Books: Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, v15

L >> Louis Antoine Fauvelet de Bourrienne >> Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte, v15

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5

This etext was produced by David Widger

MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, VOLUME 15.

by LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE

His Private Secretary

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

1891

CONTENTS:
CHAPTER XI. to CHAPTER XII. 1815

CHAPTER XI.

1815.

My departure from Hamburg-The King at St. Denis--Fouche appointed
Minister of the Police--Delay of the King's entrance into Paris--
Effect of that delay--Fouche's nomination due to the Duke of
Wellington--Impossibility of resuming my post--Fouche's language
with respect to the Bourbons--His famous postscript--Character of
Fouche--Discussion respecting the two cockades--Manifestations of
public joy repressed by Fouche--Composition of the new Ministry--
Kind attention of Blucher--The English at St. Cloud--Blucher in
Napoleon's cabinet--My prisoner become my protector--Blucher and the
innkeeper's dog--My daughter's marriage contract--Rigid etiquette--
My appointment to the Presidentship of the Electoral College of the
Yonne--My interview with Fouche--My audience of the King--His
Majesty made acquainted with my conversation with Fouche--The Duke
of Otranto's disgrace--Carnot deceived by Bonaparte--My election as
deputy--My colleague, M. Raudot--My return to Paris--Regret caused
by the sacrifice of Ney--Noble conduct of Macdonald--A drive with
Rapp in the Bois de Boulogne--Rapp's interview with Bonaparte in
1815--The Due de Berri and Rapp--My nomination to the office of
Minister of State--My name inscribed by the hand of Louis XVIII.--
Conclusion.

The fulfilment of my prediction was now at hand, for the result of the
Battle of Waterloo enabled Louis XVIII. to return to his dominions. As
soon as I heard of the King's departure from Ghent I quitted Hamburg, and
travelled with all possible haste in the hope of reaching Paris in time
to witness his Majesty's entrance. I arrived at St. Denis on the 7th of
July, and, notwithstanding the intrigues that were set on foot, I found
an immense number of persons assembled to meet the King. Indeed, the
place was so crowded that it was with the greatest difficulty I could
procure even a little garret for my lodging.

Having resumed my uniform of a captain of the National Guard, I proceeded
immediately to the King's palace. The salon was filled with ladies and
gentlemen who had come to congratulate the King on his return. At St.
Denis I found my family, who, not being aware that I had left Hamburg,
were much surprised to see me.

They informed me that the Parisians were all impatient for the return of
the King--a fact of which I could judge by the opposition manifested to
the free expression of public feeling. Paris having been declared in a
state of blockade, the gates were closed, and no one was permitted to
leave the capital, particularly by the Barriere de la Chapelle. It is
true that special permission might be obtained, and with tolerable ease,
by those who wished to leave the city; but the forms to be observed for
obtaining the permission deterred the mass of the people from proceeding
to St. Denis, which, indeed, was the sole object of the regulation. As
it had been resolved to force Fouche and the tri-coloured cockade upon
the King, it was deemed necessary to keep away from his Majesty all who
might persuade him to resist the proposed measures. Madame de Bourrienne
told me that on her arrival at St. Denis she called upon M. Hue and M.
Lefebvre, the King's physician, who both acquainted her with those fatal
resolutions. Those gentlemen, however, assured her that the King would
resolutely hold out against the tri-coloured cockade, but the nomination
of the ill-omened man appeared inevitable.

Fouche Minister of the Police! If, like Don Juan, I had seen a statue
move, I could not have been more confounded than when I heard this news.
I could not credit it until it was repeated to me by different persons.
How; indeed, could I think that at the moment of a reaction the King
should have entrusted the most important ministerial department to a man
to whose arrest he had a hundred days before attached so much
consequence? to a man, moreover, whom Bonaparte had appointed, at Lyons,
to fill the same office! This was inconceivable! Thus, in less than
twenty-four hours, the same man had been entrusted to execute measures
the most opposite, and to serve interests the most contradictory. He was
one day the minister of usurpation, and the next the minister of
legitimacy! How can I express what I felt when Fouche took the oath of
fidelity to Louis XVIII. when I saw the King clasp in his hands the hands
of Fouche! I was standing near M. de Chateaubriand, whose feelings must
have been similar to mine, to judge from a passage in his admirable work,
'La Monarchie selon la Charte'. "About nine in the evening," he says, "I
was in one of the royal antechambers. All at once the door opened, and I
saw the President of the Council enter leaning on the arm of the new
minister. Oh, Louis-le-Desire! Oh, my unfortunate master! you have
proved that there is no sacrifice which your people may not expect from
your paternal heart!"

