intrigues;[60] and when, in 1799, Bonaparte seized supreme power the
fair lady[61] invaded Barras in his bath to inform him of it; but
found her indolent Ulysses only capable of ejaculating, "What can be
done? that man has taken us all in!" Napoleon probably remembered
this, and may refer to her rather than to the Queen of Prussia in the
next letter, where he makes severe strictures on intriguing women.
Moreover, Napoleon in his early campaigns had played a ridiculous part
in some of Gillray's most indecent cartoons, where Mmes. Tallien and
Josephine took with Barras the leading roles; and as Madame Tallien
was not considered respectable in 1796, she was hardly a fit friend
for the Empress of the French ten years later. In the interval this
lady, divorced a second time, had married the Prince de Chimay
(Caraman). Napoleon knew also that she had been the mistress of
Ouvrard, the banker, who in his Spanish speculations a few months
earlier had involved the Bank of France to the tune of four millions
sterling, and forced Napoleon to make a premature peace after
Austerlitz. The Emperor had returned at white heat to Paris, and
wished he could build a gallows for Ouvrard high enough for him to be
on view throughout France. Madame Tallien's own father, M. de
Cabarrus, was a French banker in Spain, and probably in close relation
with Ouvrard.
No. 10.
Written from Berlin.
_The bad things I say about women._--Napoleon looked upon this as a
woman's war, and his temper occasionally gets the mastery of him. No
war had ever been so distasteful to him or so personal. Prussia, whose
alliance he had been courting for nearly ten years, was now worthless
to him, and all because of petticoat government at Berlin. In the
Fifteenth Bulletin (dated Wittenburg, October 23rd) he states that
the Queen had accused her husband of cowardice in order to bring about
the war. But it is doubtless the Sixteenth Bulletin (dated Potsdam,
October 25th) to which Josephine refers, and which refers to the oath
of alliance of the Emperor Alexander and the King of Prussia in the
death chamber of Frederick the Great. "It is from this moment that the
Queen quitted the care of her domestic concerns and the serious
occupations of the toilet in order to meddle with the affairs of
State." He refers to a Berlin caricature of the scene which was at the
time in all the shops, "exciting even the laughter of clodhoppers."
The handsome Emperor of Russia was portrayed, by his side the Queen,
and on his other side the King of Prussia with his hand raised above
the tomb of the Great Frederick; the Queen herself, draped in a shawl
nearly as the London engravings represent Lady Hamilton, pressing her
hand on her heart, and apparently gazing upon the Emperor of Russia."
In the Eighteenth Bulletin (October 26th) it is said the Prussian
people did not want war, that a handful of women and young officers
had alone made this "tapage," and that the Queen, "formerly a timid
and modest woman looking after her domestic concerns," had become
turbulent and warlike, and had "conducted the monarchy within a few
days to the brink of the precipice."
As the Queen of Prussia was a beautiful woman, she has had nearly as
many partisans as Mary Stuart or Marie Antoinette, but with far less
cause. Napoleon, who was the incarnation of practical common sense,
saw in her the first cause of the war, and considered that so far as
verbal flagellation could punish her, she should have it. He had
neither time nor sympathy for the "Please you, do not hurt us"
attitude of a bellicose new woman, who, as Imogen or Ida, have played
with edged tools from the time of Shakespeare to that of Sullivan.
As an antidote, however, to his severe words against women he put,
perhaps somewhat ostentatiously, the Princess d'Hatzfeld episode in
his Twenty-second Bulletin (Berlin, October 29th). A year later
(November 26th, 1807), when his Old Guard return to Paris and free
performances are given at all the theatres, there is the "Triumph of
Trajan" at the Opera, where Trajan, burning with his own hand the
papers enclosing the secrets of a conspiracy, is a somewhat skilful
allusion to the present episode.
No. 11.
Magdeburg had surrendered on November 8th, with 20 generals, 800
officers and 22,000 men, 800 pieces of cannon, and immense stores.
_Lubeck._--This capitulation was that of Blucher, who had escaped
after Jena through a rather dishonourable ruse. It had taken three
army corps to hem him in.
No. 13.
Written from Berlin, but not included in the _Correspondence_.
_Madame L----_, _i.e._ Madame de la Rochefoucauld, a third or fourth
cousin (by her first marriage) of Josephine, and her chief lady of
honour. She was an incorrigible Royalist, and hated Napoleon; but as
she had been useful at the Tuileries in establishing the Court,
Napoleon, as usual, could not make up his mind to cause her dismissal.
In 1806, however, she made Josephine miserable and Mayence unbearable.
