24th.—The Emperor went out only to take an airing in the calash. We
drove for nearly an hour and a half, proceeding at a slow pace, and
lengthened our airing by going twice over the limits of our usual ride.
The Emperor conversed on politics. The newspapers, which we had received
three days ago, furnished the subject of discussion.
In France, he observed, the patriots were emigrating rapidly; and there
seemed to be a wish to encourage their emigration, from the circumstance
of their property not having been confiscated, &c.
The Emperor thought he could perceive from the debates in the English
Parliament, that there was a reserved idea respecting the partition of
France; this was a severe shock to his feelings. “Every one possessing a
true French heart,” said he, “must now be overwhelmed with despair. An
immense majority of the population of France must be plunged in the
deepest sorrow. Ah!” he exclaimed, “why am I not placed in some remote
sphere, on a soil truly free and independent, where no external
influence could be dreaded! how would I astonish the universe! I would
address a proclamation to the French; I would say to them;—You are lost
if you are not united. The odious, the insolent foreigner is about to
parcel you out and to annihilate you. Frenchmen arise; make common
cause, at all hazards,—rally, if it must be so, even around the
Bourbons! Let the existence, the safety of France, take place of every
other consideration!...”
He thought, however, that Russia must oppose this division, as she would
thereby have to fear the growing strength and consolidation of Germany
against her. Some one present remarked that Austria must oppose it also,
from the apprehension of wanting the necessary support in case of any
attempts on the part of Russia. It was moreover observed that, in such a
case, Austria might probably serve the cause of the King of Rome, by
putting him forward. “Yes,” replied the Emperor, "as an instrument of
menace, perhaps; but never as the object of her good wishes. Austria
must have too much cause to dread him. The King of Rome will be the man
of the people; he will be the champion of Italy. Thus it will be the
policy of Austria to take his life. This will not probably be attempted
during the reign of his grandfather, who is a good man;—but the Emperor
Francis cannot live for ever. If, however, the manners of the present
age should preclude the possibility of an attempt to murder him, they
will endeavour to brutalize his faculties. Or finally, if he should
escape both physical and moral assassination,—if his mother’s cares and
his own natural endowments should rescue him from all those dangers,
then—then—" (he repeated several times, as if absorbed in reflection)
“why then—But who can calculate on the destinies of any one here below!”
The Emperor then turned the conversation to England, by remarking that
she alone was interested in the destruction of France; and in the
plenitude and versatility of his fancy, he touched on all the various
plans which she was likely to adopt for that purpose. She could not
increase the power of Belgium, he said, otherwise Antwerp would become
as formidable to her as it had been under his reign. She must, he
observed, leave the Bourbons in the centre, with only eight or ten
millions of inhabitants, and surround them with Princes, Dukes, or Kings
of Normandy, Brittany, Aquitaine, and Provence; so that Cherbourg,
Brest, the Garonne, and the Mediterranean would be in the possession of
different sovereigns. This, he said, would make the French monarchy
retrograde several ages, would restore it to its situation under the
first Capets, and would provide for the Bourbons a few centuries of new
and laborious efforts.—"But, fortunately," observed the Emperor, "before
England can arrive at this point, she will have to surmount almost
invincible obstacles,—the uniformity of the division of the territory
into departments, the similitude of language, the identity of manners,
the universality of the code, the generality of my lyceums, and the
glory and splendour which I have left behind me; these are so many
indissoluble knots and truly national institutions.
"A great nation like France cannot easily be parcelled out, or, if it
should, it will be constantly re-uniting and seeking to recover its
importance; like Ariosto’s giant, who runs after his limbs and even his
head, as they are lopped off, and after putting them on begins to fight
again." “But Sire,” said some one present, “the power of the giant
depended on the plucking out of a single hair; and, in like manner,
Napoleon may be said to be the hair on which depended the existence of
France.” “No,” resumed the Emperor, “my memory and my ideas would still
survive.—But,” continued he, “England, on the contrary, would in course
of time have become a mere appendage to France, had the latter continued
under my dominion. England was by nature intended to be one of our
Islands, as well as Oleron or Corsica. On what trifles does the fate of
Empires depend! How petty and insignificant are our revolutions in the
grand organization of the universe! If, instead of entering upon the
Egyptian expedition, I had invaded Ireland; if some slight derangement
of my plans had not thrown obstacles in the way of my Boulogne
enterprise; what would England have been to-day? What would have been
the situation of the continent and of the whole political world?”