Joubert's loyalty towards my father--"Send me Dumas"--The
Horatius Codes of the Tyrol--My father is appointed-Governor of
the Trévisan--The agent of the Directory--My father fêted at his
departure--The treaty of Campo-Formio--The return to Paris--The
flag of the Army of Italy--The charnel-house of Morat--Charles the
Bold--Bonaparte is elected a member of the Institute--First thoughts
of the expedition to Egypt--Toulon--Bonaparte and Joséphine--What was
going to happen in Egypt.
Joubert owed a large share of the success of that fine Tyrolean
campaign to my father, and, being a loyal man, he did for his
comrade-in-arms what under similar circumstances his comrade-in-arms
would have done for him. Each report he sent in to Bonaparte contained
my father's name coupled with the highest of praise. To have heard
Joubert, one might have thought the whole success of the campaign was
owing to my father's energy and courage. My father was the terror of
the Austrian cavalry--he was a mediæval Bayard, and if, added Joubert,
by one of those miracles which govern the march of the centuries, Italy
had produced two Cæsars, General Dumas would have been one of them.
Very different was Berthier's treatment of him--Berthier, who had
stigmatised my father as a "looker-on" during a campaign in which three
horses were killed under him.
By degrees, as these things were brought to the notice of the
general-in-chief, Bonaparte came round to my father's side, and when
Joubert was leaving the camp of Grätz, where he had been paying the
commander-in-chief a visit, Bonaparte spoke these few most pregnant
words: "By the way, send Dumas to me."
Joubert hastened to deliver his commission directly he returned to
his army. But my father was sulky, and it took all Joubert's friendly
entreaties to persuade him to accede to Bonaparte's invitation.
However, he started for Grätz, but with a fixed determination to send
in his resignation to the Directory, if Bonaparte did not give him the
reception he deserved.
My father was a Creole--with the Creole characteristics, nonchalant,
impetuous, changeable. He had no sooner won his heart's desires than he
conceived a profound disgust for them. When the energy he had expended
in obtaining his desires had died down he fell back into his usual
indifference and laziness, and at the first sign of opposition he would
talk of the pleasures of country life, as did the ancient poet whose
country he had conquered, and would send in his resignation to the
Directory.
Happily Dermoncourt was at hand. When he received these letters of
resignation to despatch, he slipped them in a drawer of his desk, put
the key in his pocket, and quietly waited.
At the end of a week or a fortnight, or even a month, the momentary
cloud of disgust which had swept over my poor father's spirits
disappeared, and some brilliant charge or daringly successful manoeuvre
would arouse his enthusiastic nature, ever eager to aspire after the
impossible, and, with a sigh, he would let these words fall: "Upon my
word, I believe I did wrong to send in my resignation."
And Dermoncourt, who was on the watch for this, would reply:
"Don't worry yourself, General; your resignation--"
"Well, my resignation--?"
"It is in that desk, ready to send off on the first chance; there is
only the date to alter."
Therefore it was only by resolutely determining to send in his
resignation himself straight to the Directory this time, at the first
hint of any slight that might be put upon him by Bonaparte, that my
father went to Grätz to meet him.
As soon as Bonaparte saw my father he opened his arms and exclaimed:
"Welcome to the Horatius Codes of the Tyrol!"
My father could no longer retain his ill-feeling in the face of such a
flattering reception; he held out his arms likewise, and a fraternal
salute was given and returned.
"Oh!" my father exclaimed when, seven years later, Bonaparte proclaimed
himself Emperor,--"oh! only to think I held him in my arms and had the
chance of strangling him!"
Bonaparte had some end to serve in all he did, and his object in
sending for my father was to gain help in organising the fresh cavalry
divisions which were required by his army. He gave my father the task
of raising these divisions, and also the command of them when organised.
In the meantime my father was appointed governor of the province of the
Trévisan, and he and Dermoncourt immediately established themselves
there. The new governor was received very favourably in that beautiful
province. The finest palaces of the wealthiest of the senators of
Venice were placed at his service. The Trévisan was to Venice what
ancient Baiæ was to Rome, the country home of a queen.
The Municipality offered my father three hundred francs per day for his
household expenses. My father went into his accounts with Dermoncourt
(I have his calculations before me, scribbled on the back of a map of
the Trévisan), and they decided that a hundred francs would be enough.
