Books: NAPOLEON AND BLUCHER

L >> L. Muhlbach >> NAPOLEON AND BLUCHER

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | 15 | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | 35 | 36 | 37 | 38 | 39 | 40 | 41 | 42 | 43 | 44 | 45 | 46 | 47

"Do you still demand your discharge as a birthday present?" inquired
the king.

"You ask me whether I am content, or demand my discharge?" cried
Blucher, cheerfully. "Now that we advance, I would not take my
discharge, and should your majesty give it to me, to punish me for
my unseemly conduct, I would secretly accompany the army and fight
in the ranks; for you ought to know that I do not advocate a
vigorous prosecution of the war on account of the honor it might
reflect on me, but for the rights of all Germany; and for this
reason I am not only content, but I thank Heaven, my king, and the
Emperor Alexander, from the bottom of my heart; and especially for
the great confidence you place in me. This is the most flattering of
all the honors you have lavished upon me, and I shall endeavor with
head and arm to render myself worthy of it. I shall always remember
that my king intrusted me with the sacred mission of blotting out
the disgrace of Jena, and of causing our angel, Queen Louisa, who
shed so many tears for us on earth, to rejoice in heaven over our
deeds--and--" his words choked his utterance, his eyes grew dim;
pressing his hand to them with a quivering movement, he said, in a
stifled voice, "I believe--may God forgive me!--I believe I am
weeping! But my tears are tears of joy; they do my heart good, and
your majesties will forgive them!--Well, now I am all right again,"
he added, after a pause. "I request your majesties to give me
instructions, and tell me what is to be done, and when we shall
cross the Rhine."

Toward nightfall Blucher returned from Frankfort to Hochst. In front
of his door he was met by General Gneisenau, Colonel Muffling, and
several other gentlemen of his staff. Blucher made a very wry face,
receiving them with loud grumbling. "Oh, it is all very well," he
said, alighting from his carriage. "I can now communicate bad news
to you. We shall lie still here, like lazy bears, during the whole
winter; we shall neither advance nor retreat. The diplomatists have
hatched out the idea, and I am sure they will arrange a pretty
treaty of peace for us! Well, I do not care; I will try to suppress
my grief, and lead a happy life. If we are inactive, we shall at
least try to kill time in as pleasant a manner as possible. I shall
commence diverting myself this very day, and, despite the apostles
of peace, show that they have not ruffled my temper. The officers of
York's corps will give a ball at Wiesbaden to-night. I will go,
immediately setting out for Wiesbaden, and conveying the tidings to
old York. Well, gentlemen, prepare to accompany me; and you, General
Gneisenau, be so kind as to go with me to my room for a minute or
two. I wish to tell you something." He saluted the officers, and
stepped quickly into the house. Followed by Gneisenau, he entered
the room, and carefully locked the door. The wrinkles now
disappeared from his forehead, and an expression of happiness beamed
in his face. "Gneisenau," he said, encircling the tall form of his
friend in his arms, "now listen to what I have to say. What I told
you about peace was not true. We are to advance--ay, to advance! and
it seems to me as if I hear Bonaparte's throne giving way!"

"What, your excellency!" exclaimed Gneisenau, joyfully, "we are
going to advance--to march into France?"

Blucher hastily pressed his hand on his mouth. "Hush, general!" he
whispered. "At present no one must hear it; it is a secret, and we
must try to conceal our movements as much as possible. We ought to
do our best to mislead the enemy--that is my plan. We must make him
believe that the whole offensive force of the allies is turning
toward Switzerland, and that the Silesian army is to remain on the
Rhine as a mere corps of observation. Napoleon will make his
dispositions accordingly: he will leave but a small force on the
bank of the Rhine opposite us, and on passing over to the other side
we shall meet with little resistance."

"That is again a plan altogether worthy of my Ulysses," said
Gneisenau, smiling. "It is all-important now for us to let every
one, and above all Napoleon, know as soon as possible that we stay
here."

"I will swear and rave so loudly that he will certainly hear it in
Paris," said Blucher. "Let us curse the necessity imposed on us, and
secretly make all necessary dispositions, inform the commanders, and
issue the orders, so that we may all cross the Rhine at midnight on
the 31st of December."

"What! The passage is to take place at midnight on the 31st of
December?" asked Gneisenau.

"Yes, general. Let us begin the new year with a great deed, that we
may end it with one."

