rectour of Cuttoli, whose house afforded me a hospitable retreat, when
wet to the skin, and quite overcome by the severity of the storm, which
my sickness made me little able to resist. He was directly such a
venerable hermit as we read of in the old romances. His figure and
manner interested me at first sight. I found he was a man well respected
in the island, and that the General did him the honour to correspond
with him. He gave me a simple collation of eggs, chestnuts and wine,
and was very liberal of his ham and other more substantial victuals to
my servant. The honest Swiss was by this time very well pleased to have
his face turned towards the continent. He was heartily tired of seeing
foreign parts, and meeting with scanty meals and hard beds, in an island
which he could not comprehend the pleasure of visiting. He said to me,
"Si J' etois encore une fois retourné à mon pais parmi ces montagnes de
Suisse dont monsieur fait tant des plaisanteries, Je verrai qui
m'engagera à les quitter. If I were once more at home in my own country,
among those mountains of Switzerland, on which you have had so many
jokes, I will see who shall prevail with me to quit them."
The General, out of his great politeness, would not allow me to travel
without a couple of chosen guards to attend me in case of any accidents.
I made them my companions, to relieve the tediousness of my journey. One
of them called Ambrosio, was a strange iron-coloured fearless creature.
He had been much in war; careless of wounds, he was cooly intent on
destroying the enemy. He told me, as a good anecdote, that having been
so lucky as to get a view of two Genoese exactly in a line, he took his
aim, and shot them both through the head at once. He talked of this just
as one would talk of shooting a couple of crows. I was sure I needed be
under no apprehension; but I don't know how, I desired Ambrosio to march
before me that I might see him.
I was upon my guard how I treated him. But as sickness frets one's
temper, I sometimes forgot myself, and called him "bestia, blockhead;"
and once when he was at a loss which way to go, at a wild woody part of
the country, I fell into a passion, and called to him "Mi maraviglio che
un uomo si bravo può esser si stupido. I am amazed that so brave a man
can be so stupid." However by afterwards calling him friend, and
speaking softly to him, I soon made him forget my ill humour, and we
proceeded as before.
Paoli had also been so good as to make me a present of one of his dogs,
a strong and fierce animal. But he was too old to take an attachment to
me, and I lost him between Lyons and Paris. The General has promised me
a young one, to be a guard at Auchinleck.
At Bogognano I came upon the same road I had formerly travelled from
Corte, where I arrived safe after all my fatigues. My good fathers of
the Franciscan convent, received me like an old acquaintance, and shewed
a kind concern at my illness. I sent my respects to the Great
Chancellor, who returned me a note, of which I insert a translation as a
specimen of the hearty civility to be found among the highest in
Corsica.
"Many congratulations to Mr. Boswell on his return from beyond the
mountains, from his servant Massesi, who is at the same time very sorry
for his indisposition, which he is persuaded has been occasioned by his
severe journey. He however flatters himself, that when Mr. Boswell has
reposed himself a little, he will recover his usual health. In the mean
time he has taken the liberty to send him a couple of fowls, which he
hopes, he will honour with his acceptance, as he will need some
refreshment this evening. He wishes him a good night, as does his little
servant Luiggi, who will attend him to-morrow, to discharge his duty."
My ague distressed me so much, that I was confined to the convent for
several days: I did not however weary. I was visited by the Great
Chancellor, and several others of the civil magistrates, and by Padre
Mariani rectour of the university, a man of learning and abilities, as a
proof of which he had been three years at Madrid in the character of
secretary to the General of the Franciscans. I remember a very eloquent
expression of his on the state of his country. "Corsica," said he, "has
for many years past, been bleeding at all her veins. They are now
closed. But after being so severely exhausted, it will take some time
before she can recover perfect strength." I was also visited by Padre
Leonardo, of whose animating discourse I have made mention in a former
part of this book.
Indeed I should not have been at a loss though my very reverend fathers
had been all my society. I was not in the least looked upon as a
heretick. Difference of faith was forgotten in hospitality. I went about
the convent as if I had been in my own house; and the fathers without
any impropriety of mirth, were yet as chearful as I could desire.
I had two surgeons to attend me at Corte, a Corsican and a Piedmontese;
and I got a little Jesuit's bark from the spiceria, or apothecary's
shop, of the Capuchin convent. I did not however expect to be
effectually cured till I should get to Bastia. I found it was perfectly
safe for me to go thither. There was a kind of truce between the
Corsicans and the French. Paoli had held two different amicable
conferences with M. de Marboeuf their commander in chief, and was so
well with him, that he gave me a letter of recommendation to him.
