker German States, he had completely alienated the 
 young Emperor Alexander of Russia, and roused the Austrian Cabi- 
 net to fresh warlike exertions. The clear object of the First Consul 
 was to substitute the influence of France for that of Austria, and to 
 render the smaller German States his allies and dependants. These 
 petty States betrayed great selfishness, and a deplorable want of 
 political wisdom and forethought. They paid for it afterwards (and 
 very dearly), but for many years their folly and subserviency gave 
 strength to the arm of Bonaparte. 
 
 Although he had been so very eager to obtain from the Spaniards 
 the cession of Louisiana, the Consul now sold it to the United States 
 for 1 5,000,000 dollars, thus giving up the last territory France pos- 
 sessed on the North American continent. It has been observed 
 that he probably sold Louisiana because he thought that he could 
 not have defended it against the English ; but that his policy appears 
 wanting in statesmanlike foresight on this as on other occasions.* 
 
 While he was dictating his will to so large a portion of Europe, 
 the First Consul was surrounded by plots and conspiracies at Paris. 
 It is now capable of proof that many of these were sham plots, got 
 up by his own secret police, whose numbers and functions he had 
 augmented to a very unwise degree. Believing that the spirit of 
 disaffection was kept up by anonymous publications, he issued a 
 Senatus Consultum which, " in order," as it is stated, u to secure the 
 liberty of the press? forbade any bookseller to publish any book, 
 pamphlet, or work whatever, until he had previously submitted a 
 copy of it to the censors or Commission of Revision. Nocturnal 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. 
 
226 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPAR TE. 
 
 arrests, and the mysterious deportation to lonely fortresses on the 
 remote sea-coasts, or among the Jura Mountains, the Pyrenees, and 
 the Alps, had continued to increase all through the year 1803 ; but 
 the " Consular Reign of Terror," as it is called, was principally con- 
 fined to the period which intervened between the month of October 
 of that year and the month of April, 1 804. The prisons of Paris 
 were crammed with State or political prisoners. From time to time 
 a victim was dragged from his prison before a military commission, 
 and on the following morning a short paragraph in the Moniteur 
 told the people of Paris that such or such an enemy to the country 
 had been found guilty and fusiladed in the plain of Crenelle. 
 
 The only man in France that Bonaparte feared singly was General 
 Moreau, whose military reputation was second only to his own, who 
 was warmly beloved by the soldiers who had served under him, and 
 who had frankly shown a decided aversion to the despotic system 
 of government which the First Consul was so rapidly building up. 
 With Moreau once in his power, or with materials and charges 
 wherewith to discredit him in the eyes of the soldiery and people, 
 he calculated that the throne he was erecting would be firm and 
 safe. His secret police well knew these not secret thoughts, and 
 they acted conformably. 
 
 Towards the close of the year 1 800, a number of French emigrants 
 of various parties, having met in London, proposed to act in concert 
 in order to overthrow Bonaparte's Government. Generals Dumou- 
 riez and Pichegru, and Georges Cadoudal the Vende*an chief, were 
 the movers of the conspiracy, being supported by the Count of Artois, 
 afterwards Charles X., who never contemplated means so base as 
 assassination. The plans of these men were distinct, though lead- 
 ing to the same end a restoration of the Bourbons. Pichegru relied 
 upon Moreau and other dissatisfied generals, who might create a 
 corresponding movement in the French army. Georges Cadoudal, 
 the sturdy Vende'an, as brave as his sword, relied entirely upon his 
 own countrymen, whom he had often led to victory against the 
 French Jacobins. His idea was to collect a certain number of the 
 bravest of them in Paris, and then, some day, attack openly the 
 First Consul in the midst of his guards, but not to murder him 
 
1804.] ARREST OP CONSPIRATORS. 227 
 
 treacherously. " We are soldiers, and not assassins," were words 
 constantly on his lip. This intention is proved by existing docu- 
 ments, by the correspondence of the conspirators, and it is con- 
 firmed by a secret report of Desmarest to the Minister of Police, 
 in which he says that Cadoudal's adventurous idea of attacking the 
 First Consul in open combat, and not in the dark as a hired assas- 
 sin, was the main cause of his failure. Georges and some of his 
 followers were landed on the coast of Brittany from an English ship 
 commanded by Captain Wright, who had never heard any hint of 
 assassination. The British Government contemplated a rising of 
 the French Royalists, and this, as a belligerent, it was fully justified 
 in promoting. Having increased his party, the sturdy Vende'an 
 chief made his way to Paris. General Pichegru also arrived at that 
 capital, where he had some interviews with Moreau and other offi- 
 cers. Moreau agreed as to the expediency of a military movement 
 to overthrow Bonaparte, but not to restore the Bourbons : he still 
 thought a Republic to be possible in France which it clearly was 
 not. Meantime MM. Polignac and Riviere, aides-de-camp to the 
 Count of Artois, repaired to Paris in order to examine the state of 
 opinion and the strength of the disaffected, and then report to the 
 Count At the first news of an insurrectionary movement in Paris, 
 one of the Bourbon princes was to enter France, and there appeal 
 to the army and people. In all this, however, there was no real 
 union between the various parties, each of them working out its own 
 plan, without any direct communication with the rest. We believe 
 that, from its first beginning, there never was a moment in which 
 the secret police were not aware of this intended insurrection. The 
 secret was in the possession of too many persons to have a chance 
 of remaining a secret. As the story is told, the French police, hav- 
 ing received early information of some part of the plot or plots, 
 determined to employ an experienced spy to find out the rest It 
 is quite certain that ihey very soon employed Mehde de la Touche, 
 a very accomplished scoundrel, who had figured first as a Jacobin 
 and then as a Royalist emigrant, who had played the part of a double 
 spy, taking pay from both sides and betraying both. This Meh^e 
 went to London, where he had interviews with the Royalist emi- 
 
228 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 grants and Bourbon princes, to whom he exaggerated the reliance 
 to be placed upon Moreau and the disaffected part of the army, and 
 upon the expedition of Cadoudal and Pichegru. Mehe*e also went 
 to Germany and put himself in communication with Mr. Drake, the 
 English Minister at the Court of Bavaria, who supplied him with 
 some money to enable him to assist in disorganizing and overthrow- 
 ing Bonaparte's Government by means of an armed insurrection. 
 M elide then returned to Paris, reported to the police, and meantime 
 continued his correspondence with Mr. Drake. The police knew a 
 great deal, but they knew nothing positive concerning Pichegru and 
 Georges, until a man named Querelle, who had been arrested on 
 suspicion, being sent to trial and condemned to be shot, confessed 
 that he had landed five months before on the western coast with 
 Georges, Pichegru, and others, who had come to Paris to overthrow 
 the First Consul, and who were still concealed in that capital. 
 Querelle was pardoned and liberated. It is thought by some that 
 he had been all along in the service of the secret police. His depo- 
 sition was placarded about Paris, and the conspirators were hunted 
 down. Their almost simultaneous arrest proved pretty clearly that 
 the police knew perfectly well where they could lay their hands on 
 them. 
 
 Pichegru, taken by surprise as he was lying on a bed in an obscure 
 chamber, could not reach his sabre and pistols in time ; but he 
 wrestled with six men, and they did not succeed in binding him 
 with chains and fetters until several of them had been thrown to the 
 floor and trampled upon by the athletic general. Georges was 
 stopped in the streets of Paris, driving in a cabriolet ; he blew out 
 the brains of one of the police agents, wounded another, and had 
 nearly escaped on foot, when two butchers and a locksmith's ap- 
 prentice threw themselves upon him, and clung to him * :11 some 
 gendarmes came up. In all about forty individuals were seized ; 
 but the very first arrest ordered by Bonaparte was that of General 
 Moreau, who was now implicated, and named with til the rest as 
 brigands and assassins in the pay of England. 
 
 The First Consul looked around for a royal victim. Monsieur, 
 or Louis XVIII., was out of his reach, living under the protection 
 
THE DUKE D'ENGHEIN. 
 
 229 
 
 Arrest of Georges Cadoudal. 
 
 of the Emperor of Russia at Warsaw ; his brother, the Count 
 d'Artois (subsequently Charles X.), his nephew, the Due de Berri, 
 and the other princes of his family, were safe in London. But, close 
 on the French frontiers, was a young Bourbon prince, and the 
 bravest and most interesting, if not the best, of all of them : Louis 
 Antoine Henri de Bourbon, Due d'Enghien, had fixed his residence 
 at Ettenheim, a chateau on the German side of the Rhine, a few 
 miles from that river, and in the neutral territories of the Margrave 
 of Baden. This choice of a residence was influenced by an attach- 
 ment between him and the Princess Charlotte de Rohan, who was 
 living at Ettenheim with her near relative the Cardinal de Rohan. 
 It was rumoured among the friends of the Consul that the brave 
 prince had repeatedly entered France, and had even visited Paris 
 in disguise. It was also said that the very able and adroit General 
 Dumouriez was with him. Both these reports were utterly false ; 
 but it is stated that Bonaparte believed them to be true. 
 
 By one of those orders that flew like lightning frona Paris to all 
 
230 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 the extremities of France, the officer commanding at Strasbourg 
 was enjoined to send some troops across the Rhine by night, and 
 seize the Duke in his chateau ; and M. Caulaincourt, one of Bona- 
 parte's aides-de-camp, and soon afterwards called Duke of Vicenza, 
 was sent by his master to the Rhine to superintend the operation. 
 Caulaincourt gave the delicate commission to Colonel Ordenner, 
 commandant of the gendarmerie-a-cheval, who, on the night of the 
 1 4th of March, crossed the river with some squadrons of gendarmes 
 and other cavalry, entered the territory of Baden as if it had been 
 a French province, and advancing at the charging pace, soon sur- 
 rounded the chateau of Ettenheim. The Duke, it is said, had been 
 apprised a day or two before (according to Bourrienne it was Talley- 
 rand who gave the merciful hint) that some design against him was 
 on foot. But he could not believe it : he was living in a friendly 
 country a peaceable and inoffensive life, under the protection of the 
 ' laws both of nature and of nations ; and in consequence of this 
 security, those who came to kidnap him found that no kind of pre- 
 caution had been taken against them. When the Duke was roused 
 from his midnight slumber by the tramp of their horses' feet and 
 by the rattling of their arms, he sprang out of bed, and from the 
 window perceived that the chateau was surrounded, and that a de- 
 tachment of French cavalry was watching the neighbouring town 
 of Ettenheim, and blocking up the roads which led from it to the 
 castle. He, nevertheless, determined to fight for his liberty, and 
 having thrown on some clothes, he and his faithful valet Joseph 
 armed themselves with. fowling-pieces; his officers and other per- 
 sons of his limited establishment presently joined him, armed also 
 with fowling-pieces, which, with their side-arms and a few pistols, 
 were the only weapons in the chateau. The stairs of the castle were, 
 however, straight and narrow, so that, from the first landing-place, 
 an obstinate defence might have been made against the assailants. 
 The Duke preserved the most perfect coolness, and made the ablest 
 dispositions for resistance ; his officers and servants were to load 
 his fowling-pieces, under cover, while he, at the head of the stairs, 
 discharged them successively, as fast as they could load, and with 
 an effect the more to be relied upon as he was a wonderful shot. 
 
ARREST OF THE DUKE. 231 
 
 The gendarrr* soon broke the lower door, and seemed to be about 
 to ascend the narrow stairs, where some of them must have received 
 the proper reward of their conduct, when the Duke's first gentleman, 
 a Baron Grinstein, threw himself upon him, caught him in his arms, 
 and, dragged him into a room which opened upon the head of the 
 staircase, exclaiming that all resistance was vain, and that care 
 must be taken of the precious life of his Royal Highness. It has 
 never, we believe, been ascertained whether the Baron acted upon 
 a criminal or upon an honourable and humane motive ; but we are 
 inclined to believe that his motive was good, that he saw that the 
 Bourbon Prince must perish in such an unequal struggle, and that 
 he could not conceive, if he submitted to captivity, that his enemies 
 would ever proceed to the horrible extremity of taking his life. It 
 has been well said that one cannot help wishing, on the first im- 
 pression, that the Duke had had the satisfaction of dying amidst 
 his dying enemies with his arms in his hands ; but that Heaven 
 ordained for him a still nobler fate, and fraught with a nobler lesson. 
 " Had he died in that midnight struggle, the atrocity of Bonaparte 
 might have been doubted ; the cool heroic devotion of the young 
 and gallant victim would not have been tried and proved ; the deep 
 and lasting indignation of Europe would not have been excited ; 
 and the retributive justice of Heaven, in the fate of Murat and 
 Bonaparte, would have wanted its highest effect, its most exemplary 
 vindication." * 
 
 When the French gendarmes entered the room into which Grin- 
 stein had dragged the Duke, their first question was, " Which of 
 you is the Duke d'Enghien ?" " If you are sent here to seize him," 
 said the Duke, " you ought to have a description of his person in 
 your order." "Which of you is the man?" cried the soldiers, pre- 
 senting their long pistols. No answer was returned. "Then," 
 shouted the officer in command, " we must seize you all." And they 
 were all seized and bound, being all, except Baron Grinstein, less 
 than half dressed. The kidnappers instantly marched the whole 
 party out of the chateau and through the town of Ettenheim, for 
 
 * " Quarterly Review," vol. xvii., article in answer to Mr. Warden. 
 
23 2 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 though they had no resistance to apprehend, their consciences made 
 cowards of them all ; and they were nervously eager to recross the 
 Rhine, and get back within the strong walls of Strasbourg. By this 
 time, the quiet little town, which like the chateau had been buried 
 in sleep, was all on foot and on tiptoe, in the most excited state of 
 curiosity, astonishment, and consternation ; and it is said that the 
 Princess Charlotte de Rohan, who, alarmed at the noise, had risen 
 from her bed and run to a window, saw, but it is supposed without 
 recognizing him, her lover the Duke dragged past her house, with 
 no other covering but loose trousers, a waistcoat, and a pair of 
 slippers. At a little distance from Ettenheim they halted at a mill, 
 where was the burgomaster of the town. Whether it was this Ger- 
 man boor, or the Duke's secretary, who was living in the town, and 
 who now came running after his master, imploring to be allowed to 
 share his fate, that first pointed out which of the party was His Royal 
 Highness, is not known, and is not very important ; but it is certain 
 that the Duke was recognized at the mill. He then asked to be 
 allowed to send his valet back to the chateau for linen, clothes, and 
 some money. This was granted ; and as soon as the servant returned, 
 the Duke dressed himself, and the whole party proceeded rapidly 
 to the Rhine. They crossed the river between Cappell and Reinau, 
 and on the opposite bank found carriages waiting for them. The 
 French wanted to place Baron Grinstein in the same carriage with 
 the Duke, but he refused to be so accompanied, and insisted upon 
 taking with him instead his brave and faithful valet Joseph, who 
 had endeavoured to assist him in defending the chateau. On their 
 arrival at Strasbourg, all the prisoners were confined in the citadel. 
 Caulaincourt, who had directed and superintended the whole opera- 
 tion from Offenbourg, had not yet returned to Strasbourg, and 
 appears to have been fully determined not to face his illustrious 
 victim. During that day and the two following days the Prince 
 was respectfully treated, and none of the soldiery seem to have 
 imagined that worse was intended him than close confinement in 
 some State prison. But towards evening on the i8th, Caulaincourt 
 returned, and at the dead of night the wearied Duke's bed was sur- 
 rounded by gendarmes, who bade him rise and dress himself with 
 
TREATMENT OF THE DUKE. 233 
 
 all haste, as he was about to go on a journey. He asked for the 
 attendance of the faithful Joseph ; he was told he would have no 
 need of any valet where he was going. He asked to take some linen 
 with him, and he was told that two shirts would be quite enough. 
 "All this might have convinced the Duke that his journey was to 
 a bloody grave."* 
 
 With needless barbarity they put chains on the Prince's arms. 
 The carriage which conveyed him stopped only to change horses 
 and mounted escorts. In the dusk of the evening it rolled over 
 the drawbridge and through the arched gateway of the then gloomy 
 old fortress of Vincennes, which was left to Savary's gendarmes, 
 whose nerves were strung to do whatever the First Consul might 
 command. Such was the unlimited Oriental devotion of Savary 
 himself to his chief, that he was reported to have said, " If the First 
 Consul ordered me to kill mine own father, I would kill him." 
 
 Bonaparte called no council, took no advice, yis wife Josephine, 
 who learned what he had on hand, and who had a feeling and gene- 
 rous heart, threw herself on her knees, and implored him to stop 
 short in this foul crime. " Woman," said the Consul, " mind your 
 own business : these are not things for women to meddle with ! Let 
 me alone ! " Before this, he had said, " The Bourbons must be 
 taught that they are not to sport with my life with impunity." It is 
 quite certain that Talleyrand and others, who have been implicated, 
 knew nothing of the last act of the tragedy until it was played out, 
 and that the part which Murat took in the business was as nothing 
 to that performed by Savary, the real head of Bonaparte's most 
 secret police. 
 
 On the very night of the Duke's arrival at Vincennes, a military 
 court assembled in the castle : the seven officers who composed it 
 had all been nominated by Bonaparte himself, or by Murat after 
 consultation with him. In the middle of the night the illustrious 
 captive weary, sleepy, exhausted as he was was brought before 
 this tribunal. He was charged with 'having borne arms against the 
 French Republic ; with being still in the pay of England ; with acting 
 
 * "Pictorial Hist. England" MacFarlane s Narrative. 
 
234 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 as the head of a party of emigrants, assembled near the frontiers of 
 France, and holding treasonable correspondence with the interior ; 
 and, finally, with being an accomplice in the conspiracy formed at 
 Paris against the life of the First Consul. The Duke acknowledged 
 that he had fought under his grandfather, the Prince of Conde*, 
 against the Revolution during the last war, and that he still received 
 from England a pension, which was his only means of subsistence. 
 He most positively and solemnly denied having had any connection 
 or communication either with Pichegru or Dumouriez, or having 
 kept up any treasonable correspondence with persons in France. 
 With the greatest indignation he rebutted the charge of having con- 
 spired against the life of the First Consul a charge, by the way, 
 which was not mentioned in the indictment. He marvelled that 
 they should venture to bring such an accusation against one who 
 bore the honoured name of Conde*. The Duke was a brave soldier, 
 and no assassin, or encourager of assassins. On their asking him 
 what had been his place in the late Royalist army, he said, with a 
 noble pride, " Gentlemen, I was always in the van ! " 
 
 The court found him guilty of the two first charges, and pro- 
 nounced sentence of death. This is the original judgment upon 
 which the Duke was executed ; but as this judgment did not appear^ 
 to the Consul and his friends, explicit or regular enough, another 
 version of it was framed the next day (after the execution, be it re- 
 membered), in which his Royal Highness was found guilty of all the 
 charges brought against him; and this second post-mortem judg- 
 ment was published in the mendacious Moniteur. The originals ' 
 of both these monstrous documents have been discovered and criti- 
 cally examined by M. Dupin, an acute French lawyer, and they 
 are both printed at full length in M. Capefigue's " History of the 
 Consulate and Empire." They really go to prove that the men en- 
 gaged in this dark transaction were stupefied by the sense of their 
 own guilt, and knew not how to put a deceptive gloss on the story. 
 They look like vulgar murderers scared by a ghost. 
 
 On this mock trial not a single witness of any kind was examined, 
 nor was any evidence produced, except some papers, which proved 
 nothing, and which are stated in the original sentence itself to have 
 
MURDER OF THE DUKE. 235 
 
 been read secretly by the military court before the prisoner was 
 brought in. No counsel was allowed, although, according to the 
 existing law, counsel was assigned to every prisoner at the bar. 
 But it is bootless, where everything was illegal, to dwell on illegali- 
 ties. General Hulin, the president of the court, when subsequently 
 pleading in extenuation of his guilt, said, " Appointed to be judges, 
 we were obliged to act as judges, at the risk of being judged our- 
 selves.'* 
 
 The Due d'Enghein was led that very night, or rather early in the 
 morning of the 2ist of March, to the castle ditch, where gendarmes 
 were drawn up, and where a grave had already been dug for him. 
 These glaring, now incontrovertible, facts must remain for ever on 
 the pages of history and biography : this blood will not sink into 
 the earth and disappear. It is said that the Duke asked for the 
 attendance of a confessor, and that the brutal reply to the request 
 was, " Would you die like a priest ? " He refused to be blindfolded ; 
 he presented his breast to the soldiers, and exclaiming, " I die for 
 my King and for France ! " fell with seven mortal bullets in his body. 
 The men fired at the short distance of ten paces, and as they fired 
 the Duke rushed towards the muzzles of their pieces and dropped 
 dead at their feet. Then, dressed as it was, without coffin or shroud, 
 the body was flung carelessly into the ready-made grave in the castle 
 moat. The site is marked by a small cross and a diminutive sickly- 
 looking tree, planted after the downfall of Bonaparte ; but the moul- 
 dering remains, on the 2ist of March, 1816, the twelfth anniversary 
 of the murder, were transferred to the chapel of the castle, and 
 covered with a sculptured monument, singularly bad in taste, and 
 devoid of true Christian sentiment. 
 
 At St. Helena, Bonaparte justified the deed, and said that, in a 
 similar case, he would again do the same. There is, however, some- 
 thing like evidence to show that he had many regrets and com- 
 punctious visitings, and that he felt, at least, the full force of the 
 saying of the cold-blooded Fouchd ; " C'est pis qtfune crime; c'est 
 unefaute " " It is worse than a crime ; it is a mistake." 
 
 General-President Hulin seems to have experienced the most 
 lively remorse. For several days after the Duke's execution he was 
 
236 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 observed walking rapidly up and down his garden, repeating to him- 
 self, but in an audible voice, " // est mort en brave; il est mort en 
 htros!" " He died like a brave man ; he died like a hero ! " It is 
 further added, that Hulin could never hear any one pronounce the 
 Prince's name without shuddering ; that, long after the event, in 
 going to his country house, which was situated on the side of Vin- 
 cennes, he always made his coachman take a roundabout road in 
 order to avoid the sight of the castle where the bloody deed had 
 been done. 
 
 Just fifteen days after the execution of the Bourbon Prince, General 
 Pichegru with whom, as with Georges, the Polignacs, and others, 
 the Prince ought to have been confronted was found dead in his 
 cell in the Temple, where he had been lying ever since the 27th of 
 February, subject to the frequent visits and interrogatories of Re*al. 
 No threats, no promises, could induce Pichegru to injure any man 
 by his answers, or to affect the great object in view that of impli- 
 cating General Moreau. He threatened, on the contrary, to tear to 
 pieces the flimsy web which had been thrown round Moreau, to speak 
 out on his public trial ; to unfold the odious means by which he and 
 his companions had been entrapped into the conspiracy by Bona- 
 parte's police ; and to reveal what he knew of the First Consul's 
 own secret correspondence with the Bourbons. This speaking out 
 in an open court and it was known that Pichegru could speak in a 
 lofty and energetic manner gave great alarm to the Consular Go- 
 vernment. Besides, in spite of his present sad predicament, and the 
 charges and calumnies which had been heaped upon his name, some 
 of the soldiery might still feel an affection for the commander who 
 had repeatedly led them on to victory, before the name of Bonaparte 
 had made itself known. To proceed against two such successful 
 generals as Pichegru and Moreau, at one and the same time, might 
 perchance prove too severe a trial of the temper of the army. It 
 was calculated, too, that, if Pichegru were but dead, it might be in- 
 sinuated that it was only his death that removed the proof of Moreau's 
 complicity. Rdal had been heard muttering as he came from his 
 cell, " What a man this Pichegru is ! There is no moving him ! n 
 On the 5th of April, this Counsellor of State and manager of police, 
 
DEATH OF PICHEGRU. 237 
 
 this creature of Fouche*, had a long secret interview with the general, 
 and it was on the next morning that Pichegru was found strangled 
 in his bed, with a black cravat tightened round his neck by means 
 of a stick which acted as a tourniquet. Six obscure surgeons named 
 by the criminal tribunal were called in to examine the body, and 
 sign a report that Pichegru had committed suicide. A gendarme 
 d^lile deposed that, being on guard near Pichegru's cell, about 
 three hours after midnight, he had heard a violent coughing and 
 spitting ; a turnkey of the Temple deposed that he had the key of 
 the general's door all the night in his pocket, so that the door could 
 not have been opened ; but in spite of surgeons, gendarmes, and turn- 
 keys ; and of other pains taken, then and afterwards, to prove that 
 Pichegru had perished by his own hand, the impression was instantly 
 made, and in a manner to be lasting, that he had been most foully 
 murdered. The event came so close upon the catastrophe of Vincennes 
 the police of the Temple was entirely under the control of Re*al - 
 Savary was, in a manner, the military governor, and the guards 
 there were mounted, and the general service of the prison performed 
 by Savary's gendarmes d'eiite^ comrades of the men who had shot 
 the Prince in the ditch there were other families of the mouton 
 genus, who were known to have committed detestable deeds, and 
 who were believed capable of any crime there were keys of the 
 passe partout sort which opened every lock and the midnight visi- 
 tations, and the acts of carrying off State prisoners, unknown to 
 their co-mates in captivity Cand no one except the agents employed 
 knew whither) these were facts notorious in Paris and in all France. 
 It might be that Pichegru had strangled himself, but Pichegru seems 
 to have been considered, by all who knew him, as a man very un- 
 likely to have recourse to suicide as one whose natural tempera- 
 ment, excited passions, and indignation against Bonaparte, and 
 Fouche', and the agents of police who entrapped him, would have 
 led him to bear any extremity of suffering, and to face the guillotine 
 or the fusilades unmoved, provided he could have the opportunity 
 of speaking out on his trial. In short, nearly everything went to 
 confirm the belief that Pichegru had really been murdered. The 
 pains taken by the Government to give that opinion another direc- 
 
238 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 tion, by the affected exhibition of the body, only served to strengthen 
 the popular belief.* As a matter of course Savary denies that he 
 himself knew anything of the matter, and that Pichegru was mur- 
 dered at all ; but he confesses, at the same time, that the belief oj 
 assassination was universal, and that a high functionary, his own 
 personal friend, spoke of it years afterwards as an undoubted fact, 
 and named the gendarmes in the Temple as the men by whom the 
 deed had been done. Among the foreign diplomatists resident at 
 Paris no doubt appears to have been entertained as to the manner 
 of the death. There were certain private circumstances which ren- 
 dered the catastrophe the more striking : the conqueror of Holland 
 and the First Consul, who had obtained their commissions as lieu- 
 tenants of artillery on the very same day, had been schoolfellows in 
 the Military School of Brienne; and there Pichegru, being the elder 
 of the two, had taught Bonaparte the four first rules of arithmetic, 
 and had been both a friend and tutor to the poor and almost friend- 
 less Corsican. And now all their calculations had come to this : 
 strangulation with a black silk handkerchief and a bit of stick, and 
 six feet of dishonoured earth for Pichegru ; and for Bonaparte an 
 imperial throne (he was placing his foot on the first steps of it 
 when his schoolfellow perished). 
 
 The world was. still aghast at the fate of Pichegru, when another 
 bloody catastrophe was brought to light from the same State prison. 
 Captain John Wesley Wright, who, in the preceding autumn, had 
 
 * The article in the Moniteur, which was published the day after the death, accom- 
 panied by depositions of the getidarmes d'elite, the concierge of the Temple, the turnkey, 
 and the surgeons, displayed an awkwardness of ingenuity and pains-taking, which went 
 to confirm what it was intended to destroy. It was to this effect : "The preceding even- 
 ing Pichegru had copiously dined according to his custom, for he loved the pleasures of 
 the table. He was fall of meat, had a short neck, was sanguineous, and the want of exer- 
 cise predisposed him the more to apoplexy : in the evening, too, he had asked for a Seneca, 
 and opening the book at the page where the philosopher discusses the miseries of life and 
 the easy passage to eternity, Pichegru had prepared himself for suicide. He had con- 
 cealed a stick taken out of a faggot of firewood, and that, with his cravat, sufficed for the 
 Strangulation. Thus Pichegru has escaped the disgrace of the scaffold by suicide." 
 
 In the state in which the press then was, and in the passive dread of men's minds, no 
 one could then publish any comments, or give any account of Pichegru's death different 
 from the official one put forth in the Moniteur ; and this, as we see. is contradictory. 
 
CAPTAIN WRIGHT. 239 
 
 landed Pichegru and some of his companions, was becalmed on the 
 morning of the 8th of May on the coast of France, and was carried 
 by the ebb-tide close upon the rocks. Whilst his crew were sweep- 
 ing with all their strength to get clear of the coast, seventeen armed 
 vessels were rowed out from the shore, consisting of six brigs, six 
 luggers, and five smaller gun-vessels. Wright's craft was only an 
 eighteen-gun brig-sloop, and his crew consisted of fifty-one effective 
 men and twenty-four boys ; yet he gallantly fought the whole French 
 flotilla for nearly two hours, and did not strike his colours until his 
 ship was a mere wreck until twelve of his men were wounded and 
 two killed, and he himself wounded in the groin. 
 
 The First Consul was informed that Wright's vessel had been re- 
 cognized as the same which had landed Pichegru ; and that Wright 
 had been a lieutenant on board Sir Sidney Smith's ship the Tigre, 
 and had distinguished himself under Sir Sidney in the defence of 
 Acre. The latter fact alone would assuredly have led to some 
 harsher treatment than is reserved for prisoners of war ; and it is 
 believed that if Bonaparte could only have caught Sir Sidney him- 
 self (even though not engaged in landing Royalists), Sir Sidney 
 would at least have run a close risk of making his exit from this 
 world in the Temple of which, before this time, he had been long 
 an inmate. Orders were immediately transmitted to the coast, to 
 interrogate the captured English crew separately, that is, secretly, 
 and by \h.t police; and when nothing could be got from the English 
 sailors to throw any light upon the Pichegru conspiracy, Captain 
 Wright was brought up to Paris, thrown into the Temple, not as a 
 prisoner of war, but as a State prisoner, and there confined au secret. 
 What followed could be precisely known only to those familiars who 
 possessed the secrets of that prison-house. Even the date of the 
 unhappy man's final catastrophe is not known ; for Bonaparte him- 
 self declared his death had been concealed for some considerable time; 
 the motive of that concealment no doubt beinsf an anxiety to avoid 
 a too close juxtaposition with the death of Pichegru in the same 
 accursed place. Bonaparte also allowed t'lat, to extort confessions, 
 the surgeon of Wright* s ship was threatened with immediate death; 
 and this is nothing less than a species of torture. He also declared 
 
240 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 that his grand object was to secure the principals, and to extract a 
 full disclosure of all he suspected Wright to know. These avowals 
 have tended to confirm the belief, which was very generally enter- 
 tained at the time, and which indeed seems unavoidable, that Wright 
 was barbarously treated in his close confinement perhaps that his 
 body as well as mind had been subjected to actual torture ; and that, 
 to get rid of the evidence his maimed or injured frame would pre- 
 sent, recourse was had to another midnight assassination. 
 
 Captain Wright was once, and only once, seen in public, after his 
 arrival at the Temple. He was brought into court on the 2nd of 
 June, as a witness on Georges' trial, being called the hundred and 
 thirty -fourth witness in support of the prosecution. He, however, 
 refused to answer any interrogatories, declaring that, as a prisoner 
 of war, as a British officer, he considered himself amenable only to 
 his own Government. The Attorney-General requested the Presi- 
 dent to order that the examination of Captain Wright, which had 
 been taken on the 3ist of May and on a later day, should be read 
 over to him in court ; and this being done, Wright replied that it 
 was omitted to be stated that, on the occasions when those secret 
 examinations had been taken, the questions put to him had been 
 accompanied with the threat of turning him over to a military tri- 
 bunal to be shot, if he did not betray the secrets of his country. 
 We know not how long after this Wright lived, but it was a con- 
 siderable time ere it was announced in the Moniteur that he had 
 been found one morning in his cell with his throat cut from ear to 
 ear, and that this was another clear case of suicide. But, again, 
 a great majority of the world, not certainly excepting Paris, con- 
 cluded it was another clear case of assassination. And, in fact, the 
 probabilities of Wright's having destroyed himself were still less 
 than the probabilities in Pichegru's case. The French general, 
 whose character was blemished, and whose fortunes were utterly 
 ruined, had a great deal to depress his spirits ; but the English 
 captain had only good and cheering prospects before him, if he 
 could only but be released from his irregular confinement ; he had 
 done his duty, he had executed the orders of his Government in 
 various cases under circumstances of the greatest difficulty, he had 
 
MYSTERIOUS DEATH OF CAPTAIN WRIGHT. 241 
 
 displayed a rare ability, as well as an extraordinary courage ; the 
 battle he fought before surrendering was as gallant an affair as any 
 that had occurred since the commencement of the war. 
 
 Once out of the Temple, Wright might have been exchanged by 
 cartel; once restored to his country, he must have obtained ho- 
 nours and promotion. Those who knew him well spoke of him as 
 a buoyant, light-hearted, jovial sailor the least likely man in the 
 world to be easily cast down, or driven to a cowardly despair. 
 Whatever may have been the threats employed, it was not probable 
 that he should readily believe they would be put into execution 
 against him ; and we know that, during a part of his captivity, he 
 anticipated an ultimate release, and that he employed himself in 
 drawing up a spirited narrative of the circumstances of the capture 
 of his ship, in order to refute the mendacious accounts given of that 
 affair in the Moniteur. There is, however, a case in which we may 
 suppose Wright to have destroyed himself ; but it is a case where 
 the guilt of murder would fall as heavily on his enemies as it could 
 do if it were fully proved that they had, with their own hands, used 
 the razor or the knife. Wright may have been so tortured as to have 
 been deprived of his reason ; or, in the natural dread of a repetition 
 of the torture, he may have raised his hand against his own life. 
 It is possible, though scarcely probable, that Bonaparte, who always 
 positively denied any knowledge of Wright's death, may have been 
 as ignorant on the point as he pretended, but he must have known 
 that infamous threats had been used against that officer ; and, in 
 confessing himself that the death was concealed for a considerable 
 time, he does not attempt to explain the motive of that very sus- 
 picious concealment His apologist, Savary, who also denies all 
 knowledge of Wright's death, calls it a dark and mysterious subject; 
 and then hints that Fouche', who before it happened was fully re- 
 instated in the Ministry of Police and in Bonaparte's good graces, 
 was at the bottom of it all* 
 
 It was a terrible epoch, that which immediately preceded the 
 Empire. To use another of Pouches striking figures, "The air 
 
 * C. MacFarlanc. " Hist. French Revolution." 
 
 16 
 
242 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPAR 7E. 
 
 was full of daggers." And few men knew so well as this old Jacobin 
 and plotter that assassinations were no rarities, and that there were 
 real conspiracies as well as imaginary conspiracies. On every side 
 people were looking for plots, or making fictitious ones. Men, not 
 in the State secret, apprehended a speedy return of the executions 
 and horrors of 1793, when Robespierre gave the law to Paris and 
 all France. It was intended to frighten the nation into a demand 
 for a stronger Government ; the Napoleonic Empire was to be 
 established in terror, as the Republic had been before it. With the 
 majority of the French, liberty was now but an old song. 
 
