who informed him, with perfect accuracy, of every thing
going on there. It is true, that these agents made him
pay dearly for their services. In London, for instance,
he had two persons, who cost him two thousand guineas a
month. "If my Germans," said he on this subject, "were
so dear, I must give them up."]
Thus every hope of conciliation was annihilated: the friends of
Napoleon began to doubt his safety: he alone contemplated with
imperturbable firmness the dangers, with which he was menaced.
The events of 1814 had disclosed to him the importance of the capital;
and it may well be presumed, that he did not neglect the means of
putting it into a state of defence. When the moment was arrived, for
definitively resolving on the work of the fortifications, which he had
already sketched out, M. Fontaine, his favourite architect, was with
him, and was going to withdraw. "No," said the Emperor to him, "stay
here: you shall help me to fortify Paris." He ordered the map of
levels to be brought him; examined the sinuosities of the ground;
consulted M. Fontaine on the placing of redoubts, and the erection of
crown-works, triple crown-works, lunettes, &c. &c.; and in less than
half an hour he conceived and settled, under the approbation of his
architect, a definitive plan of defence, that obtained the suffrages
of the most experienced engineers.
A swarm of workmen soon covered the vicinity of Paris: but to increase
the effect, that the fortification of this city would produce both in
France and in foreign countries, Napoleon caused it to be suggested to
the national guard, to join in the work. Immediately detachments from
the legions, accompanied by a number of citizens and federates from
the suburbs of St. Antoine, and St. Marceau, repaired to Montmartre
and Vincennes, and proceeded to the opening of the trenches with
songs. The grenadiers of the guard would not remain idle; and came to
take their part in the labour with their band of music at their head.
The Emperor, accompanied only by a few of the officers of his
household, frequently went to encourage the zeal of the workmen. His
presence and his words fired their imagination: they fancied they saw
Thermopylæ in every pass they fortified and, like new Spartans, swore
with enthusiasm, to defend them till death.
The federates did not stop at these demonstrations of their zeal,
empty as they often are; they called for arms, and were angry, at the
dilatoriness with which they were given them. They complained no less
eagerly, that they had not yet been reviewed by the Emperor.
To pacify them, the Emperor hastened to announce to them, that he
would admit them with pleasure to file off before him on the first
parade day.
On the 24th of May, they presented themselves at the Tuileries. Their
battalions were composed in great part of old soldiers and laborious
work people: but some of those vagabonds, who abound in great cities,
had crept in among them; and these, with their jailbird countenances,
and ragged clothes, recalled to mind but too forcibly those murderous
bands, who formerly stained the dwelling of the unfortunate Louis XVI.
with blood.
When Louis XIII., and the arrogant Richelieu, invoked the assistance
of the corporations of arts and trades, they admitted their deputies
to a solemn audience, took them by the hand, and embraced them all,
history says, down to the very cobblers. Napoleon, though in a far
more critical situation, would not humble himself before necessity: he
preserved his dignity, and, in spite of himself, suffered symptoms to
escape him of what he felt, at being obliged by circumstances to
accept such assistance.
The chiefs of the confederation addressed him in a speech, in which
the following passages were principally remarked.
"You, sire, are the man of the nation, the defender of our country:
from you we expect independence, and a sage liberty. You will secure
to us these two precious possessions; you will render sacred for ever
the rights of the people: you will reign according to the constitution
and the laws. We come to offer you our arms, our courage, and our
blood, for the safety of the capital.
"Ah! sire, why had we not arms at the time when foreign kings,
emboldened by treason, advanced up to the walls of Paris? ... we shed
tears of rage, at seeing our hands useless to the common cause: ... we
are almost all of us old defenders of our country; our country should
give arms with confidence to those, who have shed their blood for her.
Give us arms in her name ... we are not the instruments of any party,
the agents of any faction.... As citizens, we are obedient to our
magistrates, and to the laws; as soldiers, we are obedient to our
chiefs....
"Long live the nation, long live liberty, long live the Emperor!"
