LIFE OF NAPOLEON
POCKET EDITION
VOL. IV.
LIFE OF
NAPOLEON BONAPARTE
BY SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.
VOL. 4.
[Illustration: Mayence]
EDINBURGH; A. & C. BLACK.
1876
CONTENTS.
PAGE
CHAP. XLIX.--Conduct of Russia and England during the War with
Austria--Meditated Expedition of British Troops to the Continent--Sent
to Walcheren--Its Calamitous Details and Result--Proceedings of
Napoleon with regard to the Pope--General Miollis enters
Rome--Napoleon publishes a Decree, uniting the States of the Church to
the French Empire--Is Excommunicated--Pius VII. is banished from Rome,
and sent to Grenoble--afterwards brought back to Savona--Buonaparte is
attacked by an Assassin--Definitive Treaty of Peace signed at
Schoenbrun--Napoleon returns to France on the 14th November, 1809, 1
CHAP. L.--Change in Napoleon's Domestic Life--Causes which led to
it--His anxiety for an Heir--A Son of his Brother Louis is fixed upon,
but dies in Childhood--Character and influence of Josephine--Strong
mutual Attachment betwixt her and Napoleon--Fouché opens to Josephine
the Plan of a Divorce--Her extreme Distress--On 5th December, Napoleon
announces her Fate to Josephine--On 15th they are formally separated
before the Imperial Council--Josephine retaining the rank of Empress
for Life--Espousals of Buonaparte and Maria Louisa of Austria take
place at Vienna, 11th March, 1810, 17
CHAP. LI.--Almost all the Foreign French Settlements fall into the
hands of the British--French Squadron destroyed at the Isle of Aix, by
Lord Cochrane--and at the Isle of Rosas, by Lord Collingwood--Return
to the Proceedings in Spain--Soult takes Oporto--Attacked and Defeated
by Sir Arthur Wellesley--Ferrol and Corunna retaken by the
Patriots--Battle of Talavera, gained by Sir Arthur Wellesley--Created
Lord Wellington--The French Armies take many Towns and Strong
Places--Supreme Junta Retreat to Cadiz--The Guerilla System--Growing
Disappointment of Buonaparte--His immense Exertions--Battle of
Busaco--Lord Wellington's famous Retreat on Torres Vedras, 28
CHAP. LII.--Change in Napoleon's Principles of Government--Becomes
suspicious of Talleyrand and Fouché--Fouché endeavours, without the
knowledge of Napoleon, to ascertain the Views of England with respect
to Peace--His Plan is defeated by a singular Collision with a similar
one of Napoleon--and Fouché is sent away as Governor-General of
Rome--His Moral and Political Character--Murmurings of the People
against the Austrian Alliance--Continental System--Ignorance of
Napoleon of the Actual Political Feelings of Great Britain--The
License System--Louis Buonaparte--Endeavours in vain to Defend Holland
from the Effects of the Continental System--He Abdicates the Throne,
and retires to Gratz in Styria--Holland is annexed to the French
Empire, 41
CHAP. LIII.--Gustavus IV. of Sweden is Dethroned and succeeded by his
Uncle--The Crown Prince killed by a fall from his Horse--Candidates
proposed for the Succession--The Swedes, thinking to conciliate
Napoleon, fix on Bernadotte--Buonaparte reluctantly acquiesces in the
Choice--Parting Interview between Bernadotte and Napoleon--Subsequent
attempts of the latter to bind Sweden to the Policy of France--The
Crown Prince unwillingly accedes to the Continental System--Napoleon
makes a Tour through Flanders and Holland--Returns to Paris, and takes
measures for extending the Continental System--Seizure of the
Valois--Coast along the German Ocean annexed to France--Protest by the
Czar against the appropriation of Oldenburg--Russia allows the
Importation, at certain Seaports, of various articles of British
Commerce--Negotiations for Exchange of Prisoners between France and
England; and for a General Peace, broken off by Buonaparte's
unreasonable demands, 59
CHAP. LIV.--View of Napoleon's gigantic Power--The Empress Maria
Louisa delivered of a Son--Criticism on the Title given him, of King
of Rome--Speculations in regard to the advantages or disadvantages
arising from this Event--Retrospect--Ex-Queen of Etruria--Her severe
and unjustifiable Treatment by Napoleon--Lucien Buonaparte is invited
to England, where he writes Epic Poetry--Attempt to deliver Ferdinand,
defeated--Operations in Portugal--Retreat of Massena--Battles of
Fuentes d'Onoro fought by Lord Wellington--On the South Frontier of
Portugal, by Lord Beresford--Of Barossa, by General Graham--Enterprise
of Arroyo-Molinas--Spaniards defeated under Blake--Valencia captured
by the French, and he and his Army made Prisoners of War--Disunion
among the French Generals--Joseph wishes to abdicate the Throne of
Spain, 72
CHAP. LV.--Retrospect of the Causes leading to the Rupture with
Russia--Originate in the Treaty of Tilsit--Russia's alleged Reasons of
Complaint--Arguments of Napoleon's Counsellors against War with
Russia--Fouché is against the War--Presents a Memorial to Napoleon
upon the Subject--His answer--Napoleon's Views in favour of the War,
as urged to his various Advisers, 86
CHAP. LVI.--Allies on whose assistance Buonaparte might count--Causes
which alienated from him the Prince-Royal of Sweden--who signs a
Treaty with Russia--Delicate situation of the King of Prussia, whose
alliance the Emperor Alexander on that account declines--A Treaty with
France dictated to Prussia--Relations between Austria and France--in
order to preserve them Buonaparte is obliged to come under an
Engagement not to Revolutionize Poland--His error of Policy in
neglecting to cultivate the alliance of the Porte--Amount of
Buonaparte's Army--Levies for the Protection of France in the
Emperor's absence--Storming of Ciudad Rodrigo by Lord
Wellington--Buonaparte makes Overtures of Peace to Lord
Castlereagh--The Correspondence broken off--Ultimatum of Russia
rejected--Napoleon sets out from Paris, 9th May, 1812--and meets the
Sovereigns his allies at Dresden--A last attempt of Napoleon to
negotiate with Alexander proves unsuccessful, 95
CHAP. LVII.--Napoleon's Plan of the Campaign against
Russia--Understood and provided against by Barclay de Tolly, the
Russian Generalissimo--Statement of the Grand French Army--Of the
Grand Russian Army--Disaster on the River Wilia--Difficulties of the
Campaign, on the part of the French--Their defective Commissariat and
Hospital Department--Cause of Buonaparte's determination to
advance--His forced Marches occasion actual Delay--Napoleon remains
for some days at Wilna--Abbé de Pradt--His intrigues to excite the
Poles--Neutralized by Napoleon's engagements with Austria--An attempt
to excite Insurrection in Lithuania also fails, 113
CHAP. LVIII.--Proceedings of the Army under Prince
Bagration--Napoleon's manœuvres against him--King Jerome of
Westphalia is disgraced for alleged inactivity--Bagration is defeated
by Davoust, but succeeds in gaining the interior of Russia, and
re-establishing his communication with the Grand Army--which retreats
to Drissa--Barclay and Bagration meet at Smolensk on the 20th
July--The French Generals become anxious that Napoleon should close
the campaign at Witepsk for the season--He persists in
proceeding--Smolensk evacuated by De Tolly, after setting fire to the
place--Reduced condition of the French, and growing strength of the
Russian Armies--Peace effected between Russia, and England, Sweden,
and Turkey--Napoleon resolves to advance upon Moscow, 127
CHAP. LIX.--Napoleon detaches Murat and other Generals in pursuit of
the Russians--Bloody, but indecisive Action, at Valoutina--Barclay de
Tolly's defensive System relinquished, and Koutousoff appointed to the
chief command of the Russian Army--Napoleon advances from
Smolensk--Battle of Borodino fought, on 5th September--Prince
Bagration slain--Koutousoff Retreats upon Mojaisk, and thence upon
