understand the causes of his failure. Though completely dominated by
Bonaparte while in his presence, he had not the guileless heart of a
Lefebvre, and he began to perceive how the wily Corsican had used him
and betrayed him. Accordingly, when Bonaparte returned from Egypt he
read his design of becoming Dictator, and, true to his Jacobin
principles, at first resolved to fight him to the death; when, however,
he found generals, officers, and men going over to Bonaparte, he
hastened off to make his submission, saying reproachfully, "When you
were about to do something for our country, how could you forget your
own little Augereau?" But though he made his submission, again and again
his Jacobin principles made themselves felt. Forced to accompany
Bonaparte to the first mass held in Paris after the Concordat, Augereau
attempted to slip out of the carriage during the procession to Notre
Dame, and was ignominiously ordered back by one of the First Consul's
aides-de-camp; but he revenged himself by laughing and talking so loudly
during the service that the priest could hardly be heard. But Napoleon
knew his man and his price: a Marshal's baton and a princely income did
much to control his Jacobin proclivities. As early as 1801, Augereau
invested part of his savings on the beautiful estate of La Houssaye,
where, when not actively employed, he spent his time dispensing lavish
hospitality, and delighting his friends and military household with
magnificent entertainments, himself the life and soul of the whole
party, enjoying all the fun and the practical jokes as much as the
youngest subaltern. However he gained his money, he spent it freely and
ungrudgingly. When the First Consul tried to put Lannes in an awkward
position by ordering him at once to replace the deficit of three hundred
thousand francs, caused by the magnificent uniforms he had ordered for
the Guard, Augereau, as soon as he heard of it, hurried to his
solicitors and told them to pay that sum to General Lannes's account.
When Bernadotte, whom he scarcely knew, asked him to lend him two
hundred thousand francs to complete the purchase of an estate, he at
once assented; and when Madame Bernadotte asked him what interest he
would require, he replied, "Madame, bankers and moneylenders, no doubt
quite rightly, draw profit from the money they lend, but when a Marshal
is fortunate enough to oblige a comrade, the pleasure of doing him a
service is enough for him."
In the scheme for the invasion of England the Marshal's corps, which was
stationed round Brest, was destined for the seizure of Ireland, so when
the Grand Army was turned against Austria his divisions were the last to
arrive on the theatre of operations, and were directed to the Tyrol,
where they forced General Jellachich and most of his army to surrender.
In the following year the Marshal greatly distinguished himself at Jena
and Pultusk; but at Eylau, though not owing to his own fault, he
suffered a reverse. The Emperor had placed him in the centre of the
first line and ordered him to advance against the Russian centre. The
fog and snow were so thick that the French could not see the foe until
they came within two hundred yards of them; the enemy suddenly opened
fire on them with massed batteries; in a moment Augereau's staunch
divisions were cut to bits by the hail of grape, and, owing to the smoke
and snow, they could not see their foes; they tried to hold their ground
and reply to the fire, but at last they wavered and broke. The Marshal,
so ill with fever that he had to be tied to his horse, did his utmost to
stop the rout, but in vain; at last, wounded and sick at heart, he had
to return and report his failure. The Emperor, wishing to cover his own
mistake, laid all the blame for the ill-success of the day on Augereau,
and breaking up the remnants of his corps among the other Marshals, he
sent him home. Afraid, however, of arousing his enmity, and mindful of
his past services, next year he created him Duke of Castiglione; but he
never entrusted him again with an important command in the field. In
1809 the Marshal was sent to Spain to supersede St. Cyr at the siege of
Gerona. He had lost his lust for fighting, and was soon recalled for not
showing sufficient energy. In 1812 he commanded part of the reserve of
the Grand Army in Prussia. In 1813 he was in command of a corps of
recruits in Germany, and was present at Leipzig, but all through the
campaign he grumbled against his troops. When reproached for slackness,
and told that he was not the Augereau of Castiglione, he turned on
Napoleon, crying out, "Ah, give me back the old soldiers of Italy and I
will show you that I am!" Still, he had no heart for the war, and after
the catastrophe at Leipzig he broke out into open revolt, cursing the
Emperor and telling Macdonald that "the idiot does not know what he is
about ... the coward, he abandoned us and was prepared to sacrifice us
all, but do not imagine that I was fool enough to let myself be killed
or taken prisoner for the sake of a suburb of Leipzig." In spite of
this, in 1814 Napoleon was so hard pressed that he was forced to employ