The Emperor answered them in the following terms:
"Soldiers, federates of the suburbs of St. Antoine and St. Marceau: I
returned alone, because I reckoned on the people of the towns, the
inhabitants of the country, and the soldiers of the army, whose
attachment to the honour of the nation I well knew. You have all
justified my confidence. I accept your offer. I will give you arms; to
lead you, I will give you officers covered with honourable scars, and
accustomed to see the enemy flee before them. Your robust limbs,
inured to the most laborious work, are better adapted than any other,
to handle arms. As to courage, you are Frenchmen: you shall be the
skirmishers (_éclaireurs_) of the national guard. I shall be without
any anxiety for the capital, while the national guard and you are
employed in its defence: and if it be true, that foreigners persist in
the impious design of attacking our independence and our honour, I may
avail myself of victory, without being checked by any solicitude.
"Soldiers, federates; if there be men among the higher classes of
society, who have dishonoured the French name; the love of our
country, and the sentiment of national honour, have been preserved
entire among the people of our towns, the inhabitants of the country,
and the soldiers of the army. I am glad to see you. I have confidence
in you: long live the nation!"
Notwithstanding his promise, however, the Emperor, under the pretence,
that there was not a sufficient number of muskets, only gave arms to
those federates who were on duty; so that they passed daily from one
hand to another, and consequently did not remain in the possession of
any one. Various motives induced him, to take this precaution. He
wished to preserve to the national guard a superiority, which it would
have lost, if the whole of the federates had been armed. He was
afraid, also, that the republicans, whom he ever considered as his
most implacable enemies, would obtain sway over the minds of the
federates; and induce them, in the name of liberty, to turn against
himself those arms, that he had put into their hands. Fatal prejudice!
that induced him to place his reliance elsewhere than on the people,
and consequently deprived him of his firmest support.
At the moment when the population of Paris was testifying the most
faithful attachment to the Emperor and their country, the alarm-bell
of insurrection resounded through the plains of la Vendée.
As early as the 1st of May, some symptoms of commotion had been
observed in le Bocage[14]. The brave but unfortunate Travot had
effected by his firmness, and by his persuasions, the restoration of
order; and every thing appeared quiet, when emissaries arrived from
England, to kindle the flames anew.
[Footnote 14: A small county in Lower Normandy, the
common focus of the rebellion.]
MM. de la Roche-jaquelin, d'Autichamp, Suzannet, Sapineau, Daudigné,
and some others of the chiefs of la Vendée, re-assembled. A civil war
was determined on. On the 15th of May, the day appointed, the
alarm-bell was heard; energetic proclamations called the inhabitants
of Anjou, la Vendée, and Poitou, to arms; and the assembling of a
confused body of seven or eight thousand peasants was effected.
The English agents had announced, that the Marquis Louis de la
Roche-jaquelin was bringing to the provinces in the West arms,
ammunition, and money. The insurgents immediately repaired to Croix de
Vic, to favour his landing. A few custom-house officers, assembled in
haste, opposed them in vain: la Roche-jaquelin triumphantly delivered
into the hands of the unfortunate Vendeans the fatal presents of
England[15].
[Footnote 15: The succours, so pompously announced by
the royalist emissaries, amounted only to 2400 muskets,
and a few barrels of gunpowder. The chiefs of the
insurrection, disappointed in their expectations,
bitterly reproached M. de la Roche-jaquelin with having
deceived and implicated them by false promises.]
The news of this insurrection, considerably exaggerated by inaccurate
accounts, reached the Emperor in the night of the 17th. He called me
to his bedside; made me set down on the map the positions of the
French and of the insurgents; and dictated to me his commands.
He directed a part of the troops stationed in the neighbouring
divisions, to march with all possible speed for Niort and Poitiers;
General Brayer, to hasten post to Angers, with two regiments of the
young guard; and General Travot, to call in his detachments, and
concentrate his force, till he received fresh orders. Experienced
officers _d'ordonnances_ were appointed, to go and reconnoitre the
country; and General Corbineau, whose talents, moderation, and
firmness were known to the Emperor, was sent to the spot, to appease
the revolt, or preside over the military operations in case of need.
