The Emperor remained only a few days at Paris, after our return from
Italy, before setting out again for the camp of Boulogne. The fetes of
Milan had not prevented him from maturing his political plans, and it was
suspected that not without good reason had he broken down his horses
between Turin and Paris. These reasons were plainly evident, when it was
learned that Austria had entered secretly into the coalition of Russia
and England against the Emperor. The army collected in the camp of
Boulogne received orders to march on the Rhine, and his Majesty departed
to rejoin his troops about the end of September. As was his custom, he
informed us only an hour in advance of his departure; and it was curious
to observe the contrast of the confusion which preceded this moment with
the silence that followed it. Hardly was the order given, than each one
busied himself hastily with his own wants and those of his Majesty; and
nothing could be heard in the corridors but the sound of domestics coming
and going, the noise of cases being nailed down, and boxes being carried
out. In the courts appeared a great number of carriages and wagons, with
men harnessing them, the scene lighted by torches, and everywhere oaths
and cries of impatience; while the women, each in her own room, were
sadly occupied with the departure of husband, son, or brother. During
all these preparations the Emperor was making his adieux to her Majesty
the Empress, or taking a few moments of repose; but at the appointed hour
he rose, was dressed, and entered his carriage. Soon after everything
was silent in the chateau, and only a few isolated persons could be seen
flitting about like shadows; silence had succeeded to noise, solitude to
the bustle of a brilliant and numerous court. Next morning this deep
silence was broken only by a few scattered women who sought each other
with pale faces and eyes full of tears, to communicate their grief and
share their apprehensions. Many courtiers, who were not of the party,
arrived to make their court, and were stupefied on learning of his
Majesty's absence, feeling as if the sun could not have risen that day.
The Emperor went without halting as far as Strasburg; and the day after
his arrival in this town, the army began to file out over the bridge of
Kehl.
On the evening before this march, the Emperor had ordered the general
officers to be on the banks of the Rhine on the following day, at exactly
six in the morning. An hour before that set for the rendezvous, his
Majesty, notwithstanding the rain which fell in torrents, went alone to
the head of the bridge, to assure himself of the execution of the orders
he had given, and stood exposed to this rain without moving, till the
first divisions commenced to file out over the bridge. He was so
drenched that the drops which fell from his clothing ran down under his
horse, and there formed a little waterfall; and his cocked hat was so wet
that the back of it drooped over his shoulders, like the large felt hats
of the coal-burners of Paris. The generals whom he was awaiting gathered
around him; and when he saw them assembled, he said, "All goes well,
messieurs; this is a new step taken in the direction of our enemies; but
where is Vandamme? Why is he not here? Can he be dead?" No one said a
word. "Answer me, what has become of Vandamme?" General Chardon,
general of the vanguard, much loved by the Emperor, replied, "I think,
Sire, that General Vandamme is still asleep; we drank together last
evening a dozen bottles of Rhine wine, and doubtless"--"He does very well
to drink, sir; but he is wrong to sleep when I am waiting for him."
General Chardon prepared to send an aide-de-camp to his companion in
arms; but the Emperor prevented him, saying, "Let Vandamme sleep; I will
speak to him later." At this moment General Vandamme appeared. "Well,
here you are, sir; you seem to have forgotten the order that I gave
yesterday."--"Sire, this is the first time this has happened,
and"--"And to avoid a repetition of it, you will go and fight under the
banner of the King of Wurtemburg; I hope you will give them lessons in
sobriety."
General Vandamme withdrew, not without great chagrin, and repaired to the
army of Wurtemburg, where he performed prodigies of valor. After the
campaign he returned to the Emperor, his breast covered with decorations,
bearing a letter from the King of Wurtemburg to his Majesty, who, after
reading it, said to Vandamme: "General, never forget that, if I admire
the brave, I do not admire those who sleep while I await them." He
pressed the general's hand, and invited him to breakfast, in company with
General Chardon, who was as much gratified by this return to favor as was
his friend.
On the journey to Augsburg, the Emperor, who had set out in advance, made
such speed that his household could not keep up with him; and
consequently he passed the night, without attendants or baggage, in the
best house of a very poor village. When we reached his Majesty next day,
he received us laughing, and threatened to have us taken up as stragglers
by the provost guard.
From Augsburg the Emperor went to the camp before Ulm, and made
preparations to besiege that place.