Moscow--Napoleon continues his Advance on the 12th--Count Rostopchin,
Governor of Moscow--His Character--The Russians abandon Moscow, which
is evacuated by the Inhabitants--The Grand Russian Army marches
through Moscow--Last public Court of Justice held there by Rostopchin,
after which he follows the march of the Army, 141
CHAP. LX.--On 14th September, Napoleon reaches Moscow, which he finds
deserted by the Inhabitants--The City is discovered to be on
fire--Napoleon takes up his quarters in the Kremlin--The fire is stopt
next day, but arises again at night--Believed to be wilful, and
several Russians apprehended and shot--On the third night, the Kremlin
is discovered to be on Fire--Buonaparte leaves it, and takes his abode
at Petrowsky--The Fire rages till the 19th, when four-fifths of the
City are burnt down--On the 20th, Buonaparte returns to the
Kremlin--Discussion as to the Origin of this great
Conflagration--Disorganisation and Indiscipline of the French
Army--Difficulty as to the Route on leaving Moscow--Lauriston sent
with a Letter to the Emperor Alexander--Retrospect of the March of the
Russian Army, after leaving Moscow--Lauriston has an Interview with
Koutousoff on 5th October--The Result--Armistice made by
Murat--Preparations for Retreat--The Emperor Alexander refuses to
treat, 151
CHAP. LXI.--Murat's Armistice broken off--Napoleon leaves Moscow on
19th October--Bloody Skirmish at Malo-Yarrowslavetz--Napoleon in great
danger while reconnoitring--He Retreats to Vereia, where he meets
Mortier and the Young Guard--Winzingerode made Prisoner, and insulted
by Buonaparte--The Kremlin is blown up by the French--Napoleon
continues his Retreat towards Poland--Its Horrors--Conflict near
Wiazma, on 3d November, where the French lose 4000 Men--Cross the
River Wiazma during the Night--The Viceroy of Italy reaches Smolensk,
in great distress--Buonaparte arrives at Smolensk, with the headmost
Division of the Grand Army--Calamitous Retreat of Ney's Division--The
whole French Army now collected at Smolensk--Cautious conduct of
Prince Schwartzenberg--Winzingerode freed on his road to Paris by a
body of Cossacks--Tchitchagoff occupies Minsk--Perilous situation of
Napoleon, 166
CHAP. LXII.--Napoleon divides his Army into four Corps, which leaves
Smolensk on their Retreat towards Poland--Cautious proceedings of
Koutousoff--The Viceroy's Division is attacked by Miloradowitch, and
effects a junction with Napoleon at Krasnoi, after severe
loss--Koutousoff attacks the French at Krasnoi; but only by a distant
Cannonade--The division under Davoust is reunited to Napoleon, but in
a miserable state--Napoleon marches to Liady; and Mortier and Davoust
are attacked, and suffer heavy loss--Details of the Retreat of Ney--He
crosses the Losmina, with great loss of Men and Baggage, and joins
Napoleon at Orcsa, with his Division reduced to 1500 men--The whole
Grand Army is now reduced to 12,000 effective men, besides 30,000
stragglers--Dreadful Distress and Difficulties of Buonaparte and his
Army--Singular scene betwixt Napoleon and Duroc and Daru--Napoleon
moves towards Borizoff, and falls in with the Corps of Victor and
Oudinot--Koutousoff halts at Kopyn, without attacking
Buonaparte--Napoleon crosses the Beresina at Studzianka--Partouneaux's
division cut off by Witgenstein--Severe Fighting on both sides of the
River--Dreadful losses of the French in crossing it--According to the
Russian official account, 36,000 bodies were found in the Beresina
after the thaw, 188
CHAP. LXIII.--Napoleon determines to return to Paris--He leaves
Smorgoni on 5th December--reaches Warsaw on the 10th--Curious
Interview with the Abbé de Pradt--Arrives at Dresden on the 14th--and
at Paris on the 18th at Midnight--Dreadful State of the Grand Army,
when left by Napoleon--Arrive at Wilna, whence they are driven by the
Cossacks, directing their Flight upon Kowno--Dissensions among the
French Generals--Cautious Policy of the Austrians under
Schwartzenberg--Precarious state of Macdonald--He Retreats upon
Tilsit--D'Yorck separates his Troops from the French--Macdonald
effects his Retreat to Königsberg--Close of the Russian Expedition,
with a loss on the part of the French of 450,000 Men in Killed and
Prisoners--Discussion of the Causes which led to this ruinous
Catastrophe, 203
CHAP. LXIV.--Effects of Napoleon's return upon the
Parisians--Congratulations and Addresses by all the Public
Functionaries--Conspiracy of Mallet--very nearly successful--How at
last defeated--The impression made by this event upon
Buonaparte--Discussions with the Pope, who is brought to France, but
remains inflexible--State of Affairs in Spain--Napoleon's great and
successful exertions to Recruit his Army--Guards of Honour--In the
month of April, the Army is raised to 350,000 men, independently of
the Troops left in Garrison in Germany, and in Spain and Italy, 224
CHAP. LXV.--Murat leaves the Grand Army abruptly--Eugene appointed in
his place--Measures taken by the King of Prussia for his
disenthraldom--He leaves Berlin for Breslau--Treaty signed between
Russia and Prussia early in March--Alexander arrives at Breslau on
15th; on the 16th Prussia declares War against France--Warlike
preparations of Prussia--Universal enthusiasm--Blucher appointed
Generalissimo--Vindication of the Crown Prince of Sweden for joining
the Confederacy against France--Proceedings of Austria--Unabated
spirit and pretensions of Napoleon--A Regency is appointed in France
during his absence--and Maria Louisa appointed Regent, with nominal
powers, 234
CHAP. LXVI.--State of the French Grand Army--The Russians advance, and
show themselves on the Elbe--The French evacuate Berlin, and retreat
on the Elbe--The Crown-Prince of Sweden joins the Allies, with 35,000
Men--Dresden is occupied by the Sovereigns of Russia and
Prussia--Marshal Bessières killed on 1st May--Battle of Lutzen fought
on the 2d--The Allies retire to Bautzen--Hamburgh taken possession of
by the Danes and French--Battle of Bautzen fought on the 20th and 21st
May--The Allies retire in good order--The French Generals, Bruyères
and Duroc, killed on the 22d--Grief of Napoleon for the death of the
latter--An Armistice signed on 4th June, 244
CHAP. LXVII.--Change in the results formerly produced by the French
Victories--Despondency of the Generals--Decay in the discipline of the
Troops--Views of Austria--Arguments in favour of Peace stated and
discussed--Pertinacity of Napoleon--State of the French Interior--hid
from him by the slavery of the Press--Interview betwixt Napoleon and
the Austrian Minister Metternich--Delays in the Negotiations--Plan of
Pacification proposed by Austria, on 7th August--The Armistice broken
off on the 10th, when Austria joins the Allies--Sudden placability of
Napoleon at this period--Ascribed to the news of the Battle of
Vittoria, 256
CHAP. LXVIII.--Amount and distribution of the French Army at the
resumption of Hostilities--of the Armies of the Allies--Plan of the
Campaign on both sides--Return of Moreau from America, to join the
Allies--Attack on Dresden by the Allies on 26th August--Napoleon
arrives to its succour--Battle continued on the 27th--Death of General
Moreau--Defeat and Retreat of the Allies, with great loss--Napoleon
returns from the pursuit to Dresden, indisposed--Vandamme attacks the
Allies at Culm--is driven back towards Peterswald--Conflict on the
heights of Peterswald--Vandamme is Defeated and made prisoner--Effects
of the victory of Culm, on the Allies--and on Napoleon, 268
CHAP. LXIX.--Military Proceedings in the North of Germany--Luckau
submits to the Crown-Prince of Sweden--Battles of Gross-Beeren and