All these arrangements being made, the Emperor quietly closed his
eyes; for the faculty of tasting at pleasure the sweets of sleep was
one of the prerogatives conferred on him by nature.
Telegraphic despatches soon brought more circumstantial and more
heartening accounts. "It was known, that the peasants, who had been
ordered to furnish merely four men from each parish, had shown
hesitation and ill will; and that the chiefs had found great trouble
in collecting four or five thousand men, consisting in great part of
vagabonds, and workmen out of employ." In fine it was known, that
General Travot, having been informed of the landing, and the road the
convoy had taken, went in pursuit of the insurgents, came up with them
in advance of St. Gilles, killed about three hundred men, and seized
the greater part of the arms and ammunition.
The Emperor thought, that this insurrection might be quashed by other
means than by force; and, adopting in this respect the conciliatory
views proposed by General Travot, he directed the minister of police
to invite MM. de Malartie and two other Vendean chiefs, MM. de la
Beraudiere and de Flavigny, to repair in the character of pacificators
to their ancient companions in arms; and remonstrate with them, that
it was not in the plains of the West, the fate of the throne would be
decided; and that, the final expulsion or restoration of Louis XVIII.
depending neither on their efforts, nor on their defeat, the French
blood, which they were about to shed in la Vendée, would be spilt to
no purpose.
He sent orders to General Lamarque, whom he had just invested with the
supreme direction of this war[16], to favour the negotiations of M. de
Malartie to the utmost of his power: at the same time he directed him,
to declare formally to la Roche-jaquelin, and to the other chiefs of
the insurgents, that, if they persisted in continuing the civil war,
quarter would no longer be given them, and their houses and
possessions should be sacked and burned[17].
[Footnote 16: The Emperor had intended this command in
chief for the Duke of Rovigo, or General Corbineau: but
he foresaw, that it might perhaps be necessary, to
proceed to rigorous measures; and he was unwilling, that
these should be conducted by an officer attached to his
own person.]
[Footnote 17: The Emperor considered this rigorous
measure as a just reprisal for the means employed by the
Vendean chiefs, to recruit their army. They are the
following:
When the families, that reign in la Vendée, have
resolved on war, they send orders to their agents, to
travel over the country, preaching up revolt, and
indicating to every parish the number of men, that it
must furnish. The chiefs of the insurrection in each
parish then point out the peasants, who are to go; and
enjoin them, to be at such an hour, on such a day, at
the place appointed for assembling. If they fail, armed
bands are sent in quest of them, generally composed of
the men most dreaded in the country: if they resist,
they are threatened with being shot, or having their
houses burnt; and as this is never an empty threat, the
unhappy peasants obey, and set out.
It has been asserted, that the Emperor had given orders,
to set a price on the heads of the chiefs of the
insurgents. The instructions given to the ministers at
war were transcribed by me, and I have not the least
recollection of any such order having been given.]
He likewise recommended to him, to press as closely as possible on the
bands of la Vendée, in order to leave them no hope of safety but in
prompt submission. But this recommendation was superfluous. By
unexpected attacks, skilful marches, and continually increasing
successes, General Travot had already struck such terror and alarm
into the insurgents, that they took much more pains to shun than to
fight him.
In pursuing the movement of concentration, that had been prescribed
him, this general accidentally fell in with the royal army by night,
at Aisenay. A few musket shots spread dismay and disorder through
their ranks; they rushed one upon another, and dispersed so
completely, that MM. de Sapineau and Suzannet were several days
without soldiers. M. d'Autichamp, though distant from the place of
engagement, experienced the same fate. His troops abandoned him with
no less readiness, than he had found difficulty in assembling them.
This defection was not solely the effect of the terror, with which the
imperial army could not fail naturally to inspire a body of wretched
peasants; it was promoted by several other circumstances. In the first
place it resulted from the little confidence of the insurgents in the
experience and capacity of their General in chief, the Marquis de la
Roche-jaquelin. They did justice to his conspicuous bravery; but he
had forfeited their good opinion, by incessantly endangering them
through false manoeuvres, and by endeavouring to subject them to a
regular service, incompatible with their domestic habits, and with
their mode of making war.
