10th.—The weather was very bad, and the Emperor, finding it impossible
to go out, walked up and down in the dining-room. He afterwards ordered
a fire to be kindled in the drawing-room, and sat down to play at chess
with the Grand Marshal. After dinner he read to us the history of Joseph
from the Bible, and the Andromache of Racine.
The Bengal fleet arrived yesterday evening. The Countess of Loudon and
Moira, the wife of the Governor-General of India, was among the
passengers.
To-day, in the course of conversation, the name of Hoche having been
mentioned, some one observed that at a very early age he had inspired
great hope. “And what is still better,” said the Emperor, “you may add
that he fulfilled that hope.” Hoche and Napoleon had seen each other,
and had conversed twice or thrice together. Hoche esteemed him even to
admiration. Napoleon did not hesitate to say that he possessed over
Hoche the advantages of extensive information and the principles of a
good education. There was, he said, in other respects a great difference
between them. “Hoche,” said he, “endeavoured to raise a party for
himself, and gained only servile adherents. For my part, I had created
for myself an immense number of partisans, without in any way seeking
popularity. Hoche possessed a hostile provoking kind of ambition; he was
the sort of man who could conceive the idea of coming from Strasburg,
with 25,000 men, to seize the reins of government by force. But my
policy was always of a patient kind, led on by the spirit of the age,
and the circumstances of the moment.”
The Emperor added that Hoche would ultimately either have yielded to
him, or must have subdued him, and, as he was fond of money and
pleasure, he doubted not that he would have yielded to him. Moreau,
observed he, in similar circumstances, knew not how to decide. Thus
Napoleon attached but little importance to him, and regarded him as
totally wanting in ability; without however extending this opinion to
his military talent. “But he was a weak man,” said the Emperor, "guided
by those who surrounded him, and slavishly subject to the control of his
wife: he was a general of the old monarchy.
“Hoche,” continued the Emperor, "died suddenly and under singular
circumstances; and as there existed a party who seemed to think that all
crimes belonged to me of right, endeavours were made to circulate a
report that I had poisoned him. There was a time when no mischief could
happen that was not imputed to me; thus, when in Paris, I caused Kleber
to be assassinated in Egypt; I blew out Desaix’s brains at Marengo: I
strangled and cut the throats of persons who were confined in prisons; I
seized the Pope by the hair of his head: and a hundred similar
absurdities were affirmed. However, as I paid not the least attention to
all this, the fashion passed away, and I do not see that my successors
have been very eager to revive it; and yet, if any of the crimes imputed
to me had had any real existence, the documents, the perpetrators, the
accomplices, &c. might have been brought forward.
“However, such is the influence of report that these stories, however
absurd, were credited by the vulgar, and are perhaps still believed by a
numerous class of persons. Happily the statements of the historian who
reasons are divested of this pernicious effect.”
Then, returning to the former topic of conversation, he said, "What a
number of great Generals arose suddenly during the revolution: Pichegru,
Kleber, Massena, Marceau, Desaix, Hoche, &c., and almost all were
originally private soldiers. But here the efforts of nature seem to have
been exhausted; for she has produced nothing since, or at least nothing
so great. At that period every thing was submitted to competition among
thirty millions of men, and nature necessarily asserted her rights:
whereas, subsequently, we were again confined within the narrower limits
of order and the forms of society. I was even accused of having
surrounded myself, in military and civil posts, with men of inferior
ability, the better to display my own superiority. But now, when the
competition will not certainly be renewed, it remains for those who are
in power to make a better selection. We shall see what they will do.
"Another circumstance, not less remarkable, was the extreme youth of
some of these Generals, who seemed to have started ready made from the
hands of nature. Their characters were perfectly suited to the
circumstances in which they were placed, with the exception of Hoche,
whose morals were by no means pure. The others had no object in view
save _glory_ and _patriotism_, which formed their whole circle. They
were men after the antique model.
"Desaix was surnamed by the Arabs the _Just Sultan_; at the funeral of
Marceau, the Austrians observed an armistice, on account of the respect
they entertained for him: and young Duphot was the emblem of perfect
virtue.
"But the same commendations cannot be bestowed on those who were farther
advanced in life: for they belonged in some measure to the era that had
just passed away. Massena, Augereau, Brune, and many others, were merely
intrepid plunderers. Massena was, moreover, distinguished for the most
sordid avarice. It was asserted that I played him a trick which might
have proved a hanging matter; that, being one day indignant at his last
depredations, I drew on his banker for 2 or 3,000,000. Great
embarrassment ensued: for my name was not without its weight. The banker
wrote to intimate that he could not pay the sum without the authority of
Massena. On the other hand, he was urged to pay it without hesitation,
as Massena, if he were wronged, could appeal to the courts of law for
justice. Massena however resorted to no legal measures, and suffered the
money to be paid.
"O ——, Murat, and Ney, were common-place Generals, having no
recommendation but personal courage.
"Moncey was an honest man: Macdonald was distinguished for firm
integrity; I was deceived with respect to the character of B——.
"S—— also had his faults as well as his merits. The whole of his
campaign in the south of France was admirably conducted. It will
scarcely be credited that this man, whose deportment and manners denoted
a lofty character, was the slave of his wife. When I learned at Dresden
our defeat at Vittoria, and the loss of all Spain through the
mismanagement of poor Joseph, whose plans and measures were not suited
to the present age, and seemed rather to belong to a Soubise than to me,
I looked about for some one capable of repairing these disasters, and I
cast my eyes on S—— who was near me. He said that he was ready to
undertake what I wished; but entreated that I would speak to his wife,
by whom, he said, he expected to be reproached. I desired him to send
her to me. She assumed an air of hostility, and decidedly told me that
her husband should certainly not return to Spain; that he had already
performed important services, and was now entitled to a little repose.
‘Madam,’ said I to her: ‘I did not send for you with the view of
enduring your scolding. I am not your husband, and if I were I should
not be the more inclined to bear with you.’ These few words confounded
her; she became as pliant as a glove, turned quite obsequious, and was
only eager to obtain a few conditions. To these, however, I by no means
acceded, and merely contented myself with congratulating her on her
willingness to listen to reason. In critical circumstances, Madam, said
I, it is a wife’s duty to endeavour to smooth difficulties; go home to
your husband, and do not torment him by your opposition."