THE KING OF HOLLAND.
While Josephine was weeping over her divorce at Malmaison, Hortense was
seeking one for herself. A divorce which her mother lamented as a
misfortune, because she still loved her husband, would have conferred
happiness upon Hortense, who never had loved her husband. Once again in
harmony with her husband, Hortense entreated the emperor to permit them
to be divorced, and the king united his entreaties with those of
the queen.
But Napoleon was unrelenting. His family should not appear before the
people as disregarding the sanctity of the marriage bond. For state
reasons he had separated from his wife, and for state reasons he could
not give his consent to the dissolution of the union of his brother and
step-daughter. They must, therefore, continue to drag the chain that
united them; and they did, but with angry hearts.
Louis returned to Holland in a more depressed state of mind than ever;
while Hortense and her two children, in obedience to Napoleon's express
command, remained in Paris for some time. They were to attend the
festivities that were soon to take place at the imperial court in honor
of the marriage of the emperor with the Archduchess Marie Louise of
Austria. The daughter of the divorced empress, with the emperor's
sisters, had been selected to carry the train of the new empress on the
marriage-day. Napoleon wished to prove to France and to all Europe that
there was no other law in his family than his will, and that the
daughter of Josephine had never ceased to be his obedient daughter also.
Napoleon wished, moreover, to retain near his young wife, in order that
she might have at her side a gentle and tender mentor, the queen who had
inherited Josephine's grace and loveliness, and who, in her noble
womanhood, would set a good example to the ladies of his court. Hortense
mutely obeyed the emperor's command; on the 1st of April, 1810, the day
of the union of Marie Louise with the emperor, she, together with his
sisters, bore the train of the new empress. She alone did this without
making any resistance, while it was only after the most violent
opposition to Napoleon's command that his sisters, Queen Caroline of
Naples, the Duchess Pauline of Guastalla, and the Grand-duchess Elise of
Tuscany, consented to undergo the humiliation of walking behind their
new sovereign as humble subjects. And the emperor's sisters were not
the only persons who regarded the imperial pair with displeasure on the
day of the marriage celebration. Only a small number of the high
dignitaries of the Church had responded to the invitation of the
grand-master of ceremonies, and attended the marriage celebration in the
chapel in the Tuileries.
The emperor, who did not wish to punish his sisters for their
opposition, could at least punish the absence of the cardinals, and he
did this on the following day. He exiled those cardinals who had not
appeared in the chapel, forbade them to appear in their red robes
thenceforth, and condemned them to the black penitent's dress.
The people of Paris also received the new empress with a languid
enthusiasm. They regarded the new "Austrian" with gloomy forebodings;
and when, on the occasion of the ball given by Prince Schwartzenberg in
honor of the imperial marriage, a short time afterward, the fearful fire
occurred that cost so many human lives and destroyed so much family
happiness, the people remembered with terror that other misfortune that
had occurred on the day of the entry of Marie Antoinette into Paris, and
called this fire an earnest of the misfortunes which the "Austrian"
would bring upon France and the emperor.
While Hortense was compelled to attend the festivities given in honor of
the new empress in Paris, a dark storm-cloud was gathering over her
husband's head, that was soon to threaten his life and his crown.
When Louis, at the emperor's command, accepted the crown of Holland, he
had solemnly sworn to be a faithful ruler to his new people, and to
devote his whole being to their welfare. He was too honest a man not to
keep this oath sacredly. His sole endeavor was to make such
arrangements, and provide such laws, as the welfare and prosperity of
Holland seemed to require, without in the least considering whether
these laws were conducive to the interests of France or not. He would
not regard Holland as a province dependent upon France, of which he was
the governor, but as an independent land that had chosen him to be its
free and independent king. But Napoleon did not view the matter in the
same light; in his eyes it was sacrilege for the kingdom of Holland to
refuse to conform itself in every respect to the interests of its
powerful neighbor, France.
When Napoleon invested his brother with the crown of Holland, he had
charged him "to be a good king to his people, but at the same time to
remain a good Frenchman, and protect the interests of France." Louis
had, however, endeavored to become a good Hollander; and when the
interests of France and Holland came into conflict, the king took the
side of his new country, and acted as a Hollander. He was of the opinion
that the welfare of Holland depended on its commerce and industry only,
and that it could only be great through its commercial importance; he
therefore reduced the army and navy, making merchantmen of the
men-of-war, and peaceful sailors of their warlike seamen.
Napoleon, however, regarded this conversion with dismay, and angrily
reproached the King of Holland for "disarming whole squadrons,
discharging seamen, and disorganizing the army, until Holland was
without power, both on land and water, as though warehouses and clerks
were the material elements of power." Napoleon reproached the king still
more bitterly, however, for having re-established commercial relations
with England, for having raised the blockade for Holland which France
had established against England, and for having permitted the American
ships, that had been banished from the ports of France, to anchor
quietly in those of Holland.
The emperor demanded of the King of Holland that he should conform
himself to his will and to the interests of France unconditionally; that
he should immediately break off all commercial relations between Holland
and England; that he should re-establish a fleet, of forty
ships-of-the-line, seven frigates, and seven brigs, and an army of
twenty-five thousand men, and that he should abolish all the privileges
of the nobility that were contrary to the constitution.
