education. I acknowledge it; but as to the world and its perils, one
learns them only too soon, and I will say frankly she was only eighteen,
and I wanted to preserve her innocence, and cared only that she should
have a loving heart, an honest nature, and clear ideas about what she
did know. I have entrusted her to Your Majesty. I beg you, as her
mother, to be my daughter's friend and guide, as she is your devoted
wife. She will be happy if Your Majesty will always confidently appeal
to her; for, I say once more, she is young and too inexperienced to face
the world's dangers and to fill her position understandingly. But I
perceive that I am wearying Your Majesty with this long letter. You will
pardon this outpouring of a mother's heart, which knows no bounds when a
beloved daughter's happiness is concerned. I must say one thing more.
Your Majesty sets too high a value on my eagerness to satisfy you by
letting you have the portrait of my dear Louise. I was too anxious to
please you as soon as possible, not to be selfish in this matter, but I
shall certainly thoroughly appreciate the portrait you promise me. It
will have this advantage, that it will show me how happy she is."
It must be said that seldom has a step-mother spoken of her
step-daughter in a more tender and more touching way. No letter could
have better pleased Napoleon; it was not written in official style, with
all the formal compliments, but rather with affectionate sincerity. When
he read it, Napoleon must have felt that he had at last really entered
the brotherhood of kings. Everything she had said of her step-daughter
was true. The young Empress of the French had a candor, a simplicity, a
freshness of mind and body, which delighted her husband. Doubtless the
feeling she inspired was not a fiery, romantic passion such as he had
felt for his first wife; and Marie Louise, with her northern beauty,
had not the same charm as Josephine, the bewitching creole. Napoleon
certainly would not have written to his second wife burning letters, in
the style of the _Nouvelle Héloise_, such as he sent to Josephine during
the first Italian campaign. His love for Marie Louise was less fervent,
but he esteemed her more highly. He thought that the society of the
Austrian court was after all a better school for a wife than the society
of the Directory, and he had found in Marie Louise, a girl worthy of all
regard, one invaluable blessing, one treasure which a widow, charming,
it is true, but a coquette, lacked; namely, innocence.
XVI.
THE TRIP IN THE NORTH.
"Napoleon and Marie Louise left Compiègne April 27, 1810, at seven
o'clock in the morning, to make a journey in several of the northern
departments, which was one long ovation. In their suite were the Grand
Duke of Würzburg, brother of the Emperor of Austria, the Queen of
Naples, the King and Queen of Westphalia, Prince Eugene de Beauharnais,
Prince Schwarzenberg, and Count Metternich. The last-named says in his
Memoirs: 'I was an eye-witness of the enthusiasm with which the young
Empress was everywhere greeted by the populace. At Saint Quentin
Napoleon formally expressed his desire that I should be present at an
audience to which he had summoned the authorities of the city. 'I should
like to show you,' he said, 'how I am accustomed to speak to these
people.' I saw that the Emperor was anxious to let me see the extent and
variety of his knowledge of matters of administration.'"
Those who care to know the adulation offered to Napoleon and Marie
Louise on this expedition should read the following passage from M.
de Bausset's Memoirs: "Their Majesties went off to visit some of the
northern departments, in order to give Paris and all the great bodies
of the State the time required for preparing the festivities which
circumstances made necessary. It was a triumphal march. The provinces
greeted their young and beautiful Empress with enthusiasm. Amid all the
brilliant tokens of respect, one attracted especial notice. It was a
little hamlet, with a triumphal arch, bearing the simplest inscriptions.
On the front was written _Pater Noster_; on the reverse, _Ave Maria,
gratiâ plena_. The mayor and the village priest presented wild-flowers.
Flattery could have devised no more delicate attention." Thus we have M.
de Bausset finding it simple to compare the Emperor to the Almighty and
the Empress to the Blessed Virgin. Was not this a sign of the times?
Thiers says of this journey: "The populace, glad of a break in their
monotonous lives, hasten to meet their princes, whoever they may be, and
are often lavish of their applause on the very brink of a catastrophe.
Whenever Napoleon appeared anywhere, curiosity and admiration were
strong enough to gather a multitude; and when he had rounded out
his wonderful destiny by marrying an archduchess, the interest and
enthusiasm were all the greater. Indeed, everywhere he appeared, their
raptures were warm and unanimous."
