GIFT OF 
 JANE K.SATHER 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN 
 AND METHODS 
 

NAPOLEON'S MEN 
 AND METHODS 
 
 BY 
 
 ALEXANDER L. KIELLAND 
 
 TRANSLATED BY JOSEPH McCABE 
 
 (AUTHOR OF *TALLEYRAND') 
 
 WITH A PREFACE BY 
 OSCAR BROWNING 
 
 KING'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE 
 
 With Dignities by M. LOOSE, and a Frontispiece 
 
 NEW YORK 
 BRENTANO'S 
 
 1908 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 PREFACE, BY OSCAR BROWNING 
 INTRODUCTION 
 
 PAGE 
 
 7 
 13 
 
 CHAPTER I . 
 
 19 
 
 II 
 
 66 
 
 Ill .... 
 
 99 
 
 IV 
 
 . 144 
 
 V 
 
 . 190 
 
 VI 
 
 . 213 
 
 VII 
 
 . 255 
 
 vm 
 
 . 293 
 
 IX 
 
 . 314 
 
 x . 
 
 337 
 
PREFACE 
 
 The history of Napoleon is of inexhaustible 
 interest. When the English government decided 
 to send him to St. Helena, after the battle of 
 Waterloo, Lord Liverpool wrote to the Duke of 
 Wellington, that in that island he would soon be 
 forgotten ; he even repeated this remark in 
 another letter. * Yes,' he said, ' he will soon be 
 forgotten.' Yet at the present time there is no 
 individual about whom more is written in all 
 languages and in all branches of literature. 
 Histories, novels, plays, are never tired of his 
 story, and a serious student finds that there is 
 no personality about whom more discoveries are 
 constantly being made and with regard to whom 
 it is more necessary to reconsider his judgment. 
 At the dawn of the XlXth century, two great names, 
 one in literature and one in the world of action 
 arrest the attention of mankind : Goethe and 
 Napoleon. Their careers have been so minutely 
 studied that we are acquainted with what they 
 did every day, almost every hour of their lives. 
 Yet subjected to this fierce light of publicity, which 
 few could endure, they both gain by it, and 
 Napoleon not the less. The more we know about 
 him the more we admire him, the more reasonable 
 do his actions appear, the less well founded the 
 stories which are told to his discredit. 
 
 Napoleon was born a French subject, in 
 Corsica, of a noble family of Italian descent. He 
 received an excellent education in military colleges, 
 
8* PREFACE 
 
 distinguished Himself by his diligence and regu- 
 larity, entered the artillery, and was made a 
 general at the age of twenty-three. During this 
 time he had been the prop and guardian of his 
 family, which had been left in a sad condition by 
 the early death of his father. He had gained the 
 highest credit for his conduct at the siege of 
 Toulon, where he had been the means of driving 
 the English fleet out of the harbour, and delivering 
 the town into the hands of the French. His next 
 service of importance was in Italy, where, by a 
 strategy which is still a model to soldiers, he 
 defeated the allied armies of Piedmont and 
 Austria, and subdued the whole of the Lombard 
 plain. In this he was acting as general of the 
 Directory. It was not he, but they, who plundered 
 the museums and libraries of the conquered 
 country. But when the Directory wished to 
 annex Italy to France, he withstood them, making 
 Italy into a self-governing Republic, and giving 
 to Austria the rotten oligarchy of Venice, a govern- 
 ment so degenerate that it could neither endure 
 its maladies nor the remedies which were necessary 
 to cure them. To receive Belgium and Lombardy 
 from Austria in exchange for Venice was a good 
 bargain, although it cost Napoleon much to make 
 the sacrifice. After this the young general was 
 sent to Egypt, where he conducted a notable 
 campaign, which, however, led to no permanent 
 result. 
 
 The Directory was the worst government with 
 which France was ever cursed. It had no dignity, 
 authority, or power, it could not preserve order 
 
PREFACE 9 
 
 at home, and it lost abroad what more energetic 
 rulers had acquired. Napoleon was justified in 
 saying, when he returned from Egypt : ' What 
 have you done with the country which I left so 
 powerful ?' The French people were tired of the 
 Directory, and they were tired of themselves. 
 Bonaparte became First Consul by the wish of 
 the nation, the fittest man, indeed, the only man, 
 to repair the errors of the past and to restore 
 France to its proper place in the family of nations. 
 His first act was to offer peace to England and 
 Austria, offers which were insultingly refused. 
 He compelled Austria to make peace by the battle 
 of Marengo, and England was soon obliged to 
 follow her example. The Peace of Amiens ensued 
 and Englishmen could again visit Paris, from 
 which they had been excluded for a decade. 
 
 The Peace of Amiens was broken in May, 1803, 
 and there can be no doubt but that it was broken 
 by England. Such is the verdict of independent 
 authorities, who are not favourable to Napoleon. 
 It was the interest of England to make war, 
 whereas peace was essential for the furtherance 
 of Napoleon's plans. Then began for Napoleon 
 the war with England, which did not cease till 
 his defeat at Waterloo. We need not repeat, even 
 in a summary, the well-known tale of the Emperor's 
 victorious career, but the statement that he was 
 insatiable of blood, and that peace was impossible 
 for him will not bear examination. He made 
 peace with his enemies when he could, forcing 
 them on their knees and claiming the spoils of 
 yictory ; but England was always implacable, 
 
10 PREFACE 
 
 always on the watch, and war was again stirred 
 up and supported by English millions. It is 
 customary to condemn his action with regard to 
 Spain and Russia, but Spain was a dependency 
 of France, which it was absolutely necessary to 
 preserve in a condition of tolerable government 
 and of loyalty to the French alliance. To place 
 Joseph on the throne of Spain was certainly not 
 more reprehensible than to give the crown of 
 that country to the Duke of Anjou. The 
 expedition to Russia, which Napoleon afterwards 
 regarded as a fatal mistake, has not yet been 
 completely elucidated. We do not precisely know 
 the causes of it, the plans of Napoleon in respect 
 of it, or the proper apportionment of blame 
 between Alexander and Napoleon for its having 
 taken place. At any rate, it broke the power of 
 Napoleon, which no other country in Europe 
 had been able to destroy. It was fated that he 
 should only be conquered by himself. 
 
 In his misfortunes, friends and enemies rose 
 against him, Saxony alone remaining faithful. 
 Austria made the great mistake of joining the coali- 
 tion, and entered upon a course which delivered her, 
 at a later period, an easy prey to Germany. It 
 is commonly said that at this time Napoleon 
 ought to have made peace, but historical research 
 has shown that he could not have done so, and 
 that every offer submitted to him was a trap 
 which it was wisdom to avoid. He fell on the 
 plains of France before his converging enemies. 
 He abdicated at Fontainebleau and retired to Elba. 
 It was impossible that he should stay there. 
 
PREFACE 11 
 
 The pension promised to himself and his family 
 was not paid, his wife and child were withheld 
 from him, plans were formed for deporting him 
 to the Azores. He took an heroic course, he 
 landedfon the coast of Provence with a thousand 
 men, marched to Paris without firing a shot, and 
 entered the Tuileries, decorated and crowded for 
 his reception. Never in history was there a more 
 emphatic plebiscite, never a clearer announcement 
 of a nation's will. Deaf to this appeal and blind 
 to the consequences of their action, the diplomats 
 of Vienna, led by Talleyrand, and followed, alas ! 
 by the Duke of Wellington, made ruthless war 
 against him, and in the battle of Waterloo he 
 suffered irreparable defeat. What followed is 
 not pleasant for an Englishman to relate. We 
 denied him the hospitality he asked for, and sent 
 him to perish by a slow but inevitable death on 
 the rock of St. Helena. 
 
 Such was, in brief, >his marvellous history. 
 How are we to judge his character and his career ? 
 The dominant passion of Napoleon was that 
 nothing within his grasp should be done badly if 
 it might be done well. There were two principles 
 at work in the French Revolution, often mingled, 
 sometimes undistinguishable, reform and anarchy, 
 Napoleon was a friend of reform, but he was a 
 bitter enemy of anarchy. No man living ever 
 possessed a better ordered mind, and he desired 
 that everywhere should reign the order which he 
 felt within himself. England made the great 
 mistake of regarding him as the continuator of 
 the Revolution. He was the negation of the 
 
12 PREFACE 
 
 Revolution, the repairer of its errors, the rebuilder 
 of its ruins. Consequently the most enlightened 
 men of Europe were on his side. Italy owes to 
 him its creation, Bavaria her civilization. Examine 
 where you will, the Napoleonic governments were 
 everywhere good, until they were spoilt by the 
 exigencies of the war which was forced upon him 
 by the hostility of England. If France does not 
 admire him to-day, she is supremely ungrateful. 
 Without him, she would not exist. When ten 
 years of anarchy had destroyed in that country not 
 only all government, but all the elements out of 
 which a Government could be formed, Napoleon 
 appeared as the great restorer, and the most 
 stable elements in France at this moment owe 
 their origin to him. 
 
 This is the story which you are about to study 
 in the present volume. It is written by a Norwegian, 
 and is therefore more impartial than if it had 
 been written by an Englishman, a Frenchman, or 
 a German. It has had a large circulation on 
 the Continent. It is brilliantly composed, and 
 will doubtless have many readers in this country 
 who will be induced by its perusal to explore, 
 from a less insular point of view, the most mar- 
 vellous, the most fascinating, the most instructive, 
 career of any individual of modern times. 
 
 OSCAR BROWNING 
 KING'S COLLEGE 
 CAMBRIDGE 
 1907 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 The following study of Napoleon is an 
 incidental outcome of research that I under- 
 took for a different theme. I had an idea 
 of mastering the reaction which, as I believe, 
 settled over the whole of Europe, after a brief 
 period of advance, at the close of the eighteenth 
 century. For this purpose I proposed to make a 
 thorough study of the Congress of Vienna, and 
 this occupied me from 1895 to 1898. 
 
 But as the inquiry proceeded I found it more 
 and more difficult to interpret the story of the 
 reaction from the Congress of Vienna to our own 
 time. It seemed as if everything turned on a 
 point that lay further back. I could not advance 
 a single step, but was drawn, against my will, 
 into the circle in which men and ideas moved. 
 I made every effort to advance from the stand- 
 point I had chosen, but I was forced to turn my 
 eyes in the direction in which they all looked. 
 Then I caught sight of the little man with the 
 folded arms and the hat set crosswise on his head. 
 
14 INTRODUCTION 
 
 I flung everything else aside and fastened on 
 Napoleon, whom, at first, I had deliberately 
 excluded from my historical inquiry. 
 
 In thinking of the Congress of Vienna, I am 
 always reminded of two caricatures of the time. 
 The first represents all the sovereigns of Europe 
 as children, sitting, with paper crowns on their 
 heads, at a long table and playing with guns and 
 tin soldiers. Then enters the officer with the 
 announcement from the Consul at Livorno that 
 Napoleon has left Elba. He brings a new toy, 
 a box, which he flings on the table amongst the 
 eagerly expectant children. 
 
 Suddenly a little man with folded arms and 
 crossed hat leaps out of the box ; and the second 
 caricature shows all the sovereigns scrambling to 
 get under the table, and the little man etanding 
 alone amongst the scattered toys. I have such 
 a vivid impression of these caricatures that I 
 cannot really say whether I saw them, or only 
 read of them, or, in fact, invented the whole thing 
 myself. But that was what actually took place. 
 
 They were so pitifully small, these princes 
 and courtiers, parading in the venerable chambers 
 at Vienna, and strutting about before each other 
 and the ladies, much like the cocks in the barn-yard 
 when the hawk has flown away. The most brazen 
 of them all is Metternich's private secretary, 
 Gentz. He has all the refined vices of the time 
 together with an unblushing vulgarity that shrinks 
 from nothing. He crawls in the dust, and is 
 ready to lend himself to any petty manoeuvre. 
 
INTRODUCTION 15 
 
 But at the same time he sees the threads of the 
 intrigues and plots better than any other, and he 
 jots down in his diary for his own edification : 
 
 6 As I have nothing in the least to reproach 
 myself with, I am far from being depressed 
 by my intimate knowledge of the miserable 
 business that was done here and of the mean 
 creatures who rule the world. On the 
 contrary, it amuses me, and I enjoy the whole 
 thing as a sort of play that is enacted for my 
 express entertainment.' 
 
 With this eel-like slipperiness he came in 
 the end to attain an enormous influence, although 
 his official position in so important an assembly 
 was inconsiderable. But he was not duped. 
 After one of the dinners that he gave, he writes 
 in his diary : 
 
 ' I took hardly any part in the conversation. 
 
 The talk was all between Metternich and 
 
 Talleyrand, on the usual lines. But I felt 
 
 more keenly than ever how vapid life is, and 
 
 how frail the men are who have the fate of 
 
 the world in their hands ; while I enjoyed 
 
 my ascendancy without pressing it. The 
 
 frivolous chatter of the princes had drawn a 
 
 sort of mist over my mind.' 
 
 There was little to choose between them. 
 
 After all the years of anxiety and humiliation, 
 
 when everything in Europe had been turned upside 
 
 down, they had lost all feeling of restraint. All 
 
 the leading families in Europe had suffered 
 
 heavily, in the loss of wealth and property, and in 
 
16 INTRODUCTION 
 
 sorrow over the bright young generation that had 
 fallen in the field, or returned from it wounded 
 and crippled, with no result but defeat and 
 humiliation. And the most frightful circumstance 
 of all was that they had had to entertain in their 
 castles the man whose name they could not bring 
 themselves to utter, or had been forced to come 
 and do him homage. Then there was all the 
 deception that had been practised when the 
 ladies at the older courts crowded about the dust- 
 covered adjutants who brought the first news 
 from the field of battle in the usual terms : 
 
 'The French, with 20,000 men, attacked a 
 Russian corps of 5,000 under Prince Bagration. 
 Bonaparte himself was present. The Russians bore 
 down on them, cut down the French like mush- 
 rooms, killed Marshal Soult, and after a brilliant 
 fight, reached the main body.' And, after two or 
 three dances, there is a rush to the stairs, shrieking 
 and consternation, and a general flight down the 
 corridors and to the back doors. The French 
 have reached the city. Marshal Soult, Duke of 
 Dalmatia, may be at the castle before the sun 
 goes down. 
 
 That was all over when they came together 
 again at Vienna kings and emperors and great 
 nobles, Metternich, Schwartzenberg, Hardenberg, 
 Castlereagh, Nesselrode, and, above all, Talleyrand 
 with the lame foot and the thirteen oaths of 
 loyalty. Which of them could fling the first 
 stone at him ? Even we, to-day, despise rather 
 the prince who received his thirteenth oath, and 
 
INTRODUCTION 17 
 
 the contemporaries who looked on all his successive 
 promises of allegiance with complacency. 
 
 The ability of Talleyrand, in its cold false- 
 ness, scattered the politics of his time to right 
 and left like heaps of snow, and marked out the 
 way for them all with such grace and amenity, 
 such clearness and acuteness, that it has the air 
 of the most rigorous probity. After the second 
 restoration a distinguished French emigre came to 
 Talleyrand and asked for his influence in securing 
 a suitable position in the new court. 
 
 4 Certainly. But what services do you rely 
 on in pleading your case ?' 
 
 ' I went with the king to Ghent during the 
 Hundred Days.' 
 
 * Are you quite sure ? Did you really go 
 with him to Ghent, or were you only one of those 
 who came back with him ? Because, you see, 
 there were only seven or eight hundred that went 
 with him to Ghent, but when we reached France 
 we numbered about five thousand. 3 
 
 In his shrewdness he overlooked no current 
 of feeling. But in whatever direction the new 
 current set, it always ended in the direction that 
 Talleyrand wished. In 1807, when he signed the 
 Peace of Tilsit, after the battle of Friedland, and 
 when Napoleon's star seemed to be at the first 
 magnitude, Talleyrand said to himself : ' There 
 is nothing decisive in the victory of Jena, in all 
 the blood that has been spilt at Eylau, or in the 
 triumph of Friedland. Poland has not been 
 restored. Prussia, bleeding and bruised, is still 
 
 B 
 
18 INTRODUCTION 
 
 alive and thinking of revenge. The Tsar, who 
 has been beaten and has lost his army, has received 
 a million fresh subjects in Finland.' Talleyrand 
 saw from this moment that Napoleon was really 
 sinking. He turned to other masters, and at 
 once set afoot his intrigues with the Bourbons. 
 
 At the Congress of Vienna he had so great 
 an ascendancy that no one dared even to hint his 
 astonishment at seeing him there at all, to say 
 nothing of his being the first envoy of the Bourbons. 
 His presence harmonised with the general feeling 
 of security. When they heard his lame foot 
 trailing over the floor of the Viennese palace, 
 they felt that it was all over with the muddy 
 boots that used to break in at the middle of a 
 ball. But in spite of all came the sudden shock 
 that ran through the city. He was here again. 
 Napoleon had left Elba. All the old terror broke 
 out afresh, and they scrambled under the table, 
 or hurried home each one thinking only of 
 himself and his own. 
 
 I too left the Vienna Congress and began at 
 the beginning. Napoleon Bonaparte was born 
 on August 15th, 1769. As I read the story of 
 his life, I noticed numbers of small traits that I 
 now present in my own fashion. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 Napoleon did not enter the service of any of 
 the political sections in France, and it was not 
 until the later years of the Republic that he began, 
 purely in his capacity as officer, to take any 
 notice of politics. After the re-taking of Toulon 
 under his direction, his talent was so far recognised 
 in military circles, that the war in Italy was really 
 conducted according to his plans, though he was 
 then only a general of a division. In 1796 he 
 was appointed to the supreme command of the 
 Republican troops in Italy. He was then in his 
 twenty-seventh year, and it was in the same year 
 that he married Josephine. 
 
 On April 12th he fought the battle of 
 Montenotte, one of the first in the series of eighteen 
 great pitched battles that he won before the peace of 
 Campo Formio in 1797, and the names of which 
 still reflect his early glory Millesimo, Mondovi, 
 Lodi, Arcole, Rivoli, etc. 
 
20 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 The day after the battle of Montenotte, as 
 the different divisions of the French army, which 
 had hitherto fought independently and had seen 
 little of each other, marched all together over the 
 plain in the bright sunshine, and took their places 
 along the shimmering Bormida, without any 
 confusion or disorder, it flashed on the old soldiers 
 at once that a new spirit had taken the lead. On 
 that day were born the confidence in and 
 enthusiasm for the young commander that grew 
 stronger and stronger. All of them, generals and 
 soldiers, devoted themselves to him for life and 
 death. Prom that came' the blind unwavering 
 obedience and trust that brought success to 
 Bonaparte's carefully planned and able com- 
 binations. 
 
 While, not merely the whole of France, but 
 the whole of fighting Europe, now began to listen 
 to his name, it was not less remarkable how quickly 
 the veterans of the Republic discovered the 
 great leader. They were accustomed to having 
 their commanders sent down by each succeeding 
 government at Paris, sometimes genuine officers, 
 at others men who had pushed their way to the 
 front in the troublous times of the Revolution. 
 After the battle of Lodi a deputation of old 
 grenadiers came to Napoleon's tent and told him 
 that he had been appointed corporal by the army ! 
 After Castiglione he was made sergeant. Bonaparte 
 was shrewd enough to understand and appreciate 
 these things ; and ever afterwards, in all his 
 campaigns, even in the days of misfortune, a smile 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 21 
 
 passed over his features when some old grenadier 
 in the ranks called him * the little corporal.' 
 
 The love and regard of the army for this 
 leader who never spared himself led in 1797, when 
 he barely escaped falling into the hands of the 
 Austrians, to the formation of a guard of honour 
 for him. Napoleon afterwards made his corps 
 of Guards out of this famous troop of guides, 
 and the uniform of an officer of the Guards- 
 green with red facings was his favourite one. 
 Bessieres, head of a squadron, who had taken two 
 Austrian cannon at Roveredo with six men, was 
 entrusted with the command of the bodyguard 
 and made responsible for the life of the general. 
 As Marshal and Count of Istria, he commanded 
 the Guard until 1812. 
 
 At once the men came into prominence who 
 were to share Napoleon's glory afterwards. But 
 not one of his later wars has so much brilliancy- 
 one might almost say, so much festive cheer- 
 fulness about it as the first two campaigns in 
 Italy. It was, of course, a matter of life and 
 death ; the balls were as merciless as ever, 
 when they did strike. But the operations went 
 on more smoothly there. One saw the enemy 
 working away with his ramrods, biting off the 
 end of his cartridges, shaking his powder on the 
 pan, and then the long aim and the shot so often 
 miscarrying, especially in bad weather. The 
 artillery did not hold off at a distance ; you were 
 not apt to be scattered with a hail of shells as 
 happens to-day. 
 
22 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 During a fight near Frankfort in 1791, 
 Frederic William sat on his horse and watched 
 a republican grenadier holding a small bridge 
 alone against the troops. The king had him taken 
 alive, and said to him : ' You are a brave lad, it's 
 a pity you fight for a bad cause.' ' Citizen 
 William,' the soldier answered, ' we should not 
 agree on that point. We had better change the 
 subject.' 
 
 It was especially in Italy that the war had 
 peculiar features, because the French officers 
 were young and fearless. They bewildered and 
 bluffed the methodical Austrians, and frightened 
 the more timid Italians to death. Bonaparte 
 himself, the chief general, set them an example. 
 Once, accompanied by only a few soldiers, in 
 addition to his general staff and a number of 
 officers, he rode through a small town named 
 Lonato, on the day before the battle of Castiglione. 
 The town was suddenly surrounded by a strong 
 division of the Austrians, whose leader sent an 
 officer to demand the surrender of the French. 
 
 Bonaparte had the man blindfolded, as was 
 customary, and brought into the circle of high 
 officers. When the bandage was taken from his 
 eyes, and he looked round on the brilliant company, 
 Bonaparte thundered at him : c Ride back to 
 your chief, and tell him that I give him eight 
 minutes to lay down his arms ! He has got into 
 the midst of the French army, and he may give 
 up all hope once that time is up.' The officer 
 hurried away, and the Austrian general was so, 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 23 
 
 terrified that he surrendered with 2,000 men and 
 four guns. 
 
 Another time, in the year 1796, Lannes, then 
 a young chief of a battalion, came upon a division 
 of the papal cavalry, 300 strong, in the course of 
 a reconnaisance. Lannes himself had only two 
 or three officers and a dozen orderlies with him. 
 Lannes rode at once to the papal officer, who had 
 already ordered his men to fire and attack. 
 
 * What are you doing ?' Lannes shouted. 
 ' Put up your sabre at once.' 
 
 ' Certainly,' said the officer. 
 
 6 Tell your men to dismount and lead their 
 horses to my headquarters.' 
 
 ' Quite so,' answered the officer, and he 
 obeyed. 
 
 It reminds one of Tordenskjold, when he was 
 tired of lying before Marstrand and waiting for 
 the Swedish fleet to come out. At last he went 
 into the town and reached the house where the 
 Swedish admirals were chatting and drinking. 
 
 ' What the devil are you waiting for ?' he 
 shouted through the window. 
 
 So the Swedish fleet came out and received 
 its punishment. 
 
 The Duke of Montebello resembled Torden- 
 skjold in many ways. He was recklessly brave, 
 always in the line of fire, yet a cool and diligent 
 commander, and kept his head in the most 
 desperate situations. It was in the first Italian 
 campaign that Bonaparte noticed how Lannes, 
 who was then chief of a battalion, led his men 
 
24 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 into action at Dego. From that day they were 
 never separated until Lannes fell in 1809 at 
 Esslingen, a marshal of France and Duke of 
 Montebello. He was the last of all generals to 
 maintain the old terms of intercourse with the 
 Emperor, and addressed him as ' thou ' to the 
 end. He died in the height of his and Napoleon's 
 glory, and escaped the evil days that tried so 
 many of his comrades and found them wanting, 
 or at least leave a good deal of obscurity about 
 Napoleon in the end. 
 
 Lannes was one of the officers who were 
 always wounded, which is hardly surprising when 
 we remember the boldness with which he 
 exposed himself. There were others equally daring, 
 however, who were said by the soldiers to be 
 invulnerable, such as Massena. It was said of 
 Lannes that balls flattened themselves against his 
 bones. During the campaign in Syria he received 
 a ball in the temple and fell to the ground. They 
 thought he was dead. But it was found that the 
 bullet had passed round the skull and remained 
 under the skin at the back of the head, so that 
 it was easily extracted. During the battle of 
 Aboukir, where he still suffered from the wound 
 in his head, he got a bullet at short range in the 
 shin. It was flattened, and ran round the leg and 
 buried itself in the calf. He received many other 
 wounds in the course of time, until a cannon ball 
 smashed both his knees at Esslingen in 1809. 
 
 Lannes was also one of those who were 
 wounded when they ran on the bridge with the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 25 
 
 general at Lodi, and covered him. The brave 
 officer, Muiron, fell dead at Napoleon's feet on 
 the bridge. Muiron was one of the officers that 
 Bonaparte had discovered, and who was likely to 
 accomplish great things under him. To the end 
 the only way of advancement in Napoleon's army, 
 however large it became, was for the general 
 himself to pick out the best officers ; and of that 
 they were well aware. His knowledge of men, 
 extending over all his armies, was so great and 
 accurate that he was as well acquainted with his 
 officers as the leader of a small troop usually is 
 with his men. He had, moreover, an eye for the 
 characteristics of each individual, and he was 
 rarely wrong in his estimate. 
 
 During one of the Italian campaigns, on the 
 eve of a great battle, a common soldier stepped 
 out of the line, as they often did, with the old 
 republican liberty, and said : * Citizen general, 
 I know how you will beat them to-morrow,' and 
 he began to describe a plan of operations. 
 Napoleon swiftly interrupted him : * Be quiet, you 
 scoundrel.' The soldier was describing, word for 
 word, Napoleon's own plan of battle, which he 
 thought was utterly unsuspected by anybody 
 else. The day after the battle he sent for the 
 soldier he had noted his regiment but found 
 that the great talent had perished in the simple 
 uniform of a soldier, and he had probably lost a 
 marshal. 
 
 When the supreme command was entrusted 
 to the twenty-seven year old officer there were 
 
26 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 old and experienced generals and officers who had 
 little disposition to bow to their new leader. 
 Augereau, who was twelve years older, made a 
 great noise, and said he was not going to have this 
 raw lad from Corsica put over him. He soon 
 changed his mind, and, although Augereau was 
 never anything else in Napoleon's opinion than a 
 brave and noisy swaggerer and incorrigible 
 plunderer, he became a marshal and Duke of 
 Castiglione, and was always with Napoleon until 
 he finally deserted him. 
 
 Napoleon never had favourites that he would 
 put in high positions in spite of their incompetence ; 
 and he was just as careful to appreciate and use 
 men he did not like and whose treachery was fully 
 known to him through his spies. 
 
 Others of Napoleon's men came into promi- 
 nence in 1796. Berthier, who had been in 
 America and Jamaica with Lafayette, and had 
 received a command under the aged Kellermann, 
 the victor of Valmy, was one of Napoleon's 
 generals, and a particularly intimate friend. He 
 was with Napoleon in the Egyptian campaign, 
 but was allowed to return home on the ground of 
 illness ; though the real reason was his infatuation 
 for Mme. Visconti. The indefatigable and fearless 
 Oudinot, also, who lived until 1847, was with him 
 in Italy. Under Napoleon he became marshal 
 and Duke of Reggio. He always led the grenadiers 
 who marched close to the Emperor ; and he led 
 the infantry in the early bayonet fights. The 
 soldiers were accustomed to seeing him amongst 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 27 
 
 them. He was one of those who were always 
 wounded ; he had in the end, I believe, twenty- 
 three wounds. 
 
 Besides the unfortunate Muiron, General La 
 Harpe also fell in the first Italian campaign, 
 being shot in mistake by his own men. Another 
 loss was that of General Steingel, an Alsatian, 
 whom Bonaparte always quoted afterwards as 
 an incomparable leader of the advanced posts. 
 Steingel was short-sighted, and rushed into the 
 fight at Mondovi so furiously with his hussars 
 that he was slain by a sabre-cut, fighting in the 
 front line like a common soldier. 
 
 The aged General Causse saved the battle at 
 Dego, but fell mortally wounded. He called for 
 Bonaparte and learned that the battle was won. 
 The old general nodded to the young one, and died 
 with the words : ' Long live the Republic.' 
 
 When Napoleon lay dying at St. Helena, they 
 heard him call out, just before the end : ' Steingel ! 
 Desaix ! Massena ! On them ! We have them 
 now.' He saw once more the forms of the generals 
 of his young days. 
 
 The brave and neatly-equipped Austrians, 
 retreating from point to point in their white 
 uniforms, and looking so handsome in their powder 
 and pigtails, deserved a better fate. But their 
 antiquated methods could not resist the new 
 French ones, and they had too many leaders who 
 were too aged for effective service. Beaulieu was 
 eighty years old. Wurmser, who had beaten the 
 republican forces at Weissenburg, Heidelberg, 
 
28 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 and in the Palatinate, was an old man ; so was 
 Melas. Their best general was Alvinczy. In 
 these stiff troops with their aged generals, swept 
 out of the field by the fiery French armies, we 
 see involuntarily something of the ridiculous, as 
 generally happens when the older fall before the 
 younger. At the same time there was a certain 
 politeness maintained between the enemies, some- 
 thing of the chivalry that always moderates the 
 horrors of war, though in the new and terrible 
 forms of warfare we see less of it every century. 
 When the aged Wurmser was compelled at length 
 by famine to surrender Mantua, Bonaparte, who 
 was in command, sent the comparatively aged 
 General Serrurier to receive the capitulation, so 
 as to spare Wurmser the shame of giving up his 
 sword to a young man of twenty-seven. 
 
 Before the peace of Campo Formio, Bonaparte 
 and Josephine held a sort of small court in the 
 chateau of Montebello. From the moment when he 
 first set foot on the soil of Austria his whole being 
 instinctively assumed a character that made it 
 plain that he had a far higher aim hi view than 
 any other French general had ever had. His 
 companions noticed with regret the departure 
 from the easy ways that had hitherto prevailed in 
 the armies of the Republic. 
 
 The chateau of Montebello received ministers 
 from Vienna and from the king of Naples, envoys 
 from the papacy, the Republics of Genoa and 
 Venice, the Duke of Parma, the Swiss cantons, 
 and a number of German princes. The house 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 29 
 
 almost looked like a royal residence. Apparently 
 without any change in his manner the young 
 Bonaparte took his place with his usual seriousness 
 and coldness, and the whole of those present 
 probably without noticing it fell into the position 
 that was to be taken up for many years to come ; 
 Napoleon alone in the centre and all the others 
 in a circle round him. The finest diplomatists of 
 Vienna came and tried their hand on him. There 
 was nothing that he did not understand, not a 
 manoeuvre that he did not see through, and 
 certainly nothing under the sun that could daunt 
 him. 
 
 On the other hand not in anger, but quite 
 coolly and deliberately, aiming to make an 
 impression on the elderly diplomats he took up 
 the costly Chinese tea-service that the envoy 
 Cobentzl had received from Catherine II, and 
 threw it on the ground. ' That's how I'll smash 
 Austria,' he said, and swept out of the room like 
 a hurricane. They hurried after him, and brought 
 the treaty ready signed, just as he had wanted 
 them to do. 
 
 It was at this time he began to issue his 
 grandiose proclamations to his soldiers. They 
 are said to have had a considerable effect. For 
 my part I have always found them too lengthy 
 and affected, and I cannot endure the style of 
 them. 
 
 Bonaparte himself delivered the abstract of 
 the peace of Campo Formio to the Directorate, 
 and Paris gave him and Josephine a series of 
 
30 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 festivities. The finest was, of course, that given 
 by Talleyrand, who was foreign minister of the 
 Republic at the time. Art and science came to 
 do him homage. David painted him, and the 
 famous artist, Grassini, whom he had brought 
 from Italy, sang before him. 
 
 But France soon learned that there were 
 30,000 men and 10,000 sailors gathered in the 
 Mediterranean harbours, and that vast prepara- 
 tions were in progress at Toulon. The best 
 generals and a number of scholars were to take 
 part in the mysterious campaign. It was the 
 celebrated adventure in Egypt, of which, to be 
 quite candid, I have never really understood the 
 meaning. If it had succeeded, we might have 
 seen how deadly a blow it would have been to 
 England. As things were, it has remained quite 
 obscure, in my opinion, and the campaign failed 
 altogether. 
 
 On June 9th, 1798, the French fleet lay before 
 Malta. Five hundred vessels came in sight, and 
 so terrified the Grand Master, that, after a few 
 days negotiations and a few harmless cannon-shots, 
 he surrendered the island to the French. What 
 had happened was that the Grand Master of the 
 Knights of Malta, a German named Hompesch, 
 received 600,000 francs and the promise of a 
 yearly pension of 300,000 francs. With that he 
 retired into private life. The chief harbour of 
 Malta, Valetta, had always been regarded as 
 absolutely impregnable. When the French officers 
 came on land after the capitulation and examined 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 31 
 
 the fortifications, one of them said : ' It was 
 lucky for us there were people in there to 
 open it for us ; otherwise we should never have 
 got in.' 
 
 Bonaparte's rare good fortune went with him 
 on his Mediterranean voyage and brought him 
 safely home from Egypt. Nelson crossed his 
 track below Malta. He was three days in 
 Alexandria before the French fleet arrived, and 
 then he had put to sea again in search of Bonaparte. 
 Hence the French army landed in safety, and the 
 struggle began. After Napoleon's entry into 
 Cairo on July 25th, he met his first mishap, the 
 first and most decisive blow to his expedition. 
 He heard that the French fleet was destroyed on 
 August 1st in the Bay of Aboukir. Nelson had 
 found them at last, and though the French 
 admiral was brave and made a good fight, the fate 
 of any fleet was sealed when it met Nelson, as 
 surely as the fate of an army that encountered 
 Bonaparte. It was the weakest point in the 
 whole plan to suppose that a French fleet could 
 hold its own in the Mediterranean as long as 
 Nelson was about. 
 
 After the expedition into Syria and the 
 failure of the storming of St. Jean d' Acre, Napoleon 
 received the journals from home at Cairo, and 
 decided to return to France. He left behind him 
 a letter to General Kleber, in which he put him in 
 supreme command of the army in Egypt with a 
 mass of instructions. Then he rode down to the 
 coast secretly with a chosen few. They embarked 
 
32 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 on two frigates, and by some means or other 
 reached Frejus, in the south of France, on October 
 9th, 1799, without meeting a single one of Nelson's 
 ships, which were scouring the Mediterranean and 
 descending on everything that passed. 
 
 The Egyptian campaign has a certain 
 resemblance, on a much smaller scale, to the 
 Russian campaign of 1812. Both of them failed, 
 and this was partly due to the same lack of 
 knowledge of the land, the people, and the climate. 
 From both the leader returned home, and left his 
 followers in distress. It was not surprising, 
 therefore, that officers and soldiers thought, when 
 they heard of the general's return, that he had 
 shamefully betrayed them, and left them in the 
 Egyptian desert ; just as, on the morning of 
 December 5th, 1812, the Emperor's generals 
 murmured against him, when it was known that 
 he had departed for France during the night, 
 abandoning what remained of the grand army to 
 the cold and the Cossacks. 
 
 The qualities and sentiments of solidarity and 
 concern that engender in the good citizen the 
 mutual feeling that sustains domestic and public 
 life were quite foreign to Bonaparte's nature. He 
 assuredly never made any personal sacrifice for 
 others or for the common good. What he gave 
 never had the character of a sacrifice, but came 
 of the splendid generosity that distinguishes the 
 lofty prince. Had anyone expected him to remain 
 on the wreck when things had gone wrong, he 
 would have called it the stupid notion of an idealist. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 33 
 
 He never had any other scheme of action than 
 completely to realise his aim ; and this was so 
 great that he had no time to think of others. 
 
 The campaign in Egypt was not lit by the 
 sunshine of Italy. The heated air, the thirst, and 
 the plague, followed it everywhere ; and the 
 shadow of such deeds as the massacre at Jaffa, 
 where he had several thousand prisoners of war 
 shot because there was no food for them, and of 
 the charge of having given opium to a large 
 number of pest-stricken French soldiers, so that 
 they might not fall alive into the hand of the 
 enemy when the army left Syria, was cast over 
 the figure of the young general. 
 
 However, in the famous battle of the pyramids 
 and in the land-battle at Aboukir, a fresh splendour 
 was added to the names of many of Napoleon's 
 greatest generals Junot, Rapp, Lannes, Davoust, 
 and especially K16ber and Desaix, who remained 
 in Egypt, K16ber was a brave general, and a 
 big, handsome man. He soon concluded that 
 Napoleon's large and vague plan of holding and 
 colonising Egypt could not be realised, and he 
 opened negotiations with the English admiral. 
 In these he succeeded in securing a free passage 
 home for the French, but the English government 
 insisted that the French troops should be con- 
 sidered prisoners of war. Kleber would not agree 
 to this, and he re-conquered the whole of Egypt. 
 Meantime General Desaix had, almost from the 
 beginning of the expedition, penetrated to upper 
 Egypt, where he had not only conquered the 
 
34 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 whole country with great heroism, but had 
 conducted the administration so skilfully as to 
 win the affection of the half-savage inhabitants, 
 who called him 'the wise Sultan.' They called 
 Bonaparte ' the lord of fire.' 
 
 On July 14th, 1800, Kleber was assassinated 
 on the streets of Cairo by an Arabian fanatic, and 
 Desaix was killed at the same time by a cannon 
 ball on the plain of Marengo, where he just 
 arrived in time to secure the victory of Napoleon. 
 General Menou was appointed to the chief 
 command in Egypt, but he was still less able to 
 hold together the impossible colony, constantly 
 assailed as it was by the English. Menou was 
 in his fiftieth year, and therefore one of the oldest 
 of Napoleon's generals. He quarrelled with his 
 officers, and made himself ridiculous in the eyes 
 of the army by wearing the dress of an Arab. 
 He married a young Egyptian and lived on 
 oriental lines. Napoleon always treated him well, 
 and he died as governor of Venice in 1810, it is 
 said, out of love of a young actress. In his 
 hands the Egyptian expedition came to a disastrous 
 close, and the last of the French troops were 
 brought home in English ships, though not as 
 prisoners of war. 
 
 During the year of Bonaparte's absence in 
 Egypt, the French Republic and the French arms 
 met with serious reverses. He learned this from 
 the journals that the English allowed to reach 
 him in Egypt. No sooner did he land on French 
 soil than the cry went up that he alone could 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 35 
 
 save the country, and he was hailed everywhere 
 as the deliverer. His unfortunate expedition 
 was at once forgotten. The moment he landed 
 he was met with every sign of rejoicing, and the 
 feeling ran to enthusiastic heights as he made 
 his way from town to town, making a triumphal 
 march of his journey to Paris. He vigorously 
 thrust out of sight the failure of his late campaign, 
 and made even larger plans than when he had 
 returned from the subjugation of Italy. But the 
 young and suspicious general was not yet the 
 man to be led away by illusions. At Paris, 
 where the whole world sought him, he maintained 
 a great reserve. He hardly showed himself at 
 the magnificent official festivities or in the theatres. 
 But he worked and intrigued secretly against 
 the constitution of the country with no scruple, 
 and firmly determined to introduce into politics 
 the strongest element of the time the army, 
 which in turn meant himself. 
 
 The first person to be associated with him 
 in his secret work was, of course, Citizen Talleyrand, 
 who was not a minister at the time. He was 
 quite ready to put himself at the disposal of the 
 new rising force. In 1799 the Republican 
 government consisted of five Directors, who were 
 held in no esteem, and of the Legislative Assembly. 
 Bonaparte did not want a revolution, but a 
 coup d'etat, without conflict or bloodshed. The 
 Legislative Assembly was sent out to St. Cloud, 
 far away from Paris, and Bonaparte coolly 
 determined to dissolve it by force, and substitute 
 
36 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 for it other forms that would prepare the way 
 for him. 
 
 His assistants and fellow-conspirators were a 
 number of men that had gathered about him, 
 and were to be the first generals and statesmen 
 in Europe. Up to that time they had been 
 merely young officers, and they took up the 
 political manoeuvre, at the general's order, much 
 as they would have done a cavalry attack. Chief 
 amongst them were his near relative Murat, 
 Leclerc (who was married to Pauline), Sebastiani 
 of Corsica, Lannes, Berthier, and Moreau. Berna- 
 dotte held back, and only made his appear- 
 ance when the manoeuvre had succeeded. Lucien, 
 the President of the Council ofjthe Five Hundred, 
 made himself very useful ; it was the only help 
 Napoleon ever got from one of his brothers. 
 
 Early in the morning of November 9th, 1799 
 the famous * 18|Brumaire ' according to the 
 Republican calendar the troops began to stir in 
 the barracks. General Lefebvre, in chief command 
 at Paris, at once scented a conspiracy. He 
 drove down to make an inquiry, met Colonel 
 Sebastiani, and asked him sharply what he was 
 doing at that hour with his men. * General 
 Bonaparte wants to speak to you,' Sebastiani 
 answered. The street was so narrow that 
 Lefebvre's carriage could not turn round, and so 
 he went on to Bonaparte's hotel. The general 
 met him with the words : ' You are one of the 
 props of the Republic, General Lefebvre ! You 
 and I will to-day deliver France from the hands 
 of these miserable lawyers.' 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 37 
 
 ' Down with the lawyers,' Lefebvre replied. 
 * I am with you.' And he forthwith allied himself 
 to Napoleon. 
 
 When Bonaparte entered the chamber of the 
 Five Hundred he was greeted with a loud outcry 
 about tyrants. The members crowded about 
 him with violent gestures, and the grenadiers 
 began to be concerned for their little corporal. 
 Murat then ordered the room to be cleared, and 
 it was done so quickly that many of the delegates 
 of the people had to leap out of the windows. 
 They were meeting in the orangery, so that the 
 leap was not very dangerous ; but it was an act 
 of political violence that many never forgave 
 Napoleon. 
 
 In the first ministry that Napoleon formed 
 as First Consul there were three Consuls, but no 
 one took any notice of the other two Talleyrand 
 was to be Foreign Minister, though the place was 
 held for a time by a German, Count Reinhardt, 
 who was often used by Napoleon in administrative 
 and diplomatic capacities. The Minister of Police 
 was Fouche, whom Napoleon seemed never able 
 to dispense with, though he saw through his 
 knavery and often had experience of his duplicity 
 afterwards. In spite of the resemblance it would 
 be most unjust to put Talleyrand and Fouche on 
 the same footing. Talleyrand was like the 
 finest kid, while Fouche was common fox-skin. 
 Talleyrand passed with some subtlety from one 
 party to another, but Fouch6 sold and betrayed 
 one to the other, and lived on and for deceit, 
 
38 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 hated and despised by all. Napoleon deposed and 
 re-instated him ; he made him Duke of Otranto, 
 and was often in a rage with him ; but he could 
 not live without the network of spies that Fouche 
 could best spread about him. Indeed, there was 
 no one else that he could use so readily for the 
 meanest offices. 
 
 In the four years of the Consulate, which 
 were certainly the happiest years of Bonaparte's 
 life, France recovered from the effects of the 
 Revolution. The unquenchable vigour with 
 which the nation always rises again when the 
 storm is over brought out a new and energetic 
 society ; and certain forces at once became 
 active in it that centred about the person of the 
 one great man, under the very mantle of the new 
 found liberty, and raised him high above the 
 citizens of the Republic. And his immense plans 
 developed and found embodiment with a gigantic 
 power that created afresh everything that it 
 touched. In these mighty hands France was 
 transformed immediately. The First Consul 
 betook himself to the palace of the older kings, 
 and the citizens were subdued. When he passed 
 from the Luxembourg palace to the Tuileries and 
 the Louvre on the other bank of the Seine, it was 
 with all the pomp of a royal ceremony. The 
 familiar tone of the Revolution disappeared in a 
 few days. The republican forms of social life 
 were chilled in the cold court atmosphere that at 
 once began to fill the halls of the Tuileries. People 
 ceased to call each other citizen and citizeness, 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 39 
 
 and began to cut their hair and wear decorative 
 costumes. No change ever proceeded so rapidly 
 as this. 
 
 The Republic was recognised by all the 
 European powers except England. Peace reigned 
 in some sort, and it only remained to conciliate 
 England. Bonaparte, who then and throughout 
 his whole career was far from understanding 
 England and English ways, wrote a personal letter 
 to George the Third, in which he suggested a 
 rapprochement between the two great nations. 
 The answer came, drily enough, in the form of a 
 declaration made by Pitt in Parliament : ' England 
 will not subscribe to the peace until France has 
 returned within its earlier frontiers.' It clung 
 rigorously to this determination never to treat 
 with Napoleon under any circumstances. This 
 meant that there was to be war in Europe as long 
 as Napoleon retained power. 
 
 In France there was great rejoicing at the 
 termination of the terrors of the Revolution. 
 Many of the emigrants returned, prisoners were 
 set at liberty, and the sentence of banishment 
 was annulled. Social and commercial life received 
 an unprecedented * impulse under the wise legis- 
 lation and practical aids that were now given. 
 
 England was the first to feel the fire of war 
 that Bonaparte set aflame. Every time that a 
 country was beaten, England came to it with 
 fresh money and fresh proposals for a coalition. 
 The first coalition was originally an alliance 
 of Austria, Bavaria, Turkey, Russia, Sweden, 
 
40 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Denmark, and England, the latter Power main- 
 taining fleets both in the North Sea and the 
 Mediterranean for the attack on France. But the 
 First Consul found a means of drawing Russia 
 out of the coalition. Since the wars of the 
 Republic there were a number of Russian prisoners 
 in France and in the frontier fortresses. Napoleon 
 equipped them all with Russian uniforms, choosing 
 the correct uniforms and ensigns according to 
 the rank and regiment and arm of each prisoner. 
 Then he sent the whole of them many hundreds 
 in number comfortably back to Russia with a 
 greeting to the Emperor, Paul I, without saying 
 a word about the return of French prisoners of 
 war. This was, perhaps, the only occasion on which 
 Napoleon's calculation was correct when he tried 
 to treat the other European princes as comrades. 
 The half-demented Paul was caught by the 
 stratagem, and became a fanatical admirer of 
 Napoleon. He recalled his troops from Germany, 
 left the coalition, and expelled all Englishmen 
 from St. Petersburg. The First Consul also sent 
 his friend and confidant, Duroc, afterwards Duke 
 of Friaul, as envoy to Berlin, and in a very brief 
 time he succeeded in embroiling the coalition to 
 such an extent that he could himself lead his 
 troops across the Alps to the liberation of Italy, 
 which had been taken again by the Austrians 
 while he was in Egypt. 
 
 Austria, if not the whole of Europe, was 
 astounded when Bonaparte's generals crossed the 
 Alps with all their artillery and baggage, and 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 41 
 
 marched down upon the plains in the north of 
 Italy. He himself stood before the gates of Milan 
 on June 2nd (1800) as Italy's deliverer. The 
 Italians were beside themselves with joy at seeing 
 him once more ; he was reported to have died 
 in Egypt. The second Italian campaign thus 
 succeeded more brilliantly than the first. The 
 same sun shone on the French troops ; but they 
 were now the finest soldiers that Europe had ever 
 seen, not the ragged and shoeless bands of the 
 Republic. 
 
 At the beginning of a campaign, Napoleon, espe- 
 cially in his earlier and more slender years, used to 
 spread his maps on the ground, and crawl over 
 them, and work his plans with coloured needles. 
 The friend of his youth, Bourrienne, who was his 
 private secretary in the early years, has related 
 that. Napoleon had fixed his needles round the 
 plains of Marengo before he left Paris, and said 
 that he would fight the Austrians there. With 
 the divisions of Lannes, Victor, and Desaix, he 
 marched on the village of Marengo on July 13th 
 in search of the chief Austrian army under General 
 Melas. He had, however, commanded Desaix 
 to take a different route on the following day, as 
 he was uncertain where he would find the enemy. 
 Early the next morning, the famous July 14th, 
 1800, Bonaparte suddenly confronted the far 
 superior numbers of the Austrian army, and the 
 battle began at once. He sent most pressing 
 messages to Desaix, but he knew that it would 
 be several hours before Desaix's division could 
 join him in the conflict. 
 
42 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 The battle began with the taking of the 
 village of Marengo by the Austrians and the 
 scattering of Victor's division. Bonaparte, who 
 knew well that the issue depended on Desaix's 
 arrival, made strenuous efforts to hold his ground 
 to some extent with the left wing ; the right 
 wing and the centre retreated during the whole 
 morning, and were driven from one position 
 to another by the more numerous Austrians. 
 Napoleon followed them, and when the corps that 
 he was with had retired some distance, ho halted 
 and cried to the general of the division : ' That 
 will do, general. Now we'll fight again for a 
 little.' x 
 
 Thus matters went on until three in the 
 afternoon, and everybody but Bonaparte looked 
 upon the fight as hopelessly lost. The aged 
 Melas, overcome with fatigue, and injured by a 
 fall from his horse, was now so sure of victory 
 that he left the field, and went back across the 
 Bormida. He at once sent couriers from Allessan- 
 dria to Vienna to say that he had gained a decisive 
 victory at Marengo. He left it to General Zack 
 to follow up the defeated Bonaparte. It was 
 now five o'clock. Bonaparte did not give up 
 hope. He led the retreat, and kept his fine 
 troops together so well that the retreat nowhere 
 degenerated into flight. 
 
 At last Desaix galloped up with several 
 adjutants. He had just returned from Egypt, 
 and hurried with all speed to his friend Bonaparte. 
 They were the best leaders at the time, in the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 43 
 
 eyes of the troops. He hod impatiently ridden 
 ahead of his troops when he reached the field, 
 and he and Bonaparte were soon agreed that as 
 matters stood, the battle was lost. ' Let us get 
 down from our horses,' Desaix said to him, ' and 
 it will look as if we were more confident.' They 
 did so, and together watched the battle they were 
 conducting, and that meant so much for their 
 country. The two men were still almost at 
 the age when we are usually taken up with 
 examinations, and shivering before dry and dusty 
 professors. It is said that Desaix remarked : 
 ' The balls don't know me since I have been in 
 Egypt.' French officers had a peculiar way of 
 speaking when they were confronted with death, 
 or their own presentiments of it. Desaix's words 
 were regarded by everybody as a proof that he 
 himself felt his impending fate. At length the 
 first troops of Desaix's division swept on to the 
 plain. The two generals shook hands and mounted 
 their horses. Half an hour afterwards a cannon 
 ball shattered Desaix's breast and killed him on 
 the spot. 
 
 The first troops of Desaix's corps to reach 
 Marengo and avenge his death belonged to General 
 Boudet's division. In all the great battles, and 
 whenever an important move is on, we find 
 mention of this division. General Boudet was 
 born in 1769, and had taken Guadeloupe in 1794. 
 In 1807 he defeated the Swedes at Stralsund, and 
 was made a count. He received large donations 
 of land in Swedish Pomerania, and was besides 
 
44 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Knight of the Danebrog, and received the Cross 
 of the Legion of Honour. His men, especially 
 his artillery, were models for the whole army. 
 
 These chosen troops came up at the last 
 moment and put spirit into the half-demolished 
 army. All weariness was forgotten, and confidence 
 was restored in the little man on the white horse 
 whom they had seen in a kind of flight all day 
 long. He cried out to the ranks as they closed 
 once more and pressed forward : ' Remember, 
 soldiers, that I am accustomed to sleep on the 
 field of battle !' General Zack had opposed 
 Boudet with 5,000 good grenadiers. But, just at 
 the right moment, General Kellermann flung his 
 cavalry on the Austrian grenadiers, who were 
 thrown into confusion and generally taken 
 prisoners. From that point the French on the 
 left wing advanced, and the plain was re-taken 
 before evening. The general was able to sleep in 
 the village of Marengo, from which he had been 
 driven in the early hours of the morning. In the 
 course of the night Berthier concluded an 
 arrangement with Melas, by which all that the 
 French had lost in Italy was restored. 
 
 During the last hundred years it has often 
 been said and written that it was Desaix and 
 Kellermann who won the battle of Marengo. In 
 my opinion the general in command can only gain 
 a victory when his officers obey his orders, keep 
 their places, and do their duty at the proper time. 
 One man can do no more once the battle has begun. 
 Bonaparte won at Marengo because Desaix and 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 45 
 
 Kellermann did their duty according to his 
 calculations ; he lost the battle of Waterloo 
 because Grouchy did not do his duty, and was 
 not where he ought to have been according to the 
 calculation of the chief commander. 
 
 There were two General Kellermanns father 
 and son with Napoleon. The elder was born in 
 1733 at Baden, and lived until 1820. While he 
 was a republican general he won the artillery 
 battle at Valmy. Napoleon made him marshal 
 and Duke of Valmy, and often employed him as 
 commander in the fortresses where the young 
 troops were trained. His son, Count of Valmy, 
 was made a general after Marengo. In later years 
 he generally fought against the English in Spain 
 and Portugal. 
 
 It is difficult to realise the immense effect of 
 the battle of Marengo. The success was so 
 unexpected and so great that all ranks of society 
 and all parties joined in the common rejoicings. 
 Paris was at once illuminated when the news 
 arrived, and from that day practically the 
 whole of the government, indeed the whole of 
 France and its destiny, was given into the hand 
 of Napoleon. The banished king wrote the 
 following letter to him : 
 
 ' You will have known for a long time, general, 
 in what esteem I hold you. Should you doubt 
 my gratitude, I beg yougto let me know what 
 position you desire to have, and where you desire 
 your friends to be placed in the State. As to my 
 principles, I am a Frenchman. I am by nature 
 
46 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 indulgent, and will be more so where prudence 
 dictates that quality. The victor of Lodi, Castig- 
 lione, and Arcole, and the restorer of Italy, cannot 
 possibly prefer empty fame to true honour. 
 Meantime, you are wasting valuable time. We 
 two could secure the prosperity of France. I say, 
 we two, because I need Bonaparte, and because 
 he cannot do this without me. General, the eyes 
 of Europe are upon you. Honour is waiting, and 
 I am impatient to restore peace to my country. 
 
 Louis.' 
 Bonaparte's reply was dry and direct. 
 
 4 SIB I have received your letter and thank 
 you for the gracious words you write of me. But 
 you must not think of returning to France. You 
 would have to walk over hundreds of thousands 
 of corpses. If you will make the sacrifice of your 
 own interests for the peace and prosperity of 
 France, history will thank you. I am not 
 insensitive to the misfortunes of your family, and 
 I will gladly contribute to your tranquillity and 
 security in the refuge that you have chosen. 
 
 Bonaparte.' 
 
 The almost naive assumption of superiority 
 must have made a great impression on the 
 Bourbons, who had stooped so low in a moment 
 of weakness. Bonaparte himself, indeed, was 
 hardly conscious what an impression of audacity 
 his letter would give to people whose real attitude 
 toward himself he never completely understood. 
 But in the shadow of the shattered kingdom, and 
 of the republic that had collapsed so quickly, 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 47 
 
 there were figures that united in a common hatred 
 of the man a determination to rid the world of 
 tyrants. A number of conspiracies were discovered 
 from time to time, in which older men of the 
 revolutionary days, and others that belonged to 
 the king's party, were involved. Some tried to 
 penetrate into Malmaison in assumed uniforms ; 
 others attempted to kill him as he went to the 
 opera. A few dangerous workers had begun to 
 prepare a bomb, but when they came to test the 
 explosive, the effect was so powerful that they 
 became half afraid, and the noise attracted the 
 attention of the police. 
 
 However, before the close of the year 1800, 
 one of these murderous plans was put into exe- 
 cution and made a great impression on Paris. It 
 was due to a conspiracy of some of the royalists, 
 who had, with extreme calculation and cold- 
 bloodedness, formed a plan that was only thwarted 
 by an accident. 
 
 On Christmas night Bonaparte and Josephine 
 were to hear Haydn's ' Creation ' at the Opera. 
 It was a special performance and the whole of 
 Paris was expected to be there. Shortly before 
 seven a couple of the conspirators, dressed as 
 working men, came along with a hand-cart, on 
 which there was a vessel filled with powder and 
 balls. They left the cart casually, as it were, in 
 a street that the carriage of the First Consul 
 had to pass. The time was accurately calculated, 
 and the fuse lit. Everybody knew that Napoleon 
 was punctual. But it happened that his coachman 
 
48 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 was rather drunk that evening. He raced 
 furiously down the street, and was past the 
 infernal machine two or three seconds before it 
 exploded. Fifty-six men were wounded and 
 twenty - two killed, and several houses were 
 demolished. In the opera-house people had just 
 begun to whisper of an attempt on the First 
 Consul's life, when he stepped coolly into his box, 
 and there was an indescribable outburst. His 
 wonderful luck made him seem miraculous. He 
 was the chosen one of Providence in the eyes of 
 many, and the attempt on his life lifted him to 
 a higher pinnacle. 
 
 But, though he had shown his customary 
 coolness during the catastrophe, he afterwards 
 had a very close inquiry made into the source of 
 the outrage, which clearly was no isolated crime. 
 Fouch6, either to conceal his ignorance of the 
 plot, or out of a grudge against his old enemies, 
 gave him the same night a list of 130 revolu- 
 tionaries. Napoleon's feeling was directed rather 
 against the royalists, but he had these 130 
 individuals sent to Cayenne, after forcing through 
 a law that empowered the Consuls to banish 
 undesirable persons. 
 
 On February 12th, 1801, Paris heard of the 
 Peace of Luneville, which was the fruit of Marengo 
 and of Moreau's equally brilliant victory at 
 Hohenlinden. The frontiers of France were 
 extended, and all its enemies humiliated. Thou- 
 sands of people passed by the Tuileries, crying : 
 ' Long live Bonaparte.' They danced in the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 49 
 
 streets, and the First Consul's orchestra played 
 dance-music to the accompaniment of musketry 
 and rockets. Once more the most splendid fte 
 was that given by Talleyrand, Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs. At his house the First Consul received 
 all the distinguished people French or foreign 
 who were then at Paris. The older royalty and 
 the Revolution, nobles and republicans, new men 
 of fortune, soldiers, scholars, poets, artists, and 
 officials all came together and paid homage for 
 the first time to Napoleon Bonaparte as France's 
 first citizen and the head of the State. 
 
 All who have read the memoirs of the period 
 are familiar with the odour of summer-roses that 
 clings to Malmaison. In later years, when the 
 great French chateaux were re-opened, there was 
 more pomp and brilliance, but they never eclipsed 
 the fairy days at Malmaison, with the court that 
 was merely a troop of fine young ladies and 
 gentlemen on a pic-nic. The First Consul, who 
 was the centre of it all, was no longer the spare, 
 dark general with the yellow Italian tint. His 
 whole appearance was changed. When he was a 
 young officer he suffered severely from a disease 
 of the skin, a sort of vicious scab. He contracted 
 it first on his hands in the trenches before Toulon, 
 where he took part himself in loading and serving 
 the guns, It spread over his whole body and 
 became a great plague to him. He was not then 
 in a position to command the best attendance or 
 to give sufficient time for a radical treatment of 
 the ailment. When he had eventually got rid 
 
50 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 of it, his skin assumed the marble whiteness that 
 characterised his family, and he paid great 
 attention to the care of it. He often spoke about 
 the treatment of it. First he would lie for hours 
 in water heated to such a degree that others could 
 hardly put a foot in it. He also had himself 
 washed with eau de Cologne, of which he used 
 enormous quantities. His whole body was then 
 well rubbed, and his servants put on his under- 
 clothing, and the narrow white trousers, all of 
 the finest material and spotlessly clean. His 
 uniform was always the blue or green coat of the 
 body-guard with red facings, and afterwards 
 court dress and the fantastic imperial clothes. 
 