 The Senate, in an address to the First Consul, called upon him 
 to complete his own work ; the Council of State, by twenty votes 
 against seven, affirmed that the basis of the Government of France 
 ought to be hereditary succession. The Senate, the Tribunate, the 
 legislative body, were advised, confidentially, to hasten to declare 
 themselves, or they would be forestalled by the army. In the Tri- 
 bunate, one solitary member spoke against the proposed change : 
 it was Carnot. The Senate passed the project with only three dis- 
 sentient votes. The legislative body was equally subservient and 
 ready for the change. 
 
 " During these transactions," says Thibaudeau in his " Memoirs," 
 "the First Consul held private councils, to which he summoned 
 several members of the great bodies of the Government, each of 
 whom stipulated for himself and his friends. The Tribunes wanted 
 to lengthen the period of their functions to ten years instead of five, 
 with a salary of 25,000 francs instead of 15,000; the members of 
 the legislative body wished also an increase of salary as well as of 
 the duration of their office. The Senators wished their dignity to 
 be made hereditary in their families, and to have an absolute veto 
 on the projects of law, and other privileges besides. The Council 
 of State alone asked for nothing. Bonaparte, whilst listening to 
 everybody, matured his own plans, fixed the extent of his own power, 
 and granted as little as possible of it to others." 
 
 On the 1 8th of May, 1804, at St. Cloud, the Senate, in a body, 
 presented to Napoleon the Senatus Consultum which proclaimed 
 him Emperor of the French, and made the Imperial dignity heredi- 
 
NAPOLEON' PROCLAIMED EMPEROR. 243 
 
 tary in his family. Without waiting for that farce which was called 
 the "sanction of the people," he forthwith assumed the title of 
 " Emperor by the grace of God and the Constitutions of the Re- 
 public." Soon, however, the word Republic (never pleasant to his 
 ear) was suppressed, and he styled himself Emperor " by the Con- 
 stitutions of the Empire." When this was done the people were ap- 
 pealed to, and three millions of them were said to approve of it all, 
 by their free votes taken in the communal assemblies. Then followed 
 a deluge of congratulatory addresses from all quarters, the clergy, 
 army, judges, public functionaries, &c. The army, however, could 
 not have been unanimous, as several officers of the republican stamp 
 resigned their commissions. 
 
 Shortly after the assumption of the imperial dignity by Bonaparte, 
 the trials of Georges, Moreau, and the others accused with them of 
 conspiracy, began before a special court of twelve judges. The law 
 established by the Republic was set aside, no jury being allowed. 
 In other cases, and throughout the proceedings, law and justice 
 were outraged. Four of the judges were for the capital conviction 
 of Moreau ; but we do not believe that the new Emperor ever really 
 wished to take the life of his military rival. In the end, Moreau 
 was found guilty only of a misdemeanour, and sentenced to two 
 years 7 imprisonment. Napoleon arbitrarily changed this sentence 
 into one of perpetual banishment, and Moreau soon sailed for the 
 United States of America. Georges and about twenty others were 
 condemned to death, but only twelve were executed. Georges died 
 like a true enthusiast and hero of the Vende'e. " That man," said 
 the new Emperor, " was as hard as iron and as brave as steel ! If 
 he would only have come round to me, I would have made him one 
 of my aides-de-camp." But there were yet men in France not to 
 be won by such promotion, or dazzled by all the splendour of what 
 Paul Louis Courier called la Troupe Dorte. 
 
An Imperial Ball at St. Cloud. 
 
 BOOK IV 
 
 NAPOLEON would be crowned by the Pope. The quiet, virtuous, 
 amiable Pontiff, Pius VII,, attempted to excuse himself on account 
 of his age, the length of the journey, and the rigour of the season ; 
 but, after having consulted with the cardinals, he found himself 
 obliged to comply. He set out from Rome on the 5th of Novem- 
 ber, and reached Fontainbleau on the 25th of the same month. 
 
 The coronation took place in the church of Notre Dame, the 
 ancient cathedral of Paris, on the 2nd of December. There was a 
 very brilliant attendance : princes and palatines from the Rhine ; 
 princes, dukes, marquises, and counts, from Italy ; a thin sprinkling 
 
1805.] CORONATION AT NOTRE DAME. 245 
 
 of Spanish grandees ; and no inconsiderable number of the ancient 
 noblesse of France, mixed with the new noblesse of Bonaparte^s 
 creation, with his marshals, generals, dignitaries of the Legion of 
 Honour, c. The crown having been blessed by the Pope, Napo- 
 leon took it himself from the altar and placed it on his head ; after 
 which, with his own hands, he crowned his wife Josephine as Em- 
 press. He was determined to show that he held nothing except of 
 himself. The Pope then accompanied the Emperor to an elevated 
 throne, kissed him on the cheek, and cried, with a feeble inarticu- 
 late voice, " Vivat Imperator in aternum ! " And then all present 
 in that crowded cathedral shouted, " Long live the Emperor ! long 
 live the Empress ! " 
 
 To the imperial crown was soon added a crown royal. Follow- 
 ing the example of the French, some of the people beyond the Alps 
 requested Napoleon to accept the ancient iron Lombard crown, the 
 crown of Upper Italy. On the 26th of May, 1805, the ceremony 
 was performed in the splendid but unfinished cathedral of Milan. 
 This time the Pope was not troubled : the Archbishop of Milan 
 officiated. Napoleon was even less reverential or ceremonious than 
 he had been at Notre Dame : he seized the iron crown and placed 
 it on his brow, exclaiming, " God has given it me, woe to him who 
 attempts to touch it ! " The fair Italian lady to whom only six years 
 before he had said, " We are all republicans," was present, beholding 
 with wonder this his second coronation. 
 
 In the month of June, the old Genoese Republic was united not 
 to the Italian kingdom, but to France, and the Republic of Lucca 
 was transformed into a Principality, and given to Elisa,one of Napo- 
 leon's sisters, and her husband Baciocchi, to be held as a fief of the 
 French Empire. The military Republic of San Marino, with its 
 two old cannons, and a population of about a thousand souls, was 
 the only one now left in the Italian peninsula. 
 
 Returning to France, the Emperor resumed, on the coast near 
 Boulogne where a great army was assembled his demonstrations 
 for the invasion of England. He calculated that 100,000 men, and 
 one pitched battle, would carry him to London, that he could excite 
 the democratic element against the aristocracy, and revolutionize 
 
246 MEMOIR OF NAPOT.EON" BONAPARTE. 
 
 all England. Some yet doubt whether he ever really and seriously 
 entertained this project; but if he did, his attention was very soon 
 distracted from it, and other occupation found for his arms. His 
 ambitions, his extensive annexations of territory in violation of trea- 
 ties, roused the best part of Europe against him. Jn the summer of 
 1805, a new coalition was formed between England, Russia, Austria, 
 and Sweden. Prussia was urged to join it ; she hesitated, but she 
 augmented her armies, and remained neutral, looking forward to the 
 events of the war, and hoping meanly, basely, stupidly, to profit by 
 them, and to gratify her old animosity against Austria. 
 
 Without waiting for the arrival of the Russians^ the Austrians 
 marched into the Electorate of Bavaria, and as that Elector refused 
 to join the coalition, and was suspected of a leaning to France, they 
 took possession of Munich his capital. The notorious General Mack^ 
 who had given repeated proofs of incapacity in the field, was, by 
 some intrigue or strange influence, placed at the head of the grand 
 Austrian army in Germany. The Archduke Charles, already the 
 hero of many battles, commanded the Austrian forces on the side 
 of Italy. Napoleon's so-called Army of England was rapidly moved 
 from the Straits of Dover to the Rhine, whither also were directed 
 troops from Holland, Hanover, and the interior of France. Mas- 
 sena was appointed to the command of the French army in Italy. 
 Napoleon soon repaired to Mainz, on the Rhine, where he took the 
 command o^he Grand Army, a name which afterwards was always 
 applied to the forces which he commanded in prjon) 
 
 In this war, the Emperor of the French was indisputably more 
 aided by the blunders and short-comings of his adversary than by his 
 own undoubted military genius. Mack behaved like a fool or trai- 
 tor, or both. He allowed himself to be surrounded at Jim, in Ba- 
 I varia, and there, on the I7th of October, without fighting without 
 attempting a blow for the honour ." arms he surrendered with more 
 than 20,000 men (excellent troops), and all his staff and artillery. 
 
 By this time, the Russian army, led on by the young Emperor 
 Alexander himself, was getting close to hand, having assembled in 
 Nforavia. With the addition of some Austrian divisions, it amounted 
 to 80,000 combatants. Napoleon was far, very far indeed, from en- 
 
ALEXANDER OF RUSSIA. 247 
 
 tertaining that contempt of the Russians which of late it has been 
 fashionable for Englishmen to feel or affect. He knew that, though 
 somewhat slow, they were staunch soldiers, men who could stand 
 like stone walls or rocks, and who, when beaten, would rally and try 
 again. Napoleon told his own soldiers that the Russian infantry 
 was truly formidable. " This contest," said he, " is of great impor- 
 tance to the honour of the French foot. It is now to be finally 
 decided whether the French infantry be the first or only the second 
 in Europe." [Subsequently he learned to his cost, on the plain of 
 Maida, in Portugal, Spain, on the field of Waterloo, and from every 
 action in which they came in close contact with the French, that 
 the ^first infantry in Europe was the British, a fact of which we no 
 more doubt than we do that both the French and the Russian 
 infantry are brave and good.] When it came to the trial, Napoleon's 
 success resulted rather from his strategical skill and the mistakes of 
 the Russian leaders, than to any decided superiority of his men over 
 the Russian soldiers. If the French were the quicker, the Russians 
 were the more steady and dogged of the two. He never gained a 
 victory over the troops of the Czar without a long crisis and a tre- 
 mendous loss, and many of the sanguinary affairs which he claimed 
 as victories were in reality drawn battles. But such was not the great 
 combat of Austerlitz, fought on the 2nd of December, 1805. 
 
 On the 1 3th of November the French had taken undisputed and 
 quiet possession of Vienna, where they found in immense quantities 
 the military stores, arms, clothing, and provisions, which ought to 
 have been removed and preserved for the use of the two allied 
 armies. From Vienna Napoleon pushed boldly forward into Mo- 
 ravia. The Allies retreated, for the sake of forming a readier junction 
 with a fresh Russian division which had entered the province. War- 
 like populations were beginning to rise en masse all round the French, 
 thousands of light infantry were expected from Bohemia and Croatia, 
 and numerous squadrons of excellent horse from Hungary. It be- 
 hoved the allied Emperors to avoid a general action ; and this they 
 would have done, but for the significant fact that their armies were 
 already in a half-famished condition. They must try and fight their 
 way to Vienna. Quitting, therefore, their strong positions and en- 
 
MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 trenchments at Olmutz, behind which the French would not have 
 ventured to attack them, the Russians and Austrians advanced upon 
 Brunn. Napoleon, in his turnpFeat a retreat, but he halted his 
 columns on the plain of Austerlitz, which he had attentively surveyed, 
 and founf to be the best battle-field in those parts. Marshal Kutu- 
 soff, the real commander -in -chief of the allied army, began his 
 movements for attack on the morning of the ist of December. These 
 were beautifully executed ; but the practised eye of Napoleon saw 
 that, in order to execute his plan of turning the right wing of the 
 French, Kutusoff would extend his lines too much; that there were 
 a great many raw recruits, particularly among the Austrians ; and 
 lie is said to have exclaimed, " By to-morrow evening that army is 
 mine 1 " He may have used the words, and to good purpose ; but 
 it is evident that he was not very sure of the fact. The day was 
 spent in active preparation, for the greater part in disposing, in the 
 most advantageous manner, the tremendous trains of artillery which 
 the French had dragged with them. The night, for Napoleon 
 avowedly was one of intense anxiety. He went from bivouac to 
 bivouac the weather being bitterly cold and stormy conversing 
 familiarly with the common soldiers, and uttering oracular, short, 
 easily-retained sentences to keep up their courage. Worn out with 
 fatigue, he snatched a half-hour's sleep by the side of one of the 
 bivouac fires. On the morrow morning, the 2nd it was the first 
 anniversary of his imperial coronation he was very early on horse- 
 back. Thick fogs and mists hung over the plain and the neigh- 
 bouring heights on which stood the Allies : the sun could scarcely 
 break through the vapours ; but at last it appeared red and lurid 
 like a globe dipped in blood. Napoleon now rode along the line 
 shouting, " Soldiers, we must finish this campaign with a thunder- 
 bolt ! " and the soldiers shouted, " Vive VEmpereur! vive le jour 
 de sajete? 
 
 The two opposing armies were nearly equal in numbers, each 
 counting about 80,000 men. 
 
 The French writers who represent the Allies as being far more 
 numerous, sin against truth, and are guilty of a suppression of truth 
 in not stating that the Austrian position of the allied forces was in 
 
THE BA TTLE OF A C7S 
 
 The Emperor visiting the Bivouacs. 
 
 a state of discouragement, and chiefly composed of raw levies, and 
 that on the side of Napoleon there was an overwhelming weight of 
 guns. KutusofT and the Russians began the attack with great spirit ; 
 but Kutusoff committed the error which Napoleon had foreseen : Con- 
 fident of success, he extended his line too mucru) Yet, after all, that 
 line was not so easily broken through : for the French to do that it 
 took a concentrated attack by Marshals Soult, Lannes, and Murat 
 with all the French cavalry. In time, when many a French saddle 
 had been emptied, the Russian divisions were separated ; the Aus- 
 trian recruits fought loosely and without intelligence ; and, after a 
 terrible conflict on the part of the Imperial Russian Guards, the 
 
250 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 allied army was routed in detail. Its loss was tremendous : thou- 
 sands were drowned in the frozen lakes in the rear of their position, 
 the ice, though thick, not being sufficiently strong to bear their 
 weight. Entire lines of Russian infantry were mowed down by the 
 artillery of the enemy ; but other lines sprang up to supply their 
 places, and the best part of Kutusoff's army, after standing the brunt 
 of the battle, retired in admirable order, covered by clouds of Cos- 
 sacks, who, with their rapid, irregular charges, and long lances, re- 
 peatedly drove back Murat's regular horse. 
 
 By one or two o'clock in the afternoon the success of Napoleon 
 was pretty well decided ; but it was near midnight ere the Russians 
 entirely left the field, and then they marched off with such a coun- 
 tenance that the French did not venture to follow them. In the 
 course of the morning, once, if not twice, Marshal Soult was in the 
 greatest danger ; Kutusoff nearly succeeded in reuniting his divi- 
 sions and closing up his line and the fate of Napoleon seemed to 
 hang by a thread. A charge made by the entire cavalry of his 
 guard, and then a sustained fire of grape-shot on the solid Russian 
 squares, turned the scale, and allowed him to hum his opera air, 
 "Ah! comme il y viendra!" In the combat, the French placed a 
 principal reliance on their artillery ; the Russian infantry made a 
 great use of the bayonet. Most of the French that were wounded 
 were wounded by that weapon, and in the great majority of cases 
 those wounds proved mortal. The total loss on this side exceeded 
 5,000 men and officers. 
 
 The battle of Austerlitz was the most brilliant victory achieved by 
 Napoleon during the period of the Empire. Between the surrender 
 of Mack and this great battle, he received intelligence of the anni- 
 hilation of his fleets at Trafalgar. This clBuded his triumph, and 
 for a time depressed his spirits. He peevishly said, " I cannot be 
 everywhere ! " But, as several writers have observed, his presence 
 at Trafalgar, in a ship of the line, would have been much more 
 useless than that of Nelson on horseback in the campaign of the 
 Danube, and in Moravia. 
 
 Before advancing on Vienna, the conqueror had said that it was 
 time for the Emperor of Germany to recollect that all empires have 
 
MARSHAL. 
 
AFTER THE BATTLE OF AUSTERLITZ. 
 
 an end. There was, in reality, not much danger of any such catas- 
 trophe ; but the Emperor Francis was guided by timid counsels, and 
 was concerned for " the good citizens of Vienna," He had an inter- 
 view with Napoleon the day after the battle of Austerlitz, and an 
 armistice was concluded, by which the Russians, who scarcely 
 needed the permission, were allowed to retire to their own country. 
 Francis, who had been well subsidized by England, seceded from 
 the coalition ; and on the 26th of December (twenty-four days after 
 
 Meeting of the Emperors. 
 
 Austerlitz) peace between France and Austria was signed at Pres- 
 burgh. The sacrifice's were, of course, all on one side. Austria gave 
 up to the kingdom of Italy the Venetian provinces and Dalmatia ; 
 and to the Elector of Bavaria, Tyrol, and other districts, further 
 agreeing to pay a military contribution of one hundred millions of 
 francs. The result of this war of 1805, or rather of the pusillanimous 
 diplomacy which accompanied as well as followed it, was to leave 
 Italy entirely at the disposal of Napoleon, and to extend his influ- 
 ence in Germany. Having made himself Emperor and King, he 
 now began to put royal crowns upon other heads : he raised the 
 Electors of Bavaria and Wurtemburg to the rank of kings. At the 
 
*52 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 same time, of his own free will, he placed himself at the head of all 
 the smaller German States, which he formed into what, for a few 
 years, was called the Confederation of the Rhine, and which was 
 directly under his protection and control. The old German Empire 
 was thus dissolved ; but that crazy, incoherent, unintelligible ma- 
 chine was not the Austrian Empire. Many a time, subsequently 
 to this period, Napoleon exclaimed, " That old House of Austria 
 never dies ! " 
 
 The conqueror's next crown was awarded to his elder brother 
 Joseph Bonaparte. In February, 1806, a French army took pos- 
 session of the kingdom of Naples, and drove the Bourbon King 
 Ferdinand into Sicily. By decree, dated in March, Joseph was 
 appointed King of Sicily as well as of Naples. In June, by another 
 imperial decree, N apoleon appointed his younger brother, Louis, to 
 be King of Holland, thus transforming by a stroke of the pen the 
 Dutch Republic into a kingdom and into a kingdom wholly depen- 
 dent on France. But by this time he could openly and energetically 
 express the hatred or contempt he felt for republican governments. 
 " Republics ! " said he, " what are they ? They are good only for 
 songs ! " 
 
 Mr. Pitt, who had hitherto carried on the war, into which he had 
 never wished to enter, was now in a premature grave ; and his rival, 
 Mr. Charles Fox, was the Premier of a Whig Cabinet. Mr. Fox was 
 known to be very favourable to peace ; and the Whigs had been 
 proclaiming for years that, if they had the powers of the State in 
 their hands, they could conclude an advantageous treaty, and so put 
 an end to this frightful expenditure of human life. The Whigs were 
 destined to see that they could do no more in this way than the 
 Tories had done before them. They commenced negotiations with 
 Napoleon, on the basis of the uti possidetis, or, in the vernacular, 
 on the principle that every one should hold what he had got. Lord 
 Yarmouth, and afterwards Lord Lauderdale (a most decided Whig), 
 were our negotiators at Paris. They found a stumbling block on 
 the very threshold : the Emperor of the French insisted that Sicily 
 should be given up to his brother Joseph. Now, Sicily had not been 
 conquered by the French, and was, at this moment, protected by 
 
1806.] STA TE OF PARTIES IN ENGLAND. 253 
 
 an English army and an English fleet. King Ferdinand in this war 
 had been our friend and ally, and it was owing to that very alliance 
 and friendship for us that he had lost his continental dominions 
 of Naples. To have bartered away Sicily to France would have 
 been, on the part of England, an act of bad faith equal to, if not 
 worse than, the barter of Venice to Austria by the French. The 
 Whig Ministry refused to comply with this requisition, set forth as 
 a sine qud non, and Mr. Fox dying soon afterwards, the negotiations 
 were broken off. Long after the period Napoleon was accustomed 
 to say that if the great Whig minister had lived only a few months 
 longer, there would have been peace, amity, and alliance between 
 England and France. This we utterly disbelieve, and for many 
 reasons in addition to the following : However questionable may 
 have been the conduct of Charles James Fox as leader of the 
 minority of a distracted, divided, desperate, and unscrupulous Op- 
 position, and however nearly he, on two or three occasions, trod on 
 the limits of treason, he had an English heart, and as minister could 
 only act in consonance with English feelings ; neither King nor 
 Parliament, neither Whigs nor Tories, would have allowed him to 
 truckle to the Emperor of the French, or allowed that conqueror 
 to forge chains for all the rest of Europe. Let the story of the war 
 be read correctly : honour is power, and the loss of it weakness. 
 We were bound in honour to support our allies and friends when- 
 ever they might make an effort to check French aggrandizement, 
 and it was only by feeding and maintaining the war on the Conti- 
 nent that we kept its devastations and horrors from our own shores. 
 If Napoleon could really have subjected the Continent, a French 
 marshal might have given the law in London, and Dublin been 
 ruled by a French prefect. 
 
 Prussia very quickly reaped the reward of her selfish, wavering, 
 tergiversating policy. She would not take up arms in 1805, when 
 she would have had two empires for her allies, and the chance of 
 operating with immense effect on the flank of Napoleon's Grand 
 Army ; and she was driven into the war by French encroachment 
 
 and intolerable insult in 1806, when Austria had been reduced to 
 .- . 7 
 
 accept a very disadvantageous peace, and the armies of Russia were 
 
254 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 far beyond the Vistula. Verily, the new dynasty of France was 
 immensely aided by the imbecility of some of the old dynasties of 
 Europe ! In a note addressed to the Cabinet of Berlin, Napoleon 
 haughtily said, " To provoke the emnity of France is as senseless 
 as to pretend to withstand the waves of the ocean." They had a 
 French army all ready beyond the Rhine, and nearly a score of 
 German vassal princes, with their forces, were willing and ready to 
 join and to follow him into Prussia, which had only one reluctant 
 ally, the weak Elector of Saxony. The Saxon, troops disliked the 
 Prussians, and they fought softly, molliment.\^\\o. double battle of 
 Auerstadt and Jena (October the I4th) decided the campaignAThe 
 Prussian troops fought bravely, but their generals committee, the 
 very error which had proved so fatal to the Allies at Austerlitz 
 they too much extended their line. According to the French ac- 
 count, 20,000 Prussians were killed or captured on this fatal day ; 
 and 300 pieces of artillery, 60 standards, and 20 general officers 
 were taken. The blow which decided the fate of the day was 
 struck by Bernadotte, who had evinced great firmness and military 
 prudence ; but Napoleon was now jealous of the reputation of his 
 lieutenants, and for some time he had borne no good- will to Ber- 
 nadotte. He now called that fortunate general a Gascon that would 
 never do better. " I know I did my duty," said Bernadotte. " Let 
 the Emperor accuse me if he will, he shall have his answer. I am 
 a Gascon, it is true, but he is a greater Gasconader than I am." 
 Tongues and pens were set at v/ork to defame the proud Gascon, 
 and in this inglorious warfare Marshal Davoust was not respected. 
 The picture, so frequently presented of the harmony existing in this 
 imperial army, can be proved, by overwhelming evidence, to be in 
 good part imaginative and fabulous. It was one of the infirmities 
 of Napoleon's Corsican nature to be jealous of all who highly dis- 
 tinguished themselves, and to hate every man that stoutly opposed 
 his dogmatical opinions. 
 
 The consequences of the defeat of the Prussians at Jena were 
 very disastrous. Most of their retreating scattered divisions were 
 separately surrounded, and obliged to lay down their arms. Only 
 the indomitable Bliicher and the brave Lestocq kept some regiments 
 
BERLIN DECREES. 255 
 
 together and fought a little longer. Nearly all the strong fortresses, 
 Magdeburg, Spandau, Kustrin, Stettin, Halemn, surrendered without 
 firing a shot, and not without dark suspicions of venality and cor- 
 ruption on the part of some of the Prussian commandants. The work 
 of the great Frederick's whole life thus crumbled to pieces in a few 
 weeks. That monarchy had been made up of shreds and patches, 
 of provinces and districts gained by the sword, and gained at too 
 recent a date to have afforded time for the growth of any amalgama- 
 tion, cohesion, or unity of national spirit. Mirabeau, who was at 
 Berlin when Frederick the Great was on his death-bed, said of the 
 kingdom, " Prussia is but a rotten pear, and rotten before it is ripe." 
 We are afraid that even now (1855) the rottenness exists without 
 the maturity of ripened fruit. 
 
 At Berlin, Napoleon threatened to shoot the Prince of Flatzfeld, 
 who had but done his duty ; and visiting the tomb of Frederick the 
 Great at Potsdam, he seized the scarf and sword of the great soldier, 
 laid like sacred relics upon his monument, and packed them off for 
 Paris there to wait the day when Marshal Bliicher should reclaim 
 them, and recover so much more of Prussian spoil 
 
 Fortune seemed to reserve her smiles for the Emperor of the 
 French, but he was still greatly chagrined by a signal defeat which 
 the English had given to his army in Calabria, on the plain of Maida, 
 some three months before he opened the Prussian campaign, and 
 his wrath was increased by seeing wherever he went, or wherever he 
 made inquiries, some effects of English wealth, or of that unspotted, 
 undoubted English credit which was more than gold. " If," said 
 he, " I can prevent that nation of shopkeepers from making money, 
 why, then they will have no money to send to the Continent ; and 
 without English subsidies Austria will continue quiet, and Russia 
 as well as Prussia will be submissive. Allans, marchons ! Mori au 
 commerce des Anglais! " 
 
 On the 2 ist of November, 1806, Napoleon issued his well-known , 
 Berlin decree against our trade. " The British islands were to be I If 
 considered as in a state of blockade by all the Continent. All cor- i' 
 respondence or trade with England was forbidden under most severe * 
 penalties. All articles of English manufacture or produce of the 
 
256 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 British colonies were considered as contraband. Property of every 
 kind, belonging to British subjects, wherever found, was declared 
 lawful prize. All letters to and from England were to be detained 
 and opened at the post-office." More than a year after our Govern- 
 ment retaliated with its Orders in Council, which bear the date of 
 the nth of November, 1807. Bonaparte was not constitutionally 
 cruel ; he did not love bloodshed for the sake of the blood ; but, on 
 occasion, he could be as pitiless as unjust. The flames of war in 
 Prussia had been fanned by the German press, through the medium 
 of pamphlets and books : not being able to get- at the authors, Napo- 
 leon arrested six of the principal booksellers and publishers, and had 
 them tried by court-martial. Not one of these men was his subject, 
 or owed him any allegiance ; their offence was having called upon 
 their own countrymen to defend the honour and independence of 
 Germany. The military court, over which Napoleon's favourite, 
 Berthier, presided, sentenced all the six booksellers to death ; the 
 Emperor reprieved five, and himself singled out for execution Palm 
 of Niirnburg. This unfortunate bookseller's offence was this : he 
 had published a work by the celebrated patriotic writer, Ghentz, 
 " On the Present Humiliation of Germany." Palm was shot on the 
 25th of August : eventually, this foul murder did more harm to the 
 Emperor of the French than he could sustain from the loss of a 
 great battle. * 
 
 The war was not yet over : the Russian armies boldly advanced 
 to the Vistula to support the King of Prussia, who had fled to Kon- 
 igsberg ; Napoleon occupied Warsaw, the old capital of Poland, and 
 mystified and cajoled a good many of the Poles, impatient for the 
 restoration o their nationality and independence. Nothing can be 
 
 * Late one night, in a convivial moment. Thorn ^ Campbell, the poet, proposed to a 
 party of English litterateurs, that they should drink a bumper to Napoleon Bonaparte 
 as the friend and patron of literature. " How, Campbell, how ? " " Why," said the bard 
 of Hohenlinden, " didn't he Lhoct a bookseller ? " Some unlucky authors may be of opinion 
 that there was truth ~ ; well as point in the poet's jest ; but let that pass. We still see 
 writers who are not joking, and evidently incapable of it, holding up Napoleon I. as a real 
 protector of literature and friend of authors. What Napoleon protected was science ; and 
 imaginative, free, freely-diccussing literature was an abomination in his eyes a nuisance 
 to be put down or cast out with the strong hand. 
 
RO YALIST CONSPIRACIES. 257 
 
 more clear than that he never seriously meditated the reconstruc- 
 tion of this kingdom, which had fallen to pieces through its own 
 mad anarchy. His replies to public addresses at Warsaw were cold 
 and cautious. The severity of that climate did not prevent a winter 
 campaign ; he must march and fight in fogs and mists, frosts and 
 deep snow, or retreat before the Muscovites, whose word was still 
 "Onward!" On the 28th of December, in the sternly-contested 
 battle of Pultush, he experienced a severe check, which compelled 
 him to retire ; the month of January, 1807, passed without any en- 
 gagement ; but/the 8tfi of February was made memorable by the 
 great battle of Eylau. ; 
 
 Napoleon^ia3. 2&,ooo men actually on the field, and at least 
 100,000 at short distances from him ; Beningsen, his opponent, had 
 75,000 men, including the Prussian division of the gallant Lestocq, 
 and no reserves sufficiently near to be speedily available. The 
 battle of Eylau began in the midst of a tremendous snow-storm, at 
 daybreak, and it was maintained till nearly ten o'clock at night. 
 This time the French were the first to attack, and they attacked 
 with their characteristic vivacity and bravery. The Russian in- 
 fantry stood like stern ramparts, or like walls of brass ; the Cos- 
 sacks, concealed by the thickly-falling snow until they were near at 
 hand, thrust their long spears into the French flank, and the famed 
 division of Augereau was defeated and put to headlong flight with 
 a terrific loss, for more than 14,000 men and officers were killed, 
 wounded, or captured, and out oi 16,000 men only about 1,600 got 
 uninjured into Eylau. One of the Russian divisions followed the 
 fugitives into the town, and nearly captured the French Emperor, 
 as he was standing upon a mound on which he had placed a small 
 battery. The terrible affair of Eylau was a battle of many crises, or 
 of many changes of fortune ; but from the beginning to the end oi 
 it the Russians had rather more chance of victory than their adver- 
 saries. Murat, who charged with 15,000 horse and 25,000 foot, was 
 driven back by the bayonets of the steady Muscovites. A French 
 regiment of cuirassiers, which dashed through an opening in Ben- 
 ingsen's line, and penetrated as far as the baggage in his rear, was 
 brilliantly charged by Platoff, the Hettman of the Cossacks, enve- 
 
 17 
 
25^ MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 loped, unhorsed, killed, and stripped in a trice : only eighteen of them 
 ever reached their own line; 530 left their shining armour to be 
 worn in triumph by the long-bearded horsemen from the Don and 
 Volga ; in conjunction with the Prussians of Lestocq, the Russian 
 regular cavalry fairly swept Marshal Davoust off the field, on which 
 he left a great number of killed, wounded, and prisoners. Marshal 
 Ney, le brave des braves, after a terrific combat carried the village 
 of Scholditten ; but a Russian division drove him out of the place, 
 and his shattered corps retreated through the deep snow, staining 
 it with their blood. Thus, in the darkness of night, at ten o'clock, 
 ended the battle of Eylau. The Grand Army of Bonaparte had lost 
 not one or two, but a dozen of its eagles. The loss of men, on the 
 two sides, had been awful ; in the absence of authentic returns, it 
 has been roughly stated at 50,000, killed and wounded ; but it should 
 appear that of this number about 30,000 were French. 
 
 Has England, has France, has Europe, lost her memory or her 
 recollection ? Has the history of this great war been crumpled up 
 and burned ? Has every record perished of the way in which the 
 Russians fought against the successful, numerically superior, victo- 
 rious armies of the Emperor Napoleon ? One might conclude this 
 to be the case, on reviewing all the nonsense that has been talked 
 and written since the commencement of this our war with Russia, 
 in 1854, and emitted not merely by superficial readers and hasty 
 journalists, but by persons of high diplomatic rank, and by men who 
 bear the name of statesmen ! 
 
 After the battle of EvJ|au the French withdrew to the line of the 
 Vistula, the Prussians towards Konigsberg. With the immense 
 superiority of force he had on the whole field of the war Napoleon 
 was enabled to take Dantzic from the Prussians ; for more than 
 three months there was no more fighting between the grand armies. 
 The operations of Russia, and a new declaration of war against 
 France from Austria, were checked by the ill-timed parsimony of a 
 British ministry, now known contemptuously in history under the 
 name of " All the Talents." But for our wretched policy, this general 
 devastating war might have been ended in 1807, instead of 1815 ; 
 and, in that case, our national debt would be less by some hundreds 
 of millions. 
 
1807.] BATTLE OF FRIEDLAND^ 259 
 
 Anticipating his conscriptions, and bringing up troops from Hol- 
 land, the Confederated States of the Rhine, Italy, and every country 
 where his authority was established, Napoleon collected, on the 
 plains of Poland, an army of 200,000 men, and once more advanced 
 against the Russians. On the I4th of June the great battle of Frit d- 
 land took place, at the distance of only a few miles from the bloody 
 held of Eylau. On this occasion, as on several others, there was a 
 visible want of activity and energy (attributable to the hereditary 
 disease by which he was afflicted) on the part of Napoleon ; he re- 
 mained in a state of inaction at Eylau, without giving any precise 
 orders as to the operations to be undertaken, and apparently without 
 knowing that Beningsen's entire force was in his front. Thus the 
 battle, which might have begun much earlier, did not commence in 
 earnest until four or five o'clock in the afternoon, and the French 
 Emperor did not arrive on the field till a later hour. Again the 
 Russians were most successful in the onset : their Imperial Guard 
 charged and drove in the divison of Ney, and shook the columns of 
 Dupont, who had been sent to support the marshal ; this tremen- 
 dous onslaught was followed up by a charge of Russian cavalry ; two 
 French regiments lost their eagles, an immense number of them 
 went down, killed or badly wounded ; the French infantry reeled 
 back, attempting to form in square ; the Russian horse continued 
 their charge almost up to the muzzles of the guns which Senarmont, 
 Napoleon's excellent general of artillery, had placed in battery. 
 But these tremendous batteries decided the fate of the day : the 
 battle of Friedland was not a battle of bayonets and musketry, but 
 a battle of cannon, which we look upon as the less noble species of 
 ;ombat. While Beningsen had scattered his guns along his line, 
 Napoleon or Senarmont had collected and concentrated upon one 
 point nearly all the French cannon ; and as the Russians approached 
 in solid column, they were assailed by a tremendous fire of ball and 
 grape-shot. None but brave troops would have closed on such a 
 fire. This sort of battle lasted nearly three hours. The Russians 
 fell back; and, instead of massing their own artillery, they renewed 
 their attempt, with foot and horse, to capture that of the enemy. 
 \t last they were worsted, and, as night approached, they began 
 
 172 
 
260 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 slowly to retire behind the Aller, crossing that river by a ford, and 
 carrying with them all their artillery and baggage. The French 
 gained no trophies at Friedland. It appears that the Russians did 
 not lose so much as a single gun or a single tumbril. The French 
 scarcely took a prisoner, except among the badly wounded, and the 
 field seemed as thickly strewed with French as with Russians. Many 
 of the regiments of Napoleon were reduced to less than one-half 
 whole companies had disappeared to a man. The French officers 
 and soldiers were getting heartily sick of this war, so different from 
 all that they had previously seen. 
 
