NAPLES UNDER MURAT
The fairest and, in some respects, the wickedest spot on the face of
the earth is that wonder-city that broods by the “tideless, dolorous,
midland sea,” Vesuvius smoking like some monstrous chimney of hell
behind her, the deep blue, translucent glory of the sea like a drift of
our Blessed Lady’s mantle before.
Travelling round that bay, and on, around the point, towards Calabria,
hardly a dreamy mile goes by that some of the history of thousands of
years ago does not present itself.
It has been the home of saints and of scholars; of soldiers a few, of
statesmen a many; of some of the most beautiful characters that ever
walked the earth, and of some of the very worst that ever polluted the
world with their presence. At the top of the list stands St. Januarius,
Bishop of Benevento, who with six of his companions came to Naples
during the ninth persecution to comfort and strengthen the Faithful,
and, being seized with his companions, was taken to Pozzuoli, and there
flung to the wild beasts, and who, when they refused to harm him, was
plunged into a blazing furnace out of which he came intact, and was
thereafter beheaded; but who stands at the bottom I should be afraid to
say. At this point there is an _embarras de richesses_!
Of all the landmarks of history with which the kingdom of Naples is
dotted, none perhaps is more rich in romance or more imbued with the
spirit of tragedy than a certain straggling, half-ruined castle near
the little village of Pizzo, upon the coast of Calabria.
A round tower, grey and sullen with age, faces the sea; in the wall of
it is set a small, heavily barred window through which one of the very
few comparatively good kings of Naples looked his last upon a world
which had seen him rise from a peasant to a monarch.
There is neither space nor need to recapitulate here the life of Murat.
Italy, Russia, Germany, Austria, Egypt, had felt the tread of his
all-shattering squadrons, whose onset no horse or foot of continental
Europe had ever been able to withstand. The Dictator of Europe had
given him his sister for a wife. Naples had been proud to own him for
her king. Glory, wealth, splendour had been his, and he could have
kept them—I think it is safe to say that he could have kept them, had
he been able to stand firm. But he had not the strength, even when he
joined the Coalition in 1814. While he was still fighting Eugène he
could not resist the temptation to intrigue with the viceroy, who,
of course, instantly saw to it that the allies were notified of the
fact. In those stormy days nobody trusted his neighbour, nor did any
one blame his neighbour particularly for trying to keep his political
balance in any way that he could; so that Murat’s inconsistency, let
us call it, was not held against him afterwards. The Bourbons were not
popular, either, and Ferdinand, that perfect product of the hapless,
helpless race, was generally detested. It must be said for the Bourbons
that their sins are, as a rule, of the negative sort, and cruelty is
not one of them. Ferdinand, however, besides being a spineless king,
was a brute and a coward, which, again, are not Bourbon traits.
Joachim Murat’s position was always a difficult one, to be sure.
Although King of Naples, he was, in Napoleon’s time, only a king at
his imperial brother-in-law’s pleasure, and regarded by the latter as a
little more than a Pro-Consul, elevated to a throne in order to carry
out his master’s wishes. At the same time he was conscientious enough
to attempt the task of being a real king—and a good one. He loved the
_flaire_ of kingship, but he did recognize some of his responsibilities
towards his subjects, and continued, while Napoleon’s back was turned,
to govern fairly well. The Neapolitans loved show and noise and
ceremony, and they liked the handsome, dashing, open-handed cavalryman.
The country was rich too. In those days, even if the peasants lived
like cattle, at least they had plenty to eat and drink, and even now
those times are spoken of as a bankrupt speaks of the fat years behind
him.
“Era una schiuma d’oro” (“It was a froth of gold”), said one old man to
me, some years ago, “before this Government of robbers took possession
of it!”
Of all Napoleon’s kinglings, Bernadotte alone contrived to keep his
crown, and that may very well have been because Napoleon did not choose
him, but only acceded to the popular demand when he let him reign.
Murat came to the throne of the Two Sicilies in 1808, when poor unlucky
Joseph was compelled, much against his will, to go to Spain. Joachim
was not always popular; indeed, that would have been impossible in
the condition of things which prevailed in 1810 and 1811. He could
not always be on the spot, and, in his absence, he had to trust to
his Government. This being made up of Neapolitans—both Liberal and
otherwise—and of the Frenchmen who had come in with him, did not trust
itself, and the King’s authority came to be decentralized beyond all
control from the throne. His life was conspired against several times.
Once in particular a plot was hatched to assassinate him while he was
hunting in the woods of Mondragone, but one of the conspirators turned
king’s evidence and the plotters were caught. When they were brought to
trial, and their guilt was proved, their advocate was making the best
he could of a bad job, when the presiding judge stopped the proceedings
to read aloud a paper which he had just received from the King.
“I had hoped,” it said, “that those accused of conspiring against my
person might have been proved innocent; but I have heard with regret
that the Solicitor-General has demanded a heavy punishment against
them all. Their guilt may perhaps be real, but I am desirous of still
preserving a ray of hope that they may be innocent, and I hasten to
stop the decision of the Tribunal and to pardon the accused. I order
that upon receipt of this paper the trial be closed and the unhappy men
set at liberty. As the trial concerns a foolish attempt upon my life,
and the sentence is not yet pronounced, I do not offend against the law
of the State if, without having received a recommendation to mercy, I
thus use the highest and best prerogative of the Crown.”
Murat set many public works on foot, notably during 1812. Roads
and bridges and theatres were built, marshes drained and aqueducts
constructed, the most noteworthy of which achievements were the Strada
di Posilippo, the Campo di Marte, the observatory on the height of
Miradone, and a lunatic asylum. This latter caused a good deal of
surprise as well, for lunatics were not generally coddled in that
fashion in the Naples of 1812.
In the middle of all this activity Murat was recalled to Paris, and
it was only after many months and many experiences that he set eyes
upon his kingdom again. Had his advice, which was to halt the 1812
campaign at Smolensk and establish a settled Government in Poland, been
followed, it is possible, and more than possible, that the disastrous
affair would have had a different termination, for Napoleon could have
kept his communications open; but the Emperor, at that time, suspected
Murat and Ney and Rapp, believing that a weariness of war and a desire
to reap some of the fruits of their labour were at the bottom of the
really excellent counsel that they offered him, and so he pushed on to
Moscow, partly from impatience, partly to satisfy the gnawing appetite
of the _folie de grandeurs_ which had hold of him, partly because he
did not trust his own men. “Ours is not an army of position,” he said;
“it is an army of attack—not of defence.”
