regiment, and had no longer any need to avoid the verminous beds
of the pousadas, since we were lodged each evening with the most
respectable citizens. A route march, when one makes it with one's
own regiment and in good weather, is not without a certain charm.
One has a constant change of scene, without being separated from
one's comrades; one sees the countryside in the greatest detail;
we talk as we travel, we dine together, sometimes well, sometimes
badly, and one is in a position to observe the customs of the
inhabitants.
One of our pleasures was to watch in the evenings the Spaniards,
shedding their usual lethargy, dance the fandango and the bolero
with a perfection of grace and agility, even in the villages.
The colonel offered them the use of his band, but they, quite
rightly, preferred the guitar, the castanets, and a woman's
voice; an accompaniment which gave the dance its national
characteristics. These improvised dances, in the open air,
engaged in by the working class in the towns as well as in the
country, gave us so much pleasure, even as spectators, that we
were sorry to leave them.
After more than a month on the road, we recrossed the Bidassoa,
and although I had happy memories of my stay in Spain, it was
with pleasure that I saw France once more.
Chap. 16.
At this period, regiments were responsible for their own
remounts, and the colonel had been authorised to buy sixty horses
which he hoped to procure, bit by bit, in French Navarre, while
he was taking the regiment to Toulouse, where we were to form the
garrison. But, for my sins, we arrived at Bayonne on the day of
the town fair, and the place was full of horse-copers. The
colonel arranged a deal with one of them, who provided all the
horses the unit needed straight away. The dealer could not be
paid immediately because the funds provided by the ministry would
take a week to arrive. The colonel then ordered that an officer
should remain behind in Bayonne, to receive this money and pay
the supplier. I was picked for this wretched task, which landed
me later in a most disagreeable situation, though at the time I
saw only that I had been deprived of the pleasure of travelling
with my comrades. However, in spite of my feelings, I had to obey
orders.
To make it easier for me to rejoin the unit, the colonel decided
that my horse should go with the regiment, and that after I had
completed my mission, I should take the stage-coach to Toulouse.
I knew several former pupils from Soreze who lived in Bayonne and
who helped me to pass the time agreeably. The funds provided by
the ministry arrived and I paid them out and was now free from
all responsibility and ready to rejoin my regiment.
I had a cotton dolman, braided in the same material, and with
silver buttons. I had had this strange costume made when I was on
Bernadotte's staff, since it was the fashion there to wear this
uniform when travelling in hot weather. I decided to wear this
outfit on the journey to Toulouse, as I was not with my regiment,
so I packed my uniform in my trunk and took it to the
stage-coach, where I booked my seat and, unfortunately, paid in
advance.
The coach was due to leave at five in the morning, so I told the
porter at the hotel where I was staying to come and waken me at
four, and the rascal having promised to do so, I went to bed
without further ado. But he forgot; and when I opened my eyes,
the sun was shining into the room and it was after eight
o'clock...! What a disaster...! I was dumbfounded, and having
cursed and upbraided the negligent porter, I had to think what I
could do. The first difficulty was that the stage-coach ran only
every second day, but that was not the major problem, which was
that though the regiment had paid for my seat because I was on
duty, they were not obliged to pay twice, and I had been stupid
enough to pay for the whole journey in advance; so that if I took
a new seat it would be at my own expense. Now at this time
stage-coach fares were very costly, and I had very little money,
and also, what was I to do for forty-eight hours in Bayonne, when
all my belongings were on the coach...? I resolved to make the
journey on foot.
I left the town without delay, and set off bravely on the road to
Toulouse. I was lightly clad, and had nothing but my sabre, which
I carried on my shoulder, so I covered the first stage briskly
enough and spent the night at Peyrehorade.
