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MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, VOLUME 14.

by LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE

His Private Secretary

Edited by R. W. Phipps
Colonel, Late Royal Artillery

1891

CONTENTS:

CHAPTER VII. to CHAPTER X. 1815

CHAPTER VII.

--[By the Editor of the 1836 edition]--

1815.

Napoleon at Paris--Political manoeuvres--The meeting of the Champ-
de-Mai--Napoleon, the Liberals, and the moderate Constitutionalists
--His love of arbitrary power as strong as ever--Paris during the
Cent Jours--Preparations for his last campaign--The Emperor leaves
Paris to join the army--State of Brussels--Proclamation of Napoleon
to the Belgians--Effective strength of the French and Allied armies
--The Emperor's proclamation to the French army.

Napoleon was scarcely reseated on his throne when he found he could not
resume that absolute power he had possessed before his abdication at
Fontainebleau. He was obliged to submit to the curb of a representative
government, but we may well believe that he only yielded, with a mental
reservation that as soon as victory should return to his standards and
his army be reorganised he would send the representatives of the people
back to their departments, and make himself as absolute as he had ever
been. His temporary submission was indeed obligatory.

The Republicans and Constitutionalists who had assisted, or not opposed
his return, with Carnot, Fouche, Benjamin Constant, and his own brother
Lucien (a lover of constitutional liberty) at their head, would support
him only on condition of his reigning as a constitutional sovereign; he
therefore proclaimed a constitution under the title of "Acte additionnel
aux Constitutions de l'Empire," which greatly resembled the charter
granted by Louis XVIII. the year before. An hereditary Chamber of Peers
was to be appointed by the Emperor, a Chamber of Representatives chosen
by the Electoral Colleges, to be renewed every five years, by which all
taxes were to be voted, ministers were to be responsible, judges
irremovable, the right of petition was acknowledged, and property was
declared inviolable. Lastly, the French nation was made to declare that
they would never recall the Bourbons.

Even before reaching Paris, and while resting on his journey from Elba at
Lyons, the second city in France, and the ancient capital of the Franks,
Napoleon arranged his ministry, and issued sundry decrees, which show how
little his mind was prepared for proceeding according to the majority of
votes in representative assemblies.

Cambaceres was named Minister of Justice, Fouche Minister of Police (a
boon to the Revolutionists), Davoust appointed Minister of War. Decrees
upon decrees were issued with a rapidity which showed how laboriously
Bonaparte had employed those studious hours at Elba which he was supposed
to have dedicated to the composition of his Memoirs. They were couched
in the name of "Napoleon, by the grace of God, Emperor of France," and
were dated on the 13th of March, although not promulgated until the 21st
of that month. The first of these decrees abrogated all changes in the
courts of justice and tribunals which had taken place during the absence
of Napoleon. The second banished anew all emigrants who had returned to
France before 1814 without proper authority, and displaced all officers
belonging to the class of emigrants introduced into the army by the King.
The third suppressed the Order of St. Louis, the white flag, cockade, and
other Royal emblems, and restored the tri-coloured banner and the
Imperial symbols of Bonaparte's authority. The same decree abolished the
Swiss Guard and the Household troops of the King. The fourth sequestered
the effects of the Bourbons. A similar Ordinance sequestered the
restored property of emigrant families.

The fifth decree of Lyons suppressed the ancient nobility and feudal
titles, and formally confirmed proprietors of national domains in their
possessions. (This decree was very acceptable to the majority of
Frenchmen). The sixth declared sentence of exile against all emigrants
not erased by Napoleon from the list previously to the accession of the
Bourbons, to which was added confiscation of their property. The seventh
restored the Legion of Honour in every respect as it had existed under
the Emperor; uniting to its funds the confiscated revenues of the Bourbon
order of St. Louis. The eighth and last decree was the most important of
all. Under pretence that emigrants who had borne arms against France had
been introduced into the Chamber of Peers, and that the Chamber of
Deputies had already sat for the legal time, it dissolved both Chambers,
and convoked the Electoral Colleges of the Empire, in order that they
might hold, in the ensuing month of May, an extraordinary assembly--the
Champ-de-Mai.