She foretold that the Prussians would win every battle, and even after
Jena she (to use an expression of M. Masson), "continued her music on
the sly" (_en sourdine_). See Letters 19 and 26 of this Series.
No. 17.
_December 2_, the anniversary of Austerlitz (1805) and of Napoleon's
coronation (1804). He now announces to his soldiers the Polish
campaign.
No. 18.
Not in the _Correspondence_.
_Jealousy._--If Josephine's letters and conduct had been a little more
worthy of her position, she might have saved herself. Madame Walewski,
who had not yet appeared on the scene.
No. 19.
_Desir de femme est un feu qui devore._--The quotation is given in
Jung's "Memoirs of Lucien" (vol. ii. 62). "Ce qu'une femme desire est
un feu qui consume, celui d'une reine un vulcan qui devore."
No. 23.
_I am dependent on events._--He says the same at St. Helena.
"Throughout my whole reign I was the keystone of an edifice entirely
new, and resting on the most slender foundations. Its duration
depended on the issue of my battles. I was never, in truth, master of
my own movements; I was never at my own disposal."
No. 26.
_The fair ones of Great Poland._--If Berthier and other regular
correspondents of Josephine were like Savary in their enthusiasm, no
wonder the Mayence coterie began to stir up jealousy. Here is the
description of the Duke of Rovigo (vol. ii. 17): "The stay at Warsaw
had for us something of witchery; even with regard to amusements it
was practically the same life as at Paris: the Emperor had his concert
twice a week, at the end of which he held a reception, where many of
the leading people met. A great number of ladies from the best
families were admired alike for the brilliancy of their beauty, and
for their wonderful amiability. One may rightly say that the Polish
ladies inspired with jealousy the charming women of every other
civilised clime. They united, for the most part, to the manners of
good society a fund of information which is not commonly found even
among Frenchwomen, and is very far above anything we see in towns,
where the custom of meeting in public has become a necessity. It
seemed to us that the Polish ladies, compelled to spend the greater
part of the year in their country-houses, applied themselves there to
reading as well as to the cultivation of their talents, and it was
thus that in the chief towns, where they went to pass the winter, they
appeared successful over all their rivals." St. Amand says: "In the
intoxication of their enthusiasm and admiration, the most beautiful
among them--and Poland is the country of beauty--lavished on him,
like sirens, their most seducing smiles...." Josephine was right to be
jealous, for, as the artist Baron Lejeune adds, "They were, moreover,
as graceful as the Creole women so often are."
_A wretched barn_, reached over still more wretched roads. The Emperor
and his horse had nearly been lost in the mud, and Marshal Duroc had a
shoulder put out by his carriage being upset.
_Such things become common property._--So was another event, much to
Josephine's chagrin. On this date Napoleon heard of a son (Leon) born
to him by Eleanore, a former schoolfellow of Madame Murat. M. Masson
thinks this event epoch-making in the life of Napoleon. "Henceforth
the charm is broken, and the Emperor assured of having an heir of his
own blood."
No. 27.
_Warsaw, January 3._--On his way from Pultusk on January 1, he had
received a Polish ovation at Bronie, where he first met Madame
Walewski. The whole story is well told by M. Masson in _Napoleon et
les Femmes_; but here we must content ourselves with the mere facts,
and first, for the sake of comparison, cite his love-letters to the
lady in question:--(1.) "I have seen only you, I have admired only
you, I desire only you. A very prompt answer to calm the impatient
ardour of N." (2.) "Have I displeased you? I have still the right to
hope the contrary. Have I been mistaken? Your eagerness diminishes,
while mine augments. You take away my rest! Oh, give a little joy, a
little happiness to a poor heart all ready to worship you. Is it so
difficult to get a reply? You owe me one.--N." (3.) "There are moments
when too high rank is a burden, and that is what I feel. How can I
satisfy the needs of a heart hopelessly in love, which would fling
itself at your feet, and which finds itself stopped by the weight of
lofty considerations paralysing the most lively desires? Oh, if you
would! Only you could remove the obstacles that lie between us. My
friend Duroc will clear the way. Oh, come! come! All your wishes shall
be gratified. Your native land will be dearer to me when you have had
pity on my poor heart,--N." (4.) "Marie, my sweet Marie! My first
thought is for you, my first desire to see you again. You will come
again, will you not? You promised me to do so. If not, the eagle will
fly to you. I shall see you at dinner, a friend tells me. Deign, then,
to accept this bouquet; let it become a mysterious link which shall
establish between us a secret union in the midst of the crowd
surrounding us. Exposed to the glances of the crowd, we shall still
understand each other. When my hand presses my heart, you will know
that it is full of thoughts of you; and in answer you will press
closer your bouquet. Love me, my bonny Marie, and never let your hand
leave your bouquet.--N." In this letter, in which he has substituted
_tu_ for _vous_, there is more passion than we have seen since 1796.
