office of a director of the internal police. Having some difference with
my landlord, I was summoned to appear before him at the prefecture of the
police. My friend, M. de Sab-----r, formerly a counsellor of the
Parliament at Rouen, happened to be with me when the summons was
delivered, and offered to accompany me, being acquainted with Real.
Though thirty persons were waiting in the antechamber at our arrival, no
sooner was my friend's name announced than we were admitted, and I
obtained not only more justice than I expected, or dared to claim, but an
invitation to Madame Real's tea-party the same evening. This justice and
this politeness surprised me, until my friend showed me an act of forgery
in his possession, committed by Real in 1788, when an advocate of the
Parliament, and for which the humanity of my friend alone prevented him
from being struck off the rolls, and otherwise punished.
As I conceived my usual societies and coteries could not approve my
attendance at the house of such a personage, I was intent upon sending an
apology to Madame Real. My friend, however, assured me that I should
meet in her salon persons of all classes and of all ranks, and many I
little expected to see associating together. I went late, and found the
assembly very numerous; at the upper part of the hall were seated
Princesses Joseph and Louis Bonaparte, with Madame Fouche, Madame
Roederer, the cidevant Duchesse de Fleury, and Marquise de Clermont. They
were conversing with M. Mathew de Montmorency, the contractor (a
ci-devant lackey) Collot, the ci-devant Duc de Fitz-James, and the
legislator Martin, a ci-devant porter: several groups in the several
apartments were composed of a similar heterogeneous mixture of ci-devant
nobles and ci-devant valets, of ci-devant Princesses, Marchionesses,
Countesses and Baronesses, and of ci-devant chambermaids, mistresses and
poissardes. Round a gambling-table, by the side of the ci-devant Bishop
of Autun, Talleyrand, sat Madame Hounguenin, whose husband, a ci-devant
shoeblack, has, by the purchase of national property, made a fortune of
nine millions of livres--L375,000. Opposite them were seated the
ci-devant Prince de Chalais, and the present Prince Cambaceres with the
ci-devant Comtesse de Beauvais, and Madame Fauve, the daughter of a
fishwoman, and the wife of a tribune, a ci-devant barber. In another
room, the Bavarian Minister Cetto was conferring with the spy Mehee de la
Touche; but observed at a distance by Fouche's secretary, Desmarets, the
son of a tailor at Fontainebleau, and for years a known spy. When I was
just going to retire, the handsome Madame Gillot, and her sister, Madame
de Soubray, joined me. You have perhaps known them in England, where,
before their marriage, they resided for five years with their parents,
the Marquis and Marquise de Courtin; and were often admired by the
loungers in Bond Street. The one married for money, Gillot, a ci-devant
drummer in the French Guard, but who, since the Revolution, has, as a
general; made a large fortune; and the other united herself to a
ci-devant Abbe, from love; but both are now divorced from their husbands,
who passed them without any notice while they were chatting with me. I
was handing Madame Gillot to her carriage, when, from the staircase,
Madame de Soubray called to us not to quit her, as she was pursued by a
man whom she detested, and wished to avoid. We had hardly turned round,
when Mehee offered her his arm, and she exclaimed with indignation, "How
dare you, infamous wretch, approach me, when I have forbidden you ever to
speak to me? Had you been reduced to become a highwayman, or a
housebreaker, I might have pitied your infamy; but a spy is a villain who
aggravates guilt by cowardice and baseness, and can inspire no noble soul
with any other sentiment but abhorrence, and the most sovereign
contempt." Without being disconcerted, Mehee silently returned to the
company, amidst bursts of laughter from fifty servants, and as many
masters, waiting for their carriages. M. de Cetto was among the latter,
but, though we all fixed our eyes steadfastly upon him, no alteration
could be seen on his diplomatic countenance: his face must surely be made
of brass or his heart of marble.
LETTER VI.
PARIS, August, 1805.
MY LORD:--The day on which Madame Napoleon Bonaparte was elected an
Empress of the French, by the constitutional authorities of her husband's
Empire, was, contradictory as it may seem, one of the most uncomfortable
in her life. After the show and ceremony of the audience and of the
drawing-room were over, she passed it entirely in tears, in her library,
where her husband shut her up and confined her.