Starting from Compiègne April 27, the Emperor and Empress reached Saint
Quentin the same day. The canal connecting the Seine with the Scheldt
was illuminated, and Napoleon and his court sailed over it in gondolas
richly decked with flags. On the 30th of April they embarked on the
canal which goes from Brussels to the Ruppel, and by the Ruppel to the
Scheldt. The First Lord of the Admiralty and Admiral Missiessy were in
command of the Imperial flotilla. When they arrived in sight of the
squadron of Antwerp, which Napoleon had created, all the ships,
frigates, corvettes, gunboats, were drawn up in line, and Marie Louise
passed under the fire of a thousand cannon thundering in her honor.
When the sovereigns entered the city, the throng was most dense. "It
expressed," the _Moniteur_ tells us, "the gratitude of the inhabitants
for its second founder. It was impossible not to make a comparison
between the present condition of the port and city of Antwerp with its
condition seven years before, on His Majesty's first visit."
At Antwerp they made a stay of five days, which the Emperor, who was
on his horse at sunrise, spent in visiting the works of the port, the
arsenal, the fortifications, in holding reviews, in inspecting the
fleet. May 2 there was launched a ship of eighty guns, the largest ship
that had ever been built on the stocks of this port. It was blessed
by the Archbishop of Mechlin. According to the Baron de Méneval, "the
Empress was affable, simple, and unpretentious. Possibly the memory of
Josephine's charm and earnest desire to please was a misfortune to Marie
Louise. Her reserve might have been attributed to German family pride,
but that would have been a mistake; no one was ever simpler or less
haughty. Her natural timidity and her unfamiliarity with the part she
had to play, alone gave her an air of stiffness. She was so thoroughly
identified with her new position and so touched by the regard and
affection with which the Emperor was treated, that when he proposed to
her to stay at Antwerp while he was visiting the islands of the Zuyder
Zee, she besought him to take her with him, undeterred by any fear of
the fatigues of the journey." Consequently Napoleon started with her to
visit Bois-le-Duc, Berg-op-Zoom, Breda, Middelburg, Flushing, and the
island of Walcheren, which the English had evacuated four months before.
At Breda the Emperor soundly abused a deputation of the Catholic clergy
whom he knew to be opposed to him. "Gentlemen," he broke out, "why
are you not in sacerdotal garments? Are you attorneys, notaries, or
physicians? ... Render unto Caesar the things which are Caesar's. The
Pope is not Caesar; I am. It is not to the Pope, but to me, that God has
given a sceptre and a sword.... Ah, you are unwilling to pray for me. Is
it because a Roman priest has excommunicated me? But who gave him any
such power? Who has the power to release subjects from their oath of
allegiance to the legally appointed ruler? No one; and you ought to know
it.... Renounce the hope of putting me in a convent and of shaving
my head, like Louis the Debonair, and submit yourselves; for I am
Caesar! If you don't, I shall banish you from my empire, and scatter
you over the surface of the earth like the Jews.... You belong to the
diocese of Mechlin; go to your bishop; take your oath before him, obey
the Concordat, and then I will see what commands I shall have to give
you."
After visiting the towns on the frontier, as well as the islands of
Tholen, Schomven, North and South Beveland, and Walcheren, Napoleon,
constantly accompanied by Marie Louise, ascended the Scheldt once more,
merely passed through Antwerp, made a brief stop at Brussels, spent
three days at the castle of Lacken, and hastily ran through Ghent,
Bruges, Ostend, Dunkirk, Lille, Calais, Dieppe, Havre, and Rouen.
June 1, 1810, they were back at Saint Cloud. The Baron de Méneval tells
us that Marie Louise was extremely delighted with the way she had been
greeted throughout this journey. Everywhere she had been received under
arches of triumph, with countless festivities, balls, illuminations, and
every token of the popular enthusiasm and affection, so that "she was
able to appreciate the French character, and to decide that she would
readily grow accustomed to a country where the devotion of the people to
their sovereign, the enormous influence he wielded, and the affection he
bore to them, as well as theirs for his cause, filled her with hopes for
a happy life." Napoleon's life at that time was one long deification.
