Naples. See note to Letter 35 for her influence over Junot. The latter
was severely reprimanded by Napoleon on his return and banished from
Paris. "Why, for example, does the Grand Duchess occupy your boxes at
the theatres? Why does she go thither in your carriage? Hey! M. Junot!
you are surprised that I am so well acquainted with your affairs and
those of that little fool, Madame Murat?" ("Memoirs of the Duchess
d'Abrantes," vol. iii. 328.)
_Measles._--As the poor child was ill four days, it was probably
laryngitis from which he died--an ailment hardly distinguishable from
croup, and one of the commonest sequelae of measles. He died on May
5th.
The best account is the Memoirs of Stanislaus Giraudin. They had
applied leeches to the child's chest, and had finally recourse to some
English powders of unknown composition, which caused a rally, followed
by the final collapse. King Louis said the child's death was caused by
the Dutch damp climate, which was bad for his own health. Josephine
hastens to join her daughter, but breaks down at Lacken, where
Hortense, more dead than alive, joins her, and returns to Paris with
her.
No. 69.
_I trust I may hear you have been rational in your sorrow._--As a
matter of fact he had heard the opposite, for the following day
(May 15th) he writes to his brother Jerome: "Napoleon died in three
days at the Hague; I know not if the King has advised you of it.
This event gives me the more pain insomuch as his father and mother
are not rational, and are giving themselves up to all the transports
of their grief." To Fouche he writes three days later: "I have
been very much afflicted by the misfortune which has befallen me.
I had hoped for a more brilliant destiny for that poor child;" and on
May 20th, "I have felt the loss of the little Napoleon very acutely.
I would have wished that his father and mother should have received
from their temperament as much courage as I for knowing how to bear
all the ills of life. But they are younger, and have reflected less on
the frailty of our worldly possessions." It is typical of Napoleon
that the only man to whom, as far as we know, he unbosomed his
sorrow should be one of his early friends, even though that friend
should be the false and faithless Fouche, who requited his confidence
later by vile and baseless allegations respecting the parentage of
this very child. In one respect only did Napoleon resemble David in
his supposititious sin, which was, that when the child was dead, he
had neither time nor temperament to waste in futile regrets. As he
said on another occasion, if his wife had died during the Austerlitz
Campaign it would not have delayed his operations a quarter of an
hour. But he considers practical succour to the living as the most
fitting memorial to the dead, and writes on June 4th to De Champagny:
"Twenty years ago a malady called croup showed itself in the north
of Europe. Some years ago it spread into France. I require you to
offer a prize of L500 (12,000 francs), to be given to the doctor who
writes the best essay on this malady and its mode of treatment."
Commenting on this letter Bignon (vol. vi. p. 262) adds, "It is,
however, fortunate when, on the eve of battles, warlike princes are
pondering over ways of preserving the population of their states."
No. 71.
_May 20th._--On this date he writes Hortense: "My daughter, all the
news I get from the Hague tells me that you are not rational. However
legitimate your grief, it must have limits: never impair your health;
seek distractions, and know that life is strewn with so many rocks,
and may be the source of so many miseries, that death is not the
greatest of all.--Your affectionate father, NAPOLEON."
No. 74.
_I am vexed with Hortense._--The same day he encloses with this a
letter to Hortense. "My daughter, you have not written me a line
during your great and righteous grief. You have forgotten everything,
as if you had nothing more to lose. They say you care no longer for
any one, that you are callous about everything; I note the truth of it
by your silence. This is not well, Hortense, it is not what you
promised me. Your son was everything for you. Are your mother and
myself nothing? Had I been at Malmaison I should have shared your
grief, but I should have wished you at the same time to turn to your
best friends. Good-bye, my daughter, be cheerful; it is necessary to
be resigned; keep well, in order to fulfil all your duties. My wife is
utterly miserable about your condition; do not increase her
sorrow.--Your affectionate father, NAPOLEON."
Hortense had been on such bad terms with her husband for several
months past that Napoleon evidently thinks it wiser not to allude to
him, although he had written Louis a very strong letter on his
treatment of his wife two months earlier (see letter 12,294 of the
_Correspondence_, April 4th). There is, however, a temporary reunion
between husband and wife in their common sorrow.
No. 78.