The discipline of the Court of St. Cloud is as singular as its
composition is unique. It is, by the regulation of Napoleon, entirely
military. From the Empress to her lowest chambermaid, from the Emperor's
first aide-de-camp down to his youngest page, any slight offence or
negligence is punished with confinement, either public or private. In
the former case the culprits are shut up in their own apartments, but in
the latter they are ordered into one of the small rooms, constructed in
the dark galleries at the Tuileries and St. Cloud, near the kitchens,
where they are guarded day and night by sentries, who answer for their
persons, and that nobody visits them.
When, on the 28th of March, 1804, the Senate had determined on offering
Bonaparte the Imperial dignity, he immediately gave his wife full powers,
with order to form her household of persons who, from birth and from
their principles, might be worthy, and could be trusted to encompass the
Imperial couple. She consulted Madame Remusat, who, in her turn,
consulted her friend De Segur, who also consulted his bonne amie, Madame
de Montbrune. This lady determined that if Bonaparte and his wife were
desirous to be served, or waited on, by persons above them by ancestry
and honour, they should pay liberally for such sacrifices. She was not
therefore idle, but wishing to profit herself by the pride of upstart
vanity, she had at first merely reconnoitred the ground, or made distant
overtures to those families of the ancient French nobility who had been
ruined by the Revolution, and whose minds she expected to have found on a
level with their circumstances. These, however, either suspecting her
intent and her views, or preferring honest poverty to degrading and
disgraceful splendour, had started objections which she was not prepared
to encounter. Thus the time passed away; and when, on the 18th of the
following May, the Senate proclaimed Napoleon Bonaparte Emperor of the
French, not a Chamberlain was ready to attend him, nor a Maid of Honour
to wait on his wife.
On the morning of the 20th May, the day fixed for the constitutional
republican authorities to present their homage as subjects, Napoleon
asked his Josephine who were the persons, of both sexes, she had engaged,
according to his carte blanche given her, as necessary and as unavoidable
decorations of the drawing-room of an Emperor and Empress, as thrones and
as canopies of State. She referred him to Madame Remusat, who, though
but half-dressed, was instantly ordered to appear before him. This lady
avowed that his grand master of the ceremonies, De Segur, had been
entrusted by her with the whole arrangement, but that she feared that he
had not yet been able to complete the full establishment of the Imperial
Court. The aide-de-camp Rapp was then despatched after De Segur, who, as
usual, presented himself smiling and cringing.
"Give me the list," said Napoleon, "of the ladies and gentlemen you have
no doubt engaged for our household."
"May it please Your Majesty," answered De Segur, trembling with fear, "I
humbly supposed that they were not requisite before the day of Your
Majesty's coronation."
"You supposed!" retorted Napoleon. "How dare you suppose differently
from our commands? Is the Emperor of the Great Nation not to be
encompassed with a more numerous retinue, or with more lustre, than a
First Consul? Do you not see the immense difference between the
Sovereign Monarch of an Empire, and the citizen chief magistrate of a
commonwealth? Are there not starving nobles in my empire enough to
furnish all the Courts in Europe with attendants, courtiers, and valets?
Do you not believe that with a nod, with a single nod, I might have them
all prostrated before my throne? What can, then, have occasioned this
impertinent delay?"
"Sire!" answered De Segur, "it is not the want of numbers, but the
difficulty of the choice among them. I will never recommend a single
individual upon whom I cannot depend; or who, on some future day, may
expose me to the greatest of all evils, the displeasure of my Prince."
"But," continued Napoleon, "what is to be done to-day that I may augment
the number of my suite, and by it impose upon the gaping multitude and
the attending deputations?"--"Command," said De Segur, "all the officers
of Your Majesty's staff, and of the staff of the Governor of Paris,
General Murat, to surround Your Majesty's sacred person, and order them
to accoutre themselves in the most shining and splendid manner possible.
The presence of so many military men will also, in a political point of
view, be useful. It will lessen the pretensions of the constituted
authorities, by telling them indirectly, 'It is not to your Senatus
Consultum, to your decrees, or to your votes, that I am indebted for my
present Sovereignty; I owe it exclusively to my own merit and valour, and
to the valour of my brave officers and men, to whose arms I trust more
than to your counsels.'"