The next day was a day of disaster. I intended to go as far as
Orthez, and had already made half the journey when I was
overtaken by one of these terrible storms which one has in the
Midi. Rain mixed with hail fell in torrents, beating on my face;
the road, already bad, became a morass in which I had the
greatest difficulty in walking in boots with spurs; a chestnut
tree near to me was struck by lighting.... No matter, I walked on
with stoic resignation. But, behold....! In the midst of the
storm I saw coming toward me two mounted gendarmes. You can
easily imagine how I looked after paddling for two hours in the
mud, dressed in my cotton breeches and dolman. The gendarmes
belonged to the station at Peyrehorade, to which they were
returning, but it seemed that they had lunched very well at
Orthez, for they were somewhat drunk. The older of the two asked
me for my papers; I gave him my travel permit, on which I was
described as a sous-lieutenant of the 25th Chasseurs. "You! A
sous-lieutenant?" shouted the gendarme, "you're too young to be
an officer!" But read the description," I said, "and you will
see that it says that I am not yet twenty years old. It is exact
in every point." "That may be," he replied, "but it is a forgery;
and the proof of that is that the Chasseur's uniform is green and
you are wearing a yellow dolman. You are an escaped conscript,
and I am arresting you." "All right," I said, "but when we get to
Orthez and I see your lieutenant, I can easily prove that I am an
officer and that this travel document is genuine."
I was not much worried by this arrest; but now the older gendarme
said that he did not intend to go to Orthez. He belonged to the
station at Peyrehorade, and I must follow him there. I said that
I would do nothing of the kind, and that he could require this
only if I had no papers, but as I had shown him my travel permit,
he had no right to make me go back, and that it was his duty,
according to the regulations, to accompany me to my destination,
which was Orthez.
The younger gendarme, who was less full of wine, said that I was
right. A lively dispute then broke out between the two of them.
They hurled insults at one another and in the middle of the
tempest which was all around us, they drew their sabres and
charged furiously together. I was afraid I might be injured in
this ridiculous combat, so I got into one of the huge ditches
which ran along each side of the road, and although I was in
water up to my waist, I climbed up onto the bordering field, from
where I watched the two warriors skirmishing to get the better of
one another.
Fortunately, the heavy, wet cloaks which they were wearing clung
round their arms, and the horses, frightened by the thunder,
would not go near each other, so that the riders could manage
only a few ill directed blows. Eventually the older gendarme's
horse fell, and he landed in the ditch. When he got out,covered
in mire, he found that his saddle was broken and that he would
have to continue his journey on foot; so he set out, after
telling his companion that he was now responsible for the
prisoner. Left alone with the more sensible of the two gendarmes,
I pointed out to him that if I had anything to hide, it would be
easy for me to make off into the country, as there was a large
ditch between us which his horse could not cross, but that I
would surrender myself to him since he had agreed not to make me
go back. So I continued on my way, escorted by the gendarme, who
was beginning to sober up. We had some conversation, and it
became apparent that the fact that I had surrendered, when it
would have been easy for me to run away, made him begin to think
that I might be what I said I was. He would have let me go had he
not been put in charge of me by his companion. He became more and
more accommodating, and said he would not take me all the way to
Orthez, but would consult the Mayor of Puyoo, which we were going
to pass through.
My arrival was that of a malefactor: all the villagers, who had
been driven back to the village by the storm, were at their doors
and windows to see the criminal in the charge of the gendarme;
however, the Mayor of Puyoo was a good, stout, sensible peasant,
whom we found in his barn, threshing corn. As soon as he had read
my travel permit, he said, gravely, to the gendarme, "Set this
young man at liberty at once. You have no right to arrest him. An
officer on a journey is designated by his documents, not by his
clothes." Could Solomon have produced a better judgement? The
good peasant did not stop at that, he wanted me to stay with him
until the storm had passed and he offered me food. Then, while we
were talking, he told me that he had once seen at Orthez a
general whose name was Marbot. I told him that this was my
father, and described him. Then the good man, whose name was
Bordenave became even more solicitous and wanted to dry my
clothes and offered me a bed for the night; but I thanked him and
went on my way to Orthez, where I arrived at nightfall,
completely worn out. The next day it was only with great
difficulty that I could put my boots on, partly because they were
wet and partly because my feet were swollen.