 He was now a handsome well-built man, with 
 strong legs, small, firm feet, clear and clean-cut 
 features, and the fine mouth of the Bonapartes, 
 with faultless white teeth. That was his appearance 
 when he took part in their games and ran races 
 with Josephine and the other young women in 
 the garden at Malmaison. But he did not like 
 anyone to beat him in the race, and he was angry 
 when he fell down and got grass-spots on his 
 white hose. One had to be very serious then. 
 The young men choked down their laughter, and 
 did not know which way to turn, for he was a 
 dangerous man. No one, not even Josephine, 
 knew how far he would take a joke. He was 
 always irritable from youth upward. I have 
 never read anywhere of Napoleon laughing. It 
 seems that he could not. It is said that a good- 
 natured smile of his could heal wounds, and make 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 51 
 
 the man it was bestowed on follow him through 
 fire and water. But there was never a laugh, or 
 an outburst of hilarity ; he had always the same 
 marble coldness, with his lips firmly compressed, 
 ready to issue the word of command or to frighten 
 men to death with a voice that had no equal. 
 His temper was always uncertain. 
 
 The painter Isabey was light and agile, and 
 full of jokes, like all the others. One morning 
 he came through the empty rooms the company 
 had gone to breakfast and saw in the conserva- 
 tory a young man whom he took to be Lucien 
 Bonaparte. Isabey quietly approached on tip-toe, 
 then made a spring, and jumped full on him. 
 When he turned round in triumph to face him 
 he met the dreaded look of the First Consul. The 
 little artist ran as fast as he could into the garden 
 and then the forest, and it was a long time before 
 he would venture out, and still longer before he 
 dare tell anyone of his adventure. The First 
 Consul went on as if nothing had happened. 
 
 For my part I have never been in company 
 with any great man, with the exception of 
 Bjornstjerne Bjornson. He too has a look that 
 can frighten people to death. When he opens his 
 mouth, it is generally for the purpose of serious 
 talk. But how he can laugh ! His laughter has 
 a full resounding ring, as if it came from the 
 depths of his heart. There are few things so 
 pleasant as to hear Bjornson laugh. 
 
 Napoleon certainly never indulged in laughter 
 or in jovial intercourse over a glass or a good 
 
52 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 story. He ate so quickly that no one had enough, 
 and the young officers were dismayed as he rose 
 from table before the soup was finished at the 
 lower end of it. He drank a couple of glasses 
 of his red wine and a little brandy when on the 
 field ; but I have never heard of him raising his 
 glass to propose a health, and certainly the wine 
 never reached his head in the smallest degree. 
 Yet all are agreed that he had a most wonderful 
 smile. One night they were sitting together at 
 St. Helena, and talking of old days, as usual. 
 In the course of the conversation, Las Cases 
 remarked : ' I do not understand why Your 
 Majesty did not take the sword of Frederic the 
 Great, when you had it in your hand.' ' Because 
 I had my own,' said the Emperor quietly, with 
 his characteristic smile ; c and he pinched my 
 ear, without hurting me,' says Las Cases. 
 
 That was one of Napoleon's habits. When 
 he was speaking to one of his generals or anybody 
 that he liked, he would take hold of the lap of 
 his ear, and pinch it more and more severely while 
 he spoke. One needed to be very stolid to keep 
 still during the ordeal. His fingers were not 
 too gentle. 
 
 He was destructive by character and custom. 
 He stuck his paper-knife into the costly chairs 
 that were provided for him everywhere. He 
 wasted huge quantities of paper. Whenever he 
 took up anything that was frail or finely worked, 
 he was quite certain to demolish it or damage it 
 before putting it down. He pulled up the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 53 
 
 choicest plants in the hot-houses, and, when he 
 could do it without being seen, he used to shoot 
 Josephine's rare birds. As a matter of fact, 
 however, he was not a good shot, and he did very 
 little when he was out shooting. But it was a 
 kingly pastime, and the whole apparatus was at 
 hand, and so he took his marshals for great 
 hunts in the forests of Fontainebleau. They 
 were soldiers and accustomed to hear the balls 
 whizzing past their ears, and they shot right and 
 left on chance, to the consternation of the real 
 sportsmen and servants that were there. One 
 day the Emperor shot out one of the eyes of 
 Massena, the Duke of Rivoli, but nothing was said 
 of it. Berthier took the blame for it, probably 
 because he was master of the hunt. 
 
 As long as they were at Malmaison the lively 
 and amiable Josephine succeeded in dispelling 
 the chill that always surrounded the Emperor in 
 later years. There they lived like good and 
 loving bourgeois, sleeping in the same room. They 
 were together all the time that he was not engaged 
 with business, though these intervals were brief 
 enough. It is incredible what an amount of work 
 he got through in those days. His lively sisters, 
 the young wives of his generals, and the hand- 
 somest officers in the army, played comedies and 
 other performances, danced and made love to 
 each other, without any serious consequences. 
 Bonaparte himself had returned from Egypt with 
 an unpleasant story about Josephine. The stupid 
 Junot had told it to him in the trenches before 
 
54 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Acre. But she brought him round ; he returned 
 to the army, and all was forgiven and forgotten. 
 
 The only one that was missed from the gay 
 company was the charming Pauline, the youngest 
 sister of the First Consul. She had accompanied 
 her husband, General Leclerc, in the expedition 
 to San Domingo in 1801. During the Revolution 
 the blacks in the French colony of Hayti had 
 freed themselves, and a negro called Toussaint 
 TOuverture, had been put at the head of a sort 
 of republic that the blacks had formed after the 
 model at Paris. Bonaparte gave his brother-in- 
 law a well-equipped expedition and fleet, and 
 told him to restore order in the colony as peace- 
 fully as possible. The expedition entirely failed. 
 Unfortunately, Toussaint TOuverture had sailed 
 for France the day that the fleet reached the 
 island. He was a man of some ability. Leclerc, 
 who could not even keep order amongst his own 
 generals, met the wild negro-general Christopher, 
 and the latter at once began an insurrection. 
 The plague broke out. Leclerc himself died, and 
 his successor, General Rochambeau, who after- 
 wards fell at Leipsic, was a hard man, and allowed 
 himself to be led by the French planters into 
 waging a fearful war of extermination against 
 the blacks. They were driven into the sea and 
 drowned ; they were hunted with blood-hounds 
 from Cuba. The expedition was a complete 
 failure, and the colony was lost to France. 
 
 Pauline, untouched by plague and other 
 horrors, returned as a widow to Paris. She was 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 55 
 
 more charming than ever, and ready to begin 
 again where she had left off. 
 
 During these years of comparative peace the 
 First Consul was constantly occupied with plans 
 against England, with which he was always at 
 war. He collected enormous provisions of war 
 by land and sea in the north of France, on the 
 Channel, and especially at Boulogne. The 
 Bourbons and emigrants at London were also 
 working in their own way. They set afoot a 
 fresh conspiracy which was to fall on the First 
 Consul during one of his journeys to St. Cloud or 
 Malmaison, overcome the body-guard riding by 
 the carriage, and kill Bonaparte in the struggle. 
 This seemed to them to be more like a fight than 
 an assassination. They had put at the head of 
 the conspiracy the old Vendean leader, Georges 
 Cadoudal, the people of la Vendee being still 
 distinguished by a fanatical loyalty to the royal 
 house. Cadoudal had always wished to see one 
 or two French princes at his side, and his idea 
 was to re-call the Bourbons when Bonaparte 
 should be got rid of. The army would be 
 conciliated, and led to fresh achievements by 
 General Moreau, who though he was far from 
 royalist in disposition was understood to be 
 willing to take part in the conspiracy, because he 
 had been at variance with Napoleon for some 
 time. 
 
 General Moreau, who was born in 1761, had 
 covered himself with glory under the Republic. 
 His retreat from Holland, when Jourdan had been 
 
56 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 beaten as usual, was and still is regarded as a 
 masterpiece of military art. In the eyes of all 
 his contemporaries, especially since the death of 
 Desaix, he was next to Napoleon. With a very 
 short interval they won the two most brilliant 
 victories : Bonaparte at Marengo in Italy, and 
 Moreau at Hohenlinden in Germany. For a time 
 it was reported that he was going to marry Pauline 
 Leclerc, but he chose a certain Mile. Hulot, and 
 from that day his and Napoleon's ways parted. 
 The lady and her mother succeeded in inflaming 
 him against Napoleon to such an extent that he 
 made it his life-aim and his misfortune to destroy 
 him and take his place. 
 
 In order to win General Moreau, the 
 conspirators had chosen his old comrade, General 
 Pichegru. The latter, though an old republican, 
 had accepted the Bourbon plan at London, and 
 then went to Paris to kill the common enemy. 
 The next step was to bring Moreau and Pichegru 
 together, and induce Moreau, who shared 
 Pichegru's hatred of Napoleon, to join the plot. 
 In August, 1803, Cadoudal left London with a 
 million francs in Bank of England notes, which 
 he had sewn into his belt. He landed on the 
 sand-hills of Biville from a smuggler, and was 
 led from man to man, using certain signs agreed 
 upon, as far as Paris, where be began to collect 
 suitable men for the attack, and get them uniforms, 
 horses, arms, and all that was necessary. Meantime 
 others were endeavouring to bring Moreau and 
 Pichegru together. Moreau spoke with great 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 57 
 
 warmth of his old comrade, and offered to do all 
 in his power to procure the reversal of the sentence 
 that had banished Pichegru to Cayenne in 1797. 
 It is possible that he also expressed himself 
 somewhat sharply about Napoleon. 
 
 This was taken by the intermediary, a 
 General Lajolais, as a safe indication that Moreau 
 was ready to join the conspiracy. He hastened 
 to London, via Hamburg, and gave such an 
 account of Moreau' s bitterness against Napoleon 
 that the emigrants were beside themselves with 
 joy, and even the Count Artois, who was after- 
 wards King Charles X, compromised himself for 
 life by taking part in meetings where the murder 
 of the head of a State was decided. Toward the 
 close of 1804, Pichegru, with several of the highest 
 French nobles, including the brothers Polignac, 
 crossed the Channel in Captain Wright's yacht, 
 and reached Paris. A little later Lajolais brought 
 about a meeting between Moreau and Pichegru. 
 It took place during the night in the deserted 
 Boulevard Madeleine. The two old friends were 
 deeply moved at seeing each other in such 
 circumstances, when Georges Cadoudal suddenly 
 stepped out and joined in the conversation. 
 Moreau at once became as cold as ice. At 
 subsequent meetings it became clearer and clearer 
 that Moreau was quite willing to work for himself, 
 but by no means for the Bourbons. It was a 
 serious disillusion, and was so discouraging to the 
 rest of those who were in the plot, that many 
 of them thought of giving up the whole enterprise 
 and leaving Paris. 
 
58 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Just at that moment the arrests began. 
 Fouche was not Minister of Police at that time, 
 but he was prying round everywhere on his own 
 account. R6al, an officer that Napoleon often 
 used, was at the head of the Paris police, but he 
 knew nothing of the conspiracy. It was really the 
 First Consul himself who picked up the first 
 threads. Even while he was Consul, and still 
 more when he became Emperor, Napoleon's time 
 was largely occupied in reading all kinds of police 
 reports and making himself familiar with the 
 statements of spies that were put before him 
 every day. At the very time when the royalist 
 murder was being plotted, he was making a fool 
 of the English envoy at Munich. He knew that 
 the man had offered 50,000 for the black 
 portefeuille in Bonaparte's private room, and so 
 he read more carefully than ever the mass of 
 reports on suspicious persons, and the lists of 
 foreign and native individuals who had disappeared 
 or turned up. From the large number of these he 
 chose the names of five men who were to be sub- 
 mitted to judicial inquiry. 
 
 It was evident that he had a keen eye for 
 this kind of work. Only two out of the five 
 turned out innocent, and were set at liberty. Two 
 of them were convicted of high treason and shot, 
 without any information being got out of them. 
 The fifth confessed that he was one of Georges 
 Cadoudal's men, and had come with him from 
 England over the sand-hills of Biville. At the 
 same time, after a nocturnal struggle between 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 59 
 
 custom-officers and smugglers at the coast, a 
 piece of cartridge-paper was picked up with the 
 name Troche written on it. It was found that 
 this was the name of the young man who was 
 leader of the conspirators that had come with 
 the smugglers from London and secretly made 
 their way to Paris. These were the first threads 
 of the plot. 
 
 The next thing to be discovered was that 
 General Moreau was involved in the affair. He 
 was at once arrested, and gradually forty-five of 
 the conspirators were landed in the various jails, 
 but the leaders were still at liberty. When 
 Moreau was arrested, the cry was raised imme- 
 diately that Napoleon was trying to get rid 
 of his one rival in this pitiable fashion. Moreau 
 stood so high in the esteem of the army and the 
 nation that he could not be conceived as helping 
 the royalists and those who were considered 
 guilty. Bonaparte's temper broke loose, and was 
 turned furiously on the royalists, from whom he 
 thought he had deserved better treatment. From 
 that time he spared no means of discovering the 
 leaders, so that the whole world shouldlknow the 
 plot to be a dangerous royalist conspiracy against 
 the first man in France. The prisoners insisted 
 that they had been acting with some of the most 
 distinguished names in France, and that a prince 
 of the blood they thought it was the Due de 
 Berry was to come to Paris, if he was not 
 already there. 
 
60 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 6 1 will forgive Moreau,' said Bonaparte, 
 4 but I will shoot the first Bourbon that falls into 
 my hands.' 
 
 He sent the judge Reynier to Moreau in 
 prison, to extract a confession, and, so it was 
 proposed, bring the general to the Tuileries. But 
 the official conducted the business with so little 
 tact that Moreau did not realise the good intention. 
 Not knowing that the greater part had already 
 been betrayed by the others, he denied everything, 
 and made use of all kinds of foolish subterfuges. 
 
 ' Very well,' said Bonaparte, ' he shall be 
 put on trial.' 
 
 They still failed to discover Pichegru and 
 Cadoudal and the other leaders in Paris, and an 
 extraordinary law was passed that threatened 
 with death all who were concerned in hiding them ; 
 those who knew it and did not give information 
 would have six years in the galleys. Pichegru 
 moved, as he did not like the company he had 
 fallen into. He spent one night at the house 
 of the minister Marbois, with whom he had 
 been banished before. Napoleon appreciated the 
 friendly act so far as to spare the minister, when 
 he heard of it afterwards. At last someone was 
 found who would betray Pichegru for 100,000 
 francs. He gave them the key of the rooms 
 where he had himself conducted the general. The 
 police entered the rooms at night, and seized the 
 pistols that lay by the bed ; though the powerful 
 general fought them in his shirt before they 
 could bind him and take him to prison. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 61 
 
 They afterwards took the brothers Polignac, 
 Riviere, and finally CadoudaL He was caught in 
 a small carriage on one of the outer boulevards 
 by two policemen. He shot one dead and 
 wounded the other, but the people prevented him 
 from escaping. Cadoudal made no secret of his 
 object in Paris, and was shot without asking any 
 consideration. As Cadoudal and the Polignacs 
 were now arrested, the matter got abroad, and 
 people learned with astonishment that the royal 
 family itself was privy to the plot to murder the 
 deliverer of France. Unhappily, Napoleon was 
 so much embittered that he would not rest until 
 he had found traces of the Bourbons. He was 
 ready even to pardon Pichegru, and send him as 
 governor to Cayenne, to organise the colony 
 there ; but for the royal party there was to be 
 no mercy. 
 
 One day he went through the Bourbon family 
 with Talleyrand and Fouche, and when he heard 
 of the Due d'Enghien, whose name was scarcely 
 known to him, he set his spies to work at once. 
 He was soon informed that the young prince lived 
 close to the French frontier nearer than any of 
 the other emigrants at Ettenheim, in Baden, 
 that he was often absent for days together, and 
 that he received suspicious visitors. One of these 
 was falsely said to be Dumouriez, one of the 
 republican generals who had fled to England to 
 escape a charge of high treason. It agreed only 
 too well with all that the prisoners had stated 
 that in their gatherings a distinguished young 
 
62 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 person appeared at times, and was treated with 
 exceptional respect by the others. The First 
 Consul firmly believed that he had now found 
 the last link in the plot. He sent General Ordener 
 across the frontier to arrest the duke at Ettenheim, 
 and at the same time sent his best envoy, Count 
 Caulaincourt, to the Baden court to excuse the 
 infringement of territorial limits. He was 
 occupied for a whole week with the affair, and he 
 worked himself to such a pitch of excitement that 
 no power in the world could restrain him. The 
 unfortunate young duke, who was certainly 
 innocent, was arrested in bed, brought to Paris, 
 and was, after a very slight legal procedure, shot 
 at Vincennes in the early morning. 
 
 The incident caused a stir in contemporary 
 life that we can hardly appreciate. The unjust 
 and hasty deed is one of the worst that Napoleon 
 Bonaparte ever committed. It forms the refrain 
 to all the vituperative songs of his enemies. We 
 have to remember what a prince of the blood 
 meant at that time ; this one was the last of the 
 house of Conde, which was closely related to the 
 Bourbons. He belonged to the highest rank of 
 European nobility. Moreover, Europe had already 
 begun to speak of the Corsican monster, the 
 bloody tyrant, etc., and was anxious to find 
 some ground for this hatred. 
 
 Paris seemed to be shaken by a thunder-bolt. 
 Nothing like it had been known since the 
 Revolution, if even then. It had all taken place 
 so quickly that at first people only knew that 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 63 
 
 an emigrant prince had been violently seized on 
 foreign territory, and passed before a court- 
 martial with hardly any investigation. Although 
 more than a third of the Parisians were ignorant 
 who the Due d'Enghien was, all were horrified 
 at this nocturnal trial without a jury coming, 
 as it did, after the questionable treatment of the 
 conspirators. Malmaison was intensely excited. 
 Mme. Re* musat and the other ladies were paralysed 
 with horror. Josephine threw herself sobbing on 
 her husband's neck, crying : * Listen to me, 
 Bonaparte ! If you have your prisoner shot, you 
 will be guillotined yourself like my first husband ; 
 and this time you will take me with you.' 
 
 Fouch6 was pleased in his sombre way. 
 * That was fortunate,' he said. * I began to fear 
 that this little Bonaparte would be content to 
 play the part of General Monk.' Bernadotte was 
 of much the same opinion. He rubbed his hands, 
 and said : ' We have him now ! ' He meant 
 that the First Consul had played his stakes too 
 high, and it might be his ruin. Talleyrand 
 expended his wit over it : ' It's worse than a 
 crime ; it's a blunder.' The affected Lucien 
 Bonaparte rushed into his wife's bedroom with 
 the cry : * Alexandrine, let us fly ! He has tasted 
 blood.' He posed as a noble republican, and so 
 his brother was a blood-thirsty tyrant. 
 
 It would be impossible to form a more unjust 
 estimate of Napoleon than that of his brother 
 Lucien. He was neither cruel nor blood-thirsty. 
 He did the sanguinary work of a soldier, in which 
 
64 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 he was a master, but he was devoid of the cruelty 
 that characterised nearly all the other great 
 soldiers with whose glory our children's lessons 
 are poisoned. If in this case he made a violent 
 end of an enemy, it was a sort of family revenge. 
 The other Bourbons had sent men to murder 
 him, and surrounded him with bravoes in his own 
 country, though their machinations had happened 
 to fail through a series of accidents. 
 
 As to the young man who became the victim, 
 he belonged to a race whose degeneration is 
 obvious to us to-day. The great military genius 
 that had once been found in the family in the 
 great Cond6 had assumed a different shape. 
 Insanity and suicide entered into the blood. One 
 of the duke's ancestors at the siege of Belgrade 
 shot sentinels and others who appeared on the 
 walls from safe cover ; and when he settled down 
 at Paris, Louis XIV had to pardon him three 
 times for shooting from his palace windows at 
 slaters and other workmen on neighbouring roofs, 
 merely for the entertainment of seeing them fall 
 into the street below. Certainly, there is nothing 
 of that kind against the Due d'Enghien. But he 
 was still young when he was killed. 
 
 Napoleon defended the deed to the last 
 moment on the ground that it was necessary for 
 the security of the State. He took the whole 
 responsibility on himself, and he says in his will 
 that he would act in the same way again in the 
 same circumstances. However, that may be, it 
 gave a wholesome fright to the royalists and the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 65 
 
 royal house. The conspiracy and all that went 
 with it soon engendered in the people a feeling 
 that demanded the empire and an hereditary 
 dynasty as the sole means of assuring the future 
 of the country. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 In May, 1804, Napoleon Bonaparte was 
 chosen Emperor of the French by the representa- 
 tives of the people, and his family were declared 
 to have an hereditary right to the throne. 
 
 The first thing to which he devoted his 
 attention as Emperor was the army. He gave 
 grateful distinction both to the older generals 
 whom he had found in office at the time of his 
 own rise, and to the younger men who had grown 
 to be a power in France and a terror to Europe 
 under his own supervision. With great pomp he 
 elevated eighteen generals to the rank of marshals 
 of the empire, and made them generous awards 
 of land and money. There were a few amongst 
 the older generals whose merits were slight in 
 comparison with those of the younger men. But 
 it was his intention, and a fine stroke of policy, 
 to bring together the old and the new, so that 
 the adventurous character of his own rise might 
 not be too apparent. The six older men were : 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 67 
 
 Perrignon, Serrurier, Brune, Jourdan, Kellermann, 
 and Lefebvre, as well as Augereau, Soult, and 
 Massena. The new men were : Bessieres, Davoust, 
 Moncey, Mortier, Ney, Lannes, Bernadotte, 
 Berthier, and Murat. Most of these afterwards 
 became dukes and princes, with titles taken from 
 the battles they won. Kleber and Desaix, who 
 were more worthy of the marshal's staff than any 
 of the others, had fallen. 
 
 He then pardoned most of those who had 
 been implicated in the conspiracy. Only Cadoudal 
 and twelve others were shot. General Pichegru 
 strangled himself in prison with his own necker- 
 chief. Moreau was condemned to two years' 
 imprisonment, but the sentence was commuted at 
 the instance of his wife into a journey to North 
 America. He bought some property at Delaware, 
 and lived quietly there until the news of Napoleon's 
 campaign in Russia gave him fresh hope of 
 realising his ambitious dreams. He returned in 
 1813, and met his death in the midst of the 
 enemies of France. Napoleon bought his French 
 estate, Grosbois, and gave it to Berthier. His 
 hotel at Paris he gave to Bernadotte. It was 
 the same house in the rue Anjou from the garden 
 of which Napoleon III sent pears to the widowed 
 queen Desideria at Stockholm. 
 
 King Louis XVIII was now far from being 
 in the mood in which he had written to General 
 Bonaparte. He protested in the most lofty terms 
 against ' the usurper,' etc. Napoleon's only 
 reply was to publish the royal proclamation 
 in the Moniteur. 
 
68 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Meantime, the Emperor's mind was no less 
 taken up with great plans than that of the First 
 Consul had been. He had to consolidate the new 
 order of things that had arisen amidst the hatred 
 of the whole of Europe. Throughout his whole 
 life he had no peace with England, by day or 
 night. There came a time when he felt the whole 
 of the continent to be in his hands, but never 
 England. It seemed in the end to be Russia that 
 undid him, but that was not so in reality. He 
 fell before Old England, ' tasteless Albion,' the 
 cradle of freedom. 
 
 On the 8th of July, the Emperor left St. Cloud 
 for the purpose of inspecting the vast forces with 
 which he threatened England. It was in the 
 midst of this army and fleet that he arranged the 
 great festival at which he founded the order of 
 the Legion of Honour. On the broad plain were 
 100,000 fine soldiers under the command of 
 Marshal Soult, while the fleet, not quite so brilliant, 
 lay in the neighbouring harbour. Surrounded by 
 his brothers and the new marshals, Napoleon took 
 the oath of the new order, and all repeated the 
 words after him in a scene of enthusiasm that 
 could never be forgotten. 
 
 He travelled about from place to place in the 
 north of France for three months, and returned 
 through Aix and Mayence on October 12th, in 
 order to prepare for the coronation of himself and 
 Josephine. It was a pompous and tedious 
 ceremony, but perhaps more brilliant than it had 
 been under the former kings. It was a point of 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 69 
 
 honour with him to eclipse all other princes. 
 The pope himself came from Rome, and blessed 
 the imperial couple at Notre Dame. But when 
 the pious pontiff had uttered the blessing on the 
 two crowns that lay before him, Napoleon took 
 up one of them and put it on his own head and the 
 other on Josephine's, who was on her knees in front 
 of the altar. Nothing so stupendous had ever been 
 witnessed before. The festivals were brilliant 
 beyond conception, but many of the older generals 
 and some of the younger ones made fun of all 
 his clerical performances and incense. 
 
 The execution of the Due d'Enghien and the 
 invasion of Baden had broken off all communi- 
 cation between the European courts and Paris, 
 and had provoked a new coalition against 
 Napoleon. The Emperor wrote another homely 
 letter to his ' brother,' the King of England, but 
 the only result was a cold and formal reply from 
 the ministry, as before. On April 2nd, 1805, 
 Napoleon travelled with the Empress to Milan, 
 where he crowned himself with the ancient iron 
 crown of Lombardy as King of Italy. There was 
 enthusiastic rejoicing wherever they appeared in 
 France and Italy. In the month of July they 
 were back in his favourite chateau at Fontaine- 
 bleau. 
 
 Meantime there was great activity in all the 
 Cabinets of Europe, and in September, when 
 Napoleon was again at Boulogne, where he 
 conducted a general experiment in embarking his 
 army, the Austrians under General Mack marched 
 
70 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 into Bavaria. Marshal Soult's whole corps was 
 already aboard the fleet. But just at the moment 
 of the Austrian outbreak, Napoleon learned that 
 Admiral Villeneuve, whom he had selected for 
 conveying the troops to England, and whose 
 appearance in the Channel was daily expected, 
 had been shut up in a Spanish harbour and 
 blockaded by the English. It was Napoleon's 
 original intention to entrust the command to 
 Admiral Latouche-Treville, the only French 
 admiral of any competence. But he unfortunately 
 died just at the time. Count Daru, the general- 
 intendant of the army, a man who approached 
 Napoleon very closely in daily life, came into the 
 Emperor's tent at Boulogne on the very morning 
 that the news arrived. The Emperor was walking 
 backwards and forwards in the greatest excitement. 
 
 * Sit down, Daru, and write,' he said. 
 
 In the course of one morning he altered his 
 long and laborious plans. He wheeled round his 
 army, which was facing London, and marched it 
 without a break toward Vienna. At one sitting 
 he dictated the plans of the campaign that ended 
 at Austerlitz. Each army corps received its 
 route, from Hanover and Holland, from Italy and 
 the south of France. The march for each day 
 was prescribed, and all the points were indicated 
 at which the columns were to meet. The plan 
 was so accurate that the troops marched 200 miles 
 eastwards without having to make the slightest 
 deviation from the prescribed route. They 
 reached their destinations, and the whole plan 
 was carried out with complete success. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 71 
 
 We hardly know what to think when we find 
 Fouche, the Minister of Police, declaring : ' All 
 the Austrian spies were bought much more easily 
 than one would think. Most of them had already 
 been secured by us in Italy, and this had had a 
 good deal to do with the defeat of Wurmser and 
 Alvinczy. Before the campaign of 1805, the 
 operation was conducted on a larger scale, and 
 nearly all the generals on the Austrian staff were 
 accessible. I had given all my secret information 
 on Germany to General Savary, the head of the 
 intelligence department at the Emperor's head- 
 quarters, and he used it with success. As all the 
 breaches were thus open, it was mere sham fighting 
 for our brave soldiers and superior manoeuvres 
 at Ulm, on the bridge at Vienna, and at Austerlitz.' 
 
 It was also * sham fighting ' when Napoleon 
 pretended one day at the Tuileries, after the Peace 
 of Pressburg, to be angry with the Minister of 
 Finance, because the treasury was in difficulties at 
 the beginning of the war. These difficulties, 
 Fouche says, had been created by the Emperor 
 himself by abstracting fifty million francs from 
 the cellars of the bank for the purpose of bribery. 
 They had contributed in a high degree to the 
 remarkable success of the improvised campaign. 
 It is quite certain that, though Fouche chatters 
 and exaggerates, he had good reason to regard 
 many things with distrust that seem wonderful to 
 us. It is not easy to determine how much was 
 due to the superiority and bravery of the leaders, 
 and how much was a shameless comedy, facilitated 
 
72 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 by previous payments of money. Spies are now 
 an essential part of international intercourse. 
 Every country has them and every country hangs 
 them. There was certainly nothing in Napoleon's 
 character inconsistent with the use of spies and 
 bribes. These indelicate weapons were as 
 convenient to his hand as to anybody else's. 
 Although the landing in England was his favourite 
 plan, he may very well have had also a completely 
 elaborated plan of the Austrian campaign, 
 including all the corruption and treachery on 
 which he could safely rely. His head had room 
 for everything at that time. If one thing failed, 
 he always had another plan. 
 
 The grande armee of the year 1805 was the 
 first to be composed entirely on the lines of 
 Napoleon's system. In the republican armies each 
 corps was a sort of separate army, with its own 
 arms of all kinds, commissariat, hospital, train, 
 etc. In the course of time Napoleon organised 
 the forces so as to have them better in hand 
 himself. Each corps was complete with infantry 
 and all that belonged to it, including field artillery. 
 But of the cavalry only a few squadrons of 
 hussars and mounted riflemen, for reconaissances 
 and covering, were under the command of the 
 head of the corps. A corps was usually com- 
 manded by a marshal. The whole of the heavy 
 cavalry was under a particular general, who was 
 usually Murat ; and of these troops and the 
 artillery Napoleon took what each corps needed, 
 either in the course of the battle or to execute a 
 manoeuvre. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 73 
 
 The corps of the body-guard had developed 
 into the Imperial Guard. It consisted of horse 
 and foot grenadiers, mamelukes from Egypt, a 
 brilliant Italian battalion, and two squadrons of 
 picked gendarmes, who kept order at head- 
 quarters. To these Napoleon added a chosen 
 artillery-park of twenty-four guns, so that the 
 Guard was really a small army of 7,000 men, with 
 officers selected from the finest in the army. With 
 the Guard, Lannes and Oudinot's grenadiers 
 generally marched near the Emperor. 
 
 The army that began to march across Europe 
 in September was divided into seven corps. The 
 first was under Marshal Bernadotte in Hanover, 
 with Generals Drouot, Rivaud, and the younger 
 Kellermann. The second corps was that of 
 General Marmont in Holland. With him were 
 Boudet and Grouchy and a large number of Dutch 
 auxiliaries. The third corps was under Davoust, 
 with Generals Friant and Gudin ; the fourth 
 under Soult, with Saint Hilaire, Vandamme, and 
 Legrand ; the fifth under Lannes, with Suchet 
 and Gazan, and Marshal Oudinot and his 
 grenadiers ; the sixth under Ney, with Dupont 
 and Loison, and the cavalry-general Colbert ; the 
 seventh was led by Marshal Augereau. The 
 cavalry, with its brilliant group of generals 
 Nansouty, Milhaud, TEspagne, Lasalle, and the 
 famous d'Hautpoul was commanded by Murat. 
 The mounted Imperial Guard was led by Marshal 
 Bessieres, and the foot-guards by Marshal Mortier. 
 Marshal Brune remained in the abandoned camp 
 at Boulogne. 
 
74 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 All these army corps, with their vast appur- 
 tenances began to march on their various routes 
 on the same day. They went straight across 
 Germany in order to meet the Austrians, who 
 had raised a large army under the Archduke 
 Charles, and had Russian troops in their rear, 
 led by the Emperor Alexander himself and 
 General Kutusow. Marching was heavy work in 
 those days. The roads were few and bad, and 
 there were not many proper bridges ; and they 
 had a very heavy train and heavy artillery. 
 
 Bavaria, Baden, and Wiirtemberg received 
 Napoleon as a friend and ally, and he adopted 
 the dangerous practice of taking large masses of 
 foreign troops into his service and expecting the 
 same bravery and fidelity from them as from the 
 French, when they were under his own officers. 
 He had no pronounced national feeling. He 
 himself travelled from Paris to Strassburg, and 
 crossed the Rhine on the first of October. All 
 the information he received assured him that 
 everything was in order. The great plan matured 
 quickly and accurately. 
 
 On October 15th, General Mack was 
 surrounded in the neighbourhood of the fortress 
 of Ulm, and completely cut off from the Russians, 
 who tried to come to his support from the east. 
 In the conflicts that followed Ney won special 
 distinction. He was ordered to take a particularly 
 strong position, the monastery of Elchingen, which 
 was defended by General Laudon with 15,000 men 
 and 40 guns. After heavy losses Ney succeeded 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 75 
 
 in entering the abbey with a desperate charge. 
 Two days afterwards Mack was forced to surrender 
 the town and fortress of Ulm. Before Napoleon 
 and his staff defiled 30,000 men, with 16 generals, 
 60 guns, 40 flags, and 3,000 horses. Berthier 
 received the sword of the unfortunate General 
 Mack. It was not the first time that General 
 Mack had had to surrender his sword. He had 
 done so to General Championnet, in the republican 
 days, at the taking of Naples. But Championnet 
 was a good-natured man. ' Keep your sword, 
 General,' he said. ' My government has forbidden 
 me to receive presents of English manufacture.' 
 Marshal Ney was made Duke of Elchingen and 
 General Exelmans received the grand cross of the 
 Legion of Honour for his behaviour at Wertingen. 
 After the capitulation of Ulm the troops, 
 with Napoleon in the midst of them, marched 
 from victory to victory. Marshal Mortier im- 
 mortalised himself by a heroic struggle against 
 a superior force at Diirnstein. Murat was to be 
 found everywhere with his cavalry. The whole 
 army, which had now been in Napoleon's hands 
 for ten years, was perfect in every respect, and its 
 generals were at their best. No one was ever tired. 
 Rivalry had not yet become bitter. The generous 
 gifts and distinctions were still at their beginning. 
 Oudinot marched straight with his grenadiers from 
 the Boulogne camp to Vienna in 45 days. There 
 he went himself with some of his officers on the 
 undermined bridge over the Danube, and snatched 
 the burning fuse out of the hands of the Austrian 
 
76 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 officers who stood ready to blow up the bridge. 
 Murat, Lannes, and Sebastian! were with him. 
 
 On November 15th, 1805, Napoleon rode into 
 Vienna for the first time. The Emperor Francis 
 had retreated to Olmiitz. The French army 
 marched after him. Marshal Soult, afterwards 
 Duke of Dalmatia, one of the solid generals who 
 always led large divisions of the army with 
 distinction, crossed the Danube, and defeated the 
 enemy at Hollabrunn. An envoy came from the 
 Emperor Francis with a proposal to conclude an 
 armistice ; but Napoleon knew very well that 
 this was merely in order to give the Russians time 
 to come up. Field-marshal Kutusow and the 
 Emperor Alexander were already at Wischau. 
 
 Napoleon seized the opportunity to approach 
 the man whom he regarded as his greatest rival 
 in the world, and who was afterwards the last to 
 be conquered or won by him. He proposed a 
 personal interview with the Tsar, but Alexander 
 merely sent Prince Dolgorucki. When the prince 
 came, Napoleon had caused his army to retreat 
 a couple of miles, and was busy strengthening his 
 new position. Dolgorucki concluded from this 
 that the French had lost courage, and would 
 rather retreat than face the Russians. His 
 impression was received with delight by the 
 Russians, and they at once advanced. Napoleon 
 took up his head-quarters at Briinn, and was 
 determined to choose his own field of battle. 
 
 On Novermber 28th, the combined armies 
 were far beyond Wischau and near to Pratzen. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN ANDjMETHODS 77 
 
 Napoleon acquainted his generals with the ground 
 he had chosen, and said : ' If I merely wanted to 
 keep the enemy off, I should remain here on the 
 heights of Pratzen. But in that case I should 
 only win an ordinary battle. I will, therefore, 
 let my right wing take up a position in the direction 
 of Briinn, and if the Russians are enticed by 
 that to descend from these hills, they are hope- 
 lessly lost.' On December 1st Napoleon was 
 delighted to see that the Russians and Austrians 
 were executing the very manoeuvre that he was 
 luring them to do. They left the heights of 
 Pratzen and marched on Briinn, in order to attack 
 or surround the French right wing. Those with 
 Napoleon heard him say repeatedly to himself 
 * Before to-morrow night the army is in my 
 power.' 
 
 On the evening of December 1st he went 
 round the camp. Some of the soldiers made 
 torches out of the straw they slept on, in order to 
 light the way for the Emperor in the dark winter 
 night. The whole army noticed it, and as he 
 went from corps to corps the straw-torches flamed 
 out, until the whole camp was filled with fire and 
 smoke, and the cry rang out from thousands of 
 throats : ' Long live the Emperor !' 
 
 On the morning of December 2nd, 1805, the 
 entire French army was drawn up in order of 
 battle, as he had directed. Marshal Lannes 
 formed the left whig with the divisions of Suchet 
 and Cafarelli. Marshal Bernadotte was in the 
 centre with Rivaud and Drouot. The right wing 
 
78 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 was led by Marshal Soult, and really decided the 
 battle. The whole of the cavalry under Murat 
 sat on horseback in two lines. Napoleon himself 
 had under him ten battalions of the Guard, and 
 ten battalions of grenadiers under Oudinot. The 
 sun burst out of the wintry fog that lay on the 
 plain and the ice-covered waters, and was mirrored 
 on the panoply of war. At that moment the 
 Russians were seen to leave Pratzen. 
 
 * How long will you need, Marshal,' Napoleon 
 asked Soult, ' to occupy the hills that the enemy 
 is leaving ?' 
 
 ' One hour, your Majesty !' 
 
 ' Good ! Then we'll wait another quarter of 
 an hour,' said Napoleon. 
 
 Soon afterwards the guns opened fire and the 
 battle began. Kutusow had divided his fighting 
 forces into six corps. As reserves he had the 
 famous Russian Guard, which was commanded by 
 the Grand Duke Constantine. Although Field- 
 marshal Kutusow had the chief command, the 
 plan came from the Austrian General Weiroth. 
 Kutusow had fruitlessly resisted it. When he 
 now saw the turn that the battle was taking, as 
 Marshal Soult's troops began to occupy the hills 
 at Pratzen, he tried with all his forces to overpower 
 them, and he fought with heavy losses to regain 
 the position which he now clearly saw to be 
 of decisive importance. For two hours there was 
 a fierce conflict. At length Kutusow had to give 
 way, and from that moment the battle took such 
 a turn that nothing could stand against the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 79 
 
 French. Lannes and Murat forced back the right 
 wing under Prince Bagration ; General Rapp 
 made his famous attack with the curassiers, in 
 which he took Prince Repnin prisoner ; and when 
 Napoleon came up to support Soult with his 
 Guard and Oudinot's grenadiers, everything fell 
 at once into the hands of the French guns, 
 artillery waggons, flags, etc. Those who tried to 
 flee across the river were drowned, as the ice broke 
 under the weight of the guns and owing to the 
 holes made in it by the French balls. Whole 
 divisions were demolished or gave up their arms. 
 
 The result was extraordinary. There were 
 25,000 killed and wounded and 25,000 taken 
 prisoners, together with a number of flags, 
 including the standard of the Imperial Russian 
 Guard. 
 
 Only two French officers of high rank fell at 
 Austerlitz. General Valhuet, whose leg was shot 
 from under him, died at once, and Colonel Morland 
 fell at the head of the riflemen of the Imperial 
 Guard. His body was taken to Paris in a cask 
 of rum, but was forgotten and left in it until 1814. 
 The brave and active General Rapp was badly 
 wounded. He was one of the unlucky officers. 
 He got four wounds in the republican wars and 
 three in Egypt. His arm especially was unlucky, 
 and was always being hit. General Thiebault also 
 was wounded. 
 
 After Austerlitz Napoleon's habit of rewarding 
 his men assumed the most princely proportions, 
 and he retained this generosity as long as he had 
 
80 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 anything to give away. He adopted the children 
 of the soldiers who had fallen in the battle. They 
 were to be reared at the expense of the State, 
 and he gave them permission to add ' Napoleon ' 
 to their names. He awarded pensions to all the 
 widows, from the widows of generals to those of 
 privates, and expressed his thanks to the army in 
 fine language. * My people will receive you with 
 pride,' he said, 'and whenever one of you says 
 " I was at Austerlitz," all will respond with one 
 voice : " This is a brave man." 
 
 In recognition of their aid Bavaria and 
 Wiirtemberg were made kingdoms, and Baden a 
 Grand Duchy. Murat was made Grand Duke of 
 Berg, Berthier Prince of Neuchatel. Eugene 
 Beauharnais, Josephine's son, was appointed 
 Viceroy of Italy and married to a daughter of the 
 King of Bavaria. Shortly afterwards Joseph 
 became King of Naples, and Lucien King of 
 Holland. A large number of officers received 
 titles, decorations, money, and property. The 
 Peace of Pressburg was soon concluded. Austria 
 lost Venice, which went to Italy, and Tyrol, which 
 was given to Bavaria. The Emperor Alexander, 
 who might have been taken prisoner with his whole 
 army, was allowed to escape. This was always 
 Napoleon's way with the Tsar. 
 
 It rarely happens in descriptions of battles 
 that one can get more than a series of pictures 
 of the collision of various arms, the heroic attack 
 or the stubborn resistance of the infantry that 
 decides the important position. To see a battle 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 81 
 
 as a connected whole, with plan opposed to plan, 
 and with the various scenes subordinated to the 
 general idea and the better calculation that 
 eventually leads to victory, is not easy for any 
 but a military expert. Nevertheless, I have 
 succeeded in making a sort of survey of some of 
 Napoleon's battles. It is not the case in all 
 battles that one side steadily wins ; that all the 
 forces are tried, yet, taking all things together, 
 the superiority is on the one side throughout. In 
 some battles the victory comes suddenly in the 
 middle of the fight. In a moment one side utterly 
 loses, and good solid troops are rendered quite 
 useless at a stroke. Austerlitz was a battle of 
 this kind. During the two hours when Kutusow 
 attempted with his entire army to regain the 
 heights of Pratzen, the struggle was equal in a 
 sense, and on neither side was there any perceptible 
 increase of success. It was as if a steel rod 
 were strained more and more until it suddenly 
 broke, and the destruction was complete. Troops 
 like the invincible Russian Imperial Guard 
 suddenly became of no more use than recruits. 
 
 I see the same thing in a different way at 
 Marengo. Throughout the whole day the 
 Austrians drove back Napoleon's right wing and 
 centre further and further. In the afternoon he 
 was in such a position that everybody thought it 
 had been a steady defeat from morning to evening. 
 But Bonaparte saw the strain on the steel bar. 
 Firmly and judiciously he prevented the break 
 until Desaix was at hand. Then the bent steel 
 
82 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 flew suddenly back upon the Austrians, and they 
 were defeated. It was not merely that he had 
 got reinforcements ; the inexplicable moment of 
 collapse had arrived. There was no retreat and 
 no loss, but flight and capture. 
 
 It was the same at Waterloo. It is always 
 said that Wellington was beaten strategically. 
 Napoleon had strained the steel bar with his 
 forces more than ever. The issue of the fight 
 vacillated, and it was impossible to tell on which 
 side the bar would spring. Napoleon alone knew 
 that it was an hour too late. And when, not 
 only Marshal Grouchy did not appear, but Bliicher 
 came instead, the bar sprang back at once and 
 broke, but in the reverse direction, and Wellington 
 won his great victory. 
 
 The Prussian campaign began immediately 
 after the Austrian. Metternich was at Berlin in 
 1805, and made the greatest efforts to bring 
 Prussia into the alliance, but Frederic William 
 remained firm. Now, however, a year later and 
 after the battle of Austerlitz, he opened the 
 unfortunate war that brought Prussia to the verge 
 of destruction. Without making any declaration 
 of war, the Prussians moved into Saxony, just 
 as the Austrians had invaded Bavaria in the 
 previous year. It is a fact that on the 26th of 
 September, 1806, Napoleon, with his finger on 
 the map at Paris, foretold the destruction of the 
 Prussian army about October 15th. It took 
 place on October 14th. He then settled that 
 Clarke should be Governor at Berlin at the end 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 83 
 
 of October. When Daru asked permission to 
 take the treasury with them, the Emperor replied : 
 * It will do if the treasurer comes.' He took only 
 24,000 francs with him on the campaign in Saxony. 
 The vanquished must pay the bill. 
 
 The Imperial Guard at once left Paris, and 
 went eastwards in post-chaises. Napoleon crossed 
 the Rhine on October 1st, 1806, and set up his 
 head-quarters at Bamberg. Here he collected his 
 troops under the seven marshals, Bernadotte, 
 Lannes, Davoust, Ney, Soult, Augereau, and 
 Lefebvre. Murat led the cavalry. It was an 
 unfortunate beginning for the Prussians when the 
 young and promising prince of the royal house, 
 Louis, was cut down by a French hussar in a 
 skirmish at Saalfeld, a few days before the decisive 
 battles of Jena and Auerstadt. However, the 
 King of Prussia and his generals were so sure of 
 victory that they had taken up their position 
 between Gotha, Erfurt, and Weimar, while 
 Napoleon came from Gera, or eastwards. Thus 
 the armies were not face to face. The Germans 
 had the Rhine in their rear and the French the 
 Elbe, with an open field to Berlin and Dresden. 
 The Prussians had themselves chosen Saxony for 
 the fight. But it was the army of Frederic the 
 Great, invincible in the opinion of contemporaries, 
 and led by the generals and pupils of the famous 
 king. We have only to think of such names as 
 Kalkreuth, the Duke of Brunswick, Mollendorf, 
 Schmettau, Hohenlohe, Ruchel, and Bliicher, with 
 230,000 stout bronze-soldiers from Potsdam, well 
 armed and well drilled. 
 
84 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Napoleon again sent one of his letters from 
 monarch to monarch this time to the King of 
 Prussia : 
 
 4 If I were a novice in the art of war and 
 had to fear the changes of fortune on the field, 
 this letter to your Majesty would be senseless. 
 But your Majesty will be beaten, and without a 
 shadow of doubt you will put an end to your 
 own peaceful existence and the lives of your 
 subjects.' 
 
 Napoleon's royal brother, Frederic William, 
 sent no reply to the letter. He and Queen Louisa 
 were with the army. The army was in two 
 divisions, one of which, consisting of 70,000 men, 
 led by the King and the Duke of Brunswick, 
 marched toward Auerstadt ; the rest, under Prince 
 Hohenlohe, went toward Jena. The two places 
 are about five miles from each other. Napoleon 
 had made such good use of the night on October 
 14th, that his troops were ready for the attack in 
 the early morning, and just at the points where 
 the Prussians least expected them. The first to 
 move was General Suchet. He opened the battle 
 in the early hours, while the mist still lay thick 
 on the fields. With him were Generals Wedel and 
 Claparede, whose division had distinguished itself 
 at Austerlitz in the preceding year. 
 
 They met with a long and stubborn and 
 desperate resistance. Marshals Soult and Lannes 
 attacked with all their forces. Ney came up 
 during the fight with two divisions. Napoleon 
 sent forward the reserve, and Murat threw himself 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 85 
 
 on the enemy, as usual, with the whole of his 
 cavalry. The Prussians gave way slowly at first, 
 with the utmost coolness and the regularity of 
 the parade ground. The infantry formed one 
 square after another. But when five squares 
 were completely ridden down, one after another, 
 by the French hussars and curassiers, the Prussians 
 gradually broke into dangerous disorder. Their 
 cavalry began to fail before Soult's solid columns, 
 and retreated in the direction of Weimar. 
 
 At this moment the reinforcements that 
 Prince Hohenlohe expected came up. General 
 Riichel's corps, consisting of 26 battalions and 
 20 squadrons, reached the fighting line. The 
 struggle now became extremely fierce, but in 
 less than an hour the whole corps melted away 
 under the repeated attacks that Napoleon showered 
 on it. In the end there was nothing left of * the 
 army of Frederic the Great.' The older art of 
 war had measured itself against the new, and 
 utterly lost. The revolution was so great from 
 the military point of view that contemporaries 
 were more amazed than they were at any other of 
 Napoleon's victories. The defeat was not in 
 itself greater than many others in respect of the 
 direct losses of men and material ; but the military 
 and moral effect of it was crushing at the time 
 for the losers, if instructive for the future. 
 
 While Napoleon was fighting at Jena on the 
 same day, October 14th Marshal Davoust 
 encountered the division of the Prussian army 
 that was led by the Duke of Brunswick, to which 
 
86 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 the King himself was attached. With Davoust 
 were Generals Gudin, Friant, and Morand, whose 
 distinguished divisions nearly always formed the 
 nucleus of the army corps that he commanded. 
 He had, however, not much more than a third of 
 the forces opposed to him, and he found himself 
 in a very dangerous position. Marshal Bernadotte 
 was quite near to him, but he acted as if he did 
 not hear the guns. He even took with him 
 some regiments of dragoons that did not properly 
 belong to his corps ; his real reason being that he 
 did not want to share the honours with Davoust, 
 and would have liked to see him beaten by the 
 Prussians, which might very well have happened. 
 
 The danger to Davoust's corps was at its 
 height about six in the evening. He himself sat 
 on his horse, serious and grave, as he always was, 
 in the midst of the frightful turmoil. Already a 
 ball had carried off his hat. He once more sent 
 a messenger one of his adjutants, the brave 
 Romeuf, who afterwards fell at Borodino to 
 Bernadotte, imploring him to come to his help. 
 Davoust who knew him even offered him the 
 supreme command. But Bernadotte marched on, 
 though he had only one turn to make to reach 
 the battlefield. Even in the end, when Davoust 
 had won the battle with his unflinching coolness 
 and superior art, and when his men were so tired 
 that they could hardly stand on their legs, 
 Bernadotte would not throw himself on the 
 demoralised Prussians, although he was near 
 enough for his and Davoust's soldiers to see each 
 other. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 87 
 
 It is true that there was a deep personal 
 enmity between the two marshals, but the whole 
 army and all the officers were enraged against 
 Bernadotte. The Emperor used to say afterwards : 
 * If I had sent Bernadotte before a court-martial 
 at that time, he would certainly have been shot 
 for his conduct.' It is said that Napoleon had 
 the decree in his hand, but tore it up at the 
 last moment out of consideration for D6sir6e, 
 Bernadotte's wife, who had had some leaning to 
 Napoleon in her younger days. 
 
 Davoust's victory at Auerstadt on October 
 14th, 1806, is always regarded as one of the most 
 brilliant in the annals of the French army. The 
 Emperor made him Duke of AuerstSdt, and gave 
 him splendid gifts. Davoust was of the old 
 nobility, and he had known the Bonapartes since 
 the military school at Brienne. He served under 
 the generals of the Republic, but was excluded 
 from the service because he was a noble. He 
 afterwards became one of Napoleon's most reliable 
 leaders, training and keeping his men together 
 with a firm and hard hand, so that the third 
 army corps was a model body. 
 
 The losses of the Prussians in the two battles 
 were enormous. Davoust alone took 114 guns, 
 while he himself had only 44. About 50,000 men 
 fell or were made prisoners, and he captured 
 flags and supplies of all sorts. Amongst the 
 prisoners there were 6,000 Saxons with their 
 officers. Napoleon had the officers brought before 
 him at Weimar, He told them that it was one 
 
88 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 object of the campaign to prevent the incorporation 
 of Saxony into Prussia. He then sent them on 
 parole to Dresden, and entrusted to them a 
 proclamation in which he posed as Saxony's 
 protector. This was a finely calculated intro- 
 duction to the intimacy he gradually formed with 
 the Saxon court and the later king of Saxony. 
 
 The veterans of Frederic the Great were 
 beaten, but most of them fought to the death. 
 The defeat was still further embittered for Prussia 
 as it meant the extinction of so many great names. 
 The famous Duke of Brunswick had both eyes 
 shot out, and he died shortly afterwards. Field- 
 marshal Mollendorf and General lieutenant 
 Schmettau were fatally wounded. Prince Henry 
 of Prussia and the Prince of Orange, afterwards 
 King of Holland, were wounded, and so were 
 General Riichel and others. Frederic William, 
 always moderate, was content with a fall from 
 his horse, but he very nearly fell into the hands 
 of the French horsemen. 
 
 An armistice was asked, but Napoleon at 
 once replied that he would only treat with them 
 at Berlin. He assumed a hard and unpleasant 
 attitude toward Frederic William, whom he 
 despised, and later toward Queen Louisa, whom he 
 could not endure. It was quite a different matter 
 when he was dealing with Alexander the First. 
 A few days after Jena, General Kalkreuth, another 
 of Frederic the Great's first generals, was 
 annihilated by Marshal Soult. Bernadotte won 
 a victory at Halle ; and they went on from battle 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 89 
 
 to battle, the unfortunate queen having to fly 
 from town to town as far as Kiistrin. 
 
 Prince Hohenlohe had to surrender to Murat 
 with his whole army at Prentzlau. As prisoners 
 of war, 16,000 foot and six regiments of cavalry of 
 the best soldiers in Prussia, with 60 guns, and 40 
 flags, had to pass before the French lines. Stettin, 
 which was then a strong fortress, surrendered to 
 the brave cavalry-general Lasalle, who attacked 
 it at the head of a few squadrons. Davoust took 
 Kiistrin. In the end Bliicher alone remained, and 
 he retreated before the advancing French with 
 the remnants of the fine army, and established 
 himself at Liibeck. Three marshals Soult, 
 Bernadotte, and Murat went after him. Bliicher 
 contested every foot of the ground in Liibeck. 
 They fought in the fortifications, at the gates, and 
 afterwards in the houses. Every street had to 
 be stormed and taken, but after two days fighting 
 Bliicher had to surrender, with eleven generals, 
 500 officers, 60 flags, artillery, and supplies all 
 that was left after the catastrophes at Jena and 
 Auerstadt. 
 
 On the following day Magdeburg fell, and 
 then there was nothing left in Prussia to fight 
 with. Meantime the French had set up their 
 head- quarters at Potsdam. Marshals Lannes, 
 Bessieres, and Lefebvre, were there with the 
 Guard, and General Bourcier erected a large 
 cavalry depot there. The town was long held by 
 the French. 
 
90 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 On October 27th Napoleon rode with the 
 Guard through the triumphal arch that had been 
 raised to the memory of Frederic the Great at 
 Berlin. The campaign with Prussia proper was 
 now at an end, but as Russia came forth as the 
 ally and deliverer of Prussia, the war had to 
 continue, and the French armies gaily made then- 
 way eastwards towards Warsaw. During the 
 following campaign the Emperor remained with 
 the army, and spent the winter in the eastern 
 provinces of Prussia. From his head-quarters he 
 ruled his entire empire, and kept his eye on 
 everything, particularly Paris. Amongst other 
 things during the winter, he worked out the plan 
 of a monumental structure at Paris, which was 
 to have the inscription : * To the soldiers of 
 Napoleon's grand army.' In it the heroes of all 
 his campaigns were to be named on tablets of 
 white marble, and those who fell on the field were 
 to be inscribed in gold. The Madeleine church in 
 its present form was the ultimate outcome of 
 his plan. 
 
 Another task that engaged him was his great 
 plan of blockading the continent against England. 
 It was, perhaps, a larger plan than he suspected, 
 and at all events it proved too big for him in the 
 end. He also made the Elector of Saxony king ; 
 he was the only one among the legitimate princes 
 who was a friend of Napoleon. 
 
 In the early days of February, 1807, there 
 was a series of conflicts with the Russians, who 
 were commanded by General Bennigsen, together 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 91 
 
 with the remaining fighting forces of Prussia. 
 The French broke out of their winter quarters, 
 where they had spent a hard winter in the midst 
 of snow and morasses and mud ; though it was 
 nothing to compare, as some may imagine, with 
 the cold of Russia or the fearful snow-storms of 
 the eastern plains. On February 8th the two 
 armies faced each other at Eylau, at a distance of 
 half a cannon shot. The Russians had the better 
 position, and were numerically superior. It was 
 very bad weather. The snow was falling heavily 
 and the French had the wind in their faces. 
 Bennigsen opened the battle with a terrific gun- 
 fire. The Russians, taught by Napoleon, had 
 now a large and excellent artillery. Napoleon 
 felt that it was a critical day. He spared nothing, 
 even sending forward the valuable guns of the 
 Guard. 
 
 Marshal Augereau had to lead forward his 
 corps at the beginning of the battle in face of the 
 heavy Russian fire. But just as the great masses 
 were set in motion they were lashed by a 
 particularly heavy and violent snowstorm, coming 
 right in the faces of the advancing French. 
 Augereau' s columns lost their bearings, and found 
 themselves in the middle of the Russian right wing, 
 which was commanded by Generals Tutschukoff 
 and Doctorow. The marshal himself was seriously 
 wounded and had to be carried from the field, 
 and his fine corps was routed and almost 
 annihilated. 
 
92 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 As soon as they could see their way again, 
 it was clear to Napoleon that the whole army 
 was put in a critical condition through Augereau's 
 mishap. He ordered Murat and Bessieres to 
 collect 70 squadrons and throw them against the 
 enemy's centre. The immense body of horse 
 rushed forward and disappeared in the half-lost 
 battle. Their attack at Eylau has become famous 
 for all time. The Russian cavalry was routed, 
 and the solid regiments of infantry were trodden 
 down. At the head was a man who had the 
 highest repute in the cavalry after Murat General 
 d'Hautpoul. When the battle began he was some 
 distance from Eylau. But he at once obeyed 
 Napoleon's old general order, always to march 
 toward the guns. As soon as he heard them, he 
 turned his curassiers and raced to Eylau. 
 
 Bernadotte, who was also not far off, behaved 
 again as he had done at Auerstadt. D'Hautpoul 
 begged and implored him to return and join in 
 the battle, but he would neither hear nor see. He 
 continued the march that had been directed to 
 him not because he was afraid : it was not 
 possible for any one about Napoleon to be afraid 
 but the Prince of Ponte Corvo was so ambitious 
 that he would not have minded seeing one of the 
 others defeated, even if it was Napoleon perhaps, 
 especially Napoleon. 
 
 The brave d'Hautpoul rushed with his 
 curassiers into the half-lost battle, and made a 
 great breach through nearly the whole Russian 
 army. He was brought back wounded and torn, 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 93 
 
 and died a few days afterwards. Napoleon had 
 given him the grand cross of the Legion of Honour 
 and ample endowments after Austerlitz, and it 
 was the common opinion that General d'Hautpoul 
 was well on the way to become a marshal. 
 Napoleon had a statue of him made from 24 of 
 the guns taken at Eylau. It is still standing 
 somewhere at Paris I do not remember where. 
 But I recollect well a large equestrian statue of 
 Bernadotte that is still seen in Christiania. 
 
 After the fierce attack of the cavalry had 
 broken twice through the Russian lines, they 
 concentrated for the third time. They now stood 
 firm, and could not be shaken again. The fight 
 continued all day with extraordinary spirit, but 
 General Bennigsen established his position in the 
 town of Eylau. The Prussian General L'Estocq 
 came up with some reinforcements in the afternoon 
 and the battle was left undecided when darkness 
 set in. Marshal Soult urged Napoleon to remain 
 on the battlefield. About eight o'clock the camp 
 fires were lit along the whole line in order to 
 mark the fact that the French occupied the field. 
 Bennigsen, however, retreated during the night. 
 He may have suffered more than Napoleon, who 
 had a good many reserve troops to rely on. But 
 the battle had run in such a way that both sides 
 could claim the victory, as they really did. At 
 all events neither side was defeated. 
 
 A number of high officers had fallen. Sixteen 
 generals were lost on the French side including 
 
94 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Corbineau, who fell at the Emperor's side. 
 Heudelet received a ball through the middle of 
 the body, but he recovered. Defiance and 
 Desjardins fell. So did General Dahlmann, who 
 commanded the mounted rifles, and fell with 
 d'Hautpoul in the great cavalry attack. The loss 
 was also very great amongst the soldiers and 
 inferior officers. The battle of Eylau was always 
 spoken of afterwards in grave tones. It was the 
 most sanguinary that was ever seen in the 
 Emperor's campaigns. Napoleon himself spent 
 a good deal of the following night on the field, 
 helping the wounded and directing the burial of 
 the enormous number of corpses. 
 