Murat’s conduct during the campaign was such as to extract an unwilling
praise even from the Emperor, who was no believer in praise as an agent
for anything but the rank and file. Only when Murat left the wreck of
the army, the command of which Napoleon had entrusted to him, on the
Oder, did the quarrel which the war had drugged into a false quiet
break out again.
Napoleon, on hearing of Joachim’s return to his kingdom, wrote a
frightful letter to Caroline, and this falling into her husband’s
hands drew from him a reply which threatened to break up the relations
between the two for all time, and it was only Caroline’s self-control
and tact that healed the breach for the time-being.
A common danger and the ties of their old comradeship drew them
together again when Murat arrived in Bohemia, and then he fought
stoutly and well. It is hardly credible and, were it not history, it
would be absolutely inconceivable, that, while battling whole-heartedly
for the French in Bohemia, Murat was engaged, through his Government,
in an attempt to unify Italy by the assistance of Great Britain, which
was to supply 25,000 men, who, with his own troops and the disaffected
Italians in the ranks of the French garrisons, were to drive the
tricolour over the Alps. He contrived to persuade himself that he was
honest in his intentions, too, by a process of reasoning peculiar to
several of the Emperor’s lieutenants in those times. As Frenchmen
they marched with the armies of France, and served her to the best
of their splendid ability; as kings and grand dukes they served their
subjects—or thought they did—with equal enthusiasm. Bentinck, however,
being an Englishman, failed to understand the presence of their
separate political entities in one person, and withdrew, so that the
unification of Italy, fortunately, one cannot but think, fell through,
and Joachim returned to Naples in 1813.
It was then that the society known as the Carbonari, who had appeared
in the kingdom three years before, began to spread themselves in all
classes of society, conspiring in the sweet Italian fashion, which
conspires for the sake of the pure delight of intriguing. They had
no definite aim. Their professed _raison d’être_ was a vague dream of
a vague constitution, _à l’Anglaise_. In such hands, of course, this
would have been about as fruitful of any real liberty as the Commune,
and none knew this better than Lord William Bentinck; but any stone
will do to throw at the devil, and Lord William hastened to communicate
with the liberty-loving thieves, murderers, and brigands who
represented the society of Naples. There were, to be sure, some honest
men among them, whose hearts were stronger than their heads. There
always are a few in these affairs, enticed in by flattery and utterly
uninformed as to the real object of their associates, who are pushed to
the front for the public to see.
Among these was a certain young gentleman, a man of fortune and
courage—a captain of militia in his own town, which stood upon the
summit of a high and precipitous mountain. His name was Capobianco
(“white-head”), and at the time when he came to the notice of the
authorities they had discovered the trafficking of the society with
Lord William, who had been sending across volumes containing the new
Sicilian laws which had been enacted in that island under the Bourbons,
or, to speak more accurately, had been forced upon the Bourbons by Lord
William under pain of being left to look after themselves and being
compelled to fight for their own possessions. The conspirators must
have been a simple-minded people if they really believed that Ferdinand
had promulgated anything of the kind without compulsion.
Lord William promised the Neapolitans a similar code if they would
only restore Ferdinand—Lord William was always rather free with his
promises—and the Government of Naples, finding the horrid thing in
their midst, proscribed the society and threatened with most dreadful
punishments any one who mentioned the word “constitution.” Whereupon
the Carbonari dropped down into Calabria and proceeded to shout it
aloud, among them young Capobianco.
As it has been said, his town was practically inaccessible, so
that, despairing of his capture, General Janelli made a pretence
of refusing to believe in his association with the Carbonari; after
several ineffectual efforts to entrap him (for Capobianco had a native
mistrust of authority under any guise save that of the Church), he one
day invited him to dinner upon the occasion of a public festival in
Cosenza. Capobianco hesitated, but finally made up his mind to attend,
feeling that he would be safe if he took unfrequented byways and
surrounded himself with a dependable escort.
He would feel safe, he told himself, in Cosenza, for he intended to
arrive when the banquet should be already begun, and leave before it
was over, and, in the house of the General, he would be in the company
of all of the authorities of the Province, whose presence he seems to
have conceived to be a safeguard, for some reason or another.
So he went and was royally entertained. Healths were drunk, compliments
were exchanged, and Capobianco proposed to depart, followed by the
salutations of the General. He got no farther than the ante-room,
though, where the gendarmes were waiting for him. They seized him and
dragged him off to prison, where, the next morning, he was tried by a
Military Commission, condemned, and publicly beheaded before midday in
the Square.
When this was bruited abroad, some of the “patriots” fled to Sicily
and the Bourbons, to breathe, as we are told, “the free atmosphere of
Sicily under the Bourbons,” and Joachim’s unpopularity began to assume
the proportions of a menace.
Still, however, the better elements were upon his side, perhaps
from expediency—for Murat’s servants would receive short shrift at
Ferdinand’s hands should that monarch return—but they gave Joachim some
very good advice among them, even if some of it is rather too subtle.
Napoleon’s hands were too full to allow of his interference, and he,
in his dealings with the allies, invariably quoted 50,000 Neapolitan
troops as part of his own force. The allies knew better, though. Two
fatal defects in a ruler are overcraftiness and inconsistency. Murat
had both. At one time, as it has been seen, he hastened to pardon those
who had conspired against his life; a year later he allowed his own
resentment against the Carbonari to lead him into an attempt to crush
them by a severity which merely drove them in on each other and made
a solid body out of a struggling mob. Before this, with an ideal the
meaning of which very few of them understood, the Carbonari—the leaders
of the movement, that is to say—were fighting the clouds; but the
harrying they received gave them a definite grievance and one that was
shared, for purely personal reasons, by thousands, who would otherwise
never have joined the movement at all.
The craftiness which Murat conceived to be policy delivered him into
the hands of men far cleverer than himself, whose life’s business it
was to overreach one another.