He therefore would only accept a hundred francs.
The poor Italians were not used to these methods, neither did they in
the least understand the disinterestedness of the motive. They would
not believe it for a long time, but continually expected either the
imposition of a war tax, or some compulsory levy, or even some gross
extortion similar to those said to be exercised in the East.
Once they really believed the fatal hour had come, and great was their
alarm! The presence had been announced of an agent from the French
Government commissioned to plunder the Italian money-lenders. He called
upon my father to offer him a share in the prospective treasure;
but only Dermoncourt was at home. That gentleman listened quietly to
all the suggested projects made by that bird of prey, and to all his
offers to my father of a share in the booty. Then, when he had done,
Dermoncourt said:
"How did you come here?"
"Why, by carriage."
"Very well, my advice to you is to go back the same way you came,
without even seeing the general."
"Why so?" asked the traveller.
"Why, because he is the very devil when certain proposals are made to
him."
"Bah! I will dress these up so fine he will soon listen to them."
"You really intend to try him?"
"Why, certainly I do."
"Then go and try."
My father came in just at that moment, and the agent asked to see him
alone.
My father cast a questioning glance at Dermoncourt, who nodded
significantly that he had better grant the desired interview.
Alone with my father, the agent of the Directory held forth volubly
upon his mission; then, as he noticed that my father listened without
making any response, he proceeded from explanation to plans, from plans
to peroration. The peroration contained the offer of my father's share
of the plunder: but my father here cut him short. He took him by the
collar, lifted him up at arm's length, opened the door into the room
where Dermoncourt had summoned the whole of the staff to await the end
of the scene:--
"Gentlemen," he said, "look well at this little blackguard, so that you
may know him again, and if ever he presents himself at my outposts, no
matter in what part of the world I may be, shoot him down without so
much as disturbing me to tell me justice has been done."
The agent of the Directory did not stop to hear more; he vanished, and
my father reckoned one implacable enemy the more.
These acts of depredation were common in Italy; but raids on
money-lenders were usually the most lucrative during those times
of distress and misery. Nearly all the jewellery, diamonds and
silver belonging to the Italian nobility were in pawn. Many had even
deposited therein, as though in a strong-room, everything valuable they
possessed, when they were compelled by political events to leave their
country.
Then an agent would come from the Directory, whether his authority were
true or false (certain of the governors did not inquire too closely),
and would make a clean sweep. He would first settle the ruling
officer's share, then his own: the rest he sent to the Government.
One of the most notorious of these agents received the sobriquet of
"Rapinat." His operations were chiefly confined to Lombardy. This
quatrain was composed about him:--
"The Milanese whose goods decline,
Would dearly like to know
If Rapinat does spell _rapine_,
Or rapine--_Rapinat._"
So when, after two months of residence in the country, my father gave
up the governorship of the Trévisan to take that of Polesina, situated
at the town of Rovigo, he found waiting for him outside the door of
the palace a beautiful carriage drawn by four horses, with a coachman
sitting on the box. It was a present from the town of Treviso. My
father wished to decline it; but the gift was offered so gracefully and
so heartily that he felt obliged to accept it. And the neighbouring
municipalities sent him dozens of addresses: we will select two
specimens haphazard.
"To CITIZEN GENERAL DUMAS, Governor of the Trévisan, and the
Municipalities of Mestre, Noale, Castel-Franco, and Asolo.
"We, the undersigned representatives of the above-named
municipalities, have been unanimously and specially
appointed to present ourselves before you, Citizen General,
to bear testimony to our appreciation of, and gratitude
towards you for the lenity and equity of your government.
"Would to Heaven they had the means to show their
admiration, their affection, and their gratitude! How happy
would they be were it in their power to give you tokens
worthy your deserts and your virtues!
"But as in their present condition of impoverishment and
distress they are prevented from following the dictates of
their hearts, they do themselves the honour to hope that
you, their protector and their father, will be graciously
pleased to accept this slight token.
"Continue your generous protection over us, and cast a
fatherly eye on your children; for to you we look for
comfort.
"We have the honour to remain
"HENRI-ANTOINE REINATI, President and State Secretary; JEAN
ALLEGRI, President of the Municipality of Noale; FRANÇOIS
BELHAMINI, President of the Municipality of Asolo; PHILIPPE
DE RICOIDI, Vice-President of the Municipality of Mestre.