 The Emperor's bulletin on the battle of 
 Eylau caused great excitement at Paris. He 
 made no effort to conceal his great losses and the 
 doubtful issue. After Eylau the white uniforms 
 were abandoned. There were a number of white 
 regiments in the army, dating from the time of 
 the kings ; but it was too terrible at Eylau to see 
 the red blood pouring over the fine white uniforms. 
 
 During the battle the Emperor himself was 
 in serious danger, partly because he recklessly 
 exposed himself to it, and partly because of the 
 close proximity of the two armies. Berthier had 
 the greatest difficulty in keeping him out of the 
 most dangerous spots. The Emperor was as cool 
 and collected as usual, though the generals 
 could not conceal the fact that they felt the whole 
 issue to be hanging by a single thread. General 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 95 
 
 Dorsenne commanded the section of the Guard 
 that was nearest to the Emperor, and tried to 
 protect him as much as possible. He was, like 
 most of the officers of the Guard, a fine tall man, 
 with some care for personal appearance. His 
 men also were picked and they were just as proud 
 of their general as he was content with them 
 himself. In the middle of the battle, at the height 
 of the turmoil, General Dorsenne suddenly caught 
 sight of a division of Prussian cavalry that seemed 
 about to storm the little hill where the Emperor and 
 his attendants were standing. He called his men, 
 and quick as lightning formed a square round the 
 Emperor with the Guard. The soldiers stood with 
 arms presented, but heard no command to fire 
 or lower the bayonet. General Dorsenne sat 
 erect and proud in his saddle, looking at the 
 approaching horsemen. It was enough for him 
 that his grenadiers stood like a wall round the 
 Emperor. In fact, when the Russians drew near 
 and saw the grim faces of the famous Imperial 
 Guard with the high bear-skin helmets, standing 
 shoulder to shoulder like an iron frame, the troop 
 instinctively turned aside and rode away. The 
 Emperor smiled at Dorsenne. 
 
 On February 16th General Savary had his 
 great day as a soldier. He was generally employed 
 in a political capacity, as an envoy or in the 
 police. As a friend of Napoleon's youth, who 
 could be implicitly trusted, he had often to do 
 things that brought him the contempt and hatred 
 
96 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 of others. At this time, however, he had 
 temporary command of the fifth army corps, 
 during the illness of Marshal Lannes, and on the 
 16th he succeeded in defeating the Russian 
 General Essen after a stiff fight at Ostrolenka. 
 He had with him the divisions of Suchet, Gazan, 
 and Reille. He was given the grand cordon of 
 the Legion of Honour and an award of 20,000 
 francs a year, which had been set free by General 
 d'Hautpoul's death at Eylau. He afterwards 
 became the Duke of Rovigo. General Ordener 
 was made a Count after the battle of Ostrolenka. 
 
 After a long and spirited siege the elderly 
 Marshal Lefebvre took the fortress of Dantzig. 
 He had with him the first two engineer-generals 
 of the army, Lariboisiere and Chasseloup, and it 
 was really these who conducted the siege. The 
 marshal was always for storming, and they had 
 the greatest difficulty in restraining him until they 
 were ready. In the end General Kalkreuth had 
 to surrender Dantzig with large stores of arms, 
 ammunition, and corn. Lefebvre was afterwards 
 Duke of Dantzig. 
 
 A number of smaller battles were won by the 
 French, and at last the great battle of Friedland 
 put an end to the war with Russia. The Tsar, 
 like the King of Prussia before, had no army to 
 fight with. Napoleon fought the battle of Fried- 
 land on the anniversary of Marengo, the 14th oi 
 June. It did not begin until five in the afternoon, 
 and was a complete victory one of the most 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 97 
 
 thorough infantry victories, won by the bayonet, 
 the cavalry afterwards swooping like hawks on 
 the fugitives. This time the Emperor himself 
 was on the heels of the monarchs. When they 
 reached Tilsit, the bridge across the Niemen was 
 still burning by which they had saved themselves 
 and the remnants of their armies. The booty was 
 enormous. At Konigsberg, for instance, they 
 found 160,000 new English weapons, that had 
 not yet been unloaded. 
 
 The Emperors Napoleon and Alexander met 
 eventually at Tilsit. They were daily together for 
 a whole fortnight, discussing political matters. 
 Napoleon wanted to have a free hand in regard 
 to Spain, and Alexander in regard to Finland. 
 He treated the Tsar with great moderation, in 
 fact with a consideration that was foreign to his 
 nature, and at his request, restored to Prussia 
 sufficient territory to keep it in existence. On 
 the other hand Alexander recognised the three 
 kings Joseph, Lucien, and Jerome, and the King 
 of Saxony as Grand-duke of Warsaw. Finally, 
 he joined the continental blockade ; but he never 
 seriously meant a single word that fell from his 
 lips. However, Napoleon, who could at the time 
 have divided the world into two parts, was glad to 
 secure the recognition and the friendship of the 
 man ; he considered that this was all that was 
 wanting to his power. 
 
 The armies then returned in triumph to 
 France, where all the towns, with Paris at their 
 
 G 
 
98 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 head, received with the utmost hospitality the 
 brave soldiers who had been away for ten months. 
 The Emperor made a generous distribution of 
 crosses of the Legion of Honour and awards, but 
 with strict regard to justice, which gave an 
 increased value to every gift. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 The Emperor was now quite at home in every 
 part of Europe. He was familiar with all the 
 castles of Italy and the continent. Every day 
 the officers and servants of his court were brought 
 before him ; and when his travelling carriage 
 galloped over the drawbridge at night, the torch- 
 bearer stood at the steps, his own officers flung 
 open the door of the carriage and received him, 
 and the little man in the grey coat walked quietly 
 in the torch light up the broad steps ; the aged 
 and powdered servants of the castle standing by 
 with candelabra in their trembling hands. He 
 strode through the well-lit halls to his own rooms, 
 was relieved of his clothes by his own valet, and 
 flung himself into his boiling bath as if he were at 
 home. 
 
 Everything that belonged to his person was 
 of the finest quality, arranged most punctiliously, 
 and in his own grand style. His carriage horses 
 were picked animals, and arranged in relays of 
 
100 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 three pairs each with an outrider. When he had 
 to travel 20 kilometres (12J miles) six relays of 
 horses were arranged on the route, so that he 
 only went a short distance with the same horses. 
 He generally went at a sort of gallop, though one 
 must remember what kind of roads were in 
 existence a hundred years ago and the heaviness 
 of the carriages. There was no question of reading 
 or studying maps in the carriage. Nevertheless, 
 there were books, writing materials, maps, and 
 field glasses with each relay. Every object was 
 marked with the number of the relay, so that it 
 was easy to arrange in the night before a journey, 
 without anyone knowing of it. 
 
 He had, in fact, plenty to think about. 
 When he travelled eastwards, he reflected on his 
 campaigns. Along the route he received couriers, 
 or there might be a marshal with his staff at a 
 prearranged point to confer with him. Day and 
 night he galloped on through villages and dark 
 woods. His coach thundered along the narrow 
 streets, and the light of his torches flashed like 
 lightning across the narrow windows. ' There he 
 is again,' the Germans said, as they shrank 
 underneath the bed-clothes. He sat confidently 
 in his stout carriage, his escort rattling along at 
 the side with gleaming sabres and pistols. 
 
 When he went westwards, he considered above 
 all things what else he could do for Paris, which 
 was never out of his thoughts. He mentally 
 decided on fresh distinctions, promotions, and 
 gifts for his men. Wherever he went he kept his 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND MEtfiODS ;KH 
 
 eye on the crown property and the public domains. 
 He accumulated property that he could share as 
 he pleased amongst his marshals and dukes. It 
 is difficult to appreciate the munificence of the 
 man in his awards. He never loaded favourites 
 and courtiers with wealth, as foolish princes do ; 
 still less dare women interfere in such matters. 
 His gifts were a manly recognition of manly 
 strength and courage, which never escaped his 
 attention from the marshal to the little drummer 
 who ran out in his shirt and beat the alarm. 
 
 At one time Marshal Davoust, Duke of 
 Auerstadt and Prince of Eckmiihl had an annual 
 income of 1,800,000 francs (72,000) from his 
 offices and domains. However, this did not last 
 many years. In 1814 all property was lost that 
 lay outside the strict limits of France. But when 
 we recollect what an income of 72,000 meant a 
 hundred years ago, we can realise how money 
 circulated about the person of Napoleon. And 
 Davoust was anything but a favourite ! There 
 was nothing between the Emperor and him to 
 compare with Napoleon's feeling for Duroc, 
 Lannes, Junot, or Marmont. The awards to 
 Davoust were merely a recognition of the qualities 
 that made him an indispensable and invincible 
 leader. 
 
 Napoleon's princely titles were not empty 
 ones like those that victorious monarchs of our 
 own time bestow with silken sashes. Most of his 
 officers and chief servants received with their 
 titles incomes that enabled them to keep good 
 
102 NA?OLEQN'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 house at Paris. We still find amongst the highest 
 French aristocracy many of the princely names 
 that were originally given to Napoleon's soldiers. 
 In point of fact, it is difficult to identify sometimes 
 the titles that cover the names of distinguished 
 soldiers and statesmen. Murat was first Grand- 
 duke of Cleve and Berg, and afterwards King of 
 Naples. Berthier was the reigning Prince of 
 Neuchatel. Ponte Corvo and Benevento also 
 were real and independent principalities, and were 
 given to Bernadotte and Talleyrand and their 
 heirs. 
 
 In 1806 Napoleon created 22 principalities 
 out of the annexed territories, such as Venice, 
 the hereditary title bringing with it five-tenths 
 of the revenue of the respective district. Many 
 of the marshals received duchies of this character 
 Soult was Duke of Dalmatia, Bessieres of Istria, 
 Victor of Belluno, Moncey of Conegliano, Mortier 
 of Treviso, Macdonald of Tarentum, Oudinot of 
 Reggio. Besides the marshals General Duroc 
 became Duke of Friaul, Maret of Bassano, Savary 
 of Rovigo, Fouche of Otranto, and a Corsican 
 relative of the Bonaparte family, Arrighi, a 
 courageous cavalry general, was made Duke of 
 Padua. The best titles were those that were taken 
 from the battles, and designated the victors 
 throughout life. The aged Kellermann was made 
 Duke of Valmy ; Lefebvre, Duke of Dantzig ; 
 Massena, Duke of Rivoli and Prince of Esslingen ; 
 Lannes, Duke of Montebello ; Ney, Duke of 
 Elchingen and Prince of Moskwa and Beresina ; 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 103 
 
 Davoust, Duke of Auerstadt and Prince of 
 Eckmiihl. 
 
 For all these and many others the Emperor 
 provided generous incomes, either in the form of 
 productive property, or, if there was any difficulty 
 in this, in the form of princely gifts. He kept 
 them all in mind, and although he did not like 
 them or their wives to waste, he equally disliked 
 parsimony. He wanted his men to fill the space 
 vacated at the Revolution, and effect the transition 
 from France's older nobility to the new society 
 that he would create. He therefore surrounded 
 himself with a brilliant circle at home and abroad. 
 Wherever he went, a court was formed about 
 him it was done for the first time at the chateau 
 of Montebello. In every town in Europe and in 
 the deserted castles his daily life had the same 
 invariable tenour as at St. Cloud or Fontainebleau. 
 
 There was the same regularity and continuity 
 in his work from morning till night. Reviews of 
 troops that were off to the war ; reorganisation of 
 the corps that returned suffering from the field ; 
 work in his own cabinet with his secretaries and 
 general-staff officers or with foreign envoys. He 
 ate when he pleased ; and he always had something 
 good. Even in the worst days in Russia, when 
 all the others suffered great privations, the 
 Emperor always had his chambertin ; and there 
 was always a little meat or fowl at his meals. 
 He had only to nod and a small table was spread 
 for him as rapidly as at the Tuileries. He used 
 to say himself that it seemed to be done by magic. 
 
104 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 When he was in the field they put a chicken to 
 roast every half-hour, and it often happened that 
 they roasted twelve before he would eat. During 
 the fight his head cook would make his way 
 through the confusion, and bring the Emperor 
 something to eat and a glass of wine on horseback. 
 Although Napoleon seemed to set little store 
 on such things, he was waited upon on every side 
 with a devotion that no other man ever experienced, 
 Everything pertaining to his person and his daily 
 life was of the best quality ; and wherever he 
 was at home or abroad he lived like the best- 
 served prince in Europe. His officers also were 
 well treated in the first campaigns on the continent. 
 The highest of them began to display a certain 
 luxury, but there was no effeminacy or excess. 
 It was said of Junot alone, the Duke of Abrantes, 
 that his prodigality was ridiculous ; that, for 
 instance, his carriages and his fine stables were 
 equal to the Emperor's. For the younger officers 
 the first campaigns to Vienna and Berlin were 
 mere picnics. They knew that they were going 
 out for victory and promotion, and they reached 
 courts and circles where there were no other young 
 men besides themselves, but a large number of the 
 finest ladies, who could not withstand the hand- 
 some cavaliers from Paris that swept in like a 
 hurricane from the field, laughing and amorous, 
 and were off in the morning perhaps for ever. 
 The gay Lasalle, the handsome Colbert, Gardanne 
 with the famous moustache, Turenne, Segur they 
 were the greatest names the old ladies could 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 105 
 
 imagine, as they blushingly asked : ' How is your 
 father, the Duke ?' 
 
 The officers who were not elegant enough for 
 these circles found open houses and hunting 
 properties, with as much shooting, gaiety, and 
 dancing as they wished. In the kitchen and the 
 cellar they found natives who could serve them in 
 Parisian fashion, and the butlers were only too 
 pleased to produce for them their master's old 
 French wine. When they were garrisoned in 
 large German towns, they turned everything 
 upside down with their follies, infatuated the 
 women and drove the men to despair. One 
 young general confided to his German tailor that 
 the latest fashion at Paris was to wear close-fitting 
 white silk hose with red tassels at the knees ; but 
 the tailor was not to tell anybody, because the 
 general wanted to be the only one in fashion 
 at the next ball. It turned out as he expected. 
 The tailor had not kept silence, and the general 
 and his friends had the satisfaction of seeing one 
 local lion after another enter the ballroom in 
 close-fitting white silk hose with red tassels at 
 the knees. 
 
 The ordinary soldier and the lower officers 
 filled themselves with wine and German beer, and 
 pulled the maids about until they fled in their 
 heavy skirts. No one could resist the gallants, 
 speaking the fine language of the ruling power, 
 with such busy hands and so sure a grip of the 
 figure, dancing and leaping as if they had springs 
 in their legs. 
 
106 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 The fights were harder and the whole art of 
 war more severe than in Italy. Nevertheless, one 
 could long hear the melody of a polka amid the 
 bustle of the war in the early German campaigns ; 
 but it gradually ceased as the settlement with 
 the princes became a settlement with the people. 
 Napoleon now knew that he could beat the 
 Russians or the Germans, whatever they might 
 call themselves. He made little distinction 
 between the various Germanic peoples. Their 
 racial differences were immaterial to him. Hence, 
 when he had taken the power away from the 
 reigning prince, he chose auxiliary troops from the 
 beaten army, gave them French officers, and let 
 them march and fight with his own soldiers. It 
 was fortunate that many of the inhabitants of 
 the borderlands and almost all the German officers, 
 at least those of higher rank, knew a little French. 
 Napoleon saw no danger in it, and when, in 1813, 
 these troops returned to their own powers a 
 matter which can hardly surprise us Napoleon 
 thought it the blackest treachery. 
 
 He had himself no strong f eeling of nationality. 
 He was no more French than the Norwegians 
 were Danes when, as did Tordenskjold, Rye, 
 Helgesen, and Schleppegrell, they went to the 
 assistance of Denmark. Nevertheless, apart from 
 the fact that Norway was always above every- 
 thing else in their minds, the long period of 
 union had engendered a more patriotic feeling 
 toward Denmark in Norwegians than one could 
 expect in an entirely Italian race, that had lived 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 107 
 
 only a comparatively short time on the island of 
 Corsica, which in turn was only for a short time, 
 and against its will, brought under French rule. 
 Napoleon's national feeling was really a natural 
 consciousness that he was the greatest son of the 
 greatest nation, and that what he did for other 
 nations was the best they could receive, because 
 it was French. He knew no love of country 
 apart from and beyond his own person. He did 
 not know that there is a patriotism beyond the 
 range of reason, a peculiar love of one's own 
 country that would rather fight and perish any 
 day than receive even the best conditions from 
 the hand of a foreigner. 
 
 When there was question of an invasion of 
 England, which many think was never seriously 
 intended, Napoleon faced all kinds of difficulties 
 and made all kinds of preparations on land and 
 sea. But he did not reckon with the English 
 nation. He was hardly able to imagine what 
 would happen if an enemy were to march upon 
 London. Napoleon's experience had been built 
 up on the level continent, where the frontiers of 
 the countries had been shifted backwards and 
 forwards in the extravagant wars of princes. 
 Hence Spain, on which he now threw himself, was 
 a fatal enigma to him, and he wore himself out 
 in a fruitless endeavour to solve it. The Spaniards 
 had been a hundred years before a nation that 
 would rather die than surrender. 
 
 It is quite true that, under exceptionally bad 
 rulers, Spain had made a most foolish declaration 
 
108 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 of war upon France before the battle of Jena. 
 But it is just as certain that, when the Spanish 
 pretence of war had been at once crushed out, 
 Napoleon interfered most unjustly in Spanish 
 affairs. His aim was clear enough. He wanted 
 the crown of Spain for some member of his own 
 family, and at the same time to reach through 
 Spain his worst enemy, England, which had made 
 a sort of market of Portugal. 
 
 General Junot was therefore ordered to march 
 peacefully through Spain and besiege Lisbon. 
 Junot was not a distinguished general and still 
 less a diplomatist. The important commission 
 was entrusted to him mainly because Napoleon 
 knew that he would carry out any order, however, 
 difficult, with the most uncalculating courage. 
 He took Portugal in a month, and reached Lisbon, 
 as he was directed to do, on November 30th, 1807, 
 with the remains of his army, which he had worn 
 out with marches and fights. As he approached, 
 the royal house of Portugal, the Braganza family, 
 went on board the fleet with the court and immense 
 wealth and sailed to the empire of Brazil. 
 Napoleon made Junot Duke of Abrantes, after a 
 battle he had fought in Portugal. He had 
 marched peacefully through Spain, as if the war 
 with it was over. It was the same with the 
 70,000 men that the Emperor sent after Junot to 
 Portugal in 1806. However, these troops, com- 
 manded by Marshal Moncey, Duke of Conegliano, 
 and General Dupont, were suddenly directed to 
 fall on the Spanish towns and fortresses. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 109 
 
 On June 6th, 1808, Joseph Bonaparte was 
 proclaimed King of Spain. He had hitherto 
 amused himself so well as king of the gay Neapoli- 
 tans, at a safe distance from his restless brother, 
 that he was not particularly pleased with a 
 promotion that put him on the ancient and 
 unfamiliar throne of Spain, and events justified 
 his concern. The shrewd General Exelmans 
 knew the Spanish nation better than Napoleon did, 
 and he had endeavoured to make him understand 
 that this was the worst conceivable way of treating 
 the Spaniards ; but no one would listen to him. 
 The result was that the whole of Spain offered a 
 resistance that had the character of a revolution 
 from the first. It was a revolt against a king 
 imposed on them by a foreign power. From this 
 moment began the bitter struggle between French 
 and Spaniards, that went on without interruption 
 until the fall of Napoleon. 
 
 The radical differences between the Spanish 
 wars and the open campaigns in Italy and Germany 
 where the French generals had hitherto conquered, 
 was due firstly to the natural character of the 
 country, which offered better opportunities for 
 small fights, surprises, and descents. Then there 
 was the circumstance that the war was a general 
 rising of the people. The haughty nation took 
 part in it to a man indeed, to a woman. They 
 fought in bands, and by ambush and assassination. 
 More French soldiers were killed in this way than 
 in the pitched battles. Another feature that gave 
 the Spanish wars a unique complexion was the 
 
110 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 levity with which the French troops were wont 
 to regard the women in conquered territory as so 
 much booty. The Spanish women declined to 
 see this, and what the French had begun almost 
 in jest, soon assumed the most alarming pro- 
 portions on account of the unexpected resistance, 
 and at last it degenerated into violence and 
 shameful abuse on the part of the conquerors. 
 
 The rage of the Spaniards was unbounded. 
 They continued the scattered fight with cold- 
 blooded ferocity, and punished, maltreated, and 
 mutilated their prisoners. No isolated Frenchman 
 was safe in Spain. When the troops marched 
 onward, they found the corpses of their comrades 
 hanging along the streets, naked and mutilated ; 
 and the nature of the mutilation clearly indicated 
 that this was vengeance for the treatment of 
 their women. 
 
 The worst of all was that the French arms 
 met with a serious reverse from the outset. A 
 French corps under General Dupont advanced 
 along the Andujar. Dupont belonged to an old 
 family of officers, and had narrowly escaped the 
 guillotine. Carnot had had him installed in the 
 topographical department of the Ministry of War 
 together with Clarke, but he had a command as 
 early as Marengo, and was the officer who 
 conducted the negotiations with General Melas 
 after the battle. He had served under Marshal 
 Mortier at Diirnstein, and after Friedland he 
 received on the field the broad ribbon of the Legion 
 of Honour. He was, therefore, one of the chief 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 111 
 
 generals, and the Emperor had confidence in him. 
 One day in June, 1808, he was opposed with a 
 small part of his corps to the Spanish General 
 Reding, a Swiss by birth, at Baylen. One of 
 Dupont's generals, Gobert, fell in a skirmish, and 
 his successor, Dufour, a good general, who after- 
 wards fell at Beresina, was not prepared and not 
 at his post. Other accidents happened. Orderlies 
 went astray ; commands were intercepted by the 
 enemy, and this gave rise to misunderstandings 
 and a number of bad manoeuvres. In addition, 
 the heat was extraordinary, and General Dupont 
 was ill. 
 
 General Reding profited so well by all this 
 that he compelled Dupont to seek an armistice 
 after an unequal fight on June 20th. But Reding 
 was attacked from another side at the same time 
 by General Wedel. He was between Dupont and 
 Wedel, and would have been crushed if he had 
 not succeeded in inducing Dupont to inform 
 Wedel by an orderly of the armistice. Thus 
 Wedel was forced to desist from attacking, and 
 let slip a Spanish regiment that he might have 
 captured. But while Wedel was still fighting, 
 one of Dupont's adjutants, Villoutrai, who had 
 completely misunderstood his commands, had 
 brought news of the armistice, out of consideration 
 for General Castanos, who was still a long way off. 
 Castanos advanced by forced marches to Baylen, 
 and the situation became so desperate with his 
 arrival that the armistice was converted into a 
 capitulation. Nor was this all. Generals Wedel 
 
112 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 and Dufour, hearing that Dupont had capitulated 
 and marching on to reach Madrid, heard from 
 Dupont by an adjutant after a day's march that 
 their divisions were included in the capitulation. 
 In a moment of incredible stupidity the generals 
 obeyed, surrendered, and had their brave soldiers 
 disarmed, and thrown into Spanish prisons. 
 
 The whole army 21,000 men, with 40 guns 
 and 2,400 cavalry became prisoners of war. Very 
 few of these fine soldiers ever reached France 
 again. Most of them met their death by hunger 
 and filth and ill treatment in the horrible prisons 
 of Spain. As was usually done perhaps especially 
 in Spain the higher officers had collected an 
 immense amount of booty, which was amongst the 
 baggage of the army. It has been hinted that 
 the generals thought more of their valuable spoil 
 than they ought to have done. But when the 
 soldiers saw that their poor knapsacks were to 
 be searched they handed over to the officers the 
 driving of the waggons, in which there were 
 great quantities of pictures and other valuables 
 taken from churches and castles. 
 
 It was the greatest blow that the French 
 army ever experienced under Napoleon. He 
 heard the news at Bordeaux on August 1st, and 
 his pain and anger were unbounded. * Would 
 that I could wipe out the disgrace with my 
 blood,' he exclaimed. The celebrated engineer- 
 general Marescot and General Prive had protested 
 against the capitulation, and could not be included 
 in the infamy of it. General Prive was detained 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 113 
 
 in England until 1814, and Dupont was imprisoned. 
 His case was never concluded, as far as I can 
 learn ; but after 1814 he received fresh honours 
 and dignity under the Bourbons. 
 
 When the Baylen capitulation was known 
 throughout Spain, it made a deep impression. 
 The bubble of French invincibility was pricked, 
 as it were, and the revolution could not be sup- 
 pressed. Joseph had to fly from Madrid after 
 being King of Spain for eight days. The 
 misfortunes of France in Spain were completed 
 in 1808 when Wellesley landed to the north of 
 Lisbon with an English army, joined the Portu- 
 guese, and marched on Vimeiro with a force of 
 26,000 men. The intrepid Junot did not budge 
 a step, but opposed the advance of the enemy 
 with his 10,000 men. He fought for five hours 
 and lost the battle, but his position remained so 
 strong that the English general offered him 
 honourable terms, and the capitulation was con- 
 cluded in the famous monastery at Cintra near 
 Lisbon. Junot 's army with all arms and stores 
 was sent in English ships to France, so that he 
 and his men left the Peninsula without disgrace. 
 
 However, coming after the Baylen scandal, 
 the Cintra capitulation put the French in a 
 desperate position, and the English, who remained 
 in Portugal, were greeted as friends and allies by 
 the Spaniards. After a short time the Spanish 
 nation, which might have entered into an alliance 
 with the French by a rational and considerate 
 treatment, to drive the English invaders out of 
 H 
 
114 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 the Peninsula, joined with the English in 
 antagonism to Napoleon. 
 
 When Napoleon and Alexander met at Tilsit 
 in July, 1807, they had both expressed a wish to 
 meet again before the end of the year. Affairs 
 in Spain, and the presence of the English army in 
 Portugal made a meeting more than advisable 
 for Napoleon. Prussia's fate was to be decided. 
 Austria was making strenuous preparations, and 
 had reorganised its reserve. When Napoleon 
 went to Erfurt for the promised interview in July, 
 1808, his forces were as follows, according to a 
 letter to his brother Joseph : ' I have one army 
 at Passau, one at Warschau, one in Schleswig, 
 one at Hamburg, one at Berlin, one at Boulogne, 
 and one marching against Portugal. I am 
 collecting a reserve army at Boulogne, I have 
 another in Italy, another in Dalmatia, and another 
 at Naples. And there are garrisons all along the 
 coast.' 
 
 All the German princes, except the King of 
 Prussia and the Emperor of Austria were at 
 Erfurt. Baron Vincent came, as representative, 
 with an excuse for the latter. The truth was 
 that the Emperor was concerned to see Napoleon 
 caring about nobody but the Tsar, and the two 
 arranging the affairs of Europe without inviting 
 him. Moreover, Austria was fully occupied just 
 then with its own organisation. 
 
 During the fortnight they were together at 
 Erfurt, the two Emperors had most intimate 
 conversations, and it seemed to everybody that 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 115 
 
 the Russian autocrat was proud of the 
 consideration and friendship with which Napoleon 
 treated him. ' The friendship of a great man is 
 a gift of the gods,' was said one night from the 
 stage, where Talma and the other actors from the 
 Theatre Frangais were playing tragedies. Alex- 
 ander grasped Napoleon's hand and said with 
 some warmth : ' I feel that every day.' Napoleon 
 was as generous as ever. He presented the 
 Grand Duke Constantine with a very valuable 
 sword, and gave his own to Emperor Alexander. 
 As he took the weapon, the Tsar said : ' I accept 
 this token of friendship, and your Majesty may 
 be quite sure that I will never draw it against 
 you.' They parted on October 14th, the one 
 going to his kingdom in the east, the other to the 
 west, and they never saw sach other again. 
 
 It has been stated that Napoleon's ultimate 
 aim in all his wars was universal peace. That 
 may be true in the sense that he certainly aimed 
 at bringing about a state of things in which all 
 the others would be on the floor, and he would be 
 recognised as the greatest of all. The princes he 
 met were personally inferior to him, and their 
 enforced recognition had little value in his eyes. 
 He cared little about England. It was not a 
 kingdom in his opinion. But to win Russia's 
 mighty Tsar was an object worth seeking. He 
 was prepared to divide the world with him. He 
 therefore gave greater attention to winning him 
 than he had ever done in regard to anyone else. 
 With his great superior mind, his knowledge, and 
 
116 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 the amiability that he really had, he overshadowed 
 the younger man. The Tsar would have had to 
 be of marble for all this to make no impression on 
 him. Whereas Alexander I was in some respects 
 very sensitive and easy to move. 
 
 Yet it was Napoleon who was duped. Not 
 that the other man could have hoodwinked him. 
 Napoleon was cunning enough to scent duplicity 
 at any distance. But there is a great difference 
 between what we may call Napoleon's occasional 
 deceptiveness and the Asiatic form of absolute 
 and unvarying duplicity that had been impressed 
 in the training of the young prince and was the 
 chief prerogative of the mature ruler. Alexander 
 might be caught and enchanted, and he might 
 mean every word that he said. But it was not 
 associated in him with the least particle of what 
 we call duty, to say nothing of his altering his 
 opinion of Napoleon, or forgetting for a second 
 that this enchanting individual was merely a 
 Corsican adventurer of the name of Bonaparte, 
 on whose neck he would one day set his stout 
 Russian boot. 
 
 The more the King of Saxony approached him, 
 and the smaller German princes humbled them- 
 selves before him, the more Napoleon attracted 
 the young Tsar. He made no vain comparison 
 of his power with that of the other monarch. It 
 was enough for him as the elder to eclipse the 
 younger man with his personal superiority. With 
 Alexander, and recognised by him, he would 
 renounce further plans, and, once England was 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 117 
 
 shattered, each would possess his half of the 
 world in peace. Meantime, Russia was to take 
 Finland, and France the Spanish Peninsula. 
 
 On October 19th, Napoleon was back at 
 St. Cloud. A few days afterwards he made a 
 speech at the opening of the Legislative Assembly, 
 in which he said : ' I set out for Spain in a few 
 days to put myself at the head of my army, 
 crown my brother King of Spain at Madrid, and 
 plant our nobility in the fortresses of Portugal. 
 The Emperor of Russia and I have been together 
 at Erfurt. We are at one and indissolubly joined 
 in war and peace. ' He entered Spain on November 
 4th, 1808, and victory at once followed in his 
 steps. Joseph met his brother, and joined the 
 march on Madrid. Many of Napoleon's best 
 generals were then in Spain, and in time they 
 nearly all came. Davoust was spared, but Suchet, 
 Soult, Ney, Massena, Victor, and Marmont, were 
 all called into the war, and few came out of it 
 without hurt. 
 
 At Somo Sierra the army corps to which the 
 Emperor was attached had a fierce and famous 
 fight. General Victor, who had been made 
 marshal and Duke of Belluno after the battle 
 of Friedland, was at the foot of the pass of Somo 
 Sierra. It was protected by redoubts, in which 
 there were 16 guns, while 10,000 infantry were 
 distributed over the rising ground on each side 
 of the narrow pass. They were commanded by 
 General San-Benito. The position seemed impreg- 
 nable for any troops but a numerous infantry 
 
118 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 with great staying power. But after a few attacks 
 had failed, Napoleon became impatient. He 
 ordered General Montbrun to take the position 
 with the Polish lancers that he commanded, and 
 that belonged to the Emperor's own guard. 
 
 It was an unheard-of thing to send cavalry 
 against such a position, but the Emperor was 
 impatient, and he knew that there were no better 
 troops than the Poles to do it, if it were to be 
 done. They did not fail him, but rushed forward. 
 They ran their horses up the mountain, and 
 leaped over the redoubts. The Spanish artillery- 
 men were cut down at the guns, and, though 
 with heavy losses, Montbrun succeeded in driving 
 the enemy from the pass, and the army could 
 advance. A large number of prisoners and stores 
 were taken. 
 
 When the Polish lancers advanced to the 
 attack, they were followed by the young Segur. 
 His place was in the immediate vicinity of the 
 Emperor, acting as adjutant on tour and as an 
 officer of the palace at home. The Emperor 
 ordered him to take the place of an officer who 
 had fallen, and thus he came to take part in the 
 battle, which is regarded as a very remarkable 
 piece of cavalry work. He was so severely 
 wounded that he very narrowly escaped death. 
 Afterwards he was liberally rewarded. He 
 followed the Emperor as a general to the end, and 
 died at the age of 91, in 1871. It is he who has 
 written the excellent memoirs which have made 
 famous the Russian campaign. His father had 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 119 
 
 been in the service of Catherine II of Russia, and 
 afterwards entered that of Napoleon, acting as 
 head marshal of the court and master of ceremonies 
 at the Tuileries. Napoleon was very proud of 
 him. 
 
 The Emperor was not generous to the Poles. 
 Not that he used them hardly in his service, or 
 slighted them. On the contrary, the attack on 
 Somo Sierra was, and would certainly continue 
 to be, regarded on both sides as a compliment. 
 Many of the Polish officers rose to high positions. 
 There were several generals amongst them, such 
 as Prince Poniatowski, who was marshal only 
 for a few days before he fell at Leipsic. General 
 Dombrowski led the Poles into Russia, and in 
 his early years one of Napoleon's favourite 
 adjutants was the Pole Sulkowski, who fell in 
 Egypt. But on the political side Napoleon 
 gravely deceived the Poles. He understood well 
 that they were not a people out of which he could 
 make a kingdom for a Bonaparte, that would obey 
 all orders emanating from Paris ; and that was 
 what he wanted. Moreover, he did not want to 
 act contrary to the wishes of his friend the Tsar. 
 The intense love of the Poles for liberty and their 
 burning hatred of tyrants were by no means to 
 his taste. Hence it was that he never realised 
 their constant dream of a Polish kingdom. He 
 accepted their services, and held them with hints 
 and half-promises, but never went any further. 
 
 After the battle of Somo Sierra Napoleon was 
 free to march on Madrid, which he could easily 
 
120 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 have taken by force. But he saw that it would 
 be a bad beginning to set up Joseph by force in 
 a kingdom with a pillaged capital. He took his 
 time, therefore, and surrounded the city, which 
 surrendered of itself. With a good deal of trouble 
 the Spanish officials succeeded in keeping the 
 people sufficiently in hand to permit the rein- 
 statement of King Joseph in apparent tranquility. 
 Napoleon issued high-toned proclamations to the 
 Spanish nation, but they did not make the least 
 impression. On the other hand he was himself 
 greatly impressed with the fact that, in spite of 
 their hostility to the French, the Spaniards were 
 so honourable and loyal that King Joseph found 
 his palace at Madrid intact, just as he had left it. 
 Even the family portraits of the Bonaparte's, 
 including David's famous picture of General 
 Bonaparte on the Alps, were hanging in their 
 places. Napoleon could not understand the 
 national trait that made a compulsory king an 
 object of hatred, yet left him safe in his chateau. 
 If from the first Joseph had taken the place of 
 the old and hated and disreputable royal house, 
 without any use of force, all might have been well. 
 Now it was too late. 
 
 On December 22nd, Napoleon left Madrid for 
 the purpose of personally conducting the war. It 
 was mainly a war with the English, who had 
 crossed the Duero, and were drawing near Valla- 
 dolid. The Emperor left Marshals Victor and 
 Lefebvre, and the cavalry-generals Lasalle, Mil- 
 haud, and Latour-Maubourg to protect Joseph 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 121 
 
 at Madrid. He immediately met with several 
 mishaps. General Lefebvre - Desnouettes incau- 
 tiously went with 400 dragoons across a ford 
 with the object of occupying the village of 
 Bonavente, which he thought to be deserted. 
 Unfortunately, there were still 2,000 English 
 cavalry there, and they threw themselves on the 
 small detachment. Lefebvre-Desnouettes was 
 wounded, and his horse shot under him. He fell 
 into the water, and was captured. General 
 August Colbert there were three brothers 
 received the command of Lefebvre's troops, which 
 formed part of Marshal Bessieres' cavalry of the 
 advance guard. The young man fell two days 
 afterwards. Before he died he said : ' I die like 
 a brave soldier of the grand army, because I see 
 before me the worst enemy of my country in 
 flight. 5 He was one of the lions of the court ; 
 one of the finest men in the army. 
 
 Under the Emperor's lead Marshals Ney and 
 Soult beat the English in a number of battles. 
 General Moore fell, and General Baird was 
 dangerously wounded on the del Curgo bridge 
 before Corunna. It was to be expected that the 
 war would soon end, under Napoleon's lead, with 
 the re-occupation of the Peninsula and the 
 destruction of the English. He was the only man 
 who could handle several armies simultaneously 
 and keep his eye on the generals. However, in 
 the middle of January, 1809, he received such 
 news from Paris at Valladolid, especially in regard 
 to the hostile attitude of Austria, that he at 
 
122 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 once mounted his horse and left Spain to Joseph 
 with Marshal Jourdan in supreme command. 
 Napoleon's suddenly leaving his army in a hostile 
 country recalled his abrupt departure from Egypt. 
 When the same thing happened later in life, it 
 made a great deal of bad blood amongst the 
 officers. The soldiers never resented anything he 
 did. 
 
 There was one point that all aristocratic 
 travellers hastened to write home to their circles 
 namely, that Napoleon could not ride, did not 
 sit well on horseback, cut a poor figure, and so 
 on. There was a certain consolation in thinking 
 that the man who towered above them in every- 
 thing else could not compare with them in personal 
 bearing, at least in the fine art of riding. The 
 truth was that Napoleon was a careless rider, a 
 man whose chief concern was through thick and 
 thin to get to his destination as quickly as possible. 
 He had never had time or inclination to study 
 that demeanour on which the sons of princes set 
 such store. It is a great strain for man and beast 
 to sit faultlessly, without moving, on a horse for 
 hours together, reviewing large masses of troops. 
 The Emperor of Russia had a number of horses 
 that were trained to stand as rigidly as if they 
 were made of bronze. But Napoleon was always 
 moving. Even during a review he was here 
 and there and everywhere, because he had to 
 see everything, and his thoughts were on what 
 he saw, and he did not care a jot how he himself 
 looked. Hence strangers who saw the little man 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 123 
 
 in the grey coat on his noble horse, without giving 
 a moment's thought to the animal or to the art 
 of riding, found that he was a poor horseman. 
 But when there was question of crossing a dan- 
 gerous country, or of endurance, there were few 
 in Europe who could ride like him. On January 
 16th he rode at a sharp gallop from Valladolid 
 to Burgos, which he had quitted the same morning 
 23 miles in five hours from there, without 
 leaving the carriage, he drove to Bayonne, and then 
 on to Paris, where he arrived quite alone ; no one 
 had been able to keep up with him. On the 
 evening of January 23rd his carriage entered the 
 Tuileries, and the following morning Paris was 
 astounded to learn from the Moniteur that 
 Napoleon had returned from Spain. 
 
 Austria had been quiet for four years. But 
 it could never lose its hatred of the arrogant son 
 of the Revolution, who had annihilated its armies, 
 and taken his place amongst the sovereigns of 
 Europe. Moreover, money and entreaties came 
 from England, and these were redoubled when 
 the Emperor promised to succeed in driving the 
 English out of the Peninsula. Thus, when Austria 
 caused Napoleon to leave Spain on account of 
 its menacing attitude, it did a great service to 
 England, while the Emperor Francis Joseph was 
 left to pay dearly for his imprudent declaration 
 of war. 
 
 The Austrians had gathered a large and 
 superior army of nearly 300,000 men, and they had 
 at least one of the chief commanders of the time, 
 
124 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 the Archduke Charles. The troops were in Poland, 
 Saxony, Tyrol, and Italy, under the Archdukes 
 Charles, Ferdinand, and John, and Generals 
 Kolowrat, Bellegarde, and Hiller. The French 
 fighting forces were distributed under Poniatowsld 
 in Poland, Bernadotte in Saxony, General Gratien 
 in Holland, and King Jerome in Westphalia. 
 These were really reserve troops. The chief army, 
 which was under the immediate command of the 
 Emperor, consisted of the corps of Lannes and 
 Oudinot, the third corps under Davoust at 
 Regensburg, and the fourth under Massena at 
 Ulm. The seventh corps, consisting of 30,000 
 Bavarians under the Duke of Dantzig, was at. 
 Munich. The eighth, under Vandamme, was 
 made up of 12,000 Wiirtembergers and 12,000 
 other German soldiers. Macdonald and Marmont 
 advanced northwards from Italy. Altogether 
 there were 267,000 men. 
 
 At last, after many bitter words and tedious 
 intrigues, Napoleon learned on the evening of 
 April 12th that the Archduke Charles had crossed 
 the Inn. On the 17th Napoleon fixed his head- 
 quarters at Donauworth. From the very 
 beginning of this campaign there was scarcely a 
 day on which one or other of the French generals 
 did not distinguish himself, and the tide of war 
 rolled steadily eastwards toward Vienna, some of 
 the battles being great and sanguinary. At 
 Abensberg Napoleon left it chiefly to the Bavarians 
 and Wiirtembergers to defeat the Austrians under 
 General Hiller ; and under the command of 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 125 
 
 Davoust, Lannes, and Vandamme, they won a 
 decisive victory. Marshal Davoust, who was 
 already Duke of Auerstadt, was made Prince of 
 Eckmiihl, a small village near Regensburg, where 
 he annihilated the army-corps of the Archduke 
 Charles in a fierce three hours' battle, and opened 
 the way to Vienna. General Cervoni, who came 
 of an Italian family, was killed while he was 
 spreading out a map before the Emperor. General 
 Clement lost an arm at Eckmiihl. 
 
 Napoleon was wounded at Regensburg for the 
 only time in his life. He received a slight 
 laceration of the heel. The King of Bavaria, whom 
 the Austrians had driven from Munich, returned 
 to his capital in triumph. The French armies then 
 converged on Vienna, driving the enemy before 
 them. Napoleon was marching for the first time 
 without his Guard. He had been pleased to keep 
 the Bavarians and Wtirtembergers near him, to 
 reward them for Abensberg and attach them more 
 closely to his person. At nine o'clock on May 
 10th he reached the gates of Vienna. As the city 
 was not surrendered for some time, he on the 
 evening of the llth caused a battery of fifteen 
 guns to throw 1,800 bombs into it, and they at 
 once set fire to it in different places. It capitulated 
 on the morning of May 12th, and General 
 Andreossy was appointed Governor. 
 
 After the taking of Vienna, it was neces- 
 sary to cross the Danube, where the enemy 
 were still drawn up for battle under the Arch- 
 duke and General Hiller. Four bridges were used 
 
126 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 for crossing the river, as there were several 
 islands to be passed, the last being separated 
 from the left bank by an arm of the river some 
 three or four hundred feet wide. The work began 
 under the direction of engineer-generals Pernetti 
 and Bernard. The latter was not yet so famous 
 as he afterwards became, and was not considered 
 so distinguished an engineer as Lariboisiere, 
 Chasseloup, Marescot, and Haxo, or as the great 
 Eble, who made the bridges over the Beresina. 
 On May 19th Napoleon ordered the pontoons to be 
 put together and the bridges made. Massena 
 crossed it on the 20th with Molitor's division. 
 He drove the Austrians out of the island after 
 two hours' fighting, and by twelve o'clock he had 
 the whole of the fourth corps on it. It is fairly 
 large, and was at that time overgrown with 
 bushes and intersected with ditches. 
 
 On the evening of May 20th Napoleon 
 matured his plan of crossing the last arm of the 
 river early the following morning and attacking 
 the villages of Aspern and Esslingen. Neither he 
 nor anyone else suspected that the Archduke 
 Charles and General Hiller had entrenched them- 
 selves so strongly in these positions that the 
 French had to fight two very critical battles 
 before they could get a safe footing on the left 
 bank ; and even then they only half succeeded. 
 On the evening of the 20th the officers and soldiers 
 sat round the camp fires and were chatting gaily 
 as was usual on the night before a battle. A 
 young officer named Albuquerque of a Spanish 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 127 
 
 family had come with Lannes' troops from 
 Spain. He had been fortunate enough to receive 
 the sword of the brave General Palafox, when he 
 surrendered Saragossa. He now sat and sang 
 gay and sentimental Spanish songs to his comrades, 
 who knew his fine voice and gathered round his 
 fire. He fell at Aspern the following afternoon. 
 
 On the following morning, while Napoleon's 
 troops were in the act of crossing the bridge, the 
 enemy deployed all his forces, and attacked with 
 a superior force the divisions that had crossed 
 over. The battle centred about the two villages, 
 which passed alternately to one or other party five 
 or six times in the course of the day. Massena 
 was engaged at Aspern and Lannes at Esslingen. 
 The French were outnumbered, but they were 
 the best soldiers in Europe, and they kept off the 
 enemy until dark came on. Marshal Bessieres 
 had exposed his cavalry to fire, and they had done 
 wonders of bravery, but had also suffered a great 
 loss in the death of General d'Espagne, one of the 
 finest cavalry leaders, and three colonels. In the 
 awful night between the 21st and 22nd of May, 
 Massena camped in the ruins of the burning 
 village of Aspern, the Austrians under Bellegarde 
 holding the church and churchyard in the same 
 village. But both armies were overcome with 
 fatigue, and they allowed each other a few hours' 
 rest. 
 
 In the midst of the battle there was a heated 
 private quarrel between Marshals Bessieres and 
 Lannes. By the Emperor's orders, Bessieres's 
 
128 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 cavalry was at the disposal of Lannes, so that the 
 former was, to some extent, under the supreme 
 command of Lannes, and he found this intolerable. 
 A violent quarrel broke out between them, and 
 they very nearly came to fight a duel that evening. 
 The armies had not a long sleep. At two in 
 the morning the Austrians began to stir. Napoleon 
 sent adjutants incessantly to the other army-corps 
 which were still on the island and on the right 
 bank, directing them to cross over as quickly as 
 possible. Meantime, the bridges themselves were 
 in the greatest danger. The Austrians filled boats 
 with heavy stones, and flung mills and mill-wheels 
 and anything that could float into the river above 
 the bridge. The mass was carried down by the 
 current, and borne against the French bridges, 
 bringing great pressure to bear on the piles and 
 pontoons. In the early morning Marshal Davoust 
 rode alone across the bridge to tell the Emperor 
 that his men would soon be there. Some of them 
 had already arrived, and were fighting with the 
 heroes of the preceding day. Napoleon therefore 
 began the day with full confidence, though the 
 Archduke was again pressing forward his superior 
 forces with great energy. The French stood as 
 firm as they had done the day before. 
 
 Napoleon then, relying confidently on the 
 closeness of reinforcements, commanded an 
 advance, and directed his marshals to break 
 through the Austrian centre and hurl them back 
 on to the plains. This manoeuvre, which they 
 knew well from many of his earlier battles, was 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 129 
 
 at once and so brilliantly carried out that a broad 
 and dangerous gap appeared in the enemy's 
 fighting-line. Archduke Charles seized the flag 
 of General Zach's regiment to lead his troops 
 forward once more. He exposed himself as boldly 
 as the bravest soldier amongst them, but he was 
 borne back in the retreating masses of the army. 
 Napoleon also was so imprudent on that day that 
 General Walther, who had to guard him with the 
 grenadiers, went up to him and said : ' If your 
 Majesty does not withdraw I shall order my 
 grenadiers to remove you by force.' 
 
 It was still no later than eight o'clock in the 
 morning, and Napoleon was quite sure of seeing 
 Davoust's columns come over the bridge any 
 moment. Then came the news that the largest 
 bridge had broken down. Quietly, without a 
 word of impatience, he saw the certain victory 
 slip from his hands. He directed Lannes to 
 suspend the attack, whilst he got more detailed 
 information. The news he heard soon convinced 
 him that for that day he could not possibly expect 
 any help from the other side of the Danube, and 
 he had no more ammunition on his own side. 
 The Austrians had succeeded in floating so much 
 stuff against the longest bridge that the current 
 at length broke it in the middle. The Archduke 
 was not long in learning that Napoleon was more 
 or less isolated. He gathered his men, who were 
 subjected to no further attacks, and there ensued 
 one of the fiercest struggles that was ever witnessed. 
 It lasted twelve hours, and was confined to one 
 
130 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 comparatively small field. The French defended 
 themselves all day long with incredible bravery, 
 and an unusually large number of officers fell. 
 Amongst them was General Saint-Hilaire, one of 
 the most important. He had received the grand 
 eagle of the Legion of Honour and the cross of a 
 Commander of the Iron Crown at Austerlitz. A 
 worse loss was that of Marshal Lannes himself, 
 the Duke of Montebello. His adjutants had 
 succeeded in inducing him to dismount for a 
 moment and stretch his legs, when a cannon ball 
 broke both his knees. He lived for a few days 
 in great pain, and died on May 30th. 
 
 Lannes was one of the best friends of 
 Napoleon's youth and the most important of all. 
 The writers who have sought to make everything 
 about Napoleon as bad as possible, have tried to re- 
 present the relations between Lannes and Napoleon 
 as anything but friendly. It is quite possible 
 that he said some very straight things to Napoleon 
 at times, and did not mince matters with him. 
 Napoleon was not the kind of man that one could 
 feel very tender towards ; even in his relations 
 with his intimate friends he preserved the coldness 
 that he always deliberately cultivated. But when 
 he heaped gratitude, praise, and rewards on them, 
 they knew it, and they saw from a single look or a 
 smile that he was a true friend of theirs. The 
 Emperor never mentioned Lannes without warmly 
 praising his fine qualities, and he missed the man 
 all his life. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 131 
 
 After the frightful battle of Aspern and 
 Esslingen, which is generally regarded as the 
 Archduke Charles's greatest victory, General 
 Mouton received the title of Count of Lobau, with 
 rich awards, for his coolness and unflinching 
 bravery. The Emperor was quiet and cool, as 
 usual, when he summoned his marshals to a council 
 in the evening. They all advised that the army 
 be brought into safety on the right bank of the 
 Danube. But it was impossible for him to retreat 
 so far. He could not be induced to go farther 
 than the island of Lobau. Orders were issued to 
 begin the crossing as soon as the short bridge to 
 Lobau was ready. But the villages were to be 
 held as long as possible in order to deceive the 
 enemy. During the night Napoleon rowed across 
 the Danube with Berthier, to console Davoust 
 and the other generals, who had been condemned 
 to inaction during the great battle. 
 
 At two in the morning the Guard began to 
 pass quietly ever the short bridge to Lobau. 
 After them came the cavalry and Oudinot's 
 grenadiers, and before it was quite daylight every- 
 thing had been got across the single bridge to 
 Lobau. They had then to make a better bridge 
 over the river, and the best engineers in the army 
 worked for forty-three days to prepare the piles, 
 etc., for the crossing of 160,000 men with all their 
 appurtenances. In the meantime the camp on 
 Lobau was converted into one of the strongest 
 positions in Europe, and French armies were 
 converging upon it from all sides. A number of 
 
132 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 honourable fights were engaged in at the same 
 time by Napoleon's generals, while he himself 
 kept court at Schonbrunn. 
 
 The engineers had their work, which was 
 regarded as a masterpiece in those days, ready 
 in the early days of July. Three bridges, as 
 broad as columns of troops, so that three waggons 
 could pass each other on them, led from the right 
 bank over the small island to Lobau. The 
 bridges that were to lead from this point to the 
 left bank were ready to be thrown over the left 
 arm of the river at a given moment. The whole 
 was protected by a palisade-work that ran out 
 to a point up the stream from one of the small 
 islands. Right across the island of Lobau there 
 was a forty-foot wide road made, running out on 
 a mole ; and on this road and on the bridges 
 lanterns were set up every 60 feet. At each 
 crossing there were sign-posts with orders for each 
 army-corps. 
 
 Men now poured in from all quarters, and 
 soldiers of every corps in the grand army, who had 
 fought all over Europe, met on Lobau. At night- 
 fall on July 3rd they sat round the bivouac fires ; 
 comrades, friends, and relatives, who had not seen 
 each other for six years, found each other again 
 in the crowd. Besides Massena, Davoust, and 
 Oudinot, the Viceroy Eugene came from the Tyrol, 
 Marmont from Italy, Bernadotte, Vandamme, 
 and Lefebvre, King Jerome from Dresden, and 
 Junot from Bayreuth. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 133 
 
 On July 4th, the order to cross was given. 
 A number of small bridges that stood ready were 
 thrown over the remaining narrow arm of the 
 river to the left bank. One of them was an 
 especial object of admiration. It consisted of a 
 single piece and was placed in from eight to ten 
 minutes. In the evening occurred one of the 
 most frightful storms ever experienced. Wind 
 and rain lashed the whole island with great violence 
 and in the midst of it broke out the roar of the 
 guns that were to protect the crossing. But 
 nothing could hold them or damp their ardour. 
 One corps after another began its march over the 
 bridges and islands into the darkness and storm. 
 The Emperor was on horseback all night. It was 
 calculated that he spent 60 hours in the saddle 
 between the 4th and 6th of July. 
 
 On the following morning the vast army was 
 across, and when the sun rose it shone on the 
 spreading masses of the French drawn up in line 
 of battle in all their splendour. That day the 
 Archduke Charles retreated. In the afternoon 
 there was a fight at Wagram, in which General 
 Macdonald distinguished himself with the army 
 from Italy. Bernadotte, who commanded the 
 Saxon auxiliaries, made a feeble and fruitless 
 attack on the town of Wagram. His troops were 
 beaten, and retreated in great disorder. The 
 Archduke held the heights of Wagram and spent 
 the night there. 
 
 Early the next morning, July 7th, the day of 
 the real battle of Wagram, the Austrians attacked 
 
134 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 the village of Aderklaa that Bernadotte was 
 supposed to hold. Once more his Saxons fled in 
 wild confusion, and the Archduke drove Napoleon's 
 left wing so far back that the batteries on Lobau 
 had to open fire to protect the bridges. Massena 
 commanded the left wing, and had with him 
 Generals Molitor, Legrand, and Boudet, with his 
 fine artillery. General Carra Saint-Cyr was also 
 with them. He was sent first to recover Aderklaa, 
 but owing to an unskilful manoeuvre his troops 
 fell into such a bad position that they were 
 deprived of cover, and driven back, taking the whole 
 of the left wing with them. Both Legrand and 
 Boudet, who lost his beloved guns, were swept 
 away. At this critical moment General Reille 
 went to inform the Emperor that the Austrians 
 threatened to overpower Massena, whose entire 
 corps had been thrown into disorder. The 
 Emperor sent Marshal Berthier with the Guard 
 and 80 guns right across the field from right to 
 left. He must have been reduced to extremities 
 when he sent Berthier and the Guard. 
 
 General Lauriston led the artillery and General 
 Reille the young guard in the attack on Aderklaa, 
 the chief point on the left wing. Marshal Bessi^res 
 received a similar order, but at that moment 
 he was struck by a very curious ball on the leg. 
 It tore his trousers as far as the knees, and left 
 a zig-zag mark on the leg. The Emperor heard 
 that one of his friends had been hit, and had fallen 
 from his horse. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 135 
 
 ' Who is it ?' he asked, without turning. 
 
 ' The Duke of Istria,' was the reply. 
 
 ' Ride on,' said the Emperor ; ' we have no 
 more time for weeping.' He was thinking of 
 Lannes. 
 
 It is this moment in the battle of Wagram 
 that we so often find represented in the photo- 
 graphs of the great pictures at Versailles. Napoleon 
 was that day riding one of his most famous 
 horses. It was called ' Euphrates ' and was a 
 present from the Shah of Persia. No one had 
 ever seen so white a horse before in Europe. In 
 the midst of the hottest fire he galloped on this 
 horse right across the field, in front of the French 
 lines, to the labouring left wing. Savary and the 
 other generals, who followed him as well as they 
 could, expected every moment to see him drop. 
 The Emperor took up a position in Lamarque's 
 division, and remained there a full hour while 
 the left wing was being restored to order. He sat 
 upright on his white horse amidst the shower of 
 bullets, so that friend and foe could see him at 
 the short distance that separated fighting armies 
 in those days. 
 
 Davoust was on the left wing, where he was 
 opposed to Prince John of Liechtenstein. He was 
 ordered to make a grand attack on the village 
 of Neusiedel. With Davoust were the cavalry- 
 generals Nansouty and Arrighi, Duke of Padua, 
 who had taken the place of the fallen d'Espagne. 
 The enemy slowly retreated before the skilful 
 manoeuvres of the Duke of Auerstadt. The 
 
136 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Emperor told his servant Roustan, a mameluke 
 whom he had brought from Egypt, to spread a 
 bear-skin on the ground. He dismounted, 
 stretched himself on it, and went to sleep, as he 
 was accustomed to do. He had every right to be 
 tired. When he awoke, a quarter of an hour 
 afterwards, he found a circle of adjutants with 
 reports from all parts of the field. He arose 
 quietly and turned his telescope on Neusiedel ; 
 when he saw that Davoust's troops were on the 
 heights, where he wanted them to be, he pushed 
 in his telescope again, and said to his adjutants : 
 ' Ride to Mass6na and tell him he may withdraw. 
 The battle is won.' The fight raged until one in 
 the afternoon on the great plains, where the 
 horses nearly disappeared in the high corn. At 
 the edge of the battlefield the ripe corn was set 
 on fire. Whole acres of it were burning, and the 
 fire reached the well-protected train, and exploded 
 many of the powder waggons. 
 
 Macdonald was the real hero of the day. He 
 at length succeeded in breaking the centre and 
 making a gap in it that offered a fine opportunity 
 for the cavalry to rush in and take prisoners and 
 spoils. But Murat was in Spain, Bessieres 
 wounded, d'Espagne dead, and, to crown the 
 misfortune, General Lasalle, the greatest cavalry- 
 leader that Napoleon had left, also fell on this day. 
 Lasalle was one of the most handsome men in the 
 French army, and a trained horseman from his 
 early years, but he had grown rather wild in the 
 course of time. He swore and drank, sang and 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 137 
 
 rioted, and wasted all his money. When he was 
 in Egypt he corresponded with a lady at Paris. 
 The English intercepted his letters, and, with 
 the incredible lack of taste that they showed in 
 all that related to Napoleon, they published them 
 in the European press. The lady was married to 
 a brother of General Berthier, and the publication 
 of the letters caused a fearful scandal, followed by 
 divorce, etc., at Paris. However, Lasalle after- 
 wards married Mme. Berthier, and gradually 
 reached so high a rank that he became one of the 
 men who were most trusted and most frequently 
 employed by the Emperor. He was exceptionally 
 liked by his comrades. When he swung into his 
 saddle and drew his sabre, his men would follow 
 him like the wind over stock and stone, through 
 fire and blood. But there was a wild spirit in 
 the light cavalry long after Lasalle's death. 
 
 The night before the battle of Wagram 
 General Lasalle had written a letter to the Emperor 
 asking him to take care of the family he would 
 leave behind him. It often happened that even 
 the bravest had these fits of despondency before 
 a great battle, and wrote letters that had the 
 nature of presentiments if the writer fell. 
 
 The loss of officers was great on both sides 
 at Wagram. The French lost Generals Gauthier 
 and Lacour, besides Lasalle, and seven colonels. 
 Gauthier had distinguished himself under Davoust 
 at Auerstadt. At Wagram he lost a leg, and died 
 of the wound. General Gudin, who kept quite 
 close to Davoust, and always fought under him, 
 
138 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 received four wounds in the course of the day. 
 Twenty other generals, besides Bessieres, were 
 wounded, but recovered. General Lamarque had 
 four horses shot under him. Massena, on the 
 other hand, who was perhaps most exposed of 
 all to the enemy's fire in these days, did not receive 
 the slightest scratch. It was said in the army 
 that Massena, and Murat, and Ney, were bullet- 
 proof. But it was considered dangerous to be 
 near Massena. The very spot that he had just 
 left was shunned. If any one came up and 
 occupied it, they would shout to him that the 
 marshal had just been there. 
 
