_Commissioners appointed to escort Napoleon--He leaves Fontainbleau
on the 20th April--His interview with Augereau at
Valence--Expressions of popular dislike towards Napoleon in the
South of France--Fears for his personal safety--His own agitation
and precautions--He arrives at Frejus, and embarks on board the
Undaunted, with the British and Austrian Commissioners--Arrives at
Elba on 4th May._
Upon his unpleasant journey, Napoleon was attended by Bertrand and
Drouet, honourably faithful to the adverse fortunes of the master who
had been their benefactor when in prosperity. Four delegates from the
allied powers accompanied him to his new dominions. Their names
were--General Schouwaloff, on the part of Russia; the Austrian General,
Kohler; Colonel Sir Niel Campbell, as representing Great Britain; and
the General Baron Truchsess Waldbourg, as the commissioner of Prussia.
Napoleon received the three first with much personal civility, but
seemed to resent the presence of the representative of Prussia, a
country which had been at one time the subject of his scorn, and always
of his hatred. It galled him that she should assume an immediate share
in deciding upon his fate.
He received the English commissioner with particular expressions of
esteem, saying he desired to pass to Elba in an English vessel, and was
pleased to have the escort of an English officer, "Your nation," he
said, "has an elevated character, for which I have the highest esteem. I
desired to raise the French people to such a pitch of sentiment,
but----." He stopt, and seemed affected. He spoke with much civility to
the Austrian General Kohler, but expressed himself somewhat bitterly on
the subject of Russia. He even hinted to the Austrian, that should he
not be satisfied with his reception in Elba, he might possibly choose
to retire to Great Britain;[60] and asked General Kohler, whether he
thought he would not receive protection from them. "Yes, sire," replied
the Austrian, "the more readily, that your Majesty has never made war in
that country."
Napoleon proceeded to give a farewell audience to the Duke of Bassano,
and seemed nettled when an aide-de-camp, on the part of General
Bertrand, announced that the hour fixed for departing was arrived.
"Good," he said. "This is something new. Since when is it that my
motions have been regulated by the watch of the grand maréchal? I will
not depart till it is my pleasure--perhaps I will not depart at
all."[61] This, however, was only a momentary sally of impatience.
[Sidenote: LEAVES FONTAINBLEAU--AUGEREAU.]
Napoleon left Fontainbleau the 20th April, 1814, at eleven o'clock in
the morning. His retinue occupied fourteen carriages, and required
relays of thirty pairs of post horses. On the journey, at least during
its commencement, he affected a sort of publicity, sending for the
public authorities of towns, and investigating into the state of the
place, as he was wont to do on former occasions. The cries of _Vive
l'Empereur_ were frequently heard, and seemed to give him fresh spirits.
On the other hand, the mayors, and sub-prefects, whom he interrogated
concerning the decay of many of the towns, displeased him, by ascribing
the symptoms of dilapidation to the war, or the conscription; and in
several places the people wore the white cockade, and insulted his
passage with shouts of _Vive le Roi_.
In a small barrack, near Valence, Napoleon, upon 24th April, met
Augereau, his old companion in the campaigns of Italy, and in some
degree his tutor in the art of war. The maréchal had resented some of
the reflections which occurred in the bulletins, censuring his
operations for the protection of Lyons. When, therefore, he issued a
proclamation to his army, on the recent change, he announced Napoleon as
one who had brought on his own ruin, and yet dared not die. An angry
interview took place, and the following words are said to have been
exchanged between them:--"I have thy proclamation," said Napoleon. "Thou
hast betrayed me."--"Sire," replied the maréchal, "it is you who have
betrayed France and the army, by sacrificing both to a frantic spirit of
ambition."--"Thou hast chosen thyself a new master," said Napoleon.--"I
have no account to render to you on that score," replied the
general.--"Thou hast no courage," replied Buonaparte.--"'Tis thou hast
none," replied the general, and turned his back, without any mark of
respect, on his late master.[62]
At Montelimart, the exiled Emperor heard the last expressions of regard
and sympathy. He was now approaching Provence, a region of which he had
never possessed the affections, and was greeted with execrations and
cries of--"Perish the Tyrant!"--"Down with the butcher of our children!"