"CASTEL-FRANCO, _2 Messidor, fifth year of the French
Republic and second of Italian Liberty._"
"LIBERTY--EQUALITY--VIRTUE.
"_9 Nivôse, 1797, Year V of the French Republic, one and
indivisible, and II of Italian Liberty._
"THE MUNICIPALITY OF ADRIA to CITIZEN ALEXANDRE DUMAS,
General of Division.
"This Municipality, General, cannot find words in which
to express its sense of obligation to you for the kind
acts you have condescended to shower upon us under divers
circumstances; especially in relieving us by sending away
the troops, and still more by refunding the sums unjustly
extorted by General L----.
"The Municipality seizes this opportunity to offer you a
horse, in recognition of your goodness to us, begging you to
accept it as a humble tribute, and in grateful recognition
of its many obligations towards you.
"We are, General, with sincere respects and affectionate
greetings,
"LUNALI, President; LARDI, General Secretary."
It can easily be seen that the people were in despair when my father
left the Trévisan: the whole province mourned, and the town of Treviso
wanted to send a deputation to Bonaparte to ask him to allow them to
keep their governor. When no hope of keeping him was left them, they
asked for ten days longer in order to give him a round of fêtes. When
the hour of departure came, all the notables of the town conducted
him in a triumphal procession as far as Padua, where there were more
festivities.
Here farewells were prolonged another week: the eight leading houses
in the town each undertook to provide some form of entertainment; and
my father changed his abode daily, spending a day and a night at each
house of his various entertainers.
On reaching Rovigo, the seat of his fresh sphere of government, a
reception awaited my father quite as complimentary as the farewells.
The inhabitants of Polesine had been advised in advance by the
inhabitants of the Trévisan, and knew whom they had to expect in their
new governor.
Polesine, fertile in corn and pasturage, was the province where
Bonaparte had established the squadrons of cavalry of which he wished
to form a division, under my father's organisation.
On his arrival, as in the Trévisan, my father at once regulated his
household expenses on the basis of a hundred francs a day, giving
express orders to the municipalities not to authorise any supplies or
to attend to any applications without his consent.
My father remained some time at Rovigo, as the negotiations of the
Congress dragged out, until Bonaparte, impatient to conclude matters,
decided to collect his army and proceed to the Tagliamento. My father
then rejoined his division, and remained near that river until 18th
October, 1797, when peace was signed at the village of Campo-Formio.
Eight days later he returned to Rovigo.
By the peace of Campo-Formio, which ended the campaign of 1797,--that
campaign wherein, thanks to my father and Joubert, the expedition
to the Tyrol played so glorious a part,--Austria ceded Belgium and
Mayence, Mannheim and Philipsbourg to France, and Austrian Lombardy to
the Cis-Alpine Republic.
The Venetian States were divided. Corfu, Zante, Cephalonia, Santa
Maura, Cerigo, and their dependent islands, with Albania, were ceded to
France. Istria, Dalmatia, the Adriatic isles, Venice, and the Venetian
territory on the mainland as far as the Adige, the Tanaro, and the Po
were given up to the Austrian emperor, who thus found himself master of
the Adriatic Gulf.
The remaining Venetian States on the mainland were given to the
Cis-Alpine Republic under the suzerainty of the emperor. And the duc de
Modena received Brisgaw as indemnity.
Poor municipality of Adria, which had dated its address to my father
Year II of Italian Liberty!
During this sojourn on the Tagliamento--the reason for which, as we
have said, was to urge forward the Austrian negotiations--my father
dined three times a week at the headquarters of Bonaparte. Here it was
that he became more intimately acquainted with Joséphine, whom he had
already met at Milan, and who kept a friendly feeling in her heart for
him even after his disgrace--the friendship of Creole for Creole.
They also met once a week at Udine. Bernadotte was in command in that
town, and after the play they turned the hall into a ballroom and
danced all night. Bonaparte danced very little, as might be imagined;
but my father, Murat, Clarke, and all the young aides-de-camp danced a
great deal.