Louis XIV. himself, the Sun-King, had never received more flattery in
prose and verse. All the official poets had tuned their lyres to sing
his marriage, and the _Moniteur_ was full of dithyrambs. It also
published a translation of an Italian cantata entitled, "_La Jerogamia
di Creta, Inno del Cavaliere Vincenzo Monti_," which began thus: "The
silence of Olympus is broken up by the noisy neighing of coursers and by
the prolonged and disturbing rattle of swift chariots. The Immortals
descend to the banks of the Gnossus to celebrate with fitting rites the
new marriage of the ruler of the gods." It ended thus: "The waves of two
seas, in motion, though no wind blows, roar in terror, and Neptune,
alarmed, feels with surprise his trident tremble in his hand. If such is
the sport of the monarch of thunder when he yields to the sweets of
Hymen, what will it be when he again grasps the thunderbolt? Divine
nurses of Jove, bees of Mount Panacra, ah! distil upon my verses, from
the summit of Dicte, one drop of the sweet-savored honey, food of the
King of Heaven, that my August sovereign, whose soul is like Jupiter's,
may find some pleasure in hearing them!"
Napoleon seemed to rule the present and the future. Even those who had
fought against him had become his courtiers. The most illustrious of
these, the Archduke Charles, to whom he had just sent the broad ribbon
of the Legion of Honor, as well as a simple cross of a knight, which was
more precious because he himself had worn it, wrote to him: "Sire, Your
Majesty's Ambassador has transmitted to me the decorations of the Legion
of Honor, and the affectionate letter with which you have honored me.
Being deeply impressed by these tokens of your goodwill, I hasten to
express to Your Majesty my sincere gratitude, which is only equalled by
my admiration for Your Majesty's great qualities. The esteem of a great
man is the fairest flower of the field of honor, and I have always
jealously desired, Sire, to merit yours."
A stranger thing yet: even the Spanish Bourbons, the victims of the
Bayonne treachery, the princes whom Napoleon had ousted, set no limits
to their adulation. Nowhere was the Emperor's marriage with Marie
Louise celebrated with greater show of enthusiasm than at the castle of
Valençay, where Ferdinand III. was living. The Spanish Prince had a _Te
Deum_ sung in the chapel; he gave a banquet, at which he proposed this
toast: "To the health of our August Sovereigns, the great Napoleon and
Marie Louise, his August spouse." In the evening there were magnificent
fireworks. He chose that moment when his subjects were exposing
themselves to every danger, welcoming every sacrifice in their bitter
war in his name, against the French, to beg Napoleon to adopt him as his
son and to concede to him the honor of letting him appear at court.
XVII.
THE MONTH OF JUNE, 1810.
The whole month of June was filled with a succession of brilliant
festivities. Under the Empire things were not done by halves; battles or
balls, everything was on a vast scale. "Never," says Alfred de Musset,
"were there so many sleepless nights as during this man's lifetime;
never was there such a silence when any one spoke of death: and yet,
never was there so much joy, so much life, so much warlike feeling in
every heart; never had there been a brighter sun than that which dried
so much blood. It was said that God had created it for this man, and
it was called the sun of Austerlitz; but he made it himself with his
ever-roaring cannon, that dispelled the clouds on the morrow of his
victories."
The entertainment given to the Emperor and Empress by the city of Paris,
June 10, was magnificent. There were great rejoicings in the capital
on that day. In the afternoon there were public sports in the Champs
Élysées, and dancing in the open places and the long walks. With
nightfall the illuminations began. A troupe of mountebanks performed
on a huge stage a ballet in pantomime, called the "Union of Mars and
Flora." There were as many as five hundred performers. There were bands
playing in every direction, and food was distributed to the contented
multitude. From the Arc to the Tuileries, from the Tuileries to the
Louvre, from the Louvre to the Hôtel de Ville, the spectacle was really
fairy-like. Napoleon and Marie Louise, starting from Saint Cloud at
eight in the evening, made their way, in torchlight, through a countless
multitude. Their approach was announced to the people by the sudden
ascent of a balloon, from which fireworks were discharged. At half-past
nine they reached the Hôtel de Ville. Nearly a thousand persons had
gathered in the concert hall, almost three thousand in the record room,
the Hall of Saint John, and in the semicircular place in front, opposite
the spot, on the left bank of the Seine, where the fireworks were to be
set off at a signal of Napoleon and Marie Louise. These fireworks were
divided into three parts, representing a military scene, the Temple of
Peace, and the Temple of Hymen. In the first there were two forts which
soldiers were assaulting, firing their guns amid the sound of trumpets
and the rattle of drums. The forts were discharging shells and bullets,
which burst into flame, and were reflected in the water before they fell
into the river. When the two forts were captured, they disappeared in a
great blaze. Then the ship, the symbol of the city of Paris, appeared
and took its station between two columns of light. The decoration
changed, and first the Temple of Peace was seen, then that of
Hymen--a real pyrotechnic masterpiece. After the fireworks the Emperor
and Empress went first into the record room, then into the concert hall,
where was sung a cantata, with words by Arnault and music by Méhul,
which began with this apostrophe to the Empress:--
"From the throne where our homage rises to you,
From the throne where beauty reigns by the side of courage,
And Minerva by the side of Mars,
On these shores of which love has made you sovereign,
On these happy shores adorned by the Seine,
Louise, cast thy glance."