The fair lady now leaves her decrepit old husband, nearly fifty years
her senior, and takes up her abode in Finckenstein Castle, for nearly
two months of the interval between Eylau and Friedland. "In order,"
says Pasquier, "that nothing should be lacking to characterise the
calm state of his mind and the security of his position, it was soon
known that he had seen fit to enjoy a pleasurable relaxation by
calling to him a Polish gentlewoman of excellent birth, with whom he
had contracted a _liaison_ while passing through Warsaw, and who, as a
consequence of this journey, had the honour of bearing him a son."
Repudiated by her husband, she came to Paris, where she was very
kindly treated by Josephine, who, having once seen her, found in her
no rival, but an enthusiastic patriot, "sacrificed to Plutus," as
Napoleon told Lucien at Mantua a few months later, adding that "her
soul was as beautiful as her face."
No. 28.
_Be cheerful--gai._--This adjective is a favourite one in letters to
his wife, and dates from 1796.
No. 29.
_Roads unsafe and detestable._--The French troops used to say that the
four following words constituted the whole language of the Poles:
_Kleba?_ _Niema._ _Vota?_ _Sara._ ("Some bread? There is none. Some
water? We will go and fetch it.") Napoleon one day passed by a
column of infantry suffering the greatest privations on account of the
mud, which prevented the arrival of provisions. "Papa, kleba?"
exclaimed a soldier. "Niema," replied the Emperor. The whole column
burst into a fit of laughter; they asked for nothing more. Baron
Lejeune, Constant, and Meneval have variants of the same story.
No. 35.
Written from Warsaw, and omitted from the _Correspondence_.
_I hope that you are at Paris._--Madame Junot hints that her husband,
as Governor of Paris, was being sounded by Bonaparte's sister, Murat's
wife (with whom Junot was in love), if he would make Murat Napoleon's
successor, in lieu of Eugene, if the Emperor were killed. If Napoleon
had an inkling of this, he would wish Josephine to be on the spot.
_T._--Is probably Tallien, who had misconducted himself in Egypt.
Madame Junot met him at Madrid, but she and others had not forgotten
the September massacres. "The wretch! how did he drag on his loathsome
existence?" she exclaims.
No. 36.
_Paris._--Josephine arrived here January 31st; Queen Hortense going to
the Hague and the Princess Stephanie to Mannheim.
No. 38.
Probably written from Arensdorf, on the eve of the battle of Eylau
(February 9th), on which day a great ball took place in Paris, given
by the Minister of Marine.
No. 39.
_Eylau._--The battle of Preussich-Eylau was splendidly fought on both
sides, but the Russian general, Beningsen, had all the luck. (1) His
Cossacks capture Napoleon's letter to Bernadotte, which enables him to
escape all Napoleon's plans, which otherwise would have destroyed half
the Russian army. (2) A snowstorm in the middle of the day in the
faces of the French ruins Augereau's corps and saves the Russians
from a total rout. (3) The arrival of a Prussian army corps, under
General Lestocq, robbed Davoust of his glorious victory on the right,
and much of the ground gained--including the village of Kuschnitten.
(4) The night came on just in time to save the rest of the Russian
army, and to prevent Ney taking any decisive part in the battle.
Bernadotte, as usual, failed to march to the sound of the guns, but,
as Napoleon's orders to do so were captured by Cossacks, he might have
had an excuse rather better than usual, had not General Hautpoult,[62]
in touch both with him and Napoleon, advised him of his own orders and
an imminent battle. Under such circumstances, no general save the
Prince of Ponte-Corvo, says Bignon, would have remained inactive, "but
it was the destiny of this marshal to have a role apart in all the
great battles fought by the Emperor. His conduct was at least strange
at Jena, it will not be less so, in 1809, at Wagram." The forces,
according to Matthieu Dumas (_Precis des Evenements Militaires_,
volume 18), were approximately 65,000 French against 80,000
allies[63]--the latter in a strong chosen position. Napoleon saved
1500, the wreckage of Augereau's[64] corps, that went astray in the
blizzard (costing the French more than half their loss in the two
days' fight), by a charge of his Horse Guard, but his Foot Guard never
fired a shot. The allies lost 5000 to 6000 dead and 20,000 wounded.