Fouche was resolved to have his restoration as well as M. de Talleyrand,
who had had his the year before; he therefore contrived to retard the
King's entry into Paris for four days. The prudent members of the
Chamber of Peers, who had taken no part in the King's Government in 1814,
were the first to declare that it was for the interest of France to
hasten his Majesty's entrance into Paris, in order to prevent foreigners
from exercising a sort of right of conquest in a city which was a prey to
civil dissension and party influence. Blucher informed me that the way
in which Fouche contrived to delay the King's return greatly contributed
to the pretensions of the foreigners who, he confessed, were very well
pleased to see the population of Paris divided in opinion, and to hear
the alarming cries raised by the confederates of the Faubourgs when the
King was already at St. Denis.

I know for a fact that Louis XVIII. wished to have nothing to do with
Fouche, and indignantly refused to appoint him when he was first
proposed. But he had so nobly served Bonaparte during the Hundred Days
that it was necessary he should be rewarded. Fouche, besides, had gained
the support of a powerful party among the emigrants of the Faubourg St.
Germain, and he possessed the art of rendering himself indispensable.
I have heard many honest men say very seriously that to him was due the
tranquillity of Paris. Moreover, Wellington was the person by whose
influence in particular Fouche was made one of the counsellors of the
King. After all the benefits which foreigners had conferred upon us
Fouche was indeed an acceptable present to France and to the King.

I was not ignorant of the Duke of Wellington's influence upon the affairs
of the second Restoration, but for a long time I refused to believe that
his influence should have outweighed all the serious considerations
opposed to such a perfect anomaly as appointing Fouche the Minister of a
Bourbon. But I was deceived. France and the King owed to him Fouche's
introduction into the Council, and I had to thank him for the
impossibility of resuming a situation which I had relinquished for the
purpose of following the King into Belgium. Could I be Prefect of Police
under a Minister whom a short time before I had received orders to
arrest, but who eluded my agents? That was impossible. The King could
not offer me the place of Prefect under Fouche, and if he had I could not
have accepted it. I was therefore right in not relying on the assurances
which had been given me; but I confess that if I had been told to guess
the cause why they could not be realised I never should have thought that
cause would have been the appointment of Fouche as a Minister of the King
of France. At first, therefore, I was of course quite forgotten, as is
the custom of courts when a faithful subject refrains from taking part in
the intrigues of the moment.

I have already frequently stated my opinion of the pretended talent of
Fouche; but admitting his talent to have been as great as was supposed,
that would have been an additional reason for not entrusting the general
police of the kingdom to him. His principles and conduct were already
sufficiently known. No one could be ignorant of the language he held
respecting the Bourbons, and in which be indulged as freely after he
became the Minister of Louis XVIII. as when he was the Minister of
Bonaparte. It was universally known that in his conversation the
Bourbons were the perpetual butt for his sarcasms, that he never
mentioned them but in terms of disparagement, and that he represented
them as unworthy of governing France. Everybody must have been aware
that Fouche, in his heart, favoured a Republic, where the part of
President might have been assigned to him. Could any one have forgotten
the famous postscript he subjoined to a letter he wrote from Lyons to his
worthy friend Robespierre: "To celebrate the fete of the Republic
suitably, I have ordered 250 persons to be shot?" And to this man, the
most furious enemy of the restoration of the monarchy, was consigned the
task of consolidating it for the second time! But it would require
another Claudian to describe this new Rufinus!