He was a brave man and a most excellent soldier, but those were not
qualities that could help him in the thimble-rigging, knife-in-the-boot
game of Napoleonic statecraft, played by men who had not an illusion
remaining about each other, and who, with the possible exception of
the Russians, had each and all betrayed their neighbours over and over
again.
Murat, at Ollendorf upon the shores of the Ulm, received several very
polite and pressing invitations to an alliance from the Austrian
Commissioner, Count von Mier, and he had listened to them, as one
of his contemporaries says, without disdain. Wishing, though, to get
an idea of what his own people might think of such a suggestion, he
consulted two or three of his Ministers and generals on the subject.
The result did not help him much, for they all held different opinions.
One held that France’s welfare was that of Naples, and that, with the
return of the Bourbons to Paris, everything that the Revolution and the
Empire had done for Italy would be wiped out; another that Murat’s duty
was to establish himself firmly and hold fast to his throne, whatever
might happen to his own people and the Emperor. Upon one point they
were all agreed, and that was that Murat’s first and most imperative
duty was to so order his relations with the Powers as to exclude any
possible chance of Ferdinand’s return—it was as to the best way of
attaining that desired condition of things that they differed.
“The old and the new era,” said one, advocating the continuance of the
existing alliance with France, “are at war with one another, and the
victory cannot for the present be assigned to any particular state or
people. Should the new triumph, all the social institutions of Europe
will, in twenty years’ time, be established upon the basis of the civil
polity introduced by the French; but if the old, all progress will be
arrested and the new States be thrown back towards the hated condition
of the past.”
He goes on to remark upon the reliance to be placed upon the word of
the kings, then struggling against Napoleon, “for if kings promise
to-day, they will break their words to-morrow.”
The other finishes his address, in which he advises Murat to let France
bleed to death by herself, thus:
“Above all, I beseech you not to be caught by false glory, but to
believe that there is only one way to preserve your reputation, which
is to preserve your throne!” The military element seems to have been
of the same opinion as number two, but Joachim wavered—as well he
might, for both parties to the discussion were right. Even if he
joined himself to the allies, it was quite likely that this throne
would be taken from him at the first convenient moment. The Bourbons
were everywhere, and Spain, Italy, Austria, and presently France would
be filled with them. Their clamour would rise, in a hurricane, and
what could those who professed to hold their own crowns as gifts from
the Almighty say in answer to them? If the Emperor of Austria ruled
by Divine Right, he must believe that Ferdinand did the same. If the
Divine Right could be disregarded in one case, it could be disregarded
in all, and there were plenty of evilly disposed persons who desired
nothing better. It would be a weapon in their hand, and they had plenty
of weapons already.
In spite of this, and in the face of it, Francis of Austria, by a
treaty concluded on January 11, 1814, acknowledged Joachim’s dominion
and sovereignty over the States he ruled, and Joachim, as a matter of
form, returned the compliment.
Thus Naples was definitely placed in the ranks of France’s enemies,
Austria agreeing to furnish 30,000 men for Italy, and Naples 30,000,
the allied forces to be under the command of the King of Naples, or, in
his absence, of the officer highest in rank in the Austrian army.
This, together with a promise that Francis would use his good offices
to bring about a reconciliation between Naples and England, as well as
with Austria’s allies, was the published treaty, but there were several
secret clauses, some of which seem to indicate a lack of humour in the
high contracting parties.
Francis, having acknowledged Joachim’s sovereignty, pledged himself to
obtain the renunciation of it from Ferdinand (as though the consent
of that individual made any difference to anybody!), while Joachim
promised, on his part, to indemnify Ferdinand, thereby acknowledging
that his own claim was that of _force majeure_ and nothing else; and
yet the principle of Ferdinand’s Divine Right was never called into
question! But at the same time Murat was in correspondence with General
Miollis commanding the French troops in Rome, and with Barbou and
Fouché, assuring them of his devotion and attachment to France, and
endeavouring to explain away his treaty with Francis on the ground of
political necessity!
Miollis withdrew into Sant’ Angelo, and the Neapolitan troops forced
the little body of French under Lascolette to shut themselves up in
the citadel of Civita Vecchia. But now, after having inaugurated his
campaign, Murat’s indecision prevented him from giving any definite
orders, and his generals instantly began to suspect him of playing them
false.
Proceeding into the States of Rome, he found anarchy prevailing in
every direction, and, already torn with conflicting emotions, he found
himself the target of generals, magistrates, and Austrian Ministers,
who maintained that he had not acted up to his part of the treaty.
[Illustration: JOACHIM, KING OF NAPLES. Photo copyright by
Neurdein Freres.]
That aroused him, and he woke up from his lethargy long enough to start
the Neapolitan troops forward and to settle the civil administration a
little. A good many Frenchmen still remained in the Neapolitan army,
and in order to retain them, and have some company in his matricidal
course, he assured them that the treaty was a feint, and that he was
working heart and soul for his beloved country. But he so entangled
himself with lies that he presently found it difficult to move in
any direction without finding the net of them about his feet. The
Neapolitans disliked and distrusted the French, because they saw in
them a drag upon Joachim’s wheel. The French despised the Neapolitans,
and presently departed, seeing clearly whither they were being led.
Since the only officers of any value in the Neapolitan army were these
Frenchmen, Murat was now compelled to rely upon the Germans—that is to
say, the very men he had fought against in the preceding year.
The French were not in sufficient numbers to offer any real resistance,
and it was not long before Civita Vecchia, Sant’ Angelo, Florence,
Leghorn, Ferrara, and Ancona were in Murat’s hands.
Bentinck presently landed at Leghorn with 14,000 Anglo-Sicilians,
and Eugène, the Viceroy, found himself with 50,000 men opposed to
45,000 Austrians, 20,000 Neapolitans, 8,000 Germans under Murat, and
Bentinck’s Anglo-Sicilians.
Of course Murat mistrusted his allies, and the allies returned the
compliment with interest. He had no very high opinion of them as
soldiers either, in which he was justified. Bellegarde carried his
suspicion so far as to refuse to build a bridge or two over the Po,
lest Murat might use them against him, and Murat became convinced
that Bellegarde and Bentinck wanted to make him attack the Viceroy in
order to injure his troops and his reputation—for what were 30,000
Neapolitans in the scale against 50,000 Frenchmen commanded by good
officers and in the hands of such generals as Eugène had on his staff?