On one of the days that my ague disturbed me least, I walked from the
convent to Corte, purposely to write a letter to Mr. Samuel Johnson. I
told my revered friend, that from a kind of superstition agreeable in a
certain degree to him, as well as to myself, I had during my travels,
written to him from Loca Solennia, places in some measure sacred. That
as I had written to him from the Tomb of Melancthon, sacred to learning
and piety, I now wrote to him from the palace of Pascal Paoli, sacred to
wisdom and liberty; knowing that however his political principles may
have been represented, he had always a generous zeal for the common
rights of humanity. I gave him a sketch of the great things I had seen
in Corsica, and promised him a more ample relation.[140]
[Footnote 140: "He kept the greater part of my letters very carefully;
and a short time before his death was attentive enough to seal them up
in bundles, and ordered them to be delivered to me, which was
accordingly done. Amongst them I found one, of which I had not made a
copy, and which I own I read with pleasure at the distance of almost
twenty years. It is dated November, 1765, at the palace of Pascal Paoli,
in Corte, and is full of generous enthusiasm. After giving a sketch of what
I had seen and heard in that island, it proceeded thus:--'I dare to call
this a spirited tour. I dare to challenge your approbation.'"--Boswell's
"Johnson." Date of 1765.]
Mr. Johnson was pleased with what I wrote here; for I received at Paris
an answer from him which I keep as a valuable charter. "When you return,
you will return to an unaltered, and I hope, unalterable friend. All
that you have to fear from me, is the vexation of disappointing me. No
man loves to frustrate expectations which have been formed in his
favour, and the pleasure which I promise myself from your journals and
remarks, is so great, that perhaps no degree of attention or discernment
will be sufficient to afford it. Come home however and take your chance.
I long to see you, and to hear you; and hope that we shall not be so
long separated again. Come home, and expect such a welcome as is due to
him whom a wise and noble curiosity has led where perhaps, no native of
this country ever was before."[141]
[Footnote 141: "Having had no letter from him, ... and having been told
by somebody that he was offended at my having put into my book an
extract of his letter to me at Paris, I was impatient to be with him....
I found that Dr. Johnson had sent a letter to me to Scotland, and that I
had nothing to complain of but his being more indifferent to my anxiety
than I wished him to be." In the letter, which is dated March 23, 1768,
Johnson had said, "I have omitted a long time to write to you, without
knowing very well why. I could now tell why I should not write; for who
would write to men who publish the letters of their friends without
their leave? Yet I write to you, in spite of my caution, to tell you
that I shall be glad to see you, and that I wish you would empty your
head of Corsica, which I think has filled it rather too long."--ED.]
I at length set out for Bastia. I went the first night to Rostino,
hoping to have found there Signor Clemente de' Paoli. But unluckily he
had gone upon a visit to his daughter; so that I had not an opportunity
of seeing this extraordinary personage, of whom I have given so full an
account,[142] for a great part of which I am indebted to Mr. Burnaby.
[Footnote 142: See Appendix C.--ED.]
Next day I reached Vescovato, where I was received by Signor Buttafoco,
who proved superiour to the character I had conceived of him from the
letter of M. Rousseau.[143] I found in him the incorrupted virtues of
the brave islander, with the improvements of the continent. I found him,
in short, to be a man of principle, abilities and knowledge; and at the
same time a man of the world. He is now deservedly raised to the rank of
colonel of the Royal Corsicans, in the service of France.
[Footnote 143: In this letter a high character is given of Buttafoco.
See page 141.--ED.]
I past some days with Signor Buttafoco, from whose conversation I
received so much pleasure, that I in a great measure forgot my ague.
As various discourses have been held in Europe, concerning an invitation
given to M. Rousseau to come to Corsica; and as that affair was
conducted by Signor Buttafoco, who shewed me the whole correspondence
between him and M. Rousseau, I am enabled to give a distinct account of
it.
