Books: Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, V1
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Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne >> Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, V1
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I left Brienne in 1787; and as I could not enter the artillery,
I proceeded in the following year to Vienna, with a letter of
recommendation to M. de Montmorin, soliciting employment in the French
Embassy at the Court of Austria.
I remained two months at Vienna, where I had the honour of twice seeing
the Emperor Joseph. The impression made upon me by his kind reception,
his dignified and elegant manners, and graceful conversation, will never
be obliterated from my recollection. After M. de Noailles had initiated
me in the first steps of diplomacy, he advised me to go to one of the
German universities to study the law of nations and foreign languages.
I accordingly repaired to Leipsic, about the time when the French
Revolution broke out.
I spent some time at Leipsic, where I applied myself to the study of the
law of nations, and the German and English languages. I afterwards
travelled through Prussia and Poland, and passed a part of the winter of
1791 and 1792 at Warsaw, where I was most graciously received by Princess
Tyszicwiez, niece of Stanislaus Augustus, the last King of Poland, and
the sister of Prince Poniatowski. The Princess was very well informed,
and was a great admirer of French literature: At her invitation I passed
several evenings in company with the King in a circle small enough to
approach to something like intimacy. I remember that his Majesty
frequently asked me to read the Moniteur; the speeches to which he
listened with the greatest pleasure were those of the Girondists. The
Princess Tyszicwiez wished to print at Warsaw, at her own expense, a
translation I had executed of Kotzebue's 'Menschenhass and Reue, to which
I gave the title of 'L'Inconnu'."
--[A play known on the English stage as The Stranger.]--
I arrived at Vienna on the 26th of March 1792, when I was informed of the
serious illness of the Emperor, Leopold II, who died on the following
day. In private companies, and at public places, I heard vague
suspicions expressed of his having been poisoned; but the public, who
were admitted to the palace to see the body lie in state, were soon
convinced of the falsehood of these reports. I went twice to see the
mournful spectacle, and I never heard a word which was calculated to
confirm the odious suspicion, though the spacious hall in which the
remains of the Emperor were exposed was constantly thronged with people.
In the month of April 1792 I returned to Paris, where I again met
Bonaparte,
--[Bonaparte is said, on very doubtful authority, to have spent five
or six weeks in London in 1791 or 1792, and to have "lodged in a
house in George Street, Strand. His chief occupation appeared to be
taking pedestrian exercise in the streets of London--hence his
marvellous knowledge of the great metropolis which used to astonish
any Englishmen of distinction who were not aware of this visit. He
occasionally took his cup of chocolate at the 'Northumberland,'
occupying himself in reading, and preserving a provoking taciturnity
to the gentlemen in the room; though his manner was stern, his
deportment was that of a gentleman." The story of his visit is
probably as apocryphal as that of his offering his services to the
English Government when the English forces wore blockading the coast
of Corsica,]--
and our college intimacy was fully renewed. I was not very well off, and
adversity was hanging heavily on him; his resources frequently failed
him. We passed our time like two young fellows of twenty-three who have
little money and less occupation. Bonaparte was always poorer than I.
Every day we conceived some new project or other. We were on the look-
out for some profitable speculation. At one time he wanted me to join
him in renting several houses, then building in the Rue Montholon, to
underlet them afterwards. We found the demands of the landlords
extravagant--everything failed.
At the same time he was soliciting employment at the War Office, and I at
the office of Foreign Affairs. I was for the moment the luckier of the
two.
While we were spending our time in a somewhat vagabond way,
--[It was before the 20th of June that in our frequent excursions
around Paris we went to St. Cyr to see his sister Marianne (Elisa).
We returned to dine alone at Trianon.--Bourrienne.]--
the 20th of June arrived. We met by appointment at a restaurateur's in
the Rue St. Honore, near the Palais Royal, to take one of our daily
rambles. On going out we saw approaching, in the direction of the
market, a mob, which Bonaparte calculated at five or six thousand men.