He discovered, too, that Bentinck, who had landed as his ally, was
permitting his Sicilians to distribute pamphlet copies of an edict of
Ferdinand’s, reminding the Neapolitans of his rights, and inciting them
to rise against Joachim!
Bentinck was not a very clever man, and here he showed himself to be
a fool. He had already given the Duke of Wellington a good deal of
trouble by ruining the Duke’s market for specie in Spain, offering a
higher price for it than the Duke could afford to give, and by various
other ill-judged and ill-timed schemes. Now, having Joachim on his
side—the one man among them all who could lead an army—he deliberately
attempted to ruin his influence in the moment of action, by turning his
own men against him, and by siding with Bellegarde in every question
of military policy, wherein neither of them was really worthy to be
allowed to carry out his, Joachim’s, orders.
From the Austrian monarch Murat might have expected that sort of thing,
for Austria had at one time and another during the last twenty years
broken her word to about everybody with whom she had had any dealings.
Metternich boasted of it openly, and had Murat been gifted with a
little more political foresight, he might have felt even then the hands
that were pulling him down.
It may be said that he hoped for Napoleon’s triumph in the latter’s
Homeric fight, nor could he be blamed where all the circumstances
are considered. In every transaction, says one of his staff, “whether
emanating from the rulers of kingdoms or the commanders of the armies
that were sitting about in Italy, some perfidy transpired or lay
concealed.”
The only people who were really happy at this time were the
Neapolitans, who, with the English markets opened, began to prosper
after the long, lean years, and held their heads high now that their
King and their armies had been, as they thought, distinguishing
themselves. Poor Joachim now received a petition from his generals,
published with the approval of the whole army, begging him to summon
a council of war and hear their “opinions”! It is a wonder that the
veteran of a hundred pitched battles did not hang somebody for the
impertinence, for from any point of view it is difficult to understand
what they expected of him in the way of action. But he let the incident
pass.
Now the Pope, who had been released by Napoleon, approached the Papal
Dominions and reached Taro before Joachim, who was in Bologna, was
aware of the fact. Joachim, who had a good part of the Papal States in
his possession and hoped for more—since Francis of Austria had promised
him his assistance in the matter—sought by every means to avert the
Holy Father’s onward progress from Reggio; but he had a stronger man
than himself to deal with, and one who had at his back the enthusiasm
of a people. Murat’s own officers helped to draw the Papal carriage in
one place, and his men broke their ranks, falling over one another for
the privilege of being allowed to approach the returning exile.
In spite of all that Joachim’s envoy, General Carrascosa, could
do, Pius’s determination to proceed was unaffected, and the General
returned to his master, begging him for his own sake to give way before
the popular enthusiasm, which every day was increasing. Murat, however,
decided upon a middle course. He would render to the Pope all the
honour in his power, but he would give him no assistance.
At Bologna the Pope called upon Murat, and, though alone and helpless
in the face of his opponent’s armed strength, extracted from him the
return of the Patrimony of Peter to the Church. Pius did not relinquish
his claim to the rest of the Papal possessions either, and continued on
his way to Cesena, his native place, by the Strada Emilia, among his
own subjects, although Murat, fearing the excited feeling among the
latter, wished him to go through Tuscany.
Murat’s power was toppling over, for, do what he might, his interests
were the interests of the France that he was fighting. But what could
he do? It would take a clever man to find his way safely out of such
an impasse as confronted Joachim. Could he have remained neutral, it
is possible that he might have survived the hurricane; but that was
almost impossible, cut off as he was from France and encircled by the
allies. Besides, the quarrel with England had brought such misery to
his subjects that this condition alone was reason enough for attempting
the impossible. Napoleon was battling with his back to the wall, and
even though he fought as man never fought before or since, the tide was
engulfing him. His own Ministers were carrying on secret correspondence
with the enemy, and preparing their own salvation, careless either of
their duty or of their country’s humiliation.
When on April 15, 1814, Murat received the news of the capitulation
of Paris and the abdication of the Emperor, he paled as he read the
dispatch, and betrayed great agitation and nervousness, and for several
days afterwards he was gloomy and unapproachable.
He repaired quietly to Bologna, and, while Italy went mad and raved in
its madness, while the Milanese murdered Prina, and Eugène Beauharnais
took refuge with the King of Bavaria, he returned to Naples, where he
was received like a conqueror and was compelled to bow his appreciation
and render his thanks for a display not one word or one smile of which,
as he well knew, was genuine. The people expected very naturally that
a new order of things would bring them a new Government, and Murat’s
own suspicions were confirmed when the treaty of peace was signed at
Paris, and the Congress of Vienna was summoned without any mention of
him at all. Legitimacy was now the rage, and Joachim, though without an
invitation, dispatched the Duke di Campochiaro and Prince de Cariati as
his representatives to Vienna. That done, he turned to his kingdom and,
taking time by the forelock, summoned the most able men of the country
to him and set them to work upon the land, the finances, and the army,
only warning them not to follow too hard after the latest fashion, nor
to “run backwards blindfold.”
At the same time, on his own account, he lightened the heaviest of
the taxes, brought in measures for the encouragement of trade with
England, and permitted the free export of grain. Then he decreed that
the offices of State were to be given only to Neapolitans, and that
foreigners holding them, who refused to be naturalized, must resign,
after which he sat down to wait upon events.
By these measures he contrived to win over a large part of the people,
and, by degrees, the old Murat began to emerge from his hiding-place
in the personality of the new. His council had agreed with him in
almost every question of importance; the counsels which he received,
while suggesting a constitution, were really sincere in their hopes
for the maintenance of his dynasty. His army, which he had had time to
put into shape again, was with him; the newspapers were obsequious in
their praises of his virtues; and all the corporate bodies in the State
announced their readiness to pledge their lives and property in his
support.
The Congress of Vienna began to pay some attention to these signs of
popular approval, and it was noised abroad that the Emperor of Russia
had let fall the remark that “it was impossible to restore the ‘Butcher
King’ now that the interests of the people had to be considered.” Then
Caroline of Austria, Ferdinand’s wife, died suddenly, and so little was
her decease lamented that Francis forbade the Court to go into mourning
for her.