_Friedland._--On this day he wrote a further letter to the Queen of
Holland (No. 12,761 of the _Correspondence_): "My daughter, I have
your letter dated Orleans. Your grief pains me, but I should like you
to possess more courage; to live is to suffer, and the true man is
always fighting for mastery over himself. I do not like to see you
unjust towards the little Napoleon Louis, and towards all your
friends. Your mother and I had hoped to be more to you than we are."
She had been sent to take the waters of Cauterets, and had left her
child Napoleon Louis (who died at Forli, 1831) with Josephine, who
writes to her daughter (June 11th): "He amuses me much; he is so
gentle. I find he has all the ways of that poor child that we mourn."
And a few days later: "There remains to you a husband, an interesting
child, and a mother whose love you know." Josephine had with women the
same tact that her husband had with men, but the Bonaparte family,
with all its good qualities, strained the tact and tempers of both to
the utmost.
No. 79.
_Tilsit._--Referring to Napoleon and Alexander at Tilsit, Michaud
says: "Both full of wiles and devices, they affected nevertheless the
most perfect sentiments of generosity, which at the bottom they
scarcely dreamed of practising. Reunited, they were the masters of the
world, but such a union seemed impossible; they would rather share it
among themselves. Allies and rivals, friends and enemies, all were
sacrificed; henceforth there were to be only two powers, that of the
East and that of the West. Bonaparte at this time actually ruled from
the Niemen to the Straits of Gibraltar, from the North Sea to the base
of the Italian Peninsula."
FOOTNOTES
[60] Bouillet, _Dictionnaire Universelle_, &c.
[61] "The Queen of that Court was the fair Madame Tallien. All that
imagination can conceive will scarcely approach the reality;
beautiful after the antique fashion, she had at once grace and
dignity; without being endowed with a superior wit, she
possessed the art of making the best of it, and won people's
hearts by her great kindness."--_Memoirs of Marmont_, vol. i.,
p. 887.
[62] This brave general was mortally wounded in the cavalry charge
which saved the battle, and the friends of Bernadotte assert
that the message was never given--an assertion more credible if
the future king's record had been better on other occasions.
[63] Alison says 75,000 allies, 85,000 French, but admits allies had
100 more cannon.
[64] Augereau, says Meneval, went out of his mind during this battle,
and had to be sent back to France.
SERIES H
No. 1.
_Milan._--Magnificent public works were set on foot by Napoleon at
Milan, and the Cathedral daily adorned with fresh marvels of
sculpture. Arriving here on the morning of the 22nd, Napoleon goes
first to hear the _Te Deum_ at the Cathedral, then to see Eugene's
wife at the Monza Palace; in the evening to the La Scala Theatre, and
finishes the day (to use an Irishism) by working most of the night.
_Mont Cenis._--"The roads of the Simplon and Mont Cenis were kept in
the finest order, and daily attracted fresh crowds of strangers to the
Italian plains." So says Alison, but on the present occasion Napoleon
was overtaken by a storm which put his life in danger. He was
fortunate enough to reach a cave in which he took refuge. This cave
appeared to him, as he afterwards said, "a cave of diamonds"
(Meneval).
_Eugene._--The writer in _Biog. Univ._ (art. Josephine) says: "During
a journey that Napoleon made in Italy (November 1807) he wished, while
loading Eugene with favours, to prepare his mind for his mother's
divorce. The Decree of Milan, by which, in default of male and
legitimate children[65] of _the direct_ _line_, he adopted Eugene for
his son and his successor to the throne of Italy, gave to those who
knew how to read the secret thoughts of the Emperor in his patent acts
the proof that he had excluded him from all inheritance in the
Imperial Crown of France, and that he dreamed seriously of a new
alliance himself."
No. 2.
_Venice._--The Venetians gave Napoleon a wonderful ovation--many
nobles spending a year's income on the fetes. "Innumerable gondolas
glittering with a thousand colours and resounding with the harmony of
instruments, escorted the barges which bore, together with the master
of the world, the Viceroy and the Vice-Queen of Italy, the King and
Queen of Bavaria, the Princess of Lucca, the King of Naples (Joseph,
who stayed six days with his brother), the Grand Duke of Berg, the
Prince of Neufchatel, and the greater part of the generals of the old
army of Italy" (Thiers). While at Venice Napoleon was in easy touch
with the Porte, of which he doubtless made full use, while, _per
contra_, he was expected to give Greece her independence.