 A few days before the battle Massena had 
 the misfortune to collide with a waggon during a 
 reconnaissance. He was so badly shaken that he 
 could not keep his horse during the battle, and 
 had to lead his corps in a carriage. But when 
 the left wing was n a dangerous plight he took 
 to horse in spite of the pain. He called one of 
 his orderlies to lengthen the stirrup, and by this 
 means lifted his injured leg, with a great effort, 
 on to the horse's neck. At that very moment 
 a cannon-ball came singing along and knocked 
 down the soldier who was busy with his saddle. 
 Massena had begun his career as a private soldier 
 in the republican armies, like Bernadotte and 
 many others. But he was one of the greatest 
 leaders, and Napoleon always described him as 
 the first, although their relations were not particu- 
 larly good. Massena was easily led into small 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 139 
 
 intrigues with the other malcontents, and Napoleon 
 was well acquainted with the fact, as well as with 
 the circumstance that Massena was an incurable 
 pillager wherever he went. After Eylau he had 
 been made Duke of Rivoli, and he now became 
 Prince of Esslingen. 
 
 Napoleon embraced Macdonald, and made 
 him Marshal and Duke of Tarentum, which was 
 rather a tardy recognition of Macdonald' s deeds 
 and merits. But it was some time before the 
 Emperor came to trust entirely this man of 
 Scottish descent, with his rather stiff and self- 
 conscious ways. Napoleon never really liked him. 
 Macdonald was fairly taU, and had an open and 
 energetic countenance, though his nose was too 
 short. At the battle of Wagram he wore the 
 antiquated uniform of a republican general, with 
 huge feathers in his hat. He distinguished himself 
 wherever he went. Amongst other things he 
 succeeded in arresting the flight of Bernadotte's 
 Saxons, and inducing them to advance once more. 
 Oudinot and Marmont also received the marshal's 
 staff. It was, perhaps, a little premature for 
 Marmont. But Napoleon appreciated the brave 
 and brilliant Marmont in his cold and unemotional 
 way. 
 
 Bernadotte's corps was dissolved, and he 
 himself was sent in disgrace from the army. The 
 army bulletin of July 30th contains the following 
 passage : ' The ninth army-corps, which was 
 commanded by Ponte-Corvo, is dissolved. The 
 
140 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Saxons who belonged to it pass under the command 
 of General Regnier. The Prince of Ponte-Corvo 
 has gone to the baths.' 
 
 The fact was that Marshal Bernadotte had 
 been exceptionally slipshod during the whole 
 campaign of 1809. He is never mentioned 
 amongst the generals whose bravery decided a 
 great battle. But he continued just the same to 
 swagger and to criticise the Emperor. The night 
 before the battle he was sitting in a circle of 
 officers, saying that Napoleon's crossing of the 
 Danube and subsequent manoeuvres were quite 
 wrong and unsuccessful. He himself would have 
 forced the Archduke, by a few well-directed 
 movements, to surrender almost without a fight. 
 When his Saxons fled on the following day, and 
 Bernadotte galloped after them, the Emperor 
 stopped him and asked if this was the well-directed 
 movement with which he would crush the Arch- 
 duke. His spies had reported to him the 
 conversation of the night before. It is certain, at 
 all events, that Bernadotte's corps took to flight 
 on July 5th at Wagram, and July 6th at Aderklaa, 
 and Napoleon spoke sharply about him in the 
 order of the day to his marshals. 
 
 But that was not the worst. After he and 
 his corps had done so badly in the battle, the 
 Prince of Ponte Corvo had the impudence to issue 
 an order of the day, a thing that was reserved for 
 the commander-in-chief, and no marshal had a 
 right to do. He sent out a proclamation in which 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 141 
 
 he claimed the honours of the battle of Wagram 
 for himself and his Saxons. The whole army, 
 and especially the officers and the Emperor, were 
 infuriated. He refused to see the marshal, and 
 wrote to the Minister of War at Paris : ' If you 
 have occasion to see the Prince of Ponte Corvo, 
 inform him of my displeasure at the ridiculous 
 order of the day that he had inserted in all the 
 journals ; it is doubly incorrect, since he was 
 complaining to me all day about his Saxons. 
 I will not conceal from you the fact that the 
 Prince of Ponte Corvo has deserved little praise 
 during this campaign. To say the truth, this 
 " granite column " has been always in flight.' 
 
 The victory at Wagram was decisive enough, 
 but it had been dearly bought, and there was not 
 the usual corollary of prisoners, guns, flags, etc. 
 The day of the good old bayonet-fights was over. 
 The artillery had to work hard to support the 
 new infantry columns, which were swollen with 
 recruits and foreign auxiliaries. Hence it was 
 that more officers fell than had been the case in 
 earlier battles. Finally, it seemed to the Emperor 
 for the first time that he perceived a certain 
 amount of laxity in his highest generals. He was 
 only moderately pleased with the battle. 
 
 On the Austrian side three generals were 
 killed and ten wounded, including the Archduke 
 himself. He had not spared himself the whole 
 day, and was hit twice. But he directed the fight 
 
142 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 to the end like the unflinching soldier and great 
 leader that he was. The days of Aspern, Esslingen, 
 and Wagram, showed what the brave Austrians 
 could do when they were led by a great general. 
 
 Napoleon held his court at Schonbrunn while 
 the diplomatists were discussing the terms of 
 peace. One day he was nearly murdered by a 
 German fanatic of the name of Stabbs. He had 
 drawn quite close to the Emperor during a parade, 
 when General Rapp suddenly seized him at the 
 last moment as a suspicious-looking individual- 
 After the enormous strain at Esslingen and 
 Wagram Napoleon had an attack of illness 
 during his stay at Schonbrunn, but we know 
 nothing of its nature. The high officers about 
 him have never betrayed the secret, but we can 
 gather that it was serious from the anxious 
 deliberations of Murat, Berthier, and Duroc, and 
 the haste with which they sent for Corvisart, the 
 Emperor's physician, and a famous professor at 
 Vienna. It may possibly have been only an 
 exceptionally bad attack of dysury, from which 
 he suffered as early as 1796, and at Borodino, 
 where he was ill and kept out of sight of the army 
 for several days. 
 
 On October 19th peace was concluded at 
 Vienna, under sufficiently humiliating conditions 
 for Austria. Although he waged war for six years 
 afterwards, and won most brilliant victories, this 
 peace was the last that Napoleon ever effected. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 143 
 
 Europe never made peace with him. On October 
 26th he returned to Fontainebleau, having won 
 fresh victories for France and made his empire 
 stronger than ever. 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 In the years 1810 and 1811 Napoleon was 
 ruling at Paris. It was, apparently at least, his 
 zenith. The frontiers of France had been pushed 
 to the mouth of the Elbe, and Rome was the 
 second capital of the empire. The whole of 
 Europe recognised his predominance, with the 
 exception of England, which, in spite of the injury 
 done to its trade by its exclusion from the continent, 
 always had money for those who dared to resist 
 Napoleon, and slowly and surely undermined his 
 vast empire from the Spanish Peninsula, and 
 enfeebled his fighting forces. 
 
 The resistance of the Spaniards became more 
 and more bitter and savage, while England poured 
 fresh troops continually into Portugal. Marshal 
 Soult, Duke of Dalmatia, imagined at one time 
 that he would be King of Portugal. But Wellington 
 drove him out of Oporto with such thoroughness 
 that Soult lost the whole of his baggage. The 
 news of this battle reached Napoleon the day 
 after Aspern and Esslingen, through a courier that 
 the Minister of War had hastily despatched from 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 145 
 
 Paris. In the year 1810 there were 400,000 of 
 the best French troops in Spain under leaders like 
 Soult, Massena, Ney, Victor, and Suchet. The 
 latter was the only one who was able to keep 
 regular government in his province. There was 
 no cohesion, and there were many accidents. In 
 the course of time it came to be looked upon as 
 a sort of banishment and a sign of disgrace when 
 an officer at Paris was ordered to go to Spain. 
 
 The handsome secretary and palace officer, 
 Canouville, was one of Pauline's many lovers. 
 Napoleon had sent her a Russian mantle of 
 exceptionally fine fur and diamond clasps. One 
 day, with the searching eyes that saw everything, 
 he recognised his present in the secretary's ante- 
 room. An hour later Canouville was on his way 
 to Spain. It was somewhat different with Septeuil, 
 another lion of the court. He declined to see 
 Pauline's attempts to approach him, and she was 
 so enraged that the young officer was sent to 
 Spain at her request. He had one of his legs 
 shot off in his first battle, and while the surgeons 
 were amputating it sawing and hacking as they 
 did a century ago he said to his valet : ' Don't 
 cry. You will now have only one boot to polish.' 
 The elaborate equipment of the French court, 
 that the Revolution had scattered to the winds, 
 had at last been restored under the Emperor. 
 It took a very different form from that it had had 
 under the old regime, but it was no less magnificent 
 in regard to the correctness of etiquette and the 
 lavish expenditure on festivities. Napoleon's new 
 K 
 
146 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 court was, of course, not filled with aged super- 
 fluities and useless folk, who did nothing beyond 
 drawing their salaries, as the earlier one had been. 
 However, he revived many of the old titles and 
 bestowed them on his own men and women ; or 
 he attracted men and women with ancient names 
 to his court, a thing that always gave him great 
 satisfaction. He used to say that no one could 
 render court-service like the old nobles. A 
 Montmorency would not hestitate to stoop and 
 tie Josephine's shoe-laces, but many of the new 
 ladies had no mind for acting as chamber-maids 
 in this way. He praised the men of the older 
 nobility in the same way, and sent them on 
 diplomatic missions. He used to say that he 
 learned more through them than through his own 
 people. 
 
 At the same time he did not like his own 
 people to be cast in the shade by the older nobles. 
 He had some of the feeling of the Revolution, and 
 rewarded merit without regard to origin. He 
 mingled the old and the new, in order to bring 
 about a harmonious system, but he took good 
 care that one should not quarrel with the other. 
 He was proud to have Count Segur, of the old 
 nobility, as his master of ceremonies, yet he never 
 liked even a hint to be given to Marshal Lefebvre 
 about his unconventional wife, the Duchess of 
 Dantzig, whose incorrect behaviour filled Paris 
 with laughter and gave some consolation to the 
 fine courts of Europe. This attitude of the 
 Emperor kept the old nobles in check and protected 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 147 
 
 the new ones. All felt that the sovereign knew 
 well what was worthy of gratitude and honour. 
 Las Cases, who himself belonged to a noble Franco- 
 Spanish family of distinction, and had taken 
 service in the imperial court at an early date 
 and eventually followed the Emperor to St. 
 Helena tells us that he one day heard the 
 following story about Mme. Lefebvre, the Duchess 
 of Dantzig. She gave help to poor emigrants, 
 amongst others to a noble family that was so 
 proud and sensitive that the duchess, knowing 
 well what people thought and said of her, dare not 
 offer it herself. She therefore went to the family 
 in which she and her husband were at one time 
 simple servants, and gave her help anonymously 
 through them. They themselves belonged to the 
 higher social circles. ' When I heard this,' says 
 Las Cases, ' I ceased to make fun of the Duchess. 
 I rather esteemed it a pleasure after that to offer 
 her my arm at the Tuileries, and lead her round 
 the magnificent rooms, and took no notice of the 
 sarcasm and the round eyes of my comrades.' 
 
 But though the mingling of the new and the 
 old was carried out with the utmost discretion 
 and without ostentation, it begot neither life nor 
 gaiety. The tone of the Tuileries was stiff and 
 cold, because Napoleon, not very pleasant as 
 First Consul, became positively disagreeable as 
 Emperor. The Duchess of Abrantes and the 
 other ladies recalled with tears the happy days 
 of Malmaison, when they had to do duty in their 
 stiff court-dresses at the Tuileries, St. Cloud, or 
 
148 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Fontainebleau. When they gave luxurious parties 
 themselves, at his desire, they were no longer free 
 to enjoy the dance or masquerade. They had to 
 think of nothing but him. When the cry rang 
 out, ' The Emperor,' the company, already nervous 
 with waiting, became as quiet as mice. The eyes 
 and thoughts of all were on him to discover what 
 sort of humour he was in. He was as unreliable 
 as a Sultan. At times he might be disposed to 
 joke ; otherwise he would at the most amuse 
 himself at their balls with frightening the younger 
 ladies to death when his spies had told him their 
 little secrets. 
 
 The festivals that the Emperor gave, or 
 caused to be given, were generally so tedious that 
 they were a great trial to the younger folk. He 
 held audiences in the morning before breakfast, 
 as the French kings had used to do, when they 
 left their beds and were clothed by their valets. 
 At other times he gave large audiences before one 
 or other festival at the Tuileries. The whole 
 court was in attendance, the ambassadors of 
 foreign powers being in the front rank. The 
 Emperor would stride rapidly in, and go along 
 the row of bowing and bending courtiers. Those 
 were the most anxious moments for the whole of 
 Europe. From the few words he spoke to the 
 ambassadors, or even from the way in which he 
 would pass one by in silence or offer another a 
 pinch of snuff, there were conclusions drawn all 
 over Paris and Europe. It was like prophesying 
 from the grounds in a tea-cup. As a rule the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 149 
 
 brief conversations with the ambassadors ran in 
 this wise : 
 
 Emperor : ' Why is your government gather- 
 ing such large masses of troops in the Tyrol.' 
 
 Metternich : ' Indeed ! your Majesty aston- 
 ishes me . . . .' 
 
 Emperor : ' Bah ! I know all about it, and 
 I want a satisfactory explanation.' 
 
 Metternich : * I will send a courier to Vienna 
 at once. Perhaps I could send my court by the 
 same messenger a satisfactory assurance from your 
 Majesty about the advance of the Duke of E/agusa 
 from Italy.' 
 
 Napoleon : ' How do you know that ?' 
 
 Metternich : ' Ah ! It is true, then, Sire.' 
 
 Napoleon : ' Whether it is true or not, I 
 have no explanation to give.' 
 
 That was pretty much the tenor of these con- 
 versations. They assumed enormous proportions 
 in the eyes of diplomatists, and brought Metternich 
 the reputation of being the most astute of all. As 
 a rule, however, they were mere bluff. Each 
 side was well acquainted with the other's intrigues 
 and manoeuvres. They knew also that it was 
 only a question of time when they should be at 
 war again. But the art consisted in talking peace 
 and meaning war, and they waltzed round, like 
 cats round a basin of hot broth. 
 
 At this time Napoleon was still a handsome- 
 looking man when he strode in on the waxed floors, 
 with firm short steps that resounded in the 
 respectful silence, to the accompaniment of a 
 
150 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 slight jingle of spurs when he had his high boots 
 on, and the faint odour of eau de cologne that 
 always clung to him. But he soon became rather 
 too stout, and it increased every year, even when 
 he was in the field. The Empress Josephine had 
 easily adapted herself to her high position at 
 court by her grace and amiability, as well as tact 
 and judgment. The great men, the kings and 
 princes, who more or less willingly visited Paris, 
 looked in vain for something to tell against her. 
 Even Louis XVIII, when he returned and saw 
 the great changes in the Louvre and the Tuileries, 
 had to admit that everything had been done in 
 a style that neither he nor anyone else cared to 
 alter. 
 
 But while Napoleon gave his court a pompous 
 air through the rules he had drawn up, he worked 
 day and night with a versatility and endurance 
 that his contemporaries were never tired of 
 admiring. Just as he injured his horses by riding 
 in the field, so he nearly worked to death the 
 secretaries and ministers who were in his service, 
 without ever being overcome by fatigue himself. 
 His first private secretary was Bourrienne, one of 
 the friends of his youth. They agreed very well 
 for a number of years, but there was one fault 
 that Napoleon could not bear or forgive, and that 
 was carelessness in money-matters. He could 
 forgive his generals for stupid mistakes when they 
 redeemed them. He could overlook infidelity of 
 all kinds, even Josephine's he was, in fact, not 
 very sound on that point himself ; but in money- 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 151 
 
 matters he tolerated no irregularities. He was a 
 terror to bankers and army-contractors. The 
 large houses of the time Hope of Amsterdam, 
 Lafitte, Seguin lived in daily dread of fresh 
 surprises from the Emperor. He twice ruined the 
 the great speculator Ouvrard. As soon as he 
 suspected dishonesty, or merely heard of some 
 illegitimate profit, or that one of his men had used 
 his position to enrich himself, he came down on 
 him at once. 
 
 Marshal Massena once returned from a 
 campaign in Italy with his pockets well filled. 
 The Emperor at once ordered him to pay three 
 million francs into the State-treasury, without 
 giving any explanation. Massena paid without a 
 murmur ; or, rather, he only complained in 
 private. Another officer, Colonel Solignac, who 
 had been with Massena, and who was ordered to 
 pay 800,000 francs, hesitated to obey, and was 
 at once reduced to the ranks. However, Solignac 
 coolly shouldered his gun, and fell into line ; and 
 the next time Napoleon's eye fell on him, he 
 restored his rank and command. Solignac had 
 been at Napoleon's side in the junior Council at 
 St. Cloud on the 18th Brumaire. He liked best 
 to be with General Massena, and was, like him, 
 an incurable pillager. 
 
 Bourrienne, Napoleon's private secretary, had 
 the same weakness in regard to money, though it 
 took a more pacific form. Nevertheless their 
 friendship was at an end as soon as Napoleon 
 found that his secretary was using his position 
 
152 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 to make money. Bourrienne was a brave man, 
 with quick intelligence and a great capacity for 
 work. He was also devoted to Napoleon. But 
 he was tempted when he saw millions circulating 
 about the great man, who was himself indifferent 
 to them, and he began very soon to receive pay- 
 ments of a more or less questionable character. 
 He discovered, for instance, that the Minister of 
 Police, Fouche, paid 100,000 francs a month to 
 men who were in Napoleon's immediate vicinity, 
 to tell him every day where the First Consul went, 
 what he was doing, and who came to him. 
 Bourrienne thought no one could do this better 
 than himself. He went to Fouche and offered 
 his services. Fouche accepted, and from that 
 time Bourrienne received 25,000 francs a month 
 for the work. But the Minister of Police and Spies 
 had many others in the Tuileries to whom he 
 paid large sums. Even Josephine received 1,000 
 francs a day for secret information about her 
 husband. 
 
 Later Bourrienne had his finger in all sorts 
 of affairs, and at length he indulged in large 
 speculations, in which millions were at stake. He 
 was secretly a partner in the firm of Coulon Freres, 
 who contracted for the cavalry-supplies, and 
 went bankrupt for a million. In the end he 
 became impoverished and was prosecuted by 
 his creditors. 
 
 After Bourrienne, Meneval became secretary, 
 and he was Napoleon's favourite. He was an 
 extraordinary man in regard to trustworthiness 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 153 
 
 and capacity for work. But he was completely 
 worn out ; as a reward, and in order to rest 
 himself, he was made private secretary to Marie 
 Louise. 
 
 The chief of the Emperor's cabinet was 
 Maret, Duke of Bassano. He was a man of 
 mediocre talent and poor character, but he was 
 faithful and devoted to Napoleon to the last. 
 He was generally hated on account of his daily 
 and intimate converse with the Emperor, and 
 because he stood high in Napoleon's favour ; but 
 more evil was laid to his charge than he really 
 deserved. Talleyrand once said of him : * I only 
 know one man who is more stupid than M. Maret, 
 and that is the Due de Bassano.' He was really 
 not so stupid, but thoroughly conventional and 
 petty. He was a subordinate flatterer and slave 
 to his great master. Napoleon was one of the 
 men who can make use of everything that has at 
 least strength ; and the Duke of Bassano had a 
 capacity for work that even the Emperor could 
 never exhaust. At the dangerous crisis of 1811, 
 when Napoleon had most need of a cool and 
 moderate counsellor, he dismissed the judicious 
 Champagny, Duke of Cadore, and made Maret 
 Minister for Foreign Affairs, as he never expressed 
 the least resistance or hesitation when the Emperor 
 wanted anything. 
 
 Still nearer to Napoleon in daily intercourse 
 nearer than any other of his generals was his 
 warm friend and counsellor, Duroc, Duke of 
 Friaul and Master of the Court. Like most of 
 
154 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 the men about Napoleon he had originally been 
 an officer, and had served under the French kings 
 before the Revolution. Napoleon used him 
 exclusively as an envoy and Master of the Court 
 in everything that pertained to his private life 
 his chateaux, his court and domestic routine, his 
 journeys and daily life at Paris, his family and 
 all the storms that broke out in them. Duroc 
 was quiet, precise, firm and modest. He was of 
 an upright and well-minded character. Amidst 
 the chaos of intrigues and jealousies that gathered 
 about the great man not the least amongst his 
 own family Duroc was like a tower rising above 
 the waters. He was ambassador at Vienna, 
 St. Petersburg, Berlin, Stockholm, and Copen- 
 hagen, and he was much esteemed everywhere. 
 He was spared Spain. 
 
 A very different man from him was another 
 of Napoleon's immediate servants, who did not 
 properly belong to the rank of officers. This was 
 the Minister of War, Clarke, Duke of Feltre. He 
 was of Irish extraction, and began his career as 
 private secretary in the Orleans family. After the 
 Revolution he was sent by the Directors, according 
 to their custom, to watch General Bonaparte 
 during the first Italian campaign. In a few days 
 the General saw through the spy, and Clarke 
 candidly confessed it and offered his services. 
 Napoleon accepted the offer, and gradually loaded 
 him with gifts and distinctions. Clarke became 
 ambassador, Governor at Vienna and Berlin, 
 where he is still remembered, Minister of War, 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 155 
 
 and Duke. When he married he received a dot 
 from the Emperor's private purse. He was the 
 worst flatterer in Napoleon's service, and was 
 always ready to goad him on when the Emperor 
 was going too far. He was rightly hated for his 
 malice. 
 
 It is not easy to see how much or how little 
 influence Napoleon's men had on his actions. 
 On the whole it may be said that their influence 
 was very slight at first, but it became stronger, 
 and in the days of his downfall was greater than 
 was desirable. Yet he was the man who ruled 
 everything and everybody. This was not merely 
 because he wished it ; Napoleon's gifts and 
 acquirements, not only in military matters, but 
 in almost every branch of government, were so 
 thorough and superior that everything came 
 naturally to him. Hence every part of the State- 
 machinery became purely ornamental and 
 unimportant. Communal and governmental 
 offices shrivelled up and were cast in the shade. 
 The one thing that Napoleon cared for was the 
 Conseil d'Etat, where he appeared fifty-seven 
 times in the days when his famous legal code 
 the Code Napoleon was being drawn up. He 
 had spies in this assembly also, and distributed 
 money amongst its members, without one knowing 
 what the other received. 
 
 Napoleon was unique in financial matters. 
 There never was any other man who treated 
 money with such indifference, yet used it with 
 such prodigality on the one hand and such cold 
 
156 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 accuracy on the other. But he had his own 
 ideas, and was just as difficult with financiers and 
 exchanges as with his own ministers. He had 
 a faculty for detecting errors in calculation that 
 astounded those about him. One day he said that 
 there was an error of 2,000,000 francs in an account 
 presented by the Maison Seguin for supplies to 
 the army. The minister smiled and promised 
 that the account would be examined. After a 
 long search the error was detected, and the firm 
 refunded the money. On another occasion he 
 went through the accounts of an infantry-regiment 
 he went through all of them and found an 
 entry of 16,000 francs for a stay in Paris. He 
 declared that neither the regiment nor any part 
 of it had been at Paris. The minister smiled and 
 said he would see to it ; and it turned out that 
 the Emperor was right. 
 
 It cannot possibly be all flattery when we find 
 all the great men of the time, French and foreign, 
 whatever branch they may be expert in, expressing 
 their astonishment and admiration at the range 
 of his knowledge and the lucidity with which he 
 discussed all subjects. Learned and gifted men 
 had not to confine themselves with him to a 
 few phrases, as they generally did with princes 
 who know nothing beyond what they have been 
 coached in for a particular audience. If Napoleon 
 had made a poor impression, no one needed to 
 conceal the fact, because there were plenty of 
 people who would be glad to hear it. But the 
 truth was that he compelled them all to marvel 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 157 
 
 at the clear and vast mind that seemed to have 
 room for everything. 
 
 The famous chemist, Chaptal, was his Minister 
 of Foreign Affairs for four years, and they worked 
 very well together until Napoleon at last carelessly 
 wounded Chaptal' s pride, and so kept him aloof 
 for several years. One night they worked together 
 until very late, when a servant entered and 
 announced in a fairly loud tone of voice that 
 Mile. Bourgoing had arrived. She was the famous 
 and inspired actress of the Theatre Fran^ais. 
 The Emperor directed that she should be taken 
 to his room and wait there. All this was done in 
 a tone of voice that the minister could not help 
 hearing. The offence was deliberate, for the 
 whole of Paris knew that the Minister of Foreign 
 Affairs had relations with the charming actress. 
 Chaptal at once put his papers together, bowed, 
 and departed. He sent in his resignation the 
 same night. This was in 1804, and he did not 
 return until 1815, when he was Napoleon's Minister 
 of Trade during the ' Hundred Days.' 
 
 Another well-known form of unpleasantness 
 in Napoleon's conversation was his habit of 
 suddenly breaking into anger and coarseness. He 
 would fall quite unexpectedly on someone present 
 and call him to account for new or ancient faults 
 in such bitter and exasperating language that 
 many went away never to return. He used to 
 have most violent encounters with the foreign 
 ambassadors. Four of these are especially famous 
 with Lord Whit worth in 1803, with Metternich 
 
158 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 in 1809, with Prince Kourakin in 1811, and with 
 General Balakoff at Wilna on July 12th, 1812. 
 It is said that in his altercation with Lord Whit- 
 worth Napoleon was so excited that he nearly 
 struck the ambassador ; some say, in fact, that 
 he did. But Lord Whitworth's own account, 
 which appeared in 1888, does not say a word of 
 any such violent action on the part of the First 
 Consul. There were some, even amongst those 
 who knew Napoleon very well in daily life, who 
 believed that these violent and passionate attacks 
 were merely deliberate scenes, much like the one 
 before signing the peace of Campo Formio, when 
 he broke Count Cobentzl's tea-service. 
 
 In the service and in intercourse with his 
 officers he was cold, almost repellent, severe, and 
 inflexibly just. One day General Gouvion Saint- 
 Cyr, afterwards marshal, appeared at the 
 Emperor's morning audience at the Tuileries. 
 Napoleon said quietly to him : 
 
 ' You come from Naples, General ?' 
 
 ' Yes, Sire. I relinquished my command to 
 Marshal Perignon, whom your Majesty sent to 
 relieve me.' 
 
 'And no doubt you have leave of absence 
 from the Minister of War ?' 
 
 ' No, your Majesty ; but I had nothing else 
 to do at Naples.' 
 
 * Unless you are on the way to Naples within 
 two hours, you will be shot on the plain of Grenelle 
 at twelve o'clock precisely,' said the Emperor, 
 returning his watch to his pocket. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 159 
 
 That was his method in the service. Exact 
 in all military matters, he acted without respect 
 of persons, and never allowed a favourite to offer 
 him anything. Such a man was bound to appeal 
 differently to different people ; but it is clear 
 that in the course of time he drew the best and 
 most valuable to him like a magnet. 
 
 There was certainly not much gaiety about 
 him in the imperial days, but that was what he 
 wanted, and he was probably right. All those 
 about him had risen with him, and it was 
 necessary to keep a certain distance between them 
 and himself. He had no sense of comradeship, 
 no love of food or drink, and never gambled. It 
 is true that in his early years, especially during 
 the long voyage across the Mediterranean to 
 Egypt and back, the commander-in-chief would 
 join occasionally in a game with his officers. But 
 he could never bear to lose, especially at cards, 
 and so he cheated flagrantly, and no one dare say 
 a word. However, when he had finished the 
 game, he pushed the heap of money away from 
 him, and told them with a smile to divide his 
 unjust winnings between them. 
 
 What made service under Napoleon so 
 attractive was not merely his luck in war and his 
 generosity, but chiefly the fact that he knew his 
 men far better that most generals do, and that 
 he had the gift of making the whole army feel 
 that each individual was known to him ; that 
 he knew where they were, what they had done, 
 what were their wounds and their fights, and 
 
160 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 where they had distinguished themselves. 
 Thousands fell and disappeared from the ranks, 
 and the army was entirely renewed in the course 
 of time ; but from the moment when his eye 
 first lit on them, the young recruits joined in 
 an unwavering love of the man, and were ready 
 to face death for him. To be mentioned in an 
 order of the day was enough for a regiment ; a 
 smile or a sign of recognition on his features when 
 he reviewed them, a few quick words or a greeting, 
 made them happy for a long time. And, if 
 anything happened to them and they lay fatally 
 wounded, the Emperor might ride by, with sabre 
 and spurs jingling, dismount, and fix the cross 
 on their breast. 
 
 The cross of the Legion of Honour, which he 
 had founded in the camp at Boulogne in 1805, 
 became identified with him, and as long as he 
 gave it, was a link of mutual gratitude between 
 him and the army the most coveted honour, the 
 recompense for wounds and prolonged sufferings, 
 a pride and joy to thousands of brave men. 
 Though military interests predominated in his 
 mind, Napoleon had an idea that there ought to 
 be a civil division of the Legion of Honour. 
 It was with this object that he founded 
 the Order of the Iron Crown. But the idea 
 that there ought to be a decoration for 
 civilians did not fall on fruitful soil. For a time 
 it went well with scholars and writers, but when 
 the Emperor decorated the famous soprano-tenor 
 Crescentini with the Iron Crown, after a perform- 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 161 
 
 ance of his favourite opera, Romeo and Juliet, 
 there was a good deal of annoyance felt in France 
 and Italy. It was in military circles, of course, 
 that the most scorn was expressed about Cres- 
 centini's decoration. One night the officers 
 present in a certain Parisian salon spoke in the 
 bitterest terms of this wretched singer, this 
 comedian, this buffoon and eunuch, and told of 
 their own battles and scars. Suddenly the gay 
 Mme. Grassini, the singer, broke in : 
 
 * But messieurs ! messieurs ! Have you com- 
 pletely forgotten poor Crescentini's wound ?' 
 
 Napoleon still defended his idea in the 
 conversations at St. Helena. Crescentini was a 
 great artist and of good family, and Napoleon 
 thought the decoration would give great pleasure 
 to the Italians. But his calculation completely 
 miscarried. It caused nothing but ridicule. If 
 public opinion had been otherwise, Talma and 
 other actors and musicians would have received 
 the cross of the Legion of Honour. The prejudice 
 of his contemporaries stayed his hand wrongly, 
 he thought, because in his opinion every man was 
 worthy of the Legion of Honour who was an 
 honour to his country. 
 
 One of the things that gave the Emperor most 
 trouble was his own family. As soon as he 
 realised that he could make France the most 
 powerful realm and Paris the centre of the world, 
 he formed the plan of gathering the members of 
 his family about him as a dynasty, a race of 
 princes, like the old legitimate races, with his 
 
162 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 brothers on the thrones of neighbouring realms. 
 But his family was made of very difficult material 
 in some respects. They were all just as extrava- 
 gant and vicious as any member of the old princely 
 races, and were very fine-looking. The men and 
 women of his family were handsome individuals, 
 some of them, in fact, of rare beauty. The men 
 could wear the most splendid uniforms ; indeed 
 crowns and ermine sat better on them than on 
 many a legitimate ruler. His sisters were so 
 pretty and well-made (though rather short in the 
 legs) that all the state and jewelry they won 
 through their brother's rise only enhanced their 
 fine appearance, and entirely harmonised with 
 their natural grace. Pauline was one of the 
 greatest beauties of the age. All of them had the 
 same fine, clear-cut profile and engaging mouth. 
 They all had, likewise, the same love of life, the 
 same levity and unbounded faithlessness in love ; 
 and in this their great brother was worse than 
 all the others. 
 
 Napoleon's parents were strong and healthy 
 folk. The mother especially, Letitia Ramolino, 
 was a fine healthy woman, and bore her husband 
 eight well-formed children. She brought number two 
 the most remarkable of them all into the world 
 under very desperate conditions, as she accom- 
 panied her husband on horseback the whole of 
 the day before, when they were flying to the 
 Corsican hills in the struggle with the French. 
 She held up bravely to the end, followed the 
 rising splendour of her son, and never caused him 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 163 
 
 a moment's embarrassment at the brilliant court, 
 where she took her place as the stately and 
 sagacious Mme. Mere. 
 
 His sisters brought him little profit or pleasure. 
 They were not of the character that he needed 
 for his purposes. He had disposed of his sisters 
 so early that he had no occasion to seek husbands 
 for them amongst princes. But his brothers 
 were to be kings, whether they liked it or not. 
 The eldest of them, Joseph, signed the treaties of 
 peace at Luneville in 1801 and Amiens in 1802 ; 
 and in 1806, though he was a poor soldier, he 
 drove out the King of Naples and occupied his 
 throne. So far all went well. But in 1808 he 
 was to be King of Spain, and Murat received the 
 gay kingdom of Naples. The intractable Spani- 
 ards gave Joseph much trouble, and his kingly 
 dignity vanished after the battle of Vittoria in 
 the year 1813. He was married to Julie Clary 
 of Marseilles, a sister of Mme. Bernadotte. She 
 left him shortly after 1813. 
 
 Joseph was completely dominated by his 
 passion for the fair sex and his love of pleasure 
 and indolence. He was thrust against his char- 
 acter and inclination into a career of high politics 
 and great distinctions. * Joseph was never the 
 slightest use to me,' said Napoleon ; c but he 
 is a very good fellow and very fond of me so 
 was Julie.' The truth was that Joseph was made 
 for private life, and it was not his fault that he 
 became an absolute monarch. However, with 
 the beauty and the charm that all the Bonaparte's 
 
164 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 possessed, he was able to make his way everywhere 
 without compromising his great brother or his 
 high positions. 
 
 Lucien gave some help to his brother on the 
 18th Brumaire as President of the Council of the 
 Five Hundred at St. Cloud, and he had diplomatic 
 missions under the Consulate. He was, perhaps, 
 the most sober of the whole family, and had many 
 natural endowments, a good deal of knowledge, 
 and a firm character. But he was resolutely 
 bent on being an irreconcilable Republican, and 
 so after 1804 he affected hostility to his brother. 
 Those writers who say Lucien kept aloof from 
 public affairs because he had no ambition are on 
 the wrong line. He was nearly bursting with 
 envy of Napoleon, and devoted his whole life to 
 an effort to attain power himself. Hence, when 
 he came from Elba to Paris in 1815, it was because 
 he thought he could quit Napoleon, put himself 
 at the head of the government, and end as Presi- 
 dent of the French Republic. 
 
 For his eldest sister, Elisa, who had married 
 an Italian noble named Bacciochi in 1797, he 
 created the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. His 
 youngest sister he married to Murat, who rose 
 from the ranks to the position of marshal, Grand 
 Admiral, Prince of France, and King of Naples. 
 The beautiful Pauline was first married to General 
 Leclerc, who died at Hayti ; then to Camillo 
 Borghese, who was a fool. She was, perhaps, the 
 most frivolous of them, and had many lovers. 
 Otherwise she was amiable, bright, and always 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 165 
 
 willing ; but she was so extravagant that her 
 mother always predicted she would spend her 
 last days in the poor-house. It did not come to 
 that pass. 
 
 The youngest brother, Jerome, lived until 
 1860. He was with General Leclerc at Hayti, 
 and led a fleet to Martinique as rear-admiral. In 
 1807 he was made King of Westphalia. He was 
 first married to an American, Miss Paterson, but 
 Napoleon afterwards secured his marriage with a 
 princess of Wiirtemberg. He was not without 
 natural gifts, but when he was young it would 
 have been hard to find a more arrogant, crude, 
 and ignorant man. He was also extravagant 
 beyond all measure. Napoleon was hard on him 
 in 1812, at the beginning of the Russian campaign, 
 but Jerome improved when calamity fell on the 
 family. His rule as King of Westphalia was 
 almost a farce. The whole thing would have 
 been impossible if Napoleon had not assigned to 
 him as French Ambassador Count Karl Friederich 
 von Reinhardt, whom he often used for diplomatic 
 work. It was he who really ruled the kingdom ; 
 Jerome only amused himself. It was due to the 
 shrewd and judicious Reinhardt that the whole 
 administration was no worse than it was. 
 
 The last of Napoleon's brothers, the unfortu- 
 nate Louis, suffered at an early age from venereal 
 disease. It destroyed his life, for he became 
 morose and eccentric. He had good endowments, 
 but his chronic ailment made him little fitted 
 for a life of ambition and politics. He accepted 
 
166 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 with reluctance the positions of honour and the 
 wealth that his brother offered him. He was, 
 nevertheless, a wealthy man, and in the year 1802 
 he married the Empress's daughter Hortense. In 
 1806 his brother made him King of Holland ; 
 but as Louis was a man of some good feeling he 
 could not endure to see how the Dutch suffered 
 from Napoleon's continental system, and in 1810 
 he resigned the crown. 
 
 Fouche affirms as a well-known and easily 
 intelligible fact, that when Josephine could no 
 longer doubt her own sterility, she arranged herself 
 a liaison between Napoleon and her own daughter 
 Hortense, and at once married Hortense to Louis 
 when she became enceinte. With such a beginning 
 a marriage was bound to be unhappy. It is 
 certain, at all events, that Louis acted sometimes 
 as if he himself believed that Napoleon was the 
 father of Hortense's eldest son. It is also certain 
 that there was exceptional mourning at the 
 Tuileries when the little prince died of an infantile 
 disease. There were many indications that 
 Napoleon intended to adopt the child and educate 
 him as his successor. 
 
 Queen Hortense never lived peacefully with 
 her husband, and she was divorced in 1815. She 
 was extremely frivolous, and in view of the malady 
 of her husband it seems hardly probable that any 
 of her sons were his. The first was the little 
 Napoleon, who died, and was believed to be the 
 son of the great Napoleon. The second became 
 Grand Duke of Berg, and married his cousin, a 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 167 
 
 daughter of King Jerome. The third was the 
 Emperor Napoleon III, probably the son of the 
 Dutch Admiral Verhuel. The latter two had 
 taken part in some trouble in Italy, and on that 
 account King Louis wrote the following letter to 
 Pope Gregory XVI in 1830 : 
 
 ' Holy Father ! My heart is overcome with 
 sorrow and indignation since I have heard that 
 my sons have taken part in the criminal revolt 
 against your Holiness's authority. My life, which 
 was already full enough of care, has been still 
 further embittered by the knowledge that one 
 of my kindred could forget all your kindness to 
 my unhappy family. The unfortunate young 
 man is dead ; God be merciful to him. As to 
 the other who bears my name, he has, thank God, 
 nothing to do with me, as your Holiness is aware. 
 I have had the misfortune to marry a Messalina, 
 who bore children.' 
 
 Hor tense's fourth son, afterwards Duke of 
 Morny, was the son of Count Flahault. 
 
 Among these terrible Bonapartes Josephine 
 was a refined and radiant form ; though she also 
 had had her escapades in the salons of Barras and 
 the other revolutionary chiefs, and at least once, 
 while Napoleon was in Egypt, had had a brief 
 liaison with an undistinguished officer. But she 
 had a warm love of Napoleon, and he on his side 
 accorded her the highest mark of confidence that 
 he was capable of to a woman when he said that 
 he was sure Josephine would leave a rendezvous 
 if a message came to her from him. They slept 
 
168 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 in the same bedroom at first like good bourgeois. 
 But in 1805 Napoleon, at the Boulogne camp, 
 was detained far into the night with State matters. 
 Josephine was so foolish as to make a scene 
 when he came to bed. Napoleon was angry, 
 and from that moment he could never be prevailed 
 upon to return to the old arrangement, even with 
 Marie Louise. He knew the species. 
 
 Josephine was not very judicious, yet she 
 interfered little in things that she did not under- 
 stand, and gave her busy husband as little trouble 
 as possible. It was enough for her if she could 
 retain his affection ; and when other matters 
 estranged him from her, she tried every means in 
 her power to regain it. She attended to all his 
 needs, and was generally such an Empress as he 
 would desire ; and she would not allow the clergy 
 to come any nearer than he wanted, though she 
 was religious in her way. 
 
 She once told the Archbishop of Nantes in 
 the confessional that she ate meat on Fridays. 
 
 6 Does the Emperor do the same ?' asked the 
 bishop. 
 
 ' Yes.' 
 
 c Very well, then, do as he does. Your 
 Majesty may be sure that he has a special 
 dispensation for himself and his family.' 
 
 But when Josephine, to make quite sure, put 
 the same question to Cardinal Fesch, he replied 
 that when the Emperor wanted her to break the 
 fast she was to throw the plate in his face. ' The 
 doctors differ,' said Napoleon, laughing, as he 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 169 
 
 told Chaptal the story, which he had heard from 
 Josephine. ' The bishop is right ; the other is a 
 fool. He wants to give himself an air of austerity 
 that does not go well with his own private life.' 
 
 In the course of time Josephine became more 
 and more nervous and strained when it was seen 
 that she would have no more children than the 
 two she had borne to her first husband, General 
 Beauharnais Eugene and Hortense. She brooded 
 constantly over it, and she could see that 
 Napoleon also did so. She tried every possible 
 means and advice, and even suggested to Napoleon 
 a fictitious pregnancy and an adopted child. She 
 had a presentiment long before it came that 
 there would be a divorce. 
 
 Her extravagance was unbounded and almost 
 amounted to a mania. It was impossible for 
 her to resist the jewellers and dressmakers when 
 they came to her rooms with the finest trinkets 
 and richest toilets that the best artists of Paris 
 had produced all of fabulous prices. She had 
 an incredible number of hats, the cost of which 
 was enormous during a single season, and she lived 
 in constant dread of her bills, though Napoleon 
 paid freely and generously. His Empress could 
 afford to be extravagant. She must put all the 
 other princesses of Europe in the shade. There 
 was no niggardliness about her husband. But he 
 could not bear himself or her to be cheated, and 
 he knew that Josephine was paying seven times 
 the price of things, because she had no more idea 
 of money than a bird. Hence, when he was 
 
170 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 settling her bills, he never paid the full price, but 
 offered the vendors a half or three-fourths of the 
 sum. They generally took it, and did good 
 business. But he never got to the bottom of her 
 bills, as she always concealed the worst from him, 
 although she must have known that they would 
 all come to light one day. Josephine's first word 
 was always ' No.' She denied things by instinct. 
 Hence she lived in an ocean of debts, and the 
 flood of bills even found its way to Elba. 
 
 Otherwise, and in so far as there can 
 be any question of female influence on 
 Napoleon, Josephine was certainly the most 
 suitable wife for him. If she had only been 
 able to bear him a child even a girl Napoleon 
 would never have parted with her. He did not 
 propose the new marriage because he was dis- 
 contented with Josephine, still less because he 
 loved anybody else, nor in any desire for a more 
 distinguished partner. He was quite high enough 
 to afford the luxury of retaining the woman to 
 whom he had always returned, and he was very 
 unwilling to inflict on Josephine the pain and 
 humiliation of a separation. But fortune had 
 favoured him, and he felt bound to put himself 
 right for the future by ensuring descendants. 
 Moreover, his followers were hinting every day 
 some quite openly, others by suggestion that 
 all the legitimate princely houses had their future 
 assured ; he alone was without past and without 
 future. He must found a Bonaparte dynasty. 
 
 It has seemed to many that the man was 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 171 
 
 insatiable, and was driven from one delusive plan 
 to another by his unbounded ambition. But, 
 apart from the great masters of politics who have 
 never sought anything for themselves, but been 
 raised higher and higher by the admiration and 
 affection of their compatriots, it seems to me 
 that we all, in our various ways, seek self- 
 expression. When Napoleon saw that he had 
 met all the claims that his wonderful fate had 
 made on him, he had no reason to halt. He 
 rightly felt that he was so far superior to other 
 princes that the first place amongst them fell 
 naturally to him, at the head of his great nation ; 
 and this expressly demanded of him some security 
 for the future. He only hesitated so long to take 
 the painful step out of tenderness for Josephine ; 
 there is no ground whatever for doubting that 
 the step was very painful to him. As in all 
 other matters, Napoleon once more distinguished 
 himself from other kings and princes who had a 
 mind to repudiate their wives. No bull came 
 from the pope ; no black ring of priests terrified 
 the poor queen ; there was no incriminating 
 law-suit with bought witnesses and charges of 
 infidelity. Even in his separation from his wife 
 he was a perfect gentleman, a grand seigneur ; 
 and the usual order and ceremony were observed 
 as to form. 
 
 On her side Josephine deserves all praise for 
 the way in which she met her hard fate, when all 
 hope was lost. She remained a true friend of 
 Napoleon, and never put herself in the way of the 
 
172 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 new wife and Empress. We rarely find so clear 
 and clean a light on the relation between two 
 eminent personages as in the case of these two at 
 the time of their separation. When Napoleon's 
 mind was made up, he directed Eugene Beau- 
 harnais to go and explain to his mother that the 
 divorce was now unavoidable, for political reasons, 
 as France demanded the continuation of the 
 Bonaparte dynasty. The viceroy conducted the 
 affair in the admirable spirit that he always 
 showed. He had not only developed into a 
 courageous and reliable officer, but was also a 
 man of honour in every respect, and a good son 
 to his mother and his step-father. Napoleon had 
 a high opinion of him, though he never gave the 
 least indication of looking on Eugene as a possible 
 successor. Josephine had long hoped that he 
 would do so, but she was too prudent and reserved 
 ever to ask anything for her son. She wanted to 
 leave it entirely to Napoleon to advance him. 
 
 As the widow of General Beauharnais, who 
 had been guillotined, she had lived in such 
 straitened circumstances that Hortense had been 
 sent to learn dressmaking and Eugene to learn 
 carpentering, when Napoleon appeared as a suitor. 
 Now Hortense was Queen of Holland, and Eugene 
 Duke of Leuchtenberg, Prince of Eichstadt, 
 Prince of France, and Viceroy of Italy. 
 
 On the evening of December 15th, 1805, 
 Prince Cambaceres, the chancellor of the empire, 
 and Count Regnault assembled with the whole 
 imperial family at the Tuileries. Josephine gave 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 173 
 
 her consent to the dissolution of the marriage, 
 after Napoleon had thanked her in sincere and 
 moving words for the happiness they had had 
 together for fifteen years. The divorce was 
 communicated to the Senate the following day. 
 Eugene again appeared and expressed the loyal 
 attitude of his mother and the sacrifice she 
 willingly made for her country. The marriage 
 was then declared invalid on the ground that a 
 priest and two witnesses were not present at its 
 celebration. 
 
 General Bonaparte's civil marriage of 1796 
 was effected by no other formality than registering 
 before the proper republican authorities. Berna- 
 dotte and the other officers were married in the 
 same way. According to French law it could be 
 dissolved by the consent of the contracting 
 parties. It was, therefore, not this marriage that 
 the Senate had to dissolve before Napoleon could 
 marry a Catholic princess. But when the coro- 
 nation of the Emperor and Empress drew near 
 in 1804, Cardinal Fesch feared that the republican 
 marriage would put difficulties in the way of 
 Josephine's coronation, and proposed that he 
 should marry them in the Tuileries, a few days 
 before the coronation, but with closed doors and 
 no witnesses. When Josephine learned, at the 
 time of the divorce, that her marriage had been 
 declared invalid, she sent for Fesch to Malmaison, 
 and he gave her a legal certificate of marriage. 
 However, she made no use of this document, and 
 was content to keep it in her possession. 
 
174 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 ' 1 
 
 In a sense both the cardinal and the Senate 
 
 were right. In French law the marriage was 
 invalid because there were no witnesses. But 
 according to the Canon Law of the Church a 
 marriage of this kind may be valid when it is 
 conducted by a cardinal. However, Napoleon 
 had to pay a fine of six francs to the poor, because 
 he had omitted to have witnesses. 
 
 The divorce caused the greatest excitement 
 in all the European courts. If he decided to 
 contract a fresh marriage, it was clear that he 
 would seek his wife in the most elevated circles. 
 For some time there was question of a princess 
 of Saxony, whom he could easily marry, but 
 Napoleon himself desired a Russian princess, one 
 of the Tsar's sisters. Alexander acted as though 
 he was extremely flattered by Napoleon's choice, 
 but begged a postponement on account of the 
 youth of the Grand Princess. He knew as well 
 as anybody that there was no question of delay. 
 
 On March 1st, 1810, Marshal Berthier, Prince 
 of Neuchatel, went to Vienna to ask the hand 
 of the Archduchess Marie Louise for the Emperor 
 of France. The preliminaries had already taken 
 place, and the Emperor Francis met the suit 
 with the greatest complaisance. It must, however, 
 have been hard for the old Hapsburger to give 
 his own daughter to bear children to the man 
 who had humiliated Austria, beaten her armies, 
 and brought the house of Hapsburg to the dust 
 time after time ; and he a mere Corsican 
 adventurer. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 175 
 
 On March llth, Marie Louise was entrusted 
 to Berthier in the name of the Emperor, and two 
 days afterwards they left Vienna. She was 
 accompanied by a suite of 300 persons. Between 
 Braunau and Altheim Napoleon had, in an 
 incredibly short time, erected a very large and 
 handsomely decorated wooden structure. At one 
 end of the building was Austria, at the other 
 France, with a neutral space between. Here the 
 Queen of Naples, Caroline Murat, went down from 
 Paris with a numerous escort, and received 
 Marie Louise. The archduchess, who then received 
 the title of Empress, was conducted from Austria 
 into France with a splendid ceremony arranged 
 by the Emperor himself. The bridal gifts he 
 sent her included a trousseau of the finest Parisian 
 work and taste, and put in the shade anything 
 that Vienna could offer the ladies of the court. 
 
 After the ceremonies the Empress continued 
 her journey westward in short daily stages, as 
 was customary a century ago. Large carriages 
 with four horses were ready at each stage, and 
 no time was lost. She had now parted from her 
 Viennese friends, and was only accompanied by 
 the small temporary French court that the 
 Emperor had sent. At each station where they 
 were to spend a night she found a letter from 
 her gallant bridegroom. March 29th was to be 
 the last day of the journey. She was to reach 
 the castle of Compiegne in the evening, where 
 the Emperor and all his family awaited her, and 
 Berthier was to present the kneeling Empress to 
 Napoleon on the following day. 
 
176 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 But the whole of these arrangements were 
 upset. When all Napoleon's preparations were 
 made, he took Murat and slipped out of the castle 
 in the grey coat he had worn at Wagram. They 
 drove to meet the Empress in a simple carriage, 
 with one coachman without livery. When they 
 reached Courcelles, in the pouring rain, they 
 drove under the porch of an old church, and 
 waited for the Empress and her suite. It was 
 the last spot for changing horses, and the moment 
 the Empress's carriage drove up Napoleon hastened 
 to it. The next morning they had breakfast 
 together in the Empress's bedroom. The frightful 
 scandal flew through Europe, and shook the very 
 pillars of Viennese society. 
 
 On March 30th the civil marriage was 
 completed at St. Cloud, and on the following day 
 the newly-wedded pair made a triumphant entry 
 into Paris, followed by a festival at the Louvre 
 which Napoleon had arranged, according to his 
 own taste, on the most magnificent scale. Part 
 of the Louvre waa used for the festivity. There 
 were tribunes for kings and princes, ambassadors, 
 and marshals. The imperial family stood round 
 Napoleon and Marie Louise in all their beauty 
 and splendour, besides all the nobles and poten- 
 tates in France and a number of foreigners. 
 Altogether there were about 8,000 persons. 
 
 A shadow was cast on the festive period that 
 followed the marriage. Some two months after- 
 wards a terrible fire broke out at a ball given 
 by the Austrian ambassador, Prince Schwartzen- 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 177 
 
 berg, in honour of his master's daughter. The 
 accident not only cost the lives of several persons 
 and interrupted the festive spirit, but it reminded 
 contemporaries of a similar mishap that had 
 occurred the last time an Austrian Archduchess 
 married a French ruler in 1770, when Marie 
 Antoinette married Louis XVI. Prince Schwart- 
 zenberg had committed one of those impru- 
 dent acts that we often read of in connection 
 with the old Parisian palaces. To provide a room 
 for the dancing the inner court of the hotel had 
 been converted into a large hall. A wooden 
 floor had been put in, with steps and approaches 
 to the other rooms and the corridors, a roof of 
 canvas was stretched over it, and the walls were 
 hung with beautiful curtains and tapestry, and 
 decorated with an infinite number of flowers and 
 candles. 
 
 It is dangerous enough to-day, for all our 
 electric-light and modern heating-apparatus. At 
 that time, when illumination had to be got by 
 thousands of wax candles, it was pure folly. It 
 only needed one curtain to fall over a chandelier, 
 as they danced or crowded on the steps, and the 
 whole would be in flames in three minutes. That 
 was what happened, at the very height of the 
 festivities. The Emperor did not wait for assist- 
 ance, but quietly took his wife in his arms like 
 a good bourgeois, and carried her into the security 
 of the palace. Many were killed, especially 
 ladies, whose light dresses caught fire at once, and 
 who fell and were suffocated in the crowd, or ran 
 
178 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 in flames into the garden. There were plenty of 
 men there who were accustomed to keep their 
 heads in the greatest danger, but the whole thing 
 passed with such frightful rapidity. The cavalry- 
 general, Durosnel, found his wife, and carried her 
 out of the crowd. As he pushed through he saw 
 a hand stealing a valuable comb from her hair 
 without being able to prevent it. 
 
 At the close of the year 1810, Napoleon 
 received a request from Norway that led to the 
 appointment of Marshal Bernadotte, Prince of 
 Ponte Corvo, as Crown-prince and successor to 
 the throne of Sweden. During and after the 
 Consulate Bernadotte was a secret enemy of 
 Bonaparte's. Napoleon treated him with the 
 greatest generosity, but it was returned with 
 ingratitude. On the 18th Brumaire he held back 
 until he saw whether Napoleon's coup failed. When 
 it succeeded Bernadotte at once joined him, and 
 began fresh intrigues against him. Although 
 Napoleon was fully informed of it all, he made 
 Bernadotte marshal at the first selection, gave 
 him the grand cross and the title of Prince of 
 France and Duke of Ponte Corvo, with considerable 
 revenues, and in the end appointed him King of 
 Sweden with a gift of a million francs out of the 
 Emperor's private purse. Bernadotte repaid it 
 all with ingratitude and treachery. 
 
 In 1799, when Napoleon was in Egypt, Joseph 
 Bonaparte married his wife's sister to General 
 Bernadotte. The Miles. Clary were the daughters 
 of a merchant at Marseilles, and Desiree, who 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 179 
 
 became Mme. Bernadotte, had been Bonaparte's 
 first love. She was afterwards to marry a General 
 Duphot, but he was murdered at Rome at the 
 very time appointed for the wedding. In the end 
 she married Bernadotte, and his continuous rise, 
 until he became king, was entirely due to his 
 marriage with Napoleon's friend. Bernadotte 
 had no great name in military circles. There 
 were twenty generals in France, who had com- 
 manded independent army-corps, whose name 
 and fame put his entirely in the shade. He was 
 at the same time wholly uneducated and little 
 liked in the army. But when Napoleon became 
 Emperor, he was pleased to make his early love 
 a princess and a queen. 
 
 Their son was Napoleon's god-child. They 
 had deferred baptising him until Napoleon's 
 return from Egypt, and the name Oscar had been 
 chosen by Napoleon himself ; it was taken from 
 Ossian's poem, over which he and his contem- 
 poraries were very enthusiastic. That was how 
 the kings of Sweden came to bear a name taken 
 from the supposed poetry of the ancient Scottish 
 bard. Neither Napoleon nor anyone else then 
 suspected that the work was a forgery of Mac- 
 pherson's. 
 
 It was really a small party of nobles and 
 officers that pressed the aged and childless King of 
 Sweden to ask Napoleon for a Prince of France 
 as successor to the throne. They had at first 
 thought of the Viceroy of Italy, but the need for 
 changing his religion proved an insurmountable 
 
180 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 obstacle especially for the viceroy. As there 
 was no other prince of France except Ponte Corvo 
 the choice fell on him, and Napoleon consented. 
 As soon as it was all arranged Jean Baptiste 
 Bernadotte promptly embraced the Lutheran 
 creed ! His wife's conversion was not quite so 
 speedy. Indeed she seemed to be in no hurry to 
 leave the court at Paris and go to Stockholm. 
 
 ' I might be enthusiastic about Josephine,' 
 said a contemporary, ' but I should be quite the 
 opposite with the wife of Marshal Bernadotte. 
 Her intolerable pride repelled everybody, and her 
 way of conducting herself is very much out of 
 place now that she is Queen of Sweden, and in 
 striking contrast to the amiability of Josephine, 
 and even of Hortense.' 
 
 However, this was a small matter in com- 
 parison with other liberties she took, in spite of 
 her pride and her regal position. The whole of 
 Europe was scandalised by the way in which she 
 ran after the Due de Richelieu, whom she loved. 
 The duke himself writes in a letter that is dated 
 from Zurich, July 19th, 1819 : ' This morning 
 I found a bouquet on my table at the hotel. So 
 my infatuated queen has come here.' On the 
 25th he again wrote to one of his friends : * My 
 infatuated queen is here in the profoundest 
 incognito, and so heavily veiled that when I meet 
 her I can never be quite sure it is she. This sort 
 of things gets rather troublesome.' At the time 
 the women of Norway were meeting at church 
 every Sunday and offering prayer for the mother 
 of their country. It was not superfluous. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 181 
 
 Bernadotte went at once to Sweden, where 
 Charles III adopted him as his son. On November 
 1st he took the oath as Crown-prince, and on the 
 15th the Swedish government allied itself with 
 Napoleon, and joined the continental system 
 against Great Britain. Sweden had played a 
 very poor part during the whole of the Napoleonic 
 wars, but it was soon to astonish Europe with its 
 infidelity. As the old king grew feebler, Sweden's 
 policy reflected more and more the nature of the 
 intriguing and untruthful Gascon. It was well 
 known in what intrigues and conspiracies he had 
 been involved since the beginning of 1804, before 
 the great conspiracy of Georges Cadoudal and 
 the royalists. 
 
 He had at that time a command in the 
 north-west of France, and a revolt was planned 
 amongst the soldiers of the Rennes garrison with 
 the object of breaking into insurrection against 
 the First Consul on an appointed day. Shortly 
 before this date Bernadotte slunk to Paris on the 
 pretext that he must be there when the rising 
 took place, though his real object was, of course, 
 to be out of the way in case of the affair failing 
 at Rennes, as it actually did. The conspiracy 
 was discovered on the very day the trouble was 
 to begin, and the proclamations that were to be 
 spread amongst the people, and that contained 
 the names of Bernadotte and Moreau, were confis- 
 cated. Bernadotte was saved by the fact that 
 he had given nothing in writing, and his guilt 
 could not be proved. But a young son of General 
 
182 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Marbot, an adjutant of Bernadotte's had had his 
 carriage filled with these dangerous proclamations, 
 without his knowledge. He was at once arrested 
 and his mother implored Bernadotte's aid. He 
 had been a friend of General Marbot, and was 
 guardian of his sons ; and it was the conspirators 
 who had put the proclamations in the young man's 
 carriage. Bernadotte promised everything and 
 did nothing. Mme. Marbot ran from one to 
 another, and at last obtained a promise from 
 Napoleon that her son would be released if 
 General Bernadotte personally requested it. The 
 lady hastened with this information to Bernadotte. 
 He delivered a short speech on friendship, etc., 
 and promised to see Bonaparte the same evening. 
 He did not ; but departed the same night with 
 his wife to the baths of Plombieres. When 
 Bonaparte heard it, he said : ' Yes, I know him.' 
 The young Marbot was released, but Napoleon 
 always distrusted him. 
 