 A modern French writer* says, with truth and feeling, " The 
 character which the war had taken ever since the battle of Eylau 
 was most destructive everywhere a frightful carnage nothing to 
 be gained without losing torrents of blood ! With the Austrians 
 and the Prussians one might, by means of strategy, make whole 
 masses prisoners ; one might finish a campaign by a few decisive 
 marches which threw into the hands of the Emperor Napoleon the 
 half of an army, as captives; but/with the Russians, there was 
 nothing but to kill and be killed, to break their ranks and smash 
 the last man with cannon-ball, and that, too, without any consider- 
 able result! ^n general, when armies are not quite barbarous, 
 soldiers do not like to multiply deaths ; they desire a victory with 
 as little possible blood, and with as much profitable result, as may 
 be ; butcheries, like these at Eylau and Friedland, end by carrying 
 fear and disgust to the hearts of the most veteran troops." 
 "4' But, if not cruel, Napoleon himself always felt or affected stoical 
 indifference at the sight of carnage, and seldom seemed to consider 
 that half the glory of a commander consists in gaining great advan- 
 tages with small losses. From the commencement of his empire 
 he fought his battles as if he had little or no regard for the lives of 
 his devoted followers ; and he never gained a victory without dis- 
 proportionate, prodigious sacrifices.^ Column was hurled after 
 column into the jaws of death. Where a second column of attack 
 failed, a third might succeed ; where a third bit the dust, why, then 
 
 * Capefigue. " L'Europe pendant le Consulat et TEmpire." 
 
THE TREATY OF TILSIT. 
 
 261 
 
 Meeting of the Emperors on the Niemen. 
 
 on with a fourth. Marchons! Vivre VEmpereur! He will live, and 
 may gain the field at last, but none of us shall live to see it ! 
 
 The Marquis de , who accompanied the French army into 
 
 Russia at a later period of the war, rode with the Emperor over one 
 of his battle-fields the morning after the combat, before the dead 
 had been removed or the writhing wounded cared for. He could 
 
262 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, 
 
 not suppress his emotion ; he exclaimed that it was a piteous sight. 
 "Bah!" said Napoleon, " c'est un beau spectacle, c'est un spectacle 
 magnifique ! n 
 
 The Russians gave their manful farewell greeting to the French 
 at Friedland ; the two nations did not meet again as foes until 
 Bonaparte's culminating Moscow campaign of 1812. 
 
 The two Emperors, Napoleon and Alexander, were by this time 
 equally anxious for peace.^TFn the 25th of June they met on a raft 
 in the middle of the river Niemen. After a personal conference, in 
 which the young Alexander was flattered and cajoled if not quite 
 captivated, they took up their residence close to each other in the 
 town of Tilsit, leaving the unfortunate King of Prussia and his fair 
 Queen to occupy for some days an old mill in the neighbourhood. 
 Gallantry to ladies was no feature of Bonaparte's character ; but he 
 hatechthis high-spirited Queen with a most intense, ungenerous, un- 
 manly hatreds The treaty of peace was signed at Tilsit on the yih 
 of July. To the King of Prussia was restored about one-half of his 
 former territories as far as the Elbe ; but all the principal Prussian 
 fortresses, and all the seaport towns, were to remain in the hands 
 of the French till the general peace, or until England should be re- 
 duced to submission. The portion of Poland acquired by Prussia 
 * was now taken from that kingdom and erected into, a separate State, 
 to be called the Grand Duchy of Warsaw, but to be held not by a 
 Polish prince, or a Republic of Poles, but by the King of Saxony, 
 now a devoted ally of Bonaparte. Prussia was compelled to re- 
 nounce for ever all claim to Dantzic ; and that city, with a strip of 
 contiguous territory, was, in mockery, declared to be free and inde- 
 pendent, under the joint protection of Prussia and Saxony; only, 
 until the conclusion of a general peace, Dantzic was to be held by 
 a French garrison. As he kept possession of the whole seaboard, 
 it was scarcely necessary to introduce the clause ; but Bonaparte 
 bound Frederick William to shut all his ports against the trade and 
 navigation of England, c. He took every opportunity to declare 
 that if the Prussian monarch was yet allowed to reign, it was solely 
 owing to his ardent friendship for the Emperor Alexander. The 
 Czar, as a matter of course, was not called upon to make any terri- 
 
 y 
 
RETURN TO PARIS. 263 
 
 tonal sacrifices (his armies had fought too well, and he was too 
 strong for that); on the contrary, he was gratified with the cession 
 of a part of Prussian Poland, which materially strengthened his own 
 frontier. By the secret articles of the treaty, France allowed Rus- 
 sia to take Finland from Sweden, and Russia on her part engaged 
 to close all her ports against British vessels, and to assume an hos- 
 tile attitude towards Great Britain by heading a new armed neutra- 
 lity or Coalition of the North. 
 
 Loud, yet feeble, were the lamentations raised by the Polish 
 patriots and dupes, who, to the last moment, continued to dream 
 about the reconstruction of their once great but nearly always dis- 
 tracted nation. The Turks, too, had to utter many a fresh male- 
 diction against Napoleon. He had tempted and dragged them into 
 the war against Russia by the most solemn promises that Moldavia 
 and Wallachia should be secured to them, and by the hope of their 
 re-attaining, through his aid, Bessarabia, the Crimea, and all that 
 the Russians had taken from them since the accession of Peter the 
 Great. But now all that the Turks got was an armistice, and within 
 fifteen months from the date of the Treaty of Tilsit, Napoleon was 
 concerting with Alexander schemes for the destruction or dismember- 
 ment of the Ottoman empire. Even while at Tilsit he had said to 
 the Czar, " // is impossible any longer to endure the presence of the 
 Turks in Europe. You are at liberty to drive them back into Asia?* 
 
 On the 9th of July Napoleon left Tilsit to return to Paris, where 
 he received the usual tribute of servile addresses and fulsome flat- 
 tery. As on other occasions, his clergy particularly distinguished 
 themselves in these performances ; but the very climax of flattery, 
 
 * Napoleon, however, added, " Constantinople must not fall into the hands of any one 
 European power." We would say it is not necessary and certainly not desirable that it 
 should. Constantinople ought to be rendered a neutral ground and a free port to all the 
 civilized world, and to be garrisoned and kept (with suitable treaties, and pledges, and 
 guarantees to the other powers) by the united forces of England, France, and Austria. 
 Something like this joint occupation has been tried, and, successfully, before now. , At 
 least I have not heard that any mischief or serious difficulty has arisen from the joint 
 occupation of Mentz (Mayence) by Austrians and Prussians. In spite of their recent stand 
 on the Danube, it is becoming every day more evident that the Turks, if left to themselves, 
 cannot keep Constantinople. 
 
264 
 
 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 if not of downright blasphemy, had been reached before this by a 
 priest who declared that, " God made Napoleon, and then rested ! " 
 As the power of this extraordinary man increased, so did his 
 hatred of all liberal institutions. He had not been many days in 
 Paris ere he suppressed the Tribunate the only remnant of a 
 national deliberative body in France, which he had previously re- 
 
 Napoleon addressing the Tribunate. 
 
 duced to one-half of its original number : the Tribunate had been 
 allowed some liberty of speech, and he could not tolerate that ci- 
 vilians and ideologues should speak of his policy or proceedings. 
 He said afterwards at St. Helena, " The Tribunate was absolutely 
 useless, while it cost nearly half a million of francs per annum (the 
 members, like the Senators and all the rest, were salaried) : I there- 
 fore suppressed it. I was well aware that an outcry would be raised 
 against this violation of the law ; but I was strong ; I possessed 
 the full confidence of the people, and I considered myself a re- 
 former." 
 
 Germany was to pay still further the penalty of her disunion, and 
 
INVASION OF PORTUGAL. 265 
 
 consequent weakness. Napoleon stripped the Elector of Hesse 
 Cassel of his territories, on the ground that he had not joined him 
 in the war against Prussia, and he despoiled the Duke of Bruns- 
 wick of his, on the pretence that the Duke had joined Prussia 
 against him. Out of these spoils and other appropriations of ter- 
 ritory he formed the new kingdom of Westphalia, and gave it to 
 Jerome, his youngest brother. 
 
 But it was not beyond the Rhine or beyond the Alps that the 
 Emperor confined his views of aggrandizement ; these were carried 
 across the Pyrenees, and on the banks of the Ebro and Douro. 
 The Prince Regent of Portugal having refused to enforce the Berlin 
 decrees against England, Junot was sent with 30,000 men across 
 Spain (with the consent, connivance, and co-operation of the stupid 
 and infamous Spanish Government), to take possession of Portugal. 
 At the same time Napoleon, like the master of the world or the 
 dispenser of the destinies of all nations, laconically published in the 
 Moniteur, "The house of Braganza has ceased to reign in Europe." 
 Junot entered Lisbon without opposition on the 3oth of November, 
 1807. Advised, guided, and assisted by our ambassador, the Vis- 
 count Strangford, the Prince Regent and his Court embarked for 
 Brazil just before the arrival of the French. These incidents led 
 to our great Peninsular War, and brought fairly into the European 
 field our immortal Wellington, by far the most formidable adversary 
 with whom the French had ever to contend. 
 
 And now for the trans- Alpine regions. Being at Milan, the French 
 Emperor dispossessed the Queen of Etruria of the whole of Tuscany, 
 which he very soon annexed, not to the kingdom of Italy, but to the 
 French empire. The deposed Queen was promised a compensation 
 in Portugal, but this she never attained. On the I7th of December, 
 1807, Napoleon issued from Milan a decree by which all merchant 
 vessels, of whatever flag, that submitted to the British Orders in 
 Council, were declared to be lawful prizes to the French. In the 
 following year a number of American trading vessels were seized 
 and confiscated in the ports of France and Italy. The Government 
 of the United States, always so ready to resent any injury or pre- 
 tended insult offered by England, their own mother country, put up 
 
266 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 with these French outrages with wonderful coolness and patience, 
 nor did they obtain any reparation so long as Napoleon was on the 
 throne, The truth is, their sympathies were entirely Napoleonic. 
 Yes, the fierce democrats, the liberty-loving or liberty-bawling re- 
 publicans of the West were fascinated, spellbound, enchanted by 
 the conqueror and most absolute sovereign, the liberticide who had 
 strangled every republic he could get within his grasp, the man to 
 whom the very word republic was insupportably odious. These 
 seeming contradictions are not very rare ; the predilections of an 
 unbridled democracy towards absolutism and despotism are indeed 
 so common that they may almost cease to be considered as ano- 
 malous. At home, the party who held the free British constitution 
 not to be free and democratic enough for them, worshipped the 
 rising star of Napoleon, prostrated themselves before it when in its 
 zenith, and mourned and bewailed its setting. And are these feel- 
 ings yet extinct among us ? Far from it ! 
 
 The Milan decree, and the seizure of their ships and merchandise, 
 were cunningly intended to set the Americans against our Orders 
 in Council, and to drag them into the war against England ; but 
 our transatlantic brethren would not do until 1812 that which the 
 Emperor of the French had wished them to do in 1808. 
 
 Tuscany and her ports, like all the rest of Italy, were occupied 
 by his troops, and governed according to his will ; but the poor old 
 Pope had a few ports on either side of the peninsula, on the Adriatic 
 as well as on the Tyrrhenian Sea, and therefore the Pope must be 
 brought to book although the French "troops had for some time 
 occupied the two most important of the Roman ports Ancona and 
 Civita Vecchia to stop all English trade, and to seize every neutral 
 vessel that had on board a bale of our goods or a cask of our colonial 
 produce. "You must join me entirely, and declare war against 
 England," said the conqueror to the Pontiff. " I am a sovereign of 
 peace," said the weak Pius, "I cannot declare war against any 
 Christian power ! " " The English are heretics, and enemies to the 
 Holy See/' said this man of no religion, this greatest enemy that 
 had ever laid hands on the patrimony of St. Peter. The Pope re- 
 peated that he could not make war upon Christians, that, without 
 
THE MODERN "EMPEROR OF THE WEST" 267 
 
 an army of strength and without a navy, he had not the means of 
 waging war against any one. " Then,' 7 said Napoleon, " I, as suc- 
 cessor of Charlemagne, as Emperor of the West, King of Italy, and 
 your suzerain, I shall resume the donation of territory which Charle- 
 magne made for the defence of the Holy Church against its ene- 
 mies." Forthwith, a French force, thrown forward from Tuscany, 
 took possession of the city of Rome and the Castle of St. Angelo, 
 and General Mioblis assumed all the authority of government, and 
 took the few un warlike soldiers of the Pope under his own command. 
 
 It was not merely to frighten an aged, timid priest, that the in- 
 flated conqueror assumed to be the rightful successor of Charle- 
 magne, for he now declared on every side that he was, both de facto 
 and dejure. Emperor of the West. He treated the whole of Prussia 
 as a conquered country, dictated to Austria, and dealt with the minor 
 German princes, and the Kings of Naples and Holland (though his 
 own brothers), as if they were vassals, weaker and far more inglo- 
 rious than those which, a thousand years ago, clustered round the 
 imperial throne of Charlemagne. These wretched satellites were 
 to reflect only his own light, or that portion of it which he chose to 
 cast upon them ; and whatever their own interests or the interests 
 of their subjects might be, they must do his bidding in all things, 
 and make for France or for himself whatever sacrifices he might 
 require. May Heaven in its mercy yet preserve Europe from such 
 an Emperor of the West ! 
 
 At war without a single ally, and threatened by the armed neu- 
 trality of the north, and the massing (evidently attempted by Napo- 
 leon) of all the fleets and navies of continental Europe, it was neces- 
 sary for England to strike a terrible blow ; and, disregarding strict 
 formulas, England struck it. By one of the secret bargainings 
 between Napoleon and Alexander, at Tilsit, the Danish fleet was to 
 be placed at the disposal of France ; and, with the Russian and 
 Dutch fleets, the Danes were to assist Napoleon in an attack upon 
 England. This blow our ministers boldly anticipated. On the ist 
 of October, 1807, an English expedition of naval and land forces 
 appeared before Copenhagen, and demanded that the Danish fleet 
 should be delivered in deposit to England, till the conclusion of a 
 
*68 MEMOIR OF 'NAPOLEON BONAPART&. 
 
 general peace. This being refused, our troops were landed, the city 
 was bombarded, and the Danish council submitted. Twenty stout 
 ships of the line, sixteen frigates, and a number of small vessels of 
 war, were delivered over to Admiral Gambier, and conveyed to 
 England. The Danes could not have kept this fleet out of the 
 clutches of the French, had they been friendly instead of hostile to 
 England. Napoleon seems to have been astonished that the Eng- 
 lish did not carry away the hardy Danish sailors,-=-as he himself 
 assuredly would have done. /< He ha4 never, respected any law, or 
 treaty, neutrality, or right, that stood rahis way ; he had torn, the 
 law of nations to tatters ; but he now raisesla fea*(ul outcry <g 
 England for not respecting the mock neutralityof DeWiark. Thou 
 joining at the ^ime intjie chorus, the Em^ror Atexancte 
 expressed his very grea'kjoy at the bold and^ec 
 British Government had taken at Copenhagen^ 
 
 England had no longer an ally in the north ; but Napoleon fur- 
 nished her with an important ally and a favourable battle-field in 
 the south. His insatiable ambition now grasped at the whole of 
 Spain, as well as of Portugal. He would listen to no one who 
 attempted to show the danger of the enterprise, as for its morality, 
 few, either in Court or camp, thought of that. " The Spanish war 
 will be fatal to the French empire," said Prince Talleyrand: "c'est 
 le commencement de la fin! " it is the beginning of the end. T" Vey- 
 rand was loaded with the coarsest abuse, disgraced, relegated t> his 
 country seat in a remote province ; and never reappeared at Paris 
 until after the retreat from Moscow, when the end had advanced a 
 great many stages beyond its beginning. 
 
 For this Spanish war, and the base political intrigues which pre- 
 ceded it, the reader is referred to a preceding volume on the life and 
 exploits of Wellington. The great Duke had everything to do with 
 that contest, and he will be for ever identified with that protracted 
 war, in which, personally, Napoleon was scarcely engaged at all. 
 
 Having secured the persons of the Bourbpn royal family, by means 
 of fraud and artifice, the conqueror appointed his brother Joseph, 
 King of Naples, to be King of Spain and the Indies ; and named 
 his brother-in-law, Joachim Murat, to the Neapolitan throne. I* 
 
1808-1814.] THE PENINSULAR WAR, 269 
 
 was with great regret, and with many and sad misgivings, that 
 Joseph, Napoleon's elder brother, quitted the banks of the Sebto 
 for those of the Manzares. He could foresee nothing in Spain but 
 trouble, turmoil, and blood. More than a year before this period, 
 he had warned the Emperor that he ought to remain satisfied with 
 the conquests he had then made, and conclude peace d tout prix, 
 cost what it might. " Your Majesty ," wrote Joseph, " is everywhere 
 victorious and triumphant ; spare, therefore, the blood of your people. 
 The sovereign ought to temper the warrior. You ought not to ex- 
 pose to the chances of fortune the mighty edifice which you have 
 raised in the last ten years." This advice was indeed sensible and 
 prophetic, but the inflated conqueror would not take it 
 
 The flood-gates of human blood were, therefore, opened afresh. 
 " During the six years of the Peninsular war," says an excellent 
 writer, whom I have frequently followed, and to whom I must always 
 acknowledge my obligations, "about 600,000 French soldiers entered 
 Spain, at different times, by the two great roads of Bayonne and 
 Perpignan. There returned into France, at different times, about 
 250,000. The other 350,000 did not return. Making full deduction 
 for those who remained prisoners in the hands of the Spaniards 
 and English, and were afterwards set free at the peace of 1814, the 
 number who perished during that war cannot be estimated at less 
 than 250,000, if it does not rather approach to 300,000. The loss of 
 the Spaniards, soldiers and peasants destroyed in detail in almost 
 every part of the Peninsula, cannot be calculated, but it must have 
 been greater than that of the French." * 
 
 Napoleon now re-established titles of nobility in France, where 
 the republican revolutionists had pretended to abolish them for ever. 
 LefeVore, who had taken Dantzic in the preceeding year (1807), was 
 the first duke he created. Many others received titles from towns 
 in Italy and Germany, together with annual incomes charged upon 
 the revenues or national domains of the conquered countries. Both 
 titles and incomes were made hereditary : civilians as well as soldiers 
 were admitted into this new imperial aristocracy ; but there were 
 
 * A Vieusseux. " Napoleon Bonaparte : his Sayings and his Deeds." 
 
2JO MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 only five civil to nineteen military, while, of the latter class, Berna- 
 dotte and Berthier were created princes. The civilian Talleyrand 
 was, however, made Prince of Benevento. As for the titles of Count 
 and Baron and Chevalier, they were distributed ad infinitum. A 
 multitude of generals of division and members of the Senate became 
 counts, and generals of brigade barons. There was a greater con- 
 fusion than that produced by the Jacobins when they proscribed all 
 titles and aristocratic designations whatsoever ; and there were not 
 a few jokes and bon mots on the occasion. Everybody knew Ney as 
 General or Marshal Ney, and Soult as General or Marshal Soult ; 
 but when these soldiers of fortune came to be called Duke of 
 Elchingen and Duke of Dalmatia, people wondered who they were, 
 and who \vere their fathers. Monge, the savant^ atheist, conven- 
 tionalist, and at one time rabid Jacobin and democratic republican, 
 who had accompanied General Bonaparte into the Levant in 1799, 
 took for himself the title of Count of Pelusium, after an ancient city 
 near one of the mouths of the Nile. Translated into French, Pelu- 
 sium becomes Peluse a ridiculous word and this new title, Comte 
 de Peluse, filled half Paris with laughter. " But who, in the devil's 
 name, is he this Comte de Peluse?" asked nearly every man of 
 his neighbour. The functionaries at the post-office were obliged to 
 furnish themselves with lists of the new titles, having attached to 
 them the old familiar citizen names of their wearers. Heralds were 
 now employed to hunt out or devise arms for these ex- democrats 
 and liberty-and- equality men, and blazonries of the largest dimen- 
 sions, and in the gaudiest colours, were painted on the carriage 
 panels of these successful but rather unnatural sons of the Revolu- 
 tion. To every great man the Emperor gave a splendid hotel or 
 mansion in Paris, formerly the property of some noble of the ancien 
 regime; and, that there might be no mistake as to its present oc- 
 cupant and owner, an inscription in big gold letters was set up on 
 ti\t facade , so that people might read as they walked or ran, Hotel 
 de M. le Due de Raguse, or Hotel du Prince de Neufchatel. In all 
 this there was much downright vulgarity, and also much to remind 
 the Parisians how thoroughly the mass of these grandees were noir 
 hommes. But at Court they were now setting up a most rigid system 
 
NAPOLEON CONFERS WITH ALEXANDER. 271 
 
 of gradation and etiquette, and attempting, with the aid of some of 
 the ancient noblesse returned from exile, to restore all the pomp and 
 ceremonials of the Bourbon monarchy, with all the splendour and 
 expense of Louis XIV. Some of the Bonaparte family, and parti- 
 cularly Murat's wife, Napoleon's eldest sister, who had known in her 
 earlier days what it was to eat the bread of charity and to contem- 
 plate the chances of having to work for a livelihood, were inexorable 
 in their exactions on the side of Court etiquette and ceremony. 
 
 In September, 1808, he repaired to Erfurt to confer with the 
 Emperor Alexander, who was still, and for three years longer, cowed 
 by his prepotency. The conferences were secret ; but it should seem 
 that the old question of a dismemberment of the Ottoman empire, 
 and the expulsion of the Turks from Europe, was again agitated. 
 Napoleon himself says that the chief obstacle to a partition of that 
 country was the difficulty of knowing what to do with, or in whose 
 hands to place, Constantinople. It appears, however, that as a price 
 of her non-interference in Spanish affairs, Russia obtained the con- 
 sent of the French Emperor to her renewing the war on the European 
 frontier provinces of Turkey ; for shortly after these conferences at 
 Erfurt the troops of the Czar once more invaded Moldavia and 
 Wallachia, and the war thus recommenced in the East was not ter- 
 minated until 1812, when the French were invading Russia, and the 
 English patched up a peace between the Czar and the Sultan, in 
 order that the Russian army employed on the Danube might march 
 home for the defence of its own country. On returning from Erfurt 
 to Paris, Napoleon told his Senate that he and the Emperor of 
 Russia were irrevocably united in a bond of friendship and alliance. 
 Yet in private he continued to say that Russia sympathized with 
 England, that there was no dependence to be placed in the Czar, 
 that Alexander was as cunning and insincere as a G~eek of the 
 Lower Empire. 
 
 Reverses, direful calamities, were multiplying themselves in Spain 
 on the head of the intrusive King, Joseph Bonaparte. Napoleon 
 resolved to set out for that country himself, and he told his legis- 
 lative body and a deputation which came to him from Madrid, that he 
 would soon drive the English out of every part of the Peninsula, esta- 
 
3?2 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 blish the power of his brother, and plant the eagles of France on the 
 ramparts of Lisbon. What he did, and all that he failed to do, are 
 briefly related in the "Memoir of Wellington " before alluded to. 
 He could not intercept the retreat of General Sir John Moore ; he 
 saw nothing of that army except the rear of the last division, as it 
 was filing off for the glorious field of Coruna ; and he never encoun- 
 tered English troops again until he met them on the field of Waterloo. 
 
 It was Austria that recalled him in such a hurry from Spain. 
 That Court and country, having made astonishing exertions in the 
 way of recruiting, had raised their armies to more than 400,000 men, 
 and, with such a force on foot, the Emperor Francis was determined 
 to make one more attempt to check the rapid strides of Napoleon 
 towards universal dominion. At the moment the spirit of the 
 Austrian army was excellent, the people of the various kingdoms 
 and States which composed the empire were loyal and devoted to 
 the sovereign, and bitterly incensed against the French by recol- 
 lections of the past. It was only by an excess of blundering on the 
 part of ministers, Aulic councillors, and generals, that these advan- 
 tages were thrown away, and these immense forces led to defeat and 
 disgrace. 
 
 Early in 1809, Napoleon, with great rapidity, began to collect and 
 mass his Grand Army in the States of the princes of the Confede- 
 racy of the Rhine, beyond that river and extending towards the 
 frontiers of Bavaria. The Elector of Bavaria was called upon by 
 the Emperor Francis to unite with Austria for the independence of 
 Germany ; but there was no spirit of union, no oneness of German 
 feelings in this dislocated country, and, hating Austria, she leaned 
 to France, even as she had done in the days of Louis XIV., and 
 during the campaigns of our great Marlborough, who won on Bava- 
 rian soil his memorable victory of Blenheim. In Germany the com- 
 mand of the Austrian forces were entrusted to the Archduke Charles, 
 in Italy to Archduke John. These good and brave soldiers were 
 brothers. On the Qth of April the Archduke Charles crossed the 
 Inn and occupied Bavaria, which raised a loud cry about violation 
 ot neutrality. Napoleon repaired to Augsburg, and by one of those 
 skilful strategetical movements on which his lame as a warrior must 
 
1809.] BATTLE OF ASPbRN. 273 
 
 always depend, broke through the long Austrian line, gained the 
 battle of Eckmuhl, and constrained the Archduke Charles to retire 
 into Bohemia, and leave the road to Vienna open to the French. 
 On the 1 2th of May the French, lor the second time, entered that 
 capital. But the Archduke Charles now collected his army at a 
 short distance from the city, on the opposite side of the Danube, 
 and his forces were again in an excellent spirit. Napoleon did 
 frequently that which a wise and truly great general will never do 
 once : he put himself in a condition where defeat might entail the 
 entire destruction of his army, and where he might lose in a single 
 day all that he had been gaining in many years. Without providing 
 means of retreat, or security against an accident likely enough to 
 occur at this season of the year, he crossed the Danube and attacked 
 the Archduke. 
 
 The great battle of Aspern, one of the most memorable of modern 
 times, was begun on the 2ist of May. When night closed on the 
 field of carnage the combat was undecided, but the loss of the French 
 far exceeded that of the Austrians, and was appalling. The battle 
 was renewed early on the following day, and was raging with fury 
 on both sides, but still disadvantageously for the French, when Na- 
 poleon was informed that the bridges in his rear, constructed to keep 
 up his communications with the right bank of the Danube and Vienna, 
 had been swept away by a flood ; upon receiving which intelligence 
 he ordered a retreat, and withdrew, humiliated and in great con- 
 fusion, into the island of Lobau, in the midst of the Danube. His 
 loss in killed and wounded, in these two days of stern combat, was 
 indeed enormous. Marshal Lannes finished his earthly career at 
 Aspern; Generals d'Espagnc and Saint Hilaire were also among 
 the slain ; and an immense number of field officers perished on the 
 spot or died of their v/ounds on the isle of Lobau. For two days 
 the defeated French army remained cooped up in that island, with- 
 out provisions, bandages, medicines, or medical attendance ; and 
 numbers of the wounded, whose cases were deemed hopeless, were, 
 while yet living men, thrown into the Danube. The French re- 
 mained six weeks on Lobau, where, with proper energy and activity, 
 the Austrians ought to have exterminated them in the first two days. 
 
 18 
 
2 74 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 His reverses, however, lowered the haughty tone of the invader. 
 Before the campaign of Aspern he appeared to contemplate nothing 
 less than the total dismemberment of the Austrian empire : he de- 
 tained, as prisoners of war, all bearers of flags of truce, and refused 
 to answer the letters brought to him in the name of the Emperor 
 Francis. " What emperor? " said he : " there is no longer an Empe- 
 ror of Austria ! There are only Princes of the House of Loraine, 
 Grand Feudatories of the Imperial Crown of France." In spite of 
 all the painstaking by his worshippers to conceal the fact, it is quite 
 evident that he now bitterly repented of these words, and that he 
 more than once despaired of his army, if not of his own personal 
 safety. Massena, who was in Lobau, could not conceive how the 
 Archduke Charles should fail in exterminating the French in the 
 rat-trap to which they had fled. The thing, indeed, is scarcely to 
 be accounted for without corruption and treachery in some quarter 
 or quarters. The French Emperor took the field with a great trea- 
 sure, and this is said to have been exhausted long before he returned 
 to Paris. What became of that money ? It was not spent in pur- 
 chasing provisions and supplies, for none of his armies ever paid 
 for these things. 
 
 Having received immense reinforcements and established bridges, 
 the French at last quitted the isle of Lobau, crossed to the left bank 
 of the Danube, and, on the 5th and 6th of July, fought the battle of 
 Wagram. After many vicissitudes, and not a few chances of vic- 
 tory, the Austrians were defeated ; but again the loss of the French 
 was terrific : three generals were killed, twenty-one generals wounded, 
 and 33,000 men either slain or put hors de combat. Napoleon's lying 
 bulletins, which could no longer deceive anybody, stated his total 
 loss at 1,500 killed, and a few thousand wounded! The French 
 army was no longer what it had been (it was a great mistake evei 
 to deem it invincible) : large portions of it consisted of young recruits, 
 or of unwilling conscripts, raised in the subdued States of Germany, 
 in Holland, Switzerland, and Italy. When reproved by his master for 
 not doing impossibilities, Bernadotte said, " Sire, we have no longer 
 such troops as those we brought from the camp of Boulogne to Vi- 
 enna, in 1806! " Wagram, on the side of the French, was another 
 
PEACE OF SCHONBRUNN. 275 
 
 battle of artillery. On the field Napoleon cried, " The Austrian 
 centre must be battered by artillery, like a fortress ! " When the 
 struggle was going against him, he exclaimed to Drouot, his artillery 
 general, " More guns, Drouot ! Bring up all the batteries of the 
 guard ! We must sustain Davoust's column at any price ! Allons^ 
 Drouot, throw me ten thousand cannon-balls! Crush me those 
 masses before you ! " Thus, the less he relied on his troops, the * 
 more he relied on his cannon ; and he accordingly kept increasing 
 his artillery out of all proportion. 
 
 The Austrian army was not destroyed or dispersed it was not 
 even dispirited ; and the Archduke Charles was for continuing the 
 contest. Other counsels, however, prevailed ; an armistice was con- 
 cluded at Znaym, and this led to the Peace of Schonbrunn. The 
 definitive treaty, however, was not signed till the I4th of October, 
 and its conditions were far less unfavourable to Austria than had 
 been anticipated, and this on account of causes and considerations 
 far apart from any magnanimity or generosity in Napoleon. 
 
 Prussia, completely broken by the war of 1 806, remained neutral 
 during this conflict ; and Russia, agreeing to aid the oppressor of 
 nations, sent an army into Gallicia. These troops took, indeed, little 
 or no part in the war ; but they obliged the Austrians to detach a 
 corresponding force to meet and observe them. Napoleon, how- 
 ever, could never feel quite sure of Russia, and he soon began to fear 
 that the troops of the Czar, which he had brought so near to the r*ld 
 of war, would, in case of any great reverse befalling him, join the 
 Austrians, and make common cause with their old allies. England 
 had landed a considerable force at Walcheren, which yet threatened 
 Holland and Belgium, and the war in Spain continued with dubious 
 success, but with an immense monthly loss to the French. On the 
 28th of July, only two and twenty days after Bonaparte's victory over 
 the Archduke at Wagram, Wellington, with very inferior forces, gave 
 a thorough defeat to Marshal Victor, at Talavera. The news of this 
 exploit, in spite of French postmasters, who opened and destroyed 
 letters, and of French police, who took other means to suppress or 
 silence the truth, was rapidly spread all over the Continent ; and it 
 was now that men first began to turn their eyes towards our great 
 
 18 2 
 
276 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 soldier, and to hope that Europe would find an avenger, and Napo- 
 leon a chastiser, in Wellington. " From that moment,' 7 said a 
 veteran Austrian officer to me, in 1816, " I kept looking to the 
 Spanish Peninsula, and every battle fought, and every movement 
 made, whether in advance or retreat, by your Lord Wellington, con- 
 vinced me and most of my comrades that there was the great man 
 the world wanted." In the interval between Napoleon's invasion of 
 Austria and the signature of the Treaty of Schonbrunn, Northern 
 Germany began to be agitated by a spirit of popular resistance to 
 him and his tyrannical rule ; and bands of partisans under S chill, 
 the Duke of Brunswick, and other heroic leaders, appeared on the 
 field. Moreover the Tyrol, one of the hereditary States of the House 
 of Hapsburg, devoted heart and soul to the Emperor Francis, was 
 still in arms, and causing great losses to the French and their allies 
 the Bavarians. It was on these and other grounds that Napoleon 
 thought it best to be moderate in his conditions. Yet Austria ceded 
 Trieste, Carniola, and part of Croatia, Salzburg, Cracow, and Wes- 
 tern Gallicia, and several other districts, to the amount of about two 
 millions and a half of inhabitants. The Archduke Charles, who 
 strongly disapproved of the peace, gave up his command when he 
 saw it was decided upon. The heroic Tyrolese were abandoned to 
 their fate ; and, after a time, Hofer, and others of their celebrated 
 chiefs, were seized by the French, carried away to Mantua, and there 
 pitilessly, barbarously, lawlessly shot, by sentence of French courts- 
 martial. These rustic heroes they were all men of humble condi- 
 tion were not yet subjects of France, or of any ally of France ; but, 
 as their forefathers had been for many ages, the faithful, most de- 
 voted subjects of Austria; they had fought only for the Kaiser, their 
 own mountainous country, their properties and homes : as they owed 
 Napoleon no allegiance, they could not be guilty of treason towards 
 him ; and, in putting them to death, he and his military tribunals 
 were guilty of foul and horrible murder. 
 
 But in the whole course of this Austrian war of 1 809, and the events 
 which closely followed it, Napoleon gave evidence of a hardened 
 heart, an irritable savage temper, a vindictive spirit, a coarse tongue, 
 and a want of feeling and generosity. General Chasteler, who com- 
 
A TTEMPT TO ASSASSIN A TE NAPOLEON. 277 
 
 manded for a time the Austrian troops in the Tyrol, was outlawed ; 
 and the French Emperor ordered that if he were taken he should 
 be brought before a military commission and shot. The Austrian 
 General Weissenvolf waited upon him and stated that three French 
 generals were in the hands of his countrymen as prisoners of war, 
 and that they would be held responsible for any injury done to 
 General Chasteler. Napoleon sprang from his seat, exclaiming 
 with vulgar fury, " If you but scratch a single one of them, I will 
 order 10,000 Austrian soldiers to be shot, and cause six of your 
 princesses, and twenty ladies of rank, to be violated by the drum- 
 mers of my army ! " Thus intemperate and coarse could be, when 
 irritated, the Charlemagne of the nineteenth century. * 
 
 Napoleon also passed sentence of outlawry against the patriotic 
 minister Count von Stein, and other German patriots, pretending 
 that as they were not born Austrian subjects they had no right to 
 be in arms. A number of the officers of the brave S chill were tried 
 by French courts-martial and shot. 
 