M. Rousseau in his Political Treatise, entitled "Du Contract Social,"
has the following observation: "Il est encore en Europe un pays capable
de législation; c'est l'isle de Corse. La valeur et la constance avec
laquelle ce brave peuple a su recouvrer et défendre sa liberté
mériteroit bien que quelque homme sage lui apprit à la conserver. J'ai
quelque pressentiment qu'un jour cette petite isle étonnera
l'Europe.[144] There is yet one country in Europe, capable of
legislation; and that is the island of Corsica. The valour and the
constancy with which that brave people have recovered and defended its
liberty, would well deserve that some wise man should teach them how to
preserve it. I have some presentiment that one day that little island
will astonish Europe."
[Footnote 144: "Du Contract Social," liv. ii., chap. 10.]
Signor Buttafoco, upon this, wrote to M. Rousseau, returning him thanks
for the honour he had done to the Corsican nation, and strongly inviting
him to come over, and be that wise man who should illuminate their
minds.
I was allowed to take a copy of the wild philosopher's answer to this
invitation; it is written with his usual eloquence.
"Il est superflu, Monsieur, de chercher à exciter mon zele pour
l'entreprise que vous me proposez. Sa[145] seule idée m'éleve l'ame et
me transporte. Je croirois la[146] reste de mes jours bien noblement,
bien vertueusement et bien heureusement employés.[147] Je croirois meme
avoir bien racheté l'inutilité des autres, si je pouvois rendre ce
triste reste bon en quelque chose à vos braves compatriotes; si je
pouvois concourir par quelque conseil utile aux vues de votre[148] digne
Chef et aux vôtres; de ce côté-là donc soyez sur de moi. Ma vie et mon
coeur sont à vous."
[Footnote 145: La.--ED.]
[Footnote 146: Le.--ED.]
[Footnote 147: Employé.--ED.]
[Footnote 148: Leur. I have made the corrections by the copy given in
"Rousseau's Collected Works."--ED.]
"It is superfluous, Sir, to endeavour to excite my zeal for the
undertaking which you propose to me. The very idea of it elevates my
soul and transports me. I should esteem the rest of my days very nobly,
very virtuously, and very happily employed. I should even think that I
well redeemed the inutility of many of my days that are past, if I could
render these sad remains of any advantage to your brave countrymen. If
by any useful advice, I could concur in the views of your worthy Chief,
and in yours. So far then you may be sure of me. My life and my heart
are devoted to you."
Such were the first effusions of Rousseau. Yet before he concluded even
this first letter, he made a great many complaints of his adversities
and persecutions, and started a variety of difficulties as to the
proposed enterprise.
The correspondence was kept up for some time, but the enthusiasm of the
paradoxical philosopher gradually subsiding, the scheme came to
nothing.[149]
[Footnote 149: In one of his letters, dated March 24, 1765, Rousseau
said:--"Sur le peu que j'ai parcouru de vos mémoires, je vois que mes
idées different prodigieusement de celles de votre nation. Il ne serait
pas possible que le plan que je proposerais ne fît beaucoup de
mécontents, et peut-être vous-même tout le premier. Or, Monsieur, je
suis rassasié de disputes et de querelles."--ED.]
As I have formerly observed, M. de Voltaire thought proper to exercise
his pleasantry upon occasion of this proposal,[150] in order to vex the
grave Rousseau, whom he never could bear. I remember he used to talk of
him with a satyrical smile, and call him, "Ce Garçon, That Lad;" I find
this among my notes of M. de Voltaire's conversations, when I was with
him at his Chateau de Ferney, where he entertains with the elegance
rather of a real prince than of a poetical one.
[Footnote 150: "Je reçus bien ... la lettre de M. Paoli; mais ... il
faut vous dire, Monsieur, que le bruit de la proposition que vous
m'aviez faite s'étant répandu sans que je sache comment, M. de Voltaire
fit entendre à tout le monde que cette proposition était une invention
de sa façon; il prétendait m'avoir écrit au nom des Corses une lettre
contrefaite dont j'avais été la dupe."--Rousseau to Butta-Foco, May 26,
1765.--ED.]
To have Voltaire's assertion contradicted by a letter under Paoli's own
hand, was no doubt a sufficient satisfaction to Rousseau.
From the account which I have attempted to give of the present
constitution of Corsica, and of its illustrious Legislatour and General,
it may well be conceived that the scheme of bringing M. Rousseau into
that island, was magnified to an extravagant degree by the reports of
the continent. It was said, that Rousseau was to be made no less than a
Solon by the Corsicans, who were implicitely to receive from him a code
of laws.