They were all in rags, ludicrously armed with weapons of every
description, and were proceeding hastily towards the Tuilleries,
vociferating all kinds of gross abuse. It was a collection of all that
was most vile and abject in the purlieus of Paris. "Let us follow the
mob," said Bonaparte. We got the start of them, and took up our station
on the terrace of the banks of the river. It was there that he witnessed
the scandalous scenes which took place; and it would be difficult to
describe the surprise and indignation which they excited in him. When
the King showed himself at the windows overlooking the garden, with the
red cap, which one of the mob had put on his head, he could no longer
repress his indignation. "Che coglione!"
he loudly exclaimed. "Why have they let in all that rabble! They should
sweep off four or five hundred of them with the cannon; the rest would
then set off fast enough."
When we sat down to dinner, which I paid for, as I generally did, for I
was the richer of the two, he spoke of nothing but the scene we had
witnessed. He discussed with great good sense the causes and
consequences of this unrepressed insurrection. He foresaw and developed
with sagacity all that would ensue. He was not mistaken. The 10th of
August soon arrived. I was then at Stuttgart, where I was appointed
Secretary of Legation.
At St. Helena Bonaparte said, "On the news of the attack of the
Tuilleries, on the 10th of August, I hurried to Fauvelet, Bourrienne's
brother, who then kept a furniture warehouse at the Carrousel." This is
partly correct. My brother was connected with what was termed an
'enterprise d'encan national', where persons intending to quit France
received an advance of money, on depositing any effects which they wished
to dispose of, and which were sold for them immediately. Bonaparte had
some time previously pledged his watch in this way.
After the fatal 10th of August Bonaparte went to Corsica, and did not
return till 1793. Sir Walter Scott says that after that time he never
saw Corsica again. This is a mistake, as will be shown when I speak of
his return from Egypt.
--[Sir Walter appears to have collected his information for the Life
of Napoleon only from those libels and vulgar stories which
gratified the calumnious spirit and national hatred. His work is
written with excessive negligence, which, added to its numerous
errors, shows how much respect he must have entertained for his
readers. It would appear that his object was to make it the inverse
of his novels, where everything is borrowed from history. I have
been assured that Marshal Macdonald having offered to introduce
Scott to some generals who could have furnished him with the most
accurate, information respecting military events, the glory of which
they had shared, Sir Walter replied, "I thank you, but I shall
collect my information from unprofessional reports."--Bourrienne.]--
Having been appointed Secretary of Legation to Stuttgart, I set off for
that place on the 2d of August, and I did not again see my ardent young
friend until 1795. He told me that my departure accelerated his for
Corsica. We separated, as may be supposed, with but faint hopes of ever
meeting again.
By a decree of the 28th of March of 1793, all French agents abroad were
ordered to return to France, within three months, under pain of being
regarded as emigrants. What I had witnessed before my departure for
Stuttgart, the excitement in which I had left the public mind, and the
well-known consequences of events of this kind, made me fear that I
should be compelled to be either an accomplice or a victim in the
disastrous scenes which were passing at home. My disobedience of the law
placed my name on the list of emigrants.
It has been said of me, in a biographical publication, that "it was as
remarkable as it was fortunate for Bourrienne that, on his return, he got
his name erased from the list of emigrants of the department of the
Yonne, on which it had been inscribed during his first journey to
Germany. This circumstance has been interpreted in several different
ways, which are not all equally favourable to M. de Bourrienne."
I do not understand what favourable interpretations can be put upon a
statement entirely false. General Bonaparte repeatedly applied for the
erasure of my name, from the month of April 1797, when I rejoined him at
Leoben, to the period of the signature of the treaty of Campo-Formio; but
without success. He desired his brother Louis, Berthier, Bernadotte, and
others, when he sent them to the Directory, to urge my erasure; but in
vain. He complained of this inattention to his wishes to Bottot, when he
came to Passeriano, after the 18th Fructidor. Bottot, who was secretary
to Barras, was astonished that I was not erased, and he made fine
promises of what he would do. On his return to France he wrote to
Bonaparte: "Bourrienne is erased." But this was untrue. I was not
erased until November 1797, upon the reiterated solicitations of General
Bonaparte.