"But will that be possible, field-marshal? Can all our troops be
prepared at so short a notice?"

"That is your task, Gneisenau; ideas are your province, execution is
mine. You are my head, I am your arm; and these two, I believe,
ought jointly to enable us to cross the Rhine at midnight on the
31st of December, as the holy army of vengeance, which God Himself
sends to Bonaparte as a New-Year's gift. But come, Gneisenau, let us
ride to the ball. I must dance! Joy is in my legs, and I must allow
it to get out of them. I shall ask old York to dance, and, while we
two are hopping around, I must tell him what is to be done. We are
to advance!"

Blucher's resolutions were carried into effect. All dispositions
were made in a quiet and efficient manner; and while the field-
marshal scolded vehemently at the inactivity of the winter, General
Gneisenau secretly took steps to prepare for the passage of the
Rhine. Napoleon's spies at Frankfort and on the Rhine heard only the
grumbling of Blucher, but they did not see the preparations of
Gneisenau.

On the 26th of December orders were dispatched to the commanders of
the different corps of the great Silesian army, communicating the
time and place of crossing the Rhine, and on the 31st every soldier
of that army stood on the bank ready for the passage. This was to be
effected at three different points--Mannheim, Caub, and Coblentz.
The grand, all-important moment had come; midnight was at hand.

It was a clear and beautiful night; the deep-blue sky was spangled
with stars, and the air cold and bracing. None saw the blank columns
moving toward the Rhine. The French, on the opposite side, were
asleep; they did not perceive Field-Marshal Blucher, who, at Caub,
on the bank of the river, was halting on horse back by the side of
his faithful Gneisenau, apparently listening in breathless suspense.
Suddenly, the stillness was interrupted by the chime of a
neighboring church-clock; another struck, and, like echoes, their
notes resounded down the Rhine, in all cities and villages,
proclaiming that the old year was past, and a new one begun.

Blucher took off his gray forage-cap, and, holding it before his
face, uttered a low, fervent prayer. "And now, forward!" he said, in
a resolute tone. "Let us in person convey our 'happy New-Year' to
the French!--And Thou, great God, behold Thy German children, who
are shaking off the thraldom of long years, and who have become
again brave men! Heavenly Father, bless our undertaking! Bless the
Rhine, that it may flow to the ocean again as a free German river
for German freeman!--And now, boys, forward! Build your bridges, for
Heaven sends us to France to punish Bonaparte, and sing him a song
of the Rhine! Forward!"

CHAPTER XLII.

NAPOLEON'S NEW-YEAR'S-DAY.

It was early on the morning of the 1st of January. Napoleon was
angrily pacing his cabinet, while the police-minister, Duke de
Rovigo, was standing by the emperor's desk, and waiting, as if
afraid to look at his master, lest his anger burst upon his head.

"Why did you not tell me so yesterday, Savary?" asked Napoleon, with
his flaming eyes on the police-minister. "Why did you not inform me,
immediately after the close of the meeting of the Chamber of
Deputies, of the seditious and refractory spirit of the speeches
which certain members dared to deliver?"

"Sire, I had no proofs of their guilt. Speeches, it is true, had
been made, but they vanish, and offer no solid grounds for
convicting men of crime. As I have not the honor of being a member
of the committee which your majesty has appointed to take the
condition of France into consideration, I was unable to hear the
speeches delivered at the meeting. I had to obtain palpable
evidence. I knew, not only that the commission of the Chamber of
Deputies had resolved to have an address to your majesty published,
but that the opposition speaker of the committee, M. Raynouard,
intended to have his speech printed and circulated, in order to
prove to France that the committee of the Chamber had done every
thing to give peace to the nation."

"As if that were the task of those gentlemen--as if they had to give
me advice, or could influence me!" cried Napoleon, vehemently. "They
have never dared raise their voices against me; but now that we are
surrounded by enemies--now that it is all-important for France to
startle the world by her energy and the unanimity of her will, these
men dare oppose me! You allowed, then, their addresses to be sent to
the printing-office, Savary?"

"Yes, sire. But I had the printing-office surrounded by my police-
agents, and waited until the composition was completed and the
printing commenced. Then they entered the press-room, seized the
copies already printed, knocked the types into pi, and burned the
manuscripts, [Footnote: "Memoires d'un Homme d'Etat," vol. xii., p.
294.] as well as the proofs, except this one, which I have the honor
of bringing to your majesty."

