Spain and Russia laid to his charge?--his indefatigable apologists
found a ready answer.--The Spanish war, instead of being an unjust
aggression, was an enterprise guided by the soundest political talent.
It had been provoked by the wavering treachery of that allied
government, which, in spite of its engagements, was secretly
negociating with the English; and which, yielding to their
instigations, had endeavoured to take advantage of our difficulties
and of the absence of our armies, in order to invade our territory,
and to become a sharer in the plots of our enemies.
The detention of Ferdinand ceased to be an odious breach of faith. It
resulted necessarily from his duplicity, his parricidal projects, and
his English connexions. The nomination of Joseph as King of Spain and
the Indies, had been universally attributed to the excessive vanity of
Napoleon, who, as it was supposed, was determined to drop a crown upon
the head of every member of the imperial family. But now opinion
changed. King Joseph's promotion was felt to have been caused by the
necessity of placing Spain for ever out of the reach of English
influence. Had not Napoleon allowed the Cortes of Spain to elect their
monarch of their own uncontrolled authority? Had he not said to them
in public, "Dispose of the throne. Little do I care whether the king
of Spain is called Ferdinand, or whether he is called Joseph; let him
only be the ally of France, and the enemy of England[20]?"
[Footnote 20: The Emperor thus addressed the
Spanish Cortes; when assembled at Bayonne.]
It was still more easy to justify the Russian war. A Quixotic love of
the marvellous was no longer supposed to be the passion which excited
it. In making war against Russia, he was actuated by the desire of
avenging the injuries which that power had occasioned to France, at
the moment when the Russian government again opened its ports to the
English, thus snatching from the nation the reward of the sacrifices
which we had made for the establishment and consolidation of the
continental blockade,--of that universal barrier which made England
and her thousand vessels tremble!
The invasion of Germany was no longer the effect of Napoleon's
insatiate thirst of power and glory[21]. It was seen, that there was
no other sure method, by which the English, the irreconcilable
enemies of France, could be deprived of their fatal continental
influence, by which they could be compelled to abandon the empire of
the seas. In short, Napoleon was only inflicting a salutary and
equitable punishment, deserved by those sovereigns of all sizes. After
having implored or obtained the alliance of Napoleon, and after having
ratified the bond by engagements and promises upon which he generously
relied, they compelled him to take up arms, in order to prevent them
from receiving the agents of England into their cabinets, and her
merchandizes into their ports.
[Footnote 21: Napoleon was accused of having
aspired to universal monarchy. In all ages, this
desire has been imputed to powerful and ambitious
sovereigns. Let us confess that no monarch was ever
better justified in yielding to the seductions of
this brilliant phantom than Napoleon. From the
summit of his throne he held the reins which guided
the greater part of Europe, whose docile monarchs
instantly obeyed any direction which he chose to
give them. At the first word, at the slightest
signal, their subjects were arrayed beneath the
imperial eagle. Their continual intercourse with
us, the obligation of obeying Napoleon, an
obligation imposed upon them by their own princes,
had accustomed them to consider the Emperor as
their chieftain. But whatever ambition may have
been attributed to Napoleon, his good sense
restrained him from aspiring to universal monarchy.
He had another plan; he intended to re-establish
the eastern and western empires. It would now be
useless to reveal the lofty and powerful
considerations by which this grand and noble idea
was suggested to Napoleon. Then, France might have
been allowed to grasp again the sceptre of
Charlemagne: but now, we must forget that we have
been the masters of the world.]
Thus the partisans of Napoleon invented arguments by which they
palliated his faults and justified his errors. No objection, no
reproach was left without its answer. After defending him against his
accusers they became his advocates; and, turning to the fairer pages
of his history, their praises knew no bounds; these eulogiums were
certainly more just, and, perhaps, more sincere.
"Napoleon," said they, "had all the great qualities of the greatest
monarchs, whilst he was exempted from their vices. Napoleon was not
stained by the lechery of Caesar, nor by the drunkenness of Alexander,
nor by the cruelty of Charlemagne."