Napoleon told Montholon that his loss at Eylau was 18,000, which
probably included 2000 dead, and 15,000 to 16,000 wounded and
prisoners. As the French remained masters of the field of battle, the
slightly wounded were evidently not counted by Napoleon, who in his
bulletin gives 1900 dead and 5700 wounded. The list of wounded inmates
of the hospital a month later, March 8th, totalled only 4600, which
astonished Napoleon, who sent back for a recount. On receipt of this
he wrote Daru (March 15): "From your advices to hand, I see we are
not far out of count. There were at the battle of Eylau 4000 or 5000
wounded, and 1000 in the combats preceding the battle."
No. 40.
_Corbineau._--Mlle. d'Avrillon (vol. ii. 101) tells how, in haste to
join his regiment at Paris, Corbineau had asked for a seat in her
carriage from St. Cloud. She was delighted, as he was a charming man,
"with no side on like Lauriston and Lemarois." He had just been made
general, and said, "Either I will get killed or deserve the favour
which the Emperor has granted me. M'selle, you shall hear me spoken
of; if I am not killed I will perform some startling deed."
_Dahlmann._--General Nicholas Dahlmann, commanding the chasseurs of
the guard, was killed in the charge on the Russian infantry which
saved the battle. On April 22nd Napoleon wrote Vice-Admiral Decres to
have three frigates put on the stocks to be called Dahlmann,
Corbineau, and Hautpoul, and in each captain's cabin a marble
inscription recounting their brave deeds.
No. 41.
_Young Tascher._--The third of Josephine's cousins-germain of that
name. He was afterwards aide-de-camp of Prince Eugene, and later
major-domo of the Empress Eugenie.
No. 42.
After this letter St. Amand declares that Napoleon's letters to his
wife become "cold, short, banal, absolutely insignificant." "They
consisted of a few remarks about the rain or the fine weather, and
always the same refrain--the invitation to be cheerful.... Napoleon,
occupied elsewhere, wrote no longer to his legitimate wife, but as a
duty, as paying a debt of conscience." He was occupied, indeed, but
barely as the author supposes. It is Bingham (vol. ii. 281) who
reminds us that in the first three months of 1807 we have 1715 letters
and despatches preserved of his work during that period, while he
often rode forty leagues a day, and had instructed his librarian to
send him by each morning's courier two or three new books from Paris.
Aubenas is more just than St. Amand. "If his style is no longer that
of the First Consul, still less of the General of Italy, he was
solicitous, punctilious, attentive, affectionate even although
laconic, in that correspondence (with Josephine) which, in the midst
of his much greater preoccupations, seems for him as much a pleasure
as a duty."
No. 43.
_I am still at Eylau._--It took Napoleon and his army eight days to
bury the dead and remove the wounded. Lejeune says, "His whole time
was given up now to seeing that the wounded received proper care, and
he insisted on the Russians being as well treated as the French" (vol.
i. 48). The Emperor wrote Daru that if more surgeons had been on the
spot he could have saved at least 200 lives; although, to look at the
surgical instruments used on these fields, and now preserved in the
museum of Les Invalides, it is wonderful that the men survived
operations with such ghastly implements of torture. A few days later
Napoleon tells Daru on no account to begrudge money for medicines, and
especially for quinine.
_This country is covered with dead and wounded._--"Napoleon," says
Dumas (vol. i. 18, 41), "having given order that the succour to the
wounded on both sides might be multiplied, rode over the field of
battle, which all eye-witnesses agree to have been the most horrible
field of carnage which war has ever offered. In a space of less than a
square league, the ground covered with snow, and the frozen lakes,
were heaped up with 10,000 dead, and 3000 to 4000 dead horses, debris
of artillery, arms of all kinds, cannon-balls, and shells. Six
thousand Russians, expiring of their wounds, and of hunger and thirst,
were left abandoned to the generosity of the conqueror."
No. 50.
_Osterode._--"A wretched village, where I shall pass a considerable
time." Owing to the messenger to Bernadotte being captured by
Cossacks, the Emperor, if not surprised at Eylau on the second day,
found at least all his own intentions anticipated. He could not
risk the same misfortune again, and at Osterode all his army were
within easy hailing distance, "within two marches at most" (Dumas).