This National Convocation, for which Napoleon claimed a precedent in the
history of the ancient Franks, was to have two objects: first, to make
such alterations and reforms in the Constitution of the Empire as
circumstances should render advisable; secondly, to assist at the
coronation of the Empress Maria Louisa. Her presence, and that of her
son, was spoken of as something that admitted of no doubt, though
Bonaparte knew there was little hope of their return from Vienna. These
various enactments were well calculated to serve Napoleon's cause. They
flattered the army, and at the same time stimulated their resentment
against the emigrants, by insinuating that they had been sacrificed by
Louis to the interest of his followers. They held out to the Republicans
a prospect of confiscation, proscription, and, revolution of government,
while, the Imperialists were gratified with a view of ample funds for
pensions, offices, and honorary decorations. To proprietors of the
national domains security was promised, to the Parisians the grand
spectacle of the Champ-de-Mai, and to. France peace and tranquillity,
since the arrival of the Empress and her son, confidently asserted to be
at hand, was taken as a pledge of the friendship of Austria.

Napoleon at the same time endeavoured to make himself popular with the
common people--the, mob of the Faubourg St. Antoine and other obscure
quarters of Paris. On the first evening of his return, as he walked
round the glittering circle met to welcome him, in the State apartments
of the Tuileries, he kept repeating, "Gentlemen, it is to the poor and
disinterested mass of the people that I owe everything; it is they who
have brought me back to the capital. It is the poor subaltern officers
and common soldiers that have done all this. I owe everything to the
common people and the ranks of the army. Remember that! I owe
everything to the army and the people!" Some time after he took
occasional rides through the Faubourg St. Antoine, but the demonstrations
of the mob gave him little pleasure, and, it was easy to detect a sneer
in his addresses to them. He had some slight intercourse with the men of
the Revolution--the fierce, bloodthirsty Jacobins--but even now he could
not conceal his abhorrence of them, and, be it said to his honour, he had
as little to do with them as possible.

When Napoleon, departed for the summer campaign he took care beforehand
to leave large sums of money for the 'federes'; in the hands of the
devoted Real; under whose management the mob was placed. These sums were
to be distributed at appropriate seasons, to make the people cry in the
streets of Paris, "Napoleon or death." He also left in the hands of
Davoust a written authority for the publication of his bulletins, many
clauses of which were written long before the battles were fought that
they were to describe. He gave to the same Marshal a plan of his
campaign, which he had arranged for the defensive. This was not confided
to him without an injunction of the strictest secrecy, but it is said
that Davoust communicated the plan to Fouche. Considering Davoust's
character this is very unlikely, but if so, it is far from improbable
that Fouche communicated the plan to the Allies with whom, and more
particularly with Prince Metternich, he is well known to have been
corresponding at the time.

Shortly after the Emperor's arrival in Paris Benjamin Constant, a
moderate and candid man, was deputed by the constitutional party to
ascertain Napoleon's sentiments and intentions. Constant was a lover of
constitutional liberty, and an old opponent of Napoleon, whose headlong
career of despotism, cut out by the sword, he had vainly endeavoured to
check by the eloquence of his pen.

The interview took place at the Tuileries. The Emperor, as was his wont,
began the conversation, and kept it nearly all to himself during the rest
of the audience. He did not affect to disguise either his past actions
or present dispositions.