Katzbach--Operations of Ney upon Berlin--He is defeated at Dennewitz,
on the 6th September--Difficult and embarrassing situation of
Napoleon--He abandons all the right side of the Elbe to the
Allies--Operations of the Allies in order to effect a
junction--Counter-exertions of Napoleon--The French Generals averse to
continuing the War in Germany--Dissensions betwixt them and the
Emperor--Napoleon at length resolves to retreat upon Leipsic, 279
CHAP. LXX.--Napoleon reaches Leipsic on 15th of October--Statement of
the French and Allied Forces--BATTLE OF LEIPSIC, commenced on 16th,
and terminates with disadvantage to the French at nightfall--Napoleon
despatches General Mehrfeldt (his prisoner) to the Emperor of Austria,
with proposals for an armistice--No answer is returned--The Battle is
renewed on the morning of the 18th, and lasts till night, when the
French are compelled to retreat, after immense loss on both
sides--They evacuate Leipsic on the 19th, the Allies in full
pursuit--Blowing up of one of the bridges--Prince Poniatowski drowned
in the Elster--25,000 French are made prisoners--The Allied Sovereigns
meet in triumph, at noon, in the Great Square at Leipsic--King of
Saxony sent under a Guard to Berlin--Reflections, 289
CHAP. LXXI.--Retreat of the French from Germany--General Defection of
Napoleon's Partisans--Battle of Hannau fought on 30th and 31st
October--Napoleon arrives at Paris on 9th November--State in which he
finds the public mind in the capital--Fate of the French Garrisons
left in Germany--Arrival of the Allied Armies on the banks of the
Rhine--General view of Napoleon's political
relations--Italy--Spain--Restoration of Ferdinand--Liberation of the
Pope, who returns to Rome--Emancipation of Holland, 303
CHAP. LXXII.--Preparations of Napoleon against the Invasion of
France--Terms of Peace offered by the Allies--Congress held at
Manheim--Lord Castlereagh--Manifesto of the Allies--Buonaparte's
Reply--State of Parties in France--The Population of France, in
general, wearied of the War, and desirous of the Deposition of
Buonaparte--His unsuccessful attempts to arouse the National
Spirit--Council of State Extraordinary, held Nov. 11th, when new taxes
are imposed, and a new Conscription of 300,000 men decreed--Gloom of
the Council, and violence of Buonaparte--Report of the State of the
Nation presented to Napoleon by the Legislative Body--The Legislative
Body is prorogued--Unceasing activity of the Emperor--National Guard
called out--Napoleon, presenting to them his Empress and Child, takes
leave of the People--He leaves Paris for the Armies, 317
CHAP. LXXIII.--Declaration of the Allies on entering
France--Switzerland--Schwartzenberg crosses the Rhine--Apathy of the
French--Junction of Blucher with the Grand Army--Crown-Prince of
Sweden--Inferiority of Napoleon's numerical Force--Battles of
Brienne--and La Rothière--Difficulties of Buonaparte, during which he
meditates to resign the Crown--He makes a successful Attack on the
Silesian Army at Champ-Aubert--Blucher is compelled to retreat--The
Grand Army carries Nogent and Montereau--Buonaparte's violence to his
Generals--The Austrians resolve on a general Retreat, as far as Nancy
and Langres--Prince Wenceslaus sent to Buonaparte's headquarters--The
French enter Troyes--Execution of Goualt, a Royalist--A Decree of
Death against all wearing the Bourbon emblems, and all Emigrants who
should join the Allies, 333
CHAP. LXXIV.--Retrospect of Events on the Frontiers--Defection of
Murat--Its consequences--Augereau abandons Franche Comté--Carnot
intrusted with the command of Antwerp--Attack on Bergen-op-Zoom, by
Sir Thomas Graham--The Allies take, and evacuate Soissons--Bulow and
Winzegerode unite with Blucher--Wellington forces his way through the
Pays des Gaves--Royalists in the West--Discontent of the old
Republicans--Views of the different Members of the Alliance as to the
Dynasties of Bourbon, and Napoleon--Proceedings of the Dukes of Berri
and Angoulême, and Monsieur--Battle of Orthez--Bourdeaux surrendered
to Marshal Beresford--Negotiations of Chatillon--Treaty of
Chaumont--Napoleon's contre-projet--Congress at Chatillon broken up, 353
APPENDIX--
No. I.--Reflections on the Conduct of Napoleon towards the
Prince-Royal of Sweden, 373
No. II.--Extract from Manuscript Observations on Napoleon's Russian
Campaign, by an English Officer of Rank, 378
[Illustration: FRANCE,
TO ILLUSTRATE THE CAMPAIGNS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE.]
CHAPTER XLIX.
_Conduct of Russia and England during the War with
Austria--Meditated Expedition of British Troops to the
Continent--Sent to Walcheren--Its Calamitous Details and
Result--Proceedings of Napoleon with regard to the Pope--General
Miollis enters Rome--Napoleon publishes a Decree, uniting the States
of the Church to the French Empire--Is Excommunicated--Pius VII. is
banished from Rome, and sent to Grenoble--afterwards brought back to
Savona--Buonaparte is attacked by an Assassin--Definitive Treaty of
Peace signed at Schoenbrun--Napoleon returns to France on the 14th
November, 1809._
The particular conditions of the peace with Austria were not adjusted
until the 14th October, 1809, although the armistice was signed nearly
three months before. We avail ourselves of the interval to notice other
remarkable events, which happened during this eventful summer; and
first, we must briefly revert to the conduct of Russia and England
during the war.
Notwithstanding the personal friendship betwixt the Emperors Alexander
and Napoleon--notwithstanding their engagements entered into at Tilsit,
and so lately revived at Erfurt, it seems to have been impossible to
engage Russia heartily as an ally of Napoleon, in a war which had the
destruction or absolute humiliation of Austria. The Court of St.
Petersburgh had, it is true, lost no time in securing the advantages
which had been stipulated for Russia in the conferences alluded to.
Finland had been conquered, torn from Sweden, to which the province had
so long belonged, and united with Russia, to whom it furnished a most
important frontier and barrier.[1] Russia was also, with connivance of
France, making war on the Porte, in order to enlarge her dominions by
the addition of Moldavia and Wallachia. But though the Court of St.
Petersburgh had gained one of these advantages, and was in a way of
obtaining the other, the Russian Ministers saw with anxiety the
impending fate of Austria, the rather that they themselves were bound by
treaty to lend their aid for her destruction. We have seen that Russia
had interposed to prevent the war. She was now unwillingly compelled to
take part in it; yet when Prince Galatzin marched into Galicia at the
head of 30,000 Russians, the manifesto which he published could be
hardly termed that of a hostile nation. The Emperor, it stated, had done
all in his power to prevent things from coming to this extremity; but
now, the war having actually broken out, he was bound by the faith of
treaties to send the stipulated number of auxiliaries.[2] The motions of
this body of Russians were slow, and their conduct in the Austrian
dominions rather that of allies than enemies. Some of the Russian
officers of rank avowed their politics to be in direct opposition to
those of the Emperor, and declared that three-fourths of the generals
commanding territorial divisions in Russia were of their opinion. These
expressions, with the unusual slowness and lenity just alluded to, were
for the present passed over without remark, but were recorded and
remembered as matter of high offence, when Napoleon thought that the
time was come to exact from Russia a severe account for every thing in
which she had disappointed his expectations.