Fouche never regarded a benefit in any other light than as the means of
injuring his benefactor. The King, deceived, like many other persons, by
the reputation which Fouche's partisans had conjured up for him, was
certainly not aware that Fouche had always discharged the functions of
Minister in his own interest, and never for the interest of the
Government which had the weakness to entrust him with a power always
dangerous in his hands. Fouche had opinions, but he belonged to no
party, and his political success is explained by the readiness with which
he always served the party he knew must triumph, and which he himself
overthrew in its turn. He maintained himself in favour from the days of
blood and terror until the happy time of the second Restoration only by
abandoning and sacrificing those who were attached to him; and it might
be said that his ruling passion was the desire of continual change. No
man was ever characterised by greater levity or inconstancy of mind. In
all things he looked only to himself, and to this egotism he sacrificed
both subjects and Governments. Such were the secret causes of the sway
exercised by Fouche during the Convention, the Directory, the Empire, the
Usurpation, and after the second return of the Bourbons. He helped to
found and to destroy every one of those successive Governments. Fouche's
character is perfectly unique. I know no other man who, loaded with
honours, and almost escaping disgrace, has passed through so many
eventful periods, and taken part in so many convulsions and revolutions.

On the 7th of July the King was told that Fouche alone could smooth the
way for his entrance into Paris, that he alone could unlock the gates of
the capital, and that he alone had power to control public opinion. The
reception given to the King on the following day afforded an opportunity
of judging of the truth of these assertions. The King's presence was the
signal for a feeling of concord, which was manifested in a very decided
way. I saw upon the boulevards, and often in company with each other,
persons, some of whom had resumed the white cockade, while others still
retained the national colours, and harmony was not in the least disturbed
by these different badges.

Having returned to private life solely on account of Fouche's presence in
the Ministry, I yielded to that consolation which is always left to the
discontented. I watched the extravagance and inconsistency that were
passing around me, and the new follies which were every day committed;
and it must be confessed that a rich and varied picture presented itself
to my observation. The King did not bring back M. de Blacas. His
Majesty had yielded to prudent advice, and on arriving at Mons sent the
unlucky Minister as his ambassador to Naples. Vengeance was talked of,
and there were some persons inconsiderate enough to wish that advantage
should be taken of the presence of the foreigners in order to make what
they termed "an end of the Revolution," as if there were any other means
of effecting that object than frankly adopting whatever good the
Revolution had produced. The foreigners observed with satisfaction the
disposition of these shallow persons, which they thought might be turned
to their own advantage. The truth is, that on the second Restoration our
pretended allies proved themselves our enemies.

But for them, but for their bad conduct, their insatiable exactions, but
for the humiliation that was felt at seeing foreign cannon planted in the
streets of Paris, and beneath the very windows of the Palace, the days
which followed the 8th of July might have been considered by the Royal
Family as the season of a festival. Every day people thronged to the
garden of the Tuileries, and expressed their joy by singing and dancing
under the King's windows.

This ebullition of feeling might perhaps be thought absurd, but it at
least bore evidence of the pleasure caused by the return of the Bourbons.

This manifestation of joy by numbers of persons of both sexes, most of
them belonging to the better classes of society, displeased Fouche, and
he determined to put a stop to it. Wretches were hired to mingle with
the crowd and sprinkle corrosive liquids on the dresses of the females
some of them were even instructed to commit acts of indecency, so that
all respectable persons were driven from the gardens through the fear of
being injured or insulted: As it was wished to create disturbance under
the very eyes of the King, and to make him doubt the reality of the
sentiments so openly expressed in his favour, the agents of the Police
mingled the cry of 'Vive l'Empereur!" with that of "Vive le Roi!" and it
happened oftener than once that the most respectable persons were
arrested and charged by Fouche's infamous agents with having uttered
seditious cries. A friend of mine, whose Royalist opinions were well
known, and whose father had been massacred during the Revolution, told me
that while walking with two ladies he heard some individuals near him
crying out "Vive l'Empereur!" This created a great disturbance. The
sentinel advanced to the spot, and those very individuals themselves had
the audacity to charge my friend with being guilty of uttering the
offensive cry. In vain the bystanders asserted the falsehood of the
accusation; he was seized and dragged to the guard-house, and after being
detained for some hours he was liberated on the application of his
friends. By dint of such wretched manoeuvres Fouche triumphed. He
contrived to make it be believed that he was the only person capable of
preventing the disorders of which he himself was the sole author: He got
the Police of the Tuileries under his control. The singing and dancing
ceased, and the Palace was the abode of dulness.