Matters looked worse as they advanced. On Monday, 25th April, when Sir
Niel Campbell, having set out before Napoleon, arrived at Avignon, the
officer upon guard anxiously inquired if the escort attending the
Emperor was of strength sufficient to resist a popular disturbance,
which was already on foot at the news of his arrival. The English
commissioner entreated him to protect the passage of Napoleon by every
means possible. It was agreed that the fresh horses should be posted at
a different quarter of the town from that where it was natural to have
expected the change. Yet the mob discovered and surrounded them, and it
was with difficulty that Napoleon was saved from popular fury. Similar
dangers attended him elsewhere; and, in order to avoid assassination,
the Ex-Emperor of France was obliged to disguise himself as a postilion,
or a domestic, anxiously altering from time to time the mode of his
dress; ordering the servants to smoke in his presence; and inviting the
commissioners, who travelled with him, to whistle or sing, that the
incensed people might not be aware who was in the carriage. At Orgon,
the mob brought before him his own effigy dabbled with blood, and
stopped his carriage till they displayed it before his eyes; and, in
short, from Avignon to La Calade, he was grossly insulted in every town
and village, and, but for the anxious interference of the commissioners,
he would probably have been torn to pieces. The unkindness of the people
seemed to make much impression on him. He even shed tears. He showed
also, more fear of assassination than seemed consistent with his
approved courage; but it must be recollected, that the danger was of a
new and peculiarly horrible description, and calculated to appal many to
whom the terrors of a field of battle were familiar. The bravest soldier
might shudder at a death like that of the De Witts. At La Calade he was
equally nervous, and exhibited great fear of poison. When he reached
Aix, precautions were taken by detachments of gendarmes, as well as by
parties of the allied troops, to ensure his personal safety.[63] At a
chateau called Bouillidou, he had an interview with his sister Pauline.
The curiosity of the lady of the house, and two or three females, made
them also find their way to his presence. They saw a gentleman in an
Austrian uniform. "Whom do you wish to see, ladies?"--"The Emperor
Napoleon."--"I am Napoleon."--"You jest, sir," replied the
ladies.--"What! I suppose you expected to see me look more mischievous?
O yes--confess that, since fortune is adverse to me, I must look like a
rascal, a miscreant, a brigand. But do you know how all this has
happened? Merely because I wished to place France above England."
[Sidenote: FREJUS--VOYAGE TO ELBA.]
At length he arrived at Frejus, the very port that received him, when,
coming from Egypt, he was on the verge of commencing that astonishing
career, now about to terminate, to all earthly appearance, at the very
point from which he had started. He shut himself up in a solitary
apartment, which he traversed with impatient and hasty steps, sometimes
pausing to watch from the window the arrival of the vessels, one of
which was to transport him from France, as it then seemed, for ever. The
French frigate, the Dryade, and a brig called the Inconstant, had come
from Toulon to Frejus, and lay ready to perform this duty. But,
reluctant perhaps to sail under the Bourbon flag, Napoleon preferred
embarking on board his Britannic Majesty's ship the Undaunted, commanded
by Captain Usher.[64] This vessel being placed at the direction of the
British commissioner, Sir Niel Campbell, he readily acquiesced in
Napoleon's wish to have his passage in her to Elba. It was eleven at
night on the 28th ere he finally embarked, under a salute of twenty-one
guns. "Adieu, Cæsar, and his fortune," said the Russian envoy. The
Austrian and British commissioners accompanied him on his voyage.[65]
During the passage, Buonaparte seemed to recover his spirits, and
conversed with great frankness and ease with Captain Usher and Sir Niel
Campbell. The subject chiefly led to high-coloured statements of the
schemes which he had been compelled to leave unexecuted, with severe
strictures on his enemies, and much contempt for their means of
opposition. The following particulars are amusing, and, so far as we
know, have never appeared:
He was inquisitive about the discipline of the vessel, which he
commended highly, but assured Captain Usher, that had his power lasted
for five years longer, he would have had three hundred sail of the line.