It may well be imagined that Joachim began to feel safe on his throne,
and the fact that, by an agreement concluded at Charmont some little
time before the fall of Napoleon, Austria, Russia, Prussia, and England
had confirmed the principles of the alliance between Austria and Murat
helped him to hope that after all, and in spite of everything, he might
be allowed to remain. He had not reckoned, though, with Talleyrand,
whose desire it was, just then, to show himself as a reformed character
who was ready to do anything to prove his detestation of the fiend whom
he had been serving, and of all the fiend’s family, which, of course,
included Joachim.
Talleyrand had besides a private grudge against Joachim, for the latter
had openly mistrusted him for years, and Napoleon’s parting remarks on
the subject of his late Minister for Foreign Affairs must still have
been tingling in that gentleman’s ears when he set out for Vienna. “I
should have hanged him long ago,” said the Emperor: “I always knew that
he would be the first to betray me when the occasion offered itself!”
Talleyrand, who had arrived at the Congress as an apologist both for
France and himself, a man with no claims to consideration from anybody,
outside the pale of Christian intercourse as an excommunicate bishop
and an unfrocked priest, a creature at the sight of whom Francis
and his Catholic princess must have shuddered; without a friend—or a
case—bankrupt of power and credit—contrived by the sheer force of his
own genius to dominate the whole Congress after the first half-dozen
sittings.
He set Austria and Russia by the ears, and heated up the quarrel
until there was every prospect of war; lined up their adherents and
pushed them into the conflict, and manœuvred so marvellously that,
in a very short while, France and her friendship were the objects
of the diplomacy of both contending parties. Metternich, Nesselrode,
Hardenberg, Castlereagh, Stewart, and Stackelberg were little more than
children in his hands. His confrères, Noailles, Dupin, and Dalberg,
had no voice in the questions that arose. Talleyrand was the Congress,
and when he began to use his power to pay off some of his grudges and
enmities, it was on Murat that his hand first fell. More Legitimist
than the Legitimists, he set out to earn the million francs promised
him by Ferdinand for the throne of Naples.
The first inkling that Murat received of the turn that affairs had
taken was a request, couched in the terms of a command, from Francis
that he would restore the Marches to the Pope. Now the Marches in
question had been promised to Murat by Francis himself, not twelve
months before, and Murat in answer proceeded to increase his garrison
and commenced to strengthen the fortifications of Ancona. He, besides,
started a quarrel with the Pope, and dispatched a Minister of his
called Magella into the Marches to assist the Carbonari in their plots
against the dominion of the Holy Father.
It was about this time that he began to receive overtures, couched in
the most affectionate and brotherly language, from Napoleon at Elba. A
succession of disguised conspirators from Paris and other places passed
in and out of the Palace in Naples, generally under cover of the spring
night, while the city disported itself along the waterfront, and gay
ladies and gay men sat over their cards in the great cool rooms, or
wandered about in the sleeping gardens.
For Naples was gay in those days. People saw light ahead after the
years of gloom. Hunger had vanished—real hunger, at any rate. The
king’s public works gave employment. Uniforms glittered everywhere. To
their minds, Naples was a Paris in miniature; so the lights shone and
the world danced and played on, music lay over the place in a rainbow
web of sound, and the blue sea smiled at the stars.
But up in the palace, behind closed doors, Murat sat with his chin in
his hand, and his eyes wandering out to the sea from time to time, as
though he expected to see something there—something whose name was
never mentioned except between him and his wife, and then only in
whispers.
By ones and twos the mysterious figures arrived, coming in through side
doors, and staying awhile, talking with their hands to their mouths,
some volubly and eagerly, some gently and hesitatingly; but one thing
could be observed of all of them, and that was that somewhere on their
persons, casually as a trifle, but plain enough to eyes that looked for
it, was either a small bunch of violets, or a strip of violet-coloured
ribbon, or a bit of violet-coloured silk.
“Are you fond of the violet?” they would ask when they met. “It will
return in the spring,” was the answer—and it was spring already down
there. Spring breaks February in Naples. The king was, outwardly, as
gay as any, and only Caroline and a very few devoted friends saw the
other side of him. The ambassadors of the allies were watching him, as
he knew, and, as was bound to happen, word came to them that strange
visitors were being entertained at the palace, among them Princess
Pauline, Napoleon’s sister, who shortly afterwards returned to Elba.
Ferdinand, free of his rather dreadful Austrian consort, proceeded to
espouse a certain Lucia Migliano, a lady, it is said, of noble birth,
but of a vulgar and immoral character—which is probably true, for how
could any clean and self-respecting woman have ever been induced to
marry Ferdinand?
That monarch now swore to the constitution of 1812. He opened,
dissolved, and reopened a Parliament, and generally walked in the
popular path. Those happenings, naturally, reacted upon the Neapolitans
and helped to undermine Joachim’s position badly. The Carbonari broke
out again, soon afterwards, and Joachim began to be afraid lest these
popular spasms should come to the ears of the Congress and affect his
interests; so he attempted to arrange matters with the Carbonari, which
only went to their heads and made them more offensive than ever.
Things could not remain so for long, and there is no saying what might
have happened had not Napoleon discovered that the allied Powers had
not the slightest idea of living up to their word with him, that the
promised annuity—promised on the basis of the huge private fortune
which they had looted from him—was never going to be paid, and that
some one, whom he had small difficulty in connecting with the Bourbon
Government in Paris, was attempting to poison him.
On the evening of March 4, 1815, Murat, with some of his family,
was amusing himself as best he could, attempting to divert his mind
from the problems and questions which had harassed him all day, in
his wife’s apartments, when there appeared in the doorway a bowing
attendant, begging the King and Queen Caroline to give an audience to
a messenger who was awaiting their pleasure in the next room. Murat
assented carelessly and told the attendant to bring him in, but the
former replied that the new-comer had particularly asked that the King
and Queen would give themselves the trouble to hear what he had to say,
alone.
By this time Murat had an inkling of the news which awaited him and
hurried out of the room, the Queen upon his arm. In the small apartment
leading out of the gallery they found Count Colonna, who came forward
out of the dark corner where he had been waiting, and presented his
dispatches.