This advice obtained Napoleon's entire approbation, and was followed. De
Segur was permitted to retire, but when Madame Remusat made a curtsey
also to leave the room, she was stopped with his terrible 'aux arrets'
and left under the care and responsibility of his aide-de-camp, Lebrun,
who saw her safe into her room, at the door of which he placed two
grenadiers. Napoleon then went out, ordering his wife, at her peril, to
be in time, ready and brilliantly dressed, for the drawing-room.
Dreading the consequences of her husband's wrath, Madame Napoleon was not
only punctual, but so elegantly and tastefully decorated with jewels and
ornaments that even those of her enemies or rivals who refused her
beauty, honour, and virtue, allowed her taste and dignity. She thought
that even in the regards of Napoleon she read a tacit approbation. When
all the troublesome bustle of the morning was gone through, and when
Senators, legislators, tribunes, and prefects had complimented her as a
model of female perfection, on a signal from her husband she accompanied
him in silence through six different apartments before he came to her
library, where he surlily ordered her to enter and to remain until
further orders.
"What have I done, Sire! to deserve such treatment?" exclaimed Josephine,
trembling.
"If," answered Napoleon, "Madame Remusat, your favourite, has made a fool
of you, this is only to teach you that you shall not make a fool of me:
Had not De Segur fortunately for him--had the ingenuity to extricate us
from the dilemma into which my confidence and dependence on you had
brought me, I should have made a fine figure indeed on the first day of
my emperorship. Have patience, Madame; you have plenty of books to
divert you, but you must remain where you are until I am inclined to
release you." So saying, Napoleon locked the door and put the key in his
pocket.
It was near two o'clock in the afternoon when she was thus shut up.
Remembering the recent flattery of her courtiers, and comparing it with
the unfeeling treatment of her husband, she found herself so much the
more unfortunate, as the expressions of the former were regarded by her
as praise due to her merit, while the unkindness of the latter was
unavailingly resented as the undeserved oppression of a capricious
despot.
Business, or perhaps malice, made Napoleon forget to send her any dinner;
and when, at eight o'clock, his brothers and sisters came, according to
invitation, to take tea, he said coldly:
"Apropos, I forgot it. My wife has not dined yet; she is busy, I
suppose, in her philosophical meditations in her study."
Madame Louis Bonaparte, her daughter, flew directly towards the study,
and her mother could scarcely, for her tears, inform her that--she was a
prisoner, and that her husband was her gaoler.
"Oh, Sire!" said Madame Louis, returning, "even this remarkable day is a
day of mourning for my poor mother!"
"She deserves worse," answered Napoleon, "but, for your sake, she shall
be released; here is the key, let her out."
Madame Napoleon was, however, not in a situation to wish to appear before
her envious brothers and sisters-in-law. Her eyes were so swollen with
crying that she could hardly see; and her tears had stained those
Imperial robes which the unthinking and inconsiderate no doubt believed a
certain preservative against sorrow and affliction. At nine o'clock,
however, another aide-de-camp of her husband presented himself, and gave
her the choice either to accompany him back to the study or to join the
family party of the Bonapartes.
In deploring her mother's situation, Madame Louis Bonaparte informed her
former governess, Madame Cam---n, of these particulars, which I heard her
relate at Madame de M----r's, almost verbatim as I report them to you.
Such, and other scenes, nearly of the same description, are neither rare
nor singular, in the most singular Court that ever existed in civilized
Europe.
LETTER VII.
PARIS, August, 1805.
MY LORD:--Though Government suffer a religious, or, rather,
anti-religious liberty of the Press, the authors who libel or ridicule
the Christian, particularly the Roman Catholic, religion, are excluded
from all prospect of advancement, or if in place, are not trusted or
liked. Cardinal Caprara, the nuncio of the Pope, proposed last year, in a
long memorial, the same severe restrictions on the discussions or
publications in religious matters as were already ordered in those
concerning politics. But both Bonaparte and his Minister in the affairs
of the Church, Portalis, refused the introduction of what they called a
tyranny on the conscience. Caprara then addressed himself to the
ex-Bishop Talleyrand, who, on this occasion, was more explicit than he
generally is.