A short distance from the town a fierce and obstinate engagement took
place between the French and Austrians, and had lasted two hours, when
cries of 'Vive l'Empereur!' were suddenly heard. This name, which
invariably carried terror into the enemy's ranks, and always imparted
fresh courage to our soldiers, now electrified them to such an extent
that they put the Austrians to flight, while the Emperor showed himself
in the front ranks, crying "Forward," and making signs to the soldiers to
advance, his Majesty's horse disappearing from time to time in the smoke
of the cannon. During this furious charge, the Emperor found himself
near a grenadier who was terribly wounded; and yet this brave fellow
still shouted with the others, "Forward! forward!"
The Emperor drew near him, and threw his military cloak over him, saying,
"Try to bring it back to me, and I will give you in exchange the cross
that you have just won." The grenadier, who knew that he was mortally
wounded, replied that the shroud he had just received was worth as much
as the decoration, and expired, wrapped in the imperial mantle.
At the close of the battle, the Emperor had this grenadier, who was also
a veteran of the army of Egypt, borne from the field, and ordered that he
should be interred in the cloak.
Another soldier, not less courageous than the one of whom I have just
spoken, also received from his Majesty marks of distinction. The day
after the combat before Ulm, the Emperor, in visiting the ambulances, had
his attention attracted by a, cannoneer of light artillery, who had lost
one leg, but in spite of this was still shouting with all his might,
'Vive l'Empereur!' He approached the soldier and said to him, "Is this,
then, all that you have to say to me?"--"No, Sire, I can also tell you
that I, I alone, have dismounted four pieces of the Austrian cannon; and
it is the pleasure of seeing them silenced which makes me forget that I
must soon close my eyes forever." The Emperor, moved by such fortitude,
gave his cross to the cannoneer, noted the names of his parents, and said
to him, "If you recover, the Hotel des Invalides is at your service."
"Thanks, Sire, but the loss of blood has been too great; my pension will
not cost you very dear; I know well that I must soon be off duty, but
long live the Emperor all the same!" Unfortunately this brave man
realized his real condition only too well, for he did not survive the
amputation of his leg.
We followed the Emperor into Ulm after the occupation of that place, and
saw a hostile army of more than thirty thousand men lay down their arms
at the feet of his Majesty, as they defiled before him; and I have never
beheld a more imposing sight. The Emperor was seated on his horse, a few
steps in front of his staff, his countenance wearing a calm and grave
expression, in spite of which the joy which filled his heart was apparent
in his glance.
He raised his hat every moment to return the salutes of the superior
officers of the Austrian troops. When the Imperial Guard entered
Augsburg, eighty grenadiers marched at the head of the columns, each
bearing a banner of the enemy.
The Emperor, on his arrival at Munich, was welcomed with the greatest
respect by his ally, the Elector of Bavaria. His Majesty went several
times to the theater and the hunt, and gave a concert to the ladies of
the court. It was, as has been since ascertained, during this stay of
the Emperor at Munich that the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia
pledged themselves at Potsdam, on the tomb of Frederick the Great, to
unite their efforts against his Majesty.
A year later Napoleon also made a visit to the tomb of the great
Frederick.
The taking of Ulm had finished the conquest of the Austrians, and opened
to the Emperor the gates of Vienna: but meanwhile the Russians were
advancing by forced marches to the help of their allies; his Majesty
hastened to meet them, and the 1st of December the two hostile armies
found themselves face to face. By one of those happy coincidences made
only for the Emperor, the day of the battle of Austerlitz was also the
anniversary of the coronation.
I do not remember why there was no tent for the Emperor at Austerlitz;
but the soldiers made a kind of barrack of limbs of trees, with an
opening in the top for the passage of the smoke. His Majesty, though he
had only straw for his bed, was so exhausted after having passed the day
on horseback on the heights of Santon, that on the eve of the battle he
was sleeping soundly, when General Savary, one of his aides-de-camp,
entered, to give an account of the mission with which he had been
charged; and the general was obliged to touch his shoulder, and shake
him, in order to rouse him. He then rose, and mounted his horse to visit
his advance posts. The night was dark; but the whole camp was lighted up
as if by enchantment, for each soldier put a bundle of straw on the end
of his bayonet, and all these firebrands were kindled in less time than
it takes to describe it. The Emperor rode along the whole line, speaking
to those soldiers whom he recognized. "Be to-morrow what you have always
been, my brave fellows," said he, "and the Russians are ours; we have
them!" The air resounded with cries of 'Vive l'Empereur', and there was
neither officer nor soldier who did not count on a victory next day.
His Majesty, on visiting the line of battle, where there had been no
provisions for forty-eight hours (for that day there had been distributed
only one loaf of ammunition bread for every eight men), saw, while
passing from bivouac to bivouac, soldiers roasting potatoes in the ashes.