While the King was at St. Denis he restored to General Dessoles the
command of the National Guard. The General ordered the barriers to be
immediately thrown open. On the day of his arrival in Paris the King
determined, as a principle, that the throne should be surrounded by a
Privy Council, the members of which were to be the princes and persons
whom his Majesty might appoint at a future period. The King then named
his new Ministry, which was thus composed:

Prince Talleyrand, peer of France, President of the Council of Ministers,
and Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.

Baron Louis, Minister of Finance.

The Duke of Otranto, Minister of the Police.

Baron Pasquier, Minister of Justice, and Keeper of the Seals.

Marshal Gouvion St. Cyr, War Minister.

Comte de Jaucourt, peer of France, Minister of the Marine.

The Duc de Richelieu, peer of France, Minister of the King's Household.

The portfolio of the Minister of the Interior, which was not immediately
disposed of, was provisionally entrusted to the Minister of Justice. But
what was most gratifying to the public in the composition of this new
ministry was that M. de Blacas, who had made himself so odious to
everybody, was superseded by M. de Richelieu, whose name revived the
memory of a great Minister, and who, by his excellent conduct throughout
the whole course of his career, deserves to be distinguished as a model
of honour and wisdom.

General satisfaction was expressed on the appointment of Marshal
Macdonald to the post of Grand Chancellor of the Legion of Honour in lieu
of M. de Pradt. M. de Chabrol resumed the Prefecture of the Seine,
which, during the Hundred Days, had been occupied by M. de Bondi., M. de
Mole was made Director-General of bridges and causeways. I was
superseded in the Prefecture of Police by M. Decazes, and M. Beugnot
followed M. Ferrand as Director-General of the Post-office.

I think it was on the 10th of July that I went to St. Cloud to pay a
visit of thanks to Blucher. I had been informed that as soon as he
learned I had a house at St. Cloud he sent a guard to protect it. This
spontaneous mark of attention was well deserving of grateful
acknowledgment, especially at a time when there was so much reason to
complain of the plunder practised by the Prussians. My visit to Blucher
presented to observation a striking instance of the instability of human
greatness. I found Blucher residing like a sovereign in the Palace of
St. Cloud, where I had lived so long in the intimacy of Napoleon, at a
period when he dictated laws to the Kings of Europe before he was a
monarch himself.

--[The English occupied St. Cloud after the Prussians. My large
house, in which the children of the Comte d'Artois were inoculated,
was respected by them, but they occupied a small home forming part
of the estate. The English officer who commanded the troops
stationed a guard at the large house. One morning we were informed
that the door had been broken open and a valuable looking-glass
stolen. We complained to the commanding officer, and on the affair
being inquired into it was discovered that the sentinel himself had
committed the theft. The man was tried by a court-martial, and
condemned to death, a circumstance which, as may naturally be
supposed, was very distressing to us. Madame de Bourrienne applied
to the commanding officer for the man's pardon, but could only
obtain his reprieve. The regiment departed some weeks after, and we
could never learn what was the fate of the criminal.--Bourrienne.]--

In that cabinet in which Napoleon and I had passed so many busy hours,
and where so many great plans had their birth, I was received by the man
who had been my prisoner at Hamburg. The Prussian General immediately
reminded me of the circumstance. "Who could have foreseen," said he,
"that after being your prisoner I should become the protector of your
property? You treated me well at Hamburg, and I have now an opportunity
of repaying your kindness. Heaven knows what will be the result of all
this! One thing, however, is certain, and that is, that the Allies will
now make such conditions as will banish all possibility of danger for a
long time to come. The Emperor Alexander does not wish to make the
French people expiate too dearly the misfortunes they have caused us.
He attributes them to Napoleon, but Napoleon cannot pay the expenses of
the war, and they must be paid by some one. It was all very well for
once, but we cannot pay the expense of coming back a second time.
However," added he, "you will lose none of your territory; that is a
point on which I can give you positive assurance. The Emperor Alexander
has several times repeated in my presence to the King my master,
'I honour the French nation, and I am determined that it shall preserve
its old limits.'"