It is a picture that stands out vividly in the imagination: the Count
studying Murat’s face as the latter reads the message, and glancing
from time to time at the Queen, trying to read something of her
husband’s mind in her face; Murat blinking in the half light over the
words, rejoicing in the news as he thinks of the manner in which the
Congress of Legitimacy has been treating him, but endeavouring to keep
his features composed and his pleasure out of his voice.
“That will spoil Metternich’s sleep for awhile,” one can almost hear
him saying to himself. “And Talleyrand—how will he get out of this?
On guard, messieurs! You will have to exercise something besides your
tongues now!”
Napoleon had escaped from Elba, and announced that he proposed to chase
the Bourbons out of France, and suggested an alliance, begging Murat at
the same time to place a battleship or a frigate at the disposition of
his, the Emperor’s, mother and sister.
Hurrying back to his guests, Murat divulged the news, and his cheer and
excitement were so obvious that some of them guessed then the course
which he would pursue.
The next morning Murat dispatched special messengers to Vienna and
London, in which he assured the Governments of Austria and Great
Britain that, whatever might be the result of Napoleon’s raid, he
himself would remain faithful to his treaty obligations.
Neither of his correspondents had the slightest belief in his
protestations, and Francis, without waiting, took steps to crush him if
he moved—or if he did not. But Murat’s heart was high, and the memories
of the golden years were like wine. He felt a real remorse for the
part which he had played, and the splendour of Napoleon’s lone-handed
assault upon a world in arms appealed to every soldierlike instinct in
him.
He did not forget his own ambition, though, and he desired to make
himself so powerful that he could treat with either Austria or France
upon terms of something like equality. It was Italy that he wanted. The
great Powers would have their hands full now, and he hoped to be able
to surprise the Germans while the armies of Europe were engaged with
the Emperor.
Caroline, however, joined with his Ministers and his Council in
opposition to war. Naples and Italy had had enough, and, even in the
unlikely event of Murat’s correspondents in the north having been
accurate in their figures or right in their appreciation of the popular
feeling, it was practically certain that, whether the victor in the
coming contest were to be the Emperor or the allies, neither would
allow Murat to attack Italy and rule it undisturbed.
He assured his Council that Italy was ready to rise on either side of
the Po. He explained his mistrust of the Congress. He agreed that,
although it would be unsafe to diminish the army in the present
condition of Europe, yet Naples could not support the troops unless
fresh taxes were imposed; and that being out of the question the only
alternative was to quarter them upon somebody else. He went on to point
out that political liberty was at the last gasp in Italy. But even that
battle-cry failed to arouse the enthusiasm of his audience. Political
liberty as a theory upon which to speculate over a glass or two of wine
in the cool of the evening was well enough, but political liberty as a
reason for draining the country of blood and money any longer was quite
another affair.
The common people cared very little, if anything at all, for it; what
they wanted was food and drink, and a chance to save a little money,
and marry, and be happy. The taste survives in Naples and Calabria to
this day. They _like_ an overlord, they _like_ having somebody over
them who will order their ways and provide them with work and see to
their well-being, and knock their heads together when they misbehave
and pat them upon the back before their fellows when they are good.
It is, after all, the ideal form of government. No other approaches in
efficiency to a beneficent and intelligent autocracy. The main trouble
is that very few autocracies have any intelligence. I am sure I do not
know why. Logically a man who has been trained to rulership from the
cradle should make a better ruler than the accident of a convention;
and on the whole, one may say, he does. A constitutional monarch is
generally a far better ruler than either Mr. Roosevelt, Mr. Taft, or
Mr. Wilson, or any President of the French Republic that ever lived. So
was King Edward VII, so was Queen Victoria. And then, from nowhere in
particular and without any training at all, a Lincoln emerges and gets
elected—that is the mystery which I have never been able to fathom—by
a number of people whose individual opinions upon any subject of real
importance are worth less than nothing!
Murat, as has been seen, made a habit of mistaking craft for
statesmanship, and his Council, by now, were beginning to be aware of
it. Frenchmen and Neapolitans, they saw that war would be extremely
dangerous for both countries—particularly for Naples—and they resolved
to wait to declare themselves until word came from London and Vienna.
Murat, however, paid no heed to their resolution or their opinion, and
broke up the Council, secretly determined to make the effort.
Some of the troops with which he proposed to undertake the conquest of
Italy were more fit for sneak-thieving than for actual fighting against
drilled men. The artillery, sappers, and cavalry were even worse than
the infantry, and when we are told that regiments of the latter were
taken from the prisons and from the galleys, and that half of the
generals and colonels were French, and the dissensions between the
natives and the foreigners are remembered, one cannot but think that
Joachim must have been a little off his head with the strain he had
been enduring for the past year, if he hoped to annex Italy with such a
force as that.
In reply to Murat’s request for permission to pass through the Papal
States, the Holy Father appointed a regency and betook himself to
Genoa, accompanied by many of the cardinals. As this occurred in the
middle of Holy Week, the sacred offices were interrupted, many of the
priests leaving the city to follow the Pope, and the indignation of
the Romans knew no bounds. Murat wisely refrained from approaching
the city, and proceeded to Ancona, from whence he instructed the
ambassadors at the Congress to renew his protestations of fidelity to
his treaties.
This quite unnecessary insult roused Francis of Austria effectually,
and he dispatched Frimont, Bianchi, Mohr, Neipperg, and Wied, with
48,000 infantry, 7,000 cavalry, and 64 guns, to repay Joachim for it.
Besides these, Nugent had a brigade in Tuscany, the Po was fortified
at Piacenza, Borgoforte, Occhiobello, and Lagoscuro by the Germans, who
occupied every possible crossing, and had at their backs the fortresses
of Pizzighettone, Mantua, and Legnano, with detachments in Commachio
and at the bridge of Goro. It was a solid affair against which Joachim
was ramming his head.
He, as soon as war had been declared, on March 30, annexed—on paper—the
districts of Cerebino, Pesaro, and Gubbio, and issued edicts vilifying
in the usual manner his opponents, whom he accused of every fault of
which he himself had been guilty. Also he addressed the inattentive and
quite careless Italians, reminding them of such grievances as he could
remember, and, when the stock of those ran short, inventing several
entirely new ones.