Finding himself before the Fourth Regiment of the line, of which his
brother was colonel, the Emperor said to a grenadier of the second
battalion, as he took from the fire and ate one of the potatoes of the
squad, "Are you satisfied with these pigeons?"--"Humph! They are at least
better than nothing; though they are very much like Lenten food."--"Well,
old fellow," replied his Majesty to the soldier, pointing to the fires of
the enemy, "help me to dislodge those rascals over there, and we will
have a Mardi Gras at Vienna."
The Emperor returned to his quarters, went to bed again, and slept until
three o'clock in the morning, while his suite collected around a bivouac
fire near his Majesty's barracks, and slept on the ground, wrapped in
their cloaks, for the night was extremely cold. For four days I had not
closed my eyes, and I was just falling asleep, when about three o'clock
the Emperor asked me for punch. I would have given the whole empire of
Austria to have rested another hour; but notwithstanding this, I carried
his Majesty the punch, which I made by the bivouac fire, and the Emperor
insisted that Marshal Berthier should also partake of it; the remainder I
divided with the attendants. Between four and five o'clock the Emperor
ordered the first movements of his army, and all were on foot in a few
moments, and each at his post; aides-de-camp and orderly officers were
seen galloping in all directions, and the battle was begun.
I will not enter into the details of this glorious day, which, according
to the expression of the Emperor himself, terminated the campaign by a
thunderbolt. Not one of the plans of the Emperor failed in execution,
and in a few hours the French were masters of the field of battle and of
the whole of Germany.
The brave General Rapp was wounded at Austerlitz, as he was in every
battle in which he took part, and was carried to the chateau of
Austerlitz, where the Emperor visited him in the evening, and returned to
pass the night in the chateau.
Two days after, the Emperor Francis sought an audience of his Majesty, to
demand peace; and before the end of December a treaty was concluded, by
which, the Elector of Bavaria and the Duke of Wurtemburg, faithful allies
of the Emperor Napoleon, were made kings. In return for this elevation,
of which he alone was the author, his Majesty demanded and obtained for
Prince Eugene, viceroy of Italy, the hand of the Princess Augusta Amelia
of Bavaria.
During his sojourn at Vienna, the Emperor had established his
headquarters at Schoenbrunn, the name of which has become celebrated by
the numerous sojourns of his Majesty there, and is to-day, by a singular
coincidence, the residence of his son. [The Duke de Reichstadt, born
King of Rome, died July, 1832, soon after Constant wrote.]
I am not certain whether it was during this first sojourn at Schoenbrunn
that his Majesty had the extraordinary encounter that I shall now relate.
His Majesty, in the uniform of colonel of the chasseurs of the guard,
rode every day on horseback, and one morning, while on the road to
Vienna, saw approaching a clergyman, accompanied by a woman weeping
bitterly, who did not recognize him. Napoleon approached the carriage,
and inquired the cause of her grief, and the object and end of her
journey. "Monsieur," replied she, "I live at a village two leagues from
here, in a house which has been pillaged by soldiers, and my gardener has
been killed. I am now on my way to demand a safeguard from your Emperor,
who knew my family well, and is under great obligations to them."--"What
is your name, Madame?"--"De Bunny. I am the daughter of Monsieur de
Marbeuf, former governor of Corsica."--"I am charmed, Madame," replied
Napoleon, "to find an opportunity of serving you. I am the Emperor."
Madame de Bunny remained speechless with astonishment; but Napoleon
reassured her, and continuing his route, requested her to go on and await
him at his headquarters. On his return he received her, and treated her
with remarkable kindness, gave her an escort of the chasseurs of the
guard, and dismissed her happy and satisfied.
As soon as the day of Austerlitz was gained, the Emperor hastened to send
the courier Moustache to France to announce the news to the Empress, who
was then at the chateau of Saint-Cloud. It was nine o'clock in the
evening when loud cries of joy were suddenly heard, and the galloping of
a horse at full speed, accompanied by the sound of bells, and repeated
blows of the whip which announced a courier. The Empress, who was
awaiting with the greatest impatience news from the army, rushed to the
window, opened it hurriedly, and the words victory and Austerlitz fell on
her ears. Eager to know the details, she ran down the steps, followed by
her ladies; and Moustache in the most excited manner related the
marvelous news, and handed her Majesty the Emperor's letter, which
Josephine read, and then drawing a handsome diamond ring from her finger,
gave it to the courier. Poor Moustache had galloped more than fifty
leagues that day, and was so exhausted that he had to be lifted from his
horse and placed in bed, which it required four persons to accomplish.
His last horse, which he had doubtless spared less than the others, fell
dead in the court of the chateau.