The day after the signing of the treaty of Campo-Formio the ball was
opened by a quadrille. Joséphine danced with Clarke, Madame Pauline
Bonaparte with Murat, Mademoiselle Caroline Bonaparte with Dermoncourt,
and Madame César Berthier was my father's partner.
Bonaparte set out for Paris directly the treaty of Campo-Formio was
signed, and retired to the little house in the rue des Victoires, which
he had recently purchased from Talma.
It was there that the Egyptian campaign was conceived and planned.
Bonaparte, with more success than the Carthaginian heroes, had
accomplished in Italy almost as much as Hannibal. It remained for him
to do in the East what Alexander and Cæsar had done.
But before proceeding to this, Bonaparte acquitted himself of a debt
of gratitude that had long been owing to my father and to Joubert. He
introduced my father to the acting Directory as the _Horatius Codes of
the Tyrol_, and he deputed Joubert to present the _Standard of the Army
of Italy_ to the heads of government.
This standard of the Italian army was more than a flag: it was a
memorial--a wonderful memorial of a wonderful campaign.
On one side it bore the words:
"TO THE ARMY OF ITALY FROM A GRATEFUL COUNTRY."
On the other side was a list of the battles fought and places taken;
followed by abridged inscriptions, grand in their simplicity,
concerning the campaign that had just been closed.
That second side, alas, so soon to be forgotten by the men who
successively headed the affairs of government, forgotten most of all by
the nephew of the emperor himself, ran as follows:--
"150,000 prisoners; 170 standards; 550 pieces of cannon;
600 light field-guns; 5 pontoon trains; 9 ships of 64 guns;
12 frigates of 32; 12 sloops of war; 18 galleys: armistice
with the King of Sardinia; convention with Genoa; armistice
with the Duke of Parma; armistice with the King of Naples;
armistice with the Pope; preliminaries of Léoben; convention
of Montebello with the Republic of Genoa; treaty of peace
with the Emperor at Campo-Formio.
"Liberty given to the peoples of Bologna, Modena, Ferrara,
Massa, Carrara, Romagna, Lombardy, Brescia, Bergamo, Mantua,
Cremona, to parts of Verona, to Chiavenna, Bormio, la
Valteline, and Genoa; to the imperial fiefs; to the peoples
of the departments of Corfu, Ægean Sea, and Ithaca.
"Sent to Paris all the principal works of Michael Angelo,
Guerchino, Titian, Paolo Veronese, Corregio, of Albano, of
the Carracci, of Raphael, and of Leonardo da Vinci."
Bonaparte stopped on his way through Mantua and visited the monument
General Miollis had erected to Virgil; he also celebrated a military
fête in honour of Hoche, who had recently died--in all probability from
poison.
Bonaparte crossed through Switzerland to Moudon, where they gave him a
brilliant reception, and where his carriage was broken.
He continued his journey on foot; and when near the charnel-house of
Morat, which had not yet been destroyed by Brune, this other _Bold_
soldier, who himself was to have his mortuary at Waterloo, asked:
"Where is the Duke of Burgundy's battlefield?"
"There, General," said a Swiss officer, pointing out what he wished to
see.
"How many men had he?"
"Sixty thousand, sire."
"How was he attacked?"
"By the Swiss rushing down the neighbouring mountains, and, under cover
of a wood which then existed, turning the Burgundian position."
"What!" he exclaimed. "Charles the Bold had sixty thousand men and yet
he did not take possession of the mountains!" And the conqueror of
Italy shrugged his shoulders.
"Frenchmen of to-day fight better than that," Lannes observed.
"The Burgundians were not French in those days," Bonaparte answered
shortly; and, as his carriage was now brought up, repaired, he got in
and rapidly drove away.
Bonaparte was not altogether easy in the position he had made for
himself by this sequence of marvellous conquests. He had indeed
received a triumphant ovation in Paris; the whole audience had risen,
shouting, "Vive Bonaparte!" when they heard that he was present at the
second representation of _Horatius Codes_; but all these ovations did
not blind his eyes to facts.
That same night, he said to Bourienne: "Nothing is remembered in Paris.
If I remain quiet long without doing something fresh, I shall be lost:
one idol quickly replaces another in this great Babylon. If I were to
attend the play three times more they would then ignore my presence."