"Bonaparte," said he, "rules not only over a fickle, but a gossiping
(bavard) people, whom he has prudently forbidden all conversation and
writing concerning government of the State. They would soon (accustomed
as they are, since the Revolution, to verbal and written debates) be
tired of talking about fine weather or about the opera. To occupy them
and their attention, some ample subject of diversion was necessary, and
religion was surrendered to them at discretion; because, enlightened as
the world now is, even athiests or Christian fanatics can do but little
harm to society. They may spend rivers of ink, but they will be unable
to shed a drop of blood."
"True," answered the Cardinal, "but only to a certain degree. The
licentiousness of the Press, with regard to religious matters, does it
not also furnish infidelity with new arms to injure the faith? And have
not the horrors from which France has just escaped proved the danger and
evil consequences of irreligion, and the necessity of encouraging and
protecting Christianity? By the recall of the clergy, and by the
religious concordat, Bonaparte has shown himself convinced of this
truth."
"So he is," interrupted Talleyrand; "but he abhors intoleration and
persecution" (not in politics). "I shall, however, to please Your
Eminence, lay the particulars of your conversation before him."
Some time afterwards, when Talleyrand and Bonaparte must have agreed
about some new measure to indirectly chastise impious writers, the
Senators Garat, Jaucourt, Roederer, and Demeunier, four of the members of
the senatorial commission of the liberty of the Press, were sent for, and
remained closeted with Napoleon, his Minister Portalis, and Cardinal
Caprara for two hours. What was determined on this occasion has not
transpired, as even the Cardinal, who is not the most discreet person
when provoked, and his religious zeal gets the better of his political
prudence, has remained silent, though seemingly contented.
Two rather insignificant authors, of the name of Varennes and Beaujou,
who published some scandalous libels on Christianity, have since been
taken up, and after some months' imprisonment in the Temple been
condemned to transportation to Cayenne for life,--not as infidels or
atheists, but as conspirators against the State, in consequence of some
unguarded expressions which prejudice or ill-will alone would judge
connected with politics. Nothing is now permitted to be printed against
religion but with the author's name; but on affixing his name, he may
abuse the worship and Gospel as much as he pleases. Since the example of
severity alluded to above, however, this practice is on the decline. Even
Pigault-Lebrun, a popular but immoral novel writer, narrowly escaped
lately a trip to Cayenne for one of his blasphemous publications, and
owes to the protection of Madame Murat exclusively that he was not sent
to keep Varennes and Beaujou company. Some years ago, when Madame Murat
was neither so great nor so rich as at present, he presented her with a
copy of his works, and she had been unfashionable enough not only to
remember the compliment, but wished to return it by nominating him her
private secretary; which, however, the veto of Napoleon prevented.
Of Napoleon Bonaparte's religious sentiments, opinions are not divided in
France. The influence over him of the petty, superstitious Cardinal
Caprara is, therefore, inexplicable. This prelate has forced from him
assent to transactions which had been refused both to his mother and his
brother Joseph, who now often employ the Cardinal with success, where
they either dare not or will not show themselves. It is true His
Eminence is not easily rebuked, but returns to the charge unabashed by
new repulses; and be obtains by teasing more than by persuasion; but a
man by whom Bonaparte suffers, himself to be teased with impunity is no
insignificant favourite, particularly when, like this Cardinal, he unites
cunning with devotion, craft with superstition; and is as accessible to
corruption as tormented by ambition.
As most ecclesiastical promotions passed through his pure and
disinterested hands, Madame Napoleon, Talleyrand, and Portalis, who also
wanted some douceurs for their extraordinary expenses, united together
last spring to remove him from France. Napoleon was cajoled to nominate
him a grand almoner of the Kingdom of Italy, and the Cardinal set out for
Milan. He was, however, artful enough to convince his Sovereign of the
propriety of having his grand almoner by his side; and he is, therefore,
obliged to this intrigue of his enemies that he now disposes of the
benefices in the Kingdom of Italy, as well as those of the French Empire.
