Books: Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, v13
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Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne >> Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, v13
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The two Emperors set off from Paris shortly after each other. The
Emperor of Austria arrived first at Rambouillet, where he was received
with respect and affection by his daughter. Maria Louisa was happy to
see him, but the many tears she shed were not all tears of joy. After
the first effusion of filial affection she complained of the situation to
which she was reduced. Her father sympathised with her, but could offer
her no consolution, since her misfortunes were irreparable. Alexander
was expected to arrive immediately, and the Emperor of Austria therefore
informed his daughter that the Russian monarch wished to see her. At
first Maria Louisa decidedly refused to receive him, and she persisted
for some time in this resolution. She said to her father, "Would he too
make me a prisoner before your eyes? If he enters here by force I will
retire to my chamber. There, I presume, he will not dare to follow me
while you are here." But there was no time to be lost; Francis II.
heard the equipage of the Emperor of Russia rolling through the courtyard
of Rambouillet, and his entreaties to his daughter became more and more
urgent. At length she yielded, and the Emperor of Austria went himself
to meet his ally and conduct him to the salon where Maria Louisa
remained, in deference to her father. She did not, however, carry her
deference so far as to give a favourable reception to him whom she
regarded as the author of all her misfortunes. She listened with
considerable coldness to the offers and protestations of Alexander, and
merely replied that all she wished for was the liberty of returning to
her family. A few days after this painful interview Maria Louisa and her
son set off for Vienna.
--[A few days after this visit Alexander paid his respects to
Bonaparte's other wife, Josephine. In this great breaking up of
empires and kingdoms the unfortunate Josephine, who had been
suffering agonies on account of the husband who had abandoned her,
was not forgotten. One of the first things the Emperor of Russia
did on arriving at Paris was to despatch a guard for the protection
of her beautiful little palace at Malmaison. The Allied sovereigns
treated her with delicacy and consideration.
"As soon as the Emperor Alexander knew that the Empress Josephine
had arrived at Malmaison he hastened to pay her a visit. It is not
possible to be more amiable than he was to her. When in the course
of conversation he spoke of the occupation of Paris by the Allies,
and of the position of the Emperor Napoleon, it was always in
perfectly measured language: he never forgot for a single instant
that be was speaking before one who had been the wife of his
vanquished enemy. On her side the ex-Empress did not conceal the
tender sentiments, the lively affection she still entertained for
Napoleon . . . . Alexander had certainly something elevated and
magnanimous in his character, which would not permit him to say a
single word capable of insulting misfortune; the Empress had only
one prayer to make to him, and that was for her children."
This visit was soon followed by those of the other Allied Princes.
"The King of Prussia and the Princes, his sons, came rather
frequently to pay their court to Josephine; they even dined with her
several times at Malmaison; but the Emperor Alexander come much more
frequently. The Queen Hortense was always with her mother when she
received the sovereigns, and assisted her in doing the honours of
the house. The illustrious strangers exceedingly admired Malmaison,
which seemed to them a charming residence. They were particularly
struck with the fine gardens and conservatories."
From this moment, however, Josephine's health rapidly declined, and
she did not live to see Napoleon's return from Elba. She often said
to her attendant, "I do not know what is the matter with me, but at
times I have fits of melancholy enough to kill me." But on the very
brink of the grave she retained all her amiability, all her love of
dress, and the graces and resources of a drawing-room society. The
immediate cause of her death was a bad cold she caught in taking a
drive in the park of Malmaison on a damp cold day. She expired on
the noon of Sunday, the 26th of May, in the fifty-third year of her
age. Her body was embalmed, and on the sixth day after her death
deposited in a vault in the church of Ruel, close to Malmaison. The
funeral ceremonies were magnificent, but a better tribute to the
memory of Josephine was to be found is the tears with which her
children, her servants, the neighbouring poor, and all that knew her
followed her to the grave. In 1826 a beautiful monument was erected
over her remains by Eugene Beauharnais and his sisters with this
simple inscription:
TO JOSEPHINE.
EUGENE. HORTENSE.
CHAPTER II.
1814.