At an age when others scarcely start in life, his years were
outnumbered by his victories; and the kings of Europe, conquered by
his sword or subjugated by his genius, cowered before the imperial
eagle.
In France, when aggrandized by the conquests of Napoleon, the empire
of ancient Rome was re-produced before the astonished world. The
French name, tarnished by the crimes of the revolution, regained its
ancient honour and its mastery. The nation was feared, admired, and
respected by the entire universe.
Philosophy graced Napoleon no less than warlike prowess. After he had
covered the nation with glory by his victories, he was willing to
insure our welfare by his laws. He bestowed upon us that immortal code
of jurisprudence which invested him with the title of the legislator
of France, a title to which our former kings had aspired in vain. He
organised that admirable system of finance and administration, which
their subjects, groaning under misrule, implored but without effect.
Still he had not accomplished enough to satisfy his noble and
beneficent ardour. Arts, sciences, and industry were to flourish in
our country. The munificent aids[22] which were granted by Napoleon,
created the thousands and thousands of manufactories from whence
proceeded those finished works of skill and labour which became the
pride of the French, and the despair and ruin of foreign nations. The
sons of Apollo[23], on whom he lavished his gifts and favours, seized
the crayon, the compass, and the chisel. Paris became a second
Athens, when adorned by the wonders of art to which his munificence
gave birth. We then saw the venerable Louvre rise, as by enchantment,
from its deserted ruins; the palaces of our Kings became more
gorgeous; the temples of the arts were enriched by productions which
rivalled the relics of antiquity; our native land brought forth those
establishments so proudly useful to the public, and those monuments
destined to transmit the recollections of our fame and glory to the
most distant posterity.
[Footnote 22: Neither the nature nor the extent of
these aids has been well understood out of France.
Napoleon revived our industry by the loans, which
he never hesitated to grant to any enterprising
manufacturer who needed capital; and this
assistance was always liberal and well-timed.]
[Footnote 23: Louis XIV., who has been so much
praised for his liberality, only distributed 52,300
francs per annum to the literati and artists of
France, and 14,000 francs to foreigners.]
At the same moment his sovereign will guided the hands which curbed
the waves of the ocean, and caused them to roll over a new abyss. He
directed those labours which substituted wide harbours, superb
dock-yards, and fertilizing canals, in the place of desert shores and
pestilential marshes, restoring commerce and existence to the
innumerable inhabitants of the sea coast, and of the banks of the
Scheld and the Somme. At the same moment his voice created those Roman
highways, branching through all parts of France, and Germany, and
Italy, equally useful and majestic, and which afforded to the
inhabitants of those countries means equally speedy and secure of
communicating with each other, and of exchanging the products of their
industry: and never will the friend or even the enemy of Napoleon
cross the summits of the Alps, or ascend their craggy sides, without
venerating the magnanimous sovereign, who, anxious to guide the steps
and protect the life of the traveller, has enclosed the precipice,
chained the torrent, and linked the great mountains of the earth,
which during so many ages have braved the might of man and time. When
future ages shall gather up in memory the glorious and transcendent
deeds of Napoleon; when they shall number the blessings which he
dispensed, and the victories which he gained, never will they believe
that one man can have worked such miracles in so short a period. They
will rather fancy that the historian was playing with the credulity of
posterity, that he culled out all the great deeds performed by
successive generations of the greatest men during an infinite series
of ages, and that he has attributed them all to his ideal hero.
The soldiers who had bled beneath the banners of Napoleon would not
listen in silence to the praises which others bestowed upon his name.
His foreign conquests, which even they had lately considered as the
causes of our misfortunes, became again the sources of inexhaustible
admiration.
They recollected that Napoleon had ruled as the master of Madrid, of
Lisbon, of Munich, of Warsaw, of Hamburgh, of Berlin, of Vienna, of
Milan, of Amsterdam, of Rome, of Moscow, of Cairo.