Captain Usher naturally asked how they were to be manned. Napoleon
replied, that he had resolved on a naval conscription in all the
seaports and sea-coast frontier of France, which would man his fleet,
which was to be exercised in the Zuyder Zee, until fit for going to the
open sea. The British officer scarce suppressed a smile as he replied,
that the marine conscripts would make a sorry figure in a gale of wind.
To the Austrian envoy, Napoleon's constant subject was the enlarged
power of Russia, which, if she could by any means unite Poland into a
healthful and integral part of her army, would, he stated, overwhelm
Europe.
On a subsequent occasion, the Emperor favoured his auditors with a new
and curious history of the renewal of the war with England. According to
this edition, the isle of Malta was a mere pretext. Shortly after the
peace of Amiens, he said, Mr. Addington, then the English Prime
Minister, proposed to him a renewal of Mr. Pitt's commercial treaty with
France; but that he, Napoleon, desirous to encourage the interior
industry of France, had refused to enter into such a treaty, excepting
upon terms of reciprocity; namely, that if France received so many
millions of English import, England was to be obliged to take in return
the same quantity of French productions. These terms were declined by
Mr. Addington, on which Napoleon declared there should be no treaty at
all, unless his principles were adopted. "Then," replied Mr. Addington,
as quoted by Buonaparte, "there must be hostilities; for, unless the
people of England have the advantages of commerce on the terms they are
accustomed to, they will force me to declare war."--And the war took
place accordingly, of which, he again averred, England's determination
to recover the advantages of the treaty of commerce between Vergennes
and Pitt, was the real cause.
"_Now_," he continued, kindling as he spoke, "England has no power which
can oppose her system. She can pursue it without limits. There will be a
treaty on very unequal terms, which will not afford due encouragement to
the manufactures of France. The Bourbons are poor devils"----he checked
himself--"they are grand seigneurs, content to return to their estates
and draw their rents; but if the people of France see that, and become
discontented, the Bourbons will be turned off in six months." He seemed
again to recollect himself, like one who thinks he has spoken too much,
and was perceptibly more reserved for the rest of the day.
This curious ebullition was concocted according to Napoleon's peculiar
manner of blending what might be true in his narrative, with what was
intended to forward his own purpose, and mingling it with so much
falsehood and delusion, that it resembled what the English poet says of
the Catholic Plot,
"Some truth there was, but mix'd and dash'd with lies."
It is probable that, after the peace of Amiens, Lord Sidmouth might have
wished to renew the commercial treaty; but it is absolutely false that
Napoleon's declining to do so had any effect upon the renewal of
hostilities. His prophecy that his own downfall would be followed by
the English urging upon France a disadvantageous commercial treaty, has
proved equally false; and it is singular enough that he who, on board
the Undaunted, declared that entering into such a measure would be the
destruction of the Bourbons, should, while at St. Helena, ridicule and
censure Lord Castlereagh for not having secured to Britain that
commercial supremacy, the granting of which he had represented as the
probable cause of such a result.[66] Thus did his colouring, if not his
facts, change according to the mood of the moment.
While on board the Undaunted, Napoleon spoke with great freedom of the
facility with which he had outwitted and defeated the allies during the
last campaign. "The Silesian army," he said, "had given him most
trouble. The old devil, Blucher, was no sooner defeated than he was
willing to fight again." But he considered his victory over
Schwartzenberg as certain, save for the defection of Marmont. Much more
he said, with great apparent frankness, and seemed desirous to make
himself in every respect agreeable to his companions on board. Even the
seamen, who at first regarded him with wonder, mixed with suspicion, did
not escape the charm of his affability, by which they were soon won
over, all excepting the boatswain Hinton, a tar of the old school, who
could never hear the Emperor's praises without muttering the vulgar, but
expressive phrase--"_Humbug._"[67]
With the same good-humour, Napoleon admitted any slight jest which might
be passed, even at his own expense. When off Corsica, he proposed that
Captain Usher should fire a gun to bring-to a fishing-boat, from which
he hoped to hear some news. Captain Usher excused himself, saying, such
an act of hostility towards a neutral would _denationalize_ her, in
direct contradiction of Napoleon's doctrine concerning the rights of
nations. The Emperor laughed heartily. At another time he amused himself
by supposing what admirable caricatures his voyage would give rise to in
London. He seemed wonderfully familiar with that species of satire,
though so peculiarly English.