However I managed to drag myself as far as Pau, and being unable
to go any further, I stayed there all day. I could find no other
means of transport but the mail coach, and although the seats
were very expensive, I took one as far as Gimont, where I was
welcomed with open arms by M. Dorignac, a friend of my father,
with whom I had spent several months after I left Soreze. I
rested for a few days with his family, then I took a stage-coach
to Toulouse. I had spent four times the cost of the seat which I
had lost through the negligence of the hotel porter at Bayonne.
On my arrival at Toulouse I was going to look around for
somewhere to live, but the colonel told me that he had arranged a
place for me with one of his friends, an elderly doctor named M.
Merlhes, whose name I shall never forget, because this worthy man
and his numerous offspring were so good to me. During the two
weeks I stayed with them, I was treated as a member of the family
rather than as a boarder.
The regiment was up to strength and well mounted. We had many
exercises which I found very interesting; though I sometimes
found myself up before squadron commander Blancheville, an
excellent officer, an old soldier from whom I learned to work
with precision, and I owe much to him. Blancheville, before the
revolution, had been on the staff of the gendarmes of Luneville.
He was very well educated and took a great interest in young
officers whom he thought capable of learning, and compelled them
to study whether they liked it or not. As for the others, whom he
called the block-heads, he simply shrugged his shoulders when
they did not know their drill or made mistakes during exercises,
but he never punished them for it. There were two or three
sous-lieutenants whom he had picked out, they were MM. Gavoille,
Dumonts and me. In our case he would not suffer an incorrectly
given order, and punished us for the slightest mistake. As he was
a very good fellow, when off duty we risked asking him why he
treated us so severely. "Do you think I am so stupid that I would
try to wash a black man white?" He replied, "Messers so and so
are too old and lacking in talent to make it worth my while to
try to improve them. As for you who have all that is required to
succeed, you need to study, and study you shall!" I have never
forgotten this reply, and I made use of it when I became a
colonel. In fact old Blancheville had drawn our horoscopes
accurately, Gavoille became a lieutenant-colonel, Dumonts a
brigadier-general and I a divisional general.
On my arrival at Toulouse, I had exchanged the horse which I had
bought in Spain for a delightful mount from Navarre. Now, it so
happened that the prefect had arranged a race meeting in
celebration of some fˆte or other, and Gavoille, who was a great
lover of racing, had persuaded me to enter my horse. One day,
when I was exercising my horse on a grass track, as he took a
tight curve at full speed, he collided with the projecting wall
of a garden and fell stone dead. My companions thought I had
been killed or at least seriously injured, but by a miraculous
piece of good luck I was unhurt. When I had been picked up, and
saw my poor horse lying motionless, I was very upset, and went
back sadly to my billet, where I confronted the realisation that
I would have to buy another horse, and would have to ask my
mother for the money to do so, although I knew she was very
hard-up.
Comte Defermon, a minister of state and one of our trustees, was
opposed to the sale of those properties which still belonged to
us, because he foresaw that peace would increase the value of
land. He considered, rightly, that they should be retained and
creditors paid off gradually by rigid economy. This is one of the
greatest obligations we owe to the good M. Defermon, the most
sincere of my father's friends, and one for whose memory I have
the deepest respect.
When my request for money to buy a new horse was submitted to the
council of trustees, General Bernadotte, who was one of them,
burst out laughing, saying that it was a good try and that the
excuse was well chosen, and suggesting that my application was
what now-a-days would be called a "con", but, fortunately my
request was backed up by a letter from the colonel, and M.
Defermon stated that he did not believe me capable of trying to
obtain money by trickery. He was quite right in this, for
although I had an allowance of only 600 francs, my pay of just 95
francs a month and a lodging allowance of 12 francs, I never had
a penny of debt; something I have always regarded with horror.
I bought a new horse, which was not as good as the Navarrais, but
the general inspections, which had been reintroduced by the First
Consul, were approaching, and it was essential that I was quickly
remounted, the more so because we were to be inspected by General
Bourcier, who had the reputation of being a stern disciplinarian.