him. He sent him to Lyons with orders to prevent the Allies from
debouching from Switzerland, and, if possible, to fall on the line of
communication of Schwartzenberg's army, which was threatening Paris; and
he implored him "to remember his former victories and to forget that he
was on the wrong side of fifty." But old age and luxury had snapped the
once famous spirit of the Duke of Castiglione, and his operations round
Lyons were contemptible. As Napoleon said at St. Helena, "For a long
time Augereau had no longer been a soldier; his courage, his early
virtues, had raised him high above the crowd, but honour, dignity, and
fortune had forced him back into the ruck." Accordingly, as soon as he
heard of the capitulation of Paris he hoisted the white cockade, and
issued a proclamation saying, "Soldiers, you are absolved from your
oaths; you are so by the nation, in which the sovereignty resides; you
are still more so, were it necessary, by the abdication of a man who,
after having sacrificed millions to his cruel ambition, has not known
how to die as a soldier." Soon after this he met his former Emperor and
benefactor on his way to exile at Elba, and a bitter conversation
ensued, in which, in reply to the Emperor's recriminations, the Marshal
asked, "Of what do you complain: has not your insatiable ambition
brought us to this?"
Yet when the Emperor returned to Paris Augereau threw up his command in
Normandy and hastened to proffer his allegiance. But Napoleon would have
none of it, and refused him place or preferment. After Waterloo the
Bourbons also showed him the cold shoulder; so the Marshal retired to
his country seat of La Houssaye, where he died on June 11, 1816, of
dropsy on the chest. Born and bred a Paris boy, he had lived as such,
and of such were his virtues and his vices. Physically brave, yet
morally a coward; vain, blustering, yet kind-hearted; full of boisterous
spirits, greedy, yet generous; liberal by nature, hating control, yet a
severe disciplinarian; a firm believer in the virtue of principles, yet
ever ready to sacrifice his principles at the altar of opportunity,
Augereau, in spite of his many faults, knew how to win and keep the love
of his soldiers and his friends. A leader of men rather than a tactician
or strategist, he played on the enthusiasm of his soldiers by example
rather than precept. Unfortunately for his reputation, his moral courage
failed him at the end of his career, and he added to the imputation of
inconstancy the crime of ingratitude.
XVI
GUILLAUME MARIE ANNE BRUNE, MARSHAL
Guillaume Marie Anne Brune, poet and warrior, was born on May 13, 1763,
at Brives-la-Gaillard. His father, who belonged to a legal family,
destined his son to follow in his footsteps, and after giving him a good
education, sent him to finish his study of law at the College of France
at Paris. But the boy's taste did not lie among the dull technicalities
of law. Artistic and emotional by temperament, he early threw himself
heart and soul into literature. At the age of eighteen he published his
first work, half prose, half verse, in which he described a holiday in
Poitou and Angoumois. But his father viewed with suspicion his son's
literary aspirations, and the breach between them widened when Guillaume
married a young burnisher of metal, Angelique Nicole Pierre, the
orphaned daughter of a miller from Arpajon, who had captivated him by
her beauty and then nursed him through a dangerous illness. The young
couple were thrown entirely on their own resources, and Angelique had to
continue her burnishing, while to ensure the publication of his works
Brune took to the trade of printer. But in spite of poverty and hard
work the marriage was a happy one, for Angelique's beauty, and purity of
mind and character were the necessary complement to her husband's
artistic desires. While engaged in his literary work Brune met the
celebrated Mirabeau, who introduced him to his friends, Camille
Desmoulins and Danton. Generous by nature, and smarting under the social
disgrace which followed his marriage, the poet, turned printer, threw
himself heart and soul into the philosophy of the day: when the
Revolution broke out he hailed the new era with delight, but, like many
another visionary, he failed to see the cruel necessities which the
Revolution was bringing in its train. Following the example of his
friend Camille Desmoulins, on September 15, 1789, he started a
newspaper, the _Magazin Historique ou Journal General_, and followed up
this speculation by editing, in collaboration with Gauthier, the
_Journal de la Cour_; but owing to the violent politics of Gauthier,
Brune broke his connection with the paper in August, 1790. As the
Revolution grew in violence and blind disorder, and hate took the place
of his dream of platonic justice, eager to escape from cruelty and lust,
the printer hastened to console himself among those who were hurrying to
the frontier to fight the enemy as the only means of getting away from
the chaos at home. In August, 1791, he enlisted in the volunteers of the
Seine and Oise, and within a few weeks his activity, zeal, and talent
for administration caused his comrades to elect him adjutant-major.