Some recalled the memory of the day of Lodi. They saw him standing on
the bridge re-animating his dispirited followers, defying danger and
death whilst he waved the national flag, and drove the enemy from
their entrenchments, and blasted their glory. Others pointed him out
whilst crossing the perpetual snows and yawning chasms of Mount St.
Bernard, and then victorious on the plains of Marengo, where he won
that battle which insured the peace and glory of the country.
Austerlitz had its chroniclers, who described Napoleon as he fell with
the rapidity and violence of the thunderbolt on the battalions of the
Austrian and the Russian, and when he afforded to those trembling
monarchs an example of magnanimity which they knew not how to imitate
when generosity became their duty. Nor did his enthusiastic advocates
omit the field of Jena, where his victorious ensigns chased the flying
troops of Frederic, who, deceived by their recollections, yet held
themselves to be the paragons of military worth. They retraced his
paths amidst the burning sands of Egypt, amidst the icy wastes of
Muscovy; and in either region Napoleon supported fire and frost
without ostentation, and taught resignation and endurance to his
soldiers by his unshaken constancy.
More recent and more painful victories contributed equally to endear
him. They saw Napoleon in Champagne, when his veteran army scarcely
equalled one of the numerous divisions of the enemy. At the head of
his scanty troops he watched, and avoided, and surprised the
Austrians, the Russians, and the Prussians: wounding them on all sides
by his victorious weapons, and with such promptitude, that he seemed
to have bestowed wings upon iron and death. They placed him at Arcis
sur Aube, advancing before his squadrons, and rushing forward to meet
the balls and bullets of the enemy; for he sought to sacrifice on the
field of battle that life, which he foresaw he could no longer
dedicate on the throne, to the glory and prosperity of the nation.
In short, generals, officers, and soldiers, all vied with each other
in calling to mind the marches, the sieges, the conflicts, the
attacks, the days, which had immortalized their general[24]; and is
there a heart amongst us which does not beat higher at these
recollections?
[Footnote 24: The soldiers identified the name of
Napoleon with their country and their honour. When
the accession of Louis XVIII. put an end to the
sufferings and captivity of those who were
imprisoned in England, they returned to France,
cursing the cause of their liberty, and exclaiming,
"Vive l'Empereur!" Even in the deserts of Russia,
neither threats of ill treatment, nor promises of
assistance offered to the French prisoners at the
moment when they were starving, could extort a
single complaint against Napoleon.]
The sentiments thus awakening in favour of Napoleon were cherished by
his friends, and by all those who, wearied of the Bourbons or
discontented with their government, now wished for his return. His
name, which lately we had scarcely dared to utter, was now in every
mouth, his image in every mind. The nation began to regret the
Emperor, then they longed for him; and every one was impressed by a
secret presentiment that these expectations would soon be realized.
Whilst this formidable revulsion of opinion was increasing and
appearing throughout the kingdom, it was scarcely heeded by the
ministry, the court, and the emigrants, who reposed with complacent
security on the volcano which they had kindled, and without
entertaining the slightest apprehension of the approaching explosion.
"If they wish to go out of the kingdom," said M. de Chateaubriand,
when alluding to the partisans of the Emperor, "if they wish to return
again, to receive or despatch letters, to send expresses, to make
proposals, to circulate false intelligence, and even to distribute
bribes, to assemble in secret or in public, to menace, to disseminate
libels, in short, to conspire against the government,--they are at
liberty to do their worst. The royal government, which began but eight
months ago, now rests upon so sure a basis, that, were it now to be
obstinate in repeating folly after folly, it would hold good in spite
of all its errors."
This infatuation, however, soon diminished. Without understanding the
full extent of the evil, the government ascertained that the army and
the nation were agitated and discontented, and they deliberated on the
methods which it would be proper to employ, not for the purpose of
conciliation, but for enforcing silence.
Acquainted with the uneasiness of the government, certain frantic
Chouans gave out that it was full time to despatch the Bonapartists.