The exertions of England, at the same period, were of a nature and upon
a scale to surprise the world. It seemed as if her flag literally
overshadowed the whole seas on the coasts of Italy, Spain, the Ionian
Islands, the Baltic Sea. Wherever there was the least show of resistance
to the yoke of Buonaparte, the assistance of the English was appealed
to, and was readily afforded. In Spain, particularly, the British
troops, led by a general whose name began soon to be weighed against
those of the best French commanders, displayed their usual gallantry
under auspices which no longer permitted it to evaporate in actions of
mere eclat.
Yet the British administration, while they had thus embraced a broader
and more adventurous, but at the same time a far wiser system of
conducting the war, showed in one most important instance, that they, or
a part of them, were not entirely free from the ancient prejudices,
which had so long rendered vain the efforts of Britain in favour of the
liberties of the world. The general principle was indeed adopted, that
the expeditions of Britain should be directed where they could do the
cause of Europe the most benefit, and the interests of Napoleon the
greatest harm; but still there remained a lurking wish that they could
be so directed, as, at the same time, to acquire some peculiar and
separate advantage to England, and to secure the accomplishment of what
was called a British object. Some of the English ministers might thus
be said to resemble the ancient converts from Judaism, who, in embracing
the Christian faith, still held themselves bound by the ritual, and
fettered by the prejudices of the Jewish people, separated as they were
from the rest of mankind.
It is no wonder that the voice of what is in reality selfishness, is
listened to in national councils with more respect than it deserves,
since in that case it wears the mask and speaks the language of a
species of patriotism, against which it can only be urged, that it is
too exclusive in its zeal. Its effects, however, are not the less to be
regretted, as disabling strong minds, and misleading wise men; of which
the history of Britain affords but too many instances.
[Sidenote: BRITISH EXPEDITION]
Besides the forces already in the Peninsula, Britain had the means of
disposing of, and the will to send to the continent, 40,000 men, with a
fleet of thirty-five ships of the line, and twenty frigates, to assist
on any point where their services could have been useful. Such an
armament on the coast of Spain might have brought to a speedy decision
the long and bloody contest in that country, saved much British blood,
which the protracted war wasted, and struck a blow, the effects of
which, as that of Trafalgar, Buonaparte might have felt on the banks of
the Danube. Such an armament, if sent to the north of Germany, ere the
destruction of Schill and the defeat of the Duke of Brunswick's
enterprise, might have been the means of placing all the northern
provinces in active opposition to France, by an effort for which the
state of the public mind was already prepared. A successful action would
even have given spirits to Prussia, and induced that depressed kingdom
to resume the struggle for her independence. In a word, Britain might
have had the honour of kindling the same flame, which, being excited by
Russia in 1813, was the means of destroying the French influence in
Germany, and breaking up the Confederation of the Rhine.
Unhappily, neither of these important objects seemed to the planners of
this enterprise to be connected in a manner sufficiently direct, with
objects exclusively interesting to Britain. It was therefore agreed,
that the expedition should be sent against the strong fortresses, swampy
isles, and dangerous coasts of the Netherlands, in order to seek for
dock-yards to be destroyed, and ships to be carried off. Antwerp was
particularly aimed at. But, although Napoleon attached great importance
to the immense naval yards and docks which he had formed in the Scheldt,
yet, weighed with the danger and difficulty of an attack upon them, the
object of destroying them seems to have been very inadequate. Admitting
that Buonaparte might succeed in building ships in the Scheldt, or
elsewhere, there was no possibility, in the existing state of the world,
that he could have been able to get sailors to man them; unless, at
least, modern seamen could have been bred on dry land, like the crews of
the Roman galleys during the war with Carthage. If even the ships could
have been manned, it would have been long ere Napoleon, with his utmost
exertions, could have brought out of the Scheldt such a fleet as would
not have been defeated by half their own numbers of British ships. The
dangers arising to Britain from the naval establishments in the Scheldt
were remote, nor was the advantage of destroying them, should such
destruction be found possible, commensurate with the expense and hazard
of the enterprise which was directed against them. Besides, before
Antwerp could be attacked, the islands of Beveland and Walcheren were to
be taken possession of, and a long amphibious course of hostilities was
to be maintained, to enable the expedition to reach the point where
alone great results were expected.
The commander-in-chief was the Earl of Chatham, who, inheriting the
family talents of his father, the great minister, was remarkable for a
spirit of inactivity and procrastination, the consequences of which had
been felt in all the public offices which he held, and which, therefore,
were likely to be peculiarly fatal in an expedition requiring the utmost
celerity and promptitude of action. It is remarkable, that though these
points in Lord Chatham's character were generally known, the public
voice at the time, in deference to the talents which distinguished his
house, did not censure the nomination.
[Sidenote: WALCHEREN.]
Upon the 30th of July, the English disembarked on the islands of South
Beveland and Walcheren; on the 1st of August they attacked Flushing, the
principal place in the neighbourhood, by land and sea. On the 15th of
August, the place surrendered, and its garrison, four or five thousand
men strong, were sent prisoners of war to England. But here the success
of the British ended. The French, who had at first been very much
alarmed, had time to recover from their consternation. Fouché, then at
the head of the police, and it may be said of the government, (for he
exercised for the time the power of minister of the interior,) showed
the utmost readiness in getting under arms about 40,000 national guards,
to replace the regular soldiers, of which the Low Countries had been
drained. In awakening the military ardour of the citizens of France, in
which he succeeded to an unusual degree, Fouché made use of these
expressions:--"Let Europe see, that if the genius of Napoleon gives
glory to France, still his presence is not necessary to enable her to
repel her enemies from her soil." This phrase expressed more
independence than was agreeable to Napoleon, and was set down as
intimating a self-sufficiency, which counterbalanced the services of the
minister.[3]
Neither did Fouché's selection of a military chief to command the new
levies, prove more acceptable. Bernadotte, whom we have noticed as a
general of republican fame, had been, at the time of Buonaparte's
elevation, opposed to his interests, and attached to those of the
Directory. Any species of rivalry, or pretence of dispute between them,
was long since ended; yet still Bernadotte was scarce accounted an
attached friend of the Emperor, though he was in some sort connected
with the house of Napoleon, having married a sister-in-law of Joseph,
the intrusive King of Spain[4]. In the campaign of Vienna, which we have
detailed, Bernadotte, (created Prince of Ponte Corvo,) commanded a
division of Saxons, and had incurred Buonaparte's censure more than
once, and particularly at the battle of Wagram, for the slowness of his
movements. The Prince of Ponte Corvo came, therefore, to Paris in a sort
of disgrace, where Fouché, in conjunction with Clarke, the minister at
war, invited him to take on himself the defence of Antwerp. Bernadotte
hesitated to accept the charge; but having at length done so, he availed
himself of the time afforded by the English to put the place in a
complete state of defence, and assembled within, and under its walls,
above thirty thousand men. The country was inundated by opening the
sluices; strong batteries were erected on both sides of the Scheldt, and
the ascending that river became almost impossible.[5]
The British naval and military officers also disagreed among themselves,
as often happens where difficulties multiply, and there appears no
presiding spirit to combat and control them. The final objects of the
expedition were therefore abandoned; the navy returned to the English
ports, and the British forces were concentrated--for what reason, or
with what expectation, it is difficult to see--in that fatal conquest,
the isle of Walcheren. Among the marshes, stagnant canals, and
unwholesome trenches of this island, there broods continually, a fever
of a kind deeply pestilential and malignant, and which, like most
maladies of the same description, is more destructive to strangers than
to the natives, whose constitutions become by habit proof against its
ravages. This dreadful disease broke out among our troops with the force
of a pestilence, and besides the numerous victims who died on the spot,
shattered, in many cases for ever, the constitution of the survivors.