Early in 1792 he joined the staff of the army as assistant
adjutant-general, and, owing to the influence of Danton and his
political friends, was recalled from Thionville to Paris in September,
1792, as commissary general, to direct and organise the newly raised
battalions of volunteers. But when he arrived in Paris on September 5th,
and found the streets swimming in blood and Danton gloating over his
work, disgusted with Paris and its savage population, he at once applied
for active service, and was back at the camp of Meaux in time to take
part in Dumouriez's campaign of Valmy. Though he recoiled from their
methods, his friendship with Danton and Camille Desmoulins stood him in
good stead; as adjutant-general he served at Neerwinden, and after that
battle was one of the five general officers chosen to rally the
scattered troops of the Army of the North. In July he was ordered to
Calvados to assist in crushing the Girondists. After his success in
Normandy his friends offered him a post in the ministry at Paris, but
"he loved liberty fair and free, as she existed in the army, but not as
she was adored in Paris, to the sound of the tocsin and the beat of the
generale, and fierce songs of death trolled out by cannibals."
Accordingly he returned to the Army of the North in time to fight under
Houchard at Handschoetten. But he had to pay the penalty for his
friendship with the Terrorists, for just as he was setting out full of
delight to fight the English at Dunkirk, owing to the exigencies of
political strife he was hurriedly recalled to give the Girondists their
coup-de-grace at Bordeaux.
[Illustration: BRUNE
FROM AN ENGRAVING AFTER THE PAINTING BY F. J. HARRIET]
Brune returned to the capital in 1794 in time to witness the fall of his
patron, Danton; but fortunately for him Barras took him under his
protection, and in October, thanks to his influence, he became
commandant of Paris. For a whole year the General held this post, and on
October 5th commanded the second column while Bonaparte with the first
column ended the reaction of the Terror with a few rounds of grape shot.
Still under the patronage of Barras, Brune spent the year 1796 in
pacifying the Midi, and his work there has been admirably portrayed in
Alexandre Dumas' "Les Compagnons de Jehu," where he figures as General
Rolland. From this vexatious and wearisome struggle against hostile
countrymen he was summoned to Italy at the beginning of 1797, and was
present with Massena's division at the battle of Rivoli. Under Massena,
he fought through the campaign which ended at Leoben, and attracted the
notice of Bonaparte by his courage and goodwill: in reward for his
services he was created general of division. From Italy the general,
with his division, was sent in October to join the Army of England;
while marching north it was suggested that he should take the post of
ambassador at Berlin; but when the troops heard of this offer they
asked the adjutant-general to write to their commander, saying, "Listen
general: your division charges me to tell you not to give up fighting;
the division will bring you honour, and that is much better than an
embassy." However, there was to be no question of an embassy, for on
February 7, 1798, the Directors sent him to take over the command of the
French troops whose duty it was to annex Switzerland to France. This was
the general's first independent command; and though the campaign added
to his military reputation, unfortunately it left a stain on his honour.