The emperor, with an impetuous movement, took up the printed sheet
lying on the table by the side of the duke, and glanced over it.
"Savary," he said, pointing out a passage on the paper, "read this
to me. Read the conclusion of Raynouard's speech. Read it aloud!" He
handed the paper to the duke, and pointed out the passage.

Savary read as follows: "'Let us attempt no dissimulation--our evils
are at their height; the country is menaced on the frontiers at all
points; commerce is annihilated, agriculture languishes, industry is
expiring; there is no Frenchman who has not, in his family or his
fortune, some cruel wound to heal. The facts are notorious, and can
never be sufficiently enforced. Agriculture, for the last five
years, has gained nothing; it barely exists, and the fruit of its
toil is annually dissipated by the treasury, which unceasingly
devours every thing to satisfy the cravings of ruined and famished
armies. The conscription has become, for all France, a frightful
scourge, because it has always been driven to extremities in its
execution. For the last three years the harvest of death has been
reaped three times a year! A barbarous war, without object, swallows
up the youth torn from their education, from agriculture, commerce,
and the arts. Have the tears of mothers and the blood of whole
generations thus become the patrimony of kings? It is fit that
nations should have a moment's breathing-time; the period has
arrived when they should cease to tear out each other's entrails; it
is time that thrones should be consolidated, and that our enemies be
deprived of the plea that we are forever striving to carry into the
world the torch of revolution. . . . To prevent the country from
becoming the prey of foreigners, it is indispensable to nationalize
the war; and this cannot be done unless the nation and its monarch
bo united by closer bonds. It has become indispensable to give a
satisfactory answer to our enemies' acensations of aggrandizement:
there would be real magnanimity in a formal declaration that the
independence of the French people and the integrity of its territory
are all that we contend for. It is for the government to propose
measures which may promptly repel the euemy, and secure peace on a
durable basis. Those measures would be at once efficacious, if the
French people were persuaded that the government in good faith
aspired only to the glory of peace, and that their blood would no
longer be shed but to defend our country, and secure the protection
of the laws. But these words of 'peace' and 'country' will resound
in vain, if the institutions are not guaranteed which secure those
blessings. It appears, therefore, to the commission, to be
indispensable that, at the same time that the government proposes
the most prompt and efficacious measures for the security of the
country, his majesty should be supplicated to maintain entire the
execution of the laws which guarantee to the French the rights of
liberty and security, and to the nation the free exercise of its
political rights." [Footnote: "Memoires d'un Homme d'Etat," vol.
xii., p. 208.]

"Well," cried the emperor, impetuously, "what do you think of that?
Does it not sound like the first note of the tocsin by which the
people are to be called upon to rise in rebellion?"

"Sire, it is the language of treason!" replied Savary. "The conduct
of the members of this committee would justify your majesty to have
them shot as traitors." [Footnote: Ibid., p. 294.]

The emperor made no reply, but bowed his head on his breast, and,
with his hands folded behind him, paced the room for a few moments.
"Savary," he then said, "it is sufficient for us to be at war with
our foreign enemies; let us not get into difficulty with our
domestic adversaries. This is not the time for doing so. If we
conquer our foreign enemies, the domestic ones will of themselves be
silent; but if we succumb, every thing will be different. Those
gentlemen have acted both foolishly and ungenerously (at a moment
when it is all-important that France should act and think as one
man), to stir up political partisan feeling; and it is ungrateful to
oppose me at a time when, overwhelmed with care and work, I need my
whole energy to maintain my position. Let us leave it to fate to
punish the traitors. They will not have long to wait!"

"And those haughty members of the Chamber of Deputies do not even
feel that they are deserving of punishment," exclaimed the duke,
indignantly. "The whole committee, and M. Raynouard with them, have
accompanied me to the Tuileries, and repaired to the throne-hall in
order to offer your majesty their congratulations for the new year."

"Ah, it is true, to-day is New-Year's-day," said Napoleon; "I had
almost forgotten it, for the cares and anxiety of the old year have,
as a most faithful suite, followed me into the new year. But I am
glad you remind me of it! I will go to the throne-hall and receive
the congratulations of my faithful subjects, or those who call
themselves so. Follow me!"