It was during my absence from France that Bonaparte, in the rank of 'chef
de bataillon', performed his first campaign, and contributed so
materially to the recapture of Toulon. Of this period of his life I have
no personal knowledge, and therefore I shall not speak of it as an eye-
witness. I shall merely relate some facts which fill up the interval
between 1793 and 1795, and which I have collected from papers which he
himself delivered to me. Among these papers is a little production,
entitled 'Le Souper de Beaucaire', the copies of which he bought up at
considerable expense, and destroyed upon his attaining the Consulate.
This little pamphlet contains principles very opposite to those he wished
to see established in 1800, a period when extravagant ideas of liberty
were no longer the fashion, and when Bonaparte entered upon a system
totally the reverse of those republican principles professed in
'Le Souper de Beaucaire.
--[This is not, as Sir Walter says, a dialogue between Marat and a
Federalist, but a conversation between a military officer, a native
of Nismes, a native of Marseilles, and a manufacturer from
Montpellier. The latter, though he takes a share in the
conversation, does not say much. 'Le Souper de Beaucaire' is given
at full length in the French edition of these Memoirs, tome i. pp.
319-347; and by Iung, tome ii. p. 354, with the following remarks:
"The first edition of 'Le Souper de Beaucaire' was issued at the
cost of the Public Treasury, in August 1798. Sabin Tournal, its
editor, also then edited the 'Courrier d'Avignon'. The second
edition only appeared twenty-eight years afterwards, in 1821,
preceded by an introduction by Frederick Royou (Paris: Brasseur
Aine, printer, Terrey, publisher, in octavo). This pamphlet did not
make any sensation at the time it appeared. It was only when
Napoleon became Commandant of the Army of Italy that M. Loubet,
secretary and corrector of the press for M. Tournal, attached some
value to the manuscript, and showed it to several persona. Louis
Bonaparte, later, ordered several copies from M. Aurel. The
pamphlet, dated 29th duly 1793, is in the form of a dialogue between
an officer of the army, a citizen of Nismes, a manufacturer of
Montpellier, and a citizen of Marseilles. Marseilles was then in a
state of insurrection against the Convention. Its forces had seized
Avignon, but had been driven out by the army of Cartesna, which was
about to attack Marseilles itself. In the dialogue the officer
gives most excellent military advice to the representative of
Marseilles on the impossibility of their resisting the old soldiers
of Carteaux. The Marseilles citizen argues but feebly, and is
alarmed at the officer's representations; while his threat to call
in the Spaniards turns the other speakers against him. Even Colonel
Iung says, tome ii. p. 372, "In these concise judgments is felt the
decision of the master and of the man of war..... These marvellous
qualities consequently struck the members of the Convention, who
made much of Bonaparte, authorised him to have it published at the
public expense, and made him many promises." Lanfrey, vol. i. pp.
201, says of this pamphlets "Common enough ideas, expressed in a
style only remarkable for its 'Italianisms,' but becoming singularly
firm and precise every time the author expresses his military views.
Under an apparent roughness, we find in it a rare circumspection,
leaving no hold on the writer, even if events change."]--
It may be remarked, that in all that has come to us from St. Helena, not
a word is said of this youthful production. Its character sufficiently
explains this silence. In all Bonaparte's writings posterity will
probably trace the profound politician rather than the enthusiastic
revolutionist.
Some documents relative to Bonaparte's suspension and arrest, by order of
the representatives Albitte and Salicetti, serve to place in their true
light circumstances which have hitherto been misrepresented. i shall
enter into some details of this event, because I have seen it stated that
this circumstance of Bonaparte's life has been perverted and
misrepresented by every person who has hitherto written about him; and
the writer who makes this remark, himself describes the affair
incorrectly and vaguely. Others have attributed Bonaparte's misfortune
to a military discussion on war, and his connection with Robespierre the
younger.
--[It will presently be seen that all this is erroneous, and that
Sir Walter commits another mistake when he says that Bonaparte's
connection with Robespierre was attended with fatal consequences to
him, and that his justification consisted in acknowledging that his
friends were very different from what he had supposed them to be.--
Bourrienne.]--
It has, moreover, been said that Albitte and Salicetti explained to the
Committee of Public Safety the impossibility of their resuming the
military operations unaided by the talents of General Bonaparte. This is
mere flattery. The facts are these:
On the 13th of July 1794 (25th Messidor, year II), the representatives of
the people with the army of Italy ordered that General Bonaparte should
proceed to Genoa, there, conjointly with the French 'charge d'affaires',
to confer on certain subjects with the Genoese Government. This mission,
together with a list of secret instructions, directing him to examine the
fortresses of Genoa and the neighbouring country, show the confidence
which Bonaparte, who was then only twenty-five, inspired in men who were
deeply interested in making a prudent choice of their agents.