_November 30th._--Leaving Milan, Napoleon came straight through
Brescia to Verona, where he supped with the King and Queen of
Bavaria. The next morning he started for Vicenza through avenues of
vine-encircled poplars and broad yellow wheat-fields which "lay all
golden in the sunlight and the breeze" (Constant). The Emperor
went to the theatre at Vicenza, and left again at 2 A.M. Spending the
night at Stra, he met the Venetian authorities early the next morning
at Fusina.
No. 3.
_Udine._--He is here on the 12th, and then hastens to meet his brother
Lucien at Mantua--the main but secret object of his journey to Italy.
It is _most_ difficult to gauge the details--was it a political or a
conjugal question that made the interview a failure? Madame
D'Abrantes, voicing the rumours of the day, thinks the former; Lucien,
writing Memoirs for his wife and children, declares it to be the
latter. Napoleon was prepared to legalise the children of his first
wife, and marry the eldest to Prince Ferdinand, the heir to the
Spanish crown; but Lucien considers the Bourbons to be enemies of
France and of the Bonapartes. These Memoirs of Lucien are not perhaps
very trustworthy, especially where his prejudices overlap his memory
or his judgment, but always instructive and very readable. When the
account of this interview was written (early in 1812), Lucien was an
English prisoner, furious that his brother has just refused to
exchange him for "some English Lords." Speaking of Josephine, the
Emperor tells him that in spite of her reputation for good-nature, she
is more malicious than generally supposed, although for her husband
"she has no nails"; but he adds that rumours of impending divorce have
made life between them very constrained. "Only imagine," continued the
Emperor, "that wife of mine weeps every time she has indigestion,
because she says she thinks herself poisoned by those who wish me to
marry some one else. It is perfectly hateful." He said that Joseph
also thought of a divorce, as his wife gave him only daughters, and
that the three brothers might be remarried on the same day. The
Emperor regretted not having taken the Princess Augusta, daughter of
his "best friend, the King of Bavaria," for himself, instead of for
Eugene, who did not know how to appreciate her and was unfaithful. He
was convinced that Russia by invading India would overthrow England,
and that his own soldiers were ready to follow him to the antipodes.
He ends by offering Lucien his choice of thrones--Naples, Italy, "the
brightest jewel of my Imperial crown," or Spain[66] (Madame D'Abrantes
adds _Prussia_), if he will give way about Madame Jouberthon and her
children. "Tout pour Lucien divorce, rien pour Lucien sans divorce."
When Napoleon finds his brother obdurate he makes Eugene Prince of
Venice, and his eldest daughter Princess of Bologna, with a large
appanage. Lucien is in fresh disgrace within less than three months of
the Mantuan interview, for on March 11, 1808, Napoleon writes brother
Joseph, "Lucien is misconducting himself at Rome ... and is more Roman
than the Pope himself. His conduct has been scandalous; he is my open
enemy, and that of France.... I will not permit a Frenchman, and one
of my own brothers, to be the first to conspire and act against me,
with a rabble of priests."
_I may soon be in Paris._--After leaving Milan he visits the
fortifications at Alessandria, and is met by a torchlight procession
at Marengo. Letters for two days (December 27-28th) are dated Turin,
although Constant says he did not stop there. Crossing Mont Cenis on
December 30th he reaches the Tuileries on the evening of New Year's
Day (1808).
FOOTNOTES
[65] The Decree itself says "nos enfants et descendants males,
legitimes et naturels."
[66] On October 11th Prince Ferdinand had written Napoleon for "the
honour of allying himself to a Princess of his august family";
and Lucien's eldest daughter was Napoleon's only choice.
SERIES I
No. 1.
_Bayonne_ is half-way between Paris and Madrid, nearly 600 miles from
each. Napoleon arrived here April 15th, and left July 21st, returning
with Josephine _via_ Pau, Tarbes, Auch, Montauban, Agen, Bordeaux,
Rochefort, Nantes. Everywhere he received a hearty welcome, even, and
especially, in La Vendee. He arrives at Paris August 14th, hearing on
August 3rd at Bordeaux of (what he calls) the "horrible catastrophe"
of General Dupont at Baylen.
No. 2.