Italy and Eugene--Siege of Dantzic-Capitulation concluded but not
ratified-Rapp made prisoner and sent to Kiow--Davoust's refusal to
believe the intelligence from Paris--Projected assassination of one
of the French Princes--Departure of Davoust and General Hogendorff
from Hamburg--The affair of Manbreuil--Arrival of the Commissioners
of the Allied powers at Fontainebleau--Preference shown by Napoleon
to Colonel Campbell--Bonaparte's address to General Kohler--His
farewell to his troops--First day of Napoleon's journey--The
Imperial Guard succeeded by the Cossacks--Interview with Augerean--
The first white cockades--Napoleon hanged in effigy at Orgon--His
escape in the disguise of a courier--Scene in the inn of La Calade--
Arrival at Aix--The Princess Pauline--Napoleon embarks for Elba--His
life at Elba.
I must now direct the attention of the reader to Italy, which was the
cradle of Napoleon's glory, and towards which he transported himself in
imagination from the Palace of Fontainebleau. Eugene had succeeded in
keeping up his means of defence until April, but on the 7th of that
month, being positively informed of the overwhelming reverses of France,
he found himself constrained to accede to the propositions of the Marshal
de Bellegarde to treat for the evacuation of Italy; and on the 10th a
convention was concluded, in which it was stipulated that the French
troops, under the command of Eugene, should return within the limits of
old France. The clauses of this convention were executed on the 19th of
April.
--[Lord William Bentinck and Sir Edward Pellew had taken Genoa on
the 18th Of April. Murat was in the field with the Austrians
against the French.]--
Eugene, thinking that the Senate of Milan was favourably disposed towards
him, solicited that body to use its influence in obtaining the consent of
the Allied powers to his continuance at the head of the Government of
Italy; but this proposition was rejected by the Senate. A feeling of
irritation pervaded the public mind in Italy, and the army had not
proceeded three marches beyond Mantua when an insurrection broke out in
Milan. The Finance Minister, Pizna, was assassinated, and his residence
demolished, and nothing would have saved the Viceroy from a similar fate
had he been in his capital. Amidst this popular excitement, and the
eagerness of the Italians to be released from the dominion of the French,
the friends of Eugene thought him fortunate in being able to join his
father-in-law at Munich almost incognito.
--[Some time after Eugene visited France and had a long audience of
Louis XVIII. He announced himself to that monarch by his father's
title of Marquis de Beauharnais. The King immediately saluted him
by the title of Monsieur le Marechal, and proposed that he should
reside in France with that rank. But this invitation Eugene
declined, because as a French Prince under the fallen Government he
had commanded the Marshals, and he therefore could not submit to be
the last in rank among those illustrious military chiefs.
Bourrienne.]--
Thus, at the expiration of nine years, fell the iron crown which Napoleon
had placed on his head saying, "Dieu me l'a donne; gare a qui la touche."
I will now take a glance at the affairs of Germany. Rapp was not in
France at the period of the fall of the Empire. He had, with
extraordinary courage and skill, defended himself against a year's siege
at Dantzic. At length, being reduced to the last extremity, and
constrained to surrender, he opened the gates of the city, which
presented nothing but heaps of ruins. Rapp had stipulated that the
garrison of Dantzic should return to France, and the Duke of Wurtemberg,
who commanded the siege, had consented to that condition; but the Emperor
of Russia having refused to ratify it, Rapp, having no means of defence,
was made prisoner with his troops; and conducted to Kiow, whence he
afterwards returned to Paris, where I saw him.
Hamburg still held out, but at the beginning of April intelligence was
received there of the extraordinary events which had delivered Europe
from her oppressor. Davoust refused to believe this news, which at once
annihilated all his hopes of power and greatness. This blindness was
persisted in for some time at Hamburg. Several hawkers, who were marked
out by the police as having been the circulators of Paris news, were
shot. An agent of the Government publicly announced his design of
assassinating one of the French Princes, in whose service he was said to
have been as a page. He said he would go to his Royal Highness and
solicit to be appointed one of his aides de camp, and that, if the
application were refused, as it probably would be, the refusal would only
confirm him in his purpose.
