Ver.10/04/01*END*
This etext was produced by David Widger
[NOTE: There is a short list of bookmarks, at the end of several of the
files for those who may wish to sample the author's ideas before making
an entire meal of them. D.W.]
MEMOIRS OF NAPOLEON BONAPARTE, VOLUME 11.
By LOUIS ANTOINE FAUVELET DE BOURRIENNE
His Private Secretary
Edited by R. W. Phipps
Colonel, Late Royal Artillery
1891
CONTENTS:
CHAPTER XIX. to CHAPTER XXVII. 1809-1812
CHAPTER XIX.
1809.
The castle of Diernstein--Richard Coeur de Lion and Marshal Lannes,
--The Emperor at the gates of Vienna--The Archduchess Maria Louisa--
Facility of correspondence with England--Smuggling in Hamburg--Brown
sugar and sand--Hearses filled with sugar and coffee--Embargo on the
publication of news--Supervision of the 'Hamburg Correspondant'--
Festival of Saint Napoleon--Ecclesiastical adulation--The King of
Westphalia's journey through his States--Attempt to raise a loan--
Jerome's present to me--The present returned--Bonaparte's unfounded
suspicions.
Rapp, who during the campaign of Vienna had resumed his duties as aide de
camp, related to me one of those observations of Napoleon which, when his
words are compared with the events that followed them, seem to indicate a
foresight into his future destiny. When within some days' march of
Vienna the Emperor procured a guide to explain to him every village and
ruin which he observed on the road. The guide pointed to an eminence on
which were a few decayed vestiges of an old fortified castle. "Those,"
said the guide, "are the ruins of the castle of Diernstein." Napoleon
suddenly stopped, and stood for some time silently contemplating the
ruins, then turning to Lannes, who was with him, he raid, "See! yonder
is the prison of Richard Coeur de Lion. He, like us, went to Syria and
Palestine. But, my brave Lannes, the Coeur de Lion was not braver than
you. He was more fortunate than I at St. Jean d'Acre. A Duke of Austria
sold him to an Emperor of Germany, who imprisoned him in that castle.
Those were the days of barbarism. How different from the civilisation of
modern times! Europe has seen how I treated the Emperor of Austria, whom
I might have made prisoner--and I would treat him so again. I claim no
credit for this. In the present age crowned heads must be respected. A
conqueror imprisoned!"
A few days after the Emperor was at the gates of Vienna, but on this
occasion his access to the Austrian capital was not so easy as it had
been rendered in 1805 by the ingenuity and courage of Lannes and Murat.
The Archduke Maximilian, who was shut up in the capital, wished to defend
it, although the French army already occupied the principal suburbs. In
vain were flags of truce sent one after the other to the Archduke. They
were not only dismissed unheard, but were even ill-treated, and one of
them was almost killed by the populace. The city was then bombarded, and
would speedily have been destroyed but that the Emperor, being informed
that one of the Archduchesses remained in Vienna on account of ill-
health, ordered the firing to cease. By a singular caprice of Napoleon's
destiny this Archduchess was no other than Maria Louisa. Vienna at
length opened her gates to Napoleon, who for some days took up his
residence at Schoenbrunn.
The Emperor was engaged in so many projects at once that they could not
all succeed. Thus, while he was triumphant in the Hereditary States his
Continental system was experiencing severe checks. The trade with
England on the coast of Oldenburg was carped on as uninterruptedly as if
in time of peace. English letters and newspapers arrived on the
Continent, and those of the Continent found their way into Great Britain,
as if France and England had been united by ties of the firmest
friendship. In short, things were just in the same state as if the
decree for the blockade of the British Isles had not existed. When the
custom-house officers succeeded in seizing contraband goods they were
again taken from them by main force. On the 2d of July a serious contest
took place at Brinskham between the custom-house officers and a party of
peasantry, in which the latter remained masters of eighteen wagons laden
with English goods: many were wounded on both sides.
If, however, trade with England was carried on freely along a vast extent
of coast, it was different in the city of Hamburg, where English goods
were introduced only by fraud; and I verily believe that the art of
smuggling and the schemes of smugglers were never before carried to such
perfection. Above 6000 persons of the lower orders went backwards and
forwards, about twenty times a day, from Altona to Hamburg, and they
carried on their contraband, trade by many ingenious stratagems, two of
which were so curious that they are worth mentioning here.
On the left of the road leading from Hamburg to Altona there was a piece
of ground where pits were dug for the purpose of procuring sand used for
building and for laying down in the streets. At this time it was
proposed to repair the great street of Hamburg leading to the gate of
Altona. The smugglers overnight filled the sandpit with brown sugar, and
the little carts which usually conveyed the sand into Hamburg were filled
with the sugar, care being taken to cover it with a layer of sand about
an inch thick. This trick was carried on for a length of time, but no
progress was made in repairing the street. I complained greatly of the
delay, even before I was aware of its cause, for the street led to a
country-house I had near Altona, whither I went daily. The officers of
the customs at length perceived that the work did not proceed, and one
fine morning the sugar-carts were stopped and seized. Another expedient
was then to be devised.
Between Hamburg and Altona there was a little suburb situated on the
right bank of the Elbe. This suburb was inhabited, by sailors, labourers
of the port, and landowners. The inhabitants were interred in the
cemetery of Hamburg. It was observed that funeral processions passed
this way more frequently than usual. The customhouse officers, amazed at
the sudden mortality of the worthy inhabitants of the little suburb,
insisted on searching one of the vehicles, and on opening the hearse it
was found to be filled with sugar, coffee, vanilla, indigo, etc. It was
necessary to abandon this expedient, but others were soon discovered.