 The struggle in the Spanish Peninsula went 
 on vigorously in the years 1810 and 1811. Massena 
 was unlucky for the first time in his life. He 
 fought Wellington in Portugal and lost the battle 
 of Busaco. Although he had Ney and Junot and 
 General Reynier with him, he was powerless 
 against Wellington's splendid entrenchments at 
 Torres Vedras. In Spain things went a little 
 better for the French. Marshals Soult and Suchet 
 had the supreme command there, but the right 
 force for controlling the whole had gone when the 
 Emperor departed. Marshal Victor had the good 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 183 
 
 fortune to free 600 of those who had been taken 
 prisoners at Baylen. His corps was on board a 
 section of the fleet that lay in the roads at Cadiz. 
 When the unfortunate prisoners, who were at 
 work dredging in the harbour, saw the French flag, 
 they seized a wretched little ferry-boat, without 
 any tackle, and rowed through the hot fire of the 
 Spanish and English warships out into the roads, 
 where they were picked up by their delighted 
 countrymen. 
 
 But Napoleon had turned his eyes eastward, 
 now that the divorce was effected and the new 
 marriage answered his expectations so well. On 
 March 20th, 1811, Paris was in a state of feverish 
 excitement. They knew that the Empress was 
 approaching confinement. But serious difficulties 
 arose, and the life either of the mother or the 
 child might be endangered. Dr. Dubois went to 
 the Emperor, who was in one of the adjacent 
 rooms. The physician wanted to know if he was 
 to look mainly to saving the child or the mother. 
 4 You will treat the Empress,' said Napoleon 
 warmly, * as if you were assisting an ordinary 
 patient in one of the slums of Paris.' Dr. Dubois 
 returned to the Empress, threw off his coat, and 
 set to work. The child was in a serious condition 
 when it came into the world, but it recovered. 
 As soon as it did so the Emperor took it from the 
 nurse and carried it into the large hall, where the 
 dignitaries of the realm were waiting in the 
 greatest tension. 
 
184 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 ' Here is the King of Rome,' cried the Emperor, 
 who was for once beside himself with joy. 
 
 At the same moment the cannons of the 
 Invalides opened fire, and announced to Paris that 
 the Emperor had a child. At the first shot 
 Paris stood still and held its breath. Everybody 
 men, women, and children who could do so 
 was counting. They knew that if the guns fired 
 twenty-one shots it was only a princess ; if 
 twenty-two, then the roar would go on up to a 
 hundred, for it meant the birth of a son, an heir 
 to the throne, Napoleon the Second. It is said 
 that the gunners at the Invalides played a joke by 
 waiting for a few seconds before firing the twenty- 
 second shot ; but when they did so a thunder of 
 rejoicing broke over the whole city, such as has 
 never been heard before or since. So great was 
 the enthusiasm they felt on hearing that the future 
 of the country was assured that the imperial 
 page who ran from the chateau to announce the 
 birth to the councillors assembled in the Hotel de 
 Ville was unanimously voted 10,000 francs a year. 
 Three years afterwards, in 1814, the Emperor 
 dissolved the Council. What became of the poor 
 page's pension ? 
 
 In the year 1811 there was broad sunshine 
 in France ; though a shadow fell on the land 
 when 100,000 quite young men were drafted into 
 the army towards the close of the year. The 
 generous awards that the Emperor had made to 
 his followers had given a brilliancy to social life at 
 Paris almost equal to what it had been under the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 185 
 
 kings. The Emperor desired it, and most of his 
 officers did not need telling twice. Most of them 
 had also contrived to secure so many valuables 
 and so much money that they returned with 
 waggon-loads from every campaign. The salons 
 of their wives and the splendid festivities they gave 
 when they had any time at home in peace, were a 
 welcome reward for the long days of war, when 
 no one had spared himself and from which they 
 brought wounds and injuries to Paris. There was 
 Napoleon's own family, with the Queen of Naples 
 at its head, and even the Tuileries, which witnessed 
 a continuous series of festive gatherings. More- 
 over, many members of the old nobility returned 
 to their mysterious hotels on the Boulevard St. 
 Germain. Some went on to the court and 
 accepted service in it, and some of the best names 
 are found in the army under Napoleon as well 
 as under the Bourbons. 
 
 The higher circles at Paris were, therefore, as 
 brilliant as ever. The lower strata of the popula- 
 tion were content. The Emperor brought plenty 
 of honour and fame, but he also brought work 
 and business. He had an eye for everything, and, 
 although he had a close knowledge only of the 
 military section of his people, his practical 
 judgment was of service to many branches of 
 commerce. Paris was always his heaviest task. 
 He once complained to Fouche : ' I shall be 
 delighted if you can assure me that the faubourg 
 St. Germain is satisfied. I may tell you that in 
 all my battles, in the greatest dangers, even in 
 
186 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 the middle of the desert, the question was always 
 in my mind what will Paris say, especially the 
 faubourg St. Germain ?' There was a gulf between 
 Napoleon Bonaparte and Paris that could never 
 be filled. He was never a Parisian ; he was not 
 even sufficiently French. 
 
 It is not easy to say what subtle fluid it 
 is that gives its character to a great city a 
 fluid of which everyone who feels himself a genuine 
 Parisian, and insists on being regarded as such, 
 must have a small drop. There is about Paris 
 and everything Parisian a certain elegant perfume 
 of depravity. Everything seems to be edged 
 with a narrow red border. Napoleon was entirely 
 devoid of it. He was, to his finger-tips, as hard 
 and angular as crystal, without the stamp of any 
 society, least of all that of Paris. 
 
 Now that he had founded a dynasty and 
 put his troublesome metropolis in good humour, 
 he felt himself superior to all the princes that he 
 knew. The Tsar alone was an exception. As 
 early as 1805 Napoleon had seen clearly that the 
 Tsar would not allow Austria to fall too low. In 
 1810 Russia had abruptly withdrawn from the 
 Tilsit arrangement, and left the continental system. 
 Large musters of troops along the frontier of the 
 Grand Duchy of Warschau seemed to forebode 
 no good. But he had always evinced a curious 
 attitude toward Russia, and he now hesitated to 
 admit as a fact the patent defection of the Tsar 
 to England and the other princes. He never 
 understood the invincible comradeship that bound 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 187 
 
 the other princes together, and alienated them 
 from himself. He had learned from history, as 
 we have seen a hundred years after his day, that 
 the enmity of kings never lasts long. After a 
 certain time, after they have aired their armies 
 and bled their peoples, they come together again 
 and kiss each other on railway platforms, and the 
 news flies over the telegraphic system of the world. 
 He did not understand that if he had been a 
 king's son a bastard, at least the others, 
 impressed by his superiority, would have opened 
 their circles to him and his son. But to him, as 
 he was, the usurper, the child of the revolution 
 never ! He might humble them and trade with 
 their territory and capitals, but they would rather 
 die than seriously recognise Napoleon as an equal. 
 Bernadotte might do very well on the distant 
 throne of Sweden. In the first place they needed 
 him as a general, and further, they despised him, 
 and let him feel that they did so. Napoleon was 
 blind to all this. Politically, he had the idea an 
 idea revived in our own time that France in 
 alliance with Russia had the fate of Europe in 
 its hand ; personally, he believed that the Tsar 
 Alexander was his friend at the bottom. Sagacious 
 as he was, suspicious even on the slightest indica- 
 tions, he clearly thought during the whole time, 
 even when he was preparing to advance against 
 Russia, that by a personal interview with Alexander 
 preferably after he had thoroughly beaten him 
 he could restore the friendly relations of Tilsit 
 and Erfurt, commit him against England, and 
 
188 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 restore the equilibrium in Europe that he destined 
 for his son. 
 
 When he saw clearly in February, 1812, that 
 St. Petersburg had played him false, and had no 
 intention of sending Count Nesselrode as extra- 
 ordinary envoy to Paris, as he had long wished, 
 he sent for Colonel Chernicheff, an adjutant of 
 the Tsar who was at Paris, and gave him, in 
 friendly mood, a number of explanations and a 
 private letter to the Tsar. Colonel Chernicheff 
 bowed and thanked him. But two days after his 
 his departure from Paris it was discovered that 
 he had abused his position, and bribed a sub- 
 ordinate official in the ministry of war to give him 
 a correct account of the strength of the French 
 army. The official was arrested ; but the per- 
 fidious Russian had got too good a start. They 
 sent after him as quickly as possible, but he 
 reached St. Petersburg with his prize. 
 
 The Tsar's reply to the letter that Napoleon 
 sent by Colonel Chernicheff was brought by 
 Baron Serobin in April. It contained an ex- 
 pression of Russia's desire that the French 
 troops should evacuate Prussia and withdraw 
 across the Rhine. Napoleon said that this was 
 merely diplomatic effrontery, and would not take 
 it literally. He sent Count Nar bonne as extra- 
 ordinary envoy to St. Petersburg, and told him 
 to treat directly and personally with the Tsar, hi 
 accordance with the instructions of the Emperor 
 Napoleon. A few days later the Russian ambas- 
 sador, Prince Kourakin, broke off the negotiations 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 189 
 
 that he had been conducting for some months 
 with the Due de Bassano, and the Emperor left 
 Paris on May 9th, 1812. The Empress accom- 
 panied him to Dresden. 
 
 It was the beginning of the great Russian 
 campaign. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 In the year 1808, when the alliance still held 
 good between Russia and France, Marshal Berna- 
 dotte occupied Jutland with Spanish troops, for 
 the purpose of threatening Sweden on that side in 
 order that Russia might annex Finland without 
 opposition. As a fact, the marshal had explicit 
 orders from the Emperor to do nothing against 
 Sweden. But he concealed this part of his orders, 
 and afterwards boasted of his inactivity, as if 
 Sweden ought to be grateful to him for it. When 
 however, it became clear, in the year 1811, that 
 war was bound to break out between Napoleon 
 and Alexander, Bernadotte pointed out to the 
 French ambassador at Stockholm that it would 
 be a great help to Napoleon if a Swedish army 
 were to invade Finland. 
 
 For this service the Swedish Crown-prince 
 demanded Norway. He had the effrontery even, 
 Thiers says, to threaten to injure the French, if 
 they did not support him in the taking of Norway ; 
 a remarkable procedure when we remember that 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 191 
 
 he had himself worn the French uniform only a 
 short time previously. He could never forget 
 that Napoleon did not enter into his plans in 
 regard to Norway. As he chiefly owed his 
 elevation to the position of heir to the throne to 
 the success of the French army, and as he by no 
 means improved on closer acquaintance for 
 people soon found that he was vain, boastful, and 
 prodigal of empty promises, while his military 
 talent was very far below what he thought it to 
 be it was a fine dream that he would win favour 
 in Sweden by this annexation. 
 
 In November, 1811, he had a conversation 
 with M. Alquier, the French ambassador at 
 Stockholm. After a few desultory observations 
 on certain privileges that English merchants had 
 enjoyed at Goteborg, Bernadotte audaciously 
 asked ' why France rewarded his services so 
 badly ?' The ambassador hinted that the throne 
 of Sweden was a very fair acknowledgment. If, 
 says Thiers, one could have looked into the future 
 at that moment, one would certainly have treated 
 this foolish conceit with moderation. But we can 
 understand the bitterness of the French ambas- 
 sador. There are things that prove insupportable 
 even under the menace of death. The new-baked 
 crown-prince was extremely arrogant throughout 
 the conversation. He recalled all the battles in 
 which he had taken part and declared as he 
 used to do amongst his confidants that he had 
 won the battle of Austerlitz (where he had not 
 fired a shot) ; the battle of Friedland (where he 
 
192 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 was not even present) ; and the battle of Wagram 
 (where he had taken to flight both days with his 
 4 granite column '). 
 
 He then went on to say that he knew all 
 about the bad feeling there was in regard to him 
 at Paris ; but he now ruled a race of giants, who 
 adored him, and before whom no enemy could 
 stand once he led them forward. ' That is too 
 much,' cried the ambassador. But Bernadotte, 
 who was in a state of feverish excitement, called 
 out to his boy Oscar : ' Isn't it true ? You will 
 follow the example of your father, and prefer 
 death to disgrace.' M. Alquier reported the 
 whole conversation to Napoleon. The Emperor 
 smiled, and broke all connection with Sweden. 
 This caused some concern in Sweden, and both 
 the old king and the crown-prince endeavoured 
 to remedy the breach. But at the same time 
 Bernadotte made secret overtures, on his own 
 account, to Russia and England. He said, in 
 explanation of his treachery to his benefactor, 
 that Napoleon had unfortunately pursued him 
 with jealousy throughout his whole life. 
 
 The truth was that jealousy was at the 
 bottom of Bernadotte's hatred from the beginning. 
 Jealous as he was by nature, he dared to be 
 envious of the man who should have been far 
 above the range of his jealousy ; for there could 
 be no comparison whatever between General 
 Bernadotte and General Bonaparte. We can, 
 more or less, understand his jealousy of Moreau, 
 Massena, Lannes, or Davoust, though they were 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 193 
 
 all far superior to him. But for him to be jealous 
 of Napoleon only shows his narrow-mindedness 
 and slender intelligence. 
 
 After reading these things about Bernadotte, 
 I was rather amazed to hear King Oscar II say in 
 1896 : ' The one man who could have taken 
 Napoleon's place was my grandfather.' He said 
 it so quietly and unhesitatingly that one could 
 see this was the way he had been taught history. 
 
 On May 20th, 1812, the French imperial 
 couple were at Dresden. Napoleon feared that 
 possibly, in view of the actual relations between 
 the Russian and French courts, Count Narbonne 
 would not succeed in reaching the Tsar personally. 
 And, as he thought everything depended on that, 
 he thought he would make one more effort to 
 attain his end through his ambassador at St. 
 Petersburg, Count Lauriston. He therefore said 
 to Maret, the Duke of Bassano : ' Write to 
 Lauriston, and tell him to go to Wilna (where the 
 Emperor Alexander was with the army). Let 
 him know that, as I wish to bring this war of 
 words to an end, I command him to break 
 through all formalities and see the Tsar in person, 
 and learn from his own lips something that may 
 lead to an understanding between us.' 
 
 When Lauriston received the order he at 
 once asked for a passport to leave the capital and 
 go to Wilna. He did not obtain one. In the 
 meantime, a court such as Europe had never seen 
 before and will never see again, had gathered 
 about Napoleon and the Empress, who were 
 N 
 
194 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 staying with the aged King of Saxony at Dresden. 
 The Emperor and Empress of Austria had come 
 of their own initiative to greet their daughter and 
 son-in-law and wish him success in his great 
 campaign. The King of Prussia was there. He 
 offered his son as an adjutant to Napoleon, though 
 the Emperor declined the offer out of delicacy. 
 All the kings and ruling princes from the rest of 
 Germany came with their warmest wishes and an 
 assurance of loyalty in the struggle against the Tsar, 
 who now appeared to be the common enemy ! 
 
 It was during the stay at Dresden that the 
 elder Count Segur made his famous mot. He 
 happened to come late to a sitting, and the 
 Emperor glanced sharply at him. The astute 
 master of ceremonies answered : ' Your Majesty 
 must forgive me for coming late. I was detained 
 there was such a crowd of kings in the ante- 
 
 rooms.' 
 
 All these princes were to send troops to take 
 part in the campaign. The Emperor had taken 
 a liking to Prince Schwartzenberg at Paris, and 
 wished him to lead the Austrian army, which was 
 to advance across the Russian frontier in the 
 south-west, and serve as cover and support to the 
 grand army. There was not one of these foreigners 
 who did not secretly wish that Napoleon would 
 fare so badly that they might venture to abandon 
 him. This feeling grew especially in Germany. 
 The national upheaval had begun that sought 
 to wipe out the unnatural frontiers between the 
 smaller States of the illtreated nation. It was 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 195 
 
 not surprising that there were thoughts of 
 vengeance everywhere, and that all were ready 
 to east off the frightful burden. 
 
 But it will be a matter of wonder for all time 
 and an outrage on human honour to see the 
 complicated intrigues of Bernadotte in the 
 beginning of 1812. To the English party in 
 Sweden he declared that he would not be 
 Napoleon's slave, and that he thought most of the 
 trade and advantages of his own kingdom. To 
 his own party, which had chosen him as a general 
 of Napoleon, he spoke in a lofty tone of the 
 honour of the Swedish arms. To the Allies he 
 said that he was prepared to cast off the yoke 
 of France at the first signal. He would land with 
 30,000, if not 50,000, Swedes and annihilate the 
 French in Poland, if they would only guarantee 
 him Norway. Foreign powers could hardly credit 
 his perfidy, and the King of Prussia especially 
 felt himself injured. Bernadotte even went so 
 far, in his desire to aid Russia, as to offer to 
 bring about peace with the Turks. He was 
 everywhere the most active enemy of France. 
 
 On April 5th, Sweden contracted an alliance 
 with Russia, which promised to help it in the 
 annexation of Norway. The condition was to 
 remain secret. The Swedish cabinet was to deny 
 officially that there was any alliance with Russia, 
 and at a given moment its neutrality was to be 
 converted into war with France. It was one of 
 the most shameless instances of perfidy that 
 history has ever known. 
 
196 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 In the meantime the crown-princess Desideria, 
 who was still at Paris occupied with other things, 
 and could not be induced to go to Stockholm, 
 began to regret the ill-feeling between Sweden 
 and France, and tried to effect a reconciliation. 
 Hence we find Bernadotte sending M. Signeul to 
 Maret, who was with the Emperor at Dresden, 
 with two documents. The first, the official note, 
 declared candidly that for the moment Sweden 
 was substantially on Russia's side, but Bernadotte 
 again made a ridiculous proposal to mediate 
 between Alexander and Napoleon. The other, 
 the secret note, said that Bernadotte had no 
 interest in Finland ; if he were guaranteed Norway 
 he was ready to conclude an alliance with France 
 at once. Napoleon who was perfectly aware of 
 the secret treaty with Russia on April 5th, cried : 
 4 The scoundrel ! I want to hear no more of him.' 
 
 The grande armde, when it marched eastwards 
 from its headquarters in all its splendour in the 
 spring of 1812, was made up as follows. The 
 first corps, under Marshal Davoust, consisted of 
 six divisions, the main strength of which were the 
 divisions of Morand, Friant, and Gudin. The 
 rest of the corps was mixed with Bavarian and 
 Dutch regiments and Poles. Under Davoust 
 there was also General Grawert with 17,000 
 Prussians. The corps consisted in all of 114,000 
 men of good troops. Besides the three generals, 
 Gudin, Morand, and Friant, Davoust had also 
 Compans and Pajol, the engineer Haxo, and the 
 distinguished General Friedrich. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 197 
 
 '-. r '" 
 
 The second corps was led by Marshal Oudinot. 
 He had with him Generals Merle and Maison, 
 and the divisions of Legrand and Verdiers the 
 old soldiers of Lannes and Mass6na. Altogether, 
 with the cavalry under General Dumerc, there were 
 40,000 men. The third corps was commanded by 
 Marshal Ney with two divisions of veteran 
 soldiers, who had been trained by the Duke of 
 Montebello. There were also in it the Wiirtem- 
 bergers, who had served before under Ney. That 
 meant 39,000 men, with two corps of curassiers 
 from the cavalry-reserve : 10,000 men. The 
 fourth corps was under Prince Eugene, with Junot 
 second in command. It included Generals 
 Grouchy and Broussier, the two brothers Delzon, 
 and the best soldiers of the Italian army 
 45,000 men altogether. The fifth corps 
 numbered 26,000 men of all arms, mostly Poles, 
 under the command of Prince Poniatowski. The 
 sixth corps consisted of 25,000 men, mostly 
 foreigners who had served in the French army 
 since 1809, under General St. Cyr. The seventh 
 corps was under General Reynier ; 17,000 men, 
 mostly Saxons, who were to act with the Poles. 
 The eighth corps consisted of King Jerome with 
 18,000 Westphalians and Hessians. 
 
 Besides these there were four corps of 
 the reserve-infantry, divided amongst Davoust, 
 Oudinot, and Ney. The rest, 15,000 fine horsemen 
 marched with the Imperial Guard. The Guard 
 was commanded by Marshals Mortier and Lef ebvre, 
 and distributed in two corps ; the old guard, 
 
198 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 consisting of the green mounted rifles and the blue 
 foot-grenadiers ; and the young Guard, sharp- 
 shooters and light cavalry. In all there were 
 47,000 men, including 6,000 picked cavalrymen 
 and 200 guns with service. Then there was the 
 corps of engineers, consisting of sappers, miners, 
 bridge-constructers, and military artificers of all 
 kinds ; and the artillery and baggage with full 
 equipment and horses there were 18,000 horses 
 in these two trains alone. 
 
 In the active army that marched against 
 Russia there were 423,000 experienced soldiers, 
 namely, 200,000 foot, 70,000 horse, and 30,000 
 artillery with 1,000 guns, besides six trains of 
 bridges, ambulances, and supplies for one month. 
 As a reserve there was the ninth corps under 
 Marshal Victor, and the tenth corps under 
 Augereau, in the neighbourhood of Magdeburg, 
 which were to keep up the complement of the 
 army. The total number of men to face the 
 Russians was 620,000. Besides these there were 
 150,000 men in French depots and fortresses, 
 50,000 men in Italy, and 300,000 fighting in the 
 Spanish Peninsula under the command of generals 
 like Massena, Soult, and Suchet. The entire 
 French forces under the supreme command of one 
 man amounted to more than a million armed 
 soldiers. 
 
 If we consider the representation of the 
 different nationalities in the great army against 
 Russia, we have the following figures ; 370,000 
 were French; 50,000 Poles; 20,000 Italians; 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 199 
 
 and 10,000 Swiss. These could all be counted 
 upon as reliable soldiers. But there were also 
 150,000 Prussians, Bavarians, Saxons, Wiirtem- 
 bergers, Westphalians, Croatians, Spanish, and 
 Portuguese, who were all more or less unreliable 
 and dangerous. As I said, Napoleon did not 
 concern himself about this. To him soldiers were 
 soldiers and nothing else. Moreover, there was 
 such a feeling of hostility between the smaller 
 States and between the north and the south that 
 Germans often fought Germans with great zeal 
 under Napoleon's banner ; at least until the day 
 when the French administration pressed so heavily 
 on them that the princes were forced to seek the 
 aid of their peoples. 
 
 On June 17th the Emperor reached Dantzig. 
 From there he proceeded to Konigsberg, and 
 reviewed Davoust's six model divisions on the 
 route. On the 18th he reached Insterburg, where 
 he found the banks of the Pregel covered with 
 supplies of all kinds. At the same time 220,000 
 soldiers, ready for the fight, converged on the 
 place by different routes. On June 19th he at 
 last received precise information that the Emperor 
 Alexander could not be induced to see Lauriston. 
 He had now to rely on force. The Tsar must be 
 compelled. One way or the other he was deter- 
 mined to see the Tsar in person. And so Napoleon 
 crossed the Niemen. 
 
 He proposed to advance into Russia through 
 the district between the Dnieper, where it turns 
 southwards near Orscha, and the Dwina, where 
 
200 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 it flows northwards near Ostrowno. The first 
 movement of the Russians was to draw up their 
 northern army, under General Barclay de Tolly, 
 at the fortified camp of Drissa, where the Tsar 
 himself was, and seemed to be preparing for a 
 fight. The southern army, under Prince Bagration, 
 was to be brought into touch with the northern 
 by marching rapidly northwards and slipping 
 past the advancing French. Napoleon's plan 
 was to prevent the junction with the help of 
 Davoust's corps, keep the two Russian armies 
 apart, engage them separately, and drive Bag- 
 ration into the morasses. Meantime, the Tsar 
 had retreated so far without the great and decisive 
 battle that Napoleon was eager to engage in, 
 that the French reached Wilna, the old capital 
 of Poland. 
 
 The Poles, so often deluded, thought that 
 their day had come at last. The Polish nobility 
 declared that the kingdom of Poland was re-estab- 
 lished, and sent a deputation to Napoleon asking 
 him to recognise it. That would be enough for 
 them. But Napoleon, who never had much 
 sympathy with the national aspirations of the 
 Poles, gave an equivocal reply. His words 
 deprived the Poles of all spirit and hope, and 
 caused great disappointment even in France. 
 
 Meantime, if Napoleon's manoeuvre was to 
 succeed, and the junction of De Tolly and Bag- 
 ration to be prevented, King Jerome ought to 
 be much further advanced than he was with his 
 army-corps. As a matter of fact, even a strong 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 201 
 
 general would not have been able to get so far 
 by the end of June on account of the bad weather 
 and the violent rains. But Napoleon, who was 
 waiting at Wilna, was impatient ; so was Davoust. 
 At last King Jerome received an order, in a 
 somewhat offensive form, to put himself under the 
 command of Davoust. Jerome felt aggrieved, as 
 was quite natural. He left the army and returned 
 home. This quarrel between the two brothers 
 lost Napoleon the favourable moment when 
 Bagration might have been isolated and ruined. 
 What was even worse, eleven valuable June days 
 were spent idly at Wilna. 
 
 That was precisely what the Russians hoped, 
 and what those Frenchmen dreaded who knew 
 the Russian climate ; it meant that the campaign 
 would run into the winter. The story was going 
 round the Russian quarters of the smith who 
 laughed when someone showed him a French 
 horse-shoe, that had been found on the road. 
 ' Not one of those horses will ever leave Russia, 
 if they are here when the frost comes,' said the 
 smith. The French horse-shoes had neither spikes 
 nor barbs, and it would be impossible for the 
 horses to drag guns and heavy waggons up and 
 down hills when the roads were hard and slippery. 
 When Bonaparte was a young general on his 
 early campaigns, he would jump out of his carriage 
 when there was some lengthy delay on the march 
 and stand at the side of the road, and point to 
 one of the heavier waggons, with the question : 
 * What is in this waggon ?' The officer who was 
 
202 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 responsible had to ride up. The entire contents 
 of the waggon had to be laid out on the field and 
 checked harness, horse-cloths, nails, tools, screws, 
 metal-work, etc. The unfortunate young officer 
 would have to give an account of the smallest 
 details, and the general knew perfectly well what 
 ought to be there. If the young man had to 
 admit some blunder or other, he might pass into 
 eternal oblivion ; but if he was any good he 
 might die a general. The Russian campaign was 
 not equipped in this way. 
 
 When Napoleon at last marched on Drissa 
 at the close of June, the Tsar quitted his strong 
 position, though they had worked at it for a 
 whole year to make it impregnable. He retreated 
 as far as St. Petersburg, and remained there. At 
 Napoleon's command all the French troops reached 
 the Dwina on the same day, but they found 
 nothing but the empty camp. The campaign 
 had to go on, without a decisive battle having 
 been fought, with the same end in view to keep 
 the two Russian armies apart. Barclay de Tolly 
 retreated steadily before the advance of the main 
 army. At the beginning of July he seemed to 
 be going to take up a stand at Witebsk, in order 
 to give Bagration time to come up and join 
 him at Smolensk. But Bagration encountered 
 Davoust at Mohilew, and the French marshal had 
 one of his great days. He inflicted such a crushing 
 defeat on Bagration that there could be no more 
 question of a junction with Tolly at Smolensk. 
 
 In some mysterious way Prince Bagration 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 203 
 
 succeeded in sending the news of his defeat through 
 or round the French lines, and on the morning of 
 July 27th, when Napoleon and the entire main 
 army reached Witebsk, anxious for a decisive 
 battle, they found Barclay de Tolly in full retreat 
 once more. There was no pitched battle, such 
 as the French had hoped for, though there was 
 a sharp skirmish at Ostrowno, in which Murat 
 and Eugene won. In the course of this fight a 
 band of young Parisians, about 300 in number, 
 who belonged to the ninth regiment of the line, 
 cut their way through a mass of Russian curassiers 
 before the eyes of the whole French army. The 
 Emperor himself saw their bravery, and called 
 out : * Each of them has deserved the cross.' 
 
 It was a fresh disappointment for Napoleon 
 that there was no action sufficiently decisive at 
 Witebsk to bring on the question of negotiations. 
 At this time the French army was suffering terribly 
 from the heat, and the desertions began especially 
 amongst the Germans. Napoleon remained quiet 
 at Witebsk for a fortnight. He was not like his 
 old self at all in this campaign. Astonishment has 
 often been expressed that he did so little every 
 day, since his power had been mainly in the 
 swiftness with which he would astonish the enemy 
 and push on a campaign. Even granting that he 
 had less idea what a Russian winter was like than 
 a general of his rank ought to have had, and much 
 less than he would himself have been content 
 with in earlier years, nevertheless, it was very 
 unlike his real self to waste so much time at Wilna 
 
204 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 and then at Witebsk. It seems to me that 
 everything points to the conclusion that Napoleon 
 had expected every day to receive the adjutant 
 from the Tsar, who would turn the war into an 
 agreement between them. He was convinced all 
 along that the Tsar was deceived by his followers, 
 and only needed correct information to accept 
 the modern ideas that Napoleon wished to press 
 on him. The same opinion of the Tsar of Russia's 
 attitude toward modern ideas has been entertained 
 by many shrewd observers a hundred years since 
 those days. 
 
 The army took up quarters in the vicinity of 
 Witebsk. Supplies were collected, and deserters 
 and stragglers were brought up to the colours. 
 Although not more than 7,000 men had fallen as 
 yet, there were 150,000 men missing from the 
 ranks. The destruction of the grand army during 
 the Russian campaign must not be attributed 
 wholly to the cold and the terrible retreat. In 
 reality, the army was ruined before it reached 
 Moscow ; partly because there were far too many 
 foreigners in it, and partly because there had been 
 a foolish levy of boys. The latter could fight, it 
 is true, but they were unable to endure the 
 exceptional strain and privations of the campaign. 
 Moreover, a large number of the cavalry were 
 already compelled to go on foot. When we 
 examine the map showing the places of battle 
 on the march in and out of Russia, we see that 
 the French Bword penetrated to no great depth 
 in the bulky colossus. From the Niemen to 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 205 
 
 Mohilew, Ostrowno, Polotsk, Krasnoi (the first 
 time), Smolensk, Walutina, Borodino, and burning 
 Moscow, and back through the fields of Winkowo, 
 Malo, Jaroslawetz, Wiasma, Wop, Krasnoi (the 
 second time), Beresina, Wilna, and Kowno, is not 
 a long stretch of road. But it is a long stretch 
 of history. 
 
 During his halt as Witebsk, the Emperor 
 ruled with the same regularity as if he were at 
 the Tuileries, except that he was thinking day and 
 night of the movements of his troops and the 
 care of his wounded. Nothing could daunt him ; 
 neither Bernadotte's desertion nor the rising in 
 Russia, which the Tsar himself had instigated, 
 and which caused the French to find only deserted 
 country and abandoned or burning towns. He 
 seemed to know nothing of the revulsion of feeling 
 or the murmuring that began to be heard about 
 him. Brooding alone over his plans and unshake- 
 able in his resolution, he determined to pursue 
 the retreating Russians with the main army, while 
 keeping an eye on his flanks to the north and 
 south. Orders were given to Prince Schwartzen- 
 berg and Marshals Victor and Augereau to hasten 
 to the relief of General Reynier, who was 
 threatened by General Tormasoff from the south. 
 In the north he had Macdonald in the vicinity of 
 Diinaburg, and Marshal Oudinot was engaged in 
 a fight with General Wittgenstein at Polotsk. 
 General Gouvin St. Cyr was ordered to strengthen 
 Oudinot's position with his Bavarian corps. 
 
206 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 On August 17th Marshal Oudinot decided to 
 withdraw a little, in order to take up a better 
 position. Wittgenstein thought the manoeuvre 
 was a retreat and advanced on him. In the battle 
 that resulted the marshal was severely wounded, 
 and had to be carried off. The command fell to 
 General St. Cyr, who was also wounded, and he 
 led the battle from a small Polish carriage. 
 
 This cool leader and great tactician executed 
 a masterly manoeuvre at Polotsk on August 18th. 
 He suddenly converted an ostensible retreat into 
 a strenuous attack, and so won a victory which 
 would have been even more brilliant if his carriage 
 had not broken down at the decisive moment. 
 He fell underneath the horses, and was only 
 rescued with difficulty ; and he at once resumed 
 command. He took 1,500 prisoners and 14 guns, 
 and gave Wittgenstein a severe lesson. After 
 Polotsk the Emperor made him Marshal. Two 
 Bavarian generals, Derois and Lieben, fell in this 
 battle. Derois had led the Bavarians in 1805 
 at Ulm, and in 1809 at Wagram. He and his 
 inseparable friend, Lieben, had spent their lives 
 together from boyhood. They both became 
 generals in Napoleon's service, and both fell on 
 the same day at Polotsk. 
 
 On August 17th Napoleon reached Smolensk, 
 the fortified outskirts of which he attacked at 
 two in the afternoon with the famous divisions of 
 Morand and Gudin. General Ledru, of Ney's 
 army-corps, attacked the suburb of Krasnoi, the 
 Russians making a determined resistance in all 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 207 
 
 the fortresses round the town. On the right wing 
 the Poles, under Poniatowski, fought like lions ; 
 they were taking the city of their fathers once 
 more. By five o'clock the positions on the left 
 bank of the river, under the Emperor's eye, were 
 taken. But General de Tolly brought up strong 
 reinforcements General Baggowouth with his 
 whole corps, the Prince of Wiirtemberg with a 
 division of grenadiers and two battalions of the 
 Russian Guard. It was six o'clock before they 
 got far enough for the guns to reach the walls of 
 the town. Eventually the French took it by 
 storm, but it was so dark that Barclay de Tolly 
 succeeded in withdrawing the remainder of his 
 army from Smolensk. 
 
 The French regiments dashed in in triumph, 
 proud of a victory that had caused Russia 
 such severe losses, but it was quite deserted, 
 and very shortly the whole of Smolensk was 
 in flames. The bulletin that announced in 
 France the taking of a town that was reduced 
 to ashes excited little enthusiasm, if not the 
 reverse ; and even in the army some of 
 the officers began to make disquieting remarks. 
 But Napoleon pressed on from day to day in 
 pursuit of the Russian armies in front of him. 
 From Smolensk he sent the divisions of Compans 
 and Gudin, General Bruyeres' cavalry and King 
 Joachim Murat, to head off Barclay de Tolly. At 
 the same time Junot was ordered to take up a 
 position at Walutina and cut off the Russians 
 from the narrow passes. But General de Tolly 
 
208 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 altered his original plan of retreating northwards 
 towards St. Petersburg. He determined to make 
 one more attempt to join Bagration on the road 
 to Moscow. 
 
 Napoleon learned this and dispatched Ney in 
 all haste to intercept him. The armies met at 
 Walutina, and Ney won a brilliant victory, but 
 here again, as in the whole of this campaign, 
 something untoward happened. They had at 
 last succeeded in attacking Barclay de Tolly's 
 army apart from Bagration, and in such a position 
 that not a single man could have escaped if 
 General Junot had done his duty and taken up a 
 position, as he was ordered, in the passes, which 
 formed the only escape from the field at Walutina. 
 
 When General Grouchy brought the news of 
 the battle to the Emperor, he rode over to Ney. 
 All were agreed, when they saw the field of battle, 
 that the carelessness and stupidity of the Duke 
 of Abrantes alone were responsible for the failure 
 to destroy or capture the whole Russian army. 
 This brought his brilliant career to a close. 
 Napoleon had loaded him with wealth, though he 
 had dissipated this with the most tasteless prodi- 
 gality and undermined his own strength with his 
 excesses. He was one of the bravest and most 
 daring, the first pistol-shot in the army, a good 
 comrade and fine fellow ; but a dangerous man, 
 with unrestrained passions. Whether his good 
 luck was the cause, or his wild life, or a sabre-cut 
 on the head (which the Duchess of Abrantes 
 always alleged as his excuse), it is hard to say, but, 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 209 
 
 after being unreliable and fantastic all his life, 
 he became worse and worse, and ended in insanity. 
 
 At Smolensk, where Junot was to lead the 
 attack, his orders were obscure and unsound. 
 Murat galloped up to him. 
 
 ' What are you doing ?' he shouted. ' Why 
 don't you advance ?' 
 
 ' ; My Westphalians won't move.' 
 
 c I will put some spirit into them,' cried King 
 Joachim, and he flung himself on the Russians 
 with a few squadrons and swept everything before 
 him. 
 
 ' See that ?' he shouted again to Junot. 
 ' There is half your marshal's staff won for you. 
 Go in now and finish it yourself. The Russians 
 are lost.' 
 
 Junot would not move however. His mind 
 was really already going, though the others did 
 not know it. When he failed in his duty again 
 at Walutina and spoiled Ney's fine victory, 
 Napoleon angrily determined to take his command 
 away from him, but the other generals inter- 
 ceded for him, and he forgave him on account 
 of their old friendship. But things went from 
 bad to worse with him, and he had to be sent 
 back to Illyria, where he was governor. Here he 
 betrayed his condition in a very remarkable way. 
 He gave a grand ball at his residence, and came 
 to it with his shoes whitened instead of blackened, 
 his sword and all his decorations round his neck, 
 his hair curled, a three cornered hat under his 
 arm, and white gloves in other respects as naked 
 as a savage, 
 o 
 
210 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 He was sent at once to Milan. Here he had 
 six horses harnessed to his finest carriage, sat on 
 the coachman's box in full uniform, and as he 
 drove through the streets of Milan filled his 
 carriage with loose women. He was then sent to 
 his native place, Montbard, in France, and put an 
 end to his life in a fit of madness by leaping down 
 from a garden wall and breaking his thigh. He 
 was so violent that it was impossible to bind the 
 leg, and he died in July, 1813. The Duchess of 
 Abrantes bore with him in everything, and tried 
 to keep him on his feet, and in good relations to 
 the Emperor, as long as she could. In the end 
 Junot had utterly forfeited the Emperor's friend- 
 ship, though in earlier years he had been as good 
 a friend of Napoleon as it was possible for anyone 
 to be. 
 
 When the French army reached Wiasma on 
 August 29th, they found the people in flight, as at 
 Smolensk, and half the town in flames. They 
 had to extinguish the fire themselves and save the 
 great stores of provisions that were not yet 
 destroyed. At this place the quarrel broke out 
 between Davoust and Murat. The steady and 
 methodical Duke of Auerstadt had for some time 
 been annoyed with the volatile King of Naples, 
 as he took off the cavalry every morning and 
 exhausted them, so that they were being weakened 
 every day. He was still less disposed to support 
 these useless cavalry-demonstrations with his 
 good infantry. He therefore forbade General 
 Compans, in presence of the whole corps, to obey 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 211 
 
 King Joachim. Napoleon himself came up, and, 
 though he must have felt that Davoust was right, 
 he was influenced by the relationship to Murat 
 and his kingly dignity, and ordered Compans to 
 put himself under Murat's command. 
 
 After Smolensk the army was weakened to a 
 disquieting extent, and Berthier had the courage 
 to point out to the Emperor that the outlook was 
 bad. Napoleon called him an old woman, and 
 asked him if he wanted to go to Paris. From the 
 time when he had called them out on this cam- 
 paign, after they had had a short rest some at 
 Paris, others on their estates, or as governors and 
 commanders in various parts of Prance, which 
 was then a good deal of Europe there had been 
 a certain amount of bad feeling amongst the 
 officers, especially the higher and older ones. 
 The high positions and good incomes he had 
 created for them had been used by them and 
 their wives in a taste for luxury and splendour. 
 Most of them, moreover, like the Emperor himself, 
 were between forty and fifty years of age. Their 
 ambition was gradually fading. They had got 
 enough ; and their families, with which they only 
 spent the brief interval between two campaigns, 
 clung to them and wanted to detain them. 
 
 They all appeared at the Emperor's summons, 
 nevertheless, and when they had shaken off their 
 wives and children, and found themselves in the 
 saddle once more, with the old soldiers and the 
 eager young men crowding round them, they 
 returned to their former spirit, and rushed on to 
 
212 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 fresh victories like the brave men that they were. 
 Especially at the beginning of the campaign, when 
 they marched eastwards with their fine regiments 
 through the conquered territories, from town to 
 town, and castle to castle, like the lords of the 
 world ; when they joined their comrades and 
 friends at Dresden and saw all the crowned heads 
 of Europe bowing before their Emperor they felt 
 themselves in the grande armee once more, and 
 every man from the highest officer to the common 
 soldier was a hero. 
 
 No one could possibly have foreseen the 
 horrors they were to encounter, but the march 
 into Russia was from the first so utterly different 
 from all they had been accustomed to, that the 
 officers soon began to be uneasy. There had 
 always been a certain number of malcontents, but 
 they had never yet ventured to express their 
 feelings, because Napoleon went on from one 
 victory to another, and there was neither time 
 nor mood for criticism. Now it was different. 
 They began to find that he was a changed man. 
 Possibly he was ; but they themselves were not 
 the men of a few years before. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 As the French drew nearer to Moscow, the 
 excitement increased in Russia and there was a 
 growing dissatisfaction with Barclay de Tolly. A 
 considerable party at the court and the great mass 
 of the people showed an irresistible repugnance 
 to the retreat-system, and at last everybody 
 demanded that they should stand and make a 
 fight. Public opinion singled out the elderly, 
 one-eyed Field-marshal Kutusow as commander. 
 It was not he that had lost the battle of Austerlitz. 
 They had followed General Weiroth's plan against 
 his wish. On the other hand he had defeated 
 the Turks several times, and was a great leader 
 and a prudent and sagacious officer. Excess had 
 reduced his strength so much that he could keep 
 his horse only with difficulty. He was false and 
 faithless and utterly bad ; but he was patient 
 and tough. 
 
 He received the supreme command, and had 
 General Bennigsen, the victor of Eylau, as chief 
 of the staff. It is said that Barclay de Tolly 
 
214 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 wanted to give battle before Kutusow reached the 
 army, but it was the aged field-marshal who had 
 indicated the heights of Borodino as the battle- 
 field. 
 
 On September 5th the advancing French 
 found the Russian army drawn up in line of battle 
 on the heights in front of them. The important 
 position Schwardina was fortified like a redoubt, 
 and was defended by Prince Bagration in person. 
 However, Compans' division took the redoubt 
 early in the afternoon of the 5th with their usual 
 brilliancy. It was the first triumph for the 
 French. During the night and on the following 
 day the French divisions pushed on and took up 
 their positions. After a few hours' sleep in his 
 tent, Napoleon mounted his horse in the early 
 morning. In the midst of the confusion on the 
 day before the battle M. Bausset, a stout and 
 gouty officer of the palace, who was related to the 
 imperial family, made his appearance. He had 
 come straight from the Tuileries, and brought a 
 letter from Marie Louise and a picture of the little 
 King of Rome. The Emperor showed the picture 
 to all the generals and officers, who had been 
 brought together to receive their orders for the 
 following day, and then had it placed on a chair 
 in front of his tent, to the delight of the old 
 grenadiers. 
 
 The same morning Colonel Fabvrier came 
 from Spain, and brought the news of the unfortu- 
 nate position of Marshal Marmont. Napoleon 
 was not in the least disturbed. He was at work 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 215 
 
 the whole day making preparations for the 
 victory, of which neither he nor any man in the 
 army doubted for a moment. On the following 
 morning, September 7th, he strode cheerfully out 
 of his tent and called out to his officers : ' See 
 the glorious sun, gentlemen ! That is the sun of 
 Austerlitz.' His short and spirited proclamation 
 to the soldiers was read to each company. ' At 
 last,' it ran, ' you have come to face the great 
 battle that you have sought so long. Now 
 victory depends on you the victory that is a 
 necessity for us all. It means abundance for us, 
 good quarters, and a speedy return to our country. 
 Do as you did at Austerlitz, at Friedland, at 
 Witebsk, at Smolensk, and the remote future 
 will tell with pride of your deeds this day. Let 
 it be said of every one of you : he was in the 
 great battle on the plains of Moscow.' 
 
 Napoleon dismounted at the Schwardina 
 redoubt, which Compans had taken and occupied, 
 and the bloody battle of Borodino opened. The 
 French have named it after the stream Moskwa 
 which flows by the spot, and one of Marshal Ney's 
 descendants still bears the title of Prince of 
 Moskwa. Under cover of two batteries of the 
 Guard under General Sorbier, General Compans 
 advanced with his own division and that of 
 Desaix a cousin of the great Desaix who fell at 
 Marengo. They rushed the trenches that pro- 
 tected the Russian left wing under General 
 Bagration, and all went well for a time. In a 
 very short time, however, Compans got a bullet 
 
216 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 in the shoulder ; Desaix, who replaced him in the 
 chief command, was also severely wounded ; and 
 Rapp, who took Desaix's place, was hit four 
 times in quick succession first grazed twice with 
 shots, then had a ball in his unlucky left arm, 
 and lastly a shell caught him on the left hip 
 and threw him to the ground. At the same time 
 Marshal Davoust had his horse shot under him, 
 and one of his pistols went off and brought him 
 also to the ground. General Sorbier sent word 
 to the Emperor that the Prince of Eckmiihl was 
 killed. It was not so bad as that, however. 
 Davoust raised himself and mounted a fresh horse. 
 But these mishaps had the effect of spoiling the 
 first attack. 
 
 Napoleon hastily sent Marshal Ney to replace 
 him and make a fresh attack. Meantime the 
 viceroy Eugene had taken the village of Borodino. 
 Bagration's redoubts, which covered Kutusow's 
 left wing, were then taken successively, after hard 
 fighting, by Ney and Davoust. It was still only 
 nine o'clock in the morning, and the Russian left 
 wing was in a very dangerous and exposed position 
 and almost unsupported. General Baggowouth 
 was sent to help Prince Bagration on the left wing, 
 though Kutusow had for some time had quite 
 enough to do with his centre, where General 
 Bonami had taken the trench known as the 
 great redoubt. The intrepid general made an 
 obstinate resistance, until he fell covered with 
 wounds, and the Russians, under General Paskie- 
 witsch, re-occupied the redoubt, with heavy losses. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 217 
 
 Kutusow now sent considerable masses of troops 
 to relieve the pressure on his left wing, but 
 Napoleon sent into action a battery of the reserve 
 with 24 guns. The Russians pressed forward 
 once more, but General Lepoultre, St. Germain's 
 curassiers, and PajoPs and Bruyeres's hussars 
 opposed them, and forced them back after a 
 bloody fight. 
 
 At last Napoleon gathered all his strength to 
 break the enemy's lines, which had now been 
 drawn up for the third time. In face of a furious 
 cannonade at short range there were 800 guns 
 in action on either side Poniatowski and his 
 Poles advanced on the right wing. Prince Eugene 
 attacked the large redoubt with three divisions. 
 General Montbrun rode like the wind at the head 
 of his curassiers. He fell, and August Caulaincourt 
 took over the command. He rode with the 
 curassiers right into the entrance to the redoubt 
 and fell there. But at the same time Prince 
 Eugene advanced from another side and the 
 fight ended with appalling loss to the Russians. 
 However, the rest of Kutusow's army remained 
 under the French fire until dark, and retreated 
 during the night. 
 
 Napoleon's victory was complete, but, like 
 all the other victories in this campaign, it had no 
 particular consequences. In order to thoroughly 
 rout the Russian army it would have been 
 necessary to use the Guard, which stood idle 
 throughout the battle* It has often been ques- 
 tioned whether Napoleon was right in sparing 
 his best troops. 
 
218 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 General Segur, who had certain relations with 
 Russia, his father having served under Catherine II, 
 and he himself having married into the family 
 Rostoptschin, has said a good deal in his memoirs 
 that is vigorously denied by General Gourgaud, 
 who went with Napoleon to St. Helena. Segur 
 relates that in the battle of Borodino Murat had 
 to seize a colonel by the throat to make 
 him advance. Gourgaud, however, says this is 
 impossible. The colonel in question was in 
 General Friant's division, in which not a single 
 man, much less a high officer, ever drew back ; 
 and the division did not belie its reputation at 
 Borodino, but took and held the position at 
 Semenowski with its usual bravery. Segur 
 describes Napoleon as ill and listless all day at 
 Borodino, and says that all the generals were 
 angry because he would not employ the Guard. 
 Murat sent his adjutant Borelli to ask for help, 
 but received none. General Mouton, Count of 
 Lobau, let a part of the Guard advance on 
 his own responsibility, and Lauriston at length 
 received permission to go forward with the 
 artillery. 
 
 Gourgaud describes all this as chatter on the 
 part of the * palace-official.' He declares that 
 General Sorbier was under fire with part of the 
 artillery of the Guard from the commencement of 
 the battle ; and that is true. When the Emperor 
 saw the enemy advancing on Semenowski, he 
 sent to the relief of Friant's division both Murat 
 and the reserve artillery of the Guard. Besides 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 219 
 
 that, Roquet's division was made to take up a 
 position as reserve behind Friant, in front of the 
 young Guard. During the battle the old Guard 
 was drawn up in columns of battalions at intervals 
 of 60 paces behind Napoleon, and this must have 
 made the enemy think they were twice as strong 
 as they really were. The young Guard was in 
 front of them. The line of the enemy formed a 
 triangle, with the apex towards the Schwardina 
 position, where Napoleon was, and the wings 
 drawn back somewhat. 
 
 Gourgand also contests everything that Segur 
 has said of the Emperor's listlessness and the 
 general dissatisfaction with the inactivity of the 
 Guard. He will only admit that the Emperor 
 lost his voice for a time on September 7th and 8th, 
 but says that he commanded with his usual 
 vivacity, and tired out several horses. That 
 Napoleon had a cold and was unwell all day is 
 quite certain ; but it is not at all probable that 
 he had any other trouble, of a nature to interfere 
 with his mental powers. If he would not use 
 more of the Guard in compliance with Ney and 
 Murat's repeated entreaties, we must remember 
 that the issue was doubtful and they were far 
 from Paris, and that the Guard was the only part 
 of his army unaffected by the fighting. Finally, 
 Napoleon could not see from the Schwardina 
 trench the gap in the enemy's centre in front of 
 Ney and Murat. However, these criticisms show 
 that a change was beginning amongst Napoleon's 
 followers. 
 
220 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 ' The bivouac at night after the battle of 
 Borodino was a sad one,' says one of the surviving 
 officers. ' We put one corpse on another to make 
 a seat by the fire.' The imperfect victory had 
 been won at an extraordinary loss in officers. 
 Altogether there were 90,000 casualties on both 
 sides. The Russians lost four generals, Kutaisoff, 
 the two Toutchakoffs, and Prince Bagration 
 himself. The French lost thirteen generals, and 
 twenty others were more or less dangerously 
 wounded. The most famous of all the dead 
 officers was the cavalry-general Montbrun, the 
 hero of Somo-Sierra, one of the best left after 
 d'Hautpoul, d'Espagne, and Lasalle. August de 
 Caulaincourt also was a brilliant and greatly liked 
 officer, a brother of the Duke of Vicenza. Marshal 
 Bessieres lost his brother General Bessieres. The 
 engineer - general Lariboisiere and the brave 
 General Friant each lost a son in the battle. 
 General Bonami, who remained lying in the great 
 redoubt with twenty wounds when the Russians 
 re-occupied it, died of his wounds. Another 
 victim was the handsome Canouville, who had 
 become a general in the cavalry since the time 
 when he received Pauline Borghese's fur with the 
 diamond clasps. 
 
 We can form some idea of the intensity of the 
 fight and the nearness of the opposing forces to 
 each other, when we read on the list of wounded 
 officers the names of Davoust, Morand, Friant, 
 Compans, Rapp, Belliard, Nansouty, St. Germain, 
 Teste, and Pajol a marshal and a number of 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 221 
 
 the leading generals of divisions. To these we 
 must add hundreds of officers of all grades, men 
 who had been in Italy and Egypt, and were all 
 personally known to Napoleon. There had been 
 such carnage immediately round him as had never 
 been seen before, even at Eylau. Of the highest 
 generals, only three and they were three of the 
 most intrepid were quite untouched : Barclay 
 de Tolly on the Russian side, and Murat and Ney 
 on the French. The latter two stood like statues 
 in the rain of balls and were not touched. Ney 
 made his men find cover by lying down, and he 
 himself stood erect in the midst of them like a 
 simple grenadier captain. Murat sprang from his 
 horse and preceded Friant's division on foot at 
 Semenowski. 
 
 After the battle of Borodino Kutusow 
 retreated in the direction of Moscow. For a 
 moment it looked as if he were going to venture 
 on a battle atMoshaisk. He had sworn by his 
 grey hairs to defend the old capital of the Tsars 
 with his last man. But on September 14th the 
 field-marshal withdrew with his defeated army 
 beyond Moscow, to the bitter sorrow of his officers 
 and army. He nevertheless sent a proclamation 
 to Moscow that the French had lost at Borodino, 
 and two bulletins were sent to St. Petersburg from 
 his head-quarters announcing that the French 
 had been thoroughly beaten at Moshaisk, the 
 Imperial Guard annihilated, 100 guns and 1,000 
 prisoners taken, including the Viceroy Eugene 
 and the Duke of Auertsadt, and that the enemy 
 
222 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 was being pursued by General Plato w's 30,000 
 Cossacks. 
 
 The Tsar distributed great distinctions and 
 awards amongst the army on the strength of this. 
 The truth was, however, that Kutusow was being 
 pursued so hotly by Murat and Eugene that 
 General Miloradowitsch, in order to save him on 
 the streets of Moscow, threatened to set the town 
 on fire if a brief armistice were not granted. 
 Less out of fear of the threat than from the hope 
 of the result of an interview with Alexander, 
 Napoleon granted the armistice. It was given 
 orally, without the usual formalities. The French 
 army at last looked down from the summits of 
 the hills on the great city, its white buildings and 
 golden domes lying like a dream in the sunshine. 
 Even Napoleon lost his balance for a moment. 
 The others all broke out into jubilation. 
 
 Next day the Emperor entered the Kremlin, 
 the ancient castle of the Tsars. It was the most 
 remarkable of all the foreign castles he had 
 visited, and his entry into it was the most romantic 
 in his whole career. Moscow was not wholly 
 abandoned. The French found many of the 
 palaces of the Russian nobility open and provided 
 with servants and all the rest. Wealthy merchants 
 had put their property and stores under the 
 protection of the French officers, with the intention 
 of returning soon. The Kremlin was full of 
 powder and arms. The city, as it was then, 
 offered convenient and comfortable winter- 
 quarters for the army, and Napoleon at once began 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 223 
 
 to issue orders and to organise ; first of all in the 
 army, where discipline had been relaxed, and 
 many other things were not as they should be. 
 He had troops enough to keep off Kutusow ; and 
 now that he was in one capital and the Emperor 
 of Russia in the other, he was convinced that the 
 noble ruler he had met at Erfurt would reach out 
 the hand of reconciliation. Peace could be con- 
 cluded between himself and his friend and 
 admirer in the spring. 
 
 The soldiers, on their side, hailed Moscow as 
 the end of all their trials. With boundless 
 confidence in their great leader, whom fortune 
 had never yet failed, they proudly turned to enjoy 
 their rest in the beautiful capital of the Tsars. 
 But Moscow broke into flames in the night between 
 the 15th and 16th of September. The fires were 
 of such a nature that the city had evidently been 
 set in flames at several different points with a 
 view to its total destruction. The plot was 
 furthered by the Governor of Moscow. He had 
 stored up masses of inflammable materials in the 
 garden of his palace, and this he distributed 
 amongst criminals released from the jails. These 
 had to spread them throughout the city, and set 
 fire to it. He had had the hose-pipes removed, 
 and all the efforts of the French to master the 
 fearful conflagration proved ineffectual. They 
 had to withdraw step by step from the city. 
 Napoleon had to leave the Kremlin, in the vaults 
 of which there were masses of explosive material. 
 The fire already threatened the powder-waggons 
 
224 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 of the Guard, which had been brought into the 
 courtyard. 
 
 From September 16th to 18th the city 
 burned day and night, aided by a strong wind 
 that veered round several times. In the end four- 
 fifths of the city were destroyed an immense 
 stretch of desolation, as the oriental city extended 
 far with its palaces and monasteries with large 
 gardens and numerous outlying buildings. There 
 were 15,000 wounded Russians in the hospitals. 
 Prince Rostoptschin, the governor, lost all his 
 wealth and the beautiful palace of his ancestors. 
 ' I have brought nothing with me except the coat 
 I have on,' he said. It has been stated that he 
 had Moscow burned down in a fit of desperate 
 patriotism, without telling his design to anyone. 
 That is altogether incredible. Such conduct on 
 the part of a high-placed official is hardly possible 
 in any country ; it is quite inconceivable in a 
 country where not the slightest thing is done 
 without an order from above. Prince Rostopt- 
 schin sacrificed his palace and the holy city of 
 Moscow because he was an obedient subject, and 
 because, like every Russian, he had in his heart 
 the law : ' Everything for the Tsar !' He either 
 received an express command, or else he had 
 powers entrusted to him that covered his desperate 
 deed. The superstition that the white Tsar has 
 never anything to do with the frightful things 
 that happen in Russia is not confined to that 
 country. The whole of Europe is stupid on 
 Russian questions. Even to-day we are asked to 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 225 
 
 play this childish game and regard the Tsar as 
 the innocent dupe of his surroundings. In Russia 
 nothing is done without the knowledge and wish 
 of the Tsar. 
 
 After the fire Russian peasants and French 
 soldiers poured into the cellars and stores in search 
 of plunder. The Emperor fixed his head-quarters 
 in the Kremlin once more, as well as could be 
 managed. He was determined to be there. On 
 September 21st, however, General Sebastini sent 
 word that he had lost sight of the enemy, and it 
 was feared that they might be cut off and sur- 
 rounded. In point of fact that was Kutusow's 
 intention. He had marched toward the south- 
 west. Murat and Bessieres, who were sent in 
 search of him, drove the Russians back in the 
 direction of Kaluga. Napoleon would not give 
 up the hope of hearing from the Tsar. He had 
 even tried a semi-official rapprochement. But he 
 had to decide what to do with his army. It was 
 now too weak to be able to attack Kutusow in the 
 open field far in the interior of Russia. On 
 the other hand the condition of Moscow made it 
 impossible for them to spend the winter there. 
 All the generals were for retreating to Poland. 
 Napoleon was alone in his resistance to this 
 proposal. It would have destroyed the idea of 
 his invincibility and raised the whole of Europe 
 against him. 
 
 There was now so great a change amongst 
 Napoleon's followers that he had his plan written 
 down and laid before the men who up to that time 
 p 
 
226 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 had been accustomed only to receive orders and 
 obey them. His plan was to march north-west 
 until they could unite with Marshals Victor, 
 St. Cyr, and Macdonald, who were in the Baltic 
 provinces. With these and all the other troops 
 he could bring up he would advance on St. 
 Petersburg in the spring. The plan was formed 
 in the early days of October. All his generals 
 were opposed to a fresh march to the north and 
 fresh annexations, and Napoleon could no longer 
 command as he had done in more fortunate days. 
 He was forced to give way. He then wanted to 
 send Caulaincourt to St. Petersburg, but that 
 officer declared it to be of no use. He had heard 
 the same from Count Narbonne. 
 
 These two nobles of the old court were the 
 Emperor's most valued diplomatists and envoys 
 in important matters, and they lived through all 
 the hardships of the Russian campaign. Count 
 Narbonne was the only man that preserved his 
 good temper and his gaiety of manner ; the 
 gentlemanly air, that was more superficial hi the 
 others, was swept away hi the evil days, and their 
 disappointment and irritation were plainly mani- 
 fested. It is said that right down to the 
 awful days on the Beresina, Narbonne would sit 
 on a stone or the root of a tree every morning and 
 powder his wig. Although he was in his fiftieth 
 year, he escaped with his life ; but he died in 1813, 
 as Governor of Torgau, after a fall from his 
 horse. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 227 
 
 General Lauriston was then sent to Kutusow 
 for the purpose of securing a truce or at least an 
 armistice. He was deceived and fooled at the 
 Russian headquarters on all the rules of the art. 
 In the meantime there was a kind of tacit armistice, 
 though the Russians did not respect it. One of 
 the Tsar's flying adjutants, who had been taken 
 prisoner, was sent to St. Petersburg with fresh 
 proposals for a rapprochement, and the Emperor 
 decided to wait ten or twelve days for an answer. 
 There was no idea of sending one at St. Petersburg. 
 