At length, when the state of things was beyond the possibility of doubt,
Davoust assembled the troops, acquainted them with the dethronement of
the Emperor, hoisted a flag of truce, and sent his adhesion to the
Provisional Government. All then thought of their personal safety,
without losing sight of their honestly-acquired wealth. Diamonds and
other objects of value and small bulk were hastily collected and packed
up. The Governor of Hamburg, Count Hogendorff, who, in spite of some
signal instances of opposition, had too often co-operated in severe and
vexatious measures, was the first to quit the city. He was, indeed,
hurried off by Davoust; because he had mounted the Orange cockade and
wished to take his Dutch troops away with him. After consigning the
command to General Gerard, Davoust quitted Hamburg, and arrived at Paris
on the 18th of June.
I have left Napoleon at Fontainebleau. The period of his departure for
Elba was near at hand: it was fixed for the 17th of April.
On that day Maubreuil, a man who has become unfortunately celebrated,
presented himself at the Post-office, and asked to speak with me. He
showed me some written orders, signed by General Saeken, the Commander of
the Russian troops in Palls, and by Baron Brackenhausen, chief of the
staff. These orders set forth that Maubreuil was entrusted with an
important mission, for the execution of which he was authorised to demand
the assistance of the Russian troops; and the commanders of those men
were enjoined to place at his disposal as many troops as he might apply
for. Maubreuil was also the bearer of similar orders from General
Dupont, the War Minister, and from M. Angles, the Provisional Commissary-
General of the Police, who directed all the other commissaries to obey
the orders they might receive from Maubreuil. On seeing these documents,
of the authenticity of which there was no doubt, I immediately ordered
the different postmasters to provide Maubreuil promptly with any number
of horses he might require.
Some days after I was informed that the object of Maubreuil's mission was
to assassinate Napoleon. It may readily be imagined what was my
astonishment on hearing this, after I had seen the signature of the
Commander of the Russian forces, and knowing as I did the intentions of
the Emperor Alexander. The fact is, I did not, and never can, believe
that such was the intention of Mabreuil. This man has been accused of
having carried off the jewels of the Queen of Westphalia.
Napoleon having consented to proceed to the island of Elba, conformably
with the treaty he had ratified on the 13th, requested to be accompanied
to the place of embarkation by a Commissioner from each of the Allied
powers. Count Schouwaloff was appointed by Russia, Colonel Neil Campbell
by England, General Kohler by Austria, and Count Waldbourg-Truchess by
Prussia. On the 16th the four Commissioners came for the first time to
Fontainebleau, where the Emperor, who was still attended by Generals
Drouot and Bertrand, gave to each a private audience on the following
day.
Though Napoleon received with coldness the Commissioners whom he had
himself solicited, yet that coldness was far from being manifested in an
equal degree to all. He who experienced the best reception was Colonel
Campbell, apparently because his person exhibited traces of wounds.
Napoleon asked him in what battles he had received them, and on what
occasions he had been invested with the orders he wore. He next
questioned him as to the place of his birth, and Colonel Campbell having
answered that he was a Scotchman, Napoleon congratulated him on being the
countryman of Ossian, his favourite author, with whose poetry, however,
he was only acquainted through the medium of wretched translations.
On this first audience Napoleon said to the Colonel, "I have cordially
hated the English. I have made war against you by every possible means,
but I esteem your nation. I am convinced that there is more generosity
in your Government than in any other. I should like to be conveyed from
Toulon to Elba by an English frigate."
The Austrian and Russian Commissioners were received coolly, but without
any marked indications of displeasure. It was not so with the Prussian
Commissioner, to whom he said duly, "Are there any Prussians in my
escort?"--"No, Sire."--"Then why do you take the trouble to accompany
me?"--"Sire, it is not a trouble, but an honour."--"These are mere words;
you have nothing to do here."--"Sire, I could not possibly decline the
honourable mission with which the King my master has entrusted me." At
these words Napoleon turned his back on Count Truchess.
The Commissioners expected that Napoleon would be ready to set out
without delay; but they were deceived. He asked for a sight of the
itinerary of his route, and wished to make some alterations in it.