One chieftain, celebrated in the annals of La Vendee, was even so
audacious as to declare to general Ex..... that he only waited for the
arrival of his faithful Vendeans, and then he would fall upon the
Jacobins.
The news of this massacre soon reached the ears of the intended
victims. Some quitted Paris, others armed themselves, and prepared to
sell their lives as dearly as they could. It is said that the
government became acquainted with the bloody conspiracy of the
Chouans, and that they relieved France and the world from the
spectacle of another St. Bartholomew's day.
This intended massacre (I have never been able to believe in it,)
persuaded the revolutionists that they could expect neither respite
nor mercy from the royalists, and that one of the two parties would be
compelled to destroy the other. The soldiers of Napoleon began to
unite, and to make themselves ready. The ministers were anxious to
disperse these assemblages, which gave them uneasiness; orders were
issued, by which all officers, whether of the staff or regimental,
were prohibited from residing at Paris without permission; and all who
were not Parisians by birth were ordered to return to their native
provinces. This measure increased the exasperation of the military,
and it did not diminish the danger. The reduced officers, instead of
conforming to the order, encouraged each other in disobedience.
According to the regulations of the war department, their contumacious
residence at Paris would subject them to the loss of their half-pay;
and many of them, though in poverty, preferred independence to
submission. The ministers were irritated by this resistance, and they
determined to make an example. It happened that a letter of
congratulation which General Excelmans addressed to his former
sovereign, the king of Naples, was intercepted. This opportunity was
gladly seized by the new Minister at war[25]. He put the General on
the half-pay list, and ordered him to retire immediately, and until
further orders, to the distance of sixty leagues from Paris. Excelmans
maintained that the Minister at war had no right to remove an officer,
not being in active service, from his domicile; and he would not go:
upon this he was immediately taken into custody. It was pretended that
he had been guilty of a traitorous intercourse with the enemies of the
King, and that he was also guilty of disobedience to his Majesty's
orders. The government expected that this blow would produce the best
possible effect; but it recoiled against them: Excelmans was known to
all France; he was valued as one of her bravest and most estimable
children. The spite and hatred of the ministers had loaded him with
accusations; but his alleged treasons, far from depriving him of
public esteem and public affection, only endeared him to his
companions in arms, and to the nation at large.
[Footnote 25: Marshal Soult had just succeeded
General Dupont.]
Excelmans was brought to trial, and the court acquitted him[26]. The
council of war, by sanctioning the disobedience of the General,
declared that the government did not possess that authority over
reduced officers which they had assumed; and from this moment the
government was ruined. The decision by which the half-pay military
were enfranchised, and which left them at liberty to brave the
commands of the government, was a shock which beat the royal authority
to the ground.
[Footnote 26: M. Comte, one of the acute and
courageous editors of the Censor, was chosen by the
general as his "counsel." General Fressinet was his
advocate. (According to the forms of the French
courts of judicature, the counsel assists by his
advice, the advocate pleads.) This officer, equally
distinguished by his firmness, his talents, and his
bravery, was afterwards punished and exiled on
account of the generous assistance which he gave on
this important occasion to General Excelmans, his
fellow soldier and friend.]
Here I shall stop. It would be of no further use to lengthen the
history and the investigation of the absurd tyranny of the government.
If we trace the progress of the principles successively enounced by
the ministry, and the actions of which they were the authors, we shall
see that they had formed and executed the project of re-establishing
the old monarchy, and of overturning the constitutional government
either by artifice or by main force. The royal charter was spurned by
them, and they trampled without scruple on the civil and political
rights which it consecrated. Every guarantee given to the army, the
magistracy, the public functionaries, or the nation, was forgotten,
attacked, or violated. Our national glory was insulted; public feeling
was wounded. The manners and customs and opinions of the new era were
all treated with harshness: all ranks and classes of citizens
experienced those vexations which filled them with discontent. By
injustice and bad faith the government deprived the King of our
confidence and love, and caused the restoration of the Emperor to
become the hope of the nation. In spite of the obstacles experienced
by the ministry, in spite of the affronts to which they had been
subjected, in spite of the retrograde steps which they had been
compelled to take, they still clung to the baneful system which they
had fostered; and, bigoted to these plans, they continued to persevere
in those errors which recalled Napoleon from his exile, just as
Napoleon persevered in the errors which recalled the Bourbons back
from theirs.