In the next place it arose from the dissension, that had introduced
itself among their generals from the commencement of the war. The
Marquis de la Roche-jaquelin, ardent and ambitious, had arrogated to
himself the supreme command; and the old founders of the royal army,
the Autichamps, Suzannets, and Sapineaus, did not obey without regret
the imperious orders of a young officer, hitherto without experience
or reputation.
But the first, the fundamental cause of the slackness or inactivity of
the Vendeans, was still more the change, that had taken place in the
political and military state of France since the coronation of
Napoleon. They knew, that the time when they struck terror into the
blues, and made themselves masters of their artillery with clubs, was
no more. They knew, that the days of terror, of anarchy, were
terminated for ever; and that they had no longer to dread those
abuses, or those excesses, or those crimes, which had provoked and
fomented their first insurrection. As to the attachment for the
Bourbon family, which they had inherited from their fathers, this,
though not banished from their hearts, was balanced by the fear of
seeing the calamities and devastations of the late civil war revived;
by the uneasiness they felt from the renewal of the double despotism
of the nobles and priests; and perhaps also by the remembrance of the
kindness of Napoleon. It was he, who had restored to them their
churches and their ministers; who had raised from their ruins their
desolate habitations[18]; and who had freed them at once from
revolutionary exactions, and from the plunderings of chouanry.
[Footnote 18: Fourteen millions of francs had been
appropriated to the rebuilding of the houses burned
down.]
The Emperor, having no doubt of the approaching termination and happy
issue of this war, announced it openly at a public audience. "Every
thing will soon be finished," said he, "in la Vendée. The Vendeans
will not fight any more. They are retiring to their homes one by one;
and the fight will be at an end for want of combatants."
The news he received from the King of Naples by no means inspired him
with the same satisfaction.
This prince, as I have said above, after having obtained several
tolerably brilliant advantages, had advanced to the gates of
Placentia; and was preparing, to march through the Piedmontese
territory to Milan; when Lord Bentinck notified to him, that England
would declare against him, if he did not respect the dominions of the
King of Sardinia. Joachim, apprehensive of the English making a
diversion against Naples, consented to alter his course. The
Austrians had time to come up, and Milan was saved.
While these things were going on, a Neapolitan army, that had
penetrated into Tuscany, and driven General Nugent before it, was
surprised, and forced to retire precipitately to Florence.
This unexpected check, and the considerable reinforcements, that the
Austrians received, determined Joachim to fall back. He retreated
slowly to Ancona.
The English, who had hitherto remained neutral, now declared against
him, and joined Austria and the Sicilians. Joachim, menaced and
pressed on all sides, concentrated his forces. A general engagement
took place at Tolentino. The Neapolitans, animated by the presence and
valour of their king, briskly attacked General Bianchi, and every
thing foreboded victory, when the arrival of General Neipperg, at the
head of fresh troops, changed the aspect of affairs. The Neapolitan
army was broken, quitted the field of battle, and fled to Macerata.
A second battle, equally disastrous, was fought at Caprano; and the
capture of this city by the Austrians opened them an entrance into the
kingdom of Naples, while the corps of General Nugent, which had
marched from Florence to Rome, penetrated into the Neapolitan
territory by another road.
The rumour of the defeat and death of the king, the approach of the
Austrian armies, and the proclamations[19] issued by them, excited a
sedition at Naples. The Lazaroni, after having assassinated a few
Frenchmen, and massacred the minister of police, repaired to the royal
palace, with the design of murdering the Queen. This princess, worthy
of the blood that circulated in her veins, was not affrighted by their
shouts and threats; she courageously made head against them, and
obliged them, to return to their obedience.
[Footnote 19: These announced and promised to the
Neapolitans the restoration of Ferdinand, their former
king, to the throne.]