During the Pope's residence in this capital, His Holiness often made use
of Cardinal Caprara in his secret negotiations with Bonaparte; and
whatever advantages were obtained by the Roman Pontiff for the Gallican
Church His Eminence almost extorted; for he never desisted, where his
interest or pride were concerned, till he had succeeded. It is said that
one day last January, after having been for hours exceedingly teasing and
troublesome, Bonaparte lost his patience, and was going to treat His
Eminence as he frequently does his relatives, his Ministers, and
counsellors,--that is to say, to kick him from his presence; but suddenly
recollecting himself, he said: "Cardinal, remain here in my closet until
my return, when I shall have more time to listen to what you have to
relate." It was at ten o'clock in the morning, and a day of great
military audience and grand review. In going out he put the key in his
pocket, and told the guards in his antechamber to pay no attention if
they should hear any noise in his closet.
It was dark before the review was over, and Bonaparte had a large party
to dinner. When his guests retired, he went into his wife's
drawing-room, where one of the Pope's chamberlains waited on him with the
information that His Holiness was much alarmed about the safety of
Cardinal Caprara, of whom no account could be obtained, even with the
assistance of the police, to whom application had been made, since His
Eminence had so suddenly disappeared.
"Oh! how absent I am," answered Napoleon, as with surprise; "I entirely
forgot that I left the Cardinal in my closet this morning. I will go
myself and make an apology for my blunder."
His Eminence, quite exhausted, was found fast asleep; but no sooner was
he a little recovered than he interrupted Bonaparte's affected apology
with the repetition of the demand he had made in the morning; and so well
was Napoleon pleased with him, for neglecting his personal inconvenience
only to occupy himself with the affairs of his Sovereign, that he
consented to what was asked, and in laying his hand upon the shoulders of
the prelate, said:
"Faithful Minister! were every Prince as well served as your Sovereign
is by you, many evils might be prevented, and much good effected."
The same evening Duroc brought him, as a present, a snuffbox with
Bonaparte's portrait, set round with diamonds, worth one thousand louis
d'or. The adventures of this day certainly did not lessen His Eminence
in the favour of Napoleon or of Pius VII.
Last November, some not entirely unknown persons intended to amuse
themselves at the Cardinal's expense. At seven o'clock one evening, a
young Abbe presented himself at the Cardinal's house, Hotel de Montmorin,
Rue Plumet, as by appointment of His Eminence, and was, by his secretary,
ushered into the study and asked to wait there. Hardly half an hour
afterwards, two persons, pretending to be agents of the police, arrived
just as the Cardinal's carriage had stopped. They informed him that the
woman introduced into his house in the dress of an Abby was connected
with a gang of thieves and housebreakers, and demanded his permission to
arrest her. He protested that, except the wife of his porter, no woman
in any dress whatever could be in his house, and that, to convince
themselves, they were very welcome to accompany his valet-de-chambre into
every room they wished to see. To the great surprise of his servant, a
very pretty girl was found in the bed of His Eminence's bed-chamber,
which joined his study, who, though the pretended police agents insisted
on her getting up, refused, under pretence that she was there waiting for
her 'bon ami', the Cardinal.
His Eminence was no sooner told of this than he shut the gate of his
house, after sending his secretary to the commissary of police of the
section. In the meantime, both the police agents and the girl entreated
him to let them out, as the whole was merely a badinage; but he remained
inflexible, and they were all three carried by the real police commissary
to prison.
Upon a complaint made by His Eminence to Bonaparte, the Police Minister,
Fouche, received orders to have those who had dared thus to violate the
sacred character of the representative of the Holy Pontiff immediately,
and without further ceremony, transported to Cayenne. The Cardinal
demanded, and obtained, a process verbal of what had occurred, and of the
sentence on the culprits, to be laid before his Sovereign. As Eugene de
Beauharnais interested himself so much for the individuals involved in
this affair as both to implore Bonaparte's pardon and the Cardinal's
interference for them, many were inclined to believe that he was in the
secret, if not the contriver of this unfortunate joke. This supposition
gained credit when, after all his endeavours to save them proved vain, he
sent them seventy-two livres L 3,000--to Rochefort, that they might, on
their arrival at Cayenne, be able to buy a plantation. He procured them
also letters to the Governor, Victor Hughes, recommending that they
should be treated differently from other transported persons.
LETTER VIII.
PARIS, August, 1805.