This was by no means the scheme. Paoli was too able a man to submit the
legislation of his country to one who was an entire stranger to the
people, the manners, and in short to every thing in the island. Nay, I
know well that Paoli pays more regard to what has been tried by the
experience of ages than to the most beautiful ideal systems. Besides,
the Corsicans were not all at once to be moulded at will. They were to
be gradually prepared, and by one law laying the foundation for
another, a compleat fabrick of jurisprudence was to be formed.
Paoli's intention was to grant a generous asylum to Rousseau, to avail
himself of the shining talents which appeared in his writings, by
consulting with him, and catching the lights of his rich imagination,
from many of which he might derive improvements to those plans which his
own wisdom had laid down.
But what he had principally in view, was to employ the pen of Rousseau
in recording the heroick actions of the brave islanders. It is to be
regretted that this project did not take place. The father of the
present colonel Buttafoco made large collections for many years back.
These are carefully preserved, and when joined to those made by the Abbé
Rostini, would furnish ample materials for a History of Corsica. This,
adorned with the genius of Rousseau, would have been one of the noblest
monuments of modern times.
Signor Buttafoco accompanied me to Bastia. It was comfortable to enter a
good warm town after my fatigues. We went to the house of Signor
Morelli, a counsellor at law here, with whom we supped. I was lodged for
that night by a friend of Signor Buttafoco, in another part of the town.
Next morning I waited on M. de Marboeuf. Signor Buttafoco introduced me
to him, and I presented him the letter of recommendation from Paoli. He
gave me a most polite reception. The brilliancy of his levee pleased me;
it was a scene so different from those which I had been for some time
accustomed to see. It was like passing at once from a rude and early
age to a polished modern age; from the mountains of Corsica to the banks
of the Seine.
My ague was now become so violent that it got the better of me
altogether. I was obliged to ask the French general's permission to have
a chair set for me in the circle. When M. de Marboeuf was informed of my
being ill, he had the goodness to ask me to stay in his house till I
should recover; "I insist upon it," said he, "I have a warm room for
you. My servants will get you bouillons, and every thing proper for a
sick man; and we have an excellent physician." I mention all these
circumstances to shew the goodness of M. de Marboeuf, to whom I shall
ever consider myself as under great obligations, His invitation was
given in so kind and cordial a manner, that I willingly accepted of it.
I found M. de Marboeuf a worthy open-hearted Frenchman. It is a common
and a very just remark, that one of the most agreeable characters in the
world is a Frenchman who has served long in the army, and has arrived at
that age when the fire of youth is properly tempered. Such a character
is gay without levity, and judicious without severity. Such a character
was the Count de Marboeuf, of an ancient family in Britanny, where there
is more plainness of character than among the other French. He had been
Gentilhomme de la Chambre to the worthy King Stanislaus.
He took a charge of me as if he had been my near relation. He furnished
me with books and every thing he could think of to amuse me. While the
physician ordered me to be kept very quiet, M. de Marboeuf would allow
nobody to go near me, but payed me a friendly visit alone. As I grew
better he gradually encreased my society, bringing with him more and
more of his officers; so that I had at last the honour of very large
companies in my apartment. The officers were polite agreeable men: some
of them had been prisoners in England, during the last war. One of them
was a Chevalier de St. Louis, of the name of Douglas, a descendant of
the illustrious house of Douglas in Scotland, by a branch settled near
to Lyons. This gentleman often came and sat with me. The idea of our
being in some sort countrymen, was pleasing to us both.
I found here an English woman of Penrith in Cumberland. When the
Highlanders marched through that country in the year 1745, she had
married a soldier of the French picquets in the very midst of all the
confusion and danger, and when she could hardly understand one word he
said. Such freaks will love sometimes take.
"Sic visum Veneri; cui placet impares
Formas atque animos sub juga ahenea
Saevo mittere cum joco."
--HORAT. lib. i., Od. 33.
"So Venus wills, whose power controuls
The fond affections of our souls;
With sportive cruelty she binds
Unequal forms, unequal minds."
--FRANCIS.
M. de la Chapelle was the physician who attended me. He had been several
years physician to the army at Minorca, and had now the same office in
Corsica. I called him the physician of the isles. He was indeed an
excellent one. That gayeté de coeur which the French enjoy, runs through
all their professions. I remember the phrase of an English common
soldier who told me, "that at the battle of Fontenoy, his captain
received a shot in the breast, and fell," said the soldier, "with his
spontoon in his hand, as prettily killed as ever I see'd a gentleman."