Joachim, remaining erect amid the ruins of his army, sustained with
heroic firmness the efforts of his enemies. Resolved to fall with arms
in his hand, he rushed on the battalions, and carried terror and death
into the midst of their ranks. But his valour could only ennoble his
fall. Still repulsed, still invulnerable, he relinquished the hope of
meeting death or victory. In the night of the 19th of March he
returned to Naples: the Queen appeared indignant at seeing him.
"Madame," said he to her, "I was not able to find death." He departed
immediately, that he might not fall into the hands of the Austrians,
and came to take refuge in France. The Queen, notwithstanding the
dangers, that threatened her life, resolved to remain at Naples, till
her fate and that of the army were decided. When the treaty was
signed, she withdrew on board an English vessel and repaired to
Trieste.
The catastrophe of the King made the most profound impression on the
superstitious mind of Napoleon; but the French it inspired with little
regret, and no fear. I say no fear, for the nation was familiarised
with the idea of war. The patriotism and energy, with which it felt
itself animated, filled it with such confidence, that it deemed itself
sufficiently strong, to dispense with the support of the Neapolitans,
and struggle alone against the coalition. It recalled to mind the
campaign of 1814; and, if at that period Napoleon, with sixty thousand
soldiers, had beaten and held in check the victorious foreign armies,
what might it not hope now, when an army of three hundred thousand
fighting men would form, in case of need, only the advanced guard of
France? The royalists and their newspapers, by repeating the
manifestoes of Ghent and Vienna, enumerating the foreign armies, and
exaggerating our dangers, had indeed succeeded in abating the courage
of a few, and shaking their opinions; but the sentiments of the bulk
of the nation had lost nothing of their vigour and energy. Every day
fresh offerings[20] were deposited on the altar of their country; and
every day new corps of volunteers, equally numerous and formidable,
were establishing, under the names of lancers, partisans, federates,
mountain chasseurs, and tirailleurs.
[Footnote 20: The departments of the Centre, and of the
East, particularly distinguished themselves. A great
number of their inhabitants gave considerable sums, and
equipped at their own expense companies, battalions,
whole regiments, of partisans or national guards.
A single citizen of Paris, Mr. Delorme, proprietor of
the fine _passage_ of the same name, offered his country
a hundred thousand francs.
Another, one day when the national guard was reviewed,
caused a roll of paper, tied with a ribbon of the legion
of honour, to be delivered to the Emperor. On opening
it, it was found to contain twenty-five thousand francs,
in notes on the Bank, with these words: "for Napoleon,
for my country." The Emperor was desirous of knowing the
person, who had made this delicate and mysterious
offering; and at length discovered, that it was M.
Gevaudan, whose noble sentiments and patriotism had
already been proved by several actions of a similar
kind.]
The Parisians, so frequently peaceable spectators of events,
participated in this burst of patriotism: not contented with erecting
their intrenchments with their own hands, they solicited the honour of
defending them; and twenty thousand men, composed of national guards,
federates of the suburbs, and citizens of all ranks, were formed into
battalions for actual service under the denomination of tirailleurs of
the national guard.
Napoleon applauded the noble efforts of the great nation: but
unfortunately our arsenals had been plundered in 1814; and,
notwithstanding the activity of our workmen, he was grieved to the
heart at his inability, to arm every hand raised in his defence. This
would have required six hundred thousand muskets; and scarcely could
enough be supplied, to arm the troops of the line, and the national
guards, that were sent to garrison the fortified towns.
But while Paris was contemplating its ramparts on the one hand, on the
other it saw the preparations for the festival of the _Champ de Mai_
completing. On both there was an equal crowd; and the French, always
the same, always brave and frivolous, traversed with equal pleasure
the spots where they were to fight, and those where they expected to
amuse themselves.
At length the assembly of the _Champ de Mai_, which several unforeseen
circumstances had delayed, took place on the 1st of June. The Emperor
believed, that he ought to display at it all the imperial pomp; but in
this he was wrong. He was about to appear before old patriots, whom he
had deceived; and he should have avoided awakening their memories, and
clouding their brows.