I was detailed to go with thirty men to form an escort for him.
He welcomed me warmly and spoke of my father, whom he had known
well, which, however, did not prevent him from putting me on a
charge the following day. The way in which this came about is
quite amusing.
One of our captains, named B***, was a very good-looking lad, and
would have been one of the most handsome men in the army if his
calves had been in harmony with the rest of his person; but his
legs were like stilts, which looked very odd in the tight
breeches, called Hungarians, which were then worn by the
Chasseurs. To get over this blemish, Captain B*** had acquired
pads made in the shape of calves, which completed his fine
appearance. You will see how these calves got me into trouble,
but they were not the only cause.
The regulations laid down that the tails of officer's horses
should be left flowing, as were the tails of the trooper's
horses. Our colonel, M. Moreau, was always perfectly mounted,
but all his horses had their tails cut, and as he feared that
General Bourcier--a stickler for the rules--would take him to
task for setting a bad example to his officers, he had, for the
time of the inspection, had false tails fitted to his horses
which were so realistic that, unless one knew, one would think
them natural. This was all very fine. We went on manoeuvres, to
which General Bourcier had invited General Suchet, the inspector
of infantry, and General Gudin, the commander of the territorial
division, and was accompanied by a numerous and brilliant staff.
The exercises were very long. Almost all the movements, carried
out at the gallop, ended with several charges at top speed. I was
in command of a section in the centre of Captain B***'s squadron,
and it was next to the captain that the colonel took up his
position. They were therefore a couple of paces in front of me
when the generals came to congratulate Colonel Moreau on the fine
performance of his troops. But what did I then see?.... The
extreme rapidity of the movements had deranged the accessories
added to the turn-out of both the colonel and Captain B***; the
false tail of the colonel's horse had come adrift, the centre
part, made of a pad of tow, was hanging down nearly to the ground
and the hairs were spread over the horse's crupper in a sort of
peacock's tail. As for Captain B***'s calves, they had slipped
round to the front, and could be seen as large lumps on his
shins, which produced a somewhat bizarre effect, while the
captain sat up proudly on his horse, as if to say "Look at me!
See how handsome I am!"
One has little gravity at the age of twenty. Mine was unable to
resist the grotesque spectacle in front of me, and in spite of
the presence of no less than three generals, I was unable to stop
myself from bursting into laughter, however much I tried. The
inspecting general, not knowing the reason for my hilarity,
called me out of the ranks to reprimand me, but to reach him I
had to pass between the colonel and Captain B***, and my eyes
were once more directed to this cursed tail and the new calves
sported by the captain, and I again burst out laughing. I was
then put under open arrest. The generals must have thought I was
crazy, but as soon as they had gone, the officers of the regiment
gathered round the colonel and Captain B***, and soon realised
what had happened. They laughed as I had done, but in easier
circumstances.
In the evening, the commandant Blancheville attended a reception
given by Madame Gudin. General Bourcier, who was also there,
having brought up the subject of what he called my escapade, M.
Blancheville explained the reasons for my unseemly laughter, an
explanation which gave rise to much amusement. The laughter was
increased by the entry of Captain B***, who having adjusted his
false calves, had come to display himself in this brilliant
society, without suspecting that he was one of the reasons for
their hilarity. General Bourcier, appreciating that if he could
not help laughing at a description of the sight which had greeted
my eyes, it was natural enough that a young sous-lieutenant could
not contain himself when confronted with this ridiculous
spectacle, cancelled my arrest and sent someone to look for me.
My arrival rekindled the laughter, which was increased by the
sight of Captain B***, who alone was unaware of the cause, going
from person to person asking what it was all about, while
everyone gazed at his calves.
Chap. 17.