After the cantata a ball began. Napoleon did not dance, but Marie Louise
did. The first quadrille was thus made up: the Empress and the King
of Westphalia, the Queen of Naples and the Viceroy of Italy, Princess
Pauline Borghese and Prince Esterhazy, Mademoiselle de Saint-Gilles and
M. de Nicolaï. The second quadrille: the Queen of Westphalia and Prince
Borghese, the Princess of Baden and Count Metternich, the Princess
Aldobrandini and M. de Montaran, Madame Blaque de Belair and M. Mallet.
The Emperor descended from his throne and walked through the room,
exchanging a few words with a great many people. About midnight he
withdrew with the Empress. At two o'clock supper was served: at this
fifteen hundred ladies were present, and the ball went on till daybreak.
Princess Pauline Borghese gave a very brilliant entertainment June 14,
at the castle of Neuilly. At the end of an illuminated lawn appeared
the Austrian palace of Laxenburg, and the ballet consisted of dancers
arrayed like peasants of the neighborhood of Vienna. June 21, another
great ball was given by the Duke of Feltre, the Minister of War. But
the finest, the most original, the grandest ball, was that given by the
Imperial Guard at the Champ de Mars and the Military School, at that
time called the Napoleon quarter. Marie Louise was thoroughly delighted
with it; she said she had never seen anything so magnificent. Never had
Rome under the Caesars seen a more gorgeous spectacle. For many months
the public had been watching the vast preparations for this event. Two
wings had been added to the Military School, large enough to hold eight
thousand persons. The main courtyard had been transformed into a garden
in which were set out numberless orange-trees, shrubs, and flowers. The
officers of the Guard, who were models of French politeness, received
the ladies at the entrance of this garden, offering each one a
bouquet, and escorted them to the galleries which led to the two newly
constructed buildings, one of which was the ball-room; the other, the
supper-room. The ball-room was shaped like a tent, and the ceiling was
decorated with the signs of the Zodiac and allegorical representation of
a triumph. A throne was set there, above seven rows of seats. All around
the room hung muslin draperies, on which were embroidered gold bees and
branches of myrtle and laurel. When the Emperor and Empress appeared at
seven o'clock, three thousand women, each with a bouquet in her hand,
rose at once. It seemed like a living flower-garden. The wives of the
most illustrious officers of the Guard, the Duchess of Dalmatia, of
Treviso, of Istria, Countess Walter, Dorsenne, Curial, Saint-Sulpice,
Lefebore, Desnonettes, Krasenska, Baronesses Kirgener, Lubenska, Guiot,
Gros, Delaistre and Lepic, had been chosen to escort the Empress.
Marshal Bessières, Duke of Istria, presented her with a magnificent
bouquet.