_A country-house._--The Chateau of Marrac. Marbot had stayed there in
1803 with Augereau. Bausset informs us that this chateau had been
built either for the Infanta Marie Victoire engaged to Louis XV., or
for the Dowager Queen of Charles II., "the bewitched," when she was
packed off from Madrid to Bayonne (see Hume's _Spain_, 1479-1788).
_Everything is still most primitive._--Nevertheless he enjoyed the
_pamperruque_ which was danced before the chateau by seven men and ten
maidens, gaily dressed--the women armed with tambourines and the men
with castanets. Saint-Amand speaks of thirteen performers (seven men
and six maidens) chosen from the leading families of the town, to
render what for time immemorial had been considered fit homage for the
most illustrious persons.
No. 3.
_Prince of the Asturias._--The Emperor had received him at the chateau
of Marrac, paid him all the honours due to royalty, while evading the
word "Majesty," and insisting the same day on his giving up all claim
to the Crown of Spain. Constant says he was heavy of gait, and rarely
spoke.
_The Queen._--A woman of violent passions. The Prince of the Asturias
had designs on his mother's life, while the Queen openly begged
Napoleon to put the Prince to death. On May 9th Napoleon writes
Talleyrand to prepare to take charge of Ferdinand at Valencay, adding
that if the latter were "to become attached to some pretty woman, whom
we are sure of, it would be no disadvantage." A new experience for a
Montmorency to become the keeper of a Bourbon, rather than his
Constable. Pasquier, with his usual Malvolian decorum, gives fuller
details. Napoleon, he says, "enumerates with care (to Talleyrand) all
the precautions that are to be taken to prevent his escape, and even
goes so far as to busy himself with the distractions which may be
permitted him. And, be it noted, the principal one thrown in his way
was given him by a young person who lived at the time under M. De
Talleyrand's roof. This liaison, of which Ferdinand soon became
distrustful, did not last as long as it was desired to."
No. 4.
_A son has been born._--By a plebiscite of the year XII. (1804-5), the
children of Louis and Hortense were to be the heirs of Napoleon, and
in conformity with this the child born on April 20th at 17 Rue Lafitte
(now the residence of the Turkish Ambassador), was inscribed on the
register of the Civil List destined for princes of the blood. His two
elder brothers had not been so honoured, but in due course the King of
Rome was entered thereon. Had Louis accepted the Crown of Spain which
Napoleon had in vain offered to him, and of which Hortense would have
made an ideal Queen, the chances are that Napoleon would never have
divorced Josephine. St. Amand shows at length that the future Napoleon
III. is truly the child of Louis, and neither of Admiral Verhuell nor
of the Duke Decazes. Louis and Hortense in the present case are
sufficiently agreed to insist that the father's name be preserved by
the child, who is called Charles Louis Napoleon, and not Charles
Napoleon, which was the Emperor's first choice. In either case the
name of the croup-stricken firstborn had been preserved. On April 23rd
Josephine had already two letters from Cambaceres respecting mother
and child, and on this day the Empress writes her daughter: "I know
that Napoleon is consoled for not having a sister."
_Arrive on the 27th._--Josephine, always wishful to humour her
husband's love of punctuality, duly arrived on the day fixed, and took
up her abode with her husband in the chateau of Marrac. Ferdinand
wrote to his uncle in Madrid to beware of the cursed Frenchmen,
telling him also that Josephine had been badly received at Bayonne.
The letter was intercepted, and Napoleon wrote Murat that the writer
was a liar, a fool, and a hypocrite. The Emperor, in fact, never
trusted the Prince henceforward. Bausset, who translated the letter,
tells how the Emperor could scarcely believe that the Prince would use
so strong an adjective, but was convinced on seeing the word
_maldittos_, which he remarked was almost the Italian--_maledetto_.
SERIES J
Leaving St. Cloud September 22nd, Napoleon is at Metz on the 23rd, at
Kaiserlautern on the 24th, where he sends a message to the Empress in
a letter to Cambaceres, and on the 27th is at Erfurt. On the 28th the
Emperors of France and Russia sign a Convention of Alliance. Napoleon
leaves Erfurt October 14th (the anniversary of Jena), travels
incognito, and arrives St. Cloud October 18th.
No. 1.