"The nation," he said, "has had a respite of twelve years from every kind
of political agitation, and for one year has enjoyed a respite from war.
This double repose has created a craving after activity. It requires, or
fancies it requires, a Tribune and popular assemblies. It did not always
require them. The people threw themselves at my feet when I took the
reins of government You ought to recollect this, who made a trial of
opposition. Where was your support--your strength? Nowhere. I assumed
less authority than I was invited to assume. Now all is changed. A
feeble government, opposed to the national interests, has given to these
interests the habit of standing on the defensive and evading authority.
The taste for constitutions, for debates, for harangues, appears to have
revived. Nevertheless it is but the minority that wishes all this, be
assured. The people, or if you like the phrase better; the multitude,
wish only for me. You would say so if you had only seen this multitude
pressing eagerly on my steps, rushing down from the tops of the
mountains, calling on me, seeking me out, saluting me. On my way from
Cannes hither I have not conquered--I have administered. I am not only
(as has been pretended) the Emperor of the soldiers; I am that of the
peasants of the plebeians of France. Accordingly, in spite of all that
has happened, you see the people come back to me. There is sympathy
between us. It is not as with the privileged classes. The noblesse have
been in my service; they thronged in crowds into my antechambers. There
is no place that they have not accepted or solicited. I have had the
Montmorencys, the Noailles, the Rohans, the Beauveaus, the Montemarts,
in my train. But there never was any cordiality between us. The steed
made his curvets--he was well broken in, but I felt him quiver under me.
With the people it is another thing. The popular fibre responds to mine.
I have risen from the ranks of the people: my voice seta mechanically
upon them. Look at those conscripts, the sons of peasants: I never
flattered them; I treated them roughly. They did not crowd round me the
less; they did not on that account cease to cry, `Vive l'Empereur!'
It is that between them and me there is one and the same nature. They
look to me as their support, their safeguard against the nobles. I have
but to make a sign, or even to look another way, and the nobles would be
massacred in every province. So well have they managed matters in the
last ten months! but I do not desire to be the King of a mob. If there
are the means to govern by a constitution well and good. I wished for
the empire of the world, and to ensure it complete liberty of action was
necessary to me. To govern France merely it is possible that a
constitution may be better. I wished for the empire of the world, as who
would not have done in my place? The world invited me to rule over it.
Sovereigns and subjects alike emulously bowed the neck under my sceptre.
I have seldom met with opposition in France, but still I have encountered
more of it from some obscure and unarmed Frenchmen than from all these
Kings so resolute, just now, no longer to have a man of the people for
their equal! See then what appears to you possible; let me know your
ideas. Public discussion, free elections, responsible ministers, the
liberty of the press, I have no objection to all that, the liberty of the
press especially; to stifle it is absurd. I am convinced on this point.
I am the man of the people: if the people really wish for liberty let
them have it. I have acknowledged their sovereignty. It is just that I
should lend an ear to their will, nay, even to their caprices I have
never been disposed to oppress them for my pleasure. I conceived great
designs; but fate has been against me; I am no longer a conqueror, nor
can I be one. I know what is possible and what is not.--I have no
further object than to raise up France and bestow on her a government
suitable to her. I have no hatred to liberty, I have set it aside when
it obstructed my path, but I understand what it means; I was brought up
in its school: besides, the work of fifteen years is overturned, and it
is not possible to recommence it. It would take twenty years, and the
lives of 2,000,000 of men to be sacrificed to it. As for the rest, I
desire peace, but I can only obtain it by means of victory. I would not
inspire you with false expectations. I permit it to be said that
negotiations are going on; there are none. I foresee a hard struggle,
a long war. To support it I must be seconded by the nation, but in
return I believe they will expect liberty. They shall have it: the
circumstances are new. All I desire is to be informed of the truth.
I am getting old. A man is no longer at forty-five what he was at
thirty. The repose enjoyed by a constitutional king may suit me: it will
still more certainly be the best thing, for my son."

From this remarkable address. Benjamin Constant concluded that no change
had taken place in Bonaparte's views or feelings in matters of
government, but, being convinced that circumstances had changed, he had
made up his mind to conform to them. He says, and we cannot doubt it,
that he listened to Napoleon with the deepest interest, that there was a
breadth and grandeur of manner as be spoke, and a "calm serenity seated on
a brow covered with immortal laurels."

Whilst believing the utter incompatibility of Napoleon and constitutional
government we cannot in fairness omit mentioning that the causes which
repelled him from the altar and sanctuary of freedom were strong: the
real lovers of a rational and feasible liberty--the constitutional
monarchy men were few--the mad ultra-Liberals, the Jacobins, the refuse
of one revolution and the provokers of another, were numerous, active,
loud, and in pursuing different ends these two parties, the respectable
and the disreputable, the good and the bad, got mixed and confused with
one another.

On the 14th of May, when the 'federes' were marshalled in processional
order and treated with what was called a solemn festival, as they moved
along the boulevards to the Court of the Tuileries, they coupled the name
of Napoleon with Jacobin curses and revolutionary songs. The airs and
the words that had made Paris tremble to her very centre during the Reign
of Terror--the "Marseillaise," the "Carmagnole," the "Jour du depart,"
the execrable ditty, the burden of which is, "And with the entrails of
the last of the priests let us strangle the last of the kings," were all
roared out in fearful chorus by a drunken, filthy, and furious mob. Many
a day had elapsed since they had dared to sing these blasphemous and
antisocial songs in public. Napoleon himself as soon as he had power
enough suppressed them, and he was as proud of this feat and his triumph
over the dregs of the Jacobins as he was of any of his victories; and in
this he was right, in this he proved himself the friend of humanity. As
the tumultuous mass approached the triumphal arch and the grand entrance
to the Palace he could not conceal his abhorrence. His Guards were drawn
up under arms, and numerous pieces of artillery, already loaded were
turned out on the Place du Carrousel. He hastily dismissed these
dangerous partisans with some praise, some money, and some drink. On
coming into close contact with such a mob he did not feel his fibre
respond to that of the populace! Like Frankenstein, he loathed and was
afraid of the mighty monster he had put together.