The Commissioners were reluctant to oppose his wish, for they had been
instructed to treat him with all the respect and etiquette due to a
sovereign. They therefore suspended the departure, and, as they could
not take upon themselves to acquiesce in the changes wished for by the
Emperor, they applied for fresh orders. On the night of the 18th of
April they received these orders, authorising them to travel by any road
the Emperor might prefer. The departure was then definitively fixed for
the 20th.
Accordingly, at ten on the morning of the 20th, the carriages were in
readiness, and the Imperial Guard was drawn up in the grand court of the
Palace of Fontainebleau, called the Cour du Cheval Blanc. All the
population of the town and the neighbouring villages thronged round the
Palace. Napoleon sent for General Kohler, the Austrian Commissioner, and
said to him, "I have reflected on what I ought to do, and I am determined
not to depart. The Allies are not faithful to their engagements with me.
I can, therefore, revoke my abdication, which was only conditional. More
than a thousand addresses were delivered to me last night: I am conjured
to resume the reins of government I renounced my rights to the crown only
to avert the horrors of a civil war, having never had any other abject in
view than the glory and happiness of France. But, seeing as I now do,
the dissatisfaction inspired by the measures of the new Government, I can
explain to my Guard the reasons which induced me to revoke my abdication.
It is true that the number of troops on which I can count will scarcely
exceed 30,000 men, but it will be easy for me to increase their numbers
to 130,000. Know, then, that I can also, without injuring my honour, say
to my Guard, that having nothing but the repose and happiness of the
country at heart, I renounce all my rights, and exhort my troops to
follow my example, and yield to the wish of the nation."
I heard these words reported by General Kohler himself, after his return
from his mission. He did not disguise the embarrassment which this
unexpected address had occasioned; and I recollect having remarked at the
time that had Bonaparte, at the commencement of the campaign of Paris,
renounced his rights and returned to the rank of citizen, the immense
masses of the Allies must have yielded to the efforts of France. General
Kohler also stated that Napoleon complained of Maria Louisa not being
allowed to accompany him; but at length, yielding to the reasons urged by
those about him, he added, "Well, I prefer remaining faithful to my
promise; but if I have any new ground of complaint, I will free myself
from all my engagements."
At eleven o'clock Comte de Bussy, one of the Emperor's aides de camp, was
sent by the Grand Marshal (General Bertrand) to announce that all was
ready for departure. "Am I;" said Napoleon, "to regulate my actions by
the Grand Marshal's watch? I will go when I please. Perhaps I may not
go at all. Leave me!"
All the forms of courtly etiquette which Napoleon loved so much were
observed; and when at length he was pleased to leave his cabinet to enter
the salon, where the Commissioners were waiting; the doors were thrown
open as usual, and "The Emperor" was announced; but no sooner was the
word uttered than he turned back again. However, he soon reappeared,
rapidly crossed the gallery, and descended the staircase, and at twelve
o'clock precisely he stood at the head of his Guard, as if at a review in
the court of the Tuileries in the brilliant days of the Consulate and the
Empire.
Then took place a really moving scene--Napoleon's farewell to his
soldiers. Of this I may abstain from entering into any details, since
they are known everywhere, and by everybody, but I may subjoin the
Emperor's last address to his old companions-in-arms, because it belongs
to history. This address was pronounced in a voice as firm and sonorous
as that in which Bonaparte used to harangue his troops in the days of his
triumphs. It was as follows:
"Soldiers of my Old Guard, I bid you farewell. For twenty years I
have constantly accompanied yon on the road to honour and glory. In
these latter times, as in the days of our prosperity, you have
invariably been models of courage and fidelity. With men such as
you our cause could not be lost, but the war would have been
interminable; it would have been civil war, and that would have
entailed deeper misfortunes on France. I have sacrificed all my
interests to those of the country. I go; but you, my friends, will
continue to serve France. Her happiness was my only thought.. It
will still be the object of my wishes. Do not regret my fate: if I
have consented to survive, it is to serve your glory. I intend to
write the history of the great achievements we have performed
together. Adieu, my friends. Would I could press you all to my,
heart!"