Bonaparte set off for Genoa, and fulfilled his mission. The 9th
Thermidor arrived, and the deputies, called Terrorists, were superseded
by Albitte and Salicetti. In the disorder which then prevailed they were
either ignorant of the orders given to General Bonaparte, or persons
envious of the rising glory of the young general of artillery inspired
Albitte and Salicetti with suspicions prejudicial to him. Be this as it
may, the two representatives drew up a resolution, ordering that General
Bonaparte should be arrested, suspended from his rank, and arraigned
before the Committee of Public Safety; and, extraordinary as it may
appear, this resolution was founded in that very journey to Genoa which
Bonaparte executed by the direction of the representatives of the people.
--[Madame Junot throws some light on this Persecution of Bonaparte
by Salicetti. "One motive (I do not mean to say the only one),"
remarks this lady, "of the animosity shown by Salicetti to
Bonaparte, in the affair of Loano, was that they were at one time
suitors to the same lady. I am not sure whether it was in Corsica
or in Paris, but I know for a fact that Bonaparte, in spite of his
youth, or perhaps I should rather say on account of his youth, was
the favoured lover. It was the opinion of my brother, who was
secretary to Salicetti, that Bonaparte owed his life to a
circumstance which is not very well known. The fact is, that
Salicetti received a letter from Bonaparte, the contents of which
appeared to make a deep impression on him. Bonaparte's papers had
been delivered into Salicetti's hands, who, after an attentive
perusal of them, laid them aside with evident dissatisfaction. He
then took them up again, and read them a second time. Salicetti
declined my brother's assistance is the examination of the papers,
and after a second examination, which was probably as unsatisfactory
as the first, he seated himself with a very abstracted air. It
would appear that he had seen among the papers some document which
concerned himself. Another curious fact is, that the man who had
the care of the papers after they were sealed up was an inferior
clerk entirely under the control of Salicetti; and my brother, whose
business it was to have charge of the papers, was directed not to
touch them. He has often spoken to me of this circumstance, and I
mention it here as one of importance to the history of the time.
Nothing that relates to a man like Napoleon can be considered
useless or trivial.
"What, after all, was the result of this strange business which
might have cost Bonaparte his head?--for, had he been taken to Paris
and tried by the Committee of Public Safety, there is little doubt
that the friend of Robespierre the younger would have been condemned
by Billaud-Varennes and Collot d'Herbois. The result was the
acquittal of the accused. This result is the more extraordinary,
since it would appear that at that time Salicetti stood in fear of
the young general. A compliment is even paid to Bonaparte in the
decree, by which he was provisionally restored to liberty. That
liberation was said to be granted on the consideration that General
Bonaparte might he useful to the Republic. This was foresight; but
subsequently when measures were taken which rendered Bonaparte no
longer an object of fear, his name was erased from the list of
general officers, and it is a curious fact that Cambaceres, who was
destined to be his colleague in the Consulate, was one of the
persons who signed the act of erasure" (Memoirs of the Duchesse
d'Abrantes, vol. i, p. 69, edit. 1843).]--
Bonaparte said at St. Helena that he was a short time imprisoned by order
of the representative Laporte; but the order for his arrest was signed by
Albitte, Salicetti, and Laporte.
--[Albitte and Laporte were the representatives sent from the
Convention to the army of the Alps, and Salicetti to the army of
Italy.]--
Laporte was not probably the most influential of the three, for Bonaparte
did not address his remonstrance to him. He was a fortnight under
arrest.
Had the circumstance occurred three weeks earlier, and had Bonaparte been
arraigned before the Committee of Public Safety previous to the 9th
Thermidor, there is every probability that his career would have been at
an end; and we should have seen perish on the scaffold, at the age of
twenty-five, the man who, during the twenty-five succeeding years, was
destined to astonish the world by his vast conceptions, his gigantic
projects, his great military genius, his extraordinary good fortune, his
faults, reverses, and final misfortunes.