Bonaparte was sensitive, in an extraordinary degree, to all that was said
and thought of him, and Heaven knows how many despatches I received from
headquarters during the campaign of Vienna directing me not only to watch
the vigilant execution of the custom-house laws, but to lay an embargo on
a thing which alarmed him more than the introduction of British
merchandise, viz. the publication of news. In conformity with these
reiterated instructions I directed especial attention to the management
of the 'Correspondant'. The importance of this journal, with its 60,000
readers, may easily be perceived. I procured the insertion of everything
I thought desirable: all the bulletins, proclamations, acts of the French
Government, notes of the 'Moniteur', and the semi-official articles of
the French journals: these were all given 'in extenso'. On the other
hand, I often suppressed adverse news, which, though well known, would
have received additional weight from its insertion in so widely
circulated a paper. If by chance there crept in some Austrian bulletin,
extracted from the other German papers published in the States of the
Confederation of the Rhine, there was always given with it a suitable
antidote to destroy, or at least to mitigate, its ill effect. But this
was not all. The King of Wurtemberg having reproached the
'Correspondant', in a letter to the Minister for Foreign Affairs, with
publishing whatever Austria wished should be made known, and being
conducted in a spirit hostile to the good cause, I answered these unjust
reproaches by making the Syndic censor prohibit the Hamburg papers from
inserting any Austrian order of the day, any Archduke's bulletins, any
letter from Prague; in short, anything which should be copied from the
other German journals unless those articles had been inserted in the
French journals.
My recollections of the year 1809 at Hamburg carry me back to the
celebration of Napoleon's fete, which was on the 15th of August, for he
had interpolated his patron saint in the Imperial calendar at the date of
his birth. The coincidence of this festival with the Assumption gave
rise to adulatory rodomontades of the most absurd description. Certainly
the Episcopal circulars under the Empire would form a curious collection.
--[It will perhaps scarcely be believed that the following words
were actually delivered from the pulpit: "God in his mercy has
chosen Napoleon to be his representative on earth. The Queen of
Heaven has marked, by the most magnificent of presents, the
anniversary of the day which witnessed his glorious entrance into
her domains. Heavenly Virgin! as a special testimony of your love
for the French, and your all-powerful influence with your son, you
have connected the first of your solemnities with the birth of the
great Napoleon. Heaven ordained that the hero should spring from
your sepulchre."--Bourrienne.]--
Could anything be more revolting than the sycophancy of those Churchmen
who declared that "God chose Napoleon for his representative upon earth,
and that God created Bonaparte, and then rested; that he was more
fortunate than Augustus, more virtuous than Trajan; that he deserved
altars and temples to be raised to him!" etc.
Some time after the Festival of St. Napoleon the King of Westphalia made
a journey through his States. Of all Napoleon's brothers the King of
Westphalia was the one with whom I was least acquainted, and he, it is
pretty well known, was the most worthless of the family. His
correspondence with me is limited to two letters, one of which he wrote
while he commanded the 'Epervier', and another seven years after, dated
6th September 1809. In this latter he said:
"I shall be in Hannover on the 10th. If you can make it convenient
to come there and spend a day with me it will give me great
pleasure. I shall then be able to smooth all obstacles to the loan
I wish to contract in the Hanse Town. I flatter myself you will do
all in your power to forward that object, which at the present
crisis is very important to my States. More than ample security is
offered, but the money will be of no use to me if I cannot have it
at least for two years."
Jerome wanted to contract at Hamburg a loan of 3,000,000 francs.
However, the people did not seem to think like his Westphalian Majesty,
that the contract presented more than ample security. No one was found
willing to draw his purse-strings, and the loan was never raised.
Though I would not, without the Emperor's authority, exert the influence
of my situation to further the success of Jerome's negotiation, yet I did
my best to assist him. I succeeded in prevailing on the Senate to
advance one loan of 100,000 francs to pay a portion of the arrears due to
his troops, and a second of 200,000 francs to provide clothing for his
army, etc. This scanty supply will cease to be wondered at when it is
considered to what a state of desolation the whole of Germany was reduced
at the time, as much in the allied States as in those of the enemies of
France. I learnt at the time that the King of Bavaria said to an officer
of the Emperor's household in whom he had great confidence, "If this
continues we shall have to give up, and put the key under the door."
These were his very words.
As for Jerome, he returned to Cassel quite disheartened at the
unsuccessful issue of his loan. Some days after his return to his
capital I received from him a snuffbox with his portrait set in diamonds,
accompanied by a letter of thanks for the service I had rendered him.
I never imagined that a token of remembrance from a crowned head could
possibly be declined. Napoleon, however, thought otherwise. I had not,
it is true, written to acquaint our Government with the King of
Westphalia's loan, but in a letter, which I addressed to the Minister for
Foreign Affairs on the 22d of September, I mentioned the present Jerome
had sent me. Why Napoleon should have been offended at this I know not,
but I received orders to return Jerome's present immediately, and these
orders were accompanied with bitter reproaches for my having accepted it
without the Emperor's authority. I sent back the diamonds, but kept the
portrait. Knowing Bonaparte's distrustful disposition, I thought he must
have suspected that Jerome had employed threats, or at any rate, that he
had used some illegal influence to facilitate the success of his loan.
At last, after much correspondence, Napoleon saw clearly that everything
was perfectly regular; in a word, that the business had been transacted
as between two private persons. As to the 300,000 francs which the
Senate had lent to Jerome, the fact is, that but little scruple was made
about it, for this simple reason, that it was the means of removing from
Hamburg the Westphalian division, whose presence occasioned a much
greater expense than the loan.