A few days later he was made a member of the Institute, under the
Science and Art division--an honour that gratified him extremely. He
immediately sent the following letter to the president:--
"CITIZEN PRESIDENT,--I feel deeply honoured by the votes of
the distinguished men who compose the Institute. I am very
sensible that before I can become their equal I must for a
long time yet remain their scholar.
"If there were any more expressive way by which I could
express my high regard for them, I would avail myself of
it. The true conquests, the only victories which bring no
aftermaths of regret, are those that overcome ignorance.
"Those are the most honourable occupations, the most
serviceable to all nations, which contribute to the widening
of human knowledge. The true strength of the French Republic
should from henceforth consist in making every new discovery
a part of itself. BONAPARTE."
There is in Molière's _l'Avare_ a phrase which Harpagon thought of
inscribing in letters of gold on the walls of his dining-room. Tell me,
Prince Louis, if there is not a similar phrase for you to meditate upon
in this letter of your uncle's to the Institute?
All these ovations in public places and these receptions by the
Institute sufficed for a time to distract a brain so active as
Bonaparte's, but they could not satisfy him for long.
Very soon he returned to his favourite idea--the East: it had come
to him whilst he was waiting and watching the progress of peace
negotiations at Paneriano.
"Europe is a mole-hill," he observed once, when walking with
Bourrienne, César Berthier and my father; "it has never had such grand
empires or great revolutions as the East, with its six hundred millions
of peoples."
He wrote to the Directory as early as August 1797:--"We feel that the
time is not far distant when, to destroy England's power thoroughly, we
ought to take possession of Egypt."
"Malta is for sale," he said another day, "and it would not be paying
too dearly for it if we gave for it half we paid for the peace of
Campo-Formio."
Whether to conceal his true motives, or whether Bonaparte really
believed in the possibility of invading England, on the 10th of
February 1798 he set out for the north of France, and visited Boulogne,
Ambleteuse, Calais, Dunkerque, Fumes, Nieuport, Ostend, and the isle of
Walcheren. On his return from this journey he said to Bourienne:
"It is too risky a game; I dare not venture it, for I do not want to
play wantonly with the fate of our beautiful France."
Was the idea of an Egyptian expedition a conception of Bonaparte's
own brain, or had he come across the suggestion in some pigeonholes
of ministerial papers belonging to the duc de Choiseul, who proposed
a similar project to Louis XV.? It is impossible to say definitely.
However that may be, the Directory raised no opposition to the
ambitious desires of this second Cambyses.
The Directory was envious of his glory, and it feared the shadows
thrown by the conqueror of Arcole and of Rivoli as it would fear the
shade cast by the deadly upas-tree.
On April 12th, 1798, Bonaparte was appointed commander-in-chief of the
Army of the East.
"How long shall you be in Egypt, General?" his secretary asked, as he
offered his congratulations upon the appointment.
"Six months or six years," replied Bonaparte; "it all depends on
events. I shall colonise the country, and shall introduce artists,
workmen of all kinds, women, actors, poets. I am only twenty-nine years
old now, and should then be but thirty-five, which is not such a great
age. If all goes as I hope, six years will suffice to penetrate into
India as far as Alexander did."
On the 19th April, Bonaparte announced his departure for Toulon. On the
4th May he left Paris, accompanied by Joséphine. On the 8th he reached
Toulon.
Seven regiments of my father's division were ordered to Toulon. As my
father arrived before either Bonaparte or Kléber, he took command of
the troops for the expedition; handing it over to his senior, Kléber,
when the latter arrived.
Toulon was full of memories for Bonaparte: it was from Toulon that
the Eagle took his flight. The day of his arrival he walked by the
sea-shore, and visited the Petit Gibraltar.
He had scarcely had time to see my father before he said: "Come and see
me to-morrow morning as early as you like."
At six the next morning my father was crossing the parade-ground to see
Bonaparte, when he came across Dermoncourt.
"Where the deuce are you off to, General, at this time of morning?" he
asked.
"Come with me, and you will see," said my father. And they proceeded
together.
As they approached their destination, Dermoncourt exclaimed:
"You are not going to see Bonaparte, are you, General?"
"I am."
"But he won't receive you."
"Why not?"
"Why, because it is too early."
"Oh! that doesn't matter."
"But he will be in bed."
"Quite likely."
"And in bed with his wife; he loves her as shopkeepers love their
wives."