Let us now turn to more serious matters. The Treaty of Luneville
had been followed by the Peace of Amiens, which put an end to the
war between France and England. The First Consul decided to
profit from the tranquility of Europe and the freedom of the sea
to despatch a large body of troops to Dominica, which he wished
to recover from the control of the blacks led by
Toussaint-Louverture, a man who, without being in open revolt
against the French, nevertheless adopted an air of great
independence. General Leclerc was to be in command of this
expedition. This general was a capable officer who had fought
successfully in Egypt and Italy; but his principal distinction
was that he had married Pauline Bonaparte, the First Consul's
sister. Leclerc was the son of a miller from Pontoise, if one can
describe as a miller, a very rich mill owner who had a
considerable business. The miller had given the best of
educations to his son and also to his daughter, who married
General Davout.
While General Leclerc was preparing for his departure, the First
Consul concentrated in Brittany those troops which he had
earmarked for the expedition, and these troops naturally came
under the command of the commander-in-chief of the area, which
was Bernadotte.
It is well known that there was always a great rivalry between
the troops of the Rhine army and those of the army of Italy. The
former were greatly attached to General Moreau, and did not care
for General Bonaparte, whose elevation to the head of government
they had witnessed with regret. For his part, the First Consul
had a great liking for the soldiers who had fought with him in
Italy and Egypt, and, although the breach with Moreau was not yet
openly declared, he considered that it would be in his interest
to remove to as far away as possible troops devoted to this
general. In consequence, the troops selected for the expedition
to Dominica were almost all taken from the army of the Rhine.
These men, however were perfectly happy to find themselves in
Brittany, under the command of Bernadotte, a former lieutenant of
Moreau's who had almost always served with them on the Rhine.
The expeditionary force was to comprise eventually some forty
thousand men. The army of the west proper consisted of a similar
number, so that Bernadotte, whose command extended to cover all
the departments between the mouth of the Gironde and that of the
Seine, had for a time under his orders an army of eighty thousand
men, of whom the majority were more attached to him than to the
head of the consular government.
If General Bernadotte had had more strength of character, the
First Consul would have regretted putting him in such a powerful
position; for I can say today, as an historical fact which will
harm no one, that Bernadotte plotted against the government of
which Bonaparte was the head. I shall give some details about
this conspiracy which were never known to the public, and perhaps
not even to General Bonaparte himself.
Generals Bernadotte and Moreau, jealous of the elevated position
of the First Consul, and dissatisfied with the small part he gave
them in public affairs, had resolved to overthrow him, and place
themselves at the head of the government in conjunction with a
civil administrator or an enlightened magistrate. To achieve this
aim, Bernadotte, who, it must be said, had a talent for making
himself liked by both officers and men, went about the provinces
of his command, reviewing troops and using every means to
increase their attachment to him. Enticements of all sorts,
money, promises of promotion, were employed among the junior
officers, while secretly he denigrated the government of the
First Consul to the seniors. Having sown disaffection amongst
most of the regiments, it would not have been difficult to push
them into revolt; particularly those destined for the
expeditionary force, who regarded it as a sort of deportation.
Bernadotte had as chief of staff Brigadier-general Simon, a
competent but rather colourless officer. His rank put him in a
position to correspond daily with unit commanders, and he used it
to make his office the centre of the conspiracy. A battalion
commander named Foucart was at that time attached to General
Simon, who made him his principal agent. Foucart, using the
excuse of official duties, travelled from garrison to garrison
organising a secret league, which was joined by almost all the
colonels and a crowd of senior officers, who were turned against
the First Consul by accusations that he aspired to royalty;
something, it seems, that he had not yet considered.
It was agreed that the garrison of Rennes, composed of several
regiments, would begin the movement, which would spread like a
trail of gunpowder into all divisions of the army: and as it was
necessary that in this garrison there should be one unit which
would start things off and get the rest moving, the 82nd Line
regiment was brought to Rennes. This regiment was commanded by
Colonel Pinoteau, an energetic and capable man, very brave, but
something of a hothead, although he appeared outwardly
phlegmatic. He was a follower of Bernadotte and one of the most
enthusiastic of the conspirators. He promised to deliver his
regiment, where he was extremely popular.