 Napoleon had been informed that the frost 
 would set in about the middle of November. He 
 collected provisions and ammunition, repaired and 
 strengthened the Kremlin, opened the theatres, 
 and led France and Europe from Moscow by means 
 of couriers. There are regulations of the Theatre 
 Fran^ais that are dated from the Kremlin at 
 this time. Meantime Russia had come into close 
 touch with England. The Emperor Alexander 
 also had an interview with Bernadotte at Aabo, 
 where it was agreed to recognise the annexation 
 of Norway, and send to Riga the Russian troops 
 that were in Finland. Peace was concluded with 
 Turkey, and this enabled Admiral Tschitschagow 
 to assume supreme command of the troops under 
 General Tormasoff that threatened the French 
 retreat from the south, and lead the whole force 
 northward into the district of the Beresina. The 
 plan for the demolition of the retreating army 
 was as follows. Wittgenstein was to attack from 
 the north, Kutusow from the rear, and Admiral 
 
228 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Tschitschagow, who proved himself an able general 
 on land, from the south. 
 
 When the French army had rested in Moscow 
 and had once more been brought into order, there 
 were still 100,000 splendid soldiers and 600 guns, 
 but there was a lack of horses. The weather was 
 fine, mild, and clear. Napoleon reflected all the 
 time on his plan of advancing on St. Petersburg, 
 but with the approach of winter his generals 
 were less disposed every day to march northwards ; 
 they looked rather southwards, towards Kaluga 
 and the fertile provinces. While they were still 
 discussing it, the news came one day when 
 Napoleon was reviewing Ney's corps, that was 
 to march from Moscow, that Kutusow had broken 
 the armistice on October 18th, and attacked King 
 Jerome during the night with an overpowering 
 force. Murat was quite unprepared. As a man 
 of honour he had relied on the negotiations that 
 promised a few hours' rest before the cessation 
 of the armistice. However, a series of brilliant 
 actions and judicious manoeuvres enabled Murat 
 and Poniatowski to escape with the loss of part 
 of their baggage. This treacherous attack at 
 Winkowo, where Kutusow sent Generals Baggo- 
 wouth, Ostermann, Doctoroff, Orloff, Denisow, and 
 Miiller, against Murat, Poniatowski, and Sebastiani 
 who were really only in charge of advanced 
 posts, became a battle of which the French might 
 well be proud. But the victory had no significance 
 and the Emperor was displeased with Murat, 
 because he had allowed himself to be surprised. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 229 
 
 Napoleon then ordered an advance against 
 Kutusow. Moscow was abandoned on October 
 23rd. 
 
 On the same day Napoleon heard of Malet' s 
 conspiracy at Paris. The whole affair was really 
 insignificant and more or less ridiculous, but it 
 made a painful impression on the Emperor. 
 General Malet was a fanatical republican, and had 
 been imprisoned in 1807 for plotting against the 
 constitution. In 1812 he was shut up in an 
 asylum at Paris. One day he leaped out of the 
 window, and ran into the city. He had a number 
 of proclamations and nominations ready, and he 
 began to distribute them. Some young men 
 joined him, and hastily made themselves a sort of 
 uniform with tricoloured scarves. At one o'clock 
 in the morning Malet approached Colonel Soulier, 
 a brave but stupid officer, and unacquainted with 
 Malet. The latter represented himself as General 
 Lamotte, and said he had come straight from 
 Russia with the news that the Emperor had died 
 on October 8th. He asked for a few troops to be 
 put at his disposal. 
 
 Soulier was duped and gave him 1,200 men, 
 but without cartridges or flints in their locks. 
 With these General Malet went to the La Force 
 prison, and set free Generals Guidal and Lahorie, 
 who had been incarcerated for political intrigues. 
 He then issued a number of orders, went to the 
 commander at Paris, General Hullin, and shot him 
 through the cheek with a pistol. However, other 
 officers came up, and Malet was overpowered. 
 
230 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 In the meantime the released General Lahorie 
 entered Savary's room he was then Minister of 
 Police and had him arrested and put in La Force. 
 This curious state of things, however, only lasted 
 half an hour. When Savary and the others came 
 to their senses the whole thing fell to the ground. 
 When the Minister of Police returned from the 
 prison to his cabinet he found General Lahorie 
 bound to a chair. But Savary never came to 
 see the humorous side of the matter. 
 
 That was the whole episode. But from the 
 fact that anything of the kind could happen at 
 the mere rumour of his death the Emperor saw 
 how frail the security really was of his vast power, 
 and how little root he and his dynasty had taken 
 in the people, apart from the army. It had 
 occurred to no one in Paris to hasten to the 
 widowed Empress and the little heir to the throne. 
 He therefore quitted Moscow, leaving Marshal 
 Mortier behind to blow up the Kremlin. All now 
 understood that the retreat had commenced, and 
 all the French women, servants, and families, 
 started with them on the long journey. The 
 weather was still fine, and the soldiers were in 
 good spirits. 
 
 It was Napoleon's first intention to march 
 on the old route toward Kaluga against Kutusow, 
 but he suddenly altered his plan, pressed on in a 
 straight line, and struck the new road to Kaluga. 
 By this change he expected to avoid an encounter 
 with Kutusow, and pass through the town of 
 Malo-Jaroslawetz. This difficult manoeuvre was 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 231 
 
 most ably and speedily executed. None but a 
 French army could have deceived an enemy that 
 was scattered all round it. The issue of it would 
 have been assured if Eugene, or rather General 
 Delzons, had occupied Malo-Jaroslawetz with an 
 entire division, as the Emperor originally directed. 
 But Kutusow had discovered Napoleon's stratagem 
 and sent General Doctoroff against Delzons' 
 division, which was too weak to sustain the attack. 
 Delzons redeemed his fault by re-taking the 
 position, but he himself was killed in the battle 
 that ensued. There were two brothers of the 
 name of Delzons, both generals. When the first 
 one was killed, the other hastened to him, and 
 soon fell dead beside him. Napoleon galloped 
 up, and there was a hard fight round the little 
 town of Malo-Jaroslawetz, which was lost and 
 taken five or six times. At last Davoust came up 
 with the divisions of Gerard and Compans, and 
 drove the Russians back. But it was now growing 
 dark, and the army had to remain in the position. 
 After the fight at Malo-Jaroslawetz, the 
 French army no longer sought a regular battle ; 
 however successful, the result was always to 
 weaken their forces. The weather began to be 
 raw and rainy. The generals wanted to advance 
 on Moshaisk in order to strike the road to Smolensk. 
 On the 26th of October Napoleon had to give way 
 and openly recognise that he was in retreat. It 
 was the first time in his life that he yielded to the 
 wishes of those about him. In the meantime 
 Marshal Mortier rejoined the army. The 
 
232 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 retreating troops had heard the roar of the 
 explosion as he blew up the Kremlin. 
 
 It was on the march back from Moscow that 
 the terrors began. The generals gradually lost 
 control of the desperate soldiers, the wounded 
 remained lying along the route, the powder- 
 waggons were exploded, and disorder spread over 
 the whole army. Even Davoust could not arrest 
 it. He marched in the rear with the relics of his 
 splendid first corps, and had part of the respon- 
 sibility for all that was done and in the daily 
 fights with the enemy. Kutusow was content to 
 march as closely as he could behind the army, and 
 harrass the French with his Cossacks and General 
 Plato w's light cavalry. Although Davoust and 
 his men performed their difficult task with 
 incomparable bravery, the Emperor was so unjust 
 as to remove the first corps not to give it the 
 rest that it so badly needed, but because, he said, 
 the marshal was too slow and methodical in his 
 march. Napoleon himself rode at the head of 
 the Guard, who consumed all they found, and 
 burned everything behind them. He saw nothing 
 of the frightful misery or the endless trudging of 
 unarmed men, who should have been protected 
 every day from the Cossacks and provided with 
 food. He did not want to see anything. He rode 
 along in silence with Berthier, who had lost his 
 head and was nearly beside himself. From time 
 to time the Emperor rode on to a height, and 
 complained bitterly of his generals. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 233 
 
 One day there was an angry scene between 
 the Emperor and Davoust, and they hardly spoke 
 another word to each other until the end of the 
 campaign. The rear-guard of the army now fell 
 to Marshal Ney, the Prince of Moskwa. On 
 November 9th, during the march from Dorogo- 
 busch, the snow-storms began. They caused 50,000 
 unarmed men and a number of women to fall out 
 of the army. The whole of the cavalry, except 
 the Guard, had lost their horses. The animals 
 had already suffered heavily from the morasses 
 and bad roads during the march, and now the 
 frost set in and revealed the utter unfitness of the 
 French horses for a campaign in Russia on slippery 
 ice. On the way from Dorogobusch to Smolensk, 
 news came that the Russian armies were advancing 
 from the north and the south, and were gathering 
 on the Beresina and in the marshes along the 
 river. This put an end to Napoleon's plan of 
 making a halt at Smolensk to collect provisions 
 and join with fresh troops. During the march the 
 viceroy's corps had suffered heavily on crossing 
 the river Wop. It had lost all its baggage and 
 guns, and a large number of men. 
 
 Ney had been with Napoleon from his earliest 
 years, in all the great battles and wherever 
 desperate manoeuvres were to be carried out. But 
 his name will always be most closely connected 
 with the retreat from Russia. This remarkable 
 man, with an unflinching courage supported by a 
 frame of iron, knew neither fatigue nor illness ; 
 he slept on the ground, or watched day and night, 
 
234 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 ate or went hungry, and nothing seemed to affect 
 him. During the retreat he generally walked on 
 foot amongst his men, and sometimes took 50 or 
 100 men, leading them like an ordinary captain 
 of infantry against the bullets and shells. He 
 was always cool and collected. He regarded him- 
 self as invulnerable, and really seemed to be so. 
 In the middle of a fight he would take the rifle 
 from the hands of a dying soldier, and shoot with 
 it himself. It was he who awakened the sleepers 
 and drove them into action ; he was unmoved by 
 tne cries of the wounded for the ambulance. He 
 would answer curtly that he had only two legs, 
 and they were for moving forward, and that 
 perhaps he himself would be on the ground to- 
 morrow. Few men are made of iron, says Thiers, 
 and one may be hard towards others when one 
 does not spare oneself. 
 
 It was between Dorogobusch and Smolensk 
 that Ney began his heroic daily fights to save the 
 Emperor and the remains of the grand army. 
 The snow now fell heavily, and an icy-cold wind 
 swept the plains. There were hardly any horses 
 left, and nearly everybody walked on foot. Some 
 dropped out of sheer fatigue ; others had their 
 hands or feet frozen ; all were tormented with 
 hunger. The few who could hold their weapons 
 had to defend the unarmed against the Cossacks, 
 who followed the pitiful procession day and night, 
 capturing, plundering, and maltreating stragglers, 
 and then leaving them to die in the snow. In 
 spite of all the laxity and misery, however, there 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 235 
 
 was a nucleus of officers and men the Emperor's 
 old comrades who maintained their coolness and 
 fighting power, and forced Kutusow to respect 
 them. The Emperor himself met the reverse like 
 a man. He rode along coolly, refusing to see 
 anything, but taken up with fresh big plans. 
 When he had abandoned his own plans and 
 accepted those of the others, we no longer find in 
 his orders the rigid accuracy of earlier days that 
 rarely failed to reach the mark. 
 
 He had directed that the army should leave 
 Dorogobusch in three divisions, with an interval 
 of one day between each. The consequence of 
 this was that he himself reached Smolensk first 
 with the Guard, occupied all the available places, 
 and appropriated all the provisions in the place. 
 These, however, were by no means so abundant 
 as Napoleon had been led to calculate. When the 
 other divisions of the troops came up there was 
 frightful confusion. The magazines were plun- 
 dered, men fought for quarters, all discipline was 
 lost, and the disorder was unbounded. Thus, 
 there was little satisfaction in the halt at Smolensk, 
 where Napoleon had hoped to be able to reorganise 
 the best parts of the army, and at least to find 
 them rest and provisions. They had to push on 
 in the same state of confusion and misery in order 
 to reach the bridge at Orscha. 
 
 At Smolensk Napoleon heard that General 
 d'Hilliers had been completely beaten at Elna. 
 The Emperor sent him in disgrace to Paris. 
 Though it might seem an enviable lot to be sent 
 
236 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 home out of the horrors of Russia, the affliction 
 was so overpowering for the proud officer that he 
 did not get beyond Berlin. He died there of 
 grief. He had been close to Napoleon ever since 
 the first campaign in Italy. He was not in Egypt ; 
 he had permission to return home from Malta as 
 he missed his wife at Paris so much. 
 
 Burdened with 60,000 unarmed and demoral- 
 ised men, the remainder of the army left Smolensk 
 in the same marching order. The Emperor 
 started on the 14th, Eugene and Davoust on the 
 15th, and Ney on the 16th. Kutusow had caused 
 his army to retreat after the hot fight at Malo- 
 Jaroslawetz, so that for a time the armies had been 
 back to back. Napoleon would have made a 
 different use of this opportunity if he were still 
 the commander of old. Now Kutusow was after 
 him again in forced marches with his large army. 
 He let the Emperor pass at Krasnoi, and then 
 faced Eugene and Davoust with 80,000 men under 
 Rajewsky and Miloradowitsch. Delzons' division 
 which had now passed to General Guilleminot, a 
 part of Broussiere's cavalry, and General Ornano 
 got safely past them. The viceroy also deceived 
 the Russians by an astute manoeuvre and got 
 past them. But Davoust was cut off, to say 
 nothing of Ney, who was still a full day's march 
 in the rear. 
 
 Napoleon could by this time have reached 
 Orscha with the Guard and the other troops that 
 followed him, and joined Marshal Victor and the 
 other reserves, but he was very uneasy about the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 237 
 
 two marshals who were coming on. For a couple 
 of days he seemed to be in a condition of dull 
 indifference. Then he shook it off, and took the 
 command in person. With a staff in his hand he 
 preceded the Guard on foot and led them back 
 from Krasnoi, to find Davoust in the midst of a 
 fearful artillery-fire, rained on him from three 
 sides. The small force he flung against the masses 
 of Russians consisted of the remains of good corps : 
 the young Guard under Marshal Mortier, a couple 
 of hundred horse from Latour-Maubourg's famous 
 dragoons, and a little artillery under the unflinching 
 Drouot. General Claparede was in the meantime 
 to defend Krasnoi against the Russians, who were 
 everywhere. 
 
 During the battle General Laborde was 
 ordered by Marshal Mortier to retreat slowly. He 
 cried out to his men : ' The marshal has ordered 
 us to retreat slowly, so march on, ordinary step, 
 soldiers.' They marched in perfect order, and 
 were reduced to a few thousand. Kutusow was 
 duped once more. He recalled Miloradowitsch's 
 troops, and Davoust seized the opportunity to 
 fight his way through, with heavy losses, and join 
 the Emperor. But nothing could be seen or heard 
 of Ney, who was a day's march in the rear. The 
 great point now was to reach Orscha. As Napoleon 
 marched away, he left an ambiguous order, 
 because he did not want to have the responsibility 
 of leaving Ney in the lurch. The order was that 
 Davoust was to wait for Ney, but he was not to 
 separate from Mortier. And as the latter had 
 
238 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 to start at the appointed time, Davoust was 
 compelled to follow him. 
 
 The next railing-point was Liady, where 
 they were all full of concern about Ney, whose fate 
 seemed certain. Ney had 7,000 men with him, to 
 make his way through 50,000 Russians. His 
 generals, Ricard, Dufour, and the brave Colonel 
 Pelet, broke four times through Miloradowitsch's 
 front ranks. But the 7,000 melted down to 3,000, 
 and the marshal led these with bayonets levelled 
 against the heights where there was a whole army 
 with a vast artillery. Generals Marchand, Ledru, 
 and Razoul followed him. They were flung back, 
 and Ney collected them again as well as he could, 
 with his usual coolness and firmness. At this 
 moment a colonel came from Miloradowitsch with 
 a demand for Ney's surrender, but Ney would 
 neither retreat nor surrender, though his men 
 were falling all round him. Colonel Pelet sat on 
 his horse, both legs and one arm torn with bullets. 
 He had the idea of advising the marshal to retreat 
 on the village of Dubrowna, where there was a 
 bridge across the Dnieper. Davoust had marched 
 past just before, and had blown up the bridge 
 after him. There was no escape except to venture 
 on the thin ice. Ney did this during the night. 
 He got across and reached Orscha with 1,500 men. 
 There was, however, great rejoicing when the 
 hero came in with his frozen and half-dead men, 
 and they could rest for a time with their comrades. 
 Napoleon, whose relations to Davoust were already 
 strained, was so unjust as to support those who 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 239 
 
 said it was Davoust who had abandoned Ney, 
 whereas the Prince of Eckmiihl had merely obeyed 
 the Emperor's own orders. 
 
 At Orscha there were at the most 25,000 
 armed men, and about the same number of 
 stragglers ; altogether about one-eighth of the 
 grand army that had crossed the Niemen in June. 
 Here all the waggons were burned, all the 
 Emperor's papers, and two complete trains of 
 bridges. The news from Marshals Victor and 
 Oudinot was disheartening. Wittgenstein from 
 the north, and Tschitschagow from the south were 
 bound to meet at the river Beresina, and bring 
 the army to a last and decisive stand. On Novem- 
 ber 22nd, Napoleon heard that his brave Polish 
 General Dombrowski, one of his comrades in 
 Egypt, had been beaten by the Russians under 
 Ojarowski at Borissow, and the French had lost 
 their own bridge over the Beresina. 
 
 The Emperor held a consultation with his best 
 generals of the engineers. These were Lariboisiere, 
 Chasseloup, Ebl6, Haxo, and the Swiss General 
 Jomini, who was considered a great tactician. It 
 was impossible to cross below Borissow. They 
 would have to go further north, nearer to the 
 source of the river, and try to cross there. It 
 seemed impossible to all of them to throw a bridge 
 across a river like the Beresina in face of the enemy. 
 Then a fortunate accident occured in the middle 
 of their mishaps. General Corbineau, a brother 
 of the one who fell by the side of the Emperor 
 at Eylau, came from the west, from the right 
 
240 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 bank of the river. He had cut through 
 Wittgenstein's lines with 700 horse, and 
 reached the bank of the river just at the 
 moment when a Russian peasant, who knew 
 the locality, was wading across it. This led 
 to the discovery of the ford at Studjanka, and 
 all agreed that this was the one way of escaping 
 capture or destruction. 
 
 Tschitschakoff was deceived for a long time 
 by their manoeuvres, and waited for the crossing 
 below Borissow, and left the ford at Studjanka 
 unguarded. It is quite inexplicable how the 
 Russians, who knew the critical nature of the 
 passage, and were so numerous in the district, 
 did not manage better. Meantime, General Eble 
 and his men set to work to throw two bridges over 
 the river. When Napoleon had the bridge trains 
 burned, he had the foresight to save a few waggons, 
 the tools, metal- work, and coal. With the help of 
 Chasseloup he and his clever bridge-builders saved 
 the remains of the army and the Emperor. His 
 work has rightly become as famous as any deed 
 of war. The river was eight feet deep in places, 
 and the strong current was filled with lumps of 
 ice. He had to use balconies, wooden houses, and 
 anything that could float, and throughout the 
 whole of the work the officers and men were in 
 the water. 
 
 While they were building it, the artillery 
 bridge went to pieces three times, and the aged 
 General Eble had to go in the water himself. He 
 was praised by all as a model officer, a man of 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 241 
 
 fine appearance, as well as fine character. They 
 said in the army that he and Larrey, the Emperor's 
 physician, could ask the impossible of the men, 
 and it would be done. It was one of the most 
 difficult tasks ever attempted to make bridges in 
 such desperate circumstances, at such a speed, 
 for a half -lost army such as the French then was. 
 However, the troops passed over in good order, 
 as soon as the bridges were ready. On the 
 western bank they came up with Victor and 
 Oudinot's advanced posts. The young soldiers 
 shuddered as they gazed on the worn and dispirited 
 relics of the grand army. If the stragglers had 
 tried they also could have crossed during the 
 night of the 26th and 27th. But the demoralisa- 
 tion was so great that they camped round the 
 baggage on the eastern bank, and in a few houses 
 they found there. 
 
 When the enemy saw the crossing, and 
 gathered round from all sides, there was frightful 
 confusion and pressure at the bridges, and a 
 number of men came to a pitiful end. The bridges 
 were to be burned on the morning of November 
 29th, to prevent the Russians from following. 
 Eble and Victor took the greatest possible pains 
 to induce the half-mad stragglers to leave the 
 eastern shore, but they would not. At half-past 
 nine, the Russians coming on at a great pace, 
 General Eble himself fired his bridges. The poor 
 wretches now saw for the first time that the 
 position was serious, but it was too late. The 
 Cossacks were upon them. They killed a good 
 
 Q 
 
242 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 many, and drove the rest in scattered flocks into 
 icy Russia, where they died a fearful death. The 
 fight went on on both sides of the river during the 
 passage, and the remains of the French artillery 
 gave their last reply to the overwhelming strength 
 of the Russian guns. It was as in Tschaikowski's 
 symphony, when the last notes of the Marseillaise 
 die away, and there is only the pitiless thrust, 
 thrust, thrust of the sabre, till at last the bells of 
 Russia ring out clearly over the bloody plains. 
 
 In the fight on the eastern bank, which 
 lasted throughout the crossing, Marshal Victor, 
 the Duke of Belluno, performed a masterpiece of 
 bravery and strategy, for which Napoleon requited 
 him very badly, by blaming him for the destruction 
 of the stragglers. Only one part of Victor's corps, 
 which was under General Partouneaux's command, 
 was lost during the fight and taken prisoner. It 
 was the only body of French troops that was 
 taken with arms in their hands throughout the 
 whole campaign. 
 
 On the morning of the 28th, Marshal Oudinot, 
 who was always unlucky in this respect, was 
 severely wounded, and had to be carried from the 
 field. Ney took over his command, and he was 
 joined in the retreat by Lefebvre-Desnouettes 
 the aged Lefebvre, Duke of Dantzig, went through 
 the whole campaign the generals of division, 
 Maison and Legrand, and the cavalry-general 
 Dumerc. Maison was a great help to Ney in the 
 retreat. Legrand was one of the great infantry- 
 generals of the good old times. He had been at 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 243 
 
 Fleury and Hohenlinden and in all the later battles. 
 He had been made a count after Tilsit. Napoleon 
 married him to a young daughter of General 
 Scherer ; she appreciated her elderly hero, and 
 fired him on to fresh deeds. On the Beresina it 
 was Legrand that first reached the opposite bank. 
 He was seriously wounded there, and his soldiers 
 carried him for a long time on the retreat, but 
 he died on the way. He was another of Napoleon's 
 closest comrades. 
 
 There were many other good names on the 
 list of dead and wounded officers on the Beresina 
 Dombrowski, Fournier, Gerard, Claparede, and the 
 Pole Zayonchek, who lost a leg. After the battle 
 the army made its way in the direction of Smorgoni. 
 They knew that Maret, Duke of Bassano, had 
 collected great stores at Wilna, and that the 
 Bavarian General Wrede was not far off, and was 
 ready to come to their assistance, as well as other 
 generals with reserve troops. 
 
 On December 3rd no less than fourteen 
 messengers came in from Paris. They had been 
 riding hither and thither in search of the Emperor. 
 For twenty-one days Europe had heard nothing 
 of the grand army. The Emperor then drew up 
 the 29th bulletin, dated December 3rd, 1812. He 
 made no effort to conceal the whole miserable 
 condition of the army and all the horrors of the 
 retreat ; and he concluded, curiously enough, 
 with an assurance that ' the Emperor was never 
 in better health.' Had he some consciousness 
 himself that he had not been well on the campaign ? 
 
244 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Had he heard from Fouche" that people hinted 
 that in Paris ? Did he think it would be more 
 inspiring if people heard that he himself was 
 unaffected, and was prepared to avenge his defeat ? 
 Whichever it was, his calculation was wrong. 
 The 29th bulletin, and particularly its closing 
 words, did him a great deal of harm in the eyes 
 of the people. 
 
 General Heudelet came from the direction of 
 the Niemen with 10,000 men, and General Loison 
 brought the same amount from Wilna. But it 
 seemed as if these apparently vigorous soldiers 
 only came to perish in the frost and privations 
 with the demoralised troops they met. At 
 Smorgoni the Emperor secretly left the army on 
 December 5th, and travelled westwards. He 
 took with him Caulaincourt, Duroc, Mouton, 
 and Lefebvre - Desnouettes. They drove the 
 shortest possible way in simple peasant carts 
 over the ice and snow. On the way he 
 met Maret, and with him inspected the large 
 and ample stores at Wilna. There were provisions 
 of all kinds there for 100,000 men for forty days. 
 From that point the little troop passed through 
 Warschau to Dresden, which they reached on the 
 15th, then through Leipsic and Mayence, and on 
 December 19th, during the night, he was back in 
 the Tuileries and held the little King of Rome in 
 his arms. The secret journey right across Europe 
 had been quite successful. 
 
 That the army, or what remained of it, was 
 bitter about the Emperor for leaving them in 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 245 
 
 their sufferings will be readily understood. It is 
 always some consolation the only one when the 
 man who is responsible for the mishap remains on 
 the wreck to the end like a good comrade ; one 
 will forgive him much for the sake of his faith- 
 fulness. But Napoleon was not a good comrade. 
 Neither in Egypt nor Russia did he think of any- 
 thing but himself and his own power. He said 
 himself, when he left Smorgoni : ' I am stronger 
 when I speak from my throne in the Tuileries 
 than at the head of an army that is perishing 
 with the cold.' 
 
 This sort of reasoning was enough for 
 him. He was by no means indifferent about his 
 men. Few generals before him had done so much 
 for their soldiers in the field and at home in the 
 way of comfort and rewards. But to him an 
 army was merely a power that he could use. When 
 a thing was lost and destroyed he let it lie ; it 
 was of no further use. No one knows what that 
 cost him, but he could not act otherwise. 
 
 When he left Smorgoni, he reckoned on the 
 stores at Wilna, and they were certainly there. 
 Marshal Macdonald was in the north with fresh 
 troops, and in the south were his Austrian allies 
 under Schwartzenberg. He wanted to concentrate 
 these and other reinforcements that were on the 
 way, at Wilna, and the Niemen was to be the line 
 of defence against the enemy advancing from the 
 east. Those were the ideas he imparted to 
 Berthier. It is not impossible that this would 
 have been enough for him, great leader as he was, 
 
246 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 to convert the defeat into a victory. He had 
 been in difficulties before, and had never lost 
 belief in himself. 
 
 But now the greatest danger of the whole 
 campaign set in, the intense frost. The night 
 after his departure from Smorgoni the temperature 
 fell to sixty degrees below zero, and thousands of 
 the men died every day. Even the fresh troops 
 at Wilna suffered, because the Duke of Bassano 
 caused them to march on Smorgoni, to meet the 
 Emperor and assist the army. The sudden and 
 fearful cold wrought terrible havoc amongst the 
 young men, many of whom were Italians. The 
 generals who led them were Heudelet, and the 
 one-armed Loison, Colonel Coutard, a relative of 
 Davoust, and Franchesi, an Italian. In the course 
 of five or six days 10,000 men of their brigades 
 were frozen to death. 
 
 According to the Emperor's orders, Murat 
 was to have the supreme command, because he 
 was a king. But, brave as he was in battle, he 
 had now lost all spirit. Berthier was sick and 
 apathetic. Davoust was sombre and silent ; he 
 never spoke a word except when he was command- 
 ing. He was, perhaps, the one that suffered most 
 at the sight of the general demoralisation, the 
 lapse of discipline, the distrust of the Emperor, 
 and the lack of co-operation amongst the generals, 
 and when he looked at the scattered band that 
 remained out of his model division. It was Ney, 
 the incomparable Ney, that took everything on 
 his shoulders. It is not easy to understand how 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 247 
 
 this general came so early to be known as the 
 bravest of the brave. They were all brave. 
 There could only be men who knew no fear 
 about a leader like Napoleon. However, as 
 some of them had a special reputation for 
 bravery, like Ney and Murat, there must have 
 been something in it. There must have been 
 something more than ordinary coolness and 
 contempt of death, something that fired the 
 courage of others, and spurred them on to follow 
 their brave leaders to death. 
 
 No man could have gone with a greater 
 contempt of death, year in, year out, from battle 
 to battle, than Joachim Murat, and no one pos- 
 sessed in a higher degree the gift of communicating 
 his own courage to others. When he swung 
 himself into the saddle and he was a handsome 
 man, in a fine suit of amarinth velvet, with 
 enormously long white ostrich feathers, and arms 
 and harness glittering with gold and precious 
 stones the devil was let loose in his squadrons ; 
 man and beast dashed after him, and there was 
 nothing that could stop them. Yet it was found 
 that there was a limit to this kind of courage. 
 King Joachim collapsed when the supply of horses 
 was exhausted, and there were no more cavalrymen 
 to lead with jingling harness and flapping cloaks. 
 Certainly, he was just as fearless as ever ; cowar- 
 dice was impossible for him ; but his courage had 
 lost its glamour, when he could no longer command, 
 but had to save an army that was shrunken out 
 of all proportion. His sense of duty and manly 
 
248 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 courage sank behind other sensations. He must 
 have thought of his beautiful Naples and his 
 royal crown, which he must have been constantly 
 feeling to see if it was quite secure. It seemed 
 to him to be getting loose, and he lost his courage 
 and his delight in chasing the Cossacks every 
 morning. 
 
 Ney showed that he possessed the tenacious 
 courage of the infantryman. Amongst the foot 
 there are no fine horses or dashing attacks, but 
 there is an unflinching courage in sustaining the 
 daily struggle, a determination to keep on one's 
 feet, and press onward to the appointed goal, or 
 to retreat with order. Lannes had been of much 
 the same character ; but the Duke of Moiitebello 
 was much more gifted in every respect than the 
 poor Prince of Moskwa, who had nothing but 
 his courage. 
 
 At Wilna things went much as they had done 
 at Smolensk. The famished soldiers flung them- 
 selves on the stores, plundered and fought for 
 food and drink in the most frightful disorder. 
 There was now not a single corps with troops 
 that had been under the colours. When Marshal 
 Victor, whose corps was supposed to form the 
 advanced guard, reached the gates of Wilna, he 
 had not a single soldier with him. Of the newly- 
 arrived division of Loison there were hardly 
 3,000 men left, and there were about the same 
 number of the old Guard. On December 9th, 
 Kutusow's first divisions came up with the French 
 while they were plundering Wilna. Ney and the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 249 
 
 aged Duke of Dantzig ran through the town, and 
 gathered men for the defence. Murat made no 
 attempt to defend the town ; he fled by night 
 to Kowno. 
 
 The Bavarian General Wrede begged Marshal 
 Ney to cut his way out of the town with the 60 
 horsemen that were still at his disposal. Ney 
 pointed to the swarms of fugitives that filled the 
 streets, and said they must be protected and got 
 away during the night. He swore that all the 
 Cossacks in the world would not drive him and 
 his fifty grenadiers out, before eight o'clock the 
 next morning, from the house which they had 
 fortified, and from which they commanded the 
 gate and kept off the Russians. Thousands of 
 wounded men were left lying in the streets of 
 Wilna, to be dispatched by the Cossacks. There 
 were also crowds of stragglers who desperately 
 preferred to remain in the houses rather than 
 venture into a temperature of sixty degrees below 
 freezing point. 
 
 A mile from Wilna the whole miserable 
 procession was held up by an insignificant hill. 
 The road was hard and slippery ; men and horses 
 slipped and fell, and guns and waggons rolled 
 backward. At this point a number of Russian 
 flags and trophies and a war-chest containing 
 10,000,000 francs in gold were lost. The marshal 
 began to distribute the money amongst the Guard 
 and every soldier that reached Paris handed it 
 back to the treasury but as the Cossacks came 
 on every vestige of order was lost and there was 
 
250 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 a general pillage, which was completed by the 
 Cossacks when they had driven the French away. 
 
 On December 12th the fugitives poured into 
 Kowno, where the same scenes were witnessed as 
 at Smolensk and Wilna, only worse and wilder. 
 The soldiers fell on the food like wild animals, 
 and men drank themselves to death with brandy. 
 Murat held a council of war, and all but Ney and 
 Davoust (who said nothing) vented their anger 
 against the Emperor. Ney offered to defend 
 Kowno until the fugitives had time to cross the 
 Niemen and reach Konigsberg or Macdonald's 
 winter quarters, which were not far off. Positions 
 were marked out for the various corps, and then 
 all the generals made for Konigsberg and left 
 Ney behind. 
 
 There was now not even a shadow left of 
 the grand army. Ney had only a couple of 
 adjutants with him when he arrived at Kowno. 
 He found 400 men under General Marchand and 
 300 Germans. The Russians were close behind 
 him, and endeavoured to force an entrance by 
 the gate on the Wilna road. Ney hurried up to 
 it, but the three or four guns he found were spiked, 
 and the artillerymen had fled. Even the Germans 
 ran away, and the officer who led them shot 
 himself in despair. But Ney would not yield. 
 He was determined to defend Kowno until the 
 following day. He took a rifle himself and shot 
 away like a grenadier ; a number of high officers 
 did the same. General Gerard, who bore himself 
 with honour at Ney's side during these last spasms 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 251 
 
 of the march, had gathered thirty men, and with 
 these they defended the Wilna gate, and kept off 
 the whole Russian army. The adjutant Rumigni 
 had succeeded in collecting another small band 
 of men of the 29th regiment, and when he came 
 on with them the Marshal felt that Kowno was 
 saved. He embraced the officer in his joy. 
 Marchand was sent with all speed to the one 
 bridge across the Niemen on which their hopes 
 rested, and which had been attacked by the 
 enemy ; Ney fought the whole day and kept his 
 position till nightfall. During the night they 
 escaped from Kowno and reached the river, where 
 Marchand had retaken the bridge. It was quite 
 intact, and so they crossed the Niemen and got 
 safely out of Russia. They were 500 men in all. 
 
 The Cossacks did not leave them as yet. At 
 one point, where the road mounted a little, they 
 came to a standstill once more, and lost all that 
 they had kept together. The Cossacks scattered 
 the four or five hundred men in the darkness, and 
 Ney and Gerard found only a few officers with 
 them. General Marchand escaped by a different 
 route. In the end they reached Konigsberg. 
 From this point there was no part of the army 
 under arms. They continued the retreat in small 
 bands, flying over the plains of Poland, and were 
 pursued for some miles beyond the Niemen by 
 the Cossacks. Then the Russian cavalry turned 
 back, and the Tsar's army, which had lost two- 
 thirds of its strength, came to a halt at last. 
 
252 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 The old Guard, which had been least hardly 
 used partly at the cost of the other troops 
 during the whole campaign, and which had 
 originally been 7,000 strong, was represented only 
 by 500 men at Konigsberg. This was the sole 
 armed remnant. The young Guard had been 
 completely broken, and all the other corps had 
 disappeared. There were at Konigsberg 10,000 
 sick and wounded, and an epidemic broke out 
 amongst them, which the physicians of the time 
 called ' frost fever.' The leading physician him- 
 self, the heroic Larrey, caught it and died ; so 
 did Generals Lariboisiere and Eble. Of their 100 
 picked bridge-builders there were not more than 
 twelve left after the fights on the Beresina. 
 
 In all, 300,000 soldiers perished during 
 Napoleon's campaign in Russia, besides a number of 
 women and civilians that has never been deter- 
 mined. The generals gathered at Konigsberg with- 
 out troops. There was general indignation against 
 the Emperor, but most of them were for a long 
 time half stupified with their misfortunes and 
 exertions. 
 
 It was at this period that the foreign auxi- 
 liaries began to fall off, and they continued to do 
 so in the new year. Officers and men had indeed 
 taken a kind of oath to Napoleon and the French 
 colours, and it was a pitiful spectacle for the 
 German troops in 1813 to pass over to their own 
 countrymen in the middle of the fight, and begin 
 to fire on the ranks they had just left. Yet 
 according to our ideas of nationality, they were 
 bound to resent the unnatural pressure, to join 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 253 
 
 with their compatriots and shake off the unbear- 
 able yoke that Napoleon had so long laid on 
 Europe. A secret armistice had been concluded 
 between the Russian General Diebitsch and the 
 Prussian General York, whose men formed the 
 main body of Macdonald's corps. On December 
 31st, General York marched away with his 
 regiments, and Marshal Macdonald was no longer 
 able to keep the Russians in check. He had to 
 retreat with the 7,000 Poles under Grandjean 
 that were left in his corps. It gradually became 
 impossible to hold the Niemen as a line of defence, 
 and soon afterwards the Weichsel also had to 
 be abandoned. Konigsberg was evacuated ; it 
 was Ney again who had to cover the retreat with 
 the remains of Heudelet and Loison's divisions. 
 All of them suffered from the cold, and provisions 
 had to be bought at a high price or taken by 
 force. The next place of refuge was Dantzig, 
 where General Rapp was governor. He shut 
 himself up in the town, and prepared to defend 
 it. Napoleon had destined this position for Rapp 
 long before. During one of the battles in Russia 
 the Emperor had given the general an order to 
 attack, but suddenly changed his mind and sent 
 another cavalry-general. They heard him mutter 
 at the time : ' I need Rapp at Dantzig.' 
 
 Murat's headquarters were first at Thorn, 
 and then in Poland. On January 16th, 1813, he 
 could endure it no longer. He abandoned the 
 army and the posts that the Emperor had entrusted 
 to him, and fled to Naples. The chief command 
 now fell to Eugene, the Viceroy of Italy, and he 
 
254 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 exercised it with his customary firmness. He 
 had led his men throughout the campaign with 
 coolness and bravery, and it was he who put a 
 stop to the retreat. He remained for a month 
 at Posen, restored order and discipline, let his men 
 rest, and gave them time to gather under the 
 colours once more. On February 21st he withdrew 
 to Berlin, after burning the bridges at Krossen 
 and Frankfort on the Oder. 
 
 Prince Schwartzenberg had been making a 
 fool of Napoleon the whole time and was in collusion 
 with the Russians. He now openly seceded from 
 the French. General Grenier had been in Italy 
 in 1811, and had been directed by Napoleon at 
 that time to keep an eye on Murat, whose weakness 
 of character was well known to the Emperor. 
 Now, in the early days of 1813, Grenier brought 
 his corps to Berlin, and gave Augereau a reinforce- 
 ment of 28,000 men. To these we must add 
 25,000 men under Rapp at Dantzig, and the 
 garrisons of a few fortresses on the Weichsel and 
 at Warschau. These were the only fighting forces 
 left to Napoleon in that part of Europe. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 There was a great difference in appearance 
 between the army that marched singing into Italy 
 half in their old Republican rags, half in 
 Bonaparte's new uniforms and the model soldiers, 
 equipped down to the smallest detail, that were 
 called out to face the army of Frederick the Great 
 in 1806. There was a difference again between 
 the latter and the grande arme'e that had marched 
 into Russia. This was certainly the finest army 
 that has ever been seen. Its whole equipment 
 and material was new and modern, and the 
 number of foreign troops helped to give it the 
 appearance of a comprehensive power, as it defiled 
 over the plains of Poland. Its march was like 
 a colossal parade. 
 
 It has been regarded as a proof of Napoleon's 
 infatuated ambition that he made such imperfect 
 preparation for this campaign, and had so little 
 knowledge of the geography and climatic con- 
 ditions of the country. But it was rather the 
 great blunder of his life that led him to do this ; 
 namely, the notion that there was a place for him 
 
256 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 and his family amongst the legitimate princes of 
 Europe. After what he had experienced and 
 attained he saw no impossibility in that. He 
 knew that there was no such thing as memory in 
 the false intercourse of courts. His army must 
 be so powerful and his attack so decisive that the 
 Tsar must be compelled out of fear to reach out 
 his hand. But it is possible that Napoleon and 
 his officers did not on this occasion devote the 
 same care to minute details that they had done at 
 the commencement of other campaigns. 
 
 All the high officers went more or less reluc- 
 tantly. The soldiers were too confident in the 
 invincibility of their idol. Hence they had not 
 heeded all the warnings and suggestions before 
 beginning the Russian war. The rough ways 
 had not been smoothed by spies and bribes. The 
 Emperor himself and his whole machinery were 
 a little worn. There was not the absolute relia- 
 bility in small details of the earlier wars. At 
 Austerlitz in 1805, he had said of General Ordener, 
 the officer who arrested the Duke of Enghien : 
 * Ordener is worn out. We need only a short 
 time for the war. I myself can only go on for 
 five or six years more, and then I must cease.' 
 It was just seven years afterwards that he was 
 ill and fatigued at Borodino. 
 
 Thus the Russian campaign differed from all 
 the others in many points besides its failure. From 
 the first march one missed the wonderful order 
 and precision that had been inseparable from him 
 ever since the morning in 1796 when all the corps 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 257 
 
 of the republican army marched together in 
 perfect unison beside the sun-lit Bormida. In 
 1812 orders were misunderstood from the outset. 
 Distances were miscalculated and time wasted ; 
 and when there was a victory as there still was 
 sometimes there were no men to follow up the 
 advantage as in the old days. The whole 
 plan of the campaign was political rather than 
 strategical. The Emperor thought less of beating 
 the Russians than of winning the Tsar. Hence 
 there was something of a parade in the great 
 gathering of princes at Dresden, the distribution 
 of the enormous fighting forces, and the advance 
 on the Niemen. It was all done with unusual 
 slowness, and before the eyes of Russia, in order 
 to give the Tsar time to reach out a friendly 
 hand. 
 
 Napoleon did not understand what any one 
 of us who have come into the world a hundred 
 years afterwards could have told him. He 
 imagined that the descendants of the Corsican 
 bandit could meet and exchange kisses with the 
 Hapsburgs, the Hohenzollerns, and the Romanows, 
 and that the telegraph would spread it over 
 Europe. Assuredly, he came very near it. In 
 1806, when he was returning from Tilsit to Paris, 
 he was met at Marienwerder by an adjutant of 
 the King of Saxony with a letter of this tenour : 
 ' The Emperor Francis seeks my daughter Augusta. 
 What shall I do ?' Napoleon went to Dresden, 
 and prevented the match. ' And I was utterly 
 wrong,' he said afterwards at St. Helena. * I was 
 
258 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 afraid that a connection with the Emperor Francis 
 would alienate the King of Saxony from me, 
 whereas Augusta would have won the Emperor 
 for me and then I would not be here ! ' 
 
 He had come so close to them that they 
 asked his advice on such intimate points. A few 
 years afterwards the Emperor Francis gave him 
 his daughter in marriage, yet Napoleon did not 
 understand until all was lost what a gulf there 
 was between him and them. It is almost painful 
 to find Napoleon complaining to Prince Metternich 
 on August 25th, 1805, that the Emperor and the 
 new Empress of Austria never ask the French 
 ambassador at Vienna about Napoleon's health 
 and such things. ' They know very well,' he said, 
 ' that I myself do not ask you such questions to 
 learn what I already know. No, it is done for 
 the world to know that the relations between us 
 are those of two sovereigns. Don't you see what 
 a different footing I am on with the Emperor 
 Alexander ? We send each other presents, not 
 because they have any importance in themselves, 
 but because they keep up our connexion. I should 
 have sent your Empress a wedding present, but 
 she has never even mentioned my name. There 
 has not been the slightest notice taken of me on 
 your side ! My ambassador is not treated with 
 as much consideration as the envoys of Bavaria 
 or Wiirtemberg, to say nothing of the Russian. 
 These little matters are of great importance.' 
 
 ' I took the thing humorously,' Metternich 
 writes, ' and answered : " Sire, I will at once see 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 259 
 
 that some valuable objects in porcelain are sent 
 from Vienna, if it will serve to strengthen the 
 good relations between us." 
 
 In the year 1813, before the Saxon campaign, 
 Napoleon said : ' The war I am now entering 
 upon is a political one. I would willingly have 
 spared Russia all the trouble it has brought on 
 itself. If I liked, I could have stirred up the 
 mass of the people against the Tsar by proclaiming 
 the emancipation of the serfs. But I avoided this 
 weapon, as it would have brought misery to 
 countless families and have caused endless mas- 
 sacres.' And, finally, at St. Helena, the Emperor 
 once said in conversation : ' People may explain 
 it as they like, but I swear that I had no direct 
 or personal hatred of any of the princes I fought 
 against. For me the whole thing was a political 
 struggle so free, so light, I might even say, so 
 benevolent was my disposition. It is true that 
 Louis XVIII and the other princes had outlawed 
 me, and put a price on my head. In my opinion 
 that was merely diplomatic rhetoric.' 
 
 All this is very naive, but the fault is not 
 that Napoleon over-estimated the importance for 
 himself and his descendants of penetrating the 
 royal circle. He was quite right. In those days 
 and in ours the power is with the princes, the fate 
 of the nations is in the hands of a few old families. 
 When he thought he had any chance of penetrating 
 this circle, he, having come through the fires of 
 the Revolution, was more convinced of this than 
 we who are so far removed from the great reckoning 
 
260 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 with kings, and who have so far been cooled by a 
 century of reaction as to entertain once more the 
 old foUy that it needs royal blood to lead States ; 
 just as we thought when we were boys at school 
 that there must be cat's blood in real licorice. 
 
 After his return to Paris the Emperor resumed 
 his normal life as the indefatigable head of the 
 State. He maintained an icy calmness, to show 
 that he was a man lifted above all the vicissitudes 
 of fate. But he saw in every face the effect of 
 the defeat and of the 29th bulletin, in which he 
 had confessed the whole misery so openly. He 
 still made no effort to mince matters with phrases 
 or subterfuges ; but he threw himself with 
 exaggerated zeal into the Malet affair. With 
 great ostentation he had the Prefect of the Seine, 
 Frochot, arrested, and an inquiry opened. He 
 certainly did this in part to divert the attention 
 of the Parisians from his unfortunate campaign, 
 but also because he saw with concern and bitter- 
 ness from the police-information how many of his 
 faithful servants had been ready to take part in 
 a revolution at the mere rumour of his death, and 
 not one of them had thought of running to the 
 assistance of the Empress and the heir to the 
 throne. 
 
 Then he threw himself with unprecedented 
 energy into the work of raising fresh levies. He 
 filled up the attenuated regiments, and brought 
 troops from all the camps in Europe. If he had 
 not such a number of his best soldiers engaged in 
 the Spanish Peninsula, he would have had 500,000 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 261 
 
 at his disposal once more. Meantime he wanted 
 fresh levies in the four last age-classes up to 1814 
 a hundred thousand men altogether. It was all 
 given willingly. Every man deemed it a point 
 of honour to maintain the honour of France and 
 its twenty years' supremacy in face of this first 
 blow at their invincible leader. Yet there was 
 something wanting. The nation was not called 
 out in the name of liberty ; the Emperor would 
 not venture to put the safety of France in the 
 hands of the people. He was determined to be 
 as before the Emperor and his army. 
 
 It was different in Prussia and Germany. 
 There it was the people's business to throw off 
 the French yoke. Whatever concern the govern- 
 ments had in regard to the people, they had to 
 let the great beast loose for a time, intending to 
 chain it up all the more securely when the danger 
 was over. The whole suppressed youth of Ger- 
 many broke out into songs of fatherland and 
 freedom. While the old diplomatists lent their 
 ears, and mixed their fine drinks, vast crowds of 
 German youths rushed to the colours, ready to 
 die for the freedom that bore in sight. That 
 there would be more fighting, they all knew. That 
 Napoleon could not leave his half-shattered empire 
 exposed on the east was as clear as that the other 
 princes were his enemies, and would be until he 
 was destroyed. At the bottom, therefore, not 
 much importance was attached to the amenities 
 of diplomatists, or to what Metternich said to 
 Napoleon. They knew that he knew more than 
 
262 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 all of them together. It must be war ; and war 
 it was for three more years, and worse than 
 ever. 
 
 His destiny fell from stage to stage after the 
 Russian campaign as fatally as a vast waterfall, 
 and with almost equal grandeur. All his enemies 
 gathered like a storm in the east. Far away, in 
 the extreme west General Moreau began to stir. 
 He had lived in peace on his estate at Delaware 
 since the great conspiracy of 1804. But as soon 
 as he heard of the issue of the Russian campaign, 
 he left America and came to Europe. All his 
 ambitious dreams were revived. Napoleon Bona- 
 parte was now ripe for the fall, and it was time 
 for Moreau to take his place. After an interview 
 with the other traitor, Bernadotte, at Goteborg, 
 Moreau, the great general of the glorious republican 
 wars, the victor of Hohenlinden, went over to the 
 enemies of France in the moment of danger like 
 a common deserter. He went to Prague, and was 
 greeted by the Allies there with jubilation. They 
 gave him a kind of supreme command, together 
 with Prince Schwartzenberg, over the combined 
 armies, when things were sufficiently advanced 
 for Austria to throw off the mask altogether. 
 
 Bernadotte also had allowed himself to be 
 bought by the most shameless intrigues to take 
 his place amongst the enemies of his country, in 
 hostility to the man to whom he owed everything. 
 
 After settling the regency on Marie Louise, 
 which he did with a certain amount of relief, the 
 Emperor left Paris on April 15th, 1813, at one in 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 263 
 
 the morning, and took the road to Mayence. 
 Never did he astonish the world and his enemies 
 so much as then, when he deployed in the vicinity 
 of Jena, where he had conquered six years before, 
 the new fighting forces he had conjured up out 
 of the earth. The Allies, who were well aware 
 that there were between two and three hundred 
 thousand of his old soldiers in Spain, had expected 
 to see no more than the attenuated remains of 
 the Russian disaster. They found themselves 
 instead facing the old invincible name and the 
 familiar solid columns of the best infantry in the 
 world. Ney, Oudinot, Eugene, and the other 
 survivors from Russia were now augmented by 
 Marmont, Macdonald, Kellermann, and Bertrand. 
 The cavalry was poor ; and on looking closely 
 one would find a disquieting amount of raw 
 recruits in the army. Yet it was precisely these 
 who brought off the remarkable victory at Liitzen, 
 with which the war of 1813 opened. 
 
 On the day before the battle they met with 
 a great misfortune. Marshal Bessieres was killed 
 by a cannon-ball during a slight skirmish at rather 
 long range. It was a painful blow to Napoleon 
 and all his staff, and a great loss to the army, 
 especially the cavalry, to which the marshal had 
 always devoted special care, and which he had 
 led with such distinction. The Duke of Istria was 
 a brave and honourable soldier, but singular in 
 being one of the very few in the army who con- 
 tinued to appear with powdered wig, tail, and 
 curls about his ears. 
 
264 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS] 
 
 The Emperor had made himself personally 
 acquainted with the new troops before the great 
 battle. He directed Marshals Ney, Oudinot, and 
 Marmont, and the Viceroy Eugene to draw up 
 in such a way that he could pass continuously 
 along them. He rode slowly down the long lines, 
 stopped here and there to say a friendly word, 
 spoke to the officers or to some old non-commis- 
 sioned officer that he knew, and all the while ran 
 his eye over the young men in the characteristic 
 way that made each one feel he had been indivi- 
 dually noticed. They all, old and young, had 
 time to see him, and he brought them all together 
 in a common confidence of victory. He wanted 
 to begin with a striking victory, that would daunt 
 his enemies and open the way to Dresden. From 
 there he proposed to carry the war into Schleswig 
 and toward the frontier of Bohemia. 
 
 The Emperor had left Liitzen with Ney's 
 army-corps about nine o'clock in the morning of 
 May 2nd, and he had just dismounted to look 
 over some maps with the marshal, when they 
 heard a strong cannonade in their rear, from the 
 quarter where Ney's troops had spent the night. 
 They could tell at once that it must be Macdonald 
 who was engaged with the enemy. In a moment 
 the Emperor entirely changed his dispositions, 
 and sent adjutants to all the generals with an 
 order to march straight across the country towards 
 the thunder of Macdonald's guns. It took three 
 hours to execute this manoeuvre, and so those who 
 first reached the field fought for some hours 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 265 
 
 against an overwhelming force. However, the 
 artillery of the various corps gradually came into 
 action, and when the divisions of Bonnet, Morand, 
 Compans, and Bertrand appeared on the field, 
 the battle was already won at all points. The 
 Emperor was under fire the whole day long. 
 
 General Mouton, Count of Lobau, led the 
 16th battalion of the young Guard in a fearful 
 struggle round the village of Kaja. When the 
 young men were nearly overpowered by the heavy 
 pressure, the old generals had only to say a word 
 and they stood like walls. If they heard the 
 Emperor's own voice above the din, they broke 
 into the cry of ' Long live the Emperor, 5 and 
 swept on with their bayonets like a storm. But 
 it was a lamentable spectacle to see the fine young 
 men on both sides, slim French youths, and pale 
 German students with long hair, falling upon 
 each other like wild beasts. When the sun went 
 down there were 25,000 men lying on the field, 
 and the plain was lit by the flames of four large 
 villages. 
 
 It was with great satisfaction that Napoleon 
 redacted the bulletin recording his incredible 
 victory. He had beaten with infantry-divisions 
 full of raw recruits, two combined armies of 
 veteran soldiers, the Russians and Prussians, with 
 25,000 of the best cavalry in Europe and an 
 enormous artillery. No prisoners were made after 
 the battle, as the French cavalry was still weak. 
 But the moral effect of it was incalculable. The 
 Emperor Napoleon was himself again. The 
 
266 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 confidence of his generals was restored. The 
 disaster in Russia fell away like a nightmare from 
 which they had at length awakened. The army, 
 nay, the whole of France, returned to its firm 
 belief in Napoleon's invincibility. 
 
 The chief feeling amongst the Allies was one 
 of disillusion, and their armies retreated on 
 Dresden. At their head rode the Emperor of 
 Russia and the King of Prussia just as before ; 
 also Generals Barclay de Tolly, Wittgenstein, Milo- 
 radowitsch, Bliicher, and Kleist, all with their 
 tails between their legs just as before. Napoleon 
 soon drove them out of Dresden, and rested there 
 for a week. The aged King of Saxony was not 
 at home. Under pressure from Austria he had 
 gone to Prague, and he was now strongly influenced 
 by the other German princes. But Napoleon 
 invited him to return, and on the 12th of May 
 Friedrich August was back in his capital. The 
 Emperor rode out from Dresden to meet him, 
 and received him with great ceremony amidst his 
 brilliant Guard. The old friendship was renewed, 
 and Saxony remained a faithful ally of his to 
 the end Saxony and steadfast Denmark. The 
 attitude of Austria became more and more 
 ambiguous ; that is to say, all their circumlocution 
 could not conceal the fact that Austria was 
 prepared to join the Allies as soon as the moment 
 arrived. 
 
 During the eight days that he spent at 
 Dresden the Emperor received from the King of 
 Saxony some cavalry, which he badly needed. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 267 
 
 4 If it were a month later,' he said, * and I had more 
 cavalry, it would be a splendid opportunity to 
 close the whole affair with arms in our hands, 
 and I would certainly not grant them an armistice. 
 They do not know what they are in for.' He was 
 alluding to Marshal Ney's march on Bautzen. 
 At Bautzen and Wurschen again the French army 
 won a brilliant and bloody victory over the Allies 
 on May 20th and 21st. The next day it was on 
 the march to Schleswig, driving the allied troops 
 before it. The French pressed on along three 
 routes. Marshal Victor and General Sebastian! 
 were on the left wing ; Macdonald, Marmont, 
 and Bertrand followed Wittgenstein along the 
 road to Schweidnitz ; Marshal Ney advanced along 
 the road to Breslau. 
 
 The Emperor himself joined in the pursuit 
 with the cavalry of the Guard, Latour-Maubourg's 
 dragoons, and some infantry. He rode the whole 
 day at the head of the Guard, and reached 
 Weissenberg without meeting any resistance. 
 General Miloradowitsch had taken up a position 
 a little farther on, on the heights of Reichenbach, 
 to protect the flying sovereigns. The French 
 cavalry reduced, it is true, to a mere shadow of 
 its former glory was still led by its old officers, 
 Bruyeres, Lefebvre-Desnouettes, Colbert, and 
 Latour-Maubourg, and after a hard fight the 
 Russians were thrown into retreat. But in 
 this comparatively unimportant battle, General 
 Bruyeres, one of the Italian veterans, was killed. 
 Napoleon himself was under fire, and one of the 
 
268 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 horsemen in his personal escort was killed so close 
 to him that the man fell right at the feet of his 
 horse. 
 
 * The luck is with us to-day, Duroc ! ' the 
 Emperor cried to his Master of the Court. 
 
 * They were riding through a crooked village- 
 street to reach an elevation from which they 
 would get a better view. The next moment a 
 stray cannon-shot came along, struck a tree, 
 killed General Kirchner, and tore open the body 
 of Marshal Duroc, who was riding beside him. 
 Marshal Mortier, who was quite close, was unin- 
 jured. Meantime the Emperor had set his horse 
 at a gallop to reach the hill, and had seen nothing. 
 It was not till he reached it that he learned from 
 one of Oudinot's adjutants that the Duke of 
 Friaul had been killed. ' Impossible ! ' he ex- 
 claimed. c I have only just been speaking to 
 him.' As he was speaking Colonel Gourgaud came 
 with a message from Ney, but Napoleon rode back 
 and did not listen to him. He went with Mortier 
 and Caulaincourt into the house in which they had 
 placed Duroc. They exchanged a few words, 
 and Napoleon sat for a long time by the side of 
 the wounded man. He had been his most trusted 
 friend from youth, and was an irreplaceable 
 servant. The day before he fell Duroc had said 
 to Marmont : ' The Emperor has an insatiable 
 zeal for war. We shall all come to an end on 
 the field. That is our fate.' 
 
 The victory and the hot pursuit had broken 
 the courage of the Allies, and they came with a 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 269 
 
 civil request for an armistice. And although the 
 proposal was brought to Napoleon by one of his 
 worst enemies, the Austrian Count Stadion, he 
 accepted the unfortunate armistice. By this 
 means he lost all that he had gained. At that 
 moment a moment that the younger Bonaparte 
 would have seized as swiftly as lightning he 
 should have forced them to yield an honourable 
 peace. But he had once more sent the Duke of 
 Vicenza secretly to the Tsar, and preferred to 
 engage in a diplomatic struggle in which he was 
 bound to lose. In the eyes of his opponents he 
 was a noxious animal against whom any device 
 could be used. 
 
 First the armistice was properly executed, 
 and then it was settled to hold a congress at 
 Prague. In this way the whole of June was 
 wasted without anything being done. Meantime 
 the Allies were beseiging Stettin, which was defended 
 by General Dufresne. The Crown-Prince of 
 Sweden acted as if he were merely reviewing the 
 besieging troops during the armistice ; but he 
 deliberately rode as near as possible to the fortifi- 
 cations so that his former soldiers, whom he still 
 fancied to be attached to him, could see him. 
 Suddenly a cannon-shot was fired from the fortress 
 and the ball whizzed past Bernadotte's ears. 
 The Allies at once raised a protest against this 
 breach of the armistice. But the commander at 
 Stettin answered : 6 A French deserter was said 
 to be in sight, and the guard shot at him. That 
 was all.' 
 
270 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 On June 27th Prince Metternich came as a 
 sort of intermediary to Dresden, and had a heated 
 altercation with the Emperor in the Marcolini 
 palace. Austria's demands for a general peace 
 were so unreasonable that the Emperor exclaimed : 
 ' How much is England giving you to spur Austria 
 into war with me.' 
 