The war was entered on merely with the desire of capturing the Swiss
treasury at Berne, and thus providing funds for Bonaparte's Egyptian
expedition. Brune had learned his lesson in Italy, so the campaign was
short, in spite of the difficulty of the country and the patriotism of
the Swiss. Writing to Bonaparte, the general explained the cause of his
success: "From the moment I found myself in a situation to act, I
assembled all my strength to strike like lightning: for Switzerland is a
vast barrack, and I had everything to fear from a war of posts. I
avoided it by negotiations which I knew were not sincere on the part of
the Bernese, and since then I have followed out the plan which I traced
to you. I think always I am still under your command." The crushing of
the Swiss peasantry and the capture of Berne were followed by the hour
of spoliation; no less than one million seven hundred thousand pounds
were wrung from the wretched Swiss. Brune himself kept his own hands
clean and was, as he wrote, "constantly paring the nails of rascals and
taking the public treasure from them"; but the fact that he was
officially responsible for the spoliation and that his own share of the
plunder was thirty-two thousand pounds caused his name to be loathed
throughout the length and breadth of Switzerland, and "to rob like a
Brune" became a proverb, which was eagerly seized on by his detractors.
The Directors, pleased with his operations in Switzerland, despatched
Brune, on March 31, 1798, to take command of the Army of Italy. His task
was a difficult one, for at Rome and Mantua the starving troops had
mutinied, while the contractors and agents of the Directors were
amassing huge fortunes. To complicate the situation the general was
encumbered by a civil Commission, whose duty it was to supervise the
governments of the Cisalpine Republic. Trouve, the moving spirit of the
Commission, had but one idea, to curb the growing democratic spirit of
the Piedmontese. The commander-in-chief, whose love of freedom had not
yet been blunted, violently opposed Trouve, and at last forced his views
on the Directory, and Trouve was replaced by Fouche. But it was too
late; the mischief had been done. The Piedmontese would no longer bear
the French control: "This then," they cried, "is the faith, the
fraternity, and the friendship you have brought us from France!" In
spite of Brune's efforts to restore confidence they had lost all faith
in French honour, and on December 6th his successor found himself forced
to expel, at the point of the bayonet, all senators opposed to the
French interest.
Leaving Italy in November, Brune found himself sent at the beginning of
1799 to Holland, where danger was threatening: it was evident that
England was going to make an effort to regain for the Prince of Orange
his lost possessions. In spite of this knowledge, as late as August the
French commander could only concentrate ten thousand men under General
Daendals to oppose an equal force of English under Abercromby when they
landed on the open beach at Groete Keten. Though as strong as the enemy,
General Daendals made the most feeble attempt to oppose the landing. Day
by day English and Russian reinforcements poured into Holland, till at
last they numbered forty-eight thousand. But the Duke of York, the
English commander-in-chief, had a hopeless task. With no means of
transport, no staff, and an army composed of hastily enrolled militia
recruits and insubordinate drunken Russians, his only chance of success
lay in a general rising of the Dutch; for early in September the French
forces were numerically as strong as his own. Abercromby's opinion was
that defeat would mean utter disaster: "Were we to sustain a severe
check I much doubt if the discipline of the troops would be sufficient
to prevent a total dissolution of the army": while the English opinion
of the Russians was that they were better at plundering than at
fighting. As a militiaman wrote, "The Russians is people as has not the
fear of God before their eyes, for I saw some of them with cheeses and
bitter and all badly wounded, and in particklar one man had an eit day
clock on his back, and fiting all the time which made me to conclude and
say all his vanity and vexation of spirit." In spite of this the English
had some considerable tactical success, and drove the French back
towards Amsterdam; but lack of provisions compelled them at the
beginning of October to fall back on their entrenched position on the
Zype. Fortunately Brune, who had been much impressed by the fighting
powers of the enemy, did not understand how difficult it would have been
for them to re-embark their forces if he pressed an attack. He allowed
some of his staff officers to throw out hints of an armistice and
convention, which were eagerly accepted, for on October 20th the English
had only three days' provision of bread. With Massena's victory at
Zurich and the embarkation of the Allies after the convention of
Alkmaar, the ring of foes which had so gravely threatened France was
snapped asunder, and Brune, although he had shown but little resource or
initiative during the fighting in Holland, and had failed to diagnose
the extremity of the enemy, was hailed, along with Massena, as the
saviour of the country, and his tactical defeats were celebrated as the
victory of Bergen.