The soldier's phrase might be used in talking of almost every thing
which the French do. I may say I was prettily cured by M. de la
Chapelle.
But I think myself bound to relate a circumstance which shews him and
his nation in the genteelest light. Though he attended me with the
greatest assiduity, yet, when I was going away, he would not accept of a
single Louis d'or. "No Sir," said he, "I am nobly paid by my king. I am
physician to his army here. If I can at the same time, be of service to
the people of the country, or to any gentleman who may come among us, I
am happy. But I must be excused from taking money." M. Brion the surgeon
major behaved in the same manner.
As soon as I had gathered a little strength, I walked about as well as I
could; and saw what was to be seen at Bastia. Signor Morelli was
remarkably obliging. He made me presents of books and antiques, and of
every other curiosity relating to Corsica. I never saw a more generous
man. Signor Carassa, a Corsican officer in the service of France, with
the order of St. Louis, was also very obliging. Having made a longer
stay in Corsica than I intended, my finances were exhausted, and he let
me have as much money as I pleased. M. Barlé, secretary to M. de
Marboeuf, was also very obliging. In short, I know not how to express my
thankfulness to all the good people whom I saw at Bastia.
The French seemed to agree very well with the Corsicans. Of old, those
islanders were much indebted to the interposition of France in their
favour. But since the days of Sampiero, there have been many variances
between them. A singular one happened in the reign of Lewis XIV. The
Pope's Corsican guards in some fit of passion insulted the French
ambassadour at Rome.[151] The superb monarch resolved to revenge this
outrage. But Pope Alexander VII. foreseeing the consequences, agreed to
the conditions required by France; which were, that the Corsican guards
should be obliged to depart the ecclesiastical state, that the nation
should be declared incapable ever to serve the holy see, and, that
opposite to their ancient guard-house, should be erected a pyramid
inscribed with their disgrace.[152]
[Footnote 151: According to Voltaire it was the French who were the most
to blame. Their ambassador had disgusted the Romans by his arrogance.
His servants exaggerated their master's faults, and imitated "la
jeunesse indisciplinable de Paris, qui se fesait alors un honneur
d'attaquer toutes les nuits le guet qui vieille à la garde de la ville!"
Some of them ventured one day to fall sword in hand on the Corsican
guards. The Corsicans in their turn besieged the ambassador's house.
Shots were fired, and a page was killed. The ambassador at once left
Rome. "Le pape différa tant qu'il put la réparation, persuadé qu' avec
les Français il n'y a qu' à temporiser, et que tout s'oublie." He
hanged, however, a Corsican, and he took other measures to appease Lewis
XIV. He learnt with alarm that the French troops were entering Italy,
and that Rome was threatened with a siege. "Dans d'autres temps les
excommunications de Rome auraient suivi ces outrages; mais c'étaient des
armes usées et devenues ridicules." He was forced to give full
satisfaction. The pyramid mentioned by Boswell was set up, but in a few
years the French King allowed it to be destroyed.--See Voltaire's
"Siècle de Louis XIV.," chap. vii.--ED.]
[Footnote 152: Corps Diplomatique, anno 1664.]
Le Brun, whose royal genius could magnify and enrich every circumstance
in honour of his sovereign, has given this story as a medallion on one
of the compartments of the great gallery at Versailles. France appears
with a stately air, shewing to Rome the design of the pyramid; and Rome,
though bearing a shield marked S.P.Q.R. receives the design with most
submissive humility.
I wish that France had never done the Corsicans greater harm than
depriving them of the honour of being the Pope's guards. Boisseux and
Maillebois[153] cannot easily be forgotten; nor can the brave islanders
be blamed for complaining that a powerful nation should interpose to
retard their obtaining entire possession of their country and of
undisturbed freedom.
[Footnote 153: The commanders of the French troops that invaded Corsica
in 1738 and 1739.--ED.]
M. de Marboeuf appeared to conduct himself with the greatest prudence
and moderation. He told me that he wished to preserve peace in Corsica.
He had entered into a convention with Paoli, mutually to give up such
criminals as should fly into each others territories. Formerly not one
criminal in a hundred was punished. There was no communication between
the Corsicans and the Genoese; and if a criminal could but escape from
the one jurisdiction to the other, he was safe. This was very easily
done, so that crimes from impunity were very frequent. By this equitable
convention, justice has been fully administered.