[Sidenote: LANDS AT PORTO FERRAJO.]
Upon the 4th of May, when they arrived within sight of Porto Ferrajo,
the principal town of Elba, which has a very fine harbour, they found
the island in some confusion. The inhabitants had been recently in a
state of insurrection against the French, which had been quieted by the
governor and the troops giving in their adhesion to the Bourbon
government. This state of things naturally increased Napoleon's
apprehensions, which had never entirely subsided since the dangers he
underwent in Provence. Even on board the Undaunted, he had requested
that a sergeant of marines might sleep each night on the outside of his
cabin-door, a trusty domestic also mounting guard within. He now showed
some unwillingness, when they made the island, to the ship running right
under the batteries; and when he first landed in the morning, it was at
an early hour, and in disguise, having previously obtained from Captain
Usher, a sergeant's party of marines to attend him.
Having returned on board to breakfast, after his incognito visit to his
island, the Emperor of Elba, as he may now be styled, went on shore in
form, about two o'clock, with the commissioners, receiving, at leaving
the Undaunted, a royal salute. On the beach, he was received by the
governor, prefect, and other official persons, with such means of honour
as they possessed, who conducted him to the Hôtel-de-Ville, in
procession, preceded by a wretched band of fiddlers. The people welcomed
him with many shouts. The name of Buonaparte had been unpopular among
them as Emperor of France, but they anticipated considerable advantages
from his residing among them as their own particular sovereign.
FOOTNOTES:
[59] "He told M. de Caraman, that he had never had time to study; but
that he now should, and meant to write his own memoirs."--_Memorable
Events_, p. 232.
[60] General Sir Edward Paget and Lord Louvain, both informed me that
Lord Castlereagh told them, that Napoleon had written to him for
permission to retire to England, "it being the only country possessing
great and liberal ideas."--_Memorable Events_, p. 232.
[61] Memorable Events, p. 326; Bourrienne, tom. x., p. 217.
[62] Itineraire de Buonaparte, p. 235.--Augereau was an old republican,
and had been ready to oppose Buonaparte on the day he dissolved the
Legislative Body. He submitted to him during his reign, but was a severe
censurer of his excessive love of conquest.--See _ante_, vol. iv., p.
256.--S.
[63] This, indeed, had been previously arranged, as troops in
considerable numbers were posted for his protection at Grenoble, Gap,
and Sisteron, being the road by which he was expected to have travelled;
but, perhaps with a view to try an experiment on his popularity, he took
the route we have detailed.--S.
[64] When they came alongside of the Undaunted, Napoleon desired the
captain to ascend, and then followed; the officers were on deck to
receive him; they mutually bowed, and the Emperor instantly went forward
alone among the men, most of whom spoke French, having been on this
station for some years. They all kept their hats on; but he so
fascinated them by his manner, that in a few minutes they, of their own
accord, took them off. Captain Usher was very glad of this, as he was
apprehensive the sailors might have thrown him overboard.--_Memorable
Events_, p. 254.
[65] The Prussian commissioner wrote an account of their journey, called
"Itineraire de Buonaparte, jusqu'à son embarquement à Frejus, Paris,
1815." The facts are amply confirmed by the accounts of his
fellow-travellers. Napoleon always reckoned the pamphlet of General
Truchsess Waldbourg, together with the account of De Pradt's Embassy to
Poland, as the works calculated to do him most injury. Perhaps he was
sensible that during this journey he had behaved beneath the character
of a hero, or perhaps he disliked the publication of details which
inferred his extreme unpopularity in the south of France.--S.
[66] Las Cases, tom. iii., p. 92.
[67] The honest boatswain, however, could understand and value what was
solid in Napoleon's merits. As he had to return thanks in name of the
ship's company, for 200 louis with which the Emperor presented them, he
wished "his honour good health, and better luck the next time."--S.