 While the peace was negotiating at Vienna, an event happened at 
 Schonbrunn, which, according to Bignon, one of Napoleon's best 
 historians and best apologists (as being the most moderate and 
 sensible), made a deep impression on the French Emperor, and led 
 to the immediate signature of the treaty. Napoleon was reviewing 
 some troops, on the morning of the I3th of October, when a young 
 man was observed trying to force his way through the crowd of 
 staff officers who always hemmed in the sovereign. General Rapp 
 it is said, in trying to force the youth back, felt a weapon beneath 
 his coat, and caused him to be arrested. This political fanatic, 
 whose name was Stapz, was only nineteen years old, son of a Lu- 
 theran minister at Erfurt. When Napoleon returned into the 
 palace, instead of leaving that duty to others, he himself interro- 
 
 * This startling anecdote is given on the authority of Baron Hormayr, whose historical 
 works (relating chiefly to this period, and to the war of German Independence) are well 
 known and highly appreciated in all parts of Germany. The Baron was acquainted with 
 many actors in the great drama, and had access to living witnesses and to innumerable 
 sources of information. Of course the reader will not expect to find his books often quoted 
 by authors of the Bonaparte school, or by any French writers. 
 
2jS MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 gated the prisoner, who boldly avowed his intention to kill him. 
 " And why would you assassinate me ? " said Napoleon. " Because 
 there will be no peace in Germany so long as you live," replied the 
 young man. "Do you believe Heaven justifies murder?" inquired 
 Napoleon. " I have my doubts on that head," answered the youth; 
 " but I expected forgiveness from God in consequence of the service 
 I should have rendered my country." " If I were to forgive you," 
 continued the Emperor, " what would you do ? " "I would still slay 
 you, if I could," was the answer. The poor young enthusiast was 
 sent before a military commission, condemned to death, and shot 
 accordingly. Napoleon's idolaters tell us that it was only the re- 
 solution expressed by Stapz to persevere in his attempt which pre- 
 vented the Emperor from pardoning him. These are indeed wretched 
 puerilities, fit only to impose on the dull and credulous ; for had the 
 invader felt any generous humanity, nothing could have prevented 
 the unhappy manaic from being assigned to a lunatic asylum in 
 France. Hatfield, who in a fit of insanity fired a pistol at George 
 III., was confined at Bedlam, and lived many years afterwards to 
 pray for the welfare of the generous monarch who had pardoned 
 the maniac's crime. But death was the only remedy that presented 
 itself to Napoleon.* 
 
 Colonel Mitchell remarks, " Though there is nothing altogether 
 improbable in the manner in which Stapz is said to have been ar- 
 rested, it is more likely that he was traced to the spot by the French 
 police, and seized in time to show their zeal and avert misfortune." 
 Bignon tells us that a letter written by the unhappy young man to 
 his parents, at the moment of his leaving Erfurt for the avowed 
 purpose of executing the murderous design, had fallen into the 
 hands of the French authorities, and it is certain that they would 
 not fail to pursue the intended criminal. The historian on this 
 occasion makes rather a curious confession. " All Germany," he 
 says, " ought to have suspected that there existed an office, first at 
 Berlin and then at Erfurt, for unsealing letters, and yet it seemed 
 to strike no one ; for this secret inquisition every day brought to 
 
 Lieut. -CoL J. Mitchell. "The Fall of Napoleon : an Historical Memoir." 
 
DISAPPEARANCE OF MR. BATHURST. 
 
 279 
 
 Execution of Stapz. 
 
 light the most curious avowals and indiscretions which were con- 
 stantly discovered in private letters, and communicated by extracts 
 to the Emperor."* 
 
 Baron Hormayr confidently connects with these incidents the 
 mysterious disappearance of Mr. Bathurst, an active English diplo- 
 matist, who was in the south of Germany at this time, and was never 
 afterwards seen or heard of. The Baron says that Napoleon took 
 it into his head to suspect Mr. Bathurst to be concerned in the 
 
 *" Fall of Napoleon." 
 
28o MEMOIR Of NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 murderous attempt of Stapz. We doubt the reality of this suspicion ; 
 but Napoleon may have said he suspected this noble, honourable 
 Englishman, just as he pretended our Prime Minister, Mr. Pitt, had 
 employed assassins against him, knowing in his own heart that this 
 was a monstrous falsehood. But Mr. Bathurst, by his great activity 
 in Germany, and his close connection with many of the German 
 patriots, had attracted the mortal hatred of the conqueror. His 
 life was known to be in danger. " Contrary to the advice of his 
 friends," says Baron Hormayr, " he persisted in taking the nearest 
 and most dangerous route overland to the Baltic, instead of going 
 by way of Trieste or Constantinople. Bonaparte signed imperiously 
 to Savary to make him vanish. Bathurst reposes, with his single 
 confidential attendant, in the dark depths of a lake in the march of 
 Brandenburg." * 
 
 Shortly after his return from Vienna to Paris, Napoleon made 
 known to his wife, Josephine, who had so essentially aided him in 
 his first most difficult steps towards greatness, his irrevocable de- 
 termination to divorce her, in order that he might have a legitimate 
 son and heir by a younger woman. 
 
 A painful scene took place upon this occasion ; but, if Napoleon 
 was affected at Josephine's grief, the feeling did not last long. It is 
 known, that ever since the time of the conferences at Erfurt, he had 
 contemplated a marriage with one of the sisters of the Emperor 
 Alexander, and that the Empress- Mother had always and success- 
 fully objected to the match. Ostensibly this was done on the plea 
 of difference of religion ; but it is certain that the imperial dame, 
 who had great influence over her son, regarded Napoleon as an ad- 
 venturer and a parvenu, and looked down with contempt upon such 
 a misalliance. Whether the match with a daughter of the Emperor 
 of Austria formed part of the secret negotiations at Schonbrunn has 
 been doubted ; but we are inclined to think that it did, and that the 
 Emperor Francis was brought to consent to this humiliation by the 
 fond hope of acquiring family influence over the insatiable con- 
 
 * Lebensbilder, &c. " Biographical Sketches from the time ot the War of Freedom." 
 Jena, 1841- 
 
DETERMINES ON A DIVORCE. 
 
 First Meeting of the Emperor and Maria Louisa. 
 
 queror, and securing Austria from his blows for the future. The 
 divorce being consented to by Josephine, in presence of commis- 
 sioners from the Senate, the act was solemnly passed and registered 
 on the i6th of December, 1809. On the nth of March, 1810, at 
 Vienna, Napoleon married by proxy the Archduchess Maria Louisa, 
 who soon after set out for the French capital. The real marriage 
 ceremony was performed at Paris by Napoleon's uncle, the Cardinal 
 Fesch. A complete crowd of satellite kings and vassal princes was 
 in attendance in Paris. The way in which Napoleon first met his 
 youthful imperial bride on the roadside at Coucelles, and detained 
 her on that night (previous to the Church ceremony) at Compiegne, 
 are things too indelicate to be dwelt upon in an English book. Even 
 his admirers confess that he ma^e love like a dragoon, and treated 
 
282 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON- BONAPARTE. 
 
 the daughter of the Emperor Francis as if she had been a chamber- 
 maid. The discarded Josephine, with a luxurious household, was 
 sent into Navarre, where she took up her residence on the domain 
 of the ancient house of Bouillon, which had been usurped by her ex- 
 husband against all the rights of property. 
 
 In this year 1810, and the following year 181 1, the power of Napo- 
 leon was at its greatest height. A servile or a stupid world gazed 
 on and wondered ; but thinking men saw the seeds of decay and 
 rapid dissolution in all this greatness saw that the ambition which 
 had carried him so far would tempt him to go further, and bring 
 about his ruin in the end. As his brother Louis (father of the now 
 reigning Emperor Louis Napoleon, and the best and most amiable 
 member of the Bonaparte family) would not be a party to the op- 
 pression of his Dutch subjects, Holland was taken from him to be 
 united to the French empire. There was more absorption than 
 this, and all effected without the slightest regard to nationalities or 
 to the feelings of the people thus absorbed. In 1 8 10, Holland, Fries- 
 land, Oldenburgh, Bremen, and all the line of coast to Hamburgh, 
 and the country between that town and Liibeck, were annexed to 
 the French empire, of which this new territory formed ten addi- 
 tional departments. The French empire now extended from the 
 frontiers of Denmark to those of Naples, for Napoleon had finally 
 annexed Rome and the southern Papal provinces to France. This 
 Papal territory was divided into two departments of the French 
 empire, the Department of Rome, and the Department of the 
 Thrasymene. Napoleon gave his " good city of Rome " the rank 
 of second city in the French empire. Perugia, whither Raffaele 
 went in his boyhood to study painting under honest old Pietro, was 
 converted into the capital of the Thrasymedan Department. 
 
 A Papal bull, excommunicating the Corsican Emperor of the 
 French, had been prepared in anticipation of these events, this 
 climax to robbery, spoliation, violence, and (in the eyes of the real 
 Roman Catholic world) impiety and sacrilege. Shall the feeble 
 Pope, a prisoner in his own palace, in the midst of armed hosts, 
 launch this thunder against the Charlemagne of the day ? Seeing 
 clearly the danger of so doing, Pius VII. hesitated ; but it war, only 
 
EXCOMMUNICATED BY THE POPE. 283 
 
 for a very short time for an instant. Addressing Cardinal Pacca, 
 his Secretary of State, and a priest of courage and action, he said, 
 "What would your Eminence do?" "The question is difficult to 
 answer," replied the Cardinal ; "but let your Holiness raise your eyes 
 to heaven, and give me your orders, and they shall be executed/ 
 Folding his hands on his breast, and raising his eyes to heaven, the 
 venerable Pontiff paused for a moment, and then said firmly, " Let 
 duty be done, come what may 1 " And thereupon the bull of excom- 
 munication was issued. 
 
 The thunder of :he Vatican fell almost unheeded ; the lightning 
 that had brought emperors to their knees, and shattered royal 
 crowns, in the middle ages, had lost its force in the nineteenth cen- 
 tury. True ; but the men who now considered it as a mere brutum 
 fulmen, unproductive of any results, assuredly were much mistaken, 
 and could have known very little of the believing peasantry and 
 bourgeoisie of the ardent South. 
 
 In these years the thunder of the Vatican was still of awful signi- 
 ficance, and the wrongs put upon the poor old Pope wer,e to these 
 people causes of exasperation, detestation, and hatred. In the king- 
 dom of Naples, in the Roman States, in Tuscany, in Lombardy, and 
 in every part and corner of Italy, in all the Roman Catholic States 
 subjected to the French, and in some parts of France itself (parti- 
 cularly in the south and west\ it became more and more difficult, 
 after the issuing of thi^ bu., "excommunication, to raise the con- 
 scription or annual levy of troo, ; in Spain and Portugal, where 
 the annual sacrifice of life continue , ". > be enormous, the bull put 
 a new vigour into the arm of : ly a Jier or guerilla, and con- 
 vinced the devout that the proud nun, cut off from the fellowship 
 of the Church, and ana ematized by the successor of St. Peter, 
 must soon fall and perish; and in the ranks of Napoleon's own 
 army, recruited from all manner of nations, but mostly from those 
 which adhered to the old, unreformed Church, there were many 
 thousands of men who bore : ; toils of th^ march with less patience, 
 and charged or fought with diminished spiri ., from the day they knew 
 the Emperor Napoleon had been excommuaicated by Pope Pius VI I. 
 Only a few years later, when ruin had overtaken him, Napoleon him- 
 
284 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 self frequently said he had made a mistake in proceeding to extre- 
 mities against the spiritual head of the Roman Catholic world. 
 " That quiet old man of Rome, those unarmed, peaceful priests, did 
 me more injury than armies and coalitions of emperors and kings. 
 In some way or other, I felt their influence everywhere ! " Such 
 were some of his tardy lamentations ; but a wise and calm states- 
 man would have foreseen the consequences, and, in policy, would 
 have respected the very limited territorial possessions of the Roman 
 See. 
 
 The events that immediately followed the publication of the bull 
 deepened the impression made by that instrument. In the middle 
 of the night of the 5th of July, 1809, the Pope's palace on the Quiri- 
 nal was surrounded by gendarmes, commanded by General Radet, 
 a common ex-gendarme himself, and a rough low-born man. Led 
 by a few native Roman reformers who knew the building well, and 
 who would have had no reluctance to cut the old Pope's throat, 
 some of the French gendarmes scaled the walls of the palace, broke 
 open several interior doors, and, throwing open the great gates, let 
 in their comrades from without The Swiss body-guards, whom the 
 Pope had collected within the walls, offered no resistance, having 
 received his own solemn order to that effect. Penetrating in a 
 brutal manner to his private apartment, Radet found the Pope, in 
 full pontifical dress, surrounded by priestly attendants. " You must 
 go to France," cried Radet, " you must go to France, or instantly 
 recall this bull, and consent to sign an entire abdication of your 
 temporal authority." " This I cannot do," replied Pius. " Then 
 you must pack off immediately," said Radet. " I yield to force," 
 said the aged, truly venerable Pontiff; and, taking his breviary 
 under his arm, he meekly followed the French general of gen- 
 darmes to the gate of the Quirinal. A carriage was ready ; as soon 
 as the Pope was seated in it, it was driven off under a strong 
 escort of gendarmerie. Not a soul was permitted to accompany 
 him or to follow him ; and it was in vain that he represented his 
 advanced age, his great physical suffering from this rapid, bone- 
 breaking, never-resting way of travelling. Radet was in an agony 
 of alarm lest the person of the Pope should be recognized by some 
 
TREATMENT OF THE POPE. 285 
 
 of the country people. Had this happened in any part of Italy, it 
 might have further chanced that Radet would have been torA to 
 pieces, and his gendarmes butchered or put to flight. When Pius 
 was well advanced on his journey, he was transferred to the custody 
 of some other gendarme officer, and thus he was carried on from 
 one military post to another, there being no lack of gendarmerie in 
 any part of Italy, as the poor Italians had long known to their own 
 great cost and infinite suffering. When they reached the Riviera di 
 Levante, or eastern coast of Genoa, the French escort dreaded the 
 mountain passes and the devout peasantry. They therefore huddled 
 the poor old Pope on board a foul and frail barque that was bound 
 for the city of Genoa, and which was creeping along the coast, as 
 all vessels were then obliged to creep, in order to avoid the British 
 squadrons and cruisers which swept the Mediterranean, and hardly 
 let a ship of any size escape them. It might very well have so hap- 
 pened that the Pope should be captured by the English, and carried 
 to England ! This, to use a modish diplomatic word of the present 
 day, would, indeed, have been a new and startling complication. 
 England, however, had not the honour of showing her hospitality to 
 the Pope of Rome; but within five years she rendered the Pontiff 
 the rather more important service of restoring him to the Eternal 
 City and the whole of his dominions. On first being put into the 
 barque, Pius asked whether they intended to drown him. The gen- 
 darmes answered, " No." As soon as they landed him in Genoa 
 they smuggled him into another carriage, which was driven off at 
 full gallop. They whirled him over the mountainous and, at that 
 period, very rough, stony road of the Boccheta, and never made a 
 halt till they came to the fortified town of Alessandria, near the field 
 of Marengo. From Alessandria they carried him with the same 
 speed across the plains of Piedmont, then scorched by the July sun, 
 to Sant Ambrogio di Susa, at the foot of the Alps. Completely ex- 
 hausted, the Pope asked his captors whether their Emperor wanted 
 to have him dead or alive. " Alive, certainly alive," was the answer 
 of the gendarmes. " Then," said Pius, " let us rest here to-night." 
 They were forced to consent, for it seemed certain that if they con- 
 tinued their journey he would die that night on the lofty cold Alps. 
 
286 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 On the following day they hurried him over the road of Mont Cenis, 
 and through the deep valley of Savoy. From Savoy they turned 
 aside to the old French province of Dauphiny, now about the most 
 revolutionary part of France. Here they imprisoned him for a time 
 in the undevout city of Grenoble; but orders came from Napoleon 
 to send him back to the outskirts of Italy, and confine him in the 
 fortress of Savona, on the western Riviera of Genoa. There was a 
 much nearer road from Grenoble ; but these Frenchmen were in- 
 genious tormentors, and so they carried the Pope round by Valence, 
 where his immediate predecessor had died a prisoner in the hands 
 of the French, by Avignon, which, until the French Revolution, had 
 belonged to the See of Rome, and then by Aix and Nice. Pius VII. 
 was left in his captivity at Savona for nearly three years, when he 
 was hastily carried back to France and relegated at Fontainebleau.* 
 Even the heart of a fanatical Calvinist, and the harder heart of a 
 bigoted philosophf) must feel some pity and more resentment at this 
 treatment of a helpless old man. A curse clung to the walls of Fon- 
 tainebleau : it was there that, in 1814, Napoleon was reduced to sign 
 his own abdication. 
 
 Comprising the recent annexations, the French empire now counted 
 130 departments, and 44,000,000 inhabitants. Besides all this, Napo- 
 leon held under his sway the kingdom of Italy, which included Lom- 
 bardy and Venice, Modena, Bologna, and the other Legations and 
 the Marches, with above six millions of inhabitants ; and the Illyrian 
 provinces, including Dalmatia, Carniola, and part of Croatia, which 
 formed a separate government. The kingdom of Naples, with about 
 five millions more, was also dependent on his will, as well as the 
 kingdom of Westphalia, and the Grand Duchy of Berg. The policy 
 of Napoleon towards the countries which he bestowed on his brothers 
 and other relatives was plainly stated by himself to his brother Lu- 
 cien, in an interview at Mantua in December, 1807. " In the inte- 
 rior as well as the exterior all my relatives must follow my orders ; 
 everything must be subservient to the interest of France ; conscrip- 
 r ion, laws, taxes, all must be in your respective States for the advan- 
 
 Charles MacFarlane. "Pict. Hist. England." 
 
i8n.] 
 
 HIS ENORMOUS POWER. 
 
 287 
 
 Kidnapping the Pope. 
 
 tage and support of my crown. I should otherwise act against my 
 duty and my interest. No doubt you would like to act the part of 
 a Medici at Florence" (there had been some talk of placing Lucien 
 over Tuscany) ; "but were I to allow you to do so, it is clear that 
 Tuscany, happy and tranquil, would become an object of envy to the 
 French." He would not allow his brothers to identify themselves 
 with their subjects, or to strengthen themselves on their thrones, 
 because he foresaw that it might suit him some day to remove them 
 on the occasion of a general peace, or upon some new scheme of his 
 own. He sacrificed the people of those countries and their interests, 
 as well as the happiness and the greatness of his brothers, to what 
 he conceived to be the interest and the glory of France. But even 
 his brothers were restive under this discipline. Louis ran away 
 from his kingdom of Holland ; Murat was in continual disputes with 
 his brother-in-law ; Jerome was in a condition of tutorship in his 
 kingdom of Westphalia ; and Lucien would not accept any crown 
 on such conditions. 
 
288 MEMOIR OFJfAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 As Protector of the Confederation of the Rhine, Napoleon had 
 under his orders the Kings of Saxony, Bavaria, and Wurtemberg, 
 the Grand Duke of Baden, and the other German princes. He had 
 also under his protection the Helvetic Confederation, which was 
 bound to furnish him with troops and to follow his policy. Prussia, 
 humbled and dismembered, lay entirely at his mercy. He could 
 thus dispose of more than eighty millions of people. Never, since 
 the fall of the Roman empire, had so great a part of Europe been 
 subject to the will of one man. Austria was his ally through fear, 
 as well as family connexion ; Russia through prudence and self- 
 interest. In Sweden General Bernadotte had been chosen Crown 
 Prince, and, after obtaining Napoleon's consent, had repaired to 
 Stockholm. Spain, bleeding at every pore, struggled hard, and ap- 
 parently with little hope of ultimate success. Britain alone con- 
 tinued to defy his power, and held Sicily and Portugal under her 
 protection. * 
 
 Such was the political condition of Europe at the beginning of the 
 year 1811. Ever since the discomfiture of the Austrians and the 
 Treaty of Schonbrunn in the autumn of 1809, England had had to 
 fight single-handed, and to fight against the world in arms. But it 
 was a combat for life or death, or which to high, honourable, pa- 
 triotic hearts, is much the same a combat for liberty or servitude. 
 There were timid minds there were factious men, who, out of mere 
 party spirit and greed of power and place, would have basely truc- 
 kled to the conqueror and have brought a brief truce by submitting 
 to his will, riveting the chains of the continental States, and forging 
 fetters and handcuffs for their own country ; but these abject minds 
 werepowerless these factious men were neither numerous nor strong; 
 the mass of the nobility, gentry, and people, were one-hearted, firm, 
 ardent, and hopeful ; such degrading thoughts never entered into 
 their heads, and certainly never found their way either into council 
 or Court. Whether it was the staunch, and steady, and sedate 
 
 * In this critical year, 1811, the population of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland, 
 did not much exceed 18,000,000; the population of Sicily was about 1,000,000. Taking 
 man for man we had nearly five to one against us. 
 
BIRTH OF THE KING OF ROME. 289 
 
 George III., or his somewhat more volatile son, the Prince Regent, 
 who dated from St. James's, and presided over the destinies of Eng- 
 land, there was the same unabating firmness, the same determina- 
 tion to carry on the war, to see this long drama played out in the 
 only way becoming a great and free nation, that is, with the sword 
 uplifted in one hand, ready on the first opportunity to strike home; 
 and the shield in the other hand to cover our oppressed friends on 
 the Continent, who had ceased to be our allies only through terror 
 or force, and absolute coercion. The mind of Napoleon was neither 
 framed nor tutored to comprehend these things ; he never under- 
 stood the character of the English nation, the true nature and the 
 real extent of our resources. Hence his utter ruin in the end. 
 
 In the month of March, 1811, Maria Louisa was delivered of a 
 son, who was saluted by Napoleon as " King of Rome." " This," 
 says an able writer, himself an Italian by birth, "was an ominous 
 title to those Italians who still fondly fancied that the crown of Italy, 
 according to Napoleon's promise, was to be separated from that of 
 France." * 
 
 But in the same eventful year decided symptoms of coolness and 
 estrangement manifested themselves between the Emperor Alex- 
 ander and Napoleon. Russia could not bear the Berlin and Milan 
 decrees, and the trade-murdering continental system which the con- 
 queror had established. Had there been nothing else to provoke 
 hostilities, there would have been bellum crumena, a war of the 
 purse. The Russian nobility and landowners could not export by 
 sea the produce of their vast estates ; all of which, consisting chiefly 
 of hides, tallow, tar, hemp, flax, timber, and corn, was too bulky to 
 bear exportation by land, even if Germany, or France, or any other 
 continental country would offer a good market. But there was at 
 this time no such market on the Continent, for trade and commerce 
 were nearly dead. The only market for Russia was England ; but, 
 by commandment of Napoleon, the Russian ports were now shut 
 against us, and English ships of war blockaded all those ports, pre- 
 venting the ingress or egress of every other flag. All classes in Russia 
 
 * A. Vieusseux. " Napoleon Bonaparte : his Sayings and his Deeds." 
 
 19 
 
290 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 suffered in consequence. Finding that their incomes were annually 
 decreasing, and that poverty was staring them in the face, the great 
 landed proprietors loudly protested against this ruinous French alli- 
 ance, and called for a renewal of trade with their old friends, the 
 English. Had Alexander been willing so to do, he could not long 
 have resisted this national will. On the 3ist of December, 1810, he 
 issued a ukase, by which colonial and other goods were allowed to 
 be introduced into the ports of Russia, unless they could be proved 
 to belong to subjects of Great Britain. The restriction was of course 
 easily evaded, and the trade with England might be said, in reality, 
 to be reopened. At the same time, Alexander doubled the import 
 duties levied on articles principally of French manufacture. All this 
 led to indignant reclamations on the part of Napoleon, and to firm 
 replies on the part of Alexander. The Russian Emperor, on his side, 
 complained that his own near relative the Duke of Oldenburg, and 
 others of his friends or relations, had been dispossessed of their 
 territories, contrary to the provisions of the Treaty of Tilsit. 
 
 Another subject of difference was concerning Poland that ever- 
 fruitful source of jealousies and political quarrels. Since the last 
 peace of Vienna or Schonbrunn, Napoleon had united Western 
 Gallicia and Cracow to his dependent Duchy of Warsaw, which was 
 held for him by his near tool the King of Saxony, and while he 
 seemed again to encourage the Polish hope of re-establishing the 
 whole of Poland as an independent State, he aimed at nothing more 
 or less than getting Poland into his own hands, or entirely under 
 his own control. So soon as the Czar learned that Maria Louisa 
 had accepted the hatuJ of the French Emperor, he foresaw war, and 
 said, " The next step will be an attempt to drive me and the Rus- 
 sians back into our forests. " It has been conjectured by many, 
 and does not seem improbable, that Napoleon's vanity, wounded 
 by the refusal of a Grand Duchess of Russia, contributed very ma- 
 terially to the rupture. But the grand fact is this, the evident as- 
 sumption of universal dictatorship by Napoleon, especially since his 
 Austrian marriage, startled and disgusted, if it did not alarm, the 
 Russian Emperor and his nobility ; and as Russia was resolutely 
 determined not to submit to this dictatorship, war became inevit- 
 
CAUSES OF THE RUSSIAN EXPEDITION. 291 
 
 able. (At Tilsit Napoleon had been willing to share the empire of 
 the world with Alexander, but now he must have all that empire to 
 himself./ If not the^reatest of men, he was one of the greatest and 
 loudest of talkers ; he was nearly always talking too much and too 
 openly. He now said to his ministers, and his words were repeated 
 in all directions, and transmitted in writing to foreign Courts : 
 " With regard to Russia I am in a false position. This cannot con- 
 tinue. The Emperor receives English merchandise in his port ; he 
 will not adhere to the continental system ; but I shall force him to 
 it. I must have all the ports of the Baltic ; my custom-house officers 
 must extend to Petersburg. If the Emperor objects, I will make 
 war upon him, and dictate my own terms in his capital." (He had 
 already forgotten the Russian fighting at Austerlitz, Pultush, Eylau, 
 and Friedland.) " Prussia seems quietly disposed, but I cannot 
 much depend upon her. The Prussian troops are very good. If I 
 had led them, they would have fought as well as the French. The 
 King of Prussia will offer me part of his army ; but I must have 
 securities. The Prussian soldiers do not like me ; I will have the 
 Prussian princes with me ; they will serve as hostages for the fidelity 
 of the troops. If Prussia behaves well, I will do her as much good 
 as I have done her harm. Who knows what I may not do for her? 
 But I must keep all her ports. I will build twenty-five ships of 
 the line in the Baltic, and that will prevent the English from enter- 
 ing it. The King of Saxony is an old fool (uielle bdt), he does not 
 know how to govern at Warsaw. I had lately some intentions with 
 regard to Murat ; but I have since had reason to be displeased 
 with him. I shall see what is to be done with Poland. Bavaria 
 and Wurtemberg behave very well. Baden is also very well. The 
 Grand Duke of Wiirtzburg is my relation, and behaves well.; I 
 will enlarge his dominions. I am greatly displeased with Denmark 
 but have not yet resolved what to do with that country." * 
 
 During a public levte at the Tuileries he addressed the Russian 
 ambassador in the same bullying tone which he had used towards 
 Lord Whitworth. After taxing the ambassador with falsehood, he 
 
 * Thormayr. 
 
 19 2 
 
292 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 proceeded, " I have a lucky star ! Be it good fortune or the bravery 
 of my troops, or because I understand something of the business, I 
 have always been successful in war. I do not say that I shall beat 
 you ; but we shall fight, nous nous battrons / You know that I 
 have money, that I have 800,000 men under arms, and that every 
 year places 25,000 French conscripts at my disposal. In three years 
 I can augment my army by 700,000 men. This will enable me to 
 carry on the war in Spain and the war against you at the same 
 time." 
 
 To a Parisian deputation that came to the palace to congratulate 
 him on the birth of the King of Rome, he said, " If I nude peace 
 at Tilsit it was because the Emperor Alexander engaged to hold no 
 further communication with England. Nothing else could have 
 prevented me from marching to Riga, and on to Petersburg or 
 Moscow." (This was mere boasting : at the time of the Treaty of 
 Tilsit he was quite as anxious for peace as the Czar could be ; he 
 was in no condition to advance, and if he had tried the experiment, 
 he would have encountered, in 1808, the fate he met with in 1812 ; 
 and an Austrian army, interposing between his retreating forces 
 and the frontiers of France, would have rendered his own return, 
 or the return of a single French regiment, next to impossible.) " My 
 revenues are perfectly clear. I have 200,000,000 of francs belong- 
 ing to myself here in these very vaults under the Tuileries. I don't 
 need this money to buy my chocolate or coffee ; it shall all be at 
 the service of the State. Were I only King of France, I might be 
 obliged to act as Louis XIV. and Louis XV. acted ; but I am the 
 Emperor of the Continent ! One must go back to Charlemagne to 
 form an idea of the power I possess." 
 
 As the cannon's mouth was pointed to the north, it was time for 
 the princes there to be stirring. As if to give Russia a staunch ally, 
 Napoleon imperiously summoned Sweden to enforce his decrees 
 against British trade, and seized fifty Swedish merchantmen, which 
 were confiscated upon the charge of contraband trade with England. 
 Yet, though the Swedes had chosen to place a Frenchman (Berna- 
 dotte) on their throne, Sweden was an independent country, an 
 proud of her independence and military strength and old glories. 
 
I8i2.] ALLIANCE BETWEEN SWEDEN AND RUSSIA 293 
 
 Moreover, in January, 1812, Napoleon sent Davoust to take posses- 
 sion of Swedish Pomerania and the Swedish island of Kiigen. This 
 monstrous act of aggression naturally induced Bernadotte, as Crown 
 Prince, to throw himself into the arms of the Emperor Alexander ; 
 and in the month of April, 1812, a treaty of alliance between Sweden 
 and Russia was concluded and ratified. In a long interview between 
 these two princes at Abo, in Finland, a plan of resistance to the 
 French Emperor was fully settled. 
 
 But were there none about the person of Napoleon to counsel him 
 against this new war, and show him in what his invasion of Russia 
 must terminate ? There were many ; but probably few spoke out, 
 as all remembered the disgrace which had fallen upon Talleyrand 
 for opposing the equally mad war and invasion of Spain. A few of 
 the older and wiser of his councillors had, however, the courage to 
 remonstrate with him, not indeed on the injustice political morality 
 being banished by the statesmen of his school but on the glaring 
 impolicy of this new act of aggression. The crafty Fouch pre- 
 sented to him an eloquent memorial in this sense. " I regulate my 
 conduct," answered Napoleon, " chiefly by the opinion of my army. 
 With 800,000 men I can oblige all Europe to do my bidding. I 
 will destroy all English influence in Russia, and then Spain will 
 easily fall My des iny is not yet accomplished ; my present situ- 
 ation is but the outline of a picture, which I must fill up. I must 
 make one nation out of all the European States, and Paris must be 
 the capital of the world. There must be all over Europe but one 
 code, one court of appeal, one currency, one system of weights and 
 measures. Am I to blame if the great power which I have already 
 attained forces me to assume the dictatorship of the world ? " To 
 De Pradt at Dresden he said, " I will destroy Russian influence in 
 Europe. Two battles will do the business : the Emperor Alexander 
 will come on his knees, and Russia shall be disarmed. Spain costs 
 me very dear : without that I should be master of the world ; but 
 when I become such, my son will have nothing to do but to retain 
 my place." In calmer times, and after the full experience of dis- 
 appointment, we find him confirming the sentiments which he had 
 expressed on the former memorable occasions. After his return 
 
294 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 from Elba, he said to Benjamin Constant, " I desired the empire of 
 the world, and who in my situation would not ? The world invited 
 me to govern it ; sovereigns and subjects vied with each other in 
 bending before my sceptre. I have rarely found any opposition in 
 France." 
 
 Before leaving Paris for the Russian frontier, Napoleon directed 
 his minister Maret, Duke of Bassano, to write a letter to Lord Castle- 
 reagh, proposing negotiations for peace on the basis of the uti posst- 
 detis. In his arrogant self-confidence he would resign next to nothing; 
 he would keep all that he and the French republicans before him had 
 acquired in the course of twenty years of desolating war. He was, 
 indeed, now willing to let Sicily remain under the Bourbon King 
 Ferdinand, and Portugal under the royal House of Braganza ; but 
 here he yielded nothing that was in his possesssion, for Wellington 
 had entirely liberated Portugal, and cleared it of the last of the 
 French ; while in Sicily the French had never been able to set foot, 
 inasmuch as that island was defended by a British army and a British 
 fleet. He insisted, as a sine gud non, that Spain should be secured 
 to his brother Joseph, who had never known a happy or an easy 
 hour since he first entered that country. Now, when this demand 
 was set forth, Lord Wellington, who had just captured Badajoz and 
 Ciudad Rodrigo, was advancing in Spain towards Madrid, which 
 he shortly afterwards entered in triumph upon gaining the battle 
 and glorious victory of Salamanca. Lord Castlereagh immediately 
 replied that our engagements with the Spanish Cortes, acting in the 
 name of King Ferdinand II. (still a State prisoner in France), ren- 
 dered the recognition of Joseph an impossibility. His lordship felt 
 that he could rely on the skill of our great soldier in the Spanish 
 Peninsula, and on the firmness of the Emperor Alexander; and 
 this high-minded, thoroughly English -hearted minister appears to 
 have been one of the very first of our statesmen who foresaw that, 
 in marching into Russia, Napoleon would rush to his ruin. 
 
 The Russian minister, Prince Kowrakin, still remained at Paris. 
 Early in May he intimated to the Duke of Bassano that the matters 
 in dispute might be easily made the subject of amicable negotiations, 
 provided the French troops evacuated Pomerama and the Duchy 
 
tnSTIVEBSITY^ 
 
 ' / 
 
 DISMISSAL OF THE RUSSIAN AMBASSADOR. .295 
 
 of Warsaw, where they could be kept for no other purpose than that 
 of threatening the frontiers of Russia. At the very climax of his 
 power, when his measureless pride was on the point of drawing down 
 upon him the curse of the Almighty, Nebuchadnezzar himself was 
 not prouder or more haughty than Napoleon. But in the diatribe 
 he let fly at the Russian ambassador there was at least as much of 
 the Scapin as of the Jupiter as much vulgarity as vehemence. He 
 was, or he affected to be, in a most violent passion : the demands 
 of the Emperor Alexander were insolent ! He was not accustomed 
 to be addressed in such a style ! No one was to tell him where he 
 was to place or keep his troops ! No foreign sovereign, no! nor all 
 the sovereigns of Europe united together should dictate his move- 
 ments. Bah ! the idea was too ridiculous. Prince Kowrakin might 
 have his passport, and had better go home I Of course, the prince 
 went immediately. 
 