He had a few partial successes at first before Frimont arrived upon
the scene. Carrascosa managed to drive some Austrians—it is all but
impossible to arrive at the real figures and facts of these contests,
but I should be inclined to say about 1,500—from Cesena. Later they
came upon some more at Anzola, and these retired before them, probably,
or, I should say, certainly, under orders. At Spilimberto he had a
personal brush with them, which resulted in a haphazard sort of success
which he seems to have made no attempt whatever to push. A few days
later after investing Ferrara—the operation could not have been a
very serious one, for it was only conducted for two and a half days—he
attempted to storm the bridge-head at Occhiobello, but finding it to be
out of the question, left the army encamped on the spot, and returned
to Bologna, where he learned what had become of two legions of his
Guard which he had sent to Tuscany—for no military reason that I have
been able to discover, save the very problematical one of “rousing” the
Tuscans.
They were commanded by Generals Pignatelli, Strongoli, and Livron, who,
being of equal rank, were to act in concert, but not to attempt to take
precedence of each other—which, as one historian very truly says, was a
“strange and unusual idea in the composition of the army.”
These contrived to get as far as Pistoia, where, hearing that the
garrison had designs upon them, they retired in something of a hurry to
Florence.
It was there that Joachim received a communication from Lord William
Bentinck to the effect that since he had broken his treaty with Francis
he could consider the treaty with England broken as well. He might have
expected this piece of information, one would think, but it seems to
have depressed him greatly.
The King’s edicts, too, had fallen flat. They had produced, we are
told, “promises, applause, poetic effusions, and popular orations,
but neither arms nor action; thus furnishing much future work for the
police, and nothing for war.”
The forces he had counted upon did not materialize, and Joachim called
his Ministers together. These had discovered by now that he never
called upon them for advice unless he was in trouble, and their ardour
and loyalty were shaken. Still, when he laid the facts before them
they gave him the best they had, in the face of the rather desperate
circumstances. The army was straggled out over a line between Reggio,
Carpi, and Ravenna, without any supports or reserves, in the face of
an enemy stronger, numerically and morally, and in their position. One
blow might be the end; so Joachim’s advisers recommended him to hold
on to the places he had only so long as it would take to send back the
sick and the baggage, and then look for some point of attack where the
result would be a little less certain.
A few days later the Germans stormed Carpi and chased General Pepes
almost as far as Modena, and only Murat’s appearance upon the scene
halted the pursuit. On the 15th they seized Spilimberto, the defenders
of which retired in considerable disorder to Sant’ Ambrogio. By now,
however, the advice of the Council had been carried out, and the
remains of the army, unhampered, were able to move about and were
directed upon the Reno, Ravenna, and Forlì. The troops upon the Reno
were, however, attacked by the Germans and, after a three-hours’ fight,
retreated upon Bologna.
Joachim, at Imola, now discovered that the Austrian army had been
divided into two parts, one under Bianchi, the other under Neipperg.
The former was advancing by the Florentine Road, the latter by the
Strada Emilia, the idea being to enclose Joachim and force him into a
general engagement between them. They were divided by the chain of the
Apennines, and Murat perceived that Neipperg, at least, was inferior to
him. Fired by the memories of ’96, he resolved to attack Bianchi and,
if possible, cripple him before Neipperg could come to his assistance,
after which he would still be able to fight Neipperg, unless things
went very wrong indeed, with superior numbers.
Macerata was Murat’s objective; but it was twenty days’ march for
troops who reckoned a day’s work as lightly as did his. For all that,
he contrived the retreat with creditable skill in spite of a scuffle
with Neipperg near the Roneo.
But when the battle of Macerata was fought, Joachim’s fortune, which
had been so shy and fickle of late, deserted him entirely. Though he
fought a stubborn enough battle, and though his own dispositions were
solid and well thought out, his instruments failed him. General Maio
and General Lecchi made little or no attempt to shock their opponents,
allowing their men to drift into action anyhow; and as the day waned,
and the Neapolitans became too listless even to fire, word came to the
king from General Montigny in the Abruzzi, telling him that the Germans
had taken Antrodoco and Aquila, that the people were rising for the
Bourbons, and that the magistrates had transferred their allegiance,
while he and the few faithful men who had remained with him had been
forced back to Popoli.
At the same time came a dispatch from the Minister of War, telling him
of the enemy’s appearance upon the Liris, of the horrified feelings of
the people, and of the helpful activities of the Carbonari in Calabria.
Joachim instantly decided to take his troops back into the kingdom of
Naples, and ordered a general retreat.
Then it was that he became fully aware of the sort of staff he had
been leaning upon. Some of the troops seem to have been prepared to
behave themselves, had their commanders given them any opportunity of
so doing, but the generals had had enough and more than enough, and, to
use an Americanism, they “lay down upon him” completely.
When he called a Council the next morning they informed him that the
larger part of their men had deserted, and that the rest would not obey
orders. When one comes to think about it, there does not seem to be any
particular reason why they should have, since no one made the faintest
show of imposing any kind of discipline upon them.
The enemy advanced on either side while this discussion was in
progress, and one brigade, which had obeyed the order to march and
which Joachim opposed to them, rested upon their arms, and proved to
be utterly indifferent to the results. On his arrival in the Abruzzi,
Joachim was astounded to discover that Montigny—he of the “faithful
few”—had abandoned his post at Antrodoco without even waiting for the
enemy to appear, and that his unedifying conduct alone was the cause
of the magistrates’ defection. Also it was Montigny and no one else who
had deliberately abandoned Aquila, although the enemy, by reason of the
condition of the roads, could not have brought up the guns necessary to
reduce the place.
Joachim, still dazed with this infamy, now received word, through
Prince Cariati, whom he had sent to the Congress of Vienna, that
the allies were going to exterminate him, that no hope of any sort
of reconciliation remained; at the same time a letter from Napoleon
censured the recklessness of his campaign and went on to say that it
might prove the ruin of his own effort.
In this state of affairs Murat bethought himself of the possibilities
of a constitution as a prop to his now tottering throne. It would be
funny if it were not so melancholy! A constitution! with the Austrians
at his gates, an English fleet in the Bay, the entire kingdom torn
to pieces, the Carbonari in every quarter, his army vanished, and his
friends in flight!