King Louis had the courage to resist these demands, in the name of
Holland, and to refuse to obey instructions, the execution of which must
necessarily have affected the material interests of Holland most
injuriously.
Napoleon responded to this refusal with a declaration of war. The
ambassador of Holland received his passport, and a French army corps was
sent to Holland, to punish the king's insolence.
But the misfortune that threatened Holland had called the king's whole
energy into activity, and Napoleon's anger and threats were powerless to
break his resolution. As the commander of the French troops, the Duke of
Reggio, approached Amsterdam, to lay siege to that city and thereby
compel the king to yield, Louis determined rather to descend from his
throne than to submit to the unjust demands of France. He, therefore,
issued a proclamation to his people, in which he told them that he,
convinced that he could do nothing more to promote their welfare, and,
on the contrary, believing that he was an obstacle in the way of the
restoration of friendly relations between his brother and Holland, had
determined to abdicate in favor of his two sons, Napoleon Louis and
Charles Louis Napoleon. Until they should attain their majority the
queen, in conformity with the constitution, was to be regent. He then
took leave of his subjects, in a short and touching address. He now
repaired, in disguise, and under the name of Count de St. Leu, through
the states of his brother Jerome, King of Westphalia, and through Saxony
to Töplitz.
Here he learned that Napoleon, far from respecting and fulfilling the
conditions of his abdication, had united the kingdom of Holland with the
empire. The king published a protest against this action of the emperor,
in which, in the name of his son and heir, Napoleon Louis, he denounced
this act of the emperor as a totally unjustifiable act of violence, and
demanded that the kingdom of Holland should be re-established, in all
its integrity, declaring the annexation of Holland to France to be null
and void, in the name of himself and his sons.
Napoleon responded to this protest by causing the king to be informed by
the French ambassador in Vienna that unless he returned to France by the
1st of December, 1810, he should be regarded and treated as a rebel, who
dared to resist the head of his family and violate the constitution of
the empire.
Louis neither answered nor conformed to this threat. He repaired to
Grätz, in Styria, and lived there as a private gentleman, beloved and
admired, not only by those who came in contact with him there, but
enjoying the esteem of all Europe, which he had won by the noble and
truly magnanimous manner in which he had sacrificed his own grandeur to
the welfare of his people. Even his and Napoleon's enemies could not
withhold from the King of Holland the tribute of their respect, and even
Louis XVIII. said of him: "By his abdication, Louis Bonaparte has become
a true king; in renouncing his crown, he has shown himself worthy to
wear it. He is the first monarch who has made so great a sacrifice but
of pure love for his people; others have also relinquished their
thrones, but they did it when weary of power. But in this action of the
King of Holland there is something truly sublime--something that was not
duly appreciated at first, but which will be admired by posterity, if I
mistake not, greatly[19]."
[Footnote 19: Mémoires d'une Femme de Qualité, vol. v., p. 47.]
In Grätz, Louis Bonaparte, Count de St. Leu, lived a few peaceful,
tranquil years, perhaps the first years of happiness he had enjoyed in
his short and hitherto stormy life. Occupied with work and study, he
easily forgot his former grandeur and importance. As it had once been
his ambition to become a good king, it was now his ambition to become a
good writer. He published his romance Marie, and, encouraged by the
success which it met with in his circle of friends, he also gave his
poems to the public--poems whose tender and passionate language proved
that this so often misunderstood, so often repulsed, and, therefore, so
timid and distrustful heart, could warm with a tenderness of love that
Marie Pascal, the beautiful artist of the harp, could hardly have had
the cruelty to withstand.
But a day came when Louis Bonaparte closed his ear to all these sweet
voices of happiness, of peace, and of love, to listen only to the voice
of duty, that appealed to him to return to France, to his brother's
side. While the sun of fortune shone over Napoleon, the king, who had
voluntarily descended from a throne, remained in obscurity; but when the
days of misfortune came upon the emperor, there could be but one place
for his brave and faithful brother, and that was at Napoleon's side.
Madame de St. Elme, who was at Grätz at this time, and who witnessed the
farewell scene between Louis Bonaparte and the inhabitants of Grätz,
says: "On the day when Austria so unexpectedly sundered its alliance
with France, King Louis felt the necessity of abandoning an asylum, for
which he would henceforth have been indebted to the enemies of France,
and hastened to claim of the great unjust man who had repulsed him, the
only place commensurate with the dignity of his character, the place
at his side.
"This was a subject of profound sorrow and regret for the inhabitants of
Grätz, and of all Styria, for there was not a pious or useful
institution, or a poor family in Styria, that had not been the object of
his beneficence, and yet it was well known that the king who had
descended from his throne so hastily, and with so little preparation,
had but small means, and denied himself many of the enjoyments of life,
in order that he might lend a helping hand to others. He was entreated,
conjured with tears, to remain, but he held firm to his resolution. And
when the horses, that they had at first determined to withhold from him,
were at last, at his earnest and repeated solicitation, provided, the
people unharnessed these horses from his carriage, in order that they
might take their places, and accompany him to the gates of the city with
this demonstration of their love. This departure had the appearance of a
triumphal procession; and this banished king, without a country, was
greeted with as lively plaudits on leaving his place of exile as when he
mounted his throne[20]."
[Footnote 20: Mémoires d'une contemporaine, vol. iv., p. 377.]