It is worth while to remark that in the post-Thermidorian resolution just
alluded to no mention is made of Bonaparte's association with Robespierre
the younger. The severity with which he was treated is the more
astonishing, since his mission to Genoa was the alleged cause of it.
Was there any other charge against him, or had calumny triumphed over the
services he had rendered to his country? I have frequently conversed
with him on the subject of this adventure, and he invariably assured me
that he had nothing to reproach himself with, and that his defence, which
I shall subjoin, contained the pure expression of his sentiments, and the
exact truth.
In the following note, which he addressed to Albitte and Salicetti, he
makes no mention of Laporte. The copy which I possess is in the
handwriting of, Junot, with corrections in the General's hand. It
exhibits all the characteristics of Napoleon's writing: his short
sentences, his abrupt rather than concise style, sometimes his elevated
ideas, and always his plain good sense.
TO THE REPRESENTATIVES ALBITTE AND SALICETTI.
You have suspended me from my duties, put me under arrest, and declared
me to be suspected.
Thus I am disgraced before being judged, or indeed judged before being
heard.
In a revolutionary state there are two classes, the suspected and the
patriots.
When the first are aroused, general measures are adopted towards them for
the sake of security.
The oppression of the second class is a blow to public liberty. The
magistrate cannot condemn until after the fullest evidence and a
succession of facts. This leaves nothing to arbitrary decision.
To declare a patriot suspected is to deprive him of all that he most
highly values--confidence and esteem.
In what class am I placed?
Since the commencement of the Revolution, have I not always been attached
to its principles?
Have I not always been contending either with domestic enemies or foreign
foes?
I sacrificed my home, abandoned my property, and lost everything for the
Republic?
I have since served with some distinction at Toulon, and earned a part of
the laurels of the army of Italy at the taking of Saorgio, Oneille, and
Tanaro.
On the discovery of Robespierre's conspiracy, my conduct was that of a
man accustomed to look only to principles.
My claim to the title of patriot, therefore cannot be disputed.
Why, then, am I declared suspected without being heard, and arrested
eight days after I heard the news of the tyrant's death
I am declared suspected, and my papers are placed under seal.
The reverse of this course ought to have been adopted. My papers should
first have been sealed; then I should have been called on for my
explanation; and, lastly, declared suspected, if there was reason for
coming to, such a decision.
It is wished that I should go to Paris with an order which declares me
suspected. It will naturally be presumed that the representatives did
not draw up this decree without accurate information, and I shall be
judged with the bias which a man of that class merits.
Though a patriot and an innocent and calumniated man, yet whatever
measures may be adopted by the Committee I cannot complain.
If three men declare that I have committed a crime, I cannot complain of
the jury who condemns me.
Salicetti, you know me; and I ask whether you have observed anything in
my conduct for the last five years which can afford ground of suspicion?
Albitte, you do not know me; but you have received proof of no fact
against me; you have not heard me, and you know how artfully the tongue
of calumny sometimes works.
Must I then be confounded with the enemies of my country and ought the
patriots inconsiderately to sacrifice a general who has not been useless
to the Republic? Ought the representatives to reduce the Government to
the necessity of being unjust and impolitic?
Hear me; destroy the oppression that overwhelms me, and restore me to the
esteem of the patriots.
An hour after, if my enemies wish for my life, let them take it. I have
often given proofs how little I value ft. Nothing but the thought that I
may yet be useful to my country makes me bear the burden of existence
with courage.
It appears that this defence, which is remarkable for its energetic
simplicity, produced an effect on Albitte and Salicetti. Inquiries more
accurate, and probably more favourable to the General, were instituted;
and on the 3d Fructidor (20th August 1794) the representatives of the
people drew up a decree stating that, after a careful examination of
General Bonaparte's papers, and of the orders he had received relative to
his mission to Genoa, they saw nothing to justify any suspicion of his
conduct; and that, moreover, taking into consideration the advantage that
might accrue to the Republic from the military talents of the said
General Bonaparte, it was resolved that he should be provisionally set at
liberty.
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