_I have rather a cold._--Napoleon had insisted on going to explore a
new road he had ordered between Metz and Mayence, and which no one had
ventured to say was not complete. The road was so bad that the
carriage of the _maitre des requetes_, who had been summoned to
account for the faulty work, was precipitated a hundred feet down a
ravine near Kaiserlautern.
_I am pleased with the Emperor and every one here._--Which included
what he had promised Talma for his audience--a _parterre_ of kings.
Besides the two Emperors, the King of Prussia was represented by his
brother Prince William, Austria by General Vincent, and there were
also the Kings of Saxony, Bavaria, Wuertemberg, Westphalia, and Naples,
the Prince Primate, the Princes of Anhalt, Coburg, Saxe-Weimar,
Darmstadt, Baden, and Nassau. Talleyrand, Champagny, Maret, Duroc,
Berthier, and Caulaincourt, with Generals Oudinot, Soult, and
Lauriston accompanied Napoleon. Literature was represented by Goethe,
Wieland, Mueller; and feminine attractions by the Duchess of
Saxe-Weimar and the wily Princess of Tour and Taxis, sister of the
Queen of Prussia. Pasquier and others have proved that at Erfurt
Talleyrand did far more harm than good to his master's cause, and in
fact intended to do so. On his arrival he spent his first evening with
the Princess of Tour and Taxis, in order to meet the Emperor
Alexander, and said: "Sire ... It is for you to save Europe, and the
only way of attaining this object is by resisting Napoleon. The French
people are civilised, their Emperor is not: the sovereign of Russia is
civilised, his people are not. It is therefore for the sovereign of
Russia to be the ally of the French people,"--of whom Talleyrand
declared himself to be the representative. By squaring Alexander this
transcendental (unfrocked) Vicar of Bray, "with an oar in every boat,"
is once more hedging, or, to use his own phrase, guaranteeing the
future, and at the same time securing the daughter of the Duchess of
Courland for his nephew, Edmond de Perigord. "The Arch-apostate"
carried his treason so far as to advise Alexander of Napoleon's
ulterior views, and thus enabled the former to forestall them--no easy
matter in conversations with Napoleon "lasting whole days" (see
Letter No. 3, this Series). Talleyrand had also a grievance. He had
been replaced as Foreign Minister by Champagny. He had accepted the
surrender of his portfolio gladly, as now, becoming Vice-Grand
Elector, he ranked with Cambaceres and Maret. But when he found that
Napoleon, who liked to have credit for his own diplomacy, seldom
consulted him, or allowed Champagny to do so, jealousy and ill-will
naturally resulted.
No. 2.
_Shooting over the battlefield of Jena._--The presence of the Emperor
Alexander on this occasion was considered a great affront to his
recent ally, the King of Prussia, and is severely commented on by Von
Moltke in one of his Essays. In fairness to Alexander, we must
remember that their host, the Duke of Saxe-Weimar, had married his
sister. Von Moltke, by the way, speaks of _hares_ forming the sport in
question, but Savary of a second battle of Jena fought against the
_partridges_. The fact seems to be that all kinds of game, including
stags and deer, were driven by the beaters to the royal sportsmen in
their huts, and the Emperor Alexander, albeit short-sighted, succeeded
in killing a stag, at eight feet distance, _at the first shot_.
_The Weimar ball._--This followed the Jena shoot, and the dancing
lasted all night. The Russian courtiers were scandalised at their
Emperor dancing, but while he was present the dancing was conventional
enough, consisting of promenading two and two to the strains of a
Polish march. "Imperial Waltz, imported from the Rhine," was already
the rage in Germany, and Napoleon, in order to be more worthy of his
Austrian princess, tried next year to master this new science of
tactics, but after a trial with the Princess Stephanie, the lady
declared that her pupil should always give lessons, and never receive
them. He was rather more successful at billiards, pursued under the
same praiseworthy incentive.
_A few trifling ailments._--Mainly a fearful nightmare; a new
experience, in which he imagines his vitals torn out by a bear.
"Significant of much!" As when also the Russian Emperor finds
himself without a sword and accepts that of Napoleon as a gift: and
when, on the last night, the latter orders his comedians to play
"Bajazet,"--little thinking the appointed Tamerlane was by his side.
No. 3.
_I am pleased with Alexander._--For the time being Josephine had most
reason to be pleased with Alexander, who failed to secure his sister's
hand for Napoleon.