But it was not merely the mob that checked the liberalism or constitution
of Napoleon, a delicate and doubtful plant in itself, that required the
most cautious treatment to make it really take root and grow up in such a
soil: Some of his councillors, who called themselves "philosophical
statesmen," advised him to lay aside the style of Emperor, and assume
that of High President or Lord General of the Republic! Annoyed with
such puerilities while the enemy was every day drawing nearer the
frontiers he withdrew from the Tuileries to the comparatively small and
retired palace of the Elysee, where he escaped these talking-dreamers,
and felt himself again a sovereign: Shut up with Benjamin Constant and a
few other reasonable politicians, he drew up the sketch of a new
constitution, which was neither much better nor much worse than the royal
charter of Louis XVIII. We give an epitome of its main features.

The Emperor was to have executive power, and to exercise legislative
power in concurrence with the two Chambers. The Chamber of Peers was to
be hereditary, and nominated by the Emperor, and its number was
unlimited. The Second Chamber was to be elected by the people, and to
consist of 629 members; none to be under the age of twenty-five. The
President was to be appointed by the members, but approved of by the
Emperor. Members were to be paid at the rate settled by the Constituent
Assembly, which was to be renewed every five years. The Emperor might
prorogue, adjourn, or dissolve the House of Representatives, whose
sittings were to be public. The Electoral Colleges were maintained.
Land tax and direct taxes were to be voted only for a year, indirect
taxes might be imposed for several years. No levy of men for the army
nor any exchange of territory was to be made but by a law. Taxes were to
be proposed by the Chamber of Representatives. Ministers to be
responsible. Judges to be irremovable. Juries to be established. Right
of petition, freedom of worship, inviolability of property, were
recognised. Liberty of the press was given under legal responsibility,
and press offences were to be judged with a jury. No place or part of
the territory could be placed in a state of siege except in case of
foreign invasion or civil troubles. Finally, the French people declared
that in the delegation it thus made of its powers it was not to be taken
as giving the right to propose the re-establishment of the Bourbons, or
of any Prince of that family on the throne, even in case of the
extinction of the imperial dynasty. Any such proposal was formally
interdicted to the Chambers or to the citizens, as well as any of the
following measures,.viz. the re-establishment of the former, feudal
nobility, of the feudal and seignorial rights, of tithes, of any
privileged and dominant religion, as well as of the power of making any
attack on the irrevocability of the sale of the national goods.

Shortly after the return of Napoleon from Elba, believing it to be
impossible to make the Emperor of Austria consent to his wife's rejoining
him (and Maria Louisa had no inclination to a renewal of conjugal
intercourse), Napoleon had not been many days in Paris when he concocted
a plan for carrying off from Vienna both his wife and his son: In this
project force was no less necessary than stratagem. A number of French
of both sexes much devoted to the Emperor, who, had given them rank and
fortune, had accompanied Maria Louisa in 1814 from Paris to Blois and
thence to Vienna. A correspondence was opened with these persons, who
embarked heart and soul in the plot; they forged passports, procured-
relays, of horses; and altogether arranged matters so well that but a for
a single individual--one who revealed the whole project a few days
previously to that fixed upon for carrying it into effect--there is
little room to doubt that the plan would have succeeded, and that the
daughter of Austria and the titular King of home would have given such,
prestige as their presence could give at the Tuileries and he Champs-de-
Mai. No sooner had the Emperor of Austria discovered this plot, which,
had it been successful, would have placed him in a very awkward
predicament, than he dismissed all the French people about his daughter,
compelled her to lay aside the armorial bearings and liveries of
Napoleon, and even to relinquish the title of Empress of the French: No
force, no art, no police could conceal these things from the people of
Paris; who, moreover, and at nearly the same time; were made very uneasy
by the failure of Murat's attempt in Italy, which greatly increased the
power and political influence of Austria. Murat being disposed of, the
Emperor Francis was enabled to concentrate all his forces in Italy, and
to hold them in readiness for the re-invasion of France.