 Previously to this the Duke of Bassano had said for his master, 
 " His Majesty the Emperor has no wish to make war ; but he is re- 
 solved, and nothing can alter his resolution, to effect the display of 
 immense forces, and place himself on the Vistula." Thus no con- 
 cession on the part of the Emperor Alexander could keep a French 
 army from his frontiers : humiliation must accompany submission : 
 the Czar was not only to obey, but also give the world to understand 
 that he feared, and trembled, and prostrated himself before the dis- 
 play of Napoleon's might : if he conceded every point at issue, it 
 must still be under the uplifted sword, raised to enforce submission.* 
 Had Alexander now failed to appeal to arms and to the God of 
 battles, he had been unworthy of his throne. 
 
 Impelled by an inordinate and apparently insatiable ambition, 
 which had only grown more reckless from almost undeviating suc- 
 cess, Napoleon determined upon the prosecution of the attack upon 
 Russia. This expedition, he vainly imagined, was to place the scep- 
 tre of the world in his grasp. To the temperate suggestions of the 
 more impartial of his advisers he turned a deaf ear ; his resolution 
 being formed, he rejected salutary counsel, and silenced the accents 
 
 * See Colonel Mitchell's " Fall of Napoleon." 
 
296 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 of remonstrance. The design was entirely of his own conception. 
 By bold, and in many cases extremely hazardous measures, he had 
 carved out his way to the throne ; and his subsequent fall and humi- 
 liation may be traced to his obstinate perseverance in a policy at 
 once senseless and absurd. The most devoted admirers of Napo- 
 leon will scarcely deny that in this project of invasion even his usual 
 sagacity seemed to have suddenly forsaken him. To speak of his 
 conduct on this occasion in the mildest terms, we are constrained 
 to declare that it was a most injudicious proceeding to provoke a 
 contest on the opposite frontiers of France at the same moment 
 He was thus placing himself between two assailants, and two 
 assailants, be it remembered, whom he had never yet defeated in fair 
 and open conflict. To commence hostilities with a formidable ad- 
 versary in the north-east, in spite of the repeated defeats sustained 
 by his legions in the west, is certainly not what we are led to expect 
 from the military genius of Napoleon. The more prudent plan would 
 have been, first to have driven the English from the plains and 
 strongholds of the Peninsula, to the element on which their sway 
 was not disputed, as he so often boasted that he would ; and this 
 object once satisfactorily accomplished, then to have proceeded to 
 the chastisement of the Colossus of the North. The campaign of 
 1812 was, as the course of our narrative will show, an error from first 
 to last : it was, indeed, a plunge headlong to destruction. 
 
 Early in the morning of the Qth of May, I,jy2> Napoleon, accom- 
 panied by the Empress Maria Louisa, left Paris for Dresden, to 
 meet the sovereigns he had invited to that city. At every stage of 
 his journey he was greeted with enthusiasm and rejoicing. Not only 
 in France, but even in Germany, the greatest delight was manifested 
 at his approach. Bonaparte reached Metz on the loth, and spent 
 a short time in the inspection of its fortifications. He entered May- 
 ence on the i ith, and took up his abode in the imperial palace, once 
 the residence of the archbishops. Napoleon was particularly par- 
 tial to Mayence. * The historical associations of this ancient city 
 
 * " Europe during the Consulate and the Empire." By M Capefigue. Vol. ix. ohap. vi. 
 page 154. 
 
AT DRESDEN. 297 
 
 charmed the mind of the fortunate soldier : they were evidences oi 
 its regal as well as of its ecclesiastical power and importance ; they 
 told of the mightv Charlemagne, and of those princely prelates who 
 ruled with au the splendour of spiritual and temporal despotism. 
 M* cover, Mayence was one of the barrier fortresses of the empire: 
 the tide of war had ebbed and flowed around it ; under its battle- 
 ments the warriors of the middle ages had wrought valiant deeds, 
 and these memorials of fame one of the world's greatest conquerors 
 might be expected to regard with more than ordinary satisfaction 
 and delight. The good citizens of Frankfort welcomed Napoleon 
 with triumphal arches and every outward demonstration of allegiance 
 and devotion, but he hurried through their busy city, not even paus- 
 ing to receive their congratulations. 
 
 On the 1 6th the King and Queen of Saxony met Napoleon and 
 the Empress at Freyberg, desirous of paying them due respect, and 
 escorted them to Dresden, where they arrived at eleven the same 
 night. Here the reception was of the most gorgeous character, and 
 the triumph of Bonaparte complete. Kings, princes, ministers, 
 statesmen, soldiers, flocked around him, to pay homage to the 
 master of the Continent, now at the zenith of human pomp and 
 glory. Two days after the arrival of Napoleon, the Emperor and 
 Empress of Austria joined the gay and glittering crowd by which 
 he was surrounded. The King of Prussia, the most tardy courtier 
 in the group, did not make his appearance till the 26th. Various 
 reasons have been assigned for his late entrance on the scene of so 
 much adulation and display : statecraft had doubtless something to 
 do with the matter ; the sovereigns of Prussia are ever cunning and 
 cautious. Nothing, however, was heard but the most extravagant 
 flattery, the voice of admonition being drowned in the uproar of 
 revelry and exultation. No anticipations of defeat or disaster ap- 
 peared like vapours to dim the brightness of that unclouded horizon. 
 Napoleon treated these magnates as puppets : he made them the 
 mere creatures of his will. The Emperor of Austria was required 
 to furnish a contingent of 30,000 men ; and from the King of Prussia 
 20,000 were extorted. During his stay in this beautiful city, Napoleon, 
 hearing of the visit of the Emperor Alexander to Wilna, sent his 
 
298 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 aide-de-camp the Count Narbonne thither, with a missive to that 
 monarch, inviting him to Dresden ; but this advance, whether made 
 in good faith or not, was rejected by the Czar. 
 
 Napoleon's immense army, consisting of combatants from almost 
 every nation in Europe, had been, in the meantime, assembled in 
 the country lying between the Vistula and the Niemen. In some 
 parts the most lamentable excesses were committed by the soldiers, 
 and the stores and property of the peasantry were appropriated for 
 the supply of their wants. In spite of every precaution, provisions 
 could not be obtained for this great multitude ; and thus, before the 
 commencement of hostilities, the difficulty of feeding the troops be- 
 came apparent. The strength of the army has been variously esti- 
 mated by different authors : while some authorities give the total, in 
 round numbers, at 600,000, others reduce it so low as 400,000 men. 
 Capefigue, in general a safe guide, estimates the grand total that 
 Napoleon took with him into Russia at 498,000 men.* According 
 to his account, the army consisted of 60,000 Poles, 20,000 Saxons, 
 30,000 Austrians, 30,000 Bavarians, 22,000 Prussians, 20,000 West- 
 phalians, 32,000 combatants from the minor States of Germany, 
 20,000 Italians and Neapolitans, 4,000 Spanish and Portuguese, 
 10,000 Swiss, and 250,000 French. This calculation affords a very 
 fair idea of the various elements of which the expedition was com- 
 posed, and illustrates the wonderful influence which Bonaparte 
 wielded over the different European nations.f 
 
 Napoleon, having taken leave of the Empress Maria Louisa and 
 the assembled potentates, quitted Dresden on the 2Qth May. In this 
 beautiful city he sojourned fourteen days. It is difficult to account 
 for these delays, not only, as in this instance, in Germany, but sub- 
 sequently in places on the Russian soil, in which much valuable time 
 was wasted. They were golden opportunities lost in unimportant 
 
 * "Europe during the Consulate and the Empire," vol. ix., chap, vi., p. 161. 
 
 f Sir A. Alison, taking the imperial musfcer-rolls given in Chambray as a guide, esti- 
 mates the total effective force which, under Napoleon, invaded Russia, including both 
 wings and the reserve which joined towards the close of the campaign, at 647,158 cavalry 
 and infantry, 187,111 horses, and 1,327 guns. See "Hist, of Europe," vol. xv., chap. Ixxi 
 appendix. 
 
INVASION OF RUSSIA. 
 
 99 
 
 Napoleon at the Niemen. 
 
 ceremonies, or under the frivolous pretence of negotiations which 
 were never, we believe, conducted in any serious hopes of a pacific 
 result. On the 3oth of May Bonaparte entered Poland, and reached 
 Thorn on the 2nd of June. Having completed his military arrange- 
 ments and set the troops in motion, he started for Dantzic on the 
 6th, which place he inspected, and soon after joined his levies, then 
 in full march for the Niemen. The passage of the bulk of the army 
 commenced at Kowno, on the 24th of June, at which place three 
 bridges had been constructed for the purpose. The troops were in 
 excellent order, and their enthusiasm had been excited by one of 
 those glowing appeals which Napoleon was in the habit of addressing 
 to his soldiers. From an eminence, he on the first day beheld the 
 passage of half of this mighty concourse of armed men. The re- 
 mainder crossed on the following day. The left wing, under Marshal 
 Macdonald, crossed the Lower Niemen at Tilsit. It was 30,000 
 strong, and intended to act against Riga, whilst the right, under 
 Schwartzenberg^ crossed the Bug near Moguilnica. The reserve 
 
300 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 joined the main body of the troops a few days later. From wing to 
 wing, a distance of nearly three hundred miles interposed, and this 
 being oftener increased than diminished during the progress of the 
 campaign, will account for many of the calamities that befell this 
 truly unfortunate expedition. 
 
 The Czar had not remained an idle spectator of these preparations 
 and offensive movements on the part of his antagonist. Perceiving 
 that war was inevitable, he commenced negotiations for peace with 
 Sweden and Turkey, and proceeded to develop the resources of his 
 empire. At first he could only bring 180,000 men into the field 
 against the numerous squadrons of his opponent. Clausewitz* 
 says, "The Russian army on the frontier at the opening of the 
 campaign was disposed in three main branches : i. The first army 
 of the West, under Barclay, 90,000 strong, stood with its right wing 
 (Wittgenstein) on the Baltic ; its left (Doctoroff) towards Grodno ; 
 the head-quarters at Wilna. 2. The second army of the West, under 
 Bagration, 45,000 strong, extended from Grodno to Muchawetz ; 
 head-quarters at Wolkowisk. 3. The reserve army, so called} under 
 Tormasow, beyond the marshes in South Volhynia, 35,000 1 head- 
 quarters in Luzk. 4. To the above are to be added 10,000 Cossacks, 
 chiefly under Platoff, with Bagration. Total in first line, 180,000 
 men." The Russian plan of the campaign was to retire slowly, and 
 take post on the Diina, at Drissa, where an entrenched camp had 
 been prepared. Napoleon's object was, of course, to bring these 
 troops to action as early as possible ; but subsequent events changed 
 the plans both of the invader and the heroic defenders of their 
 fatherland. Whilst partaking in festivities at the country seat of 
 one of his generals in the neighbourhood of Wilna, Alexander re- 
 ceived the intelligence of the passage of the Niemen by Napoleon 
 and his army. The next morning he issued a proclamation setting 
 forth the justice of his cause, and appealing to his soldiers to defend 
 their religion, their country, and their liberty. The latter word might 
 have been very judiciously omitted from the document. Bonaparte 
 pressed on, hoping that the Russians would make a stand at Wilna, 
 
 * " Campaign of 1812," chap. iL, p. 47. 
 
THE CZAR OFFERS TERMS. 301 
 
 and hazard an engagement In this he was, however, disappointed ; 
 for Alexander, at the earnest solicitation, it is said, of his General, 
 Barclay de Tolly, abandoned the town, setting fire to his magazines, 
 and blowing up the bridge over the river Wilia. 
 
 Napoleon entered the capital of Lithuania on the 28th of June, 
 and on the same day received the keys of the town from a deputa- 
 tion consisting of its principal inhabitants. Here also he was pre- 
 sented with an address from the Diet of the Grand Duchy of War- 
 saw, in favour of the revival of the ancient kingdom of Poland. 
 Napoleon was not, however, to be betrayed into any rash pledges 
 that might fetter future operations or prejudice negotiations ; and 
 although he had before raised the expectations of the Poles, to this 
 address he returned an evasive and consequently an unsatisfactory 
 reply. In Wilna Bonaparte made his first halt, remaining in this 
 town nearly three weeks, during which time his attention was prin- 
 cipally directed towards the formation of a provisional government 
 for the province of Lithuania, the direction of military affairs ; and 
 a laborious correspondence necessary for the transaction of matters 
 pertaining to the welfare of the vast empire which he had left be- 
 hind him. Alexander, alarmed at the reports he received of the 
 strength of the army of his assailant, and ignorant of the difficulties 
 which attended its progress, and the severe losses it had already 
 sustained, sent General Balachoff to Napoleon, at Wilna, with offers 
 of accommodation. On condition of the immediate retirement oi 
 Napoleon and his forces beyond the Niemen, the Czar expressed 
 his willingness to uphold the continental system and to enter into 
 negotiations for an honourable peace. This concession did not, 
 however, satisfy Bonaparte ; and, in rejecting it, he threw away the 
 last chance of terminating the war with advantage, and thus sealed 
 the fate of more than a million of human beings, who fell victims in 
 this expedition and the hostilities that arose out of it 
 
 Several encounters took place between various portions of the 
 contending hosts, in which, while the French fully maintained their 
 high military reputation, the firmness and valour of the Russians 
 were made manifest ; indeed, in some of these skirmishes the latter 
 gained decided advantages. The Russians, however, continued 
 
302 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 their retreat, abandoning, without a struggle, the entrenched camp 
 at Drissa, which they had taken such pains to prepare and fortify. 
 General Barclay de Tolly's chief aim at this part of the contest 
 seems to have been to effect a junction with Bagration at Witepsk, 
 intending there to await the approach of the French army for the 
 purpose of opposing its further advance. Napoleon soon came up, 
 and, elated at the prospect of an immediate contest, which the sight 
 of the Russian forces drawn up before the town afforded him, in- 
 dulged in fervent expressions of delight. Experience had already 
 taught him the insecurity of his position on the Russian territory ; 
 but again was the opportunity he so ardently sought denied him. 
 On the evening of the 27th of July General Barclay received in- 
 telligence of an action between Davoust and Bagration, at Mohilow, 
 on the 23rd, and the subsequent retreat of the latter towards Smo- 
 lensko ; he at once resolved upon falling back in the same direction. 
 The Russians kept large fires burning during the night, and con- 
 cealed their movements so admirably that the French had not ob- 
 tained the least intimation of the intended withdrawal, and were, 
 consequently, much surprised and disconcerted when returning day- 
 light revealed the actual state of affairs. Napoleon beheld with 
 dismay the abandoned lines, which showed that the enemy had 
 once more eluded his grasp ; he made his entrance into Witepsk on 
 the same day, the 28th of July, and again halted his troops. The 
 town presented a scene of terrible desolation, its inhabitants having 
 left their homes to follow the retiring army. 
 
 Nearly three weeks were wasted in delay at Witepsk ; the same 
 amount of valuable time was lost at Wilna, and six days at Glou- 
 bokoi. Thus in three resting-places, on the Russian territory, a 
 space of nearly two months had been consumed. Possibly these 
 delays, which eventually proved so fatal to Bonaparte's army, could 
 not be avoided. The French force was gradually melting away in 
 its progress into the heart of the country, whilst that of the Russians 
 was daily increasing in numbers. During his stay at Witepsk, Na- 
 poleon entertained serious misgivings as to the expediency of a 
 further advance, and even contemplated the entire abandonment 
 of the expedition. In the midst, however, of debate and discussion 
 
SMOLENSKO ABANDONED. 
 
 303 
 
 Battle of Smolensko. 
 
 between Napoleon and his generals, many of whom strongly opposed 
 his plans, information arrived at the junction between the armies of 
 Barclay de Tolly and Bagration, and their concentration towards 
 Smolensko. The French Emperor at once collected his scattered 
 bands, and quitted Witepsk on the 13 h of August. Some sharp 
 contests ensued, but Smolensko was eventually abandoned by the 
 Russians, their generals being still unwilling to risk an engagement 
 The town, one of the most ancient in Russia, was well defended by 
 the rear-guard of Barclay's army, and the object of checking the 
 advance of the invader until the bulk of the Russian army had 
 effected its retreat being attained, this gallant band set fire to the 
 town and retired. The French continued the pursuit, and on the 
 I9th Ney received a severe repulse from the Russian rear-guard at 
 
304 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 Valutina Gora. The loss of the French at this place, and in the 
 actions before Smolensko, is estimated by a very impartial autho- 
 rity * at 20,000 men ; but this was a mere trifle in comparison to the 
 losses they had sustained since they first set foot upon the Russian 
 soil from famine, fatigue, sickness, and the horrors of a state bor- 
 dering upon disorganization. The stern and dogged manner in 
 which the enemy fought in these sanguinary encounters already 
 excited the apprehensions of Napoleon. 
 
 In the meantime dissensions had broken out in the Russian camp. 
 The troops were dissatisfied at their continued retreat before a foe 
 by which they had not been vanquished. The people demanded a 
 sterner resistance, and, in compliance with their demands, the Czar 
 appointed the veteran general Kutusoff to the command of his 
 armies. This distinguished officer was then nearly seventy years 
 of age and if his defeat at Austerlitz by Napoleon had somewhat 
 tarnished his reputation, recent victories over the Turks upon the 
 Danube had served to restore him to public favour. At the village 
 of Borodino the Russian leaders resolved upon making a stand. 
 Kutusoff joined the army on the 29th of August, and was received 
 with the greatest enthusiasm ; he led his troops into their position 
 at Borodino on the 3rd of September. On the evening of the $th 
 the French army came up ; and the next day was spent by both 
 sides in making preparations for the struggle. Both Napoleon and 
 Kutusoff addressed proclamations to their soldiers : the former ap- 
 pealed to their love of glory, and pointed out Moscow as the prize 
 within their grasp ; the latter sought to excite the patriotism of his 
 men, and for this purpose referred to their homes, which had been 
 outraged and destroyed, and their altars, which had been desecrated 
 by an impious invader. On the eve of the battle, Colonel Fabvier, 
 one of Marshal Marmont's aides-de-camp, brought the unwelcome 
 tidings of the victory of Wellington at Salamanca, in which glorious 
 action the English won many trophies, and which opened for them 
 the gates of Madrid. Can we wonder that Bonaparte was anxious 
 and depressed, as some of his most devoted followers have allowed? 
 
 Clausewitz. " Campaign of 1812," chap. ii. p. 63. 
 
BATTLE OF BORODINO. 305 
 
 Can we feel surprised that he was more than usually agitated and 
 'disturbed, or that he was oppressed by fears lest the Russians should 
 once more decline battle ? Defeats and reverses for the first time in 
 his extraordinary career began to accumulate around his path. His 
 most strenuous efforts for driving the English from the Peninsula 
 had failed ; and an advance into Russia, which had cost him more 
 than half his army in less than three months, afforded additional 
 reasons for dissatisfaction, if not for despair. His lucky star was 
 evidently on the wane, nor can we be astonished that gloomy fore- 
 bodings disturbed his mind. 
 
 There was no great disparity in the strength of the opposing ar- 
 mies ; the French, however, had the advantage, though slight, in 
 both infantry and cavalry. The battle began early in the morning, 
 on the 7th of September. Prodigies of valour were performed on 
 both sides, and, whilst we admit that the assault of the invading 
 force was furious, it must be conceded that the resistance of the 
 Russians was heroic. The slaughter on that hotly-contested field 
 was tremendous, and when night put an end to the strife, victory 
 had declared itself for neither combatant. It was a drawn battle- 
 after all. Fifty thousand men were killed or wounded in the en- 
 counter, of which number about 28,000 were Russians. Prince Ba- 
 gration, decidedly the most vigorous of the Russian commanders, 
 was slain in this action. The conduct of Bonaparte on the occasion 
 has been very harshly criticised. His ordinary vigour seems to have 
 forsaken him, and he remained apart from the battle in gloomy re- 
 serve. The issue was not in the least degree calculated to inspire 
 him with hope or animation. " No political result," says Capefigue,* 
 " was gained by the battle of Borodino ; in fact, it weakened Napo- 
 leon more than it hurt the Russians. Kutusoff, in continuing his 
 retreat, found reinforcements and a population in the rear of his 
 army ; Napoleon, on the contrary, was getting farther from his 
 resources, in the midst of an unexplored country and a hostile 
 people. At the muster on the morning of the 8th of September, 
 only 90,000 men could be assembled the evening before, 120,000 
 men were under arms. 
 
 * " Europe during the Consulate and the Empire," vol. ix. chap. ix. p. 278. 
 
 20 
 
306 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 We learn its effect upon the Russians from the testimony of Clause- 
 witz,* who states : " The Russians retired on the night of the 7th, 
 and, as we have said, in four contiguous and parallel columns on 
 one and the same road. They made only a mile t of distance, to 
 behind Mojaisk ; which sufficiently proves that they were in a state 
 of order and preparation, which is not usual after the loss of a 
 battle. The author can also attest that there was no symptom of 
 that dissolution which has been attributed to it by an otherwise very 
 impartial writer (the Marquis de Chambray). The number of pri- 
 soners may have reached a few thousands ; that of guns abandoned, 
 between thirty and forty. The trophies of victory were, therefore, 
 trifling." 
 
 The battle of Borodino opened the road to Moscow to the French, 
 who, too anxious in pursuit, met with a severe repulse-from the rear- 
 guard of the Russian army at Mojaisk ; thenceforward the retreat 
 of the Russians was not molested. By easy marches they reached 
 Moscow, and the commander-in-chief having determined upon re- 
 tiring still farther into the country, the troops defiled through that 
 city on the I4th of September, leaving their ancient capital at the 
 mercy of the invader. 
 
 On the same day the French came in sight of Moscow, and made 
 their entrance into the city with the most extravagant delight. Napo- 
 leon fancied that the investment of the capital would ensure the sub- 
 mission of the Czar. In this expectation he was once more doomed 
 to disappointment. Immense quantities of plunder fell into the 
 possession of the troops, who gave themselves up to every kind of 
 excess ; but above the sounds of riot and revelry suddenly arose the 
 alarm of " Fire 1" The first outbreak was speedily extinguished, but 
 flames again appeared, and in several directions. The fury of the 
 devouring element was fanned by a violent gale of wind, which raged 
 just as the fire had obtained full power. Napoleon, who had taken 
 up his residence in the Kremlin, was very reluctantly compelled to 
 retreat to the summer palace of the Czars, at a short distance from 
 
 * "Campaign of 1812," chap iii. p. 172 (English edition). f One German mile 
 
 equal to about five English miles. 
 
BURNING OF MOSCOW. 
 
 307 
 
 First sight of Moscow. 
 
 the city. With intense anxiety he watched the progress of the con- 
 flagration, and began to question whether the blow he had inflicted 
 upon his opponent was worth the many sacrifices it had even then 
 entailed. 
 
 The fire arose partly from design and partly from accident. Some 
 of the inhabitants of the city set the torch to their houses on aban- 
 doning them to the foe, and others put combustibles in dangerous 
 places. The inebriated soldiers, in their drunken frolics, not only 
 assisted these endeavours, but actually fired several habitations- 
 Thus a conflagration, that with due care and caution might have 
 been subdued, spread over the city. Peace now became the chief 
 object for which Bonaparte laboured, and upon his return to the 
 Russian capital on the i8th, he directed his best efforts towards its 
 
 20 2 
 
308 MEMOTR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 accomplishment. Weary of waiting for a reply to proposals that he 
 had addressed to Alexander, and, instead of receiving any tokens of 
 submission, being harassed by the incessant attacks of the enemy, 
 who availed themselves of every opportunity for cutting off supplies, 
 capturing stragglers or foraging parties, and inflicting defeat upon 
 various portions of his army, on the 3rd of October Napoleon dis- 
 patched General Lauriston to the Russian camp. The Comander- 
 in-Chief Kutusoff declared that he had no powers to treat, that he 
 could not grant the pass required in order to enable General Lauri- 
 ston to proceed into the presence of the Czar, but, with arn assumed 
 air of civility, promised to send off an aide-de-camp to learn Alex- 
 ander's intentions. Time passed on ; no answer reached Bonaparte ; 
 again was General Lauriston entrusted with a mission to the Russian 
 head-quarters, and again was he unable to elicit a satisfactory reply. 
 Suddenly the French advance-guard, under Murat, which was sta- 
 tioned at Winkowo, was attacked by the Russians, and forced to re- 
 treat in terrible disorder. Signs of the recommencement of offensive 
 operations by the Russian army appeared on all sides. The Russian 
 commanders had received information of the entry of the English 
 into Madrid, and this gratifying intelligence doubtless excited their 
 ardour and animated their drooping spirits in just the same propor- 
 tion as the news of the defeat of Salamanca had depressed the mind 
 of Bonaparte on the eve of the great battle at Borodino. By degrees 
 it became painfully evident to Napoleon that the Russian Emperor 
 and his generals were trifling with him, that they were only waiting 
 for an opportunity to strike a decisive blow. Deeply impressed 
 with this conviction, and of the impossibility of maintaining his 
 position at Moscow, Napoleon reluctantly quitted that city on the 
 1 9th of October. Preparations for a retreat had been going on for 
 some time, yet the Emperor delayed giving the final order, vainly 
 hoping that the submission of the Czar might enable him to retire 
 not only with honour, but also with safety. Thus more than a 
 month had been once more consumed in idle expectations a month 
 of precious and invaluable time. 
 
 Kutusoff, having refreshed his men by rest and care, and having 
 received reinforcements to a very considerable extent, was in a much 
 
MUBAT, KING OF NAPLES. 
 
OF THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
THE FRENCH RETREA T. 309 
 
 better condition than Napoleon imagined. He was, indeed, pre- 
 pared to assume the offensive in great force. His plan was to press 
 hard upon the path of the retreating foe, to avail himself of the 
 slightest advantage in order to fall upon Bonaparte's weakened 
 columns, and by rapid marches to cut off their retreat at every op- 
 portunity. Thus Napoleon, who had intended to return to Poland 
 by a new line of route, in which he hoped to meet with supplies, 
 found his plans frustrated by the indefatigable activity of his oppo- 
 nents. His road lay through Kalouga, Medin, Yuknow, Elnia, and 
 Smolensko ; * his march was, however, intercepted at Malo-Jarosla- 
 witz, and he was reduced to the extremity of fighting a battle there 
 on the 24th of October, only five days after his departure from Mos- 
 cow. Although victorious in that dreadful conflict, the French did 
 not succeed in opening a passage through the Russian army. It 
 had been largely reinforced towards the close of the action, and still 
 occupied the line of retreat, so that the French were compelled to 
 fall back upon the old route. In a cavalry charge of 6,000 Cossacks 
 of the Don, under Platoff, Bonaparte narrowly escaped being made 
 prisoner, only the day after this battle. In fact, had the Russian 
 general been aware of the prize almost within his grasp, there is 
 little reason to doubt that Napoleon would have been captured. 
 
 From this battle the disasters of the retreat fairly commenced. 
 Unable to pierce into that part of the country which had not suffered 
 from its devastations, Napoleon's last hope of feeding the army 
 vanished. On the 6th of November the severity of winter added to 
 the horrors of their march. On that day the snow began to fall, 
 and beneath it the strong and the brave sank to rise no more. Ill 
 fed, scantily apparelled, pressed hard by an insolent and implacable 
 enemy, the remnant of the French army was ever in the presence of 
 the avenger. Discipline became gradually relaxed, spoils were aban- 
 doned, disputes occurred among the officers, the men quarrelled, the 
 most lamentable sufferings prevailed in every rank. Bridges over 
 the streams had been broken down, the rivers in many places over- 
 flowed their banks, at every moment the enemy was upon their 
 
 * S^gur. " Expedition to Russia," voL ii. book ix. chap. i. p. 94. 
 
310 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 retreating steps. One day they were entangled in dark and gloomy 
 forests, another their road lay across desert steppes ; there was the 
 piercing blast and the fatal snowdrift ; and, to crown all, a night of 
 seventeen hours' duration. Never before did the calamities of war 
 fall with such severity upon the soldier. Language cannot paint the 
 horrors of their situation, and the heart sinks at the bare imagina 
 tion of its extremity. 
 
 Smolensko was reached on the Qth of November. Napoleon ori- 
 ginally intended to halt here awhile, in order to recruit the strength 
 of his almost exhausted followers. The desolate state of the city, 
 the failure of the arrangements for bringing up supplies, adverse 
 news from Paris, and, above all, the energetic movements of the 
 Russians in pursuit, compelled him, however, to continue his retreat 
 Ney defended the rear with the dauntless courage and fortitude that 
 have rendered his name illustrious, but his efforts were almost un- 
 availing. The Russians pressed hastily on, the bravest of the French 
 marshals was at last completely surrounded, and only by the most 
 desperate exertions did he succeed in extricating himself from his 
 critical position, with a loss of two-thirds of his small but gallant 
 band. 
 
 On the 25th of November Napoleon reached the banks of the 
 Beresina. Here he found his retreat cut off by a Russian force re- 
 cently arrived from the Danube. Another Russian army, of equal 
 strength, was posted on his right ; whilst the main body, under Ku- 
 tusoff, was approaching rapidly on the left. In this fearful dilemma 
 the genius of Napoleon once more displayed itself. The Russian 
 commanders, still over-estimating the strength of the French army, 
 permitted themselves to be out-manoeuvred, and although a despe- 
 rate conflict ensued, Napoleon effected his escape. The slaughter 
 at one part of the passage of the river was tremendous. The camp- 
 followersmen, women, and children terrified by the furious dis- 
 charges of the Russian artillery, rushed forward to the bridge ; they 
 were literally mown down by the shot, and multitudes perished in 
 the stream. On the return of spring 12,000 bodies were taken from 
 the bed of the river in the immediate neighbourhood of this well- 
 contested action. 
 
HORRORS OF THE RETREAT. 
 
 At Malodeczno, where Napoleon arrived on the 3rd of December, 
 he prepared the twenty-ninth and last bulletin of the Grand Army, 
 announcing, though in a mitigated form, the failure of the expedition. 
 In that celebrated document it is stated that the movements of the 
 army had been executed with the greatest success before the com- 
 mencement of the cold. This was a decided violation of the truth, 
 
 Commencement of the Retreat 
 
 as Napoleon's army had suffered not only from the attacks of the 
 enemy, but from fatigue, famine, disease, and exhaustion, long be- 
 fore the 6th of November. But the fact of the defeat was publicly 
 acknowledged at last. On the night of the 5th of December a con- 
 ference was held at Smorgoni between Napoleon and his generals, 
 at which the former declared his intention of leaving the army and 
 setting out immediately for Paris. To Murat, King of Naples, he 
 entrusted the chief command. The arrival of the Emperor at War- 
 saw on the loth, and the wretched exhibition he there made of 
 himself, have been related by the Abbd de Pradt. At Dresden he 
 received a visit from the King of Saxony on the I4th, and he sur- 
 
MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 prised the inmates of the Tuileries at eleven in the night of the i8th 
 of December. 
 
 The miserable remnant of this once magnificent army soon after 
 effected its escape from the Russian territory, the gallant Ney being 
 the last to retire ; and of the mighty hosts which six months before 
 had swarmed across the Niemen, not more than 42,000 men returned, 
 and of these but 18,000 were French.* The left wing, under Mar- 
 shal Macdonald, and the right, under Schwartzenberg, are not in- 
 cluded in this calculation. We refer exclusively to the Grand Army, 
 which, under Napoleon, entered the Russian dominions. Of the 
 remnant many were in the most pitiable condition, their constitutions 
 being undermined, and in some cases their intellects affected ; and 
 few amongst them could indulge in the boast of having shared in 
 " the great battle under the walls of Moscow." 
 
 Thus jended the Russian campaign jpf J,8i2. In that disastrous 
 expedition nearly a million human beings perished. War, at all 
 times calamitous, becameTin this instance one unmitigated scene of 
 suffering, misery, and death. The voice of lamentation resounded 
 in thousands of homes, and a season of gloom and affliction, to which 
 on this earth there was to be no reviving dawn, settled upon many 
 whose fathers, sons, brothers in some cases their sole protectors 
 had perished in the campaign. 
 
 This celebrated but unfortunate expedition has occupied the 
 attention of many writers, and has elicited the most conflicting 
 opinions. While some have represented the Russian plan of defence 
 as a wonderful triumph of military science, others have applauded the 
 sagacity displayed by Napoleon in his advance upon Moscow. The 
 admirers of the French Emperor have attributed the failure of the 
 enterprise and the destruction of his army to the burning of Moscow 
 and the inclemency of the winter season ; the partisans of Alexander 
 maintain that his patriotic and unflinching attitude ensured the ruin 
 of the grand design. The truth is not to be found in either of these 
 extreme views : there was much to blame, as well as something 
 worthy of commendation, in the measures of either antagonist. Na- 
 
 * Sir A. Alison. " History of Europe," voL xvi. chap. 74. 
 
REVIEW OF THE CAMPAIGN. 3 T 3 
 
 poleon, accustomed to wage war in rich and populous countries, did 
 not duly estimate the difficulties of procuring supplies and keeping 
 open his communications in desolate and dreary regions, in which 
 the inhabitants were not only poor, but thinly dispersed over the 
 surface. The roads in Russia were bad, the towns far apart, and 
 cultivation in a very wretched state. It cannot be denied that he 
 made the most extensive preparations, formed magazines, and caused 
 provisions to be collected in the rear. As he advanced, however, 
 the impossibility of maintaining the efficiency of a large army be- 
 came more and more plainly apparent, and the fearful diminution 
 which had occurred in its ranks before he came in sight of the towers 
 of Moscow shows how small was his chance of ultimate success. 
 
 In conversation with an English nobleman, we are well aware that 
 Bonaparte expressed a very different opinion, and in justice to him 
 we quote it at length : " Speaking of the Russian campaign, he 
 said, that^vhen he got to Moscow he considered the business as 
 done"; that he was received with open arms by the people on his 
 march, and had innumerable petitions from the peasants praying 
 him to emancipate them from the tyranny of the, nobles ;\that he 
 found the town supplied with everything, and might perfectly have 
 subsisted his army there through the winter, when in twenty-four 
 hours it was on fire in fifteen places, and the country all round for 
 twelve miles laid waste ; ' an event/ said he, ' on which I could not 
 calculate, as there is not, I believe, a precedent for it in the history 
 of the world.' " * What does this amount to but a confession that 
 he did not anticipate a resolute and determined resistance from the 
 Russian Emperor and his people? Bonaparte no doubt expected 
 an easy and a ready surrender, like those he had met with in Vienna, 
 Berlin, and elsewhere. If the burning of the city was something 
 unprecedented, surely the laying waste of the neighbouring country, 
 and the destruction of supplies, were not measures that ought to 
 have come upon him like a thunderbolt ! Nor can we place reliance 
 in his assertions with regard to the cordial reception given him by 
 
 "Memorandum of Two Conversations between the Emperor Napoleon and Viscount 
 , at Porto Ferrajo, on the 6th and 8th of December, 1814," p. xa. 
 
314 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 the serfs, and their petitions for his protection. The Russian pea- 
 sants are indeed slaves, but slaves that lick the hand that holds them 
 in -bondage. If they crouched at his feet, they did so more from the 
 habit of the chain, the necessity of humbling themselves to some 
 one, than from any hope of a higher destiny or faith in his powers 
 of delivering them. 
 