The joy with which Napoleon saw the army of his enemy thus consigned to
an obscure and disgraceful death, broke out even in his bulletins, as if
the pestilence under which they fell had been caused by his own policy,
and was not the consequence of the climate, and of the ill-advised delay
which prevented our soldiers being withdrawn from it. "We are
rejoiced," he said, in a letter to the minister at war, "to see that
the English have packed themselves in the morasses of Zealand. Let them
be only kept in check, and the bad air and fevers peculiar to the
country will soon destroy their army." At length, after the loss of more
lives than would have been wasted in three general battles, the
fortifications of Flushing were blown up, and the British forces
returned to their own country.[6]
The evil consequences of this expedition did not end even here. The mode
in which it had been directed and conducted, introduced dissensions into
the British Cabinet, which occasioned the temporary secession of one of
the most able and most eloquent of its members, Mr. George Canning, who
was thus withdrawn from public affairs when his talents could be least
spared by the country. On the other hand, the appointment of Marquis
Wellesley to the situation of secretary at war, gave, in the estimation
of the public, a strong pledge that the efficient measures suggested by
the talents of that noble statesman, would be supported and carried
through by his brother Sir Arthur, to whom alone, as a general, the army
and the people began to look with hope and confidence.
While England was thus exerting herself, Buonaparte, from the castle of
Schoenbrun, under the walls of Vienna, was deciding the fate of the
continent on every point where British influence had no means of
thwarting him. One of the revolutions which cost him little effort to
accomplish, yet which struck Europe with surprise, by the numerous
recollections which it excited, was his seizure of the city of Rome, and
the territories of the Church, and depriving the Pope of his character
of a temporal prince.
[Sidenote: PIUS THE SEVENTH.]
It must be allowed, by the greatest admirers of Napoleon, that his
policy, depending less upon principle than upon existing circumstances,
was too apt to be suddenly changed, as opportunity or emergency seemed
to give occasion. There could, for example, be scarce a measure of his
reign adopted on more deep and profound consideration than that of the
Concordat, by which he re-established the national religion of France,
and once more united that country to the Catholic Church. In reward for
this great service, Pope Pius VII., as we have seen, had the unusual
complaisance to cross the Alps, and visit Paris, for the sake of adding
religious solemnity, and the blessing of St. Peter's successor, to the
ceremony of Napoleon's coronation. It might have been thought that a
friendship thus cemented, and which, altogether essential to the safety
of the Pope, was far from indifferent to the interests of Buonaparte,
ought to have subsisted undisturbed, at least for some years. But the
Emperor and Pontiff stood in a suspicious attitude with respect to each
other. Pius VII. felt that he had made, in his character of chief of
the Church, very great concessions to Napoleon, and such as he could
hardly reconcile to the tenderness of his own conscience. He, therefore,
expected gratitude in proportion to the scruples which he had
surmounted, while Buonaparte was far from rating the services of his
Holiness so high, or sympathizing with his conscientious scruples.
Besides, the Pope, in surrendering the rights of the Church in so many
instances, must have felt that he was acting under motives of
constraint, and in the character of a prisoner; for he had sacrificed
more than had been yielded by any prelate who had held the see of Rome,
since the days of Constantine. He may therefore have considered himself,
not only as doubly bound to secure what remained of the authority of his
predecessors, but even at liberty, should opportunity offer, to reclaim
some part of that which he had unwillingly yielded up. Thus
circumstanced in respect to each other, Pius VII. felt that he had done
more in complaisance to Buonaparte than he could justify to his
conscience; while Napoleon, who considered the reunion of France to
Rome, in its spiritual relations, as entirely his own work, thought it
of such consequence as to deserve greater concessions than his Holiness
had yet granted.
The Pope, on his first return to Italy, showed favourable prepossessions
for Napoleon, whom he commemorated in his address to the College of
Cardinals, as that mighty Emperor of France, whose name extended to the
most remote regions of the earth; whom Heaven had used as the means of
reviving religion in France, when it was at the lowest ebb; and whose
courtesies towards his own person, and compliance with his requests,
merited his highest regard and requital. Yet Napoleon complained, that
subsequent to this period, Pius VII. began by degrees to receive counsel
from the enemies of France, and that he listened to advisers, who
encouraged him to hold the rights of the Church higher than the desire
to gratify the Emperor. Thus a suppressed and unavowed, but perpetual
struggle took place, and was carried on betwixt the Emperor and the
Pope; the former desirous to extend and consolidate his recent
authority, the latter to defend what remained of the ancient privileges
of the Church.
It is probable, however, that, had there been only spiritual matters in
discussion between them, Napoleon would have avoided an open rupture
with the Holy Father, to which he was conscious much scandal would
attach. But in the present situation of Italy, the temporal states of
the Pope furnished a strong temptation for his ambition. These extend,
as is well known, betwixt the kingdom of Naples, then governed by
Joachim Murat, and the northern Italian provinces, all of which, by the
late appropriation of Tuscany, were now amalgamated into one state, and
had become, under the name of the kingdom of Italy, a part of the
dominions of Buonaparte. Thus the patrimony of the Church was the only
portion of the Italian peninsula which was not either directly, or
indirectly, under the empire of France; and, as it divided the
Neapolitan dominions from those of Napoleon, it afforded facilities for
descents of British troops, either from Sicily or Sardinia, and, what
Buonaparte was not less anxious to prevent, great opportunities for the
importation of English commodities. The war with Austria in 1809, and
the large army which the Archduke John then led into Italy, and with
which, but for the defeat at Eckmühl, he might have accomplished great
changes, rendered the independence of the Roman States the subject of
still greater dislike and suspicion to Buonaparte.
His ambassador, therefore, had instructions to press on the Pope the
necessity of shutting his ports against British commerce, and adhering
to the continental system; together with the further decisive measure,
of acceding to the confederacy formed between the kingdom of Italy and
that of Naples, or, in other words, becoming a party to the war against
Austria and England. Pius VII. reluctantly submitted to shut his ports,
but he positively refused to become a party to the war. He was, he said,
the father of all Christian nations; he could not, consistently with
that character, become the enemy of any.[7]
Upon receiving this refusal, Buonaparte would no longer keep terms with
him; and, in order, as he said, to protect himself against the
inconveniences which he apprehended from the pertinacity of the Holy
Father, he caused the towns of Ancona and Civita Vecchia to be occupied
by French troops, which were necessarily admitted when there were no
means of resistance.
This act of aggression, to which the Pope might have seen it prudent to
submit without remonstrance, as to what he could not avoid, would
probably have sufficiently answered all the immediate purposes of
Buonaparte; nor would he, it may be supposed, have incurred the further
scandal of a direct and irreconcilable breach with Pius VII., but for
recollections, that Rome had been the seat of empire over the Christian
world, and that the universal sovereignty to which he aspired, would
hardly be thought to exist in the full extent of majesty which he
desired to attach to it, unless the ancient capital of the world made a
part of his dominions. Napoleon was himself an Italian,[8] and showed
his sense of his origin by the particular care which he always took of
that nation, where whatever benefits his administrations conferred on
the people, reached them both more profusely and more directly than in
any other part of his empire. That swelling spirit entertained the
proud, and, could it have been accomplished consistently with justice,
the noble idea, of uniting the beautiful peninsula of Italy into one
kingdom, of which Rome should once more be the capital. He also
nourished the hope of clearing out the Eternal City from the ruins in
which she was buried, of preserving her ancient monuments, and of
restoring what was possible of her ancient splendour.[9] Such ideas as
these, dearer to Napoleon, because involving a sort of fame which no
conquest elsewhere could be attended with, must have had charms for a
mind which constant success had palled to the ordinary enjoyment of
victory; and no doubt the recollection that the existence of the Pope as
a temporal prince was totally inconsistent with this fair dream of the
restoration of Rome and Italy, determined his resolution to put an end
to his power.
[Sidenote: ROME.]