"Napoleon," says Lavallette, "had undoubtedly expected that the Empress
and his son would be restored to him; he had published his wishes as a
certainty, and to prevent it was, in fact, the worst injury the Emperor
of Austria could have done, him. His hope was, however, soon destroyed.

"One evening I was summoned to the palace. I found the Emperor in a
dimly-lighted closet, warming himself in a corner of the fireplace, and
appearing to suffer already from the complaint which never afterwards
left him. 'Here is a letter,' he said, 'which the courier from Vienna
says is meant for you--read it.' On first casting my eyes on the letter
I thought I knew the handwriting, but as it was long I read it slowly,
and came at last to the principal object. The writer said that we ought
not to reckon upon the Empress, as she did not even attempt to conceal
her dislike of the Emperor, and was disposed to approve all the measures
that could be taken against him; that her return was not to be thought
of, as she herself would raise the greatest obstacles in the way of it;
in case it should be proposed; finally, that it was not possible for him
to dissemble his indignation that the Empress, wholly enamoured of ----,
did not even take pains to hide her ridiculous partiality for him. The
handwriting of the letter was disguised, yet not so much but that I was
able to discover whose it was. I found; however, in the manner in which
the secret was expressed a warmth of zeal and a picturesque style that
did not belong to the author of the letter. While reading it, I all of a
sudden suspected it was a counterfeit, and intended to mislead the
Emperor. I communicated ms idea to him, and the danger I perceived in
this fraud. As I grew more and more animated I found plausible reasons
enough to throw the Emperor himself into some uncertainty. 'How is it
possible,' I said, 'that ----- should have been imprudent enough to write
such things to me, who am not his friend, and who have had so little
connection with him? How can one suppose that the Empress should forget
herself, in such circumstances, so far as to manifest aversion to you,
and, still more, to cast herself away upon a man who undoubtedly still
possesses some power to please, but who is no longer young, whose face is
disfigured, and whose person, altogether, has nothing agreeable in it?'
'But,' answered the Emperor, ----- is attached to me; and though he is
not your friend, the postscript sufficiently explains the motive of the
confidence he places in you.' The following words were, in fact, written
at the bottom of the letter: 'I do not think you ought to mention the
truth to the Emperor, but make whatever use of it you think proper.'
I persisted, however, in maintaining that the letter was a counterfeit;
and the Emperor then said to me, 'Go to Caulaincourt. He possesses a
great many others in the same handwriting. Let the comparison decide
between your opinion and mine.'

"I went to Caulaincourt, who said eagerly to me, 'I am sure the letter is
from -----, and I have not the least doubt of the truth of the
particulars it contains. The best thing the Emperor can do is to be
comforted; there is no help to be expected from that side.'

"So sad a discovery was very painful to the Emperor, for he was sincerely
attached to the Empress, and still hoped again to see his son, whom he
loved most tenderly.'

"Fouche had been far from wishing the return of the Emperor. He was long
tired of obeying, and had, besides, undertaken another plan, which
Napoleon's arrival had broken off. The Emperor, however, put him again
at the head of the police, because Savary was worn out in that
employment, and a skillful man was wanted there. Fouche accepted the
office, but without giving up his plan of deposing the Emperor, to put in
his place either his son or a Republic under a President. He had never
ceased to correspond with Prince Metternich, and, if he is to be
believed, he tried to persuade the Emperor to abdicate in favour of his
son. That was also my opinion; but; coming from such a quarter, the
advice was not without danger for the person to whom it was given.
Besides, that advice having been rejected, it: was the duty of the
Minister either to think no more of his plan or to resign his office.
Fouche, however, remained in the Cabinet; and continued his
correspondence. The Emperor, who placed but little confidence in him;
kept a careful eye upon him. One evening the Emperor: had a great deal
of company at the Elysee, he told me not to go home, because he wished to
speak to me. When everybody was gone the Emperor stopped with Fouche in
the apartment next to the one I was in. The door remained half open.
They walked up and down together talking very calmly. I was therefore
greatly astonished when, after a quarter of, an hour, I heard the Emperor
say to him' gravely, 'You are a traitor! Why do you remain Minister of
the Police if you wish to betray me? It rests with me to have you
hanged, and everybody would rejoice at your death!' I did not hear
Fouche's reply, but the conversation lasted above half an hour longer,
the parties all the time walking up and down. When Fouche went away he
bade me cheerfully, good-night, and said that the Emperor had gone back
to his apartments.

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