 It must not be denied that the resistance of the Russians was 
 obstinate and unflinching, but their leaders lacked ability and the 
 energy necessary for the crisis. Had the Russian generals been the 
 great captains that some authors delight in representing them, Na- 
 poleon would never have seen Moscow. The French, weakened by 
 famine, fatigue, and disease, could not possibly have made head 
 against vigorous and uncompromising opposition. Three or four 
 battles, even had they been victorious in each, must have arrested 
 their progress. The fact that only one general engagement was 
 fought before the French entered Moscow, although the armies were 
 continually in sight of each other, proves how feebly the Russian 
 generals availed themselves of the enthusiasm of the nation and the 
 determined bravery of the Russian soldiers. It is notorious that 
 during the advance upon the capital it was Napoleon's chief anxiety 
 to bring the Russians to action. And when we remember how well 
 they fought upon the solitary occasion on which a resolute and 
 general resistance was offered to the invader, and how difficult it is 
 to determine who were the victors in the actual conflict at Borodino, 
 we are constrained to declare that had such troops been ably and 
 properly commanded the career of the aggressor must have been 
 checked almost at the outset. Clausewitz states in their defence, 
 that " Russia is very poor in positions ; " still, every stream and 
 every hill its dense forests and its mighty steppes ought to have 
 been fiercely contested. All would have afforded some shelter to 
 the defender, and presented fearful obstacles to the assailant. 
 
 The history of this expedition, and of its terrible results, must re- 
 main as a perpetual warning, to ambitious aggressors. /Numbers 
 cannot always ensure success ^ and strength, unsupported by right, 
 is a giant without trustworthy means of defence. It has been as- 
 serted by those who shared Napoleon's confidence to a great extent 
 
MA LETS CONSPIRACY. 
 
 315 
 
 Crossing the Beresina. 
 
 that the invasion of Russia was but one portion of a colossal project, 
 embracing even the conquest of the East Indies. We hardly be- 
 lieve it possible that the mind of this ambitious conqueror could 
 have been subject to such hallucinations. The road to India is not 
 across the snows of Russia : the success of the expedition to Egypt 
 might possibly, under the most favourable circumstances, have led 
 to such a result ; but had Napoleon subdued Alexander, the safety 
 of our dominions in the East would not have been in the least de- 
 gree imperilled by that event. 
 
 We 'stated that unfavourable news from Paris reached Napoleon as 
 he was entering Smolensko, on his retreat from Moscow. This was 
 no other than the intelligence of the conspiracy of General Malet. 
 
MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 This officer, according to the statement of Capefigue,* was a man 
 given to reflection, who, almost alone, through the pomps and splen- 
 dours of the imperial system, detected its actual instability. Al- 
 though both the republican and the Royalist parties had dwindled 
 into insignificance in presence of the Consulate and the Empire, 
 yet the captivity of the Pope, and the rigorous manner in which 
 Napoleon treated certain Roman Catholic dignitaries, excited deep 
 resentment in the minds of zealous sons of the Church. His rule 
 was gradually becoming unpopular among an important section of 
 the community, and it was of this unpopularity that General Malet 
 sought to avail himself, in plotting for the overthrow of the imperial 
 system. 
 
 It has been asserted by some authorities that General Malet was 
 of obscure extraction, but this is not the fact ; he was, indeed, of 
 noble birth. To the advantage of honourable descent he added 
 the far more important claims of exalted merit, having, served with 
 distinction in the wars of the Republic, both on the banks of the 
 Rhine and in the fertile plains of Italy. True to his republican 
 principles, he steadily opposed the elevation of Napoleon to supreme 
 power, and for his share -if not actual, at any rate suspected in 
 certain conspiracies, he had been arrested and imprisoned. Upon 
 the marriage of Napoleon with Maria Louisa he had been removed 
 from prison to a Maison de Sante\ where he was still under the sur- 
 veillance of the police. The plan determined upon by this enthu- 
 siastic opponent of royalty was to announce the death of the Em- 
 peror, and to proclaim a Provisional Government on the authority 
 of a forged decree from the Senate. He had two accomplices, the 
 Abbe* Lafont, a fellow-prisoner, and a corporal named Rateau. On 
 the night of the 22nd of October, Malet and his accomplices, having 
 completed their preparations, proceeded to put their plans into 
 execution. The public were then in a state of great excitement 
 and anxiety, awaiting intelligence from the Grand Army, the last 
 despatch having announced the entrance of the French into Mos- 
 cow, and the burning of that city. In the middle of the night 
 
 * " Europe during the Consulate and the Empire," ix. chap. xii. p. 367. 
 
NAPOLEON AND THE COUNCIL OF STATE. 31? 
 
 Malet effected his escape from his place of confinement, presented 
 himself under an assumed name to the soldiers, and distributed his 
 forged Senatus Consultum, announcing the death of the Emperor, 
 and the formation of a Provisional Government. Savary, the Minis- 
 ter of Police, and Pasquier, the Prefect of Police, were seized with- 
 out resistance. The scheme prospered admirably, and might have 
 succeeded altogether, had not Malet been recognized and arrested 
 whilst endeavouring to secure the person of General Hullin, the 
 Governor of Paris. The chief conspirator once in custody, the 
 whole affair miscarried, and Malet, with several of his accomplices, 
 was tried before a military commission. The old soldier showed 
 the same fortitude in the presence of his judges that had before 
 gained him renown on the field of battle, and his last words were 
 " I fall, but I am not the last of the Romans." 
 
 Although this conspiracy terminated fatally to its projector, and 
 to some persons who had too readily accorded their assistance to his 
 scheme, it was not without its significance. Not only did it create 
 a great sensation in Paris and the provinces, it also made a deep 
 impression upon the mind of Napoleon. On his return from Russia, 
 it formed a prominent subject of debate between him and his Minis- 
 ters, and Bitterly did he upbraid them that in the first moments of 
 uncertainty they had not proclaimed the succession of the King of 
 Rome. To the Council of State he spoke warmly on the matter. 
 After censuring the apathy of those in authority, and declaring that 
 the rallying-cry of their fathers was, " The King is dead ! Long 
 live the King ! " he continued, " It is to this love of ideology that 
 we must attribute all the misfortunes that France has experienced ; 
 the errors of this system necessarily paved the way for, and actually 
 produced, the reign of the men thirsty for blood. Who, indeed, pro- 
 claimed the principle of insurrection as a duty? Who flattered the 
 people in attributing to them a sovereignty which they are not able 
 to wield ? When one is called upon to regenerate a State, exactly 
 the opposite principles must be adopted. History paints the human 
 heart : in history we must seek for the benefits and the disadvan- 
 tages of different systems. These are the principles of which the 
 Council of State of a great empire should never lose sight. It ought 
 
3 1 8 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 to add to these a courage equal to any emergency, and, after the 
 example of the presidents Harlay and Mole', be ready to die in de- 
 fence of the sovereign, the throne, and the laws The 
 
 noblest of deaths would be that of a soldier expiring on the field of 
 battle, if the death of a magistrate in the defence of the sovereign, 
 the throne, and the laws, was not even still more glorious."* By 
 such language he betrayed his desire to give permanence to the sys- 
 tem which he had established ; to transmit the crown as a legacy to 
 his own immediate posterity. The fortunate soldier sought some- 
 thing more than the fame of his victories and his own elevation to 
 supreme power ; he wished to become the founder of a race of sove- 
 reigns. 
 
 This conspiracy and other unto ward events most probably increased 
 Bonaparte's anxiety to terminate his disputes with Pope Pius VII. 
 The venerable pontiff had experienced the full force of the Emperor's 
 bitter resentment. Having been forcibly seized in his own dominions, 
 and dragged about Europe from place to place, he was at last brought 
 to Fontainebleau, on the I9th of June, 1812, soon after Napoleon's 
 departure on the Russian expedition. In this royal retreat, although 
 honoured with a certain amount of delicacy and respect, he was still 
 a prisoner. Napoleon had formed a stupendous and magnificent 
 design with respect to the papacy. In fact, he contemplated making 
 himself Pope ; in other words, he intended to wield the temporal 
 power, and make the spiritual subject to his control. For the more 
 effectual accomplishment of his plan, he thought of transferring the 
 seat of the Pontifical Government from Rome to Paris. Compelled 
 by circumstances to modify this scheme, and anxious to accommodate 
 his differences with Pius VII. as early as possible, on the iQth of 
 January, 1813, Napoleon suddenly intruded on the seclusion of the 
 Pope at Fontainbleau. The day after, another interview took place, 
 at which the preliminaries of a concordat were settled. So anxious 
 was Napoleon to propitiate the Roman Catholic party, that he pub- 
 lished the articles of this concordat in the columns of the Moniteur, 
 as if the instrument had been already signed. The Pope, alarmed 
 
 * Fain. " Manuscrit de 1813," vol. i. chap. ii. p. 20. 
 
SIGNS OF DECADENCE. 319 
 
 at this flagrant breach of confidence, and instigated by the remon- 
 strances of his advisers, ultimately revoked his consent to the 
 concordat. 
 
 Thus was the Emperor scattering the seeds of discontent and dis- 
 union amongst his subjects, while his enemies were preparing to 
 invade his dominions. The failure of the expedition into Russia, 
 and the successes of Wellington in the Peninsula, destroyed the 
 general belief in the invincibility of Napoleon. The period of the 
 emancipation of the nations was at hand ; the iron circle through 
 which he could not break was gradually closing around him. Ap- 
 pearances still deceived Bonaparte ; he did not heed the warnings 
 of an approaching storm. The voice of admonition is calm and 
 majestic : the accents of flattery are loud and deceptive. Most loy- 
 ally had he been welcomed upon his return to Paris ; addresses and 
 congratulations were poured in from every quarter. They arrived 
 not only from the provinces of old France, but from Rome, Milan, 
 Turin, Florence, &c. They were all equally enthusiastic in their 
 expressions of joy at his safe return and of devotion to his cause. 
 One author* states that he could not spare the space even for the 
 enumeration of the addresses, that more than fifty pages of the 
 Moniteur of the time were filled with them, and that amongst the 
 signatures appended to them might be found those of some of the 
 most celebrated men of the age. 
 
 The state of affairs beyond the Rhine was, however, daily becom- 
 ing more alarming. The principal part of the invading army, having 
 effected its escape from the Russian territory, proceeded to its old 
 quarters between the Niemen and the Vistula. Marshal Macdonald 
 with his corps, was, however, left some time at Riga. No sooner 
 had he commenced his retreat than the Russians were upon him. 
 By a well -planned and ably - executed movement, their General 
 Diebitch cut off the Prussian corps under General York, then form- 
 ing a portion of Marshal Macdonald's army, which was retiring with 
 considerable difficulty. In this dilemma the only resource left for 
 the Prussian commander was to surrender. But the triumph was 
 
 * Fain. " Manuscrit de 1813," voL i. chap. i. p. 12, note. 
 
320 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 to be turned to better account. On the 3oth of December a con- 
 vention was agreed upon between the Russian and the Prussian 
 generals, by which it was arranged that the troops of the latter were 
 to remain neutral for the space of two months. The news of this 
 important convention came upon the King of Prussia like a thunder- 
 bolt. His mind was not yet disenchanted of its faith in Napoleon's 
 ascendancy ; he was not prepared for an immediate rupture with 
 France, and accordingly he issued an edict condemning General 
 York's conduct, superseding him in his command, and ordering 
 him before a court-martial. The force of public opinion, however, 
 hurried this monarch in quite an opposite direction, and his faithful 
 soldier was neither dismissed nor disgraced. His bold deed of de- 
 fiance aroused the Prussians to their senses. The population in 
 some places rebelled against the French authority, the most fearful 
 excesses were committed, and no King of Prussia, determined to 
 maintain an alliance with Bonaparte, in the face of popular excite- 
 ment and enthusiasm, could have preserved his crown. 
 
 Alexander was not satisfied with having expelled the invader from 
 his territory, he resolved to chastise him at home. For this purpose 
 his legions crossed the Niemen in great force. In January, 1813, his 
 vanguard reached the Vistula, the French retiring as the Russians 
 advanced. The Czar issued proclamations for the purpose of giving 
 confidence to the inhabitants of the districts through which his 
 soldiers marched. Meanwhile the excitement in Berlin increased, 
 as the disasters experienced by the French became known, and on 
 the 22nd of January, Frederick William quitted his capital for 
 Breslau, in Silesia, hoping thus to escape from the influence of 
 Napoleon. On the 3rd of February he issued a proclamation to 
 his subjects, calling them to arms. In the middle of March Alex- 
 ander arrived at Breslau, and the Treaty of Kalisch, which had been 
 signed a few days before, was at once made public. A defensive 
 and offensive alliance was thus concluded between the sovereigns 
 of Russia and Pruss a, the former engaging to furnish 150,000 men, 
 and the latter 80,000, in order to prosecute the war against France. 
 Sweden soon after joined this alliance, agreeing to furnish 30,000 
 men, England ceding Guadaloupe, and granting other important 
 
RECOMMENCEMENT OF HOSTILITIES. 3 2 1 
 
 advantages. Austria, in spite of the ties of relationship by which 
 her royal family was connected with the French Emperor, already 
 gave signs of defection. Anxious, as ever, to come in at last with 
 the winner in the strife, the chief aim of her diplomacy at the com- 
 mencement of 1813 seemed to be to ascertain on which side the 
 chances of success preponderated. Thus she made fresh levies, and 
 while she secretly favoured the designs of the allied sovereigns, she 
 talked to Napoleon of her interests and her honour, and hinted at 
 an armed mediation. 
 
 Napoleon's efforts to meet the exigencies of his situation were 
 worthy of a better cause. Whilst making the most extraordinary 
 exertions to increase the efficiency of his army, both by recruiting 
 its ranks and animating the spirit of the men, he sought to tran- 
 quillize the public at home by shifting the onus of the strife to the 
 shoulders of his adversaries. In his address to the legislative body 
 on the 1 4th of February, he attributed the necessity for war to the 
 inveterate animosity of England, declaring that her agents spread 
 dissension over the Continent, and he concluded his address in these 
 words : " I desire peace ; it is necessary to the world. Four times 
 since the rupture of the Treaty of Amiens I have solemnly proposed 
 it. I will never accept any other than an honourable peace, and 
 one in conformity with the interests and greatness of my empire. 
 My policy is not mysterious, I have shown what sacrifices I could 
 make."* Immense sums of money were voted, large levies made, 
 and every preparation required for carrying on the contest with 
 vigour and determination. 
 
 No sooner had the Russian hordes crossed the Vistula, than 
 Murat, King of Naples, threw up the chief command of the French, 
 entrusted to him by Napoleon previous to his departure from the 
 army, and retired to his own dominions. This flagrant act of deser- 
 tion aroused the anger of Bonaparte, nor did he conceal his indig- 
 nation. Eugene Beauharnais, Viceroy of Italy, received the vacant 
 appointment, and conducted the retreat with caution and ability. Un- 
 able to stem the rapid torrent set in against him, he abandoned the 
 
 * Fain. "Manuscrit de 1813," vol. i. p. 224, supplement. 
 
 21 
 
322 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONJPARTE. 
 
 line of the Oder, and upon the further approach of the Russians he 
 evacuated Berlin, and fell back upon the Elbe. Defeated in a smart 
 skirmish at Mockern, near Magdeburg, on the 4th of April, by the 
 Russian General Wittgenstein, Eugene concentrated his forces on 
 the Saale, determined if possible there to await the return of Napo- 
 leon, the prospect of whose speedy arrival had a material effect in 
 keeping up the spirit of his troops. 
 
 On the recommencement of hostilities the Emperor hastened to 
 put himself at the head of his soldiers. Mindful of the risk incurred 
 during his absence in Russia by the conspiracy of General Malet, 
 he took precautionary measures in order to ensure the succession. 
 Probably also with a view to propitiate his father-in-law, Francis of 
 Austria, he caused the regency to be conferred upon Maria Louisa. 
 Yet it was but the shadow of authority that he placed at her com- 
 mand: the real power he retained as usual in his own hands. On 
 the 3oth of March the Empress took the oath as Regent of the 
 French empire. It was not, however, until the 15th of April that 
 Napoleon was able to leave Paris, and he reached Mayence late at 
 night on the i6th. During his stay in this city he learned that 
 Frederick Augustus, King of Saxony, who had not swerved in his 
 allegiance, in order to escape from the indignant remonstrances of 
 those around him, had taken up his abode at Prague. 
 
 At the commencement of the first portion of the campaign in Ger- 
 many of 1813 the forces of the Allies were greatly inferior in numbers 
 to those arrayed against them by Napoleon. The levies in Prussia 
 were not at that period completed ; many of the Russian troops had 
 not reached the scene of action ; and Austria, although engaged in 
 secret negotiations, had not openly joined the cause. Reinforce- 
 ments having arrived from Italy and elsewhere, Bonaparte found 
 himself at the head of about 250,000 men, including both cavalry 
 and infantry.* Of these, however, 50,000 were Germans, and in 
 consequence of the excitement prevailing throughout their country, 
 could not of course be relied upon with any degree of safety. The 
 
 * Thibaudeau. "Empire," vol. vi. chap. Ixxxviii. p. 254. Capefigue (vol. x. chap. iii. 
 p. 92) estimates the Emperor's force at 230,000 men. 
 
BATTLE OP LUTZEtf. 323 
 
 allied armies in Germany at this time mustered probably about as 
 many fighting men as were assembled under Bonaparte and his mar- 
 shals, yet not more than half of these had then reached the scene 
 of hostilities. 
 
 The first part of the campaign was not of long duration. Napoleon 
 having resolved upon an advance towards Leipsic, soon encountered 
 the allied army. Several fierce conflicts occurred, one near Rippach, 
 in which the Duke of Istria was killed, and on the 2nd of May was 
 fought the well-contested battle of Lutzen, at which Napoleon, with 
 115,000 men, gained no very easy victory over 75,000 Russian and 
 Prussian troops. In this action no guns were captured, the retreat 
 of the allied army was not molested, and the loss fell most severely 
 on the French. Their deficiency in cavalry will in some degree ac- 
 count for this ; yet it must be admitted that their opponents fought 
 with great bravery and determination. This battle opened the road 
 to Dresden, which city Bonaparte entered in triumph on the 8th of 
 May, and received a visit there from his faithful ally, Frederick 
 Augustus of Saxony, on the I2th. 
 
 The Russian and Prussian troops, after this defeat, directed their 
 march towards Bautzen, on the banks of the river Spree, where en- 
 trenchments had been thrown up, and preparations made for an 
 obstinate resistance. Their front extended seven miles from wing 
 to wing, and in this lay their weakness, for although the position was 
 strong, the numbers that occupied it were inadequate for its proper 
 defence. They had, however, the river in face of their line of works. 
 Napoleon attacked them on the 2oth of May, in much superior force ; 
 indeed, his army nearly doubled that of the Allies, and on this occa- 
 sion he had the further advantage of a large cavalry force under his 
 command. The Czar Alexander directed the movements of the 
 Allies, and, with the King of Prussia, was present in the thickest 
 of the fight. The battle lasted two days, and was both sanguinary 
 and obstinate ; but the Allies were eventually compelled to retire, 
 which they did in excellent order, presenting an unbroken front to 
 the enemy, and leaving no trophies on the abandoned field. Again 
 did the loss of the French considerably exceed that on the side of 
 their opponents, which proves how firmly the latter withstood the 
 
 I 2 
 
MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 onslaught of much superior forces. The next day an engagement 
 took place at Reichenbach, with a Russian division constituting the 
 rear-guard, in which the French sustained a very severe check. 
 
 Hostilities were waged in other parts of Europe with varied suc- 
 cess, and on the whole the situation of Bonaparte was extremely 
 precarious. Under his command, indeed, the soldiers generally ad- 
 vanced to victory, but dangers appeared on every side. And after 
 
 Defeat of the Allies. 
 
 all, his recent triumphs were not of a pleasing character. They cost 
 too much, and were not decisive. Baron Odeleben, with reference 
 to this short campaign, says : u It has been proved that up to 
 that day inclusively, the last before the armistice, in which any 
 action worthy of the least notice occurred, the Allies had invariably 
 lost less artillery and men than the French ; they had, besides, ob- 
 tained the advantage in some little affairs, by turning the French 
 with the assistance of their cavalry ; and had intercepted their 
 couriers and orders. At Rippach, Lutzen, Koenigswartha, Bautzen, 
 Reichenbach, in fine, everywhere, Napoleon lost more men than 
 
vJp 
 
 OF THR 
 
 ARMISTICE OF PLESWITZ. 325 
 
 the Allies, nor could he boast of captured artillery, or other trophies, 
 nor of the death of general officers belonging to the enemy. On 
 the other hand, Marshal Bessieres, the Grand-Marshal Duroc, Ge- 
 nerals Delzons, Gruner, Bruyere, and Kirchner had been killed."* 
 Thus in Germany he no longer made the easy and rapid conquests 
 which shed so much lustre on the earlier period ot his military 
 career. 
 
 Negotiations for a short period suspended the contest. Napoleon, 
 alarmed at the menacing attitude assumed by Austria, and anxious 
 to create dissension between the sovereigns of Russia and Prussia, 
 had, as early as the i8th of May, proposed to treat separately with 
 Alexander. This advance was, of course, at- once rejected, and a 
 subsequent offer, of a personal interview with the Czar, met also 
 with a polite refusal. At length Napoleon declared his willingness 
 to accept the mediation of Austria, and to agree to an armistice, 
 that the conditions of peace might be discussed. Considerable 
 difficulty was' at first experienced in settling the terms of this ar- 
 mistice, but the progress of events having removed some obstacles, 
 and the mutual concessions of the belligerents having overcome 
 others, the armistice of Pleswitz was signed on the 4th of June.f 
 A cessation of hostilities was thus secured for six weeks ; six days 1 
 notice of breaking the armistice being required from either con- 
 tracting party. 
 
 On the isth of June treaties were concluded at Reichenbach, be- 
 tween England, Russia, and Prussia; and these powers became 
 still more intimately associated in their designs to put an end to 
 the intolerable tyranny of Bonaparte.! Much time having been 
 wasted in frivolous delays, towards the end of June Prince Metter- 
 nich had an interview with Bonaparte, which turned out to be a very 
 stormy one. England, as usual, came in for the principal share of 
 the Emperor's abuse ; we must, however, refer the reader, desirous 
 of further particulars, to the account of the meeting given by Bona- 
 
 * "Campaign in Saxony, in the year 1813," translated by Kempe, vol. i. chap. i. p. u. 
 
 t Capefigue, vol. x. chap. iv. p. 129. 
 
 t Thibaudeau, "Empire/' vol. vi. chap. xc. p. 3x8. 
 
326 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 parte's private secretary.* It was not, however, quite futile. The 
 results are thus given in the Appendix to the Marquis of i-ondon- 
 derry's account of the campaign, f " A convention was then signed 
 the 30th of June, by Count Metternich and the Duke of Bassano, 
 the heads of which were as follow : 
 
 " Art. I. Austria offered her mediation. 
 
 II. France accepted the mediation. 
 III. Plenipotentiaries on the part x>f Austria and France, 
 and also Russia and Prussia, were to assemble at 
 Prague on or before the 5th of July. 
 IV. The period limited for negotiation, viz., 2Oth of July, 
 being, too short, the Emperor and King will agree 
 to extend the same to the loth of August ; and the 
 Emperor of Austria reserves to himself to endeavour 
 to obtain the accession of the Emperor of Russia and 
 King of Prussia to this prolongation. 
 V. Ratifications were to be exchanged within four days* 
 The Emperor Francis ratified the convention, agree- 
 ing to prolong the * terme obligatoire de negotiation ' 
 to the loth of August." 
 
 It fs impossible to say whether peace might have rewarded the 
 exertions of those most anxious to secure it had the negotiations 
 been carried on fairly to the end. An event occurred which, while 
 it increased the enthusiasm of the northern nations, only served to 
 excite Bonaparte to a more determined resistance. The news o f 
 Wellington's victory at Vittoria, in Spain, reached the combatants 
 early in the month of July. Lord Londonderry, writing from the 
 allied head-quarters, says : J "Early on the morning of the i6th 
 we were gratified by the arrival of a British messenger bearing the 
 glorious news of the battle of Vittoria. The Prince Royal returned 
 the same evening from Trachenberg ; and it was easy to perceive 
 
 * Fain. " Manuscrit de 1813," vol. ii. chap. iv. p. 34, &c. 
 
 t " Narrative of the War in France and Germany, in 1813 and 1814," second edit., 
 1830, Appendix iii. p. 369. In the original there are serious errors as to date, which we 
 have corrected in our quotation. 
 
 I " Narrative of the War," &c., chap. v. p. 81. 
 
INFLUENCE OF WELLINGTON'S SUCCESSES. 3 2 7 
 
 that Lord Wellington's great achievements had produced as great 
 a change in the political atmosphere of Dresden and the north as 
 it could have effected in Southern Europe." 
 
 The irritation the intelligence caused in the mind of Napoleon, 
 and the confidence and hope it gave the allied sovereigns, were 
 both alike unfavourable to the satisfactory conduct of the peace 
 conferences. In support of this view we have again the testimony 
 of Lord Londonderry,* who declares in the following express terms, 
 the conviction that the victory of Vittoria led to the renewal of the 
 war: "The impression of Lord Wellington's success had been strong 
 and universal, and produced ultimately, in my opinion, the recom- 
 mencement of hostilities." From the moment the news arrived both 
 parties devoted themselves with increased energy to preparations 
 for the renewal of the strife. Austria openly joined with the Allies, 
 declared war against France on the nth of August, and her distin- 
 guished general, Prince Schwartzenberg, was nominated com- 
 mander-in-chief of the allied armies. 
 
 Thus commenced the second part of the campaign in Germany 
 of 1813, and during its progress war was waged upon the grandest 
 and the most imposing scale. Nearly one million of righting men 
 had been collected by the mighty rivals over the extensive terri- 
 tories upon which the contest raged. The world, indeed, trembled 
 at the shock of arms, and mankind watched with the most intense 
 anxiety those grand operations in the issues of which the fate of 
 many nations was involved. The greatest enthusiasm prevailed 
 throughout Germany, and the arrival of Moreau from America at 
 the allied camp increased the excitement of the hour. This old re- 
 publican soldier had been induced by the repeated solicitations of 
 Alexander to resume his former profession. His career, however, 
 came to a sudden termination in the first battle of the campaign. At 
 the action before Dresden, on the 27th of August, a cannon-ball 
 wounded him in both legs, almost severing them from his body. 
 He bore amputation with that serenity for which he was remark- 
 able, but expired five days afterwards of a fever caused by extreme 
 
 * Ibid, chap. vi. p. 88. 
 
328 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 suffering. Thus perished one of the heroes of the Revolution; and, 
 strange to relate, his body was embalmed and buried with due 
 solemnity at St. Petersburg. It seems almost incredible that so 
 stern a republican should have received funeral honours from the 
 despotic ruler of a foreign country. Extraordinary and unaccountable 
 indeed are the alliances and the friendships that grow out of the 
 extremities of war ! 
 
 After much animated discussion at head-quarters, it was deter- 
 mined by the allied commanders to march at once upon Dresden. 
 In the very severe actions before that city on the 26th and 27th of 
 August, with which the campaign may be said to have fairly com- 
 menced, Napoleon gained most decided advantages. The loss on 
 the side of the Allies was immense, and numerous trophies fell into 
 the hands of the French. This was undoubtedly the most terrible 
 reverse the Allies had yet sustained, and their retreat was effected 
 at considerable risk and with great difficulty. 
 
 Important operations were, however, at the same time in progress 
 in other parts of the Continent, in which Bonaparte's generals met 
 with nothing but disaster. On the same day that the attack upon 
 Dresden commenced, Marshal Macdonald, who commanded in 
 Upper Silesia, was defeated at the battle of Katzbach, with the loss 
 of guns, ammunition, eagles, and prisoners. In retreating before 
 the victorious General Bliicher, several of his divisions underwent 
 further castigation, and his army was for a time rendered altogether 
 unmanageable, and consequently unavailable. Bernadotte and Bu- 
 low defeated another French force, which was advancing upon 
 Berlin, at Gros-Beeren, on the 25th, and compelled them to retire 
 in confusion. But the greatest blow was struck in the mountain 
 defiles between Saxony and Bohemia, where Vandamme, who had 
 been ordered by Bonaparte to throw himself on the rear of the 
 Allies, was both out-manoeuvred and beaten in fair fight by Oster- 
 mann. The French general's force was dispersed. Some thousands 
 were killed in the fierce encounters that took place ; some escaped 
 over the mountains ; and about 10,000, with Vandamme himself, 
 were made prisoners. 
 
 These magnificent successes quite compensated the Allies for 
 
BATTLE OF LE IPS 1C. 
 
 329 
 
 Napoleon at the Battle of Leipsic. 
 
 their failure before Dresden, and at once checked the despondency 
 that had seized upon their minds. Their cause, far from being 
 hopeless, was, in fact, in a prosperous condition. The news of these 
 reverses induced Bonaparte to attempt the concentration of his 
 forces. Certain corps were, indeed, pushed forward in one or two 
 directions, but from this hour his retreat may be said to have com- 
 menced. Marshal Ney, who had been sent to restore matters in 
 Prussia, was repulsed with great slaughter at the battle of Denne- 
 witz, on the 5th of September, and a total rout ensued. Napoleon 
 went hastily from place to place, endeavouring to create confidence, 
 and to repair the losses which his generals had suffered, and in some 
 cases almost invited ; but the Allies, emboldened by their success, 
 pushed forward, and he was constrained to retire. 
 Towards the plains in the neighbourhood of Leipsic the masses 
 
33 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 of the allied army now moved, and here Napokon, after consider- 
 able hesitation, determined to give them battle. \The battle of Leip- 
 sic, both as regards the number of combatants engaged and the 
 magnitude of the interests at^take, is justly considered as the great- 
 est battle of modern times. ^Short-sighted writers, who regard it 
 only with respect to its immediate results, underrate its real import- 
 ance. They do not pause to consider what a decisive victory before 
 Leipsic by Napoleon might have led to how it would most pro- 
 bably have changed the whole condition of affairs. The French 
 Emperor, as the conqueror at Leipsic, might have dictated his own 
 terms to Russia, Prussia, and Austria, and would, it is likely, have 
 preserved his throne and broken up the Grand Alliance. 
 
 From the above sketch of the commencement of the campaign, it 
 will be seen that the Allies had gradually drawn their forces round 
 Bonaparte : not only had they beaten his generals, on some occa- 
 sions at the head of very superior numbers, but they had compelled 
 the mighty chieftain himself to retire. (The battle of Leipsic set the 
 seal to their triumph. \On that celebrated battle-plain Bonaparte 
 had taken his stand with about 1 80,000 men and 700 pieces of artil- 
 lery. His opponents had nearly 300^000 combatants, with 1,300 
 guns. These figures show to what an extent both armies had been 
 reinforced since the opening of the first campaign. The battle com- 
 menced on the ijkh of October, and the general results of the nume- 
 rous fearful encounters of that eventful day were unfavourable to the 
 French. The next day, being Sunday, was spent on both sides in 
 preparations for the final struggle, and Bonaparte made some inef- 
 fectual attempts at negotiation. Scarcely had the battle commenced 
 on the 1 8th, when a small body of Saxons deserted from the French. 
 By the evening Napoleon's line was everywhere repulsed, and al- 
 though the rival armies remained upon the field of battle, the French 
 were in a most desperate condition. To maintain their ground was 
 impossible ; their retreat could only be effected at great hazard. 
 The scene in the French camp is admirably described by Colonel 
 Mitchell. He says : * "At the close of the battle a number of gene- 
 
 * " Fall of Napoleon," vol. ii. book ii. chap. iv. p. 167, 
 
RETREA T FROM LEIPSIC. 331 
 
 rals and marshals assembled round the Emperor. Silence reigned 
 at the meeting ; none wished to speak ; there was no deliberation ; 
 escape was all that could be hoped for ; and that was to be antici- 
 pated from the tardiness of the enemy, rather than from any power 
 of enforcing it, if promptly and stoutly opposed. Such was now the 
 position of the army, that it had only a single line of retreat left : 
 this lay along the narrow causeway of Lindenau, two miles in length, 
 accessible only at the gate of Leipsic by one bridge over the Pleisse, 
 and the outlet of which could at any time be assailed by the supe- 
 rior forces of the enemy. But there was no alternative ; and by the 
 light of a watch-fire, Napoleon, who, overcome by fatigue, had ac- 
 tually fallen asleep in the midst of his generals, dictated to Berthier 
 the orders for the retreat At nine o'clock he left his bivouac, and 
 repaired to the Hotel of Prussia in Leipsic, where he sat up the 
 greater part of the night receiving reports and issuing orders. He 
 also informed the King of Saxony of the intended movement, leaving 
 it to him to accompany the army or make terms with the Allies." 
 
 Thus rapidly did disasters accumulate around Napoleon's path, 
 and from this period his star was not again in the ascendant. A 
 celebrated historian points out the remarkable coincidence that 
 Marie Antoinette ascended the fatal scaffold at nine o'clock in the 
 morning of the i6th of October, 1793 ; and that at the same hour, 
 on the self-same day of the month of Obtober, 1813 just twenty 
 years afterwards " the discharge of three guns from the allied head- 
 quarters announced the commencement of the battle of Leipsic, and 
 the infliction of the greatest punishment on a nation which the his- 
 tory of mankind had exhibited."* In this the historian traces the sure 
 sign of retribution, and few will, we believe, dispute the conclusion. 
 The hand of Providence directs the course of events, and whether 
 one man suffers or a whole nation is chastised, depends equally on 
 His divine will. 
 
 Napoleon had given orders for the destruction of the bridge over 
 the Easter, so soon as his army should have retired ; but by some 
 misapprehension it was blown up before that object had been ac- 
 
 * Alison, vol. xvii. chap. Ixxxii. 
 