On the 2d February, 1809, General Miollis, with a body of French troops,
took possession of Rome itself, disarmed and disbanded the Pope's guard
of gentlemen, and sent his other soldiers to the north of Italy,
promising them as a boon that they should be no longer under the command
of a priest. The French cardinals, or those born in countries occupied
by, or subjected to the French, were ordered to retire to the various
lands of their birth, in order to prevent the Holy Father from finding
support in the councils of the conclave. The proposal of his joining the
Italian League, offensive and defensive, was then again pressed on the
Pope as the only means of reconciliation. He was also urged to cede some
portion of the estates of the Church, as the price of securing the rest.
On both points, Pius VII. was resolute; he would neither enter into an
alliance which he conceived injurious to his conscience, nor consent to
spoil the See of any part of its territories. This excellent man knew,
that though the temporal strength of the Popedom appeared to be gone,
every thing depended on the courage to be manifested by the Pope
personally.
At length, on the 17th May, Napoleon published a decree,[10] in which,
assuming the character of successor of Charlemagne, he set forth, 1st,
That his august predecessor had granted Rome and certain other
territories in feoff to the bishops of that city, but without parting
with the sovereignty thereof. 2d, That the union of the religious and
civil authority had proved the source of constant discord, of which many
of the Pontiffs had availed themselves to extend their secular dominion,
under pretext of maintaining their religious authority. 3d, That the
temporal pretensions of the Pope were irreconcilable with the
tranquillity and well-being of the nations whom Napoleon governed; and
that all proposals which he had made on the subject had been rejected.
Therefore it was declared by the decree, that the estates of the Church
were reunited to the French empire. A few articles followed for the
preservation of the classical monuments, for assigning to the Pope a
free income of two millions of francs, and for declaring that the
property and palace belonging to the See were free of all burdens or
right of inspection. Lastly, The decree provided for the interior
government of Rome by a Consultum, or Committee of Administrators, to
whom was delegated the power of bringing the city under the Italian
constitution. A proclamation of the Consultum, issued upon the 10th
June, in consequence of the Imperial rescript, declared that the
temporal dominion of Rome had passed to Napoleon, but she would still
continue to be the residence of the visible Head of the Catholic Church.
It had doubtless been thought possible to persuade the Pope to acquiesce
in the annihilation of his secular power, as the Spanish Bourbons were
compelled to ratify the usurpation of the Spanish crown, their
inheritance. But Pius VII. had a mind of a firmer tenor. In the very
night when the proclamation of the new functionaries finally divested
him of his temporal principality, the Head of the Church assumed his
spiritual weapons, and in the name of God, from whom he claimed
authority, by missives drawn up by himself, and sealed with the seal of
the Fisherman, declared Napoleon, Emperor of the French, with his
adherents, favourers, and counsellors, to have incurred the solemn doom
of excommunication, which he proceeded to launch against them
accordingly.[11] To the honour of Pius VII. it must be added, that,
different from the bulls which his predecessors used to send forth on
similar occasions, the present sentence of excommunication was
pronounced exclusively as a spiritual punishment, and contained a clause
prohibiting all and any one from so construing its import, as to hold it
authority for any attack on the person either of Napoleon or any of his
adherents.
[Sidenote: PIUS VII. BANISHED.]
The Emperor was highly incensed at the pertinacity and courage of the
Pontiff in adopting so bold a measure, and determined on punishing him.
In the night betwixt the 5th and 6th of July, the Quirinal palace, in
which his Holiness resided, was forcibly entered by soldiers, and
General Radet, presenting himself before the Holy Father, demanded that
he should instantly execute a renunciation of the temporal estates
belonging to the See of Rome. "I ought not--I will not--I cannot make
such a cession," said Pius VII. "I have sworn to God to preserve
inviolate the possessions of the Holy Church--I will not violate my
oath." The general then informed his Holiness he must prepare to quit
Rome. "This, then, is the gratitude of your Emperor," exclaimed the aged
Pontiff, "for my great condescension towards the Gallican Church, and
towards himself? Perhaps in that particular my conduct has been
blameworthy in the eyes of God, and he is now desirous to punish me. I
humbly stoop to his divine pleasure."
At three o'clock in the morning, the Pope was placed in a carriage,
which one cardinal alone was permitted to share with him, and thus
forcibly carried from his capital. As they arrived at the gate del
Popolo, the general observed it was yet time for his Holiness to
acquiesce in the transference of his secular estates. The Pontiff
returned a strong negative, and the carriage proceeded.[12]
At Florence, Pius was separated from Cardinal Pacca, the only person of
his court who had been hitherto permitted to attend him; and the
attendance of General Radet was replaced by that of an officer of
gendarmes. After a toilsome journey, partly performed in a litter, and
sometimes by torch-light, the aged Pontiff was embarked for Alexandria,
and transferred from thence to Mondovi, and then across the Alps to
Grenoble.
But the strange sight of the Head of the Catholic Church travelling
under a guard of gendarmes, with the secrecy and the vigilance used in
transporting a state criminal, began to interest the people in the south
of France. Crowds assembled to beseech the Holy Father's benediction,
perhaps with more sincerity than when, as the guest of Buonaparte, he
was received there with all the splendour the Imperial orders could
command.
At the end of ten days, Grenoble no longer seemed a fitting place for
his Holiness's residence, probably because he excited too much interest,
and he was again transported to the Italian side of the Alps, and
quartered at Savona. Here, it is said, he was treated with considerable
harshness, and for a time at least confined to his apartment. The
prefect of Savoy, M. de Chabrol, presented his Holiness with a letter
from Napoleon, upbraiding him in strong terms for his wilful obstinacy,
and threatening to convoke at Paris a Council of Bishops, with a view to
his deposition. "I will lay his threats," said Pius VII., with the
firmness which sustained him through his sufferings, "at the foot of the
crucifix, and I leave with God the care of avenging my cause, since it
has become his own."
The feelings of the Catholics were doubtless enhanced on this
extraordinary occasion, by their belief in the sacred, and, it may be
said, divine character, indissolubly united with the Head of the Church.
But the world, Papist and Protestant, were alike sensible to the
outrageous indecency with which an old man, a priest and a sovereign, so
lately the friend and guest of Buonaparte, was treated, for no other
reason that could be alleged, than to compel him to despoil himself of
the territories of the Church, which he had sworn to transmit inviolate
to his successors. Upon reflection, Napoleon seems to have become
ashamed of the transaction, which he endeavoured to shift from his own
shoulders, while in the same breath he apologized for it, as the act of
the politician, not the individual.[13]
Regarded politically, never was any measure devised to which the
interest of France and the Emperor was more diametrically opposed.
Napoleon nominally gained the city of Rome, which, without this step, it
was in his power to occupy at any time; but he lost the support, and
incurred the mortal hatred of the Catholic clergy, and of all whom they
could influence. He unravelled his own web, and destroyed, by this
unjust and rash usurpation, all the merit which he had obtained by the
re-establishment of the Gallican Church. Before this period he had said
of the French clergy, and certainly had some right to use the language,
"I have re-established them, I maintain them--they will surely continue
attached to me." But in innovating upon their religious creed, in
despoiling the Church, and maltreating its visible Head, he had cut the
sinews of the league which he had formed betwixt the Church and his own
government. It is easy to see the mistaken grounds on which he reckoned.
Himself an egotist, Napoleon supposed, that when he had ascertained and
secured to any man, or body of men, their own direct advantage in the
system which he desired should be adopted, the parties interested were
debarred from objecting to any innovations which he might afterwards
introduce into that system, providing their own interest was not
affected. The priests and sincere Catholics of France, on the other
hand, thought, and in conscience could not think otherwise, that the
Concordat engaged the Emperor to the preservation of the Catholic
Church, as, on the other hand, it engaged them to fealty towards
Napoleon. When, therefore, by his unprovoked aggression against the Head
of the Church, he had incurred the spiritual censure of excommunication,
they held, by consequence, that all their engagements to him were
dissolved by his own act.