The above are the very words which Blucher addressed to me. Profiting by
the friendly sentiments he expressed towards me I took the opportunity of
mentioning the complaints that were everywhere made of the bad discipline
of the troops under his command. "What can I do?" said he. "I cannot
be present everywhere; but I assure you that in future and at your
recommendation I will severely punish any misconduct that may come to my
knowledge."

Such was the result of my visit to Blucher; but, in spite of his
promises, his troops continued to commit the most revolting excesses.
Thus the Prussian troops have left in the neighbourhood of Paris
recollections no less odious than those produced by the conduct of
Davoust's corps in Prussia. --Of this an instance now occurs to my
memory, which I will relate here. In the spring of 1816, as I was going
to Chevreuse, I stopped at the Petit Bicetre to water my horse. I seated
myself for a few minutes near the door of the inn, and a large dog
belonging to the innkeeper began to bark and growl at me. His master, a
respectable-looking old man, exclaimed, "Be quiet, Blucher!"--"How came
you to give your dog that name?" said I.--"Ah, sir! it is the name of a
villain who did a great deal of mischief here last year. There is my
house; they have left scarcely anything but the four walls. They said
they came for our good; but let them come back again . . . . we will
watch them, and spear them like wild boars in the wood." The poor man's
house certainly exhibited traces of the most atrocious violence, and he
shed tears as he related to me his disasters.

Before the King departed for Ghent he had consented to sign the contract
of marriage between one of my daughters and M. Massieu de Clerval, though
the latter was at that time only a lieutenant in the navy. The day
appointed for the signature of the contract happened to be Sunday, the
19th of March, and it may well be imagined that in the critical
circumstances in which we then stood, a matter of so little importance
could scarcely be thought about. In July I renewed my request to his
Majesty; which gave rise to serious discussions in the Council of
Ceremonies. Lest any deviation from the laws of rigid etiquette should
commit the fate of the monarchy, it was determined that the marriage
contract of a lieutenant in the navy could be signed only at the petty
levee. However, his Majesty, recollecting the promise he had given me,
decided that the signature should be given at the grand levee. Though
all this may appear exceedingly ludicrous, yet I must confess that the
triumph over etiquette was very gratifying to me.

A short time after the King appointed me a Councillor of State; a title
which I had held under Bonaparte ever since his installation at the
Tuileries, though I had never fulfilled the functions of the office.
In the month of August; the King having resolved to convoke a new Chamber
of Deputies, I was appointed President of the Electoral College of the
department of the Yonne. As soon as I was informed of my nomination I
waited on M. de Talleyrand for my instructions, but he told me that, in
conformity with the King's intentions, I was to receive my orders from
the Minister of Police. I observed to M. de Talleyrand that I must
decline seeing Fouche, on account of the situation in which we stood with
reference to each other. "Go to him, go to him," said M. de Talleyrand,
"and be assured Fouche will say to you nothing on the subject."

I felt great repugnance to see Fouche, and consequently I went to him
quite against my inclination. I naturally expected a very cold
reception. What had passed between us rendered our interview exceedingly
delicate. I called on Fouche at nine in the morning, and found him
alone, and walking in his garden. He received me as a man might be
expected to receive an intimate friend whom he had not seen for a long
time. On reflection I was not very much surprised at this, for I was
well aware that Fouche could make his hatred yield to calculation. He
said not a word about his arrest, and it may well be supposed that I did
not seek to turn the conversation on that subject. I asked him whether
he had any information to give me respecting the elections of the Yonne.
"None at all," said he; "get yourself nominated if you can, only use your
endeavours to exclude General Desfouinaux. Anything else is a matter of
indifference to me."--"What is your objection to Desfournaux?"--"The
Ministry will not have him."

I was about to depart when Fouche; called me back saying, "Why are you in
such haste? Cannot you stay a few minutes longer?" He then began to
speak of the first return of the Bourbons, and asked me how I could so
easily bring myself to act in their favour. He then entered into details
respecting the Royal Family which I conceive it to be my duty to pass
over in silence: It may be added, however, that the conversation lasted a
long time, and to say the least of it, was by no means in favour of
"divine right."

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5