332 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 complished. Owing to this, 25,000 of the French rear-guard were 
 made prisoners ; 250 pieces of artillery, immense quantities of 
 ammunition, and other trophies, fell into the hands of the Allies; 
 numbers were precipitated into the stream and perished ; the brave 
 Marshal ^lacdonald escaped with difficulty, and Prince Poniatowski 
 was .drowned. Leipsic was taken on the day after the great battle > 
 and/the allied sovereigns entered the place amid the most qxtrava- 
 ganr demonstrations of delight from its afflicted inhabitants} The 
 retreat thus inauspiciously commenced by Bonaparte was scarcely 
 less disastrous than the fatal flight from Moscow. The army was 
 thoroughly disorganized, and even two days' repose at Erfurt did 
 not restore order in its ranks, nor inspire its commanders with con- 
 fidence. At Hanau, Napoleon found the Bavarian army, under 
 Wrede, not long since acting with him, interposed between him and 
 the Rhine, and only after a most sanguinary battle, on the 3Oth of 
 October, did he succeed in securing his retreat. Lord Londonderry, 
 in his charming narrative of the campaign, says : * "On the ist of 
 November Napoleon continued his retreat from all points. The 
 Emperors of Russia and Austria, and the King of Prussia, accom- 
 panied by Prince Schwartzenberg, Generals Barclay de Tolly and 
 Wittgenstein, surrounded also by their other generals and suite, 
 made their magnificent and solemn entry into Frankfort on the 4th ; 
 and the main French army was now effectually driven from the right 
 bank of the Rhine." The soldiers he had left in garrison in various 
 parts of Europe either capitulated or were taken prisoners, the 
 foreign levies deserted from his ranks, and Napoleon reached France 
 with a miserable remnant of that large army at the head of which he 
 had challenged the world in arms only a few months before. In re- 
 viewing the events that occurred after the breaking of the armistice 
 of Pleswitz, Sir Walter Scott very truly remarks : f " The rupture of 
 the armistice seemed to be the date of his declension, as indeed the 
 junction of the Austrians enabled the Allies to bear him down by 
 resistless numbers. Nine battles had been fought since that periodj 
 including the action at Culm, which, in its results, is well entitled to 
 
 * Chap. xiii. p. 199. t " Life of Bonaparte," chap. Ixxi. 
 
1814.] SCENE AT THE LEVEE. 333 
 
 the name. Of these, Bonaparte only gained two those at Dresden 
 and Hanau; that at Wachau was indecisive; while at Gros-Beeren, 
 at Jauer on the Katzbach, at Culm, at Dennewitz, at Mockern, and 
 at Leipsic, the Allies obtained decisive and important victories." 
 Napoleon being driven across the Rhine, Germany was thus de- 
 livered from his tyrannical interference, and a spirit of resistance 
 everywhere aroused which eventually ensured the overthrow of the 
 man who for nearly twenty years had kept the different nations of 
 Europe in strife and confusion. 
 
 Upon the return of Napoleon to Paris on the Qth of November, 
 1813, the aspect of affairs had everywhere changed. In Spain and 
 in Italy, as well as in Germany and the north of Europe, the im- 
 perial forces had met with the most humiliating reverses. Enthu- 
 siasm no longer reigned amongst his own subjects ; they felt the 
 pressure of former sacrifices, and perceived that the tide of invasion, 
 which had flowed from France over Europe, had at last ebbed, and 
 was coming back upon them with irresistible power. Bonaparte was 
 not received with acclamations and congratulation no addresses 
 welcomed him on his return to the capital. 
 
 In spite of these ominous signs, he persisted in the prosecution of 
 the war, and convoked the Chambers for the iQth of December. A 
 committee was appointed by the legislative body to examine into and 
 report upon the communications made by the Emperor respecting 
 the negotiations for peace which were then in progress at Frankfort. 
 This report was presented on the 28th, and ordered to be printed by 
 a large majority. It required from the Emperor some specific de- 
 claration as to the terms upon which he was willing to conclude a 
 peace, and hinted at the necessity for a due enforcement of the laws 
 relating to the liberty and security of the French people. This at 
 once aroused the anger of Bonaparte : he was unwilling to have his 
 proceedings scrutinized ; so he ordered the report to be seized, dis- 
 missed the representatives, and thus created himself Dictator. 
 
 At his reception on the ist of January he made a violent speech 
 to the refractory legislators, of which the following is a fair sum- 
 mary : " Deputies of the legislative body, you are not the repre- 
 sentatives of the people ! I am more so than you are. Four times 
 
334 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 I have been named by the army, and four times I have had the votes 
 
 of five millions of citizens for me I have sacrificed my 
 
 passions, my ambition, my pride, for the good of France 
 
 In your address the most bitter irony aggravates your reproaches. 
 .... You have sought to degrade me in the eyes of the 
 French people: that is an outrage. You say that adversity has 
 given me salutary counsels. How could you reproach me with my 
 misfortunes ? I have borne them with honour, because I am of a 
 firm and unbending disposition I stood in need of con- 
 solations ; I expected them from you. You have sought to disgrace 
 me ; but I am one of those men who may be killed, but not dis- 
 honoured What after all is the throne ? four pieces of 
 
 wood covered with cloth All depends upon him who is 
 
 seated thereupon France stands more in need of me 
 
 than I do of France Are you not satisfied with the Con- 
 stitution ? Well ! you should have asked for another four months 
 
 ago You speak of abuses, of grievances: I know of their 
 
 existence as well as you do ; they grow out of the circumstances and 
 
 the misfortunes of the times Why speak before Europe 
 
 of our domestic disputes? I named a secret committee. . . . 
 
 People should wash their dirty linen at home I have a 
 
 title, you have none. What are you in the Constitution ? Nothing. 
 You have not a vestige of authority. The throne is in the Consti- 
 tution : all centres in the throne and myself. .... I repeat it : 
 there are factious men amongst you. M. Laind is a bad man ; the 
 
 others are conspirators, and I will prosecute them M. 
 
 Raynouard says that Marshal Massena pillaged the country-seat of 
 a citizen ; in that M. Raynouard lied Nature has en- 
 dowed me with firmness of character ; it can withstand all. . . . 
 
 I am above your miserable upbraidings My victories 
 
 will silence your clamours In three months we shall 
 
 have peace .... or the enemy will be chased from our terri- 
 tory .... or I shall be dead We possess more 
 
 resources than you think for. The foe has never conquered us, nor 
 shall they conquer ; but they shall be driven back at a much quicker 
 
OFFERS OF THE ALLIES. 335 
 
 pace than that at which they came." * His anger at their attempt to 
 control his actions and to examine into his policy knew no bounds. 
 Like Cromwell, when he found that the Parliament would not do 
 exactly as he pleased, he resolved to manage without any Parliament 
 at all. 
 
 Bonaparte dared not, however, carry his resentment and his 
 resistance too far. He could no longer act in open defiance of the 
 nation. Certain conciliatory measures were adopted for the purpose 
 of tranquillizing the public and allaying general agitation. Towards 
 the end of the month he consented to the liberation of Pope Pius 
 VI I., but even this was not done until he had exhausted every effort 
 in order to induce the venerable Pontiff to concede to his harsh con- 
 ditions ; nor was a full release granted, for Pius did not reach Rome 
 until after the abdication of Napoleon. The relinquishment of Spain 
 may be called another concession, but it arrived too late, and was 
 accorded with a very bad grace. The treaty for the restoration of 
 Ferdinand VII. to the throne which belonged to him by right was 
 burdened with unjustifiable conditions, intended to cause a rupture 
 between Spain and its protector, Great Britain. In such mean acts 
 the character of the fortunate adventurer is betrayed ; the magna- 
 nimous and powerful ruler is inspired by loftier aims, and usually 
 displays a nobler and more active generosity. 
 
 The allied sovereigns were not in the meantime idle at Frankfort. 
 They had no sooner arrived at that city than they opened nego- 
 tiations with Napoleon. The nature of these advances, and the 
 manner in which they were received, are very clearly stated by Bour- 
 rienne.f "According to the proposals of the Allies at Frankfoit, 
 Germany, Italy, and Spain were to be entirely withdrawn from the 
 dominion of France. England recognized the freedom of trade and 
 navigation, and there appeared no reason to doubt the sincerity of 
 her professed willingness to make great sacrifices to promote the 
 object proposed by the Allies. But to these offers a fatal condition 
 was added, namely, that the Congress should meet in a town, to be 
 
 * Montgaillard. " Histoire de France," vol. vii. book v. chap. xi. p. 139, 
 f "Private Memoirs of Napoleon," vol. iv. chap. xvL p. 230. 
 
33 6 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 declared neutral, on the right bank of the Rhine, where the pleni- 
 potentiaries of all the belligerent powers were to assemble ; but 
 6 the course of the war was not to be impeded by these negotia- 
 tions.' " And Fain,* another of the Emperor's adherents, admits 
 that "the Allies offered peace on condition that France should 
 abandon Germany, Spain, Holland, and Italy, and retire within her 
 natural boundaries of the Alps, the Pyrenees, and the Rhine/' So 
 that after the fatal campaign of 1813 Napoleon might still have 
 made an honourable peace, and preserved his throne, had he been 
 inclined to make proper concessions. He entertained no serious 
 ideas of an accommodation ; but in order to gain time, that he 
 might secure some advantages in the field, or sow dissensions 
 amongst the Allies, he made a show of coming to terms. Bour- 
 rienne f confesses that " Napoleon wished, by an apparent desire 
 for peace, to justify, if I may so express myself, in the eyes of his 
 subjects, the necessity of new sacrifices ; which, according to his 
 proclamations, he demanded only to enable him to obtain peace on 
 as honourable conditions as possible. But the truth is, he was re- 
 solved not even to listen to the offers made at Frankfort. He 
 always represented the limits of the Rhine as merely a compensation 
 for the dismemberment of Poland, and the immense aggrandize- 
 ment of the English possessions in Asia. But he wanted to gain 
 time, and, if possible, to keep the allied armies on the right bank 
 of the Rhine." This is a very fair statement of the manner in 
 which Napoleon carried on negotiations, and they accordingly fell 
 to the ground, and were only renewed on one occasion, and then 
 upon less advantageous terms, until the Allies had gained posses- 
 sion of Paris. 
 
 At the very commencement of the year 1814 France was invaded 
 at several portions of its frontier. The allied troops, after a few 
 weeks of rest and repose, had received the order to march, and 
 they speedily possessed themselves of various strongholds in the 
 provinces, in the immediate neighbourhood of the Rhine. The 
 
 * "Memoirs of the Invasion of France by the Allied Armies, &c.," part i. chap. ii. 
 p. 6. 
 t " Private Memoirs of Napoleon," vol. iv. chap. xvi. p. 232. 
 
OF THB 
 
 IVERSITY 
 
 TRANSIENT SUCCESSES OF NAPOLEON. 337 
 
 Grand Alliance had received accessions to its strength during the 
 negotiations at Frankfort by the adhesion of Switzerland, of the 
 Confederation of the Rhine, and of Denmark to its cause. Even 
 some of Bonaparte's marshals had not scrupled to negotiate with 
 his foes. True it is that the plans of the Allies were not very de- 
 finite, and their unanimity of a fragile and inconstant character ; 
 still, the pressure of a great danger the tyrannical supremacy of 
 Bonaparte allayed rival jealousies, stifled incipient quarrels, and 
 produced something like harmony in their counsels. Nor was this 
 difference of opinion altogether unknown to Napoleon : on more 
 than one occasion he sought to turn it to his own advantage. Re- 
 lying upon it, at one moment he seemed willing to negotiate ; at 
 another resolved to stake everything on the issue of a campaign. 
 In the direction of military operations his great and transcendent 
 abilities shone forth in their true lustre, and never were these dis- 
 played to more advantage than in that short campaign, in the spring 
 of 1814, which terminated in the capitulation of Paris. Bonaparte 
 was indeed indefatigable in his exertions to drive the invader from 
 his territories, but the mightiest efforts were of little avail, in pre- 
 sence of the overwhelming forces that were gradually closing in 
 around him. On the 25th of January he embraced the Empress 
 and the young King of Rome, and set off to the head-quarters of 
 his army. This was the last occasion upon which he beheld his 
 wife and son. When the enemy approached Paris, Maria Louisa 
 withdrew to Blois, and hence she sought refuge in her father's Court, 
 taking her child with her. The battle of Brienne was fought on the 
 29th, when Bonaparte succeeded in driving Bliicher from a strong 
 position before the town ; but the Allies, having concentrated their 
 forces, retaliated at La Rothiere, on the ist of February, on which 
 occasion the French were repulsed with great loss. Having received 
 intelligence that part of the allied army was advancing upon Paris, 
 Napoleon went immediately in pursuit, and by the most wonderful 
 energy and ability cut off several corps, and gained most important 
 advantages. The victories of Champaubert on the loth, Montmirail 
 on the nth, and Vauchamps on the I4th of February, were of the 
 most brilliant kind, and must for ever add lustre to the military 
 
 22 
 
MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 fame of Napoleon. Not only were they mighty triumphs, but the 
 genius by the exercise of which they had been achieved, in spite of 
 great disadvantages, was indisputable. They revived the ancient 
 glory of the French arms, and many believed that he who could 
 thus snatch laurels from the very jaws of danger and difficulty of no 
 ordinary character must prevail in the end. The citizens of Paris 
 displayed a transient enthusiasm at the receipt of the intelligence 
 of these achievements, and once more felt proud of the hero who 
 could wield the sword to such advantage, and, as it were, command 
 success by his indomitable energy and his unrivalled ability. 
 
 These victories, however, led Napoleon to underrate the actual 
 strength of the alliance formed against him, and he indulged in 
 sanguine expectations of ultimate triumph. But from the masses 
 that were pouring in upon him from every side there could be no 
 deliverance. It had been determined at Frankfort that a Congress 
 was to be held at Chatillon-sur-Seine ; and the conferences com- 
 menced on the 4th of February.* Napoleon seemed at first in- 
 clined to listen to reasonable terms. Three important victories, in 
 the short space of one week, rendered him more arrogant in his 
 demands. Previous to the passage of the Rhine, the Allies had 
 expressed their willingness to make that river the boundary of the 
 French empire upon the north-eastern side ; now, however, they 
 demanded the relinquishment of Belgium.f To these terms Bona- 
 parte, after the favourable opening of the campaign, would by no 
 means consent. He threw away the last chance of a pacific solu- 
 tion of the long-pending dispute by making absurd proposals, which, 
 although they served to prolong the sittings of the Congress, were 
 not in any way calculated to bring about definite results. The allied 
 powers did everything in their power to draw closer the bands of 
 unity amongst themselves. A treaty of union, concert, and subsidy 
 was signed at Chaumont, on the ist of March, between England, 
 
 * Fain. " Memoirs of the Invasion of France by the Allied Armies, &c.," part ii. chap. 
 iii. p. 87. 
 
 t A convention bearing on this question was signed at Troyes, Feb. 15, 1814, between 
 Great Britain, Austria, Prussia, and Russia, See " British and Foreign State Papers, 
 18131814," vol. L part i. p. 119. 
 
THE ALLIES ADVANCE UPON PARIS. 339 
 
 Austria, Prussia, and Russia. By the second article of this treaty 
 each of the contracting parties agreed to keep in the field 1 50,000 
 effective men, exclusive of those in garrison. In case this force should 
 not be sufficient, by the seventh article the contracting powers en- 
 gaged to come to the assistance of any power attacked with 60,000 
 men each. England furnished money, and had the right of paying 
 subsidies for her contingent of men.* In the meantime hostilities 
 continued, though they were not prosecuted with quite so much 
 vigour as at first, and one or two proposals for an armistice ema- 
 nated from the allied camp. From the aspect, however, of the nego- 
 tiations at Chatillon, both parties felt convinced that the arbitration 
 of the sword could alone settle their disputes. Several encounters 
 with varied success occurred between the combatants, and on the 7th 
 of March was fought the great battle of Craone, in which the French 
 gained the day, and Bliicher retreated upon Laon. " This," says 
 Lord Burghersh, now Earl of Westmoreland, and English ambassa- 
 dor at Vienna,t " was the best fought action during the campaign ; 
 the numbers engaged on both sides were nearly equal, the supe- 
 riority, if any, being on the side of the enemy." Two days after 
 this, several contests took place before Laon, in which Napoleon 
 was baffled and compelled to retire in the direction of Paris. 
 
 The advance of the Allies upon the capital was fiercely opposed, 
 and at Fere Champenoise, on the 25th of March, the French, under 
 the command of Marshals Mortier and Marmont, made a gallant 
 stand against superior forces, but were defeated with immense loss 
 The very same day upon which this battle was fought the negotia- 
 tions at Chatillon came to a termination, and the allied powers pub- 
 lished a declaration, at Vitry, giving an account of the conferences. 
 In one portion of the document they set forth that " ajl the proceed- 
 ings of the French Government had henceforth (that is, after the 
 passage of the Rhine by the Allies) no other object than to mislead 
 opinion, to blind the French people, and to endeavour to throw upon 
 the Allies the odium of the disasters inseparable from invasive war- 
 
 * " British and Foreign State Papers, 1812 1814," vol. i. part i. p. 121, &c. 
 f " Memoir of the Operations of the Allied Annies in 1813 and 1814," part vi. p. 196. 
 
 22 2 
 
340 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 fare."* The insincerity of Bonaparte had exhausted the patience 
 of those who once hoped that he might eventually yield : the diffe- 
 rence between his professions and hi? practice destroyed every ves- 
 tige of confidence, and induced the allied powers to insist upon his 
 expulsion from the throne of France. It was not at first a war for 
 the restoration of the Bourbons, but, by a deceitful and dangerous 
 policy, Bonaparte turned the fury of the strife against himself, and 
 rendered his fall the necessary result of the triumph of his opponents. 
 Sanguinary engagements were fought under the very walls of 
 Paris, but the struggle had now become hopeless. It was unequal 
 from the moment that the Allies succeeded in concentrating their 
 forces, and only by the greatest heroism had it been maintained so 
 long by the French. The capital surrendered on the 3ist of March. 
 Napoleon, who, after an indecisive battle at Arcis-sur-Aube on the 
 2 ist, had turned aside with the intention of threatening the rear of 
 the allied armies and cutting them off from their communications, 
 no sooner received intelligence of the threatening aspect of affairs 
 around his capital than he set off to its relief. On arriving in the 
 neighbourhood, the tidings of its fall reached him, as well as of the 
 departure of his wife and son to Blois, and he very reluctantly with- 
 drew to Fontainebleau. The Allies made their entrance into Paris 
 on the 3 ist, and were, according to the testimony of those who 
 witnessed the scene, received with joy and enthusiasm. " Towards 
 England/' says Lord Burghersh,f "the most undisguised senti- 
 ments of respect and friendship were constantly manifested." A 
 proclamation was issued declaring that neither Napoleon nor any 
 of his family would be treated with. J By a Senatus Consultum, 
 dated April ist, a Provisional Government was appointed, with 
 Talleyrand at the head. On the 3rd of April the Conservative 
 Senate declared and decreed : "i. Napoleon Bonaparte has for- 
 feited the throne, and the hereditary right established in his family 
 is abolished. 2. The French people and the army are released from 
 
 * " British and Foreign State Papers, 18121814," vol. i. part ii. p. 912. t " Memoir/' 
 part viii. p. 253. 
 
 t Thibaudeau. " L'Empire," vol. vi. chap. ci. p. 642. " British and Foreign 
 
 State Papers, 18x2 1814," vol. i. part ii. p. 947. 
 
HIS ABDICATION. 
 
 341 
 
 their oath of fidelity towards Napoleon Bonaparte. 3. The present 
 decree shall be transmitted by a message to the Provisional Govern- 
 ment of France, conveyed forthwith to all the departments and 
 the armies, and immediately proclaimed in all the quarters of the 
 capital." f A similar resolution was on the same day adopted by the 
 
 Napoleon receives tidings of the Capitulation of Pans. 
 
 legislative body. By a Senatus Consultum of the 6th of April, the 
 exiled King was recalled, and the old order of things in a great 
 measure restored. The people began to clamour against their fallen 
 favourite, and with his declining fortunes his friends quickly deserted 
 him. 
 
 Bonaparte sent emissaries to Paris to learn how affairs were going 
 on, and the unfavourable accounts he received excited his anger to 
 the highest pitch. He resolutely declared that he would not resign, 
 and issued a proclamation to his troops, calling upon them to assist 
 in the deliverance of the capital. Some of his marshals and old 
 
 * See the faontteur, April, 1814, and " British and Foreign State Papers, 18121814," 
 for these and other State papers relating to the transactions of the period. 
 
34* MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 generals refusing to assist in such a scheme, he at length yielded, 
 and signed the following abdication : 
 
 " The allied powers having proclaimed that the Emperor Napo- 
 leon is the real obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, 
 the Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he is ready 
 to descend from the throne, to quit France, and even to lay down 
 his life for the good of his country, which is inseparable from the 
 rights of his son, and from those of the regency in the person of the 
 Empress, and the maintenance of the laws of the empire. 
 
 "Done at our palace of Fontainebleau, April 4th, 1814. 
 
 "NAPOLEON." 
 
 When, however, his commissioners reached Paris, they found that 
 the abdication in favour of his son would not be accepted. Dread- 
 ful scenes occurred upon the communication of this unpalatable 
 intelligence to Napoleon, and he talked of rekindling the strife, 
 and dictating terms with the sword ; he forgot, however, that he was 
 no longer the powerful chief at the head of his battalions, but the 
 deserted, if not defeated, monarch. The defection of many who 
 had risen by his favour increased his indignation, and added fuel, 
 as it well might, to his passion. Reduced to the last extremity, he 
 penned a second abdication in the following words : 
 
 " The allied powers having declared that the Emperor Napoleon 
 was the only obstacle to the re-establishment of a general peace, the 
 Emperor Napoleon, faithful to his oath, declares that he renounces 
 for himself and his heirs the thrones of France and Italy; and that 
 there is no personal sacrifice, not even that of life itself, which he is 
 not willing to make for the interest of France. 
 
 " Fontainebleau, April 6, 1814. " NAPOLEON." 
 
 On the nth of April the Treaty of Fontainebleau was signed 
 between the Emperor Napoleon, Russia, Austria, and Prussia ; of 
 this the third article, which relates chiefly to the subject of our me- 
 moir, is the most important, and it reads thus : " The isle of Elba, 
 
DEPASTURE FOB FONTAINBLEAU. 
 
HE ATTEMPTS SUICIDE. 343 
 
 adopted by his Majesty the Emperor Napoleon as the place of his 
 residence, shall form, during his life, a separate principality, which 
 shall be possessed by him in full sovereignty and property. There 
 shall be besides granted, in full property, to the Emperor Napoleon, 
 an annual revenue of 2,000,000 francs, in rent charge in the Great 
 Book of France, of which 1,000,000 shall be in reversion to the 
 Empress." It must be admitted that Bonaparte, in signing his 
 abdication, made no conditions in his own favour, but probably 
 this was owing to his firm resolution not to abide by any agreement 
 extorted from him by the force of circumstances. 
 
 On the night of the 12th Bonaparte attempted suicide. The truth 
 of this is confirmed by his own confession at St. Helena, which is 
 thus related by the Count Montholon.* After declaring that he had 
 made a similar attempt in the earlier part of his career, Napoleon 
 said : " From the time of my retreat from Russia, I had constantly 
 carried, suspended round my neck, and contained in a little silken 
 bag, a portion of a poisonous powder, which Evan had prepared by 
 my orders, when I was in fear of being carried off prisoner by the 
 
 Cossacks My life no longer belonged to my country : 
 
 the events of the last few days had again rendered me master of it. 
 6 Why should I endure so much suffering?' I reflected; 'and who 
 knows that my death may not replace the crown on the head of my 
 son? 7 France was saved. I hesitated no longer, but, leaping from 
 my bed, mixed the poison in a little water, and drank it with a sort 
 of feeling of happiness. But time had taken away its strength; 
 fearful pains drew forth some groans from me ; they were heard, 
 and medical assistance arrived. It was not God's will that I should 
 die so soon St. Helena was my destiny." 
 
 On the 20th of April Bonaparte quitted Fontainebleau for his new 
 empire. He was attended by four commissioners, representing 
 England, Prussia, Austria, and Russia. Before entering his travel- 
 ling carriage, he made a speech to the Old Guard, who were drawn 
 up to bid him adieu. Count Truchses Waldburgh, the Prussian 
 commissioner, who attended the fallen sovereign from Fontainebleau 
 
 * " Captivity of Napoleon," English edition, voL iii. cnap. iv. pp. 130135. 
 
344 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 to Frejus, states, in the short narrative of the journey which he pub- 
 lished, that during the early part Napoleon was in a very lively 
 humour, often indulged in jokes, and upon one occasion, with refe- 
 rence to his position, remarked, " After all, I lose nothing : I com- 
 menced the game with a crown in my pocket, and I leave off very 
 rich." In some parts of the south of France he was with difficulty 
 preserved from the fury of the populace, who rushed round his 
 carriage, clamouring for his blood. According to the testimony of 
 Cardinal Gabrielli, an eye-witness of the scene, his effigy was burned 
 in his presence at Orgon, on the 25th of April, and other figures 
 were held up to him, with mangled bosoms and smeared with gore. 
 These outbursts of popular indignation affected him deeply. He 
 arrived at Frejus on the 28th, and embarked on board an English 
 frigate, the Undaunted, in preference to a French vessel which had 
 been placed at his disposal. During the passage, his good humour 
 revived, he chatted freely with the officers, it is even asserted that 
 he praised Wellington, and seemed to enjoy himself most thoroughly. 
 General Koller, who with Col. Campbell had been commissioned to 
 attend him to the island of Elba, says : " During the five days 
 passed at sea (contrary winds, storms, and calms having rendered 
 it impossible to sail quicker), Napoleon was constantly in good 
 humour, of singular condescension and courtesy, and impatient of 
 reaching the place of his destination." He landed at the seat of his 
 new empire on the 4th of May, and soon after made an inspection 
 of the whole island, which at that time contained about 1,200 in- 
 habitants, two towns, and several villages. The island is in general 
 fertile, and the air salubrious. Its fortifications and defences parti- 
 cularly engaged his attention, and he was heard to boast that he 
 would there defy the Bourbons. At first he appeared pleased with 
 his asylum; interested himself in the island, its production and in- 
 habitants ; established a little Court, held receptions, had a theatre, 
 and seemed to forget the vast dominions he had resigned. Some 
 of his old officers and favourite guards resided with him ; and had 
 it not been for his ambitious nature, he might, like a second Dio- 
 cletian, have ended life in tranquillity and dignified retirement. 
 The English Government objected to the Treaty of Fontainebleau 
 
TREA TY OF PARIS. 
 
 345 
 
 because it recognized Napoleon's title as Emperor, and made him 
 an independent sovereign ; but the agreement having been formally 
 concluded, there was no remedy, and the work of pacification con- 
 tinued. On the 23rd of April a convention for the cessation of 
 hostilities between France and the allied powers was signed, and 
 on the 30th of May a definitive treaty of peace and union between 
 
 At Elba. 
 
 the same parties, known as the Treaty of Paris, was concluded. Il 
 was eminently favourable to France, and although the second article 
 ran thus, " The kingdom of France retains its limits entire, as they 
 existed on the ist of January, 1792," yet, by the succeeding article, 
 important accessions of territory were granted to her, and she was 
 not even required to restore the plunder brought from neighbouring 
 States. 
 
 To crush Bonaparte was one thing, to give security to France 
 another. The people had been too long in a state of agitation to 
 settle down quietly under the feeble rule of Louis XVI 1 1. The warriors 
 whom Bonaparte had led in triumph from one end of Europe to the 
 other sighed for the return of their favourite general. It was indeed 
 
MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 a difficult matter to govern at such a turbulent period. There were 
 many conflicting interests to be reconciled, knotty questions to be 
 solved, and stubborn prejudices to be overcome. The community 
 was split into parties, and these parties but too often degenerated 
 into factions. Discontent speedily ensued, and all attributed their 
 grievances to the new Government, and not to the elements of dis- 
 union amongst themselves. The calm and impartial observer of 
 events saw with horror, that although the fierce struggle was indeed 
 suspended, it had not yet terminated. 
 
 In the meantime Napoleon was left to do exactly as he pleased 
 in his new principality, and an English minister declared, that if 
 informed of his escape, he knew not by what anthority he could be 
 arrested. The allied commissioners were his guests rather than 
 his guardians. Sir Niel Campbell, who had been sent with Bona- 
 parte to Elba by the English Government, went to Leghorn on the 
 1 7th of February, 1815, and in a despatch to Lord Castlereagh, 
 written in that city on the 26th, stated that he thought a plan for 
 the Emperor's escape was on foot. Bonaparte was intimately ac- 
 quainted with the state of affairs in France, and in the unpopularity 
 of the Bourbon rule he saw the signal for his own return. More- 
 over, he carried on an extensive correspondence with his friends and 
 agents in Europe, who gave him accurate accounts of all that was 
 passing. Indeed, from the moment that he landed in Elba, intrigues 
 were commenced with a view to his restoration to the imperial 
 throne. At eight o'clock in the evening of that day on which Sir 
 Neil Campbell wrote the warning to the British minister, Napoleon 
 quitted Elba. The intrigues which for several months had been 
 carried on in France, Italy, and the small island in which he resided, 
 terminated in his sudden embarkation, with 400 of his veterans, on 
 board the brig Inconstant on the 26th of February, about 700 more 
 of his followers being conveyed in six small vessels. During the 
 passage the flotilla was becalmed, and the delay thus caused created 
 considerable alarm and anxiety. On board the Inconstant Napoleon 
 dictated two proclamations, one to the French army, and the other 
 to the French people, of which numerous copies were made by his 
 companions. In the former the following passage occurs : 
 
i8iS.] RETURN FROM ELBA. 9 347 
 
 "Soldiers ! in my exile I heard your voice : I have come through 
 all obstacles and every peril. Your General, called to the throne by 
 the voice of the people, and raised on your shields, is restored to 
 you. Come and join him." The nation he addressed in different 
 terms : " Frenchmen ! in my exile I heard your complaints and 
 desires : you demand that government of your own choice, which 
 alone is legitimate. You blamed my long slumber, you reproached 
 me with having sacrificed the great interests of my country to the 
 love of my own ease. I have crossed the seas amid perils of alj 
 kinds. I come among^utoresume my rights, which are also 
 yours. Everything that has lagfb spoken or written, since the cap- 
 ture of Paris, I will blot out for ever ; it shall not in the least degree 
 influence the remembrance I preserve of important services rendered 
 by the same persons, for these evenAare above human control." 
 
 On the ist of March Bonaparte's small fleet cast anchor in the 
 Gulf of Saint Juan, and on the same clay he landed near Cannes. 
 His enterprise met with a severe checl^ at its commencement. 
 Twenty-five men, under a captain of the guard, were made prisoners 
 at Antibes, by the governor of that place, whilst they were endea- 
 vouring to bring over the garrison to their cause. Undismayed by 
 this inauspicious event, Napoleon continued his march, and found 
 willing adherents among the inhabitants of the Alpine villages 
 through which he passed. The first town of any importance that 
 he reached was Grenoble, and here his entrance was not effected 
 without difficulty and danger. Indeed, the garrison prepared to 
 resist his further advance, but Napoieon announced himself to the 
 troops, and, baring his breast before them, inquired whether they 
 would fire upon. their Emperor. The bold stroke succeeded: the 
 soldiers threw aside their arms and flocked around their old leader, 
 rending the air with their acclamations. Shouts of " Vive VEm- 
 pereur!" rose on all sides, and he entered Grenoble in triumph late 
 on the same evening, the 7th of March. His proclamations were 
 at once printed and distributed, and from that hour his progress 
 resembled the march of a victorious general. Ney, who had been 
 sent by Louis XVIII. to oppose his advance, went over to him, and 
 issued a proclamation to the troops declaring the cause of the 
 
348 
 
 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 "Vive 1'Empereur !" 
 
 Bourbons to be irretrievably lost. Napoleon hastened towards the 
 capital, and reached the Tuileries on the evening of the 2oth of 
 March, a few hours after the departure of Louis XVIII. The royal 
 refugee resided first at Lille, where he was received with unbounded 
 enthusiasm, but removed his Court to Ghent on the 25th, and 
 remained in Flanders until the second and final overthrow of 
 Napoleon. 
 
 The contracting parties to the Treaty of Paris unanimously agreed 
 to transfer the settlement of many important matters to a Congress, 
 which they appointed to be held at Vienna on the 2Qth of July. 
 The conferences did not, however, commence until the end of Sep- 
 tember, and the formal opening was then adjourned to the ist ot 
 November. The difficulty of regulating the affairs of Europe soon 
 became apparent. Indeed, so serious were the disputes that arose? 
 it was at one time thought that the allied powers would have taken 
 up arms against each other. There can be little doubt that the 
 extravagant pretentions of Russia mainly contributed to create these 
 
DECLARED A PUBLIC ENEMY. 349 
 
 differences. It has been the aim of some writers to extol the Czar 
 Alexander as a model of prudence, moderation, and sagacity : to 
 endeavour to prove that in his opposition to Napoleon he was ani- 
 mated by a lofty patriotism, and inspired solely by the hope of giving 
 peace to Europe. This view must be received with caution. No 
 doubt Alexander is as good a specimen of a Russian Emperor as 
 we can hope to meet with ; he was, however, faithful to the ancient 
 policy of his race. He required territorial aggrandizement ; and in 
 order to invest his demand with an appearance of fair dealing, for 
 Prussia he sought to obtain Saxony. Resolved to have Poland by 
 persuasion or force, he ordered the Grand Duke Constantine to take 
 military possession of the coveted spoil, in defiance of the Congress. 
 Lord Castlereagh at once perceived the aim of Alexander, and used 
 every effort to baffle his infamous designs. By the exertions of the 
 British minister a secret treaty was signed on the 3rd of February, 
 1815, between England, France, and Austria, having for its object 
 the enforcement of the stipulations of the Treaty of Paris. The con- 
 tracting parties in this convention renounced all aggressive and 
 ulterior objects, and engaged, in case of necessity, to furnish, each 
 of them, 120,000 infantry, 30,000 cavalry, with artillery and muni- 
 tions of war. * This offensive and defensive alliance was not with- 
 out its beneficial effect ; still matters were far from being settled, 
 indeed, they were not at all in a satisfactory state when, on the 7th 
 of March, Metternich received the news of Napoleon's departure 
 from Elba. Authentic intelligence of his landing at Cannes, and 
 his successful exploit at Grenoble, arrived on the nth. The sove- 
 reigns and ministers assembled at Vienna, who had been quarrel- 
 ling amongst themselves, at once felt the necessity of uniting their 
 efforts against the common enemy. A solemn declaration was 
 drawn up and signed by all the Powers, on the I3th 01 March, de- 
 nouncing Napoleon in these terms : 
 
 " By thus breaking the convention which established him in the 
 island of Elba, Bonaparte destroys the only legal title oa which his 
 
 * See Capefigue. "The Hundred Days," vol. i. chap. iv. p. 96, and "British and 
 Foreign State Papers," vol. ii. 1814-1815, pp. 1001, &c. 
 
35 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 political existence depended. By reappearing in France with the 
 projects of confusion and disorder, he has deprived himself of the 
 protection of the law, and has made manifest to the universe that 
 there can be neither peace nor truce with him. The Powers, there- 
 fore, declare that Napoleon Bonaparte has placed himself without 
 the pale of civil and social relations, and that, as an enemy and 
 disturber of the repose of the world, he has rendered himself liable 
 to public vengeance." * 
 
 In conformity with this declaration, the allied powers, on the 
 25th of March, concluded a treaty, renewing that of Chaumont. 
 They also engaged not to lay down their arms until they should 
 have reduced Napoleon to submission, and for this purpose each of 
 the contracting parties agreed to furnish a contingent of 150,000 
 'men. By a separate article the King of Great Britain had the 
 option of furnishing his number of combatants, or of paying at the 
 rate of ^30 per annum for each cavalry, and 20 for each infantry 
 soldier that might be wanting to complete the number.f The most 
 extensive preparations were at once set on foot, in order to give 
 effect to these measures. 
 