[Sidenote: PIUS THE SEVENTH.]
The natural feelings of mankind acted also against the Emperor. The
Pope, residing at Rome in the possession of temporal power and worldly
splendour, was a far less interesting object to a devout imagination,
than an old man hurried a prisoner from his capital, transported from
place to place like a criminal, and at length detained in an obscure
Italian town, under the control of the French police, and their
instruments.[14]
The consequences of this false step were almost as injurious as those
which resulted from the unprincipled invasion of Spain. To place that
kingdom under his more immediate control, Napoleon converted a whole
nation of docile allies into irreconcilable enemies; and, for the vanity
of adding to the empire of France the ancient capital of the world, he
created a revolt in the opinion of the Catholics, which was in the
long-run of the utmost prejudice to his authority. The bulls of the
Pope, in spite of the attention of the police, and of the numerous
arrests and severe punishments inflicted on those who dispersed them,
obtained a general circulation; and, by affording a religious motive,
enhanced and extended the disaffection to Napoleon, which, unavowed and
obscure, began generally to arise against his person and government even
in France, from the repeated draughts upon the conscription, the
annihilation of commerce, and the other distressing consequences
arising out of the measures of a government, which seemed only to exist
in war.
While Buonaparte, at Schoenbrun, was thus disposing of Rome and its
territories, and weighing in his bosom the alternative of dismembering
Austria, or converting her into a friend, his life was exposed to one of
those chances, to which despotic princes are peculiarly liable. It had
often been predicted, that the dagger of some political or religious
enthusiast, who might be willing to deposit his own life in gage for the
success of his undertaking, was likely to put a period to Napoleon's
extended plans of ambition. Fortunately, men like Felton[15] or
Sandt[16] are rarely met with, for the powerful instinct of
self-preservation is, in the common case, possessed of influence even
over positive lunatics, as well as men of that melancholy and
atrabilious temperament, whose dark determination partakes of insanity.
Individuals, however, occur from time to time, who are willing to
sacrifice their own existence, to accomplish the death of a private or
public enemy.
The life of Buonaparte at Schoenbrun was retired and obscure. He
scarcely ever visited the city of Vienna;[17] and spent his time as if
in the Tuileries, amid his generals, and a part of his ministers, who
were obliged to attend him during his military expeditions. His most
frequent appearance in public was when reviewing his troops. On one of
these occasions [23d Sept.] while a body of the French guard was passing
in review, a young man, well dressed, and of the middle rank, rushed
suddenly forward, and attempted to plunge a long sharp knife, or
poniard, in Napoleon's bosom. Berthier threw himself betwixt his master
and the assassin, and Rapp made the latter prisoner. On his examination,
the youth evinced the coolness of a fanatic. He was a native of Erfurt,
son of a Lutheran clergyman, well educated, and of a decent condition in
life. He avowed his purpose to have killed Napoleon, as called to the
task by God, for the liberation of his country. No intrigue or
correspondence with any party appeared to have prompted his
unjustifiable purpose, nor did his behaviour or pulse testify any sign
of insanity or mental alienation. He told Buonaparte, that he had so
much respect for his talents, that if he could have obtained an audience
of him, he would have commenced the conference by an exhortation to him
to make peace; but if he could not succeed, he was determined to take
his life. "What evil have I done you?" asked Napoleon. "To me
personally, none; but you are the oppressor of my country, the oppressor
of the world, and to have put you to death would have been the most
glorious act a man of honour could do."
Stapps, for that was his name, was justly condemned to die; for no cause
can justify assassination.[18] His death was marked by the same
fanatical firmness which had accompanied his crime; and the adventure
remained a warning, though a fruitless one, to Buonaparte, that any man
who is indifferent to his own life, may endanger that of the most
absolute sovereign upon earth, even when at the head of his military
force.[19]
The negotiations for peace with Austria continued, notwithstanding the
feeble state of the latter power, to be unusually protracted. The
reason, at that time secret, became soon after publicly known.
[Sidenote: THE ARCHDUKE CHARLES.]
Buonaparte's first intentions had been to dismember the empire, which he
had found so obstinate and irreconcilable in its enmity, and, separating
from the dominions of Austria either the kingdom of Hungary, or that of
Bohemia, or both, to reduce the House of Hapsburg to the rank of a
second-rate power in Europe. Napoleon himself affirmed, when in Saint
Helena, that he was encouraged by one of the royal family (the Archduke
Charles is indicated) to persist in his purpose, as the only means of
avoiding future wars with Austria; and that the same prince was willing
to have worn one of the crowns, thus to be torn from the brows of his
brother Francis.[20] We can only say, that the avowals of Napoleon when
in exile, like his bulletins when in power, seem so generally dictated
by that which he wished to be believed, rather than by a frank adherence
to truth, that we cannot hold his unsupported and inexplicit testimony
as sufficient to impose the least stain on the noble, devoted, and
patriotic character of the archduke, whose sword and talents had so
often served his brother's cause, and whose life exhibits no indication
of that meanness which would be implied in a wish to share the spoils of
his country, or accept at the hands of the conqueror a tributary
kingdom, reft from the dominions of his king and brother. Buonaparte
himself paid the courage and devotion of the Austrian prince a
flattering compliment, when, in sending to him a decoration of the
Legion of Honour, he chose that which was worn by the common soldier, as
better suited to the determination and frankness of his character, than
one of those richly ornamented, which were assigned to men of rank, who
had perhaps never known, or only seen at some distance, the toils and
dangers of battle.
The crisis, however, approached, which was to determine the fate of
Austria. Buonaparte's favourite minister, Champagny, Duke of Cadore, had
been for some time at Presburg, arranging with Metternich the extent of
cession of territory by which Austria was to pay for her unfortunate
assumption of hostilities. The definitive treaty of peace, when at
length published, was found to contain the following articles:--I.
Austria ceded, in favour of the Princes of the Confederation of the
Rhine, Saltsburg, Berchtolsgaden, and a part of Upper Austria. II. To
France directly, she ceded her only seaport of Trieste, the districts of
Carniola, Friuli, the circle of Villach, and some part of Croatia and
Dalmatia. These dominions tended to strengthen and enlarge the French
province of Illyria, and to exclude Austria from the Adriatic, and the
possibility of communication with Great Britain. A small lordship,
called Razons, lying within the territories of the Grison League, was
also relinquished. III. To the King of Saxony, in that character,
Austria ceded some small part of Bohemia, and in the capacity of Duke of
Warsaw, she gave up to him the city of Cracow, and the whole of Western
Galicia. IV. Russia had a share, though a moderate one, in the spoils of
Austria. She was to receive, in reward of her aid, though tardily and
unwillingly tendered, a portion of Eastern Galicia, containing a
population of four hundred thousand souls. But from this cession the
town of Brody, a commercial place of consequence, was specially
excepted; and it has been said that this exception made an unfavourable
impression on the Emperor Alexander, which was not overbalanced by the
satisfaction he received from the portion of spoil transferred to
him.[21]
In his correspondence with the Russian Court, Napoleon expressed himself
as having, from deference to Alexander's wishes, given Austria a more
favourable peace than she had any reason to expect.[22] Indeed, Europe
in general was surprised at the moderation of the terms; for though
Austria, by her cessions at different points, yielded up a surface of
45,000 square miles, and a population of between three and four
millions, yet the extremity in which she was placed seemed to render
this a cheap ransom, as she still retained 180,000 square miles, and
upwards, of territory, which, with a population of twenty-one millions,
rendered her, after France and Russia, even yet the most formidable
power on the continent. But her good angel had not slept. The House of
Rodolph of Hapsburg had arisen, from small beginnings, to its immense
power and magnitude, chiefly by matrimonial alliances,[23] and it was
determined that, by another intermarriage of that Imperial House, with
the most successful conqueror whom the world had ever seen, she should
escape with comparative ease from the greatest extremity in which she
had ever been placed. There is no doubt, also, that by secret articles
of treaty, Napoleon, according to his maxim of making the conquered
party sustain the expense of the war, exacted for that purpose heavy
contributions from the Austrian Government.