 The Congress at Prague was conducted on 
 the principle of saying a great deal and deciding 
 nothing. The Allies made various arrangements 
 with each other, but Napoleon's envoys could 
 learn nothing of them. They were either kept at 
 a distance or duped. King Murat returned, and 
 offered his services. After abandoning the army 
 and returning home, he had made a secret arrange- 
 ment with Austria. He was so foolish, and knew 
 so little of the real value of princely promises, 
 that he imagined he could retain his crown after 
 the fall of the man who alone had the art of 
 making kings out of waiters. At the same time 
 he ventured to offer his services to Napoleon ; 
 and Napoleon accepted them, although he knew 
 everything. But he had some feeling for his first 
 cavalry-general, and he expected from Murat 
 nothing more than stupidity and ingratitude. 
 
 During the long diplomatic negotiations 
 Napoleon again ruled the world from Dresden. A 
 stream of generals and ambassadors poured about 
 him once more ; but there were less kings than in 
 1812. Under his control things went on their 
 normal way. The regiments found quarters and 
 provisions, the recruits were drilled, and all that 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 271 
 
 the army needed was brought up from the depots. 
 Horses alone were lacking. 
 
 The small but brave Polish army under 
 Poniatowski had now no fatherland except under 
 the French colours which they had followed so 
 long. Napoleon gave them the same pay and 
 conditions as to his French soldiers. All the 
 millions he had accumulated in the shape of spoil 
 or war-indemnities during the good years, and 
 which had lain well -guarded in the Marsan room 
 at the Louvre, now served to lighten the burdens 
 of the poor Saxons, whose country had become 
 the theatre of war. Suddenly Metternich an- 
 nounced to Caulaincourt and Narbonne that the 
 Congress of Prague was dissolved. The prepara- 
 tions of the Allies were completed, and Bliicher 
 attacked the French in Schleswig two days before 
 the termination of the armistice. One did not 
 need to be too scrupulous with the hereditary 
 enemy. The armistice was to run out on the 15th, 
 but on the 12th Bliicher attacked Ney, Marmont, 
 and Macdonald, who lay between Bober and 
 Katzbach. Napoleon hurried up, and drove 
 Bliicher back step by step. 
 
 On the 22nd of August, however, a courier 
 came from Marshal St. Cyr with the news that 
 the enemy was near Dresden a little to the west 
 of it, as if preparing to move between Leipzig and 
 Dresden. It had been suggested that they should 
 advance in the direction of Leipzig, but Generals 
 Jomini and Moreau had pointed out how dangerous 
 
272 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 it was to have the Emperor in their rear. Sch- 
 wartzenberg therefore advanced with all speed on 
 Dresden, while Napoleon was occupied in driving 
 Bliicher out of Schleswig. 
 
 Prince Schwartzenberg had already collected 
 200,000 men, but he wanted to wait for General 
 Klenau. Moreau was quite nervous with their 
 delays and precautions, and spoke rather sharply 
 about making good use of their time. The Prince 
 gave him a heated reply ; and Moreau, slipping 
 off the mask of a courtier and becoming the old 
 republican once more, flung his hat on the ground 
 and exclaimed, ' Do you know what, sir, the 
 devil knows that I am no longer astonished that 
 you have done nothing but be beaten for the last 
 seventeen years.' 
 
 On hearing of the enemy's advance on 
 Dresden, Napoleon wheeled round immediately 
 with his Guard, and the corps of Mortier and Ney, 
 and left Marshal Macdonald alone with Generals 
 Lauriston and Souham to face Bliicher. He 
 reached Stolpen with incredible speed, and worked 
 out a great plan of carrying out a manoeuvre over 
 the bridges at Lilienstein and Konigstein. But 
 Marshal St. Cyr began to be anxious at Dresden. 
 Napoleon had sent General Gourgaud to him to 
 ask if he could not hold the city two days longer. 
 The general came back at full speed on the evening 
 of the 25th of August, and so much alarmed the 
 Emperor that he gave up his plan and sent his 
 troops by forced marches to Dresden. At the 
 same time he sent General Vandamme with the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 273 
 
 engineer Haxo and a number of good officers into 
 Bohemia, where, according to Napoleon's cal- 
 culation, they should catch the Allied armies in 
 flight and take them prisoners if he beat them. 
 But it fell out quite otherwise with Vandamme 
 and his army. 
 
 On the morning of August 26th the Emperor 
 himself rode into the Saxon capital, to the astonish- 
 ment of all ; and it was quite time that he came. 
 That very afternoon Schwartzenberg brought the 
 whole of his fighting forces against the town, and 
 his troops gradually advanced as far as the large 
 garden, where they were received by a part of 
 the Imperial Guard. Meantime Napoleon had 
 collected his troops in the town, and suddenly 
 the young Guard, with Marshals Mortier and Ney 
 at their head, poured out of the gates like two 
 roaring torrents, and swept back the Austrians, 
 Russians and Prussians. It was a short but vigorous 
 fight, and five generals of the Guard were wounded. 
 The King of Naples drove back the enemy in 
 the direction of Wilsdruff with the cavalry of the 
 Guard and Latour-Manbourg's curassiers. The 
 French re-occupied all their positions, and the 
 Allies, who now knew that the Emperor himself 
 was in Dresden, retired at all points. In the 
 evening, after making his preparations for a 
 great battle on the following day, Napoleon joined 
 the King of Saxony at table, and was in what was 
 for him a most brilliant mood. 
 
 In the camp of the Allies the night was spent 
 in mutual recrimination. There was a thick mist 
 
274 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 on the following day, August 27th. It had been 
 raining all night, and continued to do so with 
 great violence during the day. The flint-lock 
 weapons of the infantry, with their open pans, 
 were almost unusable. Thus the great battle was 
 fought with artillery, and with sabre and bayonet. 
 The cannons opened fire at seven in the morning, 
 and thundered the whole day long. Murat and 
 Marshal Victor threw themselves on the Austrian 
 left wing on the Plauen estate. General Mitzko 
 was taken prisoner with his cavalry-division. 
 The centre of the Allies was gradually pierced, 
 and on the right wing, where Napoleon opposed 
 the Russians, Wittgenstein was forced to retreat 
 after a stubborn resistance. On the heights of 
 B-acknitz, where the Allied princes were with their 
 generals, staffs, and body-guards, great masses of 
 troops were concentrated, and these could only be 
 reached by the artillery. The cannons of the 
 Guard were directed to drive the enemy from 
 this position, and the Emperor himself com- 
 manded the advancing batteries. 
 
 At that time the distances were so slight- 
 even for the artillery that from the French 
 batteries one could see the brilliant group around 
 the Allied sovereigns, and all at once an unusual 
 excitement was noticed amongst these horsemen. 
 It was supposed that some important personage 
 or at least a high officer, had been wounded or 
 killed. And when in the evening a stray dog 
 ran into the line of the French advanced posts, 
 with the name * General Moreau ' round its neck, 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 275 
 
 it was thought possible that it was he who had 
 fallen. Such was really the case. Moreau was 
 sitting on his horse, quite close to Alexander, when 
 a ball from the French batteries struck him. It 
 shattered his thigh, passed through his horse, and 
 tore his other leg. Both had to be amputated, 
 but he did not survive the operation. It is said 
 that the aged hero smoked a cigar while the 
 surgeons were busy on him. 
 
 In the evening and during the night Schwart- 
 zenberg retreated along the Teplitz road in the 
 direction of Bohemia. All the other roads were 
 closed. He left 30,000 dead, and 12,000 prisoners 
 under the walls of Dresden. Napoleon had been 
 twelve hours on horseback in the pouring rain 
 when he rode back into Dresden. He entered it 
 over the old bridge from Neustadt. The body- 
 guard, wet through, rode before him at walking 
 pace. Then came the Emperor himself, carelessly 
 holding to the wet saddle, his military coat soaked 
 through with rain, and his famous hat so saturated 
 and softened that the wide brims, usually turned 
 up, hung down to his shoulders. But the soldiers 
 and the whole of Dresden were wild with joy. 
 The Saxon court gave him a great ovation as he 
 strode into the well-lit room after his bath and 
 toilet. Friedrich August, who had been torn with 
 anxiety the whole year, and could never be quite 
 sure whether he had been betrayed or bought, 
 began to think it was all right this time. 
 
 But all this was of no avail. Too much time 
 had been lost, and the resources of the Allied 
 
276 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 princes in men, horses, and material, were over- 
 whelming. In the weeks following the battle of 
 Dresden, Napoleon let his armies scatter under 
 marshals and generals, and operate on their own 
 account, far more than he had been accustomed 
 to do. It is true that his vast plans embraced all 
 their manoeuvres, but without taking account of 
 possible failures ; or, to put it more correctly, 
 without that gift of preventing failures or at least 
 being independent of them that General Bonaparte 
 had had in earlier years. 
 
 His record from May to September is as follows: 
 On May 2nd he won the great battle of Liitzen. 
 On May 20th and 21st he again conquered at 
 Bautzen and Wurschen. Then came the armistice 
 and the Congress of Prague. On June 21st 
 Marshal Jourdan and King Joseph lost the decisive 
 battle of Vittoria, and with it Spain. On August 
 21st Napoleon said : ' To-day the Duke of Reggio 
 advances on Berlin.' In reality Oudinot was still 
 far from Berlin, partly owing to floods, and partly 
 to the pressure of Bernadotte, who at last beat 
 him at Grossbeeren. On August 26th Macdonald 
 lost the battle on the Katzbach against Bliicher. 
 On August 26th and 27th the Emperor won the 
 great battle of Dresden. On August 30th Van- 
 damme was beaten by General Ostermann at 
 Kulm in Bohemia, and was taken prisoner with 
 7,000 men. Finally, on September 26th, Ney lost 
 the battle of Dennewitz against the Crown-prince 
 of Sweden. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 277 
 
 It will be readily understood that this record 
 encouraged the Allies. The whole of Germany 
 was heaving under them, and a rising of the entire 
 German nation was very convenient for its 
 generals and diplomatists ; while Napoleon's allies 
 fell off one by one, voluntarily or involuntarily. 
 Bavaria declared war ; Wiirtemberg followed suit ; 
 the grand-duke of Baden joined them. The King 
 of Saxony alone remained firm against all temp- 
 tations and promises, and marched with Napoleon 
 as far as the last town in his kingdom. The 
 secession of Bavaria was particularly dangerous, as 
 they had guarded the French frontier to the 
 north of Mayence. 
 
 The only thing for Napoleon to do now was 
 to reach Leipzig before the Allies so that his 
 connections with France might not be cut. He 
 had, therefore, to leave Dresden, which he had 
 begun to convert into a great armed centre from 
 which he might hasten to the help of any of his 
 army-corps with his invincible Guard. He left, 
 however, two of his best generals, Marshal St. Cyr 
 and General Mouton, Count of Lobau, in the city 
 with 30,000 fine soldiers. He was never to see 
 them again. 
 
 He made these fateful dispositions because 
 he was still deceiving himself with his great plan 
 for routing the Allies. But they were now so 
 astute that his plan very soon proved incapable of 
 being carried out, and his 30,000 men at Dresden 
 were swept away. He had all the more need of 
 these troops since he had now to fight on the open 
 
278 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 plains of Leipzig with 155,000 men against an 
 enemy that was 300,000 strong, and had twice the 
 force of cavalry that he had. On October 15th 
 the position of the two armies round Leipzig was 
 such that a great battle was inevitable on the 
 following day. The advanced posts approached 
 each other within range of a flint-lock musket. 
 
 On the following morning about nine o'clock, 
 three cannon-shots were fired as a signal to the 
 Allies, and at once three strong columns, supported 
 by 200 cannons, advanced from the army-corps 
 of Wittgenstein and General Kleist. On this first 
 day of the battle the fight raged along the line of 
 Markkleeberg, Wachau, and Liebertwolkwitz, far 
 outside the range of the town at that time. The 
 two latter villages were taken and re-taken several 
 times in the course of the morning. Marshal 
 Victor defended Wachau against General Kleist, 
 and Lauriston defended Liebertwolkwitz against 
 General Gortschakow. With them were Latour- 
 Maubourg, Sebastiani, and Milhaud of the French 
 cavalry. Meantime the Austrians under Klenau 
 attempted to surround the French to the east of 
 the town. It was known that an army, either 
 that of Bliicher or of Bernadotte, was approaching 
 from the north. 
 
 The fight was so vigorous from the early 
 morning onwards that by mid-day about 18,000 
 men had already fallen on both sides. At this 
 moment Napoleon was informed that the enemy 
 was also surrounding his positions on the west 
 side, General Margaron having been attacked by 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 279 
 
 the Austrian General Gyulai. To the north of 
 Leipzig Bliicher had already made his appearance. 
 He had heard the guns. Marmont fought him all 
 day long, with the support of Ney, who brought 
 up the divisions of Souham and Dombrowski. 
 
 After twelve o'clock the Emperor determined 
 to go on from defending his positions to a strong 
 attack on Schwartzenberg's centre. Mortier 
 advanced with Lauriston, Victor, and Oudinot. 
 Between them was Drouot's artillery of the Guard, 
 and with them also were the cavalry of the Guard 
 under Latour-Maubourg, Kellermann, and Nan- 
 souty, and the divisions of Curial, Friant, and 
 Gerard. There was no question now of sparing 
 any bodies of troops. On the extreme left 
 Macdonald began to force Klenau back, and the 
 Prince of Wiirtemberg was equally unable to 
 retain his position. But Rajewski's 10,000 grena- 
 diers stood like walls before Drouot's guns, and 
 let themselves be shot. Behind them Schwart- 
 zenberg gathered large masses of reserves, and 
 these he sent on and arrested the first attack. 
 
 About four o'clock Napoleon decided to 
 venture everything in order to convert the battle 
 into a complete victory. He took the whole of 
 the cavalry at his disposal, and flung them against 
 the village of Wachau. Twelve thousand horse, 
 with King Joachim at their head, flew to the 
 attack. Murat scattered the enemy's cavalry and 
 the ranks of the Russian grenadiers, drove back 
 the whole corps of the Prince of Wurtemberg, and 
 took 26 guns. But before there was any decisive 
 
280 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 victory, General Pajol, a veteran of the republican 
 days, was blown up by a shell that exploded under 
 his horse. Generals Maison and Latour-Maubourg 
 were wounded and fell from their horses, and in 
 the confusion that followed the Cossacks succeeded 
 in recovering the 26 guns from Murat. Then 
 large masses of troops came over from the right, 
 where the Prince of Hesse-Homburg had tried to 
 rout Poniatowski and Augereau. General Nostitz's 
 Austrian curassiers forced back Kellermann and 
 Lefort. Murat himself had to stop at the village 
 of Giildengossa. He had re-taken the guns ; but 
 Latour-Maubourg had lost a leg, and General Pajol 
 was severely injured. 
 
 The Tsar had agreed to let all the troops 
 advance, including the Cossacks and hussars. But 
 Napoleon, who now saw that even his great cavalry 
 attack had not decided the battle, resolved to 
 make a third attempt, and gave a fresh order for 
 the concentration of his whole forces on Wachau. 
 The Allies were receiving constant reinforcements 
 from the right, led by General Meerfeldt. The 
 Emperor sent the old Guard itself under General 
 Curial against him, and the general and his men 
 went to work with such energy that they took 
 Meerfeldt and 2,000 men prisoners. The battle 
 came to a standstill. Neither party could claim 
 a victory, and the darkness was setting in. 
 
 Prince Poniatowski had resisted the Austrians 
 who wanted to force the passage over the Pleisse 
 throughout the whole day, and Napoleon made 
 him a Marshal of France. It was now evening, 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 281 
 
 but the Emperor determined on one more attack 
 on the unfortunate village of Giildengossa. Mortier 
 and Maison advanced in their customary way. 
 But Barclay de Tolly sent in the Russian Guard, 
 and it was found impossible to dislodge the 
 Russians from the village, though General Maison 
 stood there in the dark and roared like a lion. 
 He had received a number of wounds, and had had 
 three horses shot under him. That morning he 
 had said to his soldiers : * This is the last day for 
 France. We shall all have closed our eyes by 
 to-night.' And neither he nor his men had spared 
 themselves. Hardly a thousand men were left 
 of his division. But the brave general lived to 
 see his prophecy falsified. General Count Maison 
 was made a Marshal of France after the campaign 
 in Morea in 1828. He was afterwards an ambas- 
 sador under Louis Philippe, and lived until 1840. 
 
 The fight at Wachau was the chief one of 
 the day, and cost 50,000 men. There was also 
 fighting to the west of the town, where General 
 Margaron kept off Gyulai, and to the north, where 
 Marmont had to sustain a heavy struggle with 
 Bliicher. Marmont and Compans were under fire 
 all day long. The marshal received several bullets 
 in his uniform, a wound in the hand, and another 
 in the shoulder. Unfortunately a shell fell in 
 Compans' powder waggon, and in the confusion 
 that followed the explosion the enemy succeeded 
 in taking the battery and forcing Marmont to 
 retreat. He had fought with 24,000 men against 
 60,000 and killed 10,000 of them. 
 
282 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 That was the first day of the battle of Leipzig. 
 On the next day, October 17th, there was no 
 fighting. They had enough to do on both sides 
 to restore order in their armies after the great 
 battle and the long marches in the incessant rain. 
 Napoleon rode, as usual, over the field. It was 
 a ghastly sight. There was blank despair around 
 him on every side. No one could fail to see now 
 that it was all over with the Emperor and his 
 power, or would be in a very short time. He 
 spoke of a retreat by way of Lindenau in the 
 direction of Liitzen, but he was unwilling to 
 acknowledge that the battle had been lost, as in 
 reality it had not. However, his army was 
 surrounded in such a way that it couid hardly 
 expect any reinforcements, while every fight 
 weakened its strength. On the other hand the 
 allies were so distributed that fresh reinforcements 
 were constantly pouring in at their outer ring. 
 
 It was hard for him to have to abandon all 
 the gains of France in these parts and see the new 
 frontiers he had given his empire collapse, while 
 he still had good garrisons in Dresden, Torgau, 
 Wittenberg, Magdeburg, Glogau, Kiistrin, Stettin, 
 Dantzig, and Hamburg altogether 170,000 men. 
 And they were expecting every day General 
 Reynier with 30,000 men, though these were 
 Saxons. The Emperor hesitated all day long, 
 and made no serious preparations for retreat. He 
 sent a marshal's staff to Poniatowski, and had the 
 captured General Meerfeldt summoned to his tent. 
 They talked together for some time, and the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 283 
 
 Emperor gave him back his sword and his liberty. 
 Meerf eldt had been one of the Austrian negotiators 
 before the peace of Campo Formio in 1797, when 
 the young General Bonaparte had terrified Count 
 Cobentzl by breaking his tea-service. He was 
 now sent by Napoleon to treat with the Allies. 
 He was to say that the Emperor was prepared, 
 as he had been two months before, to make great 
 sacrifices in the interest of peace ; but Napoleon 
 was thinking only of an armistice to get him out 
 of his present fix. He received no answer, of 
 course, to his proposals. 
 
 At last, when the evening was already far 
 advanced, Napoleon began to make some prepara- 
 tions for the retreat ; but it was to be an 
 imposing retreat it was to look like a 
 manoeuvre. The Allies had been quiet on the 
 17th, partly for the purpose of resting and partly 
 because they were expecting Generals Colloredo 
 and Bennigsen from the east and Bernadotte from 
 the north. The latter had to be urged on by 
 Bliicher and by the English envoy, and was so 
 careful and anxious that the Allies had doubts 
 both as to his courage and his reliability. In the 
 course of the day the Austrians came up under 
 Colloredo and the Russians under Bennigsen ; and 
 at last Bernadotte arrived. People could see the 
 reinforcements from the towers of Leipzig, as they 
 poured in continuously and completed Schwart- 
 zenberg's lines. In the evening the whole horizon 
 round the town was marked by an uninterrupted 
 ring of camp fires. 
 
284 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Count Rochechouart, a French emigrant in 
 the service of Russia, rode with an order from 
 the Emperor Alexander to Bernadotte, who was 
 at Paunsdorf. He found the Crown-prince of 
 Sweden sitting on a big white horse, dressed in a 
 velvet mantle covered with violet and gold cords, 
 a hat with white feathers, and above these again a 
 high tuft of feathers in the Swedish colours. In 
 his hand he had a marshal's staff covered with 
 purple velvet with a golden crown at each end. 
 At the end of the battle Bernadotte cried out : 
 * A few more shells for these French ; I love 
 them above everything.' It was in these days, 
 while the Swedish Crown-prince was firing on the 
 French troops at Leipzig, that there was a great 
 outburst of indignation against him in France. The 
 Moniteur contained addresses every day from the 
 provinces and the large towns in some such terms 
 as : ' Let us disown this ungrateful Frenchman, 
 this traitor to his country,' etc. 
 
 On October 18th Napoleon began at two in 
 the morning to dispose his troops in a smaller 
 circle round Leipzig. His plan was gradually and 
 with steady fighting to withdraw his army on to 
 the high road at Lindenau, and march westwards 
 from there by the road at Liitzen. Colonel 
 Montfort, of the engineers, turned to Berthier and 
 asked for orders to throw several bridges over 
 the smaller streams and watercourses round the 
 town. But Berthier was obtuse as usual, and 
 would not speak to the Emperor about such 
 details. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 285 
 
 The struggle on the 18th centred chiefly 
 about the village of Probstheida, to the south-east 
 of the town, where Napoleon was with Marshal 
 Victor's corps. But fighting went on all day also 
 at Dolitz, where Marshals Poniatowski and Auge- 
 reau resisted the Prince of Hesse-Homburg, who 
 was wounded and replaced by General Bianchi. 
 Marmont again was engaged with Bliicher and 
 Bernadotte to the north of the town, as on the 
 preceding day ; and finally, the Austrians were 
 again endeavouring to rout Bertrand in the west, 
 who was ordered to prepare the way for the 
 march, and begin with the removal of the great 
 transport-train and the heavier waggons. 
 
 Round Probstheida the fight went on furiously 
 all day long. At two there was a grand attack 
 on the village, which the French had had to 
 evacuate twice. The Emperor considered the 
 position so important that he led a final attack in 
 person and drove out the Prussians. Generals Vial 
 and Rochambeau fell in this struggle. Vial was 
 one of the great leaders. He received his command 
 when Kleber was wounded at Alexandria, shortly 
 after they landed in Egypt ; and it was Rocham- 
 beau who conducted the expedition in Hayti after 
 the death of Leclerc. In the course of the after- 
 noon Schwartzenberg ordered a heavy artillery-fire 
 in the hope of driving the French army into 
 Leipzig and keeping them there. In this he 
 succeeded. One position after another had to 
 be evacuated, and the French were gradually 
 
286 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 driven back into the suburbs of the town. Mean- 
 time Ney, Marmont, Souham, and Reynier (who 
 had now come up with his Saxons), were fighting 
 with equal energy to the north-east of the town, 
 at Paunsdorf, against Bliicher and Bernadotte 
 and the Russians, who were now advancing from 
 the east. 
 
 It was at this point that a division of the 
 Saxon cavalry, which was sent against the 
 Russians, turned round instead of attacking, and 
 took up a position in the Russian line of battle. 
 This was only the beginning of the desertions. 
 The moment the enemy appeared at Paunsdorf 
 the rest of the Saxon troops, with 40 guns and the 
 Wiirtemberg cavalry under General Normann, 
 went over to the Russians, and all their com- 
 mander's efforts to stop them were of no avail. 
 This commander was the Bavarian General von 
 Zeschau. He remained with the French like a 
 man of honour, with five or six hundred of his 
 soldiers. It was not enough for these troops to 
 desert in the progress of a battle. As soon as 
 they got some distance away, they turned their 
 guns, and fired into the midst of Durutte's division, 
 which had been drawn up expressly to cover the 
 Saxons and serve as their reserve. General 
 Delmas, another of the old stock, fell under this 
 fire. 
 
 There were 200 cannons in action as long as 
 the light lasted. The French understood that 
 now the work begun in Russia was to be con- 
 summated, and they fought more heroically than 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 287 
 
 ever. The Allies on their side had enough to 
 avenge. Both Austrians and Russians had an 
 account of many years' standing to settle. But 
 the enthusiasm and fighting spirit were greatest of 
 all amongst the Germans the youth of Germany 
 that had arisen and flown to the great battle of 
 the peoples, to win freedom for their fatherland, 
 and shatter the tyrants for ever. 
 
 The French army had to begin its retreat at 
 once, as they had only powder and balls for two 
 hours more, and the next arsenals were at Erfurt 
 and Magdeburg. During the last five days the 
 French had fired 250,000 rounds from their guns, 
 an enormous figure for the guns of that period. 
 All night long trains and waggons were passing 
 over the Lindenau bridge ; they were followed 
 by the cavalry, the Guard, and part of the infantry. 
 The greatest obstacle to the march was found in 
 the many watercourses, over which there were 
 not enough bridges. 
 
 With the first streaks of dawn there began a 
 furious struggle in the streets of Leipzig, and it 
 became fiercer and fiercer as the light grew. It 
 was worst in the neighbourhood of the large bridge 
 over the Elster, leading to the high road from 
 Frankfort to Lindenau, which was about two 
 miles long in its elevated part. If the Emperor 
 had given the obvious order to fire the suburbs 
 and defend the retreat step by step, destroying 
 everything behind him, the whole army would 
 have had plenty of time to get over the bridge ; 
 but he would not ruin Leipzig, out of regard for 
 
288 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 the aged king. He bade a heartfelt farewell to 
 his one true ally, the only prince for whom he 
 had ever had a personal feeling. 
 
 In their delight at the retreat, which they 
 had hardly expected, the Allies rushed impetuously 
 into the suburbs of Leipzig, but the gates were 
 obstinately held by Marmont, Reynier, Ney, 
 Poniatowski, and Lauriston. If they had kept 
 their position for two hours more and there was 
 every appearance that they could do so the 
 whole army could have crossed the bridge at 
 Lindenau and reached the road to Liitzen. But 
 just then occurred one of those unfortunate 
 episodes that could never have happened to the 
 Emperor in his best days to say nothing of 
 General Bonaparte but which abound in the 
 Russian and Saxon campaigns. The Elster bridge 
 was undermined and ready to be blown up. The 
 Emperor had personally supervised the carrying 
 out of this work, and he had left behind orders 
 that the mine was not to be fired until the last 
 moment, when the army was across and the enemy 
 close at hand. He then rode across with his 
 staff. 
 
 The crush now became frightful, and the 
 situation was not easy to survey. There were 
 still numbers of foreign troops amongst the French, 
 in spite of the desertions of the previous day. Men 
 in all sorts of uniforms were crossing the bridge in the 
 greatest disorder and under different commands, 
 and the noise of the guns and small arms came 
 nearer and nearer. There ought to have been a 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 289 
 
 general of engineers with his staff on the bridge, 
 but in point of fact it was merely a high officer 
 who had charge of the mines, and he seems to 
 have lost his head. It is said that he thought of 
 crossing the bridge to get more precise instructions 
 from the Emperor. It turned out as he might 
 have expected. Once he got into the torrent of 
 men that swept over the bridge, no power in the 
 world could have brought him back to his place 
 at the mines. There was now only a non-com- 
 missioned officer with the burning fuse in his 
 hand. 
 
 No one will be surprised that the poor man, 
 with no explicit order or indication of the right 
 moment, fired the mine prematurely. The fearful 
 noise it made, rising above the thunder of the 
 guns and all other sounds, awakened Napoleon, who 
 had dropped off to sleep while he was dictating 
 orders for Macdonald. Murat and Augereau 
 rushed to him and told him that the big bridge 
 over the Elster had been blown up. It meant 
 that 20,000 men were cut off from him and from 
 France, and devoted to destruction. It was 
 almost like the tragedy on the Beresina. Many 
 of them preferred to die rather than surrender. 
 They threw themselves into the river, but only a 
 few good swimmers and the officers who rode 
 sound horses got across. 
 
 Marshal Poniatowski heard the explosion, like 
 the others, and knew what it meant. He gave 
 up the fight as useless, and flung himself in the 
 river with a few other officers. But he was 
 
290 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 exhausted with wounds and with his exertions, 
 and could not drive the animal up the opposite 
 bank. It fell back into the river, and the prince 
 was drowned. The brave Pole only carried for 
 three days the marshal's staff he had so well 
 deserved. General Dumoussier also was drowned. 
 The tall powerful Scot, Macdonald, tore off his 
 marshal's uniform and all his clothes, leaped into 
 the water, and swam across the Elster. He 
 crawled up the opposite bank, and raced across 
 the field. He fortunately discovered a few soldiers 
 of his own corps, and at once resumed command, 
 stark naked at he was. He had to cover the 
 retreat. 
 
 Napoleon left the flower of the youth of 
 France and the core of his old invincible army 
 on the plains of Leipzig. Seventeen generals were 
 taken prisoners, including General Lauriston. 
 And Napoleon lost here also the confidence of his 
 officers and the whole of his influence in Europe, 
 yet he kept his saddle and fought from Leipzig 
 to Erfurt against the force, four times as great as 
 his own, that was pursuing him. The enemy never 
 ceased to look on him as the dreadful soldier 
 whom it was dangerous to approach. 
 
 On October 22nd he reached Oppenheim, 
 with French troops only about him ; not a man 
 was left of his foreign auxiliaries. And now the 
 unreliability of his own men began to be apparent. 
 Murat, who had returned to his old brilliance in 
 the three days at Leipzig, had a secret conversation 
 during the night with the Austrian, Count de 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 291 
 
 Meer, who had stolen into the camp. The Count 
 promised Murat, in the name of Austria and 
 England, that he should retain the crown of 
 Naples if he abandoned Napoleon. Two days 
 later Napoleon and Murat parted. There was 
 only one serious obstacle to the march on Mayence. 
 The Bavarian General Wrede, who had served so 
 long under Napoleon, opposed the French in a 
 strong position at Hanau, with such a strong 
 force that the Emperor seemed to be lost. But 
 the Guard bitterly attacked them, and opened 
 out a way for the army. General Wrede was 
 severely wounded. 
 
 They reached Mayence at length on October 
 31st. It was the last time that Napoleon halted 
 in this town with his troops, as he had so often 
 done on the march out or on the return to Paris. 
 He remained there six days, reorganised his army 
 as far as possible, and selected the troops that 
 were to defend the Rhine and the frontiers of 
 France as the Republic had determined them. 
 Macdonald was to hold the river at Cologne, 
 Marmont at Mayence, and Victor at Strassburg. 
 The Duke of Valmy, the aged Marshal Kellermann, 
 was sent to Metz to drill the recruits. The rest 
 of the army was distributed within these limits. 
 
 On November 9th, the Emperor was back at 
 St. Cloud. It was a much worse return than 
 that from Russia in the previous year, and now 
 the time was shorter ; his enemies were not far 
 away. He worked as he had never done before, 
 and was on his feet night and day. But Paris was 
 
292 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 now the goal of the Allied princes. They carried 
 on a pretence of negotiations in order to deceive 
 Napoleon, but they had a complete understanding 
 with each other. They would have nothing more 
 to do with him. He was to be exterminated. 
 
 Field-marshal Schwartzenberg was to advance 
 from Switzerland, and General Bubna to follow 
 him. Bliicher was to wait for their invasion, and 
 then cross the Rhine at Mannheim. Bernadotte 
 was to invade Holland. There was nothing left 
 of Napoleon behind this line ; except that Rapp 
 held Dantzig, and Davoust Hamburg. 
 
 On November llth, Marshal St. Cyr capitu- 
 lated with the 30,000 men that Napoleon had 
 left at Dresden, on the condition that he should 
 be free to draw off. He has been a good deal 
 blamed for his capitulation. But Schwartzenberg, 
 contrary to all law and precedent, refused to 
 recognise it, and led the whole corps to Austria 
 as prisoners of war. On November 21st Stettin 
 had to surrender after an eight months' siege. 
 On November 24th General Biilow entered Am- 
 sterdam, and proclaimed the House of Orange. 
 On December 2nd Utrecht fell. On the 4th the 
 Swedes were in Liibeck. In the end everything 
 had been taken back from France, and it had not 
 a single ally amongst the Powers. Even faithful 
 Denmark was forced to sign peace with Russia. 
 
 Davoust alone stubbornly held Hamburg 
 and kept the gates closed. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 All the experts on war are agreed that Napo- 
 leon never showed himself a greater leader than 
 in the struggles that he conducted between Paris 
 and the eastern frontier in the three months of 
 1814. That he continued to oppose his last 
 troops to a hopelessly overwhelming force, despite 
 all sound reason, is a proof of the inflexible self- 
 confidence of this unique man. But that the 
 others should cling to him after all that had 
 happened, and spend their last energies as brave 
 and honourable men, only shows that their whole 
 life and thought were full of the man. There 
 was scarcely one of them who did not understand 
 that every day of fighting now was a loss to France 
 and a criminal waste of human lives. But 
 one man held them all in his hand, and they 
 fought and fought, day after day, without hope, 
 but so bravely, in pure devotion to their leader, 
 that the Allies were often in serious trouble. 
 
 On January 23rd the Emperor signed a docu- 
 ment conveying the regency to the Empress. He 
 entrusted the protection of the capital to his 
 
294 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 brother, King Joseph. Embracing Marie Louise 
 and the little King of Rome for the last time, he 
 went to his headquarters at Chalons-sur-Marne. 
 Battles now followed each other in quick succes- 
 sion. They were nearly always victories where 
 the Emperor was, but there were also failures. 
 Indeed, one was as little use as the other, because 
 they all reduced the strength of his shrunken army. 
 
 Meantime the Allies held a congress at Cha- 
 tillon, and Napoleon's envoy, the Duke of Vicenza, 
 did his best to secure tolerable terms. But Napo- 
 leon had not learned prudence from misfortune ; 
 after a victory he would put up his claims so high 
 that they only laughed at him. When he did 
 badly, he was for continuing the struggle. It 
 was impossible for him to acknowledge defeat. 
 There was a fight at Brienne on January 29th, at 
 La Rothiere on February 2nd, and at Champaubert 
 on the 10th. On February 17th Napoleon had 
 instructed Marshal Victor to occupy the village of 
 Montereau near Fontainebleau. But the Marshal 
 did not carry out the order with his customary 
 precision, and when he arrived there, on Feb- 
 ruary 18th, the opportunity was gone, and the Wiir- 
 tembergers were in occupation. 
 
 Napoleon was beside himself. He took away 
 the Marshal's command, and gave it to Girard, 
 swearing that he would dismiss Victor from the 
 army. The Marshal, who had lost his son-in-law 
 in the battle, replied with tears in his eyes that 
 he would not leave the army. He would rather 
 take a musket and fight in the ranks. The 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 295 
 
 Emperor's anger died away at once. He gave the 
 Duke the command over a part of the Guard, and 
 invited him to his table. General Gouyot, who 
 had survived Vandamme's defeat at Kulm, was 
 also scolded by the Emperor, because his men 
 had lost two guns. Napoleon angrily flung his 
 hat on the ground, and ordered General Exelmans 
 to take over the command. A little later, however, 
 when the fight over Montereau developed into a 
 pitched battle, he gave General Gouyot the com- 
 mand over the four squadrons that formed his 
 bodyguard. 
 
 It was at Montereau that Napoleon, in the 
 thick of the fire, said to the gunners who begged 
 him to go away : ' Be quiet. The ball is not 
 made yet that will hit me.' In the end the Wiir- 
 tembergers suffered a decisive defeat, as they 
 deserved. General Chateau, Victor's son-in-law, 
 was fatally wounded owing to an accident in the 
 blowing up of a bridge, and General Pajol had 
 another mishap ; he fell under his horse. 
 
 On the same day, February 18th, Macdonald 
 and Oudinot drove Generals Wrede and Wittgen- 
 stein before them at such an extraordinary pace 
 that the French marshals were able to sit at the 
 tables prepared for their opponents. They found 
 the hot dishes still smoking and the table decorated 
 with laurel. This victory at Montereau inspirited 
 Napoleon to such an extent that when Adjutant 
 Rumigny came for the fourth time with dispatches 
 from the Congress at Chatillon, he merely told 
 him to take his compliments to the Bourbons. 
 
296 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 The Allied princes were in full retreat for a 
 moment after the battle of Montereau, and Paris 
 again received a gift of captured flags. But 
 the net was drawn close once more. Bliicher, 
 especially, dragged along the Austrians and Rus- 
 sians, and inexorably sought his revenge for Jena 
 and Auerstadt. The town of Soissons, an ex- 
 tremely important point in the fight over the 
 retreat, was shamelessly surrendered by a French 
 general of the name of Moreau. Marshal Auge- 
 reau, always worthless, now completely deserted 
 Napoleon's interests, and kept his army corps 
 hi idleness at Lyons. Even Napoleon's faithful 
 friend Savary, Duke of Rovigo, lost courage. 
 Talleyrand had his treacherous plans ready, and 
 waited quietly for the inevitable end. 
 
 On March 5th there was a vigorous fight at 
 Craonne. Ney and Victor with the infantry, 
 Grouchy and Nansouty with the cavalry, all more 
 or less wounded, and General Belliard, who had 
 succeeded Murat in the command of the cavalry, 
 drove the enemy out of Craonne, with the help 
 of Drouot's guns. But it was a sombre victory. 
 Everybody about Napoleon knew that the end 
 was near. Soldiers and statesmen alike looked 
 to Chatillon, where, they all felt, the fate of France 
 and their own fate were to be decided. 
 
 Amongst the Allies, however, there was a 
 feverish anxiety to reach Paris. The Emperor 
 Francis, King Frederic William, and the Tsar 
 Alexander, in whose capitals Napoleon had so 
 often resided, wanted to enjoy their revenge. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 297 
 
 Many wanted to see once more the city in which 
 they had spent a part of their gay youth at one 
 of the finest courts in Europe. But the fortune 
 of war swung to and fro. They were seized with 
 a sudden panic when the dreadful man once came 
 right upon them. The Tsar said that half his 
 hair had turned white in one night. 
 
 On March 20th, in the course of a battle at 
 Arcis, the Emperor made his horse step over a 
 shell that had just fallen. Exelmans wanted to 
 warn him, but Sebastiani prevented him. 
 
 ' Don't you see that he is doing it on purpose,' 
 he said. ' He wants to make an end of it.' But 
 when the shower of soil and stones had settled 
 down, the Emperor was sitting unhurt on his 
 horse. 
 
 After a masterly retreat from Arcis, the 
 Emperor did not think that the Allies would dare 
 to slip past him toward Paris. This time, however, 
 they plucked up courage, and marched after 
 Marmont and Mortier, who were attacked by 
 an overwhelming force at Fere-Champenoise. 
 Generals Pacthod and Amey had a disproportion- 
 ately large number of transport waggons in their 
 divisions, which they were to protect. This long 
 train of waggons led the Allied generals greatly 
 to overrate the strength of the enemy, and, anxious 
 as they always were, they resolved to attack in 
 full strength. The whole of the combined cavalry 
 was therefore sent into action, and so suddenly 
 that the princes with their general staffs had not 
 time to get out of the way. They had to put 
 
298 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 their horses to the gallop, and join in the onslaught 
 or else be ridden down. In two minutes the 
 Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia were 
 in the midst of the French columns, surrounded on 
 all sides by the swarm of 16,000 horse Russians, 
 Prussians and Austrians, dragoons, uhlans, hus- 
 sars and Cossacks. 
 
 ' Never in my life,' says Count Roche- 
 chouart, ' shall I see such a medley again. I was 
 hardly able to tell what was going on, and in a 
 moment it was all passed.' The small French 
 army that was routed at Fere-Champenoise con- 
 sisted mainly of young recruits, still wearing their 
 blouses and peasant's dress. Generals Pacthod, 
 Amey, Jamin, and Thevenot were taken prisoners. 
 
 On March 28th, the Emperor learned at St. 
 Didier that the Allies were before Paris. He 
 mounted his horse and set off at full gallop. He 
 still believed he could defend Paris ; |certainly 
 he did not think for a moment of surrendering 
 or losing courage. The remains of the French 
 armies concentrated on Paris, the Allies following 
 closely in their steps. They fought many a good 
 battle, and kept the enemy off, and on March 29th, 
 they found themselves under Montmartre and 
 the outer walls. The last battle was round 
 Paris, and Marshals Mortier and Marmont carried 
 the desperate struggle to its conclusion on March 
 29th and 30th. They had only 30,000 men, with the 
 reinforcements they found at Paris. Neither 
 King Joseph nor the Minister of War, Clarke, had 
 done anything for the defence of the city, though 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 299 
 
 they had had plenty of time and opportunity to 
 do so. The Minister had even hesitated to dis- 
 tribute 20,000 new weapons that were in the 
 arsenal. He was preparing to desert. 
 
 At twelve o'clock on March 29th one could see 
 the foreign troops from the hill of Montmartre, 
 and King Joseph sent orders to the marshals to 
 surrender Paris. Marmont, who received the 
 order, put it in his pocket. There had been a 
 council at the Tuileries. The dignitaries of the 
 Empire, the ministers, King Joseph, and the 
 Empress Marie Louise, were all agreed that the 
 Regent ought to leave Paris with the young heir 
 to the throne. Talleyrand alone held to the last 
 that the Empress ought to remain in the capital 
 and continue the regency which the Emperor 
 had settled on her with full powers. He had long 
 made his own plans as to the Allies and the Bour- 
 bons, and it would have been a triumph for him 
 if he had been able to present at once to the 
 Emperor Francis his daughter and the young 
 prince. The others, however, had not provided 
 for themselves so prudently, and they accompanied 
 the Empress to Blois. 
 
 Talleyrand went home and packed up. But 
 he took so much time to do it that, when he at 
 last reached the barrier in the evening in his car- 
 riage, the guards prevented him from leaving the 
 city. He was taken back to his palace under a 
 sort of arrest. His rooms became the centre for 
 all that was left of Paris. The Tsar took up his 
 residence in the Hotel Talleyrand. The old spider 
 
300 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 sat in the middle of his fine, strong web, and held 
 all its threads. 
 
 Marmont had said nothing to Mortier about 
 King Joseph's order, which he kept in his pocket, 
 but he concluded an armistice, and Mortier joined 
 him. After an heroic defence, the marshals 
 withdrew to Fontainebleau, and left Paris open 
 to the enemy. Compans, Arrighi, Ricard, Christi- 
 ani, Curial and Lagrange were the last generals 
 to lead divisions against the whole of armed 
 Europe. 
 
 The Emperor had sent on General Dejean to 
 announce that he was coming to Paris. He had 
 marched forty-five miles that day with the Guard, 
 and arrived at Troyes. On the morning of March 
 3rd he was again in the saddle, and by ten in the 
 evening he was close to the city. He was changing 
 horses on the road for the last time when General 
 Belliard told him that Paris had capitulated, and 
 he himself was engaged in removing the cavalry 
 from the capital. 
 
 The Emperor listened to him in silence. 
 
 * Well,' he said at last, * we must get on to 
 Paris.' 
 
 * But, sire, there are no troops in Paris.' 
 
 * That doesn't matter. I shall find the 
 National Guard. My army will concentrate to- 
 morrow. Follow me with the whole of your 
 cavalry.' 
 
 * Your Majesty,' Belliard answered, ' will 
 only succeed in being taken prisoner and witness- 
 ing the looting of the city. It is surrounded by 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 130,000 men. In order to get away from it, I 
 have myself had to engage not to return to it.' 
 
 * Six hours too late and everything lost ! ' 
 cried the Emperor. He went inside, and sat in 
 a small chair in the little post-house on the road, 
 and at last fell into a deep sleep. 
 
 During the advance of the Allies into Prance 
 the Crown-Prince of Sweden had led the army 
 corps in the extreme north. The princes had not 
 much confidence in him, and preferred to keep 
 him at a distance. He himself felt all along how 
 weak his position was. While he was pushing 
 westwards through the north of Germany, he 
 annexed all the estates that had been given by 
 Napoleon to his former comrades in arms. But 
 he was still so unsafe, and so used to keeping 
 every road open, that he continued to intrigue on 
 all sides, and was ready to betray anybody or any- 
 thing to retain his kingly dignity. When he had 
 to invade Flanders, which was defended by his 
 old comrade, General Maison, he gave a written 
 promise to disarm the Prussians under him and 
 go over to the French with his Swedish troops, 
 if the Emperor Napoleon would give him a written 
 guarantee of his royal dignity in Sweden or some 
 other kingdom. Napoleon agreed, but on con- 
 dition that King Joseph signed the declaration, 
 and the negotiations fell through. However, 
 Napoleon had taken Bernadotte's letter from 
 General Maison, and he afterwards put it in the 
 hands of the Emperor Alexander. That was the 
 source of the ill-feeling against the Crown Prince 
 
302 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 and later King of Sweden, and the conspicuous 
 coldness of the other European courts to the house 
 of Bernadotte. Still, there were plenty of other 
 reasons. 
 
 Bernadotte also tried to enter into corre- 
 spondence with Carnot, but the honourable soldier, 
 then holding Antwerp, said to the intermediary : 
 * I was a friend of the French General Bernadotte, 
 but I am no friend of the foreign prince who 
 bears arms against his country.' But the worst 
 of all is, perhaps, the proclamation that the 
 Crown Prince of Sweden sent over the French 
 frontier, when the Allied armies were approaching. 
 In this it is threatened, in the name of a French 
 hero who had once fought for the honour of France, 
 that the whole population will be sacrificed to 
 the vengeance of the Cossacks if there is any 
 resistance. 
 
 On April 1st Napoleon was still thinking of 
 marching on Paris. He rode from Fontainebleau 
 to Essonne and inspected Marmont's corps, which 
 was quartered there, and consisted of fine, effective 
 troops. He spoke to Marmont for the last time. 
 
 On April 2nd he mustered his own Guard in the 
 large courtyard in front of the palace of Fontaine- 
 bleau, as cool and quiet as ever. The Duke of 
 Vicenza came with bad news from Paris, yet the 
 Emperor continued to talk of fresh battles. In 
 reality he now had, if he collected all the divisions 
 that were faithful to him, the following troops : 
 Soult and Suchet in Spain, General Grenier in 
 Italy, and all the fortresses in FrTOQfi Micl Italy. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 303 
 
 These were forces enough for a frightful civil war, 
 and it might have ended in putting him on the 
 throne once more. He collected his Guard and 
 made them swear that the enemy should be driven 
 out of Paris. In the course of the night, in fact, 
 they marched some distance toward the capital. 
 
 April 3rd was the day of his fall. The troops 
 at Yvonne, under Marshals Oudinot and Mac- 
 donald, declared that in the circumstances they 
 would refuse to advance on Paris. Macdonald 
 offered to take the news to the Emperor, and 
 rode to Fontainebleau. Meantime, the highest 
 officers about Napoleon held a deliberation, and, 
 with the Prince of Moskwa at their head, they 
 went to the Emperor's room and asked him to 
 abdicate. At the same time Marmont's unfor- 
 tunate treachery was taking place at another spot. 
 
 The following morning his dispirited officers 
 once more assembled in Napoleon's room. There 
 were Berthier, Caulaincourt, Moncey, Maret, Lefe- 
 bvre and Ney. The Emperor tried several times 
 to draw up a deed of abdication, and in the mean- 
 time Marshal Macdonald came with his news. 
 The Emperor then turned to the circle of officers, 
 and asked them if they would support his son 
 They all answered in the affirmative, Macdonald 
 doing so with particular warmth. He selected 
 Caulaincourt, Ney and Marmont to convey his 
 abdication and treat for him with the Allied 
 princes at Paris. But shortly afterwards he 
 replaced Marmont with Macdonald, although at 
 that time he could know nothing of Marmont's 
 defection. 
 
304 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Napoleon's first abdication ran thus : ' As 
 the Allied Powers have announced in their procla- 
 mation that the Emperor Napoleon is the sole 
 obstacle to the re-establishment of peace in Europe, 
 the Emperor Napoleon true to the oath he has 
 taken declares himself ready to give up the 
 throne, France, and even life, for the good of his 
 country, without any prejudice, however, to the 
 rights of his son, the regency of the Empress, or 
 the laws of the Empire.' 
 
 The Duke of Vicenza and the two marshals 
 were dispatched with this document. But at 
 the last moment Napoleon said half-aside to Mac- 
 donald : * Come, and let us attack them to- 
 morrow. We shall beat them ! ' The marshal 
 pretended not to hear him. 
 
 Marmont was born in 1774, and died in 1852. 
 He lived longest of all Napoleon's marshals. He 
 had been with General Bonaparte from Toulon 
 onwards. He had won distinction everywhere 
 in Italy, Malta, Egypt, at the crossing of the Alps 
 in 1799, at Marengo, and in Dalmatia, where he 
 took Ragusa, from which he had his ducal title. 
 He came to Wagram the day before the battle, 
 and beat the Austrians on his own account at 
 Znaim. He was then made marshal and governor 
 of Illyria, and Napoleon honoured and rewarded 
 him above all the others. If there could be any 
 question at all of favourites with Napoleon, it 
 would certainly be Junot and Marmont. But 
 while Napoleon showed his favouring of Junot by 
 always or at least for a long time being indul- 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 305 
 
 gent to him, his relation to Marmont was very 
 different. He appreciated the great military 
 gifts of the young officer, and regarded them with 
 gratification. Marmont matured under the Em- 
 peror's own eyes and leadership more than any 
 of the others. Hence we can understand that 
 the Emperor had a certain tenderness for him. 
 
 This did not prevent him from being just as 
 hard and cold towards Marmont in the service 
 as toward any of the others. After the battle of 
 Montebello, Bonaparte sent his brother Joseph 
 to offer Marmont the hand of Pauline. When 
 the family began to rise, she was always offered 
 when any man was to be honoured. But it seems 
 that several declined her, and at all events Mar- 
 mont did so. When Napoleon was at a safe dis- 
 tance, he married a wealthy lady at Paris, Mile. 
 Peregeaux. His wife was much attached to him 
 at first, but she was foolish and perverse. The 
 long separations, which were fatal to so many 
 marriages at that time, led her to be unfaithful, 
 and she eventually gave him a very unhappy time. 
 When Marmont had to go to Portugal in 1810 
 to relieve Massena, the Emperor said to him : 
 ' When the Spanish Peninsula is taken it will be 
 divided into five kingdoms, each with a viceroy 
 at its head. They will have courts and the honours 
 of royalty. One of these kingdoms is for you, 
 so go and take it.' When Napoleon was speaking 
 in 1813 of the foreign officers who went over to 
 the enemy in the field with their troops in the 
 Saxon campaign, he drew a distinction between 
 u 
 
306 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 a conscientious man and a man of honour, and 
 said, turning to Marmont : ' If, for instance, the 
 enemy had taken France and were in possession 
 of the heights of Montmartre, and you thought 
 perhaps rightly that the good of the country 
 demanded that you should abandon me, you 
 might be a good Frenchman, and a brave and 
 conscientious man, if you did it, but you would 
 not be a man of honour.' 
 
 Marshal Marmont, who relates this himself 
 in his memoirs, adds quite coolly : ' I was destined 
 to recall these words afterwards at Essonne.' 
 He had been one of the best fighters in the Saxon 
 campaign at Liitzen, Bautzen, Wurschen, Dres- 
 den and Leipzig and at the very end he had 
 defended Paris heroically with Mortier. Then he 
 suddenly changed, and became one of the most 
 ungrateful to Napoleon. While his corps was 
 marching round the city from Montmartre to 
 Essonne, which was on the way to Fontainebleau, 
 Marmont rode to his palace in Paris. Covered 
 with blood and dirt as he was after several days 
 fighting, he would very well need a wash and the 
 barber, and a little rest. But he was at once 
 visited by envoys from Talleyrand, who was work- 
 ing assiduously for the overthrow of Napoleon, 
 and who would like to be able to offer the Allies 
 a marshal like Marmont, commanding an army 
 corps in the immediate vicinity of Paris. 
 
 Talleyrand had chosen Bourienne, the former 
 private secretary of Napoleon, and an intimate 
 friend of Marmont' s, as his agent. Marmont 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 307 
 
 refused all appeals, declaring that he would die 
 by the side of his Emperor. In this mood he left 
 Paris and rejoined his corps at Essonne. But on 
 the following day, April 3rd, the secessionists sent 
 messenger after messenger to him, and at last he 
 began to move, and entered into negotiations 
 with Prince Schwartzenberg's agents. It was 
 agreed that his corps should march through the 
 lines of the Allies. 
 
 As Caulaincourt and the two marshals passed 
 by Essonne on their way to Paris with Napoleon's 
 abdication, Marmont confessed what he had done 
 to his three old comrades, and seemed to be in 
 great perplexity. He had brought his generals 
 together early that morning (April 4th), and found 
 them nearly all willing to join in his defection. 
 But now that he met the Emperor's envoys he 
 was ashamed, and asked that he might be allowed 
 to accompany them to Paris ; he hid himself in 
 the carriage. He left word to his officers to do 
 nothing until they had explicit orders from him. 
 
 Meantime, Napoleon, who had no suspicion of 
 what was going on, sent a messenger to Essonne 
 asking Marmont to come to Fontainebleau, as he 
 wished to speak to him. Marmont' s generals 
 took this as an indication that they had been 
 betrayed. They became anxious, and, without 
 waiting for further orders, they marched during 
 the night through the lines of the Allies, which 
 were opened to them as had been agreed. General 
 Souham led them. He had never been a friend 
 of Napoleon ; but the brave Compans and his 
 
308 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 splendid division were also in the march. Colonel 
 Fabrier rode with all speed to Paris to inform 
 Marmont, and he promised to come in an hour ; 
 but before the hour was up another officer came 
 from Essonne to say that all the rest of Marmont'a 
 corps was on the march. The Poles alone re- 
 mained faithful to the Emperor. They rode to 
 Versailles under General Ordener, to join the regi- 
 ments at Rambouillet that had not gone over to 
 the enemy. But Marmont had now fallen so far 
 into the power of the tempters that he galloped 
 to Versailles and forced his men to leave General 
 Ordener and the Emperor's party and go over to 
 the Allies. 
 
 Marmont's defection is not merely noteworthy 
 for the ingratitude it evinces ; ingratitude is not 
 so rare. But it shows how insecure the men 
 felt themselves who accompanied Napoleon in 
 his adventurous rise. As soon as the old society 
 appeared, in the old forms and names and places, 
 the life of the last twenty years melted away 
 like a dream ; like children awakening from a 
 dream, men grasped the familiar hand that 
 was stretched out to them. 
 
 Meantime, the three envoys were admitted 
 to the King of Prussia, who was rude, and to the 
 Tsar Alexander, who was charming and hollow. 
 But while they were still dallying over the abdica- 
 tion, a messenger came with the news of the 
 defection of Marmont's whole corps. As the news 
 was communicated in a loud whisper to the Tsar, 
 who was rather deaf, he repeated : ' Totus 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 309 
 
 corpus ! ' and all who were in the room knew that 
 it was Marmont's corps. They must have spoken 
 elegant Latin in Russian imperial circles. The 
 intermediaries then received the abdication back 
 again with the assurance that it could not be enter- 
 tained unless it included Napoleon's family and 
 descendants. 
 
 For two days Napoleon fought against the 
 determination. He kept to his room, and spoke 
 alternately of retiring to Elba and of marching 
 to destroy the Allies and free Paris. At last, on 
 April 5th, he entirely renounced the throne of 
 France and Italy for himself and his descendants. A 
 treaty was drawn up by the Allies in this sense on 
 the llth, and brought to Napoleon by Caulain- 
 court, Schuvaloff and Macdonald. Napoleon 
 would not sign it that day (the 12th). Those about 
 Napoleon at Fontainebleau now began to realize 
 what was passing. The soldiers would have 
 remained faithful to their great leader if they 
 had been left to themselves, but the officers began 
 to look about for a means of saving themselves 
 and their property in case the wreck sank ; and 
 the more they had, the more anxious they became. 
 Marshal Berthier, Prince of Wagram and of 
 Neuchatel, loaded with riches, honours, glory, 
 and distinctions of all sorts and all from the 
 same hand came to the Emperor's room and 
 asked permission for a short run to Paris. He 
 obtained it, bowed, and departed. As the door 
 closed behind him, the Emperor said quietly and 
 coldly : * He will not come back.' He was 
 
310 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 quite right. Berthier went to Paris to submit, and 
 to offer his services to the provisional government. 
 
 On April 12th Napoleon's appearance was 
 such that all those about him were greatly con- 
 cerned. The official in charge of his cabinet, 
 Turenne, unloaded the pistols in his bedroom. 
 During the night Napoleon awakened his servant 
 and told him to make a fire. He heard the Em- 
 peror write letters and tear them up again. At 
 last he took a small black pouch out of a secret 
 cavity in his dressing-case, emptied it into a 
 glass of water, and went to bed ! We do not 
 know for certain whether he then took a strong 
 poison that he had had in Russia in a signet, 
 I believe ; at all events this and the pouch were 
 empty the next morning. But he did not die ; 
 either he was too strong, or the poison was too 
 old. He awakened his Egyptian servant Ivan, 
 who came and assisted him. Ivan then went 
 into the stall, saddled a horse and rode off, and 
 never came back again. 
 
 The Emperor was up at eleven the next 
 morning, and summoned Marshal Macdonald. 
 It was in these days of trouble that Napoleon first 
 learned to appreciate the solid qualities and fine 
 character of this man. He had spent a bad 
 night ; his face was pale and drawn, like that of 
 a corpse, and his eyes sunk back deep in their 
 sockets. But he mastered himself, and signed 
 the treatise in his usual hand. He then thanked 
 Macdonald in fine, manly words, and regretted that 
 he had only just learned to appreciate him. He 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 311 
 
 sent the marshal, as a memento, Murad Bey's 
 splendid Turkish sabre, which he had himself 
 taken in the battle of Tabor. 
 
 By the treaty the Emperor, Empress, and 
 imperial family retained their rank and title. 
 Elba was to be an independent kingdom with a 
 revenue of two millions one million being for 
 the Empress, Marie Louise. She also received 
 Parma, Piacenza, and Guastalla, the Italian 
 duchies that Napoleon's sisters had held. A 
 million was settled on Josephine, and many other 
 settlements were made on Napoleon's friends 
 and the army ; but it is sad to read of these things, 
 as no one received the money that was promised. 
 On April 10th the court that Marie Louise kept at 
 Blois was dispersed, and she and her son were 
 sent to Vienna. All the Bonapartes fled to 
 Switzerland. 
 
 At last, on April 20th, Napoleon had to part 
 from the army, and from the Guard. They were 
 drawn up in the great courtyard at Fontainebleau, 
 and he came down the steps and walked slowly 
 through the ranks. There were still faces he had 
 seen at Arcole, Aboukir, Marengo, Austerlitz, 
 Jena, Friedland, Somo-Sierra, Wagram and Mos- 
 cow. The whole brilliant history of his career was 
 unfolded about him. With some difficulty he 
 spoke his short and admirable speech : 
 
 ' I have to bid you farewell, soldiers. We 
 have been together for twenty years, and I am 
 proud of you. I have always seen you on the 
 path of honour. Europe has turned against me, 
 
312 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 and some of my generals have been untrue to 
 their duty and their country. France itself would 
 have a new future. I might have fought a civil 
 war with you and the other brave men who have 
 been loyal to me ; but France would have suffered. 
 Be true to your new king, listen to your new 
 chiefs. Let our dear country never lack your 
 arms. Bemoan not my fate. I shall be happy 
 if I hear that you are. I might have chosen 
 death. If I have chosen life, it is to enhance 
 your great fame. I will write of the great deeds 
 we have done together. I cannot embrace all 
 of you, but I will embrace your general. Come, 
 General Pelet, and let me press you to my 
 breast. Then hand me the eagle, and let me kiss 
 it. May that kiss resound in the days to come. 
 Farewell, my children. My good wishes will 
 ever follow you. Bear me in your memories.' 
 
 It is not surprising that the hardened soldiers 
 and the man of marble wept as they stood there 
 to take farewell in the old courtyard that had so 
 often rung with their band and their ' Vive 
 f'Empereur.' 
 