"So much the better! I shall be charmed to see good Joséphine once
more."
And my father dragged Dermoncourt after him, half willing, half afraid
to see what would happen.
Finally, he came to the conclusion my father had a special audience,
and followed him.
My father ascended a staircase, went along a passage, opened a little
door, pushed back a screen, and he and Dermoncourt, who still followed
him closely, found themselves in Bonaparte's bedroom.
He was in bed with Joséphine, and, the weather being exceedingly hot,
they were covered merely by a sheet, which showed the outline of their
bodies.
Joséphine was weeping, and Bonaparte was trying to wipe her tears away
with one hand, while with the other he laughingly played a military
tattoo on the portion of her body which was turned towards the recess
between bed and wall.
"Ah! Dumas," he said, as he caught sight of my father; "your arrival is
opportune; you must help me to make this silly little woman listen to
reason. Ought she to wish to come to Egypt with us? Now, would you take
your wife there?"
"Upon my word, certainly not," my father replied. "She would be in my
way dreadfully."
"Now, then! you see what I said; and you know that Dumas is not a bad
husband, he loves his wife and his daughters. Listen: I may return in
six months, or we may be over there several years."
At that Joséphine's tears flowed faster than ever.
"If we stay there some years, the fleet will have to return to fetch
some twenty thousand men from the Italian coasts. Return to Paris, tell
Madame Dumas, and both of you shall return to us with that convoy. Will
that suit you, Dumas?"
"Perfectly," replied my father.
"When there, my dear Joséphine, Dumas, who has only daughters, and I
who have not even those, will each of us do our best to produce a boy:
if we have a boy, he and his wife shall be its godparents; if he has a
boy, you and I will be its godparents. There now, that is a promise;
stop crying, and let us talk business."
Then, turning to Dermoncourt, Bonaparte said:
"M. Dermoncourt, you have just heard a word drop which indicates the
destination of our expedition. Not a creature knows it yet: do not let
the word 'Egypt' escape your lips; you will readily understand the
importance of such a secret."
Dermoncourt signified that he would be as dumb as a disciple of
Pythagoras.
Joséphine consoled herself: indeed, if we may believe Bourrienne, she
managed to console herself too well.
On the 15th May my father again visited Bonaparte, and the departure
was fixed for the 19th.
He found Bonaparte just about to dictate an order to Bourrienne; so he
was discreetly about to withdraw, when Bonaparte called after him: "No,
stay, you are not in the way;--hear what I am going to do."
Then, putting his hand on that giant's shoulder: "What I like about
you, Dumas (he said) is, not only your indisputable courage, but your
humanity, a rarer quality. I know that Collot d'Herbois wanted to cut
your head off because in some little town in the Tarantaise you rescued
from the guillotine three or four poor devils who did not wish to let
their village bells be melted down. Very well! Would you believe that
only six weeks ago they shot an old man of eighty--the butchers--under
cover of the law _sur les émigrés._ Now write, Bourrienne." And he
dictated.
"HEADQUARTERS AT TOULON,
"27_th Floréal, Year VI_ (16_th May_ 1798).
"BONAPARTE, Member of the National Institute, to the
Military Commissioners of the 9th Division established in
consequence of the law of 19th Fructidor.
"I learn with the deepest concern, citizens, that aged
people of seventy and eighty years old, poor women who were
_enceinte_ and needed by their children, have been shot as
suspected of wanting to emigrate.
"Have, then, the soldiers of Liberty become executioners?
Has the spirit of compassion, which they take even into the
very battlefield, become dead within their hearts? The law
of 19th Fructidor was a measure providing for public safety;
its object was to get at conspirators, not miserable women,
and worn-out old men.
"I exhort you, then, citizens, whenever the law brings
before your tribunal people above sixty years of age or
women, to declare that you have respect for the aged and the
women of your enemy even in the midst of fighting.
"The military officer who signs a sentence against any
person incapable of carrying arms is a coward.
"BONAPARTE."
As he left Bonaparte's house, my father met Kléber re-entering it.
"You do not know what we are going to do over there?" he said.
"We are going to found a colony."
"No, we are going to re-establish a kingdom."
"Oh! oh!" said Kléber, "we shall see."
"Very well!--you _will_ see."
And with these words the two friends parted.
On the 19th of May they set sail.