Commodore Campbell had already threatened, unless the ships and the
stores in the arsenal were delivered up to him, to fire a thousand
rockets into the city. Poor Caroline collected some of the Ministers
and magistrates and asked for their advice, whereupon the Minister for
Police informed her that the first assault of an enemy would ignite
a conflagration in the city which nothing would be able to suppress.
They were reminded too, by a general officer, that there were still
ten double ranges of batteries wherewith to defend themselves, and
he suggested that Campbell was counting upon the moral effects of his
threat among the people.
So Caroline, after the invariable accusations of treaty-breaking
with which everybody opened verbal fire on an enemy, and the equally
invariable appeal to history, stipulated for her own and her family’s
safe return to France in an English vessel. Caroline was a Bonaparte,
and she could keep her head even in a crisis of this sort. She had
ruled wisely and well in her husband’s absence, backing him up, in
spite of her opposition to the war, stoutly. Now she proclaimed the
terms of accommodation, and, having provided for a temporary peace, she
turned to the immediate needs of the situation, and, having heartened
the city militia with her own courage, she pacified and quieted the
populace. With her in the palace was her sister Pauline and her uncle,
Cardinal Fesch, besides her four young children, whom she decided to
send to Gaeta.
Stout old Macdonald, the Minister for War, of whom Napoleon said during
the Peninsular Campaign, “I would not dare to let McDonald within sound
of the pipes!” was sent to supersede Manhir, and he did presently
succeed in driving the Austrians beyond the Melfa; but no further
advantage was gained, because the troops with which Murat was hoping to
effect a junction were stampeded at Mignano.
Murat’s reign was over. The Bourbons were upon the top of him, and all
that he could do, now, was to escape before they closed every road.
He believed that the Bourbons wished to capture him and wreak their
vengeance upon him for the lean and restricted years.
Leaving the wreck of his army to Carrascosa, he made his way into
Naples as the sun was dropping over the hills, and hurried by
roundabout ways towards the Palace. He was in civilian dress, having
discarded his uniform when he left the army, but he was recognized
and, to his surprise, treated by those whom he met with all the respect
which had been his as a king. In the harbour he could see the British
fleet lying at anchor, and perhaps the sight was not altogether an
unwelcome one, for he had learned of Caroline’s treaty with Campbell,
and, little as the English might be to his taste, at least they had
been worthy and steadfast enemies and infinitely better company for him
than the Bourbons.
A little pleased, even through the fogs of his depression, at the
manner in which he had been received by the people, he ran into the
palace, seeking for his wife. He found her in her own apartment, in the
same room where they had first heard of Napoleon’s departure from Elba,
two short months before, and in which he had left her to depart upon
this last disastrous campaign.
It must have been rather dark in there now that the twilight had come
down, and the memories of the past must have crowded thickly about him
as he entered. He found Caroline alone, save for a lady-in-waiting,
and he went straight to her and caught her in his arms, his voice, at
first, too choked for utterance.
At last, when he could master his voice, he spoke calmly enough, and
his tremendous self-restraint was worthy of the old Murat of Jena and
Eylau.
“We are betrayed by fortune, my dear,” he said, “and all is lost!”
Caroline was even steadier than he, and she smiled into his eyes.
“Not all,” she answered quickly, “if we preserve our honour and our
constancy!”
[Illustration: CAROLINE, QUEEN OF NAPLES. From a photo by
Mansell after the picture by Madame Lebrun.]
Sitting down together, they dismissed the lady-in-waiting with
instructions to gather together the few proved friends who still
remained to them, and then set themselves to the preparations for their
departure. An hour or more they spent together, and then Murat emerged,
his head high, and his face alight from the contact with his splendid
wife. His Ministers had assembled, and with them he arranged such of
the affairs of the kingdom as admitted of arrangement, and placed them
in such a shape that the Bourbon could not help but keep them so, for
his own sake, and every last one of his acts and thoughts was directed
towards the future welfare of his people. Nothing else appeared to
have any place in his mind at all. He was cool, quiet, cheerful, and
collected, heartening those around him, and as freehanded to the French
who were leaving him, and the servants whom he was leaving, as though
he were taking the Crown instead of laying it down.
He had regained the priceless possession of hope. Napoleon’s star was
still shining. France had taken him to her arms. Without the shedding
of a single drop of blood he had regained the throne and, though all
the world might be in arms against him, he had faith in himself, the
faith that moveth mountains. Murat had resolved to go and join him,
and, when the world war was over, and Napoleon’s foot was again upon
the neck of his enemies, to return to Naples and drive Ferdinand into
the sea and under it.
Caroline knew of his intention, for she let him go alone, and his
instructions to Carrascosa (before the latter departed to the little
house, three miles out of Capua, where Lord Burghersh, Bianchi, and
Neipperg waited to arrange the terms of the treaty of Casa Lanza)
show her hand plainly, for Carrascosa was told to stipulate that
the property sold or given away by Murat must be guaranteed to its
possessors, in order, as Joachim said, to leave him the character of a
good king and that the Neapolitans might cherish his memory. He knew,
and so did Caroline, exactly how long it would take Ferdinand to make
himself loathed and abominated by the people whose yoke Joachim had
lifted.
That these did not trust Ferdinand’s eloquent vow to abstain from
retaliation against those who had served Murat was made plain in
the very beginning of the negotiations, for they refused to take
his personal word for the fulfilment of any part of the treaty,
and demanded the guarantee of the Emperor of Austria. It was little
security enough, in all conscience, for the guarantees of Francis had
been the jest of Europe for years past, but they seemed to think that
it might bind the hands of the “Butcher King” for awhile.
On the same evening that the treaty was ratified Joachim departed
incognito for Pozzuoli. From there he went on to Ischia, where he
was received with all the respect due to a monarch, and on the 22nd
he sailed for France with a few friends. Caroline, as regent, still
remained in the palace, and the Neapolitan populace in the absence of
the troops went off their heads. They had been hard held lately, and
now they made up for it. They broke open the prisons and committed
atrocities that do not bear writing about. Even the presence of 300
marines from the British fleet could do little to control the mob, but
they produced a temporary calm, during which Caroline embarked on one
of the British men-of-war with Macdonald and two others.