During the first day cries of "Vive l'Empereur!" resounded along the
road, and Napoleon, resorting to his usual dissimulation, censured the
disloyalty of the people to their legitimate sovereign, which he did with
ill disguised irony. The Guard accompanied him as far as Briars. At
that place Napoleon invited Colonel Campbell to breakfast with him. He
conversed on the last war in Spain, and spoke in complimentary terms of
the English nation and the military talents of Wellington. Yet by that
time he must have heard of the battle of Toulouse.
On the night of the 21st Napoleon slept at Nevers, where he was received
by the acclamations of the people, who here, as in several other towns,
mingled their cries in favour of their late sovereign with imprecations
against the Commissioners of the Allies. He left Nevers at six on the
morning of the 22d. Napoleon was now no longer escorted by the Guards,
who were succeeded by a corps of Cossacks: the cries of "Vive
l'Empereur!" accordingly ceased, and he had the mortification to hear in
its stead, "Vivent les Allies!" However, I have been informed that at
Lyons, through which the Emperor passed on the 23d at eleven at night,
the cry of "Vive l'Empereur!" was still echoed among the groups who
assembled before the post-office during the change of horses.
Augereau, who was still a Republican, though he accepted the title of
Duke of Castiglione from Napoleon, had always been among the
discontented. On the downfall of the Emperor he was one of that
considerable number of persons who turned Royalists not out of love for
the Bourbons but out of hatred to Bonaparte. He held a command in the
south when he heard of the forfeiture of Napoleon pronounced by the
Senate, and he was one of the first to send his recognition to the
Provisional Government. Augereau, who, like all uneducated men, went to
extremes in everything, had published under his name a proclamation
extravagantly violent and even insulting to the Emperor. Whether
Napoleon was aware of this proclamation I cannot pretend to say, but he
affected ignorance of the matter if he was informed of it, for on the
24th, having met Augereau at a little distance from Valence, he stopped
his carriage and immediately alighted. Augereau did the same, and they
cordially embraced in the presence of the Commissioners. It was remarked
that in saluting Napoleon took off his hat and Augereau kept on his.
"Where are you going?", said the Emperor; "to Court?"--"No, I am going to
Lyons."--"You have behaved very badly to me." Augereau, finding that the
Emperor addressed him in the second person singular, adopted the same
familiarity; so they conversed as they were accustomed to do when they
were both generals in Italy. "Of what do you complain?" said he.
"Has not your insatiable ambition brought us to this? Have you not
sacrificed everything to that ambition, even the happiness of France?
I care no more for the Bourbons than for you. All I care for is the
country." Upon this Napoleon turned sharply away from the Marshal,
lifted his hat to him, and then stepped into his carriage. The
Commissioners, and all the persons in Napoleon's suite, were indignant at
seeing Augereau stand in the road still covered, with his hands behind
his back, and instead of bowing, merely making a contemptuous salutation
to Napoleon with his hand. It was at the Tuileries that these haughty
Republicans should have shown their airs. To have done so on the road to
Elba was a mean insult which recoiled upon themselves.
--[The following letter, taken from Captain Bingham's recently
published selections from the Correspondence of the first Napoleon,
indicates in emphatic language the Emperor's recent dissatisfaction
with Marshal Augereau when in command at Lyons daring the "death
straggle" of 1814:
To Marshal Augereau.
NOGENT, 21st February, 1814,
....What! six hours after having received the first troops coming
from Spain you were not in the field! Six hours repose was
sufficient. I won the action of Naugis with a brigade of dragoons
coming from Spain which, since it had left Bayonne, had not
unbridled its horses. The six battalions of the division of Nimes
want clothes, equipment, and drilling, say you? What poor reasons
yon give me there, Augereau! I have destroyed 80,000 enemies with
conscripts having nothing but knapsacks! The National Guards, say
you, are pitiable; I have 4000 here in round hats, without
knapsacks, in wooden shoes, but with good muskets, and I get a great
deal out of them. There is no money, you continue; and where do you
hope to draw money from! You want waggons; take them wherever you
can. You have no magazines; this is too ridiculous. I order you
twelve hours after the reception of this letter to take the field.
If you are still Augereau of Castiglione, keep the command, but if
your sixty years weigh upon you hand over the command to your senior
general. The country is in danger; and can be saved by boldness and
alacrity alone....
(Signed) NAPOLEON
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