In the throne-hall were assembled, as on every New-Year's-day, the
dignitaries of France and the most prominent authorities of the
government; but for the first time, since the establishment of the
empire, the representatives of the foreign powers and the
ambassadors of the European princes failed to appear at the
reception in the Tuileries. In former years they had hastened to
present their congratulations; to-day not one of those
representatives was present, not even the ambassador of the Emperor
of Austria, Napoleon's father-in-law--not even the ambassador of the
King of Naples, his brother-in-law! The troops of the Emperor
Francis had invaded France; the troops of King Murat had returned to
Naples, and he had informed his brother-in-law that the welfare of
his own country rendered it necessary for him to forsake France. The
very princes of the Confederation of the Rhine, hitherto the most
sycophantic flatterers of the emperor, had likewise turned away from
him; all the allies, adulators, and friends of his days of
prosperity had left him, as rats desert the sinking ship. No one was
in the throne-hall except the dignitaries and officers of France,
and one-half of these came, perhaps, because the duties of their
offices rendered it incumbent on them--because the events of the
future could not be positively foreseen, and the emperor, thanks to
his lucky star, might finally conquer his enemies.

The emperor entered with his usual proud and careless indifference.
His quick glance swept past the ranks of the assembly, and rested
for a moment on the place where the ambassadors of the foreign
governments formerly stood beside the throne, and where no one was
to be seen to-day. But not a feature changed; he was still calm and
grave. With a gentle nod he turned toward the ministers who were on
the left, and addressed each of them a few kind words; he then
quickly ascended the steps of the throne. Under the canopy, he
turned his eyes toward the side where were the members of the senate
and the legislature.

Napoleon's eyes flashed down the silent assembly with an expression
of terrible anger. When he spoke, his voice rolled like thunder
through the hall, and echoed in the trembling hearts of those who
were conscious of their guilt, and who hung their heads under the
outburst of their sovereign's wrath. "Gentlemen of the legislature,"
he said, "you come to greet me. I accept your greetings, and will
tell you what you ought to hear. You have it in your power to do
much good, and you have done nothing but mischief. Eleven-twelfths
of you are patriotic, the rest are factious. What do you hope by
putting yourselves in opposition? To gain possession of power? But
what are your means? Are you the representatives of the people? I
am. Four times I have been invoked by the nation, and have had the
votes of four millions of men. I have a title to supreme authority,
which you have not. You are nothing but the representatives of the
departments. Your report is drawn up with an astute and perfidious
spirit, of the effects of which you are well aware. Two battles lost
in Champagne would not have done me so much mischief. I have
sacrificed my passions, my pride, my ambition, to the good of
France. I was in expectation that you would appreciate my motives,
and not urge me to what is inconsistent with the honor of the
nation. Far from that, in your report you mingle irony with
reproach: you tell me that adversity has given me salutary counsels.
How can you reproach me with my misfortunes? I have supported them
with honor, because I have received from nature a sturdy temper; and
if I had not possessed it, I would never have raised myself to the
first throne in the world. Nevertheless, I have need of consolation,
and I expected it from you: so far from receiving it, you have
endeavored to depreciate me; but I am one of those whom you may
kill, but cannot dishonor. Is it by such reproaches that you expect
to restore the lustre of the throne? What is the throne? Four pieces
of gilded wood, covered with a piece of velvet. The real throne has
its seat in the heart of the nation. You cannot separate the two
without mutual injury; for it has more need of me than I have of it.
What could the nation do without a chief? When the question was, how
we could repel the enemy, you demand institutions as if we had them
not! Are you not content with the constitution? If you are not, you
should have told me so four years ago, or postponed your demand to
two years after a general peace. Is this the moment to insist on
such a demand? You wish to imitate the Constituent Assembly, and
commence a revolution? Be it so. You will find I will not imitate
Louis XVI.: I would rather abandon the throne, I would prefer making
part of the sovereign people, to being an enslaved king. I am sprung
from the people; I know the obligations I contracted when I ascended
the throne. You have done much mischief; you would have done me
still more, if I had allowed your report to be printed.--You speak
of abuses, of vexations. I know, as well as you, that such have
existed; they arose from circumstances, and the misfortunes of the
times. But was it necessary to let all Europe into our secrets? Is
it fitting to wash our dirty linen in public? In what you say there
is some truth and some falsehood. What, then, was your obvious duty?
To have confidentially made known your grounds of complaint to me,
by whom they would have been thankfully received. I do not, any more
than yourselves, love those who have oppressed you. In three months
we shall have peace: the enemy will be driven from our territory, or
I shall be dead. We have greater resources than you imagine: our
enemies have never conquered us--never will. They will be pursued
over the frontier more quickly than they crossed it. Go!" [Footnote:
Bucher et Roux, "Histoire Parl. de France," vol. xxxix., pp. 460,
46l.]