 During the journey through France to the 
 south there was danger more than once of the 
 excited people laying hands on the fallen Emperor. 
 But on May 3rd he reached Porto Ferrajo, on the 
 island of Elba, in an English frigate. His suite 
 consisted of Generals Bertrand, Drouot and Cam- 
 bronne, and 400 men of the Guard. His mother 
 and Pauline afterwards joined him. His faithful 
 lover, Countess Walewska, was also in Elba. His 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 313 
 
 servants, too, were there, with the exception of 
 his chamber-servant Constant, who had been 
 with him many years ; an unfortunate misunder- 
 standing kept him away. 
 
 Constant tells the story himself as follows. 
 On one of the last days at Fontainebleau the 
 Emperor gave him a draft for 100,000 francs, 
 and told him to convert it into gold and hide it. 
 He did so, and hid the gold in his garden in the 
 belief that the money was a parting gift from the 
 Emperor ; and in view of the freedom with which 
 money circulated about Napoleon the idea was 
 not very improbable. Hence, when Constant 
 put his accounts before General Bertrand on the 
 last day and handed over all monies belonging 
 to the Emperor that he had, he made no mention 
 of the 100,000 francs. Napoleon told Bertrand 
 that there were 100,000 francs short in Constant's 
 accounts, and that he did not remember having 
 made him a present of the sum. Pained that 
 the Emperor had put him in a questionable light 
 to Bertrand, Constant dug up the money, and 
 handed it over ; but in his agitation he also 
 begged General Bertrand to tell the Emperor 
 that he had left his service and was not going to 
 Elba. 
 
 It is difficult to say what was passing in 
 Napoleon's mind at the time. It is unlike him 
 to be unjust or inconsiderate to his servants. 
 They all loved him, and remained with him. He 
 afterwards made some attempt at reconciliation, 
 but Constant remained obdurate. 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 It was clear that the fall of Napoleon was 
 equivalent to the reinstatement of the legitimate 
 royal house. Hence, although the Allies came into 
 Paris as enemies and conquerors, there was a 
 certain air of festivity about their entry. In 
 spite of the Revolution and Napoleon there were 
 still many who were loyal to the old house ; and 
 ladies, old and young, came out with flowers, and 
 court was paid to the foreign princes, the Tsar 
 especially being honoured in certain circles at 
 Paris. He was not unwilling to receive their 
 homage, though his wild soldiers were doing more 
 than all the other foreign troops to ravage Paris 
 and the north of France. 
 
 Meantime, the foreign princes had to return 
 to their countries and restore order everywhere. 
 Some of them pondered with alarm on all they 
 had endured in the way of songs and speeches 
 during the so-called ' wars of freedom.' It was 
 quite time to put a stop to all this. Moreover, 
 the boundary-stones of Europe had to be shifted 
 back to their old positions. They were all mixed 
 up after the doings of this terrible man. A great 
 congress was fixed for June 20th at Vienna. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 315 
 
 As soon as all danger was over the Bourbons 
 swarmed in with their hungry flocks of emigrants, 
 stout King Louis XVIII at their head. The 
 times were changed at a stroke. The Tuileries 
 was filled with new faces, the faces of old families 
 that had not been seen there for twenty or thirty 
 years. Instead of the noisy officers with swords 
 and spurs echoing through the rooms, one 
 now saw discreet, bewigged courtiers in ancient 
 dress, or young dandies who had had nothing to 
 do with the banishment. Instead of the Emperor 
 walking into the rooms with short, firm step, with 
 close silk hose and shoes, or glittering cavalry 
 boots with a slight jingle of spurs, one now saw 
 the adipose Bourbon moving ponderously about 
 with huge purple velvet slippers on his gouty feet. 
 
 If we would understand the attitude in 1814 
 of the men who had worked with Napoleon, we 
 must knowing what happened afterwards for- 
 get the Hundred Days, and imagine that the first 
 return of the Bourbons was the definitive close of 
 Napoleon's career. On this supposition it seemed 
 quite natural to numbers of officers to remain in 
 their positions and take the oath to the new head 
 of the State. One was in the service of France 
 just as before, and was ready to fight its enemies 
 under the generals appointed by the government 
 In this way Marshals Macdonald, Oudinot and 
 Lefebvre could retain their commands under the 
 King without any scruple. So also Victor, St. Cyr, 
 Kellermann, Maison and Lauriston, and a large 
 number of officers, went over to the Bourbons 
 while Napoleon was in Elba. 
 
316 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 But there were some who had been in such 
 close personal touch with Napoleon that they found 
 it impossible to serve under another prince. 
 Amongst these were the Viceroy Eugene, Napo- 
 leon's cousin Arrighi, and Sebastiani, Generals 
 Mouton, Savary, Cambronne, Grouchy, and many 
 others. The Bourbons were ready to receive the 
 distinguished men, especially Napoleon's less loyal 
 friends. They needed them for several reasons. 
 But however eager they were to attach a man 
 who had won European fame, they were just as 
 merciless to the lower officers and the common 
 soldiers. Wherever they found it possible to 
 disturb and displace what had been respected in 
 France for the last twenty years, they set to work 
 with the petty malice that was characteristic of 
 the family. The army was flooded with elderly 
 generals who knew nothing, and did not want to 
 know anything, about its new organization, its 
 glory, and its traditions. The young nobles had 
 grown up abroad in a disdainful contempt of 
 Napoleon, his army, and everything he did. 
 
 They at once chose as Minister of War the 
 man who had the worst reputation in the army 
 General Dupont, who had capitulated at Baylen. 
 An immense number of subordinate officers were 
 dismissed, and were replaced by lackeys and other 
 useless people. Three thousand veterans of the 
 republican and imperial wars were driven out of 
 the Hotel des Invalides, where they had found 
 refuge, and were forced to wander over the country 
 as crippled mendicants. Their place was occupied 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 317 
 
 by old royal servants from La Vendee, who had 
 opposed the Revolution and Napoleon as long as 
 possible. 
 
 In the course of a few months a deep, silent 
 anger spread amongst the people. Though the 
 infatuated Bourbons and their men had no sus- 
 picion of it, there was a temper throughout the 
 whole of France that was extremely dangerous, 
 seeing that the man who had led them a short 
 time before to unexampled power and glory was 
 still alive and not far away. The Emperor was 
 well aware of all this. He knew the country so 
 well that he could read between the lines of the 
 journals he received and see the awful blunders 
 of King Louis ; how not only the army, but the 
 whole people, just as in the revolutionary times, 
 was enraged at the stupid and unfair treatment. 
 
 It is true that he had few visitors in Elba. 
 The English saw to that. But King Joachim 
 had veered round once more and drawn close to 
 Napoleon. He had from Italy the best oppor- 
 tunity of communicating with Elba, and when he 
 sent word in the beginning of 1815 that the Vienna 
 Congress was disposed to follow Talleyrand's ad- 
 vice and send him to St. Helena, the Emperor's 
 resolution was made. Ammunition was secretly 
 brought from Naples, a few arms from Algiers, 
 and a few small boats from Genoa. Suddenly, 
 at a pre-arranged signal, his men embarked at 
 Porto Ferrajo at eight o'clock in the evening on 
 February 26th, 1816. There were 1,000 men alto- 
 gether : the 400 grenadiers went with the Emperor 
 
318 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 on board a small brig with twenty-six guns. The 
 others were distributed amongst the smaller boats. 
 
 In order to divert attention the Emperor 
 gave a feast that evening, at which his mother 
 and sister did the honours. He then slipped on 
 board in the darkness, and sailed with six other 
 small craft for France. He had the same wonder- 
 ful luck that he always had on the Mediterranean. 
 He reached a French harbour with his flotilla on 
 March 1st, without being discovered by the English. 
 The only incident during the voyage was that 
 he was hailed by a French frigate, and asked how 
 the Emperor was doing at Elba. Napoleon him- 
 self replied that the Emperor was doing very 
 well. Otherwise the whole time was taken up with 
 working, dictating and writing proclamations. 
 
 A modern author has pointed out that the 
 man who came from Elba was no longer the 
 General Bonaparte who leaped to land after the 
 return from Egypt. The little officer of 1799, 
 thin, inflexible in will, had become the stout head 
 of a state, irresolute and sensuous. Everything 
 depends on the bodily frame. It is the thin men 
 who succeed, and to whom the future belongs. Those 
 who become stout have to struggle against irreso- 
 luteness, or, rather, their qualities change and 
 degenerate. Nevertheless, in stout men the orig- 
 inal characters continue to predominate. The 
 thinker remains a thinker ; the man of action 
 retains his power to bend and lead men. But the 
 salient features are modified in both types of 
 men. The thinker becomes coarse-grained and 
 cynical ; the man of energy becomes egoistic. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 319 
 
 In the case of Napoleon there were other rea- 
 sons that contributed to his change and downfall. 
 He was accustomed to see the most scandalous 
 advances on the part of all the women he came in 
 contact with. The imprudent Pauline wrote from 
 Elba letters that were stolen and read by others. 
 In letters to two colonels who were intimate friends 
 of hers she told one that he must not come because 
 Napoleon was so jealous, and the other to come 
 as quickly as possible because she had so much 
 time left. 
 
 But that he was by no means so greatly 
 altered as to entertain anything strange or new, 
 or that he had lost anything of himself, was soon 
 to be made quite clear. Apart from the renewal 
 of trouble and the fresh outrages that his return 
 brought upon France, the deed itself is one of the 
 most splendid that any man ever achieved. The 
 man who had barely escaped being torn to pieces 
 by his embittered people ten months before, now 
 returned to the very same spots, and no sooner 
 did the armies that were sent against him catch 
 sight of his grey coat but they broke out into 
 wild cries of 4 Long live the Emperor ! ' No 
 sooner did they hear his voice but they faced 
 about, and were ready to follow him to death once 
 more. 
 
 It began at Grenoble. The road was blocked, 
 and the king's soldiers were ready to fire on Napo- 
 leon and his little troop. He walked on foot up 
 to his grenadiers, drew aside his old military coat, 
 and said quietly : 
 
320 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 * Is there any one here who will shoot his 
 Emperor ? ' Their whole attitude changed at 
 once. The ranks broke out into a unanimous 
 cry of ' Long live the Emperor ! ' A single shot 
 from either side would have given the whole thing 
 a different turn. The brave Colonel Labedoyere 
 led the seventh regiment over to him. He entered 
 the fortress of Grenoble, the townsmen themselves 
 tearing down the gates. The rejoicing was in- 
 describable. In one moment the Emperor had 
 become again the idol of the French army. 
 
 When it was known in Paris news did not 
 travel fast a hundred years ago a royal resolu- 
 tion appeared in the Moniteur, declaring General 
 Bonaparte an outlaw. The journal announced 
 at the same time that the venture was a failure, 
 and that Bonaparte was hiding in the mountains, 
 without any supporters, from the vengeance of 
 the people. The king's nephew, the Duke of 
 Angouleme, was waiting to receive the Emperor 
 at Lyons, together with Marshals Massena and 
 Macdonald and Generals Marchand and Duvernet. 
 The troops deserted. The Duke and Macdonald 
 had to fly from the town, and it received the 
 Emperor as Grenoble had done. He had spoken 
 words at Grenoble that awakened the highest hopes : 
 ' From this time forward I shall not be the des- 
 pot of France, but its best citizen.' But before 
 he left Lyons the despot appeared in him, even 
 worse than ever. He published a decree dissolv- 
 ing the Chambers and ordering a fresh extra- 
 ordinary assembly of the elective colleges of the 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 321 
 
 kingdom. They were to revise the constitution, 
 and crown the Empress and the King of Rome. 
 
 But at the same time he published another 
 decree, in which a number of deserters were im- 
 peached and their property confiscated. Amongst 
 these were Talleyrand, Marmont and Bourienne. 
 Augereau's name was struck off the list at the 
 request of the generals. Even General Bertrand 
 and Maret hesitated to sign these decrees. c I 
 won't sign,' said Bertrand. * This is not what 
 the Emperor promised.' And when the Emperor 
 asked his companion at a banquet at Lyons, 
 Mme. Duchatel, if her husband, who had control 
 of the State property, had confiscated Talleyrand's 
 property yet, she drily answered : * There is no 
 hurry, Your Majesty.' The Emperor turned 
 away, and changed the subject. 
 
 The unfortunate Marshal Ney, whose head 
 was very much out of proportion to his courage, 
 had promised Louis XVIII that he would bring 
 him Napoleon in an iron cage. But when he 
 approached his old master, he went over to him. 
 Napoleon received him well and embraced him. 
 However, they both felt that this iron cage had 
 come between them. The relations between them 
 never became like what they had been, and Ney 
 was no longer the same man. 
 
 At four o'clock in the morning on March 20th 
 Napoleon rode once more into the courtyard at 
 Fontainebleau, where he had parted from his 
 Guard a year before. Ho now had his whole army 
 back again. That night Louis XVIII left the 
 v 
 
322 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 palace of his fathers, surrounded by a nervous 
 group of people anxious to get away from Paris. 
 The Vienna Congress, where dissension had begun 
 to set in, now joined in a strong alliance against 
 the common enemies. 
 
 On the evening of March 20th the Emperor 
 entered Paris. In front of the Tuileries he was 
 seized by the crowd, which could contain itself no 
 longer. They lifted him out of the carriage, and 
 carried him up the steps into the brightly lit 
 rooms, where he found his old ministers and mar- 
 shals, and the officers, servants and ladies of the 
 Court. All the Bonapartes were there, even 
 Lucien. An improvised guard, consisting of gen- 
 erals alone, kept watch in his antechambers, and 
 the rejoicing was universal. The next morning 
 it was announced in the Moniteur : * His Majesty 
 the Emperor returned to Fontainebleau last 
 night.' 
 
 With incredible swiftness Paris and the greater 
 part of the country accepted the situation. Once 
 more, for a hundred days, Prance became an em- 
 pire fighting the whole of Europe. Many of his 
 faithful supporters were ready to take up at once 
 the positions they had formerly filled, so that a 
 great deal of the vast administration went on 
 almost without interruption. The Postmaster- 
 General, Lavalette, whom the King had dismissed, 
 returned to his bureau at the first news of Napo- 
 leon's landing. But there were hard times for a 
 good many. Thousands of officers had sworn 
 fidelity to King Louis, and now the Emperor was 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 323 
 
 there, inviting them to return. It was difficult 
 to resist, and difficult to know how the whole 
 thing would end. His return and the way in 
 which the country received him seemed to prove 
 that the future was with him once more. 
 
 When they had recovered somewhat from 
 their astonishment the people looked to Napoleon 
 to make good the promise he had made repeatedly 
 since he landed, of giving France a free constitution 
 and ruling in constitutional form. In spite of the 
 advice and resistance of all his old friends and 
 servants, the Emperor published a supplementary 
 Act to the imperial constitution, maintaining the 
 absolutism of former days. France at once under- 
 stood that Napoleon had come back unchanged, 
 without any appreciation of the popular demand for 
 freedom such as one might have expected from so 
 great a man after such trials. All the friends of 
 legal conditions under a free constitution, who had 
 gladly hailed him as the dictator who would rid 
 the land of the stupid and malicious regimentalism 
 of the Bourbons, were bitterly disappointed, and 
 withdrew in despondency. From this day for- 
 ward there was nothing to face the fresh humilia- 
 tion that Europe was preparing to inflict on France 
 except an army under the control of one man, 
 and a nation that silently and despondently waited 
 for the inevitable. 
 
 The Emperor named 118 new members of the 
 House of Peers. This time he did not choose his 
 men chiefly from the old nobility, for whom he had 
 formerly a weakness. There were five or six who 
 
324 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 refused the honour. To the Emperor's distress, 
 Macdonald was one of these. Afterwards all the 
 emigrants ran about boasting that they had re- 
 fused to accept the peerage from Napoleon. 
 
 He then held the great assembly that he had 
 projected. It was called the Champ de Mai, and 
 was to recall the ceremonious oath that Louis XVI 
 had sworn in 1790 on the same spot. An immense 
 altar was erected in the Champ de Mars. Napo- 
 leon appeared in a fantastic imperial garb with 
 huge feathers in his hat that covered the stout 
 little man. The ceremony, which he had arranged 
 himself, was very pompous. Oaths and promises 
 were made in flamboyant language, and the army 
 was jubilant. Otherwise, however, the general 
 attitude was tame, and nothing came of it. This 
 was on the 1st of June. 
 
 At last war broke out, and Napoleon left 
 Paris in the night between June 1 1th and 1 2th. The 
 campaign was short, and was only conducted in 
 the north, on the Belgian frontier, against the 
 English under Wellington and the Prussians under 
 Bliicher. Murat was never restored to his real 
 self, though he had returned to Napoleon's side. 
 On May 3rd he attacked the Austrians prematurely, 
 and against Napoleon's orders, at Tolentino, and 
 his Neapolitans were badly beaten. He threw 
 himself time after time on the enemy, but proved 
 to be still invulnerable. After aimlessly wander- 
 ing about he was taken prisoner and shot. 
 
 The great names now made their last appear- 
 ance in the last army, though many of the Em- 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 325 
 
 peror's best generals were missing. Davoust had 
 met Napoleon at Paris and accepted the position 
 of Minister of War. Marshal Soult came from 
 Spain, and took a command, as did also Generals 
 Clausel, Decaen and Labord. A comparatively 
 large number of officers came from Spain, where 
 the troops had not shared the Russian and Saxon 
 campaigns and Napoleon's defeat. With them 
 were Ney, Exelmans, Gerard, Girard, Milhaud, 
 Morand, Friant, Lefebvre-Desnouettes, Pajol and 
 Vandamme. General Grouchy had been made a 
 marshal. 
 
 Napoleon's plan was that Marshal Ney with 
 the left wing should as soon as possible take 
 the position of Quatre-Bras in the direction of 
 Brussels, where Wellington had his headquarters. 
 At the same time Marshal Grouchy was to occupy 
 the village of Fleurus, and thus Wellington and 
 Bliicher would be kept apart. The plan was good, 
 and it looked as if all was going to be done accord- 
 ing to their calculations. On the evening of 
 June 14th there was perfect confidence and quiet- 
 ness at Brussels, Charleroi and Namur. No one 
 had any suspicion of the Emperor's plan, and the 
 army began to march. But on the evening of 
 June 16th a French general deserted, and went over 
 with two colonels to the Prussians, and in this 
 way Napoleon's plan was made known to Bliicher. 
 
 The traitor was General Bourmont. He was 
 a brave officer, and had fought with unflinching 
 courage down to the battle of Montereau in 1814, 
 at which he was wounded. He was one of the 
 
326 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 officers that Napoleon did not particularly trust, 
 but Ney and Girard had so warmly recommended 
 him that he received a command. There were 
 not now so many officers to choose from, and 
 Napoleon no longer acted on his own ideas. The 
 same General Bourmont who deserted from Napo- 
 leon the night before the battle gained honours 
 and dignities under the Bourbons, and was at 
 length made a marshal after the war in Algiers in 
 1830. 
 
 It was even worse for Napoleon that Ney by 
 no means led his corps as he used to do. Instead 
 of advancing rapidly on Frasnes with the whole 
 of the second corps, which would have enabled 
 the first corps to take up a position at Gosselios, 
 and from there easily occupy Quatre-Bras, which 
 was not far from Frasnes, the Marshal sent only a 
 small division on Frasnes, and as a result the left 
 wing remained too far behind. 
 
 On June 16th the Emperor beat Blucher in a 
 pitched battle at Ligny. Here General Girard, 
 one of the heroes of Liitzen, met his fate. Both 
 before and during the battle the Emperor sent 
 message after message to tell Marshal Ney to 
 march as quickly as possible eastwards from Qua- 
 tre Bras, and drive the Prussians into the arms of 
 Grouchy who was at Sombreuf. In this way 
 Bliicher's army would have been completely sur- 
 rounded. ' The fate of France is in your hand,' 
 the Emperor said to Ney. * The war can be 
 decided within three hours.' 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 327 
 
 Now, however, General Drouot, Count of 
 Erlon not the artillery-general Drouot made 
 a false move, in consequence of a misunderstand- 
 ing, and the opportunity of surrounding the Prus- 
 sians was lost. Napoleon then broke clean through 
 the enemy. Bliicher, who believed he was on 
 the point of winning, was kept off by the French 
 cavalry under Milhaud and Gerard. The aged 
 Field-Marshal himself fell under his horse, and the 
 French cavalry swept over him without knowing 
 it. The Prussians lost 20,000 men, 40 guns, and 
 8 flags at Ligny. It was a complete victory ; 
 but it was nothing in comparison with what it 
 might have been but for Count d'Erlon's mis- 
 understanding, and if Ney had advanced at the 
 proper time with the left wing. 
 
 After the battle Napoleon sent his adjutant 
 Flahaut to Marshal Ney with orders to occupy 
 Quatre-Bras at once and keep off Wellington until 
 the Emperor could come up. In order to ward 
 off Bliicher and General Billow while he finished 
 the English, the Emperor sent Marshal Grouchy 
 eastwards with a strong force of 50,000 men, and 
 told him to watch the movements of the Prussian 
 generals. This led to disaster. Bliicher, who 
 had found Billow, gained so much time and 
 marched so rapidly that he passed Grouchy to 
 the north and hurried westwards to Waterloo, 
 and reached the field in the afternoon. 
 
 The battle had begun at one o'clock, and the 
 whole plan was based on the fact of Grouchy 
 opposing the Germans with 50,000 men. In the 
 
328 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 afternoon the battle was as good as lost for the 
 English. Ney had completely recovered on the 
 field and performed marvels of bravery. At last 
 he advanced on foot at the head of his battalions 
 of the guard, together with Friant, Cambronne, 
 and Duhesme. But Grouchy was marching away 
 from the field in a totally unintelligible fashion. 
 He took no notice of the orders he received from 
 Exelmans and Gerard, and ignored Napoleon's 
 old general order to march always towards the 
 thunder of the guns. And while he failed to come 
 up in time to take part in the battle, Biilow did 
 so, and Blucher shortly after him, and the battle 
 was irretrievably lost to the French. The whole 
 army was destroyed. Only a few stubborn frag- 
 ments of the guard remained on the field, and 
 were eventually saved by Morand and Colbert. 
 
 It is very striking to see how often hi these 
 two battles, Ligny and Waterloo, everything hung 
 on a single thread. If Ney had made haste he 
 might have caught Wellington at the ball at 
 Brussels. If D'Erlon had not made a false move, 
 the Prussians would have been surrounded at 
 Ligny. Blucher might have been taken prisoner 
 if any one had recognized him ; and Napoleon 
 might have won the battle of Waterloo if Grouchy 
 had done his duty. All this means, of course, 
 that the whole apparatus which had once worked 
 so accurately and flawlessly, as well as the chief 
 himself, were somewhat worn. His generals had 
 lost their blind faith in his invincibility in Russia. 
 It was now plain that this belief was the real 
 cause of his invincibility. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 329 
 
 In the indescribable confusion that followed 
 the battle Napoleon rode alone and unrecognized 
 in the stream of fugitives. After the battle the 
 general staff, with the Duke of Bassano and the 
 Emperor's secretaries, had lost sight of him. 
 They looked for him for a long time, and at last 
 heard that he had been seen riding on the road to 
 Laon. They then hurried after him through the 
 turmoil and the enemy's cavalry, which was at 
 work everywhere. They happened to come across 
 Napoleon's own horses, and took one each. Maret 
 was so impregnated with reverence that they had 
 the greatest difficulty in persuading him to mount 
 one of the Emperor's own horses, although the 
 Prussians were close on their heels. They found 
 the Emperor in a frightful condition at Philippe- 
 ville in a wretched house, without carriage or 
 anything. His officers were covered with wounds 
 and blood and dirt, and almost unrecognizable. 
 Their eyes were swollen with weeping, and they 
 were quite undone. 
 
 Luckily Marshal Soult's carriages came along, 
 and the Emperor mounted one of them with Ber- 
 trand. In the next were Maret, Drouot, and a 
 couple of generals, and in the third were the 
 younger officers, Fleury, Labedoyere, Flahaut, and 
 Corbineau. The officers spent the time in talk- 
 ing. Labedoyere thought the disaster would 
 bring the whole of France together. Fleury was 
 of opinion that the Chambers would fall on the 
 Emperor as the man who had ruined the country. 
 ' If they do,' said Labedoyere, ' we shall have 
 
330 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 the Allies at Paris again in a week, and then the 
 Bourbons, and I shall be the first to be shot.' 
 Flahaut believed the Emperor was lost if he went 
 to Paris. It was only at the head of an army 
 that he would be able to treat with the Allies in 
 favour of his son. * But,' he added, * perhaps 
 most of our generals are at this moment making 
 their submission to the king.' ' I agree with 
 Flahaut that he is lost if he goes to Paris,' said 
 Fleury. ' They will never forgive the Emperor 
 for leaving the army four times in Egypt, Spain, 
 at Smorgoni, and now here in the middle of 
 France.' 
 
 At Laon there were about 3,000 men with 
 King Jerome, who behaved like a man now that 
 the disaster had come. There were also Marshal 
 Soult and Generals Morand, Colbert and Petit. 
 It was the general feeling of the higher officers 
 that the Emperor ought to go at once to Paris, 
 and they made every effort to persuade him. He 
 resisted them for a long time, and when he yielded 
 at length to their pressure he said : * Very good, 
 I will go to Paris. But I am quite sure that you 
 are inducing me to do something foolish.' General 
 Bonaparte could never have spoken those words. 
 
 He left it to Marshal Soult, who took Ber- 
 thier's place as head of the general staff, to collect 
 and organize the remains of the army, and he 
 began to dictate the bulletin on the battle of 
 Waterloo, which he submitted to his generals. 
 He was just as candid in describing his defeat as 
 he had been at Smorgoni in the 29th bulletin. 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 331 
 
 Curiously enough, however, the generals could not 
 induce him to say in the bulletin that all the 
 imperial carriages had fallen into the hands of the 
 enemy. They contained his clothes, his money, 
 his papers, and a number of small private matters, 
 as well as a very valuable diamond necklace that 
 Pauline had given him to be used in emergency. 
 On his arrival at Paris the Emperor descended 
 at the Elysee Palace, not the Tuileries, which he 
 never again entered. If he had gone into the 
 Chamber of Deputies just as he came from the 
 field as he had thought of doing and had des- 
 cribed in his irresistible language what great re- 
 sources he still had, thanks to his vast prepara- 
 tions, it might have been possible to carry the 
 assembly with him and obtain fresh sacrifices 
 from the exhausted country. But his powerful 
 frame had at length succumbed to the terrible 
 fatigue. He had been in the saddle almost con- 
 tinuously from June 15th, and in great pain part of 
 the time. He had fought two battles in three days, 
 and had gone through the awful night after 
 Waterloo. He was quite unfit to speak in a large 
 assembly. Meantime, Fouch6 contrived to set 
 feeling against the Emperor in the Chamber. The 
 Chamber of Peers followed suit, and Napoleon 
 was forced to abdicate the crown a second time. 
 He did so in favour of his son, Napoleon II. A 
 provisional government was formed by Fouche, 
 Carnot and General Grenier, and was to treat 
 with the Allied princes, who now approached Paris 
 for the second time. 
 
332 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 On June 22 the Emperor asked for two fri- 
 gates, which lay at Rochefort, to be put at his 
 disposal, to take him and his family to America. 
 He decided to wait at Malmaison for the answer 
 to this request, as a large crowd of inquisitive folk 
 had gradually formed round the Elysee Palace. 
 If he had obtained the ships when he asked for 
 them he would easily have escaped, as the English 
 were not yet watching the coast. But Fouche, 
 who was very anxious that one or the other 
 Napoleon should be done away with, wasted time 
 and made a great parade of getting the frigates 
 ready ; and at the same time wrote to Wellington 
 for passes for Napoleon and his suite. It hardly 
 needed so much as that to put England on the 
 alert, and from that moment it was impossible 
 to leave the French coast. 
 
 While the Emperor was at Malmaison, where 
 he had spent a happy time as First Consul, Count 
 Flahaut rode one day to Paris to ask for the 
 passes they were to receive. In the Tuileries he 
 met the Prince of Eckmiihl. ' Your Bonaparte 
 is taking his time,' said Davoust. ' Tell him 
 from me that he had better make haste. If he 
 does not start at once I shall have to have him 
 arrested. I will come myself, in fact, and arrest 
 him.' * I did not expect to hear such language 
 as that from a man who was at Napoleon's feet 
 a week ago,' said Flahaut. Davoust adopted a 
 lofty tone, and wanted the adjutant arrested, but 
 Flahaut fulfilled his mission. When he came 
 back to Malmaison and told of his meeting with 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 333 
 
 Davoust, the Emperor said resignedly : * Let 
 him come. I am ready to offer him my neck.' 
 
 The indecision and confusion amongst Napo- 
 leon's officers were now at their height. A large 
 number of them had compromised themselves in 
 the Hundred Days, and they all knew that the 
 Bourbons would take serious measures with them 
 on their return. Savary and many others went 
 abroad. Massena had gone over to the King at 
 the first restoration, and Napoleon had failed to 
 bring him back when he returned from Elba. 
 The marshal was given command of the National 
 Guard at Paris in succession to General Durosnel, 
 the man who had saved his wife at Prince Schw- 
 artzenberg's ball. During the Russian campaign 
 the news reached Paris that General Dufrosnel 
 had been killed. His wife put on deep mourning, 
 and made the whole family do the same. But 
 it was announced shortly afterwards that the 
 general was only wounded, and she tore off her 
 mourning. She told the servants to bring their 
 black clothes into the courtyard, and they made 
 a bonfire of them with great rejoicing. 
 
 Marshal Jourdan and General Rapp were 
 with the army on the Rhine, and they retained 
 their commands. Napoleon asked General Drouot, 
 who had been with him in Elba, to follow him to 
 America. But Drouot would not abandon his 
 command of the Imperial Guard, fearing to expose 
 them to the vengeance of the Bourbons. The 
 Emperor then turned to Savary, the Duke of 
 
334 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Rovigo, who promised to accompany him. Mean- 
 time the Allied armies were approaching, and the 
 Prussians seemed to be advancing on Malmaison. 
 The Emperor, therefore, took leave of Queen Hor- 
 tense and the few faithful friends and servants 
 who were still with him, and reached Rochefort 
 with Savary and Bertrand on July 3rd. 
 
 On that very day Paris was surrendered to 
 Field Marshal Bliicher at St. Cloud, where he 
 had fixed his headquarters. The French army 
 was sent across the Loire to be disarmed. The 
 Moniteur at the same time published a declaration 
 from the King, in which he said : * I hear that a 
 gate is open to my kingdom, and I hasten to 
 return by it.' It is a very different style from 
 Napoleon's. The declaration, which had been 
 prepared by Talleyrand, as chief of the ministry, 
 also promised the royal pardon to all except those 
 who had taken part in the revolt of the Hundred 
 Days. 
 
 At Rochefort and on the west coast of France 
 there was still a strong feeling in favour of the 
 Emperor. General Qausel had a few ships ready 
 at Bordeaux, but it was obviously impossible 
 to elude the English, and Napoleon went of his 
 own accord on board the Englishtf rigate Bellerophon, 
 and said to Captain Maitland : ' I surrender to 
 the generosity of the English nation.' In point 
 of fact it was the best, if not the only, tiling he 
 could do. If he had been captured, his life might 
 have been in some danger. It is true that Napo- 
 leon cared little about life at the time, but it is 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 335 
 
 an intolerable thing for an officer to be taken 
 prisoner, disarmed, and perhaps shot by a file of 
 soldiers. His relations to all the foreign princes 
 were such that he would have found it a torture 
 worse than death to see them again in his present 
 position. They were the King of Prussia, whom 
 he had pitilessly robbed and humiliated, the 
 Emperor of Austria, his own father-in-law, whose 
 armies he had fought for twenty years ; and lastly, 
 the Emperor Alexander, who had cynically duped 
 him and brought about his downfall. 
 
 Of the English he was only acquainted with 
 subjects of the King. They also were enemies, 
 but he had no others to turn to. And he was 
 quite right in trusting to the generosity of the 
 English people. He was destined to be disap- 
 pointed, but it was a disappointment for the 
 whole world as well. People had then, and have 
 still, a better opinion of the English^; and I 
 believe Great Britain's gentlemen are ashamed 
 to this day of what was done. Exaggerated as 
 some of the accounts are, it is certain that Napo- 
 leon was treated with a deliberate pettiness and 
 made to suffer in the most tasteless manner. If 
 there had been a single great man amongst his 
 enemies he might have prevented them all from 
 passing down to posterity with the disgrace of 
 their vindictiveness. 
 
 Napoleon wrote a letter to the Prince Regent, 
 the most powerful, dignified and noble of his 
 enemies. But his letter met with a worse fate 
 
336 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 than any other of his autograph letters to sove- 
 reigns. Gourgaud, who took it, was not even 
 allowed to land in England. The Bellerophon 
 spent an interminable time cruising between the 
 coasts of England and France, and at last the 
 news came that Napoleon had to be taken to St. 
 Helena. He and his companions were disarmed 
 and searched. Diamonds, money, and objects 
 of value were taken from them to be * used in 
 paying for their maintenance.' All letters to or 
 from them were to be read by the governor. 
 
 Generals Bertrand, Montholon and Gour- 
 gaud, and the Lord of the Chamber, Las Cases, 
 were allowed to accompany him. But Generals 
 Savary and Lallemand, who had already been 
 condemned to death by King Louis, had to leave 
 the ship. On August 7th the Emperor and his 
 suite were transferred to the frigate Northumber- 
 land, and on October 17th he was landed on the 
 island of St. Helena. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 Napoleon was a changed man when he came 
 from Elba, but the Allied princes also were very 
 different beings when they entered Paris in triumph 
 for the second time. They were full of confidence, 
 and restored to high spirits after their recent anxiety. 
 They had a cordial reception, as there was now 
 much more ill-feeling against the Emperor. The 
 Tsar took up his residence at Talleyrand's once 
 more and received general homage. And when 
 they had once more gone thoroughly through 
 the collections at the Louvre and elsewhere, to make 
 sure that there was not a single bit of canvas or 
 marble left that the Emperor had brought to 
 Paris, they departed for their various countries, 
 and left the adipose Bourbon to restore peace and 
 order in his rescued country, on which the Cossacks 
 had again made their violent impression. 
 
 The German princes returned home chiefly 
 
 with the intention of stifling as quickly as possible 
 
 the rising of the people that had been so useful 
 
 to them when their thrones were in danger, but 
 
 w 
 
338 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 which was of no further use to them now. They 
 went back with the stupid and ungrateful determi- 
 nation to suppress or break the forces from below, 
 which seemed to them to spell nothing but revolt 
 and danger. All the light that the movement in 
 young Germany would have spread over Europe, if 
 the outbreak had been understood and appreciated, 
 was now rigorously put out by the arch-extinguisher 
 Metternich. Germany settled down again, in 
 apparent content, in the semi-darkness. It is 
 there still ; and a colossal amount of beer has 
 flowed in the meantime. 
 
 It is this reaction that I had chiefly intended 
 to study. At first it was almost worse in France 
 than in Germany. The arrogance and the stupidity 
 of the Bourbons were boundless. What they did 
 to Ney was not the worst. Ney had boasted of 
 his iron cage, and it had been hard for the legiti- 
 mate King to see how the majority of his magnates 
 and the whole army had gone over to the hated 
 enemy. They had to show some rigour, and make 
 an example somewhere ; and Ney's case seemed a 
 very bad one. Several attempts were made, 
 however, to prevent an execution that every 
 Frenchman felt as a knife in his heart. The 
 marshal was almost afforded an opportunity to 
 escape. But he was completely dazed and in- 
 capable of decisive action. He would not 
 move, and so he was arrested, to the general 
 regret. His legal defenders did all they could. 
 The marshals refused to condemn him ; some 
 because they were his friends, some because they 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 339 
 
 were his enemies. The Chamber of Peers had to in- 
 tervene to pass the verdict, and he was condemned 
 to death, as was to be expected. His wife begged 
 in vain for a pardon. The King was inexorable. 
 The mean, miserable being to whom France owed 
 nothing thought fit, in virtue of his legitimate 
 royal blood, to put to death the greatest soldier 
 of the country. Ney was shot by twelve poor 
 soldiers, who were commanded to do it. 
 
 When the marshal had dropped it was in 
 the garden of the Luxembourg Palace an English- 
 man rode up at full gallop, leaped over the fallen 
 hero, and disappeared. This was supposed to 
 symbolize the triumph of the conquerors. It was 
 as tasteless as everything that England did to 
 Napoleon and his men. There was also a Russian 
 general in full uniform on horseback amongst the 
 spectators ; but the Emperor Alexander drove 
 him out of the army when he heard of it. 
 
 The brave Colonel Labedoyere also met his 
 fate, as he had predicted in the carriage when they 
 were flying from Waterloo. He was executed, 
 to the general regret. Lavalette, who had taken 
 over the Postal department, was arrested, and 
 only escaped execution by his wife changing 
 clothes with him in his cell, and sending him out 
 disguised while she remained in his clothes. She 
 was a cousin of the Empress Josephine. 
 
 The Bourbons inaugurated a reign of terror, 
 known as the White Terror to distinguish it from 
 that during the Revolution. Men were tried, 
 transported, or executed, and there was no limit 
 
340 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 to the abasement of the army. The emigrants 
 the five thousand that Talleyrand had spoken of 
 swarmed like grubs, and heaped ridicule and 
 scorn on Napoleon's armies and generals. The 
 way in which the Bourbons maltreated the non- 
 commissioned officers and the soldiers soon led 
 the French troops to lose the fine form of the 
 4 grand army.' And the deterioration was com- 
 pleted when Napoleon III brought hi his rabble 
 of zouaves, who even in the wars in Algiers made 
 fun of the old uniforms of Bonaparte's time. 
 
 The Prussians, on the other hand, pursued 
 the opposite tactics after Jena. When the armies 
 faced each other again in 1870, the great Napoleon 
 would certainly have led the Prussian army with 
 far more satisfaction than his own old regiments, 
 as they then were. 
 
 For the military nobility that Napoleon had 
 founded the new rulers found some use, especially 
 in view of the great wealth that many of these 
 families had accumulated. Hence it is that 
 many of Napoleon's great dignitaries came through 
 the fire unscathed. In the first place, they had 
 gone over to the Bourbons at the first restora- 
 tion ; then they returned to Napoleon in the 
 Hundred Days ; and then they came back to the 
 King in 1815. A considerable number of them 
 did this. Marshal Soult mounted the white cockade 
 and became Minister of War under Louis XVIII, 
 although he had been with Napoleon at Waterloo. 
 He was a peer of France in 1827 and minister in 
 1830. He lived until his eighty-second year as 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 341 
 
 Duke of Dalmatia, and left great wealth and a 
 famous gallery of Spanish paintings that he had 
 ' collected.' 
 
 It was much the same with Davoust. When 
 he had returned half dead, like the others, from 
 the Russian campaign, he reorganized the army in 
 North Germany, blew up the old bridge at Dresden 
 in 1813, and shut himself up in Hamburg. For 
 ten months he had the unfortunate town in his 
 power ; its older inhabitants still shiver when his 
 name is mentioned. It was not until May, 1814, 
 that he would believe in Napoleon's fall and mount 
 the white flag of the Bourbons. The Prince of 
 Eckmuhl retired for a time to his large estates in 
 France, but on March 21st, in spite of all that lay 
 between them, he became the Emperor's Minister 
 of War. The preparations he made for the war are 
 famous. After Waterloo the King accepted his 
 submission. He had married a sister of General 
 Leclerc, Pauline's first husband ; and his youngest 
 daughter or granddaughter had a large light- 
 house built in 1897 in the north of France, which 
 she christened the Phare d' Eckmuhl. Thus the 
 peaceful name of a little German mill became the 
 title of a great French leader, and shines out over 
 the sea to-day in memory of him. 
 
 Marshal St. Cyr entered the ministry. Mac- 
 donald became Commander-in-Chief of the army. 
 Mortier, who had blown up the Kremlin in 1812, 
 was himself blown up in 1835 by the infernal 
 machine that Fieschi set for Louis Philippe. The 
 Count of Lobau, General Mouton, became one of 
 
342 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 Louis Philippe's marshals. He was a hard but 
 able officer. Napoleon married him to a distin- 
 guished lady of the Bavarian Court. She was in 
 her twentieth year, and very charming ; he was 
 in his fortieth, and very ugly. He made a short 
 speech to his officers on the occasion of his wedding. 
 ' I desire, gentlemen, that you will look on my 
 wife as a marble statue a statue of Hack marble,' 
 he said, with a stern glance at the young adjutants. 
 General Sebastiani was distantly related to 
 the Bonapartes. He never abandoned Napoleon, 
 yet he lived in high position at Paris until 1851, 
 and became a marshal. Many of Napoleon's 
 officers, who had worked their way up through 
 the service, retained their wealth and founded 
 families of which members are still found in the 
 highest French aristocracy : such are Ney's descend- 
 ants, the Prince of Moskwa and Duke of Elchingen, 
 Lannes' family, and the Dukes of Montebello, 
 Caulaincourt and Vicenza. Many other names, 
 however, sank into poverty and disappeared. 
 Some thought it lowering to go over to the royal- 
 ists. That was the case with Las Cases. After 
 his return from St. Helena he was urged to accept 
 a position at Court in consonance with his rank, 
 but he refused. ' We have served the great lord 
 of the earth,' he said. ' When he sent us to 
 foreign courts we were treated as the equals of 
 princes because we wore his uniform, and we felt 
 ourselves to be their equals. We have seen seven 
 kings waiting in his antechambers like ourselves.' 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 343 
 
 At the same time there were many men of 
 a very different type about Napoleon ; men who 
 never came really close to him because they never 
 wholly appreciated him, out of a feeling that 
 they took to be pride. General Thiebault was 
 one of this category. He was a brave man, but 
 he would not push himself forward, and so he let 
 every opportunity of advancement slip by. He 
 therefore very soon joined Massena and the other 
 malcontents, and maintained a very foolish atti- 
 tude toward the First Consul and his friends. His 
 criticism was always directed against the men who 
 rose, and he was one of the party of grumblers. 
 He says, for instance, that it was the younger 
 General Kellermann who won the battle at Mar- 
 engo ; that it was not Rampon, but an unknown 
 officer, who took the redoubt at Montenotte ; 
 that it was not Davoust who earned the honour of 
 the battle of Anerstadt, but his generals of divi- 
 sions, Morand and Gudin ; that Bonaparte's 
 manoeuvres before the battle of Marengo were 
 conducted on a plan that he, Thiebault, had sent 
 some time before to the Ministry of War. In 
 everything he betrays the jealous man's inability 
 to appreciate. Otherwise he was courageous and 
 brave and generous. He severely criticizes Bona- 
 parte for not observing the quarantine regulations 
 when he returned from Egypt. However, at an- 
 other place in his memoirs he tells how when he 
 and his comrades came half-starved out of Mas- 
 s6na's defence of Genoa, they threw the quarantine 
 officials in the sea, made for Nice, and fell upon 
 
344 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 the available food, some of them eating for 
 seven hours continuously. 
 
 The figure of Napoleon stands out amongst 
 a crowd of men like these and a thousand others. 
 Their devotion and their hatred, their discontent 
 and their flattery, their loyalty and their treachery, 
 cast light and shade alternately about him, but 
 from his own unique superiority a light is ever 
 cast over all of them, gives them their character, 
 and guides their development with almost the same 
 force with which he controlled their destinies 
 and their external conditions. Although his ideal 
 did not go beyond himself, his personality was so 
 strong that the others felt they were fighting and 
 suffering for a greater ideal. His judgment on 
 those who fell was always a measure of the in- 
 dividual and his value. 
 
 After the battle of Waterloo the whole of 
 Europe breathed freely once more. The misery 
 and devastation that the man had brought in great 
 waves wherever he went had spread all over the 
 Continent. And the farther men were from the 
 centre, the less they saw of the glamour of war. 
 They only felt an intolerable pressure and an un- 
 easy dislocation of trade, commerce, shipping, and 
 industry. In Great Britain, and along the coast 
 of the North Sea as far as Hamburg and even 
 Norway, it was difficult to follow Napoleon's career 
 of victory with any kind of satisfaction. Every- 
 thing was held up in consequence of the infatuated 
 blockade of the Continent. It was, directly, Eng- 
 land who nearly exhausted the life of Norway, but 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 345 
 
 it was Prance that was responsible. Between 1807 
 and 1811 the English took nineteen ships belong- 
 ing to my great-grandfather. The fate of one of 
 my great-uncles was also caught in the meshes 
 of the Napoleonic net ; he was appointed head 
 chamberlain to Bernadotte, when he became king. 
 He found so much favour with the king that he 
 was included amongst the envoys sent to attend 
 the coronation of Nicolas I in 1826. At St. 
 Petersburg he visited General Jomini, who had 
 taken part hi the deliberations as to the crossing 
 of the Beresina. He abandoned Napoleon in 1813, 
 and went over to the enemy. My uncle found 
 him adjutant-general to the Tsar, and thought him a 
 man ' of striking features, but crafty.' At 
 Moscow he often attended great festivals given by 
 Marshal Marmont, Duke of Ragusa, who was 
 the French ambassador. I should have liked 
 something better than to find my great-uncle 
 dispatched as envoy by one traitor, visiting a 
 second and dancing at the house of a third. How- 
 ever, these are political features of his mission 
 that deserved some mention. 
 
 The embassy consisted of the old Field- 
 Marshal, Count von Stedingk, and one or two other 
 counts on the part of Sweden, and only Major 
 Jens Bull Kielland on the part of Norway. It is 
 interesting to see how careful Sweden was from 
 the very beginning of the union to give expression 
 to the equal dignity of the two realms, especially 
 when there was question of representation abroad. 
 On the Norwegian coast there was always a good 
 
346 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 deal of feeling for England, our big brother in the 
 North Sea, in spite of all the hostilities and the 
 injury done to us by the arrogant English naval 
 officers. I do not remember ever to have seen a 
 picture of Napoleon in the old houses in my 
 earliest years, or heard a song about him, or any 
 mention of his name. He does not seem to have 
 occupied the place that we should expect in the 
 literature and the correspondence of the time in 
 Norway. 
 
 Napoleon's attitude to women was somewhat 
 similar to his attitude towards men in this re- 
 spect : he took everything that was offered 
 him, and nearly everything was offered him. In 
 many other respects he was a considerate and 
 almost affectionate husband. His feeling for 
 Josephine was maintained long after the divorce. 
 One day her accounts were not in order, as usual ; 
 she never managed to live within the generous 
 allowance he made her. ' Go to Josephine,' he 
 said sharply to a minister, ' and tell her that this 
 sort of thing must stop. She must give up this 
 folly.' The minister went, and returned the next 
 day. ' Well, what does she say ? ' Napoleon 
 asked. ' Oh, your Majesty, the Empress wept 
 
 and 3 ' What,' cried Napoleon, ' she wept ? 
 
 It was certainly not my intention that you should 
 make Josephine weep. Go back to her at once 
 and say that we will put her money-matters 
 right she must shed no tears. Say the Emperor 
 has commanded that she must not.' 
 
 Josephine herself had a few straight lines 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 347 
 
 in her not over-straight character. She had 
 been the friend of the great man, and she never 
 forgot it. At the time when the whole of Paris 
 forgot the ruling Empress and the heir to the 
 throne, during Malet's brief revolt in 1812, Joseph- 
 ine said : * If there had been any real danger for 
 the Empress and for Napoleon's son, I should 
 have gone to her and taken my place beside her, 
 no matter what people said. Hortense would 
 have done the same.' 
 
 Marie Louise was made of very different 
 stuff. She never cherished the memory of having 
 been the wife of the great man. She said as early 
 as 1815 : ' Lord Wellington does not know how 
 much he did for me when he won the battle of 
 Waterloo.' Wellington did know, however. He 
 has himself said : ' It is a fact that she was 
 already expecting a child by the Austrian Baron 
 Neippberg, whom she afterwards married. If 
 Napoleon had won at Waterloo, the Empress 
 would have been compelled to return to him in 
 that condition.' 
 
 When he did not care to be amiable Napoleon 
 could be terrible in regard to ladies. We can readily 
 believe that it was a genuine pleasure to him to 
 reply to Mme. de Stael, when she asked him what 
 kind of woman he thought most of : ' The one 
 who brings most children into the world.' He 
 knew well how rude he was, but this fishing for 
 compliments was too much for him. At the same 
 time he spoke the truth. He did not like intellect- 
 ual women. Nor had he much more esteem for 
 
348 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 virtuous ones. He could not endure Queen Louisa 
 of Prussia, though she was very beautiful. When, 
 in her great sorrow at the misfortunes of her coun- 
 try she went so far as to give the conqueror a 
 rose with the words, ' This rose for Magdeburg,' 
 Napoleon coldly ignored the opportunity of being 
 gallant to a noble lady. He took the rose and 
 kept Magdeburg. It was no wonder that he was 
 called a * a lout ' in all the courts of Europe. 
 
 The truth was he never allowed himself to be 
 overruled by a woman. Josephine might succeed 
 in influencing him in small matters or persuading 
 him to do something that was not quite right, 
 but that went to the account of friendship rather 
 than love. The success of Countess Hatzfeldt 
 in obtaining forgiveness for her husband at Berlin 
 in 1807, and the Mmes. Polignac for their husbands 
 after the Cadoudal conspiracy, had nothing to do 
 with the sex of the petitioners. No one ever knew 
 him to be drawn into a bad deed or a political crime 
 for the sake of a woman. However strong his 
 amorous passion became, Napoleon never had about 
 him the scandalous troop of mistresses that is 
 so often found about the courts of kings, beginning 
 with King David, whom we were compelled to 
 admire when we were young. 
 
 Religion and the clergy were equally powerless 
 to influence him. There was never any element 
 of mysticism about Napoleon Bonaparte. He 
 did not spend his youth in morbid dreams about 
 the mystery of his future. He knew very well 
 wjho he was. He was a great man, a man to 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 349 
 
 whom greatness came naturally ; not in the 
 same way as other pretenders to the crown, who 
 go about talking of kingly ideas and saying they 
 feel the presence of royal blood in their veins. 
 Napoleon's ambition was healthy and strong. He 
 knew nothing of supernatural powers. He trusted 
 to no help beyond himself, but relied on his own 
 genius and the defects of others. 
 
 Some have represented him as having a super- 
 stition about certain days, and pretended that 
 he believed he had a star. Napoleon knew 
 what power there is in remembrance, especially 
 for soldiers. As he knew well the art of concen- 
 trating his force on a given point at a given mo- 
 ment in a battle, he kept fresh the memory of 
 the days of victory ; and this intensified the courage 
 and zeal of his soldiers, so that he had only to 
 mention a number of dates and names to set the 
 whole army aflame. In that sense he used to 
 choose certain days, but there was no superstition 
 in it. It was the same in regard to his star. One 
 night at the Tuileries Cardinal Fesch had said 
 a good deal in a moderate tone of all that had 
 been done. He spoke of the arch that is strained, 
 the vessel that goes so often to the water, and 
 so on. Napoleon listened attentively to him, 
 and when the cardinal had finished, he led him 
 to one of the high windows, and pointed to the 
 clouded sky above. 
 
 * Do you see the star up there, uncle ? ' he 
 asked. 
 
350 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 The cardinal looked and looked. ' No ; ' 
 he could see no star. 
 
 * Well, I see it,' said Napoleon seriously, 
 and walked away. 
 
 Was there a star ? No one can say ; but it 
 is at all events certain that prudent cardinals 
 never see it. There was no superstition in the 
 matter. 
 
 To be quite candid, I have never understood 
 the affair of the Concordat and the whole of his 
 relations to the papacy and the Church. I can 
 only see that, though Napoleon had to deal 
 with a pope who was an honourable and noble man, 
 yet there was not the slightest fear of the clergy 
 or any hypocrisy in himself or any of those 
 about him. His proclamations and pronounce- 
 ments never spoke of anything but France, 
 honour, and himself ; and in this he was quite 
 right. He had great princes of the Church in all 
 their pomp at his gorgeous church ceremonies, 
 but otherwise he had no use for the apparatus 
 of religion. 
 
 Money he treated with cold indifference. He 
 never suffered cheating, and could never be 
 imposed on by the big financiers. If he thought 
 any one had accumulated too much, he did not 
 hesitate to tap him to the extent of several mil- 
 lions. The kind of thing that we have seen so 
 often kings mixing with speculators and becom- 
 ing so dependent on them that it is doubtful 
 whether the country is really ruled by the men 
 with golden crowns on their heads or the men 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 351 
 
 with silver crowns in their banks was incon- 
 ceivable in relation to Napoleon. 
 
 He was moderate in eating and drinking. 
 He could not unbend over a glass with his higher 
 officials, as some kings do ; and, on the other hand, 
 he could not stoop to the potations and the sense- 
 less abuse of power that so many kings have been 
 guilty of since the days of Alexander the Great. 
 
 He knew very little about the fine arts. He 
 liked order, splendour and symmetry, and so 
 he was best disposed to architecture and decora- 
 tion. His taste in regard to paintings was poor, 
 and he failed to appreciate the advance made in 
 his time. In literature he liked best a well- 
 arranged drama, with great, simple passions 
 described in verses that hung solidly together like 
 his own soldiers. In musical matters he was hardly 
 any better than the usual French officer. Beauti- 
 ful singing was the highest musical achievement 
 in his esteem. The Italian aria with the most 
 difficult trills and cadences sent him into rap- 
 tures. He would hardly have been pleased with 
 more elaborate music, in which pure melody is 
 expressed in its finest shades by the voice and 
 the harmony of voice and instrument. From head 
 to heel he was full of admiration of C major. 
 There was no sharp for him and no b flat, and 
 the minor key was far out of his range. 
 
 It is needless to point out the vast difference 
 between Napoleon and the great religious founders 
 who had also caused great movements in their 
 respective ages. In their case the movement 
 
352 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 increased, and only became a veritable power after 
 their death. When Napoleon died, the Napoleonic 
 movement was over. He had had no idea to give 
 to the world. His thoughts did not go beyond 
 his own life ; throughout his whole career he 
 never thought of anything but himself. He 
 shrinks at once in comparison with a modest man 
 of science who expends his life to create a thought 
 that will nourish and elevate posterity. But 
 amongst his kind amongst those in whose circle 
 his great gifts fated him to penetrate, namely, 
 the princes the Emperor Napoleon stands out 
 high above all. He, if any man, was the ideal 
 ' tyrant,' in the old sense of the word. 
 
 Napoleon had to play with the figures that 
 were on the stage, and he did not succeed. In 
 his mind peace could only mean a pause between 
 two wars. The idea that peace could be the nor- 
 mal relation of the nations never entered his head, 
 or the head of any man about him. If there 
 were any head that harboured such an idea, it 
 was on the shoulders of some unknown man in 
 some obscure attic, writing of his Utopia in the 
 dim light. 
 
 If Napoleon reached the highest summit as 
 a prince and a commander, he was also the last 
 who succeeded in gathering about his person all 
 the glamour that had been wont to accompany 
 and adorn the bloody business of war. There 
 was no more of it after his fall. War became 
 afterwards an academic study. Military affairs 
 came to resemble industrial interests, in which it 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 353 
 
 is the best machines that gain the victory. We 
 now strip our armies of their gold cords and waving 
 plumes. The admiral, who used to stand on the 
 bridge in his gala uniform, with his decorations 
 and sash, now sits in a steel box and presses buttons 
 like a telephone girl. When the glamour goes 
 from a thing, it is near its end. It is possible 
 that one day the glittering form of Napoleon 
 in the remote past will be contemplated with 
 equanimity by the idealists he so much despised ; 
 on that day when we shall have won the greatest 
 of all victories peace between nations. 
 
 All the languages of the world have used their 
 strongest adjectives at the top and the bottom of 
 the scale in regard to "this man. Many writers 
 have even speculated as to what a remarkable 
 animal the tiger would have been if he had also 
 had the qualities of the lamb. Nothing is perfect 
 this side of eternity. Neither in the kitchen nor 
 in life do we get perfection by taking a little bit 
 of everything, and putting it all in one pot. 
 Perfection is only found in a thing that has all that 
 pertains to it, and not a trace of anything else. 
 For my part I am glad that I need not run my 
 adjectives, either the worst or the best, to death. 
 For me, Napoleon is above all things a man a 
 male through and through, a being compounded 
 solely of masculine qualities. 
 
 The social circle at Longwood, the Emperor's 
 residence at St. Helena, lived for six years with 
 the great man as its centre. There was General 
 Montholon with his wife and family. His wife 
 
354 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 presided over the domestic establishment. General 
 Bertrand and his family lived at a short distance 
 from Longwood. Then there were : Las Cases with 
 his young son, General Gourgaud, the Irish physi- 
 cian O'Meara, and a number of faithful ser- 
 vants. These few men, who all depended on the 
 person of the Emperor in one or other way, were 
 strangers to each other. During the long and 
 painful solitude as great as if they were on a 
 ship at the North Pole they often distressed 
 the Emperor by their petty quarrels and jeal- 
 ousies, the remains of their earlier ambitions. 
 There was very nearly a duel between Generals 
 Montholon and Gourgaud. 
 
 The bitterness was increased, and the Emperor's 
 last years were made more painful by the pettiness 
 and refined malice with which the English treated 
 him. The sort of life that was led about Napoleon 
 would have proved intolerable if he had not himself 
 arranged their daily doings and work with his 
 characteristic good sense. Each one had his 
 place and his regulations, just as at a court ; and 
 this pitiful discipline, which was maintained to 
 the end, never took on any tincture of absurdity. 
 The Emperor was just as aloof from them as he 
 had been at the Tuileries, but the irresistible 
 magic that always surrounded him delivered them 
 from the tediousness that would otherwise have 
 killed them. 
 
 The Emperor arranged the daily round for him- 
 self and the others with fixed hours for work. He dic- 
 tated an account of his campaigns to the generals, 
 
NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 355 
 
 the Italian to one and the German to the other. 
 At night the little circle sat together in conversa- 
 tion, and listened to the sea breaking hopelessly 
 on the island. The Emperor walked to and fro, 
 or sat down to tell of some old experience or talk 
 of his men. But his maladies gradually got the 
 upper hand, and his iron frame slowly yielded. 
 He saw the end draw near with his wonted calm- 
 ness. He was ill during the whole of 1820. In 
 1821 he became rapidly worse. 
 
 On April 21st, he wrote his will ; no one, from 
 his son to his servants, was forgotten in it. 'I 
 should like my ashes to rest by the Seine, in the 
 midst of the French people whom I loved so 
 much.' It was one of the few wishes of his 
 that were fulfilled. I fear little care was taken 
 in the distribution of the millions of francs that 
 made up his private fortune. That does not 
 detract from the man ; his intention was good. 
 
 ' I leave to my son my decorations, snuff-boxes, 
 silver, etc ; and my arms, saddles, spurs, uniforms, 
 and clothes, the grey coat and the blue cloak of 
 Marengo. I give Count Montholon two million 
 francs, for accompanying me here.' 
 
 There was a small remembrance of his mother 
 and all his sisters. They had at the bottom been 
 strongly bound together. He even spoke in 
 fine terms of Marie Louise ; although the English 
 had assuredly not spared him an account of the 
 way she was behaving. 
 
 On May 2nd, in the delirium of high fever, he 
 called out the names of the generals of his youth : 
 
356 NAPOLEON'S MEN AND METHODS 
 
 ' Steingel, Desaix, Mass&ia ! ' He saw the sun 
 of Italy flashing on the bayonets. On May 4th there 
 was a great storm on the island, and it tore up the 
 last tree at Longwood. The Emperor lay still 
 while the storm raged without. But as long as 
 there was a spark of life hi him, they heard him 
 muttering words of command. 
 
 Years afterwards, until 1838, when the curtain 
 had long since dropped and the darkness ^had 
 settled over Europe once more, Talleyrand dragged 
 his lame foot to the green tables, and sat amongst 
 the clinking piles of gold, and played with other 
 gold-seekers, new and old. 
 
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