He left Schoenbrun on the 16th October, the day after the definitive
treaty of peace, which takes its name from that palace, had been signed
there; and it is remarkable that no military caution was relaxed in the
evacuation of the Austrian dominions by the French troops. They
retreated by echelon, so as to be always in a position of mutual
support, as if they had still been manœuvring in an enemy's country.
On the 14th November, Napoleon received at Paris the gratulations of the
Senate, who too fondly complimented him on having acquired, by his
triumphs, the palm of peace. That emblem, they said, should be placed
high above his other laurels, upon a monument which should be dedicated
by the gratitude of the French people. "To the Greatest of Heroes who
never achieved victory but for the happiness of the world."
FOOTNOTES:
[1] See Russian proclamation to the inhabitants of Finland, Feb. 18,
1808 Annual Register, vol. l., p. 301.
[2] Annual Register, vol. l., p. 759.
[3] Mémoires de Fouché, tom. i., p. 337.
[4] In 1798, Bernadotte married Eugénie Cléry, the daughter of a
considerable merchant at Marseilles, and sister to Julia, the wife of
Joseph Buonaparte.
[5] "It was not Bernadotte whom Cambêcérès and the Duke of Feltre
requested to undertake the defence of Antwerp; but it was I who received
several couriers on this subject, and who in fact took the command of
the combined army, sufficiently in time to prevent the English
surprising Antwerp, as they already had done Walcheren. It was I who
flooded the borders of the Scheldt, and erected batteries there.
Bernadotte arrived a fortnight afterwards; and, in pursuance of the
orders of Napoleon and Clarke, which were officially communicated to me,
I resigned the command to him."--LOUIS BUONAPARTE, p. 60.
[6] See Papers relating to the expedition to the Scheldt, Parliamentary
Debates, vol. xv., Appendix; and Annual Register, vol. l., pp. 543, 546,
559.
[7] See Declaration of the Pope against the usurpations of Napoleon,
dated May 19, 1808; Annual Register, vol. l., p. 314.
[8] "Napoleon was of Italian origin, but he was born a Frenchman. It is
difficult to comprehend for what purpose are those continual repetitions
of his Italian origin. His partiality for Italy was natural enough,
since he had conquered it, and this beautiful peninsula was a trophy of
the national glory, of which Sir Walter Scott allows Napoleon to have
been very jealous. I nevertheless doubt whether he had the intention of
uniting Italy, and making Rome its capital. Many of my brother's actions
contradict the supposition. I was near him one day when he received the
report of some victories in Spain, and amongst others, of one in which
the Italian troops had greatly distinguished themselves. One of the
persons who were with him exclaimed, at this news--that the Italians
would show themselves worthy of obtaining their independence, and it was
to be desired that the whole of Italy should be united into one national
body. 'Heaven forbid it!' exclaimed Napoleon, with involuntary emotion,
'they would soon be masters of the Gauls.' Amongst all the calumnies
heaped against him, there are none more unjust than those which attack
his patriotism: he was essentially French, indeed, too exclusively so;
for all excess is bad."--LOUIS BUONAPARTE, p. 62.
[9] "With regard to the removal of the monuments of antiquity, and to
the works undertaken by my brother for their preservation, they were not
merely projected; they were not only begun, but even far advanced, and
many of them finished."--LOUIS BUONAPARTE, p. 63.
[10] Published, May 17, at Vienna, and proclaimed in all the public
squares, markets, &c., of that capital.
[11] Annual Register, vol. li., p. 513; Botta, tom. iv., p. 394.
[12] Botta, tom. iv., p. 395; Jomini, tom. iii., p. 242; Savary, tom.
ii., part ii., p. 140.
[13] See Las Cases, vol. ii., pp. 12 and 13. He avowed that he himself
would have refused, as a man and an officer, to mount guard on the Pope,
"whose transportation into France," he added, "was done without my
authority." Observing the surprise of Las Cases, he added, "that what he
said was very true, together with other things which he would learn by
and by. Besides," he proceeded, "you are to distinguish the deeds of a
sovereign, who acts collectively, as different from those of an
individual, who is restrained by no consideration that prevents him from
following his own sentiments. Policy often permits, nay orders, a prince
to do that which would be unpardonable in an individual." Of this denial
and this apology, we shall only say, that the first seems very
apocryphal, and the second would justify any crime which Machiavel or
Achitophel could invent or recommend. Murat is the person whom the
favourers of Napoleon are desirous to load with the violence committed
on the Pope. But if Murat had dared to take so much upon himself, would
it not have been as king of Naples? and by what warrant could he have
transferred the Pontiff from place to place in the north of Italy, and
even in France itself, the Emperor's dominions, and not his own?
Besides, if Napoleon was, as has been stated, surprised, shocked, and
incensed at the captivity of the Pope, why did he not instantly restore
him to his liberty, with suitable apologies, and indemnification? His
not doing so plainly shows, that if Murat and Radet had not express
orders for what they did, they at least knew well it would be agreeable
to the Emperor when done, and his acquiescence in their violence is a
sufficient proof that they argued justly.--S.
"The Emperor knew nothing of the event until it had occurred; and then
it was too late to disown it. He approved of what had been done,
established the Pope at Savona, and afterwards united Rome to the French
empire, thereby annulling the donation made of it by Charlemagne. This
annexation was regretted by all, because every one desired
peace."--SAVARY, tom. ii., part ii., p. 142.
[14] "In the eyes of Europe, Pius VII. was considered as an illustrious
and affecting victim of greedy ambition. A prisoner at Savona, he was
despoiled of all his external honours, and shut out from all
communication with the cardinals, as well as deprived of all means of
issuing bulls and assembling a council. What food for the _petite
église_, for the turbulence of some priests, and for the hatred of some
devotees! I immediately saw all these leavens would reproduce the secret
associations we had with so much difficulty suppressed. In fact,
Napoleon, by undoing all that he had hitherto done to calm and
conciliate the minds of the people, disposed them in the end to withdraw
themselves from his power, and even to ally themselves to his enemies,
as soon as they had the courage to show themselves in force."--FOUCHÉ,
tom. i., p. 335.
[15] The assassin of Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, in 1628.
[16] The political fanatic of Jena, who assassinated Kotzebue at
Manheim, in 1819.
[17] "In the midst of the Emperor's occupations at Vienna, he was not
unmindful of the memory of the Chevalier Bayard. The chapel of the
village of Martinière, in which that hero had been christened, was
repaired at great expense by his orders. He also directed that the heart
of the chevalier should be removed to the said chapel with due ceremony;
and an inscription, dictated by the Emperor himself, recording the
praises of the knight 'without fear and without reproach,' was placed on
the leaden box containing his heart."--SAVARY, tom. ii., part ii., p.
97.
[18] Las Cases, tom. ii., p. 12; Savary, tom. ii., part ii., p. 151;
Rapp, p. 141.
[19] "The wretched young man was taken to Vienna, brought before a
council of war, and executed on the 27th. He had taken no sustenance
since the 24th, because, as he said, he had sufficient strength to walk
to the place of execution. His last words were--'Liberty forever!
Germany for ever! Death to the tyrant!' I delivered the report to
Napoleon, who desired me to keep the knife that had been found upon the
criminal. It is still in my possession."--RAPP, p. 147.
[20] Las Cases, tom. ii., p. 104.
[21] For a copy of the treaty, see Annual Register, vol. li., p. 791.
[22] Annual Register, vol. li., p. 790.
[23] The verses are well known,--
"Bella gerant alii, tu, felix Austria, nube," &c.--S.