The last words of the speech were still resounding through the hall
when the deputies, with pale faces, bowing timidly and silently
before the throne, turned and walked toward the door. All eyes were
riveted on them, and it was felt that the men whom the emperor
dismissed with such a strain of vehement invective were twenty new
enemies whom Napoleon sent into the provinces, and who would bring a
new hostile army--public opinion--into the field against him. Many
hoped that the emperor, perceiving his blunder, would call back the
deputies by some pleasant word, in order to bring about a
reconciliation between him and those who, whatever the emperor might
say, represented in the throne-hall the opinion of the people.

But Napoleon did not call them back; standing on his throne, haughty
and defiant, he looked after the disappearing deputies in anger; and
only when the door of the anteroom closed, did he turn his eyes
toward those who surrounded him. As if by a magician's wand his face
resumed its former expression of august calmness. He slowly left the
throne, and, dropping here and there a few condescending words,
crossed the hall. Suddenly he noticed Baron Fontaine, the architect
of the imperial palaces. "Ah," exclaimed Napoleon, quickly advancing
toward him, "you are here, Fontaine? I intended to send for you to-
day. Did you bring your plans with you?"

"Yes, sire."

"Well, then, come; and you, ministers, Duke de Rovigo, Duke de
Vicenza, Duke de Bassano, pray follow me into my cabinet."

The officers and cavaliers who remained in the hall looked after the
emperor with anxious glances. "A cabinet meeting on this holiday!
and at which the imperial architect has to be present!" they
whispered. "What means this? Will the emperor commission M. de
Fontaine to transform the Tuileries into a fortress, and construct
ramparts and ditches? Are we, if all should be lost, to defend
ourselves? Or will the emperor convert Paris into a fortress? Is M.
de Fontaine to erect outworks and fortifications? Or will the
emperor have a new Bastile built for the purpose of confining the
traitorous legislature and several hundreds of these new-fangled
royalists who are now springing up like mushrooms?"

But the emperor did not think of all this when, followed by the
three ministers and Baron Fontaine, he entered his cabinet. An
expression of affability overspread his features, and round his lips
played the sunny smile which appeared so irresistible to all who had
ever seen it. "Come hither, gentlemen," he said, merrily, "let us
act here as judges. Fontaine brings us plans for a palace for the
King of Rome. It is high time for me to think of building one for
the heir-apparent, and this idea has engrossed my mind for a long
period. If the times had not been so unfavorable, it would already
have been completed. I will begin now, in order to prove to the
foreign powers how great is the confidence felt by France and her
emperor in their ability to withstand the attacks of the allies;
for, while their armies are fighting the enemy, they are
constructing a palace for their future emperor.--Now let me see your
plans, Fontaine; unroll them!"

Fontaine spread out on the table the papers which he had brought
with him from the anteroom. The emperor bent over them, and asked
the architect to explain to him the different lines and figures. The
three ministers stood beside them, grave and silent, and their
furtive glances seemed to ask whether this really was not a scene
intentionally contrived by the emperor--whether he really could
think of building a palace for the King of Rome at a moment, when
France was hemmed in on all sides, and menaced by enemies,
endangering the existence of the imperial throne!

But Napoleon really seemed to be quite sincere. With his magic
energy he appeared to have banished all gloomy thoughts, and to be
engrossed only in plans for a serene future. "See here,
Caulaincourt," he said, pointing to one of the plans, "what do you
think of this? It is a sort of castle or fort, and looks well, does
it not?"

"Very, indeed," replied Caulaincourt. "It reminds me of the palace
at Oranienbaum, which Paul I. built. The towers at the corners, the
bastions, and ditches, are similar; and the interior had not only
many rooms, but secret staircases, doors, and hidden passages."

"And yet Paul I. was assassinated in that palace!" cried the
emperor, whose face suddenly darkened. "The doors and passages did
not protect him from murderers.--Well, Maret and Savary, what do you
think of it? Do you deem it best that I should build the palace for
the King of Rome in the style of a fortress, like that of
Oranienbaum?"