But whilst the storm was gathering in France, how was Napoleon
employed? Ambition had taken flight, and he was seen to prefer a life
of unostentatious retirement to all his former grandeurs. Repose had
greater charms for him than the noble turmoil of war; and his genius,
no longer teeming with meditation, yielded to the pleasures of
retirement. The study of botany, the cares of his household, the
plantations which he had made, and those which he was still planning,
beguiled his hours[27]; and, like the Roman Diocletian, he might have
said to those who suspected that he longed in secret after the throne,
"Come and see me in my retirement: I will show you the gardens which I
have planted, and you will talk no more to me about the empire."
[Footnote 27: It has been alleged, but without
foundation, that he retained his taste for military
exercises. Not one review took place during his
residence at Porto Ferrajo; arms seemed to have no
attractions for him.]
Napoleon, during the early part of his retirement in Elba, felt only a
vague desire of reigning. Grieved by the miseries of France, the
country which he loved so truly, wearied by the vicissitudes of
fortune, disgusted with mankind, he feared that, if he attempted to
seize the sceptre again, he should involve France and himself in new
troubles; and, without abandoning his expectation of re-ascending the
throne, he resolved to allow his resolutions to be guided by futurity.
The turn taken by public affairs soon roused the Emperor from this
state of indifference and hesitation. At first he hoped, and I have
heard him say so, that the Bourbons, instructed by adversity, would
confer liberty and happiness upon the nation. But when he witnessed
the power which was bestowed upon the priesthood, the emigrants, and
the courtiers, he foresaw that the very same causes which had produced
the first revolution, would soon occasion a second. From that period
he watched the continent; nor did he lose sight, even for a moment, of
the congress, or of France, or of the Bourbons. He could tell the
talents[28], the principles, the vices, and the virtues of all those
who had acquired the confidence of Louis XVIII, either by intrusion or
by favour. He could measure the degrees of influence which each was
capable of acquiring and exercising, and he calculated beforehand on
the errors which they would inevitably induce his docile successor to
commit.
[Footnote 28: It is well known that there was not a
single individual of note in the service, either of
his allies or of his enemies, whose strong and weak
points were not perfectly understood by Napoleon.]
Napoleon now employed himself again in reading the public journals of
France and of foreign countries; he read assiduously all periodical
works of a political tendency; he studied these productions; he
investigated them with acuteness, and he could well divine the meaning
of a writer who was compelled to be silent, and conjecture the nature
of intelligence which an editor was forced to suppress.
Strangers of distinction, and particularly the English, were received
by Napoleon with affability and kindness, and he used to talk freely
with his visitors on public affairs. He knew how to draw them out, and
to lead them to expatiate on points which he wished to penetrate; and
he seldom failed to obtain much useful information from those
interviews. By these simple methods Napoleon obtained a correct idea
of the events which were taking place on the continent; he was too
well acquainted with revolutions not to be sensible that the sway of
events would open the gates of France, and admit him; and he was too
wary to enter into a private correspondence with his partisans, when
any accident might have revealed his secret wishes, and have afforded
a pretext to his enemies for attacking his independence and his
liberty.
Napoleon thus waited in silence till the fated time of his
re-appearance in France should arrive, when a French Officer[29],
disguised as a sailor, disembarked at Porto Ferrajo.
[Footnote 29: This officer is the person who is
named in the declaration made on the 15th of March
to the prince of Essling, then governor of the 8th
military division, by Monsieur P*****, who landed
with Napoleon from the Isle of Elba, and was
arrested at Toulon by order of the prefect of the
department of the Var.]