 , Napoleon found work enough to do at Paris. The populace re- 
 iused to acknowledge his unconditional ascendancy. He was 
 threatened with civil, as well as foreign warfare. The people 
 clamoured for freedom and the legitimate exercise of their rights. 
 From a curious conversation with Benjamin Constant, whom he 
 completely won over, and who was afterwards named President of 
 the Commission entrusted with the formation of a new constitution, 
 we are constrained to make a few extracts. We give them in Na- 
 poleon's own terms, as dictated to Count Montholon at St. Helena. J 
 The more striking and important parts of this speech run thus : 
 ' The nation has been at rest for a period of twelve years from any 
 political agitation, and has now for a year been free from that of 
 war ; this double repose has caused her again to feel the need of 
 
 * " British and Foreign State Papers," vol. ii. 1814-1815, p. 665. 
 
 t Ibid., vol. ii. 1814-1815, pp. 443, &c. 
 
 J " History of the Captivity of Napoleon," vol. iii. chap. iv. p. 115, &c. 
 
HE OFFERS A CONSTITUTION TO FRANCE. 35 * 
 
 activity. She wishes, or think she wishes, for liberty, a tribune, 
 assemblies ; she did not always desire these ; she was weary of 
 them when she threw herself at my feet, in order to raise me upon 
 the shield. You should remember this you who endeavoured to 
 oppose my accession to the throne. Where was your support, your 
 strength ? You had none. I took less authority than I was invited 
 
 to do I am not the Emperor of the soldiers alone, as 
 
 the gentlemen liberals are pleased to say I am the Emperor of 
 the peasants, of the plebeians, of France. Therefore it is that, not- 
 withstanding the striking recollections of my reverses, you have 
 seen the nation return to me en masse; it is because there exists a 
 sympathy between us. This was not the case with fas privittgMsj 
 the old nobility served me ; they passed in crowds into my ante, 
 chambers. There were no places which they did not accept, re- 
 quest, solicit. I have had in my service Montmorencis, Brancases, 
 Noailles, Beanveans, Barns, Montemarts ; but there was never 
 analogy in this. The horse made curvets; he was well trained; 
 but I felt him quiver. With the people the matter is different ; the 
 popular fibre is the best; I rose from the ranks of the people, and 
 my voice influences them. Look at those recruits, those sons of 
 peasants: I did not flatter them; I treated them severely; they 
 did not on that account desert me ; they did not therefore cease to 
 cry ( Vive VEmpereur ! y This is because we are of a common 
 nature ; they look upon me as their support, their protector against 
 their former lords. I have but to make a signal, or merely to turn 
 away my eyes, and the nobles will be massacred throughout every 
 province; during the last three months they have reawakened so 
 many feelings of hatred ! But I have no wish to be the King of a 
 Jacquerie. I believe that it is possible to govern by a constitution ; 
 I wished to obtain for France the sceptre of the whole world, and 
 in order to secure it to her, absolute power was necessary to me. 
 For the purpose of governing France, if restrained within its actual, 
 or even natural limits, it may be that a constitutional order of 
 government would be better. Tell me your ideas. Free elections ? 
 public discussions? responsible ministers? liberty? I desire all 
 this ; liberty of the press above all. To suppress this would be 
 
352 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 absurd in the present day. In short, I am the man of the people ; 
 and if the people really desire liberty, I owe it them. I have re- 
 cognized their sovereignty : it is, therefore, my duty to obey their 
 will, and even to listen to their caprices. I never wished to oppress 
 them, or to exhaust their resources, in order to forward my personal 
 interests. I had great designs for France : fate has otherwise de- 
 cided ; I am no longer a conqueror ; I can no longer be one ; I 
 know what is possible and what is not. I can now only have one 
 mission : again to raise up France, to give her a Government fitting 
 for her. I removed liberty out of my way when it encumbered my 
 path ; but I understood it ; I loved it ; it was the dream of my 
 youth. The work of my fifteen years' reign is also destroyed ; it 
 cannot be recommenced. For this purpose, twenty years, and two 
 millions of men to be sacrificed, would be necesary ; and besides, 
 I desire peace. But I will not give you false hopes ; I shall only 
 obtain it by means of victories. I give out that there are negotia- 
 tions going forward ; there are none of any value, or at least they 
 will come to nothing if my first battle does not recall Austerlitz or 
 Marengo; and to effect this, I should require four months, or 
 perhaps even five, in order to reorganize the army, and increase it 
 to 500,000 men. I foresee, therefore, a difficult struggle, a long 
 war ; in order to maintain it, the people must support me ; but in 
 return they shall have liberty. The situation is novel; I ask no- 
 thing better than to be enlightened on the subject. I am growing 
 old ; at forty-five a man is no longer what he was at thirty. The 
 repose of a constitutional king suits me, and will assuredly suit my 
 son." 
 
 In these burning words a certain amount of truth is disguised in 
 fair and specious terms. The whole speech forms the key to Bona- 
 parte's policy. He began as a conqueror ; he was willing to close 
 his career as a constitutional monarch. His aggression had raised 
 Europe to arms against him ; the combination was too strong to be 
 defeated. There is little reason to doubt that in 1815 Bonaparte 
 was willing to accept fair conditions of peace, but he had broken 
 so many promises and violated so many vows that none dared trust 
 to his word. Retribution was about to overtake him ; and let the 
 
AGAIN TAKES THE FIELD. 353 
 
 lesson sink deeply into the minds of all violators of the sanctity of 
 truth. 
 
 In answer to the declaration of the allied powers, Bonaparte con- 
 tended that the conditions of the Treaty of Fontainebleau had not 
 been honourably fulfilled. He complained that his wife and son had 
 not been restored to him ; that no precautions had been taken to pre- 
 serve his life from assassins ; that his pension had not been paid ; 
 and he pointed out other stipulations which he said had not been 
 carried out. These grievances were embodied in a report, drawn 
 up by the Emperor himself.* On the ist of April he addressed the 
 allied sovereigns by letter, in which he declared, " My sweetest hope 
 is to render the re-establishment of the imperial throne a guarantee 
 for the peace of Europe." As if these words were not sufficiently 
 explicit, towards the close of the epistle he added, " A nobler arena 
 is now open to sovereigns; I will be the first to descend into it. 
 After having exhibited to the world the spectacle of great combating, 
 it will be now sweeter to exhibit henceforth no other rivalry but 
 that of the advantages of peace no other strife but that of the feli- 
 city of the nations. "f His entreaties were unavailing; he could 
 neither shake the resolution of the allied powers, nor introduce dis- 
 sentions amongst them. They had all on former occasions suffered 
 too much by trusting to his promises, to be again seduced by them. 
 As soon as it became evident that the strife must be brought to an 
 immediate issue, Bonaparte was indefatigable in his exertions. He 
 appointed a Provisional Government, with his brother Joseph at its 
 head, to direct affairs during his absence, and on the I2th of June 
 left Paris for the head-quarters of the army. The tide of invasion 
 had not yet re-entered France ; Napoleon's object was to avert it 
 altogether. At Avesnes on the I4th he issued a proclamation to his 
 troops, denouncing the coalition formed against him, and predicting 
 its speedy discomfiture. On the I5th he crossed the Belgian fron- 
 tier, passing the river Sambre at several points. Never did this 
 celebrated soldier display greater alacrity and foresight. Impressed 
 
 * Fleury de Chaboulon. " The Hundred Days," vol. i. pp. 374, &c. t " British 
 
 and Foreign State Papers," vol. ii. 1814-1815, p. 1010. 
 
 23 
 
354 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 with the idea that time was everything, he sought to scatter in con- 
 fusion the forces of that league which now appeared in arms in order 
 to hurl him from the throne. For the accomplishment of this pur- 
 pose Napoleon's chief aim was to overwhelm the Prussian and the 
 English levies assembled in the neighbourhood of Brussels previous 
 to the arrival of the Russian and Austrian armies at the scene of the 
 strife. Moreover, he desired, if possible, to interpose bet ween Bliicher 
 and Wellington, and thus to crush their forces in detail. Ney was 
 dispatched with the left wing to Quatre Bras, at which place he was 
 defeated by Wellington on the i6th of June. In this memorable 
 action the Anglo-Allied army laboured under every disadvantage. 
 It was almost without artillery, the Belgian cavalry fled from the 
 field, and Picton was compelled to charge Ney's formidable and 
 splendid horse with foot soldiers. Reinforcements carne up at the 
 right moment, and the victory was gained. On the same day Bliicher 
 received a check from Napoleon, at Ligny, and, after an obstinate 
 contest, was compelled to retreat in the direction of Wavre. Wel- 
 lington received the intelligence of Bliicher's repulse during the night 
 of the 1 6th, and immediately resolved upon taking his stand at 
 Waterloo. At ten o'clock in the morning of the i;th the retreat 
 commenced, and with the exception of a sharp encounter between 
 the French and English cavalry, near Genappe, which resulted in 
 the repulse of the former, Wellington's troops retired without moles- 
 tation or impediment, and took up their position near the village of 
 Waterloo. 
 
 During the night of the I7th rain continued to fall without inter- 
 mission ; on the morning of the i8th the weather changed a little 
 for the better. Both armies were drawn up in battle array, each 
 commander having shown considerable discernment in the dis- 
 position of his forces. The Anglo- Allied army consisted of about 
 67,000 men and 156 guns, whilst Napoleon had 71,000 men and 246 
 guns.* The battle commenced by an attack upon Hougomont a 
 little before noon. The British at first remained on the defensive, 
 
 * Captain Siborne, the best authority on the strength of the two armies, gives the follow* 
 ing estimate. (" History of the War in France and Belgium," vol. i. chap. he. p. 376.) 
 
MARSHAL NEY. 
 
BATTLE OF WATERLOO. 355 
 
 for, as an able author remarks,* " the battle of Waterloo must always 
 be considered as a battle fought by the right wing of an army, for 
 the purpose of maintaining a position till the arrival of its left wing 
 should render victory certain." Napoleon directed all his efforts to 
 break through the English commander's line ; the Dutch- Belgian 
 troops turned and fled, but the British infantry stood firm. A French 
 writer declares that the firmness of these soldiers was such as almost 
 to induce one to believe " that they were rooted to the ground." The 
 conflict had already raged for four hours, and yet no impression had 
 been made : Wellington was then momentarily expecting reinforce- 
 ments under Bliicher, whilst Napoleon looked forward to the speedy 
 arrival of Grouchy. The most furious charges were repeatedly 
 made by the French, and at seven the Old Guard, which had been 
 
 " The strength of the Anglo- Allied army in the field was as follows : 
 
 British. 
 
 Infantry. 
 
 Cavalry. 
 
 Artillery. 
 
 Guns. 
 
 British 
 
 15,181 
 
 5,843 
 
 2,967 
 
 78 
 
 King's German Legion 
 
 3,301 
 
 1,991 
 
 526 
 
 18 
 
 Hanoverians ... ... .., 
 
 10,258 
 
 497 
 
 465 
 
 12 
 
 Brunswickers 
 
 4,586 
 
 866 
 
 5io 
 
 16 
 
 Nassauers 
 
 2,880 
 
 
 
 
 Dutch-Belgians 
 
 13,402 
 
 3,205 
 
 1,177 
 
 32 
 
 
 49,608 
 
 12,402 
 
 5,645 
 
 1*56 
 
 Grand Total. 
 
 Infantry 49,608 
 
 Cavalry 12,402 
 
 Artillery 5,645 
 
 67,655 men, and 156 guns. 
 The French army consisted of- 
 Infantry 48,950 
 
 Cavalry 15,765 
 
 Artillery 7,232 
 
 71,947 men, and 246 guns. 
 
 General Gourgaud's estimate is different. He says : " The force of the Anglo-Belgic 
 army amounted to between 85,000 and 90,000 men, and 250 pieces of artillery. The French 
 army having only 67,000 or 68,000 men, was, of course, inferior in numbers, though it was 
 superior with regard to the quality of its troops." The Campaign 0/i8j$, chap. vi. p. 88. 
 It is evident that the above is a mere guess at the forces engaged, and not a calculation 
 \ased upon well-ascertained details. 
 
 * Mitchell's " Fall of Napoleon," vol. iii. book iv. chap. iv. p. 142 
 
 232 
 
35 6 MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 held in reserve all day, advanced, with the gallant Ney at their head. 
 All their efforts were, however, unavailing. As night approached 
 the columns of the Prussian force formed upon the left. Wellington 
 gave the order for the whole line to advance, and with tremendous 
 shouts the soldiers swept everything before them. A great and a 
 glorious battle had been gained, and the Prussians continued the 
 pursuit. 
 
 Bonaparte has been severely censured for not having staked his 
 life upon the chance; it must, at any rate, be confessed that his men 
 fought most heroically. The name of Napoleon was a tower of 
 strength to his cause ; it spread terror through the ranks of his ad- 
 versaries. We cannot give a better idea of its magic influence than in 
 the following extract from some MS. notes by an early and intimate 
 friend of the Duke's, recording certain conversations between them.* 
 In one of these the Duke said, " The prestige of Bonaparte had an 
 enormous influence on the troops. There was a Dutch corps in the 
 French army in the Peninsula which I knew very well, for I had 
 followed them from the Tagus to the Bidassoa and they were 
 always in the French rear-guard, and no men could behave better. 
 On the counter-revolution in Holland they came over to us, and I 
 sent them home by sea. The next time I saw my Dutch friends was 
 on the field of Waterloo, where they were with the Dutch army under 
 my orders ; and knowing them to be steady good soldiers, I placed 
 them in the garden of Hougomont ; but no sooner did they see the 
 great French columns moving down upon them, but they took fright 
 and ran away, and I was obliged myself to go down to try and rally 
 them, but I could not. The Austrian General Vincent was with me, 
 and I said to him, ' These are the troops with which I am to win 
 this battle.' He shrugged up his shoulders, and said, ' C'est Men mal- 
 heureux? But luckily I had my own people at hand, and we kept 
 Hougomont and won the battle without the help of my old acquain- 
 tances, who were still possessed of the opinion of the invincibility 
 of Bonaparte. This idea, which was even stronger amongst the 
 officers of the continental armies than the soldiers, had a most 
 
 * See "Quarterly Review," March, 1853, P- 54 1 * 
 
DEFEA T AND FLIGHT. 35 7 
 
 powerful influence over everybody even emperors and kings ; and 
 you may judge what it must have had with his own troops." 
 
 This was, however, the last occasion on which it operated on either 
 friend or foe, and the complete disorganization of his army after the 
 battle of Waterloo shows how the best efforts of his troops had been 
 expended on that fatal field. The magic influence he exerted over 
 them led them to struggle desperately, even after a safe retreat had 
 become hopeless; and when the reaction came, thev threw away 
 their arms and fled in terrible disorder. Napoleon with difficulty 
 made his escape amongst the host of fugitives. Between four and 
 five on the morning of the iQth he reached Charleroi \ he was at 
 Laon on the 2oth, and at Paris at eight on the morning of the 2ist 
 of June. Discontent prevailed in the capital, rumours of disaster 
 were in circulation, and the aspect of affairs was altogether most 
 unfavourable. Napoleon desired to be invested with the dictator- 
 ship in order to deal with the emergencies of the crisis, but Lafayette 
 made a violent speech to the representatives, declared the nation 
 to be in danger, and proposed that the sitting should be made per- 
 manent.* The motion was carried almost unanimously. Informa- 
 tion of this reached Bonaparte in council ; he sent a conciliatory 
 reply, but this was of no avail. It was declared that if he did not 
 abdicate within an hour, he would be deposed. Lucien strongly 
 advised his brother to dissolve the Chamber, and seize upon the 
 reins of power. Napoleon hesitated to adopt so hazardous a mea- 
 sure, and having exhausted threats and entreaties, he submitted to 
 a doom which he found inevitable, and penned his abdication in 
 these terms : 
 
 " Frenchmen ! In commencing war for maintaining the national 
 independence, I relied on the union of all efforts, of all wills, and 
 the concurrence of all the national authorities. I had reason to hope 
 for success, and I braved all the declarations of the powers against 
 me. Circumstances appear to me changed. I offer myself a sacri- 
 fice to the hatred of the enemies of France. May they prove sincere 
 
 * Capefigue. "The Hundred Days," vol. ii. chap, viil p. 223. 
 
35 8 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 in their declarations, and really have directed them only against my 
 power ! My political life is terminated, and I proclaim my son under 
 the title of Napoleon II., Emperor of the French. The present 
 ministers will provisionally form the council of the government. 
 The interest which I take in my son induces me to invite the Cham- 
 bers to form without delay the regency by a law. Unite all for the 
 public safety, that you may continue an independent nation. 
 " Paris, June 22, 1815." NAPOLEON." * 
 
 The spirit of this document shows that, to the last, Napoleon 
 cherished hopes of regaining the throne. The concession if con- 
 cession it can be called of abdicating, did not lead to his appoint- 
 ment to the regency, or even to the army, as he subsequently made 
 the offer, in the character of a simple general. A Provisional Govern- 
 ment was formed, consisting of five members, Grenier, Caulaincourt, 
 Carnot, Quinette, and Fouche'. Lucien violently advocated the 
 elevation of the King of Rome to the throne, but being unable to 
 influence the Assembly, he quitted in disgust. 
 
 Napoleon retired to Malmaison, from which place he addressed 
 a proclamation to the army of Paris. Undecided as to what course 
 to adopt, at one moment eager to put himself at the head of the 
 troops, at another anxious to leave France, he was called to his 
 senses by the receipt of an order from the Provisional Government 
 to quit Malmaison. At five in the afternoon of the 29th of June 
 he set out with a long string of carriages, laden with the spoils 
 that could in the hurry of the moment be collected. In travelling, 
 Napoleon occupied a carriage belonging to some of his suite, and 
 General Gourgaud followed in the imperial chariot. He reached 
 Rochefort on the 3rd of July, intending to sail for America, and for 
 this purpose went on board the frigate La Saal. The wind was fair, 
 but the English cruisers, which were at that time watching the port, 
 prevented his escape. In the meantime the English and the Prus- 
 sian armies advanced rapidly upon Paris, meeting with but little 
 opposition. The French generals declared the city to be incapable 
 
 * Ibid., pp. 235 and 236' " British and Foreign State Papers," vol. ii. 1814-1825, 
 
SURRENDERS TO CAPTAIN MAITLAND. 359 
 
 of a prolonged defence, and on the 3rd of July the terms of capitu- 
 lation were agreed upon. The allied armies made their entrance on 
 the 7th, and the day after Louis XVIII. was restored to the throne. 
 The exertions made by Wellington to spare the beautiful buildings 
 of the ,city, his firmness in opposing the harsh measures contem- 
 plated by the Prussian general, and other matters, well known to the 
 student, of the history of the period, do not require a lengthened 
 notice in this biography. English cruisers scoured the Channel in 
 search of Napoleon. On the 3Oth of June Captain Maitland, of 
 H.M.S. Bellerophon, at that time off Rochefort, received a letter 
 without date or signature, warning him of the proposed flight of 
 Napoleon, and indicating Bordeaux or its vicinity as the port from 
 which he would most probably make the attempt.* Every precau- 
 tion was taken by the gallant officer to prevent the contemplated 
 escape; and so well were his measures planned and carried out, 
 that Napoleon was baffled in his design. At daybreak, on the loth 
 of July, a small schooner was perceived standing towards the Belle- 
 rophon under a flag of truce. She proved to be La Monche^ having 
 on board General Savary, and Count Las Cases, bearing a letter 
 from Count Bertrand to the English admiral. The object of the 
 mission was to discover whether Bonaparte would be allowed free 
 egress, either in a French frigate or a neutral ship. Captain Mait- 
 land declared that his instructions would not permit him to favour 
 the escape of Napoleon. The gallant officer, however, promised to 
 forward the letter to the admiral of the station. On the I4th Count 
 Las Cases again visited the Bellerophon, and finding that Captain 
 Maitland had not received any further instructions, and that he could 
 enter into no agreement respecting the surrender of Napoleon, he 
 intimated that the ex-Emperor would most probably come on board. 
 On the 1 3th Napoleon addressed the following letter to the Prince 
 Regent : 
 
 " Rochefort, July i3th, 181 5. 
 
 "YOUR ROYAL HIGHNESS, 
 
 " A victim to the factions which distract my country, and 
 to the enmity of the greatest powers of Europe, I have terminated my 
 
 * " Narrative of the Surrender of Napoleon, &c.," p. 5. 
 
360 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 political career, and I come, like Themistocles, to throw myself upon 
 the hospitality of the British people. I put myself under the pro- 
 tection of their laws, which I claim from your Royal Highness, as 
 the most powerful, the most constant, and the most generous of my 
 enemies. " NAPOLEON." 
 
 Las Cases returned to Captain Maitland the next day, and in- 
 formed him that Napoleon intended to take refuge on board the 
 Bellerophon. In order to prevent any misunderstanding, the gallant 
 English officer again distinctly declared that " Napoleon would not 
 be allowed to land till permission had been given from the English 
 Government;" and when one of Napoleon's officers was about to 
 write a letter to him, stating Captain Maitland's willingness to receive 
 him, the captain repeated in these express terms the impossibility 
 of making any conditions : " * Monsieur Las Cases, you will recollect 
 that I am not authorized to stipulate as to the reception of Bona- 
 parte in England, but that he must consider himself entirely at the 
 disposal of his Royal Highness the Prince Regent:' he answered 
 * I am perfectly aware of that, and have already acquainted the Em- 
 peror with what you said on the subject/ " * Soon after six A.M. on 
 the 1 5th of July Napoleon was received in the Bellerophorts barge 
 from the French brig- of- war Epervier. As he stepped upon the 
 quarter-deck of the Bellerophon, the fallen hero said, " I am come 
 to throw myself on the protection of your Prince and laws."f Sir 
 Charles Hotham, the English admiral, visited Napoleon, and the 
 latter returned the visit on board the Superb. During the passage 
 to England the distinguished captive made himself very agreeable, 
 chatted freely with the officers, and asked questions relative to 
 the organization and discipline of the English navy, with which he 
 seemed particularly pleased. A single anecdote will illustrate the 
 
 * We have given these particulars, because considerable discussion soon after arose as 
 to the terms upon which Napoleon was received on board the Bellerophon. The best 
 French authorities have since admitted the truth of Captain Maitland's statement. We 
 refer the reader, for a full account of the transaction, to Captain Maitland's narrative, from 
 page 58, from which the above extract is taken. 
 
 f "Narrative," p. 71. 
 
BANlSHEt) TO ST. HELENA. 
 
 361 
 
 friendly terms on which the English commander and his guest lived 
 during the transit. " Bonaparte amused himself by playing at cards 
 after breakfast ; the game was vingt-un^ in which all the party joined 
 except myself. He proposed that I should play with them, but I 
 told him I had no money, making it a rule to leave it all with my 
 wife before I went to sea, on which he laughed, and good-humouredly 
 
 Farewell to France. 
 
 offered to lend me some, and trust me until we arrived in England ; 
 I, however, declined his offer, having the numerous duties of the ship 
 to attend to." * 
 
 Torbay was reached on the 24th of July, and on the 26th the 
 Bellerophon was ordered to Plymouth. Lord Keith and Sir Henry 
 Bunbury arrived on board on the 3ist, and at once communicated 
 to Napoleon the decision of the English Government to send him 
 to St. Helena. On receiving this intelligence Napoleon grew very 
 violent, declaring that he would rather be delivered up to the Bour- 
 bons ; that in transporting him to such a climate they were signing 
 
 * " Narrative,' p. 100. 
 
3^2 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON' BONAPARTE. 
 
 his death-warrant, and he vowed that he would only yield to force. 
 He wrote another letter to the Prince Regent, and on the 4th of 
 August drew up a protest against the treatment of the English 
 Government. These efforts did not, however, produce the desired 
 effect. On the 7th of August the fallen conqueror and his suite were 
 transferred to the Northumberland, the flag-ship of Sir George Cock- 
 burn, which vessel reached St. Helena on the i$th of October, and 
 Napoleon landed on the following day. 
 
 With reference to his surrender and treatment during his deten- 
 tion on board the Bellerophon, Napoleon said to Captain Maitland, 
 the day before leaving the ship : " My reception in England has 
 been very different from what I expected ; but it gives me much 
 satisfaction to assure you that I feel your conduct to me through- 
 out has been that of a gentleman and a man of honour." * These 
 words, coming from Napoleon's own lips, afford conclusive evidence 
 that in sending him to St. Helena the English Government neither 
 acted treacherously, nor violated engagements entered into by any 
 of its representatives or officers. In surrendering to Captain Mait- 
 land, he placed himself entirely at the mercy of his enemies, and was 
 bound to submit to their decision whatever that might be. Whether* 
 an asylum might not have been granted to him in England is another 
 question altogether, and rests upon a very different basis. Bona- 
 parte's residence at St. Helena was embittered by a series of dis- 
 putes, which arose between himself, his attendants, and the governor 
 of the island, Sir Hudson Lowe. Recent investigations show that 
 the latter has been hitherto unjustly censured and reproached. The 
 fact is, the grievance lay really between Bonaparte and the British 
 Government. He who had reigned despotically, with splendour and 
 magnificence, could not bear reverses with fortitude and magna- 
 nimity. He had torn crowns from the brows of kings, but when his 
 turn came to be stripped of authority he was ill prepared to support 
 the sudden change of fortune. 
 
 One complaint was, that the English Government would not re- 
 cognize his title of Emperor. This they never had done, and for 
 
 * "' Narrative," p. 197. 
 
DEATH OF NAPOLEON. 
 
 363 
 
 Longwood, Napoleon's Residence at St. Helena. 
 
 this very reason objected to the treaty of Fontainebleau. Restrictions 
 as to the limits for his rides, and the necessity of his showing him- 
 self occasionally, that the governor might be assured of his safe 
 custody, furnished other grounds for dispute. Yet these precau- 
 tions were requisite, for it is certain that several attempts were 
 made to procure his escape. His health soon began to decline, and 
 although he received every attention and the best of medical advice, 
 he gradually grew worse. The last consolations of religion, in ac- 
 cordance with the Roman Catholic faith, were administered to him 
 on the 2Qth of April, at his own particular request. At intervals his 
 mind wandered ; in these moments he occasionally uttered inco- 
 herent sentences relating to military operations, and breathed his 
 last on the evening of the $th of May, 1821. A post-mortem exam- 
 
364 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 ination of the body was made, and death proved to be the result of 
 the diseased state of the stomach. His remains were interred in a 
 favourite spot on the Qth of May, with due honour, the Roman 
 Catholic service being read over the grave. In 1840, the French 
 Government applied to England for the restoration of the body of 
 her favourite hero. It was at once acceded to, and the remains 
 were brought from St. Helena on board the Belle Poule frigate. 
 On the 1 5th of December the second interment took place in the 
 church of the Invalides at Paris, with great pomp and solemnity. 
 The veterans of the Old Guard followed the coffin ; a war-horse that 
 had borne him safely through the tempest of battle appeared in the 
 procession, and the funeral was truly a national demonstration. 
 Thus his wish was at last fulfilled, and he reposed " on the banks 
 of the Seine, among the people whom he had loved so well" 
 
 His son Francis Joseph Charles Napoleon, King of Rome, ac- 
 companied his mother to Vienna in 1814, and there received the 
 title of the Duke of Reichstadt. He was made colonel of an 
 Austrian regiment. Of a weak and delicate constitution and a 
 rather melancholy temperament, he went into a consumption, and 
 died on the 22nd of July, 1832, in the palace of the Schonbrunn, 
 aged 21. He was buried with great solemnity. 
 
 Napoleon's first wife, Josephine, did not long survive the abdi- 
 cation of Napoleon and his departure for Elba. On hearing of his 
 fall she expressed regret that she was not at his side to afford him 
 consolation. She died on the 29th of May, 1814. 
 
 Maria Louisa, according to the terms of the Treaty of Paris, 
 became Archduchess of Parma, Placentia, and Guastalla. She 
 contracted an ignoble alliance, and passed the remainder of her 
 life in comparative obscurity. She died on the I7th of December, 
 1847, aged 56. Her body was conveyed to Vienna, and buried at 
 the side of that of her son, the Duke of Reichstadt 
 
NAPOLEONS CHARACTER. 365 
 
 The remembrance of the majority of mankind perishes at their 
 death. The tomb, in closing over their mortal remains, separates 
 them for ever from the busy world. Another body has been* con- 
 signed to the dust out of which it was framed ; another 
 
 X. 
 
 " Soul exiled, and journeying back to day," 
 
 has completed its pilgrimage in the flesh ; another existence, like 
 a tailing star, has trembled, glittered, and suddenly gone out. Death 
 is indeed oblivion. In some deep, loving heart, a silent and a sweet 
 forget-me-not may linger; but time soon effaces this last memorial, 
 and no relic then remains on earth of the life that once has been. 
 Yet it is not so with the great actors on this world's stage. They 
 cannot be accounted dead, as common men die, whose remembrance 
 is buried with them : in their deeds they beget a second and a 
 mightier existence, which fills, like air, the universe of mind. Their 
 good or bad qualities excite the admiration or the disgust of future 
 generations ; their achievements form the most attractive materials 
 of history, and furnish the poet with the noblest themes of song. 
 Yet all fame cannot be considered precious : there is the glittering 
 and delusive brilliancy, as well as the pure and steadfast flame ; 
 and when we sit in judgment on the mighty dead, reviewing their 
 actions, but often knowing nothing of the motives that produced 
 them, or the mischances that gave them a development different 
 from that at first intended, how difficult does it become to award 
 a fair and righteous verdict ! Too frequently biography displays 
 but the skeleton of the subject, in which we look in vain for the 
 full and perfect development of the living man. 
 
 The character of Napoleon has perplexed and puzzled his bio- 
 graphers to a wonderful extent. The idol of some, he has been 
 execrated by others. Yet we ought to judge leniently of the mighty 
 dead, and not to be too severe on many points of which it is im- 
 possible that we can obtain all the facts. Napoleon was, no doubt, 
 a great delinquent. With some redeeming qualities, his memory is 
 stained with dark crimes which never can be forgotten. Not perhaps 
 
MEMOIR OP NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 of a cruel disposition, he allowed nothing to stand between him and 
 the accomplishment of his designs. To gain a battle he would 
 sacrifice thousands of his fellow-men ; to make himself master of 
 Europe he literally waded through blood. 
 
 A careful analysis of his character would exceed the limits of the 
 present work. We would merely hint that Napoleon must be 
 judged in the three principal and different parts which he played 
 upon the stage, thfc fortunate soldier, the powerful sovereign, and 
 the disconsolate exile. In dark and stormy times he struggled into 
 eminence ; and, had he contented himself with quelling the fac- 
 tions that desolated his country, and in zealously seeking to recon- 
 struct the shattered edifice of power, he would have been one of the 
 greatest benefactors of his race. Ambition lured him to his ruin. 
 The purple of France could not satisfy his aspiring soul : he must 
 wear the iron crown of Italy ; he must humble England, and bring 
 Russia to his feet. The career of conquest upon which he em 
 barked soon came to an end. His power was not built up upon 
 sound and holy principles ; its foundations were on the sand ; and 
 when the tempest burst upon it, its frailty became at once apparent. 
 His own subjects grew tired of war which seemed interminable. 
 The conquest of one country led only to the attack upon another, 
 and thus France was at last everywhere assailed, without one firm 
 and trustworthy ally. In his sudden fall and his dreary exile we 
 behold the retribution awarded by " even-handed justice." Accus- 
 tomed to command and intoxicated with success, he could not 
 calmly endure adversity. And this suffering in some degree awakens 
 the sympathy of posterity, and pleads, as it were, in extenuation of 
 his numerous faults. In the melancholy captive of St. Helena we 
 forget the arrogant despot, the violator of treaties, the murderer of 
 D'Enghein, the shedder of seas of blood. We are constrained to 
 acknowledge that even in this world the hand of Providence had 
 dealt out bitter chastisement upon him. And this reminds us that 
 Napoleon, without any real religious principles, always expressed a 
 firm conviction in the existence of God. Very frequently indeed we 
 find him giving utterance to this belief ; indignantly demanding on 
 one occasion how else the earth could have been created ; and de- 
 
NAPOLEON'S CHARACTER. 3 6 7 
 
 Glaring in almost his dying words, " Thank God, I am at peace with 
 all the world." But how can we reconcile his practice with these 
 professions? His whole life appeared to be one continued denial 
 of the divine government of the universe. With this confession 
 upon his lips, he acted as though there was no authority above his 
 own. In this lies one of the chief lessons of history : its teaching 
 of the general inconsistency of men. In prince and in peasant 
 in the lowly as well as in the great the same temperament prevails. 
 The errors, the vices, the failings of others, are good angels speak- 
 ing to our souls, when they remind us of our own imperfections. 
 
 Napoleon ranks amongst the great conquerors of mankind. He 
 carved out a sceptre by the sword, but he could not keep that 
 which his right arm had won. His great military genius was over- 
 shadowed by his ambition ; and his merits as a statesman are 
 tarnished by a fatal insincerity. His fall was sudden, as his 
 elevation had been almost unprecedented in its rapidity. So has 
 it ever been with these mighty conquerors. Alexander died from 
 over-indulgence in the zenith of his glory, Caesar fell the victim of a 
 conspiracy, and Napoleon, like an eagle encaged, fretted out the last 
 six years of his life in captivity at St. Helena. Power is something 
 that man cannot grasp with security. He who thirsts after it, and 
 succeeds in obtaining it, eventually becomes its victim. Thus we 
 behold Napoleon, once the dictator of Europe and the lord of kings, 
 terminating his career as the lonely prisoner. Freedom, the birth- 
 right of all, the sacred treasure of which Bonaparte had despoiled 
 millions of his fellow-men, became the desire of his life. The luxury 
 he had denied to others was at length removed from his reach, and 
 he did not possess the consolations either of philosophy or religion, 
 to alleviate the affliction of his desolate and altered condition. He 
 quaffed the cup in all its bitterness. 
 
 The career of Napoleon Bonaparte was indeed an extraordinary 
 one. In its strange vicissitudes it savours more of fiction than of 
 reality. He emerged from poverty and obscurity to wield all but 
 universal power, and died an unhappy exile. At the zenith of his 
 fame he attracted the attention of mankind, and the world seemed 
 scarcely large enough to satisfy his ambition. Had that ambition 
 
368 
 
 MEMOIR OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. 
 
 been restrained to prudence he might have worn the crown until his 
 death. With his own hands he destroyed the fabric which he had 
 raised by his indomitable energy and -his unrivalled skill Ambi- 
 tion has made many successful generals, but it never produced a 
 powerful and illustrous monarch, whose rule was firm without being 
 tyrannical, and the chief glories of whose sway were to be found in 
 the happiness, advancement, and prosperity of his subjects. 
 
 Napoleon's Grave at St. Helena. 
 
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