Meanwhile the Champ de Mars, which was covered with flags, was filled
with three or four hundred thousand spectators, who had assembled
quietly, without crowding, on the terrace, the amphitheatres, and in the
walks. When Napoleon and Marie Louise showed themselves on the balcony
of the Military School, there broke out loud applause. Afterwards dinner
was served to the Imperial family. When that was finished, they gave the
signal for the horse and chariot races. Franconi's equestrian troupe
gave performances in the intervals. When all the prizes had been given,
a balloon, carrying a woman, Madame Blanchard, made an ascent. She
saluted the Imperial pair, waved a flag, threw down flowers, and
speedily attained a great height. Then there were fireworks. Amid
rockets, bombs, and shooting-stars, two pretty young women walked up and
down on the tight rope, like magical apparitions, amid the encircling
flames. After the fireworks a ballet was performed by the dancers from
the Opera, under the direction of Gardel; it represented the different
nations of Europe in their national dress. After the ballet came the
ball, which was most animated. Napoleon and Marie Louise left towards
midnight, escorted to their carriage by most of the guests, who cheered,
and did not return to the ball-room until the Emperor and Empress
had gone out of sight. This exceptional entertainment was favored by
pleasant weather and a bright night; the moon and the stars seemed to
rival the illuminations. The main courtyard, filled with trees and
flowers, was like the enchanted garden of Armida, where one walked amid
delicious music. At two in the morning the doors of the supper-room were
opened, a large bower of gilded trellis work, with Corinthian columns,
and a roof covered with frescoes representing groups of children
sporting in the air amid flowers and garlands. About fifteen hundred
people sat down to table.
The Imperial Guard had every reason to be proud of its entertainment.
The officers, young, brilliant, devoted to pleasure as to glory,
found their life more joyous as war threatened to make it short. They
displayed the same ardor, the same enthusiasm, in the ball-room as on
the battle-field. They loved the smell of flowers as much as the smell
of gunpowder. Every form of conquest tempted them, and they revived the
customs of chivalry. In the language of the time, there flourished the
twofold reign of Mars and Venus. In those heroic days courage was set
higher than wealth. The women, with few exceptions, were indifferent to
money; they did not think that an honorable scar disfigured a soldier's
face, and the disinterested kindness of a beauty was the reward of
bravery.
XVIII.
THE BALL AT THE AUSTRIAN EMBASSY.
The series of grand entertainments which had been given in Paris was
to be concluded by a ball, which Prince Schwarzenberg, the Austrian
Ambassador, was to give at the Embassy, July 1, 1810, to the Emperor and
Empress; it had been announced that this was to be a marvel of luxury,
elegance, and good taste. The Ambassador lived in the rue de la
Chaussée d'Antin, in a mansion formerly belonging to the Marchioness
of Montesson, widow of the Duke of Orleans, to whom this lady had been
united by a morganatic marriage. Great preparations had been made with
extraordinary magnificence. Since the ground floor of the house was too
small, a large ball-room of wood had been built, reached by a gallery,
also of wood, leading from the body of the house. The ceiling of this
gallery was covered with varnished paper, decorated and painted; the
floor-boards, which were supported on a framework, were raised to the
same height as the floors of the house. A large chandelier hung from the
ceiling of the ball-room. The sides and the circuit of the gallery were
lit by candelabra fastened to the walls. A high platform was reserved
for the Imperial family, in the centre of the right-hand side of the
ball-room, directly opposite a large door opening on the garden.
Behind the platform was a small door reserved for the sovereigns.
The Ambassador and his wife had staying with them his brother and
sister-in-law, Prince Joseph and Princess Pauline Schwarzenberg, who
were to help him in doing the honors of the ball.
Napoleon and Marie Louise, who started from Saint Cloud, reached the
gates of Paris at quarter to ten; there they got into another carriage,
and soon after ten were at the door of the Embassy, where the Ambassador
received them. The Emperor wore over his coat the broad Austrian ribbon
of Saint Stephen.
The grand ball was opened; a troupe of musicians in the court of honor
sounded a flourish of trumpets at the entrance of Their Majesties, who
passed through the concert hall into the garden, where they stopped a
moment before the Temple of Apollo. There women, dressed to resemble the
Muses, sang a joyous chorus. Napoleon and Marie Louise passed slowly
along a water-walk, where hidden music issued from a subterranean
grotto, to a vine-clad arbor adorned with mirrors, monograms, flowers,
and wreaths, and listened to a concert of vocal and instrumental music,
French and German; then they went further into the garden, stopping
before a Temple of Glory, where were four handsome women representing
Victory, the muse Clio, and Renown; then trumpets sounded, triumphal
songs were sung, and perfumes were burning on golden tripods. Then they
turned to see a delightful ballet danced on the greensward, with a view
of the Palace of Laxenburg--so dear to Marie Louise--in the background;
that done, they entered the wooden gallery just put up before the front
of the mansion, and finally entered the ball-room, which was large
enough to hold about fifteen hundred people.