From Holland the conqueror of the English was despatched, early in 1800,
by the First Consul to quell the rising in La Vendee, where his former
experience of guerilla warfare in Switzerland stood him in good stead,
and he soon brought the rebels to their knees. During the Marengo
campaign he commanded the real Army of Reserve at Dijon, but in August,
when Bonaparte found it necessary to replace Massena, he despatched
Brune to take command of the Army of Italy. Unfortunately the future
Marshal's genius was more suited to the details of administration and
the direction of small columns than to the command of large forces in
the field. Though at the head of a hundred thousand men, and supported
admirably by Murat, Marmont, Macdonald, Suchet and Dupont, he failed
conspicuously as a commander-in-chief. His movements at the crossing of
the Mincio were hesitating and slow, and he neglected to seize the
opportunity which Dupont's successful movements presented to him. At
Treviso, as in Holland, he showed only too clearly his limitations: he
held the enemy in the hollow of his hand, but, failing to see his
advantage, he once again signed an armistice which permitted the foe to
escape out of his net.
On his return to France the First Consul regarded him with suspicion.
His well-known republican opinions did not harmonise with Bonaparte's
schemes of self-aggrandisement. The First Consul had a very poor
estimate of his military ability, but the people at large still hailed
him as the saviour of Holland and France. Bonaparte treated him like all
those whom he suspected but whom he could not afford to despise, and
under the pretext of a diplomatic appointment he practically banished
him to Constantinople. Diplomacy was not Brune's forte, and after
eighteen months' residence in Turkey he was obliged to quit the Porte,
which had fallen entirely under Russian influence.
The general was still abroad when the Emperor created his Marshals: his
appointment of Brune, like his appointment of Lefebvre, was part of his
scheme for binding the republican interest to his dynasty, for his
opinion of the Marshal's talent was such that he scarcely ever employed
him in the field. From 1805 to 1807 Brune was occupied in drilling the
troops left at Boulogne. In May, 1807, he was appointed to command the
reserve corps of the Grand Army, and when in July the King of Sweden
declared war on Napoleon, he was entrusted with the operations round
Stralsund, and captured that fortress and the island of Ruegen. During
this short campaign the Marshal had an interview with Gustavus of
Sweden, and tried to point out to him the folly of fighting against
France. A garbled account of this interview, full of unjust
insinuations, came to Napoleon's ears. In anger the Emperor sent for
Brune and taxed him with the false accusations. The Marshal, furious
that his good faith should be suspected, refused any explanation and
merely contented himself with repeating: "It is a lie." The Emperor,
equally furious at his obstinacy, deprived him of his command. The
result of this quarrel was that for the next five years Brune lived at
home in disgrace. On the Restoration he made his submission to Louis
XVIII., and received the cross of St. Louis. But in 1815, on the return
from Elba, he answered the Emperor's summons, for Napoleon could no
longer afford the luxury of quarrelling with generous Frenchmen who were
willing to serve him. Remembering the Marshal's talent for
administration and a war of posts, he offered him the command of the
Midi. Brune hesitated; Napoleon had treated him disgracefully, but in
his generosity he was ready to overlook all that; still, he knew well
that the Empire was not the Republic: yet he preferred Napoleon's regime
to that of the Bourbons, and at last he accepted, but set out for his
new duties depressed and not at all himself. The difficulties he had to
contend with were enormous; the Austrians and Sardinians were massing on
the frontiers, the allied fleet commanded the Mediterranean, while
Provence was covered by bands of brigands who called themselves
royalists. Marseilles, the fickle, which had given France and the
Republic the "Marseillaise," was now red-hot Legitimist. So the news of
Waterloo and of Napoleon's abdication came as a relief to the harassed
Marshal, who was only too glad on July 22nd to hand over Toulon to the
English. Thereon, in obedience to the command of the King, he set out
for Paris.