Savary speaks of him there, "working, eating, giving audience, and
sleeping--all in the same room," alone keeping head against the storm
of his marshals, who wished him to retire across the Vistula. He
remained over five weeks at Osterode, and more than two months at
Finckenstein Castle, interesting himself in the affairs of Teheran
and Monte Video, offering prizes for discoveries in electricity
and medicine, giving advice as to the most scientific modes of
teaching history and geography, while objecting to the creation of
poet-laureates or Caesarians whose exaggerated praises would be sure to
awaken the ridicule of the French people, even if it attained its
object of finding a place of emolument for poets. Bignon says
(vol. vi. 227): "From Osterode or from Finckenstein he supervised,
as from Paris or St. Cloud, the needs of France; he sought means to
alleviate the hindrances to commerce, discussed the best ways to
encourage literature and art, corresponded with all his ministers,
and while awaiting the renewal of the fray, having a war of
figures with his Chancellor of Exchequer."
_It is not as good as the great city._--The day before he had written
his brother Joseph that neither his officers nor his staff had taken
their clothes off for two months; that he had not taken his boots off
for a fortnight; that the wounded had to be moved 120 miles in
sledges, in the open air; that bread was unprocurable; that the
Emperor had been living for weeks upon potatoes, and the officers upon
mere meat. "After having destroyed the Prussian monarchy, we are
fighting against the remnant of the Prussians, against Russians,
Cossacks, and Kalmucks, those roving tribes of the north, who formerly
invaded the Roman Empire."
_I have ordered what you wish for Malmaison._--About this time he also
gave orders for what afterwards became the Bourse and the Madeleine,
and gave hints for a new journal (March 7th), whose "criticism should
be enlightened, well-intentioned, impartial, and robbed of that
noxious brutality which characterises the discussions of existing
journals, and which is so at variance with the true sentiments of the
nation."
No. 54.
_Minerva._--In a letter of March 7th Josephine writes to Hortense: "A
few days ago I saw a frightful accident at the Opera. The actress who
represented Minerva in the ballet of 'Ulysses' fell twenty feet and
broke her arm. As she is poor, and has a family to support, I have
sent her fifty louis." This was probably the ballet, "The Return of
Ulysses," a subject given by Napoleon to Fouche as a suitable subject
for representation. In the same letter Josephine writes: "All the
private letters I have received agree in saying that the Emperor was
very much exposed at the battle of Eylau. I get news of him very
often, sometimes two letters a day, but that does not replace him."
This special danger at Eylau is told by Las Cases, who heard it from
Bertrand. Napoleon was on foot, with only a few officers of his staff;
a column of four to five thousand Russians came almost in contact with
him. Berthier instantly ordered up the horses. The Emperor gave him a
reproachful look; then sent orders to a battalion of his guard to
advance, which was a good way behind, and standing still. As the
Russians advanced he repeated several times, "What audacity, what
audacity!" At the sight of his Grenadiers of the Guard the Russians
stopped short. It was high time for them to do so, as Bertrand said.
The Emperor had never stirred; all who surrounded him had been much
alarmed.
No. 55.
"It is the first and only time," says Aubenas, "that, in these two
volumes of letters (_Collection Didot_), Napoleon says _vous_ to his
wife. But his vexation does not last more than a few lines, and this
short letter ends, '_Tout a toi_.' Not content with this softening,
and convinced how grieved Josephine will be at this language of cold
etiquette, he writes to her the same day, at ten o'clock at night,
before going to bed, a second letter in his old style, which ends,
'_Mille et mille amities_.'" It is a later letter (March 25th) which
ends as described, but No. 56 is, nevertheless, a kind letter.
No. 56.
_Dupuis._--Former principal of the Brienne Military School. Napoleon,
always solicitous for the happiness of those whom he had known in his
youth, had made Dupuis his own librarian at Malmaison. His brother,
who died in 1809, was the learned Egyptologist.
No. 58.
_M. de T----_, _i.e._ M. de Thiard. In _Lettres Inedites de Napoleon
I._ (Brotonne), No. 176, to Talleyrand, March 22nd, the Emperor
writes: "I have had M. de Thiard effaced from the list of officers. I
have sent him away, after having testified all my displeasure, and
told him to stay on his estate. He is a man without military honour
and civic fidelity.... My intention is that he shall also be struck
off from the number of my chamberlains. I have been poignantly grieved
at such black ingratitude, but I think myself fortunate to have found
out such a wicked man in time." De Thiard seems to have been
corresponding with the enemy from Warsaw.
No. 60.
_Marshal Bessieres._--His chateau of Grignon, now destroyed, was one
of the most beautiful of Provence. Madame de Sevigne lived and was
buried in the town of Grignon.
_No. 63._
This was printed April 24th in the French editions, but April 14th is
evidently the correct date.
No. 67.
"_Sweet, pouting, and capricious._"--Aubenas speaks of these lines "in
the style of the Italian period, which seemed